The  hay crop was OK, but down considerably from last year.  Tried a couple new things in the garden this year:  leeks and shallots.  I'd never eaten either before.   God knows how many articles I've read praising shallots as a gourmet's delight; possessing a delicate subtle flavor between onion and garlic.  And the raves I read about leeks, possessing a mild sweet flavor far superior to ordinary garden variety onions.  Our opinion:  they're both onions by another name.  Can't understand what the fuss is about.  Is it climate, or soil, or do you need a gourmet palate?  Reminds me of when I planted  arugula.  Heard great things about it, but out of our garden it tasted terrible.  Since then, we've eaten it (presumably commercially raised) several times in various dishes prepared by others and we've really liked it.  Go figure.  Any comments?

The geese were back this year doing their usual thing.  But they changed their usual get-the-little-ones-to-a-larger-pond-migration route.  Rather than coming up the meadow, where we could get a good look at them, they bolted from the pond straight into the woods and vanished.  I swear, momma lays rolling eggs that hit the ground running.  As soon as those little feet are sticking out of the shell they start on their migration.

We would like to officially announce the arrival of Nuisánce de Monie Pitt (Nucy for short).  We've now expanded our live stock holdings to include one head of cat.  Sort of like Moses, we found her abandoned, at the tender age of two weeks, crying her eyes out, in the bushes near our front door.  We know who the mother is and she is on our ---- list.  Trish became a wonderful ersatz mommy and did a lot of studying on the internet on how to raise a very young kitten.  She's almost grown now and seems none the worse for wear.  Perot was always our pain in the butt mutt.  Nucy's now become our pain in the tushy pussy.

We're surrounded by ranchers.  We've had horses show up (unannounced) on our property several times.  This year we had several cattle show up at our pond.  We managed to track down the owners and they came over to fetch them on horseback, ATV, pickup, and whatever.  They put on quite a show for awhile.  Unfortunately, the cattle escaped to the back of our property (which is extremely rugged).  They may still be down there.  We hear occasional cattle calls that sound real close.

Construction Report

The weather gods surprised us with very nice weather for our Spring Rendezvous.  On Saturday we picked outdoors all day long and into the night around a pleasant campfire.

Of course -- the weather for our Fall Rendezvous (the rendezvous that almost wasn't) was perrrrrfect.  And we did a perfect job of picking a weekend that everybody had conflicts.  We did manage a small gathering on Saturday and picked under ideal conditions around a beautiful campfire until well into the night.