More Progress

I got some more wood up on the tractor port. This was all the lumber we got last trip to Lowe’s. Next time we’ll get some more metal hangers and the rest of the rafters.There will be a second beam on the outside of the posts. I’m still on the fence about roofing material. It will be either plywood decking with rolled asphalt or metal roofing.

Four of the rafters are up.

One on each end with lots of metal clips.

Two rafters in the middle to tie everything together.

More metal hangers on the ledger.

The tractor will enjoy its new room.

Tractor Port

We have been wanting a carport next to the garage so we started it last week. It will be 15’ wide and 30’ long.

Unloading the lumber for phase one.

We used the truck as a scaffold to put up the ledger board.

  The ledger has nails and lag bolts into the studs.

  For the support posts I used our new Earthquake® One Man Earth Auger Powerhead with 43 cc Viper 2-Cycle Engine with eight inch auger blade, its name is Bryan. This hole went well. Sometimes the cutter blade gets clogged with roots or clay. Bryan is pretty good but you still have to clean up the hole with the diggers.

Bryan helping me with the next hole. In case you’re wondering, the auger hit a root and got stuck. It was a little work getting it out. The next hole was the opposite, it was all wet clay and instead of auguring it screwed itself down into the soft clay and stuck there. I got it out eventually.

The holes were finished and poles inserted.

Getting them all squared up.

Ready for the concrete. Tomorrow when the concrete has hardened I’ll start on the roof structure.

Ivy is getting big. No worries about getting her to eat anymore.

 

Ivy got to go on an excursion. She got to visit the bunnies.

She got to walk through the pasture with the herd.

She got to see the pond.

Ivy! Rocks!

Ivy is Doing Well

Ivy has been eating and growing. It got chilly again so Lisa made a sweater for her out of an old sweatpants leg.

Happy Easter

The Easter Bunny brought us lots of eggs. Naturally we had Easter Eggs for breakfast.

Our Easter Basket.

Piper seemed interested in Ivy. We brought her out for her lunch feeding. She got to run around in the yard for a while. She’ll think she’s a sheepdog before she grows up.

This is where we moved the little metal shed. It didn’t seem little when we were carrying it across the back yard. It is now the hay shed.

Sheepdog, sheep.

We used string to keep our rows straight this year.

Lettuce on the left. Red onions on the right.

Notice that we took her little wool coat off. It has been warm and she seemed uncomfortable.

The weeping cherry tree is in full bloom.

3000

  Shane came over from Hillsboro, KY to deliver the tractor this afternoon. We answered his add on craigslist and went to look at it on Wednesday. It looked clean and well taken care of. He threw in the boom pole which I put to work right away. He didn’t need it anymore because his new tractor has a front end loader.

The boom pole is a hydraulic lift that fits on the 3-point hitch. It made moving around the railroad ties much easier.

Andy helped get the pasture drag set up.

I dragged both sides of the front pasture. It aerates the soil and breaks up the horse poo piles. The poo actually can kill the grass if it isn’t broken up.