Summertime!

Summertime and the work on the farmhouse has come to a halt.  We spent a week in California at Golden Trout in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, hiking and camping in the ice and snow!

Then we spent another week at Yosemite National Park where we had beautiful weather, rainbows and more snow!

Back home at the farm the garden suffered from extreme heat and no rain, but we still got plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit to eat, can and dry.  Someday I'll have a freezer!

Critter activity at the farm has not slowed down.  A mockingbird built a nest in the fig bush and raised three babies who have now left the nest.

Tom saved my life by finding a seven-foot black snake curled in the nest box in the chicken house.  He carried the snake way out in the pasture to let him go.  Hopefully, it will take a long time for the snake to get back to the chicken house!

We found three female Pekin ducks on Craig's List and bought them to keep our males company.  Petunia, Pamela, and Priscilla made themselves right at home and give us three duck eggs a day.  The male ducks, Oscar and Felix, are very, very happy.

One of our guineas made a nest on the ground near the chicken house and sat on 10 eggs for about two weeks.  Something, probably a stray cat, got into the nest and broke most of the eggs.  The guinea abandoned the rest so we got the eggs and put them under a broody hen.  The hen sat for another two weeks and three guinea eggs hatched!  Gertrude is so proud of her chicks and is teaching them to scratch.  It will be interesting to see what happens when they grow up to be guineas instead of hens!

We have done a little shopping on Craig's List and found old doors for the basement and an already refinished tub for the bathroom.  We got bids in for painting the outside of the house and should begin that next week.

Our big news for July was the addition of Jasmine, also found on Craig's List.  She is a five-month old German Shepherd puppy and is learning to get along with ducks, chickens, and guineas.  She's such a sweet girl and is learning fast.  I think she'll be a great farm dog.

The storms keep breaking up and going around York so we have had almost no rain in June and July.  Temperatures have been near 100 F almost every day.  I'm ready for Fall and some rain and cooler temperatures!  At least this year we have running water, a bathroom, and air-conditioning.  Progress.