50% completed front yard rock wall

I decided to just finish the front wall today. After Saturday, I decided to finish the right front rock wall. I noticed that the ground was quite a bit lower next to the wall. So I started spreading the dirt farther out into the yard to make everything level. I used over 10 yards of soil to build this back up. The tractor bucket only holds 1/3 yard of dirt. I planted orchard grass so we can see  what it looks like. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. The best part was this wall was rebuilt from an original one that was buried about 45 years ago. It had probably been up for 50 years before that. There is an identical wall on the other side of the bridge. I need to spray the grass and kill the greenery so I can easily dig up the wall. 

The barn swallows have returned to nest and raise their young. I was headed to the house with a load of dirt and off to my right eight swallows were swooping around each other. Just as I focused on the group one of them dropped a white fuzzy feather. It fluttered in the wind as each bird dove attempting to snag the coveted nest liner!  It took about ten seconds of watching the feather flutter in the wind before a talented flyer snagged it and raced off. 

 

Since this was day 2 with the tractor I decided to do a little more work. One of the problems we had with the back barn lot was the sheep want to go over the fence.  The hillside makes it look like it will be an easy jump to get over the fence. I wanted to cut a four foot wide road/path next to the fence. Unfortunately, this is easier said then done. I tried to go from the bottom next to the creek but the tractor was on a slant and almost rolled into the creek. I managed to get it headed up the old road I made a few years ago. I then decided that if I picked up a bucketful of dirt along the upper side of the hill I could then get lined up and create a road. I would have my uphill tires in the rut allowing me to create a road. I managed to get into the rut and tried to make it flatter. When I got to the bottom near the water I started to slant toward the creek. I then tried to back up the road and the tractor slid into the fence. The only way out was forward. I ended up with one front tire on the bridge and one in the air. I used the bucket to keep the tractor from rolling and then got lined up to drive directly up the very steep hill. The tractor went up the hill no problem. Luckily it has been three days since any rain. I drove back up to the top of the new path and made it flatter. When I got near the bottom I kept going back and forth on the loose dirt near the spring runoff and compressing it down. Eventually I was able to drive out the bottom on all four wheels. 

 

Yard work can happen

I spent Friday relaxing and reading a book. I do occasionally take a little time for myself. It had been a long week at work. I still managed to get in one bucket of mastic on the library floor. I only have the outside edges to tile now. I need to go through and cut all the tiles to fit before I mix any more mastic. I will use a piece of blue painters tape to mark the top of the loose tiles. Otherwise I won't be able to tell they are not stuck to the floor. When cutting that much tile I tend to get very wet. The tile saw uses water and I think I need to change out the blade. I am pretty sure I have a new one out on the wall. It's pretty slow cutting the tiles. It has not been the same since I used it to cut all the granite tiles for the kitchen countertops. 

 

Saturday was amazing!  The weather was perfect and I just could not stay inside. I decided to work on our front rock wall. I had visions of getting it done but it has been in the works for several years. I don't have enough rocks available to get it to be height I think it needs. I went out in the barn lot and snagged the extra rocks that were hiding in the sheep manure pile. I also picked up the few loose rocks in the barn lot. Several years ago I had piled a bunch by the old chicken coop. I had found a buried pile and finished digging them out of the ground. I also found a pile half buried in the ram pasture. It took the tractor to get them out of the ground. I had to back fill the area as I created a hole in the ground that would have injured any human trying to walk in the area.  I still have a small pile by the waterfall and a small pile over by the lamb shed left. Probably only three buckets full and not near enough to finish off a project. As I was picking rocks in the barn lot I think I am going to bid this year on labor from one of the sports teams. I would like all the metal scraps and wooden pieces policed off the ground in the barn lot. I think 4-5 people could do it in 4-5 hours. I would like to get it all neat. The sheep and horses were enjoying the day also. 

I worked on the wall most of the day. It looks pretty good but I noticed it slants down away from the yard. There used to be a chain link fence across the front of the yard and the ground slipped away toward the creek. You can still see that slant. I would like to get that leveled out. Hopefully, the weather will be good enough on Sunday that I can finish. 

  

 

Water everywhere

 It rained again Wednesday night. All night long. This would not be a bad thing but the ground is absolutely saturated with water currently. By the time we got home that evening the back runoff creek was at its highest for the year and all muddy. We were super glad that we have not yet lowered the fences over the creek.   This very well could have been disastrous. 

