First Cutting

First cutting of our hay - cut, fluffed, and baled entirely by Tom. He and Paden spent many hours picking the bull nettles, which stung them even through leather and rubber gloves, long sleeves, and jeans, out of the hay before baling. This cutting has a lot of weeds so we'll be selling it to a friend for just the price of the fuel it took to process it. Subsequent cuttings will hopefully be organic hay that someone will actually want to pay a little more for.

Barbie Carrot

**wolf whistle** from the carrot gallery.

A Bale Was Born

This was an exciting moment for us even though it doesn't appear terribly exciting on video. Tom bought this old baler and it worked perfectly the first time out...well, it made bales and tied them although they weren't exactly uniform.


"ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-chunk".

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Those words are beginning to have meanings for us that we never thought of.

First you cut the hay with a cutter and let it dry. The weather has to be just right. Then you take this machine and fluff it, which turns it over to dry on the other side and piles it in rows in preparation for baling. Tom has cut and fluffed a test area.

Our fluffer needs new tires.

Some Things Have Survived

Despite my problems with planting several things too early so that they didn't sprout, I have had some success with a few things. Carrots and onions have done very well. Even the cabbage, whose leaves look like lace because of some evil little caterpillar munching, has produced it's first full head.

More about Harry...We've been giving him a rawhide chew each evening as we leave him in the barn for the night. It's to keep him occupied so he won't spend his time chasing the cats or tearing up stuff in the barn. We thought he was completely consuming them.

Not so. Evidently, he is stashing them in places for future use. I found three in the golf cart today. They're in a basket that we keep in the back to carry things that we use regularly. When I took the cart out to feed the donkeys, Harry jumped in and took the rawhides, one by one, and stashed them out in the field. He made a feeble effort to bury them, but I don't think he actually dug a hole...just scraped the cut grass around, but the rawhide in and covered them with his nose. I don't know if he'll ever find them again, or if he'll even remember putting them there. We gave him a big bone today that he was ecstatic over. It disappeared when he got tired of chewing. I'll probably find it with my lawn mower in a few days.

More Guard Duty

zzzzzz

Guard Duty

Huh? Whazzat?!

Don't be alarmed. I got it, I got it.

Plum Harvest!

Look what I found under the new plum tree we just planted this year! A perfect little plum. Granted, it's just one little plum, but hey, we didn't expect any fruit from the fruit trees planted just a couple of months ago so we're feeling very blessed.

I ate it. It was good.

Ridin' is Better

Harry has figured out that riding in the golf cart is much easier than running along behind. So he's getting ready to go out to the front pasture with Larry and Tom to pull fence. This is how he likes to ride - sticking out the back. Pretty soon, he will be too big for the cart.

Growin' Reds

Chickens are all feathered out. We still don't know which ones are hens and which are roosters. With our luck, they'll all be roosters. Tom takes Harry with him to tend the chickens so Harry will get used them and hopefully not chase or kill.

Harry

Harry likes to roll in the ground cover and is digging a hole to China right by the back door. He had his vet check up today. He's nearly eight weeks, 26.5 pounds, good health, no parasites.

A Job Well Done

Kip has been successfully integrated with the goats in the pasture. He's with the mommas and babies and there have been no casualties. He's turned out to be such a sweetie.

The thinks he's going to get a treat.

Hey! We want one too!

Kip is showing Harry who's boss.

Fraidy Cats?

The cats are afraid of the puppy. What's up with that? I mean, they aren't afraid of anything. They weave around the donkey's feet even though the donkey has tried to kill them. They follow the goats out to the pasture and hang out with them outside and in the barn. The slip into the stalls with the donkey and goats every chance they get. They play with Pearlie and rub up against her even though she would like nothing better than to kill them. They lay in front of a moving vehicle as if they are unsquashable. They weave in and out of our feet as we walk and they climb all over us. They go into the pasture next door and dare the longhorn cows to chase them. They climb to the very tops of the tallest trees. And they cornered a big snake, for goodness sake! So why are they afraid of a big sloppy puppy?

They stay up in the rafters of the barn, hiss with big wide pupils, and run around with their tails puffed out.

Silly cats. I hope they get over that or the rest of their lives will be miserable having to share the barn with the dog.

Sez Pearlie

"Mine... Also mine."

Livestock Guardian Dog

We decided to bite the bullet and get a livestock guardian dog. We have the donkeys for the pastures, but thought we needed a dog to patrol and protect our whole acreage.

This new pup is part Great Pyrenees and part Anatolian. He should be 100+ lbs. when he's grown. If the breeder was honest, he is seven weeks old and Meagan and I can attest to the fact that he is very heavy since we had to carry him through the market and out to the car. Yes, we did the unpolitically correct thing and bought him at the flea market.

I really resisted getting a dog. It's more trouble and more expense. But it seemed inevitable. So here we are.

We haven't decided on a name. Pearlie is not happy with this situation. Look at that pouty face.

Look What Jasper Cat Found

This was in our front yard by the wishing well. I was headed out to the garden and saw Jasper acting funny. I went to see what was wrong and there was this snake. It's probably about four feet long and I don't know what kind. Tom carried it out by the pond and let it go.

Poor Babies

The vet and his assistant were finished and just getting Henry and Kip on their feet when I went back out to the barn. They staggered around like they were drunk, so we let the donkeys recover for about an hour - until they could walk straight. Since the vet said they need to be up and around for their wound to drain and heal properly, we took them out to the pastures for the day. They felt well enough to run around a bit.

The poor little goats didn't get over it so quickly. They curled up together in the corner of the stall until we made them go outside. Then they curled up together out in the pasture until it was time to go back into the barn for the evening. All I could see all day was their little heads peeping up over the tall grass. When we took them back to the barn, they immediately went to lay down in the corner again without even eating any of their pellets.

Castration Day

The vet is here to castrate Henry, Kip, and Pansy's two kids.

As much as I want to be down there gleaning as much information as I can from the vet, I knew I'd better get out before the kids start their bleating. At least, mercifully, they put the donkeys to sleep for their procedure, but the kids will be awake and alert. I know I couldn't take it, so I headed out right as Kip fell asleep.

It Has Come To My Attention...

...that I had not posted a picture of the finished chicken palace. The building is finished. The yard is only partially finished. We're going to put chicken wire across the top to keep out the airborne predators. So far, the system is working well. Tom put a little sliding door in the side so that we can open it up for the chickens to go outside during the day.

At night, we call them in, "Here chick, chick, chick!" and they all frantically run in to eat the chicken scratch. I had bought a little round bowl with several holes in the top for the chickens to eat out of, but they have outgrown it. Somehow, they would pack it tightly with hay and it would get buried in the litter, so that every time we went to feed them, we'd have to dig through the hay to find it, then dig the hay out of the little holes. What a pain that was. So Tom put the big trough I had gotten earlier in the coop and we feed them in that. When the chickens are eating it sounds like they're popping popcorn.