The Sifford Sojournal

Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.

Month: May 2008 (Page 2 of 2)

Storing Rain II

May 4, 2008 / / 2 Comments


As I’ve mentioned previously, Lord willing, we wanted to be able to have 3 main water sources available on the land: the first was rain water, and the second was surface water. Our section of the property had a pond (tank) on it under a beautiful oak tree (seen here to the left). I thought though that perhaps it would be a good idea to expand this tank, as it seemed to be somewhat smaller in size; I was hoping to add a section 1 1/2 times the size of the original (making the new overall size of the tank to be about 2/3 of an acre), having trenches connecting the two sides with an island in the middle and bridges across the trenches. Also, I was hoping to make it big enough to be able to add fish to it as another food source. And so thus began the pond expansion project.

At first I started digging it by hand. Um…yeah. I realized soon that this would have probably taken several years of steady working at it to be completed. And so, it was time to rent the backhoe.

Here’s foreman Gary telling me to get back to work!

With me back on the job and able to accomplish the planned digging and dirt moving, here are some before and after pictures:

Before, the south side of the original tank, looking from the outside:

After, with the trenches:

Before, facing west in the new area:

After, facing west in the new area:

Before, from the new area facing the oak tree:

After, inside from the new area facing the oak tree:

After, outside from the new area facing the oak tree:

And here is the original, now more dug out, area after some rain:

And here the new area after that rain:

It rained quite a bit last year and the Lord graciously filled the new area up to about 2 feet from the top of the draining side. However, with the newly placed dirt, much of it leaked through the sides at the bottom. I also need to go back and reshape some of the walls a little, now that I’ve had the opportunity to see the water levels around the banks. And so, we are praying that eventually the dirt settles and that the Lord over time graciously fills it back up, granting us this second resource for water and hopefully another source of food.

— David

Introducing Gary

May 1, 2008 / / 4 Comments

Before we go too much further with things, let us introduce to you Gary the Goose. Gary was originally the Michael and family’s goose from when they lived up north, and they brought he and his mate down with them when they moved. Gary’s mate sadly was taken out by some critter one day or night, and so Gary was left alone at the their pond. Geese apparently mate for life, are protective animals, and often die soon after their mate dies. Well, Gary seemed to have some different ideas, because he appeared soon after to adopt to himself a gasoline engine powered water pump they were using to pump water from their pond (we assume because it made noise). However, with the frequent visits from one of the young men working in Michael’s household, Gary moved on to adopting him and slowly made his way up to their cabin area, following this fellow around wherever he went.

Well, Gary started disrupting the their brooding hens, and Michael was not pleased with that. “Unless circumstances change…to the soup pot with you, Gary!” he declared. We thought, hey, we have room for him and he’s not much maintenance, so we offered to take him. Michael let us have him, and we moved him up to our land.

Here’s moving day:

Since then, Gary has pretty much inserted himself into just about every outside aspect of our lives. He follows David around just about everywhere he goes (apparently David is Gary’s new adoptee). In fact, in order to get away, David has to have someone hold him back, drive a vehicle, or lure Gary into the barn (we’ll get to the barn in a future post, Lord willing) and then exit the back side. We have had to be careful about letting him follow us on hot days because he will start to overheat with that down comforter he’s wearing.

He sticks with David through thick and thin:

Sometimes David will walk him down to our pond and let him swim around and “freshen up” for a while down there. He lets David know when it’s time to go by walking up to him away from the pond.

During Spring and Summer, he pretty much lives on the grasses and the like that grow naturally on the land. Otherwise, we give him chicken scratch. Also, he will let us know when the neighbors are coming by squawking away; he’s something of a pretty good watch-goose.

Gary vs. The Bucket

In this corner, weighing in at 7 pounds…Gary the Goose! And in the other corner, weighing in at 12 ounces, The Bucket!

As you can see, he is not fond of buckets. He appears to have a problem with tools and water containers as well. Sometimes we have to put in him the chicken pen while we work to keep him at bay. We have however recently discovered that tossing him through the air away from the scene seems to snap him out of it a bit.

A Conversation with Gary

The Star of the Show

This following video was supposed to be of our new chicks:

As you can see, we have a lot of fun with him. 🙂

And so there you have Gary the Goose. Keep an eye out for him in future posts, and see if you can spot him when he is in one!

— David & Susan

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