He told me how many bales he got, but I don't remember, so I'm going with 28. Now we need to find someone who wants to buy them. They don't stay pretty and green for very long, but they will still be green on the inside.
The crias are doing well. This is Trillium and her cria. This is Trillium's first cria and she is not growing as fast at B'Nita's cria. Truthfully, B'nita's cria is growing better than Trillium did as a cria. Trillium was B'Nita's first cria. B'Nita seems to be much more attentive to this cria than she was with Trillium, as well, more protective. And Trillium is somewhat so-so about the whole thing. This cria of Trillium's is going to have some spectacular fleece. It is kinky and "popcorny" looking already. She's a nice looking girl.
Here is B'Nita's cria, whom I have already named B'Tina, or Tina for short. She has a different type of fleece so far from her half-sister/niece. It has more of a silky look to it. She is dew-damp in this photo, so it is hard to tell what her fleece really looks like. She is nice, but I think Trillium's little girl is the nicer of the two. Time will tell. I plan to take the clippers to both of these crias and remove the tips from their blanket areas next week. This will give them a better fleece at shearing time next year, with less hay and other vegetable matter stuck to it.
< Tina
and
Trillium's cria >
Sunday morning, after I finished chores and Sam finished pumping the oil wells, a truly dreaded job was undertaken. We butchered our 5 remaining hens. They were over 2 years old and we were only getting 1 or maybe 2 eggs a day from them. I had ordered 8 pullets (young hens just about to start laying), which I will be picking up next week. I will be away this coming weekend and I wanted Sam's help with the nastier bits (ie the killing), so I decided to get the job done this weekend. I have done this only one time before and it was almost 2 years ago, so I watched a few YouTube videos. The cleaning of the first one took a little while, but after that we had a system going and it went pretty well. It's not easy to do, but it is practical. 2 of the chickens went into the freezer and 3 went into the stock pot on Monday morning and I have 9 1/2 quarts of nice chicken stock, most of which I canned (only 7 quarts fit in my canner).
Tonight I will make some noodles with some of our eggs and I will make chicken and noodles to have with some salad from our garden.
Speaking of the garden, we got some rain this week and the tomato plants really seemed to enjoy it
They are actually starting to look like something now. Unfortunately, the weeds also enjoyed the rain and just popped up overnight. I can see some weeding in my future. Probably tomorrow.
I also checked in on the bees on Sunday. They are about ready to have additional boxes added to the hives. They are thriving and busy. There has been a lot of white clover in bloom in various places, like my agility training area and the boys' pasture which is adjacent to the beehives, and it has been humming with bee activity. Although I hated to do it, I mowed my agility area because I was worried about being stung while practicing.
Grover and I are off this weekend to a trial in Sharonville, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati. This is our first solo/away trial and also our first trial in 8 weeks, so while I am looking forward to it, I am nervous as well. We need 1 Q in Jumpers to move up from Novice to the Open class. We have 1 leg of 3 in Open Standard and it would be nice to get a Q in that as well. But this will be Grover's first experience at a trial in a new-to-us venue, so anything could happen. Just please, no pottying in the ring!
No comments:
Post a Comment