We decided that this year we would shave the border collies. They get super hot and dirty during the summer. The weeds stick to them and they are just generally messy. Sarah came out and was going to do both dogs but Mouse jumped in the front spring. 

I suspect her was onto her nefarious plot to make him bald. So instead she was only able to shave Zeke. I have been laughing for days!  He does not even look like a border collie. Sarah tells me I should of gotten a blade that allows the dogs to have some amount of hair left. I did, she just didn't know it so now Mouse will get shaved with a number 7 blade. It got down to the high 30s right after the shave so Zeke had to spend two days hanging out on the breezeporch with Sprout.  He would go out in the morning and start shivering. He has been fine these last couple of days. The shock of being naked has worn off. 

 

Our bull on the back hillside out our kitchen window. The boy sheep are out there also. Look at that flat back!!  He is a beautiful animal that throws amazing calves. We are so happy with him. He is going to get to stay well into his old age. Until he starts to have performance issues then he will have to be hamburger. 

Where be those doggies?

I left for work early and AnnMarie took care of the dogs. I was just going to sign timecards but ended up having to stay. AnnMarie called me in the early afternoon to say that the neighbors thought one of our border collies was up the road chasing cows. Now Zeke can jump out of the yard but usually stays on the place. We don't trust him any more so we have started putting him on the overhead run. It has been a few years since he got off of it. He used to chew through the rope. It's now a metal chain and wire cable lead on the overhead run. No way to chew through it. 

When I got home Zeke was laying down on the old house front porch out of the rain. Mouse was running around the yard getting wet.  I snapped a picture and sent it to AnnMarie so she could let the land owner know it was not our dog.  

We are suspects as we have a black and white border collie, the other one is grey and white. 

Zeke has been jumping over our yard fence bordering the orchard. Years ago I had cut this fence to allow me to drive a tractor into our yard for some reason. I loosened the wire from the posts and restretched the entire fence. I then used some of the leftover 2x6x16 foot long boards to put a top rail above the woven wire. This should be tall enough to keep Zeke inside the yard. We won't test it out until we can be home to watch him for any illicit escapes. It rained almost the entire time. I got a two part coat for Christmas and the outer part is waterproof. It has come in mighty handy this year. 

 

Our ground is so saturated now that the rain is causing our back creek to rise.  The water is really starting to move. 

  

One tile at a time

A mouse war update is required. The dogs are falling behind with only 16 verified kills. The mouse traps in the coop have killed 38 mice so far.  This is just cementing the need for more cats. I have started cleaning up the coop and am removing all the empty bags.  I am trying to discourage any mice from living in the feed area of the coop.

I unloaded the first 150 of 500 wooden Tamarac fence stays. I still have 350 more to pickup.  I will fix the trailer tires in the next two weeks. 

I have increased the number of mouse traps by another six traps. It is a truly death defying run to get from one side of the coop to the other. The mice tend to run along the walls but occasionally a brave one runs out away from the wall. I laid out some more tile yesterday. I have one more serious finish attempt then I will cut and fit all the outer odd pieces then pull them all out and lay them next to their spot and mastic them all down at once. 

A floor cometh

The room is starting to look like I might finish. This concept is making AnnMarie happy! 

 

I started the day trying to pick up some Tamarac fence stays first thing in the morning. I went to pick them up and no one was home. There were several dogs in the yard and a dog door in the front door. I had no intention of going inside the fence and knocking on the door. All I could see was another three dogs boiling out of the front door when I knocked. I called home and had AnnMarie give me the phone number. I called and the seller answered informing me he was shed hunting in the mountains. He agreed to call me when he got back and I told him there may be a delay as I was going to be tiling. He called back when I was tiling. Once I had used up all the mastic I went and picked up 150 of my 500 stays. I will pick up the rest in a couple of weeks with my trailer. He wasn't a very good forklift operator. The trailer will make it easy to load. 

 

This is what a bad dog looks like!  I was in between buckets of floor mastic when I thought I heard a chicken screaming for its life. This is a totally different sound than a chicken normally makes. I decided to investigate by going outside and hollering for the dogs the second I got outside the front door. I went left and before I could get off the porch Mouse jetted by looking guilty. Sprawled out on its back was one of my hens with feathers loose all around it.  I went over and picked it up and the death squawk started up again and continued I set the hen over the fence out of reach of the dogs. She ran away under her own power. The dog and I had some words and a good stare down, damn dog. 

