And The Winner Is!

I had the drawing this morning and the winner of Deborah Niemann's 

Homegrown and Handmade is....

Heather Duncan of 

Heather's Wannabe Homestead

Heather is a fairly new blogger and stay at home mom... and wanted to add this book to the library she is trying to build for their new venture. 

Thanks to all of you who entered... and guess what?   I have some more books to give away in the next few months, so keep stopping by. 

Heather, please contact me at Ksredhead1950@gmail.com, and I'll be glad to get this book in the mail to you! 

That was fun! 

I am back to using my Canon camera yesterday, after using a Sony for a few weeks.  The Canon lens failed and was sent away to be repaired.  Instead, they mailed a refurbished one to me.  So far, so good. 

I am so rough with cameras, pulling them in and out of my pocket constantly.  I tried Nikons last summer and they failed within 3 weeks.  I did have Best Buy ship one off to the manufacturer, but it failed again almost as soon as returning to me.  

I like the Sony... but I really liked the Canon, so I'm glad to have the backup. 

I cut the center of the pasture yesterday as it was beginning to come up considerably... over to the right of this picture.  What you see is not grass, but a weed that grew up and choked everything out after the pasture was disturbed three years ago when we tried to put the pond in.  The pond man simply pushed everything back willy-nilly, and it is all ridges and hummocks down there.  VERY uncomfortable to cut. 

This weed also has a rather nasty odor as it is cut... so it was not very pleasant.  I had already done the entire yard.... and then the middle and part of the south side of the pasture when the mower began emitting a horrible noise.  Consequently, it's going to the John Deere dealer tomorrow to have a full service job on it. 

Keith got under it, and there is a big buildup of grass, etc... and he wants to be sure I don't burn a bearing out. 

We did not get it serviced last winter as we did not even put ten hours on it last summer with the drought. 

I'm sure glad I got the yard and road side cut! 

The front fence has become swamped with wild grape vine, and the ditch lillies are almost done for the year. 

The ducks and chickens came out as soon as I had cut to find all the bugs, etc. that had been disturbed.  This is where the old henhouse flock has it over the new henspa flock, who does not get to graze on fresh grass at all, but is restricted to their yard. 

Here's the sturdy "water bench" that Keith made for the little boys. 

How nice it is for them to have clean water in their bucket, and for me, for not having to go out every few hours and throw the duck water out. 

There is a short fortex in their actual yard, but the ducks like to hang out around it, so it gets dirty. This one stays clean now. 

And here's Kaycee modeling for the new hanging feeder that Keith also installed last night. 

This is to ensure their hay stays up and clean.  Goats like to feed reaching up, instead of grazing on the ground. 

And this little guy, peering out at us.... let me reach over and gently scritch along his spine for a minute yesterday.  His head was down, and he was ready to run if he had to... but he held very still and let me scritch and tell him "Good Boy!" for about a minute.  

I suspect he's sleeping on the old llama feeder now, regularly, as he hops right up into it. 

I leave you with a view of the herbs in the horse trough on the deck, and the balsam I thought I had drowned to death at the beginning of summer.  I hope it reseeds itself in the big green pot. 

We are having sun today after a storm last night, and four days of clouds.  

Congratulations again, Heather, and thanks to everyone who entered the drawing!