Just Photos: Like Glass

So, this is April

 I was swearing doing morning chores at 8 AM yessterday and the humidity was pretty thick much of the day. Yesterday afternoon the kids and I walked in to Hobby Lobby. Rachel was wearing shorts. We walked out 20 minutes later. The temp. had gone from 76 degrees to 46! It sprinkled on the way home, around about 3 PM it sounded like elephants walking across the roof. I looked outside to find these....

Ice hail balls

pelting everything!

It poured for a good long while, then yesterday evening was off and on sprinkles until about 8:30 PM when the sky opened up and one of those amazing thunderstorms began. The constant cracking of lightening across the sky, the huge heavy rain drops, the much needed moisture!

It poured for many hours, at about 2 AM the power went out and flickered on and off for a good long while. A thick coat of ice coats EVERYTHING this morning.

I worried about the 2 month old chickens in the chicken tractor all night long. Their protection is a heavy duty tarp that I hoped would not be taken off by the wind. They are in the chicken tractor because a hawk swooped down 2 weeks ago and took one in plain site. They will not come out of that tractor until they are close to being full grown.

I suited up at 5:30 AM to check the barnyard to be met at the gate by a flood of frozen water. I had to go back up and change into boots. The grass crunched beneath my feet. It was still quite dark and the wind blowing through the trees made them sound like glass chandeliers. This is April!

The tarp held. The tractor, hardware cloth, and tarp are all coated in so much ice I cannot see the chickens inside. I cannot open the northern door, it's shut tight with ice. Fortunately there is a small door on the opposite end and while it was frozen from the inside, I was able to push it open to be sure everyone was still alive an kicking, they are.

I planted strawberries 2 days ago. Who knows how they'll be. I should have covered them in straw, I didn't think about it. They are in 15 gallon buckets so it's not like I could move them inside though they are sheltered by the greenhouse on their north flank so maybe they'll be OK. I did put my blueberry bushes inside. We got the fruit trees in the ground Sunday. The only thing the ice may be good for is the new grass seeds we planted. I am sure not thrilled to go out to do chores. I fed everyone at 5:30 when I was out there, but I still haven't milked or watered.

I am not anxious to get out again.

My poor Red Bud was about to be gorgeous!!!!

Growing

It was a busy spring break to say the least! Everyone is back at school today (Tuesday). We got quite a bit done! The orchard once had a couple of willow trees growing in it, they were near dead when we cut them down 2 winters ago but it left such a mess it's pretty much just sat for 2.5 years. The willows would send up shoots and the goats would feast on the leaves so we never bothered to clean it up until we knew the trees would be going in.

The trees are here and the orchard is finally a reality! Last week we picked up 2 plum trees (Santa Rosa and another. They are not self pollinators and need each other to pollinate), 2 pears (not self pollinating), and we had the room for 3 semi-dwarf apples (not self pollinating): Jonathan, Golden Delicious and a Cortland. We also picked up 1 of each of the following which are self pollinating: peach, apricot and a nectarine. We have room for just one more and I think it will be a peach.

A friend of ours also mentioned Lowe's had gallon containers of blackberries on clearance. It looks like they may have gotten zapped in the last freeze we had but at $1 each and already bright green showing new life, we figured it was worth it! After military discount we got them for .90 cents a piece. We picked up 6! Those will go in the orchard too trained to a trellis (with the vine being be cut back yearly. One fruits on 1st year growth, the other on 2nd) and yesterday I couldn't help myself but get 2 raspberry vines(fruit on first year growth) and a "Pink Lemonade" Blueberry (2 fruiting times each year) and a "Patriot" Blueberry bush ("early" fruiting)! I think we're maxed out on space!!!

We went to a farm auction on Saturday that had cattle panels. We picked up another 15 or so and with that we can finish the main pen. I also snagged a heavy duty food mill for $3 and a few other odds and ends one of them being a water hydrant for about $4, those things are $60+ brand new and there isn't a whole lot that can go wrong with them. Providing the seals are good, which they are on this one, they are pretty indestructible!

