Joshua enjoyed riding on his favorite steam train recently.

Look Mom!!!  The train is coming!!!

Joshua loved the shadow of the steam train.  He pointed it out to me and suggested I take a picture of it. 

I just love this engineer!!

Yesterday, was a very sad day at Perry Hill Farm, we had to say goodbye to our dear sweet horse Reggie. We will miss him! He was such a fighter and tried to fight off his illness all the way to the end of his life. What courage he had. I learned so much from him.

We are going to have a bumper crop of cucumbers.   I did not pull the tomato plants with blight.  I noticed today new green growth.  Maybe, maybe we will get a few tomatoes.  I'm not giving up just yet.

Pictures from the this week
 

We've been harvesting: beets, dill, oregano, basil, lettuce, kale, collard greens, green beans, potatoes, celery, zucchini, patty pan squash, sweet corn and cucumbers. 

We make weekly trips to the library and always pick up some good books and documentaries that Joshua enjoys.  He's been busy playing with his trains, being an astronaut, an inventor, a botanist, an astronomer, a hiker an artist, a scientist, a geologist, a paleontologist, and a camper. We pitched the tent in the back yard this week and spent several nights sleeping out in the tent.  It was lovely.  Joshua got to see his first shooting star.   Both hubby and I have been feeling under the weather.  We decided we needed to have a joyful fun party for the three of us.... so we got an ice cream cake that read....Happy Summer.  It was fun and delicious.

All aboard the silly train!

Joshua's new night vision goggles.  Don't they look magical?  They seem like you can push a button and they would transport you to another dimension or time.

Joshua loves going on turkey parades first thing in the morning.

Hurry up and take the picture dad,  this rock is heavy!

Reggie walked up to the horse trailer.  He is a beautiful, dappled gray gelding.  He seemed nervous and I asked his owner if she would mind loading him on the horse trailer.  Reggie had suffered an eye injury in both eyes.  His owner gave me his meds and talked with me about his past.  Reggie had been leased out to another family and when he hurt his eyes, they really did not want to take care of him anymore.  Unfortunately his longtime owner did not have a barn to accommodate him.  Reggie's owner needed to find him a new home quickly, as time was running out on where he was temporarily living.

I had seen the notice on one of the homeschool lists we participate with.... Horse to a good home.  I thought about answering it, but thought I am sure someone else will.  Time went on and I saw the notice again and again.  I decided to give a call.  I did and agreed to bring Reggie to our farm.

Reggie was a bit skittish when he arrived here.  New barn, lots of new animals around him: goats, sheep, dogs, cats, cows, chickens and horses.  We kept him in the small paddock away from the other horses.  We like to slowly introduce the horses so we can avoid other horses hurting the new arrivals.  All the horses could see each other, smell each other and even touch each other over the fence.  However, they were separated with the fence.  We had our vet come to check out Reggie’s eyes.  After our vet checked him he said, “Well you got a good one.”  He was being sarcastic.  He was pointing to his health issues.  Two pretty severe eye injuries, two melanomas on his tail, and cellulitis in one leg.  I quickly said to him, “you know me, it’s not about whether he can be ridden or do this or that, it’s all about he needed a home.  I want him to live out the rest of his life here.  If we can ride him, great!  If not, so be it.  He is not here for my pleasure.  He’s here to have a home and be loved and cared for.”  My vet chuckled and I could see a twinkle in his eye.  He knew all of that about us.  He then gave Reggie a hug and said, “I like you Reggie, you’ve got a sweet soul!”  My vet was right and I knew the first time I saw him.  He does have the sweetest soul!

Since Reggie has been at the farm, we have been dealing with health issues it seems every few months.  First, it was his eyes.  After we administered eye meds three times a day for several weeks, his eyes finally healed.  He was left with some scarring and we believe he has a slight vision impairment.  We think he has a hard time distinguishing shadows.  After many months, we noticed his leg would swell up and then the swelling would go down.  Then, we realized his cellulitis had reared its ugly head.  His leg ballooned up and stayed swollen.  Intravenous antibiotics for 3 weeks were the first call of action.  Well, within three days, Reggie rolled and kinked the line in his vein.  This option was not working, so lucky for me, he seemed to tolerate a needle well and two times a day I was giving him antibiotic injections. The vet wanted us to switch to oral antibiotics.  He was concerned that Reggie may not tolerate the injections over a long period.  Reggie really disliked oral antibiotics.  No way would he tolerate them.  He could smell them in his grain and refused to eat it.  I would soak the antibiotics in water and add molasses to make a nice paste to put in his mouth with an oral syringe.  He did not like that either and would often hold the paste in his mouth.  He would spit it out after I would walk away.  It finally became clear that injections were the way to go with him.  

