New Life Old Farmers

We are waiting for the stars to align (for the farm sitter to have a whole week free to watch our critters.) We are impatient to go and visit the Little Miss. Some of us were getting a tad crabby, so we planned a quick get out of town within our farm sitter’s 2 day availability.

We packed up Tally-Ho and set off for Lake Chelan and Lake Manson, just a few hours away. Harvest Host was our go to planning guide. They had two wineries with room for us a night each. We arrived at Cheval Cellars to park up for our first night. We sat outside among their apple orchard reading for the afternoon, enjoying the lack of chores.

Marcus arrived in the evening and gave us a tour and a tasting of both their wines and their hard ciders.

We learned the new word/concept – ‘preferment’ coined by Marcus and his wife of a life ‘after’ careers where one is obviously still ‘working’, just at a different sort of purpose. Clearly not ‘retirement’ it is ‘preferment’ (Something like a small farm, might fit this definition). They joined us back at Tally-Ho for cheese, chutney, crackers, tacos and wine, of course. We enjoyed their company immensely, and have penciled in a return to help with bottling this fall.

On day two we set off for town, determined to enjoy a relaxing breakfast. We walked all over until we finally found the sign we were looking for.

Perfect, just what we were looking for! Except for this second sign, no not the ‘beer’ sign, this sign.

Bad British Word.

We adjusted our plan, digging out the sandwiches we’d bought for lunch, eating them in the beautiful River Walk Park.

We watched families coming and going with paddle boards, dogs and bikes. It was completely delightful.

Next on our list of winery was Amos Rome Vineyards. We were suppose to check in at 1:00, which is normally a tad early to start drinking wine.

I must say we adapted fairly well, oh, and the Malbec was delightful!

The view was lovely.

Tally-Ho worked so well. We enjoyed our quick trip out of town. I’ve never been camping before where you come home with more wine than you left with!

We’re enjoying our summer and waiting until we can get our snuggles with that baby girl. We hope you are all well, and indeed, we are blessed.

We were supposed to be gone visiting our Little Miss this week. However, the turbo charger in the truck stopped turbo-ing, so we were home for THE Weather.

It was probably a good thing we were here for all five days of the “h-e-double toothpicks” ( that’s an old quote of Betty’s). No one is going to care for your animals, the gardens and the fields like yourself. As the heat started to rise last Friday we zipped out early for a yard sale and found the one thing we actually needed.

At a whooping $3.00, a shade cloth was procured for the ‘little boys’. Carlos, Santana and Smooth appreciated our efforts, but nothing really beats a sprinkler.

The heat wave certainly ‘encouraged’ us to finish our upgrades to our sprinkler system.

Any gardening I did was done in the early morning or the 30 minutes between ‘it’s not hot as hell anymore’ and ‘oh, Bad British Word the mosquitos are out’.

As we do not have A/C, we did ‘all the things’. The windows, the drapes, the fans, the fans in the windows, cold lite beer instead of red wine. Every afternoon we went for a nice long drive through the countryside in our air conditioned car to protect our dwindling sanity.

I tried telling My Loving Spouse that he didn’t get to complain about the heat, as he complains about the cold and the wind. It was my turn.

We did however, make it..

Thank the Lord.

The wind is blowing which has cooled everything off.

It’s not a breeze, it’s more of a gale.

Someone is doing his best to not complain about it, which I appreciate and

…we are blessed.

Happy Independence Day to you all.

The school year has ended. I can hear the chorus of angels singing.

What did we learn this year?

We can survive change.

We might not like it, but we can do it…a lot. Kids, staff, parents…all of us.

We started with no kids at school.

Then went to 100 kids home Zooming and 300 Kids Hybrid 2 days a week, M, T, Th, F, but not Wednesday with breakfast and lunch served.

Until there were a few groups on Wednesday, but with different start and finish times than the Hybrid days and no meals, just snacks. (Did you know kids don’t like little red boxes of raisins anymore?)

In February more Virtual students returned to Hybrid school so bus routes and schedules were changed constantly.

In April we returned to 5 days a week, same schedule everyday….oh, except for Wednesday which was now early release.

With almost everyone back was it time to collect the 400 Chrome books we’d distributed earlier.

Are you tired yet? I haven’t gotten to the best part. We’re getting a new school! Yippee and Yee-Haw. The old school is being torn down…soon. Everything had to be packed. I mean all of it. Every pencil, every tether ball, every file, every chair and the thousands of library books . The screech of packing tape being unwound was the soundtrack for the last week of ‘school’. The little kids learned to count boxes and the bigger kids learned to move boxes.

