Grazing Time

Paneling has been moved once again. I'm hoping to have two more sections of fence cleared before my trip to NY/MD, and I have faith the girls can pull it off. That will leave one last area for the girls to work on while I'm gone and this portion of the pasture cleared and we can start tearing out the old posts. :)

One week left before the new girls arrive!

-M

Pumpkins, doors, and compost.

Just a quick update

Pumpkins are here! Finally, the little guys are popping up. So far the irrigation is working (although we've had enough rain that we haven't really had to use it).

 To top that off, the stall doors and walls are done!! they look beautiful and are all from reclaimed wood from building projects and old fence boards (minus a handful of new boards for the posts). A little wire for the tops and we're golden. So far the girls aren't amused at being confined.

And, I moved out our compost bin to be close to the pumpkins so I can keep my mulch for top dressing the hugelkultur mounds later. It is also made from reclaimed material- this time plastic fencing from a business who installed this type of fencing and decided they didn't want to keep all of their displays when they moved so they gave us the mismatched pieces.

Just two weeks until the new girls (and boy) arrive plus sheep/alpaca shearing will be finished in the next two weeks as well. Praise the Lord!

-M

Goats to the left of me, pumpkins to the right....

It feels so good to be home, to really be home for good. I’ve lived between places for most of my life, spending as much time at the farm as possible but only transiently. This past Monday I moved what was left of my apartment in Athens and am now here for good!

I started putting things away and am just enjoying putting down roots knowing that in a few months when many of my friends are starting back to classes I will be happily working in the job I love and living in the most beautiful county in GA. It really hit home yesterday when I finished working in the pumpkin patch and I came back to the house to water the garden and climb into bed, and that was it! I didn’t have to think about getting back to whatever other place I am living at part-time to do whatever it is I am supposed to be doing or studying whatever I am supposed to be reading. I still have reading and studying, but it is for my own benefit- not for some presentation or test coming up. I love it! Oh, and total plus that I now can be called ‘doctor’.

 

Aside from the craziness that is moving and trying to unpack everything (which I can see is going to take me a very long time), I have also been hard at work trying to renovate the farm and get the pumpkins in. The last two days I’ve been hauling mulch and hay and breaking a sweat to get the hills finished and they are done! Don’t they look pretty?

 

I also bought some things to fix up an irrigation system that is, as of yet, not in working order. It’ll get there. But I did buy a mower and have spent a considerable amount of time the past two days mowing the one acre field the pumpkin hugelkultur is in. The field looks so much better with a fresh clip job, and it added a substantial amount of nitrogen-rich mulch to the hugelkulturs so everything is ready to roll.

Tonight as the sun was setting I popped in the seeds. I did 20 hills of ‘Montana Jack’ pumpkins ( a traditional orange jack-o-lantern type of pumpkin), 10 hills of Jarrahdale (a creamy blue-green), 12 hills of Musquee de Provence (a short, ribbed pumpkin also called the ‘cinderella pumpkin’), three hills of Pipian from Tuxpan (a green striped pumpkin), and 3 hills of Juane Gros de Paris (100lb peach-cream colored giants). Once I finish clearing the fence on the road I’ll add a few hills of a warted gourd mixture which should be planted around mid June.  Hopefully in a week or so I will see little baby pumpkin plants popping up all over.

 

 

 
 

 

Tomorrow is for the goats, I’ve got some fences to move and the new barn stalls to work on. Hopefully in a few weeks my little herd will be growing a bit more with some new additions from upstate New York…

 

 

The setting sun over the pumpkin patch

 

 

-M

Home stretch

"Just __ days left to graduation!" as my sister has so kind reminded me every day for weeks. Today that would be "Just 4 days left to graduation!"

Holy cow. That is a surreal feeling. I have spend the better part of 21 years in school trying to get to this point and I don't really believe that it is here. Today was the last day I will touch an animal officially as a vet student, tomorrow and Thursday I will be reviewing journal articles and making a presentation and then going out with my class to celebrate our last few hours together as the magnificent, 102-strong Class of 2014.

That being said, I think my sister might be more excited than I am to have me coming home (mainly because she doesn't want to have to look after my goats one second longer). Here are a few highlights of my daily alerts:

 

I think you get the point...

 

 

Getting close to graduation also means I only have a few more days to finish up some projects I've been working on before leaving the Classic City. One of my top priorities has been finishing a project for my friend's new baby, Damaris. She's a month old now and cute as a button and I'll get to meet her for the first time at the Christian Veterinary Fellowship graduation party. Luckily she won't remember the fact that I was a slacker and didn't get her anything until she was already hanging about for a month. To be fair, I spent a good part of my free time the past several months trying to finish a project for her that turned into a complete disaster. I was determined to make it work and spend quite a few hours working on it before I got frustrated enough and buried it in a box to never see the light of day.

 

But, I made a newer and better gift for her! Her mom Stevie is a fellow goat and nature lover and has made her nursery a wildlife/nature/woodland-farm theme. Its hard to explain but it totally works. There is a teepee, a fox skin rug, and soon to be a massive felted goat.

 

 

I can't wait to see little Damaris at graduation and see her with her new friend!

 

 

"Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others." Acts 17:34

 

 

-M



Fence Planting

We just had a few more posts to concrete in and tamp to finish off the fencing in the front of mom’s house. The gate isn’t officially installed, but it looks pretty! Now we just need to find time to stretch the wire.

-M

MOAR HUGELKULTUR

I’m back in the south!!!! I cannot tell you how excited I am. Connecticut was a good experience and I learned a lot and found a few wool goodies to take home, but I am 100% sure I belong to the south! The last week in CT involved me playing “Take Me Home Country Roads” and “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” about a million times. And for any southerner who has shirked Virginia/West Virginia as not a true southern state, I’ll claim them any day! I was so excited to see their welcome signs I couldn’t help but sing. Not that New England is a bad place, but I love the South and its weather and sweet tea.

 

 

 
Anyway, since I’ve been back I’ve gotten back to building more hugelkulture for the pumpkins. I’m running out of time to get them finished before May’s planting, but I will finish! My time is a little split with trying to finish vet school and applying for licensing, I just have to focus.

 

-M

New England

Take me home country roads!

There isn’t a lot of work with sheep in the south so I made a trip north to New England to get a little more experience riding with veterinarians from Tufts University and working with the amazing group called SVF in Newport. They are working to create a genetic bank of all the rare breeds in the US. It is a beautiful setting with a lot of interesting work going on.

 

While I am up here I decided to take a little time to go explore, and of course I went looking for a nifty local yarn shop. And what a find! This store was packed with barely walking room between the stands of yarn, fleece, tools, and finished products. It was amazing! I ended up bringing home a few skeins of yarn to make a shawl from. Maybe I can finish before I head home so I can keep myself warm in this New England air!

 

-M