Weaning

So Ryan has been trying to sort sheep in our new animal handling system. See below.

However, as he himself said in reaction to this picture, "What you can't see here is the swearing." 

He's not kidding.

Luckily my daughter can't hear him either.

 But she likes to watch him.

She actually watched him mow the lawn for 45 minutes without moving. Pretty good for a year-old child. 
But back to my story. 


Ryan got the sheep sorted out (mostly) and into different areas of the farm (also mostly). In the "keep" herd were a couple of lambs who are big enough to be weaned, but their mamas haven't forced the issue yet. We usually let them make that decision, but not today.
So in his infinite wisdom, Ryan put the "keep" herd next to our house.
Right next to our house.
As in, one wall of the fence is practically the wall to our house.

Did I mention it was super hot out last night so I had the windows open? Those crazy lambs cried all night long.


Word to the wise: freshly weaned lambs do not belong 10 feet from the open window of a house on a summer night.

Gardening & Heavenly Scent

My quest to actually have and maintain a decent garden this year continues! 

So my square foot gardens are going OK, some stuff is even growing. About 80% of my transplants died, so we purchased some more at Theisen's today. The spinach toward the center of the view is from seed, though!

This is the same one of the gardens, I picked it because it looks the best of the four I have planted! Top right has some snap peas, the nice stuff toward the middle is the spinach, top left is zucchini and brussels sprouts, and bottom left is broccoli. I think it's going OK so far!


It is also my absolute favorite time of year for flowers. It has not been a great year for lilacs and the ones I do have are actually fairly dismal. Some day I'll buck it up and order some truly awesome varieties online. 

I do have a few and they are blooming now! Mixed with the lilies-of-the-valley, I wish I could just bottle this scent and keep it forever. Yes, I know they make perfumes that try. But they all fail. 

I also love putting arrangements in those old-fashioned glass coca-cola bottles. They are just the right size and I think they make charming vases.