With Maggie out of the action, we really haven’t gotten a lot of extra work done this summer. We had big plans, but well, it’s just been harder. Jessy and I have been trying to get to a few things and we’ve accomplished some, but well, it was time to call in some reinforcements!! Yes, strong teenage boys!
I asked Jeremy, the son of our neighbors, and his friend Chris down for a day to help out with a few things… They were eager to help out and a little pocket change was great incentive. I wish I could have them out a couple times a week, but I think I can only afford a day a week or so. We’ll see how it goes, budget wise…
The first project up on the list was to dismantle the broken chicken tractor in the garden. It was an eyesore and we wanted to scavange the good lumber from the frame! They had that apart in no time flat! Jessy helped and they moved the fence that was around it out to the back side of the garden.
I think it looks lovely! Opens up the area nicely. Then they dismantled the third small coop in the poultry barn that I had built last fall. Our plans have changed and there was really no need for that third pallet coop. And it’s in the way for us to use that area for hay storage in the winter. And we needed the nice heavy duty pallets for our ram shack we were building up front! Well, in no time, they had that done too! 
The chicken tractor was sitting up on a bunch of old wire spools and so we didn’t want to waste them… Jeremy moved them out to the back pasture to add on to our goat fort… which he renamed for us… it’s now officially the GORT… haha…. and the goaties love it!
Rana and Rafeka were skeptical, but they are always skeptical…
Later that evening, Jessy and I went out to show them all their new addition to the Hillbilly playground.
Of course, the goats were ready to try it out. Momma Noel as well! (Mostly because there was cookies involved in the grand opening celebration!) 
Angus was glad that he could have a cookie, even if he could care less about the gort. 
Can’t you see Ivy grumbling… “Dang it, this is a goat thing, let’s go graze…” Which they did.
“Hey! I can see my house from here!”
Kitty Duke is not impressed.
Rana and Buttercup are battling for king of the truck cap.
It has already provided quite a bit of amusement for the us and the goats. Even the sheep kind of play with it. They like to rub on the lower spools and will lounge underneath them in the shade.
And under the cap is a nice place to hang out in the shade or avoid a little summer shower. I am going to build them a nice little rain shelter for everyone soon enough. That way I can leave them out there longer and not worry about the heat or rain. They really don’t like to get rained on hard… light sprinkles are fine, but anything heavy or steady and they all complain.
“Sure, I can make that slide….”
Harley thinks it’s all nonsense. But then, he’s becoming quite the little grown up ram boy! All serious you know.
Cody is not thrilled either. It’s a goat thing. He’d rather graze.
Bucka Too taking a few girls for a stroll in the evening pasture.
Jessy practicing her yoga pose “goat in lap” …. 
Daisy doesn’t understand why kitties get to sit in lap and not goaties…
My little sweetheart, Buttercup. She just loves to love on me. She is the most affectionate farm animal I’ve ever known. Rafeka is getting very comfortable with attention as well.
Daisy and Buttercup vie for closeness to me on the spool. They are very silly.
Beautiful Rafeka… he loves to strike a pose. His hair is getting so nice and long….
Duke Kitty getting a lot of attention, that he’d rather not have… He just wants to sit and look pretty!
Anyone for a goat mower? We can add a section goat for no charge!
Well, it was just amazing what those boys got done. They dismantled the coop and tractor, hauled all the wood over to the salad bar pasture. Removed a fence from the weed patch, and all the posts too! They mowed several areas and weed whacked down a bunch of thistles in the middle and back pasture. It was simply a blessing. Really gave Jessy and I a little break, and a boost in our morale a bit, to see some things get finished up that were lingering a bit. I hope to have them out again because they are great helpers, eager to do things to help us out, especially without our Maggie on the scene! And did I mention, they are just fun and delightful to be around. That’s the icing on the cake. Can’t wait to see what they might do next week!!!
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Nope, haven’t fell off the face of the earth, just been a little busier than normal it seems. We finally got a little stretch of nice weather… no rain, perfect temps from about 75 to 80 degrees and hardly any humidity!!! After like 18 days of straight rain, that meant Jessy and I were super duper busy catching up on farm chores and enjoying the outside as much as possible!
The chickens and animals are all enjoying this weather as well… my gosh, the hens started laying eggs like nuts! And the sheep and goats were all frolicking about, acting very silly. Everyone has been enjoying the drying out period! No more moss growing between our toes!
Things have been getting better. We’re going into week 5 now, for Maggie and I don’t know if Jessy and I are just getting our farm groove on, or if it’s just not as hard as we thought originally! I do know that we have gotten caught up on orders and I on my client work a ton more than the first weeks for sure. I still have some more to finish up in the next couple days, but I can actually see a light at the end of the tunnel! And our chores are getting a little easier to finish up and manage. Same chores, really, just I guess we’re getting more efficient. Not sure how else to explain it. We’re still at the same level of critterness… well, one older hen passed away…. but for the most part, not a lot has changed.
