Dry Ground and a new pasture

The pond receded and the work has begun on the pasture. Thanks to neighbor Joe, the main horse pasture is cleared and the fences are on order. Last Sunday Joe came over with his bobcat and we ripped the old fence. It was a good workout, hoisting metal poles and rolling up wire. Joe showed me how to use a chainsaw and I went at all the little dogwood trees growing in the pasture. After we got the fence out, Joe cut down an overgrown dogwood tree that was growing near the barn. That'll make some nice firewood! That reminds me, I need Dad to come down adn show me how to operate the wood burning furnace.

There is lots to do before the cold sets in. I need to winterize the chicken coop, and do some work on the barn windows to cut down on drafts. Luckily, the barn is well situated out of the wind and the 2' thick stone walls will keep the animals warm and dry.

Next weekend is barn clean up day. Anyone reading is cordially invited to come out and help sweep out the barn. If you have a sledgehammer, bring that as I want to take out the old whelping box. I think it was used for pigs?? Whatever it was for, I don't need it now. We can dismantle that and have a big ole bonfire with the wood.

See you then,
becx

Welcome to Lake La Bella!

We weren't kidding about the rain. I got home last night and Lisa got out a flashlight to show me the new "koi pond." Sure 'nuf...there was a sizable pond in the area formerly inhabited by the yard. Ever willing to roll with whatever life throws at us, Lisa got in the spirit of the new waterfront property and donned a swim cap. We didn't have any koi so we got the rubber duckies from the bathtub. Just as we were taking this photo Gabby came blazing through the pond. She never slowed down, just ran straight through.
So before I say another word, I have to hand out some "Most Amazing Friends/Family" awards. First, to Lisa, for bringing the Trek Truck over to the old house last night. She called me as I was having yet another meltdown over th backsplash and then just went into action. She called the trek store and borrowed their box truck and drove straight into Madison with it, at 8pm!! We loaded the rest of my junk into it, all during a steady downpour. As I was handing boxes up to her I was thining "oh my gosh, she's amazing." And she is.

I also want to thank my most wonderful brother, for helping me not once, but twice (or was it three times) loading up truck/car/bigger truck and driving up to the farm to unload. He didn't complain, just pitched in every time I needed it. Thanks, Brian. You're the best big brother anyone could ever have.

Last but not least, an enormous thanks to my friend Cheri Lewis for helping me out with loading, moving, cleaning the old place. She solved one problem after another and didn't listen to me when I said "everything is out of the closet/basement/bedroom." GOod thing or I'd be missing a bunch of sheets, towels and my ski waxing bench. Cheri, I owe you--and thanks.

The house sold, I signed the paper work an hour ago and am celebrating by making a blog entry. I am feeling exceptionally grateful and lucky to have the friends and family I do.

Once the euphoria wears off I can get to unloading the truck. Until then, here is a photo of the last bit of my move; all my books and dishes are in this truck. I don't know why I need 4 sets of dishes....and don't any of you answer that.

Rain Rain & More Rain

Sorry for the lack of updates, kids. It's been Trek World this week so we've been keeping odd hours. More news as we resurface from the 14+ hour days.

In a quick recap of farm goings on, last Friday I had to get a hawk out of the chicken run. Thanks to Gracie barking at the hawk and me waving at him, we got him to fly out of the hole in the net he used to come in. We decided that the chickens didn' need that part of the run anyway so it's off limits for the chickies.

The girls (hens) are going great; producing lots of eggs. As far as I can tell, they LOVE grapes, and LOVE cantaloupe and love tomatoes. They will eat grapes over mangoes and don't seem to like green pepper. So much for chickens eating "anything."

During the last week it was hard to catch any down time so every morning, I took some fruit to the chickens, sat on the chicken observation bench with my cup of coffee and watched the "Chicken Show." I love the chickens. I don't have a favorite per se, but I do like Marsala and Pot Pie, the oranged chickens. The others tend to pick on Marsala and give her sharp pecks with their beaks at the feeding thingie so I started giving her her own pile of chicken feed so she can eat in peace.

Lisa and I have a contest going to see who can pick up one of the chickens first. I'm as far as getting them to eat out of the grain scoop as I lean in to drop the feed in the feeder.

So I mentioned rain; it's been raining for 2 days straight, on top of the 3 days of rain last week. The grass is starting to look more like Stella D'Oro day lillies. I'm going to need a tractor to mow it. And more rain to come.

Well, that's the news this week from La Bella Vita.
becx

Pics of Week One

Ah yes...life on the prettiest farm in the world! So here are a few photos to chronicle the occasion.

