Around the HOT farm.

Yes, it is hot here. And no rain for a few works. Really dry. Why is it that is rains all winter and early spring, then not a drop of rain all summer? I'll never understand it. I have a feeling we might have a hot dry summer again.

So I sat outside, on my nice clean porch, and spun some of the combed top I've been working on of Adalaide's. She's the ewe below the spinning wheel pic. She had really crimpy wool last year, so the only way to be able for me to use it was with combs. It takes a long time to get a little bit to spin. But it's amazing! Like silk.

 Look how pretty and silky this is.

 

This is Adalaide. So full of wool.

 

And Annabelle.Her wool is about 5" long now.

They are all just miserable in this heat with all their wool still on. I had to email the lady who is supposed to be coming to shear. She said last year she'd be here in March. well, March came and went. I emailed her again. She said mid to late April. That came and went. Emailed her again. She said she was sorry, but her mother had dies early April and she was tied up with arrangements and all. So she said it'd be the 3rd weekend in May. I emailed her again, to see about when she'd be here. Well, she said her husband had been rear-ended by a texting teen ager and broke his back. SO, now it will be the 22nd or 23rd now. I just hope and pray nothing else happens. She said the sheep would be fine, but she doesn't want me to lose this year's fleeces. I hope I don't. I can understand, though. But I think we might need to look for another shearer?

These 2 guys, Click and Clack, the Tappit Brothers, will be going to the butcher after they get sheared. A friend gets the the bigger one, Clack. And I'll have Click made into sausage. I just don't think their wool be much good.  Maybe Click's will. But you can see how Clack's is off his back already. Just like his daddy, Abraham.

So not really much to blog about today. There is rain all around us but none here. Maybe we'll get a little later this week. I'm already tired of watering the gardens!

Mother's Day

 Well, this is what I've been doing on mother's day. Finally cleaned off the studio porch. We pulled the truck over here last night and loaded it up with all the stuff that's been on this porch for a year now. Nothing like procrastinating, right? And I feel SO much better now! Geeze, how could I have left it all on the porch for so long? Now I need to work on the inside.


I love this white chair. So glad I got it. And the old rocker needs to have a new rung made. There's a guy up the road who does wood work, so I think I'll take it to him. Then the shelves need some cool stuff on them. And some flowers on the wire shelf between the chairs.

This is the other side. The little metal table came with this house and has been moved around for so long. I just cleaned it and painted it today. I'll get a pretty pot with some pink and purple flowers for it later.

This window I made for my daughter Abby for Christmas one year. They're remodeling and gave it back to me last year. It's perfect for the wall here. I hung my felted sheep on the little nails. I love it.

Didn't realize these were so alike and I can't delete after I put them on here. So a little closer up view.

I bought this little hooking kit at the fiber show. It sure is addictive. I love doing it. But it would be so much easier if I had a proper frame. Because it takes 4 hands to do this. It's not very big. Now I want to make a bigger rug. It's really fun.

My husband and I went to church this morning with my mom. She goes to the early service, like 9 am. We left our house at 8:30 and it took almost 40 minutes to get there. Anywhere out here takes forever to get to. So they have a band and singers. A loud band. And 2 screens. They sang 1 song forever. I'm just not a fan of standing for 30 minutes, singing the same song, or chorus, over and over again. The pastor had a great message about moms though.

I'm just a little sad at my family though. We are just not a big family here. My mom and step dad moved up here 4 years ago to be near us. I have 2 daughters and 3 grand kids all here. My step dad died almost 2 years ago. We used to get together for every little thing. Every birthday. But since he's been gone, it's kind of slowed down. I feel bad for my mom.  My brother is in Colorado. My sister is in S. Ga.. They hardly ever come anymore. So I feel like I have to do everything. But darn, if there isn't a stinkin' holiday every few weeks now. I am really tired of all these little "special" days for everything. And SO many birthdays! May and June are full of them for us. We did used to have all the May birthdays at one time, then the June. But my kids are so busy lately. And grands scattered all over. Anyway, I'm just feeling a little bummed, I guess.

