Folly

fol•ly (ˈfɒl i) 

n., pl. -lies.

1. the state or quality of being foolish; lack of understanding or sense.

2. a foolish action, practice, idea, etc.; absurdity.

3. a costly and foolish undertaking; unwise investment or expenditure.

4. a whimsical or extravagant and often useless structure built to serve as a conversation piece, lend interest to a view, etc.

5. follies, a theatrical revue.

6. Obs. wickedness; wantonness.

After a friend told James our boat project reminded him of follies (see #4 above) in Europe,  James has decided to call this our folly.  Now that I think of it the project also fits the first 3 definitions.  

It's coming along and we're figuring it out as we go.  We get lots of people hollering up from their tubes or kayaks, asking us what we're building.  Some people say, "neat" and smile.  Others have said, "I've never seen that before".  Many, though, have nothing to say after we answer and have a confused look on their face.  I think there are a lot of people who don't understand building something just for pleasure.  As much fun as it's been building the deck, I'm looking forward to moving on and pressure washing the boat, putting the shade sail up and working on the inside.  Even more, I can't wait to sit on the deck, relax and enjoy the view of the river.

Here are a few pictures that have nothing to do with the boat but are still fun.  I took this one this morning because I love watching different species sharing.  Yesterday the donkeys were in on this but this morning I had them back in their own space.

This next one is just funny.  Chy and Wilson are usually shy with strangers but for some reason they remember my mom even though she only sees them once a year.  She brings them their favorite treat, black licorice.  She can hardly walk in the lawn without them running her down to check her pockets.  This is Wilson and Mom sharing an ear of corn.  In this instance my mom may want to read definitions numbers 1 and 2.

Boat Project - take 10

How long have we been at this?   I guess I should ask, how long have we not been at this.  I went back through my blog to see when we got the boat "free" on Craigslist but can't find the post.  I think it was at least 3 years ago.   I did see we began putting the posts in for the deck in December 2012.

So, we're back at it and this time we're going to at least finish the deck.  Hopefully we'll get to fixing up the boat this year too.  The deck is in the shape of the boat, kind of.

The boat is pretty well land-locked now.  Only a flood can carry it away and soon we'll have it anchored so that can't happen....hopefully.   Building this reminds me of building our outdoor kitchen.  It's a fun project that doesn't have to be done but will be a fun place to play.  As is our style, we didn't think ahead when we planned the deck because fastening joist hangers to round posts and figuring out how to lay boards on a deck that is not square makes the job way more difficult than we expected.  We're making it up as we go along and taking one step at a time.  Once again the phrase "good enough for who it's for" will have to apply.  When the deck is done we'll be able to pressure wash the boat from above and then paint it and make it water tight.  Lastly will come the interior.  As of now we just plan to build a platform bed in there but we'll see how carried away we get.

We're already in the planning stages for how to shade the deck.  We've ordered some poles from which we'll hang one or 2 shade sails.  Kind of like this.

Part of the plan for the deck was also so we can store kayaks, chairs, etc. under it.

We're having fun.  I hope the next time I blog about this will be in 2014 and not 2016.  Even though we won't be launching the boat in the river, I look forward to breaking a bottle of champagne on the bow sometime in the near future.

Why do we do it?

Sometimes it's fun to dream of living somewhere else.  James and I have a fantasy of moving to New Zealand (we love New Zealand) or a foreign speaking country to live for a year and learn the language and culture.   On days when I dread weed-eating or cutting grass, or look at all the stuff in our yard that needs attention - On the days when the weeds seem too much for James to attack, or it takes hours to pick and clean peas, beans or blackberries, or his hands are yellow from squeezing mexican bean beetle larvae - When the electric fence needs to be moved or animals escape or predators get our chickens.  These are the days we ask ourselves, why are we doing this?

