We spent a lot of the weekend working on a new winter sheep/llama barn with our landlord. I've never built anything like this so it was pretty cool to start from scratch and end up with the framework for walls and a roof. Eventually we'll make some stalls on one side and a small area for hay on the other, and maybe some shelves on the top for storage. The back will be open and the front will have a door. There should be plenty of room for Zeb, Thomas the the girls in there.
Look what Nathan found! Hidden nest #2.
You may not want to look at the following picture while eating...
Speckles' foot was still swollen and seemed to be getting worse instead of better. I did some more bumblefoot reading and the consensus was that there is almost always a large, fairly solid mass in the foot that needs to be dug out. When we did the surgery before, I didn't cut very deep into her foot because I got scared. This time, I took my trusty scalpel and a whole bunch of resolve and made a deep cut into her foot while holding it under running water so I could see what I was doing.
Ta Dah! I got a lump the size of a pencil eraser out of her foot. She's already walking around much better and the swelling has gone way down.
This photo is horrible, but Zebra Head made it onto the roost for the first time the other night! Normally he sleeps on the ground with two of his chubbier lady friends. They probably should have decided to sleep on the roost again last night instead of on the porch to their little house...
When we went to lock the chickens in for the night, I had Lexie on leash. She had thrown up her dinner and was lethargic (she's fine now) and just trotting along next to me instead of on high alert like she usually is...so I wasn't paying as much attention to her as I should have been. When I leaned into the coop to check the water container, she lunged from behind me (still on a very short leash, luckily) and grabbed Raven right off the porch. I screamed for Nathan while trying to open Lexie's mouth - it was dark and I had no idea how much of the chicken she had. Chickens apparently (strangely) stay in their trance-like night state even when in the mouth of a dog. We finally got Raven loose and we were very very lucky - Lexie had only grabbed a mouthful of tail feathers and there is no damage. Lesson learned - never get complacent with dogs and chickens!
We've been getting so much produce out of our garden. I think it's time to preserve some instead of just selling and eating it.
All of those tomato flowers really did produce tomatoes.
Red peppers! My favourite veggie of all.
Basil this morning
Basil after trimming...can't even tell. Grasshoppers have been devouring it but luckily they haven't made much of a dent.
The herb garden isn't exactly neat and tidy anymore...and there's that giant zucchini taking over in the back.
Speaking of zucchini, make this. Or don't...because you'll eat the whole thing within a day of it coming out of the oven, and you'll tell yourself it's ok because it has vegetables in it.
Over-ripe and not quite ripe cantaloupe in their nets.
Pumpkins starting to ripen.
These "Thai Dragon" chillies are so good and hot! Three plants and we'll have more than enough to cook with for a year.
Spaghetti squash using tomato plants as their trellis.
Giant kale and normal kale. Or maybe normal kale and stunted kale. Either way, we still have massaged kale salad almost every night with dinner and we aren't sick of it yet.
Fall veggies planted in the grow bed. Lacinato kale, broccoli, cabbage, peas.
The greenhouse in June:
The greenhouse now:
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