Asparagus, Nari and sheep

Every where I have lived, I have always wanted Asparagus,,, now I have three small raised beds of them.  This is the first one to come up! 
 I have a baby Asparagus! LOL

Nari hunting......  then had to come see what I was doing. 

Sheep in the new front pasture... needless to say, they are happy!

Our Wee Orchard ~~

Really hard to see some of the fruit trees, but if you look very closely.....

Having to start all over is a pain, this is the 3rd Orchard I have started up, I just hope this time, by the time it starts producing, we will be here to enjoy it.

All but the newest tree, a Williams Pride Apple, are blooming.  Very beautiful to look at.   ;O)

Flowering Cherry Trees

Put arrows near DH's flowering Dogwood in the back of the photo, and  Kawanza flowering cherry near the front of the hen house. 
I planted them last year, because I missed the beauty of the type of Flowering trees, we had in Oregon. 
They do not look like much now, but in a few years, this will be a very beautiful spot to look at.

Just love this flowering cherry tree!

We also planted another type of flowering cherry tree, but it will not be as spectacular as the Kawanza. 

Kawanza is hard to find here, but would like to plant two more trees before next Autumn.

Raised Beds, Pancake Muffins and a Flowering tree.... oh my...

DH made breakfast yesterday. Pancake batter put into muffin cups and baked at 350* for about an half hour or so, I don't think anyone was timing it.
Came out pretty good and I love having blue berries on them.

Spring comes a lot later here, than in Oregon.  The first flowers of spring, from my Peach Tree. 

DH put in the 4th raised bed on Sat.  
DS and I will put the stone dust in the holes and I will put some of the horse manure that has been composting since last year in it, mid week. This will give the mortar time to cure.
The yellowish stuff you see on the paths, is Corn Gluten, this will help keep the weeds from growing.

You can see on the front left bed, some of the cap stones we plan on putting around all the raised beds. Makes it easier for me to sit on and tend the Kitchen garden.

Most likely a bit early, but I ordered some tomatoes, peppers, Artichoke plants, a Rosemary and Thyme.

Making Bread.... one handed~~

I badly needed to make bread today, and being one handed was a bit of a challenge.
However, with the help of the bread machine, doing the first two rises and kneadings, I was able to make hamburger buns. 
Right now, they are doing their last rising in the oven.

Keeping my fingers crossed they come out right! 

**Updated....  the Hamburger buns.... little more character to them than usual,  but they still taste good.  ;)

Second set of Raised Beds~

Last Sat, DH started on the 2nd set of raised beds.
 Was hoping to get 6 done for this summer, but with Congress cutting our pay, might not be possible.
At least this is a start. 
Have also decided to cap the edges of these raised beds, so they are easier for me to sit on. 

Sheep happily eating in the newly fenced front pasture.
It is a load off, that they will have food.
Am slowly getting Stjarna and Maggie used to the grass again.

Needed to do some, slight, pruning with the Willow tree I planted last year, so I figured I would see if I can get some of the cuttings to grow roots.
Free tress are always a good thing.

Nari and the Bird House ~~

This is Nari during the morning chores. She is on top of the Bird house, with a Nut Hatch cussing her out, a little farther up the tree. 
Going to assume, said Nuthatch, either has chicks or eggs in the nest box.

So DS saved the wee mother bird from the multi toed wonder....

Raised Beds slowly going in....

The 2nd raised bed being built last Sat. Should be ready to put soil in it today, once is warms up that is. Will be using a combo of Horse manure, composted for a year, Peat Moss and sand. 
Then I can get the other Asparagus planted.

I ordered enough blocks to do, two more raised beds. Have been trying to get them delivered since Monday.
Hopefully they will get here tomorrow. 

Might put in a couple of pressure treated raised beds too.  They are a little faster to build.

Plan on putting Gravel dust between the beds to help keep the weeds down and make a safe surface for me to walk on. 

Yup, that was windy yesterday....

Photos are from the beginning of the storm....

Very windy, rain/sleet/snow.... sticking snow as you can see on the shed blow.
Wind so strong, it forced moisture through the edges of the shed doors to make puddles inside...
Wind so strong, there were a number of times when I was feeding the animals... I just about hit the dust and having the feed shed door try to take me out, wasn't much fun either.
As you can see, I wasn't about to bring my camera out side in this!

Was quite a wild ride yesterday but I thank my lucky stars, the power stayed on.

Nari did not even, try, to go outside.  This is what she did for most of the day yesterday and I don't blame her.
Specially since I saw a number of tiny birds get tumbled about on the ground by the winds. Was impressive.
Last thing I needed was a tumble weed cat!

The herd at rest.....

This is the most unflattering photo I have ever taken of Stjarna, and doesn't help my clip job is... blech..,,, but I wanted to show you the wee herd.  
And Max, just like a cat, loves warms.   Dyfra loves her goats.
Can you find Sid?  LOL

Mighty Maggie and the work she does.....

Yesterday,  I brought Maggie up, so she could carry what was needed to help me find the fence line on the far side.

Maggie has years of experience with the Sawbuck and Panniers and she has always been a great help to me..

Took us nearly 3 hours, nearly did me in and if I did not have her to drag me back out....

Did indeed find the old boundary line markers, now wither or not we have enough fencing to go that far....

We will have to measure that today.

(Just a note- the sawbuck and pannier look lop sided but I weighed each side to make sure they were even in weight)

Slightly odd angle photo, but you can see more of the Sawbuck and Panniers.

Lemon Tree~~

The Lemon Tree I bought for my birthday last year, is blooming and smells wonderful.

I will let the blooms fade out, but then I will pinch them. I want the tree just a little bit bigger before I allow it to set fruit.
Will be hard to wait but worth it!

Max and Sid, say Hi !

 Max

 Sid

They are great little weed eaters.... and even wag their tags when you itch them or give them treats.  A lot of fun to have around.

Raised Garden Beds, Grape Vines ....

 Earlier this month, saw this sky looking out from the front door. Thought the color and contrast was quite pretty.

Can see the cinder block raised bed to the left, DH put in a couple of months ago. 
Then the blocks that have been waiting to be made into a raised bed.
This is were my Asparagus will go.  

Planned on more raised beds, but that will have to be put on hold due to the pending pay cut, unless I can find some free or super cheap used ones.
Will try to put in some more traditional beds, though my body can't really handle tending to those any more.
Family has to eat this summer, so will figure something out.

Bought two grape vines last Fall and planted them. Just hope they survived the winter here. Hard to tell at this point.
DS, put in two posts few weeks ago, so we will have some where for the vines to grow,,, thinking back on it, we should of put more concrete in the last post. As we pulled the wire between the posts yesterday, that one moved a bit.
Possible problem later on, but not going to worry about it right now.
Tied some orange tape on the wire, since it is nearly impossible to see.

In a few years, this place might just be pretty...... I hope any way.

Human Genes Engineered Into Experimental GMO Rice Being Grown in Kansas

Human Genes Engineered Into Experimental GMO Rice Being Grown in Kansas


This is beyond scary.... and everyone should pay attention, specially if you all ready have food Allergies!

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.