Summer is here

As expected, we've been running around trying to get all our jobs done so we can take our trip to Nova Scotia. There has been an ever growing list of must do jobs, and then a list of jobs that just pop up along the way and have to be done... like getting the truck fixed, which has taken 3 days out of our work time. It's hot, humid, and very windy lately... it's been threatening to thunder storm for a couple of nights now.

Kevin went out to break the beaver dam that keeps our big pond in front of the house full, just so we could lower the water level a bit since it was taking over our yard and chicken run being because it was so high. The water was nearly over the dam, which is also a road, and he managed to get stuck... bad... I looked across the pond from the house and saw the above sight.

We tried to get him out with the mule (ATV) winch, but it wasn't strong enough to keep the tractor from going over sideways in that deep mud. I pulled him out a bit, but not enough. So we had to call in the troops, with a bigger tractor and winch. If our winch had been on the tractor, our log winch, it would have been fine, but it was off since we've been using the rototiller for the garden. Next time, we'll remember.

We got some great news today that our caretaker does not have a deadline for us to be back, so we will be able to be more flexible on our trip, always welcome news.

We also had some sad news, Quad the duck passed away. He's been doing just fine, although I noticed about two days ago that when he falls over, he has a hard time getting up because his back end is so long. But otherwise, he's been getting along. I looked him over and could not see anything wrong, other than his back end... we know his system was not set up right inside, so I am assuming something happened, but I don't know for sure. He would have been a month old tomorrow - which surprises me, I thought he'd pull through having made it this long.

My order of Cuckoo Marans and Silver Dorkling chickens did not hatch - they could have had another order for me in a couple weeks, but we will be on the road, so I had to let it go this year. When I come home I'll find some hens nearby to buy and add to my small little flock for now.

The geese in our pond at the house brought their goslings into the yard by our bedroom the other day and Kevin got a picture, they are so darned cute!

Our grape vines... 15 of them.

We've been working to get our main garden finished up - we are almost done. It might seem late, but usually we plant by the 1st of June, and the weather was miserable this May for planting, cold and super wet.

On our way home from town this afternoon, one of our maples lost a limb right over the road...

So we walked home and Kevin got the tractor to clear the road...

I got the rest of my snapdragons planted today. My Papa used to grow them, so they always remind me of him. I can't wait until the flowers are out to see Douglas reaction to them.

Doug was checking out the grape vines. We've got about 50 pots on our sundeck.

The Prairie dogs enjoyed their evening treat...

This picture pretty much sums up Nelly... suspicious, paranoid... but really cute. Look at the lip hanging!

While I was out with the dogs, I took a picture of the garden and noticed there was something on the road...

It was a painted turtle...

Douglas spotted it and wanted to check it out...

Hmmm.... what is this?

He's lucky it wasn't a snapping turtle... he hasn't seen one of those yet. Our old dog Buddy got bit on the face more than once messing with a snapping turtle.

This evening it cooled off considerably as the storm started moving in, and the dogs loved it....

Izzie was checking out her best friend, Buckwheat... She is saying "is it really you? I don't remember you being this fat before...."

Some of my goats coats are still changing and two of them have a lot of heavier coat left, but it's really just started to warm up. They probably got confused about when to loose all of it with the recent cold. When we put our chicks, ducklings, and turkey poults out about a week or so ago now, it went down to 40 degress F that night! We were afraid we'd loose some, but everyone was just fine.

Mini Nut and her kid. All the kids are growing up. They sure love playing! And I love watching them.

Tomorrow we'll finish planting our potatoes and corn, and whatever else is left, if it's not raining. We finished eating diner tonight at about 9:45 which is decent considering we keep eating later and later! We've almost got the big projects out of the way though, which will help us get back on track with everything else.

One last picture to share... I finally hung up my sign.

I want to thank everyone for reading for the blog and for all of your comments, I read each and every one and really appreciate them!

I hope you all have most of your spring chores behind you now...