After a while, the cellulitis was gone.  Seven months ago, Reggie developed a melanoma near his lymph nodes.  It started to grow very quickly.  At the same time, Reggie started to lose weight.  We have watched him slowly lose weight.  We changed his feed, added supplements, did research as to what would be best for him, conducted endless discussions and exams with several vets and friends who have horses.  When he first came, I told my husband that there was something wrong with him.  He was fragile and I knew something more serious was going on with him despite the many blood tests and various vet exams.

Recently, we found Reggie lying down.  We thought he had colic, instead, we realized he was impacted.  We worked pretty much around the clock to get him relief and we did.  He improved and his bowels were back to working beautifully.  The vet suspected he might also have an ulcer.  Many of his symptoms pointed towards the possibility of an ulcer.  He has been on and off antibiotics, pain meds and now he is on ulcer meds and antibiotics again.  He is hanging on and it is very clear, he is not ready to say good-bye.  He is not giving up and so we are not going to give up on him. It would have been an easier route for us to have chosen to have him euthanized.  It would have been a lot less expensive, time consuming and in the end maybe, emotionally easier.  This journey is not about us, this is Reggie’s journey.  He is bright-eyed, has a great appetite despite the fact he continues to lose weight.  I am sure if someone drove by the farm and saw him, they would want to call the ASPCA in fear that we are starving our horse.  Honestly, we have done just the opposite.  Reggie has as much grain and hay as he wants.  He is always eating.  The food is going in and coming out and what is coming out looks normal.  He is not getting the nutrients from the feed.  Reggie follows me like a puppy.  I love him so much.  I often ask him if he is hurting and if so, show me where.  Sometimes,  he will point his nose right to a new melanoma growing on the opposite side of the other one.  It has started to bother him sometimes.  I would say it is annoying to him and not super painful.  I would also say it does not bother him that often.  Unfortunately,  I have been around many animals in pain and cancer pain.  It is rough and they tell you in their eyes and their appetites.  Reggie’s eyes are not like that of the other animals and he wants to eat, he wants to be here.  Therefore, we are taking it day by day hour by hour.  We are here to love him, help him and let him know we will never give up unless he is ready or it has become too difficult for him.

I was once asked, why do we help these animals?  Why do we take in so many animals that cause us heart -ache, so much hard work, and cost us so much money?  My answer, because they are all part of this world and they need love, understanding and care just as much as any person.  Once we take an animal on our farm, that animal is our responsibility; we do everything we can to make that animal’s life peaceful, loving and special for them.  Many people do not understand this kind of commitment and love towards animals.  They think animals are here for us to eat and only give us pleasure.  We do not see it that way.  

When you take in all these animals from various backgrounds, you never know exactly how things are going to shake out.  Are they going to get along?  Do they have some sort of illness?  Some of our animals on the farm have suffered severe abuse before they came to us.  We have some that experienced a good background but whether it was for financial reasons, or their owners did not want them anymore, they have found their way to our farm.  We often get calls from the Farm Sanctuary to see if we can adopt any more.  We have adopted several animals from the Farm Sanctuary and their staff has been to our farm.  When one of their staff came to our farm for the first time, he looked around at our peaceful kingdom and said, “How long have you been doing this amazing work?”  He also said, “You must become a non-profit so you can get help with what you are doing.”  He stayed most the day with us, took tons of photos and just hung out with the animals, our son and myself.  The phone rang the other day and the Farm Sanctuary wanted to know if we could adopt a calf.  As much as I wanted to help,  we are at full capacity.  I said, “Please keep us in mind but right now we need some more pasture cleared before we can take anymore.”  Their staff person said, “Don’t worry you are one of the first places we call.  We know how well you take care of the animals!”

The blessing that family and friends helped write for our son says, “May you always be a friend to the animals, some of them maybe your best friends and teachers.”  I do believe in this statement.  For the most part, we do have a peaceable kingdom on our farm.  Dogs, cats, horses, cows, sheep, goats, a pig, donkeys, ponies, turkeys, and chickens all very different,  all with different past experiences from really bad to good, they  all coexist.  Yes, COEXIST…..a lesson we humans need to learn!

 A week of glorious sunshine!  It was wonderful!!!!!!     I managed to use the solar oven this week and make lot's of sun tea. 