Our staff has earned their summer break.

We have some plans…

I’d had an idea for a hat rack using our extra croquet mallets. One of my magazines came with something like this and I hollered, “I can’t believe it. They’ve stolen my idea!!!”

My Loving Spouse said, “Well, actually their idea will be easier to make.”

‘Oh, okay make their idea.’

We really are trying our best to ‘pack up’ and hit the road, but first I need to install a new drip system in the flower garden. We’ve hit some snags, (insert eye roll). I said to My Loving Spouse, “Do you wonder what it would be like to be like ‘normal’ people?”

‘All the time….but it’s not going to happen’.

School is over. It is time to play and to celebrate our new Little Miss.

Who arrived safe and healthy….

and we are truly blessed.

Enjoy your summer….

My Loving Spouse aka PaPat has removed the ‘Do not disturb’ from his phone and designated special ring tones for My Other Girl and her husband Number 5 Son. After 5 miscarriages they have made it to 38 weeks. This little Granddaughter is set to make her entrance into the world this week. We’ve been praying for her and creating for her.

PaPat built an old-fashioned wooden pull toy.

The baby ducks waddle behind the mother delightfully. This meant that I could make the duck quilt, I’d had my eye. Duck parts began being produced months ago.

The first duck was over ‘zig-zagged’. It was turned into a bib and sent out previously.

Bath time rubber ducks dressed up for Easter were sent in spring. Unbeknownst to the parents, we had a ‘duck theme’ going on.

Bess and I are still in our quilting learning curve, but that machine is fun to use. I try my hand at imitating the duck pull toy on the top and bottom of the quilt. This type of quilting remains a work in progress.

The original source for this quilt came from here, so I want to make sure I give them credit. You can see I duplicated their quilt almost exactly. Well, except for mistakes, those are all mine.

The kids face-timed us to open everything, which was joy in action. We’re now waiting for that special ring tone and planning our trip to Salt Lake City. My Other Girl has expressed multiple times, that this Grammy gets all the snuggles she wants….

and we are blessed.

I was weary.

I prayed, “Lord, I am so empty. I don’t even remember what to do to help myself.”

Two hours later a text came out of the blue…

“Hello, sister! I just heard about a new airline that is going to service Pasco Washington. Is that near you?”

Hope that could hug me and fill my heart was on her way.

I collected her from the Pasco airport, which was super simple. We had to stop to take a picture at this store, because it says it all! Also, I love this store and I don’t get out much.

This is her mother and I back in my topless, bonnet days.

We were family. Our mothers were best friends in a time and place in So. California where one did not have family near by. Her family moved closer to our family when her daddy died leaving her mom with 4 kids and our families became closer. My dad was her surrogate father and her mother was there for us in special ways. She used to tell people that she changed my diapers, but I cautioned her to drop that tale as some folks may think it was recently.

Love, laughter, acceptance and truth showed up. It was just what I needed, life can be hard. We did our best to wear her out with the farm and adventures.

She fell in love with our alpacas.

She went along to pick up Carlos, Santana and Smooth….laughing often at their antics as she learned about alpacas. She helped protect Stuart the chicken, who was being picked on by RuPaul. (RuPaul met an unfortunate end as he violated one important rule, if you’re not necessary you’d better be nice.)

The irony of Stuart seeking her protection on top of the BBQ wasn’t lost on any of us.

The spring rodeo of Bareback and Bronc-riding gives us a night out, in celebration of being together and the ending of lock downs a night of ‘normal’ felt so good!

We fit in plenty of country fun. The Fire Captain shows up to give us a ride in his army jeep exactly as old as her.

We had the 2021 Croquet Open to get the season underway. She finds our friends delightful and even finds a goofy match in Sweet Sue wearing their straw hats in a unique way to battle the blowing winds.

We talked and talked and talked about…our parents, our past, our children, our joys, our sorrows and our faith.

We laughed, we cried and I was filled…

and together we were blessed.

Saturday our newest three joined the ‘herd’ at Glory Farm.

The little boys are 7 to 10 months old, adorable and completely quirky as only alpacas can be.

Smooth is the youngest and seems to have the potential for being a calm and quiet boy, but as his “jewels” have yet to drop…who knows, males with “jewels” can be a bit… unpredictable.

