Two New Additions!

We have two new additions to the homestead!

Years ago, when my desire for a homestead was just beginning, I knew that I wanted a Great Pyrenees dog.   They are livestock guardian dogs and they want nothing more than to be with the animals they are protecting.  Often times, you CAN’T bring them in the house as all they would do it worry and stress about their “herd” outside.  .  

They are big, beautiful, outdoor, working dogs – that’s my kind of dog.

I almost bought a Great Pyrenees puppy a few months ago but Lance was still a puppy himself and we were so busy getting settled and working on projects that HAD to get done that I decided to wait.  I saw how hard and time consuming it was to train Lance and I knew that Great Pyrenees are even harder to train so I put that desire on hold.   I knew we needed to get something to guard our goats when we get them in the spring.   I have been told that donkeys are great for protecting goats from predators and then I heard that llamas are even better.  I thought, “Cool, we’ll just get a llama.”  Do you know how much llamas cost!?  Thousands of dollars!   Who knew?

 

Well, last month our friends who own the off-road park asked me if we would consider taking their two GPs.   Because the park has guest and events it just wasn’t ideal for the dogs to be able to roam.  GPs are known for wondering far from home and not staying on the property so we took them for a trial period to make sure they would not just leave or wander into the street.  We are pretty remote but cars fly down the main road and the last thing I wanted was for the dogs to wander down to the road get hit by a car.

 They are also known to not listen and be very hard to train.   They have a job to do that is more important than your requests for them to "come" or "stay".   Humans' silly requests are secondary to their job.

Just a few days into their trial period we fell in love with them.  They are gentle giants.   The best word to describe them is solemn.

They lie around most of the day, (trying to keep cool or waiting for belly rubs) but right around dinner time, as the sun is setting, they come alive and take their patrol posts.   One sits in the front yard and the other one sits at the crossroads of the house/trailer/hog barn area.  When they hear a suspicious sound, they go together to check it out and bark at it for the next 20 minutes.

They bark a lot at night but it is a low bark that is pleasant. (as dogs barking goes)   We don’t notice it much,  we have always slept with sound machines so we don’t hear them in middle of the night.

Having these two have enabled us to get our meat chickens much more easily.  

I feel pretty safe putting the chicks out in the chicken tractor since they will be guarded at night.  Already, one of the dogs killed this opossum who was probably thinking he would have a chicken snack.

We now have 5 cats, 3 dogs, and 45 chickens!  That makes me wonder what we’ll have a year from now....

Our Covid Time Out

Welp, Covid found us.  Even all the way out here in Arkansas.

Right before VBS (which was cancelled) several of our church members and leaders got sick with covid.  Josh was tested because he had been around so many people that were positive.  We were a little suprised when the test came back positive because he had zero symptoms at the time but a day later he started to feel poorly for about 3 days – nausea, congestion.   I got it in the form of losing ALL sense of taste and smell but felt 100% normal in all other ways.   I would have preferred to feel bad for a few days over not being able to taste my morning coffee!  (It came back after just 1 week - I was expecting two)  It is the strangest and most annoying sensation.  I am grateful though that we had mild cases of it, which I believe has a lot to do with our overall healthy lifestyles and vitamin regimen we started right away.  (large amounts of C, D Zinc, and Quercetin,) and also the use of a nebulizer with a hydrogen peroxide solution in it.  (It’s highly recommended among the science that has been censored regarding covid.)  

Anyway, we are stuck at home for a few more days, My parents don’t come in our house and we keep a distance outside.   The timing was particularly bad (for me) because my dad had just finished taking out all of the cement counter tops but had not had a chance to install the new counter tops so we are using the kitchen with plastic tablecloths covering the naked cabinets. (at least there was a board under the cement)

The kids have been swimming a lot. 

We started school as planned since there is nothing better to do.

Jack is starting Kindergarten (slowly – he is just not very ready; as in literally 0 desire to learn. We are still working on his ABC song)

Paige started 3^rd

Joy started 5^th

Claire started 8th.

I am so loving not having to worry about work while we try to do school.  I actually know what they are doing now.  After covid my mom will be able to help too!

My garden continues to produce and it seems like every other day I get another 5 lbs of tomatoes and cucumber and beans.   I had a huge 20 lb watermelon that was about a week away from being ripe but we had some heavy rain and it exploded with a  huge crack right down the middle.

BUT…. We got our first cantaloupe!  I couldn't taste it but every else said it was really good. We've picked 2 more since.

I canned some jalapeños for the first time!

Jack’s pumpkins are really struggling.  Every time there is a female flower it turns yellow and dies before it is even big enough to bloom and get pollinated.   I did discover that there is an evil, evil bug here called the vine borer and it flies in, lays its eggs on the plant, the eggs hatch and the little grubs burrow into the stem of the vine. 

Then they eat their way down the center of it and destroy it from the inside out.   I have surgically removed several of these guys out of the stems.   Super maddening.

I keep track of all of the produce we bring in from the garden.   Here are the stats for just the month of July.

Tomatoes 44.25 lbs

Cucumbers (119) 87.5lbs

Beans 15.62 lbs

Cantaloupe (2) 10.5lbs

Zucchini 5.43 lbs

That’s 163.3lbs of food!  We brought in 37.37 lb in June is that's 200lbs!

I started the fall garden in our bathroom by building make shift shelves over that ridiculous bath tub alcove.   There are a few different varieties of brussels sprouts, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli and spinach.

 

Random pictures of strange things in Arkansas:

Luna Moth

Mushrooms

Dragonflies:  Oh my goodness,  we have not had any mosquitoes!  We credit the thousands of dragonflies that continually patrol the yard.  It’s so neat to look out and see armies of dragonflies gobbling up those mosquitoes.

Extremely friendly butterflies.

Horsehair Worms.

Oh, and tent worms!

 

We found some tent worm webs in one of our trees so my mom and I cut them down,

 

Burned the web, collected the caterpillars,

and fed them to the chickens. 

 

Speaking of chicken food, my dad and I have been working outside on a strange/gross project.  (Okay, well, I came up with the idea and my dad built all.) If it works,  I will be proudly sharing that on here.