Remembering, Doing, and Looking Forward, All in a Saturday's Work

How's the Hothouse and Market Shed project going?

Well this is where I left you last, the big trees were down,

the little brushy trees got cut out, and I kept looking at what it was going to be.

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Last Sunday, the last day of February, Mr. Leonard, Leonard and Sons Excavating, came for dinner and a survey of what we needed his operator to do. This was how it looked then. And he promised to send us an operator and an excavator on Saturday morning.

Well sure nuff, early (early for us lazy bones) on Saturday morning, Greg the Operator showed up with the excavator to dig out all the stumps so that the site could be leveled, graveled and the building started.

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One of my favorite children's books is Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton, (a girl, in case you didn't catch the Virginia part) this was pretty much like living in that book for a few hours.

The excavator began making quick work of the big stumps in the ground. I was in making coffee and so I missed a lot of the beginning work but Anna caught much of it on video and in pictures.

Greg would lift the stumps way up in the air and then open the grip and drop them from up high. All that crazy action to get as much soil as possible off of the stumps before tossing them over the fence.

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The excavator is on tracks not tires, the potential for a lot of underground water to be pumped up to the surface with the back and forth motion made it necessary for the stumps to be shook and dumped in a pile on this side, then the

crazy prehistoric robotic alien jaws would toss them over the fence to be moved one more time after that to the rot pile. No stump burning piles are allowed any more.

Mr. Leonard, holding the coffee cup, has even gone to testify to the legislature that not burning is actually harder on the environment and creates more pollution than just burning them.

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But no, the greeners are narrow minded and insist that if they see a big burn that it is more damaging that all the less conspicuous but much larger carbon footprinting that it takes to have stumps ground instead.

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Oh well, ranting about the current "green" movement is for another day. Or more like days, 'cause if I said it all at once it would be a long post even for me.

Gregg chatting with Bruce, telling us that the thumb broke on the second stump pulling. The thumb is what grips and holds things in the bucket, or "scoopy thing" just in case it isn't called a bucket. Gregg is my new hero!

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We were all in love with Gregg on Saturday, okay some of us still are, Dirt sent him home with a bottle of plum wine (sorry Kimberly, but we had to give away one from your special cache) but I still want to bake him a cake every day, every time I look at my beautiful building site!

In the middle of the excavating lambs began to drop. We ended up with five lambs from three ewes on Saturday. We went out to check on the first batch that dropped just to make sure everything was going well.

But then came back for the final touches that Gregg put on the site. He exchanged the small bucket for a larger one and because the thumb was broke it would not stay back so it got chained up to the "wrist" so that the "fingers" could fill in holes and smooth out the dirt.

Mr. Leonard, with Dirt's help, predicted that the area would be pretty wet and a big mess, needing a lot of special help and $ if we were going to have it ready to build before August let alone by the end of this month. Well, that may have been true on any other year but this one...

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This one is all about me, so if you live in the PNW and are not enjoying our mild and dry winter and spring, blame me.

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Everything is going so well that if I don't make my schedule, I am nothin' but a looser. A blessing and a test all rolled into one!

Justin from up north, joined us just in time to see the leveling of the site and help get the truck unstuck from the driveway, it pays to have an extra truck driver on hand.

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Now for checking on the lambs...

and look more lambs have dropped in close proximity to the first batch! This is a problem! We run to jump in to the escalating issue.

You see, some moms are not satisfied with just their lambs, they want every one's lambs and will attempt to adopt all of them. Sometimes if we are not out there right away it can be a confusing mess to try and get the right moms with the right babies.

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Even though the moms think that they want more lambs, once they get them all rounded up and huddle away from the other mother, they realize their mistake and reject the ones that aren't theirs. It is easy for them to know which ones were really theirs to begin with, one sniff tells it all.

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But after all the ruckus and mixing of lambs it is often too late to get the right lambs back with the right mom.

This is why we take the ewe's and lambs into the barn once they have dried off and nursed. We try to wait at least that long so that the mom's aren't quite so nervous on the trip into the barn. But they need to be in the barn eventually not just to protect them from Bald Eagles and Coyotes, but to protect the new lambs and new moms from the bossy older sister and auntie ewes.

Anna catches the lamb so that Dirt can catch the ewe. Justin is the newest inductee into the world of lamb rustling and ewe driving.

Anna makes sure mom knows where her lamb is. Then the slow dance begins. Around and around we go, closer and closer, less and less tense around Mr. Vick...

and snag! the ewe is caught so she can be taken in the barn. This first batch will go in now. Then we will do some other farm work and come back and get the other ewes and lambs.

Bet, Anna and Justin spread lime on the front pastures, Dirt and I ran into town for some lunch fixins' and seed potatoes. We ate a lovely lunch and then headed out back to spread more lime and minerals on the hay fields out there.

Dirt is really diggin' on having the PTO driven cyclone spreader on the back of the tractor. It sure beats having a hand driven-hand held spreader, makes a week-long job get done in an hour or two, one of a few reasons, excuses, as to why the pastures and fields were a bit on the neglected side lime wise.

