I haz a Piggies!!!!!

Scott took a picture of me being all hillbilly and weeding my garden.

I've given up on pulling every weed one at a time since then. They've become a carpet that's everywhere. I've taken to reaching down into the dirt and grabbing a handfull of weed and soil and just churning everything up. Scotty bought me a Garden Weasle. It's not so great at digging up the weeds between the rows. It does get some of them out, and it sure makes the soil alot looser so I can dig in with my hands and get the weeds out though.



I got to go play cowgirl last week with my friend Andrea and Honey Jo. Honey's dad was moving some cows down the valley, and up over the mountians to a smaller high valley on the other side. Let me tell you, those cows were not happy about being pushed up the hill. The were lined out and moving along as long as they thought they were moving to the next ranch down the velley. Soon as we turned them up the fenceline it was a fight the whole way. The side of the mountian was rather steep. Steep enough that I prolly wouldn't have chosen to go up it if I'd just been out for a trail ride. Good thing 'Ole Benjamin Butthead has worked cows before. Dad Cisco and Andrea got a bunch of those critters moving up towards the top and me and HJ were trying to keep pushing from the bottom. I ended up pointing Ben right through the middle of them and whooping and hollaring drove right up the middle. Managed to push some of them up, then circled back down and did it again.

Here's the view from the top looking back the way we came. The view was worth the trip alone.

Scotty almost has my chicken condo done. It's turning out just the way I was hoping when he was decribing how he wanted to build it. This is a view through the top into one of the nest boxes. He made the lid with hinges on the outside so I can just lift the lid and grab my eggs and go.

Scotty and the boy working in the garage on the chicken condo

And now we move onto finishing the pig pen, because yesterday I picked up the piggiez!!!! Scott and the boy worked hard all day getting it ready for the pigs.

Here's Scotty trying to herd them out of the trailer. They were not happy about coming out. It was getting late in the evening after we unloaded them so I promise more pics later today.

Am I the only one who likes pulling weeds?

 I think I'm the only person I know who likes pulling weeds. I don't like the fact that there are weeds in my garden. I don't like being bent over or crouched down for eighty feet at a time. My back hurts and my knees creak when I stand up. I don't think there is a square inch out there that doesn't have something growing that shouldn't be there. But then there is that little sound the roots make as they let go is what does it for me. That little snap, and then the whole plant, root and all at there between your fingers. That's what I like about weeding. Pinching the little leaves in my fingers, or having to dig under the plant just a little bit, and then... SNAP. No more weed.Toss it in my little bucket, move forwards a little, and repeat. It just makes me happy. I can go out and pull for a while, go do something else, and back out there again, snick, snick, snick.

I have all kinds of stuff coming up in my garden. Stuffs that I put in as seeds are poking their little leaves out of the dirt to say hello. I'm amazed. After all the trouble I went to to start plants inside this year and last, and to have them all die, to see things starting to poke out that I put in the ground as seeds amazes me. I put in cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, cantaloupe, squashes, and strawberries as plants I got from the garden center. I also set out seeds of everything but the tomatoes, and added peas, carrots, radishes, and corn. There is little plants coming up where I set the seeds. This makes me do a little happy dance in my seat.

Little bitty corn plants coming up

I forgot I planted radishes and finally gave up on them and planted peppers. Well here come the radish

Onions

 Strawberries

  I added three blueberry bushes at the back of the garden

 Sugar snap peas

 View of the garden

So the calf is next door. Piggies still on the way, but now I have chickens. Six hens and a rooster. Andrea took the other three hens. I already have gotten eggs from them and they've only been here since Sunday. It's a friend of my neighbor that had them and he gave us a heck of a deal on them $5 each for last years babies. So they are just over a year old. The rooster had something funky going on with his legs and walks a little weird, but he was free so I don't care. We were told they are New Jersey Black Giants. They don't seem to be any bigger than the hens Andrea already has, but I read they don't finish growing out till around 18-24 months. They lay brown eggs. I've gotten a very pale almost white, some regular browns, and a brown with dark speckles. I'm very excited to go out every afternoon and find eggs that my own chickens have left for me. They are still living in the rabbit hutch. Scotty has to finish the outside nest boxes still on my chicken condo.

3000

That's the number of page views I hit today. I never expected to hit 1000. I just set this thing together as a place for my family to watch the house I was building as they all live in different states, and maybe a few pics of the kids and the horses. Only 10 followers, but I still can't get the fam damily to register and follow officially.

Bacon, the calf, had some nasty diarrhea but has gotten over that, and learned to drink from a bucket instead of a bottle. That makes Andrea very happy. The calves are separated into two pens now. They are both little boys and the urge to suckle is so strong still that they'll start on each others dangly bits. They are still side by side, and I think keeping them together just at first helped Bacon learn to drink from the bucket.

