Friday, July 6, 2007
Where have the days gone?
Wow, you'd think I'd left the farm! Not so... we've just been way too busy to sit and write about it.
The cooking adventure went successfully. The senior citizens enjoyed the food, and I wasn't much worse for the wear... aside from being "dog-tired" each day. If asked, I would do it again.
Remember what I said about being about done planting? Well, I spoke way too soon. In the past weeks, we've added a new windbreak on the south side of the front yard. To that, we added a couple of Honeysuckle and a Trumpet Vine. We also rescued our Strawberry plants from the neighbor's greenhouse.
There are Nasturtiums trying desperately to grow faster than the bunnies can eat them... and they're not winning.
Our corn isn't "knee-high by the 4th of July", but we can see it growing up beyond the sides of the raised box.
We've had to declare war on the critters. The night I chased 8 rabbits from the yard three times... and they began to challenge their right to be there... that was it. Mom kept giving us a damage report each morning. Once they ate her flowers... they became fair game.
Cindy is out best hunter. So far, out of the new box of 25 shells (.410 shotgun), she's 9 kills for 10 shots. That includes pesky chipmunks (who have learned to raid the bird feeders), cotton-tail bunnies who insist on bringing more friends, a couple of jack-rabbits who's presence CANNOT be tolerated, and a weasel who was in the wrong place.
The morning of July 4th, I was greeted with our first "cock-a-doodle-doo" from one of our young cockerels. Dunno which one it was... but I'm getting a hankering for fresh fried chicken. Looks like our next project will be building a butchering station.
Our irrigation adventures continue. As we were preparing to plant the Honeysuckle and Trumpet vines, we unearthed another irrigation line. That meant dig a trench to figure out where it went, and where it came from. Well, much to our surprise, we figured that one could be useful... yeah right. The only thing useful was the trench.
First we thought we could run a line from where we had capped a leaker. Dig another 20 foot trench... That wouldn't work, as it was 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch line and we didn't know if the water pressure would be right.
Ok, second option... dig another 20 foot trench across the garden and hook it up to the existing irrigation system. About halfway across, we found yet another line laid on top and at 90 degrees to our trench... now, where does that one go... and where does it come from? Never mind... if we get a geyser, we'll explore it.
With everything exposed, all that's left is to measure, cut, glue, and fire it up... at least that's what we figured... we should know better than to figure.
Three trips to the hardware store (minimum 20 miles roundtrip), much work later... we had ALL NEW lines, connectors, and heads. Every bit of the old stuff we touch falls apart in our hands.
We nearly lost our heads the other day over a horse... We'll never learn!
While we'd love to have three horses, one for each of us... we darn near fell for another "good deal". You know, one of those deals that's better for the person getting rid of the animal. Fortunately, Cindy had second thoughts about getting yet another "unknown" hot-blooded Throughbred.
Guess we'll wait for the auctions in September and see if we can get a weanling or two... maybe even three. One of our "very horsey" friends has offered to help us. I'd love to have a weanling to train. Bet I'd drop this extra 50 pounds over the next year.
I'll get pictures up as soon as the sky clears, and the wind dies down. We're into a "monsoonal flow" for the next couple of weeks. Highs near 100 degrees, potential for thunderstorms each afternoon/evening... although not sure how much rain we'll get. The fire danger is extremely high, and we spend a lot of time scanning the area for smoke. If a fire breaks out, there's very little time to prevent a disaster.
Labels: Around the farm
Read or Post a Comment
Shari, Your days are so busy and productive! I'm impressed! Hope the irrigation saga turns out okay!
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]