One happy Cat, Corn and Ducks

Nari is one very happy cat, enjoying being with her person on a nice summer day.

Corn in the kitchen Garden.

Ducks nearly have their adult plumage. Pretty sure we have one male and two females. Haven't seen many slugs around lately, which is a good thing.

Sadie....

DH had to take this picture of Sadie sleeping... shouldn't be possible to curl up this way sleeping without breaking something but obviously she doesn't have a problem with it.
Impressive.

A Day in the Kitchen Garden on nice afternoon

Can you find where Nari is hiding?

Nari supervising DS in the Garden.

We harvested some Squash and Corn.

DH just had to get a photo of me picking some corn.

The string beans are finally making it out of the pumpkin patch and climbing the poles. Though it does present a challenge on how to get to the Beans. :O)

Edda Running

DH saw Edda playing , so he stepped outside to get this Video short for me. Makes me wish we had a real video camera.

I have never seen her mix up her gaits this much before... LOL... looks like she was really excited.

Shed end, new recipe for Hamburger buns and Dyfra goes zoom...

We need to end off the shed to help keep the snow drifts out this winter, so we are using what we have on hand. Lots of Alder trees and some fiberglass panels of unknown age found on the Farm.

DH and DS are busy putting up the support posts.

Finished end. They still need to frame the other side so we can make a "make shift" gate. Is ugly but should work well.

The other side will end up with a log fence and gate. Unless DH gets a job soon and if he does, then he wants me to go out to buy panels and a gate. LOL

While the men of the house were out working on the shed, I tried a new recipe of no salt Hamburger buns. They turned out quite well and are not as sweet as the other recipe.

Also raised the lower rack in the Oven so the bottoms would not get too brown.


OK... I just had to throw this in here.. had a nice ride out on Dyfra today. Zoom......

Grandpa's Birthday cake!

Lemon Curd filling Sponge Cake for Grandpa's Birthday. DH made it. ;O)

Its not the most pretty of cakes but goodness did it taste wonderful.

Putting the Lemon curd between layers of Sponge Cake.

Grandpa, Brandy and Christopher enjoying an afternoon Game.

Edda is now 2 1/2 months old

Edda Pacing... did get a photo of her tolting but it was too blurry.

Her mane and tail still have curls.

Can see she is loosing her light colored foal coat on her legs reveling the charcoal stockings underneath.

Next to her Mom...... patches on her Mom's coat is due to the ringworm.

Loosing her foal coat and reveling the sleek bay color underneath. Her knees are looking a bit funny due to the way she is loosing her foal coat.

But you can see her dark charcoal colored tipped ears and starting to see her charcoal colored stockings on her legs.

A visit from family and a grand day at the beach

DH looking at his camera, after taking a photo of the Pacific Ocean in NW Oregon.

DS, DH, Grandmother, Grandfather and my niece.

Grandparents enjoying the surf.

Grandparents and DS.

Grandpa.....

DS

Enjoying the day.

Chocolate cream non dairy pie !

Just look at this yummy Chocolate cream non dairy pie DH made! All homemade even the crust.
And yes... its already gone. ;O)

Cinnamon Rolls

The day DH was cleaning up the riding paths a week or so ago... I made Cinnamon Rolls, from scratch.
Took the whole day but goodness were they good. I say "were" because they didn't last long at all. ;O)

Kitchen Garden

The Potato toss.

DH pulling potatoes out of the Garden.

Not only has our garden gone wild but so has our potatoes.

Pumpkin plants taking over and the beans trying to get up the poles. You can see the corn in the background.

Brussels sprouts and onions.

Can see the cauliflower and peas in the background.

DH cleaned up my Bridle paths

This is one of the large cedar stumps, next to one of my bridle paths. You can see the size it once was with the hat hanging on it and this is with the outer bark gone.

A whole string of photos DH took of some of the riding paths he cleaned up. It is really enjoyable to ride in the woods and now there is more than enough room to even take walks side by side.