This weekend James and I went to visit our friends Mike and Laura who live in a gorgeous house on Lake Norman.  I'm envious of their meticulous landscaping and their beautifully decorated and spotless house.  It was a relaxing weekend just hanging out, catching up and having nothing to do but eat, drink and be merry.  Perfect.  We had many conversations about traveling and where we'd like to live.  We always do this with them.  They like change as much as we do.  James and Mike paddled one morning while I pretended to fish and Laura  and Kramer (puppy) kept me company.

Yesterday morning we boated to breakfast.  How spoiled we felt.

Later we floated.

Why don't we do this all the time?  I don't mean stay at Mike and Laura's house.  I think we'd get kicked out eventually.  I mean, why don't we play more?  Why do we think we need to fill our 4 freezers with vegetables, fruit and meat?  No two people need all the food we raise.  We don't need 4 donkeys, 3 dogs, 8 goats, 10 pigs, rabbits, 2 cows, chickens, a parrot and a kitten.  Or do we?

On the way to and from Lake Norman James read to me a book some friends gave us, See You In 100 Years, http://www.amazon.com/See-Hundred-Years-Logan-Ward/dp/1939990033
In this book a young couple leave their jobs in NYC and move with their 2 year old son to rural  VA and live like it's the year 1900.  What they did made what we do here seem like childs' play.  It's a great book and I highly recommend it to all my homesteading friends.

When we got home last night James spent hours in the garden picking blackberries then making blackberry jam while I visited the animals.  Today I thought of the book as I used my electric milking machine, made butter, spinning the cream in my food processor, butchered 3 roosters and scalded them to remove feathers by heating water on an electric stove then chilling them in ice water.  James picked 5 dozen ears of corn, cutting off the kernels, then microwaving them before freezing.  He also dug up potatoes, picked tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, carrots, etc. (manually, of course.  no electric involved in this).

Our house smells really good right now of roasted chicken, lemon squash, onion, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes.  When we eat this we'll feel satisfied we grew this all ourselves.  I can't describe why this feels so good.  Does it taste better than store-bought food?  I don't know if everyone would say it does.  It's more than that though.   We saw these vegetables grow among the weeds and beetles, we know how this chicken made it to our table.

This morning as I milked Raisa I was entertained by Keri (our livestock guardian dog) and Cato (our young buck).  They've become good buddies as of late and they play together often.  I wonder how Keri will feel when Cato begins trying to breed "her girls" this fall.  The play may turn to something rougher.  This playing makes me smile.


We'll still dream of living elsewhere, maybe on a small plot of land in a European country where we can buy our veggies and meats daily at local markets and butchers like the Europeans do, or maybe in the US in a condo so we can travel wherever the wind blows us, without having to care for gardens and animals.  For now we feel fulfilled and our land, animals, dirty fingernails, aching back and full tummies (getting bigger all the time), ratty clothes, old home, poorly decorated but filled with wonderful dinner aromas, are the life we choose.

It's time for me to head to the field to feed Keri chicken scraps and her food, give the pigs the leftover corn cobs, scratch the mammoth donkeys and lounge on their backs.   I love this time of night.  This is one of the reasons "I do it'".  James is checking on the garden once again.  I doubt he has to do this but I think he wants to.

Summer sunsets

Summer skies are the best.  Sometimes it's so black out but we can see thousands (maybe millions) of lighting bugs in the field or against the mountains.  It's magical, really.   I've tried taking photos of them but can't capture them on an IPhone.   Lately I've been going out to spend sunset with the animals.

When we visited Key West many years ago I remember going to "sunset".  People gathered on a pier (?) and watched the sun set while street performers and vendors did their things.  Where Adam lives he and friends often gather at a pier on the sound side for "sunset".

We don't have large bodies of water to watch the sun set over but our sunsets can be just as stunning.  These next pictures have been taken over 3 different nights this week.

Hitchhiking on the river

Neither Lex nor Keri will venture far in the river.  They don't like their feet to leave the ground so we can't coax them to swim.  Baxter, on the other hand, swims quite well, though I'm not sure if he's excited about it either.  I really want him to ride my kayak with me so I'm determined to convince him he loves the river.

