New Rose Bush

New Rose Bush

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

November 23, 2011

Almost Thanksgiving but it's so warm I think Easter should be coming instead.  It's hard to keep the woodstove going in this heat, but it helps to do alot of laundry with the hot water.  Glad David was able to finish picking up all the walnut wood from the two huge trees that were blown down by the tornado this past spring.  Now we have piles of it next to the woodstove to break up and put in.  Olivia and I are in the habit of getting a load of kindling from the many piles dotting our back field every day or so to put in the woodstove also.  We need to get all these piles taken care of before spring so we can have the pasture cleared to fence in for the llamas and sheep next summer.  There's alot more shade in the back than the front for them.  Llamas are not able to handle very much heat at all coming from the mountains of Peru!

Good news!  Our new Sexlink pullets have begun to lay eggs.  It's only one a day - but it's a start.  I couldn't bear the thought of going to the store and buying eggs - yuk!  I was so excited to find that beautiful egg in the coop yesterday.  They are a good size and very dark brown.  Of course it tastes wonderful too.

Monday, November 14, 2011

November 14, 2011

Fall is definitely a busy time of year here on the farm, but a beautiful one too.  We've enjoyed many days of gorgeous weather - like today.  It's expected to be 73 degrees!  A great day to keep working in the garden - going to plant more lettuce and take out the old plants.

We're continuing the picking up of wood around the property and splitting it or just putting it near the wood pile.  The new outside woodstove is going strong and keeping the house so very, very warm.

Work has finally begun on finishing the family room.  Randy Young is putting in all the trim and it is really looking nice.  Hope it is done for the holidays.

We're continuing to crack all the walnuts we gathered and dried.  It is very very tedious work because you have to pick out all the little pieces.  Is it really worth it?

Saturday was butchering day and David and Olivia took 34 meat chickens and 7 of our laying hens over to our friends the Furhmans to butcher.  We ended up butchering the good layers and not the ones that stopped laying by mistake!  Oops!  David is picking up 10-14 new pullets tonight after work so we hope to have fresh eggs again very soon.  hope they all get along nicely.

The garden is still giving - lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, turnips and swiss chard.  The herbs are all doing very well.  I'm still harvesting alot of wisteria vines to make wreaths and baskets.  Am thinking of a little money-making idea of making and selling Christmas wreaths this year.  We have so much boxwood.  It just might work.