Sunday Story

It's so beautiful here today, that I have windows open to clear the doggy smell out of the winter house and turned the furnace off for a while while we worked outside with no jackets!  Right now, at 5:11, it's 63 degrees, on February 26th!

In fact, look who is back in their big pasture, next to our yard!

The Spehars had moved their eight calves out of the big pasture and into their "yard" pasture just outside their house, because it has a barn and a waterer for the really cold days.  Since winter has been mostly a non-event around here, they moved the calves yesterday back into the big pasture where there is a pond for them to drink from.  We were glad to see them, we like these little calves.  They all came over to see me this morning, and to "talk" to their llama friends. 

I have enjoyed seeing these little guys growing.. so has Keith... though we don't like to think of their end.  Our neighbor Kathy told me today that she would like to fence part of their acreage so they could raise a couple of calves for their big family to share.

The chickens had a great day in this weather... and here is the big flock waiting for me to bring their bread treats.  They get old bread from the Hostess bread store across from my office.

And here's what we collected this afternoon.  Sixteen nice eggs!

Keith is on vacation this coming week, and look what he was working on this afternoon.  Here's the first hoop in, and he is working on the others while I type this.  In fact, there are six more already up.

He will make a wall on the front and back, with ventilation, of course.  He will also make a way to tie the whole thing together, to make it wind resistant.  Our first hoop, you know, did not work... he used a short plastic t-piece that normally is meant for plumbing... it would not hold the loops at the tension they needed to be.  Now, he has devised a way to sand down the PVC, and feed the smaller pvc into a piece at the top which you cannot tell from this picture which fits over both sides and holds them fine.  He had to cut nine inches off either side, to make everything work, but as you see, there is plenty of headroom.

Here you can see the slightly bigger piece in the middle, into which the other two parts are fed.

While I'm in here typing this, Keith is hard at work on making more hoops.  I'm going to close down now, and go do dishes, as we have already eaten.  Then I'm actually going to sit down and watch a little of the Academy Awards, and you notice I say "a little".  That's about all I can take. I don't think I have seen even one of the pictures that are nominated this year, for ANY award... pretty sad!

By the way, I stand corrected about yesterday's Western Farm Show.  Keith told me he enjoyed seeing all the equipment that big farmers have to have, that he found it interesting, but he's glad we don't have to have that kind of debt.  So am I!