Another Weekend...

Another weekend sets with the sun...

Last week began in the low eighties temperature wise, but topped a hundred by Friday. That is a lot of adjustment, and with no coolers as of yet, we haven't been nearly as productive as we would have liked to have been. Nevertheless, we have enjoyed a little fun and a little progress...

On Friday night, Bailey and I attended and volunteered at home school graduation.  It was really beautiful, and very individualized. I love that the youth shared their interested and future plans, and that they shared scriptures and the parents wrote each child a blessing. 

While we were off enjoying that, the boys loaded a new shed on the trailer and brought it home. I think it will be greatly useful, once we figure out how to get it off the trailer!

Despite not getting home until half past midnight Saturday morning, I awoke to run errands around 7. Not the 5:30 I was hoping for, but got my plants watered and animals fed and headed in to market on the move. Armed with four boxes, I went to go meet with some folks.about a free futon frame.  It was strong and sturdy, but will need a good painting - sounds like a perfect job for Wyatt. We bought the primer after church on Sunday, so once he gets that done he will decide whether to camo paint it or go single color so that it works with the camo bedding he really wants on it!

Wyatt will graduate from Sunday School up into the youth group in a couple weeks, but has decided that he really likes hanging out with the younger youth too, so he has volunteered to be a helper in the class while Bailey is teaching. Since they hadn't found a regular teacher to work with Bailey in the four and five year old classroom, this gave me time to join her, so we are now official. Bailey is really excited about doing the lesson planning and teaching with them!

After church, we picked up Wyatt's paint and a few other things, then went by the grand opening of the new tractor supply. Wyatt found a chicken feeder he thinks we should try in the big pen, and Bailey saw these pop top inspired table and chairs she wanted a photo of for future project inspiration.  Many of us were wondering what this would mean fr local feed stores, and aside from being open on Sunday, I don't think too much. THat have some neat things you don't already see around here, and I am told you can get a great price on hog panels for projects, but aside from that, they don't presently carry organic, and I don't see itt really competing with much of what I find locally. (Yay, local!)

I had been wanting to try some of that orange organic/ green cleaner folks keep talking about, so I looked up the recipe and threw some in a caning jar. Now, to wait two weeks and run an experiment on what it does and doesn't work on! Anyone have any advice for me on this one?

I moved the stack of fodder trays to a new spot, on top of the chest freezer, and brought back the older boxes. The open sided trays are allowing them to dry out too much. I have been researching and talking with Bailey about putting together a drop irrigated full system, this is our last set of comparison trials before that.  Everything we have in there right now is wheat for sprouting.

This two boxes of tomatoes we knew would have a lot of ones for the chickens. I also knew that with no cooler and the sudden heat, the good ones wouldn't keep long, so I took what I needed for a few night's dinners, turned the other good ones into tomato sauce, and sent the rest to the chickens!  Happy chickens, and a happy canning moment.

Shine and his brother Freedom's Prayer continue to grow and show their little personalities. We didn't get their weights done, so we will have to do feed and weight and an update on Monday.  Little Shine loves his playtime out in the pen, and his time racing Shadow through the yard.

Shine also especially loves playing with his patient old crazy aunt Treasure. Treasure and his mama, Silver, share a dam, while Treasure and Glory share a sire. 

We had really hoped to get more done on the doe barn, but hte heat made us a little nervous about doing quite that much exacting stuff over our heads when we continue to feel like we cannot possibly drink enough water. But we have more evening time at home Monday night, and hope to get the second roof truss up.

 We did, however, get the roof support we had been talking about in to the new project pen. I also got the door turned around, since I had it opening into an area where the roof hadn't been planned to be so high. After that, I might be able to get in an hour on it in bursts today, and the kids can start priming and painting their design for the front!

The cooler evening times go quickly. Still, we will post grades at the college this week, so I am looking forward to a little more time at home with the kids to get caught up on the school work and get through these big projects. I also need to get to several more!

Anoth good part about working outside in the evenings is the beautiful sunsets here.

I think the animals enjoy them just as much as we do, with Powerstroke smiling away and the animals coming into their energy as the earth cools and the sky turns its colors.

Well, now it is time to get moving into another wild week! All the best to all of you!