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.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Working Vacation....

Although the gloom is so thick it hurts my eyeballs, at least its not raining..yet. This morning after chores, I got right to moving the rest of the panels around to get ready to move the breeding groups together. Friday seems to be the chosen day--can you tell I'm procrastinating?

As I was moving panels around, I had the dogs with me, safely enclosed in pasture fencing. I looked up and there were four or five little kittens halfway down the driveway, looking for me. I didn't say a word, but kept an eye on things. After I got the panels up, I found a piece of twine and put it around Boone's neck so he and Ashley could interact (safely) with the kittens. Ashley is a scardey cat herself, so I didn't worry about leashing her. One little hiss and she'd be a bowl of jello. Boone...him, I don't trust. He is more than fine when I'm there keeping an eye on him, but I've seen him kill a baby skunk before and I know that in his eyes kittens are not different. It's a shame really. I'm used to dogs being so mellow about cats, it's hard to accept. He has come a long, long way, but it's when I'm not around that I would worry.

So anyway.. later today I'm going to try and get that gate fixed on the kitty pen, as I just can't watch them all the time, and I don't want Tempe to come to a bad end.
Ashley...all worn out...

Although it's pretty wet outside, I worked on harvesting tomatoes. As you can see, this harvest is a world apart from the 'potato harvest'. This little basket represents just a fraction of what is out there. I picked as many as it would hold and will go back out later and start tearing up vines and pick more. Not sure what I'm going to do with them all!


Yesterday it pretty much rained all day. It was cold and it was yucky. I spent most of the afternoon inside working on clearing off one of my shelves, while listening to James Herriott's All Creatures Great and Small. This particular shelf has had cardboard over the front for about three years! Hmmm... Sage is three years...wonder if there is a connection??

Finally I realized that my costlier knickknacks (some Hagen Renaker pieces for you horse collectors) were never going to be safe, and I was tired of the cardboard decor. I ended up boxing up many of the fragiles, keeping only the Hagen Renakers out, which went into my glass case. I hope to sell a couple of them, if the market ever stabilizes. Now the book shelf is clear, except, well, for books. I dusted and cleaned and sprayed for spiders and am moving some of my books from the big shelf into there. That will free up some space for the piles of books sitting around in back!

Looks so much better in there, even though there are still some piles of uncovered 'debris' that needs to be put elsewhere. (Why did I have old 45 records on that bookcase, when my record stash is in the other room??)

I also spent some time updating my website. I added some roving and some beautiful merino x white batting. This stuff would be lovely for felting or spinning (although the staple is a shorter 2.5 inches).

Yesterday when I said a post of the kittens was coming soon...I didn't mean that soon! Evidently I have lost track of the days, because I thought I had scheduled it for the next day. Couldn't get it to go back into it's hole either, once it was posted! Oh well....


Boone thinks this vacation stuff is tiring work!

Have a great week! I'm sure enjoying my time off.

4 comments:

Brenda said...

Sounds like you may have to go back to work to rest! We have a half a bucket of tomatoes down in the basement, too. Not really enough to can, but almost too many to eat! I couldn't find your email about the socks. Did you use my Yahoo address? I'll check back again and see if I can find it. It's prairiedaisyhandspun@yahoo.com if you want to try it again.

Pat in east TN said...

Boy, you are busy, busy, busy!!! I had to laugh at Boone and Ashley's pictures ... kind of like Wally, he punks out about half way through a project! Enjoy the rest of your time off ...

T. Powell Coltrin said...

Those are faces to kiss.

Can you make salsa?

Tammy said...

Brenda,
I can't believe how many green tomatoes there were. Some will ripen I think in the house. The others...I'm thinking about making something..like chutney.
Pat, don't you know how hard they work? ha ha...Work hard at getting in my way.
JW...no..can you???