Enjoying Summer

The boys love watching the butterflies and bees on the flowers in my herb garden. They really like the cone flowers and yarrow. The borage and bee balm are also buzzing with activity.

What's summer without a big juicy slice of watermelon?

Blessings abound...

The past couple of weeks have been a challenge in health issues and frustrations, but last night Wayne and I were able to look back and realize how the blessings outnumber the difficulties...

Yesterday afternoon a friend took Ian for a ride in his truck while his wife had coffee with me. Ian had a wonderful time talking about cows, touring the hardware store while eating an ice cream and gummi bears, and downing a bottle of strawberry/kiwi lemonade. When they returned, Ian had a wonderful time of recounting his travels with Mr. John. I, as always, enjoyed visiting with Stephanie over a cup of coffee. (This is Ian "dusting" his newly shaved head.)

Later our friend came and mowed down the brush on the edge of the field and moved big chunks of an oak tree up closer to the woodshed so it will be easier for the boys to cut up and split.
Wayne was feeling really rough yesterday and knowing that the fire wood supply for winter was right outside the woodshed door was a great encouragement.

As I was finishing up the dinner dishes, I heard someone at the door. Our former neighbor Gary had stopped in for a visit. We pulled up chairs on the side porch and listened to Gary tell us one entertaining tale after another before he climbed back onto his Harley to head home.

In the early evening I looked out the window to see strangers in our side lawn. They had gone to the drive-in up the road and since it wasn't dark yet, they decided to take a walk. The goats were making a ruckus, which got their attention. They saw the chickens and wondered if we sold eggs. We had a couple dozen so while they were paying for them, they saw the alpaca. They called their children who were still back at the drive-in and told them they had to come see the animals. It was great showing them the animals and letting them have an up close and personal view of the chicks, rabbits, alpaca, dogs, and goats. (They live in NYC but have country homes about 40 minutes from here.) After they left, we realized once more how the little things we take for granted...and sometimes dread dealing with (i.e. dirty barns)...are blessings, and how wonderful it is to share those blessings with others.

Katelyn painted this sign for Wayne's Fathers' Day gift. It's by our driveway flower garden greeting everyone as they arrive. This little plot of land truly lives up to its name.

An addition to the last post...

I didn't clarify why we met Jo Ellen at the Fire Dept. parking lot... (You may want to read the post below before reading this one)

Jo Ellen lives approximately 1 1/2 hours from here in a very beautiful, rural area. I thought I grew up in the country until we got to Jo Ellen's farm...it's nestled on the side of a hill at the end of a long driveway that crosses a creek. Thankfully, our van was able to get up her hill without any problems, but with all the rain we've been having her driveway was beginning to suffer some major ruts and deep spots. When we went to her farm to meet the goats, she told us that if Marc decided to buy one, she'd meet us half way so we didn't have to drive so far. On our way back from her farm I was looking for a convenient spot to transfer a goat...thus the Plymouth NY Fire department parking lot. Thanks, Jo Ellen, for coming down the hill to deliver Pumpkin!

The newest arrivals...

We received a delivery of pullet chicks the other day to replace Marc's laying flock. (Thanks, Grampa!) The older 'girls' have faithfully been producing eggs for a few years now. Since Marc has several egg customers he needed to get some new producers to keep up with demand. We've ordered some meat birds to be delivered next week so we'll have lots of little peepers in the barn.

And he-e-ere's Pumpkin (Short for Pumpkin Moonshine)...
Marc got his newest addition to the goat herd yesterday. We met Jo Ellen at the Fire Dept. parking lot to transfer pumpkin from the back of her truck to the back of our van. I told Marc on the way home that I never expected that I would be driving goats around in the back of our van.

Marc was very excited last night when he milked Pumpkin and got so much more than he typically does from Twilight. It looks like she'll definitely be earning her keep.
She's adjusting to all the activity on the farm. The other two goats are trying to adjust...they bawled and bawled yesterday...to the point that Wayne actually took a lawn chair out and sat near them so they'd quiet down. As long as there was someone near by they'd stop crying, but when it was just them and the 'new girl' they'd start in bawling again. They were fine once they were shut up in the barn for the night. They are much quieter today.

So, I guess I need to go change our profile to 3 goats...

Sunny Days of June

Marc turned 16 this year...

Katelyn turned 10...And we won't say how old Linda turned...

The other day the boys were out playing. Ian is pretending to be "Pepper" a little boy that is a character on one of the Lego computer games he likes to play. Whenever he has his hat and backpack on we know we're supposed to call him "Pepper". If we want to talk to Ian we have to ask Pepper to go find Ian for us. Ian will then go to the back door and yell, "Ian! Mom and Dad want you!" He'll come back and tell us that Ian is on his way back to the house and will be right with us. Then he'll take off his backpack and hat and become Ian again. Jonathan decided he wanted to learn to ski...he had a hard time understanding that we can't just order snow when he wants it.

The other night we had a beautiful sunset...
Even though the saying goes, "Red sky at night, sailors delight" we had plenty of rain the next day. Thankfully, the river continues to stay within its banks.

Before I forget...Marc didn't get a goat today, but he thinks he's going to get a sweet tempered Nubian named Pumpkin Moon. (I think she'll be called Pumpkin when she arrives at the farm.)

Kate's at it again...

Katelyn has been taking some more pics of the critters on the farm.


This is "Little Creek"Here's Rachael with Peter...And this is a very frisky Captain...

2/3 Through the Season

No, not the summer season...'birthday season'. The Jackson family is unique in that all 9 of us have our birthdays within a 3 month stretch...3 of them in the same week, 2 on the same day! By the end of July (Rachael's birthday is the grand finale on 7/27) we are all pretty tired of birthday cake.

I have some pics to post, but I don't have the time to download them right now because Marc and I are about to go on a trip to the Cortland area to look at goats. Marc wanted to have Twilight bred so we could continue with milking. She's not a very cooperative milker so we suggested he buy a different doe which had just kidded. We put out an e-mail on the area's listserve and got quite a few responses. The woman we are going to see today used to work with 4-H kids and offers a discount to young people. We're looking at 2 Nubian does this morning to see if either of them is what Marc wants. We'll be posting the results of our visit later today...