Outside milking.

It has been SO hot in the milk room lately. I dread going in to milk. I am dripping with sweat when it's all done. The goats don't even want to go in there. It's literally like a sauna.

So, this morning, I got my husband to help move the 2 stanchions out in the goat yard, under the trees. I will be milking there til winter. We might need to put a lean-to over it. Just in case it might rain. But here they will be til it gets cooler.

And maybe the girls will finish eating their feed now.

I cannot remember it ever being this hot in that room before. I can't remember ever having to water the gardens before either. But I am watering nearly every day. And have been since the beginning of June. First big water bill was about $46. Can't wait to see what this next one will be. I just hate to see all my plants suffering so. I am even watering the apple trees.

What's it like where you live right now? Doing a lot of watering too?

Really?

So I am out in the garden, watering the tomatoes tonight. I noticed one of the plants was almost stripped of leaves. I just wondered what would have done that. The I spotted this huge guy on another plant. Can you see it? Right in the middle of this picture, upside down.

It's a stinkin' tomato horn worm. I have NEVER seen one or had any on my tomatoes. Ever. But this is the year of the Japanese beetles. And squash bugs. And a drought. So now tomato horn worms. Why not? Join the party!

So this guy will be chicken breakfast in the morning.

I did get to pick some tomatoes! Those little orange ones are the best tomato ever!  Like eating candy. They are good! And apparently I got some Romas.

I think I am giving up on the garden til fall. I have had enough of this. I noticed today that a lot of my zinnias looked burnt. I couldn't figure out why. Then realized it was from the Dawn dish soap spray I've been using to kill the beetles with. It's frying my plants! It's also doing the same thing to the squash leaves where I've been spraying the squash bugs. So yeah, I have had enough of this summer gardening.

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.