Break on through to the other side

After all the drama with the fence move the other day (hot sun, exhaustion, hornets) I finally got the fence through to the open air, thanks to the intrepid @meanbees, who donned his bee suit and removed them. The goats should have enough to keep them busy for at least a week, which frees up some of my time for other things.

We did have to drive home with the hornets tied up in a grocery bag in the front seat of the car, and they were still alive. I wish I could say that's the first time I've had to travel with live hornets in the car, but it's not. They went straight into the freezer as soon as we got home, but it never gets any less nerve wracking, driving along and listening intently for the buzzing sound that would mean pulling over as fast as possible and getting the heck out of the car.

I find a lot of bird nests when I'm working. In any other circumstance, I would leave the nests where I found them, but since the blackberries will be cut to the ground and the birds won't get to use them again anyway, I usually take them home for my collection. At least, it used to be a collection, until I got home the other day and found that the puppy horde had destroyed all of them. I guess I'm starting my collection from scratch. Literally, since there are so many thorns involved. I apologize for that pun; I must be channeling my dad.

The berries are just starting to ripen, which means soon it will be time to make jam! My son has left home, and he and his friends are no longer raiding my fridge on a daily basis, but I still make jam every year. I enjoy it, even with all the steam in the kitchen and everything being sticky and all the sugar I have to buy at Costco. Making jam is comforting, and there's little to no chance I will kill anyone with botulism.

I have been spending a lot of my time digging the house out from under the layer of filth that's been covering it off and on since the puppies first arrived. I mean first arrived, in January, not the most recent extra puppy arrival. My wonderful friend, @viking-ventures, is coming to visit next week, and even though she grew up on a farm and therefore is not as likely to judge, I'm looking around at the house and seeing dirt I didn't even know was there. I'm pretty sure there's a form of denial that prevents you from seeing things you don't have the energy to deal with.

Here's a shot of the spot where the fence finally broke through the berries. I wish I knew how to do the thing where you put a little arrow on the photo, because the hornet nest was literally five or six feet from the open air, and it took almost a week before they got removed and I could do the whole fence move. It's hard to convey with just words, and no inappropriate gestures, how frustrating that was. I am working on my glass-half-full attitude, but that doesn't come naturally to me and is a daily struggle.

I do need to get out and clip some canes down pretty soon, but as long as they have food, the rest can wait a couple of days. In the next photo, you can see where the fence turns a corner at the bottom. The dark spot about halfway up is approximately where I should have come out if I had been clipping in a straight line. Sigh. Clipping through a solid wall of brambles makes me lose all sense of direction, and can make me feel a bit like I'm in a scene from The Shining. But with hornets.

Today I moved the fence for the small herd. I hope they will be happy for a couple of days, because I will probably have to go buck hay at the family farm tomorrow, and I won't have any energy to spare for moving fences around. The little guys are partly in the woods now, which gives them some nice shade during the hot weather we're having.

One of our hens showed up with fourteen baby chicks this morning! No matter how many rounds of babies I see, I never stop being amazed at how cute they are. One of them turned up injured this afternoon, and will have to live in the house for a couple of days, until it can keep up with its mom again. That means that in addition to the Puppy Riot that precedes both morning and evening chores, I will be serenaded by the sound of Distressed Chick. That can get a little annoying after a while, but I will muscle through, because look how cute it is!

Have a good evening, everybody! I'm going to go mop something!