Calf presented for viewing

A calf was born last Monday, the 20th. For the next few days, Brad would see it when he takes the dogs for a walk in the evenings. The mama would have the baby in tall grass under some trees near the dam, sometimes sleeping. Well, yesterday for the first time since the birth all 7 adult cows were in the pasture out front during the day and also when Brad delivered the sweet feed. Guess the mother left the baby in its little protected area. But tonight the mama came AND the baby came too. It is smaller than some calves and really cute. Here are a few photos.

Brad took some close-up shots down by the fence. I tried to take some from the porch but that didn't work very well. However, I was standing near a hummingbird feeder and the birds ignored me. Look to the right of the feeder in both of these photos.

A pair of them was buzzing me constantly while I stood there. Wish I could have captured a shot with both of them!

Railing

I normally pick vegetables from the garden in the morning when it is cool. But this morning, being a Sunday, we went to church, and also it rained almost all night last night so I figured it would be pretty wet and muddy. Instead I went this afternoon and spent nearly an hour picking 3 rows of romas.

When I returned a surprise awaited me ---- see the photos!

Now we are trying to decide whether to paint the log, or to leave it in its natural state. It is covered by the overhang so it won't get rained on. What do you think??
We hope this will be useful to older folks, and especially to Mama.

Supper at the Pond

One night this past week we invited Mama (also known as Nannie) to supper at the pond. We went down a day early to spray for bugs, and to scrub the dock to get rid of bird poop from the phoebe nests. (The babies have all departed.)  I had a good time getting ready, digging out the pretty tablecloth that is just the right size for a card table --- it used to reside in the bottom of the ceramic water crock on the fish-cleaning/drink-fixing porch. I was able to pick a few flowers from the sun garden that Brad planted in the front yard earlier this year. And we had things from the garden: okra as an appetizer, snap salad with garden snaps and cucs, and a squash casserole. The meat was lamb cooked on the grill. Dessert was sliced peaches and strawberries. It was such a nice evening! The pictures are in reverse order --- it was later when Brad was in the photo, so we are nearly through the main course, and the sun has gone down.

August is 2/3 gone

I'm appalled that it has basically been a month since I last published. The reason is that my camera is broken and I am not able to include clear, crisp photos. I enjoy documenting happenings with pictures. Now I am thinking of buying a fancy smartphone that will take great pictures, to replace my camera.

Last night Brad was in the yard calling the cows to come for some sweet feed. He noticed one of the cows on the edge of the woods halfway between the house and the old pool. She was ingesting the afterbirth and had just delivered a calf, which was standing nearby. So this is our first baby of the season. Today the mom and baby have been resting in the pasture down near the creek. We hope she'll bring the baby up this way soon.

Here is a picture I took of bounty from the garden a couple of weeks ago.  Nice colors! Funny but the crops that have done well this year are kale, squash, zucchini, and okra, not all of which are pictured here. I've given away lots of these items. I have hoarded the small amounts of butterbeans, romas, and snaps that we have picked. The drought had a big effect on the garden.

Renovation list item

One thing that was not included in the renovation last year was a screen door for the kitchen entrance. We really wanted to have a screen door so we can get good air flow through the house with various doors open. A couple of weeks ago we bought a nice door at Taylor Bros. and Brad trimmed it to size and painted it. We chose the same style as is used in the rest of the house ---- no use changing a good thing! We can all remember as children being coached repeatedly not to slam the screen doors ---- or in more recent years doing that coaching ourselves! The "new" door seems quite familiar, and it seems very inviting if you are coming from the honeymoon cabin to have the storm door open and just come through the screen door. Check another item off the list ---- very few left in terms of the original scope of our changes.

Harvest has begun

Brad planted the garden late this year, due to issues with getting the garden plowed/tilled. So our crops have just recently begun to ripen, roughly 3 weeks later than normal. Today I got my first big haul, and it was of black-eyed peas. I spent two hours (early morning) picking these, and weeding ------ weeding beets & tomatoes as well as the peas.

I've picked smaller amounts of several items: okra came in first. In fact, the okra got ahead of me so that the first ones I picked were huge, too big to eat (in my opinion) so I just made them into a flower arrangement. We've had a few yellow squash and zucchini, 2 cucumbers, a scant picking of roma beans, and lots of kale. Tomatoes are coming along very slowly --- they seem to be most affected by the drought. We have three lush rows of butterbeans; they sould be ready in a few more days. Sadly, the crows got all the corn seeds so none of it even sprouted --- even with two plantings! and running string about 4-6 inches above ground over top of where the corn was planted. It did no good!
Later today I will process and freeze some of today's bounty. This will be the first day of freezing this year.

Derecho

We learned a new word after the tremendous wind storm experienced in our area last Friday night, June 29. That word is derecho. The devastation to trees in Lynchburg, and to power lines and poles which carry the lines, is just amazing. Not to mention the fact that so many people lost power. About half the homes in Lynchburg are still without power. We got ours back here at Hanshill on Monday around lunchtime. The period of three days doesn't seem so bad in retrospect. Our yard was littered with limbs, branches and sticks. But fortunately, we didn't lose any trees in the yard, and there was no damage to the house, or the cars! We did lose one large red oak tree in the woods not too far from the house. It did not fall all the way to the ground because it got hung up as it fell on a nearby tree. Brad managed to get it safely to the ground using his chain saw. Now, he has a huge project that will provide a winter's supply of firewood, for the 2013-2014 winter --- it will need a year to season. The wood smells so good! It would make beautiful oak flooring, I am sure. My pictures are blurry so I only included a couple. We badly need rain --- the storm was all wind and no rain. It's been over two weeks since our last rain.