The Vet

First of all it was 32 chilly degrees out this morning.  Should be warming up fromnow on but this is Northern Nevada so no guarantees.

The vet came out today.  Wiseguy was a perfect gentleman.  Held still for the stethoscope   I showed him a carrot and fed him a carrot while he was getting his shot and he barely flinched.

The vet says Wiseguy is in great shape and has good muscles.  He also says the feet look good.

We are getting a worm count fecal analysis.  It's the modern way to worm.  Results will be coming in the mail.

I asked a bunch of questions.

Spot the Goat was looked at.  He has something gruesome on his butt.  Looks like squamous cell carcinoma to the vet.  He can't be positieve without a biopsy He says we can slice it off but....

I say we need to be practical.  I add that I sometimes wonder if we do the right thing for animals when they have cancer and we start doing procedures.  After all, they really don't understand what you are doing to them.  He concurs.

Spot will be going to the Big Goat Hut in the Sky when he starts looking thin or if he starts looking like he is in pain too much.  Kinda sad.

Friday

Well, the yard is coming along.  I am still out there with the hedge trimmer trying to get the bunch grasses lopped off in time for the spring green up.

I worked on the drip system but I noticed that I still have a few leaks in the south or fruit tree zone so I'll be back at it again this weekend - if the weather holds out.

24 over night but 50 today.  Nice!!!!!!

Cleaned up the goat pen and the horse pen yesterday.

Hubby and I burned the weeds that have blown in along the outside of the fence.  We got a weed burner.  Boy, do I like that thing.  I might have to try it out on the green weeds as they come up this spring.  I'm getting tired of trying to hoe five acres.

Spring is coming at us like a freight train but I think we are doing pretty good.  Hubby got the grapevines pruned and most of the fruit trees.  He still needs to tackle the apple in front of the living room window.  I want to few the world from underneath the branches not through the branches:)

Our trees are still growing and, although a lot of them have a long way to go, it looks like they will put on some size again this year.  We have several pine trees that are hitting 6' tall.  That is progress.

Hubby trapped not one but two gophers out of the fruit tree area.  Those little devils.  I am wondering if a rabbit is in the yard since I see some sort of damage on my cute little popular tree near the goat pen.  I might have to get some chicken wire out there because that tree is only one years old and can't take much nibbling.

Why I Like Living Here

This afternoon the temp was up to above freezing so I went out to get a few chores taken care of.

I stopped by the little horse pen with my bucket of grooming supplies.  I got the little fella out.  He likes getting out of his pen.  I brushed him and cooed at him and combed his mane and tail.  I cleaned his tiny little hooves.

I gave him his senior food pellets and wheeled the wheel barrow in and started raking up the pen.

So peaceful and quiet and pleasant.  That's why I like living here.  Warm breath and honest work and soft sounds on a cold sunny afternoon.

Once I was done cleaning pens and feeding the horse and the goats, I fired up the hedge trimmer.  Another great reason to like living here.  Loud and obnoxious but making quick work of the grasses and brush in the back garden.  Next, raking it all up and having a burn day:)

  I have high hopes for the spring and summer to come.  The plants will be blooming and veggies will be bursting forth and the trees will all be getting taller.  Oh, how we gardeners love to dream the winter months away.

Cold Again!

8 degrees out at dawn.

28 degrees - yesterday's high.

The little horse seems to be fine even with it so cold out.

Cold weather equals having to haul hot water out to the goat pen and the horse twice a day.  More if the sun doesn't come out.

Still Cold

7 degrees this morning.  Pogonip for Hubby's drive to work.  It was so thick he missed his turn off and had to turn around at an intersection further south on the highway.

27 degrees for the high this afternoon.

This is Hubby's sixth day in a row so I bet he is more than ready to gt off work and come home to our nice warm house.

I got out the hedge trimmer again to day.  I can only do about 20 minutes at a time.  That thing is hard on my puny little arms and my back.  Trying to get the yard neatened up for spring.

Cleaned the goat pen and the horse pen.  I got behind on the goat pen during the cold weather so I'll have to do three more wheel barrow loads tomorrow.