 I love my mom so much. I'm so glad  she chose to live near me. She really means so much to me. I just don't do enough to let her know. She's very independent. She's like me and likes to do things on her own. But sometimes, it's nice to have family around. We do spend Wednesdays together, but that seems to be rushed lately too. So I stop in when I'm in town.

So I hope you all had a wonderful day. I know there are many special ladies out there. And we do deserve a day just for us.

In the garden May 6th

I think I'll join Amanda over on http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/ Blog. She's starting her Thursday gardening posts again and I love them. So here goes for me. No pictures this week as it's too late and things are just too little to see right now.

I have had to water already, many times. I am LOVING my garden hydrant-faucet out there. It sure has made it so much easier for me. Before, I'd have to unhook then hook up all the hoses just to reach the garden, and then it never got to the end of the garden. Then I'd have to walk from the studio, through 3 gates, then to the garden, just to water. It really was a hassle. Not to mention all the kinks along the way!

So was wandering along the newly planted rows this evening and saw 2 crowder peas and a corn! Yes! No green beans to be seen yet. And lots of radishes and collards and kale and lettuce so far. The tomato, squash, zucchini and pepper plants are all looking great.

So hopefully, soon, I'll not have to buy kale anymore. Or spring lettuce. Or spinach. How exciting!

I still need to mulch with the old hay out there. And plant okra. And some more zinnias and sunflowers seeds. And weed. And water some more.

But it's getting there!

What's coming up in your gardens these days?

2 gifts for me

So I got home yesterday and my husband said there was something for me on the table. This! Isn't it the cutest little VW piggy bank? I love it. Our friend Kidd had gotten a piggy bank for Kansas' birthday and saw this and thought of me. So nice.

Then yesterday, I went to Mrs. T's to see her daughter Marilyn, who was in town a few days. She had told me she'd picked up some books with knitting patterns in them for me. From England.  I have never seen these magazines before. Have any of you who knit ever seen them?

                           Look at these sweet sheep! I love them. I'd love to make some of these.

And these kid's sweaters are adorable. I suppose now I need to learn to read knitting patterns?

This makes me feel good to know people think about me.

I'm off to spend the day with my mother. See you all later.

Ugh. Just ugh.

UGH! I seem to be stuck. And I am SO hungry all the time. But I'm sick of food. I need new ideas as to what to eat. Just tired of the same old stuff. And riding my bike is hard! I'm too old for all this. I just want the weight off right now and not have to work so hard to get it off. Just having a bad few days here.

Around the farm...

Chicken jail. Yep, had to put the chickens in jail til the garden gets big enough to survive their feet. I hate to do it, but I want a garden. Miss Broody Butt is out there too. Black Bart sure doesn't like her right now. He chases her when she gets off the nest. And he's always been so nice to his girls. I think I'll get the tiller in there and til them up some dirt and worms to play with.

The 5 eggs have grown to 8 now. I finally got the marker and made x's on these eggs. Seems like when she gets off the nest, the other hens think it's ok to lay their eggs in there too.

Had a friend come by Saturday and brought a load of old hickory wood for us. Some will need to be split. So we have a good start on next winter's heat so far.

I have really loved having this faucet in the garden. It really makes it so much easier for me. I can put water in the sheep's trough and across the driveway to the chickens too. And also water flowers in the yard. SO nice to have this. And when I start harvesting veggies, I have a sink under the garden shed that I can hook a hose to and clean veggies. So won't have to lug everything to the house to wash now. Pretty cool!

The plumbing guys do need to come back and level the ground out while it's dry. They couldn't finish while it was so wet. There's a big hole on the other side of the fence here. And big rocks all over. I will not be able to mow while it's like this.

I planted more Friday and Saturday. Got everything planted, except okra and zinnias and sunflowers. I wanted to wait til this week to plant them. It's going to be in the 80's all week. I've already had to water all the plants twice last week. I never would have thought, with all the rain we've had, that I would have to water so soon.

That middle spot will have okra planted in it later. The first row is beans, then crowder peas, then corn on the other side of the okra patch.

