Sunday, June 24, 2007

Trial by Fire

We had a GORGEOUS weekend here in Fredericksburg. It was in the mid-70s and no humidity. If only it could be like this all summer....

Melanie was so surprised on Friday when she came home from girls camp. She was actually speechless, which surprised me, since horses is all she can ever talk about. She told me that fireworks were going off inside....so I will have to take her word for it. The horses are so neat. I keep going out to look at them because it is surreal that they are here in our yard!

Our friends, Alan and Cami, came to visit this weekend from Utah. We had a really great time together and some real laughs. The highlight of the weekend was when I had to take the temperature of one of our horses, who has a case of "shipping fever" (I am learning new things every day!). The gal at Tractor Supply Company sold me a thermometer and gave me a brief lesson on how to, um, take it. Here is a photo of this priceless moment.
The horse has a little fever and needs to get an antibiotic. I read up on giving a horse an injection and decided, whatever it costs, I am having someone else come out and administer it!

Bob and I finally mowed the secondary pasture. It took two days and a lot of recutting because it was about 4 feet high. We are going to just mow it a few more times over the next week and let it settle before rotating the horses into it. The freshly cut grass emits toxins that can harm the horses. I really am learning!

We picked more cherries this weekend and made two more batches of jam. I hope to get a few more batches done before they die because the jam is so good. I still have 8 quarts "put up" of the fresh cherries, so I can do some pies as well.


Sunday has been a day of rest for the Mastracola's. There has been so much work to do here that we hardly have a minute to spare. I appreciate the Lord gives us a one-day reprieve to recharge our batteries. We have an exciting week ahead with quotes for new floors, friends moving out of the ward, seminary teacher meetings starting (already!), and work in and outside the farm. We hope you are enjoying our crazy experiences vicariously through our blog. We certainly enjoy sharing them!
P.S. Cami is a really good photographer and she gets all the credit for the beautiful photos in today's post.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

A horse is a horse, of course, of course

We have two new additions to our farm today! Last night, Bob and I purchased two Quarterhorses. They were delivered this afternoon and are out in the pasture this evening getting adjusted to their new home. They were purchased from an auction in Ohio about 10 days ago. There is a Gray mare and a Sorrel mare (brown). Melanie is at girls camp this week, so she has no idea that we purchased them. I can't wait until she comes home Friday and sees them out there in the field! Here is a photo.

Here is the latest photo of the chickens, as well.




Sunday, June 17, 2007

The Pit Crew (part two)

Mom and I picked about another 4 quarts of cherries on Saturday night. We made some cherry jam and pie filling. The cherry jam is so yummy that I plan on getting some more jars this week and making a couple more batches. It still doesn't look like we made a dent!

The chickens are now comfortable coming outside. Today after we returned from church I opened the door and as I walked back to the house, most of the chickens were outside. They stayed out most of the day scratching in the dirt or eating bugs. They are starting to look more and more like their pictures on the hatchery website. It looks like we might have 4 roosters. There are two black and white ones that look like seagulls and no other chickens look like them. I need to go look again at the cuckoo maran photos to see what the roosters look like. I don't remember any of the hen photos appearing this way.

I bought them a new 3 gallon waterer and an 11 pound feeder. It is nice to not have to refill the little ones all day long.

Kelly and Enzo seem to finally be settling into our new life here. Enzo a little more than Kelly, who has been plagued with some stomach problems for the past couple of weeks. She is going to the vet on Tuesday and I hope they can give her some medication to help her get through the hump. She seems to love being outside here. Whenever I take her out she just runs and runs around the yard. I can't wait until we have the time to put in our new electronic fence. It will be nice, once they are trained with it, to just let them have run of the yard. I didn't blog this when it happened, but the second day we were here, Kelly got out and ran away. We couldn't find her for more than two hours. She wasn't wearing a collar and since she is so afraid of people, you can't really catch her easily. Everyone was just so sad. Bob and the kids drove around for two hours looking for her. Someone had spotted her up at the high school, but Bob never spotted her. I was unloading my van and had the strongest impression that as when I was finished, I should get in the car and drive up the road and she would be there. I quickly finished what I was doing and grabbed the keys. I drove up the road, just past our property and there she was, standing on the side of the road as I had seen in my mind. I am so grateful for the gift of the Spirit at times like these. We did buy Kelly and Enzo tags with our new address the next morning and put new collars on them (and we bought the fence but haven't had the time to install it yet).

Life here has been demanding on us physically, but in a good way. It is the kind of exhausting that you fall into bed at night grateful for the rest. We haven't had a chance to hook up the tv in the bedroom yet, and I may just keep it that way. Honestly, I have only sat down once or twice since we have been here to watch something on tv. I also just realized that I haven't logged into instant messaging since I moved! I find that oddly fascinating.

We are still on the lookout for a nice horse and some goats. The pastures keep growing and growing and we need some animals to keep it in check. Also, the barn is so empty and lifeless. The barn swallow are our only inhabitants.

The garden is doing well. We have about 25 green bean plants that are fast growing. The other plants are surviving and I noticed 3 or four pumpkins starting to come up. The beets, onions, carrots, and lettuce should be poking through soon. We started miracle grow this weekend. Hopefully, it will give everything a little boost.

It is off to bed for me. Melanie leaves for girls camp in the morning and we all need the rest.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Some days...its the pits....

