Winter Musings

Last winter about this time, we were making plans to pour a slab in front of the Barnery for our circus tent (also doubling as a pickleball court!)and to remodel our chicken coop. We're happy to report both have turned out beautifully without much incident.

My only regret is planting a clover/grass mix in front of the Coop 3.0, "The Funky Chick-Inn". It has seemingly attracted deer from all corners of the county. I didn't bother with fencing behind the coop as it was never an issue. Well THAT has changed! The deer are now coming around, ransacking the entire ranch and then destroying other sections of fence trying to get out once the dogs discover them.

So this winter as we feed the birds & ponder our plans for next year, fencing is high on the list: Install, upgrade, repair, electrify, you name it!

What other things are making the list in our mid-winter feverish minds? Here are the top two"

Scavenger Hunt/Tour - Using clues such as GPS coordinates, a song from the Police, and our favorite quote from Tolstoy, we've constructed an eight stop 'mystery tour' of the Ranch. What started out as a remembrance of Geocaching with my kids has morphed into an attempt to lure our Barnery guests out onto the land we love. There are prizes, and even a chance to get a selfie with Sasquatch!

Sundial - Plans are almost complete for our analemmatic sundial. This actually started 8(?) years ago after replacing our septic tank lid. Seems natural, right? But after pondering what to do with the old hunk of concrete lid...... Eureka! Anyway this little project never made never rose to the 'action' stage of our long list...until now!!

Here are the plans:

Since the old concrete lid eventually broke, we decided to make a human scale sundial where you are the gnomon (the pointer that casts the shadow)

(Now if I can just get it located so that it'll give me an excuse to Cheryl for me to use some heavy machinery! ;-)

There will probably be more hair-brained ideas that show up on our list as there are far too many weeks of winter to get through so until we see you again,

Cheers!