Well, I've been away from my blog for quite a while! I'm sorry about that. Life has been so busy, with sudden unplanned events pushing out the planned ones. The biggest problem began about a week ago with the appearance of a very large red fox who began preying on the Guinea Hens that always fly over the fences and into harm's way. (They are not very bright birds.) I believe this is a mother fox who has been running ragged to keep her babies fed, and she soon discovered that a bunch of less-than-brilliant Guineas outside the barnyard make a quick meal. However, my patience wore thin when I spotted her inside the fenced pasture farther back nearest the woods. She had made her kill inside the fenceline, and I startled her as I drove round the back corner, and caught sight of her jumping easily back over the fence. Needless to say, my mother and I spent the next several days (and far too much money) installing 6-foot tall fencing around the whole perimeter of the fields that the poultry free-range in. The back part alone measured 600 feet. I have one final step in completeing this project, and that will be to install a two-foot tall runner of hex-wire all along the bottom of the fencing that is now in place. This will allow further protection from coyote or fox digging at the base. But I have to sell a lot of eggs before this can happen! I am down to 13 Guineas, so I will be keeping an eye out for a hidden clutch of eggs, and I will have mom pop them in the incubator should we find any.
In the meantime, the Strawberries are ripening daily, and I need to take the time to freeze several batches and to make some Strawberry Jam. We received some much-needed rain last night, and I really should be putting in the remainder of my garden instead of typing in my blog, as it is supposed to turn to thundershowers later this afternoon. I was out earlier this morning moving a section of a stone border with the tractor, as I had put up an 80-foot length of split-rail fence nearest the barn, and getting into the gate by the narrow pathway between stones and rails was cumbersome to say the least. So that's done, and I also transplanted some blue and white irises amongst the fence posts to finish it off.
My oldest son and his girlfriend are getting married here in August... the 15th, I believe! So in between, I've been trying to prune and trim and pick up and do whatever needs doing! Mom came up yesterday and helped me cart stones into the garden to line the asparagus bed and to put around the rhubarb/onion section. My daughter and I are planning a small get-together of family and friends to celebrate her completion of 13 years of homeschooling. She's the last of the four children to homeschool, and I myself shall breathe a sigh of satisfaction that this part of our life is complete! But where one chapter closes, another opens... I am going to be a grandmother again in November, and then again about a week later! And I so want to finish the pine flooring in the rest of the house before the heat and humidity set in... sigh!Ah, well! What gets done does and what doesn't won't! Now, I must be off before it starts raining again. Hope all is well with everyone as we scoot into summer. Blessings to you and yours. ~Laura of Wildenblue Farm