Went out and saw the piggies Monday evening. Pete's been great hanging onto them for us even though they are ready to go. He's even going to worm them for us this week, no extra charge. One is a bit bigger than the other, being three weeks older. Pete said he had a white and a red. The red is more a dark reddish brown with a white band over it's shoulders. The white he actually calls the rainbow pig. It's got a reddish blond head, blond over it's butt and blue spots randomly. Of course I forgot to take a camera with me, but this time next week, they should be here.

The garden hasn't all died, which amazes me.  I managed to kill off everything I had started in the kitchen. I forget the plant-lings outside over night and they froze. Two years in a row and I've killed off everything I had started. Last year really wasn't my fault, since I was so busy in the hospital trying not to die. So I cheated. I went to D and B and bought started plants. I have three different types of maters. Banana peppers, and jalapenos. I think I might have tome bells in there too, but I'll have to look. I have eggplants, I did put in a few eggplant seeds. Nothing up yet though. I have two types of cucumber, and a few seeds in. I have squash in butternut, and yellows. I have cauliflower, and broccoli, and in classic Jax fashion, I mixed up the 4pks as I put them in, and have them both mixed in the same row, and no way to tell which is which till they get bigger. I put in tiny onions back when I killed the kitchen starts. I didn't expect to see them come up. I also put in radish seeds. The onions are about four inches tall now. I forgot about the radishes and put the peppers in that same row. Imagine my surprise when three weeks later up come the radishes in between the peppers.

The irrigation water is still turned up all the way open at the head gate, so we're flooding everything everywhere. Andrea and Dave are flooding both the ponds, and up over the road. I've made a pond in the short pasture that instead of just seeping out onto the driveway, has gone all the way over into the dry lot. I've flooded through the trees till I don't know where to put all the water. I've never seen that much water in the back pasture at Rebecca's. And Sue's pond behind us is flooding my garden. I finally start getting something to grow, and the back of the garden is under water. Thankfully I didn't put anything in the last four rows in the back yet. I had to get out there today in the DRIVING wind that is endless in Idaho, and wheelbarrow dirt to make a small berm to keep my plants from flooding.

Saturday afternoon, after working an amazing amount of hours, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to work Patches after I got home. I think I was so tired I wasn't thinking clearly. The only good thing that came out of it, is I got her feet trimmed, and remembered to worm her.

I never did get going on the worm composting. I have the box all set up, and all the goodies rotting away in it, outside on the back porch. Alas, I never did order the worms. There is still hope though.

What's new at Everstuff Ranch?

Summer shave down season is here, so work has been crazy busy. I went from grooming like 4-6 dogs on a good day, and maybe 6-8 on Saturdays, to 6-8 a day and 10-12 on Saturdays. Add that to all the stuffs that need to be done around the house, and make for me being a tired unit. We got a Jersey, bull calf from the dairy down the road. It's over at the neighbors. She'll raise up the two calves, and I'll raise up the two pigs. We got the nod from Pete that they are ready to go, just need to finish the pen.

 I went out Sunday and put in the temporary poles and fence out in the pasture. We're going to try giving the horses a smaller area to eat at a time, and make them eat it all down before moving on to the next place. Had to walk the whole fence line to figure out why we were getting a drop in power. Of course after walking the whole perimeter, I find the wire touching a tee post where there is a missing bracket. Didn't find it when I first started walking in knee high grass. 

Today was start the garden day after work. I got in ll the plants what were already plants, and got them all watered in nice. Three different tomatoes, two peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers, melons, strawberries, eggplants. Tomorrow will be everything that has o start from seed. Pees, carrots, more cucumber, radish, lettuce.

This is Bacon, the calf. The pig with be named Tasty. Then I'll have Tasty Bacon, and Eggs with the chickens.

This is where the nest boxes with go for the chickens

Building the shelter end of the piggy pen

Got the rabbit hutch moved to the back of the house. Now it needs a good cleaning out and some rabbits. 

 Some random photos

Jess watching Scotty solder some wires onto clips, trying to fix the solar charger. It's dead btw.

Mike over next door

Andrea bought a horse trailer. We let her use Engine 9 and we get to use the trailer. Winning!

Mike with Lance working on Will's 4wheeler

 Ponies in the grass

Bastard cat is nosey

Will came over a few weeks ago and had Scott help him weld a bracket back on for the shock on his truck

Agenda for today

Day off from the job that pays me, and here's what I have planned for today. Dig 80 ft long rows in my garden that's 40 ft wide. Start a few seeds. Maybe trim feet on the horses. Make laundry soap. Build fence out back to replace the crap I can't believe the horses haven't up and walked over yet. Get the irrigation pipe replaced out in the pasture. Weed and clean the yard. Finish the next boxes for the chicken coop.Start clearing out dead trees out back. Actually this is all stuff Scott is doing and I try and help minus the laundry soap.

Winter break is coming to an end. Time to get my outta shape butt back to work

Most of the winter I sat on my butt. I waited eagerly for my Star Wars game to come out. I shared the computer with Scott and played on his nights at work. My horses thought they were never going to have to work again. I think I've taken Patches out just once this spring. Jess has ridden Ben into town a bunch of times. All that came to a screeching halt starting this week. Holey woefully out of shape I am. Panting and wheezing after just a little work. Shoulders and arms burning from digging a few little holes. No pictures of me since I was the one manning the camera, but i was in proper hillbilly gear. Teeshirt, shorts, boot socks, and of course cowboy boots. I was stylin.

