mornings

 

The best time to take photographs these days is 5:30 in the morning. This is also the best time to hang up the bird feeders, refresh the water troughs, trim a set of hooves, cart a hay bale out to the paddocks for distribution, and switch gates so that all the goats have a fair crack at the hay for a couple of hours, without fisticuffs. 

I confess I don't always have a tremendous amount of get up and go at that time of day, but knowing full well how much more uncomfortable it will be a couple of hours later, I generally get out there and do it.

Not everyday though. That's why today the picture above was taken closer to 9:00 AM, after a late start on chores, with sweat dripping off the ends of my hair and bouncing off my eyelashes. I felt a bit more like this day lily:

Still colorful though, right?

Stay cool, friends.

~~~~~

reflecting on summer

At the grocery store it suddenly hit me:

I haven't tasted watermelon even once this year, and it's nearly apple season!

We didn't have a Summer this year in my neck of the woods. We really didn't. What we had was a Mud Season that went on and on and on, and simultaneously became what is known in Massachusetts as "wick-id haht." All the paddocks have been awfully wet, and the little barn paddock never dried out - ever! It's still muddy and slippery despite the hay "stepping stones" I recently threw down in desperation so I could get to the various shelters and feeders with less risk of falling. Like their goatherd, the goats also step carefully from spot to spot on the hay, and not because they are silly or "spoiled," in fact, just the opposite. These goats have the survival sense to try to keep their feet from becoming diseased due to constant exposure to moisture. And I appreciate this trait, because although I do my best to keep up with frequent checks and trims, if we get all the way to Winter with healthy hooves this year it will be some kind of miracle.

Campion feels that his hooves are PERFECT and he would appreciate it if I would please STOP checking and trimming because it involves a human (me) Touching His Feet! UGH!!

Continuing with the theme "Summer, Lack Of": a few words about the gardens. if you've been reading Comptonia for more than a year - and I know some of you have been reading it since the beginning for which I thank you very much - you know I put a lot of determined effort into growing as much of my own food as possible. It's important to me economically and from a health perspective.

Well, if I was genuinely dependent upon what I grow to get me through the Winter, this is without doubt the Winter I would starve. The relentlessly rainy months made planting difficult for the gardener, and growing a challenge for the plants. After finally managing to plant - and trellis - about 40 feet of pole bean rows, I harvested a total of two and a half handfuls - literally - of beans this year. The okra is about a foot high now. My fingers are crossed for the Candy Roaster squash which are currently in valiant flower, as are the Suyo Long cucumbers. If you look closely, you may see a tiny cucumber on this vine:

Even the hardy perennial flowers have struggled, and I've been sketching and painting here at home more often than in the woods this year, in appreciation. Below are a few days from #DrawingAugust, each done either just before or just after a rainstorm, in a little spot between the perennial gardens and the stilt barn.

This folding chair has been kept in the stilt barn, dusty but dry,
and ready to set up for a quick session with watercolors or pen:

If you were sitting in that folding chair and looked down by your feet,
you would see these violet leaves:

If you then turned your head slightly to the left, your eye-level view would be a wild tangle of hyssop, bee balm, and goldenrod:

When the mosquitoes forced your retreat to the porch,
you might endure them for one more minute while you stand and dab a watercolor sketch of this unidentified butterfly enjoying the bee balm:

Even though it hasn't been a Summer, these past few months have provided occasional sunny moments and, eventually, precious and colorful flowers for which I am deeply grateful. More than once a drenched but stalwart daylily was the highlight of morning and evening chores.

And in case you missed it in the picture above, here is a closer look at a tiny cucumber with flower still attached, tucked back behind the stem:

Fingers crossed!

~~~~~

the pause that refreshes

Looks like today will be another in a series

of hot and extremely humid days.

In terms of daily activities, I am currently enjoying one of the precious Everything Is Working lulls, when the hours of routine chores are mostly low-key and slow.

Even so, there are multiple trickles of sweat running down both sides of my face within the first few minutes of every session. Yesterday when I was filling water buckets - and counting my blessings for now having a hose near the two biggest buckets! - I took off my straw hat and just ran the hose over my head for a minute. It felt good while I was doing it. And I wasn't much wetter afterward than I had been before.

To keep my soggy spirits up by focusing on the positives,

I'd like to share a few pictures from the gardens:

 

  

 

There. That's refreshing!

Wishing you all a pleasant day.

~~~~

just a moment

Summer.

~~~~~

after the rain

kale

Yesterday afternoon, the sky suddenly became dark. Very dark.

I hastened out to the paddocks to shift the goats back up from their browse areas.

squash

The hastening had to stop as soon as I was inside the fence.

I may have mentioned that goats hate change?

