Baaaaaaa!!!

September arrived today and that little fact makes me smile.  I love autumn. It is starting to feel like it's on it's way, even though it was ninety degrees today..  Next month I am hoping to have some wether lambs that are ready for the freezer.  But before that happens I wanted to be sure to harvest their wonderful fleece.  I plan on having it blended with some of the alpaca fleece.  I'm told it will make amazing yarn!

The young man I bought the lambs from last spring happens to be an actual sheep shearer!  Shearing is very much a dying art and I am so pleased to see a young guy that is still willing to work that hard!  Most of the old timers that used to shear around here are long gone, so I am very lucky that Josh was willing to come all the way out here to give my lambs their haircuts!



Josh Pecukonis, sheep shearer extraordinaire.
 



We also had Jim helping us again today.  Jim has become pretty much invaluable around here.  Especially since he is a sheep whisperer!  It was his job to wrangle the wooly buggers and hand them off to Josh.

 

 

Then we'd shear each one and I'd gather up the good parts of the fleece and bag it.

 

 

Then Jim and I would scoop them up and haul them over to their pasture.  It's sure is easier than trying to drive them anywhere!  They scatter like ping pong balls!

 

Boy, I'm sure glad I only have nine of them!  They are weighing between 80-100 pounds or so!

Up and over!

 

Of course we did have some spectators! 

When we were finished we had some of Prairie Granny's awesome homemade pizza and ice cream!  The best part of a tough project is the dinner afterward!  I'm very grateful to have help in that department or we'd be eating at the local bar and café on a day like this.

Special thanks to Josh's mom, Anita for taking the great photos for this post!  It sure takes a village to make everything work some days.  Thank God for the village.

Bye For Now,
B

A Hunter's Hideout

Mom and I had a crazy idea.... There is a real shortage of lodging in Geraldine.  The closest motel is 26 miles away in Fort Benton.  The owner of Rusty's Bar has opened a cute little B&B next to the bar, but it's only got three rooms.  Every fall this town fills with hunters.  Rightfully so, since we have an abundance of amazing wildlife in this area.  But there is like, no where for them to stay....

 

So ta-da!! Here's the project!

 

 

This old grainery building was built in October of 1962.  The date is written into the concrete floor. I love that they did that! We think it will make the most awesome bunkhouse/ hunter's cabin!

 

 

It's built from stacked 2x4 lumber.  The stacked boards offered enough strength to hold the tremendous weight of bushels and bushels of wheat.  The boards are still in beautiful condition....

 

 

The bunkhouse will have two bedroom areas and a common area with some comfy furniture and a mini fridge, etc.  However for now it is a "dry cabin".  Yup, no plumbing.... so Prairie Granny and friend Jim had another little, necessary project....

 

We didn't really make Jim dig this hole by hand.  We used a little trencher.

 

 

 

If there is such a thing as a cute outhouse, I'd say this one is cute!

 

 

We hope to have this completed by the start of hunting season.  Wish us luck!  I think it will be a very fun thing to have visitors and I hope it's good for the community as well.  If the hunters stay here in town, they'll buy gas here, eat here and frequent the little grocery store.  Let me know what you think!

 

Bye for now,

B

Magic Morning

The rugrats are my alarm clock.  They wake up early and come find me in my bed.  Sometimes I can grab them, hoist them up there with me and steal a few minutes of snuggle time.  But not this morning.  I woke up to both little ones saying, "Uh oh!" and repeating it a few times.  I don't think anything makes a momma move faster than those words first thing in the morning!  I rushed out to find them staring out the picture window in the living room....

The fog was so thick that I had to wait to take these pictures.  We couldn't see anything beyond the yard.  But after a little bit our world was revealed again....

Why does everything seem so magical when there's fog? 

 

 

While I was out in the front yard enjoying the dewy grass in my bare feet, I could hear the horses galloping towards me.  They seemed to appear out of nowhere and galloped past me, back into the mist....



Then the sun started burn it's way through a little more....

I was able to sneak a couple more minutes of magic while the rugrats ate their breakfast....

Then it was time to face the day.

Have a great day everyone,
B

Old Things

I love old things.  It drives my oldest son crazy because he does not understand why in the world his momma scrounges for old, rickety, banged up things instead of buy new shiny ones.  I always hear, "Mom! Why do you like that old thing?!"  I laugh and explain to him that old things have history to them that can't be bought.  I go on and on about the history of this or that and he just shakes his head.

