I'm trying to keep up, myself. We went with Girl Scouts out West this June (troop1156@blogspot.com) and I've been trying to make up those two weeks ever since we got back. There was a lot of rain in June, which is great for the garden, pastures and bees, but July's been pretty dry. Our animals are doing all right, but only because we have plenty of pasture and woods for them to forage around. One farmer said today that if it doesn't rain soon, they will have to start feeding hay to their cattle.
With heat indexes over 100°F just about every day for the past month, doing anything is hot, sweaty work. But we are making slow progress. Charles and Joe Kramer started clearing for new fencing the first week in July and we finally finished it and put animals on the correct side of the fence two weeks ago. So far, four of my eight males are where they're supposed to me (although that could change at any minute). I'm still working on that. Of the four "Good Goats" one of them is a replacement ram. We brought "Lurch" home last Wednesday and he seems quite happy with Belt, Spot and Flint. Lurch is a Jacobs/Dorper cross, and comes to us from the same farm that we got Cousin It from a couple years ago. For those of you who don't remember, Cousin It starred in Christmas Eve dinner, because he couldn't keep his horns to himself.
The house is also moving slowly along. The crawl space is now framed out, and we have to put down a moisture barrier before we can put on the metal siding. I can't wait until my house turns red. Along with the completed siding, we will also install the soffit and woodburning stove chimney, while we have the big manlift on site. My fingers are crossed that the metal will start going up this weekend.
Showing posts with label Joe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe. Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Catch up on November and December
The weather favored us in November, with beautiful, warm, sunny days. We got the walls finished downstairs on our house, thanks to help from my mother, stepfather and uncle. We even had our first family meal in our house on November 7. Ma and Scott were here to help put up plywood wall cladding, so Aunt Bev brought Uncle Steve, Scott's mother Juanita, and a pot of chile out to keep the workers working. After the walls downstairs were done, we started working on framing the upstairs walls and putting up the beams that will support the roof.
Ma and Scott returned for a second weekend of work in November, and we tore down a couple of old sheds so our electricity pole and transformer could be installed. That was my birthday present from the electricity company - one very tall pole and a shiny new transformer on top!
The weather in December was not as cooperative, but Charles soldiered on, getting most of the roof rafters up before Christmas. On December 19, he had to stop working because his cutting jig froze to the board he was cutting. That was also the day I went to St Louis airport to pick up my cousin Joe, who flew in from Minneapolis. He came to the farm to work for the week before Christmas to work off his airfare. Charles and Joe did a lot of work on our Uncle Paul's house getting it ready for Christmas guests - fixing the outlet to the septic tank, installing new heating ducts, and building new steps and porch off the front door.
Christmas was really nice, with family split between Paul's house, Dad's house and the Morganfield Hometown Inn. I cooked roast mutton for Christmas Eve and roast turkey and ham in Coca-Cola for Christmas day. All of my father's brothers and sisters were here Christmas eve and morning. There were 16 of us for Christmas Eve supper, including Ashley (my Girl Scout/farm help). She spent all of Christmas eve with us, and really had a great time with my family, especially my cousin Sarah from Minneapolis. Now, they're the modern version of pen pals - they text each other!
The week after Christmas, with everything done and everyone gone, I didn't know what to do with myself!
Ma and Scott returned for a second weekend of work in November, and we tore down a couple of old sheds so our electricity pole and transformer could be installed. That was my birthday present from the electricity company - one very tall pole and a shiny new transformer on top!
The weather in December was not as cooperative, but Charles soldiered on, getting most of the roof rafters up before Christmas. On December 19, he had to stop working because his cutting jig froze to the board he was cutting. That was also the day I went to St Louis airport to pick up my cousin Joe, who flew in from Minneapolis. He came to the farm to work for the week before Christmas to work off his airfare. Charles and Joe did a lot of work on our Uncle Paul's house getting it ready for Christmas guests - fixing the outlet to the septic tank, installing new heating ducts, and building new steps and porch off the front door.
Christmas was really nice, with family split between Paul's house, Dad's house and the Morganfield Hometown Inn. I cooked roast mutton for Christmas Eve and roast turkey and ham in Coca-Cola for Christmas day. All of my father's brothers and sisters were here Christmas eve and morning. There were 16 of us for Christmas Eve supper, including Ashley (my Girl Scout/farm help). She spent all of Christmas eve with us, and really had a great time with my family, especially my cousin Sarah from Minneapolis. Now, they're the modern version of pen pals - they text each other!
The week after Christmas, with everything done and everyone gone, I didn't know what to do with myself!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Northern Visitor
This week my cousin Joe Kramer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, came to visit and help out on the farm. Joe is 12 years old, and is into lots of sports - ice hockey, football and baseball. We like Joe to visit, because he's a hard worker and keeps Charles on task (when I'm not there to do it!).
Joe helped hang gates, build the first wall of our house, milk goats, feed animals, chase chickens, move the chicken run, collect eggs, weed tomatoes and squash, check beehives, house repairs for our Uncle Paul, put up our little soaking pool, and cleaned off Paul's deck. He learned how to drive an automatic and even got a little practice with our stick-shift pick up truck.
Then he would play on the wii until we sent him to Paul's to sleep. And he ate all the bread I could buy or bake. After Independence Day fireworks at the Sturgis Airport, which is not nearly as lame as it sounds, we drove back to Bolckow, Missouri, to drop Joe off for a week with Aunt Sallie and Uncle David. They are also farmers, but on a whole different scale than we are. They have thousands of acres of corn and soybeans, and all the gigantic equipment to go with it.
Joe helped hang gates, build the first wall of our house, milk goats, feed animals, chase chickens, move the chicken run, collect eggs, weed tomatoes and squash, check beehives, house repairs for our Uncle Paul, put up our little soaking pool, and cleaned off Paul's deck. He learned how to drive an automatic and even got a little practice with our stick-shift pick up truck.
Then he would play on the wii until we sent him to Paul's to sleep. And he ate all the bread I could buy or bake. After Independence Day fireworks at the Sturgis Airport, which is not nearly as lame as it sounds, we drove back to Bolckow, Missouri, to drop Joe off for a week with Aunt Sallie and Uncle David. They are also farmers, but on a whole different scale than we are. They have thousands of acres of corn and soybeans, and all the gigantic equipment to go with it.
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