Spring is a busy time!

Almost all seasons are busy on the farm. (what almost??) but spring seems to be especially busy.  I have mentally been keeping everyone informed with the blogging in my mind, but there seems to be a problem with my mind-to-type device.  LOL

Some of the things that have happened in the past two weeks (in no particular order):

* Figured out why the cows kept getting out of the pasture because the "operator" of the electric fence apparently is blonde....hmm.  So now they are enjoying the WHOLE field.

*Relocated roughly 300+ strawberry plants.

*Tilled the big garden area and started planting:

60 tomatoes

100 Red onion sets

12 trellis of cucumbers

planted squash (Green zucchini, Gold zucchini, white patty pan, yellow summer)

4 kinds of lettuce, radishes, kohlrabi, beets, red & green cabbage

brussel sprouts.

*Committed to doing CSA gardens this year. (We still have a few openings)

*Tilled a new garden and planted peas, green beans, purple beans, yellow wax beans and lima beans.

*Relocated now empty strawberry raised beds to a new area and filled with bunny compost into garden area that was a machine shed so it has a "foundation" and cannot be tilled.  This will be where eventually we'd like to have the greenhouse located.

*Pulled all the sticks from the ragweed stalks from another area and put up fencing in prepartion for 

PIGS!! (101)

The pigs will "till" that area for a week and then get moved to another area for tilling and then ultimately where they will grow into bacon for the summer.  The first area will be turned to a corn field.

*Divided the front pasture with electric tape in preparation for the U-Pick Pumpkin Patch (101).  After all the pumpkins the cows ate last fall, we have about 100 volunteer pumpkin plants (plus all the seeds that I could still plant)

*Moved some of the above pumpkin plants to space the plants out better  (Most were within 15 feet of the fenceline)

*Put a new 8 foot gate at the front of the pasture so u-pickers can get into the field (plus, that would have been nice when I had to hike the pasture multiple times when Bess was sick/dying).

*I have a broody chicken working on hatching out eggs and the chicks that we got back in February are now to the "teenage" phase.  I have at least one rooster that is trying to get the "notes" right.  His crow is hilarious!!

* The twins are due to calve in Mid-May!  Hershey's AI didn't take so she will continue to be milked until the girls get "trained" be be a part of our "Micro-dairy"

*4 Bunnies should be kindling at the end of May.  Boy started back up with 4H.

*Mulched all the "one stick wonders" which is the orchard we planted last year and the year before.  We might get some peaches this year. (Fingers crossed)

* Almost to a point that we can pick Violets, Dandelions and Lilacs for jelly.  Going to add Honeysuckle too, if I can catch the blooms.

*After a two year break, Man restarted the woodworking business.  Taking it slow, but it's nice that he can go out and enjoy his shop again!

I'm sure there is more, but I'm wore out from typing it all!  I'll have to do a photo journal of the farm so you can see all the improvements.

And for as long as the above list is......the to-dos that are left is twice as long...

WHEW!!

So behind....laundry!

What a crazy month!!

Sorry for getting behind again. 

Our washer has been revolting since about August.  It was just leaking a little bit and I'd just leave a towel in front of the washer...but there was ALWAYS a dirty wet towel when laundry was done. Sigh. 
For our anniversary / my birthday (past Christmas, pick a holiday) we saved up and I got a BRAND NEW washer and dryer.  OMGoodness...now I LOVE doing laundry!  (I know I'm a sick individual) These even 'sing' at the end of the cycles.  The dryer actually DRIES!!  Wow.  My Man said if he had known I would have been so excited to have a great working washer/dryer, he would have insisted sooner that we get them.  (He has been trying to get me to get them since August).  They were delivered on Monday, I had all the laundry done by Tuesday...and had washed all the bedspreads, etc by Wednesday.  Thursday I was depressed as there was nothing left to wash.  Sigh.  But I have a load in right now.  Weee....Now if there was just a machine to fold it.

Old Tired Washer and Dryer

Aren't they be-yoo-ti-ful??

Now I have a bee in my bonnet to repaint and redecorate the laundry room.  Put I've been advised to "shelf" that until later.  But winter is the time for projects on a farm...spring, summer and fall are TOO busy!!

Ode to the Printer....

We've had this printer for at least 6 years.  It's a great all-in-one that faxes, copies, prints, and copies.  It's served our business, our homeschool and everything else well...until last year.  It wasn't that the printer went bad. 

 

Microsoft is mad at Canon.  So when my computer died and I got a new one for my birthday (last February) and it came with Windows 7, there was no driver for our printer.  I even went to a site that GUARANTEED that it had a driver for every printer and OS.  After paying my $29.99 and going though a bazillion screeen, it calmly said, "We're sorry.  There is no known driver for this printer on Windows 7"  No work around....nada.  So for a year, I haven't printed unless I emailed to my man's computer and printed from there.

 

 

Right before Thanksgiving, Man's laptop died.  Oh, the tragedy.  The Horror!  (All our business spreadsheets are on there because....I couldn't print).  So after a week of trying and retrying and only getting the "Blue Screen of Death", I managed to get a screaming deal on Black Friday on the Amazon Lightning Deals.  50% Off!!

