Hot Summer Days...

You know it's hot outside when your pig is doing this...

Here's the momma and her ducklings! She's so protective. We've seen her take on the peacock and one of the dogs, as well as a few of the chickens. It's fun to watch her walking them across the yard from one spot to another. Kind of reminds me of what it was like taking all the kids shopping with me when they were all little. Well, minus the predatory peacocks.

Cats napping on the porch in the warm sunny spots...

My girl reading in the garden...yes I realize the grass around the raised beds is growing nearly as high as the corn!  I'm working on convincing my guys to weedeat!

Our Day--In Pictures!

This afternoon, we discovered this bunch of cuties out taking a stroll discovering the world for the very first time.

That's one momma who has all her ducks in a row!  I wanna be just like her when I grow up.

Is that a handful of cuteness or what?

I spent most of my day off and on, doing this.  Of course I had my "muscles" (a.k.a. "sons") move all the furniture for me!

John Wesley made manicotti for us all for dinner.  That boy's gonna make a fine husband some day!  Of course, he's had a fine example!

While John Wesley was cooking and the other boys and I were doctoring the rug, it was storming outside.  Jared was sitting near his window in his bedroom, playing with his cars.  He started yelling, "Mommy!!  Mommy!!" So, I went to his room and he said, "I just saw a whole tree fall down!"  Indeed he did!  

And thankfully none of my precious people (or any of our menagerie) were in the way when it fell!  'Cause it was evidently a pretty heavy tree.  It made quite a wrinkle in our van! 

Winston and Wilburta are checking out the damage to their digs.  Wilburta's cute pregnant tummy is getting BIG! 

Thankfully, Checkers, Cody's cat was still willing to give me a nuzzle, even though she's been kicked out of the house for bad behavior.  (Thus the Rug Doctor.) 

Farm-y News...

Yesterday, Harold took John Wesley to an ENT appointment while I took MaKenzie to a physical therapy appointment.  After our appointment, I got groceries.  After their appointment, they got a new goat.  She's pretty, but she doesn't have a name yet.  "Spot" is too obvious, and we can't all quite come to an agreement about anything else yet.

The garden is coming along nicely.  Much better than last year already.  Hopefully our heirloom tomatoes will take off and we'll have enough that I can can some.  We'll see...

 The corn's coming up.  We haven't grown corn in YEARS.  I didn't remember how fast it shoots up!

John Wesley did most of the planning and planting this year.  He does his research about what kinds of plants he wants to get and which he wants to grow from seed.  This year he's done a lot of reading about soil composition and what to add to make it just right.  (This was "for pleasure" reading.  Nothing to do with his school work.  I think I might have a farmer on my hands.)

Broccoli coming in. 

I had to take this picture because the fresh green color was too pretty to pass up.

As we walked through the garden this morning, I found myself humming the old hymn, "I come to the garden alone (although I really wasn't alone) while the dew is still on the roses (well, technically, in our garden, it's still on the broccoli and strawberries instead) but you get the point.

We have new ducklings.  They hatched yesterday.  The momma made her nest under a big old woodpile, so it's dark under there, but I lightened the picture a bit and you can just make out the duckling's little face if you look at the point of the arrow.  We're not sure how many there are yet.

In other, unrelated news, something DIED under our house or in our ductwork or in one of our closets or SOMEWHERE in the vicinity of our living room.  It's not pleasant, and we can't find the source.  I guess we'll have to wait until it's done stinking.  I wonder how long that takes?  Will home owner's insurance pay for a hotel room until whatever it is quits smelling up my house?  Maybe we'll move into the camper.

Summer Flowers...

 Flowers

 cut for me by my eldest son

 just because

 he knows they'll make me smile.

Little Lamb...

We woke up this morning to a new lamb.  We've been expecting that our Painted Desert ewe would give birth anytime for the past week or so.  She's been talking to her backside and acting out of sorts.

Today, she's much more herself.  Her new baby is tiny and adorable.  And...she's a girl.  At least so says John Wesley after his initial examination.

Garden Friends and Foes...

Cody and this cute little guy on his hat are definitely garden friends.

I'm not feeling the love for this not-so-little, nearly-transparent, grub-like creature I found in my broccoli, though.

I'm also not feeling so kindly toward these little green worms I found ON my broccoli. 

Clever of them to be EXACTLY the same shade of green as their food, isn't it?

The "Very Hungry Caterpillar" has nothing on my little green friends.  Well, really they're not my friends.  I flicked them off my plants into never-never land.  I'm sure they'll be back.  I'll be waiting.

Look at these itty-bitty bugs that were making lace of my eggplant leaves!  They are so tiny!  The holes they make are bigger than they are!  I'm not pleased with these guys either.

I'm no garden guru.  This is the first time I've ever even considered what might be competing with me for my food.  I think it's all going to come down to who's hungrier--me or them.  I'm fairly certain they might win.  We shall see.  For now I'm gonna do some research about organic pesticides.

Chicks Everywhere!!

Last week, we could hear the tell-tale "cheep-cheeping" coming from the incubator letting us know that we would soon have a gaggle of chicks emerging from their tight little shells into the big, wide world--our first set to hatch for this year.

We got to watch a few break out of their eggs.  It's actually quite hard work.  They're visibly tired when they finally are free of the shell, and not very attractive.

These two hens also had a clutch of eggs they'd been sitting on for a while.  They hatched a few days after our incubated bunch. 

We eventually put them all together out in the shed.  You can see the different breeds here.  We've got Black Copper Marans, Golden Laced Wyandottes, and Golden Laced Polish chicks.  We've also got a Muscovy duck hen sitting on a clutch under the wood pile which should hatch before long.

Here's a clutch of Golden Laced Polish eggs waiting for the momma to decide whether she's gonna set or not.

I love our little farm!  Who needs science books when you've got real life science happening all around you every day?  (FYI we DO have and use "real" science books, but real life application is so much more engaging!)