name change!

Ok, I'm going to change the name of the farm, now. Elise likes it, so I figure that's good enough! Also going to add some new links--one being to Erin Smith's MySpace page where you can listen to music that we get to listen to when we have our big parties at The Goat. Pretty sweet! Her new cd will be out shortly, so if you like what you hear, you should pick one up. Her songs really are awesome!

Ok, I hope you all have a great rest of the week!

other stuff

The vegetables are really starting to take off, which is so cool. The peas are really climbing these days, and the pole beans are a few inches, now. I sure wish that I could have gotten started earlier. I'm looking forward to putting up the greenhouse so that I can start everything earlier next year. Man, the herbs I'm going to be growing!!! I really can't wait.

I also decided that my idea of having everything in raised beds might not be the way to go. The soil is looking really nice where all the cover has been grown for however long it's been there, and I think that the smartest move would actually be to rototill everything under this fall. The soil would use those nutrients, and by the spring, should be ready to plant. I definitely want the old house done this summer, but I'm also thinking that it will be pretty essential to make sure the ground is ready for planting next year. I could rototil everything under in September before the ground freezes. If I work on planting things early in the greenhouse, everything will be in pretty good shape by mid summer. It's going to be awesome!!! I know these things take time, but sometimes I just want it to be looking the way I want it to be looking. The good thing about things taking time is that it seems as if the place slowly reveals how it wants to look. For instance, I haven't been sure what I want to do in the front of the deck (in the front field), but now I've decided to make a circular herb garden area there. I might have missed out on that had it not taken me so long. But regardless, it's pretty awesome seeing this stuff work itself out!

Here's a picture of the old windows I used as raised beds. The lettuce and spinach are awesome!





A picture of Suimo, (I have no idea how to spell that!), who has been hanging out with the goats in the old wood shed. I've pretty much got the shed ready to go--just a few more boards needed in the front,--and the guys helped me extend the fence area the other day.



We also moved the little duck house I built last year so that the geese and Ted can have their own privacy. Ted and Waddlesworth were totally getting beat up by the male ducks and the roosters, and since they have moved to their new home, Waddlesworth is nesting and Ted is basking in the glory of being left alone. Watkins, on the other hand, keeps getting out (we have no idea how) and seems to do a bit of wandering between the new place and the old. I have a feeling that she isn't being allowed to nest at the new place, so I think I'm going to have to build both she and Ted some big nesting areas. Another project for next week!



Here is what the old goat fenced area looks like. Mickey started helping me expand it last weekend when he was here, but we didn't finish it due to rain. It was ok as we made icecream and played Sequence all afternoon with the guys. It was an awesome day! I'll take some pictures of the finished fence area next week.

gardening!

I have to say that I have immensely enjoyed this stage of fixing up The Goat. I have missed digging in the dirt far more than I actually realized. I've been doing a lot of transplanting, and I've been making a habit of visiting Shopko hoping to get great deals on the plants as the season goes along. As a result, I picked up a mess of annuals for a few cents each, and needed a place to plant them. I decided to clean up the area next to the sauna and created a garden there. I really like it. I found out that there is more of a cement path to the sauna than what I had realized, so I cleaned that up a bit and really like how it looks. I moved a mess of the day lillies there as well, and plan on putting a few more in. Not quite finished, but definitely getting there.

Oh, I got the solar fountain and am terribly dissappointed in it. It barely does anything! It's kind of comical, except that I had such visions! I'll work on the pool a bit when I get back next week (I'm going to Bayfield with Diane, Mickey, Grasshopper and Annie, maybe Justin, and might even run into Erin and Scott! It should be a blast. Going to a reading by Robert Bly, and also plan on doing some biking, kayaking, and just hanging out. Woohoo! Can't wait. We leave in the morning! Anyway...). We'll see what I can do with the pond. I need to find some water plants and create some safe places for the toads to hang out in. There's actually quite a few around now. It will be pretty nice for them when I get it all figured out.

