Picture Post Thursday

Oh my goodness, I'm stunned at the response to the book giveaway! 

Don't forget to leave your comments here to get your name put in the hat for the drawing to be held on Tuesday next week.  I'll get the book in the mail to you either that day or the next. 

Here is the link to the Amazon page for it, in case you would like to know a little bit more about the book and it's author, Deborah Niemann. 

The Muskmelons are looking good in the garden tonight.  Yes, there are some minor holes, but I sprayed them...I don't want to lose this crop. 

A view from the bottom of the pasture, looking up the hill to the house and yard.  That's the goat barn on the right, and the henyard on the left.  The little red building is the haybarn, that still needs a final coat of paint. 

"Don't do it, Kody!" 

We are just starting to lay in some hay for the winter. 

I got some straw yesterday to work on the henhouses next week.  Where do the days GO? 

"That's better, Kody" 

Our new little goat, Kelly, is coming home on Saturday morning.  We're getting excited.  That means tomorrow will be the last bottles for these two, as Kelly has been weaned.  I have still been giving them a little cold milk and water mixture in the morning, and maybe a little in late afternoon to make sure they are back in their pen.  

Kelly is weaned, so we're going to stop that. 

I think. 

See the empty horse trough?  That was for two mini horses that were going to come here to graze for a few weeks.  However... after we thought about all the angles, we realized we had NO way to keep them from going in the hen yards to eat all the feed, or into the and out of the goat yard, which we keep open all day, to eat all the feed and hay there.  

We had to tell their owner we were unable to do it for the time being, until we figure out A Way. 

(I know what I THINK would work, but Keith is not so sure). 

Oddly enough, the two little boys love to sleep in this trough under the shade of the walnut tree in the afternoons. 

See the fortex next to it?  I put some clean water in it several times a day, and the ducks LOVE it.  They have almost given up on the plastic pond!  

They love to lay by this fortex in the shade, and by the fortex in the goat yard. 

It is 91 degrees out right now, by the way, and we expect some storms this weekend. 

Look what I saw as I left to run over to Caprine Supply today! 

The sumac across from our gate is turning red already, today, August 1st!

What on earth is going on with our seasons this year?

I can't say enough good things about Caprine Supply, which is in Desoto, a little town about 20 miles from us. They are most accomodating, and I ordered a feeder this morning, and went over and picked it up this afternoon, avoiding having it shipped.  They are very nice people, too. 

Click on their name above if you need any goat supplies. 

This is in the window of Grandpa's Garage next to Caprine Supply.  It's a Horseless Carriage. 

The Kaw river at Desoto... with twice as much water in it as last summer at this time.  I was glad to see this. 

Keith hates it when I stop in the road or on the BRIDGE. 

At least I didn't get out of the CAR, Honey!

Echinacea "Magic Box"... started indoors in January.  YAYYYYY!

And finally, the reality of keeping poultry.  I read lots of stories on the web, and lots of websites featuring chicken stories. 

Several lately were rescues, talking about the incredible number of chickens going into rescue now. One rescue had 255 chickens! 

I see on Craigslist constantly, small coops for sale, and chicken supplies "because we are no longer keeping chickens".  I see books printed and for sale on the web and at TSC, etc., about keeping backyard chickens, written by people who have had less than ten chickens for only a year or two, and several famous blogs that are written by people who have only had chickens for two or three years. 

Here's the reality: 

Those are duck eggs, collected this morning, first thing.  Two laid in a muddy hole.  One broken... this IS unusual... and Aflacs laid in the "duck house" that sits in the hen yard.  She wants to set.... but yesterday, a snake got her egg.  She buries them in the straw each morning, so hers is relatively clean. 

But this is the reality of poultry keeping... the eggs are dirty, sometimes blood spattered, sometimes with yolk from a broken egg on them.  The bolt you see on the right is debris that keeps coming up to the top of the ground in the old henyard, which we think was a dump at one time.  I check for glass daily in there. 

My point is, keeping poultry is hard work, and I think a lot of folks don't understand that.  

Okay, off the soapbox. 

Welcome back to Blogland, Donna at Our Forest Haven!  We are so glad you and Kevin are home (and thanks to Jim, their friend)... and on the mend! 

BTW... it took over an hour for me to load the pictures on this post... and at one point, I appeared to have lost it entirely. 

My teeth are clenched.  I'm going out to close up.