::tough farm spring::

My pasture is still a pond.  See the tiny little beach ball floating on the horse poop floating island?

Spring is always a busy time of year but this year has been tougher than most.  Getting the stock for 4H, getting the garden in, cleaning up from winter, plus all the usual busy family stuff, the flood, suicidal ducks, power washing everything, and on and on and on and on.  The flood we had this year has eaten up tons of time, and has proven to be the final straw for me.  I am trying to keep a positive outlook but it becomes a bit of a struggle when I feel like I am literally and figuratively treading water at our farm.  Inspired by a very optimistic friend at work I am going to make a list of the things that are done - then think about what else needs to happen.

 

Done: We finally got our grass cut - that sounds so basic but it's not a simple job when it is over 12 inches tall and takes up about four acres.  Plus you can't mow when Quinn is around.  Then all that grass has to be picked up because it is as thick as mulch if you just left it on the ground.  The great part is that I ended up with all this wonderful grass mulch.  I have a huge pile by my Orchard Garden and plenty left for the Cottage Garden.  I have always wanted tons of grass clipping mulch to use in my gardens - now I have it. 
Still needs to be done: The grass is a never ending battle.  We just need less of it.  We have the livestock to graze it, but the cost of fencing has been a major issue.  We need to make this more of a priority.  All that mowing is a waste of gas and a waste of Josh's time.  (PS- I don't mow.)


 

Done:  I got my blueberries mulched!  For years I have wanted to weed mat and mulch my blueberries and with the crazy amount of mulch I have now I managed to get it done.  It looks so clean and loved.  Quinn was very not helpful but at least him throwing grass around was not really destructive.
Still needs to be done:  Three of these plants died in the drought last year.  I need to plant four new ones in this row this year to finish it out.

Done:  With my Lily to help I got the start of my weed mat placed in the Orchard Garden.  I got my broccoli planted in the first row, this is pretty late for me to get broccoli in the ground but it will just have to do.  Then I trimmed off Bruno's matted tail fur and got it sprinkled around them to help deter rabbits from eating them up.  The dogs patrol this area but not as closely as they guard the Cottage Garden, hince the tail fur trick.  We will see if it works.  I got one row of tomatoes planted too.
Still needs to be done: Brace the tomatoes, plant a row of green beans and brace them, plant a row of gourds and winter squash, and plant a shit ton of melons.  MELONS!!!!  I can't wait for those puppies.

Josh moved the swing set out of its current spot and scraped up all the old weed mat and weeds.  We placed that weed mat ten years ago and so much soil was on top of it that we could have planted a garden above it.  Underneath all that is this gorgeous top soil that makes me want to turn it into another garden.  NOT WHAT I NEED!  STOP ME!!  This was a big job but will be way worth it.
Still needs to be done: Weed mat the area and mulch the ever loving molasses out of it.  Leave some room to add some of the cool Pintrest playground ideas that I adore.

 

The horse tank planter finally got some love.  We had filled it with compost last year but then we had that insanity of thinking of moving, and I just ignored it.  This year I built a stick fence around it to keep out animals and babies - or at least slow them down.  Then we planted an Early Girl tomato on one side and a Sweet 100 cherry tomato on the other side.  Just to make life interested we planted some "Dr. Seuss Flowers", as we like to call them, along the front.  I was super impressed with Emma and Lily.  I explained to them how I plant tomatoes on their side and why.  They were really listening and they did all the actual planting.  The got those flowers planted in about 5 minutes.  Those are two future gardeners and it warmed my heart.
Still needs to be done:  Mulch that thing and get some strong tomato cages to make those tomatoes look pretty.  Research correct tomato pruning technique, don't just make it up like I usually do.  I also want to try out some deep watering techniques, like burying a 2 liter bottle upside down next to the plant.  That may be overkill for a container tomato, but I am just curious to play around.

