Where Does the Time Go?

Is it truly the end of July? I'm trying to figure out where my summer has gone. For the last several years I've been extending my summers way into fall, but now I'm back on an academic schedule. It's three weeks until school starts. It's just not possible. And I'm already back at school because I'm the boss. Tell me again why I said "yes" to a job offer. Oh yeah, money and my inability to say no when someone flatters me by telling me how perfect I am for something...

So every spare minute I've been working in the garden and barnyard. My morning and afternoon rituals include picking off hornworms and tossing them to eager ducks and turkeys. While the ducks have not been a good addition to the garden, the turkeys have been excellent. They love to eat bugs. Eating bugs is good. This is the first year I've had hornworms. They are scary. See! They are big and fat (as long as and fatter than my index finger!!!) and ewww... Their shear size intimidates my chickens. Thank God for turkeys and ducks.

Dulcie works on weed control.

Another evening ritual is goat play. I'm still waiting on the fence to be finished. Charlie has been so busy with work, that he has had no time to work on it. So every night the girls come out for an hour or so and play in the yard. Their pen is large, but it's rather bare and not very interesting. The goats love to get out and frolic (Yes, they do frolic and it is quite amusing.). This has turned into Monkey's favorite time of the day because the activity normally revolves around her playset and I get to push her on the swing for a long time. The goats love the boulders in the yard and all the goodies that grow on the edge of the woods. I keep a close eye on them, but so far they stick pretty close to us. Have I mentioned that they are like springer spaniels with udders? It's true.