Summer Developments

An update on the critters is well overdue. We're now one sheep down (that was on purpose), one rabbit down (that wasn't on purpose), the chickens are getting huge and will hopefully be laying in a month, and the bees are so busy--we've already harvested a couple of quarts!

The sheep are getting a little bigger. They're still as scared as ever of us. At one point this summer we were trying to doctor one of them, and she drug me through the dirt, etc. After that her days were definitely numbered. We're still not positive if the 2 ewes we have left are pregnant. Someone told us we should be able to tell by August. If any of you can tell from these pictures, you can let us know.

Since our last post, Jacob convinced me to get 3 silver fox rabbits. I was reluctant, but they really are beautiful rabbits. After a couple of weeks, we discovered that one of them was a male. Unfortunately, Mr. Rabbit died about a month ago in a sad accident. Let's just say that an animal covered in thick black fur doesn't do well in full sun.

Also since our last blog, we got chickens! We have 9 total, and they very fun and happy. Jacob worked really hard at getting a coop and a run set up for them. Hopefully this week we'll put in nesting boxes. I think it'd be fun to paint the coop red with white doors and trim, but I don't know if it'll actually get done. Here are the chickens when we first got them and were keeping them in the barn.

Here's the first stages of the chicken coop.

And here are the chickens as of yesterday, enjoying a treat Jacob brought them.

And lastly, on the animal front, are the bees. They are amazing! We've only harvested one and a half bars and have gotten at least 2 quarts of honey. Here's a few images of the inside of the hive.

In this picture you can see capped honey at the top, then the dark circles in the middle show almost capped honey, and the ones at the bottom are just starting to be filled. It's amazing what they can do...and amazing that Jacob's only been stung 3 times so far :)

The garden is growing, though not quite like we had hoped. We scored some more cinderblocks and so we're going to try some "pioneer crops." I mean, the pioneers didn't arrive until July 24th, and they put in lots of crops. We're going to try a few more green bean plants just for fun in the bare portions of our old grow beds. And we're going to plant buckwheat in the new box.

And here are a few fun pictures of the Fourth of July in Cody. What you can't see in this first one is the swarms of mosquitoes that were about to eat us alive. But it was beautiful!

Commemorating our first (blind) date by going back to the rodeo.

Running the Stampede 5K with family. Dan really did finish abou 7 minutes before me and Juleen, but then he came back to help us run in the last leg. Thanks Dan!

Jacob went up Heart Mountain for the first time.

And Jacob's parents came home from China. They brought cool birthday candles that have a huge flame, open up into a flower, and sing happy birthday, and sing, and sing... We finally had to "deconstruct" this candle after it was still singing 30 hours later.