We went to my favorite local garden stand and the three older kids each got to pick out one flower plant.  Anything they wanted.  You would have thought I was buying them each a pony.  They searched and debated with great seriousness.  Then they each picked out something gorgeous.  We found a careful spot in the house beds for Max to plant his four pack of flowers.  He may have accidentally stepped on one and broke it, but he still felt it was a great success.  Emma and Lily each planted their plants in the center of one of my Cottage Garden log planters and then surrounded them with trailing white Petunias.  They look so pretty already, when they come in they will be really something.  Emma planted my four Gerber Daisies in the red pot by the house.  Then we prepped and planted Zinnias in front of the Cottage Garden, and sunflowers along the back.  I love the concept of edible landscape, but sometimes you just need some flowers.
Still needs to be done: STOP.  I can plant flowers forever, but it is time to stop.

 

Speaking of edible landscape - I planted two Pink Lemonade blueberry bushes in the house beds.  They are tiny, but they will be so pretty in a few years.  I put them in an empty spot next to my roses and I hope they will all work well together.  Further down the side of the house I had a Oregano plant that needed a friend.  It got a purple basil, a green basil, and some mint.
Still needs to be done:  Place some sticks around the baby blues to protect them from Silver Faced Lab trying to flop onto them as a great nap site.
The little herb garden is fine for this year.

 

Before the big flood I had planted peas along the front of my Cottage Garden and along the front of the house.  They all were underwater but somehow they are still coming on strong.  Now I have to figure out what else I am going to plant along the front.  Maybe another trip to the flower shop?
Still needs to be done:  I was supposed to stop with flowers right?  Maybe I already forgot.

 

I cleaned out my tack/feed room.  It was very damaged in the flood.  By cleaned it I mean - took everything out, power washed it, cleaned everything, put it back better than before.  It looks so good.  Everything in its place and a place for everything.  I hung up a saddle rack that has been leaning against the wall for 10 years+ and I got a dry erase board up that I have been trying to hang forever.  All the feed bins are labeled with the correct animal.  It seems pretty basic but it was often neglected.
AND NOTHING IS LEFT TO DO IN THERE!!  One thing totally done.

 

The Cottage garden is almost totally planted.  6 tomatoes, onions, spinach staggered, cilantro staggered, carrots, strawberry's, parsley, lavender, flowers, peppers, chives, snap peas, peas, cucumbers, eggplant, and surely something else I am forgetting.  I have straw in the aisle ways and I like how it controls the weeds, but it feels kind of messy.  I'm not sure about it forever but it will do for this year.
Still needs to be done:  Just mini-watermelons and tomatillos need to go in.  I have a blank spot in the middle of my new strawberry bed that may end up planted with something fun.  Just some random thing I see at the store. 


Random still needs to be done:
Add grapes to the orchard.  Just flipping do it.  Stop making excuses.
Figure out the Sukkah's flooring situation.  This has to happen this summer.
Get two more apple trees.
Make an enclosed outdoor chicken run.  They need protection and they are not getting any smaller.
Try to keep my eyes open for Craigslist railroad ties to keep fixing the driveway.  This is a big curb appeal issue. 
Set up portable goat grazing pen for adult wether and overweight females.  Basically any goat that doesn't need grain.  Consider setting something similar for the sheep.  These need some kind of shelter with them, like a dog house.  Then I will move them around the farm and let the goats/sheep keep the weeds at the fence lines under control.
Compost, mat, and mulch the house bed in front of the kids windows.  This needs prepped to be perfected for next year.
Trim trees and thin out trees that are too crowded.

Not that I am begging for sympathy.  I picked this crazy life.  I honestly don't know any different.  It is just getting a little tough to keep Q happy and get all the farming stuff done.  It will calm down a little bit soon.

