Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #20

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (mostly on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Our favorite hot summer dinner? BLTs on freshly baked Farmhouse White.

There isn't much to show and tell from the farm this week. Hot days, dry skies, burned up fields, blister beetles, same same. I haven't been feeling well for the last few weeks, and when I wasn't lying in bed, we were in the truck driving 500 miles to various clinics, labs, and other places that were seriously short on photo ops (rural living + no health insurance = lots of traveling).

On Thursday morning while we were sitting in a waiting room several counties away, a guy walked by and said something to Joe about the rain they'd had there that morning. "At least I won't have to water the yard," he said, and then added, "I sure feel bad for the people who are trying to make a living farming."

I smiled wanly and half-heartedly raised my hand. He looked at me.

"You're a farmer?"

Yep.

We're not alone of course. All 114 counties in Missouri have been declared federal disaster areas because of the devastating heat and drought. We had 1/10th of an inch of rain fall while we were gone on Thursday, which is better than nothing, but not by much. Yesterday it rained for about 10 minutes. That was it for the week. Last week we got a quarter inch.

I thought I might have to skip the Friday Farm Fix this week, but it turns out I did make a few fun pictures. Another BLT dinner (no complaints here; we're having them again tonight), some pretty purple in the kitchen garden, a zucchini butter photo shoot (recipe hopefully up soon), heading in for sheep working Sunday, and of course some of our 50+ chickens, because it seems like they're everywhere. My favorite big black cat was seemingly everywhere too. Garden companion, photo stylist, mighty hunter. He catches a lot of rabbits.

Cooler weather, ample rain, medical answers. All we can do is enjoy the bounty of the season—including the juicy Missouri peaches, six pints of cherry tomatoes, and several more pounds of zucchini I bought on the way home Thursday—while we wait for everything to hopefully turn out fine.

12 more farm photos below. Hover over each picture for a description. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #19

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (mostly on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Tim-ber!

We had a slight change in the weather this week. It was still way too hot and way too dry, but for a (thankfully) brief period on Thursday afternoon it was also way too windy. A noisy thunderstorm whipped through the farm, sending chickens flapping, our big gas grill tumbling across the yard, and this beautiful old oak tree crashing to the ground.

Fortunately Da Big Guy and The Kid, our two rams who are currently living in that pen, weren't hurt. One of the bunk feeders suffered severe injuries, but at least the little sheep hut was mostly spared. We got about 1/4" of rain out of the whole ordeal, and although it was better than nothing, I definitely would have preferred a little less excitement and a lot more water.

On to a more appetizing subject. I don't keep track of what we eat for dinner every night, but maybe I should start. Sometimes it can be easy to forget just how much wonderful food graces our table.

This week we enjoyed the first BLTs of the season, made with locally raised bacon (from one of the two butcher hogs in our freezers), juicy tomatoes from a friend, and homemade pesto mayonnaise (first pesto of the year! my favorite pesto recipe is here) on freshly baked Farmhouse White (with a few cups of whole wheat flour tossed in). And then the next night we had them again.

More food talk and another 15 farm photos below. Hover over each picture for a description. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #18

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (mostly on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Six of Lokey's chicks practice their perching

You know I'm not a fan of summer weather, but even I can't believe how fast these weeks are zipping by. It's the middle of July already? Things around the farm are pretty much the same as they were last week. While I was sorting through photos for this post I found several that look remarkably like some of the ones in last week's Friday Farm Fix, right down to Joe wearing the same favorite yellow shirt.

We've mostly been hiding from the heat and hoping we'll get more rain so the grass in the grazing pastures and hayfield will grow. When we drove to town the other day it looked like the cattle in the fields along the highway were grazing on brown putting greens. Everybody is wondering what we're going to do.

The highlight of the week was definitely when a quick check in the garden yesterday confirmed that the liberal dousing of diatomaceous earth did scare away the hundreds of ravenous blister beetles that attacked on my birthday. Yes! The trick is to put it on and around your plants as soon as you see the first beetles. To learn about the many ways we use this safe, 100% natural, inexpensive stuff around the farm and garden (we even take a daily dose ourselves), check out this post.

I had a fun half day off for my birthday, which included cake, champagne, grilled homegrown rib steaks, the first two ripe tomatoes from the garden, local cucumbers and zucchini, homemade onion rye bread slathered with butter, more cake, and a frenzy of music downloads.

