Sunday Walkabout 12-14

So…whatcha been doin’?

Waylon says, "HEY!"
...and where IS my breakfast?

Around here…there’s not a whole lot to report.

We spent the vast majority of the week on our knees.   

…and we were not praying.

When I said we were working on the big flooring project, I really meant WE were working on the big flooring project.  No contractors, no helpers, just the Boss and me (and our trusty knee pads).

doing prep work

finishing up the livingroom

After years of use and abuse, it was beyond time to fix the floor.  

this is what the kitchen floor looked like

With our autograph in place for future generations...we began working on the floor.

the job begins

getting ready

finished floor

Back to "normal".

I think I love the kitchen

the hole-y floor is gone forever!

check out...before...

...and after

We didn’t get completely finished like we had hoped.  The project took slightly longer since we had to move all the furniture (twice) as we worked along.  But, there were no disasters and no arguments…and the floor looks gorgeous. It looks like a whole new house.  I must say, we did a fine job. We’ll finish the office tomorrow and then maybe my desk won’t look like such a mess. (but, then again…)

I'm pretty proud of that cut around the toilet!

30+ years of construction experience
and watching This Old House come in handy

the job site/office

The only reason we could spend the whole week on our knees and focused on the floor is that life is slow, slow…real slow this time of year.  (don’t get used to it, it doesn’t last!)

this time of year it's easy to find time to appreciate the beauty surrounding us

For right now, the ewes are just hanging out, eating and growing the lambs that will start arriving in just about one month.  Next week, we will spend some time getting the barn and the sheep ready for the new arrivals.  We got some new heatlamps and hopefully they live up to our expectations. I’m really looking forward to lambing…that’s when I finally get to see if those breeding choices I made work out like I thought they would.

all you can hear is chewing and contented grunts
as the ewes work through their morning hay

The hens are still cleaning out the lower garden.  They do an amazing job getting all the weed seeds and spent crops.  We’ll take a little time on the next relatively nice day and pull out the t-tape (used for irrigation) and then the Boss can mow and everything will look tidy again. …and we’ll begin the countdown to spring planting. We will have our big “planting/planning meeting” in the next week or so. (we spend at least a day with the seed catalogs and garden maps, plotting out the next season) Then, I will be able to place the first seed orders for 2015. (which means I better clean out the greenhouse soon, too)

can you see the hens out there working?

hen cleaning garden

they've finished the crops in the foreground
time to move on

hens working

baby lettuce

The crops in the hoophouses are slowly…slowly growing. 

frosty kale

The frosty nights have slowed things down considerably.  There are numerous plantings that I had hoped I would be picking by now that are still just sitting there, under the frost blanket…waiting for a little warm sunshine. Crop re-growth is very slow and somewhat unpredictable this time of year, although it does happen. The weeds in the hoophouse, on the other hand, are growing profusely.  It’s just not fair! If I could just convince everyone that the weeds are truly tasty (and they really are) we’d be set.  However, the hens would miss their greens and we still wouldn’t have enough greens to satisfy our customers. (and chickweed is hard to pick nicely) So…we’ll just stick with the status quo.

While there hasn’t been a whole lot of action to note around here this week, the skies have been amazing.  I’m sure there is some explanation for the beautiful skies of December, but I’m not privy to it…so, we just enjoy the light show.  Thursday’s sky was particularly noteworthy, there were Facebook posts from all over the area.    

Gorgeous!

In the midst of flooring, we did indeed get out winter sales email sent out and the responses flooded back in.  Wow!  Week two was even bigger than week one!  And, despite the fact that we NEED more lettuce…and a lot MORE spinach (I’m trying…y’all…I’m trying!), everyone seemed happy with their purchases.  Our customers are great!

We’ll take a little break today, although the Boss has to finish up some trim work and I have to do some clean-up, laundry and bake some bread for the upcoming week. We’ll get back to our farm work and floor job later. I will also be writing to the FDA (did you read THIS?) I know I’m cutting it close…the deadline for comment on the FMSA is December 15th.  That's TOMORROW!

I’d say that maybe we’d have some exciting news next time…but, quite honestly…excitement is not something we want here on the farm.  Excitement generally means something unexpected happened…and unexpected is generally not a good thing.  So, personally, I really like dull…and predictable.  While it doesn’t make for real interesting reading, it does mean that all is well and going according to plan.  You  know…no news is good news.

Oh, wait...there was some news. Sort of. 

We had snow, sleet and freezing rain...which melted fairly quickly, but did add a bit of "interest" to the flooring job.

sheep in sleet

frozen birch tree

hauling plywood in the snow
dog helpers at the ready

Then, we had a roof inspection, courtesy of the dog.  No, Gus did NOT figure out how to get on the roof (thankfully, or we'd be doing roof repair today!).  He did chase the cat around the yard, up the greenhouse and onto the house.  After her "inspection" she safely returned to the ground.  Can't say that the greenhouse skin benefitted from all the kitty claws...

Where did the cat go, Gus?

Yep, this looks okay!

checking out the exhaust vent

Then, there were the "extreme free-ranging" chickens. About a dozen hens found a hole in the fence and were checking out the farm.  A short, intense chicken-roundup followed.

we don't usually have chickens in the woodpile

Tess has gotten used to the new floor
and doesn't even mind that there is still an air compressor
in the livingroom!

And, that, my friends was the totally uneventful week on the hill.

Hope you’re having a Happy Sunday!

Gus
looking thoughtful on a windy day

Thanks for visiting!  Come back and see us again real soon.