The garden is just starting to provide some wonderful bounty… Jess and I picked all these green beans and a big handful of sweet peas! I had a few of the beans with dinner but most of them I decided to freeze and save their wonderful fresh flavor for later. I am really the only one here that likes green beans! My daughters hate green beans…. oh well! More for ME!!!
I just clean and snap them up, well, snap the end bits off mostly. And then I just blanch them in boiling water for 4 minutes. Seems to work for me. Then lay on a big cookie pan to cool a few moments. I like to put a light sprinkle of sea salt on them. And then pop into the freezer for about an hour or so. Same for the peas.
When they are nice and solidly frozen, I pop them into some sturdy freezer bags. The nice thing about flash freezing them is that you can then take a few or a bunch out of your bag as you need them. They don’t stick together that much. A few do, but most are loose, like supermarket veggies. Once you get them out, I just either microwave them a few minutes or I’ll pop in a little saucepan to warm up, maybe a little water or stock, a touch of butter, whatever seems to work nice. I like the green beans pretty simple, a bit of water, a touch of Italian dressing… slice of butter. Just lovely!
Jessy and I tag team mowed the front, side and courtyard this evening and it only took about 45 minutes. We would each mow about 5 or 10 minutes and then the other would take over in mid stride and keep going. What was nice, is that neither got all nasty tired and sweaty and we got it done in record time! (It was pretty hot today, hit 90 degrees and it’s a tough muggy. I hear we might get some rain tomorrow….ugh….) It looks much nicer now. All that rain has made for a TON of growth! Just wait till I post the pictures of our weed pasture… It’s unbelievable… Here is a little teaser….
That is Momma Noel, the SHEEP, out in the weed patch! Can you believe it? She’s about two foot tall at the shoulder, at least. She’s standing next to a bull thistle that is about 7 to 8 feet tall.
Yep, can we grow weeds or what? The nearby town has a bull thistle festival every year. I sure wish they had a contest for the best weed patch. Because we would surely win it! This pasture is about half an acre or a wee bit more. And we try to mow it down before it gets this bad, but this year has been wacky with the accident and then all the rain and such and it’s gotten away from us!!! Our farmer friend Tom said he’d try and bring his tractor and bush hog mower down and whack it all back before they set seed. We’ve put the flock out there to try and eat down some of the stuff they want, but to be honest, they go out and graze for about an hour and then stand at the gate bawling to be let out. It’s just too high and too weedy for them right now. This is the pasture that I want to house my boy sheepies in soon… gotta separate the boys and the girls soon… well in a month or two. Don’t want any girls thinking about going into heat too early, and having any accidents. By September first, they need to be in separate dorms. That is only about 6 weeks away!!!! Ugh, can you believe it? This summer is flying by and dragging at the very same time…
Well, just wanted to get a quick update up on the blog and let folks know that we’re still around, just crazy busy and trying to get our routine, ah, routine. Looks like we are in for a bit of a heatwave in a few days, so that will drive us indoors for a bit more. The skeeters are so thick outside right now, you almost need a heavy suit with long sleeves and pants on to go outside! Our band played at a BBQ party Saturday night and we had a great time, super nice folks, but my gosh, the skeeters were so thick and even with being sprayed and all, I brought home a nice collection of welts and itchies! I feel bad for the animals outside… they all stomp and twitch and flick at the bugs. It’s dreadful. Oh well, it’s always something, isn’t it??? We’ll get by! Just going to have to invest in a big big can of bug-off! We’re not ones to overdue chemicals and such, but you can’t hardly stand to be outside for 5 minutes before they are trying to suck you dry! Even Cody pony likes it when I bring out the equine spray because the gnats are thick and pester him around his ears. He actually stands there and accepts it, which he’s never done before! It’s that bad!!!
Hope everyone is having a great summer and we’re looking forward to a bit of nice weather to do some new projects outside and at least get some nice snapshots of how everything is doing! Maggie has a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday to see how she’s doing. Her spirits get a little low at times, but overall, she’d doing pretty good. She actually managed to get upstairs to her room the last day or two! That made her happy. And she got into the kitchen and made herself some chicken salad and a sandwich all on her own. (Which is tricky to get all the stuff out when you’re hobbling around on crutches!) I have so totally learned how important it is to stay as mobile as possible! We’re praying that the x rays all look good and that she might be able to start a little light physical therapy soon! We are going into the fifth week now. Can’t believe it… 5 weeks ago tonight we were in the ER and waiting on surgery in the morning! Just another three weeks and she should be able to start walking on it, probably in the boot and with care, but the end is near!!! Thank goodness because her farm is lonely with out her!!!
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