This Week on the Farm

As a federal employee, I get quite a bit of vacation time, a lot more than Margo. So, sometimes I take a week off just so I can spend a week getting some stuff done around the farm. This is one of those weeks. I had several things that I have been wanting to get done that take some time to get done. I had also been waiting to do some of these things for when we got our tax return back so we could use a portion of the money to do some of the expensive projects.
Some of those things aren't very fun, such as I have been digging ditches and moving dirt to improve some drainage issues. I also cleaned out the manure from the barn. This took like 4 truckloads and was very tiring. I put most of it on an area where I am going to plant blueberries and blackberries this year and some on the garden.
Another thing I did the other day that was pretty fun was build some railings for our porch. It is now much more kid friendly by preventing them from falling off and killing themselves. Our deck had railing all the way around but on the side portion it only had the top rail and not the in between rails. Some parts of it are 6 feet off the ground and would hurt if someone fell off. We have had a friend's dog jump of this portion and do a nosedive into the ground. Here is a before picture with Macy assisting to show you what it was like. You can see the safe railing on the front but for some reason the people who built it were ok with falling off the side.


Here is the after picture, after I have built the railing and installed it. Unfortunately they did not have pre-built railings that I could just nail in, I had to build each section completely.


Now, all of you with kids can feel a little more comfortable that your child won't die on the Farm of Hale.

The biggest and most expensive project of the week was completed yesterday. Since building my rock wall and removing some old landscaping to make more parking, I have been wanting to have some gravel brought in to make the driveway and parking areas better and more clean looking. My boss's husband gave me the name of a guy here in West Fork that hauls gravel, so I called him and he and his friend (who smooths the gravel with his tractor) came by and gave me an estimate on how much gravel it would take and the cost. It was more than I hoped but still within our budget for this project. They came out yesterday and brought 4 dump truck loads of gravel and then smoothed it all out nice and level. I am so glad I hired the tractor guy as well because he did a great job and it would have been way to much for me to do by hand or even with a tractor. Here are some before and after pics, it is so amazing the difference it made and I am very happy we had it done. The pictures don't do it justice.

Here is the driveway




Here is in front of the shop and by the rock wall




Here is the where Margo and I park in front of the house.




So, there are some of the things I have been doing so far on my "vacation". I am so worn out that I am about ready to go back to work for a rest.