Many of the ranch activities this week have gravitated to the water, more specifically to the cool bubbling shaded creek that meanders behind the barn and through the pastures. It may have been a coincidence that the projects that were expedited to the top of Greg’s “Must Do” list all seem to be out of the sunshine and in the water or (dare I complain !!) it may have been an ingenious plan to keep out of the heat of the everlasting and very wearing sunshine. The Pacific North West has had NO rain for the whole of the month of July, the livestock are wearied of the constant heat, the poultry are panting, digging holes in which to hide, The horses, too hot to be rambunctious take shelter under the trees and wait for the call to dinner. The sheep and cows spend much of their day conserving energy by not moving far up Cow Lane and an occasional ranch concert, a cacophony of hearty moos and impassioned baaas join the gobbling of the steaming turkeys and the cackling of the overheated chickens.
Time to invest more time and muscle power into the creek erosion control programme before the heavy rains of the Autumn (when we are sure to start wishing for the return of the Summer !) . Greg Grace and Laura have been busy cutting trees, clearing brush and shoring up the banks for the first stage of the project which conveniently made the creek ready for the second stage…..and the arrival of the 14 children from The Key Pen Parks Eco Camp who had been assigned a mission to “help”. Just after lunch 14 bright smiling and very eager youngsters and their chaperones arrived in the Gentle Giant Meadows Ranch barnyard ready to get to work. The arrival of the camp volunteers curiously signalled the simultaneous disappearance of WWOOFER Grace and guest Laura and their reappearance in the woodshed splitting logs. Can’t help but wonder if it was a coincidence ? mmmmm ? Apparently the Eco Camp volunteers had a blast, the weeds in the creek channel are no longer blocking the flow of water, and the Eco Camp Intern was still smiling after the creek mud and weeds were relocated on Alexa who is evidently a great sport and tolerated the camp insurrection without resorting to murder or worse. Thank you for visiting our ranch, we hope that you will return….and promise to find you a dry, less muddy project,….. maybe.
Poor Rodney, celibate for the last few months but enjoying his new status as official farm friendly ram and happily accepting the goodies that are rightfully his in return for his exemplary behaviour has had to be relocated. Rodney was not happy about his new patch of real estate, particularly as it is already residence to 4 other celibate rams who were evidently not too enthusiastic about sharing with the new, bigger older ram. Our relocation exercise quickly turned into a game of needle in the haystack when, to our horror, all 4 of the smaller, faster, horned rams….followed by a clearly incensed Rodney simultaneously hit the pasture fence, all the metal staples were popped out of the posts and just to give us something to do……landed in the grass. DOH.
We would like to welcome Tonto and Misty, our two new equine guests and their people, Tim and Connie. We hope that you are all happy in your new home and hope even more that the two beautiful new horses are still safely behind their stall doors this morning and not checking out their new barnyard. I have been timed out again. Greg is busily selecting photographs which may or may not match my ramblings but either way will give my following ( Thank you Mum J and Mom S….smile) a brief overview of the past few days.
Take care, keep safe, M
Time to invest more time and muscle power into the creek erosion control programme before the heavy rains of the Autumn (when we are sure to start wishing for the return of the Summer !) . Greg Grace and Laura have been busy cutting trees, clearing brush and shoring up the banks for the first stage of the project which conveniently made the creek ready for the second stage…..and the arrival of the 14 children from The Key Pen Parks Eco Camp who had been assigned a mission to “help”. Just after lunch 14 bright smiling and very eager youngsters and their chaperones arrived in the Gentle Giant Meadows Ranch barnyard ready to get to work. The arrival of the camp volunteers curiously signalled the simultaneous disappearance of WWOOFER Grace and guest Laura and their reappearance in the woodshed splitting logs. Can’t help but wonder if it was a coincidence ? mmmmm ? Apparently the Eco Camp volunteers had a blast, the weeds in the creek channel are no longer blocking the flow of water, and the Eco Camp Intern was still smiling after the creek mud and weeds were relocated on Alexa who is evidently a great sport and tolerated the camp insurrection without resorting to murder or worse. Thank you for visiting our ranch, we hope that you will return….and promise to find you a dry, less muddy project,….. maybe.
Poor Rodney, celibate for the last few months but enjoying his new status as official farm friendly ram and happily accepting the goodies that are rightfully his in return for his exemplary behaviour has had to be relocated. Rodney was not happy about his new patch of real estate, particularly as it is already residence to 4 other celibate rams who were evidently not too enthusiastic about sharing with the new, bigger older ram. Our relocation exercise quickly turned into a game of needle in the haystack when, to our horror, all 4 of the smaller, faster, horned rams….followed by a clearly incensed Rodney simultaneously hit the pasture fence, all the metal staples were popped out of the posts and just to give us something to do……landed in the grass. DOH.
We would like to welcome Tonto and Misty, our two new equine guests and their people, Tim and Connie. We hope that you are all happy in your new home and hope even more that the two beautiful new horses are still safely behind their stall doors this morning and not checking out their new barnyard. I have been timed out again. Greg is busily selecting photographs which may or may not match my ramblings but either way will give my following ( Thank you Mum J and Mom S….smile) a brief overview of the past few days.
Take care, keep safe, M
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