In the garden.

 I've been working out in the garden the past few days. It's been just beautiful here! No humidity at all. I love it and just want to be outside right now. I can feel a change in the air. It's cleaner and fresher and lots cooler. Leaves are falling too.

The garden needs so much work. I really do not like summer gardening at all. Well, I love the tomatoes. But that's about all. I like fall gardening so much better. Not near as many bugs and it's so much cooler.

So here are some more before and after shots of the garden.

I left these mexican sunflowers. Butterflies are all over them, as well as the zinnias.

I started mowing the corn stalks down, then decided to just push them over with the mower for now.

And I just got finished tilling where I want to plant. This is my clean-up crew. They are all over the plowed ground, looking for bugs and worms. I'll have to put the electric net fence up around this longer garden area. I plan to plant kale and collards, beans, squash, okra and lettuce.

I also would like to plant buckwheat in front of the bee hive. I hope there's still time to do this. My friends planted their whole garden in buckwheat and bees are all over it.

So still a lot of good planting weather here. What's going on in your gardens these days?

Before and after...

This is the way my husband's end of the table has looked since he's been home, almost 2 years now. It drives me crazy!! And this is just some of his stuff.

So this morning I just all of a sudden thought of this old stainless steel bread box out in the laundry room. It's perfect to fit most of his stuff into. Even the bread! I hope it stay like this now.

Doesn't this look so much better? And cleaner? I even washed the windows where Bubba slobbers all over them, trying to kill flies and barking at nothing outside. We could hardly see through the window. Plus the used-to-be white window seat is cleaned too. And I went out and picked fresh zinnias. I love them.

One of my favorite bloggers, Jon Katz, does a windowsill gallery post every now and then. So I thought I'd show mine. I love blue bottles with zinnias in them.

I hope you all have a great weekend! I am working out in the garden today. I've already taken up all the tomato cages and stakes and picked the sunflower heads for the chickens. I'll be mowing the whole garden down when it's dry enough. I also will cut down all the dried corn stalks for the goats. The sheep didn't like them. Then I need to figure out where to plant collards and kale. I am craving collards right now. But will have to go get them at a store for now. And the whole farm needs mowed. It rained most of the week here so it's tall now. Lookin' snakey out there.

I also finished the baby sweater. I'll post when I have the buttons on. Then I need to finish a cowel-shawl I've been working on.

These sheep.

My husband asked me the other day if the sheep tell me when they need to be moved. I said pretty much. If they've eaten all they can in one pasture, they stand at the gate and wait for me to come move them to another pasture. Pretty smart sheep right?

So yesterday, I put them out back with the goats. They did pretty good. First time they've been together since I got the little doe kids. The goats stayed together most of the time.

Then this morning, the sheep were ready to go back to the bigger pasture.

A good cuppa tea...

Since I quit drinking coffee back in March, I am drinking a lot of hot tea. My favorite is dandelion tea, picked right out of the yard and gardens. It's so good. Then next would have to be peppermint, also picked out of the garden. But, since the dandelions are no longer blooming, I've been picking loys of peppermint. And it's almost all gone now. This morning, I was out back and found some wild mints, 2 different kinds! Yay! So I am going to go pick all I can find and dry them. Plus I just might go and rob Mrs. T of all her mint too!

I was at Whole Foods the other day, looking for a good tea, when I found a green dandelion tea. And it tastes just like I went out and picked fresh dandelion flowers! It is so good. So I am drinking at least 3 cups of this each day.

I also like cranberry tea too. And ginger. And lemongrass. I drink a lot of tea. With honey. Which is not going to last long y'all. I just had to open the 2nd gallon of my honey awhile ago. I am worried. I may have to go rob the hive one more time before fall.

Anyway, this got me thinking. Are there any other hot tea drinkers out there? Can you share your favorite tea? And how do you make it? What's your best ever cup of tea? And your favorite cup? I picked this one up at Tybee. I like it, but it's small. It does make a good cuppa tea though.

I also like to drink tea while knitting. Makes me feel, I don't know, like a cool knitter. Hot tea and knitting. 2 really cool things!

