I spent much of the first day of Spring focused on two things: a few leftover technical difficulties from the server upgrade, and deciphering the mysteries of liquid soap.
I have created liquid soap!
Well, I didn’t create the whole idea or anything, but you know what I mean. I made a batch of liquid soap and it’s, like, LIQUID, and it’s SOAP. It worked.
More on this sometime soon. I’m still experimenting and am not yet ready to debrief. I just wanted to let you know that I stopped playing with pump dispensers and actually made some.
In the meantime, lest we neglect this important event, it’s SPRING! And I couldn’t be more glad to see her if she’d brought me a million bucks.
I don’t mean this kind of buck.
Seriously, I DON’T NEED ANY MORE BUCKS.
Anyway. It was a slow weekend. Weston was away playing his “weekend game” (Dungeons & Dragons) for which he will even eschew the state math field day. Morgan was away at a junior leaders 4-H camp. I mostly played with liquid soap while the duck ‘n’ buck yard grew up out of the ground out my window. I periodically inspected for quality assurance.
Just kidding about the quality assurance. I don’t know anything about it and it would blow up if I tried to help. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The duck ‘n’ buck yard is being built to encompass our pond, which is fed from springs on our hill.
It drains down to the river far below, which keeps the pond from flooding.
The pond yard will make the ducks ecstatic and keep the bucks in water, too. The hillside will provide ample play area and pasture ground for the three permanent bucks. (We currently have five that will be going in there, but two are temporary, waiting for sale.) Shelters will be built when the yard is finished.
The green spots in the pond are patches of frog eggs.
The entire area (pond and hillside being fenced) is about 12,000 square feet. A smaller area around the pond plus some pasture will be sectioned off to contain the ducks with welded wire that has smaller openings so they can’t slip through it. The goats will have access to the entire area enclosed with woven field fence.
The sectioned-off pond yard (area goes up the hill for the ducks):
The goats will have access back and forth from the sectioned-off pond area to the entire hillside area by a stile that they can maneuver but the ducks cannot. (Our ducks can’t fly. Or jump. Or find their heads if they weren’t attached.)
Meanwhile, in other first day of spring news, we have more pallets for our pallet barn!
Rhubarb is coming up.
Horseradish is coming up.
Garlic is coming up.
And Fanta….. If she doesn’t finish washing off her face soon, I’m going to take a donkey brush to her head.
And she’s just gonna love that.
And this driveway?
I CAN DRIVE UP IT NOW.
And that, more than anything else, means it’s Spring!
Blessings from a Wildflower says:
You had alot going on today…Welcome Spring!
I have a question, with all the wooded area could you cut down small trees to build a larger barn? The old fashion stacking logs way? (for lack of another way of asking)
~~HUGS~~
On March 21, 2011 at 1:58 am
Liesl says:
Hi Suzanne,I am so happy for you and your animals that spring is there! Love the shots of the horseradish and garlic coming up!
On March 21, 2011 at 1:59 am
CATRAY44 says:
I found my rhubarb coming through the ground yesterday, too! So glad to see signs of spring! :snuggle:
On March 21, 2011 at 6:32 am
SandyCWV says:
Yay for Spring! I also saw rhubarb yesterday. I cleaned out the raised vegetable beds, added some organic fertilizer, and planted peas, carrots, and radishes. Might be a bit early for the carrots, but hey, it is spring. Grow already!
The cows are calving, my red Angus named Apple should have her first baby any day now. The beef market prices are amazing! Sorry for anyone who has to buy beef, but we are finally getting a good price.
Which we promptly spent on about 125 tons of gravel for our driveway and road to the barn. In one hand and out the other as the saying goes.
On March 21, 2011 at 7:18 am
holstein woman says:
Yay for Spring, we had sun on Spring morning for a while then back to rain. We have had more rain than normal here in one month and are about to float away in the mud.
On March 21, 2011 at 8:31 am
Camille says:
So jealous! They’re predicting up to 5 inches of snow for us today! UGH. No green anything around here (Except the pine trees) so I really do enjoy seeing your land and yards starting to turn green.
