Yesterday was quite the day. It started with a trip to town to pick up 5 barrels of spent brewing grain. I hit up the store for some groceries on the way home which was nice and mellow. They are not super agro about all the horse shit social distancing and only a handful of people are wearing masks, (which is really nice). While out I got a call from Willy about hauling manure up the road to the squash garden so after I got home and parked/unloaded groceries I drove up to pickup the truck while he drove the tractor down.
A full load of manure from the sheep's pen makes them a lot happier. Their pen had gotten a couple feet deep in muck so this cleaned a massive amount out and lets them walk around the pen again. It got dumped next to the squash garden then Willy spread it around and then double tilled it in. I covered the area again with black plastic and will let it cook in the sun for a few days before I set it up for planting.
After I got home from the squash garden around noon I ate then went out to unload the grain. I had used 2 barrels of grain last time to cover part of the rock garden paths but did not finish since the 2 barrels wasn't enough. Yesterday it only took 2 of the 5 barrels to finish covering the paths. It is a lot nicer looking and it will help keep the weeds down and also the grain will help build the soil.
You can see the lights that I installed last Friday around the yard. I made arches over the gates and managed to get the lights almost centered on each. I am trying some of the grain around the gate to see if the dog will not poop there and if it will smother the grass out.
It was nicely warm during the day and once I got the grain dealt with I decided to deal with some logs that were in the creek in our pool. One log was fully in the water, one on the bank, and another I was able to lift farther onto the bank. I wore my sandals and HOLY SHIT is the water cold. It is fresh snow melt that has gone at most 13 miles from Mt. Spokane to our house, so it is damned cold still. My feet were hurting after only 10 minutes in and out of the water. I got all the pieces out of the water though and have it stacked waiting for a chance to burn it all.
After dinner all 4 of us went for a walk up the hill and got to see a really nice sunset.
36th day of a fire in the pit. Every day since the shutdown I have had one going and last night was no exception. The only exception was that I managed to get a good picture that shows the night lights around the yard a lot better. Not sure why it has been so hard to get a clear shot but at least I finally got one.
For more information about our farm:
Fleming Family Farm
FLEMING FAMILY FARM, LLC
Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce
All images are original works of Fleming Family Farm unless otherwise notated and credited.
If you find this post useful or entertaining, your support is greatly appreciated by upvoting, following, and sharing!