Have I ever mentioned that I am not a morning person? Well, I am not. I never have been. I am more of a late night person, so I am very slow to wake and get to a functional state in the morning; usually this involves copious amounts of coffee. This can pose some problems on the farm – especially in summer. Sue, however, is a very early morning person. She’s always up before dawn, the only time I’m up before dawn is in mid-winter, when dawn comes around 7:00! I’m trying to regulate for morning, especially now when I’m staying home 3 days during the week. It’s just so much cooler (temperature wise) in the morning that we’ve got to do actual physical work then. How’s that working out for us? Let’s look at the last three days and see where we are, and where we’re trying to go this week.

Saturday was an early day, I was trying to get to the Farmer’s Market in Bisbee by 7:30… the goats had other ideas. Sue came in as I was almost out the door and said, “The goats are out!” They discovered that they could get out on Friday when we were working on their lean-to. We even talked about making the fence higher, but ran out of time because I had to get cleaned up to go in to work. So – the little goats took their new found knowledge to task and decided to explore. We couldn’t leave them, couldn’t tie them up because they’d probably just choke themselves. Chores needed finishing and the fence needed mending. I quickly finished the chores, mostly watering, while Sue set out to fix up the fence. That was a waker-upper of a morning for me. Didn’t even need the coffee – well until later.

 

Sue got the fence addition up and it’s keeping them in really well. I was only 20 minutes late, and that created no  problems. I hadn’t been to the Market for a number of weeks, since we’ve been taking our eggs to Ecoasis so often lately. But my friend Tara wanted to sell, and I had her tent! So I loaded up the eggs to see what we could do. Turns out it was a fortuitous day for me to be there. Through Don, the Market Manager, I met one of the owners of The Quarry, a newer (four years old) Gastropub in Bisbee. They specialize in locally sourced, farm to table, non-GMO, comfort food. She was looking for a new source of local eggs for her Sunday Breakfast Eggs Benedict. I offered to give her a dozen to try, but she purchased all I had. I’m interested in hearing how they like them. Also want to see if they are interested in freshly dressed chickens in a few weeks. So, not bad for a Saturday.

Sunday – well, you know that Sunday is our Sabbath – so we generally don’t talk much about those days. But we’re going over the getting up early thing, so Sunday deserves a mention this time. Sue was scheduled to play the piano at the early service this Sunday; she needed to be there at 7:00 a.m., that meant leaving at 6:30. So, she got the grains and greens ready for everyone (I got to sleep in – I got up at 5:45), while I tried to wake up. I think I did the chores ok. I just went through everything methodically, if a bit slowly, until everything was done. It take a bit longer now because we have chickens everywhere and three hens with chicks in separate brooding bins. It take a while, but I still made it to 2nd service on time even after taking a shower and eating a bite. So… that worked. But I was still tired most of the day.  I’m glad we don’t do much on Sundays.

Today – Monday – is a day that I stay home in the morning. I think I slept past my alarm and got a slow start. It was warm already when I went out to water the chicks at 6:30. We did the normal chores, then – while Sue put hay in the coop and the RCW – I watered the Gabion Garden and the potted trees in the nursery. After that, we tanked up on water and headed out to dig in the orchard. Let me tell you, each time we go out there, I get less and less accomplished. And today I didn’t finish my well correctly, so it seemed like wasted time. At least Sue feels it too, after we’ve been out there. Today was worse for me and better for her. There are six wells remaining and Sue’s thinking of hiring it done. That would be great, because there is still so much to do to get those trees in the ground. OK, for next time, I promise before and after photos so you can see what I’m talking about. But, like I said – next time.

All in all, the morning things is working ok. It does make for a long day. Today, I worked from home; it was nice to be able to recover at home, sitting on the couch, working from my laptop. Probably won’t be able to do that often though. Where are we going the rest of the week? I’m not sure exactly. Sue has begun the long, arduous task of mowing. Never stops during monsoon and she’s got the mower deck on! That may be a daily task for her. If we are going to hire out the remainder of the tree wells, I may begin work on the garden and get some fast growing things in and prep for fall. Need to work on the Gabion walls now that some of the plants are done. The Swiss Chard has been doing really well in there, so I might add more of that. I’ll keep you posted as we continue the summer schedule and the summer plans. Wednesday is just a few hours away :).  Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

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Today’s Weather: H. O. T.  At 2 we got up to 107°. Currently (7:07 pm) it is 85°.  There is some nice cloud cover, but I don’t see any rain. We’re not expecting any until Wednesday. Tomorrow the high may only be 96°, overnight low is pretty warm 69°. Sunrise today was at 5:39  and our sunset will be at 7:10.

Egg Report: Saturday- zero goose, zero duck, 32 chicken.  Sunday – zero goose, zero duck,  22 chicken. Monday – zero goose, zero duck,  26 chicken.  Temperatures go up and the egg numbers go down.

If you have a few minutes – and don’t get motion sickness easily – enjoy this video I took of the Sunset a few days ago. Gorgeous skies here, y’all.