One of my latest "old things" got moved into the house today.  I bought a little table for five dollars at a farm sale a few weeks ago.  It had seen better days.  It was covered in greasy dirt, the nails on one edge had worked their way out and the paint had chipped off to a perfect patina.  I love it!!!  The folks that were moving off the farm had lived there for forty years.  But it seems this table is probably about twice that old.  It's just a guess though.  I imagine that maybe a sweet farmer had built in for his wife to set in the parlor. I can see years and years of beautiful history when I look at it.

A little TLC with an electric screwdriver and the edge of the little table was repaired.  Then I gave it a good scrubbing and it was perfect!

At first I thought I'd put it out on the porch.  But I decided I liked it so much it needed to live in the house.

So I found a little spot next to the couch that looked lonely.  Now it's the perfect place for the phone I got at Pottery Barn that is designed to look really old, but isn't.  The cool thing is, it actually does work! I admit I am a little obsessed with the phone....

My living room at the farm is finally starting to come together the way I had imagined it.  An eclectic blend of old and new.  Western, but not too western.  Know what I mean?  I will be the first to tell you, I am NOT a interior designer.  But I think if we really focus on the things we love, our homes can reflect our lives in a beautiful way.

Bye for now,
B

Porch Time

The weather has been truly amazing this summer.  We have had some heat, but cool days as well and quite a bit of moisture.  The mornings on the farm are such a gift and I'm not even a morning person!
Almost every morning you can find us out on the porch, in our jammies and bare feet.  Me with my coffee of course!

We look out over the critters and listen to the rooster crow.  The little boys get excited when the crop duster planes fly over on the way to the tiny Geraldine Airport. For a few moments everything is perfect.... 

The cares of the day aren't allowed on the porch.  That stuff has to wait until after breakfast....

Have a great day out there everyone.  I hope you all are able to find your own "porch time"....


Bye for now,
B

Something To Crow About

When I gathered the eggs this evening, I got a little too excited.  Miss Jade thought I was losing it.  Again....  I opened the egg door and she heard my, "Whoo hoo! Awesome!!".  I caught a sideways glance from her and I had to explain.

 

Today, we got the very first egg from this years Barred Rock pullets! Six months ago we brought home thirty five baby chicks and raised them in the garage until they were big enough to move out to the barn.  We fussed over them and were saddened when we lost one here and there.  Finally all that care and coddling is starting to pay off.  They're hens now, beautiful and proud. 

 

 

The egg on the left is from one of our Black Star hens.  The light blue one is from our Aracauna hen.  And the tiny little egg on the right was today's moment of joy!  Isn't it cute?  They will lay smaller eggs like this for a few weeks and gradually get to normal size.  Jade thinks it would take about fifteen of those pullet eggs to make an omelet!  I think she's right.  But soon we will be getting about thirty gorgeous, all natural eggs from our happy, pastured hens.  I don't think there is anything better!  So if you are looking for better eggs, come on out!  We'll have extra!

Until next time,
B

Girls, Pigs and Power Tools

This morning, Prairie Granny and I tackled the much needed project of building the pig watering fountain.  The little piggies have tripled in size since we got them.  That was just over a month ago!  But now the piggies were making a gigantic mess out of there water tub, several times a day.  Of course! That's whats pigs do!  But it had become impossible to make sure they had fresh, clean water to drink.  So we got to work.



 

The waterer is made of a 4 foot section of PVC pipe.  It's capped and then a special little spout is drilled into the bottom of the pipe.  It's really slick!  The piggies will suck the water out of the pipe like we would a sports bottle.


At first the drill bit wasn't working right.  It's a special kind of bit that drills and cuts a hole at the same time.  But something wasn't right.... So Prairie Granny went to the Co-Op over in town to see if we could buy a new one.  But silly us!  Hal, one of the wonderful guys that run the Co-Op, took a look at ours and quickly had it lined up correctly and we were good to go!  Thanks Hal!  Then it worked like a charm!  That's just one more reason why we love this place!

 The whole project only took a few minutes and ta-da!  It was ready to hang in the pig pen.

 

 

Jade and I also finished pig proofing the big paddock for the piggies.

We lined the fence with hog panels so they can't escape.  I think I have enough to do without chasing pigs all over the farm! But now the piggies have a nice big, green place to play and root.

 

 



 Have you ever seen such happy pigs?

Bye for now,
B