Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

I've kept the goats off the pasture for a loooong time. Started with having it sprayed for weeds last spring. The spraying was a waste of money, but it served to forced me to dry lot the goats. After seeing my parasite problems greatly reduced from dry-lotting, I stuck with it. I've been occasionally letting them out when the conditions are favorable. After 15 months of no grazing pressure, even with the recent drought the pasture has started a great recovery. It needs to be mowed but not going to do it for awhile - probably until fall. I want the goats to be able to enjoy taking down the browse.

Yesterday:

Unfortunately lotsa sedge - but they will munch on that too. So interesting to see them go through the pasture taking a nibble of this and a bite of that.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

This is the second time in life that I've grown sweet potatoes. I didn't even know they bloomed, lol.

Lotsa flea beetle holes - but doesn't seem to be hurting anything major.

Drought much?

And Karma - just because:

 

[baymule]

Beautiful pasture pictures! Those goats sure look happy! It is so pretty I had to scroll back up and admire again!
Cracks in the ground. I’m chuckling at the memories of black gumbo clay. Harder than granite when dry and sticky gooey mess when wet. It expands, contracts, crawls and moves around. Lots of cracked house slabs on black gumbo land. I don’t miss it!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Cracks in the ground.

Maybe some of that African dust will settle in and fill the cracks? It sure settles into my lungs every year...ugh. We've got our own dust - don't need any more!

 

[Mini Horses]

Goats look good and happy. Karma has grown!! But you haven't posted many pics of them either

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hey - it's HOT! I'm over it and have decided to skip summer and move right on into November. I wish, lol.

Of all things to happen in a heat wave - the AC in DH's car gave up the ghost on Friday. ARGH!! It is virtually impossible in our part of the world to live without AC in both your car and your home. This fancy schmancy imported mucho expensive car has had problem after problem and we're over it. When we bought that car we honestly expected it to be our last car purchase ever. ARGH!

We are both fed up with the whole mess and decided to bite the bullet and move on to a different car. All sounds good until the car you want is unavailable. Your second choice is unavailable and the one you might be able to settle for is unavailable. Not a good time to buy a car. So, I guess we're going to shell out for the repair and hold on to it until (and if) the car market can catch up to itself.

The drought and heat wave is making things miserable. I guess the only good thing I can think of is that, unlike last year, my garden hasn't flooded out, lol. I'm trying to water just enough not to burn out my well. It's so hot that even though the plants still look decent - they're not producing. I'm just trying to keep 'em alive in hopes that when the temps drop - they'll start producing again. Still getting some okra but even it's sparse. Cucumbers were doing well up until we consistently got into triple digits. Got enough to do some pickles though. Still have enough in the fridge to do another small batch I think.

And, just to blow my mind - I smelled buck a couple days ago. Rut and breeding isn't that far off. I bred does in August last year. I'll break up breeding this year. The older gals will get bred again in August for January babies and the young un's will get a couple more months to grow and mature and get bred in October. They'll kid in March when they're 14 - 15 months old. They will be bred to one of the Myotonics for smaller babies. I'm excited to get the Myotonic crosses going. They're very parasite resistant like the Kikos.

Send rain!

 

[flowerbug]

wish i could send you some water, cooler weather and an AC repair for the car! we're heading back up now too, going to be 86F in a bit humidity about 50%. i'm not going out there for now as nothing i want to do is out there and my day of R-n-R (aka frogging around and recess) has felt great. i needed a break, glad i paid attention to what my body was telling me this time.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

glad i paid attention to what my body was telling me this time.

That's always a good idea!

I go outside mid-day to refresh the water for the critters. I can't imagine living outside in 100 degree weather and trying to cool off with 100 degree water. Ugh. All the critters flock around when I get the cool water going!

Got the tally for the car and it ain't purty... guess with this new monetary investment he's going to have to drive it for awhile more to get our money's worth, lol. It's really a great car - when its not revolting!

 

[Mini Horses]

A little news clip the other day said freon is triple last yr. . And today. I noticed Dumor layer mash went up a whole dollar this week!! From $17.99 to $18.99! . Those 2 bags the free chicken guy gave me are doing better than the stock market!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

A little news clip the other day said freon is triple last yr.

I don't doubt it at all!

This repair will entail a new compressor, new schraeder(?) valve, flush coolant system and replace coolant, and the scheduled service that's due. Nearly 3K , argh!