Ends and Beginnings

Our hoop house today:

We had two days of very hard winds, and last night I went out to put some suet out at 8:30... heard a large riiiipppppppp... and the hoop house plastic gave way.  Keith will be home from his excercise tomorrow and we will cut the hanging top off and leave sides on for the rest of the summer.  We are learning so much from this experiment!

Now the tomatoes can reach high.

A last look at the little mares, after I had shut them up to wait for friend Joani.  What a pretty pair they are. 

Michelle from Boulderneigh asked why we didn't consider keeping them, since we were in the market for some ponies soon. 

These are Hackneys, a very spirited pony.  We love their beautiful way of moving, and these two girls were very nice... but we need some stolid, slow moving Shetlands for the grands, and a winter off hard bucket hauling. 

Chris, Joani's Amish friend who trains and shoes for her, came along with her to get the girls.  He fell in love with Rosie, and was so very gentle with both of them, giving them time to get to know him before leading them out.

Kerin, at Always Fixin' Never Sittin' asked me why we didn't get guineas... oh, my, how I wish we could!  Unfortunately... the answer lies in two words:  LILLY ANN.

Lilly Ann has killed probably two dozen birds in her six years of life... and anything that comes over the pasture fence is fair game.  We have a neighbor down the road with guineas, and her guineas are EVERYWHERE.. running in the road, running all over her yard and pasture.  I am afraid if we get guineas, they will come through from the pasture, straight into Lilly Ann's jaws. 

Here's Joani with Blackie and Rosie, ready to pull out.  We had clouds, sun, clouds, sun... there was supposedly a 30 percent chance of rain, but we have not seen any yet. 

This beautiful stand of corn is down around the corner from us, a few miles as the crow flies.  I think the corn will start to suffer if we don't get some rain pretty soon.

And here's five of our six swallow babies, still alive and doing well.  They come back to roost on our porch at night still, but  Mama and Papa will start their second clutch sometime soon.  What a wonderful new beginning for these babies.