Fall 2013

Toby and Baylie helped irrigate the winter pasture I planted.

The skies have been beautiful at the Marm.  This is a sunset with a weird circular cloud.  Then there was this crazy bird cloud in front of the Moon

Baylie has been lots of help all around.  Here she is helping Jill with a computer problem.

Here she is entertaining cousin Missy.  (Jake and Maren's)

Tractor help while Toby is on field mouse patrol.

I got some free chickens form a lady that was going to be gone too much to care for them.  They lay eggs in the most convenient places to retrieve.

Toby chases but rarely catches Baylie.

"If you like your teeth, you can keep your teeth!

Farm update

Well, the "Marm" has kept me really busy this Summer.  After some controversy with the neighbor over the well, I started prepping the 12 acre field and got it planted over the 24th of July weekend.










Jake, Dustin, and I got the field as ready as possible.  It has been unfarmed for many years and it didn't completely yield to our efforts.  Jake and Aaron Moeller got the pipe laid out and hooked up.


 

Jake

Jake and Aaron
 

  

Dustin

 

And we turned on the water!





There are car--sized holes and fissures even after all the prepping.




Grampa Kartchner lent expertise

....and cheap labor
 




Everyone worked hard and got really tired.  Payson and Toby



Dustin Meagan Mikayla and Maylee
 

Jake and Maren

Mikayla

We got a good seed response as the sun shone.....




And the rain came down supplementing irrigation.







It grew....




and it grew...




and it grew




and it grew some more.



Interestingly, the deer seem to prefer the neighbor's weeds.

 

 

 

 

 



Best bedtime song ever.

Easter 2013 will have to go down as the best ever.  The Hancocks and the Carters came to the "Marm" and we had a blast.  Jill and Meagan's family and I went Thurs and stayed (Jill and Mikayla and I) until Monday.

Spring is bursting out all over. The geese have a nest of eggs, the fields are greening up, and the temps are heavenly.  Oh yeah, and the snakes are out.  I used the backhoe to trench for replacement of sprinklers -(Doesn't everbody?) -and also dug up a retaining wall and uncovered a rattlesnake.  It was dusk and I didn't see it and picked up block pieces within a couple of inches of his head several times.  Providentially, he didn't strike.

We had an awesome Easter egg hunt for young and old and had Grandma and Grandpa Kartchner and Uncle Stan for dinner which we cooked outside on our grill.  Dustin made dutch oven potatoes and then we visited and watched the sunset.  Jake kept trying to get Grandma or Mikayla (Or anyone) to go for a boat ride.  Grandma told him she was wearing a dress and couldn't.  Mikayla took the cue and said "I'm wearing a dress too and I just want to stay here on the swing and visit"

The "Marm" has absolutely kicked my butt this year.  I assumed that we would have had fields planted and green before now.  The failure of the roof required a replacement which then began an "Old lady who swallowed the fly" kind of cascade. 
 
Jill found several possible houses and each, in succcession, failed for one reason or another.  The park one was in had the option to buy the first one and they exercised that option.  The next one or two were too this found or that or didn't feel right.  Finally she found one that was a repo and was a huge bargain but the previous owner must've been a chain smoker.  We have tried a half dozen remedies and you can still smell a little funny odor if it is closed up for a few days.  The current tack is activated charcoal.  The movers got it in around a tree in rather impressive fashion after having to take the whole thing clear around through Sonoita because it was too tall to go down I-10.

Before we could place the new trailer we had to get inspections.  The previous several owners had done a LOT of work that was sub--standard and we ended up having to put in a whole new septic system and new electrical service.  (Play the cash register sound now.)   We will end up re--doing the yard after tearing it up in the process of replacing the house.  I replaced the artesian line from the well to the pond, destroyed my garden area, (Which Jill wants to turn in to a huge park--like lawn and playground,) and was unable to water the fields by the house because they were torn up to put in the new septic.

We still have Buddy the ancient horse and we added Lilly Pearl which we got from Eric and Katee McSpadden.  We also have about a dozen waterfowl including two very loud watch--geese.  We have added a backhoe and a stock trailer as well.