Gorgeous weather equals busy days

Saturday, May 2

What a beautiful day it turned out to be. The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze and the temperature was perfect. It has also been a whirlwind day with everything from laundry to making more face masks to hanging out with the turkeys & chicks to putting the hardware back on the cabinet doors to cleaning the cabin and readying it for today’s check-in to updating the cabin manual to shoveling rocks.

The original plan for relocating the rocks was for me to ride up on the carry-all then stay up at the cabin and unload and spread the rock while CountryBoy went back down and filled the carry-all with more rock. The idea behind doing it that way was that we could each rest a bit in between loads.

Well, we headed up the cabin road but the tractor would not make it past the curve with such a heavy load of rock plus me! CountryBoy had me jump off so that he could attempt to back up the road…

… thankfully he’s excellent at backing and he made it up without a problem. The new plan was that I would stay down and help him shovel and fill the carry-all and he would take it up and unload it. He said the unloading was the easy part. While he unloaded I tended to the laundry, put clothes away, put the clean sheets on the bed and watched the birds at the feeders for a bit until he came back down. We did this a total of four times before we decided to call it quits. Four loads covered more ground than I thought it would…

… which pleased me immensely as I didn’t think the rock pile would go very far.

Seeing that gravel up at the cabin is a huge relief. Every time it rains that area is a muddy mess. I’ve almost slipped and fallen a couple of times and it concerns me that our guests might be having the same problem after a good rain. We have a lot more ground to cover but I’m so happy that we’ve gotten a start on it. A tractor with a bucket would be awesome. Our neighbor has one and spread the last load of gravel but he’s super busy and we don’t want to bother him. Our other neighbor that has a tractor with a bucket was the neighbor that CountryBoy helped load onto a trailer and it’s at the shop. But, where there’s a will there’s a way. It may take us a while but we can always use a good workout! Although at our age we have to pace ourselves, teehee!

While I was sitting on the porch waiting for his return the wind picked up and I heard some banging towards the barn…

Yep, that’s more tin working loose. I’ll be so glad when the roof gets replaced. The same neighbor that has the tractor with the bucket is the one that’s going to replace the roof for us. He’s one busy fella so I know he’ll get to us eventually.

I managed to get a few more masks put together. I still need to create the folds and topstitch them into place but I’m working on them assembly line style which will help it go quicker.

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Farm news: 28 eggs

We lost one of our older hens today. I believe she was one of the girls from the first batch we got after moving here. It saddens me every time we lose one but I know that she lived a good life and she was able to live out her days even though she may have stopped laying some time ago.

Sunday, April 3

Today was not a day of rest as it should have been. Instead, we skipped church and went about a few things that needed to be done. Such as finishing up the face masks. I made twelve in total. I wanted to get them finished so that I could take them in to work tomorrow and hand them out.

Speaking of work, my newspaper boss has had a terrible tragedy in her family. Please pray for comfort and peace as they deal with a shocking loss. There are going to be rough days, weeks and months ahead for this family.

This afternoon I went to the B&B to do some work on the computer. I sat on the front porch and recreated a newsletter while listening to the bird song. Much like I am doing this very moment typing this journal entry while sitting on my front porch and listening to the bird song and the buzzing of the hummingbirds a few feet from my head.

After getting home from the B&B I sat on the porch for a bit in hopes to capture the Red Breasted Grosbeak. Two males have been seen at the same time and several females. I finally managed to capture one of them in digital format…

We have also spotted some type of oriole which is another new bird visitor. It was on the hummingbird feeder trying to get some of the nectar. I’ve read that they like fruit and nectar. It has been so cool to have some new breeds of birds at the farm this year!

The past two days have been absolutely gorgeous! The flowers are opening up…

… and we have spent as much time as possible outdoors and doing tasks that can’t be done while it’s raining. Like working on the camper some more. CountryBoy is starting to put the inside back together. Now that the sink and stove top cabinet is back together he can work on the plumbing. It’s coming together.

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I attempted to score a rock with my Dremel and open it using a hammer and chisel. No luck. As I told CountryBoy is was ‘hard as a rock’!

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Farm news: 31 eggs

It is forecasted to rain tonight. Thanks to warm temperatures the garden dried out enough to be able to walk around so CountryBoy decided to plant some Red Saba limas, cowpeas, and the rest of the taters before tonight’s possible rain. It seems every year everyone is trying to get their gardens planted between the rains. I think we’re all getting the hang of it and there are times, such as today, that one has to just get it done.

The beets and potatoes have made their appearance as well as the Sugar Snaps…

The black-eye peas did not come up so CountryBoy planted the cowpeas in their place.

There is still much to plant but the temperature is supposed to drop back down next week so the rest will have to wait. We surely don’t want to jump the gun and take the risk.