Farm

When Anya hits the hay for her weekend naps, Andy and I trip over each other running out of the house to get projects done.

The weather has been nice lately, and I find myself a bit inspired from our one day of yard work at the inlaw's. It was so easy there to see what needed to / could be done. When we got back here, I decided to try and focus even closer to the house than the "yard" area I mapped out this spring. There really is just way too much "yard" to try and work on it anywhere near at once. Or to even think about it at once.

With my new plan of attack, I went after the weeds that had sprouted in front of the porch and spread some rocks out so that one little spot looks nice. Just don't look to the left or right or front or back, okay? Then I went and bought a few bags of mulch and sorta weeded and then mulched the wee tiny flower bed by the front door. Not only does the bed look better now, but it's easier for me to see the structure of it and to get ideas. Today I moved a plant I just now cannot remember the name of....hardy primrose! Yah, that's it. So, I moved it and cut it in half and hope it is dormant enough (flowers early spring) to not die. I also planted a sedum I rooted from a bit I pinched off of a plant outside the dentist. It should get big and flowery-bee-y next year! Finally, I planted too ittybitty mums I bought today. I doubt they will come back next year, but they were cheap, and I hope to get a bit of color by the door from them.

While I was working on these sorts of things, Andy hung a porch swing. Yay! I've been wanting a porch swing, and he found this one on uberclearance while getting supplies for the inlaw's rock patch.



We've also both continued to work on the kitty room. Andy more than me, but I did some painting today! It needs one more coat of paint tomorrow morning, and then we will start to tile. After that, the room needs two more screens put in and two doors. We should be done by winter! This picture is before painting.



I've been working on fixing up an old door Andy got for free when he picked up some wood flooring a while ago. The door will go between the kitty room and the plant room. I was originally planning to wash the door and prep it for painting, but when I realized much of the trim around the windows was rotten, I decided to take it all out. Andy will put a screen in the space instead.



I have to wait for Andy to sand the nooks and crannies. I used the palm sander for the flat spots, but sanding by hand gives me extreme goosebumps and the willies.

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This has been a summer of death at Loafkeeper Farm.

The cage a bunch of our chickens lived in fell apart, and so the chickens became free rangers. They flew up into the shrubs and trees at night and ate bugs out of the grass by day. One day we came home from work and they were gone.

Another day we came home from work, and the last two ducks had vanished from their tractor. The door was shut, the lid was on, and there was nary a sign of struggle. We did, however, find a hole in the chicken wire. Either something neatly pulled them out that way, they packed their bags and left on their own (closing the door behind them), or the postal delivery lady stole them.

I found Carla dead in her cage (you guessed it) one day when I got home from work. She had been acting fine that morning. I don't know what happened to her. Wibble stopped eating, and we force fed him and gave him fluids, but he wouldn't eat. A few days later he died.

Then the sheep got bad parasites. We gave them wormer meds, and the sheep would seem to get better, but then they would get worse. By the time it clicked that we needed to change wormer, three sheep were too weak to make it. Two died on their own, and the third Andy had to put down.

2 ducks + 6 chickens + 2 bunnies + 3 sheep = Summer of Death

A few days ago, we contacted the folks we bought most of our sheep from and asked them if they knew of a good home for our girls. This morning, the Ingleside folks loaded Pearl, Sadie, Pumpernickel, Pumpernickel's two babies, and Pearl's baby into a giant sheep cage in the back of a pickup and took them home. We kept the Sids.

We're a little sad but mostly we are relieved. We know they have gone to a good home where they will get to play with other sheep and run in fields and be happy. They won't all stay there forever, but the Ingleside folks know how to sell sheep and are connected and have a great web site, and they will find new-new homes for those they decide not to keep. It's a good thing.

So, no more chasing the girls hither and yon. No more baby sheep to fret over. No more "rammy" rams going nutso during breeding time. Less hay, less shearing, less time feeding and watering and moving fences. So yah, sad but relieved.