 

When I went outside for nightly chores the chickens needed to be fed. I had not killed any mice for a couple of weeks and have snagged three in as many days. The mice have emptied three 50# bags of chicken food!  So I cleaned up and moved one pile of bags onto another pile and redistributed traps. I think I can set out another six traps to create a minefield effect. 

Sheep sorted again

AnnMarie found a lamb scrunched down beside a gate curled up into a ball. It was trapped earlier in the week. She pulled out this very tiny solid black lamb and as soon as it was unstuck a momma ewe ran over and started cleaning it up!  She penned the momma and new lamb into our momma area and then moved the sheep into the ram pasture. Unfortunately, the ram pasture is not secure. We have yet to lower the panels over the back creek. I am unsure that the spring runoff flood has passed. The minute I lower and clip the panels in place over the runoff creek I place all my fencing at risk. Mother Nature can be a cruel and beautiful mistress. One with an explosive and unpredictable temper. I am going to try and avoid that confrontation. 

So all 28 boys that we had just sorted out on Sunday of last week just waltzed in under the fence and comingled with our momma & baby herd. 

 

So on a Saturday we sorted again. It was much easier this time to dig out the channels that had fresh straw in them. The sheep did not cooperate so I tried the sheep crook. We have owned one for the last year but never used it as an actual crook. It was just a tall stick. I started snagging the sheep by the neck and grabbing them. It worked great!  I did it several times and was feeling pretty cocky when one of the boys jumped back into the female pen and ran outside to commingle with the ewes. I ran around outside for ten minutes trying to catch that boy amongst all the other sheep. No luck, AnnMarie finally hollered at me to come help sort again. We got everyone sorted and have kept the mommas and babies in the back barn lot. They ate down the entire front yard hillside. It needs to turn green again and grow before I can turn the sheep loose again. This is giving the upper prime pasture a fresh chance as there are no animals on it. My new little trees got the tops bitten off by all the sheep. I need to get T posts in the ground and sheep fence around the trees. 

We have started feeding the mommas three bales of hay a day in order to keep up with their consumption. We talked about letting the fence down over the back creek the next day but two days later there was a deluge and a sudden rise in the back creek. That would have been bad for my fence. It is still raining every 3-4 days.

  

I got a weed eater for my birthday yesterday

My birthday was on Thursday and my mother got me a new fancy wamplidyne weed eater. It has a chest harness and a new head with plastic blades so I don't have to change out the plastic strings. It is an amazing tool and one which I will utilize a lot. That being said, as a man it is my job to figure out how to not mow the yard. This is a hidden section of the man card that most women do not understand. Most men go with the child plan as a character building routine. I opted again this year to go with the moving live grass mower option. I went out to the wood shed and took a piece of woven electric fence and put it across the front of our yard last evening. The fence was way longer than necessary so I stretched out the extra loosely against the side fence. I did not energize it as it was leaning against a metal fence. I opened two gates and now the sheep have access to the front hillside to eat it down so I don't have to weed eat or mow it. 

Instead I will be tiling again in the library  today. So really it's a time reallocation idea. 

Unfortunately, it's never that easy. 

 

As it was approaching bedtime last night we started to hear a lamb bawling outside. AnnMarie asked me if maybe I should go check on that lamb. "It's fine it will be alright" was my repeated answer. At bedtime we put on coats and went outside to check on the bawling lamb. I wasn't going to get out of it and have learned a couple of things in 20+ years of marriage. A one month old lamb had gotten wrapped up in the loose extra fencing and kept fighting it which was making it worse. We got the lamb out of the fence and then tossed the extra woven electric fence over the chain link fence so the sheep would not get tangled up in it.  When we woke up this morning one small section of the fence was leaning over so I went out and propped it up with some extra electric fence posts I have. I believe the sheep will have it all eaten by tomorrow.  

  

Actual tiling has begun.

I did it I actually started laying tile down onto the floor. I remembered why I normally buy premixed mastic, it's so very painful to mix by hand. I made it a little thick and it kept trying to dry out. I totally did this backward!!  I should have started in the middle of the room but if I do that I stand a good chance of screwing up the spacing in the hallway. So I started at the narrow entrance to the room. I tried cutting the first few pieces after mixing the mastic but it was slowing me down and allowing the mastic to dry out. 

