Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Mike CHS]

We canned another dozen jars of tomatoes this afternoon. Our cucumber plants are at the end of their cycle so we pulled them up and planted a few seeds to give us another batch to just have available for the table. The sweet peppers and okra are doing great and I have already put 4 one gallon bags of chopped peppers in the freezer and 3 one gallon bags of sliced okra. The okra loves the heat and has reached the growth stage where each plant will yield 4 or 5 pods about every other day. I only planted 20 plants in this bed but it will give us fore than what we need but two of the neighbors also like okra so it will get used. We canned 6 pint jars of stewed tomatoes and okra yesterday morning.

The only thing that hasn't done well is our squash. We normally planted way to many so this year we just planted one small bed but all of the plants in that bed have only male flowers so far so obviously we don't have any squash yet.

 

[Baymule]

Your garden is doing good!

 

[Mike CHS]

We brought all of the sheep in this morning to check them out and to pull a couple of fecals then separated the boys so we can keep all of the adult ewes together with the lambs and the dogs. While we were out there we found an armadillo carcass so that would explain why a meal or two got ignored by Maisy.

We have a couple of the ewes that aren't up to the size we like but we will give them a bit more time before we decide to sell or not. Both of them were triplets so we will see if they fill out a bit more. They are both 110 pounds but we prefer a minimum of 120 so they may get there. We weighed the adults as we ran them through the chute and they are all range between 140 and 175. Cooper the ram weighed in at 234 and this is actually the first time we have weighed him.

 

[Mike CHS]

I took Lance out this afternoon to give him a little low pressure time on the ewes since he hasn't been allowed to do much more than hold the sheep off of me while I'm feeding. For anyone that may not know, Lance is our Border Collie herding dog. I put Maisy in the adjoining paddock before we started and called Mel so I could put him out also. Mel and I have spent a lot of time working obedience but when I called him, he turned away and walked toward the sheep. I wasn't sure what Mel was thinking so I sent Lance on a slow walk toward the sheep and Mel started to trot toward the sheep and of course they moved away. I wasn't sure how he would react if I kept Lance going so I decided to leave well enough alone and call off my 50 pound Border Collie before I caused 169 pound Mel to do something I would regret. I often think of bad ideas trying to keep my herding dogs that don't get a lot of herding time happy.

 

[Bruce]

Probably a wise choice, just in case. It would be interesting to know if Mel would figure out that Lance is doing your bidding, not attempting to harm the sheep, and just keep watch.

 

[Mike CHS]

Probably a wise choice, just in case. It would be interesting to know if Mel would figure out that Lance is doing your bidding, not attempting to harm the sheep, and just keep watch.

I used to be able to work Lance with Maisy in a stay but she finally decided I didn't have that much authority. Mel very well might not have done anything but the hair was up on his neck and even though he is still mostly the Mel everyone knows, he is not the dog he was not long ago.

 

[Baymule]

Under your care and tuition Mel has blossomed into the dog he was meant to be. Mel was already grown up, but he has grown and come into his own. Good boy Mel.

 

[farmerjan]

He has gone from being more of a pet/companion to humans, to being a real full time LGD with human companionship being second in his life now with you.... Doesn't take away from him being the loveable great big old Mel.... just means he has come into his own as a "full card carrying member" of the LGD union!!!!!

 

[Bruce]

Yes, Mell is no longer a (multiple) lap(s) dog

 

[Mike CHS]

The lap top I use most of the time is getting slower by the day so I broke out the one I used at work before I retired. It is quite a bit faster but I noticed it still had windows 7 on it and when I checked out the upgrade, the price was more than I wanted to put into a seven year old computer. So it's time to get a new one instead.