Work work work all day long

I'm sure I've done enough complaining about the weather but there's really not much else to complain about. I was hanging out clothes the other day and decided, this past year in Kansas hasn't impressed me too much. Some say the winter was just mild in comparison. Well, I don't know about anyone else, but negative twenty four is not really mild in my, humble yet persuasive and dramatic, opinion. What do they mean by mild? Do they mean there wasn't a lot of snow? Because I'd say 4 good storms, one of which dumped snow up to my thigh, is not exactly mild. Now, granted, we're not Minnesota or Iowa, it isn't normal to be gassing up the snow plow in August to use in September and putting it away in June for just about a month before pulling it back out again. I wouldn't say it was mild, but maybe there isn't a lot of grey area here. Then, this summer has just been horrid. I don't think it would be too overly dramatic to say it went from thigh high snow one day in February to one hundred and twelve degrees. Okay, maybe that is a bit exaggerated, but not by much!

To be truthful though, I don't think we've had a drop of rain in a month. The temperature dipping into the mid 90's during the peak of the day is a cool down and to hear about a chance on rain from the weather man makes me want to choke him/her! We're being punished, I think. It rains all around us yet there is no rain for Hutch. It's awful. The grass is dead or dying. The pasture looks horrible and one of the perks about leaving California was that it would look like a California spring for much of the summer here in Kansas. Well, that's pretty far from reality.

We begrudgingly pull ourselves out of bed at 6:30 AM to begin work and not that it makes a bit of difference because the minute you step outside the sweat starts to pour from your face. We have managed to complete the perimeter fencing and for that I am overjoyed. We even managed to get about a 300' cross fencing section done which is the new buck pasture although it's  not the joyous moment I thought it would be because there isn't much edible grass to speak of. The only saving grace to this lack of rain and abundant heat is that mowing is a thing of the past!

I remember taking photos of Jeremiah last year brush hogging the property of lush green weeds up to my neck! This year, we're lucky if they reach mid-calf and they are a shade of brownish grey that reminds me of California in mid-summer. I was certain we  moved ourselves 1600 miles but it sure doesn't look like it!


A few hours in the heat of the morning does us in so we've been doing a lot of inside work too. We bought quite a few new interior doors for the place and Jeremiah has been installing those. The back room in the basement is now officially my sewing room. Last week I moved my sewing table back there. We bought a shelving unit to go onto the wall to hold some of my fabrics. We got a second hand roll around desk and another chair , both of which I painted. Right now my sewing table is home to 3 machines, one of which (Rachel's) is going to go on the roll around desk. The machine actually used to belong to Grandma Hargett, and while it's nothing snazzy, it's a great machine for Rachel.

The front room of the basement will become the new family room. We have 2 couches in the shop that are waiting for their home in the living room upstairs but until the front room of the basement was cleaned of my sewing stuff, there was no room for the futon.

Speaking of the basement, Jeremiah has finally come up with a plan to get the stairwell entrance to the basement fro the hallway (eliminating 1 of EIGHT doors) and into the living room. More on that some other time. We've got big plans...one step at a time though. 

We bought 3 new mattresses. The kids need a regular size bed now so their tiny beds have been pulled out to accept a regular twin size mattress. I would love to have a murphy bed built for downstairs for the queen mattress that we replaced. It's not bad at all, Jeremiah just said he wanted something different. Project for another time though.

We've hauled 2 loads of hay down for ourselves from 100 miles north, still need at least another 2 and Thursday evening we hauled down a load for our neighbors. Speaking of which, while the west fence was down we had the neighbor's horses over for a visit. I'll post photos later. They were quiet company.

Other than that, it's been work work work. Yesterday we did steal away on our first date since moving here! Our neighbors, who watched the goat's for us while we were gone, have a son and daughter (15 and 17 respectively) who babysat the kids for us so Jeremiah and I could catch a movie. Drew is quite enamored with Joshua and literally cried when we had to go. So far Joshua thinks they are pretty cool but I have to wonder how long that will last. Five and seven year olds are only cool for so long. But, maybe the thought of money is enough incentive =)...bribes, gotta love 'em.

