Spring things...

We are having an absolutely lovely spring weekend here! The temps are supposed to reach nearly 70 each of the next three days and we are thrilled! We have a lot of spring things that need doing around our little farm and the pleasant weather makes us much more motivated! Here are a few pictures I just took today of some things that are happening here on Red Pony Ranch.


You might remember from two blogs ago (on March 17th) I posted a picture of our rhubarb just peeking out of the ground. Well, here it is today! I am so happy that it's doing so well, as you might remember me talking about its rough life the past two seasons. One thing we did to protect it is to use a plastic barrel sawed in half to keep the chickens out and us from mowing it. I do realize that this is not the most attractive landscaping feature, but it is functional for now. Frank says I should pull it off and just put it back on when the chickens are out, but I bet those leaves will spread out and I won't be able to get it back over the plant. I guess I need to graduate to Plan B. I would like to pick a couple of stems, but I also think I should let this plant get strong. Decisions, decisions.


We are very blessed to have a number of fruit trees. This is a picture of one of our plum trees blooms. I love this tree as it produces those really big, round, red-skinned freestone plums that are soo sweet and juicy. We also have an italian prune plum that makes wonderful fruit too! We also have two apple trees that were thoughtfully planned by some previous owner so that one bears early and the other bears when the first one is done. This keeps us in fresh apples for about three months, and up until Christmas with the ones we put in our unheated shop or barn. New last year to our farm were two hazelnut trees and a peach tree. They seem to be doing fine so far.


Every year we dump a bunch of manure on the garden. Here it is in the ugly stage before our neighbor with the tractor and really big tiller comes and makes it a thing of beauty. If you look on the right you can see what's left of our leeks from last season. It was fun to have them there all winter and go get one when I needed one. Leeks seem to do better here than onions as they have a better tolerance for the moist soil. Eric will probably come to till the week before Mother's Day, as that is when we traditionally start planting. He does a number of gardens in our neighborhood on the same day. It is so nice to have a neighbor with a tractor and all the implements! We are happy to pay him to do this and other tractor things around the farm as it keeps us from having to buy one of our own!


You've heard me mention a few times that "The Boys" have a summer pasture that we lease from the neighbors. What I really wanted was a picture of them grazing in this pastoral setting, but what I found when I had the camera was them napping in their shelter. Oh well, you take what you can get! There is a nice shelter that they boys are happy to share, and I am happy that I can see it from my back porch so it's easy to check on them during the day. I can see most of the pasture from up here except when they're grazing on the part that is behind the neighbor's house. They like having the boys around and not having to keep the pasture mowed, although the owner does go out twice a year with his brush hog just to knock the tall stuff down that they're not going to eat anyway. We are very thankful for this pasture and for such good neighbors.


Another sign of spring is when little Sophie the chicken decides to stop thinking she's a rooster (she crows all winter, just like Colonel!) and start laying eggs again. She doesn't seem to like laying in the nest boxes in the coop, and since she can get out of the run (for the life of me I have never caught her) she prefers the barn for her laying. I found these two eggs on the hay stack this morning. She's going to be unhappy when I have to feed that hay!


The big girls, however, have been laying like gang-busters for a couple of months now. We get between 6 and 9 eggs every day. Of course we can't use this many, so enjoy giving them away to people who now realize the huge difference in taste and quality between home raised and store bought eggs. I don't think I could ever go back.

Well, hopefully spring is springing at your place too. The clerk at my local co-op tells me there is a HUGE upswing in the number of people who are planning and planting gardens. I think the economy gets tough and people learn to be a little more self-sufficient. I know I sure think that way, even when things aren't tight. It just makes sense to grow some good stuff of your own. We sure enjoy it, as well as sharing the surplus with others who are not so fortunate to have the space and resources we have. We are truly blessed.