There are some tasks here at the farm that won't wait. It has a life of its own and it is not concerned that we still have unpacking and painting and electric that needs updated. We have two sour cherry trees that came into full cherry-ness this week. This afternoon, the kids and I spent a couple of hours picking cherries to "put up" or can. Our bounty was 8 quarts, but you can't even tell that we picked any the trees are so full. I think we will be picking cherries for the next couple of weeks. (local friends can feel free to swing by and help themselves to the cherries)
Cherry trees are fairly short, as trees go. However, we still needed a ladder and had to pull some branches down to get to the ripe ones. We picked everything that was ripe and it took about 1 1/2 hours. Then the real fun began. I went to the Kitchen Collections store and bought 4 cherry pitters last night. We used them for about 1 minute and gave up. They tore the cherries apart and didn't do such a great job at getting pits out. I found that if you gently squeeze and roll them in your fingers, the pit just pops out. Oh, and did I mention they are really messy? We and the porch were covered in cherry juice. It just gets all over you...if you ever have to pit a large quantity of cherries, make sure you wear old clothes or something red.

We hurried up to get them in the house and start canning them. The stem opening starts to turn brown really fast if you don't soak them in a water/ascorbic acid solution....I didn't have any on hand. I had to go dig out my pots and canning jars, but we were able to get 8 quarts done in short order. As the trees ripen, we will be picking some more to make some cherry jam and pie filling to can. On a side note, we discovered that Enzo loves cherries! He laid under the tree while we were picking and gobbled up everything that fell to the ground....pits and all. When we were pitting them, he begged next to us the whole time and was so happy whenever we shared one with him. He has some cherry juice stains on his fur. We hope that they come out in the wash!
In other farm news, I got to ride the tractor for the first time this week. Bob was reluctant to turn over the key as he gets really excited about mowing the grass. However, he was working on installing the new microwave outlet and since I can't do electric, I mowed. My only complaint is that the seat is set too far back and my butt hardly stayed in the seat. It was pretty funny watching me go round the corners! I mastered it pretty quick and did a nice job.

The chicks continue to grow and grow. Tomorrow they are one month old. I am going to let them out of the coop for a while tomorrow if the weather is nice.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

All the new toys

We are coming up on two weeks now and while things are getting done slowly, they are getting done. Most of the family was sick this week with bronchitis which has slowed us all down a bit. I finally located my camera cable and am posting some new photos of us using our new toys. Bob got to use his tractor for the first time and loves mowing the grass for the first time in his life. He can't wait to get some attachments for it. He is finally accepting his new life as a farm boy and actually likes it here.
Michelle and Regina spent most of Saturday getting the garden in. The garden area was mostly overgrown with grass and weeds. We fired up our new tiller and hit the ground running....well, pushing.... It took a couple of hours of tilling and raking to get the area clean. We put in our tomatoes and peppers, then we planted some corn, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, eggplant, beets, carrots, zucchini, and some pumpkins for the fall. It was a nice day with little humidity. Still, it was hot and we had to slow down in the afternoon because of heat exhaustion....of course, having bronchitis doesn't help either. The funniest part of the day was coming in the house later and removing our gloves. We got sunburned on our arms and it stops at the wrists where the gloves were. We both looked ridiculous at church today with our red arms and white hands.In chick news, the ladies had their first day out of the coop yesterday. We had to catch them and put them outside as they were unsure of it. At first they hid under the hose reel and we had to keep chasing them out into the barnyard. They never strayed away from the door of the coop which made me feel better. They are big, but still too small to be left out there unattended. The big rooster, Jack Sparrow, dug himself a hole in the dirt near the wall of the coop and buried himself as far down as he could get. The girls were envious of his new digs and kept chasing him out....just like women.


It was a quiet day today. We ate a nice lunch of homemade chicken pot pie (sorry ladies, :( and then we took a long, needed nap all afternoon. Tonight I went out to check on the chickens and as soon as I got outside I heard a chick chirping loudly, which usually means trouble. I sprinted for the coop and one of the white rocks was standing outside crying. I believe she escaped when the kids were watering them today and I felt bad because it means she was stuck out in a rainstorm. She is no worse for wear and happily reunited with the flock.



Tuesday, June 5, 2007

The move

I am sorry it has been so long since I updated. It has been a hectic week moving. We made settlement on the farm last Tuesday and have been cleaning and moving and unpacking. It took all afternoon to clean out the coop to get ready for the chicks. They were so unhappy in the brooder. It was only good for about the first week.

I set up the area in the back of the coop for them since there was a baby gate on the doorway and I could keep them in a smaller area. It is about 36 square feet, and the chicks need about a sq. ft. per chick at this stage, so they have a little room to spare. It is good, because they have to share it with the mice.

The chicks are growing so fast. They do not look like peeps any more. They are getting their adult feathers and have some really big feet. They are standing about 7 inches tall, although the partridge rocks are a bit smaller. They are my favorites and I think if I ever order chicks again, I will just get them based on their temperment.

Bob got to use his new tractor on Friday. He was so happy and is finally getting excited about moving here. We worked on the electic this weekend. Most of the house is wired on the same circuit breaker and we kept blowing it trying to run the air conditioners.

We have a serious fly problem. The previous owner mulched around the house with manure extensively and I think this is the source. We have been going through so many fly strips that I may have to look into buying some stock in the company that manufactures them.

The house is coming along. Photos to come soon. I have to find the camera cable to downloads the shots I have taken. The days just are not long enough to get it all done.

I promise more to come later.