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<\/a><\/p>\nBut nothing came to me.\u00a0 None of the animals were injured or dying.\u00a0 I mean, some were earlier in the week but that resolved itself.\u00a0 With death.\u00a0 Which is irritating and only leaves me with 3 turkey poults but it is less annoying than having to care for a turkey poult in the house for the next 6 weeks. \u00a0 None of the animals required any medical treatment.\u00a0 I mean, some of them did last week but we finished draining and medicating an abscess on Vixen on Sunday.\u00a0 We were running low on hay but not out yet.\u00a0 The garden had been watered, sprayed with Neem oil, and sprinkled with DE on Monday which took care of irrigation and insect control until the end of the week.\u00a0 I had also poured out several gallons of milk on the tomatoes so calcium needs were covered.\u00a0 The day before I made enough chicken pasta salad to last for several meals and the egg drawer (and the counter) was overflowing with simple, easy protein goodness for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.<\/p>\n
I finished my chocolate and meandered out to the barn to do the morning milking.\u00a0 I decided there was nothing to do except enjoy a leisurely day on the farm.\u00a0 A break for me before the kids finished school.\u00a0 A time to relax and recharge.\u00a0 A lull in the busyness of house and farm and job.<\/p>\n Since my goats were used to milking at 6:30am I gave them a little extra grain.\u00a0 It’s hard for them to complain when their mouths are full.\u00a0 And while they were happily munching away after milking, I gave everyone a hoof trim and a sprinkle of DE.<\/p>\n While I was getting the DE, I figured I might as well refill the mineral and baking soda feeders.<\/p>\n I tossed the leftover DE into the chicken coop for them to dust bathe.\u00a0 And I noticed several of the roosts had been knocked down so I adjusted them and tied everything down.<\/p>\n Which reminded me that the chicks in the back pen were just about roost-sized.\u00a0 So I added some roosts to their chick shack.<\/p>\n Since there were a bunch of extra roosting poles, I gathered them up for the garden.\u00a0 And on my way out of the barn yard I filled the wheelbarrow with some dirty bedding.\u00a0 Because I had a use for that in the garden, too.\u00a0 I stopped at the greenhouse to get my gardening gloves and realized it was still a mess from spring transplants.\u00a0 So I emptied all the shelves….<\/p>\n ….and neatly stacked up the pots for next year.<\/p>\n Of course, while in the greenhouse, I discovered the permanent garden labels I had made to properly identify my plant varieties and put in the greenhouse to dry.\u00a0 Full of hope that the temporary popsicle stick markers in the garden were still legible I carried them with me.<\/p>\n Finally in the garden, I drove in the extra roosts as stakes for the fall tomatoes.\u00a0 By “fall tomatoes” I mean the tiny transplants I took out of the greenhouse and put in the garden at the end of May.\u00a0 This was my first attempt at staggering my tomato crop and these tomatoes should still be going strong when the ones planted earlier are dried up and shriveled.\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 Who knows??<\/p>\n Then it was time to plant the $1 summer bulbs I bought from the discount rack at Lowe’s.<\/p>\n By “planting”\u00a0 I mean I put them on the ground and then covered them with the dirty bedding from the barnyard.\u00a0 I think we can all agree that once it is officially June it is officially too hot to dig holes for bulbs that were only $1 a bag.<\/p>\n Next I stuck my homemade plant labels in the ground and while marking the melons, I decided to use the rest of the barn yard bedding to mulch the melons and cantaloupes.\u00a0 They’re heavy feeders so that served to fertilize as well as block weeds around their bases.<\/p>\n If I was going to be mulching things, I figured I’d go ahead and add another layer of straw to the potatoes.<\/p>\n I saw that the cucumbers across from the potatoes needed to be wrapped onto the trellis.<\/p>\n And then it only made sense to wrap the vining squash onto their trellis….<\/p>\n ….and wrap the peas onto the garden fence.<\/p>\n With all of the vegetables safely off the ground, it would have been crazy not to mow the grass inbetween the rows and around the raised beds.\u00a0 So I gave the garden a quick trim.<\/p>\n By then it was too hot to do much more relaxing outside.\u00a0 Instead, I got showered and dressed in normal clothes (i.e., no rips, holes, or mysterious-yet-undoubtedly-disgusting stains) and headed into town.\u00a0 I returned my friend’s sheep shears, bought a few end-of-the-school-year gift certificates, met a friend for coffee, picked up some algae inhibitor for the small pond, bought the ingredients for a special dessert, and stopped to check out books from the library.<\/p>\n I cruised home along the back roads and still had time to vacuum the pond and apply the algae treatment….<\/p>\n ….put fly spray on the fat and sassy pony….<\/p>\n ….and refill the hummingbird feeder.<\/p>\n I made the special dessert and when I put it in the freezer I realized that an empty freezer shelf meant we had finally finished eating last year’s pig.\u00a0 So I went out to the farm freezer and carried in more pork.\u00a0 Time for a taste of Penny and Pushy!<\/p>\n The kids arrived home off the school bus and Little helped do the evening feeding, watering, and egg gathering and, as a reward, got the first sample of the oreo truffles I made as the special dessert.\u00a0 Turns out the helpful bird, not the early one, gets the worm.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n