The Porch is DONE!! Whoo hooo!

It is truly a joy to say that our new front porch is done and share these pictures with you. We absolutely love this porch, and marvel at its artistry and fine workmanship. Burke and Ray did a wonderful job and were a pleasure to have around for a couple of weeks as well! One thing you can't see on this picture (but can on the maker's mark picture) is that EVERY edge of EVERY board was routered to give it a smooth, finished look with no sharp edges. I hope you can come sit on this lovely porch some day and see it for yourself!


The only thing left to do, and it's a fairly big thing, is to decide how to paint and stain this beauty so that it looks like it blends with our house, yet shows as much of this beautiful cedar as possible. We have a LOT of white trim on our house, and our pergola that is about 20 feet away is white as well, so we're thinking that the bigger beams on the top and all the big posts will be white, and we'll stain the rest something fairly pale, just to protect the wood and keep it from graying as cedar does if left untreated. Burke assures us we have until spring to decide.


This is what the benches look like. I can't wait to find/make some nice cushions (with barn-red being the main color) and hang some colorful flower baskets. We will also be looking for a nice table as well as a glider as the main furnishings for this outdoor room we have added. I can see spending many lovely days out here!


Full-size, this picture is legible, but I'm not sure it is here. We asked Burke to put some kind of maker's mark on the porch and he brought the brand he uses when he builds furniture or cabinets and we found a good place for it here. We have also asked him to make us a new screen door that will match the style of the porch and that will fit and look better than the $5 plastic yard sale special that is on there now!


We knew it wouldn't take long, but unfortunately the chickens are enjoying the new porch as well. I try to shoo them off as soon as I see them, but alas they have left their calling cards a few times already. Good thing they started laying eggs again so at least they have one redeeming quality. Actually, these two girls are my new ones from this summer and are the last two that have yet to start laying. We are up to getting 3 or 4 eggs a day now, which is plenty for our needs. Hopefully we'll be able to start giving them away again after the holidays.


Believe it or not, even on December 5th there are still things to be harvested here on Red Pony Ranch. This picture shows everything I got out of the garden today, except for the day's eggs which, of course, I got out of the hen house. Still in the garden are beets, carrots, leeks, parsley and more swiss chard. This is my first year growing chard and I have to say I love that stuff. It's wonderful in soups and egg dishes and also makes a lovely fresh side dish when sauteed in a bit of garlic and olive oil. This time I made a cheese/broccoli/chard soup. Here's the picture below. This is before I added more milk and the cheese. I just wanted to capture those lovely colors. We love soup all winter and especially like it when it's mostly from our own garden.


Well, we sure hope you are having a wonderful beginning to your holiday season. As of today we are totally done putting up all the outdoor lights and decorations, and the tree is up inside and lighted but not yet decorated. I'll tackle that tomorrow. I did get my nice nativity set up and now baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the wise men, the shepherds and the stable animals are nestled sweetly in the boughs cut off the bottom of the Christmas tree. We had a wonderful sermon at church today about believing in the unbelievable. I hope you believe in the real Christmas!

The Day After Thanksgiving

This exact same day last year was documented in this blog, and I went back to refresh my memory. I saw pictures of us putting up our Christmas lights and decorations in shirtsleeves! The good news is that today we are rain-free and in the high 40's...perfect for some chores around the farm and continuing work on the deck!


Frank actually ran the mower a bit, chopping down the longer grass that I didn't get with the riding mower when I did the last mowing of the season on November 3rd. Our cool season grasses really perked up after a long, warm summer (by our standards). We also cleaned out our flower and herb beds, cleaned the chicken coop and Frank knocked down some scotch broom (a local pain-in-the-butt weed) in our lower pasture and picked out a new spot for this winter's barn-cleanings. We have been using the compost from the barn, about a wheelbarrow-full a day, to add organic material to the sandy soil in our lower pasture. The areas that we did the previous years grow such nice lush grass now.


Work is continuing on our lovely porch. Frank says the porch is way better quality than the house it's attached to and I don't disagree. These guys are such artists. I am sure we will be spending many hours enjoying this porch with a good book or friends.


We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with our neighbors and friends, but we miss the leftovers, so today I am making a few of our favorite parts that we want to have around a pick on for the rest of the weekend! I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends, and ate lots of good things! I know we sure did!

