Catch up post Jan - April 2012

Liam patrolling the new fence

Well, now that I've slacked off all year, I've decided to write a month by month review.  I'm sure that it will be a good memory exercise and I have my handy calendar here beside me!

January

Liam practicing 'duck herding'

We weren't able to get the does bred in the fall, partially because of the lingering hot weather.  Also, the buck we were planning to use died.  So, I found a nice Nubian buck in Chico and got Daisy bred on January 3rd.  The rest of the month was uneventful - the weather was pretty mild and we go over three inches of rain late in the month.

 The runner ducks still hadn't visited our pond (which filled in the fall after going completely dry last summer), so we decided to try to encourage them.  With lots of patience and grain, they enjoyed their first swim in the pond!

February
We decided to try an extended lactation experiment with Lacey.  She is an Alpine with excellent production and I thought this year would be a perfect opportunity to try it.  She is now in her 11th month in milk and is still producing a solid 6 lbs a day.  I only milk once a day and supplement her free forage diet with about 1 1/2 lbs of alfalfa pellets/14% horse feed. 

March

I've missed green!

The winter has been so mild this year that on March 4th, I saw prairie larkspur blooming and the next day there were mesquite trees coming out on the hilltops!  Mesquite trees are notoriously late to come out, so you can usually count on no more frosts once their leaves arrive.  This is by far the earliest I've ever seen green on the mesquites. 

Full bloom March 30

However, a couple of years ago, I did see a few mesquites in the valleys get caught in a frost and they actually died (back to the ground).

The Lady Banks rose usually blooms after Liam's birthday, about the second week of April and this year it started blooming in March! 

Archduke Charles rose

 April

Spring is here, complete with roses, wildflowers and swallows.   We planted onions, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, Swiss chard, lettuce and all sorts of miscellaneous seeds in the garden.

Our red sexlink pullets

 
We bought eight Sexlink pullets from TSC because we were so impressed with the beautiful dark brown eggs that my parents get from their hens.  We added two Americanas from H Brand to the group a week later.  We can't wait to move them outside to the chicken tractor!






 Our big project this year was to add a pergola over the patio on the East side of our house.  The combination of brick walls with concrete patio served as a very efficient oven during at least six months of the year.  The temperature on that side of the house (in the shade) was often 120F+.  We considered adding a metal roof, but Jason preferred the pergola and it proved to be cheaper, as well.  Also, it turned out to be considerably more beautiful than metal!

Patio - before

Pergola in progress

Shade - success!

Thank you, Aaron Harris - we love it!

  Sunset decks - more of Aaron's work

New Driveway

Driveway down in the pecan bottom

It's the new year and we have new high speed internet out here in Jack County!  We are very excited about our new treats like videos, games and Skype - they work pretty consistently with the new service.  Another bonus is that pictures upload so much faster than on dial up.  Last year, it took me over an hour to post a blog, not because it took me that long to figure out what to write, but because each picture took about 10 minutes to load!  Such luxury is worth getting excited for, especially when it only costs $10 more a month.

Freddie and our driveway

 Our family has owned this little place for ten years, now, and we were very pleased to have our driveway graded last fall.  Our drive runs straight up a hill and when the rains come, the water runs straight down the driveway.  Only the most daring visitors would venture up the treacherous half mile driveway up the hill to our humble abode.  On a positive note, the road would keep their speed to a minimum!

Jason's handiwork

Lacey on the drive

 
Jason would go and work on the driveway periodically over the years, by hand with a bucket, sledgehammer and a shovel.  He would fill holes with rocks and crush them flat. 
A local bulldozer operator came out to look at the driveway and I was surprised to learn that he would grade it for less than $500.  He came out a couple of weeks later with a huge motorgrader.  So much for buckets!

Mr. Marley's miracle motorgrader

 I shouldn't have been surprised about the capabilities of heavy equipment, but I was pretty impressed.  The first trip up the driveway completely changed the lay of the land.  After Mr. Marley drove about six trips up and down our tortured driveway, gravel was redistributed, rock was sliced and holes were filled.  The spectacle was pretty amazing to watch.

After the first pass

Motorgrader at work!

After the motorgrader came up the house the first time, Liam and I hiked down the driveway to see the action.  We were already thrilled with the progress.  We jogged down the driveway and proceeded to hide in the trees in the cliffs overlooking the drive so we could watch unobserved.




From our vantage point in the trees, we could see the driveway being reshaped without the unfortunate dust problem that we would be faced with if we were lower down.

I think that Liam enjoyed getting to see a piece of heavy equipment busily doing its job.

After a couple of passes

Dad was the first to try out the new driveway along with his Ford Taurus - he seemed to approve.  Jason's mom visited us at Christmas and could not believe the improvement.   Hopefully, the road will last another ten years before it needs grading again.


Our next professional project - a metal roof for our east patio before summer comes...