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Category: Garden
The elephant in the room…
It has been far too long since I posted regarding the Mountain Farmlet.
So here is why…
- Due to our health issues we are no longer able to do the work that needs to be done to make it livable for us there.
- Also due to our health issues we have no money to pay someone else to complete the work for us
- We are planing to sell the property.
Bob and I are realizing that our little acre here is about all we can manage. We are making plans with the folks who own the property behind us to lease it so I can have my pygmy goats, but that is at least a year down the line.
Bob has greatly improved since his diagnosis of COPD and resulting treatments, but working wears him out entirely. He still enjoys it, but needs more breaks.
Me? Since my knee surgery my arthritis has taken over my life! Thankfully, my knee has healed enough that I was able to get some of my raised beds planted this spring. Going out there each day puts a smile on my face to be sure! However, some mornings find me hitching and lurching just to get out to take care of Polly, Fredric and the chickens.
Due to an old *injury to my thumb when we moved here eight years ago, I am now having to go in for surgery on the 22nd. to remove bone and build a replacement out of restructured tendon at the base of my left thumb and just above the wrist. The swelling and pain find me dropping things unexpectedly throughout the day, and also limit what I can do in the studio, ergo fewer posts about my quilting and sewing.
I find it hard to believe that at the time we decided to buy the property in Tuscumbia we were both in seemingly great health and now we realize that we just have to let it go.
Anyone want to buy 25 acres with an antique home that needs lots of TLC? It has a new tin roof! 🙂
So I am certain that most of you know this old joke, but I’ll post it anyway:
know how to make god laugh?
just tell him your plans.
Today will be spent unpacking the boxes I packed three years ago when I thought we were moving, and the rest of the week will find me busy with setting the guest bedroom back to rights.
are we sad?
yes, who wouldn’t be,
but we are also realistic about what we can handle.
Last week Bob was off work all week and we put another 13 Stay-Puffts into the freezer. I got smart this time and cooked down all the bits and bones to make soup starter for this winter. So now that too is all packed and waiting for us when the weather gets cold. We now have plenty of chicken for the next year (meaning the next 12 months). We also purchased bulk lamb (for Armenian sausage) and pork butt to make sweet Italian sausages for this next year . It was a joy to be able to season them with mint and herbs from my garden!
Our freezer is full and we have a roof over our heads.
Life is good!
OK, lots to do before the 22nd. I am going to get to work now.
These were taken this morning. As always, please click for better viewing!
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- Cucumber futures
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- Winter squash (lots of them!)
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- Chicken tractor! (we made this!)
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- Tomato thieves!
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- Okra blossoms remind me of hibiscus.
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- “Are you my mother?” I don’ think she is, but she certainly is a good surrogate!
*When unpacking the moving van a 45 pound box of books fell onto my hand and pinned my thumb down onto to my arm. It took several attempts before my brother-in-law and I could manage to dislodge it. 😯
Snaping out of it.
“We’re OK!”
Around Halloween I was spending way to much time on Facebook. I tend to get sucked in when I am depressed. However, all the moping and browsing uncovered a little Youtube gem that I will share with you!
Although the film is listed as a “FAIL”, I believe that with his attitude he is a WINNER in my book!
I watched it and laughed. A good belly laugh which is something I haven’t done in far too long. That old saw “Laughter is the best medicine” is not far from the mark. We need to laugh. A good laugh, or cry, is a catharsis for our system and, I believe, vital to our mental well-being. I shared these golden 16 seconds with Bob and it had the same effect on him.
For several days we could be heard to follow a negative remark or situation with,
“I’m OK!”
These comical outbursts were soon followed by laughter, or at least a smile.
We are grateful for many things we did prior to his loss of work, and this brutally cold and early winter weather:
We ordered broilers for our winter food supply.
I am not happy that they are currently in my living room while waiting for all their feathers to come in, but it is too cold for them in the barn even with heat lamps. I anticipated them being freezer ready before the winter temperatures set in. (I’m OK! 😀 )
We prepaid for our propane this year. We will stay warm and not worry about that mid winter refill.