                                                             Future apples right these!

Siesta time for the sheep. They usually lay down for a few hours about mid morning. Not the alpacas. They are out all day. They'll lay flat on their sides right out in the sun sometimes. Like a goat, I have to go check to make sure they're still alive.

Speaking of goats, I'm going tomorrow with some friends to a farm in Sale creek to look at goats. This is the place where I bought my first Lamancha milk doe, Abby.  She has some really nice goats. I'll be looking at some she might have for sale. I would love to have 2 to milk. Plus I'll be getting a couple pigs in July, so will need milk for them too. They will pay for themselves real fast, as much as I'm paying for milk right now. About $29 a week for raw goat and cow milk.

This is the tomato row, with a few rosemary plants. I went ahead and planted 2 rows of long radishes and 2 rows of beets at the end here, just to finish out this row. And there is kale and collards to the left.  I had planted the collard seeds in that row, then forgot I had done that. So planted the kale there too. Then Friday, forgot again that I had anything in this row and started tilling it. I got down almost to the end when I remembered I had seeds in this row. Good grief! 

I just love this view of Lookout Mt. The sky is so blue and the grass and trees so green. The birds are twittering and flying around, looking for food for their little ones. So many baby birds in all the trees and bird houses right now. The hummers are back too. So much life all around right now. Just amazing.

We went to our youngest grand daughter's 12th birthday party Saturday. Then church twice Sunday for me. And the Chattanooga market. I love that place. I got some veggies and a really pretty copper and glass hanging piece for my front porch here.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Random post.

I went to town this morning, on a hunt for Blue Lake green beans. And beets and corn too. But the beans were a must. I found some at a little plant place in Lafayette. I had been there Tuesday and bought 2 flats of plants. They have good prices. So went back today and they had the beans. I also got Pink Eye purple hull crowder peas and Silver Queen corn and beets.

So went home and tilled several rows. I sure can tell a difference where the clover was. Nice and soft and lots of worms too. I think I'll plant the whole garden in clover next fall. I hope it helps in the quality of the plants too.

I got 4 rows of corn, 2 rows of peas, 3 rows of green beans, a bed of beets planted today. Plus had bought 20 marigolds to plant in the tomatoes.

Plus all I did Tuesday. Pretty good garden so far. I'll wait til next week, when we should be in the 80's, to plant okra. Then I should be done for awhile. Just wait on all the seeds to come up. I had to water all the plants this evening. Already dry. I want to plant more kale too.

After all this, a friend called and wanted to ride bikes. I met her up the road and we rode 4 miles. All the way to the Cross farm and back. One long hill I had to walk halfway up. Dang hills. I will go the whole way soon.

And I've lost 3 more pounds. It's taking lots longer than I was hoping. But 22 more pounds by June 5th. I hope I can do it.

My dog Bubba came home yesterday from romping out back and going swimming, with a sliced open left ear. I didn't know what happened to him. He came back all bloody. So I took him over to the faucet and hosed him down. He had about an inch long slice through his ear. Have no idea what happened. Unless he tried to attack baby geese back at the pond and the parents attacked him. I hope they did if that's what happened. Bad dog.

Cade's Cove

 Just some photos of my trip a few weeks ago to Cade's Cove in the Smokey Mts. in Tn.

This was the 1st stop. The John Oliver Place. I could live right here.

There is a stream over to the front of the house. It was so beautiful and peaceful. The dogwood trees were in full bloom too.

This is at the visitor center, about mid-way through the tour. Years ago, we came here with the kids. They were probably 8 and 10. They had people in period clothes, doing demonstrations. I remember a lady spinning on a really big old wheel in the house. And they had the mules out at the sorghum wheel too. There was an older man in the mill though. He was grinding corn for corn meal.

I could live here too. This is actually my dream house.  It is the Gregg-Cable House.

This house was amazing. It had started to rain at the visitor center and kept up the rest of the way. Glad I brought my umbrella. I went up to this house, The Tipton Place, and just wanted to stay there. All it needed was a few rocking chairs on the front porch. It was beautiful.

