July 8 Report

The past week was full of events here on the farm. Pat and Sully went back to Maryland Tuesday morning. Rose and I co-hosted the 4th of July party at the farmhouse. It was a bring your own meat to grill and a dish to share. We had about 40-50 people. Greg and Margaret (the other hosts) had a bunch of their friends come by with kids so there was lots of excitement and activity. Some of the old farm residents also showed up and it was real good to see everyone. It was my job to get the liquid refreshments and help to clean up after the party. Greg did a really nice fireworks show. Lucky it had rained so there was little danger of fire.

With recent rain the garden is going gangbusters. Lots of peppers and the beans are getting nearly ready to pick and the corn is looking good and there are tons of green tomatoes. We tried an experiment this spring and sprayed (Southern States) with a new broad leaf weed killer called GRAZON. The large hay field has a major problem with weeds. Two weeks after the first hay cutting they came out and sprayed. At first, I was a little disappointed but after a couple of rains the weeds got real sick and died and it looks like it is still putting them out of their misery. The field looks great!

That's Parker Mountain back there.

Jim-bo the bull has been reunited with his girls. He gets a three month visit two times a year. We have been feeding him regularly so he should be ready to do his duties. We also fixed and checked the electric fence line in the pasture and bush hogged the weeds. The cows are now in a new field and seem to be real happy with the new grass.

Notice the look on his face! And he's right where he wants to be.

I finally got around to making a cover plate to go around the 8" vent pipe that we just installed through the kitchen roof. It dressed up the installation really nicely. We still have not heard back from the tile guy with an estimate ... he would say "do you want good or do you want fast?" I started cleaning up the mess on the lower back porch. I have been dumping stuff there as I unpacked and cleaned up the basement. It also has a bunch of stuff from Barbara's garage. I need to get that taken care of pretty soon. I also went out this morning and cut the grass in the orchard. I really need to take the blades off and sharpen them.

Let's see what is still awaiting attention here?

+ finish the finish on the front doors
+ fix front steps
+ patch roof/clean out gutters
+ install tile in the kitchen
+ install pot filler in the kitchen
+ paint kitchen/great room
+ install hardwood floor in bedroom
+ paint bedroom
+ enclose part of back porch and install stairs to basement
+ landscape around house and install hard scape patio in front of house
+ pay for Jenny's wedding
+ make a neck for guitar
+ build a double bass
+ build a”killer”dobro (repeat)
+ cut grass
+ fight weeds
+ tend to garden

Here are some pictures of some of the other barnyard pets.

Here are last fall's heffers. They REALLY like the feed!

I thought the fox had eaten these geese. But they showed up today.