Farm Fodder

Been busy.

Clean up is complete whee the barn was. Now to rebuild.

Tonight, I helped Marilyn transplant tomatoes and made up new top bars for 2 top bar hives (Kenya style) – one for my daughter and one for me. She is actually going to become a beekeeper!
I also ran electric fence wire on the top of Dexter’s paddock and found where he was escaping – he was crawling under the fence! I put in a T post right where he was getting under and then attached it to the fence. Should help keep him in his paddock and out of my bee yard!

I will have to put supers on the hives this week. Probably when I get home tomorrow.

Potatoes arrived today – I rototilled the potato bed last weekend and will double-dig it tomorrow night.

We planted 600 strawberries this past week – Friday and Saturday.

‘Nuff Said.

Yesterday, I was working outside. The crocus were blooming – deep purple flowers, loaded with honey bees tapping the nectar! What an awesome sight! To see all of those bees swarming all over the flowers – flying to and fro, picking up nectar and flying back to their hives.

The goats were out grazing in the paddock and the cow was laying down, chewing her cud and warming herself in the sun.

Even the dogs looked dead… lying there in the sun completely still, soaking up the warm rays…

Nathan & I built a milking barn in about 2 hours Sunday afternoon.

OK, it wasn’t a pole barn, or a metal barn – it was a hoop-house style barn with a heavy duty tarp. It is 8 ft x 12 ft x 7 ft high. It is held to the ground with screw-in ground anchors and heavy gauge fence wire. It is very spacious – almost big enough for the goat stanchion and the cow stanchion. I think it will work for a while until I get a barn built. I will be making one of these for hay (20 ft x 12 ft x 7 ft high) and for the goats (16 ft x 12 ft x 7 ft high).

Hope to have the goat barn done this weekend.

–Pat

After a week of collecting sap (and losing several gallons due to the lack of instructions on using the sap bags), the boys are pulling the taps, since the trees are budding. I had hoped for cold weather for another week, so we could collect more sap.

Marilyn has been boiling down what we collected and the last 3 gallons are going in the pots.

We will probably wind up with anywhere from a quart to a half-gallon of syrup.  I’m hoping or the latter!

Can’t wait to have pancakes or waffles!

Tonight, when I got home from work, Nathan helped me put the cow stanchion back together.

All of the wood had burned up in the barn fire, but the metal stanchion parts were fine.  We just had  to assemble the thing from memory…

All told, we were able to put it together and still had daylight left to milk the cow!

We found that we will need to sink the stanchion posts into the ground another 3 – 5 inches, so that Fern is a bit more comfortable in it, so we can reach the latch on the top easier, and so that the hoop house I build around it will be able to go over the top of the stanchion.

We’ll finish that up tomorrow and hope to get the pipes bent for the hoop house…

The weekend wasn’t exactly as nice as I had anticipated. The boys & I did manage to get the area by the old barn raked out pretty good. At least all of the screws, nails, metal and burnt wood was piled up. We cleared out a good area to start building the hay barn.

We spent a considerable amount of time disassembling an old chain link dog kennel. It had become overgrown with weeds. originally, it was a pen for the turkeys, but hurricane Ike bent and smashed it up pretty badly. It had been an eye sore ever since. It was covered in weeds and the chain link fencing was so  tangled up with the weeds that we had to hook a chain up to it and pull it out with the tractor. But we finally managed to get it all out and pull the weeds from the surrounding area. It made a huge difference in the orchard’s appearance!

Best of all, we accomplished something and Marylin was very pleased.

–Pat

Tomorrow starts a hectic, busy day. I intend to get a small milking house built (hoop-style), a hay barn (hoop-style) and maybe the start of a goat barn.

I have to get some supplies for fencing and the hoop houses first (in the morning after feeding/watering).

We will be putting up a paddock or 3 down by the creek and in the front yard for the goats and the cow. Lots of work and only a ferw hands to get in the mix!

I will have to clean out the area where the bartn burned down before I can put up the hay barn or start the replacement goat barn.

At least it will be in the 40′s and partly cloudy!!!

Nathan and I milked Fern this evening. Almost a half-gallon of beautiful, rich milk!

We took her out of her paddock and gave her a small bucket with alfalfa pellets and a wee bit of sweet feed – she stood and ate while the milking was done – never a kick or attempted kick of the bucket!

What a sweet cow we have!!!

Dexter the bull was still in his paddock this morning when Nathan went out to feed everyone. That was good.

Nathan and I will milk her when I get home from work tonight. ..