Around the Homestead

We had our first light frost yesterday morning, well...it was lightly on the windshield when I took grandson to the bus stop.  I had to dig deep in the closet to find a pair of jeans and an old sweatshirt so I could do chores.  I am a cold weather wimp.  

Mom was peeking out or her door to see how cold it was.  She lives on the homestead in a park model camper trailer.  We finally convinced her to move out here a couple of years ago.  Her neighborhood in town had gotten really bad.  We are relieved that she is here.

 
Papa Bear let a couple of the kids out of their pens to frolic around.  Waddles wanted a bite of Papa Bears hat but I missed that picture.  Waddles is the first kid born here with "waddles" so that name has stuck.

Twinke, Waddles sister, checked out the turkeys while finding leaves to eat.  I didn't think this little doe was going to live when she was born.  Mama doe kidded 4 and Twinkie didn't even weigh 2 pounds and was limp as a dish rag.  Her brother and sisters were 5 and 6 pounds.  I bottle fed her and one of her sisters.  She may be the smallest but she has the biggest mouth.

 Then she wanted to see what the thing was we kept holding to our eye and clicking.

Rattler one of our mixed breed rescues guards all of the bucks in the back pen.

This is Rusty one of our mixed breed bucks.  He will be butchered soon.  He's a big boy probably around 200 pounds.  The fence he is standing next to is 4 feet.

This is Lady our guardian dog for the does.  She is a mixture of Australian Shepherd and Great Pyrenees.  We've recently had to put her on a chain as she discovered she can jump the fence.  The chain is long enough for her to have free range of most of the doe's pen and the shed.  When we get the new pasture fenced in it will be hot wired so she can be turned loose again.

Our Confederate Rose Shrubs are beginning to bloom.  They will be real pretty in a few days when all those buds open.

Our Catfish pond is about 3 foot lower than normal.  We have not had enough rainfall this year.

Papa Bear is building a pavilion near the ponds edge so we can be shaded from the sun when we fish and picnic.  We have purchased 2 of the tent type gazebo's in the past few years and although we had them anchored in the ground, windstorms have picked them up and tossed them into the pond or collapsed them into a mangled up mess.  I wanted a fancy wooden gazebo but a pavilion was the less expensive route to go.  

I am going to add lattice to the four corners and paint all the wood white and pretend that it is a fancy gazebo.  I am sure I will love it regardless.. I'll post another picture later when it is finished.

A small gas station was being torn down in a nearby town.  Our neighbors son was given a 200 gallon diesel tank to sell to the scrap metal place.  Papa Bear offered to buy it so he is now the proud owner.  Makes us feel better to know we can now store a fair amount of diesel for the garden tractor.  Now to get it into a good location and start filling it up!

This little stray showed up at our house last week.  I imagine someone dropped her off out here in the country.  She has been hiding in an old storage area on the property.

The cat we now have is 16 plus years and has used up more than her "nine lives" and is too old to chase mice in the barn so we need a good mouser.  If no one claims her this week, I'll meet our vet at the post office and she'll take her back to her farm and spay her for me.  New kitty hangs out on the front porch and loves for grandson to play with her.  I'll give her a rabies shot this evening as there is rabies in our area.  Mom named her Nippy as she has a split in one of her ears.  As it is healed it must have happened some time ago.  Doesn't she have pretty eyes?

I wanted to move the chicken tractor alongside the lattice fence to see if a few chickens could destroy the torpedo grass in that area.  When I built it last year I never put wheels on it.  It was light so Papa Bear and I just carried it when I wanted to use it.  I didn't want to interrupt papa Bear working on the Pavilion so I took the training wheels off of Jacobs old bicycle that he has outgrown and nailed a couple of fence staples into them to hold them in place.  Don't laugh....it worked.  I hooked it up to my little John Deere lawn tractor and it rolled right along.  I'm sure when Papa Bear gets time he will properly drill some holes and bolt them on for me.

I put one of the "nekid butted" girls in the tractor.  I'll get a couple more of the worse girls and put them in with her until their feathers grow back.

Hope everyone is having a great week!