July

A restless malcontent of a month. The heat can get dangerous, or at least mean. Storms ditto. Not that it has been too bad here. Foul weather close to us, but we dodged it. Yesterday it was 90, but felt 70 with a stiff, but pleasant wind all day. And very dry. The boss has been making hay apace and Alan came home over the weekend to help with fixing the stuff what broke over the week.

As you can see below, Liz got her own English shepherd puppy, Ren, this weekend. She is a little cutie, bright and engaging, already following the kids around, asking to go outdoors and coming to the barn for chores. She stays in a little crate out in the silo room, close enough for comfort but out of the reach of deadly cow feet. I like her. She looks like a little canine cream sickle. 


Working on the Farm Side early this week, because of the upcoming holiday and the general excess of stuff to do around here. Writing about the wonderful job the Peterson Farm brothers are doing in advocating for agriculture. They seem like a delightful family and remind me so much of a number of sets of farm guys up here. It's always fun to sit by our cows at the fairs and shows and watch them, all long, lean muscles, capability and humor....a great resource for the world, if only the world had time to notice.

Last night was kind of nice...spent a little time out on the porch listening to the bass fiddle hum of the birds named after the sound they make, while they came in for a last snack 'o' the day. A gold finch has been busily cleaning the big windows of any trace of cobwebs, must be for nest building. He was there, hard at work. He looks pretty silly with a big cap of webs all over his head, but before he tries to fly he wads them all up small enough to carry.




A careless catbird sang a casual cacophony of robin/thrasher/robin/meow calls, lazy with the lateness of the year, but still engaging. Birding has dried up almost to a desert now, but there is always the unfailing indigo bunting to enjoy and some finches are hitting the feeder. I like the late evening and early morning this time of year. The peace is always welcome.