Last day of natures year.

On Thursday when Steve went to the barn, he found Sarah, our old Jack Russell wasn’t doing well. Of all our dogs only 4 still live in kennels. Sarah shared a huge kennel with Bubba, the easy going cocker, who was willing to submit to her authority rather than with the other two kennel Jacks. But Sarah is at least 15 and has been suffering on and off from some kind of mouth problem, her teeth became vastly overgrown, with the incisors down outside her mouth. She had two dental cleanings and several rounds of antibiotics but the problem still smoldered. I think it is some sort of cancer, our old vet just shrugged and said maybe. I had noticed Sarah was increasingly weaker, we had been giving her soft food and coaxing her to eat.

On Thursday she was so weak she stumbled and wobbled and Steve brought her inside to a warm room. We gave her a box with low sides and a soft blanket over a heating pad and she appeared very grateful. She has been there since, she will get out from time to time, she drinks and we have been able to get her to eat one thing- hot dogs. Nothing else, canned food, scrambled eggs, bacon, broth, - just hot dogs cut into little pieces.

She is incontinent and I have to change her bed several times a day. She doesn’t seem to be in a lot of pain although that is hard to tell. She may have had a stroke, or maybe the mouth problem moved into her ears and causes the balance problem, but she is very uncoordinated in her movements when she does get out of the box.

When I went in before bed last night I got her up to change her bed and she stood long enough to drink and even shook herself and wagged her tail. I helped her get back into her bed and she wanted me to rub her face so I did, it doesn’t feel swollen but there is one small hard lump on her jaw. She liked to have her face rubbed before she got the mouth problem so it is hard to say whether or not it is bothering her. She eagerly ate the hot dog I brought her.

This morning I went to try to get her to eat and she was laying in her box deep in sleep, she didn’t move as I came in the door although I could see her breathing. When I touched her she looked at me, and stretched a little, then went back to sleep. At breakfast we had discussed whether to bring her to the vet to be put to sleep and decided that if she didn’t appear to be in pain we would let her die peacefully at home instead of subjecting her to the stress of the car and vet. I’d rather have her die in a warm bed than on a cold table.

I sat by her and watched her sleep, her breathing was deep and even and she appeared to be very comfortable. I am hoping she slips away, peacefully in her sleep. She responds if you touch her but she seems just to want to sleep, weary unto death. I left her alone, warm and peaceful, so my presence doesn’t make her try to stay, so she can go peacefully.
That country song, “I was almost home” plays in my head. Hopefully Sarah is remembering all the good days, hunting, playing, nursing babies, being stroked and petted, eating the good stuff, splashing in the pond, and lying in the warm sun. It’s the shortest day of the year, the end of natures year, a fitting day to end a good life. I hope she dreams herself peacefully away, the way I want to die, in my own bed.

country nights

Going to the house from the barn one night last week I heard a strange bird call coming from the trees in front of the house. It was nearly dark, 5:30 pm with the orange light of the sun a small crescent on the western horizon. Getting closer I was just able to make out the small body of an owl in the trees over the bird feeder. No doubt he was hoping for a small bird to come for a late snack so he could feed at the feeder, or maybe he was waiting for mice to come out around the spilled feed on the ground. He was a short eared owl owl, one I seldom see around here. They are active at twilight and sometimes even feed during the day. His call is described as “ who cooks for you” , “who cooks for you,” “who cooks for you all?” which I guess is pretty accurate.

Being able to go outdoors in the country after dark is one of the joys of country living. I know of at least 4 owl species that live in our area. We have tiny screech owls living in tree hollows and a big great horned owl makes at least occasional appearances in our area. A barn owl lives in an abandoned silo nearby. We trapped a great horned owl once by accident, he flew inside a chicken pen covered with black netting, his weight allowed him to part a seam. Then he couldn’t get out so he be-headed nearly 50 meat birds in the pen.

Seen in the daylight he was magnificent, despite the carnage around him. He was released safely, although my husband had to be persuaded to do that. His claws were as big as my hands. I saw him again on a moonlit night when I went outside to see what the dogs were barking at and as I sat quietly for a few minutes after I quieted them, he swooped down off the electric pole and pounced on a rabbit in the pasture. His wing span was incredible, but he moved without a sound, you could miss it if your head was turned.

