It's the middle of August already! Time is really speeding up. All the goats are doing well. Spunky is growing and looking good. He's a friendly little guy. Comes up and jumps on my leg like a puppy would and wants to be petted. He's cute.
The five baby turkeys are growing. They won't be big enough to eat this year, but next year they will be. There are two more hens sitting on nests, so we could end up with a large group of babies for next year. It seems there is always at least one late hatching of turkeys every year, this year being no exception. The chickens have 5 new chicks, too.
I went up to Eureka for their Fiber Festival the first full week-end of this month. That was fun. They have such a nice venue up there and it's a laid back and friendly bunch of people running it. I always have a good time there. I took a needlefelting class this year. I made a "pixie". That was fun. I actually got to stay overnight up there, so I got a mini vacation out of it. That was nice, although I didn't get to sleep in because it was too noisy in the morning. People were leaving the hotel rather early. Oh well, at least I didn't have to do the chores, or cook , or anything.
I've started taking the goats out into the neighbors places to eat now. They get full in one hour, it's so lush in the woods over there. If we didn't have neighbor dogs around, I'd just let the goats out to wander at will like I used to. But, I don't trust the neighbor's dogs, so I go out, too. Even though I don't get any work done for two hours, it's nice to be out in the woods, just listening to the sounds and watching the goats and other wildlife. My meditation time. There is a nice Whitetail buck that is living out around here. He comes in fairly close when we are out there. He's come within about 30 feet of me before. His antlers are growing rapidly!
The garden is doing well. We are about to get a ton of green beans. I planted another batch of lettuce today, so we should get a fall crop. I'm going to build a cold frame over that section so we can eat lettuce for a long time into the fall and early winter. We had a lot of strawberries and asparagus this year. Yum! It's looking like we will get a lot of potatoes, too.
I'm getting a couple more mini horses next week-end. Rascal will have some company of his own kind. That should make him happy, especially since these two are mares. They are about 5 inches shorter than he is. All about the same color.
I still haven't started hauling in the winter's supply of hay yet. The thought of hauling 31 tons of hay by myself is a daunting one this year. I'm not in nearly as good of shape as I was last year. I'm seriously thinking about going to round bales, or the big squares and just getting a few at a time. Then all I have to do is drive out from under them, and they are set in the hay shed. No unloading and stacking bale by bale. The only thing is, I can only get about 8 of them in the hay shed at a time since I don't have a tractor to move them around with. So all winter I would have to be hauling in hay. If we get a lot of snow like we are supposed to, that could pose a problem. So we will see what happens in the next few weeks.
This evening when the goats were out in the pasture, I heard one of them yelling out in pain. I went running down there, and here is Mouse, a big yearling wether, with his two front legs wedged in the V of a couple of aspen trees that were growing together. He was pretty well stuck. I had to pick him up and get him standing up higher than where his legs were stuck. Not an easy feat! Then while I was holding him up with one arm, I had to slowly and carefully lift up his legs and get them out. It was hard, but I got it done. I thought the one was broke, but after I massaged it, and he moved a little, it was okay. He lost some hair off both legs, but other than that, he seems okay. He was in a bit of shock, but he's going to be fine. His back legs are weak from standing on them for so long. He was hung up for around 20 minutes, I think. Poor guy. That's the problem with having aspen stands, they grow together quite a bit.
We finally have a second vehicle. John got a 1999 Lexus RX 300. It's in really good shape, and looks new. It's fun to drive. It's nice being able to just zip into a parking place anywhere, without having to look around for spaces with plenty of room so the truck can fit in. I still drive the truck most of the time, since I usually have to get some kind of animal feed whenever I go to town. We aren't using the Lexus for hauling anything but groceries in. It's our "going to town" car. ☺
Well, that's all that has been happening around here....
