Day 11- Compost bin

So now that my garden is planted I am going to try my hand at building compost bins. Here is the model I am going to attempt. The ultimate compost bin. Wish me luck!

Day 9 - New arrival

We had one heck of a storm yesterday. It started around 1:30 pm and raged all night. When we woke up to feed the babies this morning, low and behold what did we find but that one of our pregnant mums have given birth sometime in the night! Ladies and gentlemen meet Fem!



"Fem" translates to "five" in Danish. Named thusly because she had
an unmistakable 5 on her forehead when I went out to visit and also
because her mum has 5 teats instead of the standard 4.

She is still getting her land legs but she is such a sweetie. She just had to come and say hello.

Also today, I finished my first round of planting! My strawberry box, that I built with my own hands using a hammer, nails and a table saw, turned out beautifully. :-) My rows are more or less straight, and I only killed one courgette, and really I think that was more due to the storm than my black thumb. So now I water and wait. I think I'm going to tackle compost bins in the near future since I seem to have a certain inbred knack for the table saw. Here was the plot at the end of the day.

Strawberries, 3 types of peas, broccoli, 3 kinds of cauliflower,

green cucumbers, courgette (squash), peppers and celery.

 

Day 7- The planting begins

Gosh! I am so stoked. I actually got to plant today. After several days of laboring over the soil and trying to even out the left side of the garden which was significantly lower than the right I finally got the plot to a point where I thought, "Yep. This is as good as it's gonna get." (Though I'm sure I will labor over it again tomorrow once I've had all night to think about its flaws...)

I erected and staked the tomato teepees that I made yesterday first thing this morning. They turned out so well! I feel like a mom. Look at them standing so proud and tall!

 

I'm still sorting out my set up. I cleared a pathway all the way around this morning and started mapping out a keyhole design this afternoon. Thanks for that idea Tobi. It seems to be working fabulously well.

 

Beginning of the day.

End of the day complete with Sam in the background.

 

Look! Tomatoes! 6 of them in 5 different varieties! I can't wait to give them a taste! If I'm still around during harvest time maybe I will have the opportunity to try my hand at canning...

 

Day 3- The Goat's Head Garden

I started my garden today! Yee haw!  I hoed. A lot. It was brilliant. Here is my little plot.

On one of my breaks I went down to pet the cows and low and behold, what did I find hanging in a tree, but a goat's head! Complete with horns, teeth and fur. It was amazeballs! Look! See for yourself.

After a bit of recon I concluded that it must be the head that Blair, Craig's friend, had found because there was no body and I highly doubted that the thing struggled hard enough to take its own head off. 

After basking in horrified fascination I took it down by the horns and, using them like a set of handlebars, steered myself with appropriate sound effects back to my garden. After looking around I hooked it by it's horns to my fence and dubbed my plot " The Goat's head garden."

I have high hopes that Sam will be just as effective as a scarecrow.

Day 4- Ahhh Shoot!

I got to shoot guns today! 4 of them! And I got the nick name "Annie Oakley." They tell me this is good. -big grins- It was on my 5th round of 5 shots.

5 shots at 20 meters

I was using a BRNO bolt action 22. (And I totally know what all of those random words mean now!) I think maybe I like shooting.

Oh and here was the sunset today.

The road onto the farm. The house is behind the trees on the
left and the quarters are to the right.

The farm vehicles.

Day 5-Morning Feeding

Ok, so I have to share with you the best way to start the day. Ladies and gentlemen, my kids.

They are greedy buggars and they love their milkies. They come out with THE BEST milk faces you have ever seen. And yes, it's faces. The milk will not be contained to mere mustaches.

Meet the crew!

Mama: Connie
Babies: Mr. T, Gutsie, and the new spotty, brown, unnamed one. (I'm toying with Pinto but open to suggestions.)

Mama: Queenie
Babies: Prince George (He's a big fatty), Frank Castle aka. The punisher, and Elwood from the blues brothers.

Mama: (Mean name describing her temperament and the fact that she sometimes kicks her calves. We'll call her...FB)
Babies: Panda (on account that his spots look like a panda face), Gus, Daisy and Slick Rick.

I love them. They come and nuzzle me and I scratch their soft faces. It's everything I imaged it would be when I watched "City Slickers." Baby Normans. Everywhere. So much love.

Day 2- Drenching

Drenching the cows. We chased 20-22 into the run at a time
and then Craig administered the pink goop of health. 

Property Tour. A panorama of one of the lower fields down by the river. 

The ladies. We got to chase a small group down to a VIP pasture
to eat their fill.