Year 7 - 2016

Spring Trip 2016

Well I finally made it to the farm in May this year. My work and travel schedules weren't being very cooperative but things finally settled down and I was able to make the trip

As always I have several projects planned.  One project that I have been wanting to do for a while now is replace the flooring in the kitchen and the kitchen bedroom.  Here are some before and after pictures of that project.

 

I think it turned out pretty well.  Now I can think about getting some new appliances for the kitchen.

As always there are new critters at the farm but this time one decided to burrow under the foundation and take up residence under the house, near the hot water heater in the kitchen. I put the trail-cam out near the entrance hole and this is what I found.

I called the local, county, and state agencies for assistance on removing the skunk but nobody was very helpful.  The state did say if I trapped it, they would come and get it.

Since April - June is prime time for pregnant skunks I didn't want to trap it and leave babies under the house.  We just decided to let it do it's thing until the fall.  By then the mommy and babies should have left and if not, I will attempt to trap and relocate them on my fall visit.

We don't have any access under the house or else I would have tried to remove them now.

The grapes keep coming back so I installed a fence for them to attach to and grow on.

The tree I named the Halloween tree, an old apple tree near the front of the property that died some years ago, blew over in a big wind storm the day before I arrived.  I cut up the top and just pushed up the rest where the tree had been standing.  I'll have to get it cut up on another trip.

The county scraped the road one day and the next day the neighbor's were having dust abatement applied to a section of the road in front of their house.  I decided to have the treatment put on the road in from of the farm as well.  Here's what that looked like.

I cleaned out the trailer shed on this trip.  Finally found the tube part of the bagging system for the lawn tractor.  Now I can mow and bag instead of just blowing the clippings all over the place.  There was a tree that had grown up inside the back of the trailer shed.  I cut that down and repaired the siding where the tree grew out of.  Here's how that project went.

 

Fall Trip 2016

October in Eastern Oregon is so ...  wet.  At least that's that way this trip has turned out to be.

Alex and his girls came with me on this trip. It was the first time for Mom to meet Lily and they all wanted to visit with Grandma/Great Grandma. The last time Jade was small.

One of the goals for this trip was to capture and relocate the skunk living under the house.  Turns out there were more than one.  Alex and I successfully trapped and relocated two skunks on the trip. We watched on the last night at the farm, a very large skunk leave the house and take off down the fence line across the street.  We waited for two hours for more to come out and thought perhaps they had left before we started watching. We bricked up the entry hole the best we could and closed the opening.

Here are some pictures of the sunk release. The trap was covered to help keep the skunks from spraying. For some reason they pulled the blanket through the holes in the trap. 

 

 

Guess I'll be trapping more skunks on the spring trip.

We spent some time gathering up debris for a bon fire where we roasted sausages and marshmellows. Here are a few pictures from that event.

I try and do one major improvement at the farm on every trip. Since I replaced the flooring in the kitchen on spring trip, it was time to get some new appliances. I decided on a washer and dryer. Here are a few pictures of that install. They seem bigger than the ones that were there it was a tight fit, but everything worked out fine.

I'll probably go for a new stove next and then a larger refrigerator when I move.

We spent quite a bit of time just driving around the area and checking out how things have changed since Alex had been there.  Here are a few pictures of our travels.

I do have one regret. I can't believe that I failed to get some pictures of Alex and his girls with Mom. Guess that means they will have to take another trip with me to the farm sometime soon.