The progeny badgered me this week to get back in the groove and update the blog. It has been crazy around here and during Lent, Annmarie is super busy so I pick up farm work. We have both gotten sick. Luckily, we are super careful to keep quarantine protocols in place so if one of us starts getting sick we make sure to not be sick at the same time. I did get a bunch of little things knocked out. I had purchased a carved wooden chest several years ago and I took five hours to scrub at it with Murphy wood soap, blue non scratch pad, two different stiff small brushes, sponge and lots of towels. I just drenched sections of the carving in soapy water and started scrubbing away at it to get the dirt and grime off. I probably need another five hours to really get it clean but the time I spent got all of the obvious stuff and brought out a lot of details. I also soaked it in lemon oil. I had so much oil on it that I had to go back in an hour and dry it off again. It is fairly painstaking work but it did turn out nice.
Annmarie has the alpaca literally eating out of her hand now. She keeps treats in her trunk and feeds the alpaca randomly when she comes home. They all know not to bug her when she goes out to her car as they never get fed then. Since it’s random she is able to call them and they come running for treats! She has the three young siblings tamed down the most. The little brown one just lets her pet it all over. I can pet it’s neck and cheeks only. The plan is to shear the alpaca sooner than later. Which reminds me, I need to send off the blades to be sharpened! I will do that this week.
I started looking at Craigslist again. I had a friend who used to watch it all the time for me and let me know when something popped up that I may want. He is no more and I have not done much with it since. It’s a good way to see what people are asking for their livestock and to see if there are any deals that I may be interested in. I happened to spot someone selling Tamarack 50” wooden fence stays and was able to go out the next day and pick up 300. Between the great used fence and these stays I managed to pick up this winter I am almost set for fence building. I have seen an add for used metal T posts but I cannot use my tractor to drive in the used posts. They bend about 50% of the time so I have to waste too much to make it worth it. I simply do not want to drive 500 T posts into the ground by hand. I am too old for that. Plus, I don’t want to spend a week driving posts in the ground, as if my body would tolerate that!
I had purchased these plastic stackable bins for Annmarie’s office to hold her laser wooden sheets but they turned out to be too narrow to hold very much wood. Annmarie had talked to me about building something or else using a bunch of table tops and short legs from IKEA to make it. I didn’t do either one but after time I realized she was right. I also realized that I was stacking up extra plywood as the mud room build continued. So Mr Rainman and I spent a few hours and made her a shelf that was specific to her needs and could store boards flat. It is fairly heavy as it is made out of plywood and real wood. I don’t think it would have been fun to move if we had added another 4-5 shelves. Luckily, she needs a spot for the printer and laminator.
The sheep are making us crazy. We have three more ewes that need to give birth. We have one set of twins in a jug now that are only three days old. The damn chickens are laying eggs in the barn in random spots. I have two raccoons that are making rounds through the barn at night. I had a late Wednesday and didn’t go out to the barn until after 2000. I spotted two huge raccoons and instantly turned around to get a pistol, by the time I got back there was only one and it was fast! They are sneaking in and eating the cat food. The weather should be warming up soon and I can cut back on feeding all of the animals as the grass will start growing. It rained 3/100 today and 1/100 yesterday. My hope is we can get warmer temperatures and some constant rainfall in low doses. I don’t like it when we get more than 1/4” at a time. It doesn’t all get absorbed into the ground. The puppy is finally out of the cone of shame. We had to go through three cones and 3/4 roll of duct tape to keep them on her. Her foot finally healed once she quit licking it all of the time.
We will be sorting cows and sheep next week and fertilizing fields. Spring is soon to be here.
Stewart Creek Somethings 