Spring break activities

Like most Washington and Oregon teachers, spring break means getting out of the rain and the gloom for some sunny and warm destination. This year we made reservations with our time-share in Indio, California, which is in the desert near Palm Springs. The 2 hour flight from Seattle to Los Angles makes the whole west coast seem close for getting away! Ordinarily, we would have flown into Palm Springs, but we got cheap flights into LA and rented a car there and drove the rest of the way.


The 'rest of the way' turned out to be about 2.5 hours, with an In-N-Out stop along the way, of course! We had to use a few highways to get out of the LA area, but eventually settled on to I10 and followed the sign you see above. Since we felt like it had been so wet at home we were growing webs between our toes, some desert sounded like a really good idea! The metro area around LA is HUGE, and we didn't really get to fairly rural landscapes until about 1.5 hours into the drive.


We pulled into our impressive resort about 4:30pm. This picture is of it when it was fairly new; the vegetation is quite lush and well manicured now. (We forgot to bring our camera, so all these pictures are 'borrowed' from internet sources!) Our unit was up to the usual high WorldMark standards and was a wonderful place to relax after hours floating in the lazy river! Boy was that fun!! We found a couple of pool noodles and used them instead of the inner tubes, as they let us float along lower in the water. Our friend Jay joined us there that evening from his home in Phoenix, and we enjoyed a late dinner of steak, caesar salad, garlic bread and mexican beer.


The next day we decided to check out the area. This part of california grows 90% of the country's dates, so we made sure to visit a couple of farms and even got to watch a video that showed the whole production, as well as taste a 'famous' date shake! It was just one of those things you had to try, but probably don't need to have again! Apparently, date trees are either male or female, and don't seem to be able to find a love connection on their own, so someone has to do it for them. I want to see that guy's resume!


Then we ventured on further south to a place we've always wanted to see: The Salton Sea. It was featured in a book we read and our interest was piqued. I know this picture makes it look fairly nice, but truly it is a foul smelling body of water ringed with decaying signs of a life long past. Frank said it was apocalyptic, I thought it reminded me of scenes out of the original planet of the apes. The weirdest thing was a playground's metal slide, only two feet of which was sticking out of the sand; the jungle gym similarly buried. Now, to be sure, we didn't venture much along the rim of the lake, and probably should have, but it was getting to be a very hot afternoon and the pool back at the resort was beckoning.


The next day we ventured out to Palm Springs to take a tram to the top of Mt. San Jacinto (pronounced HaCINtoe). The views from the top (8600 feet) were breathtaking, but the snow significantly restricted our ability to take the trails and see the 360 degree view. I guess in the summer it is significantly cooler at the top, and the locals go up there to escape the desert heat. Good idea!


Now of course I am not mentioning every time we were in the pool, as it was several times a day, starting at 8am with a reverse-lazy-river walk, and followed by dips every few hours until 10pm at night. Of course we had to break for food, and our way of thinking was: When in southern CA, one must eat real mexican food. Frequently. Copiously. We had some of the best, freshest quacamole I have ever had. I could make a meal of just that, but of course there was always something else coming!


We tried to break out of chosing only the 'safe' things like chicken enchiladas and burritos and try some new things and we were mostly successful with that. We tried chili verde made with pork and a tomatillo sauce, and chili colorado with beef and a poblano pepper sauce. Frank also tried tamales and flautas for the first time, and I don't remember all what Jay had, but it was washed down with good mexican beer!


Well, all good vacations come to an end, and there are always chores to be done even on a little farm such as ours. It's time to move the boys to their summer pasture, but not before we fix the minor damage from winter storms and restore the electric fence to it's pony-deterring shock (Bailey wouldn't even think to cross a piece of dead fence laying on the ground!) Here is Frank moving one of the small trees that didn't survive the winter.


There were numerous places where large branches had come down as well and were easy enough to lift off the fence and chuck back into the woods or the gully. We were happy to find that none of the string fence broke...


so all we had to do was tighten the fence, as you see me doing above, and also lower all the insulators about a foot in some places. We discovered that the power company had come and cleaned out a lot of brush under their power lines, but apparently that vegetation created a natural fenceline that the electric fence just reinforced. With the vegetation gone now, the electric fence was much more critical and needed to be lowered to be more pony proof. Of course, as many of my friends who have ponies know, nothing is truly pony-proof so we just do our best. Those darn ponies do keep us on our toes!