We've been busy harvesting:  crab apples,  blackberries, patty pan squash,  green beans, various herbs, onions, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, kale, collard greens, lettuce,  and broccoli.

Unfortunately,  the late blight has hit our tomatoes.

With all the sunshine this past week I noticed the rot seemed to slow down and the tops of the tomatoes shot up new green sprouts which are blooming.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get some tomatoes.  We had over 115 plants and to lose them all to blight is pretty upsetting.  So far,  it has not spread to our potatoes.

A few of the gladiolus opened up with all the sunshine. 

Joshua has really been into helping me mow with the reel mower.

Harry loves to hang out in the garden with me.  I managed to take this picture just as he was meowing.  He often talks up a storm when he sees me in the garden.  I love it! 

The other morning I was hanging laundry on the clothes line.  I had two cats, (Rusty and Tiger) and George (our potbelly pig) all at my feet as I hung the clothes on the line.  It made me chuckle.  I thought how lucky I was to always have such good company around me.  Today while feeling under the weather,  I took the afternoon off to watch a few movies and rest.  I had Rusty, Tiger, Emily (our dog) with me all afternoon.  Joshua would bounce in and out.  He too loves having the animals around us. 

Reggie is not improving.  I'm quite frustrated as we are trying everything we can but he keeps losing weight.  He eats all the time and he is just not getting the nutrients he needs.  Alley Cat on the other hand is healing quite nicely.  His eye is still sore, but I do believe his vision has returned!!  I continue to heal too. 

We had a great day at the farm today! We managed to get many projects accomplished.  It was the first time in over a week we had a solid day of sunshine and no rain!  I am so grateful for our raised beds in the garden.  The garden would be flooded if we did not have the raised beds.  As I weeded today and walked between the beds, the ground felt and sounded like a big wet sponge.  The heavy rain is effecting the veg.  I noticed a few of my celery plants have rotted in the center.  I think few tomato plants have late blight and I pulled a few potato plants that looked like they had blight as well.  The broccoli, basil, onions, patty pan squash, various herbs, lettuce, kale, collard greens, nasturtiums, green beans, potatoes and black berries that we harvested this week look great and of course was delicious.  I have a lot of patty pan squash and I've been looking up recipes that use squash.  I've given some away and hope to give more away.  We need a good week of sunshine as the plants really need it.  I think all of us at the farm could use a week of sunshine without the humidity!  Several nights this week when I finished mucking Reggie and Alley Cat's stalls I would return to the house completely drenched in sweat from the humidity.  Cold showers were the perfect trick. 

Reggie is continuing to heal and the cut on his leg  looks very good.  On one of the days he was in the lawn he somehow, somewhere managed to cut his leg all the way to the bone.  The vet stitched it up.  I scrub his cut with surgical scrub and re-bandage it every few days.  He's finally on his ulcer medication... although he hates it and he is not very cooperative in receiving it.  Alley Cat is also being a bit of a pain receiving his eye meds.   I  do not blame him,  I really don't like medication going into my eyes either.    I am healing as well.  The bruises on my body still look pretty scary but they are not as sore.  The lacerations have healed but I still have some pretty big knots under my skin on my neck and shoulder.  A previous back injury has flared up and has been nagging me. I'm sure it was from the attack as well as me probably holding my body stiffly when it was so painful.

The weather calls for *heavy rain* tomorrow.  I just can't believe it.   I hope to get the crab apples picked before the rain sets in.  I want to make crab apple jelly and strawberry jam tomorrow.  A perfect project with heavy rain going on.

  I tied up most of the tomato plants, the cucumbers and weeded today.  I really like using old panty hose as tomato ties.  It works well and doesn't damage the plant. 

Brandywine tomato plants and scarlet runner beans.

NOFANY Potato trial...Eva variety of potatoes

Fodder beets

  Corn, pumpkins, potatoes and fodder beats in these two beds near the barn.

I plan to start to dry the chamomile for chamomile tea this week provided we get some more sunshine along with drying a few other herbs especially basil. 

I was pretty excited to see our first sunflower opening up.  We have had too much rain and not enough sunshine for Joshua's sunflower house.  Next year,  we will try again.

I picked wild black berries yesterday.  This is my second batch and I'm probably going  get another nice sized batch.   I made a cobbler with these berries. 

I been using our micro-mill each day.  I made sour dough bread this week and we have a sour dough mother sponge going.  I also made teradactyl saltine crackers.  Joshua loved them. 

