Well, Jenni just went back to work for 7 weeks, we have a three day weekend, and there is still too much to do to be ready for the summer season.
Pictured above is a broken string trimmer. I was trying to get the irrigation ditch cleared out this week. After I flooded the road trying to get the water to run in a ditch choked with weeds. I almost made it all the way up the ditch when the line in the spool bound itself up and the red bump knob is so worn from years of use that it won’t loosen. I finally did get it fixed, but it won’t last, and I can’t find a spare part anywhere to replace it with. I was able to get the water running in the ditch and all the way to the back of the house, and then some upstream user all but drained the main canal. I’ll try it again tomorrow.
We spent some time yesterday looking at plants, mostly roses and we saw these “hummingbugs” for lack of a better label. I have seen them before out here on the farm, and I’ve been buzzed by one at night when I wear my headlamp. They sound slightly less menacing than a hummingbird, but give me a start when they fly at the light. I just thought they were interesting.
The ducks are doing well, Alex took them to the horse trough for a swim a few days ago. She took video, but we have had trouble getting it to upload or even play. I posted pictures on facebook. We noticed that the older ducks are losing their grey and gaining some color. In this case it is brown on their breast feathers. Must be a Clangor/Schmutzy cross. I think something tried to dig under the fence to get to the ducks last night. I’ll be researching how to prevent that.
Oh, and I did get the weather station back on line this week. It just needed a new sensor, a relatively cheap fix. It just took me a month to figure it out.
I did finally order some bamboo plants from Bamboo Garden. They will ship them next wednesday and I will probably get them in the first week of June. This will be interesting to see how they handle the heat and cold of S.E. Idaho. I think I can make them grow and flourish. This is one of the fodder solutions I have thought of trying for a few months now. It will take about 3 years to make it workable.
So, on to the egg count. I think the girls have been slacking off a bit lately.
For the week of 5/18/2014 thru 5/24/2014:
- Eggs gathered: chicken – 54, duck – 14
- Sold – 7 dozen (chicken only)
- Cartons filled: chickens – 4, ducks – 1
That’s it for this week.