Boy this year is going by so fast... I've been a bit lazy about blogging lately.  So what's happening around the farm.  Well the new batch of baby goats got their bells yesterday.  They've been running and jumping and jingling. 

    The turks, keep an eye on all things about the farm... nothing gets past the three amigos... Rio...the Rio Grande, Duke the royal palm, and Grey beard the blue slate.... Quite a group they are strutting about the place...   Lieutenant... the up and coming peacock keeps watch on his own rounds nearby...

     Gardens have all gone to weeds... I may never catch up... Still digging some monster sweet potatoes though...yum!  But haven't gotten this year's garlic crop in... maybe soon?

     We have lots of repairs to do on all the fences and chicken coops... seems there's always something to do...

     And we are remodeling the kitchen... which is taking most of our time... making us a nice warm relaxing den area there...since we spend all our time in the kitchen...and well this old house gets cold in the winter...and we'll only have to warm up that one room.  We've got most of the pantry expansion done...just a few more touch ups...and it sure is nice to spread out all of our cooking and canning junk... I've filled it up already!  Richie got the sheet rock hung... course now we have to finish it... and finish up our design of how we are rearranging the cooking area... so it is coming along and we are excited about it.

    We BBQed our first goat yesterday.  It was quite tasty!  If you've never eaten goat, it just tastes like BBQ...somewhere in between beef and pork...leaning closer to pork... we also cooked some deer my nephew had shot... it was all good fun with family and friends.

    Oh...and the chickens...are just now turning in their eggs lately??? Told them their free ranging was coming to an end until they turned in a few eggs...

     That's most of the farm news here in late October...

I just love Saturday mornings...what if everyday was Saturday?....but then would I appreciate it as much.  It's been noisy here this morning.  Wild Bill is tied up since he's been bullying the nanny goats...to market to market he must go soon... and the guineas were squawking this morning...some new hatchlings (keets) have arrived and for once the mothers are being a little protective...'course that stirred up the peafowl... Lots of sounds here at the farm this morning!  Roosters crowing too....now if I could just get them to lay eggs!!!

      Two more baby goats born yesterday... Joy had twins, doelings, Autumn and Fall (Lindi named them)...and yes, we are rolling into fall this week.  Pictures soon...All seems to be well in the goat yard with our little bottle baby Dot. She taken to escaping the goat compound and following farmer Richie around for the farm chores..."Me and my shadow, my shadow and me..." I heard him singing yesterday as I rolled in from work and had stopped to see the babies before I reached my parking spot...he was already feeding everyone...and there she was galloping along behind him...

       Gotta run go get some feed.... Feed store here I come!

      It's a quiet morning...just soft "maaing" from the goat yard, and a few clucks out side the back door...fall is just around the corner and the temperature is not too hot this morning....the air is still and quiet.   The kittens are lazing around and I'm sipping on my cup of coffee enjoying the company of my sweet love beside me...

     Little Red has delivered two healthy twins...Oreo and Dottie...Oreo is a little buckling and Dottie the cutest little doeling ever!   They are awfully sweet too.  Little red is doing well...although we gave her a stomach ache...I gave her a little extra corn and then Richie did too...Hopefully we didn't do too much damage.

    Love these peaceful mornings.

      ...still no baby goats...still waiting...for kids!

    I was feeling discouraged because I didn't have a baby goat to bring for g week in kindergarten...we'd had the little red hen, and a little piggy come to school...but I really wanted to bring a new baby goat today....I was pouting...no farm animal visit this week....then today during show and tell...the kids told me...."but you brought the gold fish for our fish tank....and gold fish starts with /g/!  The fish came from your pond...So you did bring a farm show and tell!"....what do you know!!! Kids are great aren't they!              

    Waiting for little goats to arrive... 3 big momma goats...no little baby goats...and it's g week...guess we'll have the three billy goats gruff story without babies tomorrow....

    Waiting for little goats....

    Still waiting....

     It's a lovely Saturday here in Georgia today.  Pleasant weather after scattered showers all week and humidity that you could cut with a knife.  Really pleasant day!  We started off with a delicious breakfast of fresh blueberry pancakes...leisurely read the paper...and then got ready for our trip to the feed store.  Honey...remember we've got to take the bees out of the back of the truck...

      Last night we went and picked up a swarm that had settled into a screech owl box.  The people didn't want them there and they were an easy removal.  We had left them in the back of the truck til morning...and morning was here...so Richie went and put them in a safe place until we could get back and set them up in their new hive here....after all I've left a lot of things in the back of the truck when I've gone on my rounds to the feed store...but I didn't think it would go over well to say...just move that box of bees up to the front and toss those bags of feed right on in here....

     Honey...(guess I was being a bit bossy this morning)...did we shut the back door?...so Richie goes to check the door before we load up on our rounds...humperrrrrpt......humperrrrrrrrrrrt....he turned around and there were four horses coming around the corner from the garden...making their horses sounds...Hey what are you horses doing out????  Seems every time it rains lately Fancy finds a way to breach the electric fence...guess the corn patch was just a little too compelling this morning to respect the yellow wire....They trotted dutifully ...with just a little kicking up of heels backs around to the barn.  Richie locked them in the corral and added...one ...more... thing to his honey do list... and we then walked by the chicken yards back to the truck...hey wait a minute...why are there a 100 birds following us around the house....Yes...we are going to go get you some seeds...back in a little while...Hey honey..maybe we better run so we can escape out of here.....finally we loaded into the truck and headed to the feed store...