Yesterday was his first ride.  A few days ago he jumped on my tube with me in it so I thought it would be a no-brainer getting him on the sit-on-top kayak.  Not so.  I kept begging him but he was too interested in other people nearby or exploring the shore.  Finally I drug him aboard and moved away from land quickly so he wouldn't jump off.  I kept him on for about 20 minutes then paddled toward land where he jumped off into deep water and had to swim maybe 10 yards.  I'll be glad when  his life jacket arrives (hopefully Wednesday) so he swims easier and it doesn't look like he's working so hard.  I thought that was good enough for one day.  A little at a time.

What he likes best about the river is rolling in things, chasing ducks, sniffing about, biting leaves in the water and watching/visiting people.   A group of people on tubes floated by and talked to him.  As they were approaching the small rapid just below our property Baxter raced down shore to catch up to them.  This is where I ask you, what happened next?  Take your time.

Yes, he jumped aboard the tube of a woman/girl (I couldn't see her well, just heard her).  I thought she'd throw him ashore but she didn't.  She continued to float down the rapid with him on her lap.  I kept yelling to him to come, and to her to push him off so he could swim to shore.  James paddled to the top of the rapid and finally the woman pushed him off.  I don't know how hard it was for him to swim to the edge but it wasn't too far.  James then coaxed him into his kayak and brought him back.  He said Baxter's heart was beating really fast.  He settled into the ride with James and looked much more relaxed.  I think he was just worn out.

Maybe it's not such a good idea to make him love being on the river.  I need to teach him it's not ok to take rides with strangers.  

Learning about electric fences

In the past we've used solar chargers and polywire to move animals around to different locations within their woven wire fences.  This works great with goats and donkeys because they're very sensitive to a small zap.  The pigs though have been testing it more and more this year so I decided to electrify the top wire above our woven wire fence using a fence charger and a car battery.  This way I can tap into that power and move the polywire anywhere within their fencing with just a few clips.  This was working great.   The battery gave the fence a much stronger charge, as James and I can personally attest.  After a month though, the battery lost power.  I was told it would take a long time for the electric fence to run the battery down.  What I hadn't really noticed was that the johnson grass had grown more than 6 feet tall and was touching the wire for more than a hundred yards and was probably sucking the power from the battery.  So today I began weed eating the fence line while James was using hand trimmers to clean up some more fence line on the other side of the field. We have about 2 miles to do.  Not all of it has grass touching it but we need to keep it low.  I have no idea how much line the weed eater used up today.  It seemed like I was forever untangling grass around the head of it or adding more line.  Johnson grass is tough stuff.

After 10 hours of very hard labor and gallons of sweat, (ok, it was probably less than 2 hours and I did get a little warm and itchy) I quit and asked James to join me and the 3 dogs in the river.  I'll get it done eventually.  I charged the battery back up with a trickle charger but for now I have the solar charger keeping the pigs in.   Willo figured out her fence isn't hot and has been leaving it to graze now and then but Jaz is still too afraid to test it.  Maybe I need 2 batteries to keep switching out to keep the fence charged once I get the grass off it.

Is there anyone out there who wants to give me advice about charging a fence with a battery and charger?

I know a blog about electric fences isn't very interesting so I'm including a video of Baxter and Willy to add a little cuteness to this post.

How to make a mom worry

As most of you know, Adam is a tour guide at Wild Horse Adventure Tours in Corolla, NC (the Outer Banks).  If you're ever there you should take a tour with him.  He's great and knows just what to say to show you a good time.

As great as he is about knowing just what to say to tourists, he's just as great at knowing what to say to his parents to make them worry.  For those of you with young children who think you want them to tell you everything, well, no you don't. Adam has always been a child who liked to share information with us - good and bad.  Here are some recent texts.

"Someone drown today during one of my tours.  They were looking for the body :/"

"Oh no, that's awful.  How old, do you know?" 

"Don't know yet.   Probably find out tonight.  It was way too rough to swim today."

later on.....
"Boy was only 16."

