Meet Copper & Daisy. These gentle giants are always happy to meet new friends.  They love being part of the group.

Daisy just wanted to take a short nap in the afternoon sun, but one of her herd-mates was being a little distracting…

Making progress…

This month has been an exciting one! If you’ve been around for a while, you might have noticed I have a tendency to take on several projects at once. A couple of new projects added to the pile this month was a new cow (and her adorable calf) and a new dog that needed fostering for a while.

Milking a cow each morning is a lot of work, but all in all is very rewarding and only takes about 20 minutes each morning. Having her calf with her also means I can take a break whenever I want, because then I just keep them together at night and baby Kerry picks up the slack. If I want milk the next morning, I separate them during the night (mama Pepper is totally ok with this, and baby Kerry only has a fence between them).

The dog was something I knew would also take time and work, but I had no idea what I was in for! He was used to being an apartment dog, and we live on a homestead with all sorts of cats, horses, chickens, other dogs, and all my chillins of course, so he was a bit overwhelmed at first. As sweet as he is with people, he was terrible at pulling on a leash, crashing past people to go out the door, getting a little too excited and accidentally knocking over the kids (he’s big), and his first reaction to cats and chickens was that they might be tasty…

Long story short. I had too many plates spinning at once, so I dropped a few.

The good news is that the cow is awesome and we have a really good routine going, so she really doesn’t take more than 20 minutes in the morning. After a month of dedication the dog is also starting to settle in nicely. He is doing great on walks and waits politely at the door, he has a healthy respect for chickens, and he’s even starting to rethink the idea of chasing cats.

I didn’t get as much done on the collection as I would have liked, but I still got a few things done, and the chart is slowly filling up. 🙂 For a crazy month where Murphy’s Law applied to everything, it’s a good thing to celebrate small wins!

My lesson for this month…

Don’t stretch yourself too thin by trying to accomplish many different things at once. When life throws something unexpected your way, it’s ok to slow down and put other tasks on hold so that you have the time and energy to tackle the unexpected.

And even more important. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it!

Coming AUG. 1st…

A shy giant who just wants some greens and a big hug! 🙂

Share your guess in the comments! He’s one of the critters over on the critter page. 🙂