Hope everyone is having an okay winter.  The cold weather kind of sucks but at least most of that little bit of snow we got is melting away.  How it is doing that with our ridiculous cold, I don't know.

Wiseguy got his feet trimmed Thursday.  He such a good little horse.

105F ... Briefly

We hit a high of 105F but the clouds were forming and the wind came up so the temp started going back down a bit almost immediately to 102F.  The goats and the horse actually look like they are doing okay.

I took off early from my cleaning job.  I told my client it was so hot I would try to push hard and get out a bit early.  I got home at about 1pm.  It was 102F and still rising.

I set up a sprinkler on a post that holds up the fence dividing the goats and the horse.  I ran some cool water into the water troughs and let them overflow to get some fresh cool water into the animals.  Then I ran the sprinkler for about 20 minutes.  I do think it at least gives it a cooler feeling on that side of the pens.  The little horse and the goats hate rain and probably won't play in it but at least I can try to cool it down a bit, especially if it gets even hotter on any given day.  100F is hot but 105F feels like you are in an oven.  I used to live in Las Vegas so I know all about hot but I worry about my goats and horse.

Worming

I bet you all thought this would be about having earthworms in the garden.  Nope, 7 years and we still don't seem to have earthworms.  We had some red compost worms last year that made it through the winter under some straw in the vegie garden but no sign of them this year.  It was too dry, I think.  Not a tiny bit of rain all winter and spring.  Oh, what an exciting day it was in Fernley when we found our first earthworm after only living there a couple of years.  Here in our sandy realm, so far not a one.

Nope, today we wormed the cat, the two dogs, the three goats and the miniature horse.  We generally do this in early June every year.  I don't recall why we do it in early June but we must have had our reasons when we first started this tradition.

We are worming the cat and the dogs specifically for tapeworms.  Penney had tapeworms a couple of years ago.  I thought is was shocking.  In all my years of dog ownership, I had never actually had a dog with known tapeworms.  There are no fleas here so we thought we were safe.  Turns out that if the cat or dog eats rabbits [and ours do] the rabbits all have tapeworms which the directly pass on to the dog or cat.  Isn't nature fascinating!  Yuck.

Any way, it is real and we are working to prevent problems.

I finally found a farrier that will come out our way.  I got a recommendation from the vet tech at the animal clinic we have been taking the dogs to occasionally.  Honestly, we worm and give the basic shots ourselves so unless your getting neutered or need rabies or are really sick, when you are a pet around here you don't see the inside of the vet's office.  Saves us a ton of money.

Grass is Weeds

Weeds are my life and right now the weeds are grasses!  I am pulling a lot of grasses that are trying to take over my flower beds.  The Feather Reed Grass is awesome when it is where it belongs but not so nice when it takes over an area.  The Alberta grass is really tall and I love it but it wants to take over as well.

Then there is the poke-your-eye-out grass.  I actually don't know what it is really called but it gets these long stiff stems that want to poke you in the eyes.  I'm trying to get most of that gone.

Finally there is the needle-and-thread grass which was a mini disaster.  It looked really pretty in the wind - and we have plenty of wind here - but it turned into a nightmare.  The seeds would stick in our clothing and the dog's fur.  If I wore a skirt to accomplish yard work, I would look like a weird porcupine.  I worked my buns off to get it out of the yard last year.  I did pretty good although I have had to get some more out this spring.

An hour in the morning and an hour or so in the evening is a good goal to keep the weeds under control.

Didn't do much with the miniature horse today.  When I clean a house, I just don't have much energy left for the extras.  Naturally everybody gets fed morning and evening.  I changed out the water for the goats and the horse, as well.

I love spring.  The irises are coming on and the place is greening up.  I definitely have to pull it together and get some photos up.

Garden Notes

Overnight low of 26 degrees.

Yesterday's high was 68 degrees.

Today is a permissable burn day so I think I will work on that.

