Finally Friday

Yesterday was an extremely hectic day. I had three kids come spend most of the day with me. I had a blast working with them outside. They had fun picking up feathers outside and collecting them to build a feather bouquet to give to their mommma.

Buck Junior is doing very well. He spent a lot of time out in the field yesterday. He is starting to nibble at the grass now. He is eating extremely well and seems to be progressing nicely.

Today is the day that we have two more calves coming. So there is a whole mess of stuff that needed to be done this morning. I am still working on getting the calf area cleaned up really good. I have taken almost three small wagon loads of hay out of the barn already. I am burning it because the sick calf was in there and I don't want to spread the germs anywhere else. It sucks because I like adding the hay in with my compost pile, but there will be lots more of that to come in the future.

We had two of the Rhode Island Chickens leave yesterday...I will miss them but I know they will be taken care of.

I have started the lye mixture, it should be ready by Sunday but I think that I need to add more ashes to the mixture either later today or tomorrow. After it is ready, I will get all of the stuff together from the butcher shop and begin my very first batch of soap. I am actually kind of excited!

The last bit of plowing will be done on the fields later today. We have some excavation work that we are going to do. Actually, we are just going to take out some scrub pine trees and move them out of the way so that we can enlarge on of the fields by another 10 acres. It hasn't been used in a long time, so it is rather overgrown but with the help of another local farm, we will get it back into working order in no time. I can't wait to see the corn growing on the hill. From what I have been told by long time residents of the hill, it hasn't been planted into corn in nearly 75 years!!! We are still leaving a 50 acre chunk to do clover hay, but that is in really good shape and the clover has a good foothold, so why ruin a good crop.

Fencing Day tomorrow. We are going this afternoon to purchase the barb wire. After doing some serious research on the new style fencing, some price figuring and a future replacement timeline. The barb wire was the option. No electric, so all we will need to do is tighten up the fence every year and it should last just like the old pasture fence we already have here. The older fence has locust post (which is what we are going to use this time as well) and barbed wire. It was installed sometime around 1980 with posts that were already over 75 years old. By looking at the shape of the barbed wire on that fence, made me decide that the wire was the only way to go.

Monday is going to be the day to clean the house and hopefully starting getting the pool ready for this year. We usually have the pool opened by Easter...and yes for those who know how the Northeast weather is...the pool is heated. We are running behind schedule this year. The lawn is a horrible color green due to the fact that I didn't get the early mowing done to get the old stuff from last year off. Remember...I waited a long time for Rich to fix the mower.. I don't think it will take much until it works back into shape but it just looks bad in the mean time.

The clothes are out on the line today....was out of bed really early making sure that all the extra beds were stripped and the sheets were washed to go out on the line. While I was tearing the beds apart, I decided to wash all of the linen, blankets included. Might as well on a beautiful day like today.

I still need to get a ton of stuff done today...so I really need to get off my behind and get back to work....It just kind of seems nice to sit down to relax and watch the birds out the window, cup of coffee in hand...

Well...off now to finish up the calf barn, then it is on to clean out the back of the truck and wash the windows of the truck I think. By then it will be time for me to go meet Rich after work to pick up the new calves...
Rich is going to go visit with his daughter, son-in-law and grand daughter and I have to come home to unload and settle animals. By the time I get them settled it, it will be time for nightly feedings and then time to fix dinner, take clothes off the line and then finally to lock the chickens in the barn for the night...My days keep getting longer and longer....frustration sets in sometimes, but it is all worth it in the long run!!!
With everything that needs to get accomplished this weekend...I am not sure if I will get time to post or not...if not....
God Bless and Have a great weekend.