Sculpture

We have a wonderful friend who is also an artist. His name is Adam Thomas. I love his work! It brings me to a place of whimsy and also a sense of piece.

If I had lots of money I would commission him to make a sculpture for our yard that the neighborhood kids could play on and enjoy.

Our family went up to his exhibit at the Finch Lane Gallery in May.

This sculpture reminds me of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival.

This ladder/bridge on a bed frame made me think of Peter Pan, of dreams, and how dreams take us to a new place. I thought the only thing missing was a sail.
I'd love to have something like this in my yard for the kids to play on.

This one reminded me of tall tales as well, and how good stories lift us in so many ways. Good stories also connect us to those who have gone before us, and connect our posterity to us.

Mountain Sunday * 21 June 2015

It's clear and sunny today. Another hot day.

Temperature is almost 87 F. 

The air is still.

Barometric pressure is 30.05 and steady.

We are currently on water conservation measures in our area. The city says that lawns only need 14minutes of water three times a week for it to stay green. 

You can see that they aren't really telling the truth. I'm not sure if the lawn will live through the summer.

While we are currently following their guidelines for the residential areas of our property, we are more liberal in our use of water on the pasture so that we can continue to feed the animals. We still water early morning and late night to prevent as much evaporation as possible, but the fact is that the pasture grass needs more water than what the city officials recommend.

South of the barn
21 June 2015

East over the barn
21 June 2015

North of the barn
21 June 2015

Eggs

The neighbor kids love to come collect eggs.

There are a few kids that I trust to collect eggs when I'm not home, the rest need to ask each time they go into the barn yard.

One day I came home from the grocery store and this is what I found.

People wonder about us. They wonder why we would let neighborhood kids play on the play yard. They wonder why we would let them visit the animals on the farm. They wonder why I would let them play with the toys in the basement on hot afternoons.

It's because I don't want to be the grouchy lady on the street that chases kids away.

As much as possible, I want to live like people lived 50 years ago. The neighborhood kids could play in almost any yard, and in any house, because the people that lived on the street were safe. They loved the kids who lived there, and they wanted them to all have someplace safe to play.

I know we live in a world that isn't safe, that parents are scared that their kids are going to end up where there are evil adults.

I want my neighborhood kids to be safe, and to feel safe in their neighborhood.

They are welcome here, to play, to have a snack, to tell me about their day, to visit the animals, and to collect the eggs.

Girls Camp

I went to Girls Camp last week so last week and the week before were filled with so many activities in preparation, and then 4 days in the mountains.

We had a great time! I'd love to take my family back to camp at the same location. I loved the rough cabins. They kept everyone dry, which would have been difficult with the amount of rain we had, and they were roomy enough for all the girls to stay in one.

I also loved having a 'cook shack.' It was a bigger cabin that included a professional griddle. There was no power, which is always fun for me, too.

This is what we saw from the front door of the 'cook shack' where the kitchen is. The leaders slept on the second floor of the cook shack.

The girls slept in this cabin. There were 18 of them at the beginning of the week. Work and other commitments left us with 10 by the last day.

We took a 5 mile hike one day. 

It was beautiful!

The clouds were a preview to the next few days full of rain.
Despite the rain, the girls and leaders were cheerful and we didn't hear any complaints from the leaders or the girls.

One of the leaders commented to the girls that when people say that the world is overpopulated they should think of our hike and how much space there really is in the world.

Is the world overpopulated? Check out this link.

More Udder Photos

I am so happy with how well Annie's udder is healing, and how Curly's hair is growing back!

I knew they were copper deficient, but I had no idea how deficient they were.

I'll be giving all of the goats a bolus once a month for the rest of the summer, and probably through October.

Photos of Annie's udder over the last three weeks.

24 May 2015, the day I gave the copper bolus.

6 June 2015

16 June 2015

Here's a link to the first post on copper from this year.

Mountain Monday * 7 June 2015

Lots of clean up this week!

South of the barn.
7 June 2015

East over the barn.
7 June 2015

North of the barn.
7 June 2015

Fixing the Sprinklers

No fun!

Our sprinkler system is about 25 years old and is in need of some repair. It took Bryon 3 evenings after work, and most of the day last Saturday to get it all fixed.

Just in time for the warmer weather that hit this past week.

Of course Quin had to help Papa and Matt. Notice the little tractor he's got his hand on? He almost always has a tractor when he's outside helping.

All done! I love the new spigot to water the flower beds more easily.
It's out of the way of the sprinkler so it's easy to turn on and off without getting wet.

None of the flower beds have sprinkler system installed. One day we may have the money to rip the whole system out and start again, but definitely not this year!

For now, we'll continue to water the flowers by hand. And be grateful for all the rain we've had this spring!

It took about 5 hours of weeding.....

to get the weeds out of this bed.
I don't like weeding, but I didn't mind this year because we were so thankful for the rain!

Even the Peonies look nice this year!
These Peonies look like ordinary ones to everyone else, but they came from Bryon's grandmother's flower garden. We are the last ones in the family to still have any.
They bring back happy memories of her farm every spring when we see them.

I was recently told that it's possible to grow peonies from seed, so I'll be saving the seeds this year and giving that a try.

Copper is Working!

These photos were taken about a week after we gave all the goats their spring copper bolus. The hair is already starting to grow back on Curly and Annie's noses. We've trained our goats to love bananas so I put a bolus in the middle of a piece of banana and they gobble it down. It's so easy!

Bryon is working on a Prime 90 supplement especially for the goats. It will have higher amounts of copper, selenium, and cobalt. Goats tend to need higher amounts of those minerals than other animals. Right now we give them the Equine formula, which works well, but I have to supplement once or twice a year with a copper bolus.

They also have a 'blue lick' available that helps them get their cobalt. Link We buy ours locally at IFA, but many feed stores carry them or they can order them in.

Yay! He's growing new hair!

You can even see the new growth on Annie's nose.

Doesn't he look so content?

More info about dosing with copper can be found here.

I really do love it when something works so quickly!

One more thing I love....

We have enough milk to make cheese again!

Stew Gets a Hair Cut!

Stew, the sheep was sheared last week.

Big fuzz ball.....

Ready for summer!

He was so glad to have his heavy winter coat off that he was rubbing everything!

Remi, the steer, has a wart near his eye. Everything that I've read said this is common, and that it will go away within the next few months.

After reading this page, I was not worried about it.

Since it's spring, both Echo and Remi have really sloppy 'pies.' I'm not sure if they have coccidiosis or if it's all the fresh grass. We've been dosing them with Corid for the recommended time just in case it's coccidiosis. Corid is one of the medications that we don't worry about using in the beef we eat. It's one of the drugs that's approved by the FDA for prevention and treatment of coccidiosis.

Mountain Monday * 1 June 2015

South of the barn.
31 May 2015

East over the barn.
31 May 2015

North of the barn.
31 May 2015