You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Farm Life’ category.
A friend of mine was explaining her alternative to the traditional New Years Resolutions. Instead of picking things you want to work on, things that you don’t like about yourself or the world, things that are negative, pick three words that represent what you would like to have MORE OF in the New Year. What a lovely idea! Read the rest of this entry »
Beads are made from Sulpey, that poly clay that you bake. My mother-in-law gave me a bunch of it years ago. Works great for this purpose, and makes me want a play-doh barber shop for Christmas!
I love December. Wrapping up the outside stuff (still no snow, so always more plants to mulch, pens to clean, and hoses to put away). Time to play with the inside stuff. Time to take on new projects, or old ones set aside for way too long. Read the rest of this entry »
This is the center of the gravel driveway.
Well, after about 2 1/2 months of no rain, we’ve had more than 2 inches in the last few weeks. Aside from the wet, the weather has generally been in the 60’s to 70’s during the day, which means that lots and lots of cheat grass (Bromus tectorum) and storksbill are germinating like crazy. Areas of the pasture that were totally brown a few weeks ago now look like a golf course. Read the rest of this entry »
- Sometime during the previous fall, haphazardly spread some fresh chicken manure under the trees.
- Hold onto the perpetual farmer wish for a Goldilocks spring, with not too much and not too little rain.
- Watch leaves emerge in March and flowers emerge in April. Ponder that you grew up with these trees, yet never noticed until now what the delicate green flowers looked like. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve become like a crazy cat lady, except for I’m a crazy turkey lady. I stand in the poultry pen and talk to Charlie, and tell him to show me what he’s got. And he does. So fun.
I wrote a few weeks ago about how farming seemed to be about 40% fencing. If you have animals, I think an additional 40% is about poo management. Today, if you haven’t guessed, I cleaned out the chicken coop, changed out the shredded paper under the rabbit cages, and chipped out the area in the duck pen where they spend most of their time at night. All of this was deposited, with a LOT of water, in the compost pile, using a shovel and a wheelbarrow. After all, the bedding is supposed to be absorbent, so it takes a lot of water to get it wet enough to get the composting process started. Read the rest of this entry »
This was taken looking in the side rear view mirror. That’s Loki (still alive – but getting uglier by the day), in the background. Thor LOVED to go in the truck.
When my husband and I first got married, we moved to Parker Arizona for my husband’s new job. Parker is on the Arizona/California border below Lake Havasu. We lived there for 2 1/2 years. From about May 15th to October 15th, it was over 100 degrees EVERY DAY.
My husband happened to work right next door to the tribal animal control office, and so over the course of that 2 1/2 years, we ended up adopting three dogs. One was a great dane/lab mix named Thor. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of owning or being around a Dane, you know that they are the sweetest dogs around. Thor was super sweet. He was also not super smart. And being 120 lbs and the darkest colored of all of our dogs, he suffered the most in the heat. He’d be standing there panting in the shade, and my husband or I would say in our “Thorbie” voice, “Gosh it’s hot”. We swore that he got about 10% smarter when we moved to cooler weather in Colorado. Read the rest of this entry »
Do you ever have one of those days when you just feel crabby, for no apparent reason? Well, last Saturday was like that for me. Every little slight was like itching powder on my brain. I’m generally a pretty calm even keeled person, so this was a bit unusual for me, and I must say, I kind of embraced it. Sometimes, it just feels good to throw a shoe into your closet door. Grin. Read the rest of this entry »
Can you find the chicken in this picture?
Read the rest of this entry »
I’m personally a big fan of traditional blue/purple iris, but this one is just stunning. It’s been fun to see what all the colors in the yard are. Evidently, Walla Walla had a famous Iris breeder for a lot of years, and many yards here locally bear the results.
Yup, right now everyone seems to be living in peace and harmony. We’ll see how long it lasts. No one has gotten stuck in a fence this week.
We managed to trim the feet of Elmo, the one goat who we will keep (as a gift) from my friend whom the other goats are on loan from. Elmo (recently renamed Molly) was a rescue and her feet were way overgrown. Trimming feet is definitely a two-person job, and we’ll have to do it every week for a month or so, removing a little bit more each time, until they are back to normal. She took it pretty well.
The young sheep are growing fast! Soon it will be time to ween them. Read the rest of this entry »
MilesAwayFarm
Miles Away Farm Blog 