Good morning!
I love blogging after my morning chores are done! It inspires me to DO them :) Do any of the rest of you have trouble with that? My husband has been working long hours and so most animal care has fallen to me. Since that HAS to be done, I've been feeling lazy about the housework. Last week was a wash because of some emergency medical problems that took the most of 2 days, but I am feeling back on track this week.
In the House:
It's hot. Finally. I refuse to complain because I HATE cold and it has been very cool and wet so far....let's face it, it's the middle of July....it's supposed to be hot. We finally turned on the downstairs AC so we can get some relief. I'm very grateful for it, but I dread the higher electric bills. I'm choosing to look on the bright-side of things though. Today, my household chores included washing the inside of the windows. I schedule this every 3 months and don't really like to do it. But it's done. I have 3 small loads of laundry on the clothesline and most of yesterday's dishes are done. I really need to get in the habit of washing dishes after supper but I find it difficult to motivate myself. It would make the mornings go nicer, I know.
I need to make laundry soap but I took the lazy way out and bought some Tide. I haven't bought store laundry soap in over a year and forgot how good Tide smells. lol I wish it didn't cost so much (and so little to make my own).
Lawn and Garden:
The water and cool weather has taken its toll on the garden. We got things planted late (because that's how we roll) and we lost most of our peppers to the incessant rain. I'm not sure how good the tomatoes and beans are going to do. The weeds have taken over and it is hard to get caught up. We do have zucchini and cucumbers though.
I harvested some basil this morning and put it on a drying rack. I've been using it fresh but decided I needed to get my butt in gear and get some dried. Abby and I also harvested some comfrey leaves that went on a rack. After they dry I am going to try making some comfrey salve for muscles aches and pains. Please share any recipes you have! I have found several that called for plantain, which I don't have, but I did find one that didn't so that will probably be the one I use. I've got to get some beeswax on shopping day.
Today I'll mow. Mowing our yard takes 5-6 hours total. I think I'm going to cap myself out at 4 hours today because of the heat and finish tomorrow evening. We will see how it goes.
Barn and Henhouse:
We had 3 momma hens hatch chicks this year, along with a guinea and a turkey hen. The turkey chick is still getting along well but we lost all the guinea chicks during a storm. The 3 momma hens have 1, 2 and 12 chicks respectively. I'll try to get some pictures loaded here. They are all adorable and live out in the cow barns.
The hens that are old enough to lay seem to have went on strike. We were getting 3 dozen eggs a day but now we are down to about a dozen. Not cool at all. I'm assuming it is either the introduction of the "teenage" chickens that we hatched out this spring to the flock or the cold/wet/very hot weather swings we've been having. Those 2 things happened about the same time so its hard to tell.
Speaking of cows.....our 4 steers are getting along nicely. Actually, only 1 is ours, the other 4 belong to the landlord, but since I do daily care for all 4 I call them mine. Now that we have had herefords and black angus I will agree that herefords are nicer to raise. They are just friendlier. The 2 black angus are onery. We will see if there is a difference in the meat taste and then decide if we will raise black angus again. I've heard rumors that we will bale hay again next week. The first baling didn't turn out great, but gosh, I dread that job. I am not strong enough to throw bales of hay. lol
We just got 4 piglets this week. I don't like pigs. The last batch caused me nothing but trouble and I still haven't decided if the trouble was worth the meat. We will see.
I think that's about it here, for now anyway. I'm going to post this up and then round up some lunch. I've got a hank of yarn I choose for a project yesterday that "threw up" into a big tangled mess while I was trying to wind it.....I need to finish untangling it so I can start on that project.....I only have 2 shawls and 1 pair of socks on needles so definately need more (note sarcasm).....I just can't help myself.
Have a great day!
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