Feb 18, 2008
Just had three days with no rain and on a holiday weekend. Finally some progress around the homestead. Kurt got in a bunch of T-posts for the new fence – still need to get the welded wire up but soon the majority will be done. I got the path completely brush hogged to put in the perimeter fence which will keep out all coyotes and maurading dogs, plus let Jake and Martha roam the property freely and keep other critters at bay.
I brought in more straw for Daisy and T-Bone – I pulled the strings off in the bucket of the tractor and dumped 5 bails over the fence outside of their lean to. They had a blast! Bucking and pawing and throwing straw all over. Then they settled into eating it. 😉 I forked a bale into their lean too and now they have a nice fresh place for a while anyhow. Today T-bone went into season again – but nothing for Daisy. I am almost certain she is pregnant now but it hasn’t slowed her down much, she took off after the roosters this evening. The 4 buff roosters are relegated to sleeping in the barn stall and they are not allowed near the big roos hens. They pretty much hang in a group and pounce on any hen to get out of control of the big roo. Well I went in to collect eggs this evening and my one new white banty hen flew out the window in a huff, only to be pounced on by the 4 banished roos! Daisy didn’t like that and galloped to her rescue – scattering roosters in all directions. I had never seen her pay any attention to them before, guess she just had enough.
I pruned the apple trees, blueberries, raspberries and straightened out the Taberries which should start producing in volume this year. I planted the comfrey, and two new trees a Japanese Zelkova and Katsura shade tree. Both will be pretty colors and will grow into large shade trees. The tulip tree in the backyard is getting quite tall now. I also converted more of my front yard to gardens by laying down boxes and feed bag and covering with mulch. By next year there will be nice garden soil there instead of grass. Last years area is ready for planting so I moved some herbs around and planted my bay leaf tree and a pineapple bush that have been waiting to get into the ground. The Triple Crown thornless blackberries arrived. I took three over to the neighbor and potted up 10 plants to go into the garden later.
I moved the donated water bed matress out to the back deck in the sun and filled it but it has a big leak! I wanted to build a hoop house over it and put seedlings in it for growing – maybe even grow greens in it year round with the water bed absorbing the heat and releasing it… It might be able to be patched.
The gardens all got a dose of lime today also to help with the acid soil created by all this rain. 4 40 pound bags pretty much covered all of the garden areas.
It was a glorious three days and while there is still much to do at least we made a dent! It was great to get out for once!
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