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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The snow of March 4th ~


 I have been a bit remiss on keeping up with the Blog, for a couple of reasons. First is... getting this place up and running from scratch, all the repairs that are needed and how slow my higher end HughesNet is. 

This is the snow we had March 4th, very pretty and makes it easy to see the 2"by4" heavy wire, figured that was much better than chicken wire.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Help Thumper raise money to help fight Cancer


Help Thumper .... ROCK THE PINK!   ` click here for her online shop.





Help Rock the Pink! 


The profits for every item Thumper sells, will be used to fund walkers participating in 40 mile, 60 mile, 10K, 20K, and marathons to raise money for breast cancer research and treatment.


Monday, February 27, 2012

First Snow.... that stuck for a couple of days ~


Photos where taken the morning after the snow storm.
 Can see how it is melting off already. At this point, we had around 3" left. 



 Nice wet sticky snow, good for making snow balls and throwing them at your loved ones, but the new Magnolia tree wasn't overly happy.
Had to go help it out.






You can see the fruit tree's DS helped me plant, a little more clearly. 
 Tree sizes are Dwarf, Semi Dwarf and 80% Standard and are spaced any where from 12' to 25' away from each other.

Have 5 more on order and hope to have them by the end of March.


Is a lot of work and money to set up, yet another new place from scratch but the sooner we have the fruit and other tree's planted, the quicker the family can benefit from them.





Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Fruit Trees, Maggie's help and a happy Maine coon cat ~


Found four fruit trees to start our small Orchard with last weekend. Asian pear( a favorite of ours), a Ayer pear, Akane apple and a Bing Cherry.
Was hoping to buy larger sized local trees, but finding what we want in VA has proven to be a challenge.
So I have ordered the other's via, Rain Tree Nursery.


The more distance view is a little hard to see. We are planting the fruit trees on the other side of the gravel road, we put in to the hay shed. That way they are not to far from the house.


 Little behind on getting the Hen House yard finished but you can see DH has the posts up. Still have the wooden gate to build and the wire to put up. We need to finish painting the inside soon, too.
Have planted some Leyland's around the Hen house yard to kind'a shield them from the neighbors in the future.



Maggie has been a big help to me. With her Sawbuck and Panniers, she carries things like T Post insulators, which are quite heavy. And it is nice to have a buddy along when you are doing work.




Nari is a lot happier now we can let her out of the house when either DS or I are outside. 
To be able to have her out all day, we still have to get the hot wire up around the house fencing. This is to keep her in and the local dogs out, so she stays safe. Hoping that will be done by next week.


Nari helping DS do the morning chores.


Monday, January 30, 2012

And here I thought this was my Art Desk?


I guess I was under the mistaken impression....this was my Art desk. Not a sunny lounge area.....


As soon as we can get the hot wire strung up around the house, she needs to go outside to hunt, so I can create some Art.... on my desk....without help.......

Sunday, January 29, 2012

New Hen House and other stuff~


 Back gate going out to the pond and part of the fencing around the house.




The new, half off, store display shed. Hate the odd red color but it can be painted.  DH is getting the inside caulked and the floor painted, that way it will be easy to clean. Should be ready for the chicks come April.


Will also be adding a Hen House yard, for those days I want them to stay close to the shed.


In the back area around the shed, if you look closely, I have planted some tiny Leyland Murray's. 
Unlike Oregon, plants are not cheap here and very hard to find. Had to order by mail.
 But these trees grow fast and will help screen out the neighbors.


Not used to being this close to people. But knock on wood, so far all is good!



Drive from the new hay shed, looking towards the hen house and the big gate at front drive. 
Still have to get the rest of the fencing done in front but we only had enough fencing for around the house for now.
Which is ok... gives us a safe area for Nari and the future chickens.





Another View of the front of the house.


Hay in the Hay shed..... finally!
Good hay is hard to find here. The two big green bales to the front left, are the ones I brought from Oregon.

Others are from two different hay places in VA. 
Needless to say the horse's like the hay from Oregon the best.
So it will be an on going quest to find good hay.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Things are slowly coming together


We are slowly having things come together. Sheds for the animals and hay are in. Started a path from the shed to the animal pasture and now we have the round pen in the same area.
Moved the round pen because where it used to be, is where the hen house will be.


Found a pre build shed that was on sale for a very, very good price down the road.  Will arrive tomorrow.  Have until April to get it fixed up and ready for the chickens.
Can't wait!!

Wether Goats


After searching far and wide for a wether sheep buddy for Apollo and finding none.
I started looking for goats. Came across these two 9 month old Nigerian wethers . 
We ended up getting them for free, which was wonderful.




Now we have buddies for Apollo and a couple of extra brush eaters.


Only problem is... what to name them? Normally I look at an animal and a name pops into my head. 
For some reason, I keep coming up with blanks. 
One kind'a reminds me of Sid in Ice Age. But the other? Hmmmm....

