Putting up the timothy hay.

First day of cutting.  William takes his dad some cold water.  Brad is cutting the timothy grass under our circle.


We bought a dicsbine to cut the grass.  We are retiring our old swather....well it kind of retired its self.   Brad is the one who cuts the hay, but here he's off enjoying the refreshments we brought him.


Before it's baled, it's fluffed up with a hay tedder.  With alfalfa we rake two rows into one.


Hot dogs.  It was too hot for the dogs.


I can't stand up for long because of my injured back, and desperately needing to get out of the sun, I sat with the dogs in the tall timothy.  I leaned against the circle wheel and my feet in the deep wheel track and it was rather nice till I panicked when I heard the tractor coming.  I forgot I was safe against the circle wheel as I struggled to get to my feet.


William is the one who does the baling.  The timothy was as tall as me in places and made huge windrows.


Brad operates the tractor picking up the bales and William drives the truck.  They had about 30 loads.


William took this photos for me.  I'm so glad I wasn't there when this happened!  Brad was putting a bale on the top row of the trailer and it rolled off and landed on to the top of his tractor!  It's a jolly good thing the tractor has a strong cab or else it would have ended bad for Brad.  The bale weighs over 1100 pounds!


It looks like cows are going to be eating this hay in Japan!  I hope they enjoy it.

Wildairo and Echo have visitors.

A few mornings ago I was up early taking the puppy out, when I saw something that gave me a fright.

On our driveway, the bit that disappears over the rise then down to the road, I saw three dark large shapes.  Without my glasses on, my imagine ran wild.  Our cows are light colored, so it wasn't cattle.  My worse nightmare is the two mustangs escaping.  But it couldn't be them because there was a third dark shape with them.  I always think outside the box and so I wondered if it wasn't the two mustangs with a moose that happened by.

I told Brad to take a look.  He said it looks like horses all right, but couldn't tell which ones it was.  It was William who informed me he could see Wildairo safe behind a fence.  Great relief!  He would be he hardest one to get back in.

I have another ruptured disk, along with all the nerve pain that goes with it.  I have been scheduled for another operation...yuck.  I felt pretty helpless.  I told Brad and William if Echo was out, I'd get my hiking poles and try to get to him.  No one else can catch him.  As it turned out our mustangs were behaving themselves and it was a neighboring horse and mule paying them a social visit.


Brad and William gave me a full account of what happened and Brad took the picture above for me from the public road looking up our road.  Horse and mule trekked down from the hill that is seen behind them.  They have a 300 acre pasture back up there.  The mule was one of Foxsun's old friends.  Back when Foxsun had the run of the place, while out on a hike, I saw him off in the distance, visiting with the mule over the fence.  Once the cows moved off, he left the mule and ran off to join his cow herd.  Foxsun's had his own social circle unknown to me.

Echo chatted with the escapees for a while and after he failed to impress them by spinning yarns about his days as a wild mustang, he walked off in a huff to go back to Dandylyons.  Horse and mule then went to pay Wildairo a visit.  When Wildairo couldn't be bothered to lift his head from his breakfast, the horse reached over and gave him a hard bite on his bum, which made Wildairo squeal and run off.

The owners came and got them in a stock trailer.  They told Brad that both horse and mule are in their 30's and retired.

I took these pictures of Echo some weeks ago when I got around better.  I was trying to take a picture that just wasn't of his breathing holes.  I kept trying to move around him.  He was a bit muddy.


He's finally reached the stage where he wants to be worked with.  The other day I took Dandylyons across the road to graze and when I took her back Echo wanted me to put the rope over his nose......maybe hoping he'd get to go across the road.  So I did and he like it.  When I walk with Dandylyons along the road people slow down and smile.  It must be funny seeing a cow going walkies, but I'm so used to her I forget the oddity of it.  Here's Dandylyons doing some yardwork.


Still trying to get a good picture of Echo.


For the first time in about 8 months, Echo had his halter on.  He held still like a good boy and was really happy when I led him about.

Why has Teddy got this funny look on her face?

The bigger picture reveals the answer..........She has become a big sister!


Teddy's Mini-Me, Biskit was born on April 28th 2013.


