Tarp Wood

Tarp livestock shelters, tarp hay shelters, even a tarp-wrapped outdoor shower. The person from whom we bought this land, who happens to be an abutting neighbor, was careful to include deed restrictions prohibiting mobile homes and overhead power lines. She must be kicking herself for not thinking of tarps.


I have to say that the outdoor solar shower stall Ian built feels like a sinful luxury on these hot sunny days. The solar bags bring the water to just the right temperature. Showering out under the summer sun, after a sweat-drenched day of good work . . . I guess you have to have lived a while without indoor plumbing to really appreciate something like this.

At this moment we are waiting for Big Bad El to go into labor and birth one or more baby goat kids. El, whose full name is Casual Elegance, is a Nigerian dwarf goat with feet like a Percheron draft horse and the disposition of a donkey. Our other two Nigerians are wasting no time in eating all of the hay that El can't reach from her kidding pen. I believe they are grinning at her.

We have fenced our south pasture and begun dividing it up for rotational grazing. We have named our south subdivisions Scrubby (it is) and Noisy (it is---our neighbor on that side likes to share his music). Our High North pasture is in the best shape: we harvested 145 bales of hay from it last month. So we need to begin fencing up there and get the sheep on some of this good grazing.

The reality of living with and caring for animals that we intend to eat is something that will take some adjustment. Especially the sweet, cuddly animals. (The chickens, not so much.) We tried hard not to name the meat lambs, but you have to refer to them somehow. So they are Fatface, Skinnyface, and Brown One. Skinnyface always runs up to greet me and asks for a chin scratch. Sigh. But I guess, if I don't intend to become a vegetarian, I'd best think about the life of a feedlot beef animal the next time I eat a hamburger before feeling guilty about Skinnyface. For those of you seriously considering becoming vegetarians for similar reasons (and I have, at times), I suggest you read Lierre Keith's Vegetarian Myth as well as Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle before making up your mind.

Our garden is beginning to burst and now the problem is finding the time and space to preserve what we can't eat. I am trialing lacto-fermented shell and snow peas, so we'll see what happens.

Thanks to Joe's steady organizational persistance, we are taking a break from farm development activities and gearing up our cordwood operation again tomorrow! We still have 4 of Sunnywood's 14 panels to build before frost hits this fall, so we'd best not delay any longer. If any of you have some unresolved hankerings to learn to lay cordwood, this is your chance to get hands-on experience at no charge. Stop in any time. Bring gloves. :)