Happy Holidays

Our Highland cow, Missy, would like for everyone to have a happy holiday. She doesn't care which holidays you celebrate, she just wants you to enjoy them.

Homestead Happenings- December 2016

Lots of projects around the place this month. Here's a quick update, it's mostly pictures and kind of short on words this time.
Busy busy busy.

Wiring the shed for lights, this was a headache project.

I have low wattage cool white LED lights now!

Brought the other two goats back. Lots of fence fixing, set up their paddock for electric fence too.

I need a new electric fence battery (but don't tell my dog the power of her own mind is the only thing keeping her home, please!)... all in good time.

Propane line for shed, it runs just a heater. Would like to set up a hardline here.

My new fencing job got tacoed by a dead tree. Busted up the paddock fence on both ends.

Crushed fence, overly adventurous goats, fun times. Lots of chainsawing to fix this little mess.
Got this problem mostly under control now, except for that electric fencing I had all set up. Sigh.....

Setting up and stocking the (nicely finished) studio shed for new family member. He'll be here soon!

The only thing missing is some loft bedding for myself, but I will make do with a camping pad and blankets for now.

Happy Holidays, and may you thoroughly enjoy whichever one(s) you celebrate!

First Snow

We had the first snow of the season this week. Actually, this is the first time it's snowed since we moved to the Homestead! This will be our third winter here.

I'm sure the drought hasn't helped with the lack of snow, but I really am surprised to see any of the fluffy white stuff so early in the season. Generally we would see snow in Jan-feb, if any.

The storm started around 4:30 in the afternoon. At 6:00, my deck ramp looked like this. By this time, it was dark and good pictures were out of the question.

My little Charlie Brown christmas tree out on the porch, is self-decorating. Good thing too, because my tree decorations are buried deep in our storage unit somewhere and these lights were all I could find around the place!

I haven't set up a Christmas tree in forever, this is the first one in at least 5 years. I'm not exactly sure why I bothered trying to be festive out here in the woods, it isn't like I have neighbors or anyone around to see my decorating. The colored lights do work well for porch lighting, at least. I can only have them on a few hours per night (because solar power+rain, that's why) but they're very pretty while they are on.

Snow sliding off the porch roofing.

We had a couple or maybe three inches of snow total. Unfortunately, it started raining at a steady 33 degrees and melted the bulk of it before I could get very great pictures in the morning.

Here's my little studio shed with the solar panels coated in snow. Beautiful, right? Certainly an improvement on my roofing job!