The Jowett Farmstead: September 2011

Monday, September 5, 2011

The Building of a Rain Water Cistern: Part 1

I love my home and our land. Yeah, there are a few downsides, like getting snowed in or flooded in, but nothing is harder on a family then a water problem. Problem you ask? Well, it's like this: our farmstead is sitting near the top of a large pile of iron ore. There is not much water inside of a rock. Our well is 350 feet deep with a 1,600 gallon storage tank and we still lose water from time to time during the year. The whole neighborhood is like this, the whole hill for that matter. Some have good water systems, some have no water at all and have it hauled in and then there one's like us where we get a gallon every five minutes on a good day. It just depends on your luck around here. So, after three years we have decided to up our luck and be proactive about a problem we have no controller over. We have decided to put in a rain water cistern system that will run off of our gutters along the house to collect the ever flowing Washington rain (might as well use some of it other than to make mud right?). We purchased a 550 gallon tank that will hold the rain water to use for animals, gardening and yard stuff, which will then help free up the good, small amount of water for the inside of the house. Heck, with the cisten water, we can ever flush toilets when the power goes out - BONUS!!!

So, we started the cistern project Labor Day weekend 2011. Yeah, I know, you don't have to tell me - it's March. We've been a little busy, but the process starts like this...

It starts will a family-team effort to move the cistern over the fence...

Then it's time to dig the whole. Yeah, it could be above ground, but it looks nicer below ground and with the kids wanting to dig, why not? ;-)

No you gotta putt it in the whole (don't you just love free child labor)

It's in, FINALLY!

and now the hard work starts! TO BE CONTINUED...

We have Turkey eggs!

Yeap, thats right - we now have two kinds of eggs here on the farmstead: Chicken and TURKEY! We cracked one open to see and it's just like a chicken egg only a bit bigger. I think we might do a taste test soon too (we never eat the first ones because we are not sure how long they have been out there)! Looks like the kids will be hunting for eggs in two locations now!

Before the wash...

Nice and clean...

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Where Did the Summer Go?

Wow – is it really September 4th already? What happened to July and August? Have I really not posted anything since June? Geesh, I’m a slacker! Not really. We have just had one busy summer here on the Jowett Farmstead.

Let’s first catch you up on the horse situation. If anyone has noticed, there is a change in horse pictures on the right side of my blog. No, we didn’t give our horse a dye job. We have a new horse! Why a different horse you ask? Well, it’s like this. When we first welcomed Princess Kiera home, she was somewhat of a rescue. She had been left out to pasture for some time and was very out of shape. In her previous condition, she made a great children’s horse. With my love of rescue and rehabbing animals, we, my friend/co-owner and I, started our new project of rehabbing Kiera and soon found out with good care that Princess Kiera was born to fly – quite literally! She is a jumping queen with huge skills to match! The issue though is, while Preteen will eventually become a jumper in her skills in the future and with her little sister just starting to learn how to ride, Princess Kiera is too advanced for our family. So, we found a lovely woman who LOVES to jump and loves Kiera just as much as we do and we can now say - Welcome to the family Mister Reggie!

Reggie has a history in our family as he is the horse that Preteen learned to ride on, her first love. So, when the original owners came to our friend saying that they couldn’t care for Reggie anymore, my friend and I jumped on the chance to have Reggie back and now he is ours for keeps! Poor guy was left out to pasture for six+ months in the winter and lost some weight and muscle, but with the TLC he has received since we brought him home in June, he is already making a fantastic recovery. Preteen has never been happier!

What else have we done? Well, the hubby and I spent a week and a half on a light vacation/family reunion in Europe. We saw the UK and France and even a little of Canada during our layovers. We got to see Stonehenge, Bath, London, Oxford and Paris to name a few sights. I even got to feed some of my love for Harry Potter and see sights where the movies were filmed. Yeah, I know, I am dork, but I still love Harry Potter! While we were gone, Gramps held down the fort and watched the kiddos. The kids did spend a few days with their aunt and a friend of mine, so they had as much fun as we did. The Farmstead did just fine while we were away, no animals died so we are just fine! Hehehehe.

August was crazy busy, just trying to catch up on things, prep for the upcoming fall/winter seasons and prepping for the upcoming Homeschool year. We here at the Jowett Farmstead will be starting our school year close to what the public schools do on September 6th, as it makes it easier for the kids to have similar schedules as the public school friends who start on September 7th. My kids usually end earlier though as we do not take off as many days as public schools. We really don’t have the need for school improvement days nor teacher work days – those are called Saturday and Sunday around here!

Anyways, I know a few of you have been asking about the turkeys so I will leave you all with a few pictures of my tasty little morsels. We now know that out of the 12 turkeys we have, there are two Toms and ten Hens!

A Tom and his hens...