Lisa ran up the sidewalk and hopped up and down.

Then it was my turn. I opened up the door and we had to take a photo of that seeing as it's exciting to open the door to the farm!!!


Here's me waving, like a big dork.


So then it was on to the really really exciting part; turning the key!!!



As you can see it was a nice day. A bit on the steamy side but
what would moving be if it wasn't really hot or really snowy?


Lisa managed to get her air mattress blown up and the dogs thought that was a good thing. Here she is, just before we turned out the lights. I enjoyed a pet free evening seeing as the furry friends all went for the low lying mattress.

And we had our first visitors! Lisa's parents, Erica and Manny drove up from St. Louis and brought a lovely fruit basket and about 5 bottles of wine which was happily consumed. Here's Erica, modeling one of the many hats on display in the living room wall.

And here is a great shot of Lisa with her parents. They had a nice time, even though their greeting was their daughter trying to make Gabby drop a skunk as they pulled in.

During the move we left the door open for oh, a few hours and a few hundred flies and moths dropped in.

Lisa's solution was fly strips. It looked like a party!!


And so it's been. We're moving on to the fences, sewer repair, and water-in-the barn phase!! stay tuned for that episode.
ciao,
becx

First Week at the Farm: SKUNK!

Howdy friends and family. Well, we moved last Tuesday (what day is today??) and the adventure began. I picked up a big Ryder truck and loaded up my stuff. Lisa and her mighty funny friend Sean helped me load and then we drove to Lisa's to grab her big items. I won't spend much time talking about "killer" --the California King mattress of Lisa's that we tacoed in an attempt to get it out of the apartment, on the truck and then reverse it at the farm. Sean couldn't stay to help us unload so we did that part ourselves. By 4pm we were giddy and about falling down. We had a couple close calls unloading the mattress and the iron fireplace, and the only casualty was a toad that got flattened when we dropped the mattress.

Wednesday I had the farm closing and then had to go to work. Lisa had the day off and when I got home on Wednesday night she had totally set up the living room and it was beautiful. She's got a great eye and by combining her furniture and mine, she had set up a lovely room. She also set up my bed so I'd have a place to sleep so night 1 was upstairs, in the air conditioned room with both dogs, Lisa on her air mattress.

We woke up all giddy and ran around outside with the dogs and must of said 500 times "it's beautiful!!" And it is. This is the prettiest farm in the whole world, and I'm not kidding. La Bella Vita is absolutely stunning.

The rest of the week was entertaining as we were discovering even more cool stuff about the farm. On Saturday I took Lisa's truck back to Hoboken to pick up some things. Brian helped me load (thanks brother!) along with my neighbor Cheri. I went back on Sunday for another load and I'm still not done! I wish I'd of had time for a rummage sale.

By thursday we were feeling a little more at home and started exploring the farm more. Lisa discovered a climbing wall and basketball hoop in the upstairs of the barn! Lisa's parents came on Sunday from St. Louis to check out the new place. They got the treat of a lifetime when they pulled in the driveway and saw Lisa trying to get Gabby to let go of a skunk. We'd seen the skunk earlier that morning and I was thinking it'd go off and hide and if it did, it didn't hide very well.

I was in Madison at the time, getting more stuff from the house when I got that phone call. "We have a crisis" I think was the line Lisa used. I was on the way home and got there in time to see Gabby getting soaped to the gills. Lisa used her very finest herbal Aveda on Gabs so she didn't smell too bad! She had a feint odor of skunk, but we are very lucky that the skunk was not fully grown so it probably only had half skunk power.

The other uber cool thing is Lisa's chickens are laying eggs! Someone gave Lisa a book on chickens so I've been reading that and we've been discovering how to care for them. Lisa keeps checking for eggs and sometimes when she walks in the chicken is in the next box, looking out. In Lisa's words it's like walking in on someone in the bathroom. She walked in on Dumpling trying to lay an egg and said "oops, I'll come back later!" And sure enough, Dumpling laid an egg.

Speaking of the chickens, Pot Pie is the noisiest one. She likes to say hi really loud and if Gracie runs at them she protests the loudest. Marsala and Cacciatore are kind of quiet. We're trying to figure out which chicken is laying which eggs. According to the book you can tell this by the color of the chicken's ear--it matches the egg. I haven't been able to see which chicken has spots on its ear but I'm guessing it's Pot Pie.

So Lisa cooked up a scramble with the eggs on Sunday--and it was delish!

And we don't have internet...so can'[t upload any photos. We're ordering up satellite internet so look for photos soon!

Stay tuned for th next installment of Life on the Farm: Decorating with Fly Strips.