Ok, so it really isn’t a lawn, and Sue only was able to use the lawn mower once, but it was still a “take care of the too tall grasses” day. Monday’s have got to be for something, right? We kicked around a few things: cleaning out the goat shed or the lean-to, planting pomegranates, pulling the straw out of the RCW… but settled on a good mow out in the fields.
We have the RCW behind an electric poultry fence. Sue purchased the nets we use from Premier One – you can check them out here if you’re interested. They have them for all types of animals – cows, goats, poultry – you can even get it to keep out deer and protect your gardens. We use them for the poultry, and have the one around the RCW hooked up to electricity at the moment. In order to keep the current good and strong, there can’t be too much vegetation touching the fence and grounding it out. So, today Sue wanted to mow or weed-wack under the fencing. Once the fencing has been placed, it’s a pain to try to do by yourself. So, we pulled up two or three posts at a time, I moved them into the run area and Sue mowed, for the first section, then used the weed trimmer for the rest, while the fencing was out of the way. She gave it all a really nice, close shave and nothing is impeding the current any longer. We also need to continue to keep the ground around the grounding rods damp, which will help with the electrical zap as well. It’s important we keep this fence in good working order since it is out in the pasture by its lonesome and very accessible to predators.
“The weeds were very sorry.” ©andre jordan
After we were done out there, Sue wanted to mow around the fencing in the area around the house that we call the “yard”. But the mower wouldn’t work. She just had it over-hauled at the start of summer – at least it seems like it was then. Granted, it’s been used hard since it moved here. Might be time to retire it. Our neighbor, George, was telling Sue of a store in Huachuca City or Whetstone that often has the high weed trimmers, the kind you walk behind that use the heavy duty trim line, for sale refurbished. Might be something to look into! Since Sue couldn’t mow, she ended up pulling weeds by hand. Seems she’s done that a great deal lately. Just yesterday we were pulling weeds in around the gabion garden, and she found some volunteer cilantro plants! We’ll keep all the volunteers we can. Right now, we’re really concerned with getting out the weeds that will leave behind horrid stickers once they begin to go to seed. Which is now, at the end of the monsoon season. It’s hard to keep up with them all. The goats helped a lot this year by eating a great deal of Russian Thistle. Maybe we’ll be able to slowly get things under control. But it’s one of those things that, if your neighbors don’t control them on their side, you’re bound to get them over and over again. Sorta like fleas. We can only do what we can do.
Thursday we may try to tackle the goat shed and lean-to, or we might try to plant one of the pomegranates. Just depends on how things go this week. The pomegranates have been in their huge pot for almost 5 years now, they are sure to be root bound and would 
probably love to get into the ground, I’m just afraid of trying to get them out of the pot! It’s something we’ll have to work on together. I’m sure you’ll find out how the rest of the week goes on Friday. Not sure what the post for Wednesday will hold; we’ll probably find out together. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!
Today’s Weather: Warmish. High was supposed to be in the low 80’s, but got up into the 90’s by the afternoon. It’s been partly cloudy most of the day. Currently, at 8:03 p.m., it is 78° and beginning to get windy. Tomorrow the high is forecast at 86° and we’re expecting an overnight low of 58°. Looks like we’re supposed to be sunny and warm for the rest of the week. Sunrise was at 6:09 and sunset at 6:13 today. Chickens were all in by 6:30 tonight. That’s the earliest in a very long time.
Egg Report: Saturday – zero goose, 1 duck, 20 chicken. Sunday – zero goose, 1 duck, 29 chicken. Monday – zero goose, 1 duck, 22 chicken. Ducks are back in action!!!
Cool Thing: That spot of beauty for today. Sue snapped the above sunrise photo for you all. Enjoy!
Wing and a Prayer 