Like a walk through the country side living on a small farm is full of daily surprises, sometimes wonderful and amazing, and other times puzzling and sad. I hope you will walk with me as I live out my dream of living on this tiny farm. You will come to know the dogs, cats, Shetland sheep and chickens that make up this farm and what goes into keeping them happy and healthy. Come and join the journey with me.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Hot Summer Saturday

Would ya knock it off with the camera already??

Another weekend almost over. They go by so fast. This weekend was a quiet, but busy one. After I got home on Friday from work, I didn't plan on going anywhere else over the weekend, except for church today.

Because its so hot, it was prudent to get out early and do any outside projects before it got unbearable. Yesterday I was up and about fairly early and managed to get quite a bit done outside before it just got to hot. There was a terrific breeze, but it was still so humid sweat rolled off of me.

I worked for awhile cleaning out stalls, I got two done and a part of a third. These are the Shetland stalls so are only about 4 x 4 foot but there was allot of accumulated hay and 'stuff' in there. I had a two fold plan for doing this. One of course to clean out the stalls which have to be done before winter, and two, I needed mulch--and allot of it---to help transform my backyard into a mystical pumpkin patch..... When I started (and yes there are 'before' pictures as I think this might merit a whole post in and of itself....)it was nothing but a very tall weed patch. Now it is close to half done. I got it mowed and weeds pulled, newspaper down and mulch over that on one side. I also have another load of mulch from the barn already loaded and dragged down here. (With my handy-dandy tarp-sled system. ;-) So maybe tomorrow night I can work on the other side. My plan is straw mulch on each side, with a pathway of real wood chips mulch. The beans and ornamental gourds I planted in there have really gone to town. All those weeds were hiding their progress.

So, after I cleaned out the stalls and brought a load of mulch down, I went up and finished dragging and stacking limbs in Blue's paddock. I think I have most of them done now, except there were a few that will have to be chainsawed up since they are too large to drag. That is one mighty big brush pile and I think it'll have to be burnt in the winter or late fall, so it won't mess up the trees too much.

Then it was back to the back yard to work on the future pumpkin patch and muck out more stalls. By then the sweat was rolling and the sun had come around the house so I decided to head in and take a shower.

Before I did that though, I got one of my bags of 'second skirting's' wool (These are not the worst first skirting bags, which have the nasty tags and such in them--these are pulled for mostly too much VM). I have an idea to make some cat beds, and use up some of this 'to nice to throw away, but not nice enough to sell wool'. This was my first experience with washing a fleece in the washer. IT went very well. I washed it twice and it came out very white and fluffy. It still has some VM in it, but actually it looks pretty nice, considering it I thought it 'junk' wool. It's a Dorset fleece, so its a very springy fluffy wool. I will try and post a picture of how it looks.

As you can imagine all the critters (two and four legged) are a bit cranky and subdued in this hot weather. I was trying to get a good picture of Rain to show her pretty "blue" color but she wasn't cooperating well. This picture says it all, I think. She was clearly ticked off about my stalking her with the camera!

2 comments:

Tina T-P said...

Pumpkins truly love sheep poop. John uses it to mulch his garden and doesn't even turn it - it just breaks down into the beds. And the pumpkins get bigger & bigger. He raises Amish pie pumpkins and we give part of the crop to our church for the community Thanksgiving baskets that we help with. Makes the best pie you'll ever taste :-) Good luck with your patch. T.

Locksleyfields said...

Rain is gorgeous! Sire Stonewall had similar color- wish I had *kept* a ewe out of him like Rain :-) Cachey is my last Stoney girl.. Finn is the only other offspring I have, but I'm out of ram space!

Malinda