In case you were wondering— we’ve been experiencing some technical difficulties around here. Monday night we had an amazing thunder and lightening storm and it took out our wifi router. It’s taken me this long to get things back up and running – with a lot of help from Wi-Power Tech support. So here’s the update for the week~Read on!

Yay! Tuesday we were finally able to get together with Mr. Gary Foss, owner of Oaks of the Wild West, and picked out 20 wonderful trees for the property. We went out around 3:00 p.m. to meet him. I could not believe the property when we drove down the tree lined entrance. It was the nearest thing to a forest as I’ve ever seen here. And what I could see was only the tip of the iceberg! Mr. Foss has been planting trees on his property for the last 20 years or so. Many of the trees that he sells are grown from the seeds of the trees on his property. He has so many varieties of Oaks, Pines, Cypress, and junipers. Plus he has quite a variety of nuts and fruit trees. Many people from around our neighborhood have also been able to pick out trees for their property as well. In a few years it’ll be a veritable forest down ol’ South Stone Ridge Road and Prince Placer! Continue reading →

Original Basin

Again, our weekend seemed to go rather quickly. We spent a bit of time doing things that will help us with water management during the monsoons. It was exceedingly hot this weekend and threatening to rain the majority of the time. On Saturday, we started out working on the tree basins, earlier in the morning. We needed to make the basins bigger to hold enough rain water, once the monsoons start, to keep them watered. Some of the trees still had the size basins for when they were first planted – they have actually grown a whole lot this last year, as they were watered regularly. So, before we added more mulch, we wanted to expand or deepen the existing basins for many of the trees. I did the basin work and poor Sue moved the mulch from the depression to each of the trees. I am continually pleased with how the mulch helps keep the moisture in the ground. With the added layer, I’m hoping that we can get down to deep watering the trees only once a week. Once the monsoons start, I’m thinking we won’t need to water at all.  That’s the point of the water-harvesting type measures we’ve been taking. We want to be able to retain as much rain water, on the property, as possible. We want to continually replenish the aqua-fir, by slowing down the run-off and helping it soak back into the ground. Sue has started creating little dams in the lower contour areas that collect and funnel water down our sloping land. Just small rock berms or walls to slow the water and have it take time to soak in before running off the property and down the road. Every little bit will help water retention. Continue reading →

In the last couple of days, there has been a lot of this going on, really. On different levels and regarding different aspects of the farm life, but going on none-the-less. So, when tossing about for today’s blog theme, this is where I’ve landed. Let’s see if we can make that landing stick. Continue reading →

ABOVE GROUND POOL WITH DECK!  Was it really short, or was that just for me? As you know, I was off visiting my folks – Sue was home working in this amazing heat we’ve been having. What better way to prepare for more of the same than making an above ground pool with decking… for the water fowl, silly!  Here is the 100 gallon tank and the beginning of the decking. Just took her two days to get everything done. Ramp for them to get up there, deck to lay out on, 100 gallons of water fun… what else could they possibly need? Well, they are just not too sure about it. Roman was in it for a few seconds, but jumped right out. We wanted to get something bigger so that they could really paddle around and have room to dive under. We also wanted to be able to just change some of the water out when it got yucky, instead of dumping those little kiddie pools every other day. We were using a lot of water! This pool has a drain towards the bottom that will make cleaning it out so much easier.  I think once they realize what it is, they will be happy to have it. It had been outside through the hottest part of the day and the water was still quite cool.  In fact, it was way cooler that the kiddie pools that they were still hanging out in.  It’ll just take a bit of time.  Continue reading →

The Biggies combined with the Teens, Ducks and Roman

We’ve had some excitement around here over the weekend – or early Monday morning, actually. Sue’s grand daughter was born at 12:20 a.m. Since then, we’ve been taking things kind of slow. Doing what needs to be done, catching up on sleep, and Sue’s been spending quite a bit of time at the hospital- so the bottom line is that there’s not a lot of exciting and new things going on here. Currently Sue is playing for the Vesper Service at Church and I’m sticking around to put the chickens in; hopefully in time to make it to Gospel Choir rehearsal. So here is a brief update. Continue reading →

I’m writing this on my phone tonight, so it’ll look a bit different. We are currently at church, waiting for the Vesper Service to start and I thought I’d get a jump on things. 

We’re moving Kinda slow on projects because of outside issues, but Sue is still making progress regardless of things that are interfering.  Yesterday she put in the “tunnels” that we’ll use for composting and where we’ll first introduce the worms.  It’s very difficult to see the wire in the photo, but if you look closely, you can see the at she has attached the chicken wire the bricks so it does, indeed form a tunnel.    Today, she cut the boards that will go on top. These will provide us a walkway to get into the garden and to keep the worm area shaded and, hopefully, damp or moist enough for them.

Other things continue along. We had to send in a weed whacker for repair that was less than a year old.  And took one back to Home Depot that Sue just purchase on Sunday- the motor just completely burnt up then very first time she used it!!! It’s difficult to get high quality tools anymore.  So far we’ve gone through four staple guns, a couple of shovels, several bits for the drill- it’s amazing to me!  We just keep track of everything. Maybe one day we’ll be able to take some of it off the farm taxes! I’m sure will share that great nugget of information with you- until then ~ as always,  thanks for reading!

Today’s Weather: quite hot, I think it was around 95 today.  Sue said the wind started around 9:30 this morning and was quite fierce.  Still going strong tonight.

Egg report: we had 7 eggs tonight- yesterday we had 8.  

“How was your weekend?” Isn’t this the Monday follow-up question to Friday’s “What are you doing this weekend?”. In general, I don’t ever tell people at work what we did over the weekend. They already think I’m weird enough as it is. Most of them eat, breath, and sleep Real Estate; they have a difficult time understanding that it’s just my day job. HOWEVER, you people get what we’re dong here… or at least you want to try to get it. So, we’ll fill you in on how the Making of Stonehenge turned out.
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Today we’re talking about different aspects of dirt and how it shows up in our lives. It’s really not a serious topic, but we are surrounded by it, so it plays a big part in our lives. Did you know that chickens love dirt? They take dust baths on a regular basis – this helps control mites and live. The photo on the left shows brown little chickens who were, just moments before, pristine white little chickens. They could not get enough of the dirt today.  It was pretty darn funny. Continue reading →

How in the heck does that happen? Well, when you’re trying to sprout over a hundred tree seeds, in bags, with moist paper towels, in the dark- sometimes moldy just happens. These seeds have been through the gamut of preparations already, maybe mold is the next step! Some of the steps have been: warmth, dry cold, moist cold, and scarification. Not all seeds have the same requirements, and not all seeds have survived. Continue reading →

Seems like just yesterday that I did an update of weekend happenings, is it really Wednesday? My folks left today to go home to California, at this time, they are only a couple of hours away from their own bed and comfy home.  It was great to have them for as long as we did; although it seems a whirlwind of activity, it is always too soon for them to leave – at least in my mind. But things do go on here, regardless. Continue reading →