We are not idle.
We are working on getting projects done both here and up on the Mountain Farmlet. We’ve transplanted our soft fruits, and begun planting the steep slope that is impossible to mow by the cabin.
This slope doesn’t look so bad in the picture but mowing is impossible and weed whacking too strenuous for us at 60+. The wiser move is to plant the slope in native shrubs and ground covers, to hold it in place, and let it keep itself looking good! 😉
While we were there we primed the old well pump and found that it works!
However, in spring we will need to get in there and clean out all the years of moss growing down on the sides and floating on the water’s surface, because it promptly plugged up the spout! 😉
Bob has drawn up plans for the new Chicken Tractor on AutoCad and we have begun construction on it. Those chickies are growing fast and need more room to move! While we work hard we pray for warmer weather so we can send them out to the barn, because even with feathers it is still very cold!
Bob and I carefully measured the lean-to portion of the cabin and Bob once again put his AutoCad skills to work.
He marked door openings, a proposed new wall for between the kitchen and the washroom, a walk-in pantry…
We found room for it in a surprising place!
This entryway room will be divided and the new pantry accessed through this existing opening in the kitchen.
And, of course we will be reusing the original door!
He also added the space for a new door to replace this old hobbit sized model and more!
If you recall, it was the one I told you was 5 ft 4 in tall and that could make a polite lady swear or a grown man cry.
We have the propane man scheduled to come out soon to check our lines, add a line for the stove and turn on our gas. We will be warm while we work on the old farmhouse this winter!
And, during all this flurry of activity, Bob continues to look for work. He went to a promising interview yesterday and now awaits their phone call…
We’re OK!
Playing Catch-up: notes on life here and on the mountain
Spring came to the Mountain Farmlet and left.
Summer brought tall grass,
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- You can’t tell it, but the grass is almost 4 feet tall in some places
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- Trees along the back: gone (this is where you can now see straight through the length of the property.
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- I mowed all around the house and the outbuildings
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- And lastly I mowed a wide path to the woodland trail.
Insects,
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- A Button bush plays host to butterflies…
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- Carpenter bees and…
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- A blueberry colored Damselfly with jewel green eyes!!
Assorted vining summer flowers,
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- Raindrops on wild grapes
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- two inch orange tubes of Trumpet creeper (aka: Campsis radicans)
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- that open to herald in the nectar lovers
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- Bignona: gone
*It may be a Crossvine (aka: Cross-Vine, Trumpet Flower (Bignonia capreolata)) LOOK HERE
mushrooms,
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- A chewed red mushroom,
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- another golden variety, also chewed,
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- and a trail of whites growing under the oaks in the leaves and moss
and too much heat.
While I mowed the day away, Bob kept busy with string trimming, and push mowering the areas I can’t get into with the riding mower. When he was done, he took a rest, ate lunch, and then continued work on our new compost station!
NOTE TO SELF: build a wire cover for the beginning bin if we intend to continue to using if for kitchen scraps! The skunks paid it a visit after the last dump. Or, maybe we should start a wormery?
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Our collective health has taken a blow, and consequently so has our bank account. Not to whine, well OK, I am going to whine: $800.00 for Bob to take an ambulance ride? And of course our new insurance did not cover it! RIDICULOUS! (I want to tell you more about this, but not now.)
All this has us just keeping up with weed abatement and clearing the trail into the woods. Mowing, and by that I mean just around the house, pond and outbuildings, and the paths through to the tall grass to the trail, etc. takes me *6 to 7 hours.
It is hard work and the pastures would be better tended by a flock of goats and my geese, but we are in a holding pattern while we catch up from medical bills.
Fall and Winter will find us back at work on the inside of the little farmhouse. In the meantime we continue to peel away the layers of wallpaper and paneling to prepare for new joists, plumbing , electrical, closing up the walls, and painting.
All things in good time, eh?
*RE: Hours of lawn mowing – Follow this link to a humorous but serious treatise shared on Ruth’s Chickens which contemplates the state of lawns and nature: HERE!
Life on the Farmlet 