I have been on the search for a peahen friend for Bill since last fall.  I’m specifically looking for a hen of 2-4 years of age, but I’m not particular about the coloring.  I have yet to find one available in our immediate area; I’ve got my eye on one that’s about 1.5 hours away.  Just need another reason to travel to that area, and I’d gladly buy her!  In the meantime though, I did find someone locally who had two peachicks for sale.  While it will be a long time before they’re big enough to get out in the yard, at least he’ll have some friends.  I wonder how long before I’ll be able to tell if they’re male(s) or female(s)?

We’ve been doing some blackberry picking around the pastures, which is pretty awesome!  Rob used to have to go out and pick next to roads and highways, but we have many mature blackberry canes growing on the fence rows.  They’re thorny as can be, but the fruit is juicy and sweet!  Made the first of hopefully many batches of jelly yesterday:

So, I’ve mentioned before that our garden is pretty darn big, right?  As I recall, the plan was for 100′ rows – and they were overshot a bit.  We started out with a good 6′ path between each of the eight (I think) rows, plus three rows of corn.  It’s big, and there’s a lot of green out there – quite a lot of which are weeds.  However, for as weedy as that garden is, it’s pretty productive too!

The potatoes seem to be coming in well, we’ve dug up a few taters to check on them.  The brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas, and onions are doing poorly.  Okra is growing well, we should begin harvesting in a week or two.  We put down 40 Roma tomato plants, and if only half of them produce we should be overrun.  It’s looking as though they will all produce.  😉  The cherry tomatoes are coming ripe, a few each day – that’s a bit disappointing because there’s just not enough to actually do anything with (other than eat them while still warm from the sun).  The cucumbers are doing fairly well, green beans and wax beans are starting to produce – we’re quite happy with those!  Now, the squash and zucchini – we can grow the heck out of them.  We’ve cooked, baked, frozen, given away, and donated quite a lot of them, and they still keep on coming.  I’m thinking in probably a week or so though, they’ll be done producing.  Our green peppers are rather small, but overall not bad.  I’m really looking forward to some butternut squash, and corn.  🙂

Doing anything outside at this time of year is so taxing, the heat is relentless.  I’ve gotten used to it, but I still don’t much care for the heat.

In other news….

This past Friday, we apparently had a visit from a nasty dog.  At least, I suspect it’s the same dog that killed the neighbors lamb, and has been generally terrorizing animals in the ‘hood.  Long story short, I found one of Abby’s ewes (Hershey, I later found out) had escaped the pasture, presumably by jumping the fence panel and entering the barn.  She was hiding in a stall, behind a bunch of scaffolding.  Poor girl had a sizeable wound on her leg, that was bloody and oozing.  Ew, right?  I got her cleaned up as well as I could with what I had, then Rob helped me doctor her again the following day.  What really stinks is that whoever this dog belongs to isn’t doing their job – keeping their pet safe and at home.  Ultimately, it won’t end well – either for the animals it encounters or the dog itself.