Living The Country Life!!

Living The Country Life!!

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Happy Memorial Day !


I hope everyone is having a great long weekend!  It has been nice not hearing the excavator or the logging trucks at 5 in the morning!  Even though tomorrow is a holiday, Mark will be here to start on some clean up.


At last count we were up to 43 logging truck loads!  And we aren't finished!  As you can see, I had Mark leave the two trees down in the front by the driveway.  They are called cathedral trees, and they are just so awesome that we wanted them left alone.  If they were rotted in any way, Mark would have taken them down.


It is pretty cool watching Mark load up the trucks...there is an art to it and it sure doesn't take very long before the load is whisked away!


Here is my view from my rocking chair on the front porch.  Mind you, I am not old enough to be sitting, rocking on the front porch.  I just thought I would give it a go to see how it will be when I am old enough.


Pete continues to take abuse from Tully.  I think bringing Tully home took 5 years off of Pete.


They play all the time, and Pete shows her how he makes his rounds around the yard.  


Nothing but sky!  We are loving the open spaces!  We decided at the last moment to keep the cedar tree behind the shop with the bee hive in it.  That tree gives so much shade to all my birds, and even when it rains, they are covered.


My other bees are doing good.  I just hope that they survive the winter.  I will have to get a feeder for them to get through the cold season, and hopefully things will be picking up for them next spring.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Clean Up !


Farm Man has been busy picking black and blue berries.  What to do with them?


Well, the blackberries went into making 27 jars of jam.  The blue berries went into scones.  No picture of the scones...hey!  we was hungry!


Here is Pete and his BFF hanging out in the shade.  We've had some hot weather lately and having shade from an apple tree is always a good thing!


Mark has been doing some clean up and stacking of the logs in the back.  I tell ya, logging off the back has changed the whole look of our pasture.  Sometimes it is hard to get my bearings of where things were back there.


The excavator makes it look like it is picking up toothpicks.  What a huge machine!  I want one!


This stump will be something for the goats to play on.


Here is Farm Man in front of a pile of logs.  I couldn't tell you just how many piles we have.


I think the trucks will start coming next Wednesday.  Not soon enough for me!


This photo shows the back of the shop and house.  Those trees in the distance and to the right will be going too.  That huge cedar tree in the middle of the photo is where the bees live.  The tree was damaged during the hurricane of 2007 and the tree is leaning towards the shop.  Yes, the tree has to come down.  Too dangerous to leave standing.


As you can see, my babies have grown.  I integrated these three in with the other peeps and tonight will be their first night with them.  I am 99% sure that the buff silkie is a rooster.  As soon as I moved them in with the other peeps, he did a little dance for a hen. Gosh dang it!  I didn't want another rooster!  I am so glad that Max didn't see that little dance!


Tully is getting to know all the animals here at the farm.  Harry will swipe a paw at her but he doesn't use his claws.


After a hard day of playing, Tully likes to sit on her little toy and play with a pine cone.  She is such a good dog and so very smart!  She fits right in here at the farm.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Monday Blues !


Have you ever looked at a bowl of blackberries and said to yourself, "I just can't make yet another blackberry pie."  Yeah, me neither.


It was trimming day in the hoop house.  I'm not quite done with the tomatoes, but I did do the pumpkins and squash.


I have so much more room!  And now that I can see the pumpkins, I have quite a few of them.


We even had to pull the plastic back from the corn because the corn grew so tall.  I've never really had a problem with my garden - my veggies have always done well.  It was just that I had to give a lot of green tomatoes to the goats - it was like my growing season was just too short.  Every fall the goats ate loads of green tomatoes, and veggies that just didn't ripen during the summer.  This is the first year that I have had ripe tomatoes in July!  Amazing!  The goats are going to be lucky if they get anything out of it this year.  I take that back - all the leaves that I trimmed from my squash and tomatoes went to the goats.


Somebody found an apple!  My silkie was enjoying her piece of fruit until she looked up...


and saw this crowd running towards her.


In just a few seconds flat, the apple was gone.  Piggies.


Tully just loves being outside.  She has been everywhere, either following Pete, Farm Man or the turkeys.


And sometimes she takes a break and does a little wrestling with Pete.

Friday, August 1, 2014

TGIF !!


 Happy Friday!!  We had a little girl with black pig tails visit us here at the farm at the beginning of the week.


Oh wait!  That's Molly!  Molly and Pete had a spa day this week.  They both have been on diets since last year and not much of a weight loss.  So we changed foods and they both have lost some pounds.  Molly has lost 3 pounds!   Doesn't the weight loss make her look so much younger?  Well, that and her little hair cut!


And Pete has lost four pounds!  Way to go Mr. Pete!  Molly, we found out, has pancreatitis and has to eat a low fat diet.  Both of them are doing so much better!


Then there is Tully.  She is a very good eater.  I noticed the other day that I kept on getting whiffs of Estee Lauder.  For those of you that don't know my grandma, she loved her Estee Lauder.  So anytime I smell it, it reminds me of her.  She is 99 and lives in Portland.  So anyhow, I picked Tully up to take her out for a pee, and bam!  Estee Lauder!  Then I noticed the little blanket that Tully was using....yep, that little lap blanket was grandmas.  Even though that blanket has been washed many times, it still has the lingering smell of grandma's perfume.  You know, now that I think about it, maybe this wasn't a lap blanket.  I think it used to be bigger but for some unknown reason, has shrunk.  Hence why Tully is using it. 


We are now eating lots of fresh veggies every night from the garden.  We are also getting lots of berries for tarts and pies.  We did have some tomatoes but those were eaten before the camera came out.


Since we are being over loaded with apples, Farm Man brought out his fruit press that I had gotten him for his birthday.


He loaded up the press and there it was...apple cider!  There is nothing like fresh apple cider!


I let the babies run free today.  They had the whole yard to themselves so I just let them go anywhere.  The guinea babies are almost 7 weeks old and the others, including the turkeys are about 13 weeks old.  


They loved being out front, and they loved the watermelon!  


Those black chickies are supposed to be oriental bantams.  I don't know.  My bantams are usually smaller than what these ladies are.  They have long legs.  And they are always talking.  Just wait until I introduce them to Max!  Hopefully there will be a love connection here at Fuzzy Heart Farm!