Summer solstice has passed, at around 3:15 this morning apparently.  I had to have the heat on in the greenhouse last night.  Nights are still cold.  Even with the heat on the temperature dropped to 6 degrees inside the greenhouse.

Nevertheless, it has been an auspicious week.  Thursday late afternoon, the last of our sheep were sold.  Ben and Calypso will stay a bit longer until their new home is ready, but the ewes and lambs and all the equipment were picked up on Thursday.

Getting the truck and trailer out the lower gate was a bit of a challenge.  We just did not leave enough room for large units to make the turn through the gate.  So, the tractor was called into service and the post was pulled.  That made enough room to make the turn and get out onto the road.

 I'm sad to see them go.  But, it's time for a new chapter on Dogstar Farm.  Bye for now.

March was the last posting - it looks like this blog is becoming a quarterly.  Oh well.  As usual, things have been busy on Dogstar Farm.  Lambing went without a hitch.  Our two lovely ewes gave us a pair of twins and a set of triplets.  3 ewe lambs and 2 ram lambs are all doing extremely well.  Here are our beautiful, purebred Katahdin lambs:

 Triplets born April 1st.

 The two in the foreground are ram lambs, the ewe lamb is in background.

Two beautiful little ewe lambs born April 2, 2014.

Spring is also the time we get busy cleaning up the debris of winter.  Burning fallen trees and branches is our usual way of tidying up and keeping warm at the same time:

 Diesel, not gas!

Very, very hot!

The next project was building the greenhouse and getting the garden ready.  We debated planting a garden since we will be spending our winter in Arizona this year.  However, since we have listed our farm for sale, we determined the garden should look its best.  Plus, we can always give the produce away.

 Cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli and brussels sprouts.

 Believe it or not, these are volunteer lettuces from last year's crop.  Self seeded and survived our winter.

 The mint has gone crazy!  An incredible crop!

Called "Love lies bleeding," but also known as Amaranth.  We'll see how it grows.

I forgot to take pictures of the greenhouse project as it was going along.  We used an old canvas shed frame. The canvas finally rotted off after 12 years but the frame was solid.  We bought some roll ends of greenhouse poly, taped it together with Gorilla Tape, and taped and stapled it to the frame.  Dennis built a frame inside each end wall, built a door using a gate kit and there you go.  I ordered some heat-activated openers from Lee Valley, which came yesterday.  Dennis is now in the process of building a couple of windows to allow better air circulation.  It gets very, very hot in the greenhouse in the morning when the sun hits it directly, but cools in the afternoon as the sun goes behind the trees.  In the early evening the sun hits it again to warm it up nicely before night.  Of course, the days are long now so things are growing rapidly.

 Trying to circulate the air until we get the window built.

 We drilled holes in the bottom of the tubs, then some rocks, then manure, then the soil.  They're great because they don't rot like wooden beds.

 Trying to get some basil to grow.  They were pretty weak when I bought them.  Next year I will start my own.

 Cucumbers enjoying the opaque view.

 Tomatoes and peppers.  

Min-max thermometer.  Shows the extremes in 24 hours.

That's it for now.  I have to get busy filleting salmon for smoking.  Here are a few more pictures of Dogstar farm in early June 2014:

 The calm before the storm.  June 11, 2014

 It must be summer!  The boat is in the water!

 Storm brewing over Colleymount.

 Rhaq - retired from herding, still wanting to herd.

Bye for now.