We worked all day putting up rafters and putting the metal roof on. It was pretty easy, but it was a stretch even for Dave to reach across and get it screwed down. Everything is done except the stall on the end of the shelter is not completely enclosed yet. We bought 8 ft boards when we needed 10s! So tomorrow one more trip to HD should do the trick.
Still, it was done enough to invite everyone in for dinner.
The shelter and feeding area is entirely enclosed, the idea being it will make a nice catch pen, and the animals will be comfortable going in there. We worked until sunset to finish enclosing it so we could leave our tools out there tonight, and tomorrow we will have everything ready for the final push to finish the roof.
We got the first crossbeams up today. The roof looks flat, but there is a slope to it. It is just an illusion because the land is sloped there as well. We spent a bit of time with levels trying to get the roof up as high as possible, and still have a slope to it for runoff. Unfortunately the land slopes to the left, and away from the camera, so we had to deal with leveling it in two directions, and the posts at the far end are not as tall as I’d like. That’s what I get for using the posts we had on hand, instead of buying ones that were as long as we needed. I think it will be ok, and Houdini looks like there’s still room for him in there. There’s more headroom for llamas at the other end.
Oh, the regrets after a hard night of partying!
We’ve got all the posts set this week, and they’ve finally dried, now we’re ready to start working on the roof.
We also added a tall post with a row of four birdhouses (the crucifix looking post on the right in the picture above) . This is for the purple swallows who flit around over the pasture eating bugs all summer. Last winter the big four-hole birdhouse they lived in blew down and busted, and when they came back in the spring there was no birdhouse, so they moved on! So this spring when they arrived I got right to work and set this up for them. I see they are already checking it out. I hope they move in and stay all summer. They eat lots of bugs!
Barclay graduated from his puppy collar today, now he has a collar like a big dog – because he is getting to be a big dog! He is almost as big as Alki, just not as fluffy!
Alki’s ‘sit up’ has always been like this, with one paw raised 🙂 ‘give all the cookies to me’ she says!
Just a couple weeks ago Chester the Dalmatian went to the vet, and we really thought he wasn’t going to come back home. He had a bad cough, so bad he couldn’t sleep, he just coughed and gagged all the time. The vet had tried giving him some medicine, even kept him for a week while we were on vacation, but he just got worse and worse. Finally after a miserable night where he had choked and gagged into exhaustion, we took him in again, thinking if they couldn’t help him, that was the end.
The vet x-rayed him and saw congestion in his lungs, and a possible tumor. He kept him all day and treated him with a bunch of stuff, and sent him home with a slew of medicine to continue taking. Within the week he was doing much better. When he went back for another x-ray a week later, he was noticeably improved. Now it’s been a few weeks. The vet is keeping him on some of the medicines permanently, but there has been no coughing. So Chester seems to have dodged the bullet once again. He is very old, and his legs barely work right. Last week he fell down in the driveway because he couldn’t get his footing in the gravel, and I had to pick him up and carry him back up to the porch. But he’s still going, hobbling around, and he still LOVES playing with Barclay. So go Chester, go! Keep hanging in there boy!
The tomatoes got so big in their little sprouting pots it was time to move them to bigger quarters. I got these bigger peat pots at the feed store. The idea being that the roots can grow out through them so there’s no need to disturb the plants when it’s transplant time. We’ll see how that all works – I’m a little skeptical. But anyway, I selected the three biggest of each type, and only two of the main season tomatoes, as there will be three cherry tomato plants as well. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway! After my miserable previous attempts, it would be nice to have too many tomatoes! Yes, too many tomatoes, there’s a problem I’d like to have 🙂 Anyway, I planted them deep in the pots to encourage more root growth. We’ll see how they do.
So I moved the transplants to bigger quarters – a little greenhouse made of two storage containers. I hinged it on the back with a couple pieces of wire so I can prop it open for air circulation, but still keep the cats out. I also moved them from the kitchen windowsill to the front room for more direct light.
I see people at the garden center taking home big tomato plants already, and mine look so small! There’s a few weeks before last frost yet, so I hope mine catch up!
We got a sudden afternoon snowstorm. It was like a cross between snow and hail – it looked like beanbag filling!
I would never have guessed the garden would be covered in snow today!
This is Barclay’s first big snow to play in. Alki stayed on the porch, but Chester got frisky enough for some running around!
The llamas appear to disapprove of all that running around and barking.
Steff Does Stuff! 