First Grow Box Planted

 Last Sunday I went with my brother to Lowe's.  It's there that I found my apricot trees!  Two different kinds, not Blemheim, but they are freestones.  Got those planted.  I ordered more grow boxes and Chicago hardy fig trees from Costco.  We do need to order more compost.  Like LOTS more!  Got the peppers planted in the first grow box.

I purchased Steve a fun thing for the property.  

Water, kittens, and herbs

 For Mother's Day we drove to Coalville, a good distance away to pick up some water totes for the Park Valley property.  We don't have water out there so we need to bring it in and store some.  I had been trying to get these for months now and every time I saw them up for sale on FB Marketplace they were sold out.  I saw them when they were initially $50.  We paid $100 each.  I saw an ad for them today and they are now at $150 each.  Yikes.  While we were doing this errand my son-in-law loaded the dead calf into our SUV to be taken to the animal pit in the morning.  Kinda gross, but it is what it is.  We were desperate. 

We did a quick drop of the trailer at the house and went to my Mom's for Mother's Day.  We picked up Applebee's on the way to her place.  Had a nice visit.  Just my brother and my household.  When we arrived home the one cat that would not let us catch had had her kittens.  Ugh.  We fixed 3 cats hoping to keep the cat population down, but here we were, more kittens.  We heard one mewing and looked all over for it and found it in the cat condo I had put together.  One live kitten and 5 dead ones.  We had no idea what happened.  I brought Mama and baby in the house and set up a box for it.  When we woke up in the morning the kitten wasn't do well.  That's when I discovered that Mama didn't have any milk.  She was rock solid.  So sad.  I rushed to WalMart to get a bottle and formula.  I coddled the baby and fed it, kept it warm, and about 5 hours later she too passed.  Such a bummer, I was really getting attached and had great interest in her surviving.  Kinda morbid, but here's a pic of her.

Later that evening I made Amish White Bread.  One of the best sandwich breads ever. Very pillowy.

• 
  Ingredients:
• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• ⅔ cup white sugar 
• 1 ½ tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups bread flour ( My dough scrapes the sides at 5 cups)

Directions

Instructions Checklist

• Step 1

  In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.

• Step 2

  Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

• Step 3

  Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.

• Step 4

  Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

• https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6788/amish-white-bread/

• Today I went to Alpine Nursery hoping to find my apricot trees and other fruit trees to complete my Orchard.  I struck out in the tree department, but did pick up Boysenberry and Black Current plants.  Later I went back to Call's Nursery to see what I could find since they had somewhat of a good selection on Saturday.  I picked up a second Peach tree and a Plum tree.  I still need a pear and two apricot trees.  I'm going to special order a Chicago Fig tree that says it's hardy in our zone 6.  I think that leaves us with room for one more fruit tree.  I'm gunning for a second cherry tree.  My daughter, Cheyenne, who went with me to Call's, wants me to go for a nectarine tree.  Not too big of a fan of nectarines.  We'll see.  I did pick up more herbs: tarragon, chocolate mint, and dill.

• 

  
  

• After dinner, Steve and I put together one of the grow boxes.  I think he severely underestimated the compost.  We'll be lucky if we have enough for one 4' x 8' box. Forgot to get a pic of it.  Later this evening we were to have our first water share for the season, but it looks like the easement has been blocked and a horse and corral are now in the way.  This will need to be taken care of.  Very disappointed we didn't get to experience our first water share.  We had been looking forward to it ever since we got the schedule.

Time to start planting - 2022

 One of our calves didn't make it overnight.  We had called him Mr. Friendly because he was so sociable to us.  Sad day.

Yesterday we had 3 cubic yards of compost delivered.  I think we need more, but I'm leaving the math up to Steve.  We'll see.

I've been accumulating plants over the past couple of months and today we started some planting.  We planted the 4 trees that were purchased from Costco.  Jonathan Apple, Granny Smith, Lapins Cherry, and Bartlett Pears.  We need a second Pear tree to cross-pollinate.

We have blueberry plants, raspberry, blackberry, and strawberries.  Today at Call's Nursery in Elwood, we picked up an Elberta Peach tree, tomatoes (big beef, purple, Hawaiian yellow), cherry tomatoes (cherry, yellow pear, grape), tomatillos, onions (red and white), garlic, peppers: sweet banana, jalapeno, bell peppers (green, red, yellow), artichokes, cucumbers (pickling, slicing, and lemon), yellow crookneck.  They were out of zucchini. And a sweet potato plant.  We need to go back for other potato starts.  I'm on the hunt for Blumheim Apricots and other fruit trees.  Especially since the orchard has room for 12 trees.  We'll end up with a porch full of all kinds of herbs.

Baby Calves

 Yesterday my son-in-law brought over two babies. One was born that day, the other the day before.  Holstein boys.  We've taught them to drink from a bucket.  However, this afternoon they both are laying around lethargic.  Come to find out the dairy rips them from mama without getting their colostrum.  I hope they pull through.  I went in and pet them for a while.

We hired a contractor to grub our weeds.  The plan is to put in grow boxes and garden in the front yard.  The south side will have berries all along the property line.  A fruit orchard will go in front of the goat pen.  Need to do some planting.

We closed on our 10-acre property in Park Valley on April 28th.  Tuesday we met with Raft River Electric to install a power pole.  That will happen in about 3 weeks.  Not sure if we're going to start with a shipping container or a shed.  The shed will be a 20' x 20' and be our tiny house until we can build a small house.  Both Steve and I agreed that everything has to be paid in cash for the Park Valley property.  So, I've got to earn some moolah.  Probably going full-time at the post office.  They're hurting for employees and I've staved them off long enough.

Shed would look something like this.

Small 1200 sq ft home would definitely be this one.

https://www.houseplans.net/floorplans/146200032/modern-farmhouse-plan-1200-square-feet-2-bedrooms-2-bathrooms

As a side note, I've told Steve that if our current home ever values at $1.2 mil we're selling and retiring to the property.  HA. Just kidding, but not.