photo heavy progress

i finished my rainwater chicken piping. i only had to purchase a few parts. i already had most of them. one critical part that i had and didn't purchase was cracked. i was almost thwarted but luckily i changed my plan. a few modifications to some fittings and i was in business.

here it is nearly finished. all i need is to cover it from the sunlight and install a leaf screen pre-filter from the gutter chain.

my self flushing screen is integrated in the valve from the tank.

i epoxied a fine mesh screen to the end of the pipe. after reaming out the "T" so the pipe would slip clear into the fitting, i glued the pipe into the branch side of the "T". the water normally takes the turn in the "T" to go to the water fountain. when i use the bucket fill valve it automatically rushes water past the constricted screen area. this flushes my screen and keeps the system operational.


i finished that in the morning then we went to harrison arkansas. they had the exact snow fence that we have been looking for. it was very inexpensive since it was sitting around for quite a while.

we borrowed bobs trailer and it worked perfectly.

then we worked on the calf pen. i finished roofing the entire thing. it has been renamed "the stable."

here is my mineral feeder.

here is the cow first day in this paddock.

she slept in her stable last night.

astrid is really coming into her own.

guarding and protecting are heavily in her nature.

this morning we started on the arbor. here are the raw materials.

i was gifted those arches from a friend.

the o'melay boys ready to help.

we decided to turn the arches up, japanese style.

i love it.

the cross slats were parts from our old grill. i like to recycle everything.

it will get painted a dark brown and be covered in kassi's roses. there will be slats ascending up each side.


tabitha and the kids picked three quarts total of violets. here is their first batch.

pretty violets

big day on the little farm

we accomplished so many things today. i don't know where to start. i know, first thing this morning we weeded the asparagus. chickweed has surprisingly vast root system. there was tons of chickweed and grass. it was a big chore. tristan helped a great deal. here it is finished and amended with compost.

we love asparagus.

the next thing we did was build the boys flowerbeds. tristan drilled all the holes for the screws. here they are on either end of these beds.

the dirt came from when we dug up the calf pen in preparation for deep bedding. the last little bit of it came from the old bathtub where we attempted cucumbers last summer.

here i am busy holding up that shovel.


this is my new hat. i love it. i forget that i am wearing it and the wind blows through keeping things cool.


this is tabitha's new hat. she loves it for similar reasons.

my beautiful wife.

the main reason we got so much done today is because the kids did this all day.

and this,

and this

and this


our next big thing we did was move the mailbox and make a bed around it and our sign.

we need a new mailbox. this one had seen better days when we moved here. i mortised that support beam with a hatchet and spade bit.

it is starting to look really cute, no? that was a ton of work. tristan hauled most of those rock in. i got the big ones, tabitha had to help on the really big one. the dirt came from our jerusalem artichoke bed. we need to re think where they are since they don't seem to thrive there.

tabithia transplanted lemon balm

to the root cellar.

while i raked leaves from the upper paddock and put them in the chicken coop as floor cover.

the cow is looking great these days.


this is the leftover rubble from the seed blocks yesterday.

they seem happy in their new diggs.

cute friendly happy little tomatoes grow now grow.

see what i mean by elegant?

these are just so aesthetically pleasing.

our little greenhouse is almost full. this is where you might find toly grazing.


spring is here in the ozarks.



proof...

gratuitous sleeping baby..


happy spring

tabitha's google-fu is profound

near ten years ago i bought some paintings from a St. Petersburg artist. my friend boris introduced me to them. he told me the artists name and that he is a significant russian artist. i just liked them and had the disposable cash necessary to buy them. i promptly forgot the artist's name.

i never perused to find out his name since it is signed in russian and my key board doesn't go there. each of the three paintings has the title written on the back of the linen. they are also signed there again. i always joke that they'd be my inheritance to my kids. they are the only remaining morsel of my years of decadence.

last night toly asked tabitha what that said on the paintings. it was the artist signature. tabitha asked me his name. oops.. i only knew his name for a brief moment in time and now had to own up to that fact. i said sorry baby i forgot. the paintings hang in our living room.


tabitha somehow found a onscreen keyboard way to type out his name. then she copied it and translated it. guess what, he came up on wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatolii_Ivanovich_Sivkov how cool is that. by this time toly had fallen asleep. this morning we were excited to tell him that the artist also bore the same name, only spelled anatolii. he loves it.

this is titled the daughter of elvis дочь эависа лресаи.


our seedlings are doing marvelously. they survived their first night out, for those of you that were concerned.


spring is coming upon us quickly.

kassi is resisting her pathological compulsion to pick every one of them. she is so excited.

astrid is doing very well.


this is the side of the barn that i finished yesterday.


here is the other side and my block and tackle.


this is the beginnings of deep-bedding that tabitha and i worked on the other day.


we also burned off the old pig pen and plan to plant our sweet potatoes here.


jocelyn is looking very good these days.


the strawberry beds are already starting to come to the front.


tristan running to see what i'm up to.


tabitha's wonderful sour dough bread

this is just after breakfast.

the kids love it. even the crust--we have crust issues here..