Tuesday

Finally Spring! Sunny and warm this morning.

I looked at what was some bare ground and noticed that it was covered with weeds which is wonderful as they are lambs quarter which when cooked in the wok with soy, ginger and garlic will give you some of the best greens you can get.

I worked on the job application and had a hard time as our internet was just barely usable. So I went to town with what I had and worked on it at Mcdonalds and finally got it ready and took it over to the office that will be doing the hiring and turned it in.
Went out to a guy who has free horse manure listed on craigslist and got a load. I questioned him pretty good just in conversation and found that he sprays weed killer on his hay which is what I suspected. My plan is to put this stuff on the hay field, I don't care if it does kill broad leaf plants there. I had to laugh as the guy was giving away horse manure but wanted people to pay five dollars a tractor scoop to load it and it would have taken at least 3 scoops for my truck. I didn't have 15 bucks to spend on loading so I said that it was no problem and whipped out my shovel and spooned it on there in just a few minutes. I don't think anyone had done that before and he mentioned that he liked to load it as he made some money that way, I told him that I didn't have any money only a shovel. I think he was amused at the whole thing and we talked awhile.
Stopped off in town and got some bumper stickers from the office of our local presidential candidate, Virgil Goode. He is a pretty good guy and is running for the nomination of the Constitutional party. I volunteered to work on his computers for free when he gets the nomination as he will need more people at that point.
Back home and was going to put the manure on the hay field but huge clouds were coming over the blue ridge and buzzards were flying in front of them which isn't a good sign. I backed the truck into the barn and will mess with it tomorrow.

At great risk of nobody seeing what I see, I took a photo of two more dog clouds in the sky as the storm approached.

Monday

50F this morning with fog and above that partly cloudy and thunder to the north. I took a lot of fog and cloud photos.

I had trouble getting anyone to see the two dogs in this cloud photo but Debbie saw them after I said what it looked like, well to me anyway. I guess it is a right brain thing.

If the colors were really pushed by squinting and excessive use of imagination, I can see a wolf kahn in this view.

The fog slowly lifted and eventually went away. I worked on the computer a lot today as I am getting a resume ready as there are a couple jobs opening in the area and I would like to do some computer work for a change.

I did get the single horse plow painted today but still need to polish the point and board so that the clay doesn't stick so bad. The last time I polished one, I used and old hand made brick and it worked like a sander to smooth the surface only it lasted longer than sand paper.
I put out a new blog on My Brown Movement today, it is called How Now Brown Cow? 

I put Garita on Dusty this afternoon while we were walking around looking for the choice grass. She didn't seem to mind and Dusty could care less as long as he was eating. She eventually jumped down after awhile.

Sunday

It was cloudy and fairly warm this morning and we didn't need a fire last night which is real nice for my sleep. I put lunch in the oven to slow cook and Tom and I went off on a hike over the hill to see the beaver dam. I hadn't been there in a few months and we found that there was no new sign and they had either moved on to a better location or were coyote food. So we continued on until it started to rain again and we took a short cut over the hill and to the house where lunch was almost ready. Nothing like slow cooked pot roast with potatoes and some green beans and a bowl of apples.
After lunch I heard a mower running at Coleman's house and had to go up to see if it was the old one that I had let him have yesterday. He had sold his John Deere riding mower and needed a push mower so he asked if I had an old one. I had one that had been setting outside for a couple of years as I have been using the motor-less reel mower as it always starts. I had little hope that he could get it to run but sure enough he did and was mowing with it. I told him that he was truly a motor magician.
Tom left about mid afternoon but is coming back in a few weeks to help us with wiring the new kitchen or old kitchen that is getting turned into the new kitchen, how ever you look at it. We may work on the old wood shed on the back of the smoke house which is now in disrepair after years of jack leg repairs, no it wasn't me but some other jack leg.

Saturday

I started working on the tractor and broke the old gas line first thing. Went to town and got a new modern flexible rubber one and will route it away from the hot exhaust area where the old one was as I need to install a fuel filter. The system has dirt in it and that is what started the whole thing. After cleaning the dirt/rust out of the carburetor I will reassemble it and see what happens.
I really need to get dusty to where he can plow as that is 90 percent of what I use the tractor for and it is a yearly ordeal to get it running. I can never seem to go out and just start the thing as it is constant trouble being a 1954 Ferguson. What a pain.
While in town I found a new halter to replace the old one that has rotten threads and didn't fit too well. Now Dusty has a nice red one but I happened to think about it later and the red will fade to pink and he will not be happy about pink.

The chickens were wanting some fresh grass and now that some has finally grown, I got the mower out and cut a batch for them.

They ran over and started eating it and were happy for a few minutes.

I got a call from my old buddy Tom from Winchester and he will be in the area today and decided to come by and take us out to Hema's for supper so he got here late afternoon and we had a good time eating Egyptian Italian then ice cream at the DQ. We got a rain while out which got Aggy wet but she survived.

Friday

It was warm again this morning with some sun early then it clouded and a little light rain and sprinkles off and on. Actually it was on if I stepped outside the door then stopped if I came in. Finally it stopped and I went out and finished scything the spring weeds in the garden as there wasn't enough time to go cut wood. It is partly cloudy this afternoon and warm.

Thursday

It was 42F this morning so I unloaded and stacked the wood from yesterday. By late morning I started to see clouds coming over the mountains so I went to town to get a few things and picked up another load of pallets and put them over at the stable.
After lunch it started to rain lightly at times so I was glad that I didn't go out to cut wood today.
I did another post on the My Brown Movement blog, today was about chicken manure. Those who have chickens and know all about this, please give any additions or corrections. I have just been plowing it under in the garden and putting it between rows of mature plants in the summer.

Wednesday

I took a photo of Jupiter and Venus last night, really they are in the photo. I have been watching them come together for a month or so and don't remember seeing them like that before.

It was warm last night so we didn't have a fire and I got to sleep all night without getting up to fire the furnace. Went out this morning to do some more wheelbarrow wood cutting.

Cut more tree of heaven again.

Eventually a load, it was hot today so I took a few water breaks.

I still need to unload the wood but I am tired for a few minutes. The gap is closing to where it is almost caught up to where last year's wood is being pulled to burn.

Since the furnace was cool, I cleaned it out and took the ash out and put it on the hay field. I was thinking that this will be the last time that I have to haul this wood but then in a way I will haul it to the barn as it will be used in the hay to some degree. Then the hay will be horse manure and get hauled to the garden, it just keeps going.