It was my turn to take the dogs out before bedtime last night. The sun was just going down so I managed to take some nice sunset pictures. The dogs were going to bed early because they were being pests. I was going to bed early because I am still trying to recover from the plague. After I kenneled everyone I went to the spare bedroom to sleep. I keep flipping around like a fish at night keeping Annmarie awake. 

We were supposed to go move hay in the morning. 

She comes running in to tell me it is pouring down rain. I jump out of bed and go save my saw from the rain. It was indeed pouring down and the Lightning was mighty close. A few minutes after crawling back in bed the fire tones went off for a lightning strike fire just up the road from us. She came in again and woke me to text someone to let us know when the fire was out. She took my phone so I could go to sleep. I did call off the hay help in the morning. 

Update:  The lightning strike was about one mile away on a rough hillside. It was witnessed by a homeowner who said the fire took off immediately and had engulfed an acre in short order. When the fire trucks arrived they could not find the fire. The same storm system that caused me to run outside and save my saw from the rain put out the fire!  It’s a good thing as access to the fire would have been difficult due to the terrain. 

I am sick. I have the plague and as this is much worse than a “man cold” I am truly on my proverbial death bed. So as I lay on the couch this morning eating my cottage cheese and fruit I spotted what I believed to be a coyote sitting on a small ridge about 75 yards from the house. I tried to convince myself it was just a deer but the profile was a little off. I then decided it maybe was a coyote but I was trying to decide how to dispose of it. I contemplated all the benefits and detractors for various calibers of rifle (stall tactic for not getting off the couch). Then I contemplated how I was going to fire a rifle without my head exploding from the noise. I continued to chew my grape and nectarine cottage cheese while deciding if it was really a coyote. I had almost convinced myself it was a deer when it stood up and went into the dry creek bed. It was a coyote. I finished my breakfast and watched the sheep through the front window. I figured if the sheep didn’t panic all was good. Annmarie came home 15 minutes later and I sent her out to patrol the property. No coyote, he lives another day. 

Barn eggs

It is time to bring in the hay.  This is an annual ritual, one that is not always welcomed with open arms.  I did not buy the hay elevator last year so it is going to be another stairway out of bales to the top of the hay stack.  Unfortunately, I had to cover the night shift at work so Annmarie and two young men had to start moving the hay into the barn.  

Before they could even start they had to clean out all the eggs from the barn. I have one hen that is now living in the barn and laying only in the barn. There were 71 eggs in one nest. They got tossed out into the barn lot. I can just imagine what my egg customers would say about getting one of those. 

They started very early on a Saturday and by 2 hours later one of them was dry heaving nonstop and starting to get diarrhea.  He thought he had drank some bad milk the night before.

Unfortunately for the rest of us it was not food poisoning. It was a nasty virus and I have become its latest victim. Annmarie got it next then Sarah now me. I do illness with the grace of a house cat getting a bath. It’s not pretty. All communication with me should probably be done only in the written form to  protect all involved parties. They got 55 bales loaded into the barn out of 295 it’s a start, 16+% complete!!

Now that the old house has been adjusted and supported again the latch I installed years ago to keep the door shut is off by 1/2 inch. I am going to have to move it to make it usable again. Between the night shift and my illness I have not managed to finish the skirting on the old house.  I need to get it done so I can get over to Ruby’s and level that house. I am going to get a bundle of cedar shakes to use as shims when I do her house. 

Lock now 1/2 inch off As you can see we are in the middle of an eastern Oregon summer!  It is hot and dry. One can see why no fireworks and smoking will be happening out at our house.

Farm dead center of the picture

It happened, the wheat fields got harvested last week. I always love to see them working the fields. I had just gotten off the night shift and drove up alongside the fields so I could watch. There is a dusty magnificence about that much food being readied for edible end products. I was told we had a heat spurt that hurt the wheat pretty badly and the yield was low.  Farming is a tough business. Mother Nature is fickle and the weather patterns are not as predictable in our region. 

I found a Kickstarter weather station that gives updates on the Internet to a network of like stations. Some states have entire networks set up for agricultural weather reporting and logging of trends. This helps capture microclimates.  I just need to convince Annmarie it’s worth $250. 

50% completed

I spent yesterday cleaning up the front yard. Once I got all the trash out of the yard I decided that it needed to be finished so I could call the yard side done. I built  a new set of stairs out of all pressure treated wood. They look odd as they are the only true level part of the house. They are nice and sturdy, secure and a foot wider than they used to be.   We had water runoff issues where it was pounding a low spot into the corner of the yard. I filled it with dirt then I attached a 4×4 and filled it all with decorative rock.  The metal bucket is half full of rock and let’s the water pound down without hurting the wood skirting.  Once everything was perfect in the yard I went behind the house and started to tear out the skirt

hand hewn post

I decided to just cut holes in one section near the back porch so I didn’t have to replace all of the skirting.  I did find a couple of hand hewn timbers on the main section of the building.  There were originally only two rooms in the house.  The large front room was an addition and the two small rooms on the back near the creek were additions.  The two small rooms were a kitchen with running water and an indoor outhouse.  I found the hole cut in the floor!
I jacked up the house using the door as an indicator of where it used to be.  The back addition I just kept jacking up till the house complained a lot.  I ended up having to dig about 10 inches of dust/dirt out from under the kitchen/bathroom area.  I still have more of the old concrete blocks from the barn so I am not sure where they will be used.  The 20 ton hydraulic jacks worked very well.  I have one that just does not want to go down even when you open the hydraulic valve.  There is always THAT one noncompliant thing.  

Back addition, kitchen and bathroom

I want to do a little more trimming on the bush on this side.  It had a side die last winter and it needs to be cut out.  I have started to water both of these bushes this week.  We had not been giving them any water this year.  I hope this will help them perk up.

We now have 16 baby chicks!  We went out to the coop yesterday and there was another baby chicken in the coop.  Momma must have carried the baby up into the coop.  They tuck them under their wings and move them that way.  Everyone looks good and is still alive.

I realize it is not perfect, just better than it was and it will last till I am dead now.