Playing Catch-Up.

This will be my attempt to bring you up to speed on what is happening around the farm. The fence(s) is/are finally finished. I had to do some after completion modifications to prevent my dogs from getting out. The way the fence is designed is that the yard and pasture closest to the cow shed are supposed to be completely secure. All of the fencing in these two locations should not allow for a dog to slip through.... or so I thought. I found out that Ranger was slipping out, under the electric wire and climbing through a section of the rock wall that had fallen over. Today, I filled that hole with a mass of old barbed wire that I had laying out in the pasture and, as of the last few hours, they haven't be able to breech the wire.
What else is going on? My kind neighbor agreed to swath and bail my south pasture this weekend (thanks Jerry). In order to get the ground ready, I had to clear out all the young hedge trees growing there. I came home from school on Friday and started cutting. Nothing is harder on a chain saw than cutting hedge trees at ground level. I worked until I couldn't see anymore and then got up early on Sat. to finish the job. I reverted to a hand saw and, other than the extra scratches on my forearms, I thought it went well.
He just finished bailing and he was able to get 19 smaller, round bails out of the field. I'm happy with that as I think it will give me more than enough hay for the winter.
I think I have my cows trained pretty well now to come when I call them. I had one get out on Friday and get into my neighbor's pasture. I went down to the fence that joins our pastures and called my cow over with the promise of some sweet feed. The good girl came, but unfortunately, I was out of sweet feed. '
Finally, we had some dear friends stop for a visit on their way back to MN from CA. Skip and Peggy are like Sam and Hannah's grandma and grandpa and are so good with our kids. Sam and Hannah always enjoy spending time with them and have fond memories of when they came and visited us in Guatemala. I took the day off from work and kept the kids home too. Skip and I were able to knock a few major projects off of the too do list and the kids had a great time hanging out with Peggy. It was a nice visit, but too short.
All is well on the farm. We look forward to many more visits from our friends and family. I'll post a blend of some of the more recent photos we have taken. D.