Since it has been 4 weeks since I updated my blog....I've decided to do this in sections! This is a very busy time of year for us, as berries come into season, gardens are growing, and kids are being weaned.
We finally butchered the pot bellied pig. He was small enough to turn into a whole BBQ, and as a matter of fact he's on the grill right now.
I need to learn how to scrape the pigs rather than skinning...but we were anxious to get this one done so we could bring the big pigs back home. We put the pink pigs out at a friends' house for a few weeks to root up their garden...when we brought them home it was so warm we got them a swimming pool to keep cool.
We also got the corned beef finished. Some went into the freezer....
And some went into the smoker to become pastrami...
One thing I've learned over the years is that if you spend enough time outside watching nature, you will see almost anything. This was certainly true this spring when we got to watch a hive of bees swarm! These bees live in a tree behind mom's house, and one warm afternoon they all came out of the tree, swarmed for a while....and then went back into the tree. I know nothing about bees so I have no idea why they did it...but it was neat to watch!
There were thousands and thousands of bees...and the swarm lasted about an hour. Look closely between the trees and you can get an idea of how many there were!
And with the warming weather came a whole bunch of berries! Rebekah and I worked feverishly for 2 days on strawberries.
Don't they look yummy??
We made and canned strawberry pie filling, strawberry bbq sauce, and we've had tons of strawberry shortcake!
This was her first encounter with a llama since the day she was born! She's come a long way since that first day.
And she fit in just fine! I am thrilled that she is now with her llama family and doing so well.
A couple of weeks after Annie went home, we got the chance to go visit her. Along the way we got some shots of the river, and got a glimpse of exactly how much rain we've gotten lately! River road has been closed because the water was over the road in a number of places. We went through the day it started clearing. 
You can see on the trees how high the water was. In 20 years, I've never seen the river so high.
Most of these trees are not normally under water...
Where there is normally about 20 feet of clearance under the bridge, there is only about 10 feet.
We got to spend some up close and personal time with the donkeys...
And finally got to see Annie and give her a bottle. She is doing very well with her family, and has certainly kept her appetite!
We also had our first water lilly bloom of the year. This plant has bloomed every year since we bought it in 2001. I was afraid I had killed it last year when we cleaned out the pond, but it has hung in there.
The lillies are beautiful, each bloom lasts about 2 days.