One thing we did discover is that with the newly brush-cut easement, the boys have a lovely river view! Some people pay good money for this! We have a similar view from our house about 300 yards to the north from our home toward the Olympic Mountain range. We are so blessed to live in such a wonderful place...but it IS fun to get away once in a while and see something so totally different! It's all beautiful in its own way, but, in my opinion, better to live here and just VISIT the desert when we start feeling like we're getting a little moldy!

Just random things....

This is a wonderful picture of Frank's terrific mom, Dolores or Dee. She was visiting us and her daughter Jean (Frank's sister) took this shot which I just love. She is so happy here!! We'll be driving to Wisconsin this July to go visit her as she isn't doing any big traveling anymore. Who could blame her at 90 years old! I just love my mother-in-law and am so blessed to have her in my life.


We are about a week from putting the boys out on their other pasture. Once that happens, the chores will get much easier around here! No more coming into the barn every night to poop it up!! There is a nice pasture shelter in their field for those rainy days. It also means that they will be totally sustained by this pasture and no longer need hay. I will take them a little grain with their vitamins every evening and check them over, but they will be happy to be out 24/7. The donkeys stay home on our pasture as they would not be able to keep their girlish figures on that kind of grass. The minis, as usual, stay on their dry lot...those poor things!


I always get such a chuckle out of goofy answers kids give on tests, and this one is no exception. However, by this time of the year the jokes start wearing a little thin, so Spring Break hits just at the right time. We got smart and realized that we could use some sunny and hot weather, so we got a condo near Palm Springs for a few days...so we're OFF!! Kacey will be staying here taking care of everybody, and we'll be floating along the lazy river and eating some real mexican food. Can't wait! We're leaving tomorrow, so hasta la vista baby!!

Spring is really here!!

First, my apologies again to my faithful readers, a few of whom were kindly chiding me to bring the blog up to date. I was complaining that I didn't feel like I had anything new to say, but was reminded that even an update of the simple things is enough. So here are some simple things!

Now I used to think that Fall was always my favorite season, but living on a little farmette is making me appreciate spring very much as well.


We do not have any tulips or daffodils on our property, but we do have one other plant that often is the first to show some life in spring. Here is our rhubarb coming up for the second year now. This poor rhubarb has had a rough life. The first year we planted it, Frank kept running over it with the mower. I finally drove a stake by it so he could see where it was and that solved the problem for that year. The next year I noticed the rhubarb really struggling to get strong and the leaves looked really tattered and I couldn't figure it out. Then one day I noticed that chickens like rhubarb too!! (When the chickens are bad, we refer to them as The Peckers. Bad Peckers!) So this spring I have it protected so hopefully it'll be the near-weed that it's supposed to be!


I know this is not a good picture, but it is showing another sign of spring here at Red Pony Ranch: the blueberry bushes are budding. We planted these lovely bushes just last year, so seeing that they made it through a fairly harsh winter for these parts is a relief. We planted 5 and 6 year old plants, so we should have a decent crop this year. That is if we can keep the peckers out of there! Darn Peckers!


Last year we also planted two hazelnut/filbert trees. These trees need two to polinate each other. These little hangy things are made in late fall and hang on the trees all winter and these are what spread the pollen back and forth. We haven't gone a full season with them, so I am interested in which part actually becomes the nut. Hopefully this crop will be pecker-proof!


One thing I love to see growing and Frank isn't too crazy about is the GRASS!! That means that my leased pasture is getting ready to for the boys to move over for the rest of spring, all of summer and fall until about mid-October. It feeds them completely, except for their vitamins/supplements during that time. That is a relief to the feed bill, let me tell you! The winter pasture here at home will be fertilized then left to rest and will recuperate in a month or so while the donkeys are sequestered up by the barn. We are very blessed to be able to grow good grass here. The downside is that we have to mow our lawns very frequently, but to me it's worth it.