Scott brought some shipping crates home from work last year. This year he put a coat of oil based primer, and two coats of latex on one of them. It's going to be the bottom of my chicken condo. The old dog house we had, he gave the same treatment, and it's going on top. Now he just has to build some outside access nesting boxes, and set it together. He scored some wood from work, and has all the stuffs to make them for me. I'm very excited for chickens this year, and Scotty's building me a great chicken condo.

Mon after work he drove us to Uncle Mikes to borrow the tractor again. He was out there Mon night in  the dark making my garden look like a garden again. Last year Jim came over from the dairy and rototilled everything up. This year Scotty did it all for me. He even widened the garden area. We're sitting at 75ftX40ft now. I hope I can get enough plants growing to fill it all in. I've got three types of tomatoes, four different peppers, broccoli, eggplants, and a couple types of flowers, all started in the kitchen like I did last year.

He also re tilled the round pen. Those fat ponies are gonna have to put some work into it now.

I spent a good part of the early afternoon learning to drive the tractor. We had the arena rack on the back, and I drug and drug that sucker over the pastures, breaking up horse turds and ripping out old grass that didn't burn.Boy those things don't have any shocks. Scotty wanted to show my how to find a higher gear than second so I could go a little faster. No thank you. I thought I was gonna bounce my spleen out through my ears as it was. I didn't need a higher gear. Going down the field wasn't too bad, but crossing over all those corrugates..... Rattled what brains I had left, loose. I did Andrea's pastures next door too. 

Dave is gonna grow alfalfa out back, so he has the horses penned up while he sprays to kill the back, and for weeds in front. Scott and I went out first thing yesterday morning and loaded the hay he hasn't fed yet this year, and moved it over into our yard so it was easier for us to throw it over while the horses are penned. We also took out the sagging, falling down, crappy assed, barbwire fencing in the corner that wasn't holding anything up anymore, but the weeds. Three new poles in the ground, and a temp hot wire fence till Dave builds a good fence between the properties. I thought I was gonna die trying to help Scotty dig those holes. The first foot or so isn't bad cause you can still use the shovel. Once that stupid post hole, clam shell digger comes out, bleh. I couldn't force it down hard enough to get into the dirt, the bottoms can't close all the way, and I ended up dropping more dirt back into the hole than I got out of it. And man I was out of breath. I need to get my fat ass on a treadmill.

What's blooming already in my yard?

Some random pics I found on my camera...

The wind blew the ice up on the pond as it froze.

Making laundry soap

Laundry soap and alfalfa

Today I made laundry soap. The directions and recipe are from Mooberry Farms. Mooberry Farms Laundry Soap It was simple and easy to do. I've done three loads of laundry so far. It smells nice, set thick. So far the clothes look clean. I'm very happy with this. I took pictures, but Scotty's computer blew a fuse, and the little old laptop won't read the stick in my camera.

Last year's garden was off to a great start. The neighbor came over and disced, and tilled. Scott got my furrow in. And then I ended up in the hospital twice. All the little started plants I had died. I was in no condition to work the seeds in that needed direct sow, or take care of things once they started growing. The weeds loved it though. They took over like gangbusters. And the ALFALFA is the bane of my excistence. Where the garden is was just pasture way back when before the house went in. There was a mix of mostly grass and a little alfalfa. Do you know what happens when you cut up a root from an alfalfa plant? Each peice grows a new plant. Do you have any idea how far down or how big around these roots are? They are like carrots that go two feet into the ground. So when my nice neighbor came over last year to disc everything, he chopped up the roots of the few plants in the pasture. Now it's everywhere. I was out fro two hours today with Scotty's claw head hammer working on weeds and alfalfa. Two hours, and I got through two rows. Now in my defense these rows are 75 ft long, and the garden is 35 ft wide. Two rows out of like 12.... This is gonna take me a while.

No pics, but the birds think spring is on the way

Driving to work yesterday morning I saw my first Red-winged Blackbird of the year. Made the left to go out to the highway and there he was sitting on a fencepost, chest all puffed up, and warbling to the world. This put a smile on my face most of the morning. Taking the road between Gooding and Wendle, I looked out into a cornfield full of black cows and noticed an extra bright white clump on the ground. The clump was stuck to a darker clump. Turns out out it was a Bald Eagle sitting on the ground, and as I drove by I saw it's mate hanging out a few feet way. They were being harassed by crows and it made me wonder what they had down on the ground. This morning driving Teh Spawn to church, black birds were everywhere. I was excited to have seen one, and today they are all over.

The weather is beautiful this afternoon, and I even have the windows in the house open for the fresh air. It's still long sleeve tee shirt weather outside, but no jacket.  The sun is shining, the wind has died down. /happydance is all I have to say.