A few weeks ago hubby moved Joshua's swing from an oak tree in the back yard to the large maple tree in our front yard.  Joshua loves it and now we all three can  take turns swinging.  We are planning to also put a tire swing  next to this swing. 

Joshua loves to swing barefoot.  He says he loves the way the wind feels on his toes.  Joshua also loves to run and get really dirty on the farm.  He's a perfect farm boy.

Here he is running through one of the fields.

 The wild turkeys have been visiting more frequently with their babies.  Today,  Joshua was about 20-30 feet away from the mama and her babies.  He was pretty excited to watch them.  He told me the other day he hopes a wild Tom turkey jumps the fence and goes in with his turkeys.  He wants the Tom to fertilize their eggs, so we could have really cute turkey babies. 

Reggie has continued to improve and we are very relieved and happy for him.  Talking over his symptoms with the vet and a good friend we suspect Reggie may have an ulcer. His cancer maybe only in the tumors on his body not throughout his body.  Some preliminary testing is showing results towards an ulcer.  I sure hope that this is the problem versus cancer.   He will be starting therapy for this shortly.  (Waiting on the meds).  He seems to not be in pain and he is loving all the extra TLC he has been getting.  He does not even mind the injections that he has been getting twice a day.  He's an amazing horse and we love him very much. 

Wednesday night one of our ponies managed to get into the horse paddock and went for a fun rip roaring chase.  We were all pretty scared that one of the horses or the pony was going to fall and break a leg as they crazily ran and slipped up and down a very muddy steep hill.  In all their craziness,  Alleycat, our beautiful paint managed to injure his eye very badly on a low hanging branch.  He is vision impaired in the eye now and we hope his eyesight will return when the blood and the edema leaves his eyeball.    He is re-cooperating in the stall next to Reggie.  I let them both out today to get some sunshine.  On Thursday while we were waiting on the vet,  Alleycat was in a lot of pain and very skittish.  I think he was scared with the vision impairment.  I was going into his stall to give him some food and pain meds when out of no where he attacked me.  I was bitten pretty severely on my neck and shoulder.  He almost knocked me down but I was lucky enough to grab onto the bars in the stall to keep from falling to the ground.  When I screamed out in pain and surprise,  he suddenly realized it was me and ran to the opposite corner of the stall and was very scared. I got out of there as fast as I could.  I was in a lot of pain and was pretty shocked by what happened.   Yesterday,  I felt like I had been hit by a car.  I was pretty sore all over.  Today just my bruises and lacerations are sore.    We believe I startled him and he didn't realize it was me until after what he had done.  Needless to say,  I am a little fearful  around him right now.  However,  I need to medicate his eyes three times a day, muck his stall,  feed and water him, and give him pain meds.  I'm so thankful that hubby has been helping me with him.    The vet will be back on Monday to see how the eye is doing and whether we will need to take him to a specialist.   His eye looks much better and he's calmed down considerably.  He even is back to his old self with me.

I had sustained another farm injury just about 20 minutes before the attack.   Our calf  Buster Brown escaped on me as I was coming through the gate with a cart of poo.  I went to get him and made a quick makeshift halter/lead with some hay twine.  The hay twine is the nylon kind that is really long and used for the big hay bales we get.  As Buster went back through the gate he started to run and the twine managed somehow to wrap around one of my legs.  As he ran it cinched up very tightly around my leg.  Lucky for me,  it also cinched tightly around his head and he stopped.  I have a very pretty purple ring around my leg now which is also sore.

It was an emotional and physically exhausting week.  At the start of the week the vet said if Reggie did not show signs of improving we were most likely going to have to put him down sooner than later.  Thank goodness Reggie pulled through. We have had to unfortunately put down a few of the animals that have come to our farm and it is never an easy thing to do.  It is heart breaking. 

On a much lighter note,  my new grain mill arrived this week.  I was so excited and I love it.  The hand crank one we have is nice but it takes forever to grind a substantial amount of flour for making bread.  I made hot dog buns today and artisan bread this week.  Joshua really enjoys helping me grind the grain.  I purchased two 50 lb bags of  certified organic locally grown wheat in hard and soft varieties.  I also have buckwheat grain and this morning we had freshly ground buckwheat pancakes. 

The garden did not get too much attention from me this week. We harvested pattypan squash, broccoli,  herbs, onions, medicinal plants, raspberries, lettuce, borage flowers, nasturtiums and kale.

