July

The Fourth of July was spent locally - fishing and fireworks. This was the first year in a very long time that Rog did not work the holiday as part of his summer park gig. So we had time for a picnic as well.

                                      

And then the rain stopped. Every little green puff on the radar split up and missed our house completely for at least 6 weeks. Right after we got a new 15 acre hayfield planted. The early rainy season delayed our field prep considerably so we had a few strikes against us already in terms of timing. We stared at it every day as if willing it to grow,

About 5 weeks after planting we started seeing hints of green. Strangely, the grass and clover didn't grow- at all. Alfalfa, which is generally a bit more temperamental and unforgiving, was the only thing to show signs of life. The alfalfa came up sparsely and was soon joined by friends. 

Morning glories, in every color, shape and level of creeping invasiveness.

Some grew like shrubs, some like vines. It's like a damn forest shading the alfalfa. We've spent countless hours walking the field and identifying plants to determine if they're safe to be eaten, ie toxic to the goats. 

Not sure what these are but there are now millions of white hibiscus flowers, and the morning glories have bloomed yellow, purple and hot pink through the field. The purple alfalfa blooms are present but dwarfed. At this point we have no choice but to cut and bale it, figure out of the alfalfa seed is round up ready so we can hopefully kill of the intruders and then overseed it with clover. 

The garden did quite well, despite gross neglect on our parts. We've been enjoying our favorites. 

Coated in farina and fried quickly in grapeseed oil. 

And even on pizza. 

This spring we are out of bacon, yes *out* of bacon and dangerously low on pork products in general. 

So since we needed one more thing to feed, we got a pair of piglets!

In 5 months our bacon stock will be replenished. They have a large indoor / outdoor space that we built and poured concrete for ease of cleaning. 'Pigs' and 'clean' don't generally go hand in hand. The smells are back in full force. Nothing says July like 100 degree heat, pig poop, spilled milk and hundreds of fly carcasses. 

And Rog couldn't be happier, of course. He missed the pigs most of all. 

And because we needed another thing to feed. . . we brought in something even larger. 

Sierra looks lovely in the pasture. 

And then there were two.

More to come on the latest additions. 

June

May came and went and the rain finally stopped. We planted ornamental grasses in front of our propane tank - that's a law in the country isn't it? To try to conceal that monstrosity with tall grasses? 

Our first spring here brought a few surprises, like these peonies in front of the barn. We have a lone petunia that keeps sprouting up under the deck, however that got there. Peonies are one of my favorites, but they're so short lived. We have several - bright pink and dark burgundy, which I hadn't seen before.

The equipment was at the ready, sitting idly, patiently waiting for the ground to dry out. 

More acreage means bigger equipment! This beast can rake mean rows in about a third of the time. Plus it makes for a pretty cool photo. And it made for interesting lawn decor when a hydraulic line blew the first time we used it.

Finally it was time to cut hay! Our days of running short and scrambling to buy a few hundred bales at a time was over! The first cutting was successful enough (about 1400 square bales) that the barns were full and we even had a few spare wagon loads to sell. 36 acres of hay doesn't sound too unmanageable until you start stacking. 

                        

We managed to squeak in a garden, not quite as large as we're accustomed to, but then again, who has the time for weeds! The scrapped wood from disassembling stalls made excellent raised beds. The pig weed filled topsoil filled them up and started a nightmare for weeds. Asparagus and strawberries were started for next year. The blueberry bushes peaked early and we enjoyed several bowls, not having the patience to wait for enough to bake a pie. Lettuce, carrots, herbs, bush beans, beets, turnips, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes and a brand new fig tree rounded out the food plot. Within a week, most had sprouted, within 2 weeks they were being choked out by pigweed. Those little buggers are hardy.

We cut. And raked. And baled. And stacked. And unstacked. And retstacked.

And got really sweaty. And itchy.

And done! Just before the rain threatened.

June also brought sadness. Having a cluster of older pets really, really sucks some times. Rosie left us at age 13-ish. We aren't certain as she was a rescue but we'd owned her since 2005 when it was believed she was 1-3 years old. One day she was fine, the next she was having difficulty walking and failed quickly within the next 1-2 days at the clinic with heart failure. Rosie was the sweetest, most affectionate and tolerant cat I'd ever come across. And a little freaky, depending on who you asked. We still miss her every day.

And sometimes in sadness comes growth. Two stalls were emptied and prepped in June for our newest additions. More to come...

May

May brought rain. And more rain. And so much green! So much rain that our much anticipated hay harvest had to wait. We used the extra time to put up new fencing, new access gates, repair existing fencing and re-string wire. We re-routed the goats from the front pasture to the back where they can roam freely away from the road and we can also watch them from the deck and even from out kitchen table. Since the news isn't even worth watching anymore it gives us some form of excitement!

We planted a forest. See it? Look closer... In 50 years it will be spectacular. Or maybe most of them would die in the drought to come. Little did we know when we planted them.

We bought dirt. And then we bought more dirt. The foundation of the house is now graded properly and we seem to have stopped all the water seepage. Hopefully I didn't just jinx it. We used some of the dirt to fill garden beds, fill in previously dug up areas of our lawn. As nothing can be easy, this lovely rich topsoil was filled with pigweed - roots, seeds, who knows but everywhere this dirt went, we have red rooted stubborn pigweed and it doesn't want to die.

The May rains did give way to some pretty spectacular sunsets across the property.

We finally finished at least a temporary pasture for the spring kids, we'll work on enlarging it in the fall but we used up all of our post-hole-digging energy on the larger pastures. 

The girls are happily milking away- no A/C yet, maybe next year. The fun in using stall wood to build the milking room has been gaps. Gaps so small you can't see them but the freaking mice sure can - they get in and tear open feed bags routinely. Rog has gotten as crazy with setting mousetraps as I am in killing flies in the house. 

They love their new pasture. It's a little lumpy and bumpy but goats are supposed to be agile right? No more running from cars, they can 'talk' to us when we are on the porch and they run in at milking time without being asked. Blessing has secured her new nap locations and the girls have claimed a new dirt pile to lie on.