Most of this one was written in draft form on May 26th:
Things are kind of on auto-pilot around here. Cory is back to work and we are trying to fit in what we can on the weekend as far as the house projects go... that has ground down to extremely slow progress. Everything takes longer than we think and there is just too much to do.
This weekend we will need to close up the house and turn on the AC. We've enjoyed a comfortable 'window open' climate for a nice, long spring. Thank you Lord- I have really appreciated it.
May is my favorite month of the year. We celebrated Mother's Day
our 15 year anniversary
and Quinn's 11th birthday. He is growing into a sharp young man before my eyes.
The cows and pig are happily co-existing.
Don't let the background gross you out. I will spare you the methodology of accumulated winter bedding, but long story short- it was time to get all of that out. Cory drug a whole huge PILE of old manure out of there and left it next to our driveway (he ran out of time on a Sunday evening) and pulled the rest of it down to the lower fenced area for the pig and ducks to aerate and the sun to sanitize. Both did their job and quickly, the odor went away. That's right I am saying our **** don't stink (a favorite phrase of my brother Wess' from years ago... funny what you remember).
Piggy has also made friends of the chickens because when he roots they have immediate access to worms and bugs. They love to follow him as he works:
I like this picture because it shows how amazingly strong pigs really are. He is putting all the strength of his backside into the rooting he's doing with his nose... a very useful animal.
The flowers and grass are in full swing and our new arbor is filling out nicely with the wisteria.
The cows both had birthdays (in April) too. They aren't too thrilled about restricted grazing, but that is all we can do right now. I let them out in the afternoon for a few hours to graze wherever I can find grass, and the rest of the time they have to eat hay.
Feeding the animals has become really expensive. We are starting to get that "we aren't so smart" feeling.
The ducks and chickens have had little going on except for the one duck that got stuck in the fence and the subseuently was eaten by the pig (GROSS!!)... The pig normally leaves the ducks alone, but the stuck one was quacking and struggling. My brother said they will eat their brothers and sisters when they are little if they are squealing excessively for some reason. I hate noise too, but really? Piggy is worse than me. He obviously is not familiar with the handy device called the taser.
Did I mention I have never really been an animal person? Yeah.
We are getting a nice small but steady supply of old-school-tasting delicious strawberries
and already and I've made two dishes this week with the first cilantro I have ever grown- mmmmm. My potato patch seems to be doing well as well as the dill, cucumbers and romaine lettuce (all also a first for me). The beans are being assaulted by (I think) Japanese beetles. Not good. May need to pull out the huge Rose of Sharons (that I thought were hollyhocks) after all.
The birdies have nested in the birdhouse again and are faithfully feeding their babies:
The boys are enjoying everything about being boys:
and Sam lost his first tooth, which promptly caused me to launch into a mini-midlife crisis.
To be continued...
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