::Lily is a Silly Girl::

Lily’s drama group did Beauty and the Beast this year.  Buggy got the role of a Silly Girl (the girls that love Gaston) and a narrator.  At first she was a little disappointed about her part, she felt it was smaller than last year.  It actually ended up being a very big roll.  She had tons of stage time and many lines.  She looked so pretty in her costume.  The roll had lots of comedy in it and I loved her delivery.  She really is talented at this stuff.

Advice 1 – I love that she loves doing drama.  The group she is in is very chaotic.  It all seems to come together at the end but it is out of control the entire time.  Lily is prone to disorganization anyway.  I am not sure this group teaches her anything about the importance of being organized.  But I am over organized and lack the ability to let chaos sort itself out.  Is this ok for Lily?

Advice 2 – I do not feel like in the last year they have taught her anything more about acting.  She is at the same level she was at last year.  But the point is to have fun right?  Just being around the process will teach her about acting right?  The most important part is that she loves it, right?

::attractive::

 I grew up in a house were when something broke you called some one to fix it, or took it to a shop to be fixed, or you bought a new one.  Then I started dating this very handsome airline mechanic.  He came over to my house and asked me why I was throwing away a perfectly good hose.  Well - because it had a hole in it.  I ran it over with the lawn mower.  Who knew you couldn't mow over a hose?  I didn't.  He made this adorable expression that he still makes at times - he smiles, he looks down, he shakes his head.  Some times he holds his forehead if it is particularly crazy.   It's like I am cute to him in spite of himself.  Like it is out of his control to not think my quirks are cute.  He fixed that hose.  Patched it right up.  And I was in total awe.  I was so impressed.  How did he know you could do that?   Who taught him?  Was it worth it?  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  He fixed the hose.  And I still get that feeling.  Often.  When ever I think I might know what he can and can't fix he does something crazy.  Something that gets a major WOW out of me and he acts a little embarrassed and a little pleased with my reaction.  You fixed the cable to work in the barn?  Wow.  You put in a pot belly stove? Wow.  You built a chicken coop? Wow.  You redid the brakes in my car?  Seriously?  How can he know how to do that?  I go right back to that feeling from when he fixed that hose. 

Tilling my garden - I can't turn on the tractor

Making a shooting target and is seriously fun

Helping me make balloon paint

Keeping our "vintage" boat running

Replacing a leaky barn faucet

Creating HUGE fires

Sukkah building

Coop making

Mouse welding

Stump cutting

Garden building

Farm truck fixes

Pot belly stove

Baby making

Break fixing

Something he had to be in the crawlspace for

Wood pile making

Zip line installation.

Total amazement.   

Happy birthday.  I love your face.  

::lily had a little lamb::

We just got our first two sheep and so far we just adore them.  Lily and I researched many different breeds and settle on Southdowns Baby Doll Sheep as a good fit for us.  They are a very old breed that is fairly uncommon because they are small which means that they didn’t have the bigger meat capacity that most breeds have now.  They are known as being very good mothers that deliver their babies easily.  This was very important to us after all the trouble we have had with Pygmy goats.  They are bred to be very hardy and able to utilize less than ideal pastures.  Plus – they are so cute.  They have these little faces that look like they are smiling at all times.

We bought two because everything I have read says that sheep hate to be without another sheep to love.  They can be kept with goats, but they prefer other sheep.  There is also a cooper issue that makes it so goats and sheep cannot share feed.  We fill   I looked for a breeder and found a wonderful lady in northern Illinois that seemed like a good fit for us.  I highly recommend her – she has been very helpful and honest throughout all my 400 questions.  My research showed me that in our area a market lamb (a wether bought just to sell at auction for meat) usually costs around $200+.  My research on Baby Dolls showed that a wether would cost around $150-200 and a show quality ewe would run around $350-600.  I always ask about 4H discounts whenever I talk to breeders.  I am a sucker for a 4H kid, they get a good deal from me, and I find that most other breeders are the same way.

