Lots to do

Spring & Lots to Do

The weather was nice Sunday 3/21, I think it hit 61 here, the yard is in pretty good shape overall other than the mud, Rose deadheaded all of the plants in the Fall so all the beds look in good shape.

Daffodils are 4" out of the ground now.

We seem to be a month ahead of where we were last year the end of March.

Got the yard tractor out, very helpful with the trailer picking up debris and moving stuff around. One flat tire, and a near dead battery, got it started after a shot of starter fluid it ran good for about a minuter then unceremoniously died, WTH, fuel maybe?, I filled it up, she took another shot of starter fluid and it started again.  Drove it up to the back yard, I had lifted the hood on the engine, Rose noticed a bunch of grass sticking out around the spark plugs, we get mice building nests in the craziest of places.  Removed the hood completely, engine cover, fuel pump, and side panels. I found a headlight wire chewed nearly through, taped it off with electrical tape, replaced the fuel filter, and a vacuum hose line, it seems to run better now.

Took a walk up the street, picking up trash, bottles and cans as I went, I filled a grocery bag full with the garbage. Slobs... What is wrong with people?

The walkway all dug out amazing how quickly it gets buried under dirt and grass again.
 

Monday was nice too. Rose finished edging the walkway, I shoveled the dirt up we got a trailer load. 

Yard is still a mud pit.

Rose took to attacking the yard with the leaf blower Thursday 3/25, the yard is really looking great now.

Almost all our snow is gone at this point, still a big pile from the plow at the flower bed at the tail end of the driveway.

 

Rose and I went for a walk our onto Everett Dam Thursday evening it was 74 degrees here, Nice... Still have Ice covering Everett Lake.

More and more seedlings are coming up.

Oh, and we have earthworms up in the yard...

 

Stay safe out there...

 

It's SPRING!

It's SPRING!

 

Finally Spring,  that's all I have to say...

 

Daffs are 3" high along the house foundation they'll be easy unless we get some bad weather that'll set them back.

Year	Spring Equinox (Northern Hemisphere)
2021	Saturday, March 20, at 5:37 A.M. EDT

Pussy-willows are out, our poplars out by the road have catkins that are already past or close to it, hay fever anyone... 

We didn't get any of the predicted 2-4" of winter this week, I'm good...

We're about to move the Deer feeder back to the field circle, (where we feed them in the warmer months.) snow's all gone out in the field, elsewhere in the yard not so much. It takes three people to move it, maybe I can get a grand to stop by to help.

We planted Pepper seeds last weekend in trays upstairs, we're all set up in the mini greenhouse Jarrod got us a couple years back, it'll help hold the heat and moisture. The greenhouse has a heat mat with thermostat, LED lights that have a built in 3-6-12 hr timer,  the seeds should be up out of the ground this week. Funny, I went up to get a couple pics to post of our setup for you, and low and behold we have seedlings already...  Rose planted Tomatoes, we'll grow two+ (10 if I have my way) kinds of heirloom Tomatoes, and she planted Broccoli, Kale too this week all of those are germinating in 10-21 days. (Hah, 3 days for us...) 

I find the seed packet germination times @ 10-21 days seems like a long time to me, if I were depending on these 10-21 days in it's a long time to find out your crop has failed...  We'll grow them out in the house and transplant them to the garden at the end of May, 1st of June when it's safe.

                       

This is our setup, don't laugh it's working.

The Broccoli is up and growing already, the LED lights are on now.

Our garden is going to expand by 30% or so this year, we'll add more panels on the right side and expand into where the path is.

                                                                       The Garden

I may add some bio-char to the garden this year, there's plenty of downed trees and more I still need to take more standing trees out.  I saw a few articles online, I liked this article from The Survival Gardener on the history, how to do it, etc.

 

Rose & Zeb,    Zeb's getting his hugs.  He likes hugs!

 

 

Stay safe out there...

Frigid weather drops in

The Frigid Winter weather drops in

The winds howled overnight, it's Saturday before the DST spring event tomorrow morning.

Earlier in the week...

Monday into Tuesday the wicked winds came in, it was 7 degrees here on Monday blowing at 30-50 mph, no real issues here at the homestead, the winds continued throughout the night rattling the windows on this old house. New Boston and some surrounding towns had a lot of trees and wires down.  Surprised us actually that we kept power throughout the windstorm.

Rose heard some big tree(s) come down, we're not sure yet just where, We'll take a better look once some of this ice melts.  