You can see more than owls at night in the country. The stars are incredibly beautiful and look so close far from the city lights. I have seen the northern lights dancing on several occasions. When we first moved here there was a big pole light in the yard. Used to street lights we left it on at night. Then one day it burned out- (actually in the midst of a raging snowstorm with my husband still out in it, straining his eyes to see the light from that big lamp as he fought his way down the road and thinking he’d gotten lost- but that’s another story). We didn’t replace it and we have never regretted it. When it’s dark on our farm, it’s dark.

And when my dogs are still I can hear lots of things in the darkness, like the distant howling of a coyote pack- which probably got my dogs going. I can hear owls and in the summer, nighthawks calling and of course in spring the frogs are singing with gusto.

One of the few reasons I like late fall and winter is that you don’t have to stay up so late to go out in the dark. By 9 pm the night critters are well into their routines. I bundle up and try to sneak out without the dogs noticing on moonlit nights. I have seen opossums and coons, deer and my own horses out grazing in the dark. Rabbits play and fight in the yard. Everything seems so different and peaceful. The mosquitoes are gone. Wood smoke lingers in the air. I can hear the crunch of tires coming down the road a mile away. Your senses seem so alive.

You can’t get that in the city. Even late at night the traffic noise and radios and sirens intrude. The stars are lost in smog. And someone is likely to come up behind you and bash you on the head. In the country I can go out in my nightgown if its mild enough and no one will see me. And I’m not afraid of what’s in the dark either. I love the country nights.

Indian Summer

It’s a beautiful Indian summer Sunday here today and I would much rather be working outside than inside today, but when you are a freelance writer you push yourself to meet those deadlines. I am using this blog to get warmed up today, to settle my mind, so bear with me. I promised myself some time outside later today.

I went out to feed the animals this morning and it was already so nice I wanted to linger. I decided to walk around and see if anything was still blooming. I actually found some blooms, tiny violas, the white wild asters, and a few blooms on the Masterwort. The petunias I had in various spots are still remarkably green, although none are blooming. Of course on my unheated porch those things I brought in are blooming. I have several colors of geraniums, some begonias and lantana blooming there.

My walk around the yard made me realize that I need to cut the 8’ stalks that were left from my lilies down, they look awful. But in examining them I found out that my small, very slow growing Holly plants actually had some berries this year, at least one did. That means I must have the correct male -female pair.

Everything is slowly getting covered with oak leaves, which is great. They make good mulch for the winter. I am going to do just enough raking to get some to put around my roses in the big bed in the center of my lawn.

We made a pen off the front porch and put the cocker puppies outside for the first time. Their mama went with them and encouraged them to dig in the lawn. If the weather stays nice we can show them to folks coming to buy them out there instead of trying to fit everyone in our small living room. The babies were a little unsure at first, crunchy leaves underfoot and big huge rumbling grain trucks going by on the road. But soon they were having a good time. I sure hope we can sell them soon; they are eating us out of house and home. But they are so soft and floppy cute at this stage, all developing their individual personalities.

I picked another big bucket of apples last night, using the rake to pull them out of the top of the tree. They were quite nice looking for organic apples. Lily and Charlie stood by to grab all the apples that fell to the ground and they got quite a few. These appear to be GoldRush apples, I asked our MSU apple expert to taste one and give me a guess. The trees were labeled incorrectly when we bought them. They stay on the tree through all kinds of wind. Our other trees drop their apples when they get ripe, these will hold on all winter. And they taste great, crisp and juicy, just the right amount of sweet. Now if I had time to process all those buckets of apples under my kitchen table we would be all set.

I wish this wonderful weather would stay around all winter- you know- that global warming thing they keep promising. I could live with 60’s all winter, that’s for sure. And for us to have a few days of sunshine, even weak November sunshine, is great. They say the November weather is a pre-view of the upcoming April weather. So far it looks good.

If I ruled the world- good bye sports announcers

It’s November and the weather isn’t really any different than October- it just fits the month better. But it hasn’t been too bad, we haven’t had snow or even many hard freezes, just rain and gloom and cool temperatures. Hey, I could take this all winter.

A World Series game was on last night. I’m going to do one of my If I Ruled the World moments here. If I ruled the world no sports game played in prime time would last longer than 2 hours. If it did- it continued off the air anyway. I bet those games would get done in a most timely fashion then. I want the news at its regular time and I want my entertainment, the few hours I get to relax and watch TV, to be on and not pre-empted or delayed. Sports are on for hours in the day Saturday and Sunday, why prime time too?