Here's some pictures of the progress of the sauna area:





If you look closely, you can see where Lizzy's tarp is behind the sauna area:

turkey problems!

So now we have turkey problems! 2 big ones, actually. Wandering problems. As in wandering down the road, going to the neighbor's house, like as early as 6:30 am, strutting their stuff under the windows, letting loose their gold all over the deck, etc. Yep, as in 2 big daddies causing lots of problems. I think it might have started because Lizzy, the female turkey, is sitting on a nest! I was totally freaked out one night because I couldn't find her and was pretty sure that she was a goner. She had been flying over the fence to wander and even though she is pretty big, I was still sure something had happened to her. I called Diane up crying and she was pretty sure that Lizzy wasn't missing at all, but was just hiding. Sure enough, I found her later that morning! Yippee. She was hiding behind Bill's old house. We tarped the area and made sure that she has food and water handy, and she pretty much sits there the whole day except for an early morning and late evening jaunt around the place. I hope her chicks hatch, and even if not, at least she seems to be pretty happy to be trying the family thing. Of course there is always going to be the problem, as Dave pointed out, of trying to figure out who the daddy is!

Anyway, Lizzy setting is probably the start of the Mr. Turkey problems. We also had a neighborhood progressive dinner and the Mr's where following us down the road as we headed to Judy's house. My friend Mickey came to visit from Ashland and he and I had to run them back to the barn. We thought we lost them, but nope, they probably went down the road until they heard the neighbors talking and decided that they would join them for a while. I guess they were helping the guys out with one of the cars they were working on.

Regardless of their reasonings, they have found that their wandering has required new housing for them. I feel really bad, actually, because they love people so much, but I just can't have them visiting where they aren't welcome. My neighbors were quite put-out about it, and with good reason.

The funny thing is that those Mr's are brutal to the big dogs that live over there. The dogs are terrified of them. It's pretty funny.

Anyway....here is a picture of Lizzy hiding, and the next is a picture of the big guys in their restricted housing.

pizza/bread oven

I just realized that I haven't talked about the bread/pizza oven that will be built this summer off the deck. I don't have any specific pictures detailing the exact location, but if you can imagine it, it will be located off the deck right by the door. It will be at an angle facing the door, if that makes sense. The house is on a slope, which is why the rain barrel idea and spiral herb garden should work well. I'm actually considering building a pool out of bricks into the side of the oven. That way any run-off will go there. The herbs in the garden will be specific to pizza making. We can pick the toppings for the pizza right as we make them. How sweet is that?

Here's a picture of the oven I'd like to build:



Bud Joe is moving to Australia to be with his Kate, which means I better get going with this fast if I want his help! Besides, it's going to be really fun to build!

happy summer!

So I'm not completely finished with my comps, but I've been able to get out and do some work anyway. It's been wonderful! I got a whole lot done yesterday, which is nice, especially since today will end up being a study day.

I hadn't been sure about what to do with the old shower/tub enclosure until I decided I could use it for a pond. I was doing some research the other day on water barrels, and came up with a perfect idea! The mini pond will be where the run-off water from the barrels will go. I'm not going to be using barrels, actually, but large plastic garbage cans. They won't look as nice, but that's ok. Perhaps I can build wood frames to cover them up or something. Because I have a metal roof, I'll be able to catch a lot of water. I plan on putting at least 4 or 5 of them on the side of house, building some kind of gutter system that will feed the barrel farthest from the front of the house first, and connect all of them via a hose. There is a slight incline, so the water will flow from the last barrel to the first, and will then have another hose attached to the first barrel that will run to the tub. Here is where the barrels will go....



Eventually I'll have the same system on the other side of the house. That is the side of the house where the outdoor bread/pizza oven will be, and there will be a spiral herb garden that the excess water can feed. It's really going to be an awesome setup!

