A week or so after our excavation work was done, we had a break manifest in our septic tite line, near where the new drainage ditch had been dug. They had actually hit the line while they were digging, and repaired it at that point. But, what we didn’t know was that it pulled, like a thread out of a seam, through the soil and broke at a second point up near the tank. Continue reading “Septic Repairs”
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Tiniest Baby Tree Frog
At least the tiniest I’ve ever seen!
A Nice Place for a Snooze
 Mrs. Pete was taking a nap on the warm tractor seat this morning. Behind her is the newly cleared hillside. I have covered it with 50 lbs of grass seed, and a layer of straw to discourage erosion.
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Our garden beds are looking pretty good. We have pole peas that are already about three feet tall, and blooming. Carrots, beans, lettuce, green onions, cilantro, and Brussels sprouts are all coming in well. I just got in from weeding and fertilizing everything this morning. We also have potatoes planted on the sandy hillside, looking nice; along with strawberries and tomatoes. Continue reading “How Does Your Garden Grow?”
A Very Big Fir Tree Log
Kirk has been enjoying the use of our new road up from the pasture, using the tractor to haul up debris from down there that was a bit too scary to drive on the street. Much of what he’s retrieved are standard-sized logs, metal chunks etc that have probably arrived here from past floods.
But this mammoth looks like it may have been something from the original farmstead, back in the 1800’s. I know that the homesteader family logged the hill and had an on-site sawmill from which they cut boards to build the barns. It took Kirk some finessing to get this onto the tractor bucket (you can only see the tractor’s roll bar and Kirk’s head behind the log, it’s so big). But he did, and got it up the hill and into the to-be-processed scrap pile. Our little 30-hp tractor does pretty well carting big loads like this around.
We’re thinking of what we could do with this one, to keep it around for posterity. Maybe we’ll make it into a bench or something. Any creative ideas?
Fancy New Dog Potty Yard
The new dog yard is finished! We plan to eventually build a large deck on this side of the house, so we wanted to choose fencing materials that would be complimentary to a cedar deck design. So, we used tight-knot cedar 4×4 posts, and cedar 2×4 rails. We did not get these at the “big box” store- these came from a local lumber yard, and the wood is beautiful, nearly flawless, and straight (but was also expensive!). Continue reading “Fancy New Dog Potty Yard”
Status: Duck Incubation and Sewn-Up Duck
The sewn-up duck has healed well- she still has a barely perceptible limp, but I almost can’t tell her apart from the other adult ducks. Amazing!
Her adopted babies are the result of my next generation of duck egg incubation attempts. Still not good: 7 hatches out of 36 eggs! :-{ Again, I had a lot of eggs that appears to be fully developed, but never hatched. Continue reading “Status: Duck Incubation and Sewn-Up Duck”
Goodbye Old Dog Potty Yard
In 2006, when the house was being moved and rebuilt, it was necessary to move the dogs from my old house in town out to the farm. I needed to get the old house ready to sell, and not have four Border Collies greet potential buyers at the door! With many things going on and lots of money being spent, I had to make a lot of quick choices on getting things done efficiently and cheaply, rather than well. đ The dogs’ potty yard was one of those things. 
Continue reading “Goodbye Old Dog Potty Yard”
New Electronet
I ordered two more rolls of Electronet from Premier. Now I have four 164′ sections of netting. Now, I can give the sheep a pretty big rectangle, and not have to move it so often. It also gives them a more comfortable grazing section, that’s not so cramped. I like for them to be able to do a bit of walking each day.
Big Moth
Late last night I heard a radical thudding on the front porch, and went to check it out. It was our clumsy cat, and she had caught this giant moth after leaping about after it.
But, typical of Mrs. Pete, she got distracted and let it go a moment later. Then it landed and I was able to coax it onto my hand.
It’s rare to see such large moths here, we mostly have little, plain brown ones. This one was as big as my hand!