Spring Cleaning on the Farm

Best fertilizer is the one you got.  Justin brought a couple truck loads of the sheep manure and many bucket loads of chicken manure to the garden.  A smelly job, but good for the earth.  

We found a place for the ladder.  AKA we gave Pepere Larry a couple extra odds and ends to fix up after he put up the new upstairs door.

He made the little door to match the large lower door.  It lets in a good amount more of light into the workshop  upstairs.  

The barn so far this Spring 2021.  If you do not remember what it looked like before, check out the post on The Barn; The finishing touches.

The roosters are not getting along this year as they had previously.  We have four beautiful and family friendly roosters.  It as a difficult discussion, but we have decided to give away Angus and Carliss to separate homes.  We’re hoping Jupiter and Cameron can share the rest of the space.  Please let me know if you’re interested in adopting a free rooster.  These are the two pictured above: Angus is above Carliss.

A full flock photo.  The boys are up front Lambert and Boston.  Ivy with her bell bottoms is behind them.  Nala and Natalie the Katahdin ewes to her right and the Southdown ewes to her left and in the back.  Do you know what got them to line up perfectly like this?

Yes.  They were meeting our new dog Boomer for the first time.  He sounds like his name, that’s why they all startled together. Boomer is a two year old hound mix that we adopted from the Portland Animal Shelter.

Justin has also been clearing out a new patch to the left of the barn.  This year we’ll probably have turkeys there. You can see the new open space and the large pile of lumbar up front.  I’m excited for the turkeys because we’re getting a heritage breed.  So they will be ver pretty.  Well also keep a few for breeding.  Expect lots of photos.  This spring we’re also getting some meat birds; it’s been a while since our last set.

I love early Spring flowers, it just really solidifies spring for me.  Happy Easter everyone!

Alexia made me these flowers from egg cartons and pipe cleaners.  She envisioned this craft on her own.  It was a great birthday present.  Save your quarters, she’ll be making a few bouquets worth for craft fair season.

Building the barn; the finishing touches.

The Building of a Barn; The Final Touches

A work in progress...

Here we are 2020 and we’re up and rolling on phase 2 of completing this Monitor style barn.  We are ready for this beauty to get to her final look.

This is what the barn looked like just a week prior to the addition of the door.  It being in makes a big difference in its appearance.

The stairs are indeed complete and we have the ability to access the top floor.  Pepere Larry has spent a lot of his self isolation preparing all the pieces for this day.

We have added in all of the back doors.  Pepere Larry made beautiful barn doors for us and we love their classic barn look and their functionality. I’m in charge of painting... but I’m a slow painter, so we’ll see how long that responsibility gets to stay mine.

Pepere Larry cut a hole in the barn today!  Just the right size for a window. All of the holes were cut and windows put in place. This is the update as of August 15, 2020.

While the men spent the day putting in the windows, I helped touch up the bunny house in its new location in the barn. It’s great working in the barn with all the beautiful daylight streaming in the brand new windows. The bunnies have always been near a lot of light and so we made sure to raise their home to window level.  The second house is Carla the barn cats abode.  Right now with the nice weather, she purr-furs to sleep out under the stars. Some day, she will appreciate her three story space.

August 22 and the windows are sealed and the doors framed. Pepere Larry and Justin are giving me more to paint.  I’ve only just finished the red on the back three doors.

Just a little peak inside.

Alexia and Jordan helped with construction of the sheep pen today, September 9th.  We’re getting the barn ready for Ava’s five year old birthday party this weekend! And the sheep this winter.

This beautiful wall separates the sheep pen from a little storage section that right now is home to building supplies.  Eventually the side wall to the height of the windows (and even further in the future: the whole wall) will also have this nice siding.

One door’s painting is complete!

The back pasture has been started.  This section is our winter paddock.  There will eventually be pastures connected back to this main paddock.

The sheep like their half door.

Justin put hardware cloth on the inside of the windows to protect from damage by the tenants; our Katahdin and Southdown sheep.

This a a view down into their pen from up on the stairs.

This is building a barn, the finishing touches. 

I will continue to update this post as the construction continues.  

Come back soon to check it out. 

 To see how we got started, basically year one of this project, 

click here: 

The building of a barn.