Yep, I've finally discovered how easy it is to buy music online (we don't get enough monthly bandwith to stream music from YouTube, etc.). I mean, who can resist Bob Marley for 25 cents? All sorts of new and old favorites are now blasting out of my computer. I think I've played Lucky Now and Somebody That I Used To Know at least 45 times each.

After listening to Todd Boston's Touched By the Sun about 150 times, I finally bought the whole album, which was produced by Will Ackerman, whose music I fell in love with back in 1983 when he came to my high school and played The Bricklayer's Beautiful Daughter.

I also bought a neat little julienne peeler (which hasn't arrived yet) and finally ordered a Furminator for the dogs. Too cool. Ten year old Lucky Buddy Bear, who never lets you brush him, loves it. I came downstairs one morning and found a smiling Joe and Bear sitting on the floor together with a giant pile of fur next to them.

Lots of birthday fun. And there's even a little cake left in the freezer.

14 more farm photos below. Hover over each picture for a description. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #17

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (usually on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Heading back from Donkeyland after Monday's surprise rain.

Blast furnace hot, dry as a bone. Nothing has changed since last week, except the thermometer keeps climbing and the fields keep getting browner. Nobody around here has any grass left in their pastures. The only thing that's still green in our front field is the blasted cactus (you can see a patch of it below). Nothing kills that stuff, although even it looks a little peaked. Some of the trees are starting to die.

Our hearts go out to everyone across the country in the same scary situation. I have no idea what we're going to do. And now it looks like feed prices will be sky high soon too.

Thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers and rain dances you've sent our way. They worked! We were thrilled to get a surprise half inch of rain last Monday, and although it was just a drop in a big, dusty bucket it did make a difference. You could actually see the grass start greening up within hours and practically hear the plants sighing with relief as they sucked up the moisture.

Two more storms have blown through since then, but they must have watered somebody else's farm instead of ours. Joe sneaked a peek at the forecast this morning (I still can't bear to look) and said there's a chance of rain for the next several days—and the high today was below 100° for the first time in I don't know how long (which is why I stopped checking the weather). Please keep dancing!

There's nothing we can do about the heat and drought, but I can keep sharing the cute. So how about 19 more farm photos taken during the past week? Hover over each picture for a description.

More below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #16

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (usually on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Kit Kat Kate perched above the echinacea patch

It's bad out there. Really bad. The months of relentless heat and drought will not give up. It just keeps getting hotter and drier, and it's going to get worse before it gets better. We stopped looking at the thermometer when it got up to 106 degrees in the shade. We've stopped looking at the ten day forecast hoping for a chance of rain.

Last year at this time we had 695 bales of hay safely stored in the barn, ready to feed the sheep and donkeys all winter (and then put up another 180 bales of summer grass in early September). So far this year we haven't put up any. Everyone is scrambling for hay, and nobody has any for sale. If we do find some, it will probably be low quality and priced sky high.

The front field, where 33 sheep are supposed to be grazing all summer and into the fall, has nothing left to eat in it. The green grass you can see in the photos below, which were taken a week ago, is gone. Everything that gets full sun has burned up.

Tomorrow morning after we work the sheep we'll let them out loose to forage for food in the dry creekbed and the woods. Thank goodness we sold half the flock in May. I just hope we don't have to sell any more sheep—or any donkeys.

Donkeyland looks almost as bad as the front field, but the perimeter of our 240 acre property, which is mostly steep wooded hillsides, isn't fenced, and the donkeys tend to wander—like up to the highway.

All we can do is try not to get too stressed out (which isn't easy, as evidenced by my tears earlier), water the kitchen garden twice a day, limit our time working out in the heat, drink plenty of water (and Tension Tamer iced tea!), remember to breathe, and find joy in the little things around us.

A nest of hungry baby birds in a very unlikely spot. The cute spotted frog who has taken up residence in the greenhouse. Peeping chicks all over the place. A beagle with his catch and release bunny. Grilled burgers on freshly baked onion rye buns. Delicious bounty from our garden and our neighbors, sizzling cast iron skillets, the first sweet corn of the season, our first summer sleeping in air conditioning.

Everything may be dying of thirst, but farm life still tastes good.