Our little ewe was a twin, and the breeder decided to bottle raise her since she was hogging all the milk and her brother was not gaining any weight.  Therefore she is the friendliest little lamb in all the land.  She tackles you for her bottle and she loves attention.  She is going to be a piece of cake to teach to lead but she will be a mess to teach to stand.  Her name is Annabelle.  I hope she is the first of many future breeding animals.

Our little wether was a runt, but rises above his size with the name Oz the Great and Powerful.  His mother had an accidental plant poisoning as a baby that caused her to be blind.  She does so well that the breeder didn’t send her to slaughter but intended all her lambs to be slaughter animals.  Oz was her first baby and has been small from delivery, perfect for us because we love small and have no intention of breeding him.  We plan to show him this year and then keep him as a pet after that.  He is very friendly as he was bottle supplemented just to make sure he was getting enough milk.  He is a great little guy.      

::floating funny farm::

Last week I had a wonderfully busy shift in the Emergency Room from 11AM till 11PM.  I was running around like a crazy woman and my patients were actually sick.  It had been raining cats and dogs all day but I was in a windowless unit so I really had no idea.  I drove home in the very old Saturn and started to get a little afraid.  The roads were covered with water and that little car it not cut out for anything but good weather.  (In all fairness it is not really fit for driving at all, but its paid for and gets good gas mileage.)  I went through puddles that I was actually worried I might get stuck in.  I finally made it home around midnight.  Josh must have been worried about the weather because he was waiting up.  We walked out to check my animals.  The little Tractor Supply chicks and duckling were standing in water in there stall turned coop, but everyone else looked ok.  We put the chicks into the old empty water tank that was their brooder.  Then we built up some pallets and high ground for everyone else.  We knew the rain was still coming and even though they were mostly dry now we wanted to give them plenty of dry places to sleep if it got worse.  By 1AM we were in bed.

I set my alarm for 3AM just to double check that things were still under control.  When the buzzer went off, I put on Josh’s knee high rubber boots over my jammies, and went to the barn.  I was stunned and freezing when I stepped off the porch and the water went well above the top of the boots.  The water had gone up over nine inches in those two hours and had formed a water way with a strong current between the house and the barn. .  The water was deepest right outside my barn, but due to the raised dirt floor in my barn it was just below my boots once you crossed the threshold.  The lambs where yelling the loudest, so that greasy wheel got checked first.  My little black lamb was standing in the water that was half way up her body.  She was eating the hay that was floating around in her stall.  Our little wether lamb had climbed to the highest ground in his stall and was dry and happy, but poor big girl was practically swimming.  I knew my horse trailer was parked on high ground so I picked both those little fatties up and carried them through the water and about 300 yards to the horse trailer. 

See the water line on the barn?

By that point I could hear my adult goats screaming.  I keep them separate from the young and nursing goats because they don’t need the calories I feed the little guys.   I ran back to the barn and my two fat grow up goats (Bo and Grandma Willow) had fallen off their platform and knocked the whole thing over.  They were in the water and very mad.  They each weight around 75lbs and I knew I couldn’t carry one of them, let alone both.  I clipped lead ropes to them and just lead them out into the deep water.  I thought the ropes would help me if they got pulled by the current or panicked once the water got deep.  Those two crazies swam like they had been trained to swim.  The lead ropes never even got tight.  They just paddled along like Labradors.  Then they walked out to the trailer like saints.

Then I ran back to the barn and looked at the other goat stall.  They always have pallets to sleep on that we had built up two levels for the storm.  They were floating around like boats.  The two new babies and their mama were on the most precarious pallet so I decided to get them first.  I one baby under each arm, clipped a lead to the mama, and went out into the storm.  That mama did not get the memo about swimming.  She was in a total state of panic.  Let me add – goats HATE water.  Just about as much as a cat hates water.  Thank God I had a lead rope on her because she would have drowned.  But we got through the deep water and made it out to the trailer.

