Fall and Winter

The fall projects included getting the barn side of the "Cabarn" enclosed, (Kevin helped get the high sheets up)

brush piles to clean up, (thanks Janna and Joe)

and wood to split and stack.  (thanks Ember)

The leaves are starting to turn, and the barn is getting closer to being weathered in.

We had to take time for a fall colors excursion up the canyon.

Except for the 1x4 batts and the barn door we got her enclosed before the snow flew.








Santa brought us a new high efficient wood stove.

The goats had been moved to St George for the winter.  But, with a freak December snow storm of about 6 to 8 inches we all got to enjoy a white Christmas.

In January we made a weekend trip to Kanosh to install the garage / barn door. Sorry,  I forgot to take a picture of the new door, but we did get a picture form a Saturday morning fishing trip.  No luck this time with the fish, but the scenery was awesome.

Back in St George the weather has warmed up a little and we had some unplanned January kids.  "Come on Mom lets play.  You could be happy if you wanted to."

The End Of Summer

As usual, every summer, there is a list of projects to tackle.  The lawn area was high on the list.  Since I am not at the RNR full time, and to conserve water, that meant I had to install sprinklers.

I installed the sprinklers with the idea of waiting to plant until the weather cooled down.  A week or two later the monsoon clouds and lightning began to roll in.  Joe and I worked our buns off  one afternoon to beat the predicted and visibly approaching storm.

Another project was to enclose the barn area of the "Cabarn".  That meant concrete floor, loft joists and floor, loft stairs, barn walls, etc.

There also was the typical farm projects.  Twice a day the goats were let out to graze the "South 40".  Cora and Joe are looking to see if the goats are getting into trouble.



Cora and Joe worked hard.












Colin came to visit and wondered why Grandpa didn't have a bigger swimming pool.

A new buck was brought to the farm.  On a field trip, Grandma Janna's Student Council kids nicknamed him, "The Big Nasty".

We had sunsets,

rainbows,

we went to one of the many local rodeos,

and we went to the state fair to watch the goat show. This is the "Grand Champion".

Joe is turning into a pretty good herd dog and

the new grass is doing well.  All and all, progress was made and fun was had at the RNR, but Rest and Relaxation was hard to find.

Miscellaneous Updates

Brad, Elise, Weston and Rose came for a short visit to pick up the girls. We went for a little tour, this is the first cutting of our new four acre field that we worked hard to irrigate.

Bailed and stacked.

Great Grandma Joan worked hard on a quilt made from Grandpa Dan's old work pants.

The headboard was made for Grandma Janna many years ago back in Gig Harbor, Wa.

The work on the kitchen stopped when the exterior farm work began this spring.  The lower cabinets will get doors and drawers, probably this winter.  But it is fully functional and is working quite well.

More of Grandma's cloud pictures.

It has been a lot of work so far.  We will update you later on Grandpa's new friend and helper.

Summer Visitors And The Reason For Having A Farm

 

Grace and Claire came from New Mexico to visit Grandma and Grandpa for a month.  They arrived just in time to help bring the goats to the R-N-R from St. George.

The next project was to mow the new grass that would be used for picnics, morning school and camping.

After school with Grandma, Grace and Claire headed to the creek for adventure.

The local wildlife was studied as much as possible. 

If not at school or adventuring, there was plenty of work to be done.  Grace is counting her pile of weeds she removed from the lawn.  She and Claire earned 1 penny for each weed.

After hard work we visited the local hot springs.

Lorraine and her girls came for a visit also, so we took them to the hot springs too.

But if you play you must work.  Everybody picked up rocks from the future lawn area.  As with the weeds 1 penny per rock was earned.

After the money was earned the four girls Grace, Claire, Cora and Cate jumped on their bikes and headed to the Mercantile for treats.

Ellie got out of all the work.

Summer Projects

 The biggest project for the early summer was to get the goats moved up to Kanosh from St. George.  The existing fencing on the farm is approx. 100 year old barbed wire.  It might hold a tame cow but not goats.  So, a pen needed to be built.  I decided on an approx. 2 acre pen in the North East corner of the front 8 acres. 

Getting the corners set, the back corner is visible 450 feet away.

On the property line I built the new fence up against the old existing fence.  This is the new corner, existing fence and fence building obstacles.

Trimming up some posts to use at my feeder fence area.

Getting started with the feeder fence posts. The hay stack backstop is in.

The 2 acre pen was taking too long for me to build by myself, but I could not wait any longer to move the goats to the farm.  I borrowed some fence panels from one of my Kanosh neighbors to make a small temporary pen. Then I built a wire lid for my dump trailer and we loaded up the goats.

 I finally got the larger pen complete, I just don't have a good picture of it.  You can see it in the back ground of this picture Janna took of the pretty clouds.