The Best Laid Plans: Compost Happens

 This month has been so perfectly reminiscent of how things came to pass on our homestead in the Northeast Kingdom in the 1990's that you just have to laugh and go with the flow or it will make you crazy. We have 35 day old chicks coming in a couple of weeks along with 2 Boer goats, a doe and her doeling, waiting to be delivered and we don't have the shelters ready for any of them. This is partly due to the fact that the logging that was supposed to be done back in February to clear a couple of acres for the chickens and goats still has not come to fruition and it is nearly the end of May. Now 3 loggers and many promises later we believe we have a logging company coming in June. Fingers and toes crossed. Because of the delays we will have to build a goat shelter and pasture area where the garden was supposed to go and move the goats to the cleared area in the fall. There are actually some unforeseen benefits to doing it this was so all is well that ends well.

Today we had planned to get started on the goat shelter but we found out this morning that we can get someone to come in this Monday to cut some of the huge pines that are in the way for where we want to build the chicken coop. So that meant we had to move the log splitter, the lumber pile for the coop and the cold compost pile. We decided to combine some of the old compost pile with some new green material in one of those compost tumblers. I had a plan for this great 3 bay compost system that I wanted Don to build but we just have too much on our plates so we bought a tumbler for now. Maybe I can get him to build the 3 bay one this winter when things slow down a bit. We have had some foxes, raccoons and even a bear  (as seen on the trail cam) check out the pile of mulch hay and miscellaneous compost materials so we really needed to get it under cover.

 Don started moving the old pile by hand then decided to get the tractor. 

 I was gathering up the old mulch hay to add to the tumbler. 

 Don decided the whole thing would go faster with the tractor and he was right. It did :-)

 Then he dragged the log splitter out of the way of the trees that will be felled on Monday.
Last year he cut a hole in the bucket of the tractor and installed a hitch so he can tow things
like the splitter with the bucket. Pretty smart!

 Then he worked on cleaning up the area where the large pines would be dropped 

(Still no work getting done on the goat barn LOL)

 I worked on tying the raspberry canes into a V shape to let in air and light. 

Then we applied mulch and compost to the raspberries and blueberries. 

As for the goat barn, well.... tomorrow is another day ;-)