The Spotted One

The baby goats are really growing. 

 This set of triplets is doing great.

 I just love how this spotted one looks.   It's hard to believe the mother is brown and the father white.

Too bad he's a whether and not a doe we could keep.

Greener Pastures

After we fixed the fence yesterday it was time to move the cattle to that field. 

 J went to "swook"  them.  There they are, really far away.

 But they know J's voice and are use to getting better grass if they come.

 They don't get too far through the gate before their heads go down and they start eating.

There is something to be said for greener pastures.

Still Cleaning Up

J is still working on down fences from the wind storm 4 weeks ago.  

 He has been working on the fences in order of where the cows are rotating to next.  This is the section that was next on the list.

 This sycamore completely uprooted and landed on a large section of already old and previously patched fence.

 J had some old flat metal post that the post driver wouldn't fit over.  When I asked where he got them he said, "I don't remember, I just find things."

 Because he couldn't use the post driver he had to use a sledge hammer which was a little more challenging.

 Then he rigged up a piece of old american wire to the existing fence and attached it to the new posts.

And voila, ready for the cows.

Flowers

I haven't shown off my flowers for awhile.  

 The sunflowers were doing great until that windstorm a couple of weeks ago.  They just don't have a good root system and they are mostly laying on the ground now.

  My zinnias have been beautiful.  

 I still love the pink ones best.

 But the orange ones are very striking.

The ever blooming hydranga is living up to it's name and has been putting out new blooms all summer.

And the black eyed Susans are always a summer standby no matter how hot.
Hope you enjoy the flowers as much as I do.

On V and E

V had orientation at Virginia Tech this week.  There was an overnight stay in one of the dorms.  V said it was pretty basic.    She is very excited about starting college and leaving home.  

 They messed up her schedule and gave her 2 classes at the same time.  Now most of the classes she can replace one with are all full.  I don't know what she has decided to take.  She has enough credits from Governor's School to be a Sophomore and she won't have to take any more math, english or science.

 While V as at orenitation, E was at the mall getting her hair cut and ears pierced.

She looked like she was in a little pain after the first ear.  I asked if it hurt and she said, "everyone that says it doesn't hurt at all or it just feels like a pin prick is WRONG.   It felt lite someone was stabbing a metal post through my ear."  What girls do to be pretty.

Latecomer

We had one more baby goat a couple of days ago.  The rest finished kidding in April.  

 This is E's first pet bottle goat Squeaky. She is now 9 years old.  She didn't kid last year and took her own sweet time with it year.  We have one of her daughter's in the herd too.  Her name is Squeaker.

This year's is a boy.  He's a whopper for just 2 days old.  We may keep him for a buck for next year.

Horse Vaulting

We had for us, a very successful 4-H meeting.  I had borrowed a vaulting surcingle and had practice with Hank and was ready for the 4-Her's. 

My reinforced saddle rack worked well as a vaulting dummy.

Everyone took a turn practicing the compulsory moves on it before we tried it on the real thing.

No one quite got the hang of mounting a moving horse but Katelyn did manage to do it once.

I'm not sure what move V is doing but I know we didn't practice it that way.

She did do a very nice flag move.

E took her turn,

and Cory turned out to be a natural.

Jordyn finally made it to a meeting and had a great time.

I think Katelyn is too tall for this move.

Jordyn stayed after and rode Hank (who truly is The Wonder Horse) some more, with a real saddle.  The barn worked out great too.  We had a thunderstorm in the middle or riding (0.35 inches this time)  but we never had to stop.   I think the club might be interested it buying it's own vaulting saddle now.