The Pasture

We are ever so slowly, but ever so surely, getting stuff done here on our homestead.

When we moved in (almost 11 months ago now!), I thought so much of this would happen quicker than it has.

I was...

1.  Totally naive about the work that is entailed

and

2.  Totally not realistic about what we can get done with our time.

It is so nice that it is not dark by the time Jas gets home from work anymore.  Now we (sometimes) can all get outside and get some stuff done after supper, before bedtime.  On the nights we don't have soccer, that is (soccer is twice a week).

And I always think "Oh, the kids and I can work on that during the week, while Jas is at work."  Ummmm, again not realistic.  Our days are bustling and we really can't get too much done besides our homeschooling (and preparing/eating meals!).

But things *are*  getting done and moving forward around here.  And when it is all done (will it ever be "all done"?) it certainly won't matter that it took a few months/years longer than *I* had thought.


The most recent progress has been in the pasture:

I've called this approximately one-acre portion of our property "pasture" ever since we moved in...even though it didn't pasture anything...and looked not at all like a pasture at the time.

I knew we planned to make it a pasture someday...and now, it is so close:

Dad drove his tractor from his farm down the road.


First he tilled the pasture.

Well, he tilled most of it.  Then something went wrong.  Very wrong.  Tiller stopped.  Tractor lurched to a stop.  I'm just thankful that Jas and I weren't driving it at the time.


Here you can see my dad walking in the pasture, next to a section that didn't get fully tilled:

Dad tried going over the un-tilled part with the harrow, but it wasn't very effective.  In the end, it wasn't much that didn't get tilled, just that strip in the back...and this section behind the chicken coop:

Next, it was time to "roll" the ground.  Guess who drove the tractor for this.

Naw, not really....

...but he would have loved to have done it!

He did get to take a quick once around on the tractor, though...Papa and G have a love/love thing going on. 

After the pasture was "rolled", grass seed needed to be distributed.  The grass seed was too small for the tractor to help with spreading.  

Soooooooooooo......

....Jas got to hike it around the acre and spread the seed with a hand spreader.

Then, the pasture got "rolled" one more time.


Now, we have to let it grow for at least 2-3 months before we put any grazing animals out there.  If we put them out there too soon, they would pull the grass out by the roots as they eat, instead of clipping off the top.


So, we're watering it, and praying for rain...and can't wait to see it growing!


Jas put together these tall water sprinklers to help with the watering:

He did some research on Friday, bought the supplies Saturday a.m., and had two of them built and watering our grass seed by that evening.  He impresses me.  (Have I said that before?)

He has built two so far, and has them set up "serially".  He is thinking he may want to build some more...

...because in addition to this one-acre pasture, we will (hopefully) soon have a nice-sized garden to water also.  

As much as we'd love to have a garden (well, we'd love to have the "fruits" of a garden, not the work) we weren't sure if we had time to mess with it this year.  But when dad tilled, he tilled that section of the property also (adjacent to the pasture).  Soooooo....now we're thinking we better put in a garden.  

Jas and I are total newbies at all of this.  We've checked out more than our fair share of library books...but actually *doing* it is a different animal altogether.  We wouldn't have known what kind of grass to plant (Trey recommended Tif Quik Bahia to us), or how long to let it grow before grazing (J at the county extension office helped here)...and I don't know what we would have done without dad and his tractor!

We're learning and growing...and so thankful for all the help and guidance we've received!