Porch Progress

In spite of a week of mostly sideways rain, our intrepid builders have managed to build what we can tell is going to be a beautiful front porch. These guys truly are artists and have incredible attention to detail. There is a lot more coming, like the decking, rails and benches, but seeing it thus far is very exciting.


Since the main windows for our living room are within this porch, we went with a polycarbonate/lexan roof material that lets in the maximum amount of light. The stuff we bought is used in greenhouses and does not yellow. The biggest selling point for me was that our builder (Burke) used it on a project at his house and still recommends it! It will be lovely sitting out there even when it might be raining or drizzly.


Just take a look at the details here. (Those small boards spanning each corner are not permanent.) This porch is truly a work of art. I am so thankful we found Burke and his assistant Ray. Speaking of them, here they are in a candid moment, with Burke on the left and Ray sitting on the deck:


I took this shot not only to capture the progress on the porch, but to tease them later about all the ladders they were using. At one point they had SIX ladders of various sizes and they were running up and down them like monkeys. These guys really know what they're doing...in more ways than one!

I look forward to continuing to chronicle the building of this lovely porch. Now that the roof is on, hopefully the guys will be able to not get as wet in our blustery and rainy fall weather.

November Randomness

Well, it took me long enough! Sorry about that, but the wind kind of went out of my sails during 'the great chicken sickness'. Luckily, and with a lot of hard work and skulking around a dark coop at night mugging chickens to squirt antibiotics down their gullets, we managed to save most of them. We lost four total, and came darn close on a few others. We got down to 10 of our original chickens, 3 of which are banties, so our laying capacity was sorely diminished, and they're still not laying. They need to gain more weight and finish moulting; the new girls are not old enough to be of any help in the laying department yet. One of the new barred rocks turned out to be a rooster (now named Roopert) and if he continues to be nice to the hens, he can stay and sire next year's new chicks. So 'the great chicken sickness' is over and we are on to enjoying my favorite season: FALL.

One of the best things to do in fall is bake and start making big pots of soup again. One recipe I don't make often, but that we love, is Runzas. First, you make a recipe of home made white bread and let it rise. Then you divide it into balls bigger than golf balls but smaller than tennis balls. You can see them below:


The filling is very simple. Browned hamburger and onions, then add a whole head of chopped cabbage, and some salt and pepper. I also added some beef base (like bullion) to give it a little more beefy flavor as well. Get this all cooked down, and if it's watery, strain it. Then you put a scoop of this filling in a rolled out little ball, and fold it over to make a half-circle pocket.


I bake them at 350 degrees until they look done..maybe 20-25 minutes. YUM! I actually got more than 20 of these things, this was just the first batch that came out of the oven. My brother's family takes these out hunting, as they're good pocket food.



I would say that our garden was successful overall this year. Our big harvests were potatoes, onions, carrots, some corn (18 bags in the freezer plus what we ate fresh), basil, beets and crops that turned out to be a pleasant addition this year: broccoli and swiss chard. They are STILL producing even now in mid-November. Here is a picture of the broccoli still coming on from just a couple of days ago. I should have gotten one of the chard too, because the bright colors are just stunning. There are a few leaves in the next picture getting ready to go into the soup!


It is such a pleasure to be able to pull together a big pot of soup almost entirely from our garden. Here you can see carrots, onions, potatoes, swiss chard and the bag of corn I got out of the freezer. The meat was some back strap venison from our good neighbor, Larry. The only store bought ingredients were celery and barley, and salt and pepper, too. I made a couple of loaves of home made multi-grain bread and we had lovely warm soup and bread to our heart's content on these rainy and chilly fall days.


I decided to buy a big dutch oven this year and I am really enjoying it. Previously, I just had an aluminum stock pot that was too thin on the bottom and it burned easily and didn't hold the heat like this enameled cast iron one does. I can't believe it took me so long to get one! The only problem is finding a place for it when I'm not using it. It's pretty big, but it's also a very pretty red, so I'd like to leave it out, but it still hasn't found a home yet. Hopefully I'll keep it busy this fall, so it won't be unused often!


