Good morning! Welcome to the show!

Picked up 100 catfish to stock the pond from Orscheln Farm & Home.  The catfish are in the 8"-10" range and should reach the 1.5 lb range by this next summer with regular feeding.  My daughter is loving feeding them at this point, we will see how long that last.

The pond is low from the dry summer but that has allowed me to inspect the waters edge and cut back some overgrown vegetation.  I did a fish sampling last week with a seine and found that the pond only has catfish (which is good) but all of the fish a very skinny (not so good).  I think with the low water levels and little run off into the pond, very little food was washed into the water from the bank and overhanging vegetation.  I just picked up some floating fish food and will try to get some weight on them before the water changes over.  "Fish Days" are tomorrow at Orschelns, I plan on picking up some fresh stock to get a breeding population going.

Well, it's not much to look at but we were actually kind of excited to find an apple on a tree on the new property.  I looked out the kitchen window and saw a red object in one of the trees of the back yard.  From the size, I thought it was a cherry and I rushed out to take a closer look. It's not a crab apple, just a VERY small apple.  There are several mature fruit trees on the property but with the hot and dry summer this year, this was all that produced.  I talked my daughter into sharing it with me (knowing it would be tart) and chuckled at her face when she puckered up.  It was a bit of a trick to split it two ways.  That is Anna's hand holding the apple to give you a better idea of the size, maybe one inch across, but beautiful...

Waiting, waiting and more waiting . . . The well test have been done three times to get the water test to come back in levels that the bank likes to see. (Like they even know what they are reading or care about my health, they are just protecting their butts.) Had the have the county water lab redo the reports I don't know how many times to reflect the wording that the bank needs to see. This VA loan has had a bunch of hoops to jump thru.  I am waiting for someone to tell me that the driveway has the wrong size gravel and it will have to be replaced . . .

Went to Orscheln Farm & Home store early in the week to price some fencing. I shouldn't need much.  I may just keep an eye out for some partial rolls of woven wire fence on craigslist.org and save a few bucks.  The local nursery's are getting low on their supply of fruit trees.  I should go ahead and pick up a few now to make sure I can still have some to plant this year.  I would hate to miss out and have to wait until spring.

The boxes are packed and the contract on our house should be closing any day now.  We have found a farm in south central Missouri that looks to be a good fit for us if the price is right.  About 6-7 acres, a couple outbuildings, fenced pasture and a pond.  The barn is white . . . incase you were wondering.  Thank you Lord!