One day I was sitting on a bench with Teddy, having a rest while shopping.  A lady walking past did a double take.  She told me her daughter-in-law had a dog that looked just like Teddy and she'd had a pups two days earlier.  I selected a pup who was the same color as Teddy.  The breeder put new pictures on-line as the pups grew and I have been getting so excited about our new pup.

Thursday I had to have another MRI in Moses Lake, and we were able to pick up our little pup on the way home.  Here she is right after we drove off.  Look at how relaxed Teddy and Biskit are.  It's like they have known each other all their lives.  



Biskit seems to be a bit bolder than Teddy.  Even though we have been taking Teddy almost everywhere with us since she was 6 weeks old, she still is very shy.    She will growl at people if it looks like they are coming towards her.  As long as people ignore her, she is fine.  She will calmly walk behind people or through crowds, but when someone looks at her, in her mind they are getting out of line.  Just like cattle I suppose, she likes to see people moving away from her.  At the dog friendly stores, she begs for dog treats at the check-out.  Funnily enough that's the only time she tolerates people looking at her and she will even let them pet her.....for a treat!

Here is Teddy at the feed store getting a treat.


Biskit has been chased and pecked by my one eyed hen, Henrietta and mother hen, Clucky.  Other than that, she's having a great time.  She comes when I call her and in the 24+ hours we have had her, she has asked to go outside and hasn't had any accidents indoors.  We are well pleased with her.

Teddy was letting Biskit jump all over her back and was pretending not to notice, but later on was really rough housing with her.


Here's Biskit on the move.


Teddy and Biskit are Australian Shepherds.

Jet Lag has something to crow about.

Our rooster Jet Lag has been really pleased with himself.  This is why...on the fifth of June he became a dad.


We have been preventing the ducks from having ducklings, but completely forgot that we had 7 hens and a rather active rooster.  The hens are Rhode Island Reds and have never become broody before.  Well, that is what we thought until Clucky showed up with her brood.


We've had a lot of ducklings here, but having a chicken hen with chicks was a first for us.  My chickens were born in an incubator and raised under a heat lamp and so it is fascinating to watch the little family.  It's lovely to see what good mothers chickens make.


I put Teddy on a lead to show her the chicks for the first time.  She was too busy looking at the bread I was tossing, to notice the chicks.  It wasn't until I finished tossing bread, she noticed the chicks.  She let out a big sigh and put her head on my lap as it was like she was fully expecting chicks to show up one day.  She is a farm dog after all.


Soon as I took Teddy's lead off, she went looking for the bread.  Clucky trusted Teddy but our cat, Tommy Two Tone chased the chicks and then was chased by their mother.


Clucky and her brood spent the first night next to the stone house out in the open and she was vulnerable to any predators that happened along.  Her chicks had a little hole in the stone house that they would run into.  The next day I made a pen using these fence boards that we bought to make a chicken-proof kitchen garden.  I pulled a section across when they settled in for the night and put up old glass windows to keep weasels out.  It worked out to be pretty good.  During the day time they can go anywhere they want, and they go on bigger adventures everyday.  I bought 'chick starter', a chick feeder and water dish and have been kept entertained by it all.  Life is good. 

The American Cemetery in England.

I spent 6 weeks at my parents house in England and I had a lovely time.  I did some work in their garden and really enjoyed it.  Gardening is what love to do and it was great to make myself useful.  Their orchard area inspired me to start my own orchard here this Spring.

The last few days in England were spent at my oldest son's house in Suffolk.  Keegan is in the US air force.  On the way to his house we stopped by the American cemetery in Cambridgeshire.

Very quiet and somber.  So sad to think these brave men never made it home.

American graves in the English countryside.


The cemetery covers over 30 acres and contains 3,812 graves and has 5,127 names of the missing on the wall.  The names include the missing band leader, Glen Miller and the older brother of President Kennedy, Joseph P Kennedy Jr.


The memorial building is filled with military maps and information.  I found Washington State seal on one of the windows.  It is a very peaceful place with reflecting ponds and plenty of places to reflect.


Statues representing all the branches of the US military stand against the wall of the missing.




It is by pure coincidence I'm posting this today of all days.  Today is Memorial Day in the US.