Gardening At The Shop

 Beverly always plants a little garden in the sandy soil at the shop.  She digs it by hand and nurses her seedlings to produce from nothing.

 Hubby does the bush hogging around the shop and some road work when needed.  This year he took the disc to her garden spot that is close enough to see customers when they pull in for shopping.

 He added some top soil and disc that in the mix.

The soil is a little richer so I hope her garden does well this year.  When there are no customers she tends her garden.  The customers seem to enjoy seeing her working.  One customer asked me, "Is that your sister I see folded up like a little Vietnamese lady pulling grass?"  Yep, that's my sister.

Down and Dirty On Easter

Many know we have live water from springs.  This is pumped into the house for our convenience (I have carried many a buckets from this spring).  Our water is far better and sweeter tasting that any city water I've had.  The rock circle is where the pump sits suspended in clear spring water.  My grandpa and Dad made this years ago.  

The bad part about all this is we have to clean and flush the spring at least twice a year according to conditions.  Well we missed last year (Hubby's and Marcy's illness).  Our water remained clear and sweet but this day of work was long over due. 

This is not a one man job.  So we invited family with the lure of Marcy's cooking and they went to work.

First you make a plan.  The culvert for over flow was removed to flush out the area removing moss and two years of natural deposits in the bottom of the holding pond.

Then you jump in and start moving the mud.  The more mud moving out the better.  The blanket moss goes out with the current.

Basically it is like making wine.  You squish the mud and work it down stream with your feet.  Andrew kept us hydrated.

Second grandson Jake ran to get whatever we needed, sometimes driving the Ranger or running as fast as he could go.  Andrew and Jake played some foot ball

and then they deserted us.

Shoveling muck is fun.  Now maybe we won't have to clean it again till next spring...hopefully!

We scrubbed everything, dug muck and pushed water.  We've done this since childhood but it was all done by hand then.  We would dig grass from this branch all the way to the creek.  It was an all day job for four generations.

 We rescued critters

and moved them to a safer place.  Our plan was to bleach the main spring to kill the blanket moss but not the live things.  The bleach will do its job and it will dissipate before it reaches the pond or creek.

Boots were no good.  

All was work was done barefooted.

Melissa, my oldest daughter,

captured a mother/daughter portrait.

The work continues and the water level lowered.  Melissa said she never saw any pictures on my blog of her.  I wonder if she will be proud of this one!  Bev, my sister, is working that mud so it can move on out.

Marcy, my oldest sister, came over to tell us she had cooked a feast.  Toni, my nephew, did work although I have few pictures of it.

We chlorinated while Hubby dammed the creek.  We ate a mouth watering belly filling delicious dinner at Marcy's and returned to the spring.

Busting the dam.

Replacing the culvert with Toni looking like a Highway Department employee we are nearing completion.

Now we are back in the pure water business again.

As the world celebrated the Resurrection

we resurrected our water source.

Line of Demarcation...Computer Malfuntion

is defined in one instance as the determining and marking off of the boundaries of something.  There have been many types of lines but I think it's fairly safe to say this is the first made with shoes.

Bev my middle sister had been staying with us a few days.  Her work ethics and drive make me look like Suzy Super Lazy.  Our den is painted flooring.  She has been "touching" up some places,  Even Maggie the Border Collie knows what these lines mean. The lines move and change as Bev paints in sections.  Maggie knows which side of the line is safe...much better than I do.

The floor is almost complete along with sorting, thinning and cleaning.  Bev has directed Hubby like a drill sergeant or a personal trainer.  This room is Hubby's room where items dropped tend to stay dropped.  Oh, not anymore!  Papers and booklets applying to equipment no longer owned are sorted and discarded.  Like tools are in the same spot.  It is simply amazing how Bev can request and it is all taken with good nature by the two males that risk pulling a back muscle when they have to pick up a dirty sock. 

Had a little snow land at our place that stopped school early one day and out completely the next.  The suddenness caught drivers off guard and there were many accidents.

The livestock were fed and wearing many layers was the only way to be outside.  Two new healthy heifers were born.  No bulls being born yet makes me wonder if we have another dry summer coming.

Predators are also hungry and have choice picked a hen a night for over a week when it was not raining or snowing..  We have found claw marks on a tree over three feet off the ground.  The dogs alert us but there has been no capture.  The dogs seem hesitant to move in on the predator.  We haven't caught the chicken thief.

The barn yard committee is discussing a solution.

When they work this problem out, I'm putting them on the computer.