Birds Of A Feather

Let's Keep Fighting Together

They can call you chicken, but never forget: Your ancestors were dinosaurs. You’ve got fierceness running through your veins. Keep loving, keep fighting. — Ruth Bader Ginsbird

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Here’s What’s Happening At Good Spirits Farm

• I’ve decided to reframe how late I am planting a bunch of my seedlings as “ensuring we have a good fall harvest.” I still have tomatoes in pots! In July! But it’s been so dry I have not had a chance to get the beds prepped - the ground is simply too hard to hand-pull weeds and I don’t want to break down and till if I don’t have to. There’s a 50 percent chance of rain this weekend, so maybe this week I’ll get some catching up done?

• It is shaping up to be a bad year for hay. I had 100 bales brought in last Sunday, and it cost a small fortune. I still need 200 more bales, but it’s been so dry I think second and third cuttings of hay are going to be really slim. I feel lucky that our herd is small and we have plenty of acreage, so I can usually stockpile grass in the fall and have it last well into winter. But if this drought persists, that won’t be the case and we’ll all be scrambling for whatever hay we can get.

• Either this weekend or next we’ll be processing honey. That’s always a fun but sticky activity. I love seeing the color that we get — it’s slightly different every year based off of what blooms were most abundant. Here’s hoping for a good haul!

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Here’s What I Loved This Week

This snake friend out doing his job in our pasture. Thanks for keeping those mice under control, buddy!

Also: This video of Juliet enjoying a good back scratch.