The whole place is a skating rink now,  dangerous as all hell to walk anywhere here right now.

Being the first week in March it's time to get the LED grow-lights and cart setup to start seeds in the next couple of weeks.

 

COVID-19 HAIR IS GONE!  

Like Covid, I'm tired of it!

Before                                                 After

  

 

 The boys and their new PATS jackets!  Grammy and Grandpa got them for their birthdays.

 

 

We went to Delaware to visit Roses sister Carol, she is doing better by the day.

Rose and her Niece Laura in Ocean City it was very windy the day we went, great to see though, truly Hampton beach on steroids miles and miles of real boardwalk and shops.

Stay Safe!

It's been a Cold couple of weeks

 

It's been a Cold couple of weeks

 

The morning just before the sun melts the hoarfrost off the grasses and brush in the field.

Sparkles

 

 

 

The critters are loving the new Deer feeder, lots of visitors

SMART BOY

Now that's Funny!

 

 
 

The big February snow

The Big February Snow

 

Seems like every storm is the storm of the century now, everything is blown so out of proportion on the "News" it's maddening!  Ever since they took to naming all of the storms each one blows up my phone, internet articles, news, (Hah, "news", that's a good one).  This Winter Storm Orlena looks to be a fair sized storm. We're supposed to get 12-18" of the white stuff and some 30-40 mph winds, I hope the power stays on, wish us luck.  I just shut down the pellet stove in case we do lose power. Back onto the oil furnace we go $$.

All's good here on the farm, everyone is doing well, the dogs are going stir crazy it's hard to have them outside when it's 15 below with the wind chill. Sunday morning it was 2 below zero without the wind.  We make sure to keep a good eye on them once it really gets cold, Zeb is fine, he's getting big and his fur coat is so thick the fur explosion blow-out this spring will be brutal. Hanna the Black lab on the other hand has her own coat, she just doesn't have much fur on her and her belly is pretty much bald.

Rose is on the phone with our Credit Union, she paid off the Tucson back on Jan 5th and was told we'd have the title within 10 days.   You guessed it they screwed it up and were told today Feb 1st that we still owe .03.  Three cents, are you kidding me?

Sheila said that Rick was digging through some old boxes and came up with this old pic WOW!

Took a walkabout around the farm just to make sure all was well, other than relocating a couple shovels all is good.  Fed the deer while I was out, Rosie said there were 4-5 out there last night, I don't see them any more, they only come in after dark now.  Hopefully the beat the snow that is supposed to start at 3pm this afternoon.

 The Eastern Bluebirds are coming in almost every morning, Rose is putting out meal-worms, we don't know if they're eating them.

There are a ton of critters coming into the deer yard picking through the remains from the deer.  It's hard to tell there are so many out there at this point.  I'll have to take a good look once this snow comes in, a couple weeks ago the boys and I were out cutting some poles for the deer feeder and saw Bear prints, I'm kinda curious to see if he/she is still poking around.

Got the two cars inspected, my Tuscon passed no problem, Roses Sonata got a 2 month retest sticker, we'll have to retest in 60 days and see if a check engine light comes on. 

Our grow lights came in last week, we're going to start seeds this year, plants are getting too expensive.  All I need to do is figure out what we'll use for a cart to suspend the lights from. I picked up a seed heat mat with a thermostat so we should be good to go in March most likely.  All of our seed orders arrived from Burpee, and Baker Creek with no issues. We picked up a couple additional packets from Ace Hardware and Home Depot has a few as well. 

I have one more order to place for a Golden Nugget squash that is unbelievably good! The Golden Nugget has been tough to find as there were a couple years the squashed crossed with something else so they were in short supply. It's a softball sized winter squash.

Stay Safe out there!

Eastern Bluebirds

 Eastern Bluebirds are back

It's 3.6 degrees F this morning Jan 29. These 3 Eastern Bluebirds flew into the Apple tree looking for berries from the Pokeweed plants below.

 Stay Warm

Another day older

 

 Another Day Older

 

Yup hit the big 61 today!  Who'd a thought... Brother Joe is 50! Wow!

We're getting some fresh slow fluffy snow that'll amount to an inch or so and then melt in a day.  Kinda liking that.

The new Deer feeder we hung up with the boys a couple weeks ago is doing great, we fill it up with 2-3 Folgers coffee cans a couple times a week.  Jarrod got us some High protein feed, good stuff, seeds, peas, lentils, lot of variety in it.   We're looking at Oat blends now too as we can't feed "Wildlife grains" in an automatic feeder that everything around here loves due to the molasses in it, it's too sticky.

