Co-Mingling

Last week's cool weather has left us and we are once again
in the midst of summer-like days.

Our weekend was full.
Amanda and Tim's friend, John, who attended Lutheran Seminary and who will be marrying them,
came to spend the weekend and discuss plans for the wedding ceremony.
John is an avid birder and introduced us to several species living on our farm
of which we were unaware.


As you can see, the dogs gave him their stamp of approval.

With all hands on deck Saturday we pitched the platform tent in the woods.
You may remember that our tent was leveled two winters ago in a snowstorm.


It is once again standing and ready for over night campers in a remote clearing in the woods.


Amazingly, we had forgotten how complicated pitching this tent can be,
and it ended up taking us 3 hours.


Thank goodness we had so much help!


Our weekend was full of wonderful fresh meals from the farm...
Fresh eggs... eggs Benedict over homegrown asparagus...
homemade butter....made into honey-butter with our homegrown honey...
fresh picked radishes and greens.
We fired up the brick pizza oven for the first of the season and made pizzas.

The new chickens, being teenagers now, had their curfew lifted and are now
allowed outside access.


It took a while and a few trial runs...out and right back in...


before they became comfortable enough to actually spend time in their yard.


And best of all, we opened the gate between the sheep and the pigs and allowed them to meet
in person.

Here's a video of how that went...

Gracie and the girls spent the rest of the day investigating the pig pen.


They began to work on the brush growing there.


And also took a little nap inside the pig house.


Comments

jaz@octoberfarm said…
that went about as good as it could be! there is magic in ritz crackers. who knew! what kind of birds do you have that you weren't aware of? that tent is so cool. will there be wedding campers?
Bee Haven Bev said…
He saw Cedar Waxwings....which I have yet to ever see! And he pointed out some different warblers, etc. Yes, we are having a lot of young adults camping over for the wedding....most all of the bridal party and their friends will be here for a long weekend.
This N That said…
It didn't look like Gracie was at all concerned about her babies and co mingling with the piggies..All's good..HAve a wonderful week if not HOT..Hope we get some T-storms..
colleen said…
What a smooth transaction!! We treat our animals with animal crackers and let me tell you they sure look for them. Was going to ask about what birds that John saw but Jaz already did that....now I know. How many weeks until the wedding?
Bee Haven Bev said…
Four weeks from this past Saturday......YIKES!!!
deodar said…
Were you apprehensive about the co-mingling? We recently let our mini donkey pasture with the two mountain mares during the day. On the first day I was on my toes with a super soaker water gun to break up any skirmishes and it was a total non event. They looked, they sniffed, they grazed. I felt a tad foolish!
NanaDiana said…
Wow- That was quite a tent and quite a feat to put it up. Glad the co-mingling is okay-you just never know, do you? And who knew you had birds that you were unaware of...takes an expert to point them out.
Have a wonderful week! xo Diana
Lynne said…
It all looks like so much " animal fun" . . .
And then there is the WORK . . . oh my, that tent looks like WORK to raise that roof!
Still looks like you are all having fun!
Good job Gracie, and kiddos and piggies . . .
Unknown said…
Glad to see that you now have the tent back and good to go. Fun seeing the girls meet the girls....they are all so cute.