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Looks like the Easter Bunny stopped by a few days early...

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My parents are out for a visit, and you all know what means: Another home project! We are turning the downstairs porch into a kitty box / plant room. Finally the kitty boxes will be out of the living space, AND there will be a place to winter plants and start seedlings, AND we'll be able to move the freezer downstairs, which means we'll have room to build the tabley thing in the kitchen! YEEHAW!

Here's a look at the project so far:

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Today I saw a post on craigslist for some reclaimed red oak flooring out of a house in town. Approximately 300 square feet for $125. We have talked about putting hardwood down in the living room/kitchen/hallway, and really liked some rustic maple at the hardwood store in Floyd, but it is pricey. And we had red oak at the old house, and it looked nice once I refinished it. So I went to check it out and came home with a truck full of oak (and one piece of bamboo).

Most of the boards are in decent shape. Many will need some trimming, but there is still a lot of usable flooring. And all but 2 nails have been removed or clipped. After stacking it in the workshop and doing some quick calculations, though, I'd say there is somewhere between 255-300 square feet. Depending on the waste, that may not be enough to do the living room like I hoped.

On the plus side, it is 2 1/4 #1 common red oak, so we can probably locate some more easily. The finish is ok, but not geat, so I will probably sand and refinish it all anyways. I could be not so picky when trimming, too, and we could just call it 'utility grade flooring.'

If Cabol looks at it in the light of day and decides she doesnt like it, then I will probably save it for my long term plan of putting a level floor in the workshop. There is a cement slab, but it seems like they made it out of leftover cement and no one bothered to float it and make it nice and smooth, so it is full of dips and high spots.

And I absolutely adore the smell of red oak. Cabol couldn't smell it(!), so I shoved it in her face until she could. I don't think she was as enamored with it.

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Three of our ducks have gone missing.

Wednesday night when we got home, we could only find five ducks. We searched all over and found not a trace. I became convinced the postal lady had stolen them.

Thursday morning Andy put the ducks out. I didn't want to. We shouldn't have. I had the day off and all five were there until about 5:00. I looked out and there were only four. I didn't hear anything.

We only have four ducks now. They will not be running free anymore.

Do things that eat ducks eat babies, too?

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For those who were unfamiliar with the bee colony collapse problem, CNN has a story on it today. Thirty-six percent of commercial hives lost since last year.

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Cabol told me to go do something while waiting for the furniture to arrive today (it'll probably coincide with a thunderstorm). So I went down to the beehives, since they are way past due to have their mite medicine removed, and the feeders from the winter taken off.

All three hives seem to have made it through the winter. The one closest to the garden (which blew over in the middle of the winter) still seems the smallest, but there were bees in it, at least. I put a new super on the middle one, and the third one had comb built on about half its top super.

I know a real beekeeper would take the supers off each other and check each one and see how things are going, but I'm too scared of the bees to spend any more time down there than necessary. Maybe if there is no drought this year we'll get some honey to harvest, although having living hives these days is a feat unto itself.

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Anya and I went down to the barn to see how things were going.


Buddy came with us.


Buddy likes Anya.


All the babies were hanging out together.


I think these are Sadie's.

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Well, I'm at home today because Anya is sick, and Cabol said it was my turn to stay home with her. I went down to the barn a little while ago, and little black sheep seems sort of confused on who her mommy is. Her mouth feels warm, and I've seen her futzing around under Pearl, so I think she is feeding. But when Pearl went back into the barn to eat, the baby was confused and baaaaaaaing outside and following Sadie around. At one point, she even forced her way through the fence and came after me. I put her back in the barn with Pearl, but it's still a little worrisome.

Sadie has a pair of toes sticking out of her hoo-hah, so I expect more babies today.

UPDATE: Two more sheep outside with Sadie. A black and a white one. Now that won't get confusing.

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