We recently had Mirabelle and Gita checked for pregnancy, and they are both bred back to Leik. Still no luck in getting Oona or Ilsa bred, but we'll keep trying. Our other stallion (Ring) has had "marefriends" visiting for breeding, and we recently learned that one of them (the mare Bella, owned by Marcy Baer and Susan Cook of Vermont) has been confirmed to be pregnant. This is wonderful news, as Bella has been difficult to get bred previously.

Although there have been some wonderful spells of weather (dry, low humidity, winds out of the northwest), we've also received a lot of rain, and it's been much cooler than normal. A consequence of this is that we haven't been able to do any haying until early July. We normally like to have our first cutting done by early July on the 50 Acres of hay fields that we manage. Some of the fields have standing water in them from incredible downpours (one storm dropped over 9 inches of rain from one evening to early the next morning), and some are so wet that we can't drive equipment on them without chewing up the ground or getting stuck. The upside of this is that the farm pond has lots of water in it, so that the bass and trout are thriving. We have mixed feelings about the frequent visits great blue heron have been paying to the pond, since they are seriously depleting the ranks of the fish. Bill has embarked on a program of integrated bird management (so far unsuccessfully) to try and protect the few remaining fish. The effort consists of putting up "Scare-Eye" balloons which are known to repel some birds which see them as predators. The vegetation around the pond is also festooned with shiny, reflective Mylar tapes which are supposed to have the same effect. The combination of non-lethal devices appear to be working so far.

From the garden, we've been eating our own lettuce (3 kinds), and broccoli, and picked our first ripe tomato in mid July. Unfortunately, we've also lost several tomatoes to a resident chipmunk. Vega, the barn cat seems to tolerate sharing his barn with the little critter, although we're not sure how the 2 new kitties (still unnamed) will feel about that.

The contractor (On The House Builders) building Dad's house has broken ground, and stared to pour footings and foundation, although the rain hasn't made things easy. The house structure itself (a post and beam design manufactured by Habitat Homes of South Deerfield, Mass.) is being produced, and we anticipate delivery to our site by early August.