I don’t even know where to begin! The spring and summer have ramped us up from anticipation to just about building the place into a farm from the ground up. We have been busy and broke every day! The chickens needed an upgrade in their housing, the house has needed a ton of repairs, the yard has needed tending to, and the garden building and growing and tending. We bought our first two cows to raise for beef for our family! The whole process has been done on a serious learning curve too… Amidst all this, we have been bringing up an infant, as well as our other three kids, and they have kept our hands full! Our oldest teen has been fixing up a ‘69 Chevy truck that he bought for $200, and if you know classics, then you know by the price that the truck needs a lot of work! Our younger teenage boy got himself an Xbox for Christmas, and it has needed daily playing in order to keep it lubricated and in fit working order. Yes, the last two seasons have been keeping us busy!
To start it all off with, I had to build the work bench in the garage, then equip it with tools to do some basic building and carpentry. That has been a task that has spanned both seasons just for limited capital resources. But things are being fitted in according to priority because of said limited resources, so what I have is useful to me!
Things like buying cows are not just that, of course. Once we got the cows, we had to feed them on Calf Starter till they were eight weeks old, then when it came time for them to start grazing, we had to do a little teaching. We supplemented with some grain too. When it came time to turn them out into the West Pasture, it needed some fencing put in and a few bands of electric wire to surround it so we could turn the cows loose in there to feed. It was my first electric fence.
Gardening involved growing some plants on the balcony, which missus handled most of, but she needed help of all sorts from time to time. Then we built a hoop house, and had to learn by trial and error how to wind-proof it! Then there were all the fittings and pots for that! And now we are fitting it out for next year in order to get an early start! Also, digging up grass and hand turning earth to put in the Pumpkin Patch and the Watermelon Patch were big jobs! A full acre of land is a 200 foot by 200 foot square, and we have had to buy hoses to run from the one water spout all the way across to the apple trees we put in! There is also a permanent hose set to the Vegetable Patch.
All the while this all has been going on, we have also had my elderly grandparents to care for, with his Dementia to worsen his situation, and taking my wife the 85 miles to the airport when she has had to work out of town! Yes, things have been keeping us plenty busy!
Fortunately we got the drainpipe leak into the basement sorted out a month and a half ago with some elbow grease and a lot of help from my uncle Steven! That has sorted out the smells coming from there, and it has lessened the water the sump pump has had to pump by a little bit, anyhow! I still need to deepen the sump pit though, and try to stop the basement from filling up with water in the first place!
Did I mention the fences we put up either side of the house to distinguish the front yard from the back, or the fence we took down that cut the property in half and how now there is three quarters of an acre of lawn to mow each week or two? Or perhaps I also failed to mention that I have begun to remodel the pantry with cabinetry and shelving I am building myself? We re-stained the kitchen cabinets this weekend, and plan to paint in there soon. The whole house needs freshening up!
The Farming Life is a good life! I can say that with all conviction! Did I mention that I have tickets to see Brad Paisley on August Second? Well, at least there is something to look forward to other than death!
We spent today, my wife’s birthday, driving my grandparents to Salt Lake City for his semi-annual appointment with the specialist on his dementia. It’s now just after midnight! Time for bed!
Kelsey J Bacon