The trench in the front pasture has had it challenges trying to get it completed.  All we are doing is deepening the already natural made stream going across the pasture.  Since it has been such a dry summer, the idea was to get it finished quickly before the March rains.  The retro machine has had it’s challenges.  Either a part breaks and it takes a few days to repair of the operator does not show up.  The retro is now without a fuel injector, an expensive item to replace.  So as much as we would love to have this done, we know Dario would also like to have it completed and stop spending money in repairs.

We had such a trial getting the tajamar in the back started and then completed, we were cautious about starting our next water project.  We have two channels of spring water that pass through our front triangle of pasture land.  After many iterations of what we could do, we settled on the fastest cheapest method that would get our large animals water year round.  So here is the beginning of deepening the channels:

Then after a hot morning of work, the hydraulic arm system broke.  A few hours after  parking the machine in the shade, the front window burst!

So our friend Dario has to fix both the front window and the hydraulic system!  I don’t believe he will be making any money on our job. And I don’t know when this job will be finished.

 

On our farm, anything that has to do with the animals comes first and everything else takes second place. Or third depending on how the week is going.  Therefore the outside sink has been on the list of to-do’s practically since the orange bathroom was built.  But since there are two spigots – one with a hose attached –  we have made do.  Finally the sink reached the top of the list, we started the process, and we learned that our drain pipe went no where. Exactly how the person who installed the drain pipe failed to connect it is a mystery. And we’re trying not to be bitter about it. But for heavens sake, it’s a water pipe. How do you not connect it?!

So Jon spent an afternoon discovering the possible solutions and correcting the issue.

Then we built supports and set a sheep trough atop, for our sink.  We wanted something large to wash everything imaginable in.  Now, we have the next step of adding the drain pipes and faucet.  Poco a poco.

We are working towards an herb  garden by the front patio, but the rain from the roof floods that area.  Easy solution, right? Just put up some rain gutters. After much searching we finally located and purchased all parts. Last May. All we had to do was install them. Simple, right? On Jason’s last visit, he attempted to install the gutters and discovered that the mounting brackets we had would not work.  So Jason designed some that would do the job, and left us with a template to make the mounts.  Needless to say, we were busy doing other things and it didn’t happen.  This time, Jason made sure it happened.  The boys cut the tin, Jason sanded and painted the pieces, and then everyone helped him install the gutters.

As of this writing, it has not rained since the gutters have been installed.  But the forecast is for ten days straight rain in the coming week and I know we will be thankful to have the rain gutters installed on at least one side of one building. If after testing (i.e. rain) the gutters prove to be successful then the next (slow) project will be to actually plant the finished herb beds in front of the house. And maybe finish the rest of the beds. Maybe.

We have spent the last three years being asked when we were going to buy a tractor. After all, how could we be farmers without a tractor?  We finally gave in and we are now the new owners of a bright orange Kubota!  It was too large for a friend, he wanted a riding lawn mower;, we needed a small tractor that would fit between the rows of trees but be large enough to pull things. So, we purchased his tractor, he purchased a riding lawnmower.

Here is Rubin testing out the tractor with it’s mowing attachment:

Rubin has lots of tractor experience. He can practically make the thing dance. Even with the mower attachment on. So, as the one with the expertise, he is the current on-farm instructor. First, Rubin explained how the tractor works to Jason:

Jason and the tractor

Jason then gave Amy tractor lessons.

Amy got a chance to drive on her own.

Amy and Jason may not have milked cows or ridden horses but they did get to drive a tractor!

None of the rest of us have driven it yet. It’s just so convenient to have Ruben drive it for us right now.

This Kubota (which we bought second-hand from someone who bought it refurbished) is small enough to be just what we are looking for – but we will still be hiring out the big jobs as needed.

And yes, Rubin is new to the farm. As wonderful as it is to have him working here on the farm, he’s less exciting than the tractor. We’ll share more about him soon.

 

One rainy day, Alejandro and Oscar built us some wool drying frames.  We used them to dry wool while washing a single batch at a time.  But we knew we would need more frames and racks to place them on.  So this next round of storms had the guys building the racks.

Here are the frames being used to dry celery and green onions.

Then Megan cleaned a few rabbit hides, and used the frames to dry them. Having a rack to place them all in one place sure is nice.

Eventually, we’ll post the racks full of wool.

It has been a much slower and more expensive project than anticipated, but for the most part the “POND” is finished.  Yes, there are a few things we would still like to have done to make it look pretty, but it is functional.  We now have between 4 and 5 million liters where as before it was only about 400,000 liters.  We have enough to water our olives in a drought and our pasture.  But how to get it to the front pasture (up hill) is another matter.

To see the beginning of the story go to playing in the mud and then  tajamar update.

Here is an almost finished pond:

 

It looks MUCH better filled with water. The finished tajamar after a rain:

It looks really nice and inviting. Resi even tried to play in the water – and discovered it’s deep and the edge drops off quickly. So it’s pretty to look, very functional, and not much for recreation.