Weary

That's what I am -- weary.

After Saturday morning at the Farmers' Market, I hopped on the second tractor and started raking the hay my husband had cut. This tractor doesn't have a nice cab and I raked until nearly dark. It was chilly by the time I finished.

The next day, I hopped on the tractor again and raked from morning until late afternoon. It was hot and sunny on Sunday, so even though I was wearing a wide brimmed hat, my forearms and legs below my shorts got very sunburned.

My husband was working behind me, baling. He finished by Sunday night and moved all 24 round bales before it rained.

That was less than 50% of our hay fields, so it will all begin again when we have a couple more dry days.

A habitually barking dog has been depriving me of sleep on and off for months. Last night was quiet, so I feel less zombie-like than usual.

This morning, it is 47 degrees and foggy. That is nice for the end of May. In the cool mornings, the dominant scent is honeysuckle. The lavender is in bloom and needs to be cut. Flag iris needs to be cut into fans, as it is done blooming. Peonies will be dead-headed.

Berries are forming quickly on black and red raspberries. Gooseberries are green. Blackberries are blooming. I've even got a few strawberries ripe in the long bed I planted.

I've picked enough broccoli that we had it for dinner a few times. This morning, I plan to blanch and freeze some. There is enough spinach, kale, chard, and beet greens to sell. Beets are growing quickly. Cucumber plants, pole beans, and cabbages are up. I planted small tomato seedlings and squash seeds.

Guineas are hatching and being transferred to the brooder. The last batch of ducklings are sold.

We thought that kidding time was over, but drove up the hill to rescue a doe with her two newborn kids yesterday evening. The maternity barn will not get pressure washed yet.

I'm gearing up for the Saturday market and my husband is talking about cutting hay again this morning. And so it goes.

Bloom Time Report

Tulip poplars are blooming with their lovely yellow flowers. The flag iris is just about done, but other types of iris are now in full bloom. Peonies, rhododendrons, and phlox
are blooming. Roses and lavender are just about to...

Grass is out of control, but intermittent rains are preventing the cutting of hay. This is the crunch time when farmers look for a dry two day window of opportunity.

Berries of all types are forming for next month's ripening. The fruit trees are loaded with little pears, peaches, apples, and apricots.

In the vegetable garden, broccoli has formed heads; spinach leaves are cut daily; kale is ready for a little harvesting; beets are forming nicely; cucumber plants have been mulched prior to vining; pole beans have emerged and provided with a trellis; pea plants are growing upwards, but not producing yet; cabbages have been thinned and put in rows. I have yet to see a lettuce leaf of any ilk in my garden. Maybe the timing of seeding was wrong.

A friend helped sort out the greenhouse for a couple of hours. I think it will be many more hours before the work is done. Tomatoes and peppers have mostly been transferred to individual containers to grow some more before being put outside. Flower starts, including sunflowers and hollyhocks are looking good, but now I have to clear some real estate to plant them. Fifty to a hundred potted plants need to be transferred up to the courtyard for the warmer weather.

I think the kidding season is over. Today I'll do some castrations and ear tagging and then turn my attention to hoof trimming on the herd. There is a new little black calf born this week. He/she is being hidden in the tall grass still for most of the day. Ducklings are getting big and will soon graduate from the floor brooder out into the real world. The little hen who managed to hatch out seven chicks is raising them in the safety of the brooder in the chicken house until they get feathered out and big enough to defend themselves.

I spend hours working on the new Farmers' Market. We are getting new members and a lot of feedback from the Community. I am hoping that everyone is beginning to harvest enough that we will soon outgrow the long porch and spill out into the parking lot.

The busy season has begun and daylight is long, so the work days are long. This is just a report to look back on next Winter to remember what late May was like.

Naptime

After trying repeatedly to compose and take a picture of the triplets for Country Dew, I had to settle for this one.

I kept getting error messages about memory on my PDA and fog on the lens in the cold yesterday morning.

One of the best pictures was of all three nursing their mother simultaneously. NOTE: goats have only two teats.

I don't know exactly what is going on when all three think they are nursing, but I think that Ma goat was as amused as I was.

Overcooked Dinner

Okay, boys and girls. Who thought that, indeed, a goat would give birth yesterday? If you raised your hand, you were right!

Even though I went and checked on ducklings and goats around 4:30 p.m. before going up and starting dinner, when I walked in the barn at about 6 p.m., there was a new mother bawling in fear and pain. She needed a little help. There was also a goat with her head and horns stuck in the panel between stalls. That required bolt cutters to cut and bend back the metal after trying for half an hour to free her. (Logically, you know if she could get her head through the space, there should be a way for her to get back out.) Nevertheless neither she nor two people could get her out.

Add cows figuring out how to get through a goat baffle into the next pasture, and you have a pretty good idea of how the day went.

The roast was overdone but eatable by the time we got up to the house. That's the way it goes some days.

Spring Rush

There were a few warm days when trees and flowers burst into bloom. Violets cover the ground, along with Little Blue Eyes. The peonies have risen above ground and formed buds. Surprises abound in nearly every flower bed. The lilacs have produced beautifully.

Today, we're cooler and "widespread frost" is forecast for tomorrow.

Ducklings are hatching two days before I had even planned on checking the incubator. This morning, I had to drive to the feed store for poultry starter and search the barns for my brooder accessories.

Seedlings came up in the small portion of the garden where I planted them a couple weeks ago. Will I manage to cover them up for tonight?

