Schoonover Farm Blog

One week ago we saw Fito, the seemingly stray cat, walk off with the empty can of cat food we had put out.  So we put out some more.

Tom keeps going out and finding crashes.  This one was last week on the corner of our road.  There was another one on Thursday on Chuckanut.  People need to drive more carefully.

I managed to hurt my back again.  This time related to a bad reaction to a medication I received on Monday.  I was incapacitated for a couple of days with those symptoms and then left only with right sided back pain.  So I had hoped to weave for the Paralympics but now can’t.  So my loom waits, but Roscoe has taken a liking to it.  He likes to sleep on the rug I am trying to make.

Meanwhile, Wally continues to “help” with our barn chores by watching and licking his paws.

I am incubating turkey eggs in our living room, next to the loom.  Our egg turner isn’t working right so we are hand turning them every 6-8 hours.  I candled them yesterday and all appeared viable except one.  Fingers crossed.

The grandkids came over yesterday (Saturday).  Their father was returning a filter to us, and their parents wanted to do some grocery shopping and were hoping we could watch them.  So I stopped starting seeds and cleaning the house and started hanging with the kids!  They still like to play a game they invented where you cross our kitchen floor touching only one color.  Some colors are easier than others.

Then there was talk of going riding out back.  First there was the issue of helmets.  Tom had received a couple of new-to-us ones from his Vintage Motorcycle club so they tried them one.  They were both a little big.  Piper liked hers though and wore it.  William liked his too but wants to grow into it more.

Then they went riding quads out back.  Initially William was alone on his quad.

And Piper was with grampa on his quad.

Then Piper wanted to ride with William.

Meanwhile I was walking around with the beagle.  I did find some garbage that had come down from the neighbors above us that I was able to pick up.  I also picked up an empty can of cat food.  I am hoping Fito ate it.

I noticed some signs of spring. The native berries are starting to bloom.  I also noticed the skunk cabbages coming up.

Unfortunately I also noticed some feathers in the far back field.  I went to check them out.  They appear to be a red chicken with some black feathers.  Sad.  Tom had seen an eagle with something in its talons earlier in the week.

I wanted to pick some Collard Greens for dinner and grabbed some of the larger leaves for the chickens.  They seemed to like them.  But later William noticed an eagle jumping into the alleyway where these chickens were.  He was able to scare it away.  I will need to feed the greens in the barn for now.  The eagles may have chicks in their nest, but we know this time of year they are much more aggressive.

After we cleaned up somewhat, there was rousing games of Connect Four.  Here William made this game and was counting who won.  It looks like a tie.

The kids left with their parents.  The house got quieter, and we had a nice dinner.  Roscoe looked on looking rather pear like.  But Tom pointed out we are all looking a little pearish now.

It was a nice if unexpected day, and it’s back to work and farming.