It's been a busy start to summer here on the farm. Soccer is finished until fall, but there are many more things to take its place. Swim lessons started this week. The fair is coming up and it's time to be thinking and more importantly, getting some of those projects done. I am still working at getting the garden in. Most of it is planted. We've been
renovating the pastures that the beef have been in. The grass was poor, thin and it needed some attention. The dairy pastures have been getting replanted, some are planted yearly. Right now the
sudan is going in.
School is officially done, but we do some here and there yet. I've been working on the curriculum and ordering books. I've
officially transitioned to a classical curriculum, which I have already been doing except for the addition of
latin and the advance literature-of which mine are just getting old enough to start into those levels anyhow. Most will be an adjustment of how I teach and incorporating their participation in discussions.
To understand this method, to which I have always been drawn-but it seemed so foreign (words like trivium and
quadrivium), I was fortunate enough to attend a conference up in Kansas City. Laura
Berquist was the featured speaker. She taught her own children, several others and started Mother of Divine Grace School which gives children a classical education.
There were other speakers- I attended several on nature, literature and working with older children. It was a wonderful experience.
This past
Wednesday, we finally sheared. It was much later than I would have preferred. At least it's done and I am certain that the ewes are appreciative. While they were up, I trimmed hooves. They were pretty overgrown this year. The only thing I can attribute to this may be the wet weather we've had.
The older lambs were pulled to be weaned. I had already pulled 4, several weeks ago. I went ahead and tagged, banded and gave CDT vaccinations. We've been bottle feeding our lambs for about 2 weeks, just to help with making them more friendly. This has been a great thing for the
wethers. They love to come up and be scratched, pet and enjoy being around people. There are several photos of lambs here, there are many not pictured.
This is our favorite little ram lamb. He is
wethered, so we can keep him for a pet. He is a pretty little boy.
We love the markings on his face.
This was another ewe out of Crescendo. She is interesting as I have not seen another like her.
She is pretty white, just a few brown hairs, more, perhaps over her top. But I didn't notice that many more.
Here, you can see into the fleece and how white-or cream, colored it is.
We were happy to see
Kaya have this pretty little ewe lamb.
Kaya is also mom to the ram lamb/
wether we like so much.
Salem had this black ewe. Right now, her fleece is black. The only white I've seen is around her face.
She is a nice ewe with a great temperament.
This ram lamb was the only one retained for use in a breeding program. He was the most correct and is a nice little boy.
His tail is super, although the wind was blowing and you can't really see.
Another nice ewe lamb our of
Allena's ram. Also, correct with a nice tail.
Our escapee hens have been busy. It's always fun to walk into the barn and hear the sound of new baby chicks, somewhere. Eventually mom brings them out. I've incubated and raised chicks, but it is much better for the hens to do the job. They do it better than I ever could. It's amazing to watch the chicks and how healthy they are.
One of our giant Blue Cochin roosters.
Those little Muscovy ducklings have grown quite
alot over the last several weeks. They've made themselves at home in the chicken house and I am not sure that they don't think they are chickens. I've seen a duck, raised with several border collies, think it was a border collie and would work horses just as the dogs did.
We had arrived in New York a day early and made a stop in Hyde Park. The Vanderbilt's had built one of their homes there and it is available to tour. The view as you drive into their former estate was beautiful.
One can walk the grounds for free, and they are vast. There is a gift shop and the office in one of the homes they had built for guests. This is the main house. We were able to tour it for a small fee, but no photos were allowed inside. It was something to see the beautiful woodworking, sculpted marble, painting on the ceilings....... They brought in skilled laborers from Europe and everything was done by hand.
They had a nice view of the river from the back of the house.
This was the back of the house.
It is something to see all of the detailed hand carving on the pillars and around the outside of the home.
They had several greenhouses at one time and vast gardens. Off to the left, there were terraces where they would have sat at on time.
In the back ground is the gardener's home. When the Vanderbilt's had lived here, there was a farm, as well. It's owned by a private individual and not part of the tour, but you can see the tunnel that went under the road and connected it to the main property. The farm workers would show the livestock at the Duchess County Fair.
At the back of the garden is a water feature that they had. The tour of the house is guided and it was informative. The rest of the grounds your are free to walk and look around.