27 more farm photos below - hover over each photo to see a short description. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #15

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (usually on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Lokey and some of her newly hatched chicks

It was kind of a whirlwind week. Like it was Sunday, and then it was Friday. There was a trip to the vet with a very well behaved Bert (even when some guy walked in the door and said, "Hello, fat little dog!"), a couple of blissful afternoon hours spent swimming at the river (something we've decided we need to do a lot more often), and even a little pizza party. There was champagne and an indoor picnic dinner (one of our favorite meals) on the solstice.

Why are there so many chick pics in this week's Friday Farm Fix? Because there are baby chickens everywhere. I'm not going to say the actual number because Joe is going to read this, and I don't think he's done quite all of the peep math yet. He has noticed that we seem to be buying chicken feed a lot more often when we go to town. And he kindly set up the fancy waterer we bought last year in the newish open chicken pen, which you can see hanging from a tree below.

We were thrilled to get a little over an inch of rain at the beginning of the week, which was more than we've had at one time in months. The fields are parched and sparse. It's been blast furnace hot every day, with no more rain in sight. The sheep and their guard dogs spend the afternoons tucked under the cool of low hanging cedar trees at the edge of the front field. There are green tomatoes getting bigger. Sum sum summertime.

26 more farm photos below (hover your cursor over each image for a description) . . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #14

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (usually on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Mr. Midnight knows the secret to staying cool—you just have to sprawl.

Birds seem to be this past week's theme around the farm: baby chicks, big chicks, wild turkeys, and the two graceful white mystery birds we saw in the front field one evening when we hiked out to count the sheep.

I guess maybe they were young egrets? I love to be around birds but am embarrassed to admit I can't identify very many of them. They looked like they belonged near water. We do see great blue herons around this area sometimes, especially near the river. They used swoop down and grab catfish from the pond at my old farm. Such glorious creatures, even if they are thieves.

These two seemed sort of lost, circling around the field and coming back toward us. Or maybe they just wanted to stay near the sheep. The photos below aren't real clear because I took them on 20x zoom. It sort of drives me crazy that so many creatures are afraid of people but not sheep or dogs or cats or even donkeys. Although it would be nice if the deer were still afraid of the dogs. I'm covering more plants in the garden each night than I did when there was a threat of frost because otherwise they'll munch it down.

We often see wild turkeys in the hayfield, and some years in the spring there are two hens who march around out there with their babies trailing behind. For the past few weeks one hen has been staying pretty close to the house, ambling around in the grass by herself for long stretches during the day.

I haven't gone out to look for a nest because I don't want the dogs to follow me and bother her. I'll never forget the time we were walking through the hayfield and Robin came out of the bushes that grow along the edge with an enormous turkey egg clutched between her jaws.

No sign of any baby turkeys with this hen yet, but on Monday afternoon when I went to pick up the mail and our weekly two gallons of raw Jersey milk, I stopped to let a hen and three little babies cross the highway in front of me. When I drove back maybe 45 minutes later I saw them again, crossing back over in about the same spot.

26 more farm photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Friday (Sunday) Farm Fix #13

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (usually on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

On guard in the front field

For the first time since last September, the entire flock (except for the two rams) is together again. Half of the sheep had already been grazing out in the front field, which is our main pasture, for the past couple of weeks, and a few days ago the moms and our seven remaining lambs joined them.

How do we know it's time to stop creep feeding the lambs? When they're too fat to squeeze into (or out of!) the creep feeder. Of course they don't agree with that reasoning. Nevertheless, the twice a day treats (with hay in between) are over. It's time to graze.

The plan is for the flock to live out in the front field for the next several months, protected by Daisy and Marta and free to eat during the night when it's cooler. Hopefully there will be enough grass out there for them (and the donkeys in Donkeyland) to feed them through the fall. The heat and drought aren't giving in.

I don't remember the fields ever looking this bad, although Joe says they have. In many places you can see more dusty bare ground than grass, and what little green there is just keeps getting browner.

All we can do is pray for rain.

20 more farm photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #12

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling (that sometimes appears on Saturdays) of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

The word of this past week was definitely PEEP! It seems like there are baby chicks hatching everywhere, including another one since last night. The chick pics were starting to take over this post, though, so instead I'll do a separate peep report in the next few days. Maybe the number of new babies will have stabilized by then. In the meantime, they sure are cute to watch.