And if I ruled the world no announcer on those games would be allowed to talk about anything other than what was going on in the game, no chit chat. Sports announcers have the most annoying chit chat in the world. Take last night, these are not the exact words of course but you get the drift.

“Hey Mo is that a heating pad I see there under Bigboys coat?”
“Yah Bo I think it is a heating pad.”
“Ah yes it is a heating pad”
“Yes I think there is a heating pad under there.”
“He probably has that heating pad to keep his arm warm.”
“Yes its cold here so he probably needs a heating pad to keep his arm warm.”

Brief respite while they announce actual game events. Then back to :
“ You can see that heating pad just peeking out under Bigboys coat there.”
“Yes, he probably needs a heating pad here tonight Bo.”
“ Heating pad keeps his arm warm I guess.”
“ Maybe he needs the heating pad to keep him warm” laughs Mo
“ Well I wonder if anyone else has a heating pad”
“ I don’t know Bo, but Bigboy sure has that heating pad under there,
“ He’s smart, he has a heating pad, keeps him warm I guess”

Another small respite while they talk about the events happening in the game. Then:
Take a look at Bigboy there, he has a heating pad under his jacket.
“ It keeps his arm warm Mo”
“Yes Bo I bet all the players would like a heating pad tonight”
Yah, Mo, a heating pad would be nice” Both chuckle.
That Bigboy he’s smart- he has a heating pad under there”
Yah you can just see that heating pad peeking out under his jacket there, on the left.

And so on, and so on. Announcers should not be allowed to chit chat. Better yet get rid of announcers and let people watch the game. It’s TV folks, you can see what’s going on.

I personally would not watch any sport on TV but I humor my husband now and then. I read in the room with him and he watches some sport on TV. Quality time. We have an agreement that if there is something on in prime time that I want to watch we watch that, since I seldom have time to watch TV. He watches TV a great part of the day, especially in cold weather. But of course last night after Desperate Housewives, ( ok, I choose stuff that’s entertaining, not intellectual), was over he had to get back to that great game. The game with all the crowd noise- screaming drunks- and inane announcers and stupid music. It’s the first reality shows, professional sports. The games are scripted and pre-determined winners are chosen by the mafia bookies but the public actually thinks its reality. Maybe that’s why they leave those stupid announcers chit chatting - makes it seem real. Between TV advertising dollars, outrageous salaries, and the amount of money that gets bet on games, you can bet the outcome is known in advance by a few people.

Hey, if I ruled the world I’d make betting on a game legal. Then collect big taxes on the bookies and the winners. Balance the budget maybe. Maybe I’d make all the players wear clown suits too, if I ruled the world.

Late October

Wow it’s late October, how time flies! The leaves all fell off the front walnut and catalpa trees in one swoop Sunday morning. We had temperatures down to the mid 20’s the night before and I got up to a rain of leaves, sliding through the crisp, sunny morning light. I drove into town to buy a newspaper and just had to stop and take a picture of the beautiful red and gold leaves under the big sugar maple near the north end of town. I also got a really neat shot of a big black cat sitting in front of a bunch of Halloween decorations. How cute is that!

Speaking of cats, our barn cats are all dying of some weird disease. The big odd marbled tom died today. He had his hindquarters paralyzed for a day or two before he died. He was able to eat and drink so I don’t worry about rabies. From a high of 16 or so cats the past winter we are down to 2 adults and 3 kittens that were born this year. The little black and white visitor cat still shows up from time to time and I saw a strange orange cat out there one night so we won’t run out of cats. I will miss the marble tom. He showed up here as a half grown cat and was pretty friendly. Everyone remarked on how odd he looked, he was a marbled or swirled tiger, but he was also very tall and had slanted eyes.

The cats had some sort of respiratory disease first. Most were so wild you couldn’t help them in any way. Then I thought that was over and the others just started dying. We only had one litter of kittens born this year from one of the really wild cats- the mother of most of them around here- and she seems immune to everything. I guess nature takes care of over population in her own way. You like to have a couple cats around the barn but too many gets to be a problem too. I don’t miss buying a 20 lb. bag of cat food each week or stepping in cat mess everywhere. I think one of the 3 kittens left is a female, but they don’t look all that healthy either. I’m sure the population will rebound in a year or two.