The garden is getting to be mini -jungle. 

The sunflowers are taller than me now.

More oregano coming up.

A very lush line of tomatoes.

Scarlet Runner beans and if you look closely you can see the baby beans.  We also have baby black turtle beans and baby kidney beans.

Anasazi beans growing up into our frog sculpture.

  Look who was hanging out in our backyard today.  Just amazing!

Reggie has not been feeling well lately.  Our vet does think he has cancer.  He has many tumors on his body and several growing in and around his lymph nodes.  He's thin and does not keep weight on.  The vet feels we should just take day by day and see how he is doing.  We are doing just that and living in the moment.  This morning he was laying down and seemed to be having stomach pain,  I suspected colic.  I gave him some pain meds and started walking him.  He seemed to improve quickly, so I thought I might have been wrong about the colic.  Later in the day,  I realized I had not seen him defecate.  I called the vet.  He suggested I walk him more,  get some mineral oil in him, and keep a keen eye on him.  I kept checking him and walking him periodically.  He seems to be feeling much better, but I still have not observed him going to the bathroom.      I am hopeful that he will pull through this.  He is a sweet, sweet soul.

Joshua was very helpful today with Reggie.  He was the first one to notice Reggie down this morning and promptly let us know.  Joshua volunteered to walk Reggie several times.  Joshua was quite proud to be walking one of the big horses and was really good with Reggie.  Reggie also seemed to enjoy having Joshua walk him. 

Reggie with his best friend Equador. 

Last week I asked Joshua if he would like to go to one of the museums or zoos that we have membership with.  He said he would really love to go to the ocean instead.  After finishing up morning chores,  we headed out to spend the day at the ocean.    The day was filled with giggles,  laughter,  shrieks of joy, chasing waves and much digging in the sand.  Joshua also managed to get a few cartwheels in here and there. 

I love our long trips in the car.  We talk about the most amazing things.  Our discussions that morning were about molecules and why the ocean is made up of salt water.  Whales,  lighthouses, rockets, dinosaurs, songs we liked on the radio,  geography, and the list went on and on.

Sitting in traffic on the causeway.  Joshua is very excited that we are almost there.  We had rolled down the windows so we could smell the ocean.

We are here!!!  He was so excited to be at the beach.

Busy constructing some castles.

Joshua thought it would be funny to bury himself in the sand.

Catching those waves.

Cartwheels

Not only did we have the surf and sand, we also enjoyed an awesome playground!

Brrr!  I'm freezing after jumping into the waves.

We walked out to the lighthouse and walked back along the ocean on the beach.  It was dark as we walked back.  Joshua got to see the light that the lighthouse cast out onto the sand and sea. 

It was a grand day!!

We finally had a week of sunshine!  I noticed that many of the plants are really starting to pop and grow thanks to the week of sunshine.  We are behind where we would normally be this time of year, but I'm very pleased with how the garden is coming together.   Our helper leaves tomorrow and we will miss his wonderful personality,  kindness, hard work and his attention to detail.  I am again very grateful to have had Cameron helping us for the past month. 

Cameron cleared out all the sod from the greenhouse and I had him dump some manure on the sides.  I will be creating raised beds inside the greenhouse for fall and winter crops. 

I started harvesting many of our herbs and medicinal plants and created tinctures and oils this week.  I also made a few smudge sticks.  I harvested  lavender, sweet grass, lemon balm,  nettle, yarrow, lemon balm, peppermint, comfrey and St. John's wort. 

The scarlet runner beans have started to bloom, however they seem to be a bit behind in growing up the poles.  I'm sure they will continue to climb.

The cucumbers Cameron planted last week have popped through and they look great.

Cameron noticed yesterday that we had a visitor hanging out on a mallow plant.

A black swallow tail caterpillar starting to make it's chrysalis.  This is what we found the next day.

I also discovered another one on the parsnips.  The parsnips are making seeds and I'm going to have a lot of seeds.

We continue to harvest lettuce and I started harvesting some garlic today.  I also harvested black raspberries, collected eggs daily and milked Brie-anna. 

I planted lettuce, sunflowers, cosmos,  zucchini, kobacha squash, brussel sprouts, coriander, sage, parsley, oregano, basil and onions this week. 

I'm really looking forward to this vine as it climbs the two poles at the entrance of the garden.  It is supposed to have red flowers that resemble morning glories. 

The borage is getting closer to opening up. 

I went to the garden on this morning and look.....it opened.

A few "bird's eye" views of the garden.