Low Flying 'Copters

This week was another nice one, once the rain left.  Spring is definitely here, despite the still chilly nights.  We brought a lot of the plants out of the makeshift greenhouse, where they weathered the winter, into the natural sunlight.  I continue to be amazed at how many plants survive and thrive in that porch-made-into-greenhouse.

Plants Made it Through the Winter Again

Moving the Plants Outdoors

We spent much of the week continuing the digging of trenches.  We are rerouting water lines from the old pump-house location to the new one, and this means digging deep trenches to ensure we don't need to worry about freezing pipes.  We are also changing ancient steel 4-inch pipe from the old farmhouse, to 4-inch schedule 40 PVC pipe.  Finally, we are burying part of the water diversion 4-inch corrugated pipe that takes our downspout rainwater out to the gardens and to the back pond.  So... lots of digging (again).

Ancient Cast Iron Pipe

The new pump-house was delivered this week. We will be insulating and painting the interior this weekend, in anticipation of the plumber, who will arrive bright and early Monday morning to move and re-plumb all of the components from the old pump house to the new one.  With the old pump-house vacated, and her cinder blocks knocked down, we will be one step closer to being able to start really deciding how we will extend the back of the house.  We are still collecting bids on a variety of options.

Before Pump House

Pump House Arrives

Using New Roads

Backing over Temporary Trench Covers

Supervisor....

Joe Makes Last Minute Adjustments Under New Pump House

Easy, Peasey

Rolling Her Into Position

Leveling

"We're in a Tight Spot!"

New Trench From Well to New Pump House

During all of our outdoor activities, we were subjected to what apparently is a regular daily overflight by a very low-flying helicopter.  This is irritating, not only because it literally skims the treetops but also because it is deafening, rattles the house (and our teeth), and scares the goats and chickens.  Yesterday, the daily flyover took on new life, starting at about 11:20 AM and going until around 5:00 PM... At least once ever 30 minutes we had one of these low-flying, tree-topping, teeth-rattling flyovers.  And there were at least three different helicopters involved.  I have no idea what is going on, but if it continues, I will have to find out and try to lodge some sort of complaint.  These helicopters are flying way too low for safety.  Someone is going to get hurt. (I mean, yeah, I know it is VERY interesting to see all the work we are doing around the old farmhouse, but does EVERY helicopter tour have to put us on their "must see" list??? LOL)

Helicopters or not, we continue wading in Springtime activities.  I was pleasantly surprised to see my asparagus had popped up, providing us with our first meal of her bounty.  We ate some of it right out of the garden and it was delicious!  We have tiny plums on the plum trees already and even some uber-tiny peaches....still looking to see when I can espy the first apples, pears, cherries and apricots.  The grapevines are really taking off this year and I am excited by the prospect of wallowing in grapes come harvest time.... that is, if the birds and critters don't wallow in them first!  The raspberries and blackberries are aggressively trying to dominate the berry patch, while the strawberries, ever-multiplying from only a couple of plants my daughter gave us a couple of years ago, quietly extend their territory.  I have a strong suspicion the real challenge this year will be being able to actually get INTO the berry patch to harvest, without crushing something.  Thankfully, all of the plants in the berry patch are thorn-less varieties....

Asparagus.... Yummy

Goats... "WE WANT SOME!!!"

Goat Conference

Free-Rangers Turn Their Beaks up at Asparagus

Another busy week is ahead of us.  Our handyman/contractor who has been doing the majority of the construction work on the old farmhouse will be returning after being gone on other jobs for a month.  The plumber will be here on Monday, the contractor with whom we are negotiating bids for the addition will be here on Thursday, and the electrician will be here on Friday to install the new sub-panel in anticipation of the eventual addition.  And, of course, it is a busy week at church, with Thursday, Friday Saturday and Sunday services.  On Easter Sunday, I will travel up to Maryland to share a ham dinner with family....

Meanwhile....back at the farm.... duck.... low-flying 'copters coming through!!!