Hello everybody,

It's been kinda busy around here, I've not had much time to post, but been checking in each day to see what you all got going on. You all sound as busy as we are with the gardens comming in. I did eat 2 tomatoes this week, they didn't make it to the house. The garden is beautiful, getting tall, and we've still have good rain. My strawberrys are back in again, and I need to transplant all those runners all summer long. Our cucumbers are a couple feet high, the cantalope have lots of flowers, and the other melons are starting to produce too.

Our 4 calves are huge, doing really well. We put the 2 older ones out in the front pasture with the young buck goats. They have a pen they come to for their milk bucket and grain. I can't leave the grain all the time for them as the piggy goats would eat it all. We need another fence line and another shelter. We had 1 new baby goat, a black buck, really large kid. Now I have 4 does milking, and would like a couple more calves for that milk. The 4 calves we have are taking almost all of Ginger's milk now. We are letting the 2 Jerseys nurse on her and clean her out after Steve milks out for the others. There is a bit left over, but not like before.

We can't stay up late like we used to before the cow, and it's hard getting adjusted to going to bed early. We still can't do it. How do you go to bed by 9 oclock in the summer? That's the best time of the day for working in the garden! We have to get up at 4, and when we go to bed at 11, it's just not enought sleep. How many hours do you all sleep at night? If I take a nap, I feel worse than I did before I laid down. I'm sure as soon as Steve and I get used to this, they'll switch the time back and mess us up again! We are busy, but it's a good kind of busy, isn't it!

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), July 08, 2001

Answers

hi folks well we still need rain here in se.ks i water my garden ever sunday with a soaker hose try ti get a inch of moister down this will be the last to have to water the corn or the cucumbers. just have tomatoes and okra left. thinking about a fall garden never had one before been putting corn in the freezer to go with the fish this winter. have 6 ricks of hedge cut and drying for the wood stove this winter. need to cut some green later on to hot now been a 100% for a few days. hope everone is doing ok. kinda miss some of the others but ever one does their own thing. Bob se.ks.

-- Bobco (bobco@hit.net), July 08, 2001.

Boy! can I relate to needing to wake up early, yet not being able to go to bed early enough. I am babysitting kids that are dropped off at 5:30 am. I find I need to nap by the time they are picked up at 3pm, but I don't dare go to sleep at that time. I agree, evenings are better for yardwork! Weekends I find I will spend a full day sleeping on and off to make up for it.

-- Epona (crystalepona2000@yahoo.com), July 08, 2001.

Hi! It's been busy busy busy around here lately too! We had a new litter of bunnies July fourth and six are still alive six days later and are getting fat and have little fur on them now!

The garden stuff is coming in and I've been freezing some stuff and will be canning some this week. Also our apples and grapes are coming in so I'll be making jelly! And I have several quarters of fresh blackberries I froze because I didn't have time to make jelly when my step-brother-in-law provided them!

That plus my job as a reporter (writing from my home office) and my hsuband's job as a handyman has kept us both hopping!

We have a good start on making the chicken enclosure one-third bigger. Husband finished the tin roof expansion but I'll have to wait until my next payday Friday of next week to get another roll of chicken wire (unless I get some freelance pay in the mail before then!)

The front shrubbery all needs trimming but I've been spending most of my outside time with the animals and in the garden so it has just been on the back burner! Will have to get it cleaned out soon of we may loose the neighborhood outside cat in the jungle there!

It is HOT HOT HOT here and we haven't had the air conditioner on! Whew!!! Can't pay those high bills but it is awfully humid here!

I've got the adult Angoras hair all basically cut short for the summer and they all get icey bottles to snuggle at noon (which means I have to distribute the bottles and then put them back in the freezer at dark...I have 18 grown bunnies and 8 babies) I need another 18 extra bottles so I can have some freezing while some are in the hutches, then I'd just have to change them out once a day...I'll work toward that!

-- Suzy in Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), July 10, 2001.