Yay Dirt!

We have had so much rain lately that the loafing area outside the milkroom is more like a swamp than a barnyard. 

10 years ago this was all dry sand.  Now it's a stew of organic material.  Great for gardens, but horrible for drainage.

Some areas are ankle deep in the poop-soup.  Not good for goat hooves...or for any animals.

So today we took the first step towards improving our drainage...the rest will involve a lot of hard work!

We will be moving this topsoil over the next weeks and months....and do some major dirt work in the back.

 

Hard work for sure, but what a blessing!

Drying Times...

Cherries have been on sale here...in fact, I've never seen cherries at the low prices they are this year!  Since they normally run about $5 a pound, we don't put them up very often.  This year has been a treat and I've been buying and canning them.  Yesterday I decided to dry some, something that I've never had the luxury of doing before because of their high cost.  The first step in drying them is cutting them in half and removing the pits.  I have a cherry pitter, but since they need to be sliced anyway, I did them all by hand.  Next time I'll wear rubber gloves, since my hands are still stained today.

Once dried they look like this...and they taste wonderful!  I can't wait to put some in oatmeal or a batch of granola...

Next through the dehydrator was a batch of tomatoes that I picked from the garden this morning...

I haven't canned any tomatoes yet this year, but I'm drying them at least twice a week.  I thinly slice the larger ones, and the cherry tomatoes are just cut in half.  These keep for over a year once dry.

I also picked a bunch of peppers, these are a mixture of sweet and hot peppers...once dried I'll rough chop them in the food processor to make pepper flakes that I add to soups, stews, and sauces.

With all this strange weather we've had strange bugs in the yard.  We're really having problems with Mason Wasps, my doe Faith has more than 20 stings from them!  Apparently they are attracted to white, because they are constantly getting in the milking parlor and yesterday I was stung by one while wearing a white shirt.  We've also spotted a couple of colorful dragonflies and today I got a picture of this cute little guy.  I think he looks like he's wearing sunglasses and smiling...

And I had to share this...my daughter picked out a couple of bantam chicks at the feed store earlier this year.  The one that she decided to keep as a pet is a Japanese Bantam rooster and he's learning to crow.  I think he sounds like someone is stepping on him.  You be the judge.

Getting Ready For The 4th!

Independence Day has always been a big holiday for our family.  It usually means lots of red white & blue, fireworks, fellowship, and food!  We aren't planning to shoot fireworks this year, although this would be a GOOD year to do them with all the rain we've had...but we will have food!  Our guest of honor for Kalua pork is our little wild pig.  He is at the age he needs to be castrated or cooked, and since his rate of growth is much slower than the domestic pigs...we'll be cooking him Hawaiin style.

I'm having a bout of tendonitis (De Quervain's Tenosynovitis) so the gardens are getting shamefully over run with weeds...but it's ready for the holiday as well.  I'll finish weeding before the big BBQ. 

I am not complaining about the rain at all.  We need it.  Lots of it or there will be no winter hay.  The turkeys, however aren't so thrilled with the rain.  I am happy to report that we have not had any more losses...we have 11 in this age group...

And I'm thinking that this big Bourbon Red may be our keeper tom that we'll use for breeding next year...

Our hummingbird feeders are buzzing with activity and I was able to catch a shot of this little lady today...

And check out this little guy sitting on the fence!

Bob has been working between rain showers to build an arbor for the Wisteria by the water garden...it's coming right along...I can not wait to see wisteria blossoms dripping from it!

And did I name this little girl right or what?  Her name is Bliss...isn't she beautiful?