Portable Sawmill

The portable sawmill guy came last week - and the sawmill is still sitting in our back field.  Each day, Jeff helped saw some of the logs and old barn beams that we have been accumulating.  A lot of it was walnut so far.  By the end of the week, we had a pretty nice pile of lumber started.  We still have another walnut log, 2 maple logs and one sugarberry log to go.

Weekend Brings Showers

After planting over 250 grapevines on Friday, Saturday brought saturating rains...no chance for working in the garden at all.   Luckily we had another type of "shower" planned for that afternoon - Gracie's surprise bridal shower, which sure made up for all the rain!

It took until late Sunday afternoon that the ground was ok enough to start planting more vines - got another 60 in the ground, then it got too dark.  About 200 more to go (the root stocks are safe in a trench, soaked, and covered with peat moss and soil).

Timber!

We will have a portable saw mill coming in on Monday to finally get all our logs cut into boards.  We just had one more walnut tree (which was starting to get sick), that needed to get cut down.  Since the tree was leaning precariously close toward the garage - and it was just a little too big for our chain saw -  we decided to have someone come in and cut it down.  The tree feel safely away from the garage, and just touched the top row of blackberries with no damage at all.  Jeff and Zach finished the project by cutting the smaller pieces into firewood, while Lars stacked it all up. 

Crush Pad Built!

Cement was delivered and poured earlier this week for what we are calling our future crush pad. This is a section right in front of the barn where the outside floor is level with the inside barn floor, which will make it really easy to roll out our cider press. The section is also high enough off the ground on the far end to line up with a trailer or bed of a pick-up truck.  This area could also be used as a patio, since it offers a nice view of the pond and grape vines - or, if need be, it could double as a dance floor! Another large project done...just in time, because on Friday we are getting our order of 500 new grape vines!!!!

First Day of Spring!

Oliver on Walkabout

Our desert tortoise, Oliver, has figured out that he can push on the screen door and get it open (we never latched it until today). With temperatures in the 70's, we have been leaving our kitchen door open, letting the screen door swing back - never thinking anything of it. So yesterday, a bicyclist stopped in the middle of the road and yelled for Sam, who was playing with the dogs across the street. He had seen this rather large turtle in the middle of the road and did not want it to get hit, so he stopped right in front of it and guarded it against possible cars. He was afraid to pick it up, not knowing what kind of turtle it was and I can't blame him, with a large pond visible from the road, it may have been a snapping turtle. Sam met the turtle rescuer, thanked him and picked up the turtle, explaining that he was our pet...ugh, what kind of pet do you have running loose in your house?

Fishing for Bluegills in March

Tina and Lars went to visit Zach, Rachel, Toben and Fiona in Ohio over the weekend, Sammy had to work and Jeff spent most of his time pointing rocks in the barn.  When it was time to take a break, Jeff could not resist the warm weather and figured he'd try to maybe catch a bass, thinking it would be way too cold yet for bluegills to be active.  But on Sunday afternoon he got lucky, and - to use his words - all of a sudden the pond was just bubbling with bluegills that had come toward the surface.  Yes, he caught some, cleaned them and we'll have fish for dinner on Monday :)