The Vet

First of all it was 32 chilly degrees out this morning.  Should be warming up fromnow on but this is Northern Nevada so no guarantees.

The vet came out today.  Wiseguy was a perfect gentleman.  Held still for the stethoscope   I showed him a carrot and fed him a carrot while he was getting his shot and he barely flinched.

The vet says Wiseguy is in great shape and has good muscles.  He also says the feet look good.

We are getting a worm count fecal analysis.  It's the modern way to worm.  Results will be coming in the mail.

I asked a bunch of questions.

Spot the Goat was looked at.  He has something gruesome on his butt.  Looks like squamous cell carcinoma to the vet.  He can't be positieve without a biopsy He says we can slice it off but....

I say we need to be practical.  I add that I sometimes wonder if we do the right thing for animals when they have cancer and we start doing procedures.  After all, they really don't understand what you are doing to them.  He concurs.

Spot will be going to the Big Goat Hut in the Sky when he starts looking thin or if he starts looking like he is in pain too much.  Kinda sad.

Update

35 degrees overnight.

Mid sixties yesterday and a bit of gusty wind.  Not bad.

Should be in the sixties again today.

Peas are up and dong fine.

We got the 50 gal pond out of the backyard yesterday and into the front "rocky stream bed".  Today I have to put the spirea back in that we had to move.  I think I will remove a goldenrod and toss it.  They aren't my favorite and they are trying to spread around the yard a bit.

I need to landscape the area with the dirt a bit height in the back towards the house and a pipe to direct overflowing pond water away from the house.  I dug a low spot but I think a pipe wouldn't hurt.  It will be covered in rocks.

I will be finishing the landscaping cloth and Hubby is going to haul some large rocks from where the pond was in the back to cover the pond area landscape cloth.

My plan for the pond is to get the milk crate back in there, set up the pump and use some flat rocks to build it up to a nice level for little birds to get a drink from and take baths.

Speaking of birds, I'm expecting our first hummingbirds around May 1st.  We shall see.

Oh, I'm looking into getting Wiseguy a friend.  I found an eligible bachelor through my mini horse website.  Awaiting photos.  He is an appaloosa gelding, 34 or maybe a bit more inches tall and nine years old.  I can get him professionally started in harness before bringing him home.  There is  a great trainer that lives near by to the gal that owns the horse.  The horse is in Utah and would be about an 8 hour drive to go and see.

Much warmer overnight

It was much warmer overnight at 37 degrees.  Looks like not too much damage from the 26 degrees Thursday morning.

Every year there are certain weeds that come on strong.  This year it is dwarf lupines.  Poisonous so I walk around our 5 acres at especially look for those while I work my hoe.

Last year it was desert dandelions.  The year before that was mustard.  Weird, huh.  I think it has to do with the timing of the rains.

Below Freezing

26 degrees at 6am.  Way cold.  I can only go out and survey the damage later when it warms up enough for me to want to be outside.

After skirting disaster for two nights in a row, this third night was the charm.  We went very cold.  There is a warming trend on its way.  I hope it will be warmer tonight.

It is already above freezing.  34 degrees at 7:45am.  Hoping for the best.  Fearing the worst:)

Cold

The weather has gone cold.

Yesterday the temperature dropped from 50 degrees to 37 degrees prompting much wailing and gnashing of teeth over just how cold would we go.

The answer 34 degrees and at 8am it is still 34 degrees.

Sadly, we may get colder tonight and tomorrow night.  We shall see.

Peas are up and quite a few trees and shrubs have leaves coming out.  All I can do is hope for the best.

Still cloudy and windy out there right now.

Garden Notes

Planted carrots, onion bulbs, pak choi, lettuce and rads in the garden over the weekend.

Raining today.  Overnight of 35 degrees.  Should be in the fifties later today.

All the peas are coming up.

Worried about it freezing overnight for the next couple of nights.  We shall see.

Rain

Rained last night.  Warm overnight in the low 40's.  Cloudy and only 45 degrees and 11am although the sun may be breaking through.

I made a fire in the woodstove to take the chill off the house.  I keep saying this will be the last fire of the season:)

30 degrees! Ackkk!!!

At 5:30am it was 32 degrees.  At 5:45 it was 31 degrees.  At 6:00am it was 30 degrees.  OMG!  I am so wishing the sun would come up now!!!!

