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.