Mac Book Pro

Meet Mac. 
Mac is a VERY nice tractor. Abby at Sugar Creek Family Farm and her husband helped us out in our quest to find a working tractor to replace our life sized tractor shaped boat anchor. Here is the incredibly restored machine. It even has a brand new seat cover (which will come in handy in the sub zeros snow shoveling episodes like the one that killed tractor # 1....) and every part that can be painted shiny and new is painted shiny and new. New tires too. We really got a great deal. Thank you to our friends who arranged the deal and delivered it on a Thursday evening!

Mac made quick work of my manure raking chore. Awesome.

Also, I got my summer schedule worked out and if all goes well I'll be replacing lesser Mac with a MacBook named Ford 8N. In all fairness. I'll actually be teaching five online classes this summer and four in the fall. We are going to be really busy here!

The Chicks of the Farm

The Chicken Palace is actually a grain bin and a corn crib with a soon to be constructed run between them. The problem quickly emerged that the chicks were still small enough to squeeze themselves between the gaps and take off running. Sure it's funny at first, but not so fun when all ten chicks are on the loose at the same time. Hobbit helped herd them and Lil'Bug is amazing at catching the fast little chickens. 

Still, it was up to us to fix the problem as the day was heating up and the grain bin would just get too hot, plus the light set up did not work like we intended. The Farm Chicks (Mama P, Lil'Bug, and baby Blueberry) headed to the local lumber yard and purchased 50 ft of chicken wire, 3 ft tall. 

We wrapped the corn crib with it, all but the door (we were short 3 ft.).  It needs to be tightened still and secured better, but it works just like I wanted. Awesome. 

The thing is, right now we are catching each chicken and moving them by hand every morning and evening to move them. The connector run has got to get constructed SOON. I will not want to do this for the next batch of chicks (30 of them) or the next (30 more) or the guineas (um, 30......but hopefully 30 of the previously listed chicks will be chicken pot pies by then.....). So hopefully that will happen THIS weekend. 

She is so good at this chore though. Moments like these remind me why we moved here in the first place. That rooster bit her, by the way, and she named him Nuggets. Cute.

It Just Wasn't Meant to Bee

The bees are gone. As I had worried earlier in the Spring, they were dead and mostly moved out. the recent activity was that of scavenger or robber bees. It must not have bee-n meant to bee. Sorry, couldn't help myself. :)

We had a wonderful time cleaning out the hive though. Jill and Sean of Blue Gate CSA brought equipment and experience, yet we got two trash bags full of bees wax that will be processed into candles and wax blocks. Cool. Jill also gave Lil'Bug a story that she has really held on to this week, about the moon and the sun fighting. Trust me that she needed it. 

We are grateful to Jill and Sean for more than this afternoon, so much more. We met them years ago at a Farm Crawl, Sean gave us a tour of his bees. Then last year, as we were moving down here to their neck of the woods, they invited us for apple cider (and for us to ask all sorts of questions about all sorts of farm things). When I have a question about local things from when to plant, soap, propane, ect.....I shoot Jill an email and always get an answer. Lil'Bug and Blueberry adore them and they make us love living here even more. So a HUGE thank you to them. 

Sprouted new.....

Lettuce, spinach, chard.....

Eggplant that I mistakenly direct sow'd. 

Zucchini 

Green beans

Yellow onion

Maybe the beets. My tags are there but the names washed off. 

I will be weeding today because the weeds also loved the rains.