Hanging in there

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!

It has been such a silly spring it’s truly unreal. So remember how I said we were having warm weather and I was stuck inside last update? About the time work started slowly ironing out, the temperatures plummeted and we went back into winter time. It only started warming up again this last week, and unfortunately I’ve earned myself a case of walking pneumonia so I haven’t been able to be out in it much yet.

That said, we got a few things done around here. The garden beds are starting to get cleaned out. It’s slow going, but we are separating bulbs, weeding, planting and replanting, and laying down some weed control and bark. It’ll be really pretty when we pull it together. And a little easier to manage. We are looking for pretty ground cover that flowers or stays nice all summer, or for a series of flowers that will bloom one after another and every year, so they are always attracting pollinators. I’ve been looking into chaos gardening, but I’m not quite ready to commit yet.

As you saw in the video, from three weeks ago, The canal was burned and cleaned out and it started filling up about a week later. Really stressed out the girls because they started filling it in the middle of the night. Very unusual, I never did hear why. But it also filled super slowly, I think it sat at halfway for almost a week. Probably because it started freezing again. Craziness. It’s full now though, and just so pretty. Such fun to have that “babbling brook” sound while you’re working around the farm. 

The girls have had a lot of lazy days lately, although we had the big vet day. All but Nellie got vaccinated, but the vet agreed that there’s two issues at play with Nellie and we need to address them separately. First she’s terrified of the needle, so I’ve been working on that with her for a few months and while the vet call and my getting sick set us back, we will probably be able to vaccinate in a couple weeks (the vet isn’t really worried because right now they don’t really interact with a lot of other animals, so we can prioritize making it a good experience.). We realized that the second issue is that she’s still just terrified of new people working with her. She panics before we can even get to the checkup. That ones a little harder to solve, but we will get there. I’m still so proud of her, and all the animals on the farm, they all did fantastically. It was Honey’s first big kid checkup, and other than turning me into a pincushion, she handled it like a champ. She was a little mad at me for a couple days, but she quickly decided we could be friends again. Didn’t help that she needed her rabies booster, that makes all the critters unhappy.

Nobody has gotten a garden in yet, almost any time we’ve gone to plant, it’s frozen overnight again. As much as I really wanted a big garden this year, I think it’s much more reasonable to get some potatoes in the ground and start prepping for next year. I hate to give up, but this spring is proving a battle, and I think it might be the smartest to work within our constraints for now. Plus potatoes are dope so I’m excited to be growing them. Lots of potato based recipes I want to try. For my fellow Psych fans out there, I wanna get brave and try “fries cuatros quesos dos fritos”. For my non Psych fans out there, go watch Psych, the first seasons especially will explain a lot about my humor haha.

We found some more Easter eggs today in the garden. I’m honestly surprised we haven’t found more, but it’s a running joke that I find Easter eggs all year long around the farm. We hide so many throughout the gardens, I figure there’s a few that are probably composting out there at this point.

Did anyone get to see the northern lights? We got them really faintly here, but they were so cool. Amazing to see them all the way down here. This far south, it’s a “tell the grandkids one day” moment. Very very cool.

Anyways, I wish I had more of an update for ya. I’ve kinda come to the conclusion that this spring is just a bit rough around the edges. Hoping it means there’s a great summer around the corner.

Until we chat again my friends!

I’m ready for a vacation….

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!

So, unfortunately, we are back with a short update due to work.
The good news is that I got that initial project out the door. The bad news is that it happened to coincide with some very unexpected disruptions to our service and while it’s not my fault, it sorta default became my problem to solve, and I am still working long hours. Since we are already growing beyond our current infrastructure, I am putting out fires near constantly. Ranging between 14 and 17 hour work days, except for the couple days I had off around Easter. Plus, the product likes to throw errors around 2 am. So I have been perpetually cranky for about a month. But I should be getting some backup in a bit here, so help is coming soon.

