Stuck sheep/garden update
This stuck sheep showed some real talent in getting her head in here. She had to move forward while turning her head sideways. However, getting her out took 2 of us. One to pull her backwards and the other to twist her head. She just kept pushing forward. There are always lessons to be learned from these sheep.
Once we helped her out, she was very happy to join her friends in a meal of grain.
The garden is giving us very large cantaloupe this year after starting out with giving us personal sided melons. These are two people melons. I am definitely saving seed from these.
This is the end of the cucumbers though there are still a few more zucchini and peppers in the garden. This week, we will clean out some of the beds.
No photo as it seemed dangerous, but the honey bees are battling the wasp who would like to rob the hives. Next year we will be putting up wasp traps.
Twinkling snowman and raisins
Twinkling Snowman is now basted together so that I can spent bits of time here and there sewing it down. I am pleased to get this far.
Remember the 4 gallon bucket of grapes we picked? This is what they look like dehydrated
And this is the total amount of raisins from a 4 gallon bucket of grapes
They are horrible to pick off the screen, so I’m hoping not to do any more of these this year or else find a better way to do them.
‘Strive for the Peace of Progress. Not Perfection”. I found this on Busy Gal’s Homestead blog this morning. I have been thinking about it today realize that often I feel defeated because I don’t measure up to my own expectations. The star I hitch to is way out there. This summer has been so busy, I haven’t had a chance to get caught up. I’m going to try to remember the progress made instead of how much is still to do.
All day dozing and winter food prep
Today was more food prep for winter and for the weekend. So the applesauce was canned, rice cooked, greens cooked, and split pea soup made. Laundry was washed and that’s about as domestic as I could handle today after the gym.
lt’s difficult to see in the shade, but this little fellow and his great big brother worked in the pasture all day. The day started with someone not closing a gate, so all the Cormo
sheep decided to form one group in the pasture without a fence between them. Fortunately there is only one mature ram here so they are just getting the chance to breed a bit earlier than had been planned. It could have been a disaster if we had had more than one mature ram. I will mark my calendar for 150 days from today though I don’t think any of the ladies were ready. There is always some type of excitement and that doesn’t even include having a dog that got out and was checking out the neighborhood.
Sunday, the plan is to seed the pasture that is ready and possibly finish dozing and seed the rest of the pasture next week. These things always take longer than expected and don’t seem to go exactly as planned,
Shabbat Shalom Enjoy they day.
Dozing begins
It is so dry after 2 months of no rain, that if it has even a hint of green one knows from a long distance that it is nettles growing. So the dozing begins. They have taken down all the blackberries in the top pasture and tomorrow will finish removing the nettles in this pasture. Then they will plant what they estimate to be about 3 acres. The weather forecast is for rain and in the 60s all but one day next week. Absolutely perfect weather for pasture growing. I am getting excited about this as I’ve waited a long time to get this done. The sheep will be excited in the spring.
There is so much farm cleaning and repairing right now to get ready for winter. I’m hoping to get back to the sewing machine next week, when the weather isn’t encouraging me to be outside. I think my sewing studio is missing me.
Sheep care
After gym today, we worked on sheep care. They are nearly all wormed now. We looked them over to decide potential breedings and did some pen maintenance. We worked some on a fleece we are soaking and before we knew it, the day was gone
Nothing done
Some days it seems as if I worked all day and got nothing done. Since that has been a persistent feeling this month, today, I decided to write down what I did.
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Cleaned and stemmed the grapes, laid them on trays and put in freezer, (I’ll thaw them out and dehydrate when the cucumbers are done -to make raisins)
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Loaded the dehydrator with cucumbers chips.
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Cleaned and cooked collard greens
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Took food scraps out to sheep
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Went to the grocery store
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Fed the bees
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Picked an apron full of apples, cut and cored them to cook (too many earwigs in them so lots of discard)
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Took scraps to sheep
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Went to upper barn, fed sheep, put soap in the barrel with soaking fleece and filled with water.
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Mopped kitchen floor
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Made lunch (finished lunch at 2 PM)
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Sat down to watch some “Back to basics summit” homestead videos
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Fed dogs and sheep in both locations
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made supper
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cooked apples
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made just over 3 quarts of applesauce
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husked popcorn – Isn’t it pretty
That looks better, I really did do something and feel justified being tired. Off for a nice relaxing bath and then put the feet up and watch another sewing video. Maybe tomorrow, after gym, and a few basic chores, the rest of the sheep will get wormed and we will start deciding which rams to put with which ewes. They are definitely getting interested.
Garden update 9/11/17
Garden update for 9/11/17 begins with these grapes. They are the beginning of the harvest. This was a 4 gallon bucket. I will be making some juice, some raisins, and some frozen grapes. If the birds stay out of them, there may be about 5 times this many.
We have eaten a number of small personal sized cantaloupes. This one is a larger one that isn’t yet ripe.
I’m not sure what happened to the watermelon. Lots of leaves, but no fruit – it really fizzled.
I’m tired of cherry tomatoes and cucumbers and they are dying back, so we have started pulling them and putting in the winter vegetables. We still have a very few squash ripening as well. The weather man says cooler weather for the rest of the year. That is good. When the harvest comes, it doesn’t give you much rest. But it is so very welcome.
Pumpkin head #2 is now ready to be embroidered and quilted. I think I should find a little black cat and a embroider a spider to finish them off. But finishing them may not happen this year. I may pin one of them on the wall just for decoration just like he is this year.
When putting together the applique pieces, I laid an a
Pumpkin Head is now all put together. He still needs to be stitched down, but he is in one piece. This pattern is called