The picture at the top is our kitty River.  She's crazy.

And what happened to all that green grass?!  Smoky says he has no idea.  He and his two pals have eaten everything green in the pen.  So now as the summer rolls on everything left is brown or dirt.  Such good weed eaters.  If they were just a little bigger I would put them over in the pasture.

But we can't do that yet.  GE is so little and his head and horns are so tiny he continues to stick his head through the wire field fence and get stuck.  He has just about figured out how to get himself loose, but not every time.  So we keep him close where we can hear him when he cries for help.

Otherwise these guys are soooo quiet.  Very unlike the pygoras who cried for us all the time.

We got up at 5am this morning so we could go get hay by 7am.  I always need time for coffee and computer fixes before I go anywhere.

Somehow he got 17 bales on our little short bed Chev Silverado.  Daughter went to pick them up.  We had quite a storm with heavy rain, thunder and lightening last night so until we can get them all unloaded we parked the truck in the carport next to the house.

We will be unloading them into our 'shed'.  It is on blocks so just about the same height as the tailgate and all we have to do is slide them over rather than bucking into the other little metal shed.  We will be putting a few in there but for the most part they will be put in the big shed and the rest into our barn out in the pasture.

That way they will be dry and safe all winter.  Just a few more steps to get them.  Oh well, at least we have them now.  And one or two (?) more trips to get the other half of the 40 I'm thinking will get us through winter.

I couldn't wait!  I just had to post this.  We went to the Fair today and it seems I have won not only a Blue Ribbon but a Special Premium Award.  I entered my white scarf I wove this year thinking I had really blown it on the fringe.  I guess not.

Anyway, I'm very thankful I can still weave.  And there were some really beautiful pieces there.  Lots of gorgeous quilts, yarns, clothing ... just about anything hand made.

My niece and I went and looked at about everything they had.  We saw the draft horses (my my, are they HUGE), goats, bunnies, alpacas, sheep, and food.  :-)

If it wasn't so expensive I would probably go every day, there is so much to see.

Our little goats are getting just a tiny bit more friendly.  The little guy, GE continues to get his head stuck between the wires in the field fencing.  He was so stuck the other day my daughter had to go into the pen, lift him up and turn him so she could free his little horns out the hole.  Easy to get into, but not so easy to get out.

Of course he was screaming and jumping around the entire time.  But she held on after she got him loose and sat down on a wash tub they like to stand on, holding him all the time like you would a baby or child.  I brought out some ginger snaps (they Love those) and he quieted right down.  Nibbled them all and figured out it wasn't that bad after all.

And we got a collar on him finally!  The other two will make a mistake and we will get them one of these days.  Smoky is the friendliest, he will come and take food out of my hand but I haven't tried catching him yet.  They are all much faster than I am.  Egypt continues to be very standoffish.  He is so beautiful!  And they don't yell at us all the time like the pygoras used to.  Ahhh, peace!

We're home!  These little guys are so adorable.  Very sweet but not too friendly yet.  The first day home was spent by them tearing around their pen running face-first into the fencing.  They were so afraid ... of everything.

We left them alone after getting the pen ready and being unable to not spend at least a little time with them.  They finally figured out they love the sweet grass and weeds, found their water and feed but stayed in the corner all night.

I left our Great Pyrenees, Bella, out in the yard so she'd be near them.  We have lots of coyotes roaming the woods around the house.  Her fur was very damp when she came in the house the next morning which tells me she laid out in the yard near them.

Then last night she was out with them again but barked All night long.  When I got up and looked out the window this morning, I saw two in the pen and one hiding behind the shed.  I believe Bella barked all night to keep predators away from the little guy who got out just in case any were around.

Here's a picture of me watching the babies, I can't stay away from them!  I am in the pen and outside the pen, pulling branches off our little maple tree that gives them shade so they will come over to see me.  I have missed our goats and alpaca so much these last couple years.  I feel like a mom again now.

Since they are cashmeres, we will begin combing them so they get used to it before they get too large.  Their cashmere is already Gorgeous.  The black one, Smoky, will have dark gray fiber.  The littlest one will probably have a light gray fiber and the beautiful beige one will most likely have beige fiber, but very light.

I was going to get all white ones, but when I saw these I couldn't resist.  Their colored fibers will be blended with the white alpaca I have and should make exquisite yarns.