     They had put fall plants out front...guess it's time to get the little garden back into shape and plant a few fall greens...so of course I had to go ahead and pick up some seeds...turnips, collards, mustard, and some spinach... (Add to list...clean out morning glories over taking small garden...and plant greens in there this year)....

     We put in our order for feed...chatted a bit...handed over all our money...and went to load up....couldn't resist telling the guys who load the feed about the bees I had in the truck earlier....they were glad I hadn't forgotten and tried to get feed with bees...

    Whew...now we can head home...ding, ding, ding...goes the farm truck...I want petro...now...ding, ding, ding...that is if you want to go home...so we made one more stop...to feed the truck...

    Home again, home again,,, jiggity jig....Next it's time to unload the feed......hummmm...better toss those chickies some seeds or they'll never let us get the feeders filled... So my sweetie unloaded all my critter's feed...and I meandered about filling water buckets and tossing seed here and there for the poultry...

    Beautiful day...

      When you are a kindergarten teacher and you have a farm...it's just natural to want to share a little bit of it with the kids at school.  The past couple of weeks have given us that opportunity... Last week we were talking about the color word red...so of course it was easy to bring a little red hen...and add in a little animal study too.

     This week we continued the stories with the three little pigs...and Spot our new little piggie got a quick morning bubble bath and came for a visit as well.  He sat sweetly in the cage during the story...even started to snore...guess he thought it was a bed time story.  Piggie did get some good information about how to avoid the wolf from the story and he was quick to tell Petunia, Porky, and Tocina all about it when he returned to the farm!

    The children then got there animal lesson about pigs on the farm...and a little tidbit...that we get bacon, sausage, and pork-chops from pigs...on little guy raised his hand and said, "yep...but they've gotta loose their fur and guts and get cut up to to go in the store"...guess he had it all figured out. And I get all worried that this generation of children will not know where there food comes from...there's still a few out there who do!  Of course...then there was the kid who said..."What are pork chops?" ...maybe a lesson for another day...

     So will we be able to bring a little goat for "G" week next week?   In the past I've always had a baby a few days old to bring...and well Little Red...one of the first goats to visit school is expecting anytime... time will tell I suppose... We have three big mama goats ready to kid...hopefully we will have a baby before next Friday.

     Being able to share the farm makes the work of the farm more pleasant... I know the children sure seem to enjoy the animals...Thanks Richie for bringing them to school for us... I know I always look forward to a visit from Farmer Pate!

    A fellow over in Ladonia had called about a swarm of bees in his yard... they had made a hive in a screech owl box he had in his yard.  They didn't want the bees and asked us to remove them...This ended up being a pretty easy removal. 

    Richie brought the staple gun and some screen to cover the entrance...   Was the screech owl box sturdy...would it fall apart when he picked it up...  I wasn't sure so..I decide to sit in truck and watch... so he starts to staple...of course the staples fall out of the staple gun...and he needs me to go get them...so I do...anything for my wonderful man....

    The hive holds...I reload the stapler...still run back to the truck... only about 3 bees swarmed around...the rest were already tucked into the hive for the night... He placed it easily in the hive and we were ready to roll in just minutes.

    Now...What do we do once we get home? How do we move them to a new hive?....this may be a creative hive in the end.  They seem like very calm nice bees...maybe they'll make lots of nice honey to share with us!....

   ....so goes another Pate Farm Bee Swarm retrieving adventure...

     Saturday mornings are great for second cups of coffee...  Nice cool breeze coming in through the window...  Sunny skies trickle in the light...  Roosters crow in the yard...spending time at the kitchen table with my sweetie...enjoying fresh blueberry pancakes....

     Peaceful morning....thankful ....and blessed... 

     August has arrived with it's heat.  The short cool days that visited us in July have evaporated into hot days and evening scattered showers...Heat and Humidity...

     School has begun and the animals are fretful with me.  Thank goodness Richie has had a little more time to help water and feed...because this ol' gal's been spending too much time at school trying to get the ole classroom up and running in the new year...

    Little Red...is nothing but little...she and Freckles both look like they are about to pop out some little goatlings.....I eye them watchfully as I leave out each day and as I return in the evening...new kids soon...

   The Dutchess had a tough week last week...Mr. Fox has decided to visit the farm and  have turkey and figs...he snapped up a couple of  the turkey poults under Ms. Dutchess' care...and she got hurt defending them...hope she will heal okay so she can raise the two she has left...she is an awesome momma turkey...  Farmer Richie caught one old fox last night...  We think there is another one lurking around....

    The four little piggies are enjoying their new and improved piggy pen...yep I picked up one more piggy...he was so cute...all spotted...he's so tiny compared to the others...but he gets right in there at feeding  time...

    The horses are begging to go back to papa's for some grazing...so I guess we'll go over and check the fences for them later in the week...

    Babe LaLa the sheep is enjoying her new buddy...Stinky....how he got that name is another story...(Don't put a lamb in the back seat of your truck...and not expect a little mess...)....

    All is well on these hot summer days of a Georgia August!