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We have a small lake (100ft sq) at the front of the property that has been created by damming the stream as it runs down the valley. I suspect it was originally for irrigation purposes. Apart from frogs we don’t think there is anything interesting there although it had been stocked and used for fishing at some stage.

While we were visiting Turner Feed and Seed we spotted a notice saying “Fish man 10 to 11.30 Sat”. Twice a year a guy drives a tanker from Arkansas with live fish and people gather from around the Atlanta area to restock their lakes.

We don’t have any interest in fishing but we did think it might be a good idea to introduce some fish to keep the frog population under control. It might also help to encourage the heron to keep coming around.

So we got out there early to wait with the crowd. It turned out to be a Georgia 10am but we had fun chatting while we waited. Like luck winners at the country fair, we eventually walked away with a bag of Hybrid Blue Gill Brim (Bream). There are supposed to be 100 in that bag but I think it’s closer to 50.

To allow for some acclimatisation, I place the bag in the lake for an hour before releasing the Brim in to their new home. Lets hope  they  do well.

I really enjoyed my two wheeling dirt bike days, I’ve had fantastic times hang gliding and I still get a real buzz on skis after all these years. But if I had to choose, hand on heart, the “thing” that I would not want to live without; It would be an easy choice. A no brainer. I could not imagine a world without music. Music punctuates my entire life. If there really is a meaning to life then surely music holds the key.

Music is a mathematical thing. There are patterns and cycles. One of those cycles played out for me tonight. It’s only taken 38 years.

Back in 1975 I was traveling with my, soon to be, father in law. He was crazy on Country & Western music and was always keen to introduce me to some old yodeler or other. This was hopeless, of course, as I only had ears for Hendrix, Floyd, Roxy Music etc, On this particular night, however, I had to admit that I really quite liked the female artist whose cassette he had just picked up. She had a wonderful voice ….. just a shame she was singing that C&W stuff!  Anyway, he made a copy of the tape for me and I often played it until it got eaten by the machine. For one reason or another I almost completely forgot the name and voice of Emmylou Harris for the next 20 years.

By the mid 90’s my unhealthy obsession with Q Magazine, that fueled an addiction to CD’s, re-introduced me to the work of Emmylou Harris. It was the association with U2 producer, Daniel Lanois, that tipped me over the edge. The “Wrecking Ball” album is simply divine; A cherished physical entity on the rack under the letter “H”. I have since collected three additional EH CD’s but nothing surpasses “Wrecking Ball”.

An so to the cycle close. After 38 years, Emmylou Harris has teamed up with her original collaborator, Rodney Crowell and old band members, to go out on the road and have fun with those old songs from that long ago chewed up tape. The band played in Atlanta (now last night) and were wonderful. At 66 years of age, EH still has command of a truly magical voice. As Rodney Crowell put it  –  she has the soul of a poet, the voice of an angel and she’s still hot! I couldn’t agree with him more.

As musical icing on the cake, the support act was none other than Richard Thompson. A folk/rock guitar icon and an all time favorite of mine. The last time Lynne and I saw him was in Basingstoke (UK), seven years ago. He did not disappoint. If there is a heaven, I think I might have visited tonight..

 

 

Things started off pretty normal, nice blue skies, chores done and then…. 9.30 a power outage …. this was one of the reasons we escaped Pine Bush was to get away from these. 2 major differences though, it only lasted for 20 mins instead of 4 days and even better AT & T have the good sense to install battery back up in their systems and also not pull their power from the same supply to the house. So we at least had continuous internet.

And talking of escape – I think our chickens must have been watching the Chicken Run movie. As they have spent most of the day looking for holes in the fence to climb through and Mr Rob has spent most of the day chasing them back in. Did I hear someone mention gravy and mixed veg.

Not to be out done, two of the boy pacas decided to spit at each other, now with Alpacas this is not just a little mouth spit. They actually bring up some disgusting smelly and as you can see from the picture nasty tasting stuff from their stomach. The funny thing is that even they don’t like the taste and smell so the both of them were wondering around with their bottom jaw hanging open waiting for the smell to go away. I guess it will be a while before they do that again… Boys !

 

Went through our normal morning routines, Rob cooked up a large pot of sweet potato mash, our contribution for our lunch hosts. Final check around before we left and one chicken was no where to be seen. No feathers or any other signs of predators, hmmm maybe it was an eagle? Anyway nothing we could do so off we went for lunch.

Lunch was a real fun event, Jane and Norman plus all their children, grandchildren and friends. Norman showed me his vintage phone collection which is really something very special.

Good food, great company and a nice glass of wine. Perfect.

