I can’t believe I haven’t updated since October so here is my offer of a quick recap of the last seven months at Ravengrove. We had a successful year and expanded the farm a bit adding a third horse for me to ride a Draft Cross red roan named Sky. We had chicks in October but unfortunately with the free-range nature of the hens and an owl – we ended up with only one chick making it to maturity and he turned out to be another rooster.
Oregon’s rainy season started and with it the mud. The horses in particular were miserable over the winter and we have some specific plans to revise the barn paddock, winter pasture, and stalls to make next winter less difficult. We purchased a tractor and were able to keep up with some of the mud and we are now glad to be drying out somewhat.
Of our beehives we did have one hive die out, surprisingly it was the stronger of the two. Talking with local beekeepers this isn’t surprising as it seems like about 50% of local hives died out of mites this winter.
The only snow we had was in February and it was a wet long storm with record snowfall. The damage to the trees was significant. We’ve been talking with local arborists already and unfortunately the vast majority of the mature fir trees in the grove need to be removed due to disease and the ongoing drought the last few years. We are pretty upset about that but found a tree service that can minimize the cost and will spare as many as can be spared. Since the disease and dead wood is so extensive, we will not profit from the harvest and may end up paying out of pocket costs to clear the area.
The spring bought a “bounty” of wild turkeys. In the two years we’ve been at Ravengrove the population has exploded and the flock of turkey’s probably number near 60 birds with 10-15 Toms. We’ve encouraged a few hunters to help thin it out and we’ve taken a couple ourselves to help reduce the problem.
We’ve done a ton of work this spring some of which I will write about soon. My work schedule has reduced travel requirements this summer and I’m looking forward to being home more frequently to enjoy life here in Oregon.