Little baby sweater.

 I think I'm going to rip out the first arm. It's SO big! I could tell after a little knitting on the other arm that I had knit really loose. It's not that much more work and it'll look so much better when finished. I am loving this little sweater. I hope there'll be enough yarn left over to make a little baby bonnet to match it.

Now to find some cute little buttons. I think I'll see if Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots has some little wooden buttons with honey bees on them. That would look cute. Then I need to find a cute little baby to wear it!

When I am done with this sweater, I want to start on a big sweater for me, using my sheep's wool. I've been hearing we're in for a really cold winter!

Long day.

It's been raining here the past few days. I mean, really raining. Like a lot of rain. I am so glad to see it too. It's been so dry and I was worried I might have to start feeding hay already. And it's supposed to rain all week! I know all the grass and trees and so thankful. The sun is shining right now, but that could change in a few minutes.

I spent the day with my hubby. My Trooper broke down and I've been borrowing Mrs. T's car. Her daughter is coming this weekend, so that means she'll need the car. That means we'll need to get a tow truck out here to tow the Trooper to the transmission shop to get checked out. It broke down the day before we left for Savannah. And of course my husband had towing insurance dropped on all our vehicles. One guy wants $75. I'm waiting on another guy to call for his price. Just seems like a lot for 16 miles. And I hope it's not the whole transmission that's messed up. I drove it down the driveway and onto the road when I heard the loud scraping noise, then turned around and went back home. Last time the transmission died, it just stopped right in the road. So this makes me think it's not completely dead yet. And last time, the check transmission light was on. It's not now. So I hope we caught it before it was too far gone.

So I went with my hubby to his doctor appt. after we dropped Mrs. T's car off. That takes forever at doctor's offices. Almost 3 hours. I just don't like going. Then we had lunch.  Stopped at my mom's to get my tea I had bought yesterday and left at her house. Then I had to go back to the yarn shop to get my knitting friend to fix my baby sweater sleeve mistake. I sure wish I could figure things out myself. Then we came home. I am tired.

This is the rest of that beautiful Romney fleece I bought last year. I had washed half of it and got it spun up and I love it. I think I'll make the Barn Sweater out of this wool. It's so soft and so many pretty colors all mixed up together. I just want to sleep on this wool!

Goats are mean.

 Yes, sometimes goats can be just plain ole mean!

Look at this face. Olga is so pretty and sweet. Most of the time. But then, for no reason at all, she will ram her whole body into poor little Inga. A lot. But just look at her. She has invisible devil horns, this one.

This is Inga, in the front. With the horns. Every day, I go get some branches for them to eat. And Olga rams poor little Inga. I can put piles in 10 different spots, but Olga will go to each spot and push the little ones out of the way. They run to the next pile and here comes Olga. Goats!

Sweet little Alva. I have still not pet her. But I'm feeding Inga and Alve when I bring Olga and Freja into the milk room. So I get to be a little closer to her and talk to her. She's so sweet.

So I am really thinking about banding Inga's horns when it starts getting cooler. I've read about how to do it. I think I'm going to. Has anyone ever banded goat horns before? What was your experience? Inga is young and her horns aren't very big yet.

Last week, I started milking Freja once a day. I'm getting nearly a half gallon. That's what I was getting when milking twice a day. This way, I'll save a little on feed. I sure hope I don't have to start feeding hay yet. It's been so dry here. But it's raining as I type! And chances for rain all week! We really need rain. I have lost a few blue berry bushes.

In the fall, I plan on planting blue berry bushes down between the apple and pear trees. I'll be able to water down there now. And I want more blue berry bushes here.

Just realized we've been here at Outback Farm 11 years. The 2nd longest place we've lived. We'll be married 37 years Oct. 28th. The 1st home we lived in for 6 years. Then moved to Flintstone and lived there 17 years. Then to Ringgold for 3 years. Now here. I keep saying when I can't do this anymore, we're moving to St. Elmo, right inside Tn. I love it there. And it's right near Chattanooga, where I am several times a week.