I can't believe June is almost over!

Time just seems to get away from me, lately. We've been busy and had many projects to work on. I'd like to add and many of them are completed, YEAH! I posted pictures of Mike swathing, well..... on Friday afternoon a bit of a rain storm came, which delayed the baling until Sunday, just to be sure it was dry enough. Mike baled on Sunday morning, netting us.......... 20 bales! Anything was more than we'd expected as we'd decided we'd just graze it this year but with all those Spring rains it grew quicker than the animals could keep up with. This will be enough to get us through the summer and well into Fall. This way we won't have to break into any of the hay we're buying for the winter. We only feed a light flake in the mornings to the horse and cows and then Mo gets a light flake in the evening. Mo only gets to graze for 2 hours, Fjords are such gluts they will founder themselves if left in a pasture all day. He literally NEVER picks up his head when he's out on pasture, LOL!!!! We also got a majority of the garden paths tilled and I weeded several of the rows. It's looking like a garden again, instead of a weed patch. There is still lots to weed yet and we all know it's a never ending job. Mike also got the wood splitter all beefed up and running. The trailer was full of a load of wood he'd cut and brought home last weekend. We need the trailer to pick up hay this afternoon, so Mike and I decided we'd split the wood rather than simply unload it to the ground where it has to be handled yet again. Some of this wood was LARGE pieces and were quit heavy, so if we don't have to pick them up, but rather roll them off the trailer onto the splitter it makes it a bit easier job. Our Dexter cow, Addy will stay with the bull until after her next heat cycle, July 13th, to be sure she took. We're going to visit her sometime this week. Cortney wants to see Abe, the Dexter bull as well as the variety of sheep on our friends homestead. Cortney and I went into the city on Friday to stock up on some personal hygiene items on sale at Shopko as well as pick up 100# of unbleached, Natural White flour from Wheat Montana. The prices of everything are soaring! I'm so thankful that we can raise the majority of what we eat. Having a well stocked pantry it key as well as buying in bulk, IMHO. When heading in, we stopped to drop off garage sale leftover items( mostly VHS kids movies, some clothes and knick knack items)at the community center. This Community center doesn't charge for anything, you take what you want and it works on donation or free will offerings. We decided to look for some summer shirts for Cortney and myself. Around here on the farm they don't have to be fancy, as they usually end up stained. We ended up finding some beautiful dress shirts, several Old Navy T's and a couple a brand new sweatshirts( which Cortney likes for layering in winter) for Cortney and I picked up three very nice T-shirts and two like new sweat shirts. We gave an offering of $10 and the lady insisted that was to much, can you imagine? The Old Navy T's probably cost $15 to $20 new and we picked up two that looked new, I felt like it wasn't enough. On slate for this week is finishing weeding the garden, watering, mowing, weed whacking, picking up 6 ton of hay tonight( out of the field, for a better price). Then Mike is off Tues. morning and he's picking up materials today to shore up the barn roof, it sagging in the middle a bit, and will work on getting a ridge beam installed as well as adding extra 2x4''s to the rafters for more weight bearing( Mike's weight, mind you not that he's heavy but we don't want him falling through*wink*). This is because we are also ordering metal roofing to re-roof the barn. The metal roofing will help to keep snow from collecting in winter. Then the next project will be to build a roof framework to install a metal roof over our firewood stacks. We're taking this in steps because of the cost. Between the two projects it's going to cost over $1,500. Metal prices are supposed to be coming down, I'd hate to see what they were before, GULP. Mike bought a piece of 1/2" x 10"x 5 ft steel, to build the new splitting wedge for the splitter and it cost...... $72 We also added a new cylinder with a longer stroke( to split the larger pieces better) and it cost almost $200, now add in fuel for the chain saws, truck and trailer, the cost of maintaining these items, and sweat equity and gathering wood is getting spendy as well. Although it is far less than the cost of electric and natural gas and it is a warmer heat too. Well.... enough said and we need to get busy on dog poo patrol, planting another half row of radishes, plant some more mini pumpkins( they didn't come up well with all the rain),and getting a load of laundry washing before setting out to mow and weed whack. We have some fun pictures we found from 4 yrs ago we want to post, maybe tonight if not tomorrow! Blessing for your day.