Tuesday, February 26, 2013

We Finally Got Our Snow

This has been a mild winter and we had almost resigned ourselves to little snow which doesn't help the drought effects all that much but last night we got about 6 inches of snow and before that 3 inches of rain. Our ponds are now back to normal level, the snow is great for our pastures, and the beauty of a fresh snow is awesome.
Despite pretty good hunting of rabbits this last season we still have quite a few around the farm and see them almost every day. We have no desire to wipe them out (even though they like to dine on our crops) and we enjoy seeing them on our walks but we have one large guy who comes right up to our front porch and hangs out. The snow shows tracks like this all over.
As stated in a previous post, our visit to Bowen Creek Farm really showed that we need to increase our green house capacity for the plant starts we use for our market garden and the plant starts we sell. So..to the right of our existing greenhouse we will be putting in a combined garden shed/greenhouse that will look similar to the chicken coop. We will remove the hog panels you see in this picture that we have been growing cucumbers on, moving some of the raised beds and installing the new greenhouse perpendicular to the existing one. It will have electric fans and lights and running water along with two windows and an over hang that will be used to display bird houses and hanging plants we sell and the other side will be a double walled greenhouse. We should have it in place by early April. 

The front half of the house is old, built in 1938, but it just fits this small farm and its incredibly peaceful in winter.

As you can see, the lower pond is now full even though its currently iced over. We needed the rain and snow desperately and its our good fortune to have had this storm.

We haven't done much inside the shop lately but we just got the new water pump for the IH 424 tractor and we will be turning our attentions to that over the next week.

This is just another picture I found very pleasing and peaceful. Its hard to explain why having an old barn is so satisfying but it is.

We went for a walk today and Maybelle was in a playful mood. This is the same bottle baby calf I used to carry in my arms.

Our main pond is now back to normal level which is hasn't been since about June of last year. We still have plans for a windmill aerator up here and a small cabin...its just not real high on the priority list right now with all of our other projects pending.

We enjoyed walking around after our chores, seeing all the birds and a couple rabbits, and enjoying the serenity of the snowy landscape.

It is beautiful right now, not too cold, and its nice to get a good snow. But maybe one more day and then spring please!
Now for something completely different. I have been buying raffle tickets from various charities for decades and always just considered it a donation; I have never won a thing from a raffle. But this past weekend Holly bought six raffle tickets for me and six for her and one of mine was the winner for this Mossberg 835 12 gauge pump action shot gun. Its a turkey gun and I don't have a pump shot gun (though I do have a couple other shot guns). The spring turkey season is in April and this will get a good work out.
It has detachable chokes but the one that came with it is a full choke ideal for turkey loads.

This is a bad picture but the sights are great with two glowing red dots for the rear sights and a glowing green one for the front sight, very easy to get a good bead.
 
What else has been going on? Well our Grandson Caleb score a 28 on his ACTs and is getting a scholarship to Oklahoma State for next year, our Oldest son just returned to Active Duty with an Air Guard unit and can now finish up his career and retire from active duty, and our Daughter in Law Stephanie just got a new job she likes with the State of Alaska. Its been a pretty good month.
 

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