I'm back......

Old Fashioned Roses on the Gate Posts

Entering the driveway to my place

(My faithful 'help' Ariel and Boone to the left)

The East side of the front

The driveway with my house/yard at the top of the picture--really its there!

...and I don't even know where to start! I was on vacation last week, and it was just as I feared---my computer at home wouldn't let me post anything on blogger. I couldn't even get signed in without it locking the whole system up. Bah....

I did try and limit my time on the computer anyway, as I had so much to do around the place. I updated some of the website, but again got froze up/locked out when I tried to go in to the html page. Me thinks my computer has 'issues'!!

It was a good vacation. I played a few days and worked like crazy most of the time. The house, the yard, the garden, the farm---it all needed attention and had been sadly neglected.

Fortunately for me, every year around Memorial Day there is a school reunion. Since I live in the old school building, it gives me a great incentive to get things 'spiffied' up. I seem to work best (and most frantically) on last minute deadlines. :-) I like to have the place looking nice for all the alumni that drive by, slow down, and take pictures. Things looked a bit rougher this year than normal, what with piles of tree debris still around, but the parts that were trim-able or mow-able got tidied up. One day I spent three hours weed eating! Not all at once, since I'm not that tough, but it sure looks nice now. (I could probably spend another three hours weed eating the back areas....but I doubt I will!).:-)

The sheep are all on grass now! Oh Happy Day! I'm not feeding any hay right now after months and months of feeding. I know it won't last too long, but if we continue to get the rains we've been getting, then I have hopes that the 'off' pasture can do some serious growing over the next month. First it was getting the girls conditioned to the clover filled lower pasture---taking several days of increased grazing time, then it was Blue and his buddy Lanny, and lastly the three Shetland boys. Its amazing how fat every one is all of a sudden. I think that some of this just has to be gas or something as they positively look like a field full of giant ticks! Not a real pretty sight just yet! Finally though they are settling down and are content for the moment. Since chores are now minimized, I have allot more time in the mornings to putter around before work. (Well, maybe not lots---but some! ;-) This morning, I trimmed a sprout out of my yellow rose bush, and discovered it was in full and beautiful bloom!

I also did some advertising of the sheep--now comes the hard part of deciding who must go to new homes, and working with people to make sure that the fit is good for all parties involved (both two and four legged!). This is not my favorite part of farming, but sadly I can't keep them all. I do have two wethers that are pending sold as soon as I get the deposit. They actually are going to be companion wethers for their dad, who I sold earlier this year. Their sire isn't real aggressive so I think they will have a nice little flock.

I took a few pictures of the place after the mow job and thought I would share them. The first one is of the old fashioned pink roses on my gate posts. In the second picture you can kinda see that there are vines on both sides of the driveway. Some years they are really quite spectacular. They are lovely this year, but a bit sparse. These bushes came from my mailman years ago. He pulled them up in a roadside ditch and brought them to me. The hardy little things grew and thrived! In the second picture you can also see Ariel and Boone ---the two dogs and 'good help' to the left. In pictures three and four, my house and fenced yard are located at the top of the pictures. Yes, in amongst all those trees is a house! ;-)