Gwen had her calf this morning, a bull.  Both mother and son seem to be doing fine.  Now the milk will really start pouring!!!!

Glad she waited until my day off so I could be home to keep an eye on her.

Until later …

Make it go away!  It’s dry and it sucks, sucks, sucks.  The garden is about done in.  I’m tired of watering it.  The damned chickens are doing in what the heat is not.  Lovely.  It’s been so hot for so long it saps the energy out of you.  We planned to do the electric cross fence on Sunday, but we elected to just stay in the house.  Well, that isn’t quite true, Wally didn’t get all of the supplies so we couldn’t have finished it if we wanted to.

On another note, I got some Guinea Fowl on Thursday.  The plan was to keep them penned up for a week or two and then let them out.  Mica had other plans.  On Friday morning when I reached into their pen to take out their water bowl to clean it, Mica circled around the back of the pen and scared them out.  Guineas move really, really fast.  Forget getting them back up.  At first, they stuck around, then they disappeared to parts unknown.  When Wally came home on Friday, he said that he saw a Guinea in the driveway.  I went out on foot, then on the ATV, finally on Merlin, but I didn’t see the bird.

I worked on Saturday.  While Wally was mowing, he saw Rose running with what he thought was one of my young (prized) blue laced Wyandotte hens, but it was a Guinea.  He yelled at her and she dropped it.  Wally put it back in the pen.  Later Saturday evening, I discovered the rest of the Guineas near the pen!  Yea, they came back!!!!  When it was dark, we caught them and put them in the pen.  On Sunday, I let all but four of the Guineas out and they stuck around.  Cool.  We now have a Guinea Bug Patrol.  Eat those damned ticks!

Have you heard on the news that humans can get sick from pet food?  It seems Salmonella survives on it.  So, it’s okay to feed your dog or cat Salmonella-laced food?  Isn’t that the excuse so many vets use for not feeding raw: potential contamination from Salmonella?????

Growl.  Off to milk.

Until later …

I did it … I sold Merlin along with his saddle and bridle on Friday.  There comes a time when you realize that something isn’t working out for you and that’s the way it’s been with Merlin.  I found him a fantastic home.  In fact, I think he’s better off where he is now than he was here.  Why?  Because he’s getting ridden, which is what this horse needed: desperately.

I think Merlin might be smiling in this photo.  Martin is riding in this photo.

Martin’s Aunt, Louise is riding him in this photo.

Al Bin stole my heart when I first saw him and even though I loved riding Merlin, it’s Al Bin I want to work with.  So, yesterday we got him out, cleaned him up and I had Wally give me a leg-up onto his back.  First I just hung over his back on my belly.  Wally chanted: “Don’t you get on that horse! Don’t you get on that horse!”  Do I ever listen to Wally when it comes to horses? Nope.  I swung my leg over and sat on him.  He just stood there!  Yea ha!  I sat on the Black Stallion Gelding!  Wally and I watched the Black Stallion yesterday.  He hadn’t seen it before.  Al Bin could have been the horse in that movie, except Al Bin is more handsome.

I feel guilty leaving Al Bin as an only horse and soon we’ll find a pony to keep him company.  I am committed to getting him riding again.  Tonight we’ll take him down into the round pen and I’ll get up on him again and we’ll see if we can’t get him moving out.

Until later …

There are days that seem like they are full of never ending frustrations.  Today has been one of those days.  I guess I need to just sit down and let the World go by and stop worrying so much.

The goats are starting to slack off and that’s frustrating me because I have people who want to buy it (to feed their cats and dogs).  I think some of those people think that milk comes out of a faucet and eggs are plucked from the sky.  Unfortunately, modern-day grocery stores contribute to that notion.

I’m not so sure the goats are truly slacking off due to the season, but because it’s been so bloody hot.  The yield was pretty good this morning: enough for a pot of cheese with a gallon left to spare.

The chickens destroyed half of the young zucchini crop I planted.  In a little while, I’m going to go down to the garden and put chicken wire around the perimeter of the garden in an attempt to keep the scratching fiends out.  I added some Guinea Fowl to my flock in an attempt to cut down on the bug population.  Guineas are tick fiends.  The trick is getting them to stick around.

I discovered this morning that my middle name, “Therese” means to harvest.  Interesting.

I put Merlin and my saddle up for sale this morning and this time, I am going to sell them.  It’s stupid to have a horse and a saddle and not ride.  I suppose if he were a little easier to tack up, I’d be more interested in riding him, but maybe not.  It seems to be a frivolous waste of time when there’s so much to be done around the house and farm.  I’m not sure what I’ll do with Al Bin.

Until later …

Farmers are struggling in this heat wave because their pesticides are evaporating too quickly and the pests are taking over.

Keep on mucking around with Mother Nature you all … soon there will be no more food.

