Homesteading

Winter/Spring 2006 & 2007

Click on image to see all the snowy photos !

Randy is feeling better every day and says that he feels better now than in many years. He has had trouble with his left foot for years and years but now, it doesn't get tight and cause him pain, no matter how much walking or ladder climbing he does. He's been on light work duty but still tries to do more than he should. I saw him toss a roll of field fence off the back of the truck. So I go to move it to the chicken yard and can't budge it. I had to roll it along. I catch him taking pain pills or muscle relaxers and know he's hurting. He goes to the grocery store and lugs in the sacks but is bushed by the time we finish. Too much but it's a once a week or two chore and I try to do as much as I can.

Randy's walk with the doggies is proving too much for him. He has changed taking Beau to every 2 or 3 days. Beau is sad but is such a heavy dog. It's Junior who is the extra work and heavy pulling on him. We keep working on the dog training but when Randy goes to hook him up, he is a jumping scratching meanie. I think he acts better for me because I usually bring him food and he is distracted from his jumping and biting and clawing. I voted that Randy get a pair of heavy gloves. He'd worn out his last ones and has yet to get more. Anything would help. I can get Junior to stop and call him a good boy. If he jumps or even tries to scratch, I call him a bad boy and walk away.

Knowing he has another month or so of light duty, Randy bought the exterior trim for the house. He plans to caulk the seams and then put on the trim. Painting will come after that. He figures to do one section at a time.

We are still working on the new chicken yard. The first fence of chicken wire is almost finished. He'd set the posts before he had the surgery but several parts went through heavy brush and small oak trees. I connected the second roll of wire late yesterday. It took longer to connect the two than it did to put up the entire first roll. It will take part of a 3rd roll but I should be able to make good work today and get to the corner that is in the shade. It is miserable to be out working in the brutal sun. I need to be planting Zinnia seeds but must hurry this along. The layer of field fencing will go on the outside of the chicken wire. I have plenty of pieces of barbed wire I plan to put along the bottom of the outside. Anything to protect the birds from a Lady dog who could yet escape again. Not a good thing.

Randy did well in the surgery and is healing nicely. He's been off all this week and it's not easy for him to not do anything heavy. I try to keep up with him and help. Lady got loose from her line this afternoon and it looked like Junior undid her collar clasp. He can untie a knot so I am sure he could accomplish such a collar. He's terribly smart for a puppy. Within an hour, she had killed the last 5 chickens. I am seriously doubting we should get more chicks. She will just spend her life killing them all. Very disappointing.

I haven't wanted to write just waiting to see how things will turn out. Randy is scheduled to have surgery on the 30th of this month. Titanium screws will replace the discs in his neck. Scary stuff and he is sure braver than I am. It it just amazing that we have such wonderful technology. He was quickly losing the use of his left arm and it is getting worse with his left leg. 

We are spending these remaining weeks doing all the intense chores that must be done before going to the hospital. Getting the gardens ready, getting the new chicken house finished and ready for the baby chicks. Lady had broken lose from Randy and was in the chicken yard before he could get there. She killed 3 hens and now I am down to 5. No more eggs at all. So very sad. Lady had hidden one of the dead birds but I found it just before she came up to her yard and I was able to connect her back to her line. Don't want her teaching Mia how to hunt and eat raw birds. We do so love having our fresh from real chickens eggs. We haven't figured out yet how we will restrain/confine Mia. She is quite the handful. What boundless energy. Except when it runs out and like now, she is asleep on my kitchen rug. Just in the middle of everything but sleeping so good. She doesn't spend a lot of time inside, just so Randy can get off with Lady and Max on their walks without Mia wanting to tag along. That just wouldn't work very well.

So, the house will be put on hold for the 3 months Randy will be on light duty and not able to work on it at all. I tell him, get the septic tank and I will be digging the pit and getting it ready for the first flush. 

Tomorrow, I will plant 8 tomato plants. Randy wants to trellis them this year so we can better fit more plants into a small space. I have the old garden cleared and ready for the cultivator to make a few rows. Must get to planting right away. The tomatoes are well over a foot tall and staying inside the little greenhouse.

CLICK HERE to go to Mia's page.

For the last couple of days, Lady has been acting odd. We knew she was pregnant but didn't know anything at all about doggies and the litter of pups. After using ask . com, I found nothing but sites that wanted to charge for any question and the resulting answer. $7 to 10 on most sites. So, tonight I went back to the google search and found an excellent site. She wasn't up to much of a walk today and she is now confined to her house. The info says that she should not be around another dog for 3 weeks after the pups are born. She and Max are used to going for morning and evening walks with Randy but she sure wasn't feeling up to the long walk this morning. 

We have gone into another cold snap and will hope that tonight is the last of the hard freezes for the season. Lady's shivering is part of her labor so says the website. I was pretty sure that the light in her house was plenty to keep her warm. Just wish I'd found this site weeks ago. We thought gestation was about 3 to 4 months. HAHAHaaaa. Okay. But I am giving her my last extra blanket. Forgot to look for more at Wal-Mart today and they probably won't be having more for this season.

Just saw that it is down to 26° already so that explains why the water went out. Randy was going to change out the switch but it was too cold to be outside today. Now, the water quit and the line froze. Ah well. No, I didn't refill the jugs I had emptied the last freeze we had. I have plenty more jugs full and ready. I had just decided to wash up two loads of clothes tonight just in case the line froze and now, I can put that off until tomorrow. Should be up to 65 tomorrow with no more freezing in the week's forecast. 

We are starting on the new chicken house tomorrow. It will mean clearing briar and brush from around the old greenhouse but it will be the perfect spot. There is already a line run for water and much clearing has already been done. 