                                                                The view from the porch.

                                  It has the perfect barn ever. I could have stayed in here all day.

This is the corn crib. When the kids were little, they would go inside this. I have pictures of them in there.

Another view from the front porch. It was so beautiful and green here.

I'll post more later. It was so fun. I'd love to go back on a better day.

Y'all have a great weekend!

Gardening. Finally.

My bee mentor came yesterday. He did a very thorough hive inspection. I saw lots of beautiful golden honey!!!!! I am SO happy! He took the biggest box off the top and added the medium and shallow ones instead. He said they are easier to get in the extractor. We also put a queen excluder on the 2nd box. He  saw lots of brood and pollen in the brood box at the bottom. And lots of smaller newer bees too. So I have a very busy queen! I should get honey in June. So I went and bought a manual honey extractor. I am ready!

In garden news, I mowed most of the clover down Monday. Gary, the bee guy, said the bees don't really pay attention to the Crimson clover, because it's a hybrid. I had not seen any honey bees in it, just the big bumble bees. So yesterday, I mowed that bigger patch down.

Went to mt friends over at Pocket Farm and got 10 huge Rutger and 3 Black Cherry tomato plants. And some dill. Then went to Lafayette to this plant place and got 2 Better Boy, 2 Big Boy and an Amish Paste tomato, 2 red bell and 1 green bell, 1 sweet banana and jalapeno and cow pepper plants. Also 2 yellow and 2 zucchini and a cabbage. These are cups of 6 each. I had some kale left from last year. And a little envelope of organic kale from Woolly Moss Roots in Oregon. So I got some collard, radish, lettuce and spinach seeds from the feed store. And they were slap out of Blue Lake green beans. OUT! And will get no more. I am not happy. I love those beans and have planted them every year for 35 years now. There is no other bean like them. So I will be on the hunt for BL beans.

I got all of this planted yesterday afternoon. My husband planted 10 tomato plants. That helped. And I do believe I planted all the kale and collards in the same row!  I know I did really. This should be interesting. Sometimes I could just kick myself. And now, we are getting the most gentle little April shower. Perfect. It hadn't rained here since last Friday night. The South side of the garden was pretty dry, but the North side was still a bit wet. I still have beans and corn and okra to get planted. It's a start anyway!

Down here, I think I want to plant the stinging nettles. And I got some organic Mullein seeds from Taryn too, so might plant a row of that here as well. It will get pretty big. Got some catnip too. Don't know a lot about it. It does not smell too good though.

What's growing in your gardens so far? Would love to hear about it.

Around the farm

 Not a whole lot going on around here yet. But we're working on it. I'm waiting for it to dry up so later this afternoon, I can go mow the clover down. It's supposed to be nice til Wed. So I hope to go get some tomato plants and some other things. And seeds. So I might be able to get a garden going. I saw on FB where this guy is making a bean tunnel out of bamboo. I know where a bamboo jungle is, so I might go cut down a bunch and try this. It looks so cool.

So hubby went out this morning to weed eat around the electric fence. It was getting a bit over grown back there. I am planning on getting a couple of goats again. Just because I really miss them. And milk is expensive. And we drink a lot of it. And they'll pay fro their selves real fast. And I am planning on getting a few pigs in July. And I'd love to have a calf to raise again. So I think a few milk does will be needed here. I'll keep the sheep out of the back from now on, so it'll grow back up again. So it'll be ready for the goats.

I was outside awhile ago, taking pictures and saw the new growth on 3 of the fig bushes. I thought they were all dead. Fickle figs. I just never know about these. We killed the one by the fence, where we have to go through to get to the studio. It just wasn't a good place for it. And the plumbers had to go through too. So it's gone. But I was just surprised and happy to see the new growth. I'll do some more trimming on the dead branches and mulch around them.

And this is a big Burdock. I have several of them around. Obviously, there are some in the sheep pastures too. Because they were covered in them last fall. I hope I can get them out of the pastures before it's too late again. These things are brutal on wool. But, I have heard they are good to eat. The roots, anyway. So I want to get some of them really big and dig them up for the roots.

