Everyday Farming Problems

It has been a busy week here. The planting is done.. The garden is in. But we haven't had any rain. Things are dry. So I've been watering like crazy. The new fruit trees, the garden, the animals.

Moon Gold Apricot Tree

Yellow Transparent Apple Tree

If you have been following my blog you might remember that a few weeks ago (or maybe longer) we lost a few chickens and ducks. I was confused because it didnt' seem like  coyote behavior. Well, we caught the predator red handed. Our neighbor's dog. We really like our neighbors and the dog has visited before and we speculated the loss of a few other birds might have been him but for some reason it never occured to me that he was the cause this time. But then a few days later, I caught him red handed. Our neighbors have cooperated in efforts to keep this from happening again and  reimbursed me for the  loss. Its good to have wonderful neighbors.

This is what I woke up too yesterday morning. "Georgy Porgy pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry when the boys came out to play Georgy Porgy ran away."

You should have run away Georgy.

 Poor Georgy. He fared better then I did. Things like this stress me out. I have such a small flock of sheep I dont' keep a lot of medications on hand. After I panicked, I made a trip to the vet and after I got him doctored up, I felt much better. It was just the shell he broke off. He was so good letting me take care of him.

Last night we finally caught our nightly visitor, or at least one of them. The cat food was disappearing at an alarming rate and duck eggs were being eaten by the dozen. I found this in the barn when I got up this morning.

I set the trap, and now I am trying to play the girl card and get the farmer to take it from here. Poor thing looks terrified.

He will be relocated.

Our son got his ATV this week so we took a ride through the pasture and around the farm the other night. It was really windy and if you didn't keep your mouth closed you ended up with a mouth full of insects.

We saw deer, coyotes and a pair of pheasants. All running to fast for me to get any pictures.

These are new food plots for the wild life.

black raspberry plant, but they need rain

So happy to see he always wears his safety goggles and helmet.

Fishing pond #1.

These were everywhere. Any idea what kind of flower they are?

Old barn which houses the rams and ponies.

Pond #2. It had lots of catfish in it at one time. Not sure if they are still there or not.

But there are dozen and dozens of frogs.

Hoping all of you have a blessed weekend and please pray for rain.

Picture day on Smith Farms

I was thrilled to have my friend and professional photographer http://www.phoenix-photography.biz come out one afternoon and take pictures of the kids and animals. She is

passionate about what she does, and when someone is that passionate you know your going to get wonderful results. Here is just a sneak peak of some of what she has done.

Soon will be a high school graduate

Remember the tire swing was suppose to get her mind off a pony - That lasted about 5 months when Dad had a weak moment on Christmas Eve. The princess loves them both.

 Our Rhode Island Red Rooster - who is missing a toe on each foot due to being hen pecked (and I do mean that literally) and his entourage of Shirleys (any sex link hen is known as "Shirley" on our farm)

Sunshine and her gorgeous ram lamb named Trouble and rightly so

Our handsome 10 year old and Simon

Life is good and we are truly blessed. Hope to share some more photos from this shoot soon!