Author: Mr Rob

It was a very rainy day here and not a good day to be out tramping in the wet Georgia clay. Not to worry, there is always plenty to keep me busy in the house and in the barn. Firstly Miss Lynne had asked me to deal with a broken flush mechanism in the bathroom. I quick trip to the hardware store and we were back in business.

After lunch it was time to shift the hay up into the loft. 50 bales down (or up) and 100 more to go. I could do with a long handle pitch fork or perhaps one of these.

In the evening we attended a meeting of the Coweta Beekeepers Association. Honey bees, it seems, are the next step to “The Good Life”.

 

Well today has been mostly mowing, weed whacking and cleaning up tree debris. It’s been quite a productive day.  I’ll spare you the details of what I said when the fuel cap came off the weed whacker and poured petrol all down my leg.

I’m sitting here listening to the thunder claps get louder. Perhaps we’ll get some rain to clear the air and help the new grass to grow strong.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a picture of the raised beds to share. I got waylaid and the blog never got updated.

I was quite pleased with the way they were going then. Just three weeks later and thing are really moving.

The kitchen bed has already given us spinach, herbs, swiss chard and strawberries with lots more to come.

 

Just over a week ago we had some heavy rain and high winds. Miss Lynne and I had just popped down to the local stores and we noted the sky on the way in. We were almost drown on the way out! By the time we got home, the water running off the fields was stained with the Georgia clay and the wind was thrashing the trees. We were very please to get back in doors. We had over 2.25″ of rain in a single hour.

All that wind and rain left me with plenty to do last week. Two trees had been blown down. One had fallen on the neighbor’s fence and a second was balance precariously above it. Time for the ropes ladders and chain saw. I’m glad Miss Lynne didn’t see me up that tree. I would have got an ear bashing.

As I’ve mentioned before, we have hardly any flat areas on the property so water runs away quickly. It can do quite a bit of damage on the way. The driveway took a hit this time. I knew I should have cleared those ditches earlier.

All that rain eventually ends up in the lake. I wonder how  much top soil I could recover.

With the lime down a few weeks ago and lots of rain and lots of sunshine, the grass and weeds have been growing strongly. I’ve already run the lawn tractor around a couple of times. The weeds had to be dealt with in order to give the new grass seeds a fighting chance and all that fertilizer needed spreading.

We don’t have a tractor and the jury is still out on buying or renting. One of the main issues is that our place is small and most agricultural contractors don’t have the compact equipment. Fortunately our friends at Turner Feed & Seed recommended a guy with a small place of his own that would be a useful contact. I called Johnny and he came around the property with me and discussed what we are trying to achieve. As it happens, Johnny looks after the pastures for our neighbor. All we needed was a dry weekend with light rain forecast just after. …… and we waited, and waited and …….

Eventually the weather was right and Johnny came along with all the equipment and supplies to spay weed killer, aerate, over-seed and then spread the fertilizer.

Now that’s a nice little tractor. I have to say that I’m quite tempted.

Because pretty much all our pasture is on a slope, it is very important to minimise the opportunity for soil erosion. In an ideal world we would like to have over seeded with a “no till seed drill” but they only work effectively on flat ground. We have far too many lumps and bumps. As the next best option we chose to texture to ground a little with a big aeration roller and the broadcast the seed.

Johnny then used the same spreader to put out the fertilizer.

In some areas , mainly around gates and the top fence, there is very little existing grass. In order to stop the seed being washed away by the first heavy rain, I spread straw as a mulch. This will also help retain moisture.

Of course it didn’t take long before the chickens wanted to see what was going on and what they had missed under that straw. I do hope they don’t eat all the seed.

 

Well it has been wet this spring. We have had over 13.5″ of rain since the beginning of March. We had nearly 4″ of that last weekend. All that wet weather has delayed the work  to improve the pasture. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that rain holds off this week end so that we can get the spraying and over-seeding completed.

I’ve been trying avoid outside work so I concentrated on getting my barn workshop organised. It’s been a bit of a tip from the moment I unloaded the truck. The first job was to clear a space to work and construct a bench along one wall. Nothing fancy. It’s just a simple wooden construction screwed together with a ply top and shelf. It’s immediately been put to good use and is currently supporting the weed whacker (strimmer) with a carburetor in pieces.

Thursday was finally sunny enough to dry the grass, which has been growing like Topsy. We have lots of grass to cut here and lots of weeds too – hence the need to spray. I didn’t want to spread the seed heads all over the place so I opted to collect the cuttings and dump them – not in the compost heap. The dampness of the cut grass made the collection problematic but, by the end of the day, it was all done ……. for this week.

I find grass cutting quite relaxing (I know it’s odd) and you get to spot all manner of wildlife hurrying to escape the monster machine. Frogs, giant beetles and of course snakes. This week I only saw a couple of very small snakes. Miss Lynne, on the other hand, saw something much larger from her office window.  Oh dear, this is going to be trouble.

 

There is always something unexpected to divert my attention around here. This morning, I opened the front door to be confronted by what usually is a sign that Miss Lynne has been gardening. But she is away so I can’t blame her. How on earth did all that shrubbery get on the front porch?

Looking up I quickly had an answer to my question. An opportunist little bird had decided that the porch light fitting would make a great nesting box. Sadly for that little bird, I had to disagree. Back to square one then.

 

 

 

The alpacas are loving this warmer weather and green grass. I thought it would be good to get a few pictures.

 

 

 

 

I’ve been busy, on and off over the last couple of weeks, building a house for our next batch of chickens. I made my usual error of flinching at the price of a new one and foolishly say … nah, I can do that. Well, yes I can, but it always takes twice as long as I think and lots of trips into town for the bits and pieces I forgot the last time.

Anyroad, here it is. A luxury accommodation for 6 birds with nesting for 3 simultaneous egg laying. This open plan space has forest fresh, multi level roosting and fine views over the Georgia countryside.

 

Who knew that eggs grew in the wild …….. Well not really. Rocky the runaway chicken; the one that just won’t stay confined, has been laying her eggs in her own secret place. It’s a pity I didn’t find them until this morning. It feels wrong to throw so many eggs away.

A walk around the garden is nearly always rewarded with wildlife of one sort or another. Firstly there’s Rocky the runaway. She loves to get out of the pasture and away from the other chickens. Perhaps she is escaping the attentions of Roger Rooster.

We have lots of Cardinals coming to the feeders and the ground beneath them.

We always had these in NY. One new bird to us was this little Indigo Bunting. Nice plumage as the pythons would say.

We really enjoy seeing the birds in out garden and Miss Lynne has a full time job keeping the feeders topped up. Not all the wild life is welcomed though.

It’s amazing the difference a week makes. Just a few days of warm weather and the trees are humming with activity.

The warm weather also answered the question about having turtles in the lake. We spotted at least three. That might not be good news for the recently added fish!