Rain

Well it finally happened. We got drenched with rain. It is a much needed relief from all of the dust and heat, but it will dry out to quickly and we will be a heat soaked dust bowl again. The show that came with the rain was awe inspiring. The lightning was so bright it would light up a whole room even with the lights on. The thunder shook the house a few times. It even wiped out the power for a good 8 hours during the night. Our lady bug is terrified of the dark and woke up screaming in the middle of the night because she couldn't see. She had lost her flashlight in her bed that is full of books and stuffed animals and couldn't find it anywhere. Luckily we found it within minutes of her waking up. She ended up on the couch with her light and bunny along with her dog. She was well taken care of. I wish I could say she went right to sleep but she didn't every so often you could see her light beam sweep around the walls.

The boys on the other hand can sleep through a monsoon right out their window....

In other farm news the pigs are finally shedding, they will end up losing their hair in time to grow it out for winter. The chickens have started molting. Our egg production has taken a serious beating. Some days I get no eggs at all.

We started an Amish bread starter and that is going well. Don't worry I won't send some to any unsuspecting innocents. I have found if I make it and throw it in the fridge and only take 2 cups each time I want to make bread then I'm not overwhelmed. I still follow the replenishing directions but I just put it in the fridge after about an hour of setting at room temp. We get about 2 loaves each time.

The dogs have been shedding. I think I vacuum at least 4 times a day. Between the dust before it rained and all the hair, lets just say it sometimes looks like the house has been abandoned. 

We have all the materials for the hay barn now. We just need the time to do it. That's an all hands on deck project.

The goats are looking awesome,  all sleek and shiny. They have been out grazing a lot this year. Really enjoying the run and play and eat till the burst moments.

Ok I think your almost all caught up. I need to go make some hungry farm kids some breakfast.

Be blessed.
Dusty Rose Homestead

Chores

Oh the chores never stop. I think they actually grow when it starts to thaw.
Grass seed thrown, seeds for the garden started, feet trimmed, pens cleaned.....
If your curious about just how many that is (which considering we are a small farm it's not that bad) we have
four pig pens
The rabbit cage (we had a whole pen of them but that's another story)
The goats pen
The chicken coop
The geese pen (ever try to get an egg from geese? Its not fun.)

We will be moving our three girls to the back pasture so they can run and play and just be happy pigs. We are moving the boars next to each other so that way they can talk as pigs do.

We have a hay barn to build, as much snow that we got this winter was not planned for. We made that mistake and now we won't make it again.

Fruit trees to plant and a garden to move. Flower beds to finish. Fencing to finish. We want to get the property completely finished fenced in this year. I want to get the gates up and my sign hung.

We have a milking parlor to build and a milker to buy.

We've been pricing sheds so we can start the farm store. That's what I really want to do and I'm getting excited about it.

The boys will be teenagers this year. So their daddy and I made a deal with them that we will get them a project to work on but they have to do extra chores to earn the money to put into it.