Summer is beginning to wind down; we dug half the potatoes yesterday - they are beauties! We moved them up out of the swampy garden area of last year which turns out was the right thing to do. Looks like the reds were the most prolific; I'll be curious about the Yukon Golds since it seems to me we've had quite a bit of rot with them in the past.

We hosted a cattle herding trial here this past weekend using our steers, then co-hosted a sheepdog trial at my friend Phyllis's at her place. It was a lot of fun; the dogs did well and the people are generally a good bunch. Thank goodness the weather cooperated!

The pigs Alice and Arlo, are doing well and are planning a trip to Mike's sometime the first full week in September. We'll miss them as they've become great pets. This picture was from the weekend, Alice is watching the dogs from under the big pines in her yard. I have a great pile of old hay and straw in this corner that they spend quite a bit of time digging and playing in - their yard is big and keeps very clean and dry with the exception of the mud bog they insist on creating near their water!

I'll need to get a little picture of the quail - we're collecting a few eggs every day (I only have 6 of them) and the plan is to make pickled eggs. Too much fun!!

Here are some pictures of Trouble dog-breaking some steers for a stockdog trial we're hosting in another week. Look at the tails on the steers and you'll see they're just flicking flies, not concerned about the dog. She moves them in both directions (flanking them) and turns them back without biting, maneuvers them where she wants them to go in an orderly and calm manner....keeping that expensive weight on them - !

What to do with those Quail eggs we have now that we have Quail??

Quail Eggs Benedict and Caviar

1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
12 quail eggs
12 2-inch round croutons
Hollandaise sauce (recipe follows)
Osetra Caviar

Bring a medium pot of water to a simmer. Add the vinegar. Gently break the quail eggs, one by one, into the simmering water and poach for 1 minute. Remove the eggs from the water with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. Place one cooled, poached quail egg on each crouton. Top with a little hollandaise sauce and caviar.

My grandkids Anthony and Crystal - one last visit before Crystal heads home to Colorado!

Happy 8th Birthday, Hudson! Thanks to Jolie for taking such good care of you since you were a baby!

Say 'Hello' to Gale - Briarlea Nightingale of Rustic Road from our long-awaited litter of Solo x Birdie. She's a little pistole!!

The raspberries seem ready to pick this week along with our little planting of blueberries (12 plants) from last year. We FINALLY got some rain this morning after a month-long drought; the hayfield looks pathetic enough that I've found and purchased 15 big round bales of hay for the sheep. Today I may get out to mow the weeds out of the hayfield, more likely tomorrow since it's supposed to be 90F here today and cooler tomorrow.

Cherry pie in the oven as we speak so it looks like a good day all around!

My granddaughter Crystal is here this summer; here she is at riding lessons with Porter, a 28 year old Arab gelding. He's a wonderful horse for a first-time rider!

Wisconsin Youth having fun, I guess ... this is what we woke to this morning! And no, insurance won't pay to have it repaired....the 16' gate is pretty much scrap and the corner posts will need to be replaced, the wire restretched. Just a little more work, thank you kids!

Happy Birthday, Stryker!
Briarlea Common Virtue MX MXJ

Friday we had an enormous dumpster delivered to our farm. Actually it is only a 10 yard dumpster but it looks huge to me; it was placed on the new gravel turnaround I had created with gravel from the local quarry and our new front loader (with help from Shorty Fender, our neighbor who has a bobcat with some kind of magic leveler on it.) The local quarry which is actually only a mile from our farm has been a godsend for folks around us - we order gravel to make driveways, to fill in basement foundations, to help keep the barnyards dry - and now we understand it may be a source of sand for fracking operations in North Dakota. Locals are of course up in arms at the prospect.

But back to the dumpster. Jim and Crystal spent much of the day sorting through 30 years of miscellaneous hardware, flowerpots, scraps of linoleum, old doors, lumber, etc. and making decisions whether to keep or toss. Lots tossed, I'll admit, but the 'keep' pile seems pretty healthy to me.

I had hesitated whether to mention that we have 2 peachicks - both are still thriving after 10 days so we're hopeful that they will continue to grow. They are in the milkhouse right now, in a cage with a heatlight. There were about a dozen or 15 peachick eggs under one of the broody hens but today in our frenzy to clean, clean, clean we decided to toss them. I don't know why they weren't fertile but they weren't...either that or they got chilled somewhere along the way. I've noticed a very fat garter snake in the henhouse lately but don't think that had anything to do with the eggs. At any rate, the pigs were happy to be the recipient of these goodies.

