I'm sorry I haven't posted lately. We find that we do not have enough time to post during the summer as things get so busy.
To summarize: Everything is growing like mad. I have volunteers all over the place. Sheep are in the pasture. We've sectioned off a garden, house, and pasture area for the back yard. The garden area currently has potatoes growing. They are growing well and I have to mound them up again as they are about 2 feet tall now. The front yard is producing like mad. We have a constant supply of cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, basil, and beans. Our apple season is finished as Ivan ate through the whole tree as soon as possible. We have awesome peaches coming in right now and we're really happy with that tree. I was given bees but I still have to go pick them up. We'll have to trim all our fruit trees a bit this summer to alter their growth pattern. We've had hot spells that killed most of the baby olives. We added a puppy to our home; A 70lb puppy. A puppy that is just like a spastic puppy, but just very heavy and trying to teach that puppy all the normal lessons make for interesting times. That puppy attracted an abandoned pit bull puppy that we had to find a home for. Our cat, McGee, passed away this last weekend. All in all, it's been a pretty tough year. It has kind of sucked, to say the least.
And now to today's post:
These last two weeks have been very trying, at least for me. Life has a tendency to throw things in the way just to see how we'll react. Anush has gone back to her owner. Zuzu will be back with her in about a month as well. She will be looking for a dog that is a better fit for us. All of our chickens are dead; I came home to find all of them scattered about the yard. Anush killed them all just for fun. We are now down all chickens, 1 rooster, 3 ducks, 1 drake, and 1 turkey. That was four years of breeding for characteristics we liked and just like that they are gone. I was too emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted to do much of anything after Anush was picked up so Ivan and I just went to bed. He was the one that let me know it was all right to sleep early. I woke up at 2:30am just thinking about what good can come out of this. What is my lesson learned? If nothing else, it got me out of bed and cleaning find that helps me clear my head. As it is garbage night and I never got a chance last night I started moving out all the recycling and the garbage. I was able to put out the recycling that I've been meaning to for weeks as well as throwing out some additional garbage from the backyard. If I'm lucky I'll be able to keep up this purging from the backyard from now until the back is completely clean. I was able to sort things so that our area for sidewalks are now pretty much ready. If nothing else, I can now build my chicken coop that I want so that they are fully protected without the threat of predators attacking them. I also need to build the duck/goose enclosure as the current old coop is not adequate. I guess the plus side is that we get to go through an pick out chicken breeds we want as well as turkey and duck. While thinking about all this, I dug a big grave for our chickens. I placed them all in the pit and with their bodies we'll be able to give back to the soil. Good bye, Awesome chickens.
I'm not sure if it's a weakness or a blessing, but I can't help but always feel optimistic about things. The garden area will have more time to grow and be adjusted so that when we do the things we've been talking about. Our baby greens will have more time to grow. We'll have kick ass coops. (I should totally make coops and market them as such.) We might be able to train the baby chicks better so that they are awesome. The backyard is a little more clean. We have tons of projects to work on. Our garden and orchard can turn out great. Or nothing might turn out. Who knows... it might just be the lack of sleep and the fact that I have to go turn off the alarm clock so that it won't wake up Ivan. Another day at work. If I was independently wealthy I would totally just be a farmer... I can dream, right?
Sorry about the rambling post....
