Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

Oliver on Walkabout

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Our desert tortoise, Oliver, has figured out that he can push on the screen door and get it open (we never latched it until today). With temperatures in the 70’s, we have been leaving our kitchen door open, letting the screen door swing back – never thinking anything of it. So yesterday, a bicyclist stopped in the middle of the road and yelled for Sam, who was playing with the dogs across the street. He had seen this rather large turtle in the middle of the road and did not want it to get hit, so he stopped right in front of it and guarded it against possible cars. He was afraid to pick it up, not knowing what kind of turtle it was and I can’t blame him, with a large pond visible from the road, it may have been a snapping turtle. Sam met the turtle rescuer, thanked him and picked up the turtle, explaining that he was our pet…ugh, what kind of pet do you have running loose in your house?

Fishing for Bluegills in March

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Tina and Lars went to visit Zach, Rachel, Toben and Fiona in Ohio over the weekend, Sammy had to work and Jeff spent most of his time pointing rocks in the barn.  When it was time to take a break, Jeff could not resist the warm weather and figured he’d try to maybe catch a bass, thinking it would be way too cold yet for bluegills to be active.  But on Sunday afternoon he got lucky, and – to use his words – all of a sudden the pond was just bubbling with bluegills that had come toward the surface.  Yes, he caught some, cleaned them and we’ll have fish for dinner on Monday 🙂

Using SketchUp

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Finally had a “hands-on” lesson on using Google SketchUp from Zach – it was a lot easier having someone who knew all the tools and icons to explain how to use it, especially for someone who never used any sort of CAD program before.  We made a rough sketch of the barn, including some of the outside elevations.  Missing a lot of windows and doors yet, and the dimensions still need to be updated with exact measurements – but what a useful tool! Can’t wait to “play” with this some more and start working on laying out the inside of the barn.

Plastic Mulch for the Vegetable Garden

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We rented a plastic mulch layer attachment this morning and bought a roll of plastic mulch.  In less than 2 hours, Jeff had 10 rows made…and this was the first time we ever used an attachment like this.  We still had drip irrigation line left from last year and this attachment made raised bed, laid down the irrigation line, covered everything with plastic mulch and scooped up some dirt around the edges to make sure the plastic cover is secure.  We also bought a tool to make holes in the plastic to drop seeds –  thinking of squash, pumpkins and cucumbers.  Mostly though we are planning to use these mulched beds for plants:  tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, onions and melons.  It should hold back a lot of weeds and reduce water usage from the irrigation.