We also have FUN!

Seems like the majority of posts here are work related. It's good for us because we have records of when we planted and did things around the farm. I've tried different record-keeping methods and so far, this blog has been the best/ consistent- mostly because it's photo driven. I pretty much have a camera on me or nearby most of the time, so as long as I take a photo of what we're doing, we've got a record.

We woke up yesterday to a beautiful day and called some friends to see if they wanted to join us for late afternoon bbq/dinner.
Husky the dog had been here since 7am. I tried all morning to get her to leave, but she would NOT budge. She's been here 6+ times since she first visited, and is very needy. Her owners are ambivalent about her, so we were trying to find her a better, loving home. Jake wanted to meet her, so he showed up at noonish, and since the day was so beautiful, and the kids wanted to swim, we decided to crack open the beers and start early.
GB was industrious and mowed while we waited for others to get here. I think Jake and I had drunk 2 beers each by the time he was even finished with the mowing!



Everyone arrived a little later and we had a lovely time with great food (as usual). Kids played in the pool and watched movies, and the big ones enjoyed their computer time

Jake is often serving drinks
Newly licensed Ra'am was sent out to pick up kids who needed reuniting with their parents

On another note about this blog...
I took the 1st 1.5 years or so and turned it into a book. I am SOOOO thrilled with it. I had it printed thru blurb.com-- they have software that "slurps" the blog and then you can manipulate the layout of each post. It's been amazing and so fun to sit and look thru the book and relive the house planning/ building and all of the plantings and stuff we've done. For the (2? 3?) of you who actually read this blog, I highly recommend it! Our book is like 250+ pages and cost us about $70. Not bad!

Sheep Wrangling

Woe is me. The forgotten blog.
In an effort to remedy this situation, I started going thru my photos to spark my memory of what we've been doing for the past 3 months that haven't been chronicled here.

And I missed such a huge and fun event.... Sheep Wrangling!

Our two sheep, Ke'o and 'Ele

They had eaten their pasture way down. It's been so dry dry dry here, that the grass wasn't growing fast enough to keep up with their needs.
So, move they must.

But these sheep are not human lovers. They tolerate our presence, but we cannot get near them. They regard us with wary expressions when we come to visit them.

Thankfully, our sheep herding friends, Tom and Eve, have lots of experience with scared sheep. They came over with their lassos and lots of knowledge (or fortitude).

Here are Eve and Ra'am- with a huge (and heavy) roll of fencing we planned to use to corral the sheep

Sheep were on the move. They were not thrilled with the arrangements.
I missed the big jumps. Apparently these large creatures can JUMP!

Ra'am, GB, and I held the fencing up while Tom and Eve had their lassos- the plan was for Tom to chase them into the corraling area Eve to lasso them, while we move the big fence and close down the area.

Caught one!
Tom chased him closer to the fence and Eve successfully threw the lasso!

We tied up their legs to transport them in the truck to the upper pasture.

Ele was a little harder to catch, but Eve once again threw a successful lasso! I was very very impressed!

See Luka watching from outside the gate.

Winter wooly coat

!!!

We got them in the back of the truck to drive them up, and I sat there (kind of ON the sheep since he was struggling a bunch) and fed them.
We trimmed their hooves and then set them loose in the new pasture!


On the planting front, here are some mexican sunflowers (?!?) that Buck gave us way before we moved in. I stuck the stalks in the ground, but it was during a drought and so I figured they died. No such thing! Look at all of the flowers!

And we planted a bunch of coronata along the gulch behind the shed.

Ode to a Very Very Dedicated Mother.... on Mother's Day 2010

On an evening walk the other day, GB, Luka and I happened upon a most wonderful sight!

We found baby tilapia in our pond! Our tilapia are only a couple of inches long- they look like wee babes themselves, but apparently they are old enough to breed.

I had worried that the openness of the pond would mean that any babies would be eaten by the larger fish, but I didn't realize that mama tilapia are fiercely protective of their young. If you look closely in the below photo, you can see one white fish and a bunch of small white "dots" to her right. Those are her babies. She doesn't leave them.
When we look at the pond, the fish usually crowd to where we are, hoping to get fed. Since we were checking out the babes, this mama spent all of her time shooing the other fish away from the little ones. She didn't let the fish get near to them.

Every time we check them out, she is right there, keeping the other fish away.

I was very very impressed with her, and felt like we were watching one of the nature programs we like to watch- getting a glimpse into the secret life of fish.


Some other photos from our walk:

papaya