In the garden. Friends. Chloe. And sheep.

The zinnias had lots of visitors this morning. I am so glad I have my new phone. It's so much easier to carry than my camera. And I always have my phone with me.

I saw this gorgeous huge butterfly on some zinnias and just had to get a picture of it. Isn't it just beautiful?

And this bee. Just full of pollen, all over the legs. I love seeing all the life out there/

And look at this! Ripe 'maters! I was shocked to see these. They are on some tomato plants that I have sorely neglected. But they are bearing fruit for us. I am thankful for them.

These are on a plant that is down in the lower garden. I do water these at least every other day. They are all full of tomatoes. All kinds of tomatoes. There are tiny little yellow cherry tomatoes, Romas, some heirlooms that are purple and some others. A friend gave them all to me so I really don't know what all is out there.  But this one is huge!

And my friend Stephanie found this and thought of me. I am always saying this about my alpacas. It says cute but weird but cute. Too funny! They really are though. It's perfect. This will go on the wall in my studio.

And yesterday, I took Chloe to get her hair done. She wanted it dyed and cut. I love this! She really wanted that pretty purple color, but her hair is so dark so would have had to bleach it. And it would only last about 4 weeks. And it's so damaging to hair. So she settled on this reddish color. He put the color on first. She wanted a purple color on the ends. But all that was cut out. He forgot to ask how she wanted her hair cut. But I really love this on her. She sure has the face for short hair.

She really likes it too. She has always taken a picture with her to the beauty shops and never ever has got it cut just like the picture. But this is very close to what she showed the guy. He did a great job. He loved it too.

And yesterday, I opened the chicken run and let the sheep in to eat all the tall huge weeds in there. They did a great job! It was like a jungle in there and hard to see the chickens. Especially the 3 little babes.

Cleaning up

I noticed that my soaps were starting to look a bit ragged. So I brought them all to my studio yesterday after the market. I took all the old wrappings off and re-wrapped them. Cleaned out the boxes. I'll go tomorrow and get new card stock for labels. And I want to get some chalk paint to paint on the fronts of the boxes and tin thingies too. I think that would look better than a piece of paper telling what they are.

I also put waxed paper underneath the soaps. Just looks better and cleaner too.

I also needed more plantain salve. So made 12 more little jars and a sample one. I need to make more calendula salve too, but I need more olive oil. I was going to go to Costco today, but they are closed. I need more lye and shea butter too. So many things I need to get so I can make more.

I am hearing fireworks from the people up the road. I was hoping they wouldn't shoot any off because it's so dry here. Someone was last night, over the hill. I had to stand outside with the sheep and alpacas til they were done. Poor animals are scared to death.  There was a fire up on the mountain today. It's so scary. I heard on the news today that 2 out of 5 house fires are started by fireworks. Isn't that crazy?  I sure can think of a lot of things I could spend my money on.

Speaking of spending money. My Trooper started acting up yesterday on the way up the mountain to the new farmers market I'm going to. I thought it was going to stop altogether, but I put it down in 3rd and it kept going. I made it to market. I called my husband and told him to meet me at the transmission shop in the valley after market. It drove fine all the way there in 3rd. Soon as I'd put it in drive, it started making crazy noises. So it's over there til I find out what's wrong with it. I've had 2 transmissions already put in it. And some other work done to it several months ago. Hope it's nothing serious. My grand daughter was cleaning it the other day. Maybe she pushed a button or something. I'm hoping.

Hope you all had a nice day today. Happy birthday America!

Life and death on the farm.

Most of the time, life on a farm is good. Spring time has new growth, everything turns green and flowers start blooming. Baby animals are born all over the place. Happy times!

Then there are sad time. Crops fail. Droughts happen. Even floods or fires.  And animals die. Some have to be slaughtered for food. Or they just never thrive and grow.

This cute little baby chick only lived 2 days. She was very different than all the others. All my hens and the rooster are very black. But this little one looked nothing like any of them. I don't know if that's the reason. Or the others might have neglected her because she was so different. She looked all nice and normal and healthy most of the time she was here. Then this morning there was no energy. And she was gone.

