Getting Settled In

     It has been busy around here.  Britney was home for the weekend. 
We worked hard out in the yard most of the day Saturday. 
                                                        
      Britney and I planted flowers, and did a lot of weeding.  We trimmed tons of small starters growing up from around several large trees and along the foundation.











    
     We all (Joe and Daniel included) also worked on two fields...cutting out small scrub trees from the fence line.  Here Britney looks quite formidable as the shrubs and trees were no match for her.



     I had Daniel transplant a few of the small, nice pines that were too close to the fence.  Here he is hauling one back to the yard to be planted in a more suitable place.

     Joe and Dan cut the grass around all fencing and checked fence posts.  One of our fields was very wet (as you can see in the picture with Dan).  It gets a lot of run off so we couldn't trim the fence line or work on it.  We are trying to get two pastures ready so a lady I am aquainted with can start boarding her 2 horses here if she wants.  Some fence posts need to be replaced and a lot of the braided wire electric rope needs to be re-strung. The sooner we get it "horse ready" the better.....less mowing once we have horses eating grass.  We still need to build a tack room in the barn and buy some gates. 
       It is just beautiful here this time of year and the farm is so wonderful.  Britney thinks the natural flowers (wild and weeds) are as beautiful as the ones we have planted.

Lilacs I agree are pretty                           Dandelions only when blooming

Wild mustard.                                        Columbine in a row of bushes.








     Things are "coming together" slower than hoped for. Every little job is bigger than expected, or has it's "problems" that slow the job down. And some things we just can't decide on how to do. The mowing is going to take LOTS of time....and that doesn't even count the 4 fields.

       I do not have any regrets, but am sometimes a bit overwhelmed with the enormity of the jobs and the "to do list".  I also take up a lot of time pondering on how I want something done or how to do it.  And then there is still lots to unpack as soon as I can figure out where to put it all.

       I stopped counting mice after 25.  There have been several more .... so it has to be in the mid 30's by now.  I am not sure how to count the little mouse the cat and dog had been "playing" with for 36 hours.  Dan said that Abbey chased it around the house for several hours Sat. night.  It ended up in the laundry room off the kitchen Sun morning.  I managed to uncover it's hiding spot and the chase was on again.  This time Abbey chased it onto the back porch where the dog stays.  Kaysha caught it and had it in her mouth....thinking the poor little thing was finally dead I told the dog to "drop it",  which she did, and as soon as the mouse hit the ground, it ran behind a
                                                      book shelf.  Sat. night we were moving
furniture around on the back porch to make room for the big wardrobe closet Dan put together for us.  And guess what....little mouse was off and running again.  Kaysha caught it again....and with it in her mouth I sent her out into the garage. 




     A little later when I went out to investigate....the dog was going nuts sniffing around some big tables leaning against the wall and the big card board box from the wardrobe packaging...I moved the cardboard and the mouse was sighted under the edge of a table and disappeared once again.  I left the dog and cat out in the garage awhile.  The next morning I found the little mouse dead on the floor.  I guess it had been injured during the chase.

       I had been incubating 10 chicken eggs Carol brought from her chickens.  These are Barred Plymouth Rock chickens....which are beautiful and quite hardy.  I wasn't expecting any success because her rooster is of questionable "abilities".  None of the eggs hatched after 23+ days of incubation, but they were a surprise and have me very curious.  Sun. night I opened all 10 of them.  5 of them were fertile (go rooster Dave).  But they
                                                       were all at different stages of

development.  One was about 2 days along or maybe a non-viable embryo.  2 were around 5 days (looked to be developing normally).  The 4th was maybe 8 or 9 days (also looked normal) and the 5th was over 18 days, but still had a lot of unused yolk.  It had all its feathers (which were very dark colored. I was expecting yellow down) and it looked "normal" in terms of legs, wings, beak + eyes.  None of the chicks were alive = no heart beat or movement.  So now I feel kind of bad, it was as much my fault as it was the rooster's.  I discovered lots of little problems with the incubator as the days progressed.  The problem was that I have never used this incubator before, I had two bad thermometers, I forgot to put the vent plugs in, I was going on memory for some things, and I hadn't taken the time (didn't have time) to figure it all out.  Not sure if I want to try again or just buy baby chicks. 
        I had a Rose-breasted Grosbeak on the feeder and drinking out of the bird bath Tuesday after school, and then a little bit later I saw a pair of Wood Thrushes eating seed off the ground under the feeder. They are both new for me so I had to look them up in my bird book.
     At the end of some days we enjoy relaxing by the fire as we burn the dead branches we have gathered.