Canning season begins...

With 15 half-pints of strawberry jam, thanks to Jo, who brought us the berries from her yard. This is almost like filling the hay barn. If there was a jam barn, it would now be more than half full, including enough to give away! I don't even have to think about strawberry jam again until this time next year. I just open the cupboard, and oh, there it is!

It's nice to be sending the jars back to the pantry from the garage, when all winter, we've been sending them the other way, from pantry to garage.

Stocking Up

After considerable nervous watching of the weather, multiple phone calls to Jeremy about how the hay is coming, much nail-biting when it was clear weather for three, but not four days, Jeremy called on Saturday. He wanted to bring a couple of loads of hay.

Jeremy, his brother or cousin (I can't remember!) Casey, Jeremy's father, and four children ranging in age from 5 to 13, showed up with the hay wagon. One of my favorite things about Jeremy is that he lives about 2 miles from here, so he and all the kids were riding on top of the hay---grandpa and Casey were using all the room in the truck. Oh, my really favorite thing about Jeremy is that he delivers and stacks. Because he does it all summer, it's much easier for him than if I did it---just once a year!

The kids were troopers, pushing bales off the trailer, and shoving them along to grandpa, who slapped them on the elevator. This stretched horizontally into the hay barn, where Jeremy and Casey waited for each bale, picking it up and swinging it onto the stack, four bales high. All told, they delivered 3 loads of 133 bales each. That, along with the 127 they brought a week or so ago, is all the hay we need for the year. So it's nice to have the barn full, with a bit more than 500 bales.

The price of hay is up, by roughly $1.25 per bale. I suspect everything will be more costly this year. We have flooding and record rain, cool temperatures and snow here, cutting into the farm economy. But it costs what it costs, and it's up to me to figure that out at my end. Jeremy needs to beagle to make enough to stay in business, make great hay for me, and buy pink cowboy boots for his little girl.

I sent him away with my thanks, and $40 extra to get the kiddies some ice cream. He said, 'No, I'm going to pay them.' a little offended, and I said 'I know you are, and I'm going to buy them some ice cream!' offended right back at him. So he laughed, and took the kids for ice cream. They earned it!

New additions...

Kitty and Cleo! Who knew goats were so cute, cuddly and personable? Kitty is milking, and John has already made a batch of chevre that was wonderful! Cleo is a little love, and keeps curling up on my feet whenever I'm standing still. What an adventure we're having!

These are Nubian/Oberhasli crosses, bred by our vet, who lives down the street. Cleo is Kitty's daughter, 10 weeks old. Both will get bred this fall, and by the time we are milking both of them, we'll actually know what to do with all that milk!

In the meantime, we are just having fun, learning how to handle goats.

Tree trimming

And just one more today, lest you think i'm a total slacker. I trimmed a few branches from our trees that hadn't been pruned in forever. Just, you know, one or two little twigs... ;)

Also, in pony land, Trisha has started teaching us passade turns, which are used to teach collected canter, which is the prelude to flying changes and canter pirouettes. Trinket has decided she loves it so much she doesn't want to do anything else. I think she's just so delighted that I'm asking her to do something she's good at (as opposed to stretching, say, which she detests) that she just can't get enough of it!

And Chapter Five page proofs are done, and I've seen the cover of the book. That made the finish line seem right around the corner!

We had people come and put new gutters on (squirrelly had drilled holes in the old ones---Squirrelly!!) aside from putting the gutters on the garage backward (so they drained into the barn, rather than the driveway---I caught it early, so they fixed it), they did a terrific job. But then they left a gap in the fence. So multiple times today, I found my dogs outside the gate, with no idea how they got there! Silly gutter guys. Always close up a fence if you have to open it! That's the first rule of fences!

Tonight I get to watch some ridiculous sic-fi film about Venus, so I can be the expert commentary when they play it on tv---FUN!! The things I get to do... Who'd a thunk it?

Fortress update 2

Baby chicks, happy and healthy (this is actually the following morning, when the were awake...)

That's 1 for Mr. Weasel, 1 for Dr. Primate. Hooray for opposable thumbs! The fortress stands strong!

Fortress update 1

Friday morning, at 12:15 am, I started awake, with a picture of a hole under the coop in my head. I rolled out of bed, shoved my muck boots on, grabbed a flashlight, and headed out to the coop. This is what I found. (don't worry---I don't think I'm psychic. I think I heard the rocks hitting the metal barn wall in my sleep, and my clever back brain interpreted it correctly!)

I looked inside the coop and found...

Surprise After, Take Two

Here it is from the outside. I think it's just beautiful. And we finished it just in time, because Jeremy came today with about 1/4 of our year's hay---127 bales. And that was the whole reason we need the feed room. To clear more room in the hay barn so we can buy all our hay at once, because I'm guessing it's going to be in short apply later in the summer.

Surprise After!

So my team of crack construction women helped me put this door in. It took only one trip to Home Depot. And one argument with the pontificating fat old man there who thought he knew I couldn't possibly be actually cutting a hole in the side of a garage myself. Idiot.

Several jigsaw blades later, (1/30 the price of a Sawsall) we had cut a hole in the metal siding and the wooden crossbeams. About five minutes of fitting the door, hammering down bits of metal, shaving a little wood here and there, and the new door was in. It was also level, plumb, and true!

Surprise Before!

I have been so busy that I was starting to think I wouldn't get a surprise done before John came home. But I did, in fact, get to John's surprise, although I then proceeded to tell him about it, so it's no longer a surprise...

Here's a corner of our back garage/workshed that backs up to the passage between the barn and the garage. It's also immediately adjacent to the hay barn. So it's a perfect corner for a feed room! If only it had a door... (prior to this picture, there was electrical wiring running through this corner. So the first thing we did was move the wires. You can see the new junction box high on the wall on the right, where we spliced the wires in. Jo is now a master electrician! Call her up anytime you need to make a wire longer!

Laundry

After a year without it, I finally got my laundry line back! A house just isn't a home without a clothes line. It took me a long time to figure out where to put it, but in this spot, I can see it from the kitchen, so I can't forget I've got laundry on the line! Well, I probably still will once in a while, but not as often as if it were somewhere else!

Yes, I have plans for the stacks of bricks and cinderblocks we inherited with the property---over the weekend I was at the Mother Earth News fair, and learned to make an earthen oven!

The south pasture

Makes me worried that the trees will actually drown! Still, we are extremely lucky compared to many!

Driveway flooding

The same rainstorm made a nice pond for dogs to play in!

The grooming stall

Had more than four inches of water in it after a night of heavy rain. Here, I've started spreading shavings to soak it up.

Late spring...

This picture was taken about two weeks ago, and shows a little of what this year has been like. Record rain and snow here---and not just a little more than ever before. We've had more than a foot of rain since March, down here in the valley. But my favorite thing I've heard? The one that really sticks in my mind? Snowbird's previous snow record was hit in 1984. This year, they beat that record by 72 inches! No. I did not leave out the decimal point. Six entire feet more than ever before recorded. Looks like we're in for some flooding. Which reminds me to post a couple more pictures...

The Fortress

So, Mr. Fox or Mr. Weasel, or whoever you are. You think you can just waltz right in and steal my chicks? Think again. This is the new, improved, chicken fortress. With 100% more repurposed concrete block, 100% fewer access points, and infinitely more peace of mind!