Flowers and cats

 This is Cosmo on the left with her son Alex, on the chair with the pot of bee balm. I love this picture. I had to run back in the house for my camera, thinking they'd not be there when I came back out. But they were. I got several shots of them before they got tired of all the flashes, I guess.

Then Sybil had to come see what was going on. And eat some grass. Silly cats!

Clouds today

 I went to the Main St. farmer's market this afternoon. It was really hot today. I started seeing these awesome clouds rolling in from the North heading South. They were so beautiful.

                     I have never seen a cloud like this before. Look at the top. It's smooth. So cool.

   

                                                  I had to get a closer view if this cloud.

And this one. They were changing so fast. I just love clouds. Then as I was leaving, I could see lightening in some of them. On the way home, there were a few sprinkles. But that was all. So amazing, these big huge clouds.

Fermented grains

I haven't talked about the fermented grain in a long time. So thought I'd do a post about how I do it.

I am using cracked corn, or 3 way chicken scratch, which is what I have now, whole wheat, whole oats and steamed barley. I use the big coffee can and take 1 1/2 half of each grain and dump into a 5 gallon bucket til it'a almost 3/4 full.

Then take some good apple cider vinegar with the mother and I pour maybe 1-2 cups in.

Then fill it up with HOT water. I find hot water makes it plump up faster. Then give it a stir and put a lid on loosely. In the morning, the grain will be to the top of the bucket. I usually make a bucket every other day.

I always drain 2 colanders full every morning and night since the goats don't like theirs wet. For the goats, the milk does get a few qts. mixed with alfalfa pellets, sunflower seeds and kelp during milking.

The chickens get 2 colanders plus 2 big coffee cans full of grower-finisher feed mixed together with kelp too. The chickens get this twice a day. I have 26 Freedom Rangers and about 40 Cornish Cross left. So when all these birds are butchered, I'll just be feeding goats and some laying hens.

I don't know if it's the  fermented grains mixed with the kelp, but my goats are looking great. Nice shiny coats and very healthy.

I did leave a coffee can half full of grains and forgot about it. One day I saw the can and looked in and the grains had sprouted. Lots of sprouts in there. I gave it to the Barred Rock chicks and they loved it. So I may start doing this for them, since they are in the coop right now til I get their run done.

Freedom Rangers at 2 months old

Yesterday, I put the Premier electric net fence around the Freedom Rangers. I thought that might help them to grow, since they are still so darn little. And they are almost 2 months old now.

                  Some of them don't mind getting electrocuted. Then they go back in again. Silly birds.

                                                       I hope this will make them happy!

Some John Henry

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.487380511336949&type=1 (If you go to Open Group at Bedlam Farm on FB, you can see these. For some reason, I can't get links on here..)

I posted all these on FB this morning. He's such a ham, this buck!

Y'all have a great weekend. I'm going to the farmer's market in the morning. Haven't been in a few weeks.

What's not right here?

I mowed today!

 Me and 1, 578 other people. The sun came out and it didn't rain here all day! So on the mowers we all went. Gotta mow while the sun shines, right? And man, was it ever hot too. And humid, with all this moisture in the air. And I slid all over this place on that mower. I was afraid to mow up by the road because it's too close to the pond we get when it rains a lot. And I did not want to get stuck like I saw someone else did. So I'll get it later. And I'll have to trim everywhere tomorrow too. It looks so much better. It was beginning to become quite the jungle out here.

I like this picture of the house, with the sun behind it. It sure was nice to see it today. A welcome sight, indeed. And I feel better with all the high grass mowed now. It was getting to where I was afraid to walk through it. There are nasty creepy scary snakes out there!

And the bees were really active today. I was worried they had all left the hive. It's been too rainy and cloudy to check on them. When I did get close, I could hear bees inside the hive. And I am really smelling honey! I'll go tomorrow and get another super and frames so when I do check inside, I can put new frames in and take the frames with honey. I am really not sure what I'm doing. But I smell honey!

I love the clouds when they're like this. I have seen bunnies, baby pigs, all kinds of cute little animals. Love them!