The other 3 little black chicks are doing great. They have 2 mammas to keep them all safe. They help each other take care of the chicks. One eats while the other keeps the chicks under her feathers. And then they swap jobs.  It's amazing how nature works.

I love life on this farm.

4 this morning!

There is another chick but it's behind mommy.  But look at this little odd ball on the right! Where did it come from? All my chickens and Black Bart are BLACK! I know these are crossed with a few different breeds, so maybe whatever it is is coming out through this little cutie.

I'll be able to tell it apart from the others for sure. Kind of looks like a game chicken. But I'm fine with it. I needed more chickens. And these are free!

Chicks

I'm really surprised that there are chicks. After this hen getting off the nest a few days ago and the eggs were all cold. But there are some hatching! I guess hens know what they're doing.

The hen on the left is the one who sets on all the eggs all these weeks. The one on the right is  her chickie helper. She will take some of the chicks after hatching and raise them. They all hang out together. Which is a good thing, so they both can protect the little ones.

Can you see the little black chick? They are so stinkin' cute when they are so little. I just hope they are all girls. I don't need another rooster again.

Some sunflowers for you...

I went to my daughter Abby's today. She had planted these sunflowers and now they are so tall and full of beautiful flowers. Aren't they amazing? I just love sunflowers. I took these with my phone.

Flowers, a ripe tomato and a baby!

 I was picking zinnias yesterday morning for market and put the little buckets on the big bee hive. I just thought it was pretty.

And our first ripe tomato! It's a little bitty one, but the first! I hope there will be many many more and a whole lot bigger. No matter where I get tomatoes in summer, they never taste as good as my own.

Today when I got home, I went out to feed the chickens and get them put up for the night. I heard a baby chick. So I went to look and sure enough, under Miss Broody hen, there was a little wet chickie butt poking up in the air beside her! So I guess all was not lost when she got up off that nest full of eggs and went to sit on another nest of eggs. I thought for sure all the eggs would go bad. But we have at least 1 little chickie baby so far!!

Rain!!! And markets.

 It's been so dry here that I've been feeding the sheep and alpacas a little bit in the mornings. Some alfalfa pellets, sunflower seeds and minerals. They also get baking soda. They sure don't look like they need anything extra. But there is hardly anything out there growing.

So Saturday, I called my hay guy up the road to bring me a round bale. So it's here if they want it.

So yesterday, while I was at the market in Rad Bank, it was pouring rain here at the house, for several hours!!!! As I was driving home, I could almost see everything turning green again! It was amazing! All the buckets and other things laying aroun had at least 5" of water in them!

You can see here how green it already looks.

But all that rain just bent over most of the borage. I've been gone all day so haven't been back out there to check on it. I hope it was able to get back up after all the water ran off them. The bees are loving all the flowers. So are the Japanese beetles. They are all over them too.

But walking out there this morning, everything looked so refreshed and different. There's just nothing like rain water to get things going in a garden. The beans and sunflowers looked like they had all grown a foot.

I won't have to water for several days!!

I have been so busy the past week. Last Friday, I started going to the Erlanger hospital market at 11-1. It's inside the hospital in the food court area. So we park in the garage and have to haul everything inside about a block away. And I found out after putting soap out, that I cannot sell it there. I had already sold 2 bars too. So I have lots of flowers, herbs and dryer balls. And when I get veggies, I will sell them there too.

After I leave that market, I go straight over to St. Elmo market at 3 and set up there. I can sell anything there.

Then Sunday, there's a new market up on the mountain at Lookout Trading Post. These 2 guys have a great little store where they make pottery and have a little gift shop and have a really good lunch menu. So we get to set up there for free! But it's 9-3. It was so hot Sunday. Then it rained like crazy. Up there. Not a drop down in the valley. But I'm not complaining at all. Everyone needs rain.

Then Mondays are the Red Bank market from 4-7. Then Tuesday is Audobon Acres 4-7.

So 5 markets a week now. I have no time for anything.At least I can leave everything in the Trooper for 3 days in a row.