"I got a new surf board"

"That's great"

"I'm so incredibly sore.  I got my ass kicked by some waves yesterday.  Apparently even if there's a red flag surfers can go out but no one else can swim :)  It was so rough.  I could feel the rip currents pulling me out.  Rip currents are what surfers use to make it easier to paddle out to the waves.  My legs are sore, back, shoulders, abs.  It's crazy."

Today I'm reading about Hurricane Arthur that's approaching the Outer Banks.  I'm sure there's a red flag out at the beach in Corolla.

"Are you working?"  You won't go out in the ocean during the storm right?"

"Yea, I'm working.  Won't go out.  Haha"

And if I'm not worrying about him and Melissa I'm worrying about their dog, Maia.

In a phone call...

"Maia followed us out into the ocean 50 yards.  She has so much muscle her body sinks so just her head sticks out.  We've ordered her a life jacket though."

Join me on the deck

James and I are in the Outer Banks visiting Adam and Melissa this week.  We rented a really nice house in Corolla with a pond just off our deck.  The pond is covered in lots of green water plants/algae/lettuces??  Whatever you call it it would make fishing very hard and you probably would have to be very brave to put your feet in it.

It's teeming with wildlife.  There must be thousands of turtles and frogs and all kinds of swimmy things in there.  There are probably lots of snakes too but I haven't seen any yet.  I love watching the life move through this marshy habitat.  Nighttime brings a concert like I've never heard before.  It's much louder and busier than the frogs in our hot tub.  I wish I could get pictures of them.  There are many varieties, or at least they have many different voices - high beeping sounds, chirping and low croaks of bullfrogs.  It usually starts with just one frog, then a few more join in until it sounds like everyone in the pond has joined the chorus.  Slowly a few drop out until it ends in a solo.  It gets quiet again for maybe a minute and then starts all over again.

Also living in there are ducks and nutria.  I'd never heard of nutria until yesterday.  They look like beavers only their tails are more like a rat and they only get up to 25 lbs.  We've seen several of them.  They're a nuisance here because they eat every kind of plant and can eat up to 25% of their body weight a day.  I like watching them though.

Tomorrow I'm going surf fishing.  Get ready for some pictures of big fish, or at least some big fish stories.

How can I be expected to get any work done?

I really try to get stuff done, I do.  Today I went down to the river to do some pruning and clean things up but I took Keri and Baxter with me and I kept wanting to watch them watch the river and play in it instead of work.  It was so distracting.  The noise you hear is the wind.  A storm was brewing.

I don't know if the storm had the piglets wound up or what, but they sure were excited.  As I filled the water buckets I was entertained by these busy, floppy eared, spotted, mud-covered bundles of energy.

They reminded me of puppies as they destroyed this piece of plastic they'd found.

Maybe if I lived somewhere boring, without animals and great views I'd get more done.  Thank God I don't.

This is adorable, right?

It's a little odd but I still think it's adorable.

They do this several times a day.  Perhaps Baxter has always wanted to be a mom, or a dad, or a cat.   Maybe he's always wanted to be a pacifier for a cat.  Or maybe he just likes tummy massages.

It's noisy here tonight

As many of you know I've given up on my spaquaponics garden.  Let's face it, James is the gardener.  I'm the animal person.  The ugly spa is still on our back patio and is full of green rain water which I have to keep emptying.  It's rained the past couple days so it's filling up pretty quickly.

While we have no use for the hot tub, some critters do.  Like I said, I raise animals.

Windsor's growing up and more of Baxter and Willy

I realized I haven't blogged about Windsor since he was born in April.  He's really growing into a nice looking steer.  Tonight he decided I might be ok afterall.  He's been coming closer and closer to me every day and I can tell he's curious about me but he has yet to let me give him a real massage like his mom begs for.  When I milk he lies right outside the barn gate and watches.  As I fill water buckets he stands close to observe.  Tonight when I went out to feed Keri I gave Raisa a rub down.  As I did he came closer and closer until I could touch his nose without him running away.  Eventually he made a nest in the tall grass and laid down.  As I got closer to him to take pictures he didn't jump up and run away like he usually does.  Check out this handsome guy.

