Score One for the Craftsman lawnmower... I managed to not only tear off the discharge thingy so that the blade is exposed, but managed to break the BRAND NEW belt that husband had just put on it for me yesterday! Okay, I was trying to cut the heavy pasture grass on the south side that had not been cut this year with a YARD MOWER.
Consequence? The one week I need the rider, it is sitting in the shed, waiting for a new belt to be put on AGAIN.
This is the start of what I fondly call "Fourth of July Week" on my calendar. Husband and stepson will be leaving Friday for the University of Arizona baseball camp, and I am having members of my own family over for my first-ever private cookout at Calamity Acres. Though the party will be small, I am primping up the yard for them, and we are trying to finish the deck so it can be used for "settin" if the weather is good. Though I cut for hours today, I need to mow one more time before the party so that the yard is good for the Big Day, so husband will again go to Sears and buy another belt and fix the mower.... he did NOT yell at me, and simply said it was probably not a good thing to cut the thick pasture grass with my yard rider. "nuff said, and I'll follow his suggestion. Next year we hope to have a middle-size tractor with a brush hog to do our own pasture, and in the coming years, a plow, a hay rake, and a tiller for the garden and pasture. It doesn't hurt to dream!
The intense heat of last week has broken, and today was seasonably warm but nice. Chores were a pleasure, and everyone was happy to get clean water (twice) and fresh feed. Still no baby cria, but Mama Llama and Tony are loving the weather. The only ones unhappy are the ducks... their pond has become red algae and looks nasty. They are drinking from the horse trough, and bathing in the swimming pool in the chicken yard. We are saving a bundle on feed now that we are feeding only in the chicken yard, with no access to marauding llamas or ponies!
Today we set Dovey free with her two little cockerels. They were bewildered, but she stuck close to them all day in the Big Henhouse. Tonight I went out to check... One was perched on the waterer... the other on the floor... and their Mama was up on the roost with the other birds! So much for maternal care! Though I have steeled my heart to their possibly becoming Snake Food for Mr. T, I did feel sorry for them and wondered if for a moment I should swoop them up. However, Reason, for once, prevailed and I left them alone. We'll see if they are out there in the morning. The Silkie Sisters are back on a pile of unfertile eggs they have laid in the little henhouse, and their five chicks are taking care of themselves, still imprisoned with their Mamas. They are nice little chicks and appear to be silkie/cochin crosses, but are quite small, so I am keeping them in for another month, then they too can join the bigger flock. Still imprisoned in her little pen is Rosewitha and her three bigger chicks... they are so nice, I would hate to lose them at this point, so they are staying locked up. I may turn Rosewitha loose, though , since it doesn't seem fair to pen her with them forever, especially since Baby Rambo is now trying to breed his mama!
Who says there is never any fun in the barnyard?
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