Carlos is the oldest at 10 months and wants to know what is going on beyond that fence, but from the safety of his side of the fence.

It is clear already, Santana is the character. Inquisitive, quick and first out the gate.

The ‘big’ boys, Benny and the Jett are determined to check out the little ones at every opportunity. Currently they are usually separated by a fence, so everyone can have some time getting to know each other.

We had a trial run of the whole herd together. Benny worked hard at letting the little ones know, that he is no longer at the bottom of the pecking order. ‘Togetherness’ only lasts in small increments.

Naming 3 was a challenge. My Girl and I both thought about Elton and John…but it wasn’t right. I decided to stick with the music theme and My Loving Spouse decided to humor me. In the end, I went with a great rhythm…seriously, you can’t beat a good rhythm. (Carlos Santana Smooth)

and we are blessed.

If we didn’t have to do things over, we’d almost have nothing to do. The raised beds we made out of plastic barrels last year was a failure. So, if you see this option on Pinterest, take my advice…’don’t do it’.

We gathered a bit of wood from ‘the wood room’ (of course, where else).

The wood came from the multitude of old fences we took down when we first arrived. We (My Loving Spouse) cut the lengths to match. Built the sides…

Made the ends…

while I mostly supervised encouragingly…

I was not the only one overseeing the build…

Benny and Jett are always nearby. (BTW-After our escapade with Benny’s broken leg, we’re keenly aware that if something happens to one alpaca, the other one will be left in a precarious position. So, we’re thinking of getting another alpaca or 3).

The new beds will stand up to the wind and just about anything else. Blue carries them over to the garden.

We/I filled the beds halfway with wood bark, before adding the dirt. It took My Loving Spouse about 1 1/2 hours to build the beds and it took me about 1 1/2 days to get the dirt all in.

The black plastic is to limit the weeds…of which we have many.

What is that yellow hue in the grass, that the cows will not eat?

Dandelions by the foot. I believe weed free farms only exist in someone’s imagination. My hope is to have the flowers out number the weeds.

So far, the weeds are winning.

Benny and Jett were getting very fluffy.

It was time for their annual shearing, but as we’ve only had them for 10 months, it was all new to us. Shearer Tony easily handles Benny.

Benny is quickly thrown to the ground and all four feet are stretched out by ropes. Shearer Terry quickly runs the clippers over thick fleece, pushing it to the side as he works.

It is fascinating to see how densely black Benny’s undercoat is. We gather up the large amounts of fleece surprised at how warm it is. Shearer Tony keeps Benny still by controlling his head and neck. (I’m pretty sure I could do his job…)

Until they start shearing his neck and face…then I’m not so sure.

The alpacas do not like getting sheared. They either prefer a higher caliber spa treatment or they just know how silly they are going to look. Actually, we’re thinking of changing their names to Goof and Goofier.

We have 4 bags of fleece and 2 of the silliest looking animals ever.

We’d forgotten how small these animals really are. No more shearing until next year. We’re already thinking we could do it ourselves….

How hard could it be?

Clearly we’re optimistic….

and blessed.

The smell of burning grass can only mean one thing….Spring. Every responsible person with irrigation ditches gets burning on those days when the wind it light.

The ditches getting burned makes all the moving water work more efficiently. I’ve heard people say things like, “Oh, my neighbors…they don’t burn their ditches”. Enough said, everyone knows ‘those’ neighbors….the slackers. We got our ditch burnt and the pond as well.

…and then the next day it snowed. Seriously!

The cows are home! We picked Agnes and John Boy up from the Prom. We’re told that the Bull was able to get a dance and we are expecting a new little calf for Thanksgiving. Hasn’t John Boy grown?

I took the day off of work today to rest my weary soul. I spent 6 hours weeding the flower garden…oh, be still my heart. No, I am not done yet, but I have really realistic expectations this year. I am not expecting the garden to be ‘weed free’, I’m just working toward more flowers than weeds.

The hens have branched out their laying strategy. They leave eggs in their nesting boxes and various places in the barn. High on hay bales and in between this wall and a few bales of straw.

Every day is an egg hunt.

Spring sings of new beginnings. We’re expecting a new baby grand daughter in another 10 weeks…I am having so much fun sewing for her.

The pond was filled earlier than usual dashing a few of our other pre-irrigation chores, but Gunner and Charlie couldn’t be happier.

Some signs of Spring will always be the same….baseball and my favorite little Dodger fan….

to say nothing of…

Summer….Fall….and Winter,

and we are blessed.