Will put in extra time tomorrow to move the baby tomato plants into small cups. They need to be root bound before they get bigger pots and this works so very well. As soon as they get a little more size, they can go to the new small greenhouse to get sunlight. The artificial light is good to start them but nothing does better than good old sunshine. We'll need the heater for a while but that won't be a long time.

There was a little snow left in shady spots this morning but with the 65 of this afternoon, it is all gone now. It was windy but not so bad. The roof on the house was dry and Randy was able to get another layer of tar paper on and the first layer of the shingle material in place. Even got most of a layer of tar on the edges to seal it. Getting ever so close to being able to work on the inside. That will be great, to work even when it is raining or cold. Even at night. Think of that. It will be nice to wish for rain to water the garden. 

Randy didn't want to wave for a picture today so I didn't take any. I can't get up to the roof where he is working so the house doesn't look any different. 

The hyacinth are about 2 inches above ground now so they will be blooming soon. The daffodils are looking nice but probably won't bloom since they never have.

I mentioned in some other notes about writing in this section a few words on our day of distraction this past week. It had been very, very cold and then we had a fine warm day with beautiful sunshine. I was here at the computer working when Max started barking fiercely. He doesn't bark nearly as much as the other pups so I went to see what was the problem. 

It was the propane tank, spewing propane from the top near the fittings. It scared Max and it scared me. I called Randy at work and he was home within 45 minutes. He took the empty tank to town to get more since it looked as if the full one that was spewing would soon be empty. He mentioned the problem as he was getting the tank filled and the fellow said it was a pop-off valve. That is what it was supposed to do. The tank had been filled on a very cold day and barely used before there was a warm day and the heat was not on. 

The tank lost little propane and when the tank to the kitchen stove went empty the next day, it was hooked up and is doing fine. Now we know what a pop-off valve is and what happens. My goodness. It still made Max my hero.

I had made the mistake of saying that our ground never freezes and we can be digging on the garden beds all winter. The past two weeks have proved that it can happen, maybe not again in my lifetime but it does freeze solid and probably down quite a ways. Over 120 hours of not getting above freezing. Randy says that it will kill out all the grasshoppers. I hope he is right. The weather stats show that we've not had this bad a winter in 70 years. 

So, we've done nothing but try to stay warm and keep our water flowing. It has taken lots and lots of propane to stay warm, the heater running all day and all night. We've had a slow hardly more than drizzle rain all of yesterday, last night and this morning. But it has stopped and they are actually talking about how we might have some sunshine in a few days. Sly has been angry at the lack of rays and even Dorothy mentions how Mocha won't get out of bed if there are no warming rays for napping. 

The weather is keeping us in and making outdoor chores fast and efficiently done. The high yesterday was 31 and today was 27. Lows about the same but when it clears tomorrow night, the low will be in the lower teens. We are fighting to keep the water flowing but it isn't easy. I have over a hundred gallon jugs of water ready should they be needed. Our worst blizzard was in the first week of April one year so this being the middle of January, winter is not over yet.

I had been clearing the way into the garden but it's slow going. I have lots of newspaper ready to carry out but it is still a major chore. I repaired the gate that had fallen apart and wouldn't stand up any more. Now it works just fine. What was the Zinnia bed last year is dug, cleaned and ready for spinach seeds to be planted. The first bed was fertilized 2 weeks ago and is growing very well now. The freezing and ice coatings hasn't slowed down the spinach or the lettuce. 

I am hoping that there will be enough strawberry plants to fill 2 or 3 more beds but I haven't protected them at all from the cold so they may be in trouble. They are priority when I get a pathway made through the garden. It is sure a mess still with sticker plants. 

Friday was a 72 degree day. Yesterday and today are not getting above 42. I did work outside all of Thursday and Friday so that I could afford to stay indoors all of this weekend. It was too cold and windy for Randy to do much outside. So he is cleaning the Shop and making it more useable. There is a trash barrel just outside where he can send unwanted items on out for collection. Today is the get stuff out to the road for pick up early tomorrow morning. We have the big can so now we can do a bit of cleaning every week and have plenty of space for the household garbage. 

The seed catalogs have all arrived and we'll send off an order to Park's tomorrow. We'll get the early things started indoors with heat and light. But it is also time to the digging on the garden beds. Our "soil" doesn't freeze like in the northern states. We just have to wait for a nice day and be out and digging. The new garden from year before last was never made useable this past year but it would sure be nice to have it going again. The briar is so terrible thick there and with the watering during the season, it did very well. The tomatoes growing there did not get enough tending and good soaker watering to know if it was indeed a good location. But I'd sure like to give it a try and otherwise, I don't know where I'll put the cucumbers this coming year. Lots of plans to be making, work to be doing, decisions to be made.

The clock ticks us on into 2007 but for this moment, it is still 2006. The above photo shows our snow but it was earlier this month and that was still in the fall of the year. Our temperatures are colder now but we've not had any more snow or ice. We'll have some days near 70 and then another front will keep our lows well below freezing and our days barely into the 50s.

These are the days for deciding what we'd like to do different in the coming year and realizing what we didn't get done in the year just past. This is a good year knowing that we had the money and got the land taxes paid early and it's not looming over our heads as we start a new year. Our biggest purchases on for the house will be the toilet and the shower. The next ones. There will be the doors, front and back but the windows are in place. As soon as the walls are tight, I can start putting the insulation in place on the inside. The the ceiling panels and the walls and the floor. We are so ready to move in but know it will be a while yet. We are ready for the long awaited flushing and showering. It will be so nice to have a hot water heater and running hot water. And faucets. Ah, dreaming sweet dreams.