The only good thistle is a dead thistle This week started out with a big rain. The pastures and garden are loving it! Then the sun came out, and everything seems to be growing before our very eyes, including the weeds, unfortunately. I spent several hours a day attacking them with my trusty shovel. On the good side, the mock orange has burst into bloom. It's lovely at the end of the day to sit on the deck as the sun goes behind the hill and breathe in the sweet scent.
A side benefit of the rain is that it really cleans off the sheep! Here is a photo of Vinnie after her shower showing off her white fleece. The dogs didn't like it much, but they are in a pasture that has good tree cover in one corner, and they found a spot to stay relatively dry. They are still getting used to their short hair, but are pretty much back to their old routine now.
Spoiled Chickens Our chickens may be the most spoiled ever. A couple of weeks ago I made cream puffs, and a few of them were a little burned on the bottom, so I let the chickens have them. Every crumb was gone within two minutes of the moment they landed on the ground! In other bird news, we have an interesting situation with our hummingbirds. I don't normally use the words "mean" and "hummingbird" in the same sentence, but we seem to have one. We used to have 8-10 hummers at the feeder all day long until a mean one showed up and started chasing all the others away. This lasted for about 3 days, then suddenly the mean one was gone and all the rest came back to their feeder. I guess they got organized.
New fence! Bill and I really made some progress this weekend. We finished the section of new fence that goes to the base of the hill. The last little section was so steep that we just used some of the boards from our old deck rather than try to stretch fencing at such an angle. While we were up there, we heard a humming noise that was getting louder and louder. We looked at each other and both recognized it immediately as a swarm of bees. It passed over our heads and moved up the hill and out of sight. Amazing how loud it was- sounded like a fleet of old prop planes that you hear in the WW II movies. Bill was worried that it was one of our hives, but when he checked them shortly afterwards, they were all full and the bees looked calm. We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the future garden and greenhouse space and rebuilding a couple of rockeries that were disturbed during the deck construction last year. Sunday was fairly relaxed- Bill cut up some old aspen trees that had fallen in the pasture, and I went to Omak to attend a Fiber Association meeting.
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