03/07/2009 Saturday: Blanche Nurses Violet, Cleaning the Dexter Lean-to, More Gazebo Garden work

The weather is being very unpredictable today. One moment the sun is shining, the next it is either snowing, raining or hailing on us. Gotta love Pacific Northwest weather.

Good news. I've gotten Freddy eating from Violet with no problem. I decided to try Blanche and low and behold, she actually began nursing. Freddy has the right teat and Blanche the left. The right has more milk but since Blanche is not eating much it will do for now.

We'll see if Blanche nurses again tonight. I'm so glad I got her eating. I was really beginning to be afraid that she might starve to death. Later: Blanch did eat again. Violet didn't have much milk so that I tried supplementing with a bottle. She drank from the bottle, too.

I love Saturdays because I have some help with chores. Enrique and Juan helped me clean the Dexter pen for another two hours while I drove the tractor and attempted to level out the yard, stack the cleanings and keep from getting stuck in the wet clay mud. Not much fun. I had planned on two hours and we did stop on time. And just in time since it started hailing on us. As I said, I drove the tractor. It wasn't as hard as shoveling wet hay mixed with shit but it was still hard work.

Then, while Juan picked up & stacked branches in the area between the green barn and Hope Creek, Enrique and I pruned the two apple trees behind the compost bins. We almost got the two done before we were driven in by hail.

Enrique and I pruned out the dead wood on the climbing rose bush. I didn't prune it last year so it needed it badly. Susie H told me what to do. Apparently Susie was a landscape person for a few years.

In the near future I want to take up the wooden arbor and turn it 180 degrees so that it's on the path to the gazebo, not angling off to one side and canting about 15 degrees to the east.

We also pruned the red-leafed bush by the edge of the arbor back quite a bit. It was getting top heavy and drooping. We pruned the top and around the bottom. The area over there looks mighty fine now that the bushes are

We had a simple dinner that Chas cooked: clam chowder and home made bread.

Wrote an email to Susie tonight. I haven't been sending out many emails.