“Splain to me Lucy… How does a tree branch fall directly on a fence from a tree above, like this???”
I mean, I can get it laying across the fence, maybe pushing it down a bit, but gosh, it has all these places it can fall and instead it lands like a stake into the fence and wrecks it. Honestly! hahaha…
There really is a Murphy’s Law in conjunction with rural homesteading. Let me tell you.
Well, it didn’t take tooooo long, to cut loose this big branch and shove it off the fence. And to bend and push and rewire this section back together. Honestly.
You might be wondering… where the heck has Sherri and the girls been? Well, we have been slowly creeping out of our terrible, awful, worst in the nation, winter. Yes, apparently, the Toledo Ohio region as been awarded the worse winter city of the nation this year! 2013-2014. And let me tell you, I can attest to that. There were so many days that I started to think it was never going to end. And finally…. FINALLY…. it looks like we are there. The grass is growing, the chickens are out, I’ve seen bugs and worms and there is this weird hot light that makes me take my jackets, hoodie and sixteen layers of clothes off…. I think it’s called SUNSHINE!!!!!!
It’s been a hard winter on our flock…. we had sold a bunch in the fall, but still… we are left now with five roosters and eight hens! Time to hit the livestock auction soon!
If you remember, our beloved stick fence was met with disaster late last fall when a very very bad thunderstorm came through and knocked it over. We had propped some of it up, because that fence is important as a secondary barrier for livestock, but it was really failing badly. So we took it down. The gate was still okay and it’s going back to the sheep barn to serve as a gate to the main part of the barn. And we’ve been looking and designing a new fence to go there. We’re going with a sort of new look…. my friend Kerry calls it “Shire Chic” and I think you will love what we have planned! Some stone, some wood… and all Hobbit inspired! Might take us a wee bit, but we are in the planning stages!
Actually, we have been hard at work, any few hours of daylight and warmth we can squeeze out. There is just a lot of cleanup and such to a little homestead after a hard winter. So many days, it was just survive as best you could and feed bags got left in the wrong places and buckets wouldn’t make it home… tree branches, dead leaves, spent hay. Mud. Lots of mud. We have been trying hard to just get everything tidy and in it’s right place again. Including animals and feed sacks and hay and wood and all that. It’s starting to look loved again. And boy, oh boy, do we have ideas for improving the place before next winter. This hard winter has sure shown us areas we can improve.
But that’s another post… I’m so tired of thinking about winter!!!!
Our eight hens are giving us six eggs a day. It’s enough for us, barely, but we will be adding some more girls. Just got to get the poultry barn dried up and cleaned up after not being used most of the fall and winter. It has flooded a bit… Okay, a lot of a bit. Yeah… pretty awful. Well, it’s understandable… 80+ inches of snowfall just has to go somewhere…
We got a little clutch of French Marans to raise up! I love these birds. My favorite. So when a group came available, you can bet I was in on the sale. They are doing well… just eleven of the little critters. And the best part? A lot are blue or splash Marans… which are my favorites of the Marans! They are still in the house because it’s just too cold and unpredictable, still. But soon, they will be going to the new and improved poultry barn coop! Can’t wait…
I will be trying to catch up a bit with the blog and my apologies…. it was just so cold in my office and I need to use my big computer to process pictures and such. And I was laying on my bed, in sixteen layers of clothing and four blankets, sobbing like a baby and depressed as heck over this winter that would never LEAVE…. It’s still lingering a bit, here and there…. but most of it is GONE GONE GONE!!! Can you tell, we are very excited???
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I remember, not that it was that long ago, reading your Facebook posts and realizing that you were struggling with all the bad weather and the seemingly continuous struggles to keep the animals fed, the heat going, and the basement dry. I would tell my husband about your struggles and he said when they get through this awful winter, they will be able to get through anything. I am so happy that your optimism is back and those dreadful bad moments are gone. I think that there’s a reason humans get to see the spring births of both the plant and animal world; if we didn’t have those beautiful plants and those sweet babies, we would not have anything to make those dark days seem worth it. My grandmother lived on a little farm and I lived with her twice during my life: when I came out of the hospital from having polio and when my grandfather died. Both of my times of living with her were extended so I saw her struggles up close. I remember the first winter after my grandfather died and it had snowed and iced all winter. We had to chase cows back into the barn, fight with a damn rooster that thought we were hawks coming to eat his ladies, and round up a run away pig. Every day, she would get up and load coal into the coal stove and we started our day all over again with hard work that made my feet cold and my hands hurt. But, when spring came and she saw the signs that a cow was about to give birth, we both started hanging out in the barn and once those first births came, her mood changed and she was happy again. I loved spring for that very reason. Now, I know that she suffered from depression related to the loss of sunlight.
Next year, if there is another long and hard winter, you and your girls will be ready and if mother nature’s wrath skips a year, you guys will breeze through winter with plenty of wood to spare, plenty of food and water, and lots and lots of plans for the what ifs.
I cannot wait to see the fruits of your labors. Babies. Yeah.
So glad to see you back and posting. I was wondering what happened to you all.