Crazy morning! Perhaps this would be a bad time to admit that Wyatt and I slept WAY in until almost 7 this morning! Oops! No wonder the goats were so mad at me! Bailey has them spoiled, and they all know the does eat first. I, on the other hand, often stop at my spots on the back porch first, checking on the babies who love to knock their food and water over early in the morning, where the goats have already heard the door, and then I fill up chicken feed buckets on the way to the goat pen. I think they will be very excited for Bailey to come home at the end of the week! Until then, they share the mama of the house =).
This is the hen who thwarted me while both children were away a couple of weeks ago. She set up shop with six eggs in the loft up above the the nesting boxes in the big pen poultry barn. Wyatt took me out there shortly after he returned, and I really had no clue when she had set up shop up there, so we decided to let her hatch them out, if her interest remained. It has been over a week since then, so I am guessing her interest will continue. Not a safe place for babies, though, so the babies will end up in a brooder inside. Unless anyone wants a few very inexpensive, mixed breed babies to hand raise...
When the temps here hit 110 for several days straight, the yellow pear tomatoes drooped, and despite my efforts, they are not coming back. That was less surprising than this pichu fruit plant, the smaller one of two we raised this year, which collapsed the other day. One section broke off, then the whole plant flopped over in a day. It is looking like a loss, just as we are getting the first fruit off of the other one. Can you believe this plant was four feet tall and three feet wide a day before this photo was taken?
We have been experimenting with several herbs and grasses and the like in preparation to build salad bars for the chickens. Today, they got a whole thing of wheat grass. I was going to trim more for smoothies, but with Bailey away, Wyatt has been opting for eating whole fruit more, and it seemed better to let them enjoy it than let it go overgrown first. Again, spoiled livestock at Patriot's Dream!
And, of course, Roja had to stand in the flat to claim it!
With the roof repair on to the next stage in the Brahma pen, I took a few minutes today to work on the obstacle course project. This is a balance walk up. This is pretty low, and there will be a higher/ steeper version soon, but with a flat walking board.
The stump on the left in this photo is for balancing on, one legged squats, etc. I imagine the kids will find many options for it! The two logs just beyond will be for lateral agility jumps.
Shadow Paws offered to serve as quality assurance inspector.
This would be my cause for complaint lately. An empty water trough. Rain seems to skirt right along the south and est sides of town, completely passing us by. Please, rain, come to our house!
I set up to give a chicken a bath, but the water was too hot, and never cooled down before I had to pack up to leave for the market! I will try again tomorrow, though.
Shadow took me back out to discuss a hole that concerned her. She promised to watch it for lizards until I fill it in.
I am working on a new planter. I lined this one with plastic as an experiment. I am thinking of starting beans in there later in the week.
Shadow climbed up on my bed to help Wyatt with his school work. I think he just encouraged her so he could ignore his math a little longer!
This would be the mess I was making, working on reworking the farm stand sign. I think I know how I want to make it work differently now. The chalkboard paint didn't work, so anywhere I want to use the chalkboard paint, I will put a middle layer of lacquer to see if that helps it last better. This pallet will be a list at the bottom of the sign, and will only have blackboard on one side. Hopefully I get more done before the next rain, but tempting the rain isn't beneath me, either!
This portion is ready for the lacquer layer. Things take a little longer to dry this time of year, so I will do the lacquer come morning. I like the way the white on blue stands out, so will likely repeat that in the list sign. Do you agree?
Well, after this, I rushed off to a quiet day at the farmer's market, and still have far more to do than time to do it in. Honestly, once Charlie's uniform is ready for the dryer, I will probably give up for tonight. The alarm will be going off early, and it is about time I got on track with a little more sleep! You all have a great night, and an even better tomorrow!
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