Summer is already here!

I can't believe it!
We had an actual spring this year, rain and grass and green. The whole nine yards. That was nice.

Wrestling season has finally wound down for the boys (never stops for Hubby!). We spent a week in Pocatello, Idaho for the Western Regional tournament. What a busy week it was! A lot of fun tho.

Shawn brought his inner "beast" to the mat. Boy, was there some tough competition this year!

We represented Nevada well, as an individual team (Elko Wrestling), as a region (Eastern Nevada wrestling), and as a State (Nevada). There were a few medal earners from our team, and even more medal earners from Nevada as a State. 

 Hubby (in blue, in the chair on the right) is happy to coach. Everyone. This is his sport, his passion.

Although he would really rather be back on the mat himself

But man oh man am I glad to be home! It sure is stressful leaving the "farm" for a week, in the heat, with a cow due to calve ANY DAY. Of course she didn't listen to me the week before we left, when I told her I wanted to wake up to a calf! Or come home from town to a calf! Nope, she calved June 20th, the Thursday we were gone. Thankfully I have some wonderful friends!!

It's a hiefer calf! Hooray! Her name is Roryn Belle Caramel, but I told the daughter of my friend who first saw her, and called me with the news, that she could help name the calf. So we will call her Carly for her barn name.

Lots can change around here in a week!

The hay stack is dwindling

 (a never ending thing...someday I will have a real pasture!)

 But I was glad to come home and still have the ducks. Even tho Mr. Quackers, aka Darth Quaker, is onery.

Roryn is still in "time out", until I can get the lower pasture jump-proof. Or the range cows are gone. Because those tempting, loose range cow heifers are still out there, with their luring smells and calls. And they like to camp just on the other side of my fence. Oh, the Joy of life with a bull AND open range!

Carly was born and I wasn't even here to see it. I am so glad that all went well, Momma Belle didn't need help, and an awesome friend came over to make sure Carly got her colostrum. My friend was worried about her back hoof, I was worried it was a contracted tendon, but Carly is happy and bouncy now. Knows where the milk bar is and runs from one paddock to the other, tail high in the air!

Maybe she is running from bigger half brother Chuck part of the time. He IS kind of a bully (hehe, he's a bull calf). He's growing like a weed, keeping Ruthie milked dry. Now Ruthie and Chuck have separate evening quarters so I can at least get a morning milking from her!
 But Chuck hasn't grown into that halter yet. One afternoon with it on was enough for now. He had a mini lesson in leading.

Reggie the red bunny has grown, but is still sweet as can be.

Abigail is getting greyer and greyer. It's time to start some serious work with her! She's had her time to grow and mature some mentally. I'm looking forward to pushing cows with her! She loves working them, even if it's through the fence for now.

The meat birds, aka pigs with feathers, are growing like, well, pigs! They should be ready to go to freezer camp in another week or two.
I forgot to write down on the calendar when we brought them home. They were already a week old. I *think* they are 6, maybe 7 weeks old now.

And then there was the Super Moon. Sure was bright.

The new Chicken Digs

This is my new chicken coop! Yay!Back view, the nest boxes are here
Lift up the board and there are now 6 nest boxes, which, hooray!, they are laying in!
I love the cute little door! (And my dear hubby's cute bum, lol)
The roosts. It took them a few days to get used to em, but they are roosting there at night now.
The first day I was sitting inside, trying to bribe them in with scratch grains and cat food. Didn't work.

I had to gather them up the first few nights, and lock them in, but now they all go in at dark. The 6 "big girls" and my 6 "teen ager" golds. The little babies will soon be joining them, but for now they like to sleep under neath or in their hay "hotel". But the gates didn't get closed and the cows came in and munched the hay hotel a bit, so it might be just under the Hen House. We'll see.

I've been locking them in at night, as it seems it was the wee hours of the morning that neighbor dogs and/or coyotes were grabbing girls (and Mr. Roo) out of the old dog house/hen house. I've been getting up at 5:30 to let them out, but it's getting light earlier now, so soon I'll probably be rising at 5, or even 4:30. Do I dare go back to bed, or stay up and drink coffee??

Update on the farm

Spring is trickling in here in Northern Nevada. Learning from years past I planed a few things for the garden that would do well with the still cool temps. It's those occasional warm days that get me in "the mood" lol, and a few days later we've got freezing nights and snowy weather.
The onions are doing awesome, potatoes are comining up nicely, and the corn is coming up now. The Onion chives that wintered in the garden are 6 inches high, I've already trimmed some for baked potatoes. The strawberry box is filling up nicely, a few of the plants are flowering already. This is their second year, so hopefully we'll get lots more berries, once I put the bird net over them so the birds don't get any this year. In two weeks or so I'll be getting the rest of the garden in-squash, green beans, peas, pumpkins. I might wait until the end of the month for the tomatoes and eggplant.

I've also been busy with my flower beds. The marigolds are huge already, with flower heads getting ready to bloom. At least 2 feet tall against the house. But upon closer examination I can't decide if they are in fact the marigolds, or perhaps some Poppy? I only planted a few Poppy last year, but I did let it go to seed. We'll see pretty soon, those flowers are gonna be out in a week or two! Daffodils and tulilps are getting ready too. I just planted some butterfly brush, trupet lilly and exotica bulbs. DH dug up some lilly of some sort that was growing wild in the pasture /field, so I got those in a better place. We'll be tilling in the pasture later this summer to make an arena. I sprinkled out some wildflower mix and old fashion flower mix.

The horses are shedding like crazy. I swear I get a few pounds of hair each time I brush them, which is at least once a day! It's getting to be time to wake up an hour or so earlier so that I can work horses in the morning before the kids get moving.

The chickens aren't much work for now, until we get the materials to build their permanent coop. But the modified dog house works for now. I can't wait until it's just a bit nicer so the turkeys can go outside! Two turkeys is a million times noisier that 13 chickens in a laundry room. They are growing like popcorn. Every morning when I turn on the daytime light I swear they have doubled in size from the day before. Their necks are getting so long!

Crochet has turned into more of an evening /break from the outside chores activity. I've completed 3 more wash-cloths, trying out different patterns and using up the peach colored yarn that I have no idea what to do with. Peach just isn't one of the colors that's very popular in my house. I've got the body of my robot done, with antane attatched to his head. I've just got to figure out his legs, and arms. Maybe I'll embroider his face first. I'm winging it, since I don't have the book this idea is from, but figured I could modify some other patterns I have. I'll post some pictures later.

Ok-I'm off to hang laundry on the line (yay!), and water all the things that need it.
;)