The Little Plum Tree that Could

Fruits and veggies have done pretty well this year, despite my highly neglectful gardening style.  ;P  Tomatoes have come into their own:

Apples are about ready to be picked: 

And we've got plums!

Italian Prune Plums, to be specific, which is why they're so small.  This is the whole crop, except for a few that fell on the ground.  It's a pretty impressive crop, though, when you consider what the poor Plum tree has gone through - first, it was planted in a dry, sandy New Hampshire yard.  Second, I planted it right at the edge of the driveway, so it always ends up buried by the end of the snow plowing season.  Third, it has actually been run into by the plow truck before!!  Fourth, it got some sort of fungal growth the past couple years, so I had to prune off a few of its meager branches.

But it keeps on growing plums...go, little tree, go!!

14 Months

It occurred to me at some point today that Thane is now 14 months old.  

He's continuing to mature...and he's come SO far!  He's gradually turning into a really great dog.  At this point, he's just got a couple annoying habits that I didn't correct enough when he was younger...I'm going to try to crack down on those before Puppy #2 comes along in a few months.

He's still a goofball most of the time, though.  I tossed a pine cone to try to get him into better lighting for some photos...well, here are the results:

Pounce!

Dash!

Twist!

His energy level isn't super high, but I think that if I worked on his stamina, he could go all day...and he'd probably LOVE activities like agility, herding, maybe lure coursing....maybe I'll try something with him sometime...though I ought to work on some "focus" training first - he can have rather selective hearing at times.  ;P

Aaaand...we got one nice pose:

An Update on Stuff!!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted!  

I haven't done a ton of farm-related stuff lately...except for one thing - I'm beginning to collect ingredients and supplies for my first attempt at making goat milk soaps and lotions!

I visited a farm last week and purchased a couple gallons of goat milk, then portioned it out in baggies and froze it so that it's ready when I need it.

I'll be sure to take lots of photos once I get to the soap-making process, but in the meantime, enjoy a photo of this lovely Oberhasli goat, without whom my goat milk soap adventure would be a lot less successful: 

I'm very interested in this breed, by the way...I'll have to do a breed profile later, so you can impress your friends with random Oberhasli trivia.  :P

Anyway, happy Monday!!