July 31st-August 6th
August is here.. With Henry having had an extra 3-4 weeks off it seems like Summer break is just dragging on. Sibyl has vocalized that she’s ready for Henry to go back to school several times now. The kids are enjoying the pool and are in it at least once a day if not twice – a wise investment this year for sure! With August comes Henry’s birthday. Planning for his party is well under way, though finding ‘encanto’ themed party supplies seems impossible. I’ve ordered some off Amazon but have been facing delays and lost packages for the past 2 weeks. At this point all I can do is cross my fingers that it will get here in time.
Home and Property Improvements
I found some old paint in storage and decided to paint the deck on Sunday. It’s unbelievable what a difference it made. We had hoped the past two years to replace the deck and extend it out to a more useable space, but have been delayed with more pressing projects. A few repairs and painting have bought us some time if we aren’t able to get to it again next Summer at least.
We’ve been making a huge push to get a lot of little projects completed. A lot of things just to make the property more aesthetically pleasing. The push has been coming from me, as I’m spending a tremendous amount of time at home looking at unfinished projects. I am also continuing on the never ending kitchen renovations. I started stripping and sanding cabinet doors at least a year ago and while all the bottom cabinets are ready to paint I’ve started stripping all the upper cabinets now. It would be incredible to have everything painted and installed prior to Christmas – that’s my goal.
Garden Update
I’m finally getting to harvest a few things! Cherry tomatoes have been abundant for a while – though you wouldn’t know it since Sibyl is eating them as soon as they’re ripe. Zucchini’s are slow and steady and I have eggplant harvest size now! The beans are finally in bloom after being destroyed by earwigs all Spring. Cucumbers, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, buttercup squash and butternut squash all look incredible. The pumpkin plants have taken off but the fruit isn’t setting yet..I need to do some research to make sure it’s not a nutritional issue that’s causing fruit to die off. I also decided to pull all my cauliflower – they were growing lovely and had little cauliflower started but the earwigs have just destroyed everything to the point that we wouldn’t want to eat it, so it’s just easier to pull it now and then I’ll plant something in it’s place. The broccoli haven’t gone to head yet, but the plants themselves look great, so I’ll continue to let them grow for now. I started a cabbage and cauliflower plant in my hydroponic unit to transplant outside when they’re big enough. I also have one head of red romaine lettuce growing in the hydroponic unit and it’s growing slowly but very well.
Livestock Update
Goose #2 continues to sit on 5 eggs. The sheep continue to be moved to new grass every 4-5 days. Laying hens are still out on pasture. Knock on wood, life is good in the animal kingdom.
New Puppy!
On Saturday we decided to add another addition to our farm. We picked up an 11 week old border collie that we have since named Innes (pronounced IN-ISS). We really wanted a Scottish name for him, to honour the origins of the breed and our own Scottish heritage and ironically the name Innes means ‘island’ in scots, so we thought it was perfect and suited him really well. It will be interesting to see if he takes the the sheep as he gets older.
Heat Wave
We finished off this week with yet another heat wave. It was just too hot to do anything and so we went to the beach and we lazed around home, spending some time with each other.