Ends and Beginnings

Our hoop house today:

We had two days of very hard winds, and last night I went out to put some suet out at 8:30... heard a large riiiipppppppp... and the hoop house plastic gave way.  Keith will be home from his excercise tomorrow and we will cut the hanging top off and leave sides on for the rest of the summer.  We are learning so much from this experiment!

Now the tomatoes can reach high.

A last look at the little mares, after I had shut them up to wait for friend Joani.  What a pretty pair they are. 

Michelle from Boulderneigh asked why we didn't consider keeping them, since we were in the market for some ponies soon. 

These are Hackneys, a very spirited pony.  We love their beautiful way of moving, and these two girls were very nice... but we need some stolid, slow moving Shetlands for the grands, and a winter off hard bucket hauling. 

Chris, Joani's Amish friend who trains and shoes for her, came along with her to get the girls.  He fell in love with Rosie, and was so very gentle with both of them, giving them time to get to know him before leading them out.

Kerin, at Always Fixin' Never Sittin' asked me why we didn't get guineas... oh, my, how I wish we could!  Unfortunately... the answer lies in two words:  LILLY ANN.

Lilly Ann has killed probably two dozen birds in her six years of life... and anything that comes over the pasture fence is fair game.  We have a neighbor down the road with guineas, and her guineas are EVERYWHERE.. running in the road, running all over her yard and pasture.  I am afraid if we get guineas, they will come through from the pasture, straight into Lilly Ann's jaws. 

Here's Joani with Blackie and Rosie, ready to pull out.  We had clouds, sun, clouds, sun... there was supposedly a 30 percent chance of rain, but we have not seen any yet. 

This beautiful stand of corn is down around the corner from us, a few miles as the crow flies.  I think the corn will start to suffer if we don't get some rain pretty soon.

And here's five of our six swallow babies, still alive and doing well.  They come back to roost on our porch at night still, but  Mama and Papa will start their second clutch sometime soon.  What a wonderful new beginning for these babies.

A Close Call

Not by me... by this little guy!  He didn't know how close he was to sure death!

When I opened the back pophole of the little henhouse tonight, this juvenile black rat snake was laying IN the waterer... his head resting on the side.  Smart snake, it was nearly 100 outside again, though there is a decent breeze.  Stupid me... I did not get a picture of it, but reached out, and instead of pouring the snake onto the ground, I disturbed him so that he skinnied UP the side of the henhouse and into the rafter, whereupon this little mouse looked out to see what was going on. 

Oddly, this is only the second snake in seven years I have found inside the little henhouse, which is up on stilts, so I suspect he came up the ramp. 

I picked the last one up and put him in the pasture, but did not have time to catch this one.

He's still wet, you can see.

I just don't want him to get into the pen of porcelain and mille fleurs, there is a gap in it where a small snake can get through, so I'll go out in a few minutes and jury rig something up to prevent that.  The wind has dried everything out, too, so I need to start the hose.

Here are the sunflowers in the new bed, greeting the sun this morning.

Tomorrow, with Keith's blessing, we are having a crew come to do a lot of major yardwork that got away from us while Keith was out with his shoulder injury, and while I was with my sister during April and May.  We have never done this before, but they have worked for a friend of mine, and will do the major weed-eating around the buildings, and clean up the garden beds, which will be a HUGE blessing.  I am going to take a half day, as my friend Joani will be coming to pick up the mares as well.

Annnndddd  none too soon, either, because here comes Miss Blackie to chase my chickens again.  They have done this Sunday, Monday and tonight... as soon as the chickens begin to gather and eat in the shade of the evening, here come Little Blackie and Rosie to run them off!  I still have not been able to get a picture of her beautiful high front leg action to show you all. 

These are the same sunflowers as above, but now facing west, in the setting sun on Sunday evening.  I love how sunflowers follow the sun.

Hotter Today

101 when I left work today, but everyone at home was doing well.  The dogs, all four, had been in all day.  Pugs suffer terribly in heat and humidity, so except for a quick step outside to potty, they are in... until allmost dark.  Once it cooled down a bit, they could go out and be farm dogs for a few minutes.

I had lots of help again.