The weather has been weird. Warm and cold, rain and snow and sleet and hail. It's April now, I'm tired of the cold! The weather has not been conducive long enough to get some of the seeds in the greenhouse to germinate. Some of them are peeking their green little heads up out of the soil but I feel behind this year as last year I had inch high tomato plants on March 10! Granted, this year has been colder longer and we're getting rain so I'm thankful.

I think we've decided the pigs will be going off to the butcher sooner rather than later. We may get some piglets again though I seriously doubt we'll go through as much pork as this will yield enough to need to raise more piglets this spring. I don't have a whole lot of extra milk anyway and they were part of the main reason for getting pigs.

We got as much of the grass seed in as we wanted to. Now we sit back and wait and watch the rain fall.

Easter was quiet. We had been invited to a few places but after a week of work and running non-stop, I just wanted a day to relax! We had an egg hunt for the kids and we didn't end up relaxing entirely, we finished cleaning up the rest of the orchard but all in all it was pretty low key.

We started on a play structure for the kids but the progress has been a little slow on it and taking a back seat to some of the other projects. The holes are marked for the trees but we didn't quite have enough time to get them in. Maybe this weekend.

Drew started swim lessons at the YMCA yesterday evening, Rachel goes on Thursday. Obviously it's an indoor facility and really very very nice.

The kids have less than a month of school left.

Jeremiah bought a truck yesterday. Lord have mercy, we are the owners of FOUR trucks and one SUV. How pathetic that we are only a 2 driver household one of which rarely goes anywhere! In his defense, he had mentioned wanting to find a 70's model Ford to pilfer some parts off of for "Bessy" (the '65). Doing a disc. brake conversion would cost upwards of $800 and he also wants to change the tranny out for an automatic. He loves "the three on the tree" but we're not hell bent to keep it original and no matter how much he insists I can learn to drive a manual, I'm 32 years old and can make my own decisions and thank you, but unless it's an emergency, I won't drive a manual. He's hard pressed to get me to drive the tractor (manual) and the lawnmower (manual) is about as good as it gets. What is so bad about not wanting to kill people with me behind the wheel of a manual? Nothing as far as I'm concerned. I am sure if I practiced it would be like riding bicycle. I've driven manual before I'm just not willing to go practice and be completely stressed out about killing someone while I do so.

Speaking of riding a bicycle, someone thought it would be a good idea to take the kids roller skating last week on spring break. Rachel has not had the same concrete jungle experience that I had while growing up and so therefore has little practice on roller skates. At her age, I could virtually do flips and of course had no fear of falling and hurting myself, which I did often. She, on the other hand, has toned down ever since she broke her leg last year and it's no wonder she's afraid of hurting herself. So, she strapped on skates again for the 2nd time and for the 2nd time, it sucked. Jeremiah thought both of the kids needed to see one of us skate and I was feeling pretty good about putting 4 wheels underneath my feet again feeling like it was just yesterday I was making smoke rings in Skateland. Fast forward to virtually the same "Skateland" in a different state about 20 years later and I can honestly say, I should have let bygones be bygones. I didn't fall and I am sure I was a little bit of a confidence booster for the kids but if I had to do it over, I would have let sleeping dogs lie. It sucked and I will not be putting on skates any time soon, if ever and I'm OK with that! Swimming yes, skating no.

So back to the truck, it's 1975 extended cab F100. It's actually in fairly decent shape and runs but we just want it for parts. The rest of it can go including the engine, which is a 360. We'll keep the power steering, disc brakes, and chassis and bed. We're tired of our trash route, and since the dump is free and more often than not we have things around here to take off that don't fit in the can, it's just easier to haul off our own garbage. Trailers under a certain weight do not need to be registered in Ks. and it's pretty common to have trash trailers made from pick up beds and Jeremiah can easily convert the bed trailer.

Mostly I am sick of rolling the can out to the rd. and rolling it back, not that I do it, Jeremiah does but every Tuesday is a pain to remember and all of the stuff that doesn't get hauled off like broken fence posts and animal feed bags, empty paint cans, etc. we end up taking off ourselves anyway.

 It's strange that the house is silent again, strange that it's now April and we're still running the wood stove most mornings. 4 does 3 to kid this month and then a break until June, Mags had three buck kids this morning. Bah! We've sold several does and kids and despite still having a herd of around 30, it seems to small and the barn seems empty. But it's a good thing.

 Have a great day!