Spring Has Sprung

-




It really is nice to see more brown than white.  Most of the fields have melted away and we are into the mud season.  Although that seems to be passing fairly fast.  Some judicious hoe work and the yard is starting to dry nicely.  And once again I decide to put 140 cubic yards of gravel on the yard roundabouts.  The trick will be getting about 600 feet of geotextile to keep it all from sinking into the morass.

We've spread a lot of gravel, ditched, and culverted the main drive and it is miraculously dry.  A far cry from being the local legend that it was.  One of the first conversations starters was " so how's your driveway?"  Now the reply is " Just fine - but you will want to avoid the part past the top gate if you don't have a four wheel drive vehicle."

We happened across the deal of deals in farm machinery.  For health reasons A neighbour has decided to move from Zone 2 to a more comfortable zone 4 and live in an apartment.  We were over at their place purchasing a chicken plucker when they asked if we knew anyone that would want a tractor, and they would throw in a square baler and a disker.


 Gee, hmm, let me think.. The price was unbelievably low, i.e. in our budget so today I put the recharged12 volt batteries in and bring it home.  Excitement at a feverish pitch.  It's a John Deere 3010 diesel with a front end loader and three point hitch.  Hopefully an erstwhile replacement for a lot of the work I was doing with the failing skidsteer.  Now I'm in the market for a hay cutter and rake.

We've been looking for a Guardian dog companion for Xena now that Cleo has found a new home.  I could spend a whole post on the Nigerian Doggie Scam which played out for a week before the picture started to clarify.  Great Pyrenees with papers for free, only pay the shipping costs a paltry 150 bucks per animal.  Well if it sounds to good to be true..  They were from Angus Macdonald on Victoria Island.. and the story goes on..We were thinking he made a mistake and they were from Vancouver Island, or even Canada's Victoria Island - In which case 150 bucks shipping didn't make sense.  Hmm.  A little google search and Voila - if it sounds to good to be true it probably is: Puppy Scams
Snow, and puppy one of two.

Long story short we found some one who had a Pyrenees puppy who wanted to give it away.  Then we were offered another puppy and the pure bred Mom.  So you can guess the rest.  We now have a guardian herd.  Xena loves the puppies and now her and Snow are chasing birds together.  The poor doggies were infested with worms but the de- wormer seems to have done the deed.  They are ravenous, especially the Mom, Snow.  Off to the vet on Thursday to have them checked over and get their shots.

Now that the snow has mostly gone I've started some spinach and lettuce in the tire garden.  The green house stuff is starting to bolt.

Signed up for an Organic gardening course in May.  Looking forward to that.

Hope your looking forward to your day.


Comments

Donna OShaughnessy said…
Oh how we love our GP here on the farm. Plan to breed her this spring to have a spare and then sell the rest. No papers no scam. looks like the pus and mom have found a wonderful home. nice job
11:27 AM
Denise E said…
With the snow melting it will be easier to keep your dog pack in your sights. The tractor is a score x 2. Hope it gives you many hours of reliable running time.
4:13 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Much Wood

-
Image
I'm late with the annual wood cutting chore.  Certainly I am earlier than last year when I was tunnelling through a kilometre of four foot deep snow to find the cut up wood that was somewhere under a white expanse.  This wood shed and three more like it need to be filled to see us comfortably through the next six months of winter.  Due to some cardiac issues it isn't an option for me to lug heavy rounds of wood around.  The skid-steer helps with that option.  I've tried loading it with the pallet forks and then dropping it into a saw buck but have found that it makes it just as easy to cut it on the forks.  Being careful, of course, to avoid saw parts and metal forks!   I have the green house growing. But need to make some weather proofing amendments to see us through the white times.  The Swiss Chard, Basil and Tomatoes are doing great:     All the leaves are gone.  We've even had a couple of inches of snow.  But it didn't last.  It will take
Read more

I'm Back!

-
Image
Haven't been posting anything for a while.  A combination of moving to different technology - tablets and hand helds  and having my Laptop getting a keyboard replaced.  All nice and spiffy now. But the spell check is not working in Blogger so that should make it interesting. Been wondering about the whole farming thing.  Attending a lot of of courses and reading the farmers messiah, Joel Salatin.  He's been an amazing inspiration.  Here's our new chicken tractor based on his design.  This one has adjustable trailer wheels cuz I was too lazy to build his simple lift and puller.  I will do that when I build some more tractors.  This one comes with a built in spilt feed cleaner!     As you might be able to tell.  This lot's about ready for some processing.  I am getting an urge for baked chicken!  Had a couple of roosters fall prey to what I think was a fox.  Last night all the dogs and I slept out on the veranda to keep a watch.  Well, I tried to sleep.  The Doggies
Read more

We've Sprung a Leak

-
Image
The snow is melting like, well, snow in spring time.  The top of the tire garden is starting to show through the snow.  Those are three logging truck tires on top of each other filled with soil.  So still a bit of snow to go before I have to weed whack the grass.  I will plant some spinach and spring onions before the snow is all gone.  I will put some plastic over the tires to speed up the process.  It's going to be a late spring. Melt water has turned road ruts into impromptu ditches. Fortunately all the water here is diverted onto our Southern fields. Attempting to get to the wood pile.  Not gong to happen until the road gets a bit more solid.  Like in a couple of weeks.  The piggies are partly to blame.  This part of the road is South facing and the snow melted off it first leaving bare ground.  Ideal for rootevators who have just walked on the snow over the fences!  Four sows in stalls, three of which decided to have their babies within a couple of days of
Read more