Sarah stopped by so I had her stir mastic and hand me tiles. I am done for tonight. I should be able to do most of the room tomorrow down to the closets and a 2 foot section along the wall. This will let me get out of the room without stepping on any newly laid tile. I will need to do a third day to finish off the edges and closet. 

I actually really like the look and am looking forward to getting it completed.  

 

I had to go into work briefly this morning to sign time cards. I saw the full moon sitting on a cloud. It was very nice. Those views make me miss flying around in the helicopter. Coming home every night and going to bed with the wife makes me appreciate my current job. 

 

Babies current as of today

 

It was tag and band day Sunday. My nephew volunteered to come out and help me and the weather was finally cooperating. I truly did not want to roll around on the ground in four inches of mud with the calves. While trying to get them tagged and banded. We were going to start out the day by digging channels for the sorting chutes in the barn but there was a ewe in there with brand new twins and she was trying to pass the afterbirth so we opted to do cows first. Their is a convoluted order to everything that has to be followed. First, we had to push the sheep and horses out of the barn lot and into the upper prime pasture. Secondly, we needed to put the alpaca back into the orchard and shut the gate so we can run the cows through the front part of the property. The dogs did very well and stayed where put until we had walked the alpacas to where they needed to go. Next we went into the lower pasture and shut the gate going down to the schoolhouse pasture. The dogs were running all over and not paying attention. It went downhill from there. Mouse would not listen!!  I should have brought our 30 foot lead rope. I was screaming and swearing with minimal effect. The cows did not go through the open gate by Donna's house. Instead they went all the way along the hillside behind our house. We then opened the gate into the barn lot pasture and Zeke pushed the cows while the rest of us kept them from running back down the hillside. They went into the barn lot fairly easily. Now this ended up being a better plan for moving the cows but Mouse doesn't get credit for this despite it being his fault. 

We used the dogs to push the cows into the backside barn lot. There was one cow that just would not go. I finally sicced  the dogs on her. She came pretty close to kicking both dogs a couple of times. After about 30 seconds I called the dogs off and they did come back, miraculously then she ran for the gate and went in with the rest of the cows. It's hard to defend yourself when one dog goes for your nose and the other your tail or back ankle and they switch every time you turn. Occasionally, it is good for the dogs and cows to realize who is boss, me. Everyone just needs to do what they are supposed to and all will go well. We locked the dogs in the hay room of the barn and sorted out cows. It only took us about ten minutes to get all three calves isolated into one pen in the corral. Heath grabbed the smallest calf, a little boy and we tagged and banded him.  The next calf was the middle sized one another boy who was tagged and banded. His testicles were big enough I had to squeeze one at a time through the rubberband opening. This one was not as easy and we both got peed on. The third one was another boy and the largest of the group. Heath grabbed him around the neck and wrapped his legs around him and pulled it down. He couldn't pin it but it wasn't going any where. I piled on and we rolled it onto its side, another boy!  Something was wrong in whoville, the largest calf had a scrotal sack the size of a peanut. No testicles present and I had to really search for them. I only ever found one despite repositioning the calf. It was about six inches toward its head under the skin, no where near a scrotum. We left it and tagged it in the right ear. All our tags usually go in the left ear. This way we know something is off with it. We then ran them out onto the back hillside with the dogs. The dogs were not listening well. My voice is already starting to crack a little from the yelling at this point. 

 

We then had to go into the barn and dig down into the straw and create paths to lay the panels down onto to create sorting pens and pathways. This took almost an hour for us to get all ready for the sheep. We had to tag and band the two newborns as they would not leave the barn, one was a boy the other a girl. Once the barn was ready we realized that the sheep would have to be ran in through the shoot. Normally we just push them into the barn and move the panels into place but after digging the trenches this was not possible. We had to push them into the barn on three different groups, shut the barn doors then get them all to go through the chute to the pen in the back of the barn. We got it done. I had to put Mouse on a fencepost tied with bailing twine. He went after one of the new mommas after she stared him down. He took offense and tried to jump on her. I called him off then made him stay in one place while we worked. He did not like that. Then when we had everyone in the barn I brought him in and tied him up to a sheep feeder. I eventually had to tie Zeke up also as he kept trying to help when we moved the boy sheep past him. 