The other day I was cleaning the barn and my hair kept falling in my face, so I did what most farm girls do and reached for the baling twine and tied it back out of my way. Then I forgot about it. When Frank came in he noticed and got a kick out of my ingenuity and resourcefulness, so he snapped a couple of pictures.


There are many things on our farm that are held together with baling twine, and I'm sure if you have some, you're using it in creative and useful ways as well! We use it quite a bit in our garden to string things that climb and to mark rows while we're planting seeds and waiting for them to germinate. I heard you can even jury-rig a fan belt in an emergency! Hopefully I won't have to test that one!

Spring?

I noticed that there is a theme to these pictures today: I took them all from inside the house! Now I am outside a LOT, obviously, but sometimes it's fun to stay in my jammies and do what I can without having to get dressed to go outside. Well, today would have needed even more dressing as it SNOWED...AGAIN!! It's been in the mid 50's every day, so who expected this!!??


The good news is that this is one of those good snows that looks so pretty, but you are happy because it's barely 32 degrees and you can be sure it will be gone by noon. My kind of snow!! The horses didn't mind, but Daisy the donkey tried to come back in the barn to her stall for her morning hay! Apparently she's had enough. Sandy had fun running through it, although she brought in a lot of snow balls on her legs to melt on our new carpet! Oh well, I have to remind myself...this is a FARM and it can't stay pristine forever!


Now while I stayed inside keeping warm and drinking coffee, Frank was not too thrilled to be shoveling snow once again. Hopefully this will be IT for the year.


I took this picture of our chickens a few days ago when the weather, obviously, was much nicer. I have no idea why they were so intrigued by what was going on inside the house! Like Frank said, "Uh oh! Now they know where we live!" Those darn donkeys do too, and if we're late for feeding they come and yell into the back door. Who is in charge here, anyway?


I realized that there was yet one pet who had not been featured on our blog: Pete the lovebird. Pete's parakeet friend, Niles, went to bird heaven last week after a nice long life, so we brought Pete out to live in our main living area so he wouldn't be lonely. He's a funny little guy who likes it when there is a lot of activity and noise, especially when we play music fairly loudly and he squawks and whistles along. We thought maybe he needed a new friend, but for now he seems perfectly happy with just us. He has no fear of the cats and tries to run up to them and bite them if they are close to his cage. Luckily, they don't seem to be interested in him at all. Pete loves apples and lettuce and spinach leaves in addition to his regular food. He also loves to take baths, flinging water in about a 4 foot radius from his cage. We love Pete and he brings a lot of enjoyment to our family.

Happy Spring! And to think, I was going to plant some lettuce and peas today!

New Carpet: Doing our part to stimulate the economy!

Just a little over three years ago we moved into this new mobile home. We were thrilled to be able to have such a nice new house, as this property had a really old one on it when we bought it. However, our budget was really tight so we couldn't upgrade a couple of things like we wanted. So after three years, the standard carpet it came with was really falling apart, even in places where there wasn't any traffic! See just one example below:


So we were in Lowe's one day and wandered by the carpet department and decided, what the heck, and picked out something we liked and the rest is history. I do, however, wish they would have told us about the enormity of practically having to MOVE as all the carpeted areas of the house needed to be totally empty. Good thing we have a big shop that Frank was able to move most of the stuff into. The kitchen, as you can see below, got some of the last minute stuff. It was a total disaster area.


Katie said, "Hey, if we're moving...don't forget to take me!" Actually, she and Jake got locked in the shop for the day too. Pete the lovebird got stuck in the mudroom with his little heater, and Frank stayed home from school (I subbed for him...gotta love double dipping!) and helped some and also took Sandy for a long walk.


We were really blessed to have a nice day for this project. There was some stuff that we used until the last minute that, because of the good weather, we were able to just chuck outside. Here the couch is being guarded by Sandy. The back deck was crowded with office furniture, Frank's recliner and our coffee table.


