Spinach

The spinach has been trying to go to seed, I decided today to go ahead and harvest all we had and freeze some for later. I am sad to see it go we really love having fresh spinach and I sneak it into everything I can. With the hot humid weather we will have to do with other greens until fall.

escape artists

We have had sheep here on the farm for five years without any real problems. The ewes are content to stay in the pasture and graze with treats now and again. They are usually wonderful at keeping the new lambs from wondering off. This year however the lambs have been a huge headache. They really do not want to stay in the pasture with their mothers. They have found treats in the orchard and recently the garden and now have no fears of the electric fence. I have put them back in the pasture as many as 6 times in one day! It was just too much when they discovered the garden, they topped about half of the peppers, ate about 30 cauliflower plants, trimmed the lettuce and cabbages. It didn't bother me too much when they were just eating the grass but when thy started having a salad as well we had to figure something out. We made a weaning pen up by the garden,and moved all the ram lambs there. We had a few days of crying for mama but now they seem to be content. I have been giving them black oil sunflower seeds to win them over with great success. We do not have a butcher date yet so for now I have an audience during my weeding sessions in the garden.

Missouri Storms

We spent some time in the new basement yesterday, the tornado sirens were going off and the clouds above the farm were churning. It was very scary to say the least. We have a lovely root cellar but it has lots of spiders and creepies that love it as well,so we opted for the basement. Our basement is in the not quite finished addition so we have to go outside and then down a ladder to get there. It was a pain with the kiddos, I will be thrilled when the addition is finished and we can just go down stairs in the house.
The sirens in town went off so the older girls that were in school were ushered down to the basement of the school, they kept them there for about a hour. It is such a worry to have things like this happen and everyone spread all over. #1 was at work, Hunky Hubby was at work also, #3 at school in town and the rest of the family here at the farm. Hubby was in the shelter at work, sirens and tornadoes all over the metro area. I just prayed we would all be safe, I would of felt so much better if we were all together, we survived but all these storms are getting scary.

Is it time to build an Ark?

We have had a wet year so far. We have averaged over one inch of rain a week for the past 7 weeks!! I love that I don't have to water and the thought of all that lovely lush green grass is awesome, but the tons of mud in the house is having me wish for dryer weather.
We have been blessed with safety during the storms, with funnel clouds popping up not 10 miles away. I have family in southern Missouri and it is heart stopping to see the damage from the recent storms.

New cow........well sort of

This is Darla. She is a Normandy cow. We bought her to add some "beefyness" to our milk cows. She is a small cow and has been milking wonderfully. She came from a local farmer who had never worked with her what so ever. She had never been in a barn, never been touched, never been around a woman ..... you get the idea. She wasn't to thrilled with the idea of milking and I have the bruises to prove it. She is a kicker. I spent many hours working with her and talking to her and finally I got her to come into the stanchion and milked without kicking. YIPPEE!!!
When we bought her the farmer said he would pay for a vet visit just to make sure all was well. We made an apt. with our local large animal vet and loaded Darla in the stock trailer. We get to the vet and first thing he checks her ear for her tattoo from when she was calf vaccinated, this would tell us about how old she was. Well he found it and checked the records only to find that she was vaccinated WAY back in 98!!! UGHHH that means that she is 13 or 14 years old!! Yikes that is pretty old for a cow. I paid a pretty penny for her, top price in fact, and she is really too old for us. The farmer we got her from was with us and he ended up taking her back to his place. I was irritated, he had told me that he thought that she was about 5 or 6, big difference from 13-14. He was a chap and gave me back my money but that doesn't help us with the cow issue.

May Garden