Meeting a lieutenant from the fire department for lunch, sweaty and covered in chicken/goat/pig poo and paw/hoof/claw prints? Sorry, I was farming; digging up grass from one area and moving it to another.
All the concrete blocks are now packed with uprooted grass and the edge is securely wrapped in a 5 foot by 1 foot roll of sod, carefully dug up and transported from the overgrown stairs and basket ball court by me. I also added another wheelbarrow of sand now that the rain and critters have packed the first load of sand into the cracks. Even after a few rainy days, the ground is still dusty dry when I dig down more than an inch. I am hoping the fire bans across Washington will be lifted soon, but so far I am understanding why there are so many fire bans down here. Last night I brought in a bucket of logs from out in the weather, out in the "rain", and put a handful of cardboard in the bottom of the fireplace with 1"-4" logs piled on top. On my first try with a lighter, I had a happily crackling fire.
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Missed your phone call? Sorry, I was farming; watering the compost pile in the rain, consolidating a years worth of compost and grass clippings and barn cleanings into one big pile.
I've been slow to get around to this chore. For quite a while, I've been putting "turn compost" on my daily chores and goals list and then... thought about it and decided it could wait just one more day; desperately hoping the compost fairies would come and turn my beautiful, enormous piles. Usually my compost pile is at or above 160f, but I have not had the thermometer in the pile since pre-chicken butchering, meaning it has been a cold, dry, un-turned pile since Tim came home from Bristol Bay at the end of July. Far too long to neglect my beautiful compost! I've been rather negligent in my gardening; so much weeding to be done and so little food succeeding, but my compost I am generally proud of. Perhaps next year I will enter a jar of it in the Island County Fair Compost Competition - though they would probably disqualify me for cheating on account of my compost being unbelievably amazing. There are many theories on composting: everything from pouring a beer and a coke on the pile to precise measurements of various materials. My theory on compost is that being 'finished' is a product of number of times turned, so a pile turned weekly will be done in 10 weeks or so, where as a pile turned monthly will be done in 10 months or so. 10 being an arbitrary and randomly chosen but conceivably believable number. When the compost pile is turned, it must also be watered to a damp sponge-like wetness. It would also probably benefit from being covered to keep extra moisture in or out depending on the weather.
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Forgot to put the garbage out or change over the laundry or finish the dishes? Sorry, I was farming; hunting through mounds of mulch for hidden potatoes, scouring the property for where those chickens might have hidden their eggs this time.
Monday night Grandpa came down for dinner and we each had an ear of corn fresh from the garden with our home chicken noodle soup (our chickens) and home bread (with goat whey from my milking and cheese making and eggs from our hens). Last night, we had mashed potatoes with our home grown potatoes. Tim has been taking sandwiches to work with the bread I made topped with the cheese I made and some tomatoes from our garden. It feels so good to be eating the food we grew. Hopefully this trend with continue to grow until it is our majority. Oh, and the above eggs. That little dark one looks about the size of a normal egg yolk, but indeed it was mostly whites inside with a tiny speck of miniature yolk. When Nancy collected our eggs one night, she reported the same. Hopefully we don't have a secret quail in our hen house. As much as I always wanted my pet quail to lay eggs, I am not hoping for quail eggs from these hens! Tonight there were four eggs in the nest boxes! I left them there to encourage a feeling of safety in laying eggs in the nest box and to hopefully reduce the number of eggs misplaced about the yard and goat/pig barn. Oh! about that multi-species barn; I try to avoid predictions of the future, but it sounds like we will have a couple of large, milky guests in our barn for the winter. A fellow Whidbey goatherder needs boarding for a pair of milkers this October through February, which would be just around when Petunia will (hopefully) be having babies and starting to milk. So far she is still away on her date and we are missing her but mostly Esther is desolate.
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To ease Esther's heartbreak, I've been using this opportunity to encourage Tilly and Esther to bond. It seems to have worked. Tilly has successfully been out with Esther supervised only through the window with no muzzle. Also, Tilly had her first outing with the chickens (off leash but with the muzzle) while I turned the compost and did great with them. Tonight there was a little chasing and I think I must do a better job walking her and tiring her out and calming her before releasing her with the chickens. When she is feeling 'cooped' up and under-stimulated is the wrong time to tempt a terrier with skittish birds. Though even given the challenging timing, she did pretty well wandering around with them without harassing, and when she started getting carried away with herself, the chickens found an orderly path into their coop and were locked up for safety. The goat and pig also went to bed as Tilly really needed a proper romp in the yard after being such a good girl all day. We went to Home Depot and people walking past stopped and pet her before I saw and she kept all her paws on the ground and her mouth closed! I had to resist getting excited and ruining the moment. There is hope yet of passing our Canine Good Citizen test! Oh, which reminds me, I don't think I properly bragged about Tilly's last Search. Another team (dog and handler) were given a Zero problem (no one hidden in their area though the were convincingly lead to believe someone was there and must decide when they feel confident they have thoroughly checked their area and there is no one there) but Tilly was given a typical "20 yards in any direction from this point in the woods" problem and mastered it! It was her first night problem and it was a delight to see her flashing light and reflective strip bouncing through the brush. I need to start giving her much longer, harder problems as she's been solving these ones in under a minute it seems. Good thing little kids aren't that good at hide-and-seek!
Wow Ariel, you are a busy girl. So cool you are doing things the healthiest, most environmentally safe way, more people could benefit from just doing a few of the things you've done. Although I have a little of the Bambi complex; don't think I would enjoy eating chickens that I raised! LOL
ReplyDeleteScott would love a visit from you and Tim. He misses you guys, even though he would never tell you that...tell Tim hello and remember we accept dogs here! Would love to meet Tilly!
Thanks Melanie!
ReplyDeleteHopefully we will get a trip down there one of these days! I have been hoping to get back to the Willamette Valley for a visit ever since we left Eugene! One of these days I'll come down to look at baby sheep and come for a visit. I hear our friend Zakariah is on his way down for a visit in the mean time.
We miss you and Scott too!
-Ariel, Tim, Tilly and the rest of the farm.