Then I RAN back to the barn.  All of the sudden I had this total panic feeling that Marshmallow Fluff would have jumped off her pallet to follow me when I took the Mama and the two babies.  The water would have been over her head.  That little thing was drowning right this second!  I could just feel it.  RUN!  But she wasn’t.  Her pretty little face was standing on a pallet that was not totally floating yet, with a young female goat named Blake.    I scooped up my sweet little Fluff into my arms, clipped a lead rope to Blake and got them to safety.

At this point my two horse trailer had two sheep, four adult goats, and three baby goats inside.  I told them to figure it out, not fight, and walked away.  Then I thought – why in the world did I not wake Josh up to help me?  I was so in the moment that I never even thought about it.  One more barn check on all the poultry should finish the night.  Lily’s 4H show ducks were in their cage on top of the rabbit hutch – a good high and temporary safe spot.  The rabbit was all set on high ground.  The tractor supply chicks – well…  They were in that tank still.  But it was floating around the coop stall like a boat.  I clipped a lead rope to it and floated it right into the house.  They got to have an indoor overnight.

My feed and tack room after the water went down

During all this Teddy (our old retired QH) and Donk were yelling at me to “let them in”.  If you don’t know what I mean, horses have a way of asking for certain things that makes it really clear.  If the water is dry Donk has a certain bray that he makes.  If the round bale in gone Teddy begs for food in a certain tone.  They rarely ask to “come in” but they were doing it big time.  I gave them a big pat and told them they were out of luck and had to just go walk onto one of the hills in their pasture.  The trailer was too full for them to join in.

As I was about to shut the door I saw four sad eyes staring at me and heard Bruno’s familiar “I want” whine.  I didn’t fight it.  I just got some towels and set Bruno and Alberta up in the bathroom.  Two smelly stinking wet farm dogs tucked in.

When I got in the bed Josh woke up.  I heard the baby cry and went to check him.  He was covered in puke.  We got him cleaned up and gave him a bottle.  It was 5AM by this point.   Q laid in bed and snuggled and talked to us.  Till he projectile vomiting all over Josh and our bed.  We just started laughing.  What else could we do?  We cleaned that all up and tried to go back to bed.  We were just falling asleep when Lily showed up to tell us that Max had puked all over his bed.  I threw his sheet in the trash – it wasn’t worth saving. 

Look at the water line on the fence

We got the herd all settled in and grabbed a few hours more of sleep.  When I woke up and 10am the sun was shining outside.  Everyone in the trailer was alive and well.

The water in the barn went down quickly and we were able to clean all the stalls well enough to get all the creatures back into their places.  There are many things ruined.  The place is a mess.  The landscape timbers for the driveway have floated away.  The basement was over my head with water.  The furnace is gone.  But nothing with a heartbeat is lost.  Insurance does not cover any flood damage – nice.  But they will cover the water that came in from the sump pump being overwhelmed.  We hope we get at least enough money to replace the furnace.  We will be cleaning up for some time, but it will be even better organized for all this in the long run.  I needed to clean out my junk stall anyway.

::spoiled baby goat::

Maybe our hearts are a bit too fragile for birthing farm animals.

We had a terrible breeding year.  

Six babies born to three does.  

Four babies never even took a breath - even with CPR.

One lived for about one hour.

One doe died.

Only one little baby lived.

Marshmallow Fluff.

And she is beyond spoiled.

Her feet hardly touched the ground for the first 24 hours of life.

She imprinted on us.  

She loves us.  

When you open the door of the house she starts screaming for you to come let her out and let her in the house.

She follows us all around.  

Even Q.

She did love her Mama, but she would rather be in the house.

Even with this kind of torture.  

But she also loves the horses.

Thank the lord they have gentle hearts.  

Teddy is very careful around her.  

This is her favorite game - indoor goat races. 

Look at her...

So cute.

So spoiled.

You never saw a baby goat get such attention. 

We just weaned her last week.

We sold her mama.

She hardly called for her.  

I really think she is not certain about what kind of animal she is.