Left early evening and when we got home the missing chicken was out the back of the horse ring, no idea how she had managed it. It took Rob and I a short while to get at her and get her back in with the rest of the gang. We had a good laugh when we went up the other barn, there tucked behind a flake of hay was an egg. She must have heard about Easter egg hunts and decided to break out and hide one for us.

Anyway all’s well that ends well and we are happy everyone is safe.

Today we had planned to clear all of the ivy out of the front garden, not my favorite plant at the best of times but this had really taken over the whole area. Luckily the weather was dry and sunny so we were able to get a good early start.

Here is the garden before we started as you can see there is no room for any plants at all, all though a few brave ones were trying to poke their way through.

With a lot of hard work we were able to get a good start on it by lunchtime.

Quick lunch, grilled Stilton and tomato on toast with a nice cup of tea and a mini magnum as a treat then back out to finish it off.

Man it was hard work but we were able to clear it all by about 4pm.

It’s looking much better already and those bushes smell like they are probably jasmine. Time to feed dogs and cats, treat the chickens to say thanks for another 2 eggs and make sure the Alpacas are ok. I scooped the paca poop and then came in to make dinner.

 

We are both exhausted and barely have strength to get off the settee this evening, but we feel really good about checking off something else from our list of jobs.

 

Every other Friday evening, we drive into the center of Atlanta and meet our good friends the “Coulbournes”. Claudia cooks enough food to feed about 50 people and we help serve it out with them. There is usually quite a few of the regulars waiting before we arrive. Most of them are there every time and they help us set up the tabes and carry the food etc.

Last night we served over 50 meals. There are a number of things that always surprise me when we do this, first how many people that there are needing a free hot meal, also how polite and well mannered and thankful they all are. Its good to help give back

Temperature went up to 68 degrees today and all the animals and plants seem to be celebrating. Another 2 eggs today and look how big the white one is!

The trees are budding and this one is full of blossom, it is very pretty and one of favorites with the birds.

Talking of which, they seem to have got their appetite back as we only filled the feeders yesterday. They have also built a lot of nests close to the house so hopefully we will get to see some bab birds soon.

Rob got in on the fun and started repotting some of the plants hat we grew from seed. It's amazing how much they grew in just 2weeks.

 

Look at the ones on the top shelf, that's squash and only took 2 weeks to get that big, can't wait till we get to start eating all this veg.

 

Blue skies and sunshine, although a slight nip in the wind. Chickens, dogs, cats and Alpacas fed. Gave my chickens some cooked oatmeal which they love as a nice treat and got rewarded with two more eggs.

So nice to work from home, even though the day was really busy, I still get time to stop and spend 30mins eating lunch with Rob. He must enjoy it too as he went out shopping later and bought me flowers ! Very nice.

Later i got another great surprise, delivery of chocolates direct from France, curtesy of my sister. These days don't come along often but when they do they should be treasured.

Although the temperature dropped quite low last night (28 degrees). This morning the clouds moved on and the sun came out. The chickens celebrated by giving us 2 eggs. Alpacas are starting to get the first signs of fleece growing back and are just happy to be back in the top fields.

Our pet sitter came over to visit and I had made her a little gift to remind her of her fave chicken. The design stitched out very nicely.

Apart from being ridiculously busy in work, I am really enjoying life. Love this version of farm life. My animals bring me so much pleasure. I can't wait to get started on picking, skirting and turning into roving all of my lovely fibre.

 

Well I hardly slept at all last night I was worrying about the shearing going smoothly and about movIng the Alpacas up to the top barn. Karen and Bruce arrived close to 7 and were immediately a calming influence on us. Kyle the shearer and his assistant arrived just after 8 and we decided we would shear at the top barn.

 

We were blown away by how easy it was to control the Alpaca’s once you have an arm around their neck, barely touching them and using no force at all. You then move one hand under their chin and the other behind their ears and they will move in whatever direction you want them too. We were able to put halters on them and lead them up to the top barn with no fuss at all. In fact the only time they faltered a little was when the road changed from grit to concrete.

 

Then Kyle led them, one at a time, to the mats and tied their legs to shear them. It looks as if they are being hurt but they really were not, which was obvious by the lack of stress. Kyle was very gentle and efficient and was talking us through what he was doing as we had told him we were newbies. Karen and Bruce had brought cut up hoodies to put on the pacas so they didn’t get cold. Kyle was quick to point out is was a first for him and I was not sure if it was the hoodies or the color purple that was causing him the most heartache.

 

We were pleasantly surprised to hear him tell us how the 2 boys, that I thought were cute but not great fleece, actually had show quality fleece. Wow I guess we still have a lot to learn.

 

We ended up with 10 full bags of fleece – cant wait to start working with it.