Let’s start with the good.

The pool is almost done.  We hired some workers to come complete the base level and then we spent the weekend setting it up the rest of the way.  All that needs to be done now is the water delivery and and the chemicals.  The girls are beside themselves with excitement and are hoping for a very “swimmy” 4th this year.

The sky was gorgeous last night while we were out there, though it was hard to capture because the lens on my camera kept fogging over from the humidity.

I also managed two other feats last night.  I pulled a decent crop of red potatoes out of the garden:

And I made a blueberry pie.

Oona won’t eat the pie and she’s mad that I used all the blueberries to make it.

I wasn’t sure at first I wanted to share any bad news here, and I haven’t been sure how to write it.  Then I decided there’s nothing for it but to simply get it all out.

One of our roosters, Berry, is suffering from some form of foot injury that has been preventing him from walking properly, and because of this he has become the object of much harassment by the other birds, and he has lost all of his tail feathers as a result.  To go with the theme of rooster rivalry, we discovered another rooster, my formerly favorite “hen” – Roobert, suffering with a grossly enlarged eye socket and copious discharge.  I do have photos, but they are pretty nasty and I am not sure you all really want to see them.  We’ve kept him separated and have been treating him with two kinds of eye medicine.  He seems to be improving, but his eyeball is completely black and I don’t know what to make of it.  What is very obvious to me, however, is that we simply have too many roosters for the land we have them on.  I need to find a way to reduce by at least 3 roosters, and Emily simply will not allow it.  (Nevermind the fact that we also have those 5 chicks that hatched recently, and at least 3 of those are boys).

On top of all of this rooster drama, I am at a loss with the bigger animals.  The fenced area in which they live has been completely decimated by all of the critters I have in there.  The land will simply no longer support them, and nothing will grow.  Even worse, it means I have a muddy, manure – filled area that is quickly becoming a breeding ground for flies and whatever other parasites that  decide they may want to take up residence there.  Ideally Jerry and the goats needs to have fresh pasture and weeds to roam and browse to avoid illness and complete destruction of the land.  I simply can’t afford any more fencing and I cannot leave them outside the fence perimeter – there are too many predators here and I can’t risk them wandering into  the neighbors’ yards.  I am faced with a dilemma.  I have to find a solution to keep my animals healthy soon or I am afraid I cannot keep them.  I can’t  risk their health just because I desperately want to keep them.

I did find a farm very nearby that is for sale at a very reasonable price that would be perfect – large barn, large fenced pastures, pool.  Unfortunately, due to the poor condition of the housing market (and a few other factors) we would never get enough from the sale of our current property to be able to buy it (or really anything, for that matter).

Accordingly I have  been rather down lately, and therefore I haven’t wanted to post much here.  There is a lot going on, but I simply haven’t the interest to post it.  I need to get past this bit of current misfortune and hopefully will have some more cheerful news soon.