This Week Around the Homestead

Thought I'd combine several tidbits from this week into one post and call it "This Week Around the Homestead".

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We have owned this house for over a year. How we managed to live on 1.25 acres of mostly grass without a riding lawnmower is beyond me! Actually, I do know how we did it. A nice neighbor let us use his riding a lawnmower several times and when he wasn't home Jerry did it with our regular mower (not fun, fyi).

So with the grass turning green again, we finally bit the bullet and bought a little John Deere. It was delivered on Monday afternoon. Shiny and green... at least for now. Hayden and Wesley tried it out. Don't worry, it wasn't on.

Maybe when Wesley gets a little bit older we'll let him mow. He can definitely reach the pedals!

Jerry made one quick line in the lawn to make sure it was working before the delivery guy left and then just drove it into the garage. The first mowing would have to wait.

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Monday was very windy. All day the wind blew and gusted. The pool was a mess. It cooled off quite a bit and then it rained. Some time during the night we lost two big branches off the tree in the back part of the lot.

We knew the tree wasn't in perfect health but we didn't expect it to split into three pieces. One branch fell to the east and the other to the west. The western branch missed the water faucet by about a quarter of an inch. The saddest part is the loss of shade for the chickens. It is the only tree out in that back area to offer them shade. We'll leave the one part standing but it's not big enough now to give much shade.

Not sure yet what we're going to do with the big (dead) branches. Guess we'll have to cut them up. (Anyone have a chainsaw we can borrow?)

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We had our second irrigation of the season this week. I was a bit disappointed to see we were on the schedule for 7am Wednesday morning. Jerry actually enjoys irrigation and he would miss it. I got up, dressed, and went out the door to find our zanjero had already opened the valves for me. That turned out to be extra nice since Justus was sick (literally) right at the time I needed to go out to open the valves.

As I was walking back to the house, I noticed a gopher who had been flooded out walking across the lawn. Those stupid things are ruining our lawn so I did what Jerry did the last time we irrigated and he cornered a gopher... grabbed a shovel and split him in half. Disgusting, yet effective.

At 8am I waded out and closed the valves before heading back into the house to get everyone (except Justus) breakfast. As were were sitting at the table eating, Hayden said he saw a "rat" running around on the back patio. Thankfully, I had moved the shovel to the back just in case. I grabbed it and promptly dispatched my second gopher of the day.

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Once every two weeks it looks like we have water front property... for about an hour or so until it soaks in!

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Living out in the "country" we hear all kinds of animal noises. The usual birds, dogs, and cats, plus more farm type animals (horses, cows, etc). I nicknamed the rooster that lives next door Al - don't ask me why - I don't know. Al crows at weird times. At first I was a bit annoyed when he'd crow at 2am, but now I don't even hear it. We used to always hear a donkey too. We called him "Donkey", of course. I'm not sure what happened to him. We haven't heard him in a long time and I kind of miss him.  Wednesday night we kept hearing a goat yelling. (Yes, just like on that viral YouTube video.) It cracked me up every time I heard it. We keep hearing: "Hey! Heeeey!" Or maybe he's yelling: "Hay! Haaaay!" Haven't heard it again since. Bummer. I was hoping he/she would be a new addition to the neighborhood.

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One last thing. Here's a video of the chickens coming when I call. Annabeth has always called them "cheep, cheeps"  so when I have a treat for them that is what I holler. Sorry for the unsteady camera hand. :)