Am I the only one who likes pulling weeds?

 I think I'm the only person I know who likes pulling weeds. I don't like the fact that there are weeds in my garden. I don't like being bent over or crouched down for eighty feet at a time. My back hurts and my knees creak when I stand up. I don't think there is a square inch out there that doesn't have something growing that shouldn't be there. But then there is that little sound the roots make as they let go is what does it for me. That little snap, and then the whole plant, root and all at there between your fingers. That's what I like about weeding. Pinching the little leaves in my fingers, or having to dig under the plant just a little bit, and then... SNAP. No more weed.Toss it in my little bucket, move forwards a little, and repeat. It just makes me happy. I can go out and pull for a while, go do something else, and back out there again, snick, snick, snick.

I have all kinds of stuff coming up in my garden. Stuffs that I put in as seeds are poking their little leaves out of the dirt to say hello. I'm amazed. After all the trouble I went to to start plants inside this year and last, and to have them all die, to see things starting to poke out that I put in the ground as seeds amazes me. I put in cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, cantaloupe, squashes, and strawberries as plants I got from the garden center. I also set out seeds of everything but the tomatoes, and added peas, carrots, radishes, and corn. There is little plants coming up where I set the seeds. This makes me do a little happy dance in my seat.

Little bitty corn plants coming up

I forgot I planted radishes and finally gave up on them and planted peppers. Well here come the radish

Onions

 Strawberries

  I added three blueberry bushes at the back of the garden

 Sugar snap peas

 View of the garden

So the calf is next door. Piggies still on the way, but now I have chickens. Six hens and a rooster. Andrea took the other three hens. I already have gotten eggs from them and they've only been here since Sunday. It's a friend of my neighbor that had them and he gave us a heck of a deal on them $5 each for last years babies. So they are just over a year old. The rooster had something funky going on with his legs and walks a little weird, but he was free so I don't care. We were told they are New Jersey Black Giants. They don't seem to be any bigger than the hens Andrea already has, but I read they don't finish growing out till around 18-24 months. They lay brown eggs. I've gotten a very pale almost white, some regular browns, and a brown with dark speckles. I'm very excited to go out every afternoon and find eggs that my own chickens have left for me. They are still living in the rabbit hutch. Scotty has to finish the outside nest boxes still on my chicken condo.

3000

That's the number of page views I hit today. I never expected to hit 1000. I just set this thing together as a place for my family to watch the house I was building as they all live in different states, and maybe a few pics of the kids and the horses. Only 10 followers, but I still can't get the fam damily to register and follow officially.

Bacon, the calf, had some nasty diarrhea but has gotten over that, and learned to drink from a bucket instead of a bottle. That makes Andrea very happy. The calves are separated into two pens now. They are both little boys and the urge to suckle is so strong still that they'll start on each others dangly bits. They are still side by side, and I think keeping them together just at first helped Bacon learn to drink from the bucket.

Went out and saw the piggies Monday evening. Pete's been great hanging onto them for us even though they are ready to go. He's even going to worm them for us this week, no extra charge. One is a bit bigger than the other, being three weeks older. Pete said he had a white and a red. The red is more a dark reddish brown with a white band over it's shoulders. The white he actually calls the rainbow pig. It's got a reddish blond head, blond over it's butt and blue spots randomly. Of course I forgot to take a camera with me, but this time next week, they should be here.

The garden hasn't all died, which amazes me.  I managed to kill off everything I had started in the kitchen. I forget the plant-lings outside over night and they froze. Two years in a row and I've killed off everything I had started. Last year really wasn't my fault, since I was so busy in the hospital trying not to die. So I cheated. I went to D and B and bought started plants. I have three different types of maters. Banana peppers, and jalapenos. I think I might have tome bells in there too, but I'll have to look. I have eggplants, I did put in a few eggplant seeds. Nothing up yet though. I have two types of cucumber, and a few seeds in. I have squash in butternut, and yellows. I have cauliflower, and broccoli, and in classic Jax fashion, I mixed up the 4pks as I put them in, and have them both mixed in the same row, and no way to tell which is which till they get bigger. I put in tiny onions back when I killed the kitchen starts. I didn't expect to see them come up. I also put in radish seeds. The onions are about four inches tall now. I forgot about the radishes and put the peppers in that same row. Imagine my surprise when three weeks later up come the radishes in between the peppers.

The irrigation water is still turned up all the way open at the head gate, so we're flooding everything everywhere. Andrea and Dave are flooding both the ponds, and up over the road. I've made a pond in the short pasture that instead of just seeping out onto the driveway, has gone all the way over into the dry lot. I've flooded through the trees till I don't know where to put all the water. I've never seen that much water in the back pasture at Rebecca's. And Sue's pond behind us is flooding my garden. I finally start getting something to grow, and the back of the garden is under water. Thankfully I didn't put anything in the last four rows in the back yet. I had to get out there today in the DRIVING wind that is endless in Idaho, and wheelbarrow dirt to make a small berm to keep my plants from flooding.

Saturday afternoon, after working an amazing amount of hours, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to work Patches after I got home. I think I was so tired I wasn't thinking clearly. The only good thing that came out of it, is I got her feet trimmed, and remembered to worm her.

I never did get going on the worm composting. I have the box all set up, and all the goodies rotting away in it, outside on the back porch. Alas, I never did order the worms. There is still hope though.

What's new at Everstuff Ranch?

Summer shave down season is here, so work has been crazy busy. I went from grooming like 4-6 dogs on a good day, and maybe 6-8 on Saturdays, to 6-8 a day and 10-12 on Saturdays. Add that to all the stuffs that need to be done around the house, and make for me being a tired unit. We got a Jersey, bull calf from the dairy down the road. It's over at the neighbors. She'll raise up the two calves, and I'll raise up the two pigs. We got the nod from Pete that they are ready to go, just need to finish the pen.

 I went out Sunday and put in the temporary poles and fence out in the pasture. We're going to try giving the horses a smaller area to eat at a time, and make them eat it all down before moving on to the next place. Had to walk the whole fence line to figure out why we were getting a drop in power. Of course after walking the whole perimeter, I find the wire touching a tee post where there is a missing bracket. Didn't find it when I first started walking in knee high grass. 

Today was start the garden day after work. I got in ll the plants what were already plants, and got them all watered in nice. Three different tomatoes, two peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers, melons, strawberries, eggplants. Tomorrow will be everything that has o start from seed. Pees, carrots, more cucumber, radish, lettuce.

This is Bacon, the calf. The pig with be named Tasty. Then I'll have Tasty Bacon, and Eggs with the chickens.

This is where the nest boxes with go for the chickens

Building the shelter end of the piggy pen

Got the rabbit hutch moved to the back of the house. Now it needs a good cleaning out and some rabbits. 

 Some random photos

Jess watching Scotty solder some wires onto clips, trying to fix the solar charger. It's dead btw.

Mike over next door

Andrea bought a horse trailer. We let her use Engine 9 and we get to use the trailer. Winning!

Mike with Lance working on Will's 4wheeler

 Ponies in the grass

Bastard cat is nosey

Will came over a few weeks ago and had Scott help him weld a bracket back on for the shock on his truck