Thursday, January 29, 2009

clean up day..

After yesterday's big snow, today was a day of "digging out"... Sadie went out to get her car cleared off... and had "quite the outfit on" to do it. I snapped a couple of photos as she brushed off her car and talked to the dogs... and I heard something like "I feel like Tasha Tudor!!!" (referring to her outfit and working out in the snow, I guess!!!)

Tasha Tudor, for those of you who may not know, was quite a famous author and artist. She wrote children books and most of the time, her "stars" are corgi dogs... (hey Mandi cute books for Maya)... any ways, they were some of my favorite books to read the girls when they were little. Tasha Tudor lived in Vermont on a farm and looked as though she was a part of the 1800's in her dress and the way that she likes to do things. Sadie is pretty sure that I will be the next Tasha when we get settled on the farm....

I don't think so.......



At least not today... Sadie beat me on that one...

I arrived on the farm to find Ed moving snow. Bless that wonderful little tractor of ours!! I don't know how we would get some things done without it..






The snow blower on the back makes quick work of tossing snow. Ed has been able to keep the fence lines clear and has made a nice "road" for me to get to the manure pile with the gator!!!





Some where behind that snow bank is a tractor!!!and my roundpen...... just in case some of you might wonder how much snow we have. Course this is a banking made by plowing, it isn't the actual amount!!!! (thank goodness!!!!)






After snow removal, Ed and I went over to the stove shop... our little stove has come in. It looks so different in a crate, that I wondered at first if it was the right one.... but it is...








With help from Eric and Buzz, Ed got the stove into the kitchen!!! Now, if the hearth is finished up tomorrow, we can get it into place, and within the next few weeks, even start small fires in it. Because both the stove and chimney are new, we will have to run small, curing fires for awhile. But that will work fine, because we don't need to heat the house, and yet it will help take the chill out when Ed and I begin to work there....










A beautiful winter sunset to close out the day........

bye bye fly....


It seems "yucky" having a blog about flies... who likes them??? They're dirty, they bite, they're annoying and all sorts of other "icky" things. but, the truth is, when you live on a farm.. they are a fact of life. We did fairly well dealing with them last fall, course the horses had only been there a very short time, and the manure pile wasn't much to speak about. However, I know that next summer if will be a different story.
So, I have been doing some research and talking with some folks and have come across these little bugs that are known as "fly Predators", basically they are another little fly-type "bug" that lives off the fly. Actually, just about everyone who has flies already have the predators as it's God's way of handling the fly population. However, sometimes the flies, in good conditions...like a nice big manure pile, can get a jump on the predators and then become pests to the rest of us. I have found that you can order the predators and keep their population higher than the flies and thus, we do not have to deal with flies!!!

And this morning, (trying to be in a "spring" frame of mind) I called the company and ordered my "new friends". They will come in monthly shipments with the first arriving in May.. they are suppose to be very easy to deal with, basically, give them a few days to come out of their dormant state that they are shipped in, and take them to the manure pile and sprinkle them on. Sounds easy enough, and for the amount that I need, it runs about 30.00 a month.. so, I'm willing to give them a chance.

People who I have talked with that have used them, seem very happy with their results. Aside for the fact that I don't like flies, I have to think about out drafts with no tails!!! so for the sake of my horses, I want to do the best I can for their comfort. I'll keep you posted on the results of this experiment, but are there any blogger friends out there that have tried them.... I would love to hear from you...

And... with two feet of snow on the ground... even a yucky fly would look good just about now!!!!