Sickle , salad and a bench !

So i traveled an hour to see this sicklebar and i was pleasantly surprised. First Rodney was a really cool guy , Katie & i talked with him for about an hour and a half. He helped us load it in the truck and we were on our way ! It has some surface rust so i'm soaking it in used motor oil before i mount it. Then we made our first salad from our garden. We use oil,vinegar,seasoning ,then throw in some sliced tomatoe,onion,cucumber and sweet peppers, "delicious" ! I built another set of shelves and work bench that i needed badly. Also we have really been enjoying our fresh eggs  . Since we got the new rooster the hens have really been popping them out. So much that we are able to share with our neighbors and friends. I will be starting on that lean-too soon , it's just that we have been getting alot of rain and humidity!

New rooster & the garden !

So i'm looking thru the newspaper and there's and ad for a free rooster. It is a Dominique rooster about the same age as our hens and free to a good home. We called the lady and she agreed to meet us at Foodland supermarket about 45 mins. away. We met her and she was very nice and happy to know he would have a good home. She had him in with another rooster which was the dominent one and he picked on him alot. Now he's in the pen with 8 hens and he seems to be really happy with his new environment ! We also got alot of rain these last few night and our garden is going nuts ! I also found a used 6' sicklebar mower in that paper that i have been searching for for awhile. It will be used mostly to cut the edges of our stream , instead of weedwacking all 700 yards of it. Thats the length of one side then you go back the same distance on the other side, yeh !

Like the beginning !

So our state had a bad storm come thru, "state of emergency"! No problem we were prepared from the beginning of this venture. I wired our large generator into the fusebox , so we could power up everything but the air conditioner. We were out of power for 12 days from june 30th to july 11th. They go by how many people are effected by the lines down , more people sooner it gets fixed. So we decided that we picked the perfect remote place , because we were the last to get fixed, yeehaa ! As far as catching the weasel , it has not come back but i caught a racoon and a cat in the trap. Sometimes it does'nt pay to be too curious.We still love hillbilly living , despite the power outage ! My next project is to build a leantoo for our firewood. Stay tuned , same bat time, same bat channel !

It's war !

Since the day the weasel killed our chickens i've been on a mission. First i nailed some strong wire over the window, he has'nt got in there again. Then i did some research about the varmint . I tried to catch him with a couple of conabear traps , he just stole the bait and got away. Back to the drawing board. Then i found a site where a guy shows you how to build a weasel trap. He says there light footed and sneaky. So today i built the trap and will see how i did in the morning. I figure since he knows the chickens are there he will keep returning. So he must be illiminated ! I also hung another set of bi-fold doors between the bathroom and our bedroom. The reason were using them is because they take up less wall space.

The weasel !

Our chickens started laying eggs at an average of 5 a day. Then one nite we left the window open so they could get some air, big mistake ! A weasel ripped thru the screen and killed our rooster and 4 hens. How i know it was a weasel is because they just bite the throat and suck the blood out.We learned a valuable lesson so we bought metal fence to put over the window. On to better news, we stocked our pond with large mouth bass , blue gill, channel cats and fathead minnows . After we stocked it the guy that brought the fish , Mike, noticed a large turtle surface. He said your going to want to shoot him or he will eat the fish. So the next day a got the rifle and waited. He said they can hold their breath for about 30 mins. before coming up for air. Sure enough he came up and bang, have not seen him again. I have learned that whenever you start something new , there's always maintance ! Then Katie wanted to learn how to use the brushog so she could help me mow the pasture, she did great ! My next project is to build a lean-to for our firewood. So i started cleaning up the old firewood pile an encountered a water snake, i don't like snakes , so you know what happened to him. Fyi, the company that stocked our pond is "Rainbowhead farms" they did a fine job and brought us some healthy fish , thanks Mike ! In the pics , the pile of wood is where the lean-to is going.

Concrete apron !

Over the Memorial day weekend i formed and poured an apron off the back doors. We had a piece of plywood there for a ramp since we started this project , so i thought it was time for a real ramp. I will pull off the forms this week sometime.

Trucks & machinery !

Here are the trucks and machinery i use to maintain the ranch !