Practice pictures...

 I went out this morning and just took pictures. My daughter Abby came over yesterday and showed me several things about this new camera that I wasn't doing right. So these are a bunch of pretty good practice shots, from my yard, gardens and the hay field. I hope you enjoy them!

Some of my Stella D'Oro day lilies in full bloom with the pretty blue chair and pot of blue flowers. Also some Lamb's Ear blooming too. Bees will be loving that!

This is my "Bee Garden" full of blue, purple, pink, yellow and white flowers and herbs for the bees to enjoy. I really love this garden. It's surrounded by my 12 blueberry bushes. They are full of berries too!

Finally, some nekked sheep!

 After waiting what seemed like months, my sheep have all been sheared! (I can't tell them apart now til I get closer!) They've never gone this long, and I was getting worried. To me, they seemed really hot, especially when they stood around panting like dogs. But it's not been too hot, except for maybe a few weeks. And not all together. Nights have been really nice and cool.

So I found out, on a sheep forum, that sheep's wool is an insulator. It keeps them cool on hot days and warm on cold days. I just never knew this. The shearer, Rosemarie, said it's true. After a few others said the same thing. So I learned something new. Again. It's good to learn something every day, right? But they look much better without all that heavy wool all over them. And I believe they feel better now.

AND, I now have 6 bags of wool from them!  Adele's wool will be good for felting. Since she is half hair and half Finn, her wool is a bit hairy. I may end up selling her if I don't end up breeding any of them next fall. I could use Bilbo The Hobbit Ram on her and Darla for some meaty lambs. But those would be the only 2 ewes I'd breed. I think I'm done breeding the Finn sheep.

Also, Amarillo, the ewe that had the quads, her wool had some breakage throughout. It could possibly have been because she had quads. I'll also use her wool for felting this time. And hopefully, next year, her wool will be fabulous!

Annabelle and Adelaide's wool is amazing! And my little tiny Buttercup, who just turned a year old in April, has beautiful buttery soft wool! Can't wait to get it all cleaned and carded now! Rosemarie was really impressed with her wool and the other 2.

And they were all really healthy looking, weight-wise. And all had nice pink eyelids too! I was SO relieved to see that. I had been so worried, with so many sheep, that they would get Barber Pole worms again. Especially since the grass just wasn't growing and I couldn't get all the poop raked up fast enough. But they are all looking good. Except for Amarillo, she's a bit skinny, but she had quads. Still has the 2 ram lambs on her. Which need to be castrated!

They are in the big pasture now for awhile. It finally started growing. They'll stay there a few weeks til the other pasture gets growing taller. I quit feeding grain! They were getting a little chunky.

They got in the little barn in the pasture next door. It seems to be cool in there and the flies are really bothering them. I need to either buy or make some spray for them. The poor alpacas are not liking these bad flies. They are like horses and the flies get in their eyes. Poor boys. I made a spray yesterday with citronella and tried to get it on them.

This is Cassidy, Adele's ewe lamb. I decided to keep her. She would be at least 85% Finn. Something like that anyway. She's a big girl. And I hope she will have some nice wool. Rosemarie seemed to think she would. Not too sure about one of the black lambs though.

It is finally starting to feel like it might start getting warmer now. The lightenin' bugs are all over the place. I love seeing them all over in the trees. The garden just got watered really good tonight from the sprinkler. Got more corn, beans and okra planted last Thursday. The squash and zucchini are looking good. A bit slow, so they got a good soaking. The okra I planted a few weeks ago is a few inches high now. And the tomatoes need staking bad! I just mowed down the radish and lettuce rows and will plant cucumbers there. And the one wide middle row will be for butternut squash. Then I wait. I'll take a break from the Wed. market a few weeks. Do some weeding and mulching. And wait some more.

Thank you and thank you...

I want to thank all of you who reassured me that my comments worked! I really do appreciate hearing from you all.  I feel like I know you all and it makes me feel better knowing you're all still out there!

