So far Buddy has caught us three moles!

Today I woke up to Cabol telling me “Buddy’s disappeared!” See, she is always complaining about his marking of things, and how we should lock him outside, but deep down she’s just a big softy. So she decided today to let him outside while she was working in the yard. But when he disappeared under a tree, she freaked out. Softy.

We located him eventually. He spent much of the day outside, and didn’t seem to do anything bad. If he tried to get near (within 10 feet) of the ducks, they would start quacking and chasing him, at which point he would make a wiiiiide circle around them in fear. Later, he hopped up on the roof from the porch railing. He was too scared to hop back down, however, and made sad little noises until I grabbed him by his scruff and dragged him off. He’s so, so manly. I bet he would get along well with Sydney.

Today we went and got paint for the living room (you remember, the room with the deep purple floor). We got beige. Well, I think the actual name is Camel Toe or something like that, but it’s beige. I never thought we’d paint a room such a boring color. Cabol says it is because the floor is so bright. I think we now need bright red furniture.

Oh, and today we came home from work, and as we drove up the driveway, there is Sydney watching us from the field. But not the field his fence is in. Because he knocked part of it down, and eventually got brave enough to pass the weak electrical barrier and go grazing. He trotted up to the car to say hello, all proud of himself.

It doesn’t look like he tried to get in the fence with all the hot ewes in it. Or the young rams. Nope, he was content to just wander the yard, get brambles in his wool, and eat.

What a stud.

Oh, and did we mention some of the ducks will now eat out of our hands?

The floor is finished, except for a few minor scratches where furniture was moved – but since we’ll probably move things a little when we paint the walls, I will wait to touch it up. We removed the icky green carpet, primed and painted the subfloor, and then coated it with polyurethane in the theory that it will not wear quite as fast.

It’s better than what was there, but still only a temporary measure. We hope. And you get to see our craptacular living room furniture too!

Today (well, this weekend) has been very busy around the farm. I finished priming the floor in the living room, and painted 2/3 of it purple, and am in the process of polyurethaning it. Then the bunnies, couch, and entertainment center get dragged back to their regular homes, and the rest of the floor will get painted. Pictures to come when it’s all done. Of course, now Cabol says we have to paint the walls too.

Our tile arrived for the bathroom!

Maybe we’ll make Cabol’s parents stay even longer and do our bathroom, too.

This afternoon, we went to my coworker Gina’s mountain home, and ogled over their new home (complete with deer heads and stuffed turkey) and gazillions of acres of land. The real reason, though, was to pick up some rocks out of the stream and woods. The benefit of a dry summer is it is very easy to find loose rocks. We loaded up the truck, and when we got home I pulled out some landscape timbers by the back door (I hate landscape timbers) and replaced them with some of the rocks.

Maybe we can go back for more with Cabol’s dad. He has a rock fetish, after all.

When painting your floor purple, make sure you keep the cats out until the paint dries.

This morning I went down to the hay house (nee craft shack), and as I was loading a bale of hay into the truck, I saw something furry on the side. Thinking it was a mouse, I naturally shrieked like a little girl. Then I realized it wasn’t alive, and I was safe.

Stopping at the barn, I grabbed a stick to try and pull it off, since I didn’t really want to touch it. It was reddish brown, and furry, and I could see bones (claws?) sticking out. But it was in there solid. Obviously, it was baled with the hay in the field.

So I fed the sheep, and separated out the flake of hay, and brought it up for Cabol to see. You could tell once the hay was opened up that it had a good sized spine. We had to go to work, and on the way debated what it might be. It was the wrong color for a groundhog. Or a raccoon. If it was a squirrel, I’m locking the doors at night. There was no giant tail for a fox.

Tonight we had time to look at it more closely, and position it so it was in a more natural shape. I was still confused, but Cabol figured it out right away. The white spots gave it away. And the little white tail. And the hoof.

Last night we came home and Cabol, proving she is right as usual, pointed out that some of the d’Uccle chickens looked rather small. And sure enough, there were two new babies running around. Good thing we’re trying to reduce our flock, eh?

After dinner, I went down to set up a little ramp so the chicks can hop back into the house at night, and I found a sad wet chick outside the cage, all soaked from the rain and cold and on its side and cheeping pitifully. I picked it up and rubbed it with my shirt, and was torn whether it was so far gone as to just put it in the bushes or what. I decided to put it in the chicken house and see if mommy chicken would warm it up later, and this morning all three chicks were alive and running around!

Our gardening output this year has been pretty bad. Sure, we did have a disruption during prime planting time (hi, Anya!), but we also have been kind of lazy. Or basil is doing ok, but I never took them out of the smallish pots, so none of it is much taller than a foot. Our ‘main’ garden is completely overrun with weeds. And grass. The peppers pretty much disappeared. The pole beans never got poled, so they are intwined in the grass. The tomatoes are small and stunty, but at least they have (green) fruits on them. We have a drip irrigation system I installed, which has at least kept things alive, but I think the weeds suck out a lot of the water. It’s depressing.

Even more depressing is my hop plants, chewed to the ground by the sheep during the winter and early spring, have produced more hops than they ever did when I patiently watered them and put up a trellis. Oh, and there are two HUGE tomato plants growing…in the compost bin.

EDIT: I was down in the garden this evening, doing some weeding (although it’s more like mowing since the ‘weeds’ are 90% grass), and there were a few ripened tomatoes. I also started pulling out the bush bean plants, since they are mostly all dried up now. I think the beans still need to sit out a few days more to dry completely.

Well, the floor is finished and covered in polyurethane. The walls still look like crap, but we haven’t really decided what color we want to paint them. Plus, Cabol wants to put a real wall up behind where the dresser is, and possibly another one dividing 2/3 of the basement into a room that could be used as a bedroom. I guess that will be the next project when her parents visit this fall! Muahahaha.

There is still a little bit of cat pee that is wicking up in the corners when it is really hot and humid (which it has been all week). This should eventually stop – and any stains will eventually be hidden under base trim anyways. Once the new walls are installed.

And here’s what Anya thought of it all: