Just One of Those Nights (Or Joon to the Rescue)

Last night around dusk I was straining the evening milk and contemplating starting supper, when DH and I heard a cow commotion. We knew ED was moving cows from one pasture to another, so we went to see if we could give her a hand, and got there just in time to see Bella the Dexter crawl through the neighbor’s barbwire fence to join the herd of cows and young bulls on the other side.

 

It has been assumed that Bella is bred, as she lives with a Dexter bull when she’s not here, but if she wasn’t, and she got bred by one of these big mixed-breed beef bulls, it could be disastrous, so it was really important that we got her out of there! ‘There’ being a seemingly vast, partially forested, steep, gully-ridden mountain pasture, covered with thistles and horse nettles, and crisscrossed with barbed wire and single-strand electric fences. In the dark.

 

Unbelievably, we were able to get her away from all the other cows and out of the pasture, and home, all thanks to Amazing ED and Joon the Wonder Dog–if not for Joon, I guess we’d still be up there flailing around ineffectually. As it was, we got back to the house at 10:30, where the milk was still waiting to be strained, and supper still waiting to be cooked.

Aronia Berries

A couple of years ago, we planted two Aronias, aka ‘Chokeberries’. I might should’ve paid more attention to the common name: they are vile! They’re supposed to be ridiculously high in antioxidants, but I don’t know how that works when you can’t eat the durn things. If anybody has any experience with these, please advise!

Hungry?

A friend stopped by with these goodies for the pigs. I think they’ll enjoy some of this deliciousness with their daily ration of milk and produce!

Dog Days

It has been insinuated by members of my own family that I don’t take the heat very well—even that I get a little moody when it’s this hot. This necessitated a serious talking to with said family members—loudly—and I think we’ve got that all straightened out now.

 

Seriously, it is awfully hard to function in this weather. It doesn’t help that it’s too hot to sleep at night! DH is great about dragging us all down to the river to swim: instant mood changer! That’s where he and the girls are now; I’m here growling irritably to myself.

 

Dog days, indeed.

Big Grownup Duckies

Haven’t they grown? They’re almost all feathered out—they’re so pretty! And actually fairly friendly, though they hate to see me show up with a camera, for some reason!