Scrapbook

  Back into the soap making routine now that we have extra milk to spare, looks good enough to take a spoon to =)!

 
Cha cha chia (left) & tea tree camomile (right) 


For two years we advertised the barbless wire fence that we replaced 2 spring ago, for two years it sat in the pastures getting caught up in the brush hog and mower. Finally we were able to find a reasonably priced PTO-driven fence roller at a farm auction and got it all rolled up last weekend!



Just a few of the new kids enjoying the stump near the (dry) pond while the does graze.


Rachel lost a tooth, it's been a while!

 I won't spend a lot of time discussing weather. Suffice to say, it's been entirely strange! A day or two a week with below freezing temps! Yesterday, May 2, the kids' last day of school and it SNOWED! YEP, snowed like it was the middle of winter, couldn't believe it and the afternoon turned out to be gorgeous, so go figure! We're thankful for the moisture, we've had quite a bit of rain. I don't think we're out of the red yet but making significant progress.

We lost two fruit trees to the cold, fortunately they are guaranteed for a year so we'll go down this weekend and get replacements. Every week I keep saying, surely we are past the last freeze and it snows yesterday. The other trees look really good though so here's to hoping!

I walked out in the pastures where we planted brome and oats and with the weekly rain, it's all coming in very very well. I am super excited about that as it was really taking a chance planting not knowing if the moisture will come to get them off to a good start. The brome does OK in drought but if there isn't moisture to get it to germinate, it's all for not. 

We rented a dumpster to dispose of some of the downed branches and logs. There is just so much, it will take us a very long time to get through it all but it's on the "to do" list. We were able to clean out in front of the shop which is along the roadway and it looks 100% better! There is a lot of rye grass there I hope to cut and dry and put up for some hay. As the grain trucks drive by during harvest they drop a lot of misc. grains that end up growing along the roadway.

We went to town Sunday for ice cream (because it was 86 degrees!), and saw smoke out our way. Which isn't uncommon, this is the time of year to burn off fields and brush, except if you don't cut your old growth, it's so dry from winter and drought it's sure to catch fire. The neighbor directly to our north was out cleaning brush with a chainsaw and I assume threw a spark and obviously with as much brush as he has, it went up like a roman candle! As we were headed east on 4th toward home my heart started racing as we were being passed by firetrucks and seeing the location of the smoke but not being able to 100% tell where it was coming from. From the barnyard I could see flames licking up into the air. Jeremiah took the kids in the car and drove out to the fence line and I started opening the trailer doors and gathering up the goats in case we needed to evacuate. Fortunately, for us, the wind was coming out of the south driving it northward and for Kansas (where a strong wind to most is but a gentle zephyr to us), the wind was pretty calm. The neighbor 2 properties north lost 6-7 acres of pasture and their orchard. The firefighters were quick to get it out and it could have been a whole lot worse.

Today the kids went with Jeremiah to work. I am cleaning house, what fun! It's a nice day to hang clothes out and I'd like to get some more planting done. I'm a little behind. The tomatoes, herbs and peppers will stay in the greenhouse until, well, at this point, AUGUST with the way the weather is going! The neighbor's let us dig strawberry starts several weeks ago which we put in barrels. I covered them with straw so they would not freeze and they are doing well. The kids and I planted potatoes the other day in barrels and lettuce, beets and some greens in raised boxes Jeremiah made last year that I used for cold frames since I did not have the greenhouse. I also planted herbs, lettuces, spinach and such inside the greenhouse too.

The blackberries have remained in the pots and those are in the greenhouse. I don't think we're going to plant them in the ground but put them in barrels and see how they do.

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!