Jury duty, growing things

Mama had a pretty long day yesterday. She was at the Montague Count Courthouse from 11 a.m. until a little after 4 pm. She was among the finalists to be selected to serve on the jury for a narcotics related case. At the final selection process she was let go. She should be good for a couple years now.  All in all, it was not a bad experience for her.

I did not do too much yesterday evening. I ran the weed eater for a while. I am neither as practiced nor as proficient as Grandpa. What areas I practiced on looked like the weeds were cut by a machete. I am going to have to better adjust the shoulder strap on the weed eater and get in a lot of hours of practice before it looks like I know what I am doing. It will also take some time for my back to strengthen to the task.

I checked out our vegetable garden and our little orchard and the rain really did those two areas some good. None of the potatoes have broken the ground yet but it has been pretty cool at night. The blueberry plants are loaded with tiny berries. I am not sure if they will mature but I plan to take the time to protect them from the wind and give them a fighting chance. Getting fruit from them this year would be an unexpected blessing.

The new arrivals seem to be doing very well – both the pigs and the chicks. Mama and Victoria fool with them several times per day with the purpose of making them friendly to all humans. She need not worry; all of her farm animals are pretty friendly. The chickens and dogs run to her every time she breaks the plane of the door expecting her to have some treat for them; they are rarely disappointed.

What Mama is really looking forward to is having the grandkids fool with the animals. I hope we have the dogs acclimated to the piglets by that time because there is a better than average change that the pigs will get loose from the smaller hands and they will be no fun to catch as we try to keep the dogs off of them –should that happen.

I tried to take pictures of the piglets with my phone. The camera built into the phone is excellent for still shots but it does not work as well for snapping pictures of things that will not stay still. I have an image Victoria got with her phone as we were bringing them home. It is okay but only really shows the red spotted one.

I am also a little concerned about saddling someone with the care of all the animals we have at the farm while we are on vacation after Chase’s wedding. If Grandma and Grandpa decide not to come down the farm we have family on standby. I just think it is a lot to ask.

But I suppose that is the life you choose with a farm.