New blog page

I decided to "move" our blog to a different site. I like Blogger very much, but found a site called Homesteadblogger.com, and decided that it "fits" better.
So-- come and read our continued story here http://www.homesteadblogger.com/thedowneys/ and don't forget to bookmark the new site and come back OFTEN

Company and catching up!

We had company last weekend. A couple friends came to visit and brought Shawn's son G. along. It was the first visit to our new home for all of them.

I had to work 3 shifts while they were here, so I missed most of the visit, but still had fun, despite the rain and black flies. I know that G. had fun, and hope the grown ups did too!

Since I haven't done a lot of exploring on my own here yet, I got one of the adults as well as G. to go along on a ride with me, and we found the deer farm that I'd heard about about 15 miles away. The rain lifted long enough for us to get to see them up close and personal for quite a long time. I think we were lucky-- it was warm, the rain stopped, and the wind was blowing, so we had bug free viewing time, and the deer were right near the road. It was gorgeous!

G. and I walked around the property later and talked about the gardens and what we would be growing, and how much fun we'll have when he comes up for a longer visit once school is over. He even tried some of the rhubarb and asparagus we've got growing in the yard. I'm bound and determined we'll get him eating well this summer :)

Oderus is growing up!

Here's our single hatch- Oderus, he's a Black Australorp - I wanted to post his picture as he gets bigger (see previous photos for comparison). He's smaller than the rest of the chicks we've got (and 4-6 days younger) but we put him and his buddy Bumbles in the new brooder last night- and Oderus is holding his own, right in there with the big ones! He's so cute!

Morning Coffee

I have been meaning to share our coffee time with you all. This picture shows the view from the table on our sun porch. We try to have our coffee here every morning ( as well as our meals if we can, too!)

It's peaceful and serene- with a view of the property, our pond, as well as our visitors-- note the barn swallow perched on the wire- We have many birds that come to eat from the feeders all along the outside of the porch, as well as on the ground just in front of us.

Why not come and visit to see it for yourself?

Quick Chick Update!

After 3 long weeks, not expecting anything out of the eggs whe put in the incubator on May 1 (they were beaten and battered through the post office), we had a chick hatch yesterday!!! I was at work, but Shawn was home and got to see him just minutes after he came out of his shell!!

Since our other chicks are 4-6 days older than him/her- it was a suggested to me by a fellow internet chicken lover, that I choose the smallest/quietest of the first batch as a buddy, and put new chick in a separate brooder with the buddy.. I chose one of our white chicks, since I know that one of the white ones was the last of the hatch, and this one is a bit slower than the others, and smaller.. They are doing quite dandy together-- and you can see by the pictures, even 4 days makes a BIG difference in the chicken world!!

Our white chicks are a cross of Barred Rock (rooster) and White Leghorn (hen). The new baby from the hatch is a pure Black Australorp.

We have peeps!

We picked up our chicks today! We've got 12- 10 are black 2 are white. They are all mixed breeds- the roo is a barred rock. The hens are white leghorns, brown leghorns, barred rocks, dominique, black australorps, blue laced Red wyandottes and easter eggers(lay green eggs). So-- we may end up with pure barred rocks, but the rest will be mixed. The 2 white ones are most likely barred rock/white leghorn mixes. They are adorable!!

We drove about 70 miles each way to meet the folks we got them from. On the way home, we ran into, through, and just ahead quite a thunderstorm. We began to see white stuff on the side of the road, and were trying to figure it out-- first I thought it might be salt left from winter, but we've had rain since the last snow, and then thought perhaps it was lime, but it was a road in the middle of nowhere.. At that point, we realized what it was-- hail. Lots of it for miles, all over the roads and pounding the car. We got through it and home about 90 seconds ahead of it-- time enough to get into the house, and get the mower covered, and shavings out of the barn (for the chicks). Since then, it poured, stormed, the sun came back out and now it's raining again!

A few photos I wanted to share...

Not much in this post, except I wanted to put up some photos we recently took of the area in general.

First photo is our house-- from a distance of about 3 miles. We live on a scenic by-way, and this red dot is our house, as seen from the "scenic view" up the road.

The next photos are of the Grand Lakes area from the same spot-- including through the view-finder at the scenic view. We thought they came out pretty cool- especially for a spur of the moment experiment that we didn't think would work out!

Also-some bird feeder photos.

Coming soon-- before and after early/late spring photos!

My asparagus has been found!

When I woke up yesterday, Shawn told me "oh-- I found your asparagus!". When we bought our house, we were told we had rows of cultivated berries, and an established asparagus patch. Once the snow melted, I was having the hardest time finding it, though.... Lots of weeds and overgrown stuff-- but no little spears poking out anywhere.
Low and behold-- under a LOT of overgrown stuff---- asparagus. ( And onions, actually!)
I spent the majority of yesterday cutting away weeds, woody stalks, and pulling weeds. From around the plants that are definitely growing like crazy.

Once I was done, I wanted to add some soil (since the patch is on a sloping hill and there seems to be some run-off). I asked Shawn if he had any plans for the pile of soil/compost pile next to one of the sheds- which he didn't, so I started moving soil and sprinkling it among the spears and onions. It wasn't until I was mostly done that the compost pile shifted and Shawn saw them. 2 broken jugs of what appears to be used motor oil.

I'll back-track a bit to fill in some detail. We moved here just over 2 months ago. I'm told that the man who originally had this house built it with pride and kept his property nice and well maintained. This shows in some of the photos we've seen, and some of the detail in the house. The folks to whom he sold it ( and we bought from) lived a bit differently. We've had a lot to clean up, dig out and fix as a result of that. Shawn's worked very hard to make our yard look presentable to us and others, and not so much like nobody cares. Enough said on that subject- I'll just say we all live differently, and this has been a challenge!