Honey’s puppies are getting big - big and messy. They seem very healthy, thank god. They seem to be a friendly bunch, only one shows a bit of shyness. They get their shots next week then we try to sell them. I am debating whether to let people with kids come in our house. It’s hard enough to get kids to pick a puppy and deal with a packed room of people and puppies but now those kids may be carrying swine flu. I think we will have a no kids policy this year. Parents are the ones that care for the dog anyway; they should be the one to pick it. They bring 4 or 5 kids, each picks a puppy they like, and then they all sit around and argue for 2 hours about which one to choose.

This week and the next we are familiarizing the pups with the rest of the house, the other dogs and different flooring etc. If it’s nice we will get them outside in a pen on the grass. Cockers are big on running off to explore and unlike the terriers they all go in a different direction. Usually the weather is still nice enough this time of year for them to go out on sunny days but I’m not sure about this year.

We have been picking and putting up a lot of apples this year. The small tree in the backyard gave us a 5 gal. bucket of big fat yellow apples and the tree in back of the barn gave us 2 - 5 gal buckets of small but very tasty green and red apples. They almost taste like Honey Crisp- maybe they are. All of my trees were labeled wrong- the big yellow apples were supposed to be Granny Smiths. I think we have another bucket left to pick on that tree in back of the barn. I have been making and freezing apple pie filling and we put some plain cut apples in the freezer too. It takes forever to peel them. The horses and chickens are enjoying all the peels and cores. I was only able to freeze about 3 quarts of tomato sauce this year so the apples are filling the freezer instead.

I have been moving plants around in the house. I always bring in more than I have space in front of windows for. My office here that I write in has a window that faces north, with a dog door right below it that lets in lots of cold air. I had Steve build a box around the dog door so that maybe I can put some plants in the window above it and they won’t freeze. It has a flap on one end and now the opening faces away from my desk: the cold air won’t blow directly on me while I’m writing and the dogs are running in and out.

We have been winterizing like crazy. Steve covered our bedroom windows that face northwest with a heavy old afghan to keep out drafts. I don’t think plants will grow at all in that room. I have packed the living room and kitchen windows with plants and my unheated porch is full too. When the pups are gone we are re-modeling the other bedroom so I don’t want to put anything in there. I still have to bring in my rosemary pots and tree rose, at least to the porch. One day I will have a greenhouse.

End of summer

It’s the last day of summer. We have had a spell of nice warm and sunny days and cool nights, but it has been very dry. For the first time this summer the grass stopped growing and began to scrunch up. I had to water several times. But last night we got a good soaker, very much needed. I hope we get more later today. It’s a bit muggy and warm this afternoon. I was thinking of cooking chili- thought it would be cool and damp - but I am re-considering.

Tomato’s are still giving me some fruit, the ones in the tomato”bed” anyway. The ones up by the house are dead from late blight. I made some sauce this weekend and froze it. We finally got to taste the variety Lemmony - a yellow tomato- it was all right, nothing special. Our favorite has definitely been Cherokee Purple, it’s ugly but tastes great.

I notice that the Morning Glories are staying open all day now. It must be because the plant wants to optimize its chances for pollination and the bees aren’t out in the cool dew wet or frosty mornings. We have two light frosts but annual flowers are still going strong for the most part. I have got to start bringing in the houseplants and things I want to save this weekend. The landscape roses are blooming and the Sweet Autumn clematis and my lovely swamp sunflowers, but not many other perennials.

My beasts Charlie and Lily got out of the pasture last Tuesday while I was at work. They rolled under the fence it seems. Steve tried to catch Charlie, then Lily got out and they both ran across the street, up the horse farm road and under one of their fences. When I got home they were sharing the pasture with a mare I believe Charlie was interested in, but that he could walk under. I thought since they went under the fence to get in they might come out that way but I guess the fence must have given them a good poke as they went under and they were having none of that, although Lily seemed like she wanted to get out and come home.

They were right across the street but the gate to that paddock was way up by the horse farm’s arena, a good walk. I had to roll under the fence, put leads on both of them and lead them to the gate with the big mare in the paddock periodically rushing us and my two practically pulling my arms out of the socket. Lily went through- no trouble- but Charlie planted his feet and refused. It took forever to inch him along, then I had a long walk home with them both.