 I love the black rings around his eyes and nose.

Raisa has shed out nicely and is very silky and shiny.  I miss the curls on her head though.

I'm pretty sure Willy thinks Baxter is her mom.  She tries to nurse from him a lot and he usually allows her to nudge his belly for a while but if he sees me watching he jumps up like he's embarrassed.  Sometimes while she's doing this Baxter licks her all over like a mother would.  It's so sweet and comical.

The piglets are getting out and about more often but I haven't gotten them on video yet.  I like the way they lie side by side.  Look at those bright pink noses.  I was afraid if I got a closer picture they'd get up and run away.  They're still kind of afraid of me.

They're not afraid of the other pigs though.  It's interesting to see how all the bigger pigs have welcomed them and everyone gets along so well.   Black Olive is an 8 month old Large Black gilt.  Yesterday and today I saw her go into their shed, lie down on her side to expose her nipples  and let the piglets try to nurse off her.  They'll try and try until they discover she has no milk.  Black Olive is happy to get a 5 minute tummy rub from them.  Mickey doesn't care that the piglets are trying to nurse from someone else.  I think she likes the break.

Lots of cuteness at the farm right now.

Strays make good buddies

The second Baxter walks out the back door Willy comes out of her cubby hole on the back steps.  She runs right to him.  I could waste lots of time watching them.

Piglets, finally

This afternoon when I checked on Mickey she looked lethargic and uncomfortable.  I knew it wouldn't be long till piglets arrived.  All the other pigs were very interested in licking her backside.  At this point I wished I had separated her from the rest.  Wendell was a little too interested in her and kept wanting to make more babies with her.  The poor girl just wanted to be left alone.  I think I heard her say something very mean to him but I can't repeat it.  I mean, c'mon, give the poor girl a break, will ya.

I was probably irritating her too by standing close by but she ignored me.  Just as she was beginning to push a storm rolled in.  I ducked into her tiny shed but so did 4 other pigs who wouldn't leave me alone so I had to venture out into the wind, rain and lightning and found shelter in the horse trailer.  Roxie and one of the black hogs waited out the storm in the trailer with me.

When the storm subsided I went back to see how Mickey had progressed.  I missed the first birth.  Luckily I got there in time to video the second, which was a breech birth.

It was a long time till the third arrived.  A young family arrived to ask if I had any pigs for sale.  I invited them to come watch with me.  They also raise goats.  We enjoyed visiting and they were happy to watch with me.

She only had 4 piglets total, which was disappointing, but I'm going to chalk it up to a young boar and gilts' first time.  These 4 little guys (or girls.  I haven't checked yet) are going to be very fat because they're nursing well and she has plenty of milk.

The last one born has almost as much black as he does white.  I'll have to get a picture of him tomorrow.

Mickey seemed wiped out afterwards and was happy to be stroked and babied.  For the last hour she hadn't made a sound but when I petted her she purred.  Good job, Mickey.


I'm sure I'll have better pictures and video to post in the next few days.

Willy or Wilhelmina

We've been adopted.  Three days ago I saw James stooping in the woodshed.  I went out to see what he was doing and caught him giving milk to a very tiny kitten.  We don't know where he/she came from.  We've recently lost all our chickens to a predator or predators.  I'm wondering if maybe the same animal got her family or maybe she was just dumped here.  Whatever, she seems to like us and calls to us constantly.  If we aren't spending time with her she seems happy to have Baxter hang out with her.  He licks her and she rubs against him and follows him.  I've seen him carry her in his mouth which worries me a little but I don't think he's squeezing her and she doesn't seem to mind.  He must remind her of her mom.  The 2 of them have similar coloring.  Baxter has spent lots of time with her over the past 3 days so they've already bonded.  Today was the first time Lex has spent any time with her.  They were both nervous of each other at first but it didn't take long till they decided to be friends.  She's moved from the woodshed, to the garage or under the Toyota, and now to the steps by our back door.  If she hears us walking in the house she cries.  She's cute but we don't want a house cat.