A brief respite from the unseasonable heat and humidity, along with just under an inch of rain (woohoo!), has made us (and the entire farm) very happy indeed. We turned off the a/c and even put a blanket on the bed last night. We're headed right back into another heat wave, but at least the dust has settled and the grass in the fields doesn't crunch as much when you walk on it. They're even teasing us with more rain in the 10-day forecast.

My hunky farmguy Joe is doing better (hello Sheep Working Sunday!) and was even out on the tractor yesterday and today. I've been busy planting and picking (and watering) in the kitchen garden. Four more tomato plants went in the ground (lots more still to go) along with eight California Golden Wonder sweet peppers, and 20 tiny purple basil seedlings were transplanted into individual plugs. Learn what to do with purple basil here (hint: it makes amazing pesto).

The garden is at that point where everything seems to be suddenly taking off. One day you're delighted to spot a couple of baby beans, and just a few days later you're filling up a colander.

We've been enjoying the first sweet and crunchy, easy to grow Dragon Tongue beans (I love them raw), pretty salads starring Parris Island cos lettuce, and spring onions galore. The flea beetles have been enjoying pretty much everything. Fortunately their nibbling doesn't usually kill plants. The first Japanese beetles have already been spotted; fingers crossed their numbers—and their damage—won't be nearly as bad as last year. They do kill stuff.

I picked 8½ pounds (!) of volunteer Swiss chard from the greenhouse (and that wasn't even all of it), along with enough lemon balm to make about 75 gallons of sun tea. Learn How To Grow Your Own Swiss Chard from Seed here. I see a Swiss Chard Artichoke Pizza in our future, and some of this Swiss Chard Cabbage Salad with Garbanzo Beans and Cottage Cheese. Read about growing, drying, and using lemon balm here.

It's hard to believe it's already the beginning of June, although it's pretty much felt like June since March. The echinacea (purple coneflower) just started blooming. We'll be picking juicy, ripe tomatoes before you know it.

21 more farm photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #11

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Heading up the driveway.

This past week was hot, dry, and disappointing. On Tuesday we sold half of our sheep at a monthly sheep and goat auction, including 27 of this year's 34 lambs and our four-year-old Katahdin ram, Edward (we still have two rams left). It's not something we've done very often.

For the past two years we've sold most of our lambs in late summer to the friend of a friend who kept them on his farm for a few months and then butchered them himself for an out of state, ethnic niche market he has.

For many years we've been trying to build up a business selling our whole, naturally raised, grass fed, custom butchered lambs directly to customers (for less than the cost of inferior, supermarket lamb), but there is simply no local market for it.

We tried delivering lamb to city buyers 200 miles away, but that didn't work out. And shipping frozen packages of lamb to customers across the country is impractical and cost prohibitive (and goes against the whole local thing).

Last fall, an opportunity came up that looked like it could become a local ethnic niche market for us, and I agreed to specifically breed several purebred Katahdin lambs—which we don't like to do because they're so much smaller than our Katahdin/Suffolk crosses—for someone who was to pick them up here on the farm at the end of this month. She backed out of the deal last week.

Many people have told us that our lamb is the best they've ever tasted.

Livestock prices vary—that's just the nature of the business—and, around here at least, sheep and goat prices usually fluctuate a lot more than cattle prices do. For the past few months, lamb and sheep prices have been high, but our lambs weren't big enough to sell yet.

Unfortunately lamb prices dropped about 40% between last month's sale and this month's. After paying the hauling and commission fees, what we ended up with doesn't even cover the cost of feeding the flock and their two big guard dogs (Daisy and Marta) for the past year, let alone all the other expenses involved.

Not very good for a year's worth of hard work.

We decided a few months ago that we would try selling our lambs early this year, mostly in an effort to cut down on our summer workload—and hoping the prices would stay high. At the time, we were getting some rain and were hopeful the grazing pastures and hayfield would soon be lush. Instead they're sparse and burning up from heat and drought.

Right now we're usually putting up hundreds of bales of spring hay; this year we aren't putting up any. All we can do is hope for rain and summer grass.