So. All that soil I so carefully sprinkled and spread out, in order to cover the roots and bare spots, needed to come out. And now..... All without killing much of what I'd spent the better part of the morning keeping alive. Fortunately, it was all pretty much dry soil- both on the ground and what I'd just added. So- by the handful and fingers full, I pulled out all that soil that I'd just put down ( about a wheelbarrow and a half full). I pulled, dug, brushed and went down and even removed the soil just under the bad stuff. Then I sprayed and washed away what may remain ( though there wasn't any more) and let it all drain down the hill- until there was no more smell of oil ( that was hard-- we both smelled of it after digging through it). Once we were both sure there wasn't any left, I worked on adding back soil again. This time, from one of the gardens that Shawn had tilled. Filled the wheelbarrow, pushed it along, stopped just before I started down the hill. Over went the wheelbarrow. Soil all over the grass, through the fence, and none left to be had in the wheelbarrow. So, I shoveled up what I could ( about half of what I'd actually started with) and filled in what I needed in the asparagus/onion patch. I had Shawn move the rest for me after I filled the wheelbarrow. I don't think I could have dealt with another tipping wheelbarrow! :)

So, the photos here show the end result after a long day of work. I had planned to plant cabbage, peas, beans and maybe lettuce yesterday- but with the finding of the asparagus and the setbacks- I managed to get the 6 red cabbage plants we picked up the day before, and not much more. I did get a sunburn in the middle of it though :)

It was a great day even so, and we had supper on the sun porch, watching the ducks in the pond ( they didn't stay long-- we figured out why a short time later when we saw the hawk emerge from the brush on the other side of the pond), enjoying our indoor birds on the new bird tower that Shawn built yesterday, and watching the birds at the feeders just outside the porch.

We do like it here, we like it very much!

Puddle Ducks!

The snow is finally melting here!! In the last week, we've lost most of it, and actually had temperatures in the 60's! On April 15, 2 ducks showed up in our driveway, swimming around in the puddle created from all the melt-off. I have nicknamed the "Puddle Ducks", because they spent 2 days playing in the puddle. They're actually a pair of American Black Ducks- and I believe they might be 2 females. They have since found their way down to our pond, and I've been leaving chicken feed down there for them, in hopes that they will stay. So far, they've been here for 4 days, and as the pond melts, they can be found in different spots each day. They're quite pretty, and I hope they will invite their friends to come and play as well!

The First Day of Spring!

Well, at least that's what the calendar said yesterday was.
We got a foot of snow- on the first day of our first spring living in Northern Maine.
I do have to say, it is beautiful to watch, see, and enjoy. I took photos, but since we're still unpacking, I can't find my USB cord or my card reader to transfer them off the camera and into the blogging world-- yet. I'll update as soon as I can find the tools I need :)
It's the second day of spring today. The wind is howling, the sun is nowhere to be found, and the plow man just came and cleared our driveway. He showed up in the driveway the day after we moved, to introduce himself and see if we wanted to hire him to plow. He charges by the storm, and is very reasonable, especially considering our driveway is pretty big. We really thought we wouldn't see much of him until next winter. Boy, were we wrong! And also thankful that he came by that second day, because there is a LOT of snow out there, and our only shovel broke when Shawn started shoveling yesterday. Now, we can get out of the driveway.. and go buy a new one (if we can find one!)
We're off to Boston tomorrow for a concert- can't wait for that ( but I am not looking forward to the 6 hour drive!)

BUMP

That's what the small flourescent orange sign at the side of the road says.
I had forgotten about these until we drove south a bit on Saturday to find a hardware store.
BUMP!
And that's what you find just beyond the sign. A bump. Usually a big frost heave in the road, sometimes it's a couple of them, causing bumps and dips.
Either way-- slow down or you may lose your tires, your exhaust, or anything else on the bottom half of your car. We hit a few of them pretty hard on Saturday. We did better today, but it's definitely bone-crunching when you hit if you're going too fast.

Well... We made it

We have arrived!!! Maine is just beautiful! We don't yet have high speed internet, so being online can be a bit painful right now-- a couple weeks until we can get high-speed and then we can start posting pictures of the feet of snow that are outside. It's currently snowing like crazy out but it's beautiful!

Waiting is hard!

Well, I'll be learning this blog stuff as I go... First thing to learn- how to save a post so I don't publish blank posts after spending an hour writing them!
To begin- I am Annette, married to Shawn. We're 40-somethings who married in October of 2006. We met each other just over 5 years ago, and are now buying our own home- a first for both of us. We have a total of 3 children between us. 11 year old G, and 27 year old K are Shawn's 2 kids, and I have 23 year old A. While none of the 3 live with us now, we are hoping that changes in the future :)
We are currently living in a limbo-like state. We should have moved by now, but our closing is delayed until March 7th. So, I finished my job on the 28th and we're all packed ( including dishes, pots, pans, most of our clothes and everything else) Shawn did 99% of the packing while I was working. Fortunately, he left one computer connected, and didn't turn in the cable tv boxes when he planned to, or we'd have no connections to the outside world!
Our move is taking us from a small-ish town south of Boston, to a very tiny town in Northern/Eastern Maine, about 375 miles from where we currently live. We've decided to leave the racing to the rats, and head north and live a simpler, more fulfilling life. Our long term plan is to be as self-sufficient as possible, growing and raising as much of our own food as we can, and lead a less complicated life. We actually sound a bit "crunchy" when we talk about it, but that works for me :)
So, that's a bit about us for now. More to come soon-- I'm hoping this will save correctly so I don't need to re-write it yet again :)