Today James said, "so, should we give her a name?"  I named her Willy.  Tomorrow I'll look more closely at her to see if I can tell if she's a boy or girl.  I had to go online to see how to tell the gender of a very young kitten.  I think I know now.

I thought I was going to be blogging about piglets today.  Yesterday morning I was able to express some milk from Mickey's teats.  I've read that once they have milk they will farrow within 24 hours.  Mickey isn't following the rules.  It's now been 36 hours and she hasn't begun nesting.  Maybe tomorrow morning but I'm not counting on it.  See how round her tummy is.  If you watch long enough you can see hooves and noses pushing on her sides.

 Here are the happy parents-to-be spooning.  I had just given Mickey a tummy rub and Wendell wanted one too so he pushed up against her so I'd do him.  I think Mickey fell asleep.

A century of life

I've always thought my PopPop was special.  I think all us grandkids (25 of us?) did.  When we were young he was a prankster and a story teller.  The stories were not always true, I'm certain of that.  As he got older he stopped teasing us and just became our sweet PopPop who still told stories we loved to listen to.  He and MomMom had 10 kids.  You would think having 10 kids would send them to an early grave but it didn't.  From the tales I've heard my mom, aunts and uncles tell about their childhood it's even harder to believe my grandparents could have made it to middle age.  Today is my incredible grandfather's 100th birthday.  Isn't that amazing?  He said he would live to 100 and he has.

Here he is in younger years.  Look how buff he was.

PopPop was a builder, a real fix-it man.  Even at 100, being nearly blind and deaf, he still has projects he thinks need to be done.  This fall he decided to tear out the windows on his screened porch because he needed new ones.  I doubt it's been more than 2 or 3 years since he's been on a ladder or on a roof he had no business being on.  When his children come to help him out he asks them to get him some grass seed or a hose nozzle or curtains or something.  I'm sure if he could see he'd have more projects going on.  Now he has to settle for mopping the floor and smaller tasks like that.  He loved to fish.  I wish he could still do that.

Yesterday our family gathered to celebrate his birthday.  I hadn't seen many of my cousins, aunts and uncles in years.  It was so much fun and even though PopPop couldn't hear or see much of what was going on he did know it was his birthday party and I think he enjoyed himself.  A fire truck arrived and he went out to see it.  When he touched it he said, "they're a lot bigger now".  PopPop was a volunteer fireman too.  He's the only survivor of the original founders of the Upper Makefield fire company.  He even helped build the original fire house.  Last night he made the news.


Seeing his smile at the end of the video brings tears to my eyes every time even though I've watched it at least a dozen times so far.

My mom told me he played guitar as a young man so I took a guitar to his house and put it in his hands.  He tried picking it a bit but I wonder what that's like when you can't hear.  He seemed to like doing it though.  He said, "I used to play one of these."  One of my aunts said recently he asked her, "do you remember this song?" and then sang all the lyrics to some song that was on the radio many years ago.  She said he knew every word and she had to sit and listen.

I wish MomMom could have been there yesterday too.

I have no idea what PopPop would say his secret to longevity is.  From what I've observed of him I'd say, be happy, keep busy, have lots of projects going on, do things you like, help people, look to the future and surround yourself with family and friends.

I better get off my butt and get busy.  I have lots to do and hopefully I'll have at least 49 more years to keep doing it.

A video to make you go "awwwwww"

How cute is this?

http://mashable.com/2014/05/21/goat-in-wheelchair/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link

Disorganized planting and moving animals

Many of the animals have been relocated again.  The goats and Keri are back to the field, this time sharing space with the cows and donkeys so I don't have to keep moving the milking machine back and forth between the goats and Raisa.  Also, there was a big hole in their fence here at the house and a few found their way out to eat the honeysuckle on the other side.  It's very chaotic at milking time and I haven't figured out a good way to manage things yet.  The goats, donkeys and cows coexist very nicely.  Keri and Raisa are still trying to decide who's boss.  Mostly they ignore each other.  If Keri chases Raisa because she's too close to the goats or me Raisa turns and chases her right back.