Easter was very fun, we had a windstorm during the Easter celebration which meant everyone pretty much hung out inside because it was super cold and biting. But the egg hunt still went on and the kids had a wonderful time. They love hiding inside with the windows all closed while we hide eggs, and then they line up for baskets and get to go hunting all around the farm. Well, anywhere where I feel it’s safe to have kiddos, not with the horses in the chaos, for example.
My cousin gave a lovely bible study on the true meaning behind the death and resurrection of Christ, and how, much like with Christmas, we need to be very mindful about how we celebrate such that God is always the focus, not materialistic things. I was very impressed with the research and work she put in, not that she’s not totally super smart and awesome, just that I know presenting like that freaks her out. She totally killed it though.

During those couple of days off I got to try a little post winter work with the girls and was so so so impressed with how much my girls retained and have even grown from the fall. They are so clever. They’ve been enjoying the warm weather I’ve been missing, and are wearing their little fly masks to help with sunburn and such.
We got a little more burning and cleanup done around the farm, and by we, I mean my parents mostly. I get little stories here and there when I come out for food or when they come back to the office. Most are really sweet, like, “Honey and Joe are cuddling on the porch”. Some worry me like “hey, no worries but we sorted very minorly lit the fence on fire but only a little”. So… I have concerns.
It’s storming today, it’s been threatening for a bit so I am not surprised. It’s that time of year too, where we start getting storms more frequently. It’s nice, fun to listen to when it’s not being destructive. I love watching them roll in, although today’s storm has been mostly constant, no rolling. Took out the power for a bit though, I am assuming lightning hit a pole or something.

Anyways guys, I am so sorry about the continued short updates. I am doing everything I can to revisit my personal life, hopefully soon.
Until we chat again, my friends!

Who needs work/life balance?

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!

So, I’m just going to apologize now for the length and relative lack of information in this update, and the overall lack of quality, I am really phoning this one in. I am truly buried in work. Like, my shortest day in the last two and a half weeks was 14 hours and I haven’t had a weekend. Unfortunately that means I am currently writing this on my phone while I wait for some quick food to cook before heading off to bed.

My company is usually really anti-crunch culture, which I am so grateful for, but we got some wires crossed and a third party company breathing down our necks so unfortunately I very suddenly got absolutely buried in deadlines.

I haven’t been super involved in farm life lately, but I can give you some highlights and we can catch up in the next one for sure. Luckily it’s still early spring so things are just starting to wake up.

To start, I’m very proud of Miss Nellie, who tried on her mask multiple times with no fuss at all. She’s such a gem. She would be wearing It right now if it weren’t for the fact that they are shedding and her face is so itchy. I was a little worried about her catching it on something while scratching if I left it on, and I really don’t want a traumatic experience with the mask at this stage. Well, at any stage. If we could just avoid trauma that’d be great, thanks.

We’ve started cleaning out the garden so we can actually plant things, but the overnight freezing is still going strong so we haven’t planted anything yet. I’m excited though, we are so close!

I have a new cousin! My cousin had a kiddo, a little girl, and we are all super excited to meet her. Hoping to get formal introductions on Easter.

Speaking of, I’m still hosting Easter, which is just such colossally bad timing with all this work stuff going on. I have negative amounts of time. But I host every year so at least it’s fairly routine. I’m just really hoping for good weather so we can be outside. And that I don’t have to work, I am going to be so annoyed if I have to work Easter Sunday.

Well, my timer has gone off so my soup and toast and I are off to go watch an episode of Good Eats before going to bed. Wish me luck on these deadlines, and for a calmer April!

Until we chat again, my friends!

A Chair Raising Experience

Posted on by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!

How are we? Doing good? How was your February? Feels like it’s been a minute since we caught up.

Not much has happened around here because it’s been pretty cold and rainy. We had a couple good sunny days and we did a little burning and a little cleaning up. But mostly it’s been a lot of making huffy comments about the snow and mud ad infinitum.