And I wanted to say thank you to all of you who have served or have family who have served, in our fine military. My father and uncles, my brother Mark and son in law Jason. So many many more. If not for them, we would more than likely not be right here right now. Thank you all so much for your sacrifices and honor and dedication for your families and for this country.

I do hope each and every one of you have a wonderful day. It's beautiful here. Animals are happy. Food is cooking and ready to be eaten with family soon. See you all later!

Comments please!

I am now wondering if anyone can leave comments here. I was talking to a friend who said she couldn't leave comments now for some reason. I don't see any reason on my end why. But of course I am not a computer type person, so it could be me. My niece came Thursday and cleaned my computer up, so maybe now it works. If anyone would do me a huge favor, could you just leave a little comment so I can see if it's working? If not, I'll know something's wrong on my end here. I know there are viewers, so thank you for that too!

Thanks so much! And I hope you all have a great holiday weekend!

This morning...

She's just a natural, this one!

The Queen's of Outback Farm

This afternoon, when I got home, I grabbed my long sleeve white shirt, bee hat, hive tool and smoker. Went to the Garden hive first. The bees were out and about, but most were in the hive. I have to say, these bees are very docile, calm bees. I have lifted the lid almost every day to check on them and they never even buzz loud. So I set the smoker down where the smoke would kind of swirl around and I could get to it if I needed to. Took off the lid and the top board. The middle frames are stuck together, so I took the hive tool to pry them apart so I can lift them out. Still nothing going on in the 4 outer frames. Some bees on them, but no construction. I lifted out each frame to find the queen. I didn't see her anywhere. One of the frames was really heavy with honey. So I put it back together and went up to check the other hive.

That one was busy, with bees flying all over. I took off the top and took each frame out. It was sunnier up there, so I could see better. I cannot see anything with that hat on, so it was off. I saw a lot of reddish-orange (pollen? Honey?) in some of the frames. Some capped frames. Lots of busy bees. And I found the queen! Her back end looked like a caterpillar abdomen to me. Long, pointed and no stripes. She was all over that frame! Very big. It looked like little larva in some of the cells. And some shiny substance, maybe royal jelly? I have no idea what I'm seeing. Or what to even look for. Anyway, they all looked great. So put it back together and went back to the other hive to look for the queen, now that I saw the other one.

And I found the Garden hive queen, in the middle frame! She was much bigger than last week. And very busy too. The frames did look different from last week. So I feel better.

And I've decided, instead of putting down those really cool Congolium tiles, to just paint the plywood floors in the little house. The tiles would cost nearly $750 for the whole house. I can get a couple gallons of paint and do it for about $50. I can do stripes, or squares. And put rugs down. Anyway, lots of ideas for my little studio-shop.

Tomorrow is farmer's market day. I pick all morning, wash and bag, or tie, or put in totes. That takes all morning. Then get it all ready and in the car. It's literally an ALL day thing, this afternoon market. I am worn out. I finally made dandelion jelly that jelled! So I have 7 jars of that to take. And just made 9 little jars of plantain salve. I have sold all that I made last week, so needed more. Also had an order for 3 crocheted wash clothes and soap for gifts.

And we are going to start a farmer's market just 5 miles South of me, at Mt. Cove Farm. On Sunday's from 1-3. I sure hope it takes off and is successful, so I can go to this one instead of the Sat. market 30 miles away. I might not get to go to this first market this Sunday because the shearer from Atlanta is supposed to come here Sunday sometime to shear my poor very hot ewes.

The guy who bought my sheep last week called. He needed to know how to get to my house. I almost freaked out. I asked him if he was bringing the sheep back? He said he had to go to my friend's farm a little past me and couldn't remember how he got out here. Scared me!

Still haven't sold any goat kids or does. The 4 kids running together are the 4 doe kids I'm keeping. Aslan, Jewel, (Sandy, to the left, is their mother) Emmy Lou and Merry piper. The other kid is one of the triplets, a buck, Pete. He's so cute. I love his color. The other buck is almost white, Tom Dooly. Then Emmy Lou's big brother, Woody Guthrie, is the other buck. They all need to go. All the kids this year are so friendly.