Cheep Cheep

Well, we've got some chicks, but it appears to be slow going.  They are going to bring me what has hatched as of tomorrow and then see what else develops.  Not that I am asking for a huge flock, but I have my mind prepared for a bunch.  I hope it isn't a bunch of duds that died in the egg.  These city folks have been really impressed with the whole process.  I keep getting emails addressed to The Chicken Whisperer.  Is that a good thing?  I think I would rather be known for other things.

This weekend I spent a whole day preparing the new pen area.  I needed to do some dirt work with the tractor and then hauled the temporary pen panels from the pasture up to the machine shed.  By the time I hauled all of those panels and restacked the extras behind the shed it took all day.  I had been wanting to clean up that area since we moved in but waited until there weren't any wasps circling my head.  Those buggers are building nests all summer in that kind of stuff.  I still ran across a big nest of mice (complete with younguns) and do you think I could get any of the lazy cats to come out there and take care of business?  Sheesh!  It's time to start rationing that food and make some lazy cats interested in their job!

As I was running back and forth with the tractor I thought of the fuel prices more than once.  It made no sense to shut it off as I was on and off every few minutes (and we know how those 6-volt tractors can get angry with that), but I still thought of all of that fuel I was pushing out the smoke stack.  Oh well, there are some things you just have to do.  It didn't stop me from using a cup or two to start the trash burner later in the day.

I also moved the big loader tractor into the machine shed to start the engine rebuild.  I want to use some tax return money to do that and have it finished by the time things start to grow and I need to use it a lot.  I have to rip into the engine to see what specific parts I need to order, as I am sure that some things have been changed over the last 60 years she has been pullin' implements.  I am of the mind that every few decades you need to do some things to maintain your equipment.  That's the same reason I washed the wheat truck.  I try to wash things like that every 55 years whether they need it or not.  I found it was a different color than I thought, so I guess it needed it!

On another note I just ordered $250 worth of fruit trees.  How exciting!  It appears that they won't ship for about a month - by then I will have spring fever for sure!  I ended up with two (more) apple trees, another peach tree, a couple of apricot trees, a cherry tree, and a couple of mulberry trees to add to the apple and pear that's already out there.  I am going to put the mulberries out in the pasture as a lure away from the good stuff (and to keep purple poop away from the house!), but will still have them to shake for jelly fixings.  Those things are such a weed that you would think there would be some on the place, but there is only one scraggly one left in the pasture.  Ordering that bunch of trees made me think of a rather memorable event from my youth.  In a (horribly) failed attempt, my parents planted an orchard of fruit trees between the house and the barn.  Nothing fancy - apple, cherry, pear, and peach.  One by one they all died for some reason.  Who knows, other than my brother continually running into the apple tree with the 65 Ford pickup.  I do remember that the cherry tree got quite big and one year produced more cherries than you could chase a stick at.  My mom got me to climb it and sit and pick cherries so she could make a pie.  I ate one (or two) and put one in the bucket.  I ate so many of those cherries I should have been sicker than a dog.  When mom went to make a pie she had to throw them all out because every one of them had a worm in it.

I sure hope things go better here on the farm.  I'm pretty sure a person can only eat a few hundred worms and survive once in your life.  I am NOT trying again to see if that's true.  Yuck - that story still gives me the willies.  It's a wonder I even ordered a cherry tree.  That must have happened to George Washington somewhere along the way.  That cherry tree deserved the chopping down (and yes, I know that was not a true story).

Now on to order the princess trees.  I am spending that tax return left and right, but it will be so fun!