I Can't Believe July is Almost Here

Here are the newest farm residents.  I picked up these 8 pullets a week ago and they have spent most of the week inside the chicken coop.They are slowly spending more and more time in their little enclosure and tomorrow I may open the gate and see if they will venture out of their yard.  The outside world is very new to them I am sure and frightening.   They are not laying eggs yet and I fear I will run out of eggs long before they start. 

We have continued to have a lot of rain.  Last Saturday we attended a graduation party at our neighbor's place and while it started out dry, once the rain started, it was hard and relentless.  It did not seem to hinder the party, as there was a huge homemade slip n slide enjoyed by kids and adults alike, myself included, and volleyball was even played in a downpour in standing water.  This unfortunately resulted in a casualty:  the grad's dad broke an ankle.  But it was a great party.  

  Sunday was Father's Day, and we spent a quiet day at home.  Sam picked a couple gallons of raspberries and I made a pie.  The berries are wonderful this year, due to all the rain, I think.    I also made raspberry chocolate chip ice cream, which we took turns churning on the deck after we had cocktails at the pond with the dogs and before we enjoyed a steak dinner.

It was fabulous ice cream.  I found the recipe on line:

raspberry ice cream with dark chocolate chips   somewhat labor intensive, but we agreed it was the creamiest ice cream we've had.  Maybe because it had 3 eggs in it and lots of heavy cream and 1/2 and 1/2 (I had no milk).  


The pond is quite full thanks to all the rain and the dogs do love to retrieve sticks.  As you can see, Grover gets into the pond well before the stick even hits the water.

 We always have to throw for Grover first, or he would abandon his stick and go for Rowdy's. 

We still need to get the zip line going.  It needs a new grip on one side of the handlebar.

 I finished one of my summer projects!  I purchased upholstery fabric when Tari and I went to Amish country back in April with which to recover my dining room chairs.  I've had this dining room furniture since the early '90's and will probably always have it.  I recovered the chairs once after we moved to the farm, but they really needed to be recovered again and have the foam replaced.  What a difference!  I really like the new fabric and I got 8 yards for only $2 a yard at Zink's.  I recovered the 4 chairs, but I also have a bench cushion that needs to be re-done, so that will be next.  But no great rush on that.  I think I'll make that an August project.

 I am making progress on my alpaca blanket.  As of now I am about a third of the way finished with it.  It is coming out nicely, as far as I can tell.  I hope to get to the halfway point today.  The center will be narrow black and fawn stripes like you see on the right edge (which is actually the fold or center) We will see how that goes.  It is fairly slow going.

Upcoming:  Craziness, that's all I can say.  My brother's family is coming from Phoenix for a visit to Ohio next week.  They plan to come to the farm for one night next Wednesday.  Then they have plans to visit friends and relatives in western Ohio and go to Kings Island (an amusement park very close to where I grew up and at which I actually worked briefly when I was in high school) the following Tuesday.  Grover and I have a dog trial in Pennsylvania on Friday, Saturday and Sunday right after they are here at the farm, then I plan to head over to Dayton on Monday and go to Kings Island with them on Tuesday.  My cousin is coming down from Michigan as well, which kind of made up my mind as to whether I would go over there or not. So the first week of July is just going to be crazy for me.  

 Here's some cria-cuteness for you.  B'Nita's cria is always dirtier than Trillium's cria.  They stick together all the time.  When I took these photos, their mothers were both in the barn and they were just off in the field with last year's 2 crias, hanging out.  Typical kids!