Bushhogging, tilling, and straw

We hired a guy to come out and bushhog the field. After bushhogging the field, we were left with a field full of straw. We had a moment of brilliancy when we realized that we could use the straw as a deep litter method with the chickens and to mulch potatoes. So we began to rake the straw onto a tarp and haul it into the barn.


Over the weekend we also began the tilling project. We first put the tiller together, which was a huge undertaking. The we began tilling the first plot. We're going to have two plots; the typical garden plot and a plot for potatoes. The old guy watching me till is Bill our neighbor. He likes to come out and watch us work.

Shrubbery

Today we went to a greenhouse and bought 8 Holly bushes. Our plan is to plant a wall of shrubs along the street to block the noise from the street. The bushes are very small and won't get big enough to create a hedge for a few years, but we've got a good start. We're going to need about 14 shrubs 5 feet apart to get all the way across the front. However, we could only fit eight in my car. And it turned out to benefit us because as I was walking into Kroger to get some dinner stuff I spotted some sadder looking but very distinct Holly bushes outside. They were $12 a piece, which was significantly cheaper than what we paid at the greenhouse. I snagged three of them and we're going to go back tomorrow and see if they have any left and get another two. I was going to leave them all there tonight but there were only a few and I saw a few people eye-ing them, so I grabbed what would fit in my cart with the food.




In other news, we took the recycling and trash in today. We don't have trash pickup, so we have to pay per bag to throw out trash. We were already extensive recyclers, but with the added motivation of paying per bag, we've really managed to cut down.

This is ten days of garbage and recycling. (Granted, much of the cardboard is packaging from buying stuff for the house, so it's pretty excessive.) All the stuff on the right is recycling and the one white bag on the left is garbage.


And this is a picture of a bloom from a tree in front of the house. Any ideas of what this tree is would be appreciated.


And finally, in last news, we caught a cat in the trap. Apparently we have several either outdoor or wild cats around here. We've seen one short haired orange cat, one fluffy tailless cat, and one small black cat (the one in the trap). It started to freak out when it saw us, but we were able to free it before it hurt itself. We decided to halt the quest for catching the possums. We haven't seen any new digging in the barn, so it's possible we got all the woodchucks!

Tetanus Shots

We went to get tetanus shots over the weekend. Roger had not had a tetanus shot in about 14 years, and I had not had one in 8 years. Although I wasn't due for one for two more years, I went ahead and got one with Rog so we would be on the same schedule. It was becoming imperative we get them ASAP, because in the first two weeks of our living at the Helpful Gnome we have both managed to wound ourselves. Rog has so far: 1. cut his forehead open with a rusty nail, and 2. taken a chunk of flesh off his finger with a hammer. Chelsea has: 1. cut her hand open with a handsaw.


Some quick facts about tetanus, courtesy of the National Institute of Health:

The bacteria that causes tetanus is found in dirt, manure, and dust. It will usually only grow in your body if entered by a deep wound, such as a nail puncture or a knife cut.

Tetanus causes the locking of muscles, spasms, and fever. It is called 'lockjaw' because one of the first symptoms is the locking of the jaw muscles, preventing eating and sometimes causing suffocation.

10%-20% of people who develop tetanus die. Others will spend weeks in the hospital on a ventilator.

I read a blog from another homesteading farm, and they detailed the chronicle of one of them cutting her hand open with a rusty knife. The first picture was of a particularly nasty wound, which they washed out. Then that night it began to swell, and by the next night she had red lines shooting up her arm from the wound. One again, they took pictures to document for the blog. They called the doc and he said go to ER ASAP... where they had to put her on an IV of antibiotics plus a round of oral.

Oh, bacteria.

Woodchuck #3 and painting

Three woodchucks in four days. This one was more scared. It's funny how they all had very distinct personalities; dopey, grumpy, and nervous.



Also, right now we're working on painting the living room. It's been a long process.

Woodchuck the 2nd

We caught another woodchuck. This one was not as friendly, so I didn't bother taking pictures since it looked exactly like it's friend, just grumpier.

We're going to keep a running tally of woodchucks caught. This is two in three days, so I'm guessing we haven't seen the end of them.

A couple people have raised the question, in concern of the woodchucks, 'what if they have babies and you're taking away the mom?' Well, as we have discovered from the internet, woodchucks have their babies in April after mating in March. Supposedly, March is the best time to catch them because they're hungry enough to be enticed by bait, and it's early enough for them to redig a nest if they're pregnant. And no motherless babies.

More work on the barn and painting in the house tomorrow! We're also going to get tetanus shots. Pictures to follow!

Before release

Success!

Woodchuck: 1, Helpful Gnome: 1

We've caught the first one!!! He's out on the porch right now. I went and got the neighbor to look at him. Our neighbor is this really old guy who's lived here for a long time and apparently has shot many of these. I told him we caught a woodchuck and he was like, 'is it alive?' 'yup' 'wanna shoot him?' 'uh, no thanks'

There's probably more than one, so after this litter bugger goes to the freedom farm I'm going to reset the trap.

We're going to need a bigger boat

A la the movie 'Jaws', we had a horrible realization today that we might be dealing with a monster. I went out to check the trap at lunch and the trap was sprung, the bait was gone, and there was no groundhog. The only rational thing I can think of is that it is SO BIG that the trap is too small and it sprung it while it's body was not entirely in the trap. I put a piece of broccoli way way in the back and reset it. We back later, trap was sprung, but broccoli was still there. Reset again. We may have to get a bigger trap. Right now we're at a fox and raccoon trap... the only size bigger is a coyote trap.

Updates as they become available.

Groundhogs

We have them.

After filling in all the dug holes with dirt we went back the next day and they were re-dug! Not just a couple, but LOTS of HUGE holes. After some internet research, we decided to buy a trap and catch the sucker and release him on someone's property we don't like. (We're really not, but only because we couldn't think of anyone we didn't like enough to unload a groundhog on them.)

Cleaning out the Barn

We began the process of cleaning out the barn this weekend. The previous owners had two horses, but sold them both about three years ago and the barn and field has since been neglected. For the last three years the barn has housed junk, possums, groundhogs, foxes, and lots and lots of wasps.

The barn is divided into two parts, the stalls and the lean-to. We decided to turn the lean-to into a chicken coop because it is a straight run and smaller than the side with the stalls. We've heard from the previous owners and the neighbors that we have lots of predators around here... coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and even the occasional bobcat. And the evidence that many of these have been digging large tunnels into the lean-to inspired us to take drastic measures to keep them out.



This is all the crap that was left in the lean-to. Good news is a lot of it is wood and pallets, which we can use in the future. Bad news is there was also a lot of trash. Even worse news: we don't get garbage pickup so we'll either have to burn it or pay to take it to the dump.



This is how the lean-to looked all the way around the outside. Large, gaping holes. We first nailed boards and plywood on the inside where the holes were, then stapled chickenwire along the outside of the barn, then shoveled dirt over the plywood on the inside.




This is a gnome being helpful.