Manure Spreading

Posted on October 10, 2026 by Donna

Today we spread the barn’s bedding materials.  Tom scooped out the barn with the tractor, and I used a pitchfork to clean up the pens and the edges along the walls and fencing.  Tom loaded it with the tractor into our rented spreader and then distributed it.

 

This is the north side of the barn after the cleaning.

Then we moved to the south side of the barn.  The chickens were pretty freaked out by all of this.

Even the sheep and goats in the fields were anxious.  Mary Ann and Daisy weren’t sure what was going on.

This is the south side of the barn cleared out.

Tom positioned the straw bales to be spread.  The turkeys were quite curious about this.

And here is the barn with the new straw.  Tom put netting up above the gates to keep unwanted critters out.  It’s orange so will take some getting used to.

But it is nice to have this autumn task done.  Getting ready for winter.

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A Fibery Week

Posted on October 8, 2026 by Donna

This was supposed to be a staycation for me.  Tom was going to elk hunt, and I took the week off to manage the farm.  I had made plans to work on fiber projects, eat vegetarian foods and watch TV I like (The Great British Baking Show).  But Tom decided not to hunt, partially due to wanting to spend last weekend with the grandkids.  But I decided to still do some of what I had planned.

My highest priority was to felt some of our Shetland fleeces. I had Skagit Woolen Works make some wool batts from brown fleeces so I have backing for the rugs.  But it is a lot of work and time to make them, but I finally committed to doing it on Tuesday.  Here is the process with the fleece lock side up being skirted and shaped.

Then the cut side up with some more skirting and shaping.

Then two perpendicular layers of batting of a similar color placed.

Then a sheer shower curtain is placed on top with lots of hot water and Dawn dish soap.  Then it is rubbing it all with your hands, initially softly to get the shape right and then harder to get it to felt.  There’s 10 minutes on this side, 5 minutes on the lock side and another 10 minutes on the cut side.  This is the result.

This was the fourth rug I did, a record for me.  Here they are dripping on chairs on the back porch after rinsing and stomping on the porch floor.

From left to right they are Harlen, Wendel, Bambam and Vanessa.  Here they are after squishing them in towels trying to remove some of the water.

I was quite tired and sore so made it to the couch and watched British Baking.

On Wednesday I laid them out on drying racks in the trailer.

Tom had a nice hot fire in the wood stove for them.

While doing chores Wednesday morning, I noticed Priscilla had a blue nose.  This is from the cobalt block.

These are the 7 young turkeys which will be butchered next month.  We will be selling half of them so let me know if you are interested.  I am considering keeping one hen for breeding.

For dinner I made Butternut Squash Posole.  I used our kabocha squash instead of butternut though.  It was really good.  And then I watched more British Baking.

This morning doing the chores, the sun was peeking up above the fog.  It was pretty but kind of eerie.

There are spider webs everywhere.  They are on all of the barb wire and most of the fencing rectangles.  The spiders have been quite busy.

I wasn’t able to participate in the weaving zoom yesterday as I got too far behind with the chores, but today I was able to join the spinning zoom.  I have been spinning Shaun’s lamb fleece from 2010.  It is really fine and fun to spin.

This is the view from my fiber room upstairs.

Tom has been busy collecting firewood.

And today we received a rental manure spreader so will be busy with that.

We took a trip this afternoon and came home with more fiber producers.  This is the view heading towards the sheep’s pasture.

Tom is driving the truck in the pasture (a rare occurrence as much of the year it would sink to the axles).  Plus there is a beagle in the pasture which is not allowed except in the truck.

And here are our new sheep.  This is Marietta Mary Ann.

And this is Marietta Daisy.  They are from John Park and have lovely wool.  They are not sure about leaving the truck.  Tom had to coax them.

But they hopped out into their new field of green grass.

And met our sheep.  Priscilla lived with them until last year.  But I am not sure if they will remember this.

They all seem to be getting along.  The cows are even jazzed up with the new arrivals.

So I probably do not “need” more fiber but happy to have high quality Shetland wool to play with in the future.  Tom was so kind to agree to this.  Tomorrow I will be visiting my mom and Al and making zucchini burritos, another vegetarian recipe.  And I am hoping to watch more British Baking this evening.  My staycation-substitute is going well.

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Grandkids’ Weekend

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Donna

But first we had a week of farming.  The sunset last Sunday evening was pretty on the nearby hills.

Monday morning I took the obligatory photo of a dew covered spider web.

I enjoyed this view of the sheep with the barn in the background.

Wally overlooking some of the turkeys.

