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May 25, 2008

busy, busy, busy

Today, Serafina and her doeling (2 of the 3 goats from Rosebud), decided to go off on their own. Belle, Sammy and Horus hung around here and followed me everywhere. I started to get worried so I saddled up Willy and we went for a ride, trying to find the crafty goat and her doeling. Bah, no luck, but it is actually the first time I have ridden a horse in about 3 years, so that's all good.

I decided to go look for them. So I got my walking stick (a shepherd's crook, really) and my camera, and I headed off into the woods. Gosh, things grow so fast when it rains like that, I had to make my own path - walked for a good 2 hours, didn't find her, but I did find several HUGE patches of wild blackberries!! Got home, deticked myself and changed clothes and went out in the Ranger looking for her - still no luck. So I worked on cleaning up the smaller chicken coop and put mulch over all the bare pieces of ground that the chickens have scratched down to nothing. I gave Willy a bath, boy, did that horse need one! And I cleaned my saddle and bridle, both of which had not been properly cleaned for what - 3 years!

I highly recommend Leather CPR - it's pricey, but it is the best leather cleaner/conditioner I have ever used.

Yesterday, I took another two hour walk through the 40 acre pasture/woods. Took the dogs, it was raining a bit, but it was still a lot of fun. I've got to post some of the pictures.

My peonies started blooming TODAY - just in time for Memorial Day!

Serafina and her doeling came back to the general area of the barn, until she saw me, then she took off, and this time, all my little goats followed her. When it gets later, and she wants her grain, she should reappear. If not, I'll send Gunner and Kiki out after the goats, that'll get them in!!!

Posted by Beth at 5:35 PM | Comments (1)

May 20, 2008

Short post with a picture - have to get out and plant!

I thought this was a pepperomia plant, but now I'm not so sure - its flower does not look like pictures I've seen of them. Here it is - if anyone can tell me what it is, that would be nice. It is growing in my terrarium.

Posted by Beth at 8:01 AM | Comments (1)

May 19, 2008

Time flies when you are trying to catch up on planting!

We had a longer winter than we have had for a long time. Lots of cold, snow, ice and wind. Spring was rather late in appearing, and we had frosts for 2 weeks longer than normal, so I am behind.

I'm learning this farm stuff as I go, and I have already learned some lessons. I tried starting a lot of seeds indoors back in February. They grew pretty well, but because of the late frosts, I was delayed in transplanting them. When I finally did get them planted, I found that the darn plastic trays I had planted them in made it very difficult to get the plants out without squishing their roots. Sometimes I even had to cut the plastic cells to get my plants out.

If I was only planting a few plants, that would not be so bad, but when you are trying to plant several hundred of them, it's a nightmare.

Next year, I'm not going to use anything with plastic cells to start seeds in. I lost almost a whole tray of fennel and rosemary.

I bought the trays because they were made by Burpee, and I thought with that name, they would be good. Well, everything in their little mini greenhouse sets work well, except for the trays.

My horses, Willy is literally standing at the front door - he is ready for his morning grain, so I better get moving - I promise I'll post later with pictures!!

Posted by Beth at 6:59 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 10, 2008

more pictures

I try to walk with the dogs every day - this is one of our routes - a week or so ago, the redbud trees started blooming -

And yesterday, I saw that wasps can also help with pollination:

Posted by Beth at 12:08 PM | Comments (2)

I've been very busy on the farm

And I've had no time to blog. So I thought I'd post some pictures of what's been going on around here.

As you know, we are in Kansas. This is the time of year of rather, umm, interesting weather. Sometimes, the sky is so beautiful, that I have to run and get the camera. Here is a nice example:

We have a new barn cat, DC (stands for "dumped cat"). He is just a lovely cat. He came to us full of ticks and his coat all matted up, so we took him to Dr. Nikki and she neutered him, gave him his shots and got rid of the ticks and matted hair. He recovered quite quickly, as you can see:

We have two new members of the Castle Argghhh! farm, so far they are nameless, but gosh darn cute:

Stay tuned for more updates - LOL!

Posted by Beth at 6:38 AM | Comments (10)