Some chickens...

 Yes, I still have my rooster. Black Bart has been really good. No more attacks. I've been carrying a big stick with me to the coop but haven't had to use it. Now the chickens are are in lock-down til my seeds start growing. I planted the buckwheat last night and will get the kale, lettuce and collards planted later today or Saturday.

Here's the 2 momma hens with their little chick. That chick stays really close to her mommas.

My clean-up crew. They are right there when I'm mowing and tilling.

These are the 2 chicks that hatched last time. A rooster and a little hen. The roo will need to go soon. I do not want 2 roos.

Some of the last of the garden right here. Although the peppers are still going strong. But tomatoes are no more.

Had a really long day yesterday. My husband had an appointment at 12:30 at the wound care center. We were there 4 hours. They finally got him back in a room about an hour and a half later. Then the doctor came in, cut the wound on his foot twice as big as it was, and left the room. It was bleeding so bad, they couldn't get it to stop til about 4. It was pretty bad. They finally got it stopped and we left. I still had to go to the bank, feed store, grocery store, pay some bills. I was stressing out big time. So next time, I'm dropping him off at the door and doing my errands, then come back for him.

Today, my niece came from Tn. to learn to make soap. We made some hot process goat milk soap. I made plain with oatmeal and honey. She made lavender with oats. She made me some soap molds, so that was a good exchange. Now I have 4 good wooden molds. I need to make a bunch more.

Butterflies on flowers...

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.

Lots of sky pics...

                                                         The pier is to the right here.

                                               There was a bird flying across the sky in this one.

                            I love this picture so much. It was in Savannah while on the ghost tour.

                                                        See the elephant on the right? And a horse on the left?

This is one with all the chairs and umbrellas all lined up in a nice row. I would have gotten one, but they were $25 til 4:30.

Didn't realize I had taken so many pictures of the sky. But all so pretty and different.

And I keep forgetting to say that I have lost 48 pounds since I started March 7th! I only have 3 pounds to get below 200 and it seems to be taking forever!But I will get there. Then I'll have 40 more pounds to get to my goal weight of 160. When it starts getting cooler, I plan on walking and riding my bike, plus exercising some too. Just to firm up. I still hate my big arms.

But I feel fantastic and am so proud of me!!! 48 pounds is like half of my mother's weight. Geeze.

My leg is better today. I was at Mrs. T's all day, so got to keep my leg up and knit a lot. My favorite thing to do anymore. I love knitting! I just wish I could read patterns without someone telling me what to do.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

More Savannah...

 This is the house my mom, brother, sister and I lived in when I was 12-14. I loved it there. Just a few blocks from the beach and near the light house and the old fort. It was an old bakery and we had the left side. It has a huge old oak tree to the side, where we'd climb and my brother built a tree house.

This is one of the squares in Savannah. My 3 beautiful grand daughters, Kansas, Coryn and Chloe.

And this is the first house tour we went on. I cannot remember the names of the houses, sorry. But there's a gift shop at the bottom right corner of the house. That's where the tour starts. And they are leaning more towards letting people take inside pictures.

This is the 2nd house we toured. It was bought by a young single lady way back in the Great Depression. Fawlkner I think. She went on to buy several more houses in Savannah, on her own. Also owned antique stores. She was quite a lady, way back in the day.

She added this really big nice 3rd floor for her Irish servants.

I just love Savannah and all the old buildings and doors and secret places.

I took SO many pictures I won't bore y'all with. But it was really fun. And Savannah is a great place to go. I would love to go by myself once, just so I can take my time and wander the streets. It's really beautiful there. Maybe in later Fall?

So last night, after being on my feet all day yesterday, my leg was huge. And hurting pretty bad. I was just a bit scared to be honest. Thinking I might better get to a doctor in the morning. But my friend Stephanie had called and told me to get plantain leaves, crush them up, put a little honey and ACV in it, and put it on the wounds and wrap it up. So I did that last night when I got home. Kept my leg up til I went to bed. I have 2 pillows I put my leg up on in bed. This morning, it feels SO much better. I mean, I was scared and worried and cried a little. I know, I'm a big baby really. But I was just thinking of all the doctor bills and how we just really cannot afford anything extra right now. Especially with my husband just being in the hospital for 5 days last week. So I am feeling a lot better, knowing I will pull through this. I am so mad at that darn rooster. They are still locked up, til I get better and can figure out what to do.

I had to go out back to give the buck (who is not mine, he's just staying here til the guy comes to get him) some worm meds. He had horns too. Well, he almost got me right on my left leg with a horn. I should have just stopped and let the guy do it when he comes to get him, but I finally got it in him. Darn buck!

So I'm just hanging out here today. Just finished another wool hat. Going to start on a cowel or shawl next, with some of that beautiful Romney wool. Just need a pretty pattern to use. I'll look through all my Taproot magazines to see what's in them that I could use.

Y'all have a great Thursday!

Baby sweater...

I have knit this baby sweater that past few weeks. I am now at the part where I do the arms. I think I'll go ahead and sign up for another 4 weeks of this knitting class. I love going to this place. I feel like I've really learned so much.

I see a really bad mistake that I made right after starting under the arms. It looks like I started adding stitches on the left. I didn't notice it til I was already done and had binded off. But I still like it.

Looks like I'm going to once a day milking. It takes 3 milkings to get a little over half a gallon now. I'll save a little money by not feeding twice a day. Anyone else milking once a day now?