Frank and I are loving our on-line teaching jobs, as well as the bit of extra income it is bringing in. We are paying down our bills, but we have also started tackling a list of three big projects we wish to accomplish. On the list is: a new front porch, a wooden fence around our upper pasture, and new cabinets in the kitchen. We finally have enough for the porch, and another good neighbor is a wonderful builder, and he was willing to take on this project!! Yeah! Here is Sandy, the faithful farm dog, watching over the lumber that was delivered.


We have been in this house four years this past August. It's hard to believe that time has flown by so quickly. One thing that always bothered me was the 'temporary' front porch we had all that time, so I was not unhappy to see it finally GONE! I put the porch on Freecycle (an email group of people in a geographical region whose sole purpose is to give stuff away) and a nice young couple from a nearby town came to get it with plans to turn the deck of it into a floor for a new shed. It's wonderful to see things recycled rather than put into the landfill or burned when someone might have a good use for it.


So far, the progress of the porch has been mostly in the planning and the purchasing of materials, but just a day or so ago the footings were poured. This is the first time we can really visualize its size and how it is going to change the look of our house for the better. It is roughly 15 wide and sticks out 12 feet; enough room for a small table and chairs and a glider. I will make sure to take pictures and update on the progress. Our builder got the swine flu right after he started, so we've got a little down time before they start back up again on Monday. I saw him today and he's feeling better, and that's the most important thing. We have two other entrances to our house, so there is no hurry to finish this one, although I am really looking forward to putting up Christmas lights on it this year!



So that's a quick update of the things that are going on around here. All the horses and donkeys are fuzzy and happy in the chilly fall weather. They are coming into the barn every night now and are enjoying their cozy stalls and lots of local grass hay. We're noticing that Bailey is a little creakier this winter as he gets close to 20 years old, and we're supplementing him for that, but time does march on for all of us, doesn't it?

I hope to write again before Thanksgiving, but if I don't, we want to wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving time with friends and family, reflecting on the rich blessings we all have and enjoy. God bless!

Grass Valley Draft Horse Classic

I'm back from my annual trip to Grass Valley, California and caught up on my schoolwork, so I figured I better update this blog. I had a great time with good friends and even survived the 'rental RV from hell'! Adrienne and Ciera had a great show and brought home many ribbons...I'm so proud of them. Above is where their horse, Sweetie Pie, stays during the show, along with lots of other long-term friends (both horsey and human).


There is just something about these fairgrounds. The tall trees and scattered buildings are so lovely and peaceful, especially in the early morning.


Here are a few of the Wareing Shires geldings just hanging out between shows.


Arlin Wareing is up on the horse braiding with the help of one of their many grandchildren who were there to help as well. It was wonderful thing to see four generations of this great family there. Wayne is wielding the curry to make sure nothing is marring the beautiful shine these boys have.


The wash rack is a good place to hang out if you want to see pretty much every horse on the place at one time or another.


These are some of The Simpson's percherons. The red on the black horses is so distinctive.

Frank did such a great time holding down the fort here at the farm while I was gone in spite of the illness that is still lingering in our little flock. He had to bury two of our old hens while I was gone, and we hope that's going to be the end of it. I am so thankful that he was willing to do all the farm chores as well as his demanding TWO jobs so I could escape on my little (BIG) horse get away. Hopefully in a few years he'll be able to go with me to this wonderful place in the Sierra Nevadas.

A busy fall

Once again I find myself apologizing for the long time between postings. I guess the main thing that I can blame for my tardiness is that since late August I have been scrambling to learn a new job (which is really fun, by the way) and it is taking up quite a bit of what used to be extra time. I'm feeling fairly confident now and can focus on silly stuff like this blog!


Frank was out early one morning feeding apples to the horses and donkeys and saw this beautiful spider web covered with dew. I'm particularly curious about this one, as 1/2 of it is attached to the electic fence which is quite hot. Are spider webs not conductive? Or maybe they are and the spider is employing a little extra help? And what about that spider? Can't he feel the surge every second or so?


Then I saw this picture and the way Frank took it and thought of that spider thinking..."hmmmm, maybe I'll catch the BIG one!"


It is starting to feel a little bit like fall, especially with the chilly mornings. You can see here our inside pets doing what they do best on mornings like this. I swear they wait until Frank and I get up and they take over. With Sandy getting so old now, this is usually where she can be found most of the day after her walk with Frank in the morning.


