Fambly Farm Weekend

Holly Molly, what a weekend. Much silliness, some good eats and a few highlights. Best told in photos.

The weekend started about 9am Saturday when I heard Joe's tractor start up. I went across the street to find out what we were doing that day (when I hear the tractor it usually means time to work). I found Joe and his grandson, Joe, in the wood bin. we hatched a plan to load a flat bed trailer full of wood into my basement. It was a perfect day for loading wood into a basement and Little Joe was the perfect sidekick. Here he is with his grandpa riding the big tractor.

Joe and Little Joe were a good team; they loaded the wood, I unloaded and stacked it. My stacking needs some work. The pile started out ok, then got narrower which I imagine is a common rookie wood stacking issue. Will work on that. Somewhere in the middle of all this Dad, Doris and Jimmy showed up. Doris and Jimmy live in Arbor Vitae and Jimmy is about to turn 16. He's a hip kid from the northwoods and he had on a belt to die for. I wanted to trade him any cd in my collection for his belt but never got around to that barter. They were on their way to a family reunion so Dad got dropped off and we got to loading more wood.

Loading wood is fun. It'd be more fun without a torn rotator cuff but so be it. I knew I'd be sore but the few logs that whapped me in the shins were hurting more than my shoulder.

After that chore Dad and I did some home maintenance projects including starting up the wood stove. Dad taught me how to start the fire and regulate it and we got it going pretty good. It was *weird* having it be warm in the house. I was comfy and not freezing for the first time in years. My old furnace (the one that finally quit last fall) in Madison never worked well and the house always had a chill. Not now; the wood fire was cozy perfect.

Sunday was another pretty day. Somewhere in the middle of the second cup of coffee the old kitchen light started flickering so Dad got after that one. He found the problem; some old cloth covered wire. He took out the light and we went to town to get a new one. The True Value in Columbus is the bomb! The staff actually know what they are talking about and are polite. What a concept. Really makes you realize how brainwashed one can get living in the city and having only Home Depot at your disposal. Long live family harware stores!!

Anyway, we got a new light (it's only temporary, Barbara!!) only I don't have a drill yet (doh) so we couldn't install the new one. Note to self: must get drill.

We had to put the light aside but that was fine as Sara, Ben, Mike, Brian, Erika, Simon, Doris, Jimmy and my good friends from Madison, Julie and Bill arrived. My goal for the day was to get the barn cleared out and thanks to Julie and Bill, the upper deck was ship shape! They swept up tons of guano. Bill named the climbing wall "Mt. Guano" and I'll have to have little sister Neen give the wall a rating. Ben was helping out too by driving the wheelbarrow full of bat poo.

In between the barn sweeping was the chimney check. Dad and Joe had the chimney open to check for creosote and wanted to show me how to do it. Here's me getting some instruction from Joe.

Turns out I have an insulated chimney and it was sparkly clean--no creosote. Since we had the ladder out I got up to the second floor and knocked a bird's nest out of the chimney. I couldn't quite reach back behind the chimney so Dad went up the ladder and finished off the nest.

I went back to the barn to see how Julie and Bill were doing and it was impressive. They had cleaned out the main floor and it looked great. Here they are, in full sweep mode. Julie used to race for Dairyland and retired two years ago but she's as fit as ever. After racing Julie returned to her first hobby, horses. I followed not long after and between the issues our two horses had, we've been good support for one another.

I went back twice last night to enjoy the clean barn. Thanks you two! That's a huge help and now I can get hay in there!


So while they were sweeping, the kids were discovering the chickens. Ben got one egg, Little Joe got 2 on Saturday.
I have added more chairs to the chicken coop viewing area for those wishing to enjoy the chicken show.

Here's my nephew, Ben,
taking a break from the barn clean up to watch the chicken show.


Ben and Dad had just planted a tree. Dad brought a red pine from up north for me. They planted it in a spot where I could see it out the window, not far from the peach tree.


And just as the day was getting on, I got my other nephew, Simon, out on the yard master. He got to wear the ear protection and steer. Like most little kids, they like a ride on anything mechanical.

Doris and Jimmy wanted to bring me a chicken for a present but couldn't find one. Turns out Doris loves chickens too so they got the next best thing; a fine looking roasting chicken. It got roasted last night and Brian, Erika, Simon and I had a great dinner, thank you very much!

So that was the big weekend on the farm. Much learned and more to come.

til soon,
becx