Thursday, January 30, 2014

Quails, Hawks and slingshots.





We moved here to realize a dream and with that, give the boys a place to grow up with fresh air and gunshots that are for ducks and raccoons, not people.  Its been a long road.  The move, the back injury, winter, turning down work, have all been trying to keep me down. TRYING!






I am determined not to let the dark take my mind and spiral me down any further.  So I put on my big boy pants and started working on the fence again.  Granted this time very carefully and gingerly...and with a tractor.  What I could have done in a day I spread out over 4, to make sure I didn't get laid up again.  It was super cool to pull all the old fenceposts from when my mom was a kid to reuse and reset in the old pasture.



The last time I even remember having a fence up out there was when my mom had her horse Peppy here, thats gotta be close to 30 years ago.  So I guess the old posts have some history.  They fenced in dairy cows, the infamous sheep Ewe and Me(it didn't really keep them in tho), hogs, chickens, and now Llamas and chickens and to keep deer out.  We will need it against the deer because of the cut flower garden we are planning, which is almost an acre!




We are looking forward to Spring still...But the chores must get done!  So far we have fence posts up, but no fence yet.  The kitchen garden has been tilled and some additional top soil dropped on.  The greenhouse and the groundsmen's cottage are being cleaned out.  All the outbuildings had become storage for some kind of equipment parts or stuff that somebody wanted to keep, but then became forgotten as the ages of dust covered and eventually erased them from memory.



The hard part is figuring out which breakers work or don't and if there was a reason that electric was turned off in one building or another...when I threw the 50 year old breaker on in the greenhouse the other day, my butt puckered up in fear, but then the power came right on.  It reminded me of one of those old movies where they dust the switch off and then all the lights powered up after a flicker or two. 
The new chicken yard is also in progress, but again more junk to move, more fence to put up, a new chicken house to be built, thats becoming a higher priority now that Sharon went out and added an additional 20 chicks to the flock.  That was after she had already ordered 30 from the hatchery...so theres a whole lot of peepin going on around here!  Hopefully it will all be done before I get on another job or the chicks are mature enough to leave the brooder...

Figuring out the hawk and eagle situation has proven tricky.  Sterling is learning how to use a slingshot, shooting dog food mind you, so we don't actually kill anything that we aren't supposed to.  He hasn't actually seen any close yet, but we hear them and see them circling.  Our hope is to keep them alive long enough for us to get the new yard done with netting, and maybe a dog soon as well...apparently the predatory birds don't like 4 legged predators. Another thing to put on the list...

BABY QUAILS!  SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!


Need I say more? That was a really cool experience to watch them hatch and I made a little video of it.

Here is a link to the Vimeo video:
https://vimeo.com/85491361

Enjoy your day friend's!  Don't let the dark of winter make you too blue.  Longer days, blooming flower's, warm sun and spring and summer fun is just around the corner!

Be well.  Enjoy your life.  Give a smile to another soul.  And most importantly love yourself and your friends and family!

Love,
The Rowland's


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! How absolutely refreshing!!!...Marylee