Bet asked to be chief tractor driver for this job, we were all good with that, especially since the lime is virtually dust free!

The rest of us gave the dogs some well needed entertainment and exercise, and the some of us just lounged around thinking of how tired we were from all that stump pulling. Man, my back hurts.

It was a splendid day, the sky was clear and blue, the mountain was in all his glory, just a great day to accomplish a ton of work and visit with a friend from way up north.

Definite difference in flinging styles.

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After all this hard work and picking up more lambs and moving everyone around in the barn, it is rest time. A great simple supper, review of the day of excavating on video (thanks Peanut Butter) and a movie capped off the day.

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Hey, about that pen, the ink pen, you have all asked about, it is a Uniball 207, marketed for anti-check fraud, but really it is for me, remember it is all about me, and writing notes in the mist and rain that I am sure we will get back to as soon as I need some rain in my life. Remember, it is all about me right now.

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Oh, how does the site look? In all the excitement over lambs and spreading lime I forgot to take pictures of the finished site. Anna went out early this morning, a cold frosty morning and got a few pictures of it.

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Brrr, we got cold here, even snowed a bit yesterday, but not to worry, anything that was tender is protected and the apple blossoms haven't begun to swell, neither have my fruiting cherries, just the ornamentals, so I'm thinkin' were still okay.

The site? She is lookin' pretty stinkin' good!

And ready for the next phase, Building!!!

Here at Vicktory Farm and Gardens, we have all been bitten by one type of bug or another, just not this one!

Today and Tomorrow, Oh and Yesterday Too

Today and tomorrow are the best days for seeding root crops and perennials, I'm a busy lady for the next couple of days. Plus Mr. Leonard's crew (okay, one operator) is coming early Saturday morning to rip out the stumps and level out my building site then Mr. Vick can get the gravel in here, and start my buildings.

Six ewes have lambed, there are nine more to go. Docking tails happens late this afternoon.

Yesterday, right on cue in the afternoon, ewe number six, Rickie, a first timer, had two lambs. Way to go Rickie. We all walked out to see how they were doing and bring them up to the barn.

One little guy seemed to not look so good.

Mr. Vick does a quick check with his assistants standing ready to help. A finger slipped in the mouth reveals all is well and nice warm temperature.

Where the heck did Rickie go?

What is she running off to and look at the one baby doing his best to keep up with mahm.

Here comes the crowd, galloping, bawling ewes. Some of them are definitely heavy with lambs. Most of our sheep are Suffolk, a down breed, raised primarily for meat. Their wool is not barbed and therefore not the greatest to spin up and it will not felt like others. Because it doesn't felt up it is popular to use as batting for quilts.

Ooops off track again.

This was what they were all running for, the girl with the grain. Bet is the routine livestock feeder and she is doing an awesome job this year. All the ewes are looking great nutritionally.

If you listen closely you'll hear her singing as she swings her empty bucket, most likely Danny Boy or Desperado, maybe it is a tune from American I. but usually it is one of her Johnny Cash tunes. Gotta get the girl a new cd to listen to.

Well it is time to head to the barn now that all the other ladies have been distracted by the grain. Anne and Abby will carry the lambs out in front of the mom and that helps get her moving forward.

Off to get seeds in flats and under a low poly tunnel.

God is good. His goodness never ends and it never takes a break.

Leonards, Lambs, and Landscaping

Our good friends, the Leonards, have big equipment, so to get out the stumps, who do we call? The Leonards! Leonard Excavating, with big fat stump ripping out excavators! Yahooooo!

And what do we do when we call friends over? Eat!

But what happens when the Vicks sit down to eat? Lambs!

It's Tilly! Anna's bottle lamb (I.V. recipient even) from two years ago. So this is her first set of lambs.

And look! She had two! And she is an awesome mom already! Wow, that doesn't always happen.

You really ought to see EBet's newborn lamb walking imitation. It cracks me up!

One of the lovely Leonard ladies, Miss Ellianna and Vicktory Farm & Garden's First Mate, Miss Bet, hanging out with the lamb-ers.

Master Lucas ended up having a very interesting evening, shortly after we finally ate dinner another ewe went into labor and this one needed help.

Terry had a good time going down memory lane, she was one of those lucky children I envied every September when I, city-girl-farmers-daughter, would go to the State Fair and see other youngsters with their animals. Terry was a sheep girl.

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Then her older girls and my older girls went through 4-H sheep together. So she was having fond memories of lambing season. But memories were as far as she wanted to ever go again.

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So lamb count is at six: four ram lambs, two ewe lambs, out of four ewes. Eleven more ewes to go.

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And the landscaping? The stumps may be gone by Saturday afternoon, if all goes well and Mr. Leonard can spare some equipment. So if the stumps are gone, then the dirt, ground, can be shoved around, the building site leveled, gravel hauled in and then a hot house and market shed! Yippeeeee! On my way to being a grown up, man this is exciting!

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March looks like it is coming in as a lamb too, well at least for the first day. From there, who knows, 'cuz most of the last couple of months the weather man has called for rainy wild weather and we get mild drizzle and a bit of sun. Crazy.

