Catching Up

Jul 17, 2025

Hello Dear Readers! Welcome back to the farm!

Hi to the new folks joining in! The sheep have escaped the confines of their pasture so they can meet you!

First and foremost, I want to thank Jeanne P,

(check out Elizabeth’s writings!!) and R.C.R. for your help and encouragement. I am grateful beyond measure.

Thank you to my family of subscribers here for your kind words and messages of hope. They mean more to me that you will ever know. Thank you.

The truck is fixed!! Several engine sensors all decided to collectively quit at the same time. I miss the days of a straight 6 that I could fix myself. These vehicles today need a degree in computer science just to figure out what the hell is wrong.

I managed to get the pile of sheep coats fixed and back on them just in time for them to find a new hole and shred them all over again. It’s a never-ending vicious cycle around here.

One of my girls, Miss Anu, decided this would be a good time to get sick. Noticed last Thursday that she was hanging around the barn instead of going out with the rest of the flock. She was eating, drinking, peeing and pooping, but something was off. I got a hold of her, and she did not put up a fight. She had a slight temp and got antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and got her all cozy in the barn.

Let her out Saturday morning, and again, she hung around the barn. She went out with the flock in the afternoon and then did not come back in at night. Boy child found her back in the trees against the fence line. Got her halfway back before she decided she was going no further. Time for the wheelbarrow to crate her back down.

More anti-inflammatories and a round of B-complex. Kept her in on Sunday until her second round of antibiotics and let her out Monday morning, where it seems she is fine again. Ugh. Still can’t put my finger on what exactly was wrong, but it seems that her resting and me pushing meds has her fixed up.

We started the massive yearly clean up around the place. Got the barn scraped down to the original floor. Once that dries out, we will put more bentonite in and level it out, so we have a good floor for next year’s shearing.

We started on the corral but only got half of that done before it was so soupy that the skid steer was getting stuck.

Then the rain came again. For the second time in a few days we had another gully washer. 4+” of rain in less than a week. Now the corral will really not get done any time soon.

Boy child started on the area where we feed during the winter. I wanted that scraped back down to the ground and dried out again. But he could not get the scrap hay up to the meadow we are working to rehab.

Between the corral and the feed area, he found some very nice dirt and I put that up by the front of the house in order to backfill the retaining wall. Once I get that all in the right places, I’ll actually be able to plant stuff in there!!! Yahoo for good, yummy broken-down sheep poop and other organic matter. He moved a bunch over to the raised garden beds so we can rehab them this fall also. I plan to put down a layer of scrap wool again, with the new dirt over that.

Speaking of the garden, what little I did plant is growing great! I’m starting to see fruits show up on the pumpkins, although no flowers yet. Lot’s of rain, a few warmish days, and even more cooler ones have things springing forth!

Did I mention that I had two male model’s pose provocatively for me on one of the game cameras? Ya gotta check this out!