Fortunately the sun arrived before it went any colder and it looks like our trees are okay...so far.  I'll keep checking as I go around the property.

Warming up nicely.

Catching Up!

Friday I cleaned a house.  Then I went to the grocery store while I was in town.  I also got a bale of alfalfa.  I decided to get three buckets of rocks on the way home.

Yesterday, Hubby and I went out to finish the last of the yard clean up.  I raked.  He used the fire stick.  We didn't make it all the way to the front but we did pretty good.  I was so tired from Friday that I had to quit.  So, one more rake and burn and we should be done.  Sometime in May is our last burn day so we have about 3 weekends left to do this.

I cleaned up the kitchen which really needed it and collapsed on the couch.  Too much physical labor is too much.  Today, I am resting up for the big day tomorrow.  1 1/2 cleaning jobs, getting into Carson City to buy glasses.  Home Depot to look at ponds.  That will be plenty.

Looks windy today and tomorrow and the lows are going to be as low as 34 degrees.  Sure hope we don't get a real freeze.

No Fooling Around!

This is April 1st and is All Fool's Day but...this is spring and there is no time for fooling around:)

I've never been much of a prankster.  Hope no one pranks me today.

We got 4/100 of an inch of rain yesterday.  Yeah!.  Not much by non desert standards but pleny of help for my rice grass.  I swear the willow tree got three time greener.  It is budding out right now.

The temps are cooler but so far above freezing at night.  We are a bit worried about this week as we are being threatened by some fairly cold overnight lows just as the fruit trees are thinking about blooming.  Arghh!!!!

Peas, peas, peas!

I planted the peas this morning.

40 foot rows, three kinds

Sugar Pod Peas
Snap Peas
Garden Peas

Overnight low of 60 degrees.

Yesterday's high was 70.  Nice!!!!

Temps

Overnight low of 35 degrees.  Chilly this morning.

I expect we'll get into the mid sixties.

Rain

It rained overnight.

Sure, it wasn't much by the rest of the country's standards but it will be just enough to boost rice grass production.

Unfortunately, it will also be just enough to boost weed production, too.

I got the newspaper and landscape cloth laid out in the front.  Hubby moved the 1/2 wine barrels over after I emptied them.  I'm going to do flowers in the barrels on drip instead of having sprayers in the front.  I'd like to do a pond out there as well at the end of the boardwalk.  Maybe a seer ball with water trickling over it or a rock with a hole in it and water spewing out the top.  Some gold fish would be nice.

Really warm overnight at 45 degrees.  Cloudy but 60 already today.

I have to go.  The homemade hamburger buns need to go into the oven:)

Productive Weekend

We had a fairly productive weekend.

Hubby stacked a bunch of  wood that has been sitting in two large piles with assorted cherry and poplar and elm sitting in small piles around the two large piles.  He's wheel barrowing the cut firewood into the shed and stacking it.

Looks like we used about 1 1/2 cords of wood over the winter.  It was a pretty mild winter.  This is our second year of having a wood stove for the winter.

In fact, I am running the wood stove again this morning but only for a couple of hours.  It wasn't super cold in here - 68 degrees.  At first I was going to tough it out because the house was definitely chilly but, hey, 68 degrees inside, 48 degrees outside, high of 60 or even 64 degrees later today, how bad can it be?

I certainly would have toughed it out when I was running the propane for heat.  I realized that I don't have to be tough.  Wood is inexpensive.  By taking the chill off the house, I live comfortably.  Is that such a bad thing?

I am running the water in the East Zone already this morning.  We really do have to keep up on the watering around here.  I need to go out an fix one or two leaks in the system.  I usually get at least a little bit wet.  Coming in to a warm house will be nice!!!

Over the weekend, Hubby also re-rototilled the area I want to put the peas in and the area that I am putting the strawberries in.  I should have moved the strawberries last fall but I ran out of time or oomph or both:)  So, moving them now will be my next best option.

Of course, there is a whole list of projects to get done but I think I will just try to prioritize and do the best I can.

The iris are coming up and some of the daylilies are, as well.  We have our first daffodil blooming.  The forsythia is blooming.  They are still quite small.  Maybe next year they will be big enough to really put on a show.

Temps

26 degrees for the low
51 for the high

Inside the greenhouse this morning was 48 degrees - not bad

The lettuce and rads are coming up in my greenhouse planters.  Too cool.

