It's more like, What Have we Been doing? Well, I'll tell you.
- I drove 2-1/2 hrs. north to Johnson City with my quilt friends to check out quilt shops for the day.
- Joel and I drove over an hour away to pick up hay to prepare for winter, and then unloaded it all in the barn.
- Joel drove well over an hour to pick up a new farm implement to create pastures.
- We took the Pyrenees puppies to the vet.....every three weeks for shots(three times).
- Joel had several dentist appts. to replace a crown.
- We drove to Knoxville for a day so I could compare different sewing machines to replace my old one.
- Then, another day, I drove to Chattanooga to buy a new sewing machine at a dealer there.
- We spent 2 days loading up our alpacas to deliver them.....yes, we sold all of our alpacas!
- I drove several friends to Loudon quilt guild (an hour and a half away).
- Next day, Joel and I drove to Land Between the Lakes in KY to pick up a steer and another mini-Jersey calf. (9 hours on the road that day!)
- Went north to a friend's house to spend the afternoon making items for the quilt guild Christmas party.
- Collapsed for a few days to recover from all the driving.
Um, yeah, that's what we've been up to. I have no idea how many thousands of miles I put on the car this last 5 weeks, but it's a lot....especially if you add the impromptu trip to Florida onto the total miles driven. In between all of the above, we still had our normal appts. and daily routines to fit into the mix. And, of course, there are the animals that need to be taken care of as well.
Oh, yes, and we also worked on some more fencing. See me on the tractor below? We had many more holes to dig to put in the posts to try and finish up the entrance to the farm. And this summer we are on track for it to be the third hottest summer on record! Yuk! Have I told you before how much I hate the heat? Any temps above 75 degrees are just too danged hot for me.
But we persevered....and brought home more posts to put in the ground.
Those things are monsters to handle!
Pole vaulting anyone?
This required a lot of grunting and groaning. From Joel, too! hahaha
And into the hole you go! Now, we plumb the post and tamp in the dirt around it. Wash, rinse, repeat.
A couple of days later this is what we ended up with! Not too bad, eh?
Now we have fencing on both sides at the end of our lane by the road. A few days later we cut off all the posts to the same height and I started applying stain to the whole shebang. Yup, that's fence talk. Shebang. Gizmo. Lollapalooza. Anyway, this project is almost done. We have ordered 2 black powder coated gates to install at the end of the fencing that will secure our property a bit and help to keep the dogs on our land. Hopefully. Well, maybe. We'll see.
Yes, it's these little cuties we hope to coral. You should see how big they are getting. Each time we take them to the vet for their shots they have doubled in weight. Yup, they're going to be over 100 lbs. by the time they are all grown up.
And speaking of cuties, here's a last look at the alpacas in with Miss Buttercup. Next post I'll try and show you pics of the two latest bovine additions to the farm. Um, yeah, Houston, we have a problem.
You see, when we picked up the hay I was taking pics as usual. I stupidly placed my camera on the left trailer fender you see here and proceeded to help Joel unload the hay. As one of the bales was falling to the deck of the trailer I heard a sickening crunch. Yes, you guessed it. My precious Nikon fell off the slippery fender onto the gravel below and split apart. Horrors! It still makes me upset just to think about it. So, now, I have no camera to document our comings and goings. And finding a camera repair shop has been a bit difficult.
In the meantime, I'll try and make up for it with pics from my cell phone. So, you see, we've been just a wee bit crazy busy. Oh, yeah, and I've been squeezing in canning and dehydrating in between all this all over "stuff". Whew! I think I'll be glad when it's nice and chilly outside and all I have to do is think about what to make for dinner.
So, what have you been doing lately?
Deb