Needless to say, we are thrilled with our new carpet. The quality is amazing, and it feels so nice to walk on...very squishy! Frank rolled up two equal sized remnants and you can really see the difference between the new and the old. That old piece had never been walked on either, he found it in the back of a closet. Yikes, that was some poor quality stuff!


Here they are side by side for comparison. You can see that even the quality of the backing is different. Those are my toes, by the way.


Luckily, moving back in doesn't seem as difficult as moving everything out. We are doing it stages at a time, with the office (can't live without the computers!), living room and bedroom being a priority today. Of course we're seeing how everything is dusty so each piece gets a good going-over as it comes back in. (Gotta love Swiffer Dusters!) Here Frank is putting our bedstead back together. We bought this set with our summer school money from last summer. It's our first and pretty much only really good furniture. Sandy, as you can see, is providing casual supervision.


OK, here is the new stuff, but let me tell you...IT IS NOT PINK!! These two pictures make it look pink or rosy but it is not. In fact, the wall behind our bed is a very true chocolate brown and it looks pinkish too! If anything, the carpet has an olive-y/gold hue to it. The name was Walnut and it is just what we wanted: a nice warm brown. I have to rethink a few things, like my couch cover which is fairly tan and now seems to be a little too much brown in the living room. I need to add more color! Sure wish I had good decorating sense. Guess I need to watch more HGTV and DIY networks!


So suffice it to say that we are really happy with our new carpet. We also got really good service from Lowe's and their contracted installer. I would definitely recommend them. Now you need to come visit and see it for yourself!

Farmer Jayne

A long stretch of unusually bright and rain-free days is supposedly coming to an end tomorrow, so it was time to tackle fertilizing my leased pasture. Last year Frank, bless his heart, fertlized it by using a walk-behind spreader over all 4 acres! So this year I opened my big mouth and asked if I could borrow the neighbors pull-behind spreader and they graciously consented. Wow, what a blessing that was to be able to just ride along and get the job done in about 2 hours.


This is the field looking to the south. The horses like to rest in the shade of the treeline at the southern edge of the property.


This is from the same spot in about the middle of the long pasture looking north toward our house. There is a driveway between this leased field and our own property that you can't see except for a little on the left. The red shed is our pumphouse and garden shed. The gray thing is our mobile home. To the left just out of the frame is this pasture owner's large shop onto which he had previously built a nice pasture shelter that the boys (Bailey and Little Bit) share nicely. We are very thankful to have found a pasture so close to our house. We will be able to pasture the boys and the donkeys there for a couple of months this spring to let our winter pasture at our place get fertilized and rested. This will happen in early April.


The actual task of fertilizing went fairly well except for one thing pictured above. Molehills!! Molehills from gigantic, mutant moles that push dirt up into big mounds that are tough to drive over, let alone pull the spreader over with its narrow wheel base. I am happy to report that not once did I dump the contents of the spreader, but I came very close. I liked that from the seat of the lawn tractor I could actually reach the spreader bucket and stabilize it if I needed. But the darn mole hills slowed me down and made my spreading uneven, which drives a person like me nuts.


This is a happy picture showing an EMPTY spreader. I can't count how many times I made the long trip back to my van to open another bag and refill it, but my math actually worked out pretty well and I had only about 3 inches left in the bucket when I completed the field. I went back over some of the more grazed down spots to use it all up. I purchased the fertilizer from our local farmer's co-op. They recommended 21-7-14, so that's what I got. It worked well last year so why mess with a proven system!


Here is a close up of the finished job. I sure hope I applied it in the right quantity! This is actually about as thick as the application got; some spots don't have as much. Maybe one of my farmer friends from Draft Horse Village can tell me next time we chat (Hi Ange and Kari especially!), although there is not too much I can do about it now! I am looking forward to seeing the grass get healthy and long and ready to feed my crew until the end of summer. I love being Farmer Jayne once in a while. Maybe someday I'll get to drive a real tractor!