But, on a better note

Breeding has begun. I am 2 weeks later than I wanted to be. But, with shoulder surgery scheduled for December 4th, and me in a sling for 6 weeks, I needed to back it up.

 Looking out to the back pasture, and 

(below) the same shot zoomed in.

 Looking up the driveway towards the barn, 

chicken house, and Candace's temporary hut.

 Looking down the driveway to Stormy's 

temporary hut.

 

 The pigs' yard is right next to where Stormy and 

his girls are. They needed to come out and say Hi!

Why does this bee feel the need to chew on this pallet?

It is one of the ones around Stormy's 'house'.

 Stormy.

 3 of this year's ewe lambs, and Socks.

Socks is a 2 1/2 year old Dorset/Romney that

did not recover well from lambing this spring.

She is getting a year off.

 Inside the boys' pen.

 Only 3 Horned Dorsets and 3 chickens 

were inside on the girls side.

Stormy, the 9 year old Romney, has girls down next to the garden in a temporary hut built with the pallets left from the pigs' pen, 2 semi-rounded cattle panels, a sheet of black plastic, a tarp and a green gate to lock them in at night.

Chip, the 6 month old Horned Dorset, has girls in the girls side of the barn. Jeremy, the 4 year old Dorset x Romney (Stormy's son) has girls in the boys pen. And Candace, the 9 year old retired Horned Dorset, has this year's 4 ewe lambs in the front yard in a temporary hut built from green horse gates, 2 semi-rounded cattle panels, a sheet of black plastic, a tarp, and a green gate to lock them in at night.

Stormy, Chip and Candace are all behind electric net fencing.

They will stay together until October 1st. Then they will all go back to their regular pens. Hopefully Chip will be big enough to go in with the boys and they don't pick on him.

My head and heart hurt and my spirit feels broken

After all the time and money that went into my tomato crop, we've been hit by late blight on our tomatoes. http://www.gardeners.com/how-to/prevent-late-blight/7262.html I know in my heart that some of it is my fault for planting too close together. (They did not look like they were going to be that close when I put them in.) And, I will NOT buy plants from Home Depot  ever again.

The plants are getting pulled out and put in the wool compost pile. I do not want this in any regular compost pile as I don't want the fungus to spread. Even the sheep are not getting the affected plants and fruit. The dead plants will then be covered by fleece skirts as I work my way through the fall shearings of fleeces.

NEXT year, we will do what our butcher does and put up cedar posts and plant the tomatoes next to those. Then we will be able to walk around the plants. THIS year, I will plant winter rye where the tomatoes were to try to negate any damage done by the blight.

When I first saw the dying plants, I blamed in on the temperatures being in the low 40's for most of the week... But, then I decided to Google it. :(

 I managed to save some out of the first

20 plants I pulled. I still have 30 (or more)

plants to pull. I am hoping I can ripen the 

green ones in the house. But, it looks like

no salsa for us this year. Unless all of the 

Roma tomatoes ripen at once.

 One pile of the pulled plants.

I did not anticipate doing this 

until the first of October. :(

 Can you see the blight on the tomatoes?

 At least the zinnias were not affected.

The bumblebees are still busy collecting pollen.

 The lettuce is doing great! 

The cilantro is going to seed.

That is OK. I will see if I can get

some of that seed saved for next year.

Surgery is tentatively scheduled

for December 4th. I am so excited!!! I am sure it will be here before I know it!

Shoulder news

Come early December I should be getting more surgery on my shoulder. She said there will be a metal piece over the ball and a screw to hold it in place.

Jerry has hernia surgery scheduled first and I will be in a sling for 6 weeks with another year of recovery time ahead of me. In the meantime to give me some relief while I wait they gave me a shot of Tramadol in the shoulder joint. I refused the cortisone shot as I did not react well to the last one. We will see if this helps. She said it should give me some relief for up to 6 weeks. It would be wonderful to get off the Vicodin...

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00094

6 weeks in a sling should be fun! At least doing it in December and January I have nothing I have to deal with on the farm. Ewes will be quietly growing their lambs, the chickens may be giving eggs, but I can collect those one handed, and the pigs will be a distant memory. Provided the butcher can take them before surgery.

Jerry's surgery is in October. After our last 2 big shows of the year, and after fall shearing is done. He will have 6 weeks himself to heal before the pigs go to the butcher. Fortunately he is able to wait for hernia surgery as it is 'only' torn with no intestine involved. But, trust me, I am watching him carefully. As someone who has had 3 hernias of my own, I know they are nothing to fool around with.

I am so excited to hopefully be putting the worst of this shoulder behind me!

I was actually seen by 2 doctors yesterday. The surgeon, Dr. Boselli,

https://www.concordortho.com/physicians/karen-j-boselli

and another doctor who she consulted with and was the one to give me the shot, Dr. Androlia,

https://www.concordortho.com/physicians/adam-p-androlia

The shot was painful and the procedure was interesting. He went in through the back of my shoulder and used ultrasound to located where to put the injection. I don't want to see that bill...

Have a wonderful August all! I hope I'll be back before another month has passed. 😁

A day in the hay field

Yikes! It's been a month since I've blogged.

I am been trying to stay off the computer as I have 

plenty to do outside to keep me busy. Even if it is

will only one arm. But, tomorrow we see a new 

surgeon and we will see if she will replace my 

shoulder or if I am stuck with the very limited 

range of motion and serious pain..

In the meantime, this is what we have been doing

when we have long stretches of nice weather. We 

managed to beat the weather yesterday before the 

threatened thunderstorms rolled in. But, the skies 

were impressive while we were working in the field.

 Our newest piece of equipment.

A pin-wheel rake.

A whole new learning curve for me!

And, my trusty John Deere tractor.

Hydrostatic clutch and small enough

to drive one handed. Easy on and off also.

 Driving the truck, while Jerry picks up bales, is 

our neighbor Pebbles. She and her husband were 

such a big help to us yesterday! They got the hay 

off the trailer twice and up into the loft. I haven't 

lost the strength in my right arm, yet and don't plan

to. If the bale is less than 50#, I can still lift right handed.

 From behind.

My front view of the world, at least for the day!

If my hips and knees did not get so stiff from sitting

so long, I'd spent the entire day on my tractor moving 'stuff'.