Catching Up

We are down to the wire now, as far as getting the last cabin to our homestead. Everything is ready -- except for our friend that uses his payloader to pull it over here. Hopefully tomorrow the predicted rain will hold off until we are able to bring the cabin over.

Last week was a bit on the crazy side.

One morning about 8:00 we received a phone call from the post office, telling us to come and get our bees. With all the cabin moving Jim had forgotten to ask me to keep an eye out for mail that would tell him when his bees were coming. We weren't totally ready, but everything went fine.

Jim had planned to switch out the queens that came with the bees for Russian queen bees, so he quickly called the man he purchased them from down in Louisiana. I guess Russian bees are more hardy, and do not have as much of a problem with mites. They arrived by express mail on Saturday.

The day after the bees arrived we had another 8:00 phone call from the post office, telling us to come and get our chicks! Jonathan plans to raise and sell broiler chickens, and ordered 150 chicks.




Jonathan had converted the chicken barn into a brooder house, so that meant the laying hens had to be booted out. That night we waited for the chickens to settle down in the big barn as well as a spot in the woods, and then hauled 25 at a time in the back of the pick up truck to their new homes in movable pens in the field. In spite of the move they continue doing well with laying eggs.

Then on Saturday we received a call from our neighbor, letting us know our piglets were ready to be picked up. We have two males this year, and they sure are cute! I don't think we have any photos of them yet. These piglets must have had more human contact than the ones we had in years past, as they are much more friendly.

The weather has not warmed up as quickly as we hoped, and unfortunately our tomato plants are begging us to plant them in the ground. They must be over a foot tall already. Jonathan planted as many as he could in our hoop house, but the rest have been carted in and out of the hoop house and the main floor of our house. We didn't want to place all of our eggs in one basket, since due to cold nights the barrel stove has to be fire up and checked twice during the night. We didn't want to risk losing all the plants if something happened to the stove or someone didn't wake up in time to keep the fire going.

We've also had our annual visit of wood ticks. Those nasty things are everywhere! I decided it wasn't worth leaving my laundry basket out on the grass while clothes were drying. I did one day, and ended up cleaning off all the ticks before I could place dry clothes in the basket. Poor Samson (our German Shepherd) was loaded with the things, so we resorted to using Frontline on him to help keep the ticks away. Tonight at supper I watched two of the boys pick off ticks through the whole meal.

Here are some photos of the last cabin to bring over to our property:



Jim, working on getting everything in place before jacking up the cabin.



I always enjoy watching Peter and Jonathan working together; they make quite a team.

Peter was taking rides as he tried jacking the cabin on his own.

I wonder which one this is??