If anyone would have told me I'd be milking a goat twice a day I would have laughed in their faces and said "No way!"  Not only am I milking twice a day, but I'm enjoying it for the most part.  We are still learning together and she is a bit fiesty but we will come to terms soon (after I rig hobbles, that is)  I'm exhausted after a milking because I hold one of her legs up so she can't kick over the bucket, but is still capable of moving her leg around which I have to hold.  My arm does get weary after one side.  Otherwise, the milking part is pretty easy actually.  I thought my hand would tire, but that's not the case.  Soon I'll be trying to make feta cheese, yogurt and ice cream with the milk among other items.

My garden is doing great although I'm having troubles keeping up with the weeds, er, pasture grass.  I have the boys moving out straw from the hayloft so I can mulch as I clean out areas.  HOpefully I can at least try to keep up.  My flower gardens look like I haven't even done anything to them and I've weeded them out twice already.  I will have mulch coming very soon. It's ordered.  This should help me keep those in good shape longer.  I've also been putting in place barriers from the Japanese beetles.  I have used tulle and made tents over my raspberries and have tied it around my grapes.  I will also put it over my baby fruit trees while they are small enough to do so.   I'm using row covers over my cabbage and cauliflower plants to keep off the cabbage butterflies.  So far so good.

Our very large American ELm tree is dying .  We are saddened by this since it is very beautiful and provides lots of shade.  It probably won't last another month.  So much for the hosta garden I planted under it.   At least I have a place to move them to after all is said and done.

We started on our summer lessons a couple of weeks ago.   The guys seem to be doing fine with it all.  I think the TOPS science projects are fun for them.  Ben's requires more work but it's neat to see what it taking place.  He is doing Corn and Beans.   Aaron is doing great with the electricity unit.  We are continuing with math and using Wordly Wise to work on volcabulary.  Our Trek group is meeting once a week to work on their garden they have planted as a service project.  They also get pool time afterwards.

The boys stay pretty busy with all these animals we now have.  When I think about it, it's overwhelming.  Plus they do all the mowing of the grass and any other jobs I can come up for them to do.  BORED is a dirty word around here.  They will help when the vegetables start coming in.

Tally on animals at the moment:

2 adult goats, 2 baby goats

3 beef cattle 1 dairy yearling

4 cats

2 dogs

9 adult ducks, 4 teenage ducks, 17 baby ducks

1 turkey

17 adult chickens, 26 chicks

Boy, I think that's enough!!