Well, they hate hurrying even more.

When you are working with goats, 

there is one sure way to slow things down:

try to speed things up.

Amsonia

A pocketful of oats helped shift everyone fairly smoothly.

Done! Gates latched. Sweat dripping into my eyes.

(Not because I was working hard. Just because I was outside.)

The thunder was getting louder, but the rain hadn't begun.

So I spread the five waiting trugs of mucky hay

on the terrace garden, and quickly weeded the corn.

Then the rain started, so I headed inside to update Piper.

I was sure she would be worried.

She was sleeping.

So I went out on the screenporch to watch the storm.

spiderwort

Wowza!

It rained and rained and rained.

This was quite refreshing, as it has been so very horribly hot.

Hot and muggy. Day after day.

So hours of heavy rain gave me hope

for all the things we say about rain here:

"The gardens really needed it!"

"It will settle the dust!"

"The pollen will be washed away!"

"It will clear the air!"

Especially that last one, because lately, stepping outside in the morning

has felt like the moment before you step out of a hot shower.

comfrey

Well, after going out at 6 AM for chores this morning, 

I can report:

"The gardens really needed it!"

~~~~~

experiments

It's been very hot here lately, and hordes of biting flies have joined the countless mosquitoes, making time spent outdoors both mind-meltingly steamy and a ceaseless battle against welt-producing nasties. Yesterday I decided to experiment with reducing the number of insects that fly into the new barn.

Last year I tacked up a set of "instant screen door" panels in the little goat shed doorway, and felt they helped keep the deer flies out. So at the end of the season, I bought a couple more sets on sale, in anticipation of the day when the new little barn would be built.

Yesterday, I cut those panels into half-lengths and hung some in the upper doorway of the feed storage side of the barn and others in the lower doorway of the big communal stall. I left the center of the lower doorway temporarily unscreened, though, so the goats could get used to the curtains and I could see whether or not they would decide to tear them down.

Initially there was a lot of nosing and chewing and pawing at curtains,

but soon Lily and Azalea and Campion seemed quite relaxed:

while Tsuga appeared to be collecting data:

"Hypothesis: there are fewer insects on one side of the screen.

Methodology: I'll put just one ear and one foot outside and compare.

Hmmmmmm."

Twenty minutes later:

 "Phase Two: I shall now extend just one hind foot."

I'm looking forward to Tsuga's analysis of her data.

I just hope I won't have to wait for her to publish;

those peer-reviewed goat research journals are notoriously slow.

(I was about to write "Probably the editors spend too much time browsing,"

but I realized it would have been an unintentional pun,

which is so much worse than an intentional pun!

Whew. Narrow escape, there.)

~~~

Twenty-four hours later, all the curtains are still in place. Of course some bugs are still flying in through that big opening - the one that Lily is treating as her own private checkpoint - but I've noticed that, once inside, the bugs become focused on trying to get back out, mostly through the upper doorway of the feed area which is pretty completely covered by the hanging screens. Bonus! Now when I go into the barn I spend a minute or two using a little jar with some sticky liquid in the bottom to quickly tap those deer flies and horseflies off the screen and out of the equation, permanently.

I actually got goosebumps as I typed "deerflies and horseflies."

The body remembers those bites!

So, not a perfect or total solution, but it is a definite improvement!

And that's what we shoot for here...improvement, not perfection.

"Ahem! Speak for yourself, please!

I'm not looking for progress or perfection...

I'm looking for results!

Quantifiable truth!

And ultimately, tenure!"

Oh, don't worry about tenure Tsuga. You've got it.

~~~~~

hey piper

Me: Hey, Piper, guess what!

Piper: Wha'?

Me: This box that just arrived in the mail? It's the camera!! 

We've finally got the camera back from the Little Shop of Miracles!!!

Piper: um, has the camera been missing? 

Me: What?! It's been gone for weeks!

Weeks and weeks!

Piper: Oh.

Me: Haven't you noticed on our walks by the pond lately,

that I don't stop every few seconds to take a picture?

Piper: Of course I noticed. I was thrilled.

I thought I had finally trained you to Walk Properly.

~~~

Dear Readers, if you are still here...

I will be putting the revitalized camera through it's paces very soon,

and there will be lots of images and updates to come.

But I couldn't wait to share these first snaps,

taken minutes after I brought up the mail and opened the package.

Piper, who declined to accompany me to the letterbox

on the grounds of, "It's too h-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ot....",

 was at first mildly interested in the package.

(Treats often come in packages, you see.)

But you can judge the level of her excitement

when I brought out The Camera.

Me? I felt like jumping up and down in joy!

But Piper had a point:

it truly is Summer now, and it really is hot.

~~~~~