Well, I suppose one should really update websites more often in years of plagues, epidemics and disasters so folks don't wonder if there's still anyone on the other side of the screen, eh? Just in case you've been wondering, we're still here, it's just been a really crazy busy year.
The last post had been in May and that was sorta a normal month for May. Baby bunnies, new chicks, gardening, etc. April had been crazy busy since we had been prepping and selling a house for most of the beginning of the year. Usually we buy more houses than we sell, it had only been the second house we've ever sold and it was at the higher end of the market so it had to look nice. Much nicer than when we live in the house, which I suppose is usual for most folks. But a lot of work to get it there.
We had gotten a small drone earlier in the year. He's now named "Buzzy" and he's a touch annoying because of the buzzing, but he takes great pictures! Too bad we didn't have him when we were taking 'house for sale' pictures the month before. But, he's been useful for getting construction site pictures. So far they're just 'before' pictures but the whole thing looks different from above.
We are planning on building a house there, the sheep have been a clearing crew to get the tall grass down, but even after a year, there's still quite a bit of tall grass. Here's a couple more drone shots of the back yard where you can see the height of the grass. It's way taller than sheep.
Well, the sheep have made a valiant effort, but they're still overwhelmed by the Guinea grass. They have gotten quite a bit down to lawn level, but then they nibble the lawn areas and don't eat the tall stuff as much. Guess we could add more sheep, but once it's all lawn, then there'd be too many sheep. Well, sheep may not be the answer to getting the grass under control. Maybe after we get it organized and the house built, then they can come back as lawn mowers.
Cypress and Flower are going to a larger pasture with more tall grasses. They will have some sheep friends there so they will probably actually be happier up mountain than in the back yard here.
It took several days before they became friends with the other sheep but now all the sheep are in one group and happy. The other sheep are 'hair' sheep and don't get sheared, but Cypress and Flower will get their annual haircuts.
The new answer to Guinea grass control:
This is a medium sized excavator, not one of the tiny ones, yet not one of the big ones, either. It is perfectly sized for what we want to do with it. After clearing the work site, it will be good for excavating the new septic system as well as the house foundations. After all that, it can then do landscaping. This will completely change the yard after it's all finished, I'm now hoping for a flat yard from the edge of the lanai out to the steps up to the avocado plateau. Well, we will see where we actually end up.
Excavators are amazingly fun! It's like sitting in an easy chair with a joystick in each hand. A little twitch one way and the whole thing will spin around, another little twitch with the other hand and it will scoop things up. It's actually quite sensitive and doesn't feel like 'heavy equipment' at all. Sorta like a real life computer game, although one has to keep in mind that the thing weighs a ton or so and that gravity never sleeps. Excavators should be kept as upright as possible when working on slopes. It has a handy little pusher on the front and tracks to trundle from place to place. Each track is operated by either a foot pedal or can be operated by a knob on a long stick. Eventually, most of this will become instinctive, sorta like touch typing, I hope.
There's some bananas on the tall banana plants so those were left, but they won't stay there since they're tall 'gulch' bananas and the much shorter 'Chinese Dwarf' are my preferred banana variety. But, since there's bananas, even if not my favorite type, the plants can stay for a bit.
These are my favorite variety of banana since they taste really good and are easy to harvest. Huge racks of bananas on a short stemmed plant. When harvesting bananas, the whole stalk is cut down since it will die off anyway after the bananas are gone. With a tall gulch banana, it's about like chopping down a tree to get the bananas. With the Chinese Dwarf, not only does it have HUGE racks of bananas, but they're easy to reach.
The banana in the picture isn't finished starting banana fruit and it's on top of a three foot high ledge, so even though the bananas look like they're up in the air, they will be easy to reach from the avocado plateau.
There should be more to this update since it's only gotten us up to basically July or August, but I'm hoping to get some bunnies to meet up this week so there will be baby bunnies early next year, so I'd better get out into the real world for a bit.
