Summertime and the living is FRANTIC!

Wow!  Can't believe it's been a month since a posting!  Summertime has been slamming with family visiting, graduations, rehearsals for Secession Day, Highway 49 band at Malakoff, graduation, the play and finally the 4th of July parade.

Finally had a chance to have coffee at the pond and watch the sun come up.  Watching the ducks wake up and stroll into the water and up the other side of the pond is a moment where you sum up the world and know it's a good day.

Cliff has managed admirably to keep the pasture irrigated, so it's still growing.  Good thing cause the cows are real tired of the dry stuff.  Bella and Aidan, the new horse arrivals have been moved over to the 10 acres on my Dad's place and are eating it down.  Great fire proofing, ya know.  And the pigs are in their last month, growing and getting more aggressive each day, which makes it a little easier.

The fodder trailer - encountered some drainage problems during the month when there was no time to stop and re-configure, so it has been off line since mid June.  I'm looking forward to creating a solution to the drainage problem and beginning again.  The cows have missed the sweet, fresh barley so they will appreciate my efforts to begin again, right away.

The orchard, did I tell you I had the best crop of sour pie cherries for the first year bloom?  Everyday we'd test the fruit to see if it was ready and at last, were within one day of picking.  Next morning, armed with colander we anxiously approached our first cherry crop, only to find our tree with broken branches and nary a cherry.  Apparently, the birds had them on the radar screen and there was a preemptive strike, leaving total decimation. To avoid future disasters, Cliff has built a PVC frame to hold a protective netting for the nectarine tree that is ripening now.

Having caught you up on the news, I'd better tell you of future plans for horse hostels.  We've had the round pen, purchased from a friend, Tony Argento.  He kept his mules here for a couple of years and put this up to work them.  When he finally got his ranch and moved the mules I bought the round pen, thinking wouldn't it be great for the grandkids to learn how to ride, right here on the ole' Double B.  So we've moved it and put it up in the middle ground, by the tractor barn, the cows had been eating the grass around it but not so much within.  So we got out ole blue, the Ford tractor, and went round and round with the box scraper to smooth out the riding arena.  The horses came with their own portable horse stalls and they have been laying around in the pasture waiting for us to find a little time. 

This morning with the cooler, fresh morning was perfect for working on the stalls.  Four hours later, we, especially ME, were worn out.  The two units were loaded, moved, unloaded, stood up and hooked together, three times, since we did one completely wrong.  We did in a last exhausted effort manage to put up the frame for the roof panels, but that was it.  I cried Uncle whatever, cain't do no mo today!  Took the rest of the day off, drove up to Paradise to look at a truck, ate cajun shrimp at Popeye's and on the return had dinner at the Vineyard, not mine but from my outdoor table, it is right in my back yard.  What a great day.  Tomorrow we'll go back to being builders.