Wild Windy Weather

The long Memorial Day weekend has had an ominous start as some very unstable weather has made its way to our area Thursday night.  We were all just getting ready to go to bed when the storm hit us.  The lightning display was spectacular but the heavy winds were quite damaging.  The power went out, causing Bud to wake up, and the boys ended up sleeping on futon mattresses downstairs where they could be calmed by the weather radio and be cooled by the lower downstairs temperatures.  Fire whistles were going off for much of the night and emergency crews were out clearing roads from downed power lines and trees as soon as the winds died down.  We woke up to find that the top 20 feet of one of our tall pines had snapped and been flipped around as it fell to the ground.  Fortunately, most of the downed trees seemed to fall ten feet away from the homes and not directly on them. 

We were surprised to see the fallen part of the tree oriented this way--it had to either have flipped in mid air or been pushed by the wind as it came off.  

Friday was beautiful and my darling husband and I spent most of the afternoon in the garden.  I planted some beets, greens and cucumbers and dug the bean bed.  Unfortunately, last night around 8pm, another set of thunderstorms came through with heavy rain, and I'm sure that most of the seeds got washed away.  We will simply have to assess and maybe replant later in the week.

While digging the bean bed, I came across some old potatoes that were still in the ground so I dug them up.  I also picked some of last year's fall lettuce that had been insulated by the snow and then started regrowing this spring.  The lettuce was delicious in our first green salad of the year.  The potatoes were more of a disappointment, but considering they were salvaged, we didn't have high expectations.  The new potatoes in the neighboring plot will be ready in a couple months. 

The Final Count(down)

When starting this post I realized that the "final count(down)" could mean one of several things:  the end of the world as we know it if you're from Harold Camping's camp, the end of the Space Shuttle era if you're a NASA junkie, or the end of the school year if you're a student (or teacher).

Last night, my darling husband and I did a final count of the animals we have on the farm.  With the arrival of four Berkshire/Duroc piglets yesterday, we are in full operational mode for the next six months (well, minus some broilers we'll be dispatching).  The final count:

26 Cornish cross broilers
10 hens (and 1 rooster)
10 Dorset cross sheep
9 turkeys
4 piglets
3 cats
2 dogs
1 horse

Total count:  66 animals, of which 43 will only be here until October (sorry to be so morbid, but that's the reality of it). 

Our trip down to the Southern Tier of New York in a borrowed 1980-something vintage Dodge pick up to retrieve the piglets was relatively uneventful.  We found some old karaoke tapes (one of our friends holds regular karoke evenings in the church basement) in the cab of the truck, and shamelessly played them...with the windows down.  After all, it wasn't our voices on the tapes.  Bud got a kick out of listening to "Sweet Caroline" and a very off-key "Achy-Breaky Heart".  There's only so much one can do to keep a 9 year old entertained on a four hour journey.

We took the truck out again today to help a dear friend move some belongings.  Three trips to the storage unit was all that was required and we just barely dodged the requisite afternoon rainstorm (which was a good thing considering the last load had boxes of cameras and canvases in it).  Bud was very proud of the fact that he snagged a 1980-something era mortar board, a very cheesy pair of sunglasses and a garden owl (thanks Doug!).

And since it's not often that we have the use of a pick-up truck, my darling husband will be taking our snowblower in for a tune up--better do it now as it will be snowing before you know it (or at least before we would normally have the snowblower in working order) as well as the weed-whacker (which we definitely do need as the grass is enjoying all of the rain we've been getting).

I could probably think of a hundred more uses for the truck before we have to return it tomorrow afternoon, but I'm tired and tomorrow I will be camping overnight with my students, so sleep is definitely a requirement!

Catching Up

I can't believe that it has been over a month since my last post.  Obviously, things have been a bit busy on the farm. The poor weather conditions have not helped much.  It was the second wettest April on record in our area, which prevented us from doing much of anything outside (fencing and planting). 

First, kudos to our friend Doug who was watching the farm while we went to visit my darling husband's family.  One of our ewes gave birth while he was on call and he went above and beyond to try and save one of the two lambs.  When all was said and done, each of the new moms gave birth to twins but only had one survive.  We have four rambuctious gamboling lambs now.  Two of them are as of yet unspoken for and will be ready for processing in October (if there are any takers out there in Cyberland).

We also constructed (largely in the rain) the chicken tractor for our broilers.  The plans we followed can be found on this website.  While perusing plans for chicken tractors I was surprised at how many plans included pressure treated wood!  The plan we used actually calls for EMT (electrical metallic tubing) which is both light and sturdy.  Our final product looks pretty much the same as the one on the website, and it seems to be keeping the birds in and predators out.  However, it was somewhat frustrating to construct (did  I mention it was raining the whole time?!) as the structure wasn't entirely stable until the hardware cloth was attached.  All the birds are now out of the shed (see this post about shed usage), which is a good thing, as it was getting to smell rather ripe in there!

Sheep shearing is behind schedule as well.  Usually, we have sheared the sheep and sent them up to the pasture by now. But with the late birth and the wet weather shearing isn't scheduled to happen until mid May (just days before we get our piglets). 

The good news is that the horse did get shod, so he is ready to go (once it dries out) and there is plenty of lush green pasture for everybody. We also have asparagus coming up!  And I also managed to sew the curtains for the kitchen window (five years after moving into the house).

Next on the never ending list:  plant the peas, carrots, onions and potatoes (and actually write down the garden plan), assemble the 1979 Ashford spinning wheel I was able to find over April break and enjoy the few moments that the sun actually shines!