Archive for April, 2006
April 18, 2006 – Bees Finally Working
Now that spring is here and things are starting to bloom all over, the bees are out in force after waiting patiently all winter.
Here’s a bee on a plum tree. The tree was abuzz with insects, mostly on the lee side of the tree to stay out of the wind. The unbottled fragrance spilled downwind from the tree.
Even the less showy maple flowers were attracting the bees, although not in this picture.
April 17, 2006 – Fence Repair
Neighbors Don and Phyllis came over today to check the fencelines after winter. They cruise around the pasture in this nifty ATV. Martin was lucky enough to get a ride for part of the trip.
We had just a few places to shore up along the farmstead.
Here’s a place where a corner post wrapped in woven wire cracked at ground level.
After I pulled all the fencing staples, Martin singlehandedly drove it down to the burn pile, dumped it, and pushed the empty cart up the hill!
Here’s the fix. Now, I know replacing a wooden post with a steel one is not generally good practice – Don did offer to come put a new wooden post in, but this entire fence needs to be reconfigured, but the steel post was an 8 footer, and it leans on a couple of feet of cement at the base, so I tried to cheat a little. By the end of the day, the cows were over.
In continuing signs of spring, the “automatic waterer” for the chicken coop was hooked up (a 55 gallon barrel of water outside, hosed into the coop), the fence between the shed and barn put up and the last of this round of R-board stub wall pieces cut and pushed up in the attic.
April 16, 2006 – Easter Hail
This morning was not great weather for an outdoor Easter egg hunt!
It was a brief downpour of pea-size hail, too early to damage crops and not big enough to damage anything else.
April 15, 2006 – Easter Weekend
Here’s a picture of Martin with his Nana showing off the lamb cake he helped make. Because he’s a boy, because he’s nearly five, he’s proudly pointing to a part of the lamb cake that usually isn’t decorated.
It was another 80 degree day with a high wind warning, so it was hard to keep down the straw I just put down on the garden. It was another batch of soap making and some protoypes for candle packaging crate creation.
April 14, 2006 – Photo Friday “Full”
This week’s Photo Friday contest theme is “full”. Here’s a peek at chicks just as they arrived to the farm last year.
April 13, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday # 19
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday” entry. Also check out last week’s answer.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Answer…
This is the flattened cold frame.
April 12, 2006 – Flamer!
Late today, the wind finally stopped blowing enough to try out the borrowed flame weeder. 
Here, I am trying to fry the border between the sod and the new raspberry patch before the new berries are planted. I’m not too sure how it will work on grass, I imagine it will need a few treatments. Hey, who says organic gardening isn’t thrilling. The thing sounds like a jet plane and you don’t need a big budget Hollywood action movie to use a flamethrower! Many people use them to knock down young weeds before their crop germinates or in the case of corn, even after the corn has germinated. I also got some cardboard and mulch spread on part of a garden and weeded around some of last year’s Christmas trees.
Martin and Linda work on the raised beds in the herb garden. If you look behind them, you can see I also started putting in the patio blocks around the future raised beds.
Finally, here is another shot of spring – this shows last year’s cranberries along with this year’s new growth.
April 11, 2006 – Behind Last Year
Even though the past few days have been in the 70′s and 80′s, spring is still behind last year. I think it must be due to the cold March. Checking over last year, by April 9, asparagus was up and the first blooming trees had flowered by April 10. This year, none of that has happened yet.
April 10, 2006 – Unfinished Business
Today, we took care of unfinished business – got the rest of the fence up by the trees and fixed fences that had fallen around some of the chestnuts in the pasture. Finished planting the potatoes. This morning Grandma Jo and Martin administered bee medicine to the hives.
Martin operates the smoker to get ready to open the hives.
Our good neighbor planted a buffer of 24 feet of oats/hay around our farm on the land he rents. So now both of us can worry a little less about drift.
Took a load to the dump – wasn’t pleasant as the dump pile was upwind from the unloading area and the strong south wind brought 78 degrees. As long as we were in the hauling mode, we went to town and scrounged for cardboard for more grass killing/mulch for part of the garden.
Martin and I went for a little hike in a nearby woods. We found an old garbage dump in one part and found some “treasures” for our neighbor Nancy – a cobalt blue bottle, an amber apothecary-type bottle with black lid, and what looks like an old lampshade, only made of heavy metal. We also saw squirrels and the first spring flowers.
April 9, 2006 – More Kids!
We thought Paullina was due in a couple of weeks, but when we came home from church there were two babes in the barn. That’s the second year in a row that Paullina has given birth while we were at church. Emma was the one that found them, she had a friend come over who arrived shortly after we returned home and she and Betsy found them and ran back excitedly to the house.
Here is kid #1 a darling black and white kid (no name yet).
Here is kid #2 looks like her mother. They are both females!
We also started to plant the garden – a little bit of lettuce, beets, larkspur, and spinach.
Here are the kids are cutting up the potatoes to dry up before planting.
Here’s part of a trench to plant the spuds – just look at that rich dark soil!
April 8, 2006 – Trees Tucked In
This morning after dropping Claire of for her ACT test (yes she’s in 8th grade, but was suggested to take it), we started to mulch the trees. I’ve gathered mulch over the winter and had two wheeled contrivances full.
The first step today is to put the landscape fabric into place (a great Costco bulk item and the 220 foot roll wasn’t long enough!) and cut an “X” where each tree is. Then the trees peek out and the fabric is ready for the mulch. Even though it was in the 30′s for a good part of the morning, it was still, clear, sunny, and the spring birds were calling.
Here’s the cattle shute, filled with mulch. See its conversion into a mulch wagon last October.
Martin helped get the mulch in and here he helps shovel it out.
Finally the boy gets a chance to pretend to drive the tractor.
In the evening, I dropped Claire off in Ames and got another load of mulch to replenish the area under Martin’s playground. We also made the “TCC” Total Chicken Containment area complete – those birds love to dig in the mulch and doesn’t make me quite to happy – so we stretched a bit of chicken wire along the cattle panels.
A note – I bought some of the newfangled plastic chicken wire last week to try – well – DON’T do it. The chickens pecked right through it.
April 7, 2006 – Foggy Morn
It was a very foggy morning, followed by howling winds today. Good day to work in the attic.
April 7, 2006 – Photo Friday – “Organized”
This week’s Photo Friday contest theme is organized. Here’s a shot from a cold winter day.
April 6, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday #18
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday” entry. Also check out last week’s answer.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Answer…
It’s a pipe bender
