Farm Update

It seems a stretch to consider our land a farm these days as I've gotten rid of the goats and now I'm phasing out the ducks. We'll have nothing but dogs, cats and chickens for a while. As soon as we get our field fenced, we are going to get a dairy cow and a few pet goats, and then it will seem more "farmish" to me. Things are still progressing though. Last year, and the three years before that, we had literally no grass and this year it seems to be coming in and thickening up some. Although there are still bald patches, there is enough that JD actually mowed it for the first time with the bush-hog that we bought off the side of the road at least a year ago.

The area in this shot was our old front yard. Last year, when we moved the house, there was no grass, but amazingly it's growing this year.

Here's my beloved ducks that leave for their new home on Monday.

The only reason they are leaving at all is because they don't grasp the concept of stay off the patio, or even please don't poop on the patio. They have acres to roam and two baby pools to swim in, but they insist on pooping all over the patio each and every day. Even though I hose it down everyday, it's never clean enough to let Elijah down on it. See those spots? This was taken not long after hosing the whole thing down!

Here's the advantage of not having goats this year; I've been able to plant flowers and vegetables and nothing has eaten them.

Today we took our second to the last load of wood to the Amish saw-mill. It's all from the path that the utility company cut down to put lines into our rental home. Although it's been a lot of work to get it out of the woods, load it, drive it, pick it back up and stack it, we have plenty of cut boards for our cow fence. Here's the new trees going......

the kids running at the Amish saw-mill -

and last weeks trees coming home today.
The fun part about our trip to the Amish today was talking to a carpenter about making a big A-frame swing-set for the kids. There is fierce competition for the two swings on our Costco playground, so I inquired about just just a basic frame with four more swings. He is going to give JD a price quote next week.