Week of Memorial Day Weekend

Been a busy week/weekend, mostly with chores, but the weather makes it pleasant.   Light wind, few biting insects (except at dusk), sun, and mostly only raining at night!   Lovely light.   We saw some eastern blue birds along the driveway.   A friend said that folks along the coast have been haying the last two weeks with beautiful, clear, drying weather.   We've had just enough rain to put off haying here, for the most part.  That's ok.   We'll have a bit more growth when we do cut.

We did a lot of mowing toward the end of last week, so the place looks tidy.   Went over part of the sheep pasture twice, to mulch in the fairly long grass.  Had to cut it because of the large number of buttercups.   They contain a caustic chemical, and animals can't graze them.   Only good news is that once buttercups are cut, the chemical partly breaks down, so buttercups in hay are safe.  

Got two of the handful of old sheep sheared.   This is a long process because my back won't let me do it the "proper" way, and there aren't enough sheep to make it sensible to try to get a shearer.   I put a sheep on a blocking stand and use hand shears, going slowly.   My husband says it takes me about an hour per sheep, but I've never wanted to time it.   I'm not keeping the fleece from the old sheep.  The object is to just get it off, for the health of the animal.  Within a month the rough coats will grow out enough so that my sloppy shearing won't show.   The sheep are helping to improve the pasture.  They've already been wormed this spring, but I'm behind on hoof trimming and shearing.   One or two more next weekends, then will be done.  After than, next thing is to clean out the barn.

Planted one garden bed with buckwheat, and have been watering alot.   Next time we'll try to do it just before a rain.  The new cultivator works great!

Tractor and haying equipment are ready to go, in terms of maintenance.