Hurricane Farm

It's been raining on and off for almost three weeks now here in Southern New England.  The forcast calls for rain and thunder storms for the next 7 days.  This is good for some of our garden but detrimental to tomatoes, peppers, and people who don't like mud.  In fact, the hay fields all around us in towns throughout Eastern Connecticut have been left to their own devices--almost looking abandoned--due to the constant wet.  No one has been able to cut their hay for weeks.  The first cutting traditionally takes place on Memorial Day Weekend here in CT, but it was raining back then, too!  Hopefully the rain will let up for a few days at least soon!

The rain does not seem to bother the large livestock, however.  Here you can see the two Jerseys and Aloysius involved in some sort of race with one of our Black Spanish turkeys.  The turkey seems to be winning this one.

The rain has also slowed down my building of our meat chicken coop/shed.  Here is a photo from a couple of weeks ago.  Liev helped me erect a wall.  Now, during breaks in the rain, and with a little help from my Dad yesterday, we have all four walls up, framed, and covered with siding.  I hope to put up some rafters today if it stays only overcast and does not begin to rain.

Despite all the rain, mud, humidity, and dirty floors that come with living in what seems to have turned into a tropical rainforest environment, good things do come in the end:

Ok, ok.  I know that it's winter and that there are rodents are in the house.  I get that.

I also get that their job is to lurk about at night, being heard yet not seen.

But I don't get how the heck they did this:

Yes, that is a chicken finger.  Yes, it is trapped in the mouse trap.  No, I did not use it for bait...

Somehow, the mice managed to not only steal the peanut butter from the trigger but they also put a half-eaten chicken finger in there!  It seems that we have some creative and sardonic mice on hand here in the farmhouse.

For some reason, I used to always confuse the two terms "wood chuck" and "ground hog."  So now I've taken to calling them "Wood Hogs" or "Ground Chucks" just for the fun of it.  While clearing out some nasty prickly bushes and reclaiming several hundred square feet of land, we happened across a neighbor's dwelling.  I knew that he was around last summer, and many a time was that I saw him scamper off in that general direction, but now we know where he lives.  My Grandpa used to have a large ground hog hole just down the road from his house.  We used to take apple peels and other yummies to him when I would visit.  I think maybe my Grandpa had made a truce with the little critter as I don't recall ever hearing about his gardens being invaded.  Our little guy is welcome to stay--for now...We'll see if he develops a taste for our garden greens come summer time.

I wonder how he will feel about our new landscaping of his front lawn?  It seems that he is still sleeping away in there.  No tracks were to be seen around the hole...but we'll keep a close watch out for this "Ground Chuck."  Or was that "Wood Hog?"

So as the farm grows, we get to purchase cool things that we would never even window-shop for if we lived in, say, a condo.

Case in point:  a grain silo.  We've located two different places that will custom mill grain for us and deliver as well.  The only issue is that we need to buy it by the three ton load.  Five gallon buckets won't work in this case.  Perhaps one of the only problems unable to be solved by the five gallon pail solution. 

Enter the silo.  We called a few places and Erica was able to find a woman selling a used one.  It also turns out that the place that gave us her number can also take it down and deliver it to our farm.  We will soon be able to take delivery of our first load of bulk grain.  It will be nice to save on the 50 pound sacks, and this will be a great financial deal for us as bulk grain is significantly cheaper than the sacked grain.  Additionally, the mill can deliver us grain to our exact specifications.  Way too cool.

Back to the deal about buying cool stuff...We're also getting a new dump truck.  That's right a "new" 1977 dump truck.  This will help in delivering hogs and cattle, as well as hauling firewood.  Pictures of this to follow.

Below, though, you can see a photo of part of our hungry crew from last Spring.  Notice that sack I'm awkwardly dumping into the feeder?  Well, without sacks and with bulk grain, I'll be using...that's right...FIVE GALLON BUCKETS!  Another functional use of one of the greatest farm implements in the world.

Hungry little devils, eh?  You'll notice only a couple heritage birds in there.  The rest of them prefer the food they can find on their own out in the field and in the woods.  Hey, it makes my job easier!  Stay tuned for photos of the silo.  We will try to do a photo spread of the whole installation process.