My goal is to have my own shop right here so I don;t have to go anywhere like I am now. I want an open studio-store right here. I want to add on at least 300 sf onto my studio. I want a pottery studio. Then have the wool things in the new addition. And the soap in the kitchen area. I'd like to have it all done and opened by at least September. It's a dream right this minute that I hope will come true.

New soap and pottery...

 Been busy making soap and pottery.

Today I made a plantain-lavender-oatmeal goat milk soap. With lavender buds on top. I hope it's a good one.

Tuesday I made a rosemary-mint with fresh rosemary and mint from my garden. It smells amazing! And I've had people asking for eucalyptus soap, so I made a lemon-eucalyptus soap. It smells really nice.

Got the handles on the mugs and little pitcher. They are ready to go get fired. I'll take them next week.

These are some things I picked up yesterday from the studio.

I really love these bowls. I made 4 bowls and 4 mugs, all glazed in 2 blue glazes. When I got the yesterday, I was told to not do this again. Because the top glaze ran down and they all were stuck to the shelf in the kiln. Not a good thing. But I think they turned out so pretty.

If I can get them sanded down enough, I might be able to sell them. I shall see.. If not, we will use them.

This is my first vase. I finally got to use a glaze I love but that's non food safe. It's so pretty. I glazed a few yarn bowls with this too.

And my first ever yarn bowl. All glazed and ready to use. I have 4 more ready to fire too. It was fun making these. I hope to make many more.

I'm trying to stay inside as much as possible. In the 90's. And I need to get ready for the 2 farmers markets tomorrow. I got in the Erlanger hospital market! It's from 11-2 inside the hospital. I can only use a small 5' table and will have to condense all my stuff. Gonna be fun! Then the St. Elmo market from 4-7. And it will be in the mid 90's tomorrow too.

Listening to cool cello music makes all this look so pretty!

Birds and garden...

 The babies are back! This is where they roost at night now. Under the open garage door. We can't shut it now. Because the babies are more important, ya know?

Here's Sally, with the biggest mouth full of big ole bugs! Looking for her babes.

Just had to show my breakfast a few days ago. On a plate I made. With eggs from my hens. And the best cheese ever, from Sequatchie Cove Creamery. I LOVE their cheeses.

I just glazed 6 bowls in these same 2 glazes, nutmeg and oatmeal. They will probably not look like the plates though, as it's a different clay. We don't know what kind of clay this is. David had a note on the plates when I went to pick them up last week. It said "not our clay" . Well, I don't know who's clay it is but I bought it there. We never could figure out what kind of clay it was. But I liked the way the glazes looked on it.

And my flower-herb garden is growing like crazy! I just love all the insect activity out there. Except for those darn Japanese beetles. They are everywhere. I have been going out a few times a day with a little bucket of gas and knocking them off into the gas. I have a lot of weeds though, so they are mainly eating those right now. But they will not get it all!

This is Cosmo the cat, in front of cosmos the flowers. She is my garden companion. She follows me all around the garden while I water.

I am loving all the bees and butterflies all over these flowers right now! Always busy out there. Little legs full of pollen. I am so glad I planted all this for them. If it weren't for all the bees and other bugs, I would not water out here. But I do, for them. A few times a day. It takes a few hours too. Our water bill is pretty big. But it's all worth it.

Before and after...

 the alpacas finally got sheared today!!!!! I am SO relieved and I know they are too. It's been so hot here. And I've been afraid to get them wet, thinking the other guy would be here any day and they'd be wet and couldn't be sheared. So now, they can get soaking wet if they want to. And they sure did, right after they were done.

And look at these poor little skinny guys! They are so happy to have all that 6" of fiber off of them! They were not happy at all while it was happening though. Poor guys. But it was ALL worth it.

They got their   feet trimmed. CDT shots. Eyes checked. By the way, they were both bright pink!! So no sings of parasites!

But man, are they little now!

And Sugar is wet. He lays down like this when I spray them down.

And the sheep kept looking at them and sniffing them. It was quite funny! But they are all back together again and doing great. SO glad this is over. And I met a lady who lives in the area who shears alpacas who said she will do mine next year! So, this will not happen again.