High noon and I got a lot done this morning. I cleaned the goat water trough and got them some sparkling new water.  I watered the North Zone.  I burned 4 piles of brush.  I got the asparagus in the ground along with some more compost.  I got some more of the compost fluffed up and turned over.  I got a bit of water on the compost pile.  I turned off all the water in the back and turned on the water for the front garden area.

The weather is nice with just the occasional puff of 10 MPH wind.  Break time and then I'll see what else I can get done.

Front and back zones watered.

Emitters replaced in West side or Street zone.  The old bobblers were wearing out and/or I put quite a few one gallon per hour drippers on that zone and that was a mistake since the last elm tree, way at the end wasn't getting any of the water.  The water just wasn't making it all the way to the end.  I already tightened up this zone a bit but it needed more work.

So, I tightened up the back half of the zone.  I took off a couple of more emitters off that weren't watering anything [the plant either died or got moved].  Five or six sagebrush were getting two half gallon emitters and they would be happy with one half gallon emitter so I changed those up.  When a bobbler [emitter] gets worn out the water streams out instead of dripping out and that lowers the water pressure on the line so I checked for that situation and replaced those that were a problem.  I replaced almost all of the one gallon per hour emitters.  I ran out of new half gallon emitters towards the end of the line.  I need to order some more.

I cut some more of the flat tubing.  I have 25 lines cut now and I need about 30.  Looking at the roll, I think we will have enough flat tubing for this year.  I am reusing the flat tubing from the old garden set up, as well.

Did dishes.  Cooked dinner.  Yeah, that should be the other way around but I didn't do dishes earlier today so I had to do dishes and then cook dinner which means now I have to go do more dishes:)

A Productive Day

Rusty is telling that goat.  When the dogs are outside the fence the goats kind of play with him but when the gate opens the goats run up onto the goat toy and safety.  Goats are pretty smart.

Yesterday was incredibly productive.

We got a pine post in for a hose guard in the veggie garden.  We treated it with old motor oil so the termites wouldn't like the taste of it.  We have wetland termites around here.

We staked out the horse pen.  It will be 33 feet by 38 feet.  The shed will be 7 feet by 7 feet.  We are working out the final details on the fence so that I can get a materials list going.  Hubby will have to drive me to the home improvement store to pick up materials.  Maybe when we go pick up the gates we ordered.

Speaking of gates, we called over to the feed store and tried to get the last two gates we needed but they didn't have gates in the size we wanted [14 foot and 6 foot] that matched the four foot wide gates we already purchased.  They had a different brand that they claim is the same color but they seemed pricey so....I did what all great shoppers do .... I went online.  I found a match at a box store in the next town north of us.  It is about a 25 mile drive.  I had to order them to be delivered to the store.  The gates will be in about April 3rd so I want to have a materials list done so we can pick up fence posts and boards at the same time we get the gates.

We'll take the trailer to pick up our items.  The trailer has been a fantastic investment and we got such a good deal.  The neighbor, who is really good at building trailers, helped us build it at cost plus us a few hundred dollars in labor.  The trailer pulls really nicely and has helped us get wood for the fire, hay for the goats, take hunting gear for the annual hunting trip and helped us haul manure in for the garden.  You can't beat that.

Hubby repaired the old wheelbarrow which has been a pain in the behind for a long time.  The bearings keep popping out of the socket then you have to tip it over and pound the darn things back into the holes.  He took the wheel off, moved it forwards and put a couple of shims on it.  That also solved the other problem where the wheel would rub on the wheelbarrow when you had a load in it.  Yeah!!!!!

He repaired the large ax and then oiled the handles for the rakes and shovels and such.

We staged the fence posts to finish up cross fencing and gate areas and it looks like we have just enough.

I helped Hubby cement in another fence post.  This one is sort of  in front of the greenhouse and will have a four foot man gate on it to get into the driveway into the back area.  It will only open out since the greenhouse corner sort of blocks it but it allows for maximum backing in and protects the greenhouse from getting backed into.  The greenhouse windows are very expensive and they are hard to replace so I sure don't want a disaster like backing a trailer into it.

Hubby also moved the 4x4's for the horse shed to the area where we are building the shed.  He moved the roll of wire that was blocking the greenhouse door.



