Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Flowers and Goats


This somewhat cloudy view from the front door this morning shows the fog we had last night, and the rabbit that has been visiting the gardens daily.  Lilly has been stalking this rabbit! 
Here is was eating sunflower seeds and other seeds early this morning, along with the wild birds.  The vivid purple flowers in the foreground are in a box on the deck railing, and are volunteers for the fourth year in a row! 


Kody was up early, too, and bounced out to the big rock pile that Hayleigh and Chris made for them last week.  How they love to jump on it! 


Kaycee was not far behind him.  You can see how their little horns are growing now. 

They are much bigger than their Aunt Abby.  
They are also starting to eat more and drink less, and I am stretching out their bottles. 


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They want to be OUT every time I open the gate, but are still too little to be out unsupervised. 

The pasture has too much high grass where predators can lurk, watching.  I do let Lilly in the pasture in the morning, and this morning, she smelled something near the goat pen, her ruff went up, and she ran off, nose to the ground, following it.  She was down in the high grass for a long, long time. 

We do try to get them out several times a day so that they can run and stretch their little legs. 


This is the hollyhock in the north bed. 
I had totally, totally forgotten it was black!


Closeup of the blooms. 

I had several other hollyhocks, which are biennials, but lost them last year.  


This east-facing bed has just become TOO overrun with aggressive flowers.  I'm going to have to dig and separate this fall, to bring it back to order... and put some good compost in it.  Kathy next door will get the divisions since she wants to increase her perennials.  That's a volunteer sunflower in the front, which I just went ahead and left.  The giant buddleia in the middle... is getting really giant! 


Mondarda "Jacob Cline".... just beautiful.

It's doing so well, but I watered it faithfully in the drought.  It has really rewarded me. 


I love the bright butterfly weed, asclepias tuberosa... it's the first time I've grown it.  Except for the yellow varieties slight desire to lay down, it's lovely. 


It's fun to look back a year ago to see what was blooming... the purple monarda was already blooming... but has not yet, this year.  They were baking in triple digit temps.


And in the south bed, there was a beautiful hydrangea, and a lovely sweetspire bush blooming, but I lost both of those in the drought.  The sunflowers were going gangbusters, but grew SO well that we pulled out the volunteers this year.  


And these two beauties were in our pasture, eating away.  They came when Renee and Brian came to take the llamas home with them.  Aren't they lovely?  They were two Hackney pony mares... and though we wanted another pony, these two were pretty spirited.  They have gone on to a  friend of ours, and are still being worked with, now, a year later. 

It's fun to look back a year later to see how things have changed, and things have stayed the same. 



Here's our dear old boy this morning, keeping me company as I type.  
What a wonderful dog this has been, our Ranger.  Found in the countryside, starving and hurt, he has known only this place his last eight years.  Protector and companion, he is old and arthiritic, but aren't we all.... and the fact that he wants to be by me in the mornings means everything to me. 

For all of you who commented about the families who bought chickens from us last week... they were decent people, and the father who spoke to Keith spoke from the heart.  We felt so sorry for them on one hand... cast out from the country of their birth, but also glad to have them here in the United States with us... because they are the sort of people who built this country up from the wilderness, not to be scorned and belittled, but encouraged for their hard work and steadfastness. 

Off my soapbox, and out to the henyard! 






11 comments:

  1. I am glad we are not dealing with drought like we had to last year and sure praying we don't have to. I am so thrilled to have our hay stored already versus last year's peanut hay just to get by.

    May we all continue to be blessed.

    If you family came this way, I would give them all the roosters they could catch.

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  2. I love it when you post pictures of your goats. I miss mine, but we decided not to raise any more. I make do with my chickens, ducks, cats, and dogs. LOL I love that hollyhock. We had all colors of hollyhocks when I was growing up, but never a black one. Ranger looks like he is at least part Norwegian Elkhound. We lost our old buddy, Midget, a year ago this month. I still miss him. He was born here and lived to be 14. His mom was a registered Nor. Elk., but his daddy was a shepherd. We could not have asked for a better dog than Midget was. He would have given his life to protect us. Ahh, now I am all teary eyed. Have a great day.

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  3. Your flowers are so pretty and you have such a nice yard. I am hoping the drought stays away this year also cos all our plants burnt up but most of them did come back.
    stella rose

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  4. I love that black hollyhock.

    I'm lol at all the changes around our place....nothing has stayed untouched since I've moved there.

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  5. Very pretty flowers, especially the black hollyhock. All the animals are sweet. Love the story of Ranger. Janice

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  6. I bought some Hollyhock seeds from Baker Creek this year. I don't even know if they will grow in my region, I just thought they were pretty. Flowers are hopefully in next year's experiments! I never got around to starting any this year.

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  7. Such pretty flowers. And the goats are as cute as ever.

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  8. Hi,
    I've just about given up trying to garden. Between the drought, deer, moles and voles I've lost most of my plants except for the really tough ones.

    Bless you for saving that precious dog. He adores you for it just like my beloved Princess and I adored each other. Enjoy every minute with him!

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  9. Your farm is a beautiful place! All the flowers blooming ,,,,,,,, and the animals- we love it all.
    love
    tweedles

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  10. Gorgeous flowers and animals have a great day !

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  11. I agree you have many beautiful flowers growing there. This is such a beautiful time of year!

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