I like to keep the dogs present as it helps them get used to the excitement and jostling of the animals. We kept taking every boy who was weaned off of the main herd and tossing them into the back barn lot including the ram. We are going to give the sheep a three month breather to allow everyone to get fat and hopefully synchronize the ewes so the lambs come all at once. We ended up with 26 big boys, 11 baby boys, 46 ewes and 4 baby girls for a total of 87 sheep. There are at least 10 more pregnant ewes getting ready to deliver so we should get at least another 15 babies for a total just over 100. We want to keep the ram and 30 ewes. This will leave us selling 70 animals all at once. In three months we will take pictures and post them on Craigslist for one buyer to take them all. We will cull out 16 ewes and replace them with some of our last years lambs. 

Our best luck has been with selling large flocks all at once. There are buyers with a ready market who want a bunch of animals all at once. So that is going to be our target market. Hopefully we have success. 

Once we pushed the ewes and babies back into the upper prime pasture we moved all the boys onto the back hillside. After Zeke failed to turn the herd twice because he was playing instead of working I had to put him on the leash and work Mouse off of it. We finally got all the boys onto the back hillside. 

It was lunch time!  Chili and weiners!!  A manly meal. Back outside to open all the gates and reset the barn panels to their normal nonsorting pattern. It took about six hours to do all this. 

I also fixed one gate that was dragging on the ground before coming inside, showering and taking a 2.5 hour nap!!

I pity the person who will be digging out the barn. I am going to have them toss straw out the front and back door in an attempt to minimize the travel distance to an exit. Hopefully, this will help speed things up. 

We had to go out in the evening to make sure all the babies had come into the barn and weren't still hiding in the upper prime pasture. There were no holdouts. 

One whether is biding his time in the corral waiting for his new owner to come get him this week. The corral is too short at 5 feet. We had one sheep jump out yesterday so I need to add at least one more railing. It's crazy how high they can go when motivated. 

 

 

Almost ready to tile.

I spent all day yesterday on my knees. I have to say that it would not have been possible without my gel filled knee pads. I spent six hours on my knees and have no pain or any issues with my knees. It is amazing. Do I need to thank NASA for the technology? Because it is well deserved whomever is responsible! 

I got the subfloor laid in both closets. This took much longer than I anticipated. The corners and cuts were complicated and I did them all with a razor and no saw. 

Once it was installed I needed to figure out how lay the tile such that it went across the hall in the proper fashion. The hallway is 50 inches wide and the tile is only 6 inches wide so it leaves a 2 inch gap or 1 inch on each side with a 3/8 inch gap on each end. So I opted to leave the 1.5 inches on one side. I don't want two 3/4 inch wide pieces on each side. Too easy to mess up the cutting or installing. I had to measure it all out by laying the tile on the floor and drawing on the floor with a permanent marker. Once I had the starting line I needed another parallel line 18 inches so I can alternate each tile. 

The next step is to get my tile saw set up on the back porch and a few more tools and I am ready to start laying tile. I have to do it over the course of three days because I have to be able to get out of the room and I have to work from the hallway mark so I don't get my hallway alignment messed up. It complicates things but it just means short intervals of tiling and I will go all the way to the wall. Usually, I do the center part then let it dry and cut all the edge pieces and install them the next day.  This time I will complete whole sections. 

We are going to go order grout this week. I forgot to buy it. You can see my two parallel lines in the picture below. 

 

 

It is happening

 

The border collies are trying very hard to be in every picture I take now. I have given up on trying to move them out of the frame. Sunday was the day it started. I am officially beginning the library flooring project. I had a few odd facts to share about day one subfloor installation.  It takes 56 screws to attach a single 3x5 ft piece of concrete board to the floor, this is a lot of screws. Installing this many screws would be harder if I didn't use an impact driver.  I broke three driver bits, this was made possible by my use of an impact driver. I was afraid I would run out of driver bits as there is only one per bucket of screws and I only had four buckets.  I went out to the old house and dug around until I found every driver bit to fit the square headed screws.  I found 14 bits that would work and brought every one into the house. I can use the impact driver without fear of running out soon. 

I want to send a heartfelt thank you to the manufacturer of gel filled knee pads. This job would not have been possible without the knee pads. I finally gave up on screwing down new sheets when I started to get a blister on my palm. I did try to use my left hand only but it is so awkward I had to go back to the right hand. 

The weather is amazing. We are talking about planting a garden but want it to be above freezing.  This morning early it was at 30 degrees F. Still not quite warm enough. 

