Here they are withe B'Nita. For some reason these 3 lingered in the pasture when everyone else came in for morning grain.
We have a nice forecast for dry weather through Sunday. 4 days of 0% chance of precipitation. According to the local weather man, the last time that happened was late May and we have had 15" of rain since then. Wow, that's a lot of rain.
So everyone around here is mowing hay, Sam included. Never have we done second cutting in July before! He mowed Tuesday night and with a few days of dry sunny weather with low humidity, the hay should be good and dry when we bale on Saturday. This will be square baled for the alpacas, which means a hard day's work on Saturday, picking it up and stacking it in the barn. Not my favorite job, but so satisfying once finished.
You can see just how green everything still is.Usually by the end of July, things are pretty dry and brown. Our garden has really suffered from too much rain and too little sun. The tomato plants look terrible and I don't expect a great crop. Sadly. The corn looks good however. The beets are small and I have usually harvested them by this time, but I am giving them some more time. Same with the garlic. And the weeds are impossible to control with this much rain. I fear it will not be a bumper year for garden produce.
The new chicks are still not producing a lot of eggs. We have gotten 3 eggs the last couple of days. While they are not laying at full capacity yet, they are getting a little braver and ranging farther from the coop. It does not hurt that the creek, which is between their coop and the our yard, finally dried up (which usually happens in early June). I am sure there are wonderful yummy things in that newly dry creek bed that appeal to a chicken. Again, note the lush greenery, which needs mowing again.
Grover and I started a new 8 week session at agility class. We are in a much larger class of 8 dogs or so (we have had only 2 in our class, including us, for the last 8 weeks) and have a different instructor. There is a brand new beginner class that started this week which is why we have been moved around. I look forward to getting input from Diana, who was one of my instructors for the first several months. Grover and I have our next trial in just over 2 weeks in Dayton. We will be taking advantage of the free accommodations at Mom's house once again. I don't think she minds.
I finished the lace shawl with beads I was knitting from a gradient handspun. I am not thrilled with the yarn as the colors were not what I hoped and I did not get enough of the darker color in. But it is pretty, though very large. I goes quite well with the petunias in my hanging basket, doesn't it?
I started a new knitting project this week. I saw this pattern for a lace cowl with beads online and loved it. I had both the yarn and the beads in my "stash", so was able to cast on right away once I finished the shawl. I bought the yarn in 2010 and started a project with it and it just was not working out, so it has languished in a basket for all this time. This will be a great fall wardrobe piece.
And, I have a new weaving project on my small loom. I purchased some colorful tencel yarn, which is soft and shiny, at Rhinebeck last fall to use as warp with another yarn that had been in my stash a long time. Since April 2009, in fact. It is a grey handspun blend of alpaca and angora. I have over 800 yards of this yarn, but only 525 yards of the tencel, so I am weaving a scarf and will have enough of the alpaca/angora for another project. I really think this color combination will look nice.
And once the rain stopped, I finally got around to finishing up the scraping and painting of the second barn door. But there are no less than 6 more doors on that barn that need re-painting. And 4 of them are HUGE.
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