Welcome to June

Good morning, everyone! We have been busy with more than just the homestead lately. We are volunteering our help to the Ranch, which has been fun and educational.  The office is staffed with very nice people now.  Andrea and Dianna are two of the sweetest people I've ever met, and Frank, the new Ranch manager, is working hard to get the place back on track. The POATRI treasurer Marbert has been busting his hump, volunteering in the office and showing Frank the ropes. We are happy to have the facilities open again, and we hope that the upswing of improvements will continue!
The chickens are getting fat, and soon we'll start free ranging them. This will also make it a lot easier to work on the coop, which needs work before the hens can start laying and also to have them well-protected when winter weather returns. Right now it is just a four post structure wrapped in chicken wire that is buried a foot into the ground.  Unfortunately, the portland cement we used in the adobe that anchors the posts must have been bad, because everything we used it in just crumbles away.  I will eventually dig out the corners and re-concrete the posts, and probably use that opportunity to start pouring adobe footings for the walls.  Eventually the coop will have three, probably slip-formed, adobe walls with chicken wire and rebar for support
We also got to visit our buddy Rusty up on Jack Eden Mesa, and after the tour of his adobe and other projects, we got to meet his daughters Bailey and Ayrton, and Bailey's friend Ryan. Rusty and his family did a beautiful job on their adobe hideaway, and you can check out his photos here: Rusty's Blog.  We are hoping the group will come by our place if they get a chance, and we'll be sure to take lots of pictures to remember one of our first groups of visitors! Today Casey and I are in dire need of a trip to Alpine, and while we hate to leave our house, we must get food for ourselves and the animals.  No one wants to visit a house of skeletons, anyway!