Oh Peas, Another Baby Announcement!

These are barely the fetal stage! Aren't they cute though, sitting in the furrow waiting to be covered. One of five different shelling peas: Canoe, Wando, Green Arrow, Alaska, Maestro.

Oh, but this is really what you came for isn't it Dear Reader? This year's first lambs hit the ground as we went out to plant peas after a quick day in town to get supplies and order a pallet of lime.

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But the lambs needed some quiet time with mom to make sure they had a chance to find the faucets on their own, that is always the best way. More success with less mess.

So we went out and planted peas, and once again Lanny's eyes were bigger than her beds and so a couple more needed to be quickly cleared out, mineraled, limed, raked out and planted. Easy to do when the beds were basically already there, just a few fall and winter weeds needed go.

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My goal for the year, no tiller until we get to the market garden. Hard to keep Mr. Tillerman from reving up the Troy Builts at every chance.

My new tool. Check that. My new favorite tool, a telescoping (I didn't even know it did that before I dubbed it favorite) cultivator with hoe, it is bright red and has a hanging loop. Life is good. All the peas got in. Just in the nick of time.

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Tomorrow is in a barren sign, one of the barren-est, good for weeding tough weeds, which we will be doing, in between checking on lambs and watching for more.

So after the last pea was planted, and before we lost all the light, we all went out to bring the mom and babies in. Poor mom, she didn't have a name, just one of Bet's type sheep, a good one but not a kissy face fit-and-show sheepy sheep.

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But I insisted that a good mom couldn't remain just a number. Since she was a type sheep with Lucy, the fit-and-show sheep, that last year Bet showed, Bet has dubbed her, Ethel!

So Ethel, formerly just a number, has entered the realm of "she's a keeper". Two great lambs both up and doing well. There was a little concern that maybe the ewe lamb hadn't nursed but Anna quickly made sure it was totally hooked up. (I think Anna may actually be done with wanting bottle lambs, hurray we all shout!)

In the dim light of evening we all head back to the barn after a chock a block full and hard workin' day.

Ethel-Mom and babies are safely in the barn with her pick of stalls, well not really, but she could have. Everything looks good so we head in for split pea soup. And no, I didn't plan on eating pea soup on pea planting day, but what the heck, good coincidence eh?!

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Good night Dear Reader, I am one tuckered momma myself and so I am off to bed so that I can wake up in the middle of the night and take a lamb-spotting shift, or at the very least roll over and ask Dirt to.

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Lots to talk about soon, lots in my brain while out gardenin'.

Updates and Reprieves...For Some.

More bottles were purchased today when Anna went to town. Why, why should she need more bottles?

Because she wishes for bottle lambs each year and each year she gets one maybe two, a few years back she didn't have any, but this year she has six!

Bottle lambs are called bummer lambs, it is where the sixties' dope smokin' flower children got their saying of, "Oh, man, that's a bummer."

But Anna doesn't consider it a bummer. Anna loves babies so much she is willing to take them in animal form. Last year one of her two bottle lambs was in such bad shape that Dr. Dale (a real Dr.) gave her an IV bag and showed her how to get her a little dextrose sub q. Nurse Anna had the IV bag hanging from a nail by the woodstove it looked like a make shift MASH unit for a while. But she got that pathetic thing up and around in no time and now she is one of this year's largest yearlings.

This morning's orphans are quite small, little itty bitty things, (which is one reason that the prolapse clearly was a hereditary thing, not a giant baby won't come out thing). Which by the way was our first post partum prolapse, the pregnancy prolapses are so much easier to deal with because it is just a little bit of tissue you have to shove in and take a little stitch to hold it.

Another by the way, by the way, my goats never prolapsed. I miss my goats.

Now for the reprieves.

Purr Bobb, the tile hockey player, put on his mean eyes, got down to business and was seen catching two mice.

The first one we are not sure was dispatched to mice heaven, or hell as the case may be, because he was only seen playing with it.

But the second one he definitely polished off because....

Songbreeze Swifteye was trying her best to assist him in his catch so when he did finally have a good grasp on it he kilt it straight away so that Swift could not get it and take credit for the bounty.

Alright the two of you may have a few kibbles but don't go getting all crazy with thinking you're the greatest. That was only two.

Oh, by the way for those inquiring minds.... Dirt sets lots of traps indoors for the little vermin (luckily we do not have rats yet). He actually ties the meat to the little trigger and sometimes when the population is on the rise he will just get sat down when we hear, "snap." That will go on for about four times and then they start spacing themselves farther apart. We notice that they, the mice clan, send the little guys up first and it isn't until they are just about at an hour interval that they are big and sleek.

You know Kathy, if I moved to that high rise condo I think that the bears and cougars would just follow and the vermin would be there to greet me into my new home! So I might as well stay.

Hey have a great weekend Dear Reader and remember that yes, things do happen for a reason, mostly because we live in a fallen world at the moment. But God is good and gracious and we have hope for eternity that others do not and A Way for handling the here and now as well. We ought to be urgently living in His will for His glory and for the souls that are perishing.