Unhappy Sheep

The sheep are NOT happy! (Note several butt shots!) We limed the fields today and they have to be off them until we get some rain. Unfortunately the storm we thought would wash it in has passed us once again and now there is no rain in sight. The dry weather is making life on the homestead very hard these days. We have torn up fields getting ready for Fall planting hoping to establish new pastures for rotational grazing and more hay in the Spring. This past month has brought no rain and high temps. We keep waiting for a window to get something in the ground but so far it has been pointless. We are beginning to think that planting Fall and Winter forage may be the route we have to take since we are fast burning through hay storage and odds are not good for another cutting. This will be the first year since we have been doing our hay we have not had at least 2 cuttings. Come on Mother Nature! We could use a little help here on the homestead.

Blackberry Bargian

I love the "death" section at Lowe's. You know that back corner where they move poor plants to die. 

Today's good find were blackberry bushes marked down to $5. I bought 3 more to add to the 5 already planted by the fence line. Our blackberries the last couple of years have done extremely well. With 3 more plants we should have plenty to preserve in the way of jams, jellies and pie filling. Thank you Lowe's for adding to our edible landscaping. Our new bushes just needed a little kindness and some water!

Chickens

A few weeks ago I was taking care of our chickens and realized I only had a few younger hens. The rest are aging out. I guess I lost my mind for a bit and ordered 25 brown egg layers and 15 bantam chicks. At the time this seemed like a really good idea!
My plan for the bantams is to use them for live little brooding machines. They are such good mamas and if I let one or two go broody each Spring I should not have to buy anymore chicks. Chalk one up for being more self sufficient if that plan actually works out.
I lost a couple the first day but they actually shipped 19 bantams so it all evened out. Hopefully I will end up with more banty hens than roosters! Everyone is settled in and doing well. Who can resist cute baby chicks? Not me. Yep this was a really good idea!

Mushroom Mix-up

Another mushroom bargain this week! I bought several packs of button mushrooms that were reduced and picked up what I thought were shiitakes to dehydrate. Opps. They were sliced portobellos. Not to worry. I canned up the buttons and supper tonight was a most delish soup made with some of the mushroom stock I canned a while back and a loaf of homemade crusty bread. This will be added to my list of keeper recipes.

Still Too Hot!

The Fall seedlings are begging to be set out. However, the intense heat and lack of rain are putting us way behind.With daily temperatures in the 90's and the heat index over 100 most days we will have to wait a while longer. Sigh. It truly has been a long hot summer!

A Gift Of Tomatoes

A sweet friend asked if I would like a bushel of tomatoes. Absolutely! I spent the day processing most of them into salsa and dehydrating some Romas that were in the mix.

At the end of the day 28 pints of salsa and 2 quarts of dehydrated tomatoes were added to the pantry. This was a huge blessing since the drought has almost completely wiped ours out. We are still looking for some much needed rain so we can start getting the fall garden in.