We Passed Inspection

 Today, our barn footing passed inspection, which means ... the cement pad will be poured tomorrow. Our "cement guy" Chris says he'll be starting at 5.30am in the morning if we want to come and watch. We'll probably get there about 9am. I don't get back from the school run until about 8am, and then it'll be getting everything ready to go and driving down there. I def want to get pics of them doing it though, it's all part of this journey.

The Thuja saplings all seem to be taking their transplanting pretty well.  We took more mulch today, we want them well mulched and babied so they grow like these in this picture.

Big and strong, making a nice privacy wall of trees. It'll be a cuple of years but they apparently grow a few feet every year, so I'll just be patient as they inch up there.

My fruit trees are also due in this week, so that'll be some more planting going on.  Lowe's loves us right now, we are buying so much stuff to do this all right. For posterity, saith she.

Two of the stray dogs are getting used to the sound of my voice thruogh the trail cam.  They do look up when they hear me, and occasionally head a few paces away, but then - when they realise there's no threat - they head back to eat and semi-ignore me. 

A couple of the deer have been the same, but the others scatter. Oh well. Hopefully, when I am over there more, they will get better used to me and I'll be able to enjoy them closer.

We've ordered our bees for April 11th pick up (I forgot we had to order ahead and the first shipment was completely sold out). We'll have 2 hives this year. We learned from our mistakes of last year so hope these will thrive.  I'm def giving them plenty of food sources!

God is so good, everything is coming together beautifully. I am very content.

Such A Glorious Day!

 Today has been an absolutely awesome day! Despite still being "bunged up", we went down to the property today and were there a few hours. 

My privacy trees arrived yesterday, so we headed down with them, potting soil, plant food for transplanting trees, gallon jugs of water (since our well is not dug yet) and 20 trees.  

Hubby began by using the tractor to scrape the grass off the area we were putting them in, and then running a plumb line down to make sure they'd be in a straight line. 

Then he unrolled the weed barrier over it. 

Trying to dig through it didn't work, so they used scissors to cut the holes where they were digging out to put the trees in. I'd read their instructions REALLY well, so each plant got watered in well before getting covered over with potting soil and then the regular soil they'd dug up. Bearing in mind that the field had been a horse pasture for many years and is frequented by deer, it's pretty well fertilized.

They all did such an awesome job. I was finally able to help, by cutting off the zipties on the tree wrappings and unpotting them ready for planting. My mobility issues put the kibosh on so much stuff that I used to love doing. It was good family time though, with 2 grands and a great-grand helping Mark.

The trees are only about 3 feet high but grow 4-6 feet a year so should be pretty thick in 2 years or so. We only managed to get 10 in today, so are going back tomorrow to plant the other 10. 

I was mainly the foreman, sitting in my car not doing much, but Angelica and Nicolette were with us helping (my choice of Christmas gift when asked had been labour donation) and Samantha rode around with me some of the time and heped the others the rest of it.  In the beginning, though, she had made friends with 2 girls who were there with our ocncrete man, Chris, and the 2 men helping him as they redid the footings for re-inspection Monday. As long as it passes this time, he will start the cement pad on Tuesday.

Samantha put out the food for the stray dogs and cats. Sadly, none were around for her to see. We've seen the black cat a few times when we've been over, but not to be able to pet it. The dogs haven't ever come around when we are there, other than the nursing mama that time a couple of months ago. No worries, once we are able to be over there more, maybe they will, and then they can be trapped, spayed/neutered, given their shots and hopefully we can find homes for them.

The fruit trees should be arriving this week also, and we are better prepared for when they get here.  I already had hubby dig out 2 "troughs" when we had the ditch witch so that we only have to drop them in and pop weed barrier and then soil around them, no heavy digging like today.

It's so nice to see everything beginning to come together. That place is so beautiful, and I just want to make it moreso, but also productive with edibles. I also want it to be a safe place for the deer. They are already getting used to stopping over for food. It'll be lovely, once we are there all the time, to be able to sit there and watch them. 

They look at the camera, a bit confused, when I start talking to them through it. Hopefully though, they'll be used to the sound of my voice by the time we are living over there.