photo heavy progress

i finished my rainwater chicken piping. i only had to purchase a few parts. i already had most of them. one critical part that i had and didn't purchase was cracked. i was almost thwarted but luckily i changed my plan. a few modifications to some fittings and i was in business.

here it is nearly finished. all i need is to cover it from the sunlight and install a leaf screen pre-filter from the gutter chain.

my self flushing screen is integrated in the valve from the tank.

i epoxied a fine mesh screen to the end of the pipe. after reaming out the "T" so the pipe would slip clear into the fitting, i glued the pipe into the branch side of the "T". the water normally takes the turn in the "T" to go to the water fountain. when i use the bucket fill valve it automatically rushes water past the constricted screen area. this flushes my screen and keeps the system operational.


i finished that in the morning then we went to harrison arkansas. they had the exact snow fence that we have been looking for. it was very inexpensive since it was sitting around for quite a while.

we borrowed bobs trailer and it worked perfectly.

then we worked on the calf pen. i finished roofing the entire thing. it has been renamed "the stable."

here is my mineral feeder.

here is the cow first day in this paddock.

she slept in her stable last night.

astrid is really coming into her own.

guarding and protecting are heavily in her nature.

this morning we started on the arbor. here are the raw materials.

i was gifted those arches from a friend.

the o'melay boys ready to help.

we decided to turn the arches up, japanese style.

i love it.

the cross slats were parts from our old grill. i like to recycle everything.

it will get painted a dark brown and be covered in kassi's roses. there will be slats ascending up each side.


tabitha and the kids picked three quarts total of violets. here is their first batch.

pretty violets

primrose path

if you have ever been to our house just after or during a rain, you have had to jump the puddle. we have been forever wanting to remedy this. our answer was to never ever pour cement there. in fact we already had a small pad that would need to be removed prior to realizing our plans.

a rocky path

one thing tabitha and i both have in common, we are purists. that is, we like to use natural stone wherever we can. if cement is necessary, we try to hide it. a person that has been to the ozarks knows that if you find a rock in the ozarks and throw it odds are you'll hit a baptist preacher. that joke is funny because it is profoundly rocky in the ozarks and there are many times many baptist preachers here. my friend james is a baptist preacher and finds that joke funny so please take no offense.

all rock are not the same. having a flat side is a blessing which we only enjoy a small percentage of the time. luckily just across the road in a ravine is a little dumping of old quarried stone. most of them are too large to get. even the ones that two people can carry are difficult to extract from their resting place. mike, my father-in-law graciously offered to come over and move our barn with his big-dig*. while here he offered to go get the stones that we carried to the top of the ravine.

the barn used to live between those two trees on the left.

three front end loads later we had a huge pile of beautiful rock. the following early morning we decided to dig the path for a suitable bed for the stones. it was a job that only a large adult with a pick and shovel could accomplish. toly was a huge help shoveling loosened dirt into the wheel barrow.

first thing was to put down a layer of chat.

then we started laying the stone.

tabitha was in charge of putting the puzzle together and my job was to set the stone.

we collect rocks that exhibit certain characteristics. can you tell how many of them are in the primrose path?

it was an entire day job for several people. well, two determined adults and four distracting children.


we were incredibly bushed, sore and collapsed into bed.

i am still surprised by it each time i walk in the front door.

today we planted two double rows of beets. we love beets. then we got the most glorious rain. it was slow steady and soaking. our beets should like it. i fixed the chicken water fountain. it was in a sad state and filled with mosquito larvae. i took special pleasure in dumping the mosquito laden water for the chickens to pick through and eat. i replaced the pre-filter sock and made a reinforced screen for the top of the bucket. it hangs under the eave gutter and automatically fills when it rains. i need to hook up my other rain water tank to a second water fountain. i have been struggling with the type of filter i need to make for it. finally have an idea. now i just need the parts.

we visited our friends yesterday for a deserved break after the rocky path. it was great fun. they have a very enviable green house filled with seedlings. they also had two sows farrow. those piggies were so cute. we are going to get two of them to raise out and butcher on our farm. i still need to build that smoker.

happy happy spring...