Today when Joe hauled water out to the donkeys (Yes! After nearly four weeks, my hunky farmguy is back outside on limited duty!) he called me on the two-way radio (we love these and carry them constantly) as he was driving through Donkeyland checking on the field.

"How does it look?" I asked.

"Not too bad—for July."

So even though the auction prices were heartbreaking, it's a good thing we went ahead and reduced the flock because there isn't a whole lot to eat out there.

As I walked back through the front field on Tuesday after opening the gate for the guy who was hauling off half of our flock, feeling tired and sore, anxious and hopeful and a little sad, I looked down and saw a big beautiful heart rock, embedded right there in the driveway.

This is my 17th year raising sheep. We didn't lose a single lamb this year.

We've been doing a lot of talking these past few days. Plotting and planning, dreaming and scheming. Prioritizing. As Joe often says, "We'll figure something out; we always do."

21 more farm photos below . . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #10

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.


Vintage washtubs in the homemade greenhouse

How to describe this past week? Hot, dry, and way too dusty. We've had less than two inches of rain in the last eight weeks, which was supposed to be our rainy growing season (remember when the creek flooded last year?). The grass in the fields is already going to seed and burning up, and even the weeds are shriveled. You'd think it was the middle of August rather than the middle of May.

When the forecast is calling for a heat index of 127 degrees—and they've taken out the promised rain—you know it's time to just stop checking the weather.

My hunky farmguy Joe spent another week out of commission, though his back is slowly healing. He even came down to the sheep barn last night to help a little with chores—after the sun had ducked behind the ridge. He has one more week on the medicine that really knocks you for a loop if you go out in the sun.

In the meantime, the scenery is pretty, the air conditioner works, and there's plenty of food, which is good because that no-sun medicine has also given Joe a humongous appetite. Yesterday out the bedroom window we saw a doe with a baby fawn that was so small it looked like a rabbit. (And that gorgeous brown moth below was almost as big as the fawn.) And the bright side of having only one of us working outside for the past 20 days? There's a lot less dirty laundry!

I've been spending a lot of time in the garden, planting, weeding, and watering (these ultra light Water Right garden hoses are the best). From garden to kitchen: lots of Italian parsley, basil, and chives, Red Russian kale (from last year's plants), the entire bed of gourmet lettuce (it's more than it looks like once you start cutting!), green onions and spring onions, and of course Swiss chard.

My favorite basil pesto recipe (which works with green or purple basil) is here, and I'm thinking about parsley pesto. Have you ever made it?

28 more farm photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #9

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Our little lambs have big appetites!

Thanks so much to all of you who sent healing thoughts and helpful suggestions to my hunky farmguy Joe after I told you in last week's Friday Farm Fix that he'd thrown his back out. We both really appreciate your kindness. He still spends most of his time flat on his back, unable to stand for more than about 10 minutes at a time (though he is able to walk around), and, after 12 days, is very tired of being housebound and unable to help around the farm.

He is able to rest and sleep more comfortably, thanks to some medicines we picked up on Tuesday, along with several new novels from the library. We're also continuing with the other treatments I mentioned last week (heat and ice, fresh burdock compresses, the inversion table—he's hanging upside down right now—all sorts of topical remedies, etc.), and slowly but surely he's healing. It takes time. Homemade bread and oatmeal coconut cookies help. So do smiling beagles.

The weather has thankfully cooled down; it's been in the 70s instead of the 90s, often with a pleasant breeze. We even got a half inch of rain the other day. It's too little, too late for the spring grass in the fields, but we're grateful nonetheless.

The hay—what little there is of it—is ready to be cut and baled now. Joe isn't supposed to lift anything heavier than 15 pounds for the next month. And bouncing around on the tractor for several hours at a time isn't even an option.

My hunky farmguy, who worries a lot less about things than I do, always tells me that everything will somehow work out—and usually he's right.

I don't write about the chronic physical challenges that we both deal with every day because everybody has problems, but suffice it to say that farming is hard work, no matter what kind of shape you're in. We get injured and banged up a lot. We don't consider ourselves old, but when something like this happens and one of us is totally immobilized for a lengthy period, we can't help but wonder how long we can keep doing this.

Meanwhile, life goes on. A few weeks ago we had a hard, late frost, and the new leaves on many of the trees froze, turned brown, and blew to the ground. It felt like autumn in April. Most of those trees are already once again covered with new green growth. They simply shook themselves off and started again.