 

It came with Windows 8.   And still there is no driver for anything past Windows XP for this printer.  SIGH!  So here it is a year since I could print (and two weeks since Man could print) so we had to find a new printer.  We found one that does all the same stuff, and is half the size!  YAY!  I came today:

Look what I did, yesterday....

All.Day.Long. 

When someone places their furniture order and requests paint....that's my job.  It takes me a long time for a variety of reasons.  I have various physical limitations and have to take lots of breaks.  I paint two layers on all six sides.  This doesn't really look like a lot here, but it's actually a really large order.  It took 12 hours to complete all of this:

 

I went to bed without looking in the mirror and woke up in the morning to stripes on my face, a "plop" in my hair, and big spot on my nose.  I was told that this should have been the picture of the day instead....I think not. :)

 

back to work...

Yup...I'm back... I was so nervous. I didn't need to be, it's like I never left. Except the new faces that think that I am new. :)

I'm still trying to get things done at the house, too. We've powerwashed the deck. And, had concrete work done to try to stop the water into the garage. The new garage door has been ordered. And MAN had someone come to get the logs that we've been wanting to get milled out of the front yard. It will keep some family warm this winter. There are still quite a few that need cut up, but they are not right in front of the door so it's not as urgent.

I found a house that I like that is at the top of our price range, but with the way the market is, we can't make an offer until we have an offer on ours. We're up to 24 showings so far. Yeah!!

T minus 6 days.....

6 days before I rejoin the workforce and become a productive worker. *snort, giggle* No really. I am planning on working hard when I get back...but that would imply that I am not working hard now...wouldn't it?!

So we ended up with 5 showings on Thursday instead of 4. 1 on Friday, 1 on Saturday. But we haven't heard ANYTHING yet.

Today I put my schedule into overdrive...I have so much I want to get done in the next 6 days. It doesn't sound like much but I worked all day on the Boy's room. He has the huge storage closet that runs the length of his room and a step up. It's our "attic" storage. It was FULL! I took the crib and changing table out for the yard sale and it's been in the shed while I waited for a serious flake to come pick it up. Finally I reposted it on Craigslist last night and a guy that works for Rolls Royce came by this morning and bought it and the dresser (so of course I'm frantically tossing all of the Boy's clothes OUT of the dresser as he was on his way! So since MAN is working on building his first dresser for a customer and BOYs is next, I had to find a place for all that stuff and all the jazz in the closet. I ended up spending almost 8 hours in his room today!

Then I went to pick up a computer I bought for him on Craigslist (I haven't mentioned in a while how much I heart Craigslist...) It was a screaming deal $50!!! And it has XP! WOOHOO! Came with the monitor, mouse, keyboard too. Plus, he gave me another one for FREE. He said "give this one for the kid. You keep the other!" So maybe I will be able to upload pictures soon!!! (If not on the new computer, then maybe when I get back to...no...I will be a good productive employee!)

The I planted 3 more plants in my Mother's Day Topsy Turvy. We now have 3 tomatoes, 1 green pepper (sorry, cole! Need it for salsa) Cilantro, and Parsley. Also, the funnest thing happened...where we wintered the chickens has become a voluntary garden! All winter we dumped straw and sawdust in to keep their feet dry. I also feed them pumpkins from harvest time. And leftovers. We have about 12 voluntary tomato plants, and about that many pumpkin plants. And they are doing great. I put one tomato in the Turvy. And put 3 into pots (so if we move we can take them along) and I planted one pumpking into a pot.

The BOY and I moved two bales of straw from winter over to the potato patch. We got 3 eggs today. The peas have blossoms, and we have two huge Zucchini plants. We've been nibbling the strawberries and raspberries as they've been getting ripe, but don't have enough to "do" anything with them.

I cleaned the oven and put up new curtains in the downstairs bathroom. With all the showings, this is the longest our house has been this clean. Oh, had I told you that after my massive yard sale (the best one I've EVER had) I had to buy a vaccum. Yeah. I killed the other one...decisively! Ping POW..something broke on the...umm..man told me what it was. Oh well. So I have a new one that everyone "fights" to use, which considering we have been showing on a daily basis...it's already well used.

What else, went to the grocery store. I will be running out in the morning to pick up about 500 square feet of sod from a guy from...say it together...Craigslist. I just got off the phone with him. Another out of control deal! Oh, and I'm picking up training wheels from a lady on Freecycle. Why training wheels you ask...we're going to put wheels on the coop to make it move easier!

List for tomorrow:
Powerwash deck and table. (DONE)
Powerwash front patio.
Stain deck.
Lay sod. (DONE)
Weed strawberry garden. (DONE)
Weed BOY garden (Flower garden with a statue someone gave us of a little boy, when BOY was born) (DONE)
Weed raspberry patch. (1/2 DONE)

And we are having a few guys out to grind out the end of the drive near the garage and put in drainage. Yes after 7 years of the garage flooding every time it rained..and making MAN crazy, it's finally going to get done. AND we have to get the garage door replaced. The garage door opener popped the center board of our rickety door off.

Pictures of BOY Powerwashing the deck!

So I didn't get ANYTHING done....

I went home and fell asleep, and next thing I knew it was time to go to work for my double shift. I love that my family takes such good care of me, but sometimes I have things to do and don't care to sleep the day away. Sigh...oh well, maybe tomorrow. I'm only working a 12 hour shift then.