Fallish temps

Last week before school starts. The greenhouse is almost recovered, and the two smaller greenhouses are ready for new planting, kitchen herbs. Then we will prepare the new garden spot for cut flowers and herbs, for next spring. Having spots ready to go, helps with our shorter growing season.

Sad day on the farm, our sheep helper, Jack, a sweet rescued mutt died this week. We put him down because he has been in a cast for 4 weeks with a spiral fracture. One night he chewed through his cast and rebroke his leg. The sharp bone had broken through the skin and he was in so much pain. Putting him down was the most humane and difficult thing to do. We miss him.

I can feel fall in the air, there is a zippy cold in the air and the leaves are beginning to change. Just cool enough to remind us about how much still needs to be done in the short time before the snow falls.

I love fall, it is my favorite time of the year. Perfect temperatures and our annual Harvest Party. If you are interested in coming, we are adding a haunted forest this year for the youngest children. It will be fun scary and will include a visit to the fairie's graveyard!

Huckleberries!

They are yummy! But the best part about picking is the reconnection that happens. If you take family with, children, married and single, grandbabies included, and just listen, you learn a lot!
Sometimes your heart breaks listening and, other times, it will soar.

Today, my heart broke. I listened to a son, who hurts. He is at the age where he is learning that he can worry, a lot. I am trying to teach him to take time to think, but not too much. I want to protect him, but I can't completely anymore. He wants me to make the decisions too hard for him to think about, but I worry that he'll resent them down the road. Tough! All I can do is tell him how much I love him.

Today, my heart soared. I listened to an older son sit next to his troubled brother and toss precious Huckleberries at him till he laughed a little. Empty bags and healed hearts.

My great grandmother used to say: You don't have any worries until you can no longer cover all your children with one blanket! I need to sew a bigger blanket.

Summer flies by

The greenhouse is looking naked now; we are recovering her this week and replacing trusses and getting ready for winter, It seems that my "winter preparation clock" starts ticking louder when the farmers' wheat turns gold, all ready to harvest.

Huckleberries are ripe and we have been picking, the garden is producing and we are eating solely from it. Our meat is from our own pigs, sheep, chickens and turkeys and the "Ladies" are producing dozens of eggs each day. It is a beautiful place to be, close to self-sufficiency.

All I need is a cow! Well, a lactating cow. Klippie, my Dexter heifer, and Nyx, my Zebu heifer, will be bred soon. Next summer we will be producing our own milk, so also cheese, cream and butter. I also want to add our own beehive next year. I also would like to sow better pasture, and fence the front of the farm, so we don't have to move fencing for the sheep.

By the way, this years lambs are for sale. They will be ready this fall. Also my Icelandic ewes and their boyfriend are for sale and also the Shetland sheep are for sale.

We have also been busy harvesting wild herbs, and making tinctures, decoctions etc. Gary loves to use my potions, I make a sleeping potion that helps him with his insomnia.

Lulu, this years surviving filly, had an ulcer in her eye but we were able to save it, she is medicated 3 times a day and is a devil to catch. She is healing nicely, thank goodness. Jack, our sheepdog, a mutt rescued by my brother off the streets of Salt Lake City, was hit by a dumb *** who decided to speed past the front of our house while Jack was retrieving a sheep from the yard across the street. Caleb ran over to help him, and he bit Caleb. Caleb ended up in the ER getting a Tetanus shot. Anyway long story short, Jack has a spiral fracture and after surgery and a cast, he has to be tied up for 8 WEEKS. He also gets X-rayed every week to make sure that it stays in place. At two weeks, he decided to go for a swim, on a potty break! He had to be put under anesthesia again to recast it. Now Jack goes potty with a guard.

One of the Manx cats had kittens, 5 of them. The next day there were six and the following seven. The two additions were obviously not hers, Layah, our Springer Spaniel was gathering them from wherever another cat had had her kittens. This morning one of the stolen kittens is missing, I think the real mama found out where they disappeared to.

Well, back to work. Funny how Sunday is never a day of rest, animals keep eating...lol