A Busy Day while the Hangers On Lounge and Scratch

Even if they are not done with us yet the rains are slacking off. We have had several days now where the prediction of scattered thunderstorms has actually really been scattered and went around us or we only caught the edge. Only a couple of really sunny days but we are drying out bit by bit.

Of course as far as the garden and other crops are concerned the year is over with and almost a complete bust. The rain and the brain surgery with hospital stay and recovery time has pretty much put us way too far behind in the weeding and caring for department. We got some Zucchini, early Peaches, Butternut and Acorn Squash along with some Potatoes but at this point I am just letting the garden and raised beds go until weed growth begins to slack off and they dry up. I am honestly thinking about moving the temporary fence around the over grown garden and just letting the sheep have it. The only thing stopping me are the Sunflowers blooming that the bees really like and my bean trellis which is still going. I need the beans for next year's seed stock. Once they are harvested the sheep can have the garden.

The raised beds are going to require some serious work to reclaim them from the weeds but I will work on that over the Winter. I needed to scrape out the walk paths and put down some new barrier webbing anyway.

The Pumpkin patch is a complete bust. My plan there is to mow it with the sickle mower, rake it up and feed it to the sheep then till the ground and plant some late Buckwheat. Hey it might work. 

Top priority now though is keeping the front pasture cleared of cockle burr growth, more commonly known as brush hogging and getting the first test run of the Hodge Podge hay equipment up and running on the small Alfalfa field next week (weather permitting). If nothing breaks and everything works it's then on to the what remains of the main hay field. To see what I can manage to get off of it or what the sheep have left us.

Once the hay is harvested off the main field I can move the useless nags over to it so I can open the gate up to the main pasture and place the new out building I ordered last week. I had a 14'x50' concrete pad that was going to waste out there so we got a building to fit on it which will allow us more storage and get us out from under the second home we been maintaining for a few years now in town. This is also a part of my overall Fence project as the building will also act as divider between the main barn, a side dry lot and the pastures. Once it is in place I can finish the fencing project and have an anchor point for small shelter for one of the rams.

So I got the mowing and brush hogging done today. The pad is ready and I should be hauling the baler home this weekend. So far I am right on schedule.

The various hangers on however could care less. As you can see some moth that looks like a leaf is trying to claim the stupid boot birdhouse my Mom made me put up for her. Like I didn't have 101 useful things to be doing with time to stop and hang a damned boot birdhouse that will fall apart in 2 years. Pantheon the ex-kitten from hell now known as laziest cat on earth is sleeping on a bed of nails behind the wood furnace. I don't know why he likes to lay on that board with the nails through it. I put it back there so no one would step on it and now he thinks it's his personal day bed barko lounger or something.

And Boris the useless whether Mrs. PP demanded we keep who likes to head butt me for attention is using my cross support boards as a scratching post now. At least while they are lounging they aren't tearing stuff up I guess, although Boris looks like he may actually knock one of those supports out one of these days.

So anyway I am caught up and on schedule so far. There are still about a million things that can go wrong and I have to put in a 12 hour shift at work today so I won't be replying to comments until tonight.

The entire plan hinges on the three basically untested implements working properly along with no tractor breakdowns. If all goes as planned I should be back to the fencing project by the first week in August.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!!