Wednesday, May 28, 2014

A friend sent me a new word I just had to look up.   Hugelkultur.  I've never heard of this, its a type of raised garden bed that requires very little care after its constructed and no water!  Yes!!  My kind of garden.  Here is a most interesting link I found, there is a great video towards the top of the article.  Amazing, my garden looks nearly like this already.  I just might have to try something like this.  Actually its looks like our alpaca poo-pile in the pasture, the one where we go over and get a couple tractor scoops to put on our garden.  So check it out:    http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

We haven't planted a thing yet this year.  Its such a perfect year to plant too.  Lots of spring rains, warm weather, cool nights ... we've just been too busy to get out there after I had it rototilled.  Too bad, now we have to pull the weeds by hand.  Oh well, it keeps us young and strong (Ha!).

Our goats are munching down our pasture as hoped.  Bella has resigned herself to staying with them during the day but they all demand to be brought back by late afternoon.  They even stayed out in the pouring rain the other day without too much complaining.  They do have shelter in the barn but I guess they enjoyed the coolness of it.

And Bella was so wet when I brought her back into the house.  Talk about smelly!!  Phew!  Guess our next trip will be to the groomer.  And that dog sleeps on my bed.  Fortunately she had dried off by bed time.  P.U.   :-<

We have nine more baby chickens, lost one of the big babies, now they are nine also.  So 18 big and little fuzzy creatures running around the house with their moms.  Actually the first momma chicken has for the most part ignored her chicks.  They are big enough to roam the yards by themselves.  As long as our great pyrenees Bella can't find them and eat them they are safe.  Can you find the babies?  - - - - - >

One and a half more weeks of school to go, then out for summer.  My niece wanted to help the other day (Yes!) so I showed her how to mow the yard with the big mower.  What a great job she did.  She's very adept at learning new things.  And also very careful and didn't leave any 'holidays' as my husband called them.  Those little places in the lawn that you always miss and don't see until everything is put away.




Friday, May 16, 2014

Spring is definitely a welcome season.  Everything is so green and fresh.  I had a window open the other day early in the morning and it smelled so fresh and woodsy.  We must have had a little bit of rain or heavy dew that night because it smelled damp.  We are surrounded by forest and most visitors just love the smell, but I don't usually smell it any more.  Until the other day.  Heavenly!

Our little chicks are growing, their mama is so good.  Even our rooster takes good care of them.  They walk around the yard all day, mama clucking softly at them if they lag too far behind.  Mr. Rooster right behind them and will attack anyone or anything that comes close.  I think he got Dexter our border collie yesterday.  Dex has several spots on his nose that could use a little bit of hair now.  Because Dex is a herding dog he drives the rooster crazy because he's always just feet away from him and the chickens trying to get them to go one way or another.  Its a natural thing with him.  We've not trained him to do that.  He only likes chickens and won't have anything to do with the goats. 

The pictures below are of my very first hand knit socks I made.  I actually wore a big hole in the bottom because I wore them so much.  Not on the back of the heel, but on the bottom of the heel.  I tried repairing them a couple years ago but it was awful.  I couldn't even wear them.

Then a friend sent me a couple of websites on how to do it the right way.  You can see how big the hole was on the left.  I didn't think I would ever wear them again.  I used a darning egg for the first time and I can see now why they used to be so popular.  You can hardly find the darning eggs any more.  We live in such a 'throw away' world.

The one on the right is the finished product.  I love these socks.  They are wool, and so warm.  I can wear them with no shoes in the house and it keeps my perpetually cold feet nice and toasty.

The last pair of socks I made are too large even though I have washed them several times.  They are so pretty though I just put them away in my closet.