A Day Late but...

Happy Spring Equinox!

Tulips, Watercolor, by Amy (c)2018

The snow is gone from all but the shadiest spots. The temperature isn't quite warm but looks to be inching back up. Shedding season for Gwyn is on a roll and Saffron is stubbornly holding onto her coat still, which seems normal for her.

The seeds we ordered for our garden this year have arrived and we'll be planting those soon to get the starts nice and healthy before moving them outside. Once the nights stop being so cold we'll move the fish and aquaponics back outside. The goldfish have done well in the basement, the mojito mint just LOVES the aquaponics and the lemongrass did well too. Everything else got bug infested. We kept the spiders around though. Spiders are great garden friends.

I plan on making tea bags out of the mint. We have a dehydrator and I've got fill your own tea bags in my Amazon cart as we speak.

We will be rototilling the garden beds soon to prepare the soil for planting and adding more compost to them to beef up the soil level again, as things have settled through the winter.

Bring on the longer days and shorter nights!

Aquaponics Update!

We made some headway getting things set up. That progress in photo essay below!

First off was drilling a hole into the stock tank for water to drain out of. 

More supplies that have arrived, included our LED grow light and bulkhead fittings for the hole we're drilling.

Hole is in place! We had to shave away some excess on the edges since the drill bit didn't create a large enough hole for the bulkhead to fit. But any larger drill bit would have created too large a hole. 

Fitting the bulkhead. There are teflon and rubber washers that help create the seal as the nut is tightened on.

Fitting the spout onto the bulkhead so we can turn the flow on and off. 

Adding Hydroton! This is an expanded clay media that doesn't absorb water. It's very lightweight (and expensive) but also pH neutral, which is important for the system.

It's also very dusty and needs to be rinsed before you fully start running the system!

That is a job for a 3 year old!

The first moment of truth... were our fittings tight enough so it wouldn't leak?  The answer was no, there was a tiny amount of dripping from the bulkhead, so we tightened that down and voila, all better!

Water drains well into what will be the fish tank.

All filled with hydroton. 

Out in the barn, Gwyn has started shedding. It's SPRING!

Velociraptor took an open door opportunity to hang out on the porch on an unseasonably warm day. 

Kaylee decided to play in the remaining snow piles. In a shirt and underwear only. 

Aquaponics Update

We are moving forward on the aquaponics idea!  At least in that we've started acquiring the pieces to put it all together. We started with purchasing a pump that would meet the needs for our planned set up volume wise and an outlet timer that had enough increments to fit the cycling we'd want to do (turning pump on and off so many times an hour)

Next was finding barrels for the fish. We live right near a pickle plant and there were a bunch advertised on craigslist for $25 a piece. I picked up four after our big snow storm. They smell STRONGLY of pickles, haaha. I need to rinse them out but I'm waiting for a longer stretch of above freezing weather before attempting that. 

Next was cinderblocks. Part of our system is going to rely on gravity for drainage so we minimize electricty needed to move water vertically. I was a beast of a pregnant lady and loaded all of those on the cart myself! (18 of them)  The employees were quick to help me push and they helped me load it in the truck. 

Good job farm truck!  We had a busy day when I got all of this and it made me so glad to have a pick up truck!  Water trough, two bags of shavings and the cinder blocks. 

Eric brought all the cinder blocks downstairs because I was thoroughly pooped. This was our first attempt for an arrangement. I wasn't pleased with the sturdiness of the cinderblocks, especially considering we'd be adding what is basically rocks to the upper tank. The height was also less than ideal when we started factoring in plant height and where the grow lights would need to be. 

This is our current arrangement. We'll be adding another barrel for sump water to minimize the current flowing back into the fish barrel. But then we considered the size of the fish we want and are wondering if the barrels are the ideal choice. So things are still up in the air and could change. But we are making forward progress and that feels good!

I expect we'll start with goldfish and get the system stable and plants growing before moving into edible protein aquaculture. 

Better Critter Pictures

Keeping cool

Saffron. She looks awesome. A lot of that scraggly fur came off and she's pretty sleek right now. I'm pleased with the change.

The donkeys LOVE LOVE LOVE the arena. They just go up and lie down in the sand. They are desert creatures, so it makes sense, it's just funny to me.

Goober Pony in her super light stage of summer where she looks dun-ish

The Koi. The black and white one is Captain Barnacles

Peso the Pleco

Updates on the Ranch!

We have hay for winter!

Huzzah! My Washington friends are going to choke on this, but I paid $4/bale, which includes delivery. 201 bales are stacked in my barn now and I'm pretty sure I'll be good through the winter.

I'm loving this house and property. Gwyn was grazing nearby while Kaylee played on the swing set. I'm pretty sure Gwyn was keeping an eye on  us. She still seems surprised when she sees me at the house and I call to her. I get enthusiastically greeted and it's everything I hoped it would be.

I spent more time working on Arwen's matted fur and got cow kicked like crazy. I know she's a baby and it will just take time, but man was that frustrating and discouraging. They are getting more approachable in the pasture in general, which is encouraging. Hopefully by next year I'll be able to look back and see our progress. 

Gwyn is getting tubby from not enough work and 24/7 turnout. So we're going to be working more and on turn out less. Everyone is confined to the dry lot tonight and will be every evening for now.

Momma Saffron is doing well. I was able to brush her last night and I put Fly-Spot on both of them. They're extremely reactive to fly spray so I used the drip stuff that you put in a line down their back. It lasts longer and isn't scary. 

Kaylee and I found a toad in the barn tonight! It looks like the toad's left arm got mangled. It's all Dumbledore cursed and dry/dessicated. Otherwise the toad was healthy. We pet it for a while then released back in the 'stream' (which is no longer flowing since it's been a while since we've had rain)

Hard to see so I'll get a better picture tomorrow with my waterproof camera... but we have 4 Koi and a Plecostomus now for the water tank. I also snagged a floating cork bark so they'll have predator protection. No names yet, but since Kaylee's been watching a ton of Octonauts I'm leaning toward that for a name source.

Peso the Pleco
Barnacles, Shellington, Quasi and Tweak for the Koi

The bugs are already gone, so no more mosquito breeding! Yay!