Camper RV Remodel Video

Just a quick tour of our finished (?) travel trailer.  Yes, I need to learn skills in videography.  LOL.  Anyway, I will never think it is quite finished so I thought I would film it, rather than wait forever.  Enjoy.

Garden/ducks/pigs/family

The garden is well on it's way.  We have had generous helpings of rain, and the growth has been good.  My husband has done a great job with whipping it into shape with a little help from his apprentice (me).  We are starting to be able to harvest green beans, beet greens, and we have green tomatoes.  The squash plants are blooming, and so are the cucumbers.  God is
good!










There has been a renewal of hope in the garden.  When you look at the rows and see that there are plants missing, it looks rather incomplete.  However, when you are able to add more seeds and they actually come up, it is definitely a joyous sight.  Thank goodness for new seedlings!






Our friends and neighbors Joanna and Donnie surprised us by bringing us two piglets (and here we thought we were going to pick some up for them - thanks Joanna and Donnie!)  We were able to set up in a hurry due to having had pigs before.  We had their pig hut and water barrel ready.  After observing them and having to round them back up several times while setting up the electric fence, we named them Scarlet and Melanie, as my husband had to set up the fence in a hurry, while I had to keep rounding them up before they were "Gone with the Wind."  This is a new pig adventure, as these piglets were weaned young (only 5 weeks old), so I am worried about their nutrition, and I would like to try to buy the least pig feed possible this time.  So far they have enjoyed some rice and bread soaked in milk, and other leftovers soaked in milk.  They also seem to love the clover in the pasture.


We are still working on taking the ducks to their house on the pond.  We have walked them to the pond "encouraging" them to go, and feeding them there.  This time they actually went in by themselves and swam briefly before getting out and following us right back to the chicken coop area.  Now I am just feeding them further and further out to increase their comfort zone.


We are still being careful in these Covid-19 times, but spending time with our family.  We had a recent Mother's Day celebration for me at my daughter's house who gave me a book to read to my grandson entitled "How to Babysit your Grandma".  We had a sushi dinner with spring rolls and a yummy cheesecake that my daughter made.  My son was there also, and had previously sent gifts.  A gift he gave us while he was there is he showed us pictures of the fact that he actually bought a tiller and planted a garden!  First interest he has shown to that extent!   Life is good!

How to Launch a Duck House Without Getting Wet

Today we were successful in many things.  Our beautiful duck house floats!  Yay!  First fear vanquished.

When I went online to look at duck houses and what I would want for a duck house, I was surprised to see that they cost between $1400 and over $2,000.  We made this one from scraps in our workshop, including old hinges to make the top flip open for cleaning and egg gathering, and a chain to keep it from tipping open too far and ruining the hinges, to the 2 inch foam insulation we used to make it float.

Of the many videos I watched of DIY duckhouses, they were launched by someone in a canoe, or used anchors, etc.  Personally, I did not want to get wet in the pond, so I devised a way to launch it without getting wet.  My husband did not want to get wet either, so he went along with my plan, even though I could see doubt on his face.  He bent two pieces of rebar in shepherd's crooks.  We hammered one into the ground on one side of the pond, and one into the ground on the other.  Then we put the duck house down next to one of them and ran the rope through the rebar and tied it to one of the eye bolts on one side of the duck house.  We walked the rope around the back of the pond, looped it through the other piece of rebar, walked it back, and ran it through the other eyebolt (not shown in the first picture.)  Then we pulled it snug and pushed the duck house into the water.  IT FLOATED!!!  YAY!!!

Since the rope was in a loop from one side of the pond to the other, we could just pull it one way until the house ended up in the middle of the pond.  In this way, we will be able to pull it back when we want to check for eggs or see if it needs cleaning.  SUCCESS!

Next comes the part where we get the ducks to want to live in it.  We went back to get the two ducks.  We had been moving the duck house further and further toward the pond and feeding them near it, so we had hoped for success.  However, we did not do it as long as we had planned, as we realized that they were eating pretty far away from their water, and ducks need water to eat. . .

So either it will happen, or we traumatized our ducks. . .but we will keep trying.  For this first time, we walked them back to the chicken coop they were used to.