Turtles on the move

June 17 (late post). The last two mornings while driving in to work I saw at least 6 turtles crossing the road. It must be turtle migration or mating season or something.

July 5: About 10 days ago while driving up our driveway we came across a nice snapping turtle, those are the ones that look like dinosaurs.

Snakey

I was mowing the grass along the horse pasture fence line when I came across this guy.

Down by the creek today

I took John and a friend of his down to the fishing hole so they could fish. I snapped a couple of pictures while down there. The kids caught four fish, three small and one larger.

Almost time for wild blackberries

We've got lots of wild blackberries growing all over the place. They are mostly green or red right now but will soon be ready for picking. Can't wait.

First Harvest

Debby found she had a few green beans in the garden that were ready to pick.

Free Ranging Baby!

We opened up the chicken tractor and let our Rhode Island Red chicklets loose for the first time. They loved being out.

Biscuits?

John decided to make some biscuits from scratch from a recipe that was in a magic book he was reading. John did an excellent job, the biscuits turned out great, John has now made them a second time.

Cattle, grass & methane

Papa called yesterday and told a joke about cows and methane, if you contact Papa I'm sure he'll be glad to tell you the joke. It reminded me of an article I read which stated that properly managed grass pastures would absorb more methane than a cow produces.

Apparently there are a lot of benefits to natural grass fed products.

Tractor maintenance

My tractor now has 215 hours on it. Today I changed the hydraulic/transmission fluid and filters, put in 15 gallons of Kubota SUDT fluid and two new Kubota transmission filters. While I was at it I also changed the engine oil and filter. Put in almost 3 gallons of Shell Rotella synthetic T6 5w-40 engine oil and new Kubota engine oil filter. Also cleaned radiator screen, checked engine coolant, checked front axle fluid. Tractor is good to go!

The end of the rainbow!

John and Mary were outside playing at about 7pm, it was dry and sunny. Rain hit fast and hard seemingly out of nowhere. Then, another beautiful rainbow. This rainbow was extra special because we could see the end of the rainbow right next to our car!

Just a couple of days ago we were treated with a gorgeous double rainbow, Mary said it was the prettiest rainbow she had ever seen. And today we saw the end of the rainbow.

Gone Fishin'

John dug up some worms from his worm spot near the barn. Debby packed a picnic, we then headed out. We tried to get to the river near Camp Austin but could not find the right place. So we went a mile from our house where Clifty Creek meets the Emory river.

Ginseng?

Someone locally is selling wild american ginseng. I think that we might have some growing on our farm, or at least we have the potential to grow it. I took this picture of a plant that looks a lot like ginseng. I don't think it is ginseng, but we have a lot of it. What is it?
Update June 7, 2010: I believe that this plant is Virginia Creeper.

Snake!

Debby called this afternoon and said she needed me to come and help her. She was driving on Riggs Chapel road taking the kids to John's guitar lesson when John yelled "Snake Mommy!". Debby said "Where John, did I run over a snake?". John replied "No, the snake is in the car!".

There was a snake in the car and it crawled up under the dash. Debby managed to stop the car safely, got the kids in the back, and decided to turn around and head back home, about two miles away.

The snake then crawled down on the floor on the front passenger side, and it coiled up. Debby had an ice scraper and tried to pin the snake down but it went under the seat. Debby stopped the car and told the kids to get out and then she called me.

Some neighbors tried to help but they could not find the snake. They then turned the car on and after a few minutes the snake was seen coming out from underneath the car and it went into a creek. Debby thinks it was likely a black snake about 4 feet long.

Beef time

We just bought 1/4 beef from the man who is leasing our pasture for beef cattle. The beef steer was #682 and it had a live weight of 1135 lbs. This steer was an angus cross which was grass fed except for the last few months when it had free choice of pasture and grain. All natural, no hormones or antibiotics.

Hanging weight was 58.4% or 663 lbs, of which we got one fourth, or 165.75 lbs. Actually, we got a little less than that as there was some trimming. We paid $383 total for this beef, $1.10 per pound live weight plus 1/4 of the slaughter/butcher bill.

Cuts of beef included filet, t-bone, ribeye, ribs, chuck roast, eye round, flank, flat iron, tip sirloin, cube steak, and ground beef.

Memorial Day weekend

We had a nice Holiday weekend. Events included visiting the park, having a picnic, riding bikes, playing tennis, going to the local drive-in theatre with friends, having a cookout, seeing a beautiful rainbow, ...

Monster Egg!

The eggs from our chickens are fairly large, occasionally we get a "twin" yolk egg, however this egg was just huge!