GETTING IT TOGETHER

OOPS, I forgot to put in the pictures of the finished wall. The first picture is of the wall from the deck looking toward the greenhouse  and the second is the end toward the greenhouse.

The only thing left is to put down weed barrier along the filbert trees and cover with compost. Therefore this edit has to be put up so you can see where we are.

Well the last couple of weeks has really gotten a lot of things done that we needed around here. Weekend before last our eldest son and family came over and helped us on the block wall as well as repairing two spots on the ceiling that were damaged when the shower up stairs leaked, he also repaired the shower drain. I have already posted pics of the wall when he was done, and I will get pics of the ceilings soon.

 

This last weekend our youngest son and kids came down with one of his friends and two of his kids, wow what a houseful.

We had sold our D-2 Caterpillar to the son's friend and they came to pick it up. Prior to loading the Cat on the trailer they had to play with it, which was to our advantage. As you can see from the above photo, we can actually park our truck under our car port.

 This is looking across the pond at the largest log removed from the pond and placed to catch soil.

 This is another view of the same log.

 This is a second pile of logs also removed from the Pond, they are braced against an old growth stump.

They used the cat to pull several logs out of the pond and place them as eco-logs to catch runoff and stop erosion.

After placing the logs both of the men cleaned out our Goat barn and used the bedding for a filter layer next to the logs, after which they hauled about half my dirt pile down onto the top of the bedding so the horses would not eat the alfalfa that was waste from feeding the goats.

All of the kids helped in ways they could depending on age and size.

This is what the area on top of the first log looks like, at this point I have also planted grass seed on the soil. during the seed planting we received a lot of light rain that wet things down but didn't dislodge the seed. 

Really looks great now, Janice and I went all around the place planting grass seed, about 75 pounds in total. We covered the horse paddock first.

 We are really hoping with the rain this seed takes off and grows well, but as you can see below, the horses were not confined off of this area.

 As you can see by the next two pics the horses are really glad the rain has stopped. I am hoping that the churning of the soil by the horses will help make better soil to seed contact and improve germination. 

At one point Everyone was gone from the place and I got ambitious and stacked a half pallet of blocks onto the wall.

 It really is starting to look pretty good!

 Janice went out today and started curving the ends around toward the drive way.

 Today the Honey Bees are happy, happy, happy, the rain has stopped and they are working their little selves like crazy.

 Janice went out yesterday while I was seeding the paddock and cut the grass in the bee yard by hand, no easy task.

 This is an area in the trees in the pasture that we seeded, due to it being almost totally bare.

 I also seeded up the hill under the log there. I had already seeded above the log a couple of weeks back. I did walk up and check above the log and new grass is sprouting there.

This is a bare area in the pasture where the horses really like to roll. Actually it previously had grass growing there, but that's horses for you.

We hired our neighbor to cut, split and stack our firewood this year. Holy Cow does it ever feel good to know that chore is done.

 Janice picked the last of the Turnips and Beets out of the greenhouse, maybe time to plant more outside.

 The sweet Peas, Green Onions, Green Beans, more Radishes, and a little lettuce is doing well.

 We really didn't think these pigs would have grown this fast. The area they are laying across is eight feet, that means they are in the four foot range. Makes me think Pork Chops are in the not too distant future.

Janice has finished this end's curve, now onward! Oh shoot, now she wants me to sharpen the shears she uses on the grass. She can't use the weed eater due to the Shasta Daises and the Filbert Trees being too close.