How many new baby chickens can you fit in a nest box? Apparently only 4 with one cranky one stuck outside! It is hard to talk about, but we have had an illness going through our flock that is still really bringing some hens down, but we haven't lost anyone (yet). They are on some antibiotics in their water and hopefully we've turned the corner. The good news is that none of these new babies have been seriously affected. We're not getting any eggs now, and with the days getting shorter, we don't have much hope for eggs this winter until these new girls start laying in the spring. Good thing we have a new neighbor with 50 hens who is selling eggs. I just don't think I could ever buy store eggs again.

Well, I'm off for my annual trip to Grass Valley, California for a draft horse show. I have rented an RV so I can stay on the grounds and I am taking my new truck on its first road trip to Sacramento with all the stuff I need to have camping for almost a week. The forecast is for HOT, so I'm packing for that! I'm also taking my camera, so I should have lots of fodder for new blogs when I get home!

Five new girls!

Well, Frank and I had a little adventure today to go pick up a few new pullets (young female chickens that haven't laid eggs yet) to add to our aging flock. I found a lady on Craig's List who had some Barred Rocks, the same breed as the hens I lost this summer and wanted to replace, so we agreed to meet in the Seattle area for the hand-off. Of course, since we were down there anyway, we had to get some Dim Sum at our favorite place in the International District, but by 10:30 am we were at the designated spot to meet our new girls.


Well, we didn't actually get to see our new girls until we got home as they were in a cardboard box! So when we got home, we let all our existing chickens out to free-range, and we locked them out of their coop/run so we could let the new young girls out. They were happy to get out and eat some scratch and peck at the corn and cucumbers I put out for them. Shown below is one of the beautiful new girls! I really missed having barred rocks on the farm.


Lovely Laurel the chicken lady gave me an extra pullet!! The paler colored one is called a Cuckoo Maran and they lay chocolate colored eggs! I have always wanted one so this is a wonderful treat! In this picture you can see all five of the new girls (one is hidden behind the maran). They are already having a good time running around and pecking at stuff. It'll be interesting to see how the first time free-ranging goes! Hopefully they'll stay in the security of the coop and run for a few days when the others go out.


I just wanted to provide a little update on how much the baby chicks are growing! They are only 9 weeks old today and they look and act so mature already! Here is what I think is the only pullet on the left and a little rooster on the right. The little rooster pictured at the top of this post by my truck is a cocky little guy that we call "Neck Stretcher" because of how he challenges all the other chickens. We also refer to him as "Stew Pot" as that's where he's probably going to end up if he keeps up with his bullying behavior.


Luckily, there is another little rooster we call "The Peacemaker" who is so kind and intervenes any time he sees any of his hatch-mates acting agressively. I told him he can stay if he keeps up that nice behavior. He's the one at the top of the picture below. The chicken in front of him 'might' be a pullet because of some characteristics I'm NOT seeing on her. Keep your fingers crossed.


All in all it was a great day to get new chickens. We also brought up 10 pullets from this same farmer for another person in the Arlington area to save them a trip down. He got some buff orpingtons and some Rhode Island reds; both great layers of big brown eggs. So between us we increased the chicken population of Snohomish County by 15 new hens. May they all live long and produce many eggs!

Bad Jayne

I am so sorry that I have not posted to our blog lately! Things have been a little crazy, with going on vacation in San Diego, then coming home and having my mom visit for a week and then getting ready for school to start. Please be assured that everyone here on the farm is good and we are enjoying the end of our summer weather. Katie, below, is especially enjoying lounging around outside in spite of getting pecked once in a while by a baby chicken who doesn't know better!


The main thing that is taking up our time is the beginning of school for our online teaching jobs. I was hired by the same company (Insight Schools) that Frank worked for last year, to teach English. I was assigned to teach American Literature to Juniors, which is great, but I haven't taught literature for a while, so I am studying and preparing for the course as fast as I can so to stay ahead of them! On top of that is all the record keeping and student contact that needs to happen at the beginning of the school year. I have met so many really neat students so far; it's been wonderful! I think I'm really going to like this new way of teaching.


Blogs coming soon will feature our new chickens (that we are running down to Seattle tomorrow to get) that we need to replace the ones that died this summer; harvesting and putting up some of the bounty from our garden; and we will also be talking about our new bikes (that we bought after renting the same kind on vacation, twice!). So stay tuned for updates about the happenings at Red Pony Ranch, hopefully coming soon!