And I was so sick of nasty filthy dogs, I gave them both showers this morning. I also cleaned Stella's crate and washed all the rugs. So now, I have nice clean dogs. For a few hours anyway. Til they go back outside and roll in chicken or sheep poop. Or get out and run back to the dirty filthy pond out back. Or chase a skunk. Yeah, it won't last long.

And a friend has some shears she uses to shear her donkeys. She said she'd come shear poor ole Bubba. He is miserable when it gets so hot. And there is dog hair ALL OVER my house. All the time! I hate it. He will feel better and I will too. I use a curry comb on him and now there is dog hair all over the yard. And still, there is hair just hanging off him.

Stella, all nice and clean, in her clean crate. She's so pretty when she's clean. But it won't last long at all.

So this last weekend was pretty busy. We went to my niece's daughter's wedding in Spring City Saturday. It was like a family reunion in April. Lots of Indiana people and some from Mo. So fun to see everyone. The big reunion is in August, so this was fun.

Sunday, I went to a church up the road that I've wanted to go to for years. I know the preacher and his wife. Great people. And so nice and helpful. And I'm walking with a friend who goes there. I also know lots of the people who are members there. So it felt very comfortable there. Like an old timey country church. All the old hymns that I know. Just a good church.

Then after church, I went to the Chattanooga Market. It was the grand opening for the season Sat. and Sun. So hundreds of people. So many people, it took forever to go down one aisle. But saw so many nice things. And saw some neighbors, from way out here! So fun. I bought some fresh local strawberries. And some shea butter from some friends. I use it to make soap. Which I need to make more of. I have soap at the local feed store in Flintstone now, and have sold a lot. I need to go add more and different soaps.

I am waiting on my bee friend to come later today, to help me with my hive. I am hoping he'll say it can be slpit. So I have the other hive ready, just in case. If I have to, I can run to town and buy a new queen later. I hope I'll be able to split this hive. It's doing so good.

And still waiting on news about sheep shearing. She said she'd be here mid to late April. I know my sheep are ready. And I could take the 2 wethers to the butcher tomorrow, but I'd like to get them sheared first. I can bring them next week though.

So, that's it for now. I want to post about my Cade's Cove trip later.  I hope you all had a great weekend.

The beginning...

The birds and the bees.

 This hen. I have tried everything to get her to stop being broody. I take the eggs from her every day. I dunk her rear end in cold water to cool it off. Nothing works.  Monday, I didn't gather eggs. The next morning, she's on 5 eggs. So I am going to let her have them. She's still on them. Just the 5. I got 5 eggs from the other nest boxes, so she's pretty much settled on those 5. We shall see what happens in about 19 days or so. I haven't had chicks in a few years. Because when the hens did set on eggs, about 75% turned out to be roosters. But I know a few people who could use some roos.

Some hens are just so stubborn and want to be mothers so bad. I bet this one will be a good little momma.

I did a semi thorough hive inspection a few days ago. Not much going on in the top floor. I have 4 boxes on the hive now. Maybe I should take the top box off? I have no clue about bee keeping. They seem to be a really healthy hive of bees. Lots of activity. And the top box has lots of smaller bees. So I assume they are new bees?

The SHB traps didn't have much in them. And what were in them were long dead. This hive is so full and healthy, they are taking care of the beetles themselves now.

This is the 2nd box. Lots of busy bees here.

I could not get the 2 bottom boxes separated, so I don't know what was going on down there. I really need my bee mentor to come over and help me. I smell honey all over though and really want honey. I'm nearly out.

This is from the 3rd box. Looks like the start of some beautiful golden honey right there.

25

I have finally hit the 25 pound mark! I have lost 25 pounds!!!!!!!! I cannot even begin to say how excited I am about this! It's the halfway point plus 1 pound, for my goal to be reached by my birthday in June. I will have to walk a lot of miles and ride many many more.

I know I can do this. I can so see myself at a healthy weight right now.