Just for fun, Hubby went ahead a worked on one of his chainsaws while I took a nap on the couch.

I e-mailed my horse driving trainer and she hasn't gotten back to me.  I wonder if she is dumping me as a client?

Fencing - It's a lot of work

First we put up a string line.  The goats were fascinated.

The string line is up.

Next, Hubby digs a deep hole.

Then, he makes sure the post is in the right spot.

Finally, we mix up light weight fence post concrete in the wheel barrow.  Using a level, we concrete the post into place.

I had to put down the camera and start helping.  I use the level while Hubby shovels the concrete in.    He has already completed the other side with the crossbar for strength.

So, here it is with the man gate for the garden already in place.  We have to put about 20 feet of welded wire up on the right side but first....we have to change the gate for the goats to a left hand hinge set up.  The gate needs to open to the opposite side with the new fence set up.

We will need to put a short piece of wire on the bottom of the gate to keep our short little dog out of the veggie garden.

The big cross piece is going to have a 14 foot gate and then Hubby also wants a 4 foot man gate over by the greenhouse.  That will equal an 18 foot hole to aim at when we are backing the utility trailer into the shed/veggie garden complex.

I'll have to get some photos of the greenhouse, shade cover and long shed and driveway areas.  I am pretty proud of myself.  It has taken several years to get it all done but it looks fantastic and is working pretty much the way I wanted it to work.

Crossing my fingers that this part of the yard will be fenced on our next days off.  We shall see.

A Morning at Home

I fed the goats and the dogs this morning.  The cat showed up late and he didn't get his canned catfood.  Don't worry.  He has a mountain of dry catfood on an old table inside a shed.  I cleaned the goat pen.  Got the wet straw out of the goat shed.  Cleaned the water trough and got those cute goats some clean water.  I decided to take the goats out and let them start eating weeds.  We have just the tiniest bit of green grass coming up and I am counting on those goats to keep the cheat grass and mustard down to a minimum.  Obie, the big goat, decided to take a couple of big chunks out of my nice pine tree on the way back to the pen.  I have got to get a piece of fencing around that tree before it is completely destroyed.

I then got the seed starting materials organized.  Well, maybe organized is a pretty strong word for this mess.  I found a lot of the trays and such that I need to get things moving.  I ordered coconut coir seed starting medium but it hasn't arrived yet.  About March 15th I need to get some seeds in the dirt.  I still have to straighten out the greenhouse and get some water in the reservoir inside the greenhouse.  That keeps the moisture level up and helps even out the daytime and nighttime temps.

Hubby got one of our nice new gates up.  We still have to put wire on the bottom since I don't want the dogs in this area.  I also want to be able to keep little Penny Poo Poo locked into the backyard.  The pots and seed starting stuff are behind the wooden shed.  The shed definitely has a forward lean to it.  The wind has been eating the sand out.  Maybe we will have to jack it up and see if we can straighten it out a bit.  The wood siding is looking really dry so I either need to sand and paint or get some Thomson's Waterseal on that thing.  Painting it white with green trim would look really good and go with our color theme but I really hate to add another project on to my list so we shall see.

Here is the second gate Hubby put up.  Looks fantastic.  We have to get some wire on the bottom of this gate as well.  Penny is definitely going to be able to go right through the bottom rungs. Hubby has the T-post in place for us to get another short piece of wire up on the right side.  Looks like Rusty the Red Dog snuck into the picture.  In the background you can see my giant pile of compost.  I am running a sprinkler on it today.  I can't keep it moist enough to actually want to break down into compost since it has been too cold to run much water.  We'll be spreading it into the garden pretty soon, ready or not, and letting finish composting in the dirt.  That actually ends up working out okay for us.  

You can see the goat pen gate on the right and the shade cover/hay shed/wood shed on the left.  You can't see the greenhouse in this photo.  It is forwards from the shade cover.  The veggie garden will be well protected from dogs and goats when the fencing is finished.  The far left side is going to have a 14 foot gate and a 4 foot man gate.  When both are opened up, we will have an 18 foot wide hole to aim at when we are backing a trailer in there.  Unfortunately, when we designed the greenhouse and veggie garden, we designed a jig jog from the driveway on the side of the house into the back area.  You try to plan ahead but sometimes you just don't quite get it right!

