June 2011

Chickens sure do love goats!  Not sure if the goats really like the chickens, but they tolerate them, never harm them, and we've even seen them chase a hawk off once that was heading for the chickens, so maybe they do like chickens!.

Gandalf the buck sure does love those two doelings, Flicker and Wren.  Another lazy day in the barnyard.

Jeanne, determined to have lots of strawberries, planted over 150 strawberry plants planted in two beds.  Go berries!

40 tomato seedlings planted in several beds, all raised in our greenhouse in 4” soil blocks.  Unfortunately, all damaged by a late, light frost two nights later.  Maybe not enough hardening off?  Maybe we should have waited another week?  Live and learn!

It’s getting greener and greener here.  Definitely a late spring this year, probably two weeks behind normal.

May 2011

Early on the morning of may 4th, Phoebe gave birth two two girls, Flicker and Wren.  That sure was exciting!  Our first goats born on the farm.  We even posted a video to Youtube about it here.

We purchased a soil block maker and started making our own soil blocks to start seedlings in the greenhouse.  And the planting beds below gave us salads nearly every day.

Linc continued work on the new goat pasture fence, using a come-a-long and the truck to stretch out the 400+ long fence, hoping something wouldn’t go “twang!” followed by a fence post sailing by.

Meanwhile, Phoebe and her new kids enjoyed the spring weather in front of the barn.

The kids take frequent naps, curled up around each other in the strangest spots.

Like this one!

The 25 chicks that Jeanne ordered arrived, and get brooded inside the greenhouse under our homemade brooder with 12 volt lamp to keep them warm.

Things are turning green around here.  It’s really starting to look like spring!

April 2011 2

 

Linc rented a tractor with post hole auger and planted the 23 posts for a new fenced goat pasture.  Found that in order to get the auger to auger, it required that one insert a 6’ pry bar in the auger frame and hang off of the end.  Got a work out putting them in, and so did that little tractor.

The garden expansion gradually takes shape.  We water with drip tape here, and use lots of mulch, to minimize water required.

First thing up in the garden was the 150 garlic that Jeanne had planted last October.  Great to see it, especially since organic garlic costs $2.50/bulb these days.

Our friend Jonni, from Pagosa Springs, called and asked if we wanted a free Nubian breeding buck with really nice markings.  Yes!  Linc drove down and picked him up.  Her rode back standing on the passenger seat, which caused some interesting looks from people in the other cars.  He’s a really gentle buck.  Our two does, Eggplant and Phoebe, are in the background.

Gandalf was shivering when we went out to the barn one morning, so we brought him into the cabin.  He immediately jumped up onto the cookstove oven door and basked in the heat rolling out.  Smart goat!

April 2011

 

What do you mean it’s time to start gardening again?  I want to keep skiing!  Waaaaa!!!!

OK, time to enlarge the garden.  We hate digging and it kills all those happy earthworms, so instead, we just put down a little horse manure, then some cardboard, then a mix of goat manure and forest duff, then some straw mulch.  Instant garden, we hope.  In the background, you can see a portion of the field that we had a “custom farmer” come out with his tractor to till up and seed with a dryland pasture and drought-tolerant alfalfa mix.  Hopefully something will grow out there now besides mustards, jointed goat grass, cheat grass and bindweed.

The happy homemaker and her “new” washing machine, a Maytag 1927 special, given to us by our good friends and neighbors, Zoe and Colin.  The thing had been half buried in dirt in an open shed for a few years, but all it took was reassembly, a little lubricant and it started right up!  Works pretty good (even better than a cooler and toilet plunger for removing those stubborn stains!)

And then the big day arrived, April 17, time to turn the irrigation water into mile-long Robbins Ditch and shepherd it all the way down, clearing out debris dams as it goes so it doesn’t cut the ditch (like happened to us last year).  It’s great to see the water flowing again, promising all the great things that water brings us in the dry, high desert land.

March 2011

 

Jeanne didn’t waste any time in planting salad greens in the new greenhouse beds.  They popped up pretty fast.  Nice to see that greenery with winter still not over yet outside.

The cabin interior with rough earthen plaster on the walls, tarp over the unfinished adobe floor, and a huge fridge to use as an ice box (it finally got moved out in November and replaced with a working chest freezer wired to a remote thermostat to run as a fridge).  Seating for four.  No large parties possible here – although college dorm kids might disagree…

Looking east inside.  Rough, temporary cabinets.  A hose with a garden spray nozzle for a faucet (you can reach the greenhouse with it!), an antique wood cookstove, and a pass-through wood box (the door on the wall to right of stove).

Things dried out enough to allow us to hire a bulldozer to come out and blade the mile long irrigation ditch that serves the property.  This is one of the sketchier sections on a steep mountainside.  Someday, we’d like to get this ditch replaced with buried pipe so we don’t worry as much about this whole thing sliding down the mountainside.  Whenever we lose our water down at the farm, we run up here expecting the worst, but it’s usually a silted up entry gate causing the outage.  Once we did have a blow out on the canal, but thankfully it wasn’t here.  This would be hard to fix if it ever washed out.

February 2011

 

Got the greenhouse windows in with a little help from a friend, polycarbonate on the lower half of the roof, some 6 mil plastic on the end walls for now, and we’re ready to plant in February!

It was so cold in the portable coop that Brownie, the rooster, got frostbite on his comb and wattles.  We ended up moving him and his two hens inside the new greenhouse at night until things warmed back up a little out there.

Of course, living with chickens in your mud room/greenhouse makes for some interesting photos.

Time out from working on the greenhouse to get some skiing in on radio tower hill, a few miles up the road from Web of Life Farm.  Good to get out there and enjoy some snow and sun!

January 2011 – Second Page

 

Got elk?  Check.  Don’t know how to hunt…yet.

Sunrise over Lamborn.  Never fails to wake you up when you see it.

The greenhouse under construction.  We were hurrying to try and get it enclosed in time for spring greens and garden starts.