Lettuce and Rads

Yep, today we got some lettuce and radishes started in the greenhouse.  This is the first year we have done this.  I put some planter boxes on the ground, filled them with potting soil and watered in the seeds.  Let's see how our little experiment goes.  Overnight in the greenhouse has bee about 44 to 46 degrees.

It has been above freezing overnight for a couple of nights in a row. Yea!  70 degrees for the high today.

Finished transplanting the mums and the iris today.

Tomorrow Hubby and I need to clean the house since his folks are coming for early dinner.

Spring is Springing

The weather has been fabulous for the last several days.  High sixties.  Could be very temporary but enjoying it while it lasts.

Hubby carried the fifteen panels and the gate out to the back area where we are putting up the round pen.

He positioned the panels one at a time while I put the saddle clamps together on the uprights.  The project was done in about four hours.

We brought Wiseguy in and the first thing he did was lay down and get a good roll in the sand.

Then he snuffled the area with his adorable big nostrils.

He had a good run around the pen in both directions.  He had a great time.

After awhile I called him over to me and he came right over.  I was so pleased.  I didn't want him to over do it for his first real chance to run since I got him almost a year ago.

Time sure flies.  I brought my cute little guy home one year ago at the end of April.

Greenhouse

I noticed a huge hole in the foundation so I plugged it up and was hoping the temp in the greenhouse would be better this morning.  The foundation is dirt.  So, the temperature inside was better but still cold.

21 degrees outside

36 degrees inside.

More rocks:)  Should start improving as I get the rocks in there to soak up heat during the daytime and I will go on the outside to day and shove some more dirt in.  I may need to fix the plastic.  I was hoping not to spend the money:)

Looks like another sunny day.

Spring is Coming Fast

This happens every year.  Spring is suddenly pouncing.  Sure, we still have cold nights and a few cold, windy days ahead but today is lovely.  34 degrees overnight.  Should be well into the fifties. Only a bit of a breeze.  Nice.

The greenhouse was only 40 degrees this morning.  Still too cold to do much but...I think I can plant lettuce in a couple of more days.  We had a couple of really cloudy days in a row and the door wide open while I was working on the interior.  Now that it is sunny, we should get some heating in there.

I am bringing some more dark racks into the space to help soak up the heat in the day time.  I have a barrel of water to fill.  That should help with the overnight temps.  We shall see.

I worked really hard to get the new ventilation door done.  Hubby did the real work on that but I insulated it and worked on getting the planter boxes set up and the shelving in and the rocks in.  A few more loads of rocks over the next couple of days.  I have to spread that out since it is very hard on my arms and shoulders.


We went to Fallon and we bought our round pen!!!!!   I am so very excited.  Wiseguy and I are going to enjoy our new adventure.  We can't use the cart in there because the sand is too soft but we can do lunging and trying the harness and different things.  Maybe even teach him a couple of tricks.

The panels are supposed to be delivered on Wednesday.  By sheer luck, Hubby will be off that day so he can help unload.  That saves my puny little arms a lot of strain.  Yay!

I am transplanting chrysanthemums and getting rid of some of those golden rods.  The golden rods are trying to take over the world.  Not too happy about that.

That should be enough for one or even two days:)

The farrier was here yesterday.  He has a new lady working for him.  He is a very good farrier so I trust him on his judgement for hiring in a new person.  I met the gal, raven, and she is very nice.  She likes doing miniature horse feet so that is good.

Spring is in the Air!

Well, it feels a lot warmer out there.  Overnight lows of 28 and 31 degrees last few nights.  Highs in the upper fifties and low sixties.  Nice.

Plenty to do around here as usual.  March could be windy so I guess I better get as much soon as possible on the nice days:)

I'm going to chip away at the greenhouse.  I have some old shade screen cloth that is in good shape so I think I will get out the staple gun and use it to fix up the sides where the plastic covering the straw has deteriorated.  If I get lucky I'll find the staple gun and the staples quickly.  Hope so anyway.

I am planning a "door"  in the north side of the greenhouse and I have an old screen that I want to fit into the opening so I have to see if that will work.  Hubby is actually going to measure and cut the hole for the ventilation door on his next days off.

I have to figure out what I am going to do to fix the straw slumping problem on the north side as well.  I have lot of old string board.  I might use that on the bottom half, stuff straw in between the studs to insulate the wall and then I can use plastic on the top only.  That would probably work.

I'll try to take some photos today.