welcome home merlin

we picked up merlin at the slaughter house today. our life is full of paradoxes. i couldn't work for bob last week because my injured leg wouldn't allow. so that put us into a financial crunch that was exacerbated by needing a new faucet in the kitchen. our old one fell into pieces and was not reparable nor usable. tuesday we went to lowes and bought a new faucet that i promptly installed. that check for the faucet was going to put us over the available balance. so, friday i came home from work and grabbed all the change in the house and took it to deposit in the bank. kassi and tristan needed to come also--the bank has a popcorn machine. the bankers all loved the kids and fun was had by everyone. i narrowly averted an overdraft with pocket change to spare. the paradox is that we picked up merlin and are eating like kings. we are broke, broke, broke but gorgeing ourselves on grassfed, naturally grown porter-house steaks. our huge freezer is almost not able to close with the all that beef.

the kids loved the steak even toly. tristan asked several questions about how merlin was killed. we explained everything several times and he understood. he really needed to get his mind wrapped around the whole thing better. kassi and tristan each ate an entire porter-house


steak--toly mostly sucked the bones. i thought toly was going to throw a conniption when he momentarily dropped his precious bone.


tabitha and i took a walk after supper. we like to walk around the farmstead and bask in the accomplishments and make strategies for the immediate future. tomorrow morning we will finish planting tomatoes. we have fifteen or so planted and have many more to plant tomorrow. in the afternoon i'll work on the calf pen more. it needs a partial roof over the back corner and the front gate. these are both things we can do without spending any money and are needed to be finished almost as badly as the root-cellar/storm-shelter. i need to purchase a load of chat to finish the cellar/shelter. if it weren't for my stupid leg injury i'd be probably finishing it up tomorrow. safety from the impending spring storms plagues me but things happen as they should. if i have time tomorrow evening i'll build new compost bins. i need a few pallets, tom has some laying around that i'll ask him about when the time comes.

i scattered about 2 yards of composted manure in the garden. the soil is looking so good right now. we have such high hopes for our garden this year.