Have to get the two cars inspected this week. PITA.

Bluebirds are here Rose went down to the barn to retrieve the bag of meal-worms, they are interested in the poke-weed berries right now though.

1st Robin of the year today in the Apple tree out back this morning.

Cold last night 14 degrees. Brr

A small downy woodpecker is attacking the back corner of the house, he/she already has a few holes through the corner trim board, I offered to get out the pellet gun...

 

 

Stay Safe out there...

2020 is over!

2020 is over!

Welcome to 2021

2020 is so over!

I went for a walk on New Years Eve last night, fairly quiet outside fireworks could be heard in the distance making the dogs growl.

The full cold moon was still out on the last evening of 2020, I took a pic with my cell.

WTH?  According to U.S. Senator Rand Paul, the federal government has spent 6.9 million dollars to develop a “smart toilet” which uses a very small camera to identify your “analprint”.

So there's that...
 

 

I've got to go shovel the walk before this 1 1/2" of slushy crap freezes up

 

2021 should be packed with fun... Let's hope it's the good kind...

 Happy New Year!

 

It's almost here, 2021...  

The Full Cold Moon is tonight 12/29, it was cold, there was a full moon...

We have water!  Rose and I noticed the water level at the pond is now back to normal!  Water emergency is officially over!

Cautiously waiting for what's next!

 

Stay safe...

 

 

Yearend Vacation

That Time Of Year

Yearend Vacation, Mandatory time off, call it what you want...

Saturday 12/19 it's damned cold this morning -1 Degrees F opened the back door to let the dogs out, Zebulon went out on his own he's got thick fur, Hannah wouldn't go out until Rosie went out with her. Pellet stove and furnace are both running this morning desperately trying to keep up.  Once the sun came out this morning it did warm up to 26 degrees.

Rose made Banana bread today, yum!

Deer are still coming in nightly, they just plow right through the 20" of light stuff we got on Thursday.

First Day of Winter 12/21/2020

The 2020, winter solstice falls on December 21. The Farmer’s Almanac explains that the date is always December 21 or 22.

We had a kitty visit here on the farm, this cat, Bobcat or domestic though we're thinking domestic because this cat walked all over the farm literally,  there were paw prints everywhere, up and down the pathways, out in the deeryard, over to the barn and down to the workshop.  Bobcats do come through, but they stick to the margins of the property usually.

We're off to get grain today, deer barrels are nearly empty.  We'll pick up a deer block for the day or so each winter we just can't get to the yard.

Interesting Story if you have a few minutes read this about Honest Abe stopping a murder.

Rosie saw some big prints over by the shed I need to go take a look and get a few pics.

We went out to see if we could see the planet alignment, it was cloudy in that direction.  Maybe in another 800 years, lol.

Dec 24th It's here, dog bath day... Hannah will get a bath finally today.

 

 May the Christmas season fill your home with joy, your heart with love and your life with laughter. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, and we look forward to seeing you in 2021.

Halfway through December

Halfway through December

 

Has anyone else’s gardening skills improved during this quarantine like mine have?

I planted myself on the sofa at the start of April, and I’ve grown bigger ever since.

Our 2021 garden catalogs should start arriving momentarily. Always good reading and dreaming on a cold winter night. Our first 2021 seed order was placed last weekend and I just got an email saying the order is on its way! Yay!  Our seed order has arrived!  More seed catalogs on the way always on the hunt for the perfect tomato.

Snow yesterday 12/17 they were saying 6-10" then upped it to 8-12" then 12-16" and we finally ended up with a whopping 20" of snow.  We spent a good couple hours cleaning up the snow, we snow blow the front yard so that we can pull the cars up, and of course we clear the deer yard too.  We were a little worried, our plow guy usually shows up early then at the end of the storm, he did come right as the snow was stopping around 3pm so all's good.

The deer yard is surprisingly bust with the deer coming in from 2-3 directions.  

The deer trails, all lead to the Deer Yard, you can see the trails in the PIC this morning. The older I get, the smaller the Deer Yard gets...  I had just started the pellet stove that's the puff of bluish smoke you see in the top right of this pic.

The dogs are having a blast in the snow

We have some clean-up to finish up today, the cars still need to be cleared off, and some shoveling at the workshop too.

Have to start thinking about vehicle inspections this month we can get inspected up to a month early...

 

Stay warm...

Later!