  

Spring is really going to happen

I had a directive to get the subfloor inside installed so I could start laying tile inside the house. It was a good plan and one I was going to follow. It started out slow as I slept in till 0630 as I was sore from the previous days digging. While I slept AnnMarie started our taxes. So when I woke up she wanted me to re figure how our money was spent on the farm. It seems that my tracking of expenses and income vary wildly from the IRS. So the numbers had to be all added up again. While doing this Donna stopped by to say the neighbors bulls were out in our lower wheat field. So the dogs went with us to run the bulls back across the road and into their pasture. We called the neighbor first. As we were walking down the fence line we spotted this deer carcass trapped in the fence. It's a young deer that got its rear leg stuck. I could not get it loose and will need to come back with wire cutters and cut it out and repair the fence. It made us a little sad and we would have cut it loose this winter had we seen it. The bulls went back with very little effort. The dogs did not get to chase them at all. Their mere presence had the bulls moving where they needed to go. 

 

A friend brought a dump trailer over to get some old sheep manure loaded up. He left the trailer and vehicle so I could fill it sometime today. The problem was another friend from my old job came out and we talked and spent a couple of hours catching up and drinking coffee. He mowed our front lawn while I loaded the trailer. I got an EMS call and had to leave for a couple of hours. When I got back I finished loading the trailer and then scraped the area down over by the lamb shed so I would be ready to finish the gate and fencing arrangement. I do realize I am not fencing but this was preventing us from opening the currently installed gate more than half way open.  I also piled the compost pile back up into a tall pile again. This lets more moisture into the pile and helps break everything down. If I could pump water into the compost piles in the summer they would break down a lot faster. If I can get a couple of weeks with no rain I will burn some more wood scrap piles. 

 

AnnMarie did get to work on the back drip system. She got it roughed out but needs more one more trip to town for more zip ties, a zip tie gun and an automatic timer that can be outside in the weather. Of course no one has a zip tie gun. A whole stinking wall of every size zip tie but no gun to tighten and cut them expeditiously. We ordered plastic a couple of weeks ago. We would like to plant tomatoes and get them to actually grow. We need an extra 4-6 weeks to maximize our production. We keep ending up with lots of green tomatoes in the fall. We dropped a high low thermometer inside the plastic to see what our temperatures will be. 

 

I did come inside the house and remove all the floor trim and start getting ready for subfloor installation.  Tomorrow I will empty out the room and start laying subfloor. I would like to start laying tile by the end of the week. 

Tree farm

Annmarie has me on a short leash. The weather is perfect for building fence but there are a couple of projects that need to be done first.  I have been told that those projects need to happen as they are holding up other projects.  So yesterday, I went out to plant shade trees. Grandma Ruby's squirrel planted walnuts and some other shade tree in her horse troughs. We let them grow last year and I needed to get them out of the planters so we could plant our garden. Annmarie is going to set up our troughs on a drip system with automatic timers so our plants get plenty of water this year.  The only problem is the trees are in the way. So my job was to plant said trees. There were 11 trees, the problem with this is it requires 11 holes in the ground. After I spent an hour digging the first three holes by hand I decided I needed a new game plan. I needed to pick tree locations that could be reached by the tractor so I could use the post hole auger to drill the holes for me.  What good is a mistress if you don't use her?  So I removed the grass in seven more spots with a shovel and my mistress and I dug the other holes. I sat, she did all the work. It still took me over five hours to get all the trees in the ground and watered. I planted all the walnut trees in the ram pasture. I still need to put up some fencing around them, but for now there are no animals in there to eat fresh new green leaves. Once I get some fencing up the sheep can use the pasture but no horses. They reach over the fence and eat the tops out of the trees.  

 

Spring makes everything a beautiful green color. There is so much water that the pipes still connected to the hand dug well are running water (see picture) behind the lamb shed.  I was thirsty so opted to take my life into my own hands and drink from the spigot. Ice cold clear wonderful water and I am not sick a day later. It always amazes me that we can drink the spring water year round and never get sick. A true blessing to have fresh water year round.  Eventually, I would like to get an old windmill and water pump setup over the well to pump water out for us. 

 

After I got the trees out of the planters I tilled up the dirt with a shovel. I took quite a bit of dirt out with the trees so I let Annmarie know that we would need to buy more soil.