Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Mike CHS]

I like the markings on the one staring at the camera so flashy!!

She is one of the bottle lambs and seems to know when either of us are around even though I took that picture from inside the house.

 

[Mike CHS]

I decided awhile back to put up a perimeter fence on our property line that joins with the CSX railroad tunnel and is from 30-50 feet from the existing perimeter fence by a bit over 900 feet long. I have been keeping it cleared of undergrowth by spraying but in order to put up fence on the line I need to bring down a bunch of trees which I started on this morning.They don't have a lot of size but most are probably in the 5-8 inch diameter and in most cases aren't tall enough to to hurt the fence that is already up. This will give me an area big enough to add to the pasture rotation and can be entered from any of the 4 paddocks that are in use now since they all have gates already.

 

[Bruce]

Improvements keep coming!

 

[Mike CHS]

We processed a bunch of tomatoes today for the freezer but we will can a bunch in the morning. Just off of the smaller bed Teresa picked an almost full 5 gallon bucket and there are that many left on that bed. We have enough squash coming on that we will make some relish with a bunch of them. The Crimson Sweet watermelons are getting ready and we picked our first one today. It looks like there is another dozen or more but the vines are so thick I can't really tell for sure. We aren't able to pull many weeds out of several of the beds because the chicken wire we put around them makes it difficult to get in and the vine plants are starting to pull it down anyway but the fences served their purpose in keeping the chickens out of the beds.

 

[Mike CHS]

From the spots that are starting to itch, I'm guessing I got into some Poison Ivy today but I didn't see it. There was enough vines through the tops of the trees that I cut, that when the chain saw broke through the trunks, the trees were still standing.

I took some random pictures around the house this afternoon. The first is my okra that I planted a few weeks ago and to the right is a bed of Yellow Squash. The next picture is actually two beds but you can't tell it in the picture. The front is a variety of squash in front and cucumbers behind it.

The next is about half of the main herd with Fred, Barney and Max on the top of the hill.

The wild mass of vines is the melons and the last is my bed of peppers, with Tabasco Peppers on the left and Bell Peppers on the right.

 

[Mike CHS]

I need to work on setting our camera for low light conditions. There was a magnificent layer of clouds here tonight that I didn't do justice to. I still think it is worth posting.

 

[Baymule]

I break out bad from poison oak or Virginia creeper, whatever it is, it hates me. Wash with a weak bleach solution. It will dry it right up. If you know that you got into the poison oak, wash with the bleach solution, let it air dry and you probably won't even break out. With my chemical issues, bleach does a number on me, but I'd rather have a chemical reaction than be clawing at poison oak blisters.

Your gardens are prolific and looking good! Your pastures are gorgeous, as always. Getting that strip along the fence line fenced will help on pasture rotations.

 

[Baymule]

I need to work on setting our camera for low light conditions. There was a magnificent layer of clouds here tonight that I didn't do justice to. I still think it is worth posting.

View attachment 64376

Beautiful! Sometimes you just have to stop and just stand and admire the beauty around you.

 

[Mike CHS]

Beautiful! Sometimes you just have to stop and just stand and admire the beauty around you.

I do that several times daily my good friend.

 

[farmerjan]

Very nice picture of the sky. Your garden beds look really good too. Just got home from a friends', who gave me a bunch of peaches that I will have to cut up and freeze quickly. That will be the fastest way to get them done right now. I have to get in a few of my cows in the morning to be moved to a small pasture and I have to leave before noon to go test a 200 cow herd that starts milking between 1:30 and 2 . Actually want to leave by 11 and return a couple things to Walmart on the way. So I may just bring the peaches in and cut them up tonight. She leaves the skins on and freezes in bags with a little sugar and then serves just as fresh peaches right out of the freezer. I have room in the "chicken freezer" so that will be easy. It was MUGGY and STICKY today, hit barely 90 but I was sweating up a storm. Got to haul water to the meat birds in the morning and fill the waterer here for the few chickens left.
Oh, I meant to tell you @Bruce that the hen that disappeared with the eggs .... I said chicken wire was torn off.... but it was 1x1 sq. mesh like welded wire. (hardware cloth) I always use that on all my runs and usually refer to it as chicken wire since it is on the chicken pens. But I forgot that "chicken wire" isn't what I usually use. Doesn't matter, she is gone. But I had been locking them in the coop at night then it was just so hot and this is an older bought A-frame type coop; Like a portable chicken tractor, with no windows and not much for ventilation so hadn't been locking them in at night because it was so hot. I had redone the wire on the "run part" a couple of years ago when the original chicken wire got bad. Been fixed since then and nothing else has happened and nothing in the trap. I also had gotten several possums, and skunks and then nothing for weeks, so thought the predators were cleaned out somewhat. Hadn't had a coon in months. Oh well, done and over.