We're working feverishly on the local farmers' market that will be set up in our county and hope it will be a success.

The federal taxes are done and mailed, but state tax must also be filed before long.

It seems there is much, much more to do than there are hours in the day. Who thinks the goats will produce a kid or two today?

Spring Landscape

The view outside my window consists of a filigree of pastel oranges, greens, pinks, and white. These are leaves and blossoms just starting to form. Some trees seem still bare. A light rain has been falling for days, greening up the pastures and allowing my seeds to germinate.

It's perfect weather for digging out plants and transplanting and I've done a fair amount of that.

We had a surprise set of triplets the other day. I didn't even realize that this older goat was pregnant until the day before she kidded. I put her in the maternity barn and the next morning, there they were. She is perfectly capable and taking great care of them.

Peach Blossoms

One day early last week, the fruit trees budded out up here on top of the hill. The apricot tree is the showiest, but one of the peach trees is a second runner up. Even the new plumcot trees are blooming. Now, it is a matter of crossing fingers that no freeze occurs. Last year, we had a late freeze which destroyed the fruit crop.

My back is killing me. I think it is the aftereffect of scraping wallpaper and the old skim coat of plaster down in the bedroom of the old house. I really overdid it on Friday.

I've often said that I worry that the only thing that was holding that house together was the wallpaper. Although I'd easily removed the top layer of blue vinyl long ago, this last group of layers was a quarter inch thick, wrinkled and painted over with a lovely chrome. (Why has every old house I've remodelled been painted chrome green?) There were at least three layers of old pasted wallpaper. The earliest looked like a brown wood pattern, but I think it was so old that it had turned brown with age. Once down to the real plaster job, the damage was much less than I thought it might be. It was all the layers that created the ripples and surface irregularities.

So, now to find someone who will apply a new skim coat so I can paint the walls.

I planted some seeds in the vegetable garden. That's one job calling me.

Eggs abound. Chickens, ducks and geese are producing. I've got some eggs in the incubator.

I saw wild quail out in the pasture, and that's good news. It means that we are good stewards of the land. Wild turkeys are also in evidence -- another group we want to encourage.

'Two new goat kids yesterday afternoon. Time to go down and see what else is new. Oh -- and to my friends who saw little Zero dragging his back legs and were skeptical that he would eventually stand up: he is completely normal now. The other day, I saw him leap off the table in the barn and run outside to play.

Spring's Coming

I can feel it in my bones -- Spring is on the way. The daffodils are blooming in front of the greenhouse. We are having ups and downs of temperatures, and it looks like I better get the vegetable garden going. A deer-proof, rabbit-proof, turtle-proof fence is being build around the garden and I'm reluctant to waste seeds until the two ends are on it.

Baby goats with "Z" names continue to be born. I had to graduate the rest of the "Y"s in order to have enough room in the maternity barn. Little graduates follow their mothers to the pasture on the hill and the one in the valley. I can see from my window that they are running and playing in the sunshine.

I'm reading Angela's Ashes in between chores. I can't put it down for long. It's written in such a fresh sad and witty style.

Gone With the Wind

Whoosh! This was the big story of yesterday.

We drove over toward Catawba in the afternoon to attend a Botetourt Farmers meeting. On the way we saw all the stuff blown around people's yards and pastures. When we were almost to the fork in the road where we'd go to the left and be at the meeting within minutes, two large trees were lying across the roadway.

We turned around and asked to use the phone at a convenience store. I mentioned the trees in the road and one of the men waiting to check out said he had a chain saw in his truck. He'd already cleared the road once and would go and do it again.

Thanks to him, we got to the meeting just a little later than we would have. I guess people who live around that mountain NEED to carry chain saws in their pickups. On the way back later that afternoon, we observed several groups cutting up fallen trees for firewood. There was a house with part of its roof caved in by a fallen tree and a barn which was totally wrecked.

On our road, a huge tree was uprooted and on its side in a pasture. Our small duck house had blown over despite its weight. It was back in position and full of ducks before we finished the night chores. The shop roof is partially blown off.

As I understand it, part of Roanoke was evacuated because of wild fire and other fires spread in the area.

Whistlin' Opera

First thing this morning, we went to the barn and loaded hay and feed to transfer over to the maternity barn. While unloading, we had the radio on. There was a story about the day Pavarotti couldn't make a performance, where he was scheduled to sing "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot. They hadn't played the aria yet, so while walking over to the goose house, I began whistling the melody. On the way back, I could hear my husband whistling it as well. We whistled a duet. As I got back from the geese, the radio was playing the aria. If YOU were listening to NPR while unloading YOUR hay this morning, you heard the program.

I was thinking: "I'll bet not that many farmers whistle arias while working around the barn." But, who knows, there may be more weird farmers than I know of.

It is warm and sunny today and the baby goats are outside jumping, leaping, dancing, and all the other fun stuff they do at this age. I've done a little pruning and garden clean-up, and am out the door as soon as this is written for more of the same.

We weren't the only ones whistling. Birds are out in force, chittering and feeding while they have the chance. Robins have been around for a week or more and I am seeing mating and nesting behavior already.

The geese are in miserable mating mode -- that's MMM -- a sure sign that Spring is near. They are cranky and uncooperative. I've also seen crocus and daffodils starting their upward sprouting. So, now, will I actually get the bushes pruned before Spring comes in full force? Tune in next month and find out.