Stoned

This winter, the weather has been colder (but unfortunately not wetter).  Even the doves in the Spanish oak puffed up and looked for a bit of sun to warm up.

  

In spite of the cold temperatures, there has been a lot going on at the farm.  Several weeks ago the fence builders finished the new hay pen, replacing the one that was torn down when the neighbor’s angus bull jumped the fence to do battle with Dude.  This enclosure is made of barbed wire and should better protect the hay bales.

Our neighbor to the south (the one with the unruly bull) is putting in a high fence around his 300-acre property so he can raise trophy whitetail deer for people to shoot.  I can’t imagine how you can raise captive animals on a small property (which will require feeding them), shoot them and call it sport, but then we only take deer for meat, not to hang their heads on the wall.  

But the big project we just finished is the installation of a flagstone patio off the back porch of the farm house.  A couple of years ago we had a flagstone walk laid from the parking area to our front door.

The new stone work covers a section of the yard which to date has only seen hardwood mulch (wonderful until the dogs carry it inside on their coats) and grass burrs (terrible in all instances), and of course, mud.  There are also flagstone walks around both sides of the house from front to back.  Here is what the yard looked like at the beginning of the project.

Ricky French and his crew did an outstanding job, and now that the stone work is complete and we’ll be finishing up, rearranging furniture, replanting flower beds, etc.

There will be more photos to come when we’re done…stay tuned.

Other recent events include the capture of this handsome buck's image on the game camera,

Visits to our stock ponds by a variety of duck species,

and the birth of B1's new bull calf born on or about Valentine's Day.

We look forward to welcoming his brothers and sisters in the next several weeks.