The wind is supposed to come up later today and it is supposed to be warm.  Tomorrow is supposed to go much colder.  This is why we never get any fruit on our fruit trees.  Warm, cold, warm, cold.  Oh well.

Since the wind isn't blowing yet, I decided to take the hedge trimmer out for a spin.  I whacked and sliced and trimmed for quite some time.  Sadly, I am not done yet but I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  I still have to rake and gather it all into piles for burning when we get a day that isn't windy.  I might need two days.  That's a lot of dead grass and brush out there.

Noon- Time to eat lunch, take a break, maybe get a little nap in and start all over again!

A Really Big Chainsaw

Hubby has two helpers - Rusty the Red Dog and 

Little Penny Poo Poo 

This is Hubby's new pride and joy.  It is a really big chainsaw.  He is cleaning it up.  He traded one of the neighbors for it. Hubby had a big block Chevy intake manifold and the neighbor had this saw Hubby was eye balling so one day they swapped.  Junk for junk :)   Actually, they both think they got a good deal.

Hubby now has three saws.  All Husquevarna which he seems to have taken a shine to.  He has been ordering all kinds of bits and pieces to put on the saws.  A fuel line here and an air filter there.  He said something about pistons rings and a piston borer not too long ago.  I tried to look fascinated.

What else to do on the day off?  I burned a little brush.  I cut it down yesterday and raked it into piles.  Always risky since, if the wind comes up, all that hard work of raking is for naught.  I checked the weather forecast before raking yesterday.  Fortunately, it all worked out fine.

The dogs, and the cat,were a little behind on shots.  We do the animal shots ourselves since we save a bunch of money doing it that way.  I don't like needles at all.  Hubby doesn't mind poking the animals so I hold them and he pokes them.  We will have to give the goats their shots when we get to the feed store in a few weeks.

The cat, the dogs and the goats got wormed last week.  Penny likes to eat bunnies and so does the cat.  The rabbits have tapeworms and that means the other animals can get tapeworms from eating the bunnies.  I don't even know if the goats have worms.  You are supposed to worm them every so often, just  as a precaution, I guess.

Hubby has gone over to the neighbor's house.  They are probably telling bad jokes and Hubby is telling him all about how he got that saw running.  All in all, a nice relaxing day off.

I can't help but be impatient that we aren't getting the fencing done.  The new reason is because he wants to make sure the four foot gates we are buying will really fit in a four foot hole.  I told him that they specifically said they do fit in a four foot hole including hardware.  Oh, well, maybe we will get this moving next week.  I am searching for a driving pony and I need to get this done!

Valentine's Day

So, what does a fellow do for his wife on Valentine's Day when he lives in the middle of nowhere?  Why, he traditionally stops at the Smith's Food and Drug store on his way home from work.  He buys a sweet card, gets a dozen roses and buys various chocolates and throws in some Red Vines for good measure.

He is a good worker who has managed to keep his little family fed.  He works on our cars and trucks to save us lots of money.  He builds fence and he trims goat feet.  He cuts wood to keep us warm in the winter.  He is rarely critical and tends to notice when the house looks clean.  He seems to manage to focus on what I have gotten done rather than what I haven't gotten done.

He thinks I am the most stunning creature that ever walked the planet.  I adore being adored!

Tonight we are going to cook up a big T-bone steak, a small lobster tail and some asparagus with butter, salt and pepper.  A very satisfying and romantic meal.  We cook better than most of the restaurants in the area and we eat great at less than half the price of going out.  Of course, we do have to do dishes but, hey, at least we have a dishwasher:)

I told him I was going to write about him on my blog today.  So, there you have it.  My ode to my handsome Hubby whom I love with all my heart.

Photos and Goats

Spot and Taffy

Obi

I am trying to put photos on my blog.  This is a whole new deal for me so we shall see how it turns out.  These are my adorable goats having dinner after a snow storm a few weeks ago.  As you can see, they are the cutest goats in the whole world.

