Grandkids' Visit

Grandkids is a misnomer for young men 18 and 19 years old. Ian has grown up. So has his friend Kellin who came for the first time to visit us with Ian. It was great to get to know Kellin, especially since he is an animal and nature lover who fell in love with all our animals and they with him.  Ian cooked two delicious suppers for us. We hiked to the creek and through the woods and fields. They camped in a tent in our arena, where we all saw the comet, Comet Neowise, the first night they were here.

Photos preserve their visit...

The 3 guys cutting down and feeding blackberries to the goats, who were very appreciative...

Annie Puppy was quite interested in this activity. Well, in all activities...

The three guys cut and put together pieces for the steps into the garden Ian is constructing at home. They used some of the cedar my dad had milled with his sawmill. Cool to have it being used 3 generations later.

Ian wanted a start of a rose that could tolerate shade to put over the grave of their pet chicken, so I took cuttings from Playboy after he researched shade-tolerant roses on the web. I learned that best results come from starting them under 2 liter plastic pop bottles. Johnny has lots of those he saves for putting apple cider in each fall. So Ian cut the bottoms off, as the youtube video instructed, and I dipped the ends of the stems in rooting hormone and put them in pots with our composted soil. Ian took two pots of rose-cuttings-under-bottles home with him and I kept these two pots to try here. Hopefully at least one pot of roses will root!

Afternoons meant hikes to the creek and wading in the cool, well, cold, water...

Of course, I had to take photos of creatures along the way, like this Common Wood Nymph, which is common but not in woods... it likes grassy meadows... Go figure.

Day 2 we hiked to a different part of the creek... the 3 guys waded to the far side over slippery rocks... hiking poles needed...

I went upstream to watch birds and take scenic photos...

And photos of the three of them...

...a scenic photo...

Lots of Cedar Waxwings...

Back in the barn the next morning, Annie Puppy was a star. Here she is with her good friend April Starlight...

... and good friend, now, Kellin

Ian has always loved the goats. Here he is with the young buck I'm keeping for a herd sire: Mocha Knight

Johnny sat down and found himself in the middle of the very friendly goats...

One of the April kids came over to join Kellin and Annie...

Before leaving to drive home, Kellin had to say goodbye to big Mr. McCoy

It was a fun couple of days. Hope they come again when their schedules allow...

July is Busy, too

No time to catch up so I'll try to post photos I've taken this month for a clue to what has been happening...

July 2nd, hiked in to a former BLOY  (Black Oystercatcher) nest site: found 4 BLOY not nesting. (No nesting BLOY at any of my Cascade Head sites this year.) Took photos of offshore rock covered in Brown Pelicans and cormorants and gulls. 

Took a movie of gulls mobbing an eagle that had swooped over the rock dislodging all the panicked pelicans, etc.

Hairy Woodpecker was easier to spot on my hike in than the distant sea birds.

New livestock gaurdian puppy arrived on June21...

It took a few weeks for Annie to get brave enough to get past the big goats into the field. She became determined to play with Mr. McCoy, who at first wanted nothing to do with her. That story on a new blog I started: https://anniepuppy.blogspot.com/2020/07/    The Adventures of Annie Puppy.  

On Monday, July 13, we saw Comet Neowise for the first time from our back field. I tried for photos...

 Johnny discovered he could see the comet from bed at about 11 p.m. so that's how we watch it now... with binoculars although it is barely visible with the naked eye.

Also coast trips for beached bird surveys for COASST and a mile walk for CoastWatch, came along... Below are photos from the mile walk...

No photos yet of the 7 little pullets (female baby chicks) that I bought from a neighbor on July 18 nor of the tons of weeding and mowing throughout, plus garden weeding and watering. It's a busy time of year.

Next post will hopefully have photos of a visit from Ian and his friend Kellin! They are due to arrive today, 7/22.

So Much to Do...

Things don't slow down on the farm for a pandemic. Life... and death... go on.

Fifteen year old Shirley "Puppy" went to sleep and did not wake up on June 16. She had been failing gradually after her remarkable comeback from strokes a year ago. Her story here: https://finkfamilyfarmstories.blogspot.com/2018/03/shirley-puppy.html

Although we intended to wait a year or so before getting another Livestock Guardian pup to help Mister McCoy, who is ten, fate intervened in the form of an ad in the local paper for Great Pyrenees/Maremma pups from the same farm Shirley Puppy came from fifteen years ago. We went and bought  one on Sunday, June 21.

 
The next day, Monday, Johnny mowed all three hay fields. The weather report was no rain until the following Sunday.

  I hurried to the coast on Tuesday to do a Black Oystercatcher survey at Cascade Head before my part of the hay saga began. Johnny stayed home and raked all three fields. The day before I'd helped in the heat with gates and animals and also weeded... managing to get a touch of heat stroke. I don't do hot weather well. Johnny loves it.

 I found no Oystercatchers on the coast, but I did find cool weather and lovely scenery.

These grassy ledges on the cliff is where BLOY have nested in the past... no sign of nesting this day

The rock where BLOY have nested in the past

Pigeon Guillemots

Wednesday I mowed the lawn before my friends and Qi Gong partners came and did Ren Yuan in the front yard, socially distanced and with masks on afterwards. We are all in the dangerous age range. Johnny raked hay again in the afternoon while I weeded, picked strawberries, watered the greenhouse, etc. It was cooler.

Thursday I made a quick dash to Sheridan for feed and other errands. My first excursion out in months. Johnny baled hay.

Friday and Saturday we hauled hay from fields to barns with the help of a local handyman friend.  Johnny re-raked the broken bales and baled them again. All the hay from one field went into the llama shed to be fed to horses. It was stuffed to overflowing.

 In fact, we had to put the last load into one of the buck pens. I'll feed from there to the horses first... well, after I finish all the hay that I stacked on my EZ Go.



The other two fields are full of lotus and that hay goes to the goat barn... Here is our last load going into the goat barn...

The goat barn was also stuffed to overflowing...

 ...overflowing into the aisle of the buck barn... and into several wheelbarrows... Bales that didn't survive the last hay elevator trip stayed on the flatbed trailer... to be fed gradually...

 
Saturday night, it rained. Not much, but enough so Johnny was very relieved all the hay was under cover. I was relieved we were done hauling hay!

Now my poor neglected garden may get hoed and mulched, raised beds weeded, flower beds weeded... between naps...