The pigs spent most of their winter with a whole 10 acres at their disposal.  Now they're fenced in a smaller area and I plan to rotate them around the 10 acres.  In the meantime we're planting food for them in most of the spots they've dug up.  Today we began by planting in the area they will end up in come Fall.  We planted watermelons, pumpkins and cantaloupe so far.  It's my kind of planting because there's very little prep work.  Wherever we saw dirt we made a mound and put some seeds in.

It's fun planting and not worrying about surrounding grasses.  I have no idea how many mounds we made today.  We didn't even put a dent in the bag of seeds or the field.

We also have corn and greens to plant.  I checked the 10 day forecast and there's not much rain predicted.  I hope we get some showers soon.  There's no easy way to water what we planted so far.

Kevin was also moved.  He never seemed to fit in with the other pigs.  They picked on him so he stayed away.  He liked the goats more but I didn't want him rooting on the side of the fence the donkeys and cows are on.   We couldn't have him digging up what we're planting so he's now living in the old buck pen.  I feel bad that he's alone.  Yesterday Baxter spent some time with him.  They seem to like chasing each other.  Maybe having Kevin on this side of the road will keep Baxter at home.  He really likes visiting pigs.  Moving him was a no brainer.  I opened up the back of the station wagon showed him a bowl of food and in he went, with just a little help from me lifting his back end because he was too short.  He rode nicely and followed the bowl into his new fence.

The mammoth donkeys are closed in a smaller space around their shelter so they can't eat too much and founder.  The ribbon I have around them isn't electrified but they don't seem to know that.  The goats can walk freely under it so the donkeys can still have company.  They like having the goats with them.  The kids stand with their front feet on the donkeys legs to chew on them or check them out.  Willo and Jaz don't seem to mind a bit.

Four little chicks are living in our basement till they're old enough to move outdoors.  Only 4 of 9 eggs in my incubator hatched.  I'm going to put some more in in a few days.  Maybe I'll have better luck.

Farm Days

Today Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground had a Farm Day.  Everything had a farm theme.  The campground is just a mile down the road from us.  It's where Roxie (as a piglet) was kissed for the first time in their pig kissing contest.  Today Cricket and Little Girl got to visit the campground.  I'm not sure if they were kissed or not but they got lots of cuddles and scratches.

 The children loved giving Little Girl a bottle.

Cricket did really well on a leash.  Little Girl never strays far from people so she didn't need a leash.

Neither seemed to mind being away from the herd.

Baxter had a pretty fantastic day too.  He discovered the wallow.

I don't think the pigs knew what to make of him in there.

He's had a bath but he still stinks.

Censoring

Sometimes I say or write things I later think, did I really say/write that?   I hate that I can't un-say something or take back an email or text that has already been sent.  I can go back and delete a blog entry but then I wonder if anyone read it.  James has mentioned to me many times I should write a book about things that happen here on our little farm/homestead.  I've been writing down funny things people say or do who I meet here on our farm.  He suggested the title Uncensored Homesteading.  Uncensored Karen could be embarrassing and dangerous.  Take last night, for instance.

All it takes is a little encouragement from a friend and a little wine and who knows what may pass my lips.  James played keyboard with our community orchestra last night.  It was unusual and awesome because they were playing while the Dance Theater Of Harlem performed.  I don't know anything about ballet but I did enjoy watching these talented dancers.  There was no ignoring the male dancers' bodies on the stage in their very thin tights.  Even a few males (straight males) in the audience commented to me how impressive they were.   James doesn't know I took this picture of him after he was done playing keyboard and got into something more comfortable than his tux.  He looks much like those dancers.  James, I hope this doesn't embarrass you.

After the performance we went back to some friends' house and we were talking about the men in tights.  I began to say something but then stopped because there were 2 couples there who don't know me.  When I cut myself off my friend, Lornie, said, "oh, go ahead, say it".  So of course I did.  "I felt sorry for the xxxxxxxxx guy performing with the xxxxxxx   xxxxxxxx guys in tights".  Sorry for all the xxx's.  James censored this for me.