Denise had given me a bunch of basil.  So with our basil I made a bunch of pesto Monday evening.  I also made my favorite Salmon with Pesto recipe (from the Alice Bay cookbook from the Rhododendron Cafe).  It was amazing as always, and we have a lot of pesto frozen for future uses.

On Tuesday it rained like crazy here. Even our peacock got wet.

We have been feeding apple pressings.  Our old ewe Vanessa enjoys them.

I found this desiccated dead bird in our hay barn.  It’s pretty well preserved.

There was a colorful array of chickens eating their grain.

That evening the beagle was eyeballing the peacock on the gate by the barn.  Unfortunately after this, she chased him into a tree, and he wouldn’t come down.  He ended up going missing for a few days but then returned.

For dinner, I made a farm meal of Skillet Pork Chops With Buttered Corn using our pork corn and squash.  It was really good.

I worked Wednesday and Thursday and then the grandkids were dropped off Friday morning.  We got the animals chores done on a foggy morning.

And then headed to Anderson School in Bothell.  We had lunch at the Woodshop.  I showed the kids our McMenamins passports.  We got Oktoberfest stamps.

Piper liked her Scooby Snack Attack, and William liked his Mighty Mac & Cheese.

Piper really liked her king bed in the room.

Then we headed to the North Shore Lagoon Swimming Pool.  We stayed at the shallow end and threw balls at each other.  It was really fun.

Then we had a snack at Nui Nui upstairs.  The kids liked looking down at the pool and counting the swimmers.

This sculpture appears to be carved out of a single tree trunk with its roots.  Pretty amazing.

I had a zombie cocktail, Tom had a mojito, William had a strawberry lemonade, and Piper had a hot chocolate.

I think this room in the restaurant was designed on the pilot house of the City of Bothell steamship.

There was a cool ram head decoration on the wall.

One of our rooms was dedicated to John and Allie Rodgers, brother involved with the early history of the Bothell area.

Here is a hallway at the school.  I am always impressed by the lighting at any McMenamins.

We stopped by the Principal’s Office.

And then went to the theater to see the movie Forgotten Island. Piper was bored by it, but the rest of us enjoyed it,

Outside one of  the torches was burning in the grey evening.

We headed back to the pool as it was family fun night where they had more inflatables in the pool.  That was great fun.

Then it was back to our rooms and bedtime.

The other room we had was dedicated to Gene Ristow, a science teacher and drivers ed instructor at the school.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the Tavern on The Square.  There was a bright green grasshopper that initially climbed up Tom’s leg then hopped onto the ground.  We were worried he would get trampled so moved him to a nearby bush.  He then proceeded to climb the wall.  He went all the way up then disappeared.  Maybe jumped somewhere else.  I wished I had a better photo of him as he was quite striking.

We walked around the gardens.

And then packed up and headed home.  We made Halloween cookies using a sheet pan chocolate chip cookie recipe but put various halloween candies in instead of chocolate chips.  More candies went onto just after baking.  I think it looks pretty halloweeny.

We watched the Great Pumpkin which the grandkids hadn’t heard of before.  Piper seemed interested, but William seemed bored.

Piper and Ryeleigh then fell asleep on the couch.  Piper chose the couch again instead of making a bed.

Sunday morning we did the animal chores including feeding Jameson (their favorite).

After the animals chores, Tom put William to work on the tractor.  He did really well.  It was his first time driving the tractor.

 

 

They were moving an RV refrigerator to the front yard as Tom had sold it to a man coming over to pick it up.

Piper played in the house organizing her toys.  I was impressed by her organization.

So then she organized my trinkets by my computer’s monitor.

We mostly watched football including a Seahawks win!  For dinner I made Frito Pie.  I thought it would be quite popular, but it got mixed reviews.

Today was a Halloween themed day.  We got out some decorations from the attic.  This included chicken and pig hats.  They were enjoyed.

After farm chores, we went to Gordon Skagit Farms to check out their pumpkins and corn maze.

This foliage dress was amazing.

Piper was contemplating which pumpkin she wanted.

She interacted with a witch there.  I loved her response.

On the way home we drove by Joe Treat’s house to check out his sculptures.  The kids were quite impressed.

Earlier Piper and I had carved one of our pumpkins based on a photo of their dog Pip’s face.   I think it turned out OK.

This afternoon Piper took our Halloween items and decorated our liven room table.

Meanwhile William (and later Piper) was helping Tom building some shelves, and Ryeleigh was stealing wood pieces.

That was our weekend with the kids.  We all had fun, I believe.  I am once again exhausted.  But happy things went well.  William seems like his normal self again after the crash which is so wonderful to see.

P.S. I finished this book.  I learned a lot about the upper Midwest, the Great Lakes, shipping history and sailors.  I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

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