Puppy Update

Here's some recent pictures from Tim's last visit. He's ready for her to come home NOW! Isn't she adorable?

Hummingbirds!

Last weekend I had the bright idea to hang a couple of hummingbird feeders outside my kitchen window. These were just some little $.97 feeders, and I bought bottle of the red concentrate. Originally these hung on the porch, but we found they leaked when the sun heated the liquid. So now they hang over my garden and if they leak it's not a problem. I used a hanger, which I bent so that both feeders hang from little hooks. It's easy to get at them from the porch. Convenient, because the liittle birds found them pretty quick and pretty much drain them both in just a couple of days.

Seems like there are usually more than one bird wanting access to the feeder. So while one is eating, one is waiting on the fence below, and one is hovering just a foot away. I don't know why they can only eat one at a time.

I left my camera sitting by the sink and John managed to get some pretty good pictures. He even got a movie! You can see this little guy keep coming back and see the bubbles as he eats.

Tim's New Place!

On Saturday, we all went over to North Wilkesboro to help Tim move into his new place. He found a very nice three bedroom two bath house. Here he is on the porch on moving day. !











He's also got a detached garage with automatic opener. At the back of the garage there is a storage/tool room. There is also a locking shed for his lawnmower. This house he has to mow his own lawn!






Here's the living room









And the dining room









And as you can see the office needs some work :-)









Once we got all the furniture moved and in the new place, the guys proceeded to set up a puppy yard so it would be ready for the new pup.










After all the work was done, we barbequed some chicken and sliced zuccini on the grill, threw together a salad and served it all up with some big fat yeast rolls. YUM!

Shortly after that we headed home and left the rest of the mess for Tim.

Tim + 1 = A PACK!

Here's some big news for everyone! Tim has picked out a new puppy! He's been researching breeds for quite a while and settled on a Shetland Sheepdog, AKA a Sheltie. Once that decision was made he started looking for a dog. He started with the sheltie rescue, but those dogs are mostly much older dogs and in need of a lot of health care and maintenance. So then he started looking for breeders to see if he could find a puppy. After some searching he found a breeder that would have a puppy ready at the perfect time for him. This past Saturday he went to visit and found the right dog. So now, sometime in mid August after he's settled into his new house, he won't be living alone any more! Here are some pictures of the little sweetie, who has no idea that with Tim, she just hit the forever friend jackpot! Just wait til she figures out that at the grandparents house, she gets to herd goats when she gets bigger!

Seems we always have a project going, but I guess it keeps us out of trouble. My project this weekend was to get the barn painted. A couple of weeks ago Andy and I spent a couple of hours putting stone around the base. Next comes hayrack, some hay storage so you aren't toting bales all the time, and mineral feeders. It's important for bucks to have free choice minerals, so I'm trying to get this part done this weekend. But look how pretty the barn is coming out. I love the deep red color against the green foliage. I got two coats on the front yesterday, so today after our midday meal of steak, seven layer salad, and home-made honey wheat bread, I will be putting on my painting clothes again! Once the paint is on, the barn will be considered finished until fall, when we will need to put doors on. In the summer they need the breeze!

John came up with a way to get the kids in the creep feeder fed without fighting them to get in the door. He made a wooden hopper/ramp that serves the feeder/trough, then set a PVC pipe inside that. Now he pours from his feed pitcher through the pipe, and the grain fills the trough and everyone can stick their head in to eat. The creep feeder is where all the younger goats can go to get fed without competing for food with the full grown goats. So far, goats as old as seven months can get in there. We are hoping that around eight months they will be eating with the big girls and boys. Ginger and Sky seem to be able to still squeak through. Doesn't John always comes up with nifty ideas!?!?

Saturday Chores

Saturday morning I do my best to sleep in. That's the day I catch up. This morning the farmer slept later than me! I woke up, went and made my cup of tea, and then started the coffee. Then I made four bottles for the sleepy kids in the playpen. As soon as I sat down with my Red Rose, they started chittering, so I fed them one by one. About that time the farmer got up and poured his coffee, and we started planning our day.

First comes farm chores. I am the milker on the weekend, and right now we are milking Pansy and Tulip. With the new gate arrangement, the milkers are already in the barn, where they've been all night. So I no longer have to fight all the goats to get the milkers in the stall. Cats follow me as a walk to the barn, meowing all the way. They know they get the milk from stripping the goats and they love it.

Check the food and water for the cats and dogs. Feed all the goats, because everyone gets grain and hay in the morning. Feed the chickens and check their water. Look at the garden - no sign of tomatoes turning, but once they start, I will be blanching, freezing, canning, etc. I have Jalepeno peppers almost ready, so this year I will be canning salsa too! Whoops, put cilantro on the shopping list!

Later on in the morning John and I went to check out an auction we'd heard about. Over in Germanton one of the big, really old houses and contents were being auctioned off. Gigantic house. Six bedrooms, two baths, two front parlors, two kitchens, dining room, numerous outbuildings. Sometimes it's fun to go to these because you can walk all through the houses. Once in a while you get lucky. I got a bow front oak dresser for John at an auction for a sweet deal, AND it was already stripped and ready for stain.

Got back about lunch time, and the kids are ready for another feeding. Around 1:00 and we are well into the heat of the day, so it's time for inside work! This afternoon we'll be adding a hayloft to the buck barn, and then I will start painting the outside. All the outbuildings on our place will be barn red with a hunter green roof.
Always something to do on the farm!

Just for fun, here are some pictures from July 4th. We had ourselves a little barbeque and lit off some sparklers.

New Website Has Launched

Hello Everyone!
I've been working on a new home page for Papa John's Farm. See it at http://www.papajohnsfarm.com. There are more pictures, music, but all the same content is there to start with. This website may not be as sophisticated as Andy's, but it's easier for me to edit and add pictures quickly.

CHECK IT OUT!