22 more farm photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #8

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

We were really hoping to get some rain from the several big storms that came through this past week, but we ended up with less than half an inch. Today's forecast said 93° with 80% humidity and a heat index of 102°.

We've hardly had any rain this spring, and the grazing pastures and hayfield that feed our sheep and donkeys simply aren't growing enough. It's disappointing and frustrating, and there's nothing we can do. Tonight's forecast is calling for an 80% chance of up to .3 inches of rain tonight and tomorrow. We'll take whatever we can get.

What we need even more than rain right now, though, is for my hunky farmguy Joe to feel better. On Monday morning he threw his back out, and he's been out of commission and in terrible pain all week.

We've tried everything from arnica gel, DMSO, and Biofreeze to burdock leaf poultices and hot compresses (these Thermalon heat/cold pads are great). Anti-inflammatory herbs, hot whirlpool baths, ice packs, the inversion therapy table (one of the best investments we ever made), homeopathic pellets, Chinese pain patches, our beloved Kneading Fingers back massager (another great investment), foot reflexology—all our usual favorite remedies (we get banged up a lot on the farm!) just aren't working.

On Friday he was finally able to (barely) make the 70-mile round trip to the chiropractor. Tomorrow we'll head to the medical clinic. As our longtime chiropractor put it after adjusting Joe three times on Friday, "As much as I hate to say it, sometimes you just need drugs."

So anyway, that's why this week's Friday Farm Fix is appearing on Sunday afternoon—and this week's recipe (as per my lofty new One Recipe Every Week plan) didn't appear at all. Also, I spent a lot of time watering. I did manage to snap quite a few pictures, though. Enjoy!

A whopping 30 more photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #7

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Lokey and her 10 chicks (more chick pics here)

I've been under the weather this past week so I didn't think I'd have many photos for today's post, but I guess I was wrong; I found 21. Our three mama hens and their 14 chicks are still the main theme around here (probably because they're right up by the house), and Joe made the cutest little spur-of-the-moment feeder for Lokey and her 10 ravenous, rapidly growing babies using just an idea and some scraps of wood. That guy is hunky and handy.

Lots more photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #6

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

It's been a pretty rough week, but there were some definite bright spots, like getting about an inch of much needed rain, seeing a bald eagle on the way to the dentist yesterday, finding out that the ache in my mouth I've been ignoring for months isn't my first ever cavity (though the dentist had no idea what actually is causing all the pain), baking some really good scones, working our way through the entire first season of Bones, laughing at little lambs, watching the garden grow.

Lots more photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #5

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Lots more photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #4

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

The highlight of our week was a half inch of much needed rain.

Lots more photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #3

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Lots more photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #2

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week. Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.

Twelve year old (!) Whitey the Chicken enjoyed a brief foray into the great outdoors this week. She hasn't ventured back out since, (and neither have the three much younger hens in her coop), but the newly named Rooster Andy has been strutting all over the place.

Lots more photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #1

Welcome to a brand new series on Farmgirl Fare! I carry my beloved camera with me everywhere around the farm, often snapping hundreds of photos a week. For various reasons, most of them you never end up seeing (often because I want to tell you the story behind them but don't have enough time), including some that I really love.

Last year I had a brilliant idea; I would start doing a Tail End of the Month post, full of various favorite previously unposted photos taken each month. Unfortunately that plan turned out to be overwhelming before it even started, especially because I kept forgetting about it until the last day of each month.

But sorting through just a week's worth of photos and sharing them on Friday? That I should be able to handle. The number of photos in each post will vary, but so much has been going on this week I had trouble narrowing it down to 14 images for today's edition—and there still aren't any donkeys.

When I told Joe about my idea this morning, he thought it sounded great—both for you and for us. You'll get a better idea of what goes on around the farm each week, and we'll have a better record of what we've been doing. "And," he said, "it'll give your readers a farm fix before the weekend."

So welcome to the first Friday Farm Fix—which will hopefully be appearing each Friday! I think it's going to be a lot of fun. If you have questions about any of the photos, I'll do my best to answer them in the comments section (where you can now reply directly to individual comments!). As always, your feedback is welcome and greatly appreciated.

Lots more photos below. . .