Of Beans and Grain and Naughty Goats

It's canning season!  Yes, that is exciting!  I guess some folks just don't care to hang out in the kitchen doing this sort of thing, but I do!  I canned some beans on Tuesday, and there are some more on the stove right this minute.  On Tuesday, I had 6 pints to process, so the smaller (more user friendly) canner was a good fit.  Today, I have 8 pints going.  The small canner only holds 7, so I had to get out (cue dramatic organ music) The Behemoth.   

The Behemoth dwarfs my other canner. 

Out in the garden, I have been keeping an eye on the melons.  It’s difficult to tell (for me anyway) when watermelon are ready.  I have picked quite a few before their time, which is no good, but if you wait too long, they are soup inside.  Either way, the chickens benefit. One of the alleged ways to tell is if the bottom where it rests on the ground is yellow.  This big one is, so I picked it today and it is chilling in the fridge.  I’ll let you know how it turns out later, like tomorrow.

I’ll throw in a chick picture here… they are feasting on graham crackers that have grown stale in the Troop Trailer… The little ones are looking much better with more feathers, and you can see one more of the bigger ones in the background there.  

Rollie combined the rye this week.  Kevin says the yield was a bit lower than expected.  Next will be the oats.  Sorry, no photos of the combine in action, which I would have like to have had.  Maybe next time!

Now, it the category of “If it’s not one thing, it’s another…”

Kevin and I spent some quality time together mucking out the goat pen in the shed this morning.  It has been quite a while because Bob(cat) has been down waiting for a part.  So now Bob is running again.  We fork the bedding and poo into the bucket and when it’s full, Kevin dumps it into the wagon to be hauled out to a pile to compost.  The wagon has a hydraulic lift making it easy to unload.  Well, one load was all it could manage today, and a welding project is in order to get it functioning again.

Kevin and Bob take the last bedding away

The wagon waits for a repair job...

And about those goats…

When we are around home, we open the gate between the horse pasture and goat pasture.  The horses help knock down the long grass on the goat side and the goats work on the weeds on the horse side.  They all are getting along fine these days.

 The problem is, Chicky can just walk through the fence on the horse side.  Here she is trimming some weeds on the side of the garage.  Not a bad thing, but there are just too many other temptations out there in the yard, so the goats have been restricted to their designated area again. 

Cute goat eats weeds... but is the laundry on on the line next?

 And life at Ole Lake marches on.