We are expecting a high of 79 today with only a low of around 55. The sun is shining and the sky is a beautiful blue. Days like this seem to give me the energy I need to get through the day. I have already cleaned the house, with the exception of my bedroom, and I need to make laundry soap and get more laundry done. Way behind, what with the Christmas "to dos" and illness this past week. This was the first really major family illness in about a year, and I suspect that Rodney brought it home with him from work.
Off to make the laundry soap, and get the guys some lunch.....they are out putting the barn up at the land, and hopefully getting some fencework done too. Rodney's dad is going out with his tractor to do some shredding of the fields. This is really helping us a lot. The estimates we received were between $1300 and $1700 to get this done, contracted out, and would have cost about $600 for us to rent a tractor and do it. Rodney just supplies his dad's diesel for the tractor, and it works out great.
See everyone later!
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Back from the land..the guys got all the posts up for the barn, all that s left is to put the aluminum siding on the sides and roof...it's 20 X 20, which should be plenty big enough for a horse and a goat, plus maybe the chickens. Haven't decided if I will have the coop in the barn or on the outside.
Took the guys brisket and sausage sandwiches plus iced tea. Hannah (DD-4) evidently ate some of the brisket sandwich (though I bought her chicken tenders) and said she wanted that one in the future because it was "tasty". That's her word lately. She asked if we were still getting cows. I said yes. She said good, because meat's tasty! That made me laugh....definitely not a budding vegetarian.
Measured the distance from the front gate to the well. It's 531 feet. We purchased 21 Black (at a cost of $80.0) Walnut trees to plant along the driveway on that one side. They should arrive in March. Walked around the pond with the girls. Lauren noticed a frog in a hog print that had filled with water. I poked it with a stick to see if it was living, but it didn't move. I flipped it out of the hole, and it opened it's eyes. I picked it up to show the girls, and we looked at it's long legs, it's white under belly and brown and spotted topside. It then leaped out of my hand, and swam away deeper into the cat tails. Tadpoles are everywhere in various stages of growth, along with tiny frogs the size of my thumbnail. Easy pickings for some sharp eyed bird. No wonder we have thousands of birds hanging around the pond. They appear to be mostly cardinals, sparrows, a few unidentified water type birds, and a Red tailed hawk that sits in a dead mesquite tree. Found a dead racer snake the other day, but the hawk carried itoff before the kids could see it.
I drew a diagram of the lay out of the land, and where I want everything to go. Maybe one day I will draw it out on the computer and post it here, that way I will have a record of it and can share it with everyone. I am trying to lay everything out according to the advice in several homesteading books I have...1) the Have More Plan by the Robinsons 2) One Acre and Security by Angier and 3) Five Acres and Independence by Kains. Two other books I look through often are The Complete Homesteading Book by David Robinson and the Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. These have provided a wealth of informatin over the last year and a half that I have been working towards getting a larger homestead.
Working on the order for all my fruit trees and berry bushes. We plan on mostly dwarf trees right now, they produce faster, and I'd like to see something sooner. I'll plant standard size trees too, but heavy on the dwarf size.
Time to get ready for the Sabbath. Hope everyone has a good time of worship tomorrow.
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