We changed up the hay storage, since the setup that had worked all winter involved the tarp being tied to the truck and, well, we needed the truck. So we built a nice little lean-to, and put the tarp over the top of that. It worked pretty good, neighbors even complimented it, and we knew it was temporary because my tarp took a beating over the winter and was nearing retirement. What we didn’t know is three days later we would have a crazy windstorm that would tear the tarp in half and throw the lean-to around and take the pieces of the tarp and toss them onto the tack room roof. It also took down tree limbs, threw a ton of tumbleweeds around, and tore off a hunk of gutter… but I don’t know from where. It matches ours, but I can’t figure out where it came from for the life of me.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I got my money out of that poor tarp, and with a little hemming and my grommet punch, I’ll just have two smaller tarps now. 

Since I’ve been stuck inside, I’ve taken to re-organizing my space. It’s been going pretty well, mostly just assigning things to better places. A good example was my dresser, I had a whole drawer of business casual clothing from a previous life. Explain to me why a remote software dev needs a drawer of slacks at the ready. It felt silly to toss them when I have some potential in-office trips happening in the future, and Lord knows I’ve done no growing (well, at least not vertically), so putting them in the back of the closet made much more sense. Now that drawer houses office supplies, which is a little unconventional, but I’m really excited about it. I’ve been really trying for Adam Savage’s theory of keeping the things I often use readily accessible, that really works with my brain. It’s also just nice to finally be getting ahead of the chaos that’s been compounding since I moved in. And it’s good practice for tackling the rest of the house. One day I’m gonna have to go after that pantry.

In other office news, I have a funny story that happened just a couple days ago, in case you need a good laugh. So, some of you may remember if you’ve been around a while, that I have, well, had, a lovely office chair my sweet brother gave me for my birthday a few years back. I loved it very much, super comfy and pleasant for long days at work. Well, after two and a half years of faithful service, my chair experienced rapid, unplanned disassembly…while I was using it! Rude.

So, I was sitting at my desk, and I went to lean back to contemplate a task, and the chair bit came off the pole bit! But it did so in such a way, combined with the blanket being all tangled up in the wheels, that my lower half was trapped under my desk and my top half was clinging wildly to my desktop to try to avoid smashing myself and the top of the chair into my bed’s footboard. Remember, my desk is somewhat lifted to accommodate the closet setup, so it’s a pretty unfun fall. To complicate things further, Watson was trapped under the blanket on my lap and I didnt want to squish or drop him.

It was a hilariously ridiculous situation to be stuck in.

Because I was stuck, clinging to my desk to avoid injury but unable to get unstuck, I had to call for help. Of course, I’m way in the back of the house and literally everyone in my house is nearly deaf or living in headphones, so I had to figure out another solution. I couldn’t reach my phone, but I could reach my keyboard, and luckily my phone was connected to my pc, so I managed to send “help” to my dad, who came running in and saved me. And then laughed at me for about 20 minutes. I can’t blame him, I started cracking up too.

Watson for the record is fine, but boycotting the office for now. Understandable.

But who would have thought I’d still have to send “come save me at work” messages to my dad after I stopped commuting? Better yet, can you imagine my boss’s face if I had hurt myself and had to explain that I’m calling in sick because my chair went on the offensive? Is it an L&I claim if it happens during work hours (I jest)?

Anyways, my poor chair is toast. The pole bit is pretty shattered, the plate thingie is sheared off, and the pressurized tube thingie no longer pressurizes. So, as much as it saddens me, if you have a good chair recommendation, lemme know.

Hopefully the next update will Be more farm and less chaos haha.

Until we chat again my friends!

A three part photos series…
…of Joe when he hears…
…He’s a good boy!
Burning tumbleweeds
The sun sets in the spring are glorious
Watty is not impressed with the lingering cold
Christopher challenged me to paint our breakfast
Got some seriously cool surprise happy mail from my sweet friend!
Help me brainstorm some cool return happy mail for my friend!
This is an insulator, I thought it looked cool
Suspicious Watts post chair debacle
Things are budding!
She artsy…