Carrots

I harvested about six feet of a row of carrots and boy did I get a nice haul.  About 8 pounds came out of that 6 feet. And a few very strange ones! Definitely an alien carrot.

The majority of the carrots were between 4-8 inches long and 1-2 inches in diameter. But this is the cast of bizzaro carrots. I like the jaunty fellow on the end.

Now I need more carrots recipes!

Ringneck Snake

We came home last night to find the cats annoying this little guy (or girl) last night....

It's a baby ringneck snake. According to the internet they grow to two feet in length and eat lots of things we want to be eaten, like slugs and newborn rodents. And they are food for other things as well; like toads (of which we have plenty,) raccoons, birds, etc.
We think we had a full grown ringneck snake try to get in the patio door a couple months ago since the description fits. Ahhh, the joys of living in the country.

Fall Gold, Already?

A few of the fall gold raspberries have started ripening. Usually nothing ripens until mid-September.
I guess they are just very happy now that they have settled into their new location.  It looks like we will have a bumper crop this season.

We Have Doors!

Alan worked very hard this past weekend and got all the new doors hung on the new barn.

The amount of work that went into hanging doors with old strap hinges was quite intensive. We bought pintles when we bought the hinges but Alan decided not to use them and instead reworked new pintles.
We found pintles at our local Ace Hardware Store, Weavers, and also at Tractor Supply.

The part that holds the hinge needed to be extended. Luckily, we have a welder in the house.

The other end got an extension also so it would go through the frame.

 Nice and shiny and ready to receive its hinge.

The hinges work so smoothly! I have the best husband.

Outhouse Flowers

My Outhouse flowers are blooming! It took a while to find the flowers and then we ended up getting them from a neighbor of a friend. They look great for their first year in their new location (of course, next to the outhouse.)

One Door Hung!

Finally its starting to look like an old barn.

One down four to go!
The middle bar is a hasp latch that will latch onto a U nail in the trim around the door. We can use the hook just to hold the door closed or add a padlock.

Doors!

Alan has been busily making doors. Now on to the hinges! I can't wait to see the doors hung on the cool old strap hinges.

I want to paint the upper door (above the 2 large doors) like this:

I'll change the initials and the date, but I want the door to look like I salvaged it from an old barn.

The New Chicken Waterer

Always on the search for a better chicken waterer, I am now trying the Plasson Bell waterer. I got mine from Cornerstone Farm Ventures.

The hose goes to a five gallon bucket on the tongue of the chicken tractor trailer. When the chickens drink from the trough and the water level goes down a spring loaded mechanism senses the change in weight and the white elbow at the top of the red bell, there's another elbow on the opposite side, sends water down into the trough. The water is replenished in the bucket and it is so much easier to keep their water clean.
The chickens took to it right away and had no trouble making the changeover in waterers. I only had one small problem getting started. The waterer must hang to stay level and the trailer tongue is just barely tall enough, and then the trailer tire went flat and threw off the level and all the water ran out. Once the tongue was lifted a little more the problem was fixed and should be permanently fixed as soon as the tire is fixed.
This system won't work in freezing weather as the water in the tubing will freeze, but it is a real time saver for spring, summer and fall.

The Grass is Always Greener...

on the other side of the fence.

A New Landscaping Project

With the majority of the work on the new barn complete, its time to clean up. There was a good bit of bare soil to seed, with some of it on quite a slope.

I found a straw mat to help hold everything down until the grass grows. It seems to be working pretty well.

The grass is starting to come up and we were lucky to not have the deluges we had the week before.

The southeast side of the barn slope is planted in a pasture mix. And has some native "weeds" coming up as well.
The last, and probably hardest, job is the northwest side of the barn.

The slope doesn't look that steep in the picture, but it is steep enough that you wouldn't want to have to mow it and I don't think much grass would grow back there anyway. We are planning to put stone down on the flat area and pachysandra on the slope. I have a lot of pachysandra in other areas on the property that I can transplant.

The Flower Garden-mid Summer

I am very happy with my front flower bed. All the flowers are blooming and attracting lots of bees, moths and butterflies.

My favorites, the hollyhocks, are blooming well now.

And the Dahlias are very happy!