Here's faithful Clarabelle, who was underfoot the entire time I was doing chores.  I was sitting at this point, filling the trough.  When it is this hot, I try to fill it daily, dumping out the dirty water and refilling.  Clara loves to be misted with the hose... she let herself be soaked two or three times tonight, and kept following me for more.

Jackson had an idea for a minute that he was going to get lucky.... but Clara made sure he understood she was TOO HOT!

Blackie actually was grazing UNDER Rosie here.  You can see that Rosie has some roaning on her flanks in this picture. 

The prisoners are trying to figure out how to break out of there!

We are going to build a pen for them next week.

And my ever-faithful blogging companions Gertie and Abby, keeping me company.  How I love these sweet little girls, and so does Keith.  They are the most loyal and protective little dogs we have ever owned. 

A Big Saturday

Well, it's been some day.  Or, as Charlotte the Spider would put it:  SOME DAY.

To begin with, we re-homed our llama trio, Tony, Inca and Aztec.  We found, through Southeast Llama Rescue, a wonderful couple from Northeast Missouri who drove all the way here to get them in the heat and humidity today.  I have just hung up with Renee, and the llamas are not unloaded yet, they are humming, which indicates they are still worried, but otherwise, doing fine.  The loading was a Rodeo.  We had to go get Troy and his son, Middle Troy ( and yes, there is a Little Troy) to come help.  I got exactly one picture.

That's Keith in the trailer.  It was a BIG step up, and we actually ended up lifting them all in... with a saddle girth under their bellies.  If we hadn't had Troy and Troy there, we would not have been able to load them.  Tony went in pretty easily, but Inca, pictured here... bucked like a wild bronco and actually pulled Keith head over heels at one point.  I don't know how he ever held her.

Aztec made friends with Renee as she was haltered, and actually followed pretty easily once Inca was on.  We sprayed them down with water, I worry so about Tony who went down in the heat last summer.  After they were soaked good, Renee and Brian left for their 5 1/2 hour drive home.

Here is what they brought us this morning.... to stay here until Wednesday, when they go to their new home with my good friend Joani...

If these aren't the darndest most beautiful ponies in the world.  They are Hackneys. 

Blackie, on the left, has the most beautiful action I've seen in a long time, pumping her front legs high at the trot.  Rosie, behind her, the bay, is a beautiful girl with roaning on her rump.  Her action is not as high, but she is the loveliest girl, and the friendlier of the two.  Renee had re-homed these from an elderly gentleman who is trying to place his small herd.  Blackie is broken to drive, but neither is broken to ride.  They will go Wednesday to King City, Missouri, with my good friend Joani and her Amish trainer, Chris, to be trained and to be trimmed, as their feet are not in good shape.  When Renee tried to trim them, they went ballistic.  Chris is very experienced, and a good farrier, and, as Joani said, she has never seen a horse or pony he couldn't handle.  Their feet are not horrible, but just need a good shaping and trimming.  They loaded and unloaded like troopers from the same trailer the llamas left in.

Rosie, up close and personal.  How good it is to see horses in our pasture again, even if just for a short time!

This morning, very early, I went to Price Chopper in Bonner Springs, because they have very good ham salad in their deli.  I wanted to get some to make sandwiches, because I figured Renee and Brian would be tired and hungry when they got here.  (They have to have gluten-free bread, so that didn't work out).  I digress.

When I walked in the door, I half-noticed a display for Father's Day... and it said something like "Win a Grill for Dad".  I went over to the display, wrote my name and phone number on one of the pieces of paper on the table, and then stuffed it in the box and did my shopping and left.  Imagine my surprise when I was called and told I had won

THE BIG CHAIR. 

I had no idea what it was.

So, without further ado... here is Keith in his Father's Day gift from me:

The young man who helped me to my car with the prize congratulated me and told me I had won the party chair.  There are SIX cupholders on the arms, three on each side. (It folds up into a carrying bag!)  

Here am I in it, we were laughing our heads off at this:

This truly shows how BIG it is!

I had to climb up in it!

I went to church at five (not in those clothes) and then ran down to WalMart to get some things, and ran to Price Chopper to get the CHAIR.  So guess what I found out when I got there?

I had won the Weber Grill too! 

So Keith got an extra-special Father's Day gift from me. 

What a day we've had!