Until later …

Yep, I’m doing it.  I said I may not can this year because of the high electricity expenditure, but I couldn’t not can.  I’m saving seeds too.  The various vegetable plants that reseeded themselves in the garden were so vigorous, I couldn’t ignore the benefits of keeping seed back from vegetables that did well in the garden.  Also, there may be a day when seeds are hard to come by.

Yesterday I fixed the bed that formerly had carrots planted so that the chickens couldn’t get in it.  Supposedly it’s too late to replant carrots, but I may try.  You are not supposed to be able to get a fall crop of peas in NC, but I am going to try that too.  Just need to get down there and get the seeds in.  I have to work this afternoon and I have to finish canning the huge basket of tomatoes I picked yesterday afternoon, so I may not get down there today.  After today, I’m off two days in a row, then work one day, then off two more days.  You really need two days to recharge, but I had better get used to not having two days off.  Heck, I had a whole lot of days off, but most of that time off was spent stressing over being out of work so it wasn’t a restful time off.

Yesterday afternoon, I watched Food, Inc.  I’ve been avoiding watching it because I really didn’t want to see what went on behind the doors of factory farms:  it’s horrible, absolutely horrible.  Formerly, I was buying Smithfield Farm’s ham, but no more!!!  What they do to those pigs was despicable!  I wrote last summer about what happened to the cow at the local dairy that went down with mastitis over the weekend.  Food, Inc. showed scenes in a feed lot that brought back that horrible memory.  Wally frequently tells Gwen she doesn’t know how lucky she is, and she is, but then again, we are very lucky to have her.

We don’t try to make money off our animals; Wally formerly had that mentality, but I think it’s gone now.  As long as they feed us and at least contribute to the cost of their care, it’s good.  I think it is when people start to try to make money off animals and the products they produce that they loose sight.

Mica has been nothing short of a delight.  He’s such a clever, fun puppy.  It’s so much fun being around him.  Gel has been amazingly tolerant of him.  I’m surprised at what he lets Mica do without correcting him.

Well, the tomatoes just started boiling so I’m going to use that 45 minutes to go out and get some of my morning chores done.

Until later …

“Yourselves” is that even a word?

I’m tired.  I want to lie on the couch all day and be a vegetable … but I have someone coming out for two gallons of milk this morning, milk that I do not have in the refrigerator and I expect cheese curds are not going to be a good substitute so I have to get my ass out there and get it done before she gets here.  It’s a good thing she called because the milk from this morning was slated to go to the pigs because both of my cheese pots are full.  The pigs are growing amazingly well.  They love, love, love milk and whey.  I’ve been cleaning out weeds and dead tomato plants and giving them to the pigs.  I was wrong, we are going to get some kick-ass compost from their pen.

The heat is coming back.  It’s been deliciously cool and overcast over the past few days: a wonderful gift.  Little to no rain though.

The chickens disseminated my carrot seedlings.  That’s something we need to get fixed as soon as possible: fixing the raised beds to keep the chickens out.

I discovered it’s too late to plant winter squash, but I might put a few seeds in to see for myself.  I started the zucchini seedlings and they’ve sprouted and are growing well; well, at least they are for as long as the chickens stay out of them.  I also started a few more bean plants and have more bean seeds coming.  I’ve been buying my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and have been very pleased with the quality of the seeds and the service I get from them.

Wally and I went to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday and I purchased some tiny Delicata squash.  There was little to eat in them, but I saved the seeds and plan to put a few in the garden to see what happens.   Apparently, squash bugs will do in the plants if you plant this late.  Maybe I can convince the chickens to eat the squash bugs and leave the squash plants alone.

I also bought some pretty melons (one is white with green polka dots, called a Snow Leopard, the other, I think, is an Asian variety called Sun Jewel) that I plan to save the seeds from.

The trellised cucumber plants are still producing amazingly well and I need to save some seeds for next year.  I have half a million Roma tomatoes to get off the vines and into jars to can them today.  I’ve decided to raw pack them instead of baking them as I usually do.  This is all in interest of time and heat.

I’m beat.  Yesterday at work, one of my eyes was twitching from fatigue.  I hate that.  Finished all my computer-based learning and tests.  Now I need to finish my training on the photo finishing equipment, all of which was down yesterday so I spent a good part of the day on the cash register.

The horses (well, I think it should be singular: horse: Merlin, but Al Bin may be doing it as well, I just haven’t caught him) is well on his way to wrecking the fence we just installed.  I’d love to find a home for that horse.  So, we’ll need to put a line of electric fence over the top of that to keep them off it.  I hate to see all that hard work being destroyed by the worthless beasts.

I’ve been reading The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka and loving it.  I particularly like his statement: “Humanity knows nothing at all. There is no intrinsic value in anything, and every action is a futile, meaningless effort.”  How true is that?

Off to milk.

Until later …