First off I have to say that I agree with the opening paragraph of Jessie’s last post. Not only do I think that I must bore you all to death with the mundane details of farm life, but it also drives me nuts to try to come up with some exciting way to write things up for a post.
That said, it has been over a month since I posted, so here is a bit of what has been going on in our lives.
Well, summer is flying by for us, and is (as usual) very busy. The garden is growing like crazy (I am working on a garden post with pictures, stay tuned) and even though we got it in late we are enjoying fresh cucumbers, squash, green beans, and peppers.
Our animal “experiments” of the year are also going well thus far. We are very pleased with the Red Waddle Hogs, and are looking forward to trying the meat. So far they have grown faster than we thought that they would. My parents decided that theirs were big enough (around 300lbs) so they went ahead and took them in this week. The hogs weighed in at 360 and 380! Now we are wondering if we need to take ours in early too.
The turkey adventure is doing great as well. Turkeys are a lot different than what I thought they would be. They are really calm birds and are for the most part a quiet bird too. Since I really dislike chickens, I was prepared to feel the same way about turkeys, what a pleasant surprise to actually enjoy them!
We had a goat adventure this week when one of the goats broke a horn off at 6:30 in the morning. Yes, it bled a lot, and no, none of the vet offices were open yet. I always said that I would never have goats with horns because they cause so much trouble. Well, it happened through a series of events that we did not get this ones horns burned, and then I just kept putting off going into the vet to have them removed, and so on Tuesday morning I had a mess to deal with. I was not a happy goat owner most of the morning. At 7:30 I was able to talk to the vet, take the got in, and have both horns removed for good. Now I am back to a horn free herd, and am much happier.
The only other excitement since the last post, has been the continuation of the snake saga. After the bull snake adventure, I was determine to pay closer attention to were I walked, and watch out for more snakes. I guess you could say that it payed off.
Snake #2~
~was a large black snake, taking up residence in my herb garden. I tried to shoot it, missed several times, and decided to stand guard over it until Colin got home and could take care on it. Thankfully he was only about ten minutes form home, and was able to remove it form the premise for good.
At this point in time I decide that I need to practice up on the 22, so that I can deal with any snakes that come up when Colin is not there to do it for me. So the next time that he and O are practicing, I spent some time putting hole in old canning lids. After that I felt confident that I could deal with whatever came up.
Snake #3~
~was another black snake. This time it was sunbathing on the tree roots two steps frome my back porch. (Side note: I am dressed for town in a skirt, blouse, and dress shoes. Not exactly the best snake killing outfit) Having just locked the door in preparation to leave, I calmly turn around, unlock it, get the 22, shoot the snake, (it crawls under the Fiat badly wounded, so I get a 2x4 and lay it on the snake so that it can’t go any further) relock the door and leave. Colin removes the dead body when he gets home later.
Snake #4~
~is a King Snake (or a salt and pepper snake). I am watering my melons at 6a.m. and it come sliding out from under the mulch. I have a momentary thought of racing for the 22, but figure that it will be gone by the time I get back. The snake is double timing it for the woods, so I let him go. He wasn’t overly big, was actually rather pretty (did I just say that???), and seemed to understand that in the woods, he would be left to live.
So far there has not been a snake #5. I will keep you posted.
I did suffer through several nights of snake dreams. I am not sure which is worse, the real snakes, or the dreams.
Well, that is about all the news here. I think that I had better get moving on cleaning the house.
God Bless,
Rachel
