Saturday at Hope Creek Diversified Farm

Cool. Very cool most of the day and a brisk breeze. Made it seem cooler than it was.

In the morning I weed whacked the area outside the gate and along the road to the Dexter pasture. Then I went into the paddock that's attached to the middle stall and weed whacked there. When I was done I let the Dexters into the pen to chew down the grass. The grass wasn't very high but the critters seemed to enjoy the treat. They've mostly been eating baled hay since I have no grass left.

Chas made grilled cheese sandwiches and (ugh) canned beans for lunch. I hate canned beans for some reason.

After lunch I weed whacked the area to the south of the main gate into the road pasture. It looks a lot better.

Then I filled the tank and changed the cord on the weed whacker and went down to the potting shed and cleared the tall grass and weeds around the shed. I also went into the gazebo garden and mowed down a lot of weeds there. I made a lot of paths through the gazebo garden. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish off the gazebo pasture and maybe work around the potting shed and finish it. It always looks so much better when the grass is even and the weeds are gone.

Chas painted some more of the west side of the house in the afternoon.

I was amazed. It only took me half an hour this evening to do chores. Feeding the Dexters with the round bale feeder and having pasture that the Herefords can munch on makes it so much less time consuming to feed. Peeling leaves of hay off a 4x4 foot bale is no fun and is hard work.

I'm gradually easing the goats over to more of a grass/alfalfa diet because I think it will be healthier for them. The Boer goats are getting quite portly.

I made a wonderful stew from some of our beef and zucchini from the garden. I used store bought red potatoes and carrots. Spiced it up with some chicken bouillon and bay leaves as well as some rosemary. I'd made Zoom bread earlier in the day. It was a small loaf. I don't think I added enough water to the mix and it just didn't rise. The bread tasted great anyway.

I purchased 6 garlic heads online at eBay from crankycarlsgarlic406 (http://myworld.ebay.com/crankycarlsgarlic406/) for $12.48. I already have garlic heads from the grocery store but wanted some fancy heads to plant in my horse trough planter.

I purchased some fencing supplies from Premier Sheep and some rope halters from Nasco. I also purchased a California castrator and some bands from My MicroStore.com. The California castrator looks easy to use and you can band an animal up to adulthood. We're talking bulls, here, not goats.

Tonight was my time to spend some money on the farm, I guess.