They have individual personalities.  Obi is really quite large and is very sweet.  He is a Boer/Nubian cross.

Spot and Taffy are Nigerian dwarfs.  Spot doesn't like to be touched although he is coming around a little.  Taffy is a butterball, definitely so cute I could write a children's book using him as a character and is okay with being petted.

I have had them for three or four years.

Goat pen with goat shed and goat toy

They live in this pen with a goat shed filled with straw this time of year and a goat toy that has a ramp, old mobile home stairs and a large platform.  They run over and leap on it whenever there is the least bit of "danger" like someone walking on the road or one of the dogs barking.

On the right side of the pen is the area I am clearing for a 30' x 40' [possibly a bit smaller once I get the shed built and fence out the mulberry tree] miniature horse paddock.  That way the little horse will have goat friends to talk to and I will be able to see the little horse from my dining room table.  I like to keep an eye on my critters.

Garden

The end of the season is definitely here.  I pulled the last of the veggie garden irrigation tubing today.  I picked the last green tomatoes.  I cut the tomato vines down, chopped into smaller pieces and put them on the compost pile.

I moved some more dirt away from the greenhouse since I know Hubby is impatient and will not wait to split wood until I have more dirt moved.  We are going to split wood where the road base for the little driveway up the little hill to the hay shed ends.  That will help keep the sand from moving through there.  But I need to get the sand lowered first or we'll never keep the doorway cleared for me to use the greenhouse.

I started cutting rice grass for the goats.  It will take all winter to get most of it cut back.  But we do have the best rice grass in the area so it will be worth it.  Maybe I'll get the goats out into the North 2 acres and let them have at it.  That would save me a lot of work but cost me a lot of time.  We shall see.

I have been working on the compost pile, trying to get it turned.  Looks like I am having a lot of success in making compost since I have been sprinkling it on a regular basis.  Fun!

Goats

I did it.  I got the goat pen cleaned out, the straw in the goat hut cleaned out, the water trough scrubbed and filled with fresh clear beautiful clean water and new straw in the goat hut.  I am so proud of myself.  I am dog tired but it had to get done.  Those animals are counting on me.

I got a call for a new cleaning job.  I have to be there tomorrow at nine since their cleaning lady they hired didn't show up today.  Then, they will want every other week.  Let's see if they balk at my price.  I am not driving 45 minutes each way, bringing my own supplies and cleaning a 2 bath, 4 bedroom house with four people living in it for less than the usual $75 every other week.

Rested up and then got four plants into the ground.  Two rosemary.  Several people have told me they will make it through the winter here.  I put them up front in the warm part of the garden.  One Pineapple sage - I don't have a clue if it will live here but I put it in.  I love the flowers on sage plants.  This one has brilliant red flowers in a delicately shaped oblique tube with a fringe on the outside edge.  One German thyme - I know that one will grow here since I already have some.  Put it in on the south patio where it will fit in nicely with all the other heat loving plants.

Of course, I fed the goats and the dogs.  Loaded up for tomorrow's cleaning job.  Now, it is time to make sure I keep resting up.  I must do a good job tomorrow.

Home Again!

We have been home since last Thursday.  We got the truck and trailer unloaded and all the clothes washed up.

Somehow we got the idea on Friday that we should look into a wood stove.  We researched, realized the new stoves are very efficient and headed into town on Saturday to look at stoves in person.  We came home and did some more research.

Sunday we went back to the store we thought had the two best stoves and spent several hours making up our minds.  A mid-size Lennox or a mid-size Kuma.  We finally decided on the Kuma Wood Classic.  We put down our deposit and made arrangements to pick up the stove on Tuesday next week. We went to the two big box stores in town to look at hearth materials. Came home and did more research on what we would need to do a hearth.  We also got the entire living room cleared of furniture.

Monday it was back to town to get a wood cutting permit, some chainsaw parts and measure the new stove for the air inlet and buy our choice of hearth materials.  Unfortunately, it was Columbus day so we couldn't get the wood cutting permit and the wood stove store was closed, as well.  We did purchase our concrete backer board, slate tiles, mortar, grout and air intake parts.

