No More Leak, but Please Send Rain!

It's been a while.  There is not a whole lot to report on our end, but I can certainly fill you in on the latest.  

I think a while back, I mentioned that we had a water leak somewhere.  It more than doubled our water bill which was definitely not welcome into the budget. Finding a leak on our property was not a cheap or easy task, so we determined to not worry about it.  The other night, Al was walking outside and sunk in mud.  He was shocked because we didn't see the mud there before.  He got a shovel and dug the site, and indeed found the water leak.  The next morning, the hole he dug was full of water, with a small bubbling fountain.  He went to the store and purchased the materials he needed to put a valve in the line, so the water could be turned on in the house.  

Tomorrow, Al will need to finish the pipe work in order to get water to the shop again.  When he checked the water meter he did determine that our leak was finally found and there were no other leaks.  You can imagine how relieved we were.  

Aaron and Lily, our bull and cow, are slowly warming up to us.  We are able to pet them over the fence, but we still use caution when entering into pastures with them.  Meanwhile, Patty, the little heifer calf, still isn't sure about humans and runs away from us.  We feed them alfalfa cubes in the morning.  I both wonder and worry whether or not petting and friending the bull will have the same ramifications as friending a ram.  (That was not an intentional pun, but it works!)

The weather here has been absolutely hot and dry.  The gardens shrivel up during the day because they just can't handle the heat.  All the seeds I planted have done nothing whatsoever.  It seems my struggle this year has been getting things to germinate.  I am not sure if this soil is contaminated (storebought compost) or if the water is too high in salt, but you can imagine the disappointment in finding every day that goes by there is no progress with plant germination.  Top that off with the fact that something is eating my green bean plants.  My guess is grasshoppers or locust.  

At this point, I have just decided to give up.  I'll try hard to keep alive what is growing, but I just don't have it in me anymore this year.  So I am working on stocking the pantry with purchased food, whether already canned, or fresh produce for me to preserve.  

On that note, my Azure order contained some frozen green beans which I will can up to see if it is cheaper to can frozen beans or purchase canned beans.  Once the local squash crops come in, I will be purchasing some to process for our pumpkin needs.  I may end up purchasing more carrots to fill the refrigerator.  I think our potato needs are filled, but I will purchase sweet potatoes since our crop was very poor.  

Next year's garden will have much thought put into it before planting since we have some picky eaters.  There isn't much need for certain vegetables if there are but a few of us who eat them.  

I have picked up milking Mocha and Juniper again.  I am thankful they had doelings on them still to keep the milk in production.  And while the amount isn't a lot, my perspective has been changed during the short time (one week) in which we were drinking store bought milk.  That garbage will work your gut over good!  Ugh!

While I hoped to be able to milk our new cow, I am not going to force interaction and try to milk her quite yet.  I do hope to be milking her before winter, but if not, I am okay with it.  We have plenty of time in the future.  

Hopefully, our garden clean up will start tomorrow.  I am still not sure what the plan is, but it may include totally disassembling everything we have out there.  Right now, the task puts me into high anxiety, but I am determined to figure out a better layout and plan to make work easier and clean-up a breeze.  

And with that, I will close.