Fencing and skunks....

Started putting up fencing yesterday. Not where we had planned.....

 ..Due to Congress not doing their job, we will loose 20% of our pay.
Congress should also get their pay tagged 20%, instead of giving their rich lazy backsides a raise!  Specially when they will put this country in another tail spin, because of their petty childish bickering. 
That will put us no better than being unemployed and with that kind of non pay and how so very expensive it is here for food for both us and the animals... it will be even harder than before.

We have decided we need to fence in the front field where the grass is. All the animals, except one of my horses, will be able to go out, at least part of the time. 
This will save on the animal feed at least.

We have a big den of Skunks running along part of the fence line. I thought it might be foxes but no such luck.

DH originally wanted to knock the Den down with the tractor... but.. I said....uhmm....  you will not be living in the house if you do that.
Can you imagine a half dozen angry skunks all gunning for you?

DH stuffed logs in the holes and by the time we were putting fencing up.... the whole area smelled of ticked off skunk.

Sure they got out by now,,, so not going to do any fencing today, even though we need to.  Not that adventurous!

Also bought some more cinder blocks a couple of weeks ago. Will have another raised bed.
But not enough to put in a full garden. 
So I will have to do some hot wire around the garden to keep the chickens from bothering it.
Will have to grow some food this spring/summer if we want to eat.

Thanks Congress, for doing your best to destroy another hard working family.

 Here are the photos.  Can see some of the fencing going in above.

Giant Skunk Den..... put arrows near a couple of logs DH stuffed in the entrances. That borrow is huge.... that whole long lump of dirt..... 
Put and Arrow on the fence....  

See the issue? 
 Normally DS and I do some fencing during the day but....  I am not doing that part! 

Any "Safe" way to force skunks to move on, for at least a little while?

The Big Museum in Wlliamsburg

Last Dec we went to Colonial Williamsburg again and this time, went to their large museum.
The top part is a recreation of the old hospital.... however unknown to us at this point, this museum is much larger than it looks.
Would guess... 3/4's of it is underground. Yep, we were walking on the roof to take this photo.
Thought DH took some photos of inside, but  not sure where they ended up.
Pretty nice museum, lots of interesting things to look at.

Snow and boy is it cold~~

Stjarna trudging through the wee bit of snow we had the other day. At least it is dry and powdery snow.  But goodness is it ever so cold.... with the wind chill we have been running between 0 and -11*.
Icelandic's are loving it... but not us humans.

We are however, due a bit of a warm up in a couple of days. Would be nice, not to have frozen water buckets!

Trail on the property is looking good~~

 The Swamp.... 


Finally got around to taking some photos of the new path around the property..... even got one of our very own wee swamp....  OK.. we own part of a swamp. LOL

Stjarna was rather zippy that morning, as we hadn't been out for awhile... so taking photos was a challenge.


Can see some of the No Trespassing signs.
Not that people pay attention.

DH, DS and I have been working hard to clear a nice path all away around the property. Nice for walking or riding ones horse.
DH and I like to take lots of walks, usually with Maggie.

Can see different areas of the trail.

Still some snow on the ground in the back.

DH will be adding some more paths soon, as we get the fencing up.
To which, we should be able to order some fencing this Friday.
 DH and DS will be very busy over the rest of the winter.

Home made Pizza ~~

Since meat is so spendy here, I am always looking for ways to stretch it during dinner.
So this time around.....
Home made pizza, crust is from organic flour and made from scratch, so is the sauce, and so on.
Meat, tomatoes, onions and topped with a very good sheep's cheese.
Needless to say, there were no left overs with this giant pizza!

The big snow storm..... ah....

Yes, this is the after math of the big snow storm. A dusting of snow, that turned in to slick ice and frozen ground.
They shut businesses and stopped classes early for this....

Even with the ground frozen solid, Dyfra managed to find some dirt to stick to her coat.
Its almost magical, how she does it. LOL

Frozen water tanks..... which.... hopefully before next winter... we will have a Bar A Bar insulated auto waterier out there instead.
Can see DS cleaning the pasture and Nari making sure he does it right. ;O)

DS is going to college part time, adding classes each semester. At this point, until he knows what he wants to major in, he will be bunking at home. So to help pay for the rent, he is required to do chores.

Yule ~

Tis the season, so we have decided again this year to do a Table Top tree. 
 Is a small spruce that we should be able to plant outside in spring, if I can harden it off properly.
Will take some babying in this climate but I think it will be worth it. 

This year I have also added this stunning wreath, made with NW Doug Fir boughs... it smells so much like Oregon I am keeping it in the house.
As Nothing is better than the sweet smells of a NW Oregon forest!!

If anyone is interested in getting a well made Wreath like this one.. let me know and I will give you Lisa's contact number.

New Trails~~~

This is the house from the back and if you look very close you can see the run in shed to the right... off one of the new trails on the property DH made for me... :O)
Find the terrain here is wild! More hills on this place than I thought we would have.

Trails were made, because I had run into some hunters a few days before when I was riding Dyfra.
Not a good combo... Dyfra, gifted as she is..... it wasn't at all fun. 
One person was on another property, wither the owner knew about it, I have no idea. But the other person and his dog(s)... were clearly on our property.
I saw one drinking Beer... if you can afford Beer... you are only hunting to kill things for fun.
And when they do that... they are putting YOU in more danger. 
I yelled a few times... and I can bellow...
If you don't own the land... F'n stay off it.
Seriously NOT Kosher. 