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Smithsonian Natural History Museum


On Jan 1st, we decided to take a break from all the work we have been doing at the new place and have a day off.


 I have never been to DC and have always wanted to see one of the Smithsonian Museums. Figured this day, would have the least traffic. 
Pretty nice drive in, however, don't use GPS.... silly thing can't even find the White House, let alone a museum.





DH and DS at the S.M, standing in front of the only good diorama in the place. I guess after being to the Natural History Museum in SF a number of times, that the Smithsonian would be better some how. While not a bad place, it was no where near the quality of the SF one. 



Impressively sized bones...



Oh and if you are handicapped and need a scooter... bring your own. All they have are uncomfortable wheel chairs.



However, I did enjoy the day with the family. 


Have more photos to unload from the other camera's. To which I will post soon.



Blue Birds and DH working


 DH working on the box that will house the electric fence charger, on a nice sunny day. Weather has never been this nice in Oregon, at this time of year.





And we have Blue Birds, lots of them. Another thing we did not have in Oregon. Is fun waiting them flit about.
Have also seen Cardinals flying by, very pretty but very shy.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

New Tractor



John Deere had a good deal on Tractors and since we have a big need of one....


Had to take a photo with the new Hay Shed in the background.


Figured taking photos now, would be a good thing, because this is the cleanest you will ever see this Tractor. 


Plan on putting it to work after lunch!


DH, really wanted an enclose one, with air conditioning but the cost was just a bit more than we could handle. Would of been nice with the heat we have here but the canopy is a cheaper compromise. Will at least keep the sun off our heads.
Will also make the chores on our new Farm, a lot easier!

Hay Shed Arrived~

Hay Shed



I am very glad the hay shed has finally arrived. Want to Thank Bucky for doing the foundation and being there to make sure the shed was placed where I needed it.
Hay Shed is fairly close to where the horses are, so feeding shouldn't be a problem. 




 More than enough room to put a years worth of hay in, for 3 horse's and a sheep.



 Below you can see the Shed being placed on the blocks.




Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Fencing during the Holiday~



During the 3 day Holiday, Christmas, Yule, what ever you want to call it,  the family did a lot of fencing.




We wanted to get as much done as possible, so the horse's and sheep can finally have a place to run and play.
Being in that round pen this long, is hard on them.


The gates are in, a 6' for use to walk through during feed and so on and a 12', so if I need to use the tractor we will be signing for, hopefully, sometime today,  it will be easy to do work in the pasture.


All that is left to do is build a housing for the Charger, get it plugged in, will be using an extension cord for awhile and get the grounding rods connected. 
As soon as we can do this, the horse's can go into their new home.


We are hoping before next Autumn, we can get power and water too the shed, so it will be much easier to do the chores.
But right now the funds are tapped out.


Slowly we are getting the place set up nicely for both the humans and animals. ;O)







Hallway with Grandmother's Art ~




Grammy is a wonderful Artist and I have a couple of original paintings and a couple of prints on Canvas.




So I decided to put her wonderful Art in the Hallway of our new place, for all to see.
I have one more piece to put up but the frame was damaged.
The blank space on the wall is where it will go.




Friday, December 23, 2011

Art on the Wall and a Beautiful Morning



Image Kind had a 40% off sale on and I wanted to check the quality of their prints, since I haven't done that in awhile.  Do miss the lush green of the old farm, so I love having this on the Wall. It is called, "Time Lost".  Fitting I think.
I also bought the panoramic of Mt St Helens I captured and that came out, very, very well. Will try to get a photo of it soon as DH has his stuff off the mantel. 




This morning I decided to play with my slowly dying camera. Its frustrating me no end and wish Santa would bring me another one, one that works very well, isn't broken and able to do what I want. But until that happens....


This is one of the photos I took, that I liked. The other is on my Art page if anyone wants to take a look. 


Family has been staying busy. Not sure what we are going to do over the Holidays. Most likely continuing to work on the new place.
But we will see. 


It is however, wonderful to have the family all together again!! VBG





Monday, December 19, 2011

Horse's Run in Shed has arrived!

 At long last, the horse's new home. Nothing fancy, just a double bay run in shed, with a wee tack room on the end. Here you see it on the trailer.




 Then tilting the trailer back aiming for the blocks. Who ever made the rule in this county, that we had to use block, has never lived on a Farm. Would of been better on a level gravel base.


Of course my heart was in my throat through this whole process.


A Nice Oak framed, Amish built, Board and Batten Run in Shed.


Hopefully we will be able to get the fence buttoned up this weekend and the horse's can finally have the run of their night pasture!

The Yule Tree


DH bought me Moonstruck Chocolate for Christmas! 

And I had to put it under our little Yule Tree.


 Just a table top sized one but we like it. Makes the house smell wonderful.


Well..... and with a big tree, we would most likely have cat's helping us with things in the tree and that would make the holidays a wee bit more interesting than we need.


So small is good!