One more update

Since the weather has been very nice and the immense quantity of outdoor work is not taking care of itself I have been outdoors working from dawn to well past dark doing the things that need to be done. This evening it rained bucketloads (I should say it is raining bucketloads) so I was forced to come inside and face the results of not being inside the house much, which at this point is things piled here and there instead of neatly put away, including a pile of dishes needing a wash.

The time spent outside has been profitable though, the gardens are looking nicer than I ever expected though the soil deficiencies are showing rather obviously, which prompted me to begin shoveling the first batch of pig produced compost from the barn in preparation for shoveling it onto the dump truck so I can haul it to the various areas that will be receiving it. The main reason I wanted to get pigs was to make compost with their assistance and so far I am more than pleased, I had a nice layer of pure cow manure in the barn from when they stood in there this winter and spring during rains so I just put the pigs in there and they have done all of the work of turning it into the best compost I have ever had. Today I took the shovel in there and it is a nice fluffy layer of clean and great smelling compost, nothing like the awful muck I have had before. So far the pig project is a huge success and I hope to enlarge the whole project.

Last week I worked getting an auction sale ready which kept me away from home almost every day. It was near Rolla so I spent a good deal of time on the road but the side benefit of this was I had the use of a very new and very nice pickup, all fuel provided, all meals paid for and I was paid the very generous hourly rate even while commuting so I didn’t mind the long drive. What I did mind was my own fault, being that I like to get on a job and just keep at it until dark so I was getting home quite late, feeding the growing menagerie I have here and then going out to pull weeds in the garden for a while (using headlights to see) before getting a few hours of sleep and starting all over again in the morning. I worked whatever hours I wanted, which was nice because I could work here in the morning for a while and work up there later at night and drive in the dark when it is not so easy to work outside. I still didn’t stay ahead of the weed areas in the garden and I didn’t get the shop cleaned like I wanted to but I can do that this week.

Kyle and I got quite a stack of hay done up in his barn and I got the hayfield over at the other farm cut and this afternoon we got about 400 bales on the trailer before it started pouring rain. There is about 1,200 bales worth of hay still down getting rained on at the worst possible stage but I can’t control the weather so I won’t worry about it. On the positive side, I finally got a piano (I haven’t picked it up yet) that should fit in the door here so I am very happy, I’ll have to really squeeze things in because this place is already far too full of belongings but it will be worth any amount of cramped living if only I can practice whenever I want for however long I like. My piano playing has seriously stagnated as a result of not practicing for 9 months and I would really like to be improving instead of stagnating since I have a lot of room to improve as any of you who have heard me play will know.

I’ve got a raccoon trying to help me type and it’s a bit tough to try and type with another pair of hands in the way, I have another one laying across the back of my chair and massaging my back and that feels wonderful so I guess I’ll just leave them alone for the moment. They insist on inspecting everything within reach, and some things not in their reach which makes watching them always very entertaining. I’ve wanted a pet raccoon for several years, ever since I read Sterling North’s “Rascal” I suppose, but I always envisioned one or at the most two of them, not five! I am not usually an animal in the house person but I’ve made an exception in this case because they are so cute, especially all looking out of a box with their little black masks and glowing eyes and it’s pretty neat to watch them work on things with their little hands.

The strawberries gave a really excellent crop though I am having trouble with the ripe ones disappearing now. I expect the berries to stop real soon though because the runners are going everywhere and it’s about the time they switch from berries to runners.

I guess the only other big project I have finished in the gardens is tilling up another ½ acre in two plots and drilling buckwheat there for a cover. I figured I should have something growing there to collect the solar energy and turn it into fertilizer for next year. If it grows like it should I’ll be tilling that buckwheat in around the first of August and I’ll plant winter rye in it’s place soon afterward with the plan of letting it grow up and grazing it a little this fall before freeze up, then I should be able to put the cows in there and graze it good in the spring before much other grass is up next spring saving the other pastures the burden of cows really early in the spring. Once it is grazed off I’ll be able to till in the large root mass that rye leaves along with the layer of manure the cows will leave behind, which ought to make for a really nice garden spot next year. I bought a tiny pony drill that works great behind my little tractor and it does a really tidy job of seeding small areas like these ¼ acre plots I am doing.

I guess that’s all that is new around here, at least all that I am able to remember right now, I need to get to bed as it’s not going to be long and I’ll have five hungry ‘coons trying to wake me up to give them their breakfast.