Animals

The Weekend in Reverse....A Mystery First

Quiet weekends at home on the farm are delightful.

And a quiet weekend with comfortable temperatures is even better!

I had an opportunity to take some fun photos this weekend

and I had thought that was all I would have to share with you.

Until Sunday morning...

and the BIG mystery.

I got up really early on Sunday and headed out to do morning chores at daybreak.

I was out cleaning the dry lots when I heard Becky's gator pull up at our barn.

She came out to where I was working, asking,

"Did you put the Nigerian dwarf goats in with the fainting goats last night?"

"What?" I was dumbfounded. "No. Really? How did they get in there?"

I hopped in the gator and followed her back up to the goat yards.

The Nigerian yard was empty except for one guinea and a couple of hens.

As far as I could tell, the outside gates were closed, locked.

Sure enough, the Nigerian goats were in the pasture with the fainting goats.

Weird.

Weirder than weird!

Was somebody playing a practical joke on us?

Was somebody messing with our animals?

All sorts of things ran through my head...

none of which made any sense or gave me any peace.

I had this weird feeling of somehow being violated.

Not. My. Animals!

Becky and I, along with the dogs and turkeys herded the Nigerians back to their own yard

and locked them up safe and sound.

All was back to normal.

But, the rest of the morning I had an uneasy feeling....

To Be Continued.....

As for the rest of the weekend...

here is some of what I found in front of my camera...

This big fellow was hanging out around the horses' watering troughs.

He made for a rather cooperative subject...

And then I happened to notice that he was carrying a hitchhiker.

"Hey, does anyone know where I put my lunch?"

I am guessing that toads don't eat millipedes...because this little critter crawled all over

Mr. Toad's head.

I would have thought Mr. Toad would have swallowed him down in no time.

Towards the end of summer, the morning glories start to cover most of the garden fence...

and the garden becomes my "secret garden"... hidden behind a wall of flowering vines.

If only it was like this all year long!

A quiet weekend afforded me enough time to finally finish this piece of knitting...

It will be a Christmas present for a friend.

I have been trying to pick patterns that force me to learn something new each time.

And this pattern did just that.

This pattern is available on Ravelry, and it is called Cedar Leaf Shawl.

I also had enough time to begin my next project,

as well as turn about 20 lbs of tomatoes into spaghetti sauce

and Roasted Tomato Basil soup...

This is a great recipe!

(It calls for oven roasting your tomatoes and then adding one can of tomatoes to that.

I did not add the canned tomatoes, however...

but used diced fresh ones in their place.)

- Morning To Evening....everything In Between Is Hot!
Farm work begins before the sun rises above the horizon.Right now, it's the coolest time of the day.Cool and foggy. We're in the midst of a heat wave...but one in which the nights are cool....so a layer of fog settles over the morning landscape....

- Mystery Solved... And More
Oh, it was so mean of me to make you wait for the conclusion of yesterday's mystery. And, sadly (actually, happily) the answer to the mystery turned out to be an easy one. I am happy to report that there was absolutely no fowl play. Apparently, Hubbs...

- Evening
We've been gifted with a few absolutely perfect days in a row.After weeks and weeks of intense heat and humidity,we are currently enjoying sunny days in the 70's with nights in the 50's to 60's.Perfect weather.Perfect! Finally I can spend...

-
"One misty, moisty morning, when cloudy was the weather....." I was reminded of this nursery rhyme this morning when I went out to do the chores. A thick blanket of fog had settled over the farm since last night's torrential rain storm. Fog like this...

- More Goat Antics
Good news....our goats are getting fat....even O'Malley who isn't pregnant. I spent some time sitting and watching our gals on Sunday morning in hopes of capturing a Dwarf Nigerian run on tape. The difference between Dwarf Nigerians and our Fainting...

Animals