Things we got done: Goat/Sheep shelter is cleaned out, the old fence is pulled and a new, better enclosure is up.
The twin doelings are out with the herd.
Annie the sheep is terribly jealous and keeps butting them. I'm not impressed. Annie may have to have a time out to adjust her attitude.
Eugene the young buckling got some sun, but continues to shun the bottle. At three weeks old, he's too young to be weaned.
The twin does, Mocha and Lilith, continue to shriek for the bottle.
Murphy the still-a-boar had a great day out rooting, snuffling and just generally being a pigger.
All's well at the Smallholding...
The twin doelings are out with the herd.
Annie the sheep is terribly jealous and keeps butting them. I'm not impressed. Annie may have to have a time out to adjust her attitude.
Eugene the young buckling got some sun, but continues to shun the bottle. At three weeks old, he's too young to be weaned.
The twin does, Mocha and Lilith, continue to shriek for the bottle.
Murphy the still-a-boar had a great day out rooting, snuffling and just generally being a pigger.
All's well at the Smallholding...
John with the rented Digger. What's a Digger you ask? It digs. Dirt. Or more dirt. So. Digger. I digress. This area we're beginning to clean and clear is going to be part of the new horse enclosure and an addition to the barn - a 24 x 24 sized addition. Enough to put Spike (the 8n with the hay spike), Brownie (the 8n with the auger for digging fence post holes) and Bug (the 8n I use most of the time that has headlights that make it look like a squatty bug) UNDER A ROOF! And the log splitter, tiller, etc. It'll be wonderful. The stack of partially rotted logs he's piling up were from ~12 years ago when I cut down trees to make the horse paddock. I'll have to burn out the stump to the left - the Digger isn't big enough to dig it out. The blue barrels were from when I had no water for ~ 4+ months and had to have water brought in. The roundish things to the right of the blue barrels are warehouse light shrouds that work well for cloches for growing plants. This will be a great area when we get it cleaned and straightened.
Looking towards the back of the existing barn. The barn structure I bought from Klene Pipe. WONDERFUL structures. They're on skids so if and when (mostly out in large, open fields) you want to move them for shelter for animals? They pull to where you want them. Mine is still movable but is anchored with chains and poured concrete. The tin was reclaimed tin. The tack barn to the left of the barn was in another area and John strengthened it's substructure and moved it to next to the barn. The posts leaning against the back of the tack barn are for the new high-tensile fence we're going to put in the woods. The blue tarp covers the lawnmower which will also go into the 24' x 24' addition for storage and to keep the elements off it. It'll be wonderful. We've cleaned most of this area already. Living on a Smallholding, nothing gets discarded until you use it more than a couple of times. Multi-purpose everything and don't buy much.
John, still digging with Digger and Claudia dragging brush to the burn pile. He's taking out two small stumps at the back of the barn. They'll be in the way if we don't take them out. I never DID get to run the Digger. I will next time.
We get so much wind here that I just have to wait to burn like this until there is very little wind. Otherwise, we could start the whole Easter White pine woods on fire. Pine needles/pine trees always burn. Even when it's wet. It was a great day to burn with it being this still (see the smoke going straight up?). This area is where I may put the round pen I've been wanting to build. Cyrus isn't getting worked with the way it is. I've got plenty of black locust to cut for posts, small pines to cut for the round pen "boards" so I've got what I need. Especially with Brownie available to auger the holes for me. It'll end up to be about 40' across. I'd like 50' across, but don't know if this area will be enough room yet. Claudia and I measured it to be about 45' so it should be fine.
Me, sitting in the sun with Eugene the new buckling. I'm concerned about him as he doesn't want to bottle feed and at 3 weeks old, he's too young. The dirt all over me is from Murphy, Eugene, dragging brush to the burn pile, etc. The plastic tanks I'm sitting on I bought at Veedersburg Sale Barn a year ago. They were from RVs and are either for water storage or for septic storage in RVs. What will I use them for? Well. Paint them black, fill with water and use them for heat gain in the atrium. OR lay them on their sides, cut out one side with a drill and a jigsaw, drill some holes in the bottom and use them for planters. Really? Just whatever I want to do with them or whatever inspires me. I could cut them in half tall-wise and use them for planters that way too. Either way? I bought 5 of them for $1. Yeah. $1. Oh and behind me? I was given an entire dog kennel. Gorgeous thing. I had such great plans. Anyway. John assured me it was far enough away from the Ash tree he was cutting down. It was not. Now I have to decide how I want to use it's modified shape. lol.
Eugene. With a 5 gallon bucket behind him for scale. Yeah. He's WAY too young to be weaned. I've not burned off his horns yet but need to do so asap. I'd like to see a bit more weight on him, but buck's horns grow so much faster than doe's do. Eugene was one of triplet bucklings and he was the "runt." I don't care. I think he's gorgeous. He's got a large while patch on the other side and a few white hairs on this side. So he might throw color in his babies!
Most of this will be gone - burned up overnight. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of wood rotted and down in the ground. It won't burn very well but I can spread it out later if it's still there. Having the wood "wet" keeps it from flaring up too much. Even with still conditions, I don't like a tall fire (flames burning high) because even a puff of wind can push it into the tree canopy. This'll look great when it's done burning. I've lived all my life on a farm or smallholding. I've burned a lot of brush piles with my family - especially mom. Mom used to take potatoes, hot dogs, a pitchfork and some drinks with hotdog buns and such. We'd grease the potatoes with lard, wrap them in aluminum foil and toss them in the coals. NEVER in the fire - it'll burn them before it cooks them done. The pitchfork would be heated in the fire (it does take out the temper) and the hotdogs would be put on the hot pitchfork tines (sterilizes the pitchfork to stick it in the fire also) and roasted over the fire. Roasted potatoes with butter and Ranch dressing, hotdogs in buns with mustard and drinks would end our burning day. Sometimes we'd have burn piles 50' across or more and 20' high! THAT makes an impressive fire. This one I was happy to have small and slow-ish. It's midnight here in Indiana on Sunday and I'm doing laundry and still thinking about roasted potatoes in the coals... Yum. A Dutch oven works well too - but you have to separate some coals so you don't drop logs on the Dutch oven or put it in another area to cook over some shoveled over coals...
John loading up Digger to take it back to the rental company. John operates heavy machinery (D-sized crawlers) so this digger was pretty amusing to him. But it worked well and we got a lot done!
Good night! Off to work and class tomorrow...
The moon was promising to be gorgeous, so I'll go out and check the fire in a few minutes, get some hay and grain for Eugene in the atrium, check the laundry, drink some ice-cold goats milk with some coffee syrup in it and call it a day. No, coffee after midnight is just an apertif...
Good night! Off to work and class tomorrow...
The moon was promising to be gorgeous, so I'll go out and check the fire in a few minutes, get some hay and grain for Eugene in the atrium, check the laundry, drink some ice-cold goats milk with some coffee syrup in it and call it a day. No, coffee after midnight is just an apertif...
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