Blind Hog and Acorn

After a fun filled week on the farm, nothing says "let's take it easy" better than attending a "No Kings" protest in a strongly Republican town. Blind Hog and Acorn were flipped the bird several times, several pro-Trump drivers kept coming back, honking their horns, letting loose with air horns. Not sure if they knew that their behavior was exactly what the other folks were doing while driving to support the protestors! Hot, humid, almost daily rain showers. Garden is really going crazy. A powerwasher uncovered the overgrown brick patio at the Springfield house. Still a bunch of work to be done on that. Strawberry mooooon was lovely!

All 60 nannies and kids were run through the working station- tagged, vaccinated, dewormed, castrated, weighed and feet trimmed. Took 8 hrs and several liters of water, including four breaks. Blind Hog and Acorn almost fell out. Good news is that the job is DONE! The scales however gave crazy readings. Will have to work on that some more... The last goose eggs hatched. One buyer is taking every gosling that hatches and luckily the male/female ratio is only off by one. The buyers will be gifted the extra male. A trip to Crystal Bridges museum was had. A nice day off for the farmers.

Blind Hog and Acorn have been busy- the usual chores plus making a split from the beehive, working on the tractors, putzing about in the garden. Sam got skunked- nothing new there.

Blind Hog and Acorn have been busy farmers- fields are clipped, everything mowed and trimmed. Let the rains begin. Well, as long as the county road does not get washed away... Good news with the single surviving beehive- it is thriving! Acorn will do a thorough box-by-box inspection next week. Maybe even make a split! Has certainly been a beautiful May. Hard to believe Solstice is just around the corner...

Blind Hog is clipping the fields, already "that time" again... Early blast of summer temps at the farm, upper 80's! he has the first three paddocks done, a couple more on the west side then he can do the two in the east. Acorn has been wrangling black snakes from around the geese and chickens... The snakes do love eggs... Garden is coming along nicely- strawberries ripening. Almost time to plant pole beans. Sweet potato slips putting out lots of roots. Those will be planted in tubs this year. Will find out if that is a good idea or not...

Acorn was complaining about lagging internet speeds and dropped cell signal, so she and Blind Hog raided up the cell phone amplifier antenna higher on the roof- moving it to the peak as well as puttin git on a 10' mast. Already speeds have increased from -114 dB to -102 dB and sometimes even faster! it is the little things... Garden doing well, had its first irrigation today. Sam has been enjoying almost daily walkies for 2.5 miles, keeps those toenails trimmed on the dirt road. Goats doing well in the woods, as are the ticks that have gotten on them- they will be dealt with here tomorrow says Acorn. Blind Hog has been keeping the yard mowed and the songbirds fed. Hummingbirds back in full force, orioles still hanging around with the rose breasted grosbeaks. All is swell at the farm!

May get down to the upper 30's at the farm tonight- Acorn holding off to plant the tomatoes after this last cold snap. Snakey-gosling of last week only lived a couple days- figuring it might have been an infection from the snake bite. Her brother is out with mom and dad, doing very well. Health maintenance week, some landlord property work. Lawn needs mowing and the goats are grazing in the woods.

Gosling saved from being a black snake's lunch (much drama ensued); rhubarb pie, asparagus and lettuce feeding the farmers for lunch. The first nice morel of the Spring found- Acorn talked to some mushroom hunters and they also thought it was an off year. Few and far between!

Rain is back and well needed- that last deluge all ran off. Still no morels found but Acorn did see asparagus in the garden today! 5 lil' honkers off to their new home, more eggs in the incubator and some still under an actual goose. Acorn rescued an egg from a black snake, may think about bringing in the other eggs for artificial incubation if the gooses don't settle down on them. House is getting cleaned, screens up in the windows, meals on the porch. Houseplants back outside. Now to get the rest of the garden planted!

Three goslings hatched so far, another has pipped. Two males, one female. They are just so stinkin' cute. Blind Hog sold all his pottery equipment, tools and materials to a newbie from northern Missouri. She and her husband delivered Highland heifers 2 hrs from us, then swung over and we loaded them up. Swedish Death Cleaning continues!!! Weather has been mostly nice, no more rains since the weekend and yes, the county DID come out last Sunday to repair flood damage on bridges, grading the road in a few spots, removing tree log jams from the upstream side of the bridges as well.. Amaze! Acorn sold all unneeded books in the house via Thriftbooks, the ones not sold will be donated to the library. Thriftbooks even pays for shipping. 60 lbs of books mailed out! A very productive week on the farm- Acorn can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as cleaning out the guest house and bunk house once and for all... Hot damn...