Tractor antics

Yesterday, I decided to do some small tree removal... lots of little scrub Alder has been growing into my hay field for 20 or 30 years. Now that we have hayed the parts that the guy was willing to do, I can clear out some of the parasites and make the field more hay friendly.
As soon as I decided to do that, it became evident that there would be at least some useable lengths of timber from the trunks. 8" at the base, 6 to 4" 14 feet higher up the trunk. Lots of trash and stuff that couldn't be used.
Took the machete out and cut away all the blackberries and brush at the base of the trees, so I could get close enough with the chain saw to cut them down.... Multiple lacerations to the hands and fore arms later, I can cut down some trees. Took down about a dozen..... stopped when I managed to have a trunk 'pinch' the bar of the chain saw. The trunk weighs more than my motorcycle..... that's a contest I am not going to win.


So I went to get my tractor, so I could use the bucket and a chain to lift the trunk off my saw. Had to unhitch the brush hog from the 3 point hitch on the back, and I noticed that the right lower arm is not really attached to the tractor as it should be..... the pin that holds the arm to the tractor is backed all the way out and is about to fall out.

I had observed this before; the part in use is not the OEM part, due to someone in the past breaking the mount, and having had to repair it.
The mount itself (attached to the tractor frame) consists of two 'ears' with holes in it to pass the pin through like an axle. Once the pin is inserted all the way, a lynch pin retains it. Except THIS pin doesn't go far enough through the hole to allow that. The end of the arm rides in a socket, on that pin.

No retainer, eventually the pin comes out, and the 3 point hitch becomes a 2 point hitch. Now that I have ample proof that this is not good enough, I am obliged to fix the issue.
I take the pin all the way out and examine it, and the mount. Someone has welded a big nasty blob of steel onto the outside of the ear, and it now interferes with the pin.... it can't go deep enough due to hitting that weld.
I grabbed a file, and proceeded to reduce the size of that bead of weld. For about an hour. After almost 2 hours, I had it reduced enough to allow the pin to go 'home'......... only it would still not do so.

I finally look at where the pin slides to, and realize it is hitting an obstruction on an adjoining piece of the tractor. (!) "Why would anyone design something like this? Why doesn't fixing the ear, solve the problem?"

That led me to remove the pin on the other side of the tractor for comparison.... the left arm mount should have been identical to the right side, after all.... I should be able to swap pins, and have it work just fine. Except the pins are different lengths, and due to the damage, the spacing on the ears is not the same. The left pin is too short to span the right ears...... and the right (replacement) pin is too long for the available space. The end of the pin that has the hole for the retaining device has the hole farther 'in' from the end of the pin.
A hack saw and file job on the pin ensued..... 30 minutes later, I have removed a notch from the pin that allows it clearance to seat in the 'ear', and I can finally add a cotter pin to keep this from happening to me again.

After 4 hours of tractor 'adjustment' I could finally go rescue my chain saw.

Some of the trees DH cut down and cleaned up.

Massive brush pile.

Story is written by DH. ;O)

DS rides Dyfra !

Dyfra did a stunning thing today...just before our ride. I had DS get on her in the round pen, while she did keep her eyes glued to me, she did what he asked calmly with no wigging out! Woohoo...
Think part of why she did so well... is DS has been helping me feed Dyfra for 6 years. So she knows DS very well and all the years of work and training I have put into her. Now I wish I brought the camera out.

Reason I tried this, is my Niece is coming for a visit and wants a pony ride. Was going to use Stjarna but I am still battleing her Ringworm, so I don't want to use tack on her or have anyone else around her for awhile.
Think Dyfra will do fine in the Roundpen with me leading my niece around on her back.

After that, I had a wonderful ride out on Dyfra, checked out, the clean up bridle paths in the woods. DH did a wonderful job! Thank you Husband. :O)

Getting their nails done.

This is Sadie, having her Soft Paw's put on. This is how we keep both us and the furniture from getting scratched. It doesn't hurt the Cat's and it is easy to do.