A busy month! .. and finally a healthy rainfall :)

It's been a very busy month with a wide range of projects.  The Permaculture site development had it's first good test with a rainstorm of over 2".  I also just finished rebuilding a better rain-collection system for the barn. This is the primary water source for the house along with a good, but low producing well.

Son, Joey, is building a straw bale room with the help of a lot of friends... who appear to enjoy playing in the mud ;)

A few finishing touches!  The clay came from a pond excavation as part of the keyline project.

We had a nice cookout with a Dutch oven over the fire.  This is becoming a pretty common weekend activity.  Usually, we use a roast, some home-made broth from our grass fed beef, add some potatoes, carrots, onions, some spices and some vino.  Slow cook it in about 2-1/2 to 3 hours adding a little liquid and rotating from time to time.  Yum-yum :)

First real rainfall since the swales and berms have been in place.  One of the new ponds is about 1/2 full now.

This is one of the prettiest spots in the keyline area and the soil is very rich.

It's hayin' time!!  We have a pretty big hay crew this year.  The trick is to keep the rookies from breaking the bales before they get stacked.  And once we get them in the barn, the kids are tempted to play on the hay bales, but if they get too rambunctious the bales get knocked over and it leaves a big mess.

That's what the straw bale addition looks like and it's a nice cool room.