Trouble's pups are all gone now but for one who leaves on Tuesday. They were a very fun litter - friendly, active, smart - and we are fortunate that our friend Cory is co-owning one of them with us.

Now we can focus on Birdie's puppies - Crystal is a great puppysitter and cuddler - which really is wonderful for all concerned!

I was recently reminded that my blog had been pretty quiet lately so I'm taking a minute to send Happy Birthday wishes to our Solo x Ruby puppies who just have turned a year old.

Thanks to Susan for this picture of Noche' - we share ownership of this feisty young gal; Susan's been great about getting her out and about to obedience, agility and herding lessons.

and to Sally for sending along this picture from Montana of Tilly and her friend Wally. I'm so fortunate to have had you folks find me and choose a puppy from this combination!

In other news, the puppies from Trouble begin to leave home this coming week, lightening the puppy responsibilities and giving me some time to spend with our girl Una who has been getting the short end of the stick she says. We have Birdie's puppies coming along to also help fill in that time!

The chickens have been growing and growing and will be ready for their final adventure on June 20! Now how much closer to free-range can you get, guys? We did see a fat garter snake in their yard yesterday; I think it may be a mother snake full of babies - I doubt they'll be around long in that yard though.


Yesterday we hatched out 2 pea chicks - they're hard for me to keep going though - so we'll see how these fare. The piggies are growing well and have made themselves a sort of nest in the duff under the pines in their yard; as with most of our pigs, they have interesting and delightful personalities making it difficult when the time comes to part with them. Chuck Draxler brought over 6 big hefty steers a couple weeks ago - Trouble has been working with them to get them dog broke for our summer clinic and trial. She loves and is good at it!

We have puppies here at the farm right now ~ I decided the little greenhouse could do extra duty for a little bit!

The morels are out! It's asparagus, trout and morels for supper tonight :)

Almost forgot! The newest Papillon is coming all the way from Germany's Kolibris Kennel...here are pix of the beautiful parents of our boy James Bond von den Kolibris. We will always have Bouviers of course but I think these wonderful, friendly little companion dogs will add a new dimension to our lives. We will be co-owning him with Flirt's breeder and will take him to dogshows for fun. I guess with all that lovely white coat they aren't going to be barnyard dogs!

It has been a long week here at the farm; a couple nice days when we worked around the place cleaning, Jim hurt his back hauling firewood and began gimping around yesterday and I've been sleep deprived...all of which means we're a bit of a zombie family here. I hauled some of the houseplants outdoors (too early??) and have set up the front porch for Trouble's puppies so that they get maximum exposure to our comings and goings. Trouble began duck and chicken chores, putting them in the henhouse of an evening to keep them safe from Brother Fox...and so that they can go inside at a time that seems reasonable to us humans (ie: Before 10 pm!) She enjoys the work and I've entered her in an AKC herding trial at the end of June...on ducks...so we will keep working here. The calves are growing well, they are almost done with the second of two bags of milk replacer and seem to be grazing enough that when it's gone, it's gone. We've been out looking for morels but none yet - - although the trillium are now carpeting the woodland floor here in the lovely valley.

We're glad that the membership drive for Minnesota Public Radio is coming to an end although it is interesting to listen to the many fascinating interviews that come along with the drive.

Birdie's puppies were born today - 6 healthy, good looking babes! Thanks to Seth, Bonnie and Anthony for taking such good care of her that she's turned out to be such a great mama. Check out her blog at www.birdiepups.blogspot.com!

A wonderfully warm, sunny day here - time out for a lunch break and some time with little Flirt!

From Gretyl Kay's family, this great photo! Gretyl is a littermate to Ziva, Cayuse and Rey and lives in north eastern Wisconsin.

New animals at the farm! Here are our two new piglets - Alice and her brother - her brother actually belongs to our friends Lynn and Betsy and they will need to name him :)


And here are the 'cow-boys' as we call them ... "Here cow-boys!, Here cow-boys!" and they come running for their pails of milk (most of which now seems to go on the ground or all over my pant legs in their haste to get it drunk down and FAST....) I was telling my son Seth that it used to annoy me when people would comment about how dumb sheep were - after all, sheep know what is important for sheep to know - but now if someone were to comment about how dumb calves are, well, I'd have a hard time making an argument.

Trouble's pups are doing well, growing and eating and sleeping a lot! She's taking excellent care of them although I think she pines for the day when she can come help work stock! They were a week old on Monday and it looks to me like they will be nice-sized pups.

The weather's been, well, dreadful - cold rain, snow flurries - clouds.... O New Mexico, how we miss you!