I am moving all the daylilies to line the walkway from the barn to the house. I'm going to stop having the big propane tank filled in the back and will go to the smaller canisters. This way I won't need to keep the drive open for the big truck. It will look so much better... (It is hard to see where I have planted the lillies, but if you look closely behind Vanna, you can see that I have logs laid out and the lillies are planted against them. There are a whole lot more to plant!)



Anyway, here is the shot of the tub just put in place:




The finished product! I'll be transplanting some hosta and other ground cover to the left side of the tub. The rose bushes I transplanted are already dead (that didn't take long), but I did plant some climbing beans by the ladder. I will dig a trench to bury the hose coming from the rain barrels, and will have a path going from the house to the tub and line that with plants as well. I need to do some more research on what water plants to use. I also bought a solar pump that should be coming soon, and will be using the old shower head as a fountain. It should be fun!~

farm name change???

so I was telling my friend Robert that I was switching offices at work, (I'm now rooming with Diane), and that we were feng shui-ing it so that perhaps we could actually get smarter and do some good academic work. He suggested that I consider the new feng shui fad that makes use of goat intelligence--goat shui. It worked! Totally. Diane and I are now brilliantly smarter than ever, and our thoughts are flowing like never before. (It's a shame they aren't academic thoughts, but we're pleased they are flowing at all. One must be grateful for small favors.)

Anyway, because there are already Drunken Goat products out there, I've been a bit concerned about our name. How do you all feel about "The Goat Shui Farm?" Or something along those lines?


I'm heading to "the Goat shui" for some fire-baked pizza!
I'm eating "goat shui" fresh eggs with fire-baked bread!
Going to "the goat shui" for the next progressive dinner?
Is Neely cooking some "goat shui" for dinner? (Just kidding.)

Hmmm.

at joe's

After Amalia and I worked on the coop, Joe called and we all went for a barbeque at his house. I even dragged the guys out....

Amlan and Travis came later and I forgot to take photos of them.

Julie:



Diane and Amalia:



Me and Julie:



Diane and Joe:

little chicken coop

So my friend Amalia foolishly decided that she wanted to get some exercise at the goat, so I was more than happy to put her to work. She road her bike out on Saturday, and we spent the afternoon cleaning up the little house that will soon be the new chicken coop. It really didn't take us as long as I thought, and, for the most part, won't need as much work as I anticipated. The roof definitely has to be covered, and part of one wall needs to be repaired, but the floor is good, as are the rest of the walls. I bought some special insulation that I will put on the ceiling which will keep the place much warmer in the winter. I also need to think about getting some electricity in all the barns, including the coop, which will let me put the chicks in their earlier--I can put them under a light. I don't mind them being in the house too much, but they are getting bigger quickly and will need more space.

Here's one of the top hat dudettes!


Here is a picture of Amalia in the coop before we started:


A couple of after shots--it really is looking nice!



Oh, I forgot to mention that when I pulled down one part of the ceiling a mess of skat hit me. It was good sized, but I have no idea what kind! Only in that one spot, too. Very strange.

Here's Diane doing her thing...

well...

finally did a little work around the place. Still am not finished with my comps work, so I'm looking at another 2 weeks before defending. Man--sitting has never been so hard!

But here's a bit of what's been going on. THey are getting ready to pave our road, and they are totally digging up all the lovely trees on each side. It's a bit depressing to watch, actually, but we are trying to at least be glad that we are getting easy access to firewood. I'm trying to cut as much as I can before others come to take it. I didn't realize this, but even though the trees might be on my land, once they are cut by the county, they are up for grabs. Seems wrong to me, but hey, what do I know?



So they pushed a couple of really nice ones onto my land after I talked to one of the dudes doing the cutting, and I'm stalking the other trees that they push to the other side of the road.

Here's a picture of a couple pushed to the other side. They aren't the best firewood, but they should be used, and I'm happy for any wood that I can get. It didn't take too long, until I got the chainsaw stuck.



I had to call Diane to come rescue my blade with her chainsaw, and together, we finished the job! Women in the Keweenaw totally rock!!