Haying Time Again

The first cut is about 3 weeks later in the year than usual.
The cold wet Spring is the reason, but this first cut is a good one.
The grass is tall and thick.

"Come to Mama my lovely gophers!"

Summer Time is Here.

Goat Manuevers

The grass in "Turkey Gulch" was getting out of control.
To tackle the situation we called Tuffy, Girly-Girl, Ella Mae and Vanessa into active duty.
They are the experts when it comes to mowing down grass!

The roosters and turkeys were not amused at first but now they are putting up with the hoofed creatures, especially since those girls have the grass more manageable for them.

The other part of the plan is putting into place part two of Weaning Jack & Jill.

Part one was keeping them in the Nursery where they could still see and smell Tuffy, but couldn't get a hold of her teats.
With Tuffy next door at "Turkey Gulch" I moved the Kidds into "Fletcher's Field" with Daisy & Brandy. I'm hoping that by the time The Big Girls finish the job over at "TG", the Kidds will be completely weaned from Tuffy and all 8 goats can be together in "F. Fields".

Jack is very friendly and loves to jump onto my back, Jill is still a bit stand offish but a sweet heart just the same!

Sunflower Monday

Our first sunflower of the season, right by the back door to greet us!

The "Sunflower House" is growing,

waiting for visits from Tyler, Susie, Amyah, Lucy, & Jasper!

Trellis is Going Up!

The Good Word is that the Vineyard is Alive and Growing!
It was tough going last year what with a Spring that had thaws and freezes, Deer discovering the vineyard and finding it was good to eat, and gophers attacking their delicate roots.

But some hardy vines survived and are growing well so we need to get a trellis in place.
Thankfully our young strong friend (Alyssa's childhood chum) Tyler B. came to the Farm to work for Farmer Keith last week.

His job was to dig holes in the rocky, sometimes very rocky, soil and put in the wooden posts that will hold the wire the vines will grow up to.

On Friday Farmer Keith came and helped him a bit.

But Tyler put in the majority of these poles plus got started on the upper side.
We hope he will come back again for some more work - but we aren't holding our breath!
That guy worked hard!!!

To The Good Life!

Randomness

It's been a different Spring in the Valley.
Very cold and wet.
Not so good for planting or your Spirit.
We had two hard freezes, one killed our Apricot tree, the other did damage to our other fruit trees, in that there were not any bees around to pollinate the flowers when they bloomed.
As a result we have no pears to speak of, few peaches, cherries and prunes.
We do have apples, they bloomed last.
But most important the vineyard looks good and is growing!
And we have had some nice weather as the photos below will show, but just this morning it was 34 degrees when I woke up and the potato plants were frost bitten. It didn't kill them but they won't look pretty for a while.

We had a great visit with Alyssa, her friends Leia & Tyler and Keith's in-laws Dena & Les
Lots of music and card games were played!

The dogs & I made it to the river, for some dipping (Cinder) and rock hunting (Bandida)

"Attack!"

"It wasn't me!"

The turkey hens have moved their nests to the hay field - do you see her?

Penelope laid this huge egg - on the left is a normal turkey egg and above is a chicken egg - looked liked it had a rough time coming out - poor girl! It was a double yolker.

The first batch of chickens and turkeys hatched May 8 - here they are at one day old, and at...

one month old.

A second batch hatched June 8th - all chicks, no turkeys this time - there is a total of 32 chicks and 6 turks. All are doing fine.

Below are just some pretty shots.

Valentino

Tadpoles!

Hawthorn - wheeew!

Snow ball bush

They say the sun will be out this weekend and that it is suppose to be 80 - I'm sure hoping!