Everything's happening at once!

So we bought our little homestead last year, and most of my time went into improving the house. I got a couple of fruit trees into the ground, but not much else outside. This year, we're finally able to start what we've been hoping for- big garden, livestock, and the rest.

The livestock have really all come at once, but unintentionally.

Bee Pickup Day was yesterday.


On Thursday, we found four free geese on Craigslist and went right away to pick them up.


This morning, we got 8 ducklings at the auction. $3.75/head, and not sure whether they're Rouens or Muscovies.



And my father-in-law has taken tying to flies, so he really needs chicken hackles. We got this old rooster for his nice colors.


The geese haven't been staying in my pond (my neighbor's pond is bigger), so I thought I'd put up a low fence. I don't have posts, but I DO have a Black Willow I've been meaning to propagate, so I cut a bunch of stakes. If they root, this will be the best idea I've had in a while. Stacking functions FTW.




Exciting!

I know what you mean!

My bees are coming next weekend and my husband is just finishing up the roof on the bee hut. Half my fruit trees are in but I've got a few more trees to cut down before I plant the rest. The trees that are down need to be inoculated with shiitake spore. I've got to move the chickens before I can plant the garden. I've got lots of mini swales to put in by hand for 400 trees which have started to arrive!

Maybe that's why it's been relatively quiet on Permies lately?

BTW, be careful cutting willow as it's brittle and tends to break in funky places.

By golly, it's budding.
This is working exactly as planned. What a feeling!

Willow fence posts:



Ducks turned out to be Black Swedish. That'll work.

I love the fence posts.

We had a hedge/osage post start to re-bud, but it stopped. It would have been cool because it was a BIG gate post (10" round, 7-8 foot left above the ground).

Mike Cantrell wrote:Willow fence posts:

What's the fence for? Looks kinda short.

It is exciting to see those projects work as expected!

Cj Verde wrote:

Mike Cantrell wrote:Willow fence posts:

What's the fence for? Looks kinda short.

It is exciting to see those projects work as expected!

Serves to keep the geese in. Kept the ducks in for about a month, but then they learned better. The geese, though, they just stay put. What an easy animal.