Blind Hog and Acorn

Last weekend No Kings Rally, this week was small ruminant meat processing workshop AND a day trip tomorrow to the Bentonville art museums.  Whee!

Lil' Frank, the 5 yr old Savanna buck, went off to his new home today.  Yay!  Only has to endure a 1 hr ride in the stock trailer.  Mister Man and Goat Man Special will be retained as herdsires.

Garlic is planted.  Peepies are growing.  Fig preserves made.  Acorn finished her Project Hail Mary/Mary Maxim wolf/fox sweater project.  Blind Hog did the last of the pasture clipping and took the rotary mower off the Kioti.  DONE!

Now to finish with the garden...

Blind Hog and Acorn will be doing a No Kings Day rally tomorrow, so the podcast got recorded a day early.  Still a busy enough week...

Market kids brought $3.70/lb.  Not too bad but the May sale kids drew better prices, $4.50 lb...  10 tubs-o-walnuts brought in $60.  Acorn was not amused but like the joke goes, "$50 is $50..."

Blind Hog did indeed get busy and clipped all the fields, brush cutter got worked.  A flat tire with 90 min left to go did not slow things down too much.

Acorn canned up mirepoix and sliced her thumb when a carrot took a bad roll. Steri-strips doing a good job keeping the slice tightly closed.

Barn and chicken coop cleaning are the next big projects. Fun fun....

Black walnuts have just about all fallen from the majority of trees.  Acorns showing up in unusual places.

Load of wethers taken to the sale barn.  Saw a notice later from the sale barn that a large ram had escaped- no doubt when being unloaded.  "Please call us if seen..."

Three cords of wood completely fill the wood pile. Forth cord in process.  Bestest ever fig harvest this year, FINALLY...  Brown turkey fugs never took, this Chicago Cold Hardy is just the thing.  I need to propagate it and plant in a few more areas in the garden.

Eight peepies hatched from the Kentucky eggs.  Heat this summer has certainly affected poultry fertility.

Roofing! Joist supports!  Lawn mowing!  Walnut gathering!  Chick hatching!  What was lacking?  Rain...  So what else is new?

Acorn also found a Source for bona fide NPS Ranger belts, circa 1930's but made to order now.  Guy in California owns the roller used "back in the day" and Acorn ordered a belt for Blind Hog and herself...  Blind Hog was most impressed.

Acorn continues with the Project Hail Mary movie cardigan.  Instead of doing the "movie version" or the 195o's original knitting pattern, a blend of the two is in the works.  If you know, you know...  Colorwork is getting close to starting...  Hoooo baby, will need total focus.  Watching football and knitting often leads to ripping out of stitches...

Lows in the 50??  Lovely...  Will take it!  Now if the farm could just get about 12" of rain.

Piddly things done on the farm, working in the garden, cutting firewood, messing with the goats.

Springfield house will get a new roof on Monday- guy said it would be done in a day.  Acorn was not amused with all the bids.  Get it done and let that be all the major issues for a good few years...

Well then! An overnight in Kentucky with a 7 hr drive there and back.  Two cave tours, two picnic lunches, 18 rare breed chicken eggs and to come back to the farm 3 hrs into a 14 hr power outage.  Them farmers certainly know how to have a good time!

Is hard to describe how vast Mammoth Cave truly is.  Immense.  Just immense.  Pictures don't do it justice unless one has a person in view for scale. Highly recommend for anyone to go visit.  One must have a ticket to set foot in any part of the cave, even if it is a free ticket to do the "self guided" bit that is very, very short.

Facilities were great, cozy cabin was just that.  Driving was easy, narrated audiobook/storytime made the trip fly by.

Back to the heat, but this too shall pass when the Autumnal Equinox arrives.

Exxxxxcelllllent trip to Bentonville for the farmers.  Mental batteries recharged and spirits uplifted by wonderful art.  And food...

Drought continues on the farm.  Eggs in the incubator- 19 guinea eggs, 7 banty eggs and soon there will be Swedish Flower Hen eggs once the farmers return from a trip to Mammoth Cave NP next week.  Is Acorn excited?  You betcha!

 The farm got a new buck today- an 18 month old mostly Myotonic with 1/4 Spanish.  He is a nice stout lad with great muscling and HUGE "organs of reproduction..."  As Blind Hog says- he will be a big boy if he can grow into his nuts.

Acorn had an eye exam, advised to hold off on corrective surgery till cataracts force the issue.

Roofing estimates coming in, three alone taken on Wednesday. It has been soooo freakin hot... And an angry wren-lette who got watered. Acorn did not know a nest was there!

Acorn will kidnap Blind Hog for a Friday run to Bentonville and the art museums.  Grandma Moses Exhibit soft opening, members only.  Might as well flex the perks!

Yup- just took a hungry hen to flap up to the brooder box, flip the hook latch and kick the door slightly open.  When discovered later- all the peeps had gone and no trace.  So much for that- Guinea Keets 1, Acorn 0...

Blind Hog's cataract procedure was a success- things brighter, sharper and he does not need his magnifying glass to read!  Will be rechecked in 2 weeks for new vision Rx.

Drought is settling in.  Just 1" of rain for the month, in addition to allllll the excessive heat.  Will be watering the garden now 2x a week.  So happy all that fence work is done, for now...

Yay!  Cataract procedure appears to be successful for Blind Hog.  Already he is noticing improved vision.  Hot damn!

Meanwhile on the farm, the hay field re-fencing project is now compete.  Acorn's shoulders are saying "praise be" to that.  Now Acorn can refocus attention to the garden which has rapidly gone wild.

Surgery follow up and meeting with service peoples at the Springfield house next week, giving the goats a bag of feed instead of the protein blocks, working in the garden and letting Blind Hog rest up as his eye heals.  Oh!  And Acorn has a new handicraft!  Sashiko Japanese stitching- is most fun and a very cool way to mend fabric with a long history.