Ah, the joys of Summer...

I love summer. Period.

 The bright, sunny mornings when everything is so fresh and new.
 The hot afternoons when you've finished work for the day and can sit in the shade of a tall, leafy ash, a good book nestled in your hands{current read: The Looking Glass Wars} and your favorite dog leaning against your legs.

But my favorite time is the long evenings and brilliant sunsets. My time to ride.
  Lately my friend Jacque{formerly CC} has been up at her grandparents, my neighbors, and we've gotten to ride together a lot. Or should I say adventuring? We go up the gullies and down through the trees, Jake, Jacque's horse, often finding the lowest branches to walk under, much to her dismay.
 Roanie's spooking problem is gradually getting better. She used to dance-out and lurch at the slightest rustle in the bushes, but since we've been riding with Jacque and Jake, I've made her lead, something she is not accustomed to. It's been interesting to say the least :P With monsters lurking in that sagebrush, or just over the hill. The wildlife has boomed up there in the pasture too, adding to the experience. So far I've seen two foxes{probably they have a litter of pups together :)}, a band of young buck whitetails, a stray antelope, a coyote, a hawk family with a giant nest, a huge "friendly" owl that took a swoop at us and freaked Roanie out the rest of the ride, a badger, a skunk loping weirdly up the valley, and countless cottontail bunnies and jack rabbits.

The sunset last night was fantastic, I only regret that I had no working camera to capture it. Describing it with words is impossible. But the colors.... Fiery orange, purest gold lining, shining white, soft, muted pinks, and cool river blue...

I can't help being thankful for the place GOD has planted me. It's just so perfect and complete.

What is your special time and place? What does a beautiful sunset mean to you?

-Gwyn

A week in which much is accomplished

Hello again! I've been off for quite awhile and was, as the title suggests, very busy. Many, many, things are going to be happening and so we are preparing now as well as getting things done while we still have time.

 First and foremost, we finished the hay! Whoop! Mathematically, we got about 110 round bales{6 feet tall} per 15 square acres. Can you believe that?? We usually only get around 50! We have stacked 51 bales in our stackyard for us to keep and the rest we are selling. This grass is really good too - good enough to feed the horses this winter - so we might not have to buy loads of hay from others this year like we have in the past when our hayfields were full of pigwheat and other weeds only fit for cows to eat.


Mum and I took a day and made strawberry jam that is to die for.

There is nothing quite like homemade jams and jellies.

I have been rearranging my room just about every day, trying to get it the way I want it. I went crazy and bought a load of picture frames to put my photographs and artwork in, but I'm running out of room on my walls! My art-and-writing nook is yet to be completed. I still need to put up my gigantor corkboard. And I'm in the middle of organizing my artwork. Not an easy project!

Sunday was my little brother's 10th(!) birthday{I still can't believe he's that old! I remember turning ten!} and a few days before his was my Da's birthday. I'll be nice this time and not mention his age... :D

The second week of August is the County/4-H Fair! and things are CrAzY. This year you have to pre-register all your entries by Aug. 2nd for some incredibly vapid[new favorite word there :}] reason. They{the fair guild} don't seem to understand that, on average, each participant doesn't even know what they're taking until the night before. So we have been scrambling to get all our projects in order by... good gosh! MONDAY?? *yelps*
 I'm in all sorts of categories ranging from Breads to Educational Posters. I don't have pictures of everything, but I did take one of an antique photo collage wall hanging I did for Home Environment:

Hmm... This one turned out blurry. Drat.

The letter that makes up the background was written by my great-grandfather while he still lived in Germany!{Yes, that means it is in German :)} It's dated July 16th 1910. And I found it on... July the 16th 2010!! How cool is that?

You can see my grandpa with a friend on the far left. The faded sepia next to it is my great-uncle when he was about 3 chasing the chickens in the barnyard. Next over is the team of draft horses my grandpa's family shared with other homesteaders. And on the top is a picture of my great-aunt as a child, playing in the hayloft.

I love all things old fashioned, but photos are the best.

On top of all those things, I'm going to open an Etsy Shop for my jewelry. I have been planning on opening one since last November when I first heard of Etsy but never got round to looking into it. My Etsy has a cause behind it as well, something that has been on my mind for for a long while. I never had the answer until now.... I won't tell you more until I've fully set up everything :)

Harvest has begin with the picking of baseball bat sized summer squash. I don't know if we're going to get much more than gourds this year - the grasshoppers are worse than terrible - but I'm crossing my fingers for a few tomatoes.

