This and That catching up!

Wow time really does fly when you're having fun, or even working your backside off*wink* I still have to get pictures of certain things around the farm, it's just finding the time to do it that's the problem.  Seems as if the days are not long enough to get everything that NEEDS to be done, done and it's now complicated by the fact that we have been invaded by millions upon millions of mosquitoes. So you either douse yourself in Deep Woods Off every hour or so or you work in the heat of the day, when they are in hiding from the heat.*sigh*  Trying to keep up with the weeds this year has proven to be a real chore, with all the rainfall we received in May and beginning of June we have a bumper to bumper crop of weeds, some of which we've NEVER seen before. LOL!!!   Also now we're seeing evidence of a bumper hatching of grasshoppers, just praying the stay out in the fields and don't migrate into the garden areas. This years garden has been such a struggle already and with storm after storm and the worry of hail damage, adding  in a grasshopper invasion might just break the proverbial camel's back. 

Here are some pictures of how high the river has been and the fact that we've lost 10 to 15 ft of land along our bank and one corner even took out a line of fencing, which we temporarily fenced until high water is done taking away our land, then the whole fence line will have to be moved in and restrung. We're just glad we didn't flood, our neighbors to the East and South of us did, our banks are  high enough to have kept the raging waters at bay, praise the Lord!  The high waters are gradually receding but will continue to be above normal until possibly Oct. 
Here are some pictures of the rive, our animals and some of the happening around here.

 Cortney and Mike hard at work changing fluids, spark plugs, spark plug wires, checking belts and hoses on Cortney's car. Yes, Cortney's car, she saved and saved and bought her own car. I don't think I posted that she passed the driving portion of her driver's test on June 11th scoring a 100%. Her car is a 1990 Ford Taurus sedan and we are so proud of her!

 The river, well we've been dealing with high, extremely high snow pack runoff since beginning of June. If you look( click photo to enlarge) at the right side of the picture( that's our bank), as far up the river as that white building, you'll see that there is still 2-3 ft of back, well when the river is at normal levels that bank is 15 to 18 feet tall, so gives you an idea of how high the water is right now.

 I the shaded portion of this photo we used to have 10-15 ft of bank with a willow tree, chokecherry bushes, wild roses, etc.....   The picture below shows it from another angle that portion of the bank missing was further out than the bushes at the base of the tree( below).

 You can see the T- post in the foreground, well about two feet to the right( toward the river) was our fence line corner posts, not anymore!*sigh*

 Cortney my nephew and niece( here visiting from AK) and myself pulled these three Railroad Ties up out of the rushing waters. I felt good about saving them to reuse when we re fence this entire line of fencing. Right now we temporarily fence that corner off with T-posts so the cows don't get in the river.

 Two days prior to this photo of the bridge, just to the east of our farm, the water was lapping the bottom of the upper portion of the arches.  It sounded like a freight train and it was scary.

 The farmers across the river from our farm have corrals close to the river, as you can see they are flooded, as was the county road to the ranches/ farms behind us due to flooding and washing away of the roadway.

One blessing of the 9" of rain we received in May was a bountiful harvest in our hay pasture.  We typically get around 2 ton of hay from one cutting and then we graze it the remainder of the Summer, Fall and Winter. We baled it this weekend( Sat.) and took off 5 bales over 4 ton of hay! We are so............. excited!!!!!!  This weekend we baled the 4+ ton of hay, loaded it and put it in the barn loft, along with an additional 2-1/2 ton we purchased from a friend. I feel good that it's all up safe and dry in the barn. Now all we need is 1-1/2 ton of alfalfa hay and that is plentiful this year, so we shouldn't have any problems getting the needed amount.

Cortney celebrated her 20th B-day on July 3rd and she wanted to share a very special blessing she received from a fellow blogger friend; Sandra over at Thistle Cove Farms( you can find her link on our side wall)  Isn't that a beautiful wrap and it matches so many dresses Cortney has, it's going to be a well worn piece of clothing.  Thank you Sandra, for being so thoughtful. :o)

 The garden and all the weeds( hoping you can't see how many*wink*

 Raspberries starting, can't wait for them to ripen :o)

 Hoss, says Good Morning. He's enjoying the coolness of the morning .

 Another view, so you can see how big he's gotten and such a baby yet. He enjoys his morning hip and butt rubbing( right between his hind legs, as hard and fast as you can rub, he loves it!

 Button in her own little world, getting ready to chew her cud.

 Some of the apple trees we planted 7 yrs ago are simply loaded with apples this year! I'm so excited to try these new varieties( one is a Wolf River, another a Liberty and another Duchess of Oldenburg)

 Here's Angel, doesn't she look great! her twins are gone and she's dried off and putting on some much needed weight.  We had to worm her twice before we noticed her gaining weight and holding onto it. She's so shiny and slicked out now. We really enjoy her, she's such a sweet little goat and she loves to be around people.

 Ginger is looking good too, she's all slick and shiny too and is now giving us almost a gallon of milk a day. :o)  She's not as friendly of a goat, but is beginning to show that she enjoys our company and bleats when she sees us now.

 Here is Pistol, Ginger's wether. He's going to his new home, hopefully this week. We will miss him, he's very sweet. If only he'd been born a girl! *sigh*

 Turkey poults and their two mamas. We had 9 survive and feel blessed as we have all of them sold already!

It's hard to get a good picture of all of them as the toms and hens are constantly on protective detail, LOL!!!!!

Well, hope that catches you up a bit and we'll try to get more photos posted on day to day projects, we have several in the works.