Today we took down the large dead tree in the pasture. Thanks to Kevin and Mary and Kevin's chainsaw we made short work of the job. I wish I had pictures of the tree before it came down.

Here is a picture of what we have left. Still alot of work to do cutting up all the branches for kindling, but at least it is out of the way of the fence





When the main trunk was being cut the bottom part split. We decided to just let it there since it would have been difficult to cut it and not have it land in the water. As we looked at it we thought it looked like an Alligator, so Kevin made an eye and teeth.

When we got home and told the kids that we have an alligator they just stared at us until it sank in that it isn't possible.

Cows? in less than a week?

Here is what the pasture looks like today.

So we found out tonight that the cattle that we were trying to get are coming on Wednesday. We are excited that we have this opportunity but wow, what a job we have in front of us. That means we have just 4 days to get LOTS of fencing up. Nothing like having an important last minute job to accomplish.

The Orchard

We got all of our new orchard plants today. We already have 4 apple (2 fuji and 2 gala), 2 nectarine, and a pear. Now we will have another pear 2 cherry and 4 plum. To go along with that we will have 5 blueberry, 6 raspberry, 6 blackberry and 32 strawberries. I am so excited and can't wait to get fruit from our trees, I just have to wait 2-3 years :(

Green and "eco-friendly"

As we planned for this house we decided we wanted to be as self-sustaining and earth friendly as we could. So our first purchased was an Envirolet composting toilet. Thus removing the need for a septic system.

I went to the county courthouse to make sure I knew all the rules and codes before we started building the house . It was then that I found out that they do not recognize the greywater system that we designed and we need to put in the septic anyway.

I wish I could make sense of what our regulators want. They want us to conserve and do things better for the earth and then they make it impossible for us to actually do that. I wish there was a system in place that allowed these "specialists" to make decisions not only from what they learned at school, but also what they might learn from "everyday Joe's" like us.

So now my septic system will be a very expensive rainwater cistern for watering my garden.