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Friday, May 27, 2011

The times, they are a....

weird.  We seemed to have gone from winter to mid-summer.  The high right now, at the very moment I am typing, is 92 in the shade.  Being of Welsh, English, and a wee bit French descent, our folks don't take kindly to the combo of high temperatures and high humidity.  I am laid low.  I can only manage about 20 minutes outside before I am driven in to collapse under the fan.  Needless to say, all to-dos are taking forever.  I am disappointed that I won't get as much done as I had hoped, but things ARE getting done.

My card reader is acting up, so no pics can upload at the moment.  The sheep are wading around in the nice, high green spot I have been saving for them - the hay supply is dangerously low and there is no hay to be found.  It has rained so much, no one has been cutting to bale.  Some farmers have just given up and are chopping it for fresh feed.  It does make you re-think your livestock situation.  I was going to keep three lambs, but it looks like I will only be keeping two.  I think I can comfortably manage to feed six sheep and the fat llama.  More would be too tight on supplies of both money and hay.  Had my land been a bit larger, with more accessible pasture, it would be a different story.  But, as they say, it is what it is.

I am planning on putting the garden in this weekend - I've been reading up on companion planting this year and am going to give it a try.  Melanie and I finished the roof structure on the lattice house and I am working on getting it ready for the meat chickens.  I've put two rabbits on craigslist, so I hope I can find homes for them.  Once Little Sister has recovered from her sore hocks (oh, yes, something else to throw into the works - I wouldn't want to have everyone healthy and not needing daily special care....) she will be the next to go.  They are beautiful red Angoras and will make great fiber rabbits.

We had a humdinger of a thunderstorm last night - the frantic clicking of Bernie's toe nails woke me up around 11:15 and then less than 10 minutes later the wind howled, lightning lit up the sky and then the rains came.  It was fast and furious.  I just laid there listening for large crashing sounds.  There were none, so I went back to sleep.  I was lucky - just lots of leaves and small branches down.  Others lost whole trees.

Back to work.  Hope you are all enjoying your long weekend and managing to have some fun!

6 comments:

Michelle said...

We have the same problem going on here; too wet to cut and bale hay, and the weather forecast isn't showing much change. At least it has been colder and wetter than normal all spring, so maybe, just maybe, the hay won't be too mature for anything but cows if it ever does dry out long enough to put up hay. Last year we had the same problem and had to drive a couple hours away to get good hay; this year fuel costs make that too expensive. I'd LIKE to thin down the unused horse herd since four equines eat a LOT, but my husband is incapable of making that decision....

Mama Pea said...

Does it sometimes seem everything is conspiring against you? Now the heat and humidity you have to battle. What next?

Sue said...

I do not miss that heat and humidity. Though now, living up NORTH, I have ENDLESS winter. It's always something!
:)

Susan said...

Michelle - I don't envy you having to feed horses! I have a great hay supplier and have reserved most of his hay. Now he just needs to cut it.

Mama Pea - And you with winter in summer - it is a 'different' spring, isn't it? But it would be so boring if there wasn't a challenge around every bend in the road.

Sue - It's a trade off, for sure, but the heat and humidity seems to be following me north.

Erin said...

Same here, mid 90's, humid, yuck! I'll take cold any day over such heat and humidity, I wasn't bred for this, LOL!

judy said...

I to half a we bit of french and I am not in favor of all the heat.It is a battle in our house because some like it hot!