On March 21, 2011 at 8:39 am
Cheryl LeMay says:
Suzanne, I think you still have some technical difficulties to work out. I have tried about 8 times to view your post “Looky” and it just doesn’t load. The others do, so I don’t know why that one won’t. Anyway, I loved seeing how green your grass is. Ours is just starting to green up.Can’t wait.
On March 21, 2011 at 8:51 am
texwisgirl says:
Can’t wait to see the ducks and bucks in their new territory. 🙂
On March 21, 2011 at 8:56 am
B. Ruth says:
Oh what a great set-up! Have you thought about getting a back-hoe in there and digging out the bank and making a big pond…I see cat-fish and bass in the future…yummm so good…and fun to catch.
The ideal set-up being a fresh spring (or springs) fed pond with a natural spillway…..Is yours a wet-weather springs or wet all year? Your agent can tell you..We had this done!
Have you checked with your county extention agent?…A lot of times (here in Tn.).they will help you and designate a water-shed project to help farmers with ponds…worth a shot!
On March 21, 2011 at 8:57 am
B. Ruth says:
Oh by the way, you get the little fishies a lot of times free from the State or county agent at certain times of the year to stock your pond…
On March 21, 2011 at 8:59 am
brookdale says:
Yay for spring! Here in Maine my daffodils, crocus and tulips are coming up…can’t see the rhubarb yet though. BUT some snow predicted for tonite…here they call the spring snow “poor man’s fertilizer”.
On March 21, 2011 at 9:09 am
Phyllis says:
One of the things that I miss every spring is rhubarb. It is not a southern crop, at least I can’t find it here. Hoping that yours will come in heavy and you can have lots of sauce and jam.
On March 21, 2011 at 9:16 am
Carmen C. says:
Beautiful spring time views and I’m anxious to read more on the liquid soap making, sounds like fun:)
On March 21, 2011 at 9:20 am
Minna says:
Oh, I’m so jealous! Here the snow is just starting to melt a little bit. The good news is, that our bear is apparently still sleeping, as he hasn’t been walking along our road. Yet.
On March 21, 2011 at 10:32 am
Ramona says:
Lot’s going on!
On March 21, 2011 at 10:37 am
lilac wolf says:
Happy Spring!
On March 21, 2011 at 11:38 am
Anne says:
BEAUTIFUL!! Glad you got the problems solved! And you can now enjoy it!
On March 21, 2011 at 11:54 am
Whaledancer says:
Mmm, rhubarb pies ahead. Springtime and a farmer’s life starts to get busy.
On March 21, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Heather :) :) :) says:
I thought the “buck” comment was really cute 🙂 🙂 It made me smile 😉 🙂 I’m impressed that you made handmade soap. I’m looking forward to reading about that process. I’m not that talented, but I do buy Dr. Bronner’s 🙂 🙂 Oh, rhubarb is yummy. I had some fresh rhubarb once dipped in sugar…It’s nice 🙂 🙂 Have a great week. Love and hugs from Oregon, Heather 🙂
On March 21, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Tammy says:
Love your spring pictures! Take some pics of the froggies when they hatch!! And that goat picture sure did make me giggle!
Tammy
On March 21, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Martha in KS says:
Slow weekend? You could have been cheering the the Kansas Jayhawks! They made it to the Sweet 16 so you can cheer for them this weekend. GO HAWKS!!
On March 21, 2011 at 5:07 pm
Mary says:
This comment has nothing to do with this blog post but I didn’t know if you have seen this month’s Cooking Light. It has a recipe for and pictures of RAMPS :happyfeet: And all this time I thought you were making them up!! Happy spring.
On March 21, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Mandy Drumheller says:
You are killing me by withholding your liquid soap post 🙂 :hissyfit: I have potassium hydroxide on order and I’m pining over the liquid soap book you recommended! I can’t wait to read about your adventures.
Biting my fingernails down to the bone,
Mandy
On March 21, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Window On The Prairie says:
We have lots of calves. The other day I got home from work and saw one of them was just starting to have her baby. So I ran for my camera and took pics of the whole event. Did a post on it earlier in the week. Thought you might want to see our latest baby pics. Enjoy. https://windowontheprairie.com/2011/03/21/cow-giving-birth-to-a-calf/
On March 23, 2011 at 9:39 am