Pumpkin Chunkin

It's that time again to feed all left over pumpkins to the sheep.

Bring the pumpkins to the back field. Simon inspects the produce. This one has a nice handle to help drag it around.

Throw the pumpkin to the ground and split it open.

Yum not bad. If Simon can eat them fast enough the sheep won't get any!

I wonder if the seeds are helpful in worming dogs?

Opps, Simon hears the neighbors ATV, must run like the wind to see if there is any danger. Everything is cool so run like the wind back to get more pumpkin guts. (The poor sheep are still getting use to this "Cheetah dog". He runs everywhere at full speed. On lead he is soft and quiet while we walk threw the sheep headed for the field then away he goes full speed ahead.)

Hey, all the pumpkins are in with the sheep.

Now what do I do?

Stick your nose threw the fence grab the stem and pull hard.

Gee's the pumpkin is stuck on the other side of this wire...

and it won't come with me.

Poor Simon will have to settle for a big chunk of beef heart for dinner!

We weighed Simon on November 6, 2010 a little over six months old and he weighs in at 85 pounds.

Say "Good Night Gracie"

Here is the last picture of the vegetable garden two weeks ago. The wind is blowing about 50 miles an hour. Dust everywhere.
This same night there was a killing frost. Zucchini and pumpkins last stand.

There are mountains behind this tree.
What a mess! Our old white birch tree, the one that died last year, blew over.


The spruce tree in front, our Dr Seuss tree, because of it's odd shape, is bending way to the left.
So ends summer, "Good Night Gracie".

Catching Up

I just can't believe my world is moving way to fast! The last few weeks have been taken up with cleaning the barn, the house and harvesting the garden. Plus we've had a few wild encounters! Late the night before Labor Day Bob went out on the porch to find one of the cats. Jake our LGD was out on the porch also and when Bob went to give him a pat on the head they both noticed a large black and white presence just in front of them and on the ground, a skunk. Jake knew exactly what to do, jump straight in the air over the skunk and off the porch. This left Bob face to face with the not so little guy who had his tail over his body and aiming right at him. Seems Bob was far enough away so he didn't get hit but the front porch did. What a smell!! It will wake you right out of a dead sleep, I know. We had to close all the windows and turn some fans on so our room could air out.
Here is a picture of Jake with the love of his life JoBeth the "verminator" Jack Russell. Jake is an Akitanees. His mother was Camie our Great Pyrenees we just lost this spring at 12 years old and the Akita who lived up the street.

The apples on our little semi dwarf apple tree are showing color almost ready to harvest. The corn is almost all in the freezer and this one pumpkin is all colored in orange and ready for Halloween. The other pumpkins are still green.
And speaking of color in between cleaning and harvesting and skunks I have been dyeing wool to resale for my "Feed The Flock Fund" . This is three pounds of Blue Face Leicester.
Here a few pounds of Corriedale X roving. Bottom roving is one of my attempts to make brown. This picture looks good but in the sun light it looks much more purple.
These last two braids of roving are merino, 19.5 microns, it is so yummy and soft. Even the way it takes up color is extra soft. The roving at the top of the picture is the BFL and the roving just below it is the merino, dyed with the same colors and the same amount of dye was used on both braids. Each braids weight is eight ounces. One difference is that the merino was dyed in a dye bath the BFL was painted.

Summer Garden

The vegetable garden is in full swing now. The sweet corn is starting to tassel! I also have some Indian Corn at the other end of the garden that is as tall as me. It will get much taller than this early sweet corn.

We have been eating zucchini for a few weeks now. I even had enough to share with my Mom.

And the pumpkins, for Halloween and pies, are flowering and hopefully they are pollinating. We have had a bee hive here for about four years. Last summer was so dry the poor girls didn't make enough honey and the entire hive of bees died last winter.
Todd our "Bee Man" never came by this spring to clean the hive and bring a new bunch of bees to start the hive up again. This turned out to be a good thing! A swarm of wild honey bees found the hive cleaned out the dead bees from last year and started their new home here! Todd checked the hive last month and found a young queen bizzy laying eggs in her new home. He has a neat new sugar water feeder to put in the hives this fall to make sure our new group of honey bees have food to make it threw the winter if honey production is lean this summer.

Nature is such a miracle!