* toly calls all large machinery big-digs. now papa's tractor is forever named big-dig

little building projects and contest

at every opportunity i am building a few seedling trays.

we have finally started to win the battle against damping off. we had a turn in weather. is quite chilly outside today. i had planned on making large soil blocks and migrating the seedlings to larger opportunity. i hope it warms up so we can tie into that this afternoon.

yesterday in the afternoon i built a mineral feeder for the cow. i altered my original plan for several reasons. it was going to be round and mount to a stump in our field. now that we have decided to mostly keep the cow in a pen i decided to make it initially mount on her feeder. once she is confinement i will move it to her pen.

i put the final coat of paint on it this morning. i have a large piece of conveyor belt that will cover this like a heavy flap. she will be able to nose up the flap to get to the minerals.

the four compartments will contain; fertrell salt mix, fertrell conditioner, baking soda, and sea kelp. the flap will shed the elements to keep the minerals reasonably dry.

i also built this, is of my own invention and it's use is novel. it will hang from that hole against a post.

it opens like this:

here it is from the bottom.

the first person to guess what this is will win a bar of our lavender soap. i will continue to add clues until someone gets it. the winner must comment on the blog not at FB where my posts copy automatically.

most excellent guesses it is not:
suet feeder
thread feeder

i am unemployed and still can't get everything done..

i am sure that my expectations are higher but still...

we intend to keep our cow in a pen during the evenings and rainy weather. she just tromps around and damages our little paddocks hunting for a blade of grass. we have so little pasture that we need exacting control to manage it effectively. we have good hay for her that she thrives on. she just needs to be exposed to the paddocks when they are ready.

we have started training her to lead on with a halter. today i built her a pen feeder. it will fit whole bale of hay. it seems cobbled together but that is only because it is made from recycled materials. it is sturdy and will offer shelter for her hay. i will be able to fill it and clean it out easily.

next thing to have ready will be her water source. i have to get a new stock tank and plan rain water collection from the barn and roof of the pen.

i worked until after lunch time on her pen then i needed to paint the shelves that i built last night. oh, did i mention that i built shelves?

i made them out of 3/4" plywood sanded both sides. one of them is simply a book shelf that needs to go over our bed. we have tons of books and never enough place to put them. the other one isn't really a shelf but a cabinet. i scored a locking door with keys and have been intending on making a cabinet for our bathroom for several months. creating a receiver for the latching mechanism was a little tricky. i think that it turned out well.

the door is metal so magnets can hold artwork and stuff.

there is even a shelf for the kids nintendos with an outlet for their charger. those chargers are very fragile and toly eats them--literally. a safe haven for nintentos and games is well appreciated.

our seedlings are having a rough time with damping-off. we have been diligently spraying them with the concoction without much success. i am beginning to blame the soil blocks. we'll see if the next batch with sterilized soil does any better. if not we'll have to make a big strike against the soil block maker. although we don't have a control group that is planted in a normal fashion.


the swiss chard seems to like the heated green house.


tristan ripped the net guard for the trampoline. i told him that he was on restriction from it until it got fixed. he convinced kassi to sew it for him so they could play.


i got the new trailer hitch for the van. i'll try to get to that tomorrow. it'll have to be in the afternoon assuming the rain stays away.


this evening i built two more cedar trays for soil blocks. i might be cursing them very soon.


we had rotisserie chicken for dinner. we got the grill to ease kitchen pressure during summer. having the ability to cook a chicken outside will be great. the stove is usually filled with canning stuff and grills are generally easier to clean up after.

you can literally watch bamboo grow

first, let me apologize for the blurry photos. someone, toly, seems to have gotten his little dirty hands on the camera again.


we are trying to grow a huge hedge in front of our house from the road. bamboo is our answer. yes it is invasive but we feel that our privacy is important enough to deal with the ramifications. besides cows eat bamboo. it is native to missouri. finally, uses for bamboo cane is nearly unlimited.


one of the most stunning things i did this week was to install the new front door.

here is the rubble created from the install


we have been gardening in earnest. the potatoes are looking nice.

so are the greens and onions.

yummy beets are really doing well.

this is the tomato bed to be planted yet.

here we have planted beans and tomatillos. bush beans and pole beans.

i mowed the yard to have mulch for the two rows of tomatoes we have planted.

here they are, our hope embodied in a row of amish paste tomatoes.

this is the mixed row, yellow pear, green zebra, cherokee purple, um... we'll i forgot the rest but will consult my expert on these matters.

here is kassi's flower bed. she is so proud of it.

here we are brewing compost tea to amend the the strawberries.

this is my new truck tool box. i love it.


crazy kids, we grow them here too.

two at a time is strictly against the rules. i see no one cares. i choose to pick my battles.


the new chicks are happy and will be going into a tractor very soon.


i also finished the back steel of the coop. finally it is completely enclosed.

those two giant telephone poles are the corner post for the coop pen.

their run should be plenty of room for them.


jocelyn is happily grazing in the electric fenced paddock.

henry sits by the gate waiting for her to return. he knows that it is out-of-bounds for him. but i am sure that he'd ignore that rule to protect her if the need arose.

happy dogs make for well behaved dogs. he has plenty of work to do and takes his jobs very seriously.