Finally got the rain, and as of this writing, Acorn reports 5.38" which is in the 5-7" rain in the forecast. During the first round, Acorn noticed flapping sheet metal on the old goat barn rood- during a "window of opportunity" Blind Hog fetched the Mahindra and Acorn clambered up the roof, screwing down the loose panels. All fixed! Between roof repairs, working in the garden, baking bread and scone Acorn managed to sit down and actually read an entire book. Imagine! Spring cleaning in full swing- master bedroom, closet and dressers got the "black contractor bag" treatment. Goslings set to hatch end of next week- so far, the seven eggs look good!

Talk about a busy week... Gardening... Kidding... Wood splitting... Blind Hog and Acorn have been busy. Goat #494 "Poe" showed up looking like she had kidded, but no kid. It took 2 more days before she showed up with the wee bairn. Yes, Acorn got more than a little teary eyed. All in all, a very good week. Could use some real rain though. Just sayin'...

Weeklong wildfires to the south of the farm- Acorn's throat is none too happy. Smoke haze thick at times, hills looking right blue. Purple martins beginning to hang around- will need to get the gourds up soon. Watercress spring is providing fresh greens for the geese- Acorn spotted minnows for the first time there. Blind Hog aggravated a shoulder as he cut then loaded up dead trees and limbs after the big windstorm. Good thing Acorn baked lots of treats to keep him happy and fuel his recovery. Sam will opt for a nap... Acorn continues to get the garden beds ready for planting.

Fields are now mowed down- ready for the spring growth surge as Blind Hog and Miss Massey have everything brush hogged nice and level. Acorn has been milking and making skyr. Baking the sourdough bread. Goose eggs in the incubator, others will be collected until freezing chances are over, then eggs will go back into the nest. Yay for Spring!

Wellll, Acorn has Blind Hog's sinus crud... Started as viral, is now bacterial. Ugh... No rest for the midwife, and the last big rush of kidding got completed. Just a few stragglers now to go over the next few weeks. Geese are a-laying, which is a great harbinger of Spring. Counting the ganders, there are "six geese a laying..." Rhubarb is sending its knuckles up, starter trays being prepped for seeds. Little pig-nosed kid had to be put down; he was in pain and nothing could be done. Come to find out his defect was most likely caused by a virus during a short window of fetal development. Who knew???

Blind Hog has a cold... Or the flu... Not sure, but it ain't Covid. Had a low temp of 100.2°F today, coughing, drainage, overall malaise... Acorn has a scratchy throat but thinks it is elm pollen... Five nannies kidded, seven more to go. Had a set of triplets along with a pair of twins yesterday- one of the twins having a malformed snout. Most peculiar. Is it a genetic issue, or teratogen issue from the toxin in poison hemlock (which is everywhere around us). Hard to say. If it happens again to a kid from a particular sire, my finger will point to the buck. Nice weather at least. Bee hives had a cursory look-see. Tomatoes finally got processed from the freezer. Yay!

Blind Hog and Acorn survived the record lows as well as the snow. Thankfully the 12-16" threatened were just that- a threat. 4" was plenty. Barns are being prepared for the next round of kidding. Pantry items are being replenished. New shelf in the kitchen is installed. Getting all the little piddly chores done...

Blind Hog helped neighbor set out hay bales at noon while Acorn cleaned house like a whirling Dervish. Getting all kinds of chores done before Tuesday's expected snowfall. Great Weekend Bird Count is on- Acorn spotted 14 species in 15 minutes, with appx numbers for each. LOTS of finches... Super Bowl brought sadness of the farmers... Ahhhh well, guess there is a reason that there are no three-peats... Acorn found solace by doing the taxes and sending them off. Sourdough madness continues. Today was sourdough corn muffins. Went well with the dried lima bean soup.

Another cleaning of the dairy barn, having funs with sourdoughs, getting ready for another Icy Blast of Winter. The fun never ends... Acorn bought a 50 lb bag of hard red winter wheat to grind for flour. Little Red Hen found that it filled 28 qt jars (she had ground up 3 qts prior). Each jar got a sachet of "oxygen absorber" before sealing with lids and rings. Will be interesting to see how long this batch of grain will last. Hay chores need to be done today... Fill the feeders for the goats as well as add some into the goose nesting boxes. They can begin laying soon. Kombucha is now 13 years old. That is one good SCOBY! Goats will eat the extra SCOBY so a win-win for everyone.

Chinese New Year, the Wood Snake. Wheeeee! Dragon has been replaced with Snake, and so the New Year begins. Weather most temperate, Super Bowl teams set. Fodder experiment has mixed results- geese given the first tray and they gobbled it down. Sourdough discard waffles and cheesy crackers made; so far, so good. Even made homemade chocolates for the first time- super easy! Finding the Libby and Hoopla library apps to be most handy. Jr Constable fell ill and died in about 24 hrs- wondering if it was avian flu but will never know. He will be missed.