And a snap of Stjarna on the new trail, which she really enjoyed!!
 She is getting much better with having a camera go off around her!

Did enjoy the ride today, even if it is "Stupid" season.

We have Pies!

DH, made the above Apple Pie this morning.

I made the Pumpkin Pie yesterday morning.  Made with Almond/Cahsew cream and coconut milk and it turned out really good! 
Yes, we had to try a piece last night, first time using these ingredients. ;O)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Drop Spindle!

Well, bummer... was hoping Fort AP Hill had a spinning Guild meet up. 

But no, they do offer classes during the summer, but no spinners getting together.

Phifle.... even got out my drop spindle.

Something I haven't used in a long while, as I prefer my Majacraft Saxonie.

However, the Saxonie is a bit ackward to move and I do not want to take a chance of damaging it.

Would like to, at some point, buy a Majacraft Rose to use as a traveling wheel.

When I have time, I think I will go check out the Community center over there.
See what it takes to possibly set up, a small spinning Guild!

With all the Rev and Civ re-enactment groups... one would like there are some folks out there that spin too!

The Zoo at DC ~

 We went to the DC Zoo last Sat. First time we went to DC.. not on a federal holiday... so it was a bit more crowded. 
 Pretty nice Zoo... but I have never seen a Zoo with its own police department. Didn't know if I should be worried or not?

Also the first place I have gone, since we arrived over this way... that had Scooters for rent. Rather spendy but it allowed me to see a lot more, than I would

normally be able!

They had some really cool indoor Aviaries and such. And they had a whole passel of cute young otters playing... a lot of fun to watch.

 The photos above, are from the indoor Amazon Rain forest.  Very nicely set up and one can see, it has been around for a long while.
Would love to have one of these on this place. ;O)

 
This is the indoor Aviary, also very nicely set up. 

The young otters playing, they were a lot of fun to watch!

 Different kinds of Birds and a couple of Tiger photos.

I seriously need to get a new camera, only two of the photos I took, came out well. Of course they were the only two taken in bright full sun.

DH and DS took a number of photos and will be working on them next. Some of them came out very well!

Cinnamon Bread

Started with making Hamburger buns this morning and thought to myself... I haven't made any sweet bread for a number of years....so.....
The homemade Cinnamon Bread.... no salt, not too sweet, but oh... ever so good. The trick will be... not trying to eat it all in one... or two days! LOL 

Photo is a little darker than in person. 

Dyfra and her Minions......

Was grooming Maggie after I had driven her in her HyperBike this morning...and saw the goats playing.. King of the Mountain, on Dyfra's back. 
Funny how much she was enjoying it.
By the time I was able to retrieve my camera, the goats had settled down for a nap and Max won.... Sid ended up on the ground floor, chewing his cud.
Have I ever told you, how much Dyfra loves her little evil Minions? LOL

Bread and Stuffed Bell Peppers....

Have been remiss, on sharing food photos.... so.....

 Homemade loaves of bread, made yesterday. The one on the left was properly kneaded... the one on the right... happens, when you have over done it with chores and don't knead it enough.... but it will still taste good. ;O)

Stuffed Bell Peppers with a Sheep's cheese cap.  Dinner for tonight... all ready to go!
The loaf of bread in the back... part of the two Loaves I made yesterday. ;O)

Marine Base Museum~~

Went to the big Marine base up north, to go food shopping yesterday. 
Then we decided to go to the Marine base museum.
 I did not think it would be any good... but boy was I wrong. Very well thought out and lots of well done, dioramas.
Only down side... if you are handicapped, bring your own scooter. 

The front entrance.

An I beam from one of the Twin Towers from 9/11.  That was humbling, to say the least.

Above, an later Corsair model I didn't know about.... so I feel another Fighter painting coming on!

And the Corsair I have always loved.

A piece from the Pentagon, from 9/11

First Raised Bed....

DH built the first raised bed.  We plan to have the garden, in raised beds. Will be easier to care for in the heat we have here, easier for me to keep weeded and the clean lines will help us see any snakes.
I just hope I never see any snakes!!
Wanted to put Asparagus in first... but of course, I have been unable to find Asparagus starts locally.
Was hoping to have a couple of perennial Veggie beds in before winter.
That is not going to happen sadly.

 One of the Cherry trees, is doing better. Earlier in the summer it was attacked to the point of having no leaves.
Japanese Beatles are bad around here, along with the seemingly thousands of weird bugs, but the chickens should sort that out by next year.

Photo of the wee Orchard and the front field on the property.The other cherry trees are a bit bare of leaves but they are still alive. I hope they make it through winter.Has been more of a challenge to grow fruit trees here, than any where else in the country we have lived.

Interesting clouds.... for VA

First really interesting clouds I have seen on the Farm in VA.  Of course.. about an hour later.. gave us a few good cracks of thunder and lightening.
Can see the varying cloud shapes and colors.

Neil Armstrong ~

 We went to the Air and Space Museum last Sept, to see Neil Armstrong's, gloves and helmet. They were only on display for 2 weeks, before they were safely stored again.
Incredible he was the first man on the moon and we had the rare pleasure of seeing part of his Moon/Space suit in person.

The Shuttle Discovery is now set up a little better, so it is easier to see.
Really liked this angle.

I have a lot more pictures to sort through, might take me a couple of weeks but I will get them up as soon as possible. ;O)