Lost another guinea chick today - there were 8 this morning running around, and when I went to check on them this afternoon, one little white one was dead.
It's supposed to be a 30% chance of rain this evening / tonight, but it's still hot hot out there. Just taken a buggy drive around the pasture, checking all the apple trees, the wild grapes are purple, but oh, so sour, there aren't any black raspberries, some bushes have dried ones - this heat with no rain. We have lots of apples and pears. Need to look at what I can do with them. Spent some time watching the cows. They ambled over to see what I was doing, then Boytjie herded Dolly away. I wonder about her pregnancy status. Worsie is a beautiful girl, and looking at Pearl and Daisy May, they both look preggers. Bambi is huge, her udder looks a little larger but she seems about a month away from birthing. Star has those little sores around her eyes again from the flies, beastly things. Big Red sticks close to Little Red, but Gabriel was with them while his mum was back at the water trough with Pigtails.
Still have quite a few sheep. Was talking to someone who was interested in Mr B and Marmite, but it turns out they want them to be registrable. They are pure-bred, but I didn't buy registration for their mums, so although I advertise the lambs as pure-bred, I don't advertise them as registered or registrable, and tell interested parties this. Hellooo, the price of $ 100 for a lamb definitely doesn't include registration, that adds another $150 at least to the price tag. I don't do show animals or 4H ones, just plain old good eating and good wool. Although the cost of lamb in the grocery stores has risen sharply, the price for freezer lamb seems to be in the doldrums. Wonder why the big disconnect ? Another guy is offering hay for a sheep, which is fine, but he lives South of Charlotte somewhere. Waiting for the address so I can work out milage as he wants her delivered. Think I'll keep at least one of the twin boys born in May for eating next year, and think Mr B is ready to go to butcher now. It's funny how after I wrestled those 3 I sold to Laura and Scott into the trailer, the rest of the sheep were very quiet and docile for about 2 days.
Think I'll try remember to take my phone down to milking tomorrow to take a photo of Wanda at Roscos' bowl and Anni at hers, both drinking milk ! Rosco likes to sneak his milk, so doesn't come when I call, then Wanda drinks most of his. She walks away when she's had enough, Anni on the other hand will lap at everything until it's gone.
Canned 4 jars of pineapple last night, and put 2 gallons of pineapple / ginger beer into the fridge for fermenting, and made a peach cobbler. Took the recipe for blueberry cobbler that Jackie gave me and switched out the fruit. DH said it was good, I wasn't that impressed, I preferred the blueberry one I made last time. Put the "Claussen" knock-off pickles into the fridge, 2 x 1/2 gallon jars, have a crockpot full of tomatoes stewing down for the 2nd day now. Bottled up some feta cheese, cleaned out the garage fridge, now just to tackle the kitchen. It doesn't seem to matter how much I clean and tidy up there, that room is just too small for it's purpose. Doesn't help that I have canning pots on the floor in the middle of the room, together with buckets of milk, some being made into yoghurt, some letting the cream rise and ripen so I can make butter, some just to go solid so I can feed it to the chickens. Still have just under a bushel of tomatoes, about 1/2 a bushel of pickling cucumbers and a bushel of beetroot to do. Want to do some pickled onions as well, and the FB canning group I belong to has people who dehydrate watermelon and they say it's great, so maybe I should try that, although I love watermelon, especially whizzed up, semi frozen and served with vodka in a tall glass ! Now to make salsa, maybe something called cowboy candy which seems to be pickled jalepenos. The kitchen is sooo hot, but it will be worth it eating home canned stuff in the Winter (if it lasts that long !)
Bill the barber is a very strange man. Heard Mary in the garage for her milk this afternoon, so went out to chat to her as I'd started yoghurt for her last week which she says was a little thin. See Bills' truck by the shed, then the door opens from the inside. I walked over to find out what he was doing, saying that DH was at work. He knew, just wanted to see if he could do something with fixing the tractor ! He's made 3 trips here so far today. Think I need to have a little talk with him about invasion of privacy. He seems to forget this is not his farm.
Well, my feet are itching from the seeds of the stuff I drove through out back, and still need to wash up the milk parlour - so many interruptions today :).
8pm - it's raining. Very little, but there is water coming out of the sky !!!
Vickie came to pick up her milk. Walked the farm. She's interested in my fruit and vegetables - because there's no chemicals. She looked at my weeds and said she'd buy from me ! She did, thank you, Vickie ! Broccoli and Swiss Chard. Enjoy them. She will call next week once the kids have gone back to school, so she and her daughter can come and pick some apples.