The road is long and life is short.........

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Smores!

We tried out the new firepit we built over the winter. Worked great!

Someone decided she wanted some smores. So I gave her a blob, right on her nose....

Unfortunately the old girls sense of smell is not so good anymore, took her a while to realise it was there.....

Brandon and I swopped cars a while ago - he's now working from home the entire time, and only ever gets together with his boss every few weeks in Damariscotta. So it was better for me to use his golf that got 50 mpg to commute. So last weekend we took in the Rav4 and swopped it for a truck, which has already proved very useful!

The new truck in its first week of life.....with a yard of mulch!

Summer is here!

Summer is most definitely here! We spent the long weekend cleaning up the garden, and the chickens have finally moved outside! Just in time for round #2, we have 5 regular size chickens that will make up our flock arriving this week!

Barkley and Zoe guarding the chicks in their temporary accommodations.

Baby Bantams!

The new turnaround spot Brandon worked on using his dad's tractor. This is to give us somewhere to park in the winter off the road so it can be plowed better without having to move cars back and forth all the time. One day maybe we'll get a carport there....:)

The shade garden and firepit.

Site for the chicken shed, that should be arriving anyday!

The garden is blooming (rhubarb is going wild!), planted everything this weekend, and put up a short wire fence to see if we could keep brody out....last year he dug up everything!

The strawberries are blooming! Hoping for a big crop this year!

Blueberry buds!

The new raspberry trellis. Hoping this gets us a good crop, if not we might pull out the plants and start new - this is just what was there already, and we don't know if they're a wild variety or if someone in the past planted them then let them go wild on the property. Either way, we're hoping for at least some tasty raspberries!

One day maybe i'll get flowers for in here!

The goofy girl, enjoying the warm sunny day....:)

The boys, hanging out.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

End of Semester

It's finally the end of semester here, and on to summer. Usually faculty would be excited at this moment, however I start teaching in 1.5 weeks, so life is about to get more hectic. Luckily it's just a three week intensive class, and one that should be fun (larval ecology), so i'm actually looking forward to it, even though I know it'll be exhausting.

Spring has most definitely sprung here. It was in the 70's over the weekend, so we spent a lot of time in the garden, and so did the chick-chicks! They had their first excursion outside into their temporary house. They were doing great until Zoe noticed them and kept trying to stalk them through the wire. Sigh. At least we can keep Brody out by moving his underground wire.....not sure how we'll keep Zoe out. I guess just let the chicks get big enough to chase her back...

Brandon's parents dropped their tractor off for us to use, and we had a BIG pile of dirt delivered. We're building a small shed as out chicken house and needed to build a platform, as well as build up the area we're closing off as a run for them so it doesn't get so damp. So Brandon has been having fun, though i've had to remind him it's not our tractor and he does have to give it back.....

I did a talk at the public library here, and my old neighbor (8yr old) came and listened. So I called up his mom and friday evening he came and hung out for a while. He used to come by almost everyday to hang out and feed barkley cookies, so it was good to see him again. He LOVED Zoe, and i'm still shocked she put up with him lugging her around....

And then there is always goofiness. Miss Barkley trying to tell me it was time to go home today...

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Camp

We spent the first night of the year at Brandon's parents "camp" last night, it was bliss. A Maine "camp" is a cabin in the woods with no services (electricity, water etc.) and in the case of this one, on a river. It's only one room, but very cosy with a propane camp stove and two propane lights, and large fireplace. We only live about 45 minutes away from it (closer than his parents!), so we used it a lot last year as a cheap getaway and a place to go swimming and kayaking. They have 50 acres out there, so no neighbors in sight.

It was cooler last night than it had been all week (40's), but with the fireplace going we had it up to 80F inside the cabin. Barkley with her new haircut we wrapped up in a blanket all night, she was quite content.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Easter chicks

They're growing fast!

The transformation

Barkley Bear is now Barkley Bare! We've suddenly hit the 60's and 70's and the poor girl was getting too hot. I booked her into the groomers and woke up yesterday morning to snow! Feeling like a mean mom I still took her, knowing the forecast for next week is back in the 60's. In she went and came out bounding. She's so funny after she gets her summer shave, turn puppy again, like a weight has been lifted. She even played with Brandon and me, play biting our hands as she goofed around kitchen. Hard to believe the old girl will be 14 this year! So funny too as she now looks half the size of Brody, and only takes up one couch cushion as opposed to two.....:)

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Paradox Weekend

Saturday we spent in the garden, clearing the many downed limbs this winter (there are still many left that need a chainsaw) and stringing up the raspberry vines into a newly constructed T-trellises. This is a patch that we cleared last year, so this will be our first year trying to tame the patches that had been long neglected. It was 70F out, so we were in T-shirts and sunhats, yet we kept our needed water cool by sitting it in the snowbank still at the end of our driveway....:) I opened all the house windows and everything got a good airing through - the first of the year! I will say I am a little sad to see the snow go, mostly because I know this next month of spring will be what locals lovingly call "mud season" and everything just looks brown and dead. Not my favorite time of year, but today was nice as the ground is still a little frozen and firm. We finished the day with thai food and even the dogs were happy to come inside after baking themselves in the sun all day (and chasing the poor fedex guy).

Sunday we finished up painting the spare bedroom (photos to follow soon once we've tidied). We have a spare bedroom on the first floor, and had enough paint leftover from the living room as well as sockets and switches to replace the lovely faux wood ones. So we set to it, it's a small room, so easy really. This will be a spare room - maybe a winter bedroom for us (or the "winter residence" as we've started calling it), as upstairs gets pretty cold in winter - and will be where we'll move to once Barkley can't get up the stairs anymore (it looks like that won't be too far away, but she's doing well for a nearly 14 year old!). It's a cute space, looking forward to moving the furniture back in and tidying it up - it's been basically a dumping ground and camping storage area for a while. Other than that we've been running errands, making yogurt (for the first time in ages!), quiche and cupcakes for a friends birthday this week. A nice, relaxing weekend was had!

Miss Barkley Bear with her new toys this weekend. She got a clean bill of health from the vet this weekend.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Peep Peep!

Yup, we finally bit the bullet. We're both going to be around Maine for a good few months, so we decided now was the time to pick up some chicks! We'd actually put in an order online for some, then walked into a local hardware store and they had the bantams we were after. So we cancelled the order and picked up 10 chicks.

Brandon scored a small henhouse from Craigslist that we'll put out and build a large fence around. We moved Brody's underground fence around the area we want to fence off (unfortunately he has had the taste of live chicken, and it was apparently good - so these will never be full free ranging hens). The ground is still well frozen though, so no putting in the fence for a few weeks!

The henhouse will hold 4 or 5 bantams, so we're just hoping out of the ten there are that many females. The others we'll give away to a colleague at work. They're being brooded upstairs away from all the animals, and all seem to be feeding and drinking well. We don't really know, as they are a mix of bantam types, but as some look much larger i'd say they range from 1-5 days old. So far 9 are looking good and one is looking a little ropey, so we'll see how we go. If only we could have got pre-sexed ones, but oh well, this'll be fun regardless.......:)