Finally got the brothers and Dad up to cut up the large red oak tree that feel down towards the front of the property. We made a large dent in it but still need to cut up the trunk. It was tough work!
Splitting wood
Making a dent on a really large red oak tree.
Packing it up
What more could you ask for? A day of tractoring, exercising 2nd amendment rights, harvesting the Hops, and relaxing by a massive bonfire. Good times.
This time of year the carpenter bees are everywhere. In the past two years I’ve had ‘Bee Gone’ insecticide applied, but I could still see bee activity. This year I’m going a different route by putting up traps. After two days they seem to work pretty well, I’ve order three more so I can have them on all sides of the house.
Carpenter Bee Trap
The four guineas have been busy this spring. They’ve laid a total of 23 eggs in the barn. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the hen(s) to sit on them, in fact they laid them in random places all over the coop. After about two weeks I took all of them and put them in an incubator, we’ll find out soon enough if they are fertile, they should hatch around the 20th of May.
In the incubator!
I put them all together in the barn but they refused to sit on them
Purchased a whole load of fish from a Zetts up in West Virginia, the containers took up the entire trailer and pickup truck. The fish included:
Maddy & Patrick helped me spread them around the pond. Keeping fingers crossed that they will take.
Picking up at Zetts
Came in bags like this
At the pond with my helpers
Putting them in the pond
Snails are huge!
It was much easier driving in then getting out, even with my new 4wd pickup.
Inbound in the morning
Back yard
It was as cold as it looks!
Finally finished filling and now is draining from the overflow pipe. Looks big! Thin layer of ice covers most of the pond in these photos.
Normal outflow from the overflow pipe
Pretty happy that this 2 year saga is done and its looking pretty good!
Very close to being full, but the apparent rate of filling really slows from here on out.
I didn’t know it at the time, but sadly this was also the last day I would see Tom Bledsoe over at the farm.
Back to the road for the first time
Great to spend some time with the kids. Emily’s boyfriend Erik ended up snagging a buck!
Pond is almost full
Boys ready to move out!
Patrick was determined
It was cold!
The crack of dawn
Good eating!
Great time with the brothers, although we were ‘skunked’.
Here we go!
Steve in the blind
Spagetti and meatballs for dinner!
Up at the crack of dawn, literally!
Steve made breakfast after the morning hunt