Lazy Days of August.......ha

There's been a bit of a gap in my blogging posts this past couple months.  This is, hands down, the busiest summer I can ever remember and I'm not done running my ample butt off quite yet.  The spring was cool and rainy for an extended period of time and so we started the summer by trying to catch up and have never quite gotten that accomplished.  Couple that with our various committees and meetings, family events, working, etc....blah, blah, blah.  You get the idea.
Last month was our county fair, lots of cutting, raking and baling hay, reseeding pastures, spraying, fertilizing, all due to the damage that the drought caused last year.  We lost most of our pastures, they simply burned up and didn't come back.  The abundant rain this spring was welcome and very helpful to a lot of us that count on it to make our crops grow so we can feed our animals. 

This year's county fair was hotter than hell heck again, it takes a bit of creative fan positioning to keep all the animals cool in the barns.  I had two young men that took lambs and sheep to the fair this year from my flock.  Clayton took Alabama and her ewe lamb, Angel.  This was Clayton's 3rd year with Alabama at the fair and I decided it was time to sign her papers over to him as a surprise on the day of the show.  It was so awesome to watch this hardworking young man open the papers and turn them over to see his name as owner.  He cried, I cried, his mom cried and so did a few people watching.   He has such a bond with Alabama that it felt really good to be able to give her to him. What a great moment, I can't watch the video of it without crying.  (I'm such a sap) 

Justy on the far left and Clayton is 3rd from the left.   (giant meat sheep all around)

Notice my smile........I think it's bigger than theirs. 

Left: Justy, me in the middle and Clayon on the right

Just look at the smile!!!   Justy with Angel in the front and Perdy on Justy's right

Justin, everyone calls him Justy, is an incredible young man that has brittle bone disease.  He wanted to show a calf so badly, but it's just not feasible since the slightest bump or stumble by an animal of that size could break Justy's bones.  The compromise was my little Shetland sheep and after Justy spent 40 minutes with the lamb we picked for him, he called his mom to declare that he loved his lamb.  There were lots of tears from his family when he was showing, they didn't think they'd ever be able to let him do something that he wanted to do so badly.  My heart simply soared to see those kids have so much fun, and I'm quite certain I got far more from them showing my sheep than they got from doing it.

I got a nice surprise on Monday night when I found 3 bantam chicks that had hatched under my bearded Belguim D'Uccle hen in the big coop.  This little gal is as fierce a protector as I've ever seen.  She actually jumped up the side of the brooder wall to warn us that we were much too close for her comfort.  

Mille Fleur D'Uccle hen protecting her 3 little charges.

Emily and Landon came out last night to visit us and as usual, I loved seeing the little guy.  Here he's getting introduced to a little d'uccle chick, but seems more fascinated with the camera that mom is holding than the chick I'm trying to get him to notice.  It finally peeped and got his attention, but by that time Emily had switched to her camera phone. 

Landon and baby peeper