See Jayne Go

See Jayne. See Jayne and Frank. Jayne and Frank have had a crazy summer. Jayne and Frank need a vacation. See Jayne and Frank get on an airplane and go to San Diego. Jayne and Frank will be eating lots of real mexican food and seeing animals at the zoo. Jayne and Frank will have five lovely days together in the southern California sun! Bye!

All that silliness aside, I just wanted to do a quick update to the blog because I won't be posting now for at least a week. Everything is fine here. The little chicks have integrated well into the big girl's coop and one is even trying to crow already. I got the running boards installed on my truck, but while they were doing it they dented the door a little. Of course they'll fix it, but not until I get back and get an appointment with the body shop. Frank and I are BOTH busy gearing up for our on-line teaching jobs; Frank with math and I in English (American Literature).

While we are gone a good friend is staying in the house and taking good care of everybody, and our regular animal sitter will be helping out as well, so people will be in and out here more than when it's only us here at home. It is very comforting to know we've got such good help taking care of all our precious animals here at home. See you in a week or so!

Truck's First Bath by Guest Blogger Frank

For years Jayne has wanted a new truck, and last month, she found the PERFECT truck, a 2009 GMC Sierra that had EVERY option that she was looking for, including being a two wheel drive, which is important because with me at 51, and Jayne at well, I really shouldn't share her age - suffice it to say that right now I am four years older than her and on November 7th I will be three - are a tad bit long in the tooth to go mudding, so a two wheel drive is perfect for us. "Why don't we buy it," I queried. And Jayne, having found the truck of her dreams gave me a totally logical answer as to why we shouldn't buy it: because it's white. Of course. Pass on the truck of your dreams because it's white. That, of course, made little sense to me, and so we purchased Truck and he is indeed a most excellent addition to our family.


So, we actually used Truck as a working truck yesterday and hauled some hay. Jayne, having fallen deeply in love with Truck suggested that I bathe him. And look how dirty he is! I can tell you with absolute certainty that everything I own, including my own body, has been 10 times dirtier than Truck is in this picture and I still didn't wash it. Oh, well, if Jayne wants me to wash Truck, wash Truck I will do.


Actually, here is a close up of the HUGE mess that Truck got into. Bad, bad Truck; no wonder you need a complete and total detail job both inside and out!


So, of course, we can't just wash Truck with any old swill that is out there, so we laid out for some fancy materials to make sure that the old boy was completely comfortable while being bathed. I especially like the micro fiber mitt that is so soft it could be used to pat your baby's bottom.


This is the old swill that we have used on every vehicle we have ever owned. And as for the Dawn, biologists used it to get the oil off of birds that have stumbled into a spill. It's obviously very good stuff, but not good enough for Truck!


So, we're driving home yesterday and Jayne noticed three specks of dust on the dashboard. "When you clean Truck tomorrow, will you please wipe down the dashboard with something besides water?" "Like Armor All?" I ask helpfully. "Absolutely not! That stuff destroys the vinyl, eventually. We'll never use that stuff on Truck!" And so imagine my surprise when Jayne shows up with Armor All. "Hey, Jayne, didn't you say..." "I was talking about the spray, not the wipes. The wipes will be fine." Now, I'm not a chemist, but I kinda think that the liquid on the wipes is the same as the liquid that you spray on, so if one will destroy your dash, then there is a real good possibility that other will too. Oh, well, I'll see my friend Deanna Vaughan - who IS a chemist - in about three weeks and ask her all about this.


And here is Truck, all nice and clean! Please compare this to the second picture in this blog to see what a difference a nice bath makes.


More evidence that Truck did indeed get a bath.


So, here's the deal with Truck and the lessons he can teach us. Jayne, who really is the love of my life and completes me in all ways despite the fact that I have had a whole lot of fun teasing her in this blog, has always wanted a truck; she's also always wanted horses. She's waited, well 51 minus 4 years for this to happen, but it finally did happen. Moral of the story? Don't give up on your dreams. Ever. I love Truck because my wife loves Truck, but also love him because he will remind me for a good long time that I should never give up on a dream, no matter how out of reach it seems. You shouldn't either.