Maybe I should keep another blog and not tell friends or family about it.  One that only strangers may stumble upon.  In this blog I could write whatever goes through my mind, no censoring, pondering, editing whatsoever.  This way I wouldn't embarrass anyone and I could still humor myself.

I was very proud of James last night.  He played beautifully and, as always, behaved much more beautifully than his wife.  I may delete this blog posting in a few hours after I've had more time to think about it.

Five years, 1,857 pages, 239,319 words later

That's how long I've been blogging.  Actually, May 8th is Holes In My Jean's anniversary but I may not blog that day so I thought I'd mention it now, just in case the date passed me by.

I saved the pages in a Word document, that's how I know how many pages and words I've typed.      As I was saving it I saw so many things I'd written and forgotten about.  Some of it I'm proud of and some of it I wonder what I was drinking when I wrote it.  Just kidding, most of it still sounded like something I'd write today.  I guess we don't change much, do we?  I may not have changed but the farm sure has in 5 years and it's kind of fun reading about the new additions and how I look at things.

I still spend lots of time doing things that accomplish very little.  I moved the chickens back from the big field closer to the house and they're back to pooping all over the goat barn.  I discovered some of them were laying their eggs under the barn so today I spent a good 2 hours removing siding (waste of time) and then a floor board to get the chickens and the eggs one of them was sitting on out from under there.  Next I blocked all their doorways to get under the barn.  At least I hope I did.  Because chickens don't frustrate me enough, I have 9 eggs in the incubator right now.

It seems like there's so much going on right now.  I'm anxiously awaiting Mickey to have her piglets, though I have no idea when she's due.  The goat kids are old enough to go to their new homes. It's been an interesting kid year.  It seems the moms are sharing kids more this year.  In this picture the kid on the right doesn't belong to the mom it's cuddled up with.

Last night when I checked on the goats before bed I saw kids nursing off moms who don't usually allow strange kids to nurse from them.  I guess they're indifferent at this point.  This morning I had a hard time getting milk from one of Tila's teats.  I felt a small stone in it and it was blocking the flow of the milk.  I saw the kids weren't nursing that side either.  Later in the day I took a little dental floss stick and stuck it into the end of her teat and moved it around.  I removed it then squeezed and a large white lump came out and the milk flowed freely.  That was very satisfying.

I've learned that it's important to milk Raisa all the way out if I want to get all her cream.  I'd read that the cream is the last thing you get when milking.  Kind of like the way cream rises to the top of a milk bottle, it must also stay up top in the udder so it's the last to let down.  I saw proof of this yesterday.  I got almost 4 gallons of milk from Raisa and the last gallon was way yellower than the first 3.  The gallon on the left is the first one from Raisa, the middle one is the last, and the 1/2 gallon on the right is goat milk.

Raisa's cream makes very yellow butter.  It also makes very yummy ice cream, which we enjoyed again tonight.

Kevin Bacon still hasn't bonded with the other pigs, though he hangs out closer and closer to them.  I'm pretty sure he, Cooper and Cato (the bucks) are good friends though.  It's kind of cute the way the 3 of them are always together.

Baxter continues to escape the fence when he sees me in the field.  I got a phone call from someone telling me they had him in their car.  They were right out front of our house and he jumped in her car when she opened her door.  She said, "he's the sweetest little guy".  Yes, he is.  He's also a very active little guy.  She returned him to our driveway.  Today as I cut the grass he ran along side me for the longest time.  Then he did sprints around the yard, tumbling now and then, I guess because the grass felt really good on his back.  This was followed up by a dip in the creek.  He's the happiest pooch I've ever met.  I wish he'd stay in our yard though.  I think he and Kevin Bacon have also become good buddies.

The big donkeys are shedding like crazy and Raisa's calf, Windsor, stays an arms length away from me.  I don't know why I make him nervous.

All is well at Elk Cliff Farm and I look forward to 5 more years of blogging.  I wonder what I'll be writing about then.