While we were outside this morning, I took this picture of one of the many many chem trails they are spraying all over north Idaho and WA state.  No one will answer what they are for.  Do they know?  Will it hurt us, or our food growing, our animals, the grass they eat?  C'mon.  This is very suspicious, at least to more than a few of us up here.

I think someone should at least address this.  We can't even get our weather people up here to say.  These are not simply airplane exhaust up high in the cold air that we've seen for so many years.  Those actually disappear after a very short distance.  These trails go forever.

You can see in this picture the little puffs of whatever they are spraying.  It sure makes me nervous.  Well, have a good day!

We had the most incredible rain storm with lightening and a little thunder last night.  Watching our weather news this morning it was said the weather service had tracked 10,335 lightening strikes from 10pm until 2am this morning!  I wish I had thought to take a couple pictures.  It really looked like a war outside.

Our weather had been so incredibly hot (for us) and with the storm very muggy.  The humidity this morning around 7am was still at 71%.  We are usually really dry here.

I couldn't stand it another summer without some animals, so have decided to get three (I think) cashmere wethers.  These little guys are only 2-3 months old so we can train them to come and get their feed, sleep in the little goat shed and all the other things we want them to do.  My first two were females, Hope and Faith.  When I hurt my back I had to sell them to a wonderful new owner, also a spinner, and she has successfully bred them every year.  They are certainly fortunate to have Janice on her beautiful farm.  A lot nicer than when they were here. 

I will try to do things differently this time.  I have always fed our animals way too much.  With those little pygora rascals, it was so obvious!  They were wethers but looked pregnant!  This time I won't over indulge them.  Or spoil them.  Ha!

So here are the three pretty boys I'm thinking of getting.  They are cashmere so won't need shearing.  We usually trim their hoofs ourselves, sometimes need the farm vet to come out to give them vaccinations or check if they seem ill.  Pumpkin (in the can) is something we've used in the past for worm prevention, but our vet thinks its funny.  The goats seem to like it however.

I will be posting more if we bring these little guys home on Tuesday.  :->

 
On a another note, I love my Kindle Fire.  The other night I picked it up to use and it looked like this.  I thought one of us at home here had dropped it.  After my daughter checked it out with some friends we discovered the battery had exploded.  I'd never heard of that.  But its ok now, they are providing a new one to me.  Yipee.

 We've been digging potatoes for the last couple days.  The chickens had started to scratch around in the garden and had uncovered more than a few.  We finally decided to see just what we had out there.

We'd planted red, white, and had some volunteer purple ones from last summer.  They are all so beautiful!  Some of them have been eaten by a mole or vole.  They have tiny little bite marks in them and are nearly hollowed out with the skin still intact.

But these were perfect.  We have  about three large baskets so far.  We've had them for dinner last night and tonight in two different ways.  Oh my, are they ever good.

We also have onions, radishes and did have beets but something has eaten them.  First the tops went to the chickens along with the kale, then the beets completely disappeared.  No telling what happened to them.  Oh well, always next summer I guess.

Here's a picture of a bunch of potatoes my daughter just picked.  My niece was delighted to get the biggest one of the day!

Oh, almost forgot.  We have eggs!  I've never seen such small eggs though.  They are shorter than my thumb and could almost slip through my thumb and index finger.  So far this week we've gotten about 8.  I dropped one on the kitchen floor.  That one went to the dog.  He LIKED it.  :-)

Also our pasture was mowed by our neighbor!!!  He came by the day I was trying to do it with my riding lawnmower.  Told me it would ruin my mower and he'd be back the next day with his brush hog.  He was and that thing is fast.   He finished it in no time.  Maybe I might just have to get one next summer if I have any money.

I've nearly finished the baby gift I'm making for my niece's baby.  Her baby shower isn't until Sept so I won't be showing it before then.  I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with it but its nice and soft so that part is ok.

My niece is going to camp Sunday.  She will be leaving in the afternoon heading up to an old Forest Service Work Camp in the mountains.  They will have swimming, horseback riding, campfires, cookouts, Bible studies.  Just lots of fun stuff.  This will be her first time at camp and she is very excited.  I remember going to camp as a child.  What a great memory!

And she loves s'mores.  We made them a couple years ago, she never had had them previously.