Back to town on Tuesday since we couldn't get everything done in town on Monday.  We measured the stove, double checked that we had the right stovepipe list and had heart failure over the price of stove pipe a second time.  We had lunch in town.  Yes, it was decadent but after all, we are still on vacation:) We hit Costco and we were finally home again.  After taking a break, we got the hearth started.

Hubby did a bunch of measuring and double checking.  He cut a hole in the floor and then he cut a matching hole in each of the concrete backer board layers.  We dry fitted and the holes lined up perfectly.  We put down some Thinset, screwed down the first layer of backer board, some more Thinset and the second layer of backer board was screwed into the floor.

We spent hours and hours driving and shopping these last several days and it has been pretty exhausting.  Hubby is back to work but he is putting in 6 - ten hour days in a row.  So, I am sort of on my own for the next week.  Did I mention that I have decided now is the time to finally paint the living room?  Most of the furniture is out so I through that into the mix.  Today, if I can manage it, I am washing the ceiling with TSP so I can paint it Honeymilk white.  More on painting in another post, I think.

Right now it is time to get moving.  There is a paint sample to put on the wall.  It is called Pale Honey.  It is a gold color but hopefully not too dark.  Then I have some goats and dogs to feed.  And the day is rolling forwards from there.

Melon Madness

Melon madness is late this year but is finally happening.  Five more large watermelons picked this morning.  All going in the freezer this evening.  Also a couple of French cantaloupes.  Picked some cute baby patty pans and small yellow crooknecks.  I'll freeze those up tonight, as well.

Cleaned th egoat pen and got them some new straw.

Cleaned the dog crate and the dog igloo and got new straw in both of those.  Ready for our doggy guest.

The weather is gorgeous, mid eighties and cooling off fast at night.  Break time!

It is 7:10 PM and it is already getting dark out.  I have cut up 4 melons and I am working on the last one.  It will be too dark to run the rinds out to the compost pile pretty soon but I needed a break and a cup of coffee so here I am.

Worked on the camping gear.  I feel pretty organized.  We'll see on Thursday when I am putting the finishing touches on the trip.

Got the dishes rolling.  Second load of the day.  Got four loads of laundry washed up and put away but have one or two more left.  Need to sweep and especially mop the kitchen floor and wash those kitchen rugs after several days of sticky melon madness.

Cleaning a house tomorrow.  And then I am officially on vacation for a couple of weeks.  Yeah!!!!!!

Saturday

The sunrise was stunning.  Soft and ever brightening pinks turning to oranges.

Tired today.  Got some weeds and some rice grass for the goats and then thre some grass hay.

Other than that I moved a fair amount of dirt from the high side areas of the long shed/shade cove/greenhouse drive way area.  I dug up several roots of shrubs I have cut off to remove.  I have some other things to do but I can't seem to get them going:)

Hubby got the goat pen straightened  out.  We put in a bunch of T posts and wired them.  We put them on the outside of the fence so when the goats lean on the wire the wire is being supported by the new extra posts.  That doubles the amount of posts on pen on most of the sides. The east side was in pretty good shape so we left that alone.  I pulled the loose nails and replaced them with screws on the goat hut.  There wasn't too many, maybe 10.

Hubby also fixed the hay crib so that the goats wouldn't get stuck in it again.  Spot panicked one day and somehow got one leg in one end of the crib, tumbled over and got the other leg stuck in the other side of the crib with the hay crib on top of him.  Hubby had put a bar across each end near the bottom to keep the goats from spreading the legs apart when they were pushing it around.  So, Spot was laying there bleating horribly.  I said, "Don't move Spot, I am coming to save you!"  And I did but we haven't used the hay crib all summer.  It is nice to be able to throw the hay into the crib instead of making them eat it all off the ground.

Hubby made a delicious sauce for our frozen ravioli with mozarella  cheese stuffing.  Olive oil, toasted almonds and fresh from the garden basil.