Briefly, some highlights:
 We've got a big pack of coyotes nearby at the moment and they screech and holler to high heaven every night. O_O It is very hard to sleep.
 A pair of foxes had kits up in our neighbor's high pasture and omygoodness! They are the cutest things alive!! I've only gotten to see them once while I was riding up there and I sorely wished I had my camera!
 Shyanne pulled a tendon in her left hind leg so I can't ride her at the mo.
 Hooey rolled on some cactus - I had to perform "surgery".
 I plan to have another Little Fun Thing soon, but at the moment the camera isn't working so I don't know when exactly "soon" is. Hang in there!
That's what has been happening in my life.... What's going on in yours?

-Gwyn

Super excitement!

Why you ask? My Mum just surprised me with  tickets to a Celtic Woman concert in August!! *screams!*

 I am ecstatic! I mean, I never actually been to a concert like this before! Whoop!
 I really, really, really hope Orla will be singing there! Her voice is my favorite.

Just a little lost

Today has be a difficult day of me, in more ways than one.
  First there was the difficulty of getting all my work done and done well; second, I had a little I guess you could say breakdown when I spent a half hour trying to get the horses in. Just as they were heading for the gate Shyanne{the leadmare, by the way} took off down into the lower pasture and went all the way to the highway, the other horses following close behind. I was so angry I just stormed back in the house and left them to do as they jolly well pleased. Then tonight at a quarter past ten Da caught his horse and after awhile was able to chase the others into the pen{and on his birthday too}. He wasn't happy that I had skived off just because I was upset, after all the golden rule of horsemanship is to control your emotions so that they don't translate to the horse. So now I feel like a failure in one way or another; because I didn't have time to clean the water tank, I couldn't get the horses in.
 Then to top it all one of my friends is now "in a relationship". It wouldn't be a bad thing... if it wasn't her. I know her and how this is going to change her. She conforms to peer pressure like no one else I've ever known. I want her to stay the sweet girl she is and not the stereotypical highschooler she wants to become.  I don't know what to do. Maybe I'm just overwhelmed and overtired.

I'm sorry if this is a rant you don't want to read, but I had to get my feelings straightened out, and the best way I know how to is to write. So I think I'm going to go find comfort by reading my Bible, praying for strength and wisdom, and turn out the lights to hopefully awake tomorrow ready to take on the challenges I could not face today.

-Gwyn

Cuttin' Time

'Tis the season to make hay!

Starting today, we are cutting the fields and raking rows. Before we cut the grass was higher than our horses' ears! Hopefully this means the 12 year drought is nearing its end. 

After the grass rows dry out we'll then bale it all to make great big rounds of hay, tied with string. The grass should dry rather quickly in this heat, and hopefully it won't rain until we get it all baled up. Wet grass equals moldy hay.

Making Hay

"...this is the moment

at the threshold of a new day when the heart

of every farmer forgets its scriptures and speaks

directly to the quiet land..."

- Unknown

It is also the time to start planning for next year.

This year all our gardens have been hit heavy by a horrible blight of grasshoppers. I don't care if I never see another one in my life. The nasty things eat up everything.

  Our lettuces, spinach, and carrots hadn't a chance. The moment they poked out of the soil the hoppers mowed them to the ground.

The tomatoes are doing fairly well - for some reason the grasshoppers leave them alone - but they still have not produced anything. In fact, the only thing that seems to be thriving are the gourds.

The bugs coupled with the drought makes this another tough year. You really have to wonder how the pioneers did it.

 But as for making plans for next year, I do believe we are going to focus more on self-sufficiency. Ducks maybe in the foreseeable future, perhaps turkeys to bring down the hopper and locust population, and even a milk cow has been mentioned{I'm not sure just how serious Da was being}. Dare I even imagine... goats? 

  Everything is still pretty sketchy and nothing is definite yet, but I really hope we're going to expand our livestock!

This year I must build raised gardenbeds for the north side of the house. It was my idea so I guess I build it. I'm going to look around for some old, weathered barnwood - it makes the best looking boxes. Where I can find enough for two 12' x 4' boxes I have no clue... But one must try.

Humph. Mum has just called for an orderly house so I must leave you, wonderful readers, with this last photo...

But, please... tell me your next years plans or gardening stories!

-Gwyn