We have company coming in next week. Jeremiah's brother has orders for Scott AFB in Illinois so they are moving. Their stuff has already been picked up from Shepard AFB Wichita Falls, Tx and they are visiting family down there before heading up here for a few days. I hope to make a trip up to one of the lakes further north of here for at least a day. There's been plenty of rain up there!

The goats are handling the heat. Bonnie has come down with pneumonia I think so I've been medicating her the past 2 days. It's not uncommon for it to happen. I think the new buck may have come back with a bit of shipping fever and sniffles, snots and coughs have run throughout the herd. Most of them are over it but Bonnie's not recovering as well as everyone else so she's stuck in the barn with the fan on her. Speaking of which, I have to go out and dose her with some Penicillin.

So, I guess I'll end here for now.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Misc. Ca. Trip Photos

Church in Laramie, Wy.

Donner Lake, Ca.

Rachel, Drew and Julie

Foxglove

July Hollow Update

We've hit the ground running since returning from vacation. Yes, the dog was happy to see us. The goats we hauled back with us from Ca. made it fine and are settling in. Ann took no time at all to establish herself as herd queen and is quite happy to eat anything green, herbaceous and delicious. Iris, on the other hand, is more picky but sweet just the same.

We're in a major drought this year. Hay prices have gone sky high and we're hauling in hay from 100 miles away, 2 1/2 ton at a time. We'll need to make a few more trips north to bring enough down for the next year. It's not just that prices are sky high within the few surrounding counties, there won't be enough to go around either. Most hay fields aren't artificially irrigated, in case you were wondering, so whatever grows off of what falls from the sky is it. Fortunately for us, it's cheaper up north AND more abundant, so providing we've got the time to go up, we should be just fine.

We've got visiting friends with us. Because we've pulled all the posts and fence line from the west side of the property we've got the neighbor's two paint horses here. We could easily have the lines back up in a day but ran out of time Wednesday evening to get the lines up. We weren't around Friday and so today may be the day. It's either all or nothing as I would hate to get one or two up to have the horses get caught in them. To be perfectly honest, putting up the fence line is the quick and easy part! Taking it all down and cleaning the fence line beforehand is what takes the time! The goats haven't minded the horses and visa versa but I did lock the goats in the "main pen" so I could be sure they weren't visiting the neighbor's. I don't mind if the horses are over here but I don't need the goats getting into mischief over there.

It's been so hot which only adds to the misery of having no rain too. I try to get out as soon as the sun's up but getting back on Central time has been difficult. It also stays light out here until nearly 10 o'clock and working in the evenings is nice and cool. Jeremiah's a night owl anyway. I am not, but have been working well into the dark to maximize the time we can work.

Other than that, the kids are fine. We're preparing for the county fair in which Rachel has a few entries. I suppose I also need to think about getting the paperwork in for the state fair as well.  Jeremiah goes back to work in a few weeks. His classroom and shop are being painted right now so he's back to square one (as in, the same place he was last year with his shop in total disarray). The summer sure is flying by!

Tom's cabin on the river

While in California, one Friday, Grandpa Hargett, Debi, Jeremiah, Auntie Lo, Becky the kids and I trekked up to Tom's place along the Consumes River. It was GORGEOUS! The water was especially chilly and high but it was a lovely afternoon with great company nonetheless.

I spent the better part of the first half decidedly tippled from a single glass of wine! I won't be drinking at Tom's again! I haven't decided if it was the atmosphere or some unusually potent wine. I know it wasn't an empty stomach as we had eaten sandwiches by the American River in Coloma only about 2 hours before. At any rate, the hike was lovely and we didn't even need bread crumbs to find our way back. Although we did wonder a few times if a search party would be necessary.