a day of rest

yesterday was a sorely needed day of rest and i paid for it today.

i climbed on the roof and cut the looming branches over the garage. tabitha tried to help but she is scared of heights and forgot until she was on the roof having vertigo.

i cut split and stacked most of the remaining wood from the mulberry tree that needed to get cut from the area where our orchard will be.

i cut several trees from the fence row that we are removing. the fence row was comprised of nasty old-growth multi floral rose bushes. my arms are so scratched up that i look like i was attacked by a pride of feral cats.

i cut down the over grown rose-of-sharon just in the front yard. that is prime orchard location and it had to go.

i set and burned 4 separate bonfires--the embers are still glowing. there is still plenty of brush to be burned tomorrow.

i cut several hundred little american elm trees from our squatting lot. most of them are still where they fell.

a 77 year old gentleman stopped by to ask if we were selling any of that wood. i said no and told him about mike and that he sells wood for $40 a rick. he went and looked at the wood and decided that the pieces were too short and split down too far. he then wanted to walk around the farmstead. looking at some of the wood that i cut too long for our wood stove he asked how much i'd charge for a cord of that. i told him that it's still green and he insisted that it was ok. i said $75--the going rate is $80 for seasoned wood. he agreed, so i'll cut a cord of wood for him. tabitha saw him and said "why doesn't he cut his own wood?" "i said he's 77 years old," he didn't look a day over 60. i like to see elderly people whom look younger than they are. i showed him my new splitting maul and whacked a big trunk of mulberry in two. i was kinda showing off because i knew that mulberry practically falls apart at the sight of that splitting maul.

we got a huge round bale, from a friend of the family, of wheat hay for nimue. she love love loves it. you'd think we were starving her the way she dug into the stuff. $40 seems a reasonable rate having it delivered. another level of comfort was achieved having her fed with that quality of hay. earlier the entire family hung out in nimues pasture lying next to nimue as she chewed her cud. it was a kodak moment but will have to be just a fond memory.

we moved the allegedly portable chicken coop this morning. the wagon that is used in the process has low tires and made things difficult--near impossible. the two wheeled hand truck that lifts and rolls the coop flipped up and slammed into tabitha (she's fine) tabitha slammed into the side of the coop. all was overcome by brute strength and pig headedness.

the chickens produced 6 eggs today! huevos rancheros baby.

mike & nancy's house warming party was last night. it was great fun and their house looks great.

kassi just came to me and said "pees pees awahr". she wanted some water and was saying please--my little angel.

tristan is successfully weaned going on three days of no may-may. he broke his "new very special chritmas sword" today--there was much crying and gnashing of teeth. it was held together by a flimsy dowel. i dremeled out the handle the shape of the blade and gorilla glued them together. it should be stronger than the original but still has a limited life span ahead of it. i'll have to fashion a better one from a single piece of wood--probably hickory would last the longest. a person would need a table saw to do something like that. hopefully that dilemma will be sorted very soon!!! (fingers crossed)

i'll take photos of the changes tomorrow and post them to this entry.