The previous owners hasn't mowed in about a month and had also left the attic and both barns full of their stuff (oh, and didn't clean). After the epic battle of the dust bunnies, we got the place looking great. We still have their stuff in the barn/attic. We're going to have a big barn sale and hopefully raise enough money to add the second bathroom (yes, there is that much out there).
On the advice of OFG (you'll see her name a lot as she has become my farm guru as well as my favorite author), I ordered a bucket o' barncats. Well, techinically I didn't order them. There's a program in central Ohio that relocates feral city cats that get the residents up in arms to farms where they can become barn kitties. I called the program office and left a message. A week later, someone showed up with 3 feral cats. They weren't completely wild and they were gorgeous, healthy cats. They've been altered, tested, and vaccinated (and maybe washed and buffed). You're supposed to keep the kitties in your barn for a couple weeks so they'll get a little used to you and learn where their food comes from. Well..... I went out the next morning and couldn't find a single cat. They escaped. Since then, I've seen each of them from time to time (nowhere near my barn where the food and mice (more food) are located. We'll see how that one works out.
We had a small riding mower which we knew wouldn't be a longterm solution but should work until we get something bigger. It mowed one strip and fell over dead. We ended up with a larger Cub Cadet lawn tractor (apparently people don't like it when you call a 'lawn tractor' a 'lawnmower'. It does great.
As seen from the pic in my previous post, I got the garden tilled (with a Cub Cadet tiller as well). I still haven't planted everything, but I'm doing what I can. It will work out, and I bet I'll have the best fall/winter garden around ;-)
My flock is getting big, in both mass and numbers. I need to slow down and build them a poultry mansion. I don't like to do things small... The top of my to-do list is to get outside access for my birds. They're getting to that age. I have some electric netting on the way, as well as field fencing sitting in the barn. I bought the field fence at TSC on sale for when we get goats. I bought it because it was on sale. I plan on also stringing at least two, maybe three, wires of electric to keep the goats in and the beasties out (again on the advice of OFG).
Speaking of TSC, where has this store been all my life. Ok, I probably wouldn't have much use for livestock antibiotics when I was living in Columbus, but still... They've started to call to see if I'm ok if I skip a day shopping there. I'm almost not kidding...
We had a great housewarming/birthday for me with a lot of our friends and family as well as a great Memorial Day. It has been a crazy, busy, exhausting month, but we've never been happier.
Now, some pics so it's not just a big wall of words:
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| The clematis started blooming this week . |
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| as did the water lilies. They don't even look real. |
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| The girls (dogs) treed a groundhog. I didn't know they could climb trees! |
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| One of my favorite chickens, Mama, experiencing the big, scary, outside for the first time. |
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| The ducks experiencing the pond for the first time and having a blast... |
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| Just ask Jack, the Muscovy duckling (my niece named him). |
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| The ducks and geese playing nice for the moment. The geese can be bullies, but those tiny little Muscovies can hold their own. |
Jeff
