More grass!

The area behind the house, in between the house and garden bed has just been a total eyesore since we moved in. Because of the earthworks and rain and slope, there was just NO topsoil there, and all we had was a bunch of crappy clay. We've tried so many things to help grow some soil and grass there, but nothing worked..... until now!

The Biermans, once again, came thru as our trusty grass suppliers. Murphy and Harry spent the summer digging up their front yard, piling the grass for our taking.

Ra'am loaded severl truckloads full of grass and brought them over here for our extensive grass planting adventure!

GB took the tractor and scraped a good area for us to start.

Here's one of the many loads Ra'am brought

Despite the fact that the grass was already cut up, it was still a ton of hard work! Loading up, UNloading, and then planting was hard! Each clump of grass is a different thickness, so there was shoveling, raking, filling, and puzzle putting together skills used.

Here's a huge pile ready to be planted

Noam working hard! This picture shows the area almost done

We also planted in the cinders directly behind the house as well as down below the pool in a "problem" area. So far the grass is looking good (one month later) and I can't wait to see it all filled in!

PIGGIES!

The pigs came back this year with a vengeance. We started seeing a few here and there, and then it seemed like every time we drove down the driveway, we'd see bands of them, eating mango or just tearing up earth. We called Barry back, who set snares all over. In total, in a couple of months, he's caught maybe 10 pigs. I'd like to say I feel badly about it, but after learning that they are able to reproduce near 4ish months and then can bear 3 litters in a year, I am not worried at all for their population, plus they're all getting eaten.

On a particularly pug-full day, we caught two here on our property. Barry already had one in his truck from another area, and was on his way to get a different one.

Here he's hog tying the larger of the two caught here (after lassoing it)

Here are the two from our property

Duckies need a home

So we kept the ducks inside for all of 24 hours. We were totally unprepared for their copious amounts of smelly poop. We've had chickens for years, but ducks are very different and way smellier!

The lady we got them from said we could just put some hardware cloth in a circle and then stick a board on top, to protect the ducklings from predators. GB went up to the shed to grab those items, and came back with this fort.

As you can see, Pippi is very interested in the new fowl.

We set up a plastic drawer full of water for them. They jumped right in and went for a swim! (10 minutes later the water was brown)

Of course, this temporary shelter has to be moved every day or so. The ground underneath gets fowl very very quickly!

Duckies!

It's always been part of the plan to get ducks and put them up with the tilapia pond. This summer our chickens have been pretty poor layers. I don't know if they're getting too old, or what, but when you're feeding 9 birds and getting one or no eggs per day...

GB found some duckies on craigslist and they were delivered soon thereafter, at 2 weeks old. They are indian runner, campbell khaki and something else mix.

Welcome to our family, little duckies!