The east pasture has now got a hot wire all around it, when the deer don’t break it on the way to the apple trees. Charlie and Lily are now being locked up there when I am not home and at night, even though the grass is pretty much gone. We fixed the spot they went under on the west and they get to wander over there during the day when I am home.
I was outside last night feeling up Charlie’s balls- sounds worse than it is- and he still hasn’t dropped both. He can’t be gelded until they are down and I hope that comes soon. I actually offered to give him away in the Master Gardener newsletter last week but I had only one call and they changed their mind after I honestly told them about him.

They only thing bad about leaving all the gates open so the horse can find the maximum grass is that the turkeys follow the horses over to the west were the dogs can see them. They stand over there making their weird loud calling noise and it drives the dog’s nuts. Next they will be getting out to go after the turkeys.

Speaking of dogs, Honey’s babies are growing like crazy. She spends more time out of the box and wants to come and go from the room. But Ginger sneaks in and gets in with the puppies. She has been caught trying to steal one a couple times. She doesn’t seem to hurt them but I am worried it might happen if a fight breaks out between her and Honey or one of the other dogs gets it. Soon they will be too big for Ginger to carry and that may help. It’s hard to say if she wants the pup because she’s feeling motherly or if she thinks of it like a personal toy. Ginger has always hoarded toys.

Well that’s life on the farm right now.

Lazy, hazy days of summer

The song calls it the lazy hazy days of summer but I think here that time refers more to the lazy hazy days of early fall, although I guess technically it is still summer. You couldn’t ask for better weather, the sky is crystal blue, the deep clear blue of fall. It’s warm enough to be comfortable - near 80 - especially with a nice breeze and low humidity. The nights are cool and comfortable and in the morning we either have heavy dew or like this morning, fog.

A high pressure system is responsible for this lovely weather and I think that’s where the lazy comes in, you just want to sit around and bask in the sun because you know it won’t be nice like this for ever and the high air pressure makes you drowsy. Maybe people are a bit more relaxed right now too, although that might only apply to those of us who don’t have kids going back to school Tuesday. I sure hope most of you were smart enough to get the school shopping done early so you could enjoy this last summer holiday.

The trees are starting to turn, every year people remark on how early the leaves are turning and they certainly can’t turn colors early every year, but think about it, when have you ever heard people say “Wow- the trees are late turning color this year?” The fields are turning purple and gold - purple asters and goldenrod. I have been going out snapping pictures of weeds and wildflowers for my examiner articles - you can see them here but I can’t help snapping fall landscapes as I go.

We had puppies born this weekend, the first babies on the farm this year other than the wild kittens. Honey our cocker had seven pretty babies. Three are black like dad and 4 are light - either blond or red like Honey. They all appear healthy and happy, no obvious runts. I spent one of these beautiful days locked up with her, being her midwife. Honey does not do birthing gracefully. She thinks the pressure she’s feeling means she has to go to the bathroom and she wants to go outside. Even locked up in the spare room she has to get out of the box and squat over paper each time a pup is born and I have to be there to catch it and make sure she cleans it, otherwise she goes back to the box with the rest and leaves it on the floor. And she takes up to an hour between pups - which makes for a long day. This is her fourth and last litter. I am going to neuter Bubba and we won’t have to worry about any surprise puppies, he’s the last whole male dog on the farm.

I still haven’t been able to get my little brat horse Charlie gelded. He still has only one testicle down. We moved them over to the east pasture because the west was pretty eaten down and I don’t like them over there when the walnut leaves and nuts start falling. But the east side fence is the oldest on the farm I think, and last weekend Charlie broke through the road side of the fence when some riders came down the road and Lily followed him.

When I went outside because of the riders yelling, Charlie and Lily were running around the group of riders, tails up just as pretty as you please, showing them how much fun it was to run free as the wind - which did not make the riders happy. I was able to catch Lily with a bucket of food, of course, and Charlie came back to her in just a few minutes. The two rascals had to be locked in the barn overnight and then we had to spend most of the week on and off - fixing the fence and eventually running a hot wire around it. They are now back to full pasture on the east although I am keeping a wary eye on them.

All of this expense and time makes me seriously doubt whether I need horses, especially Charlie. Since we spend so much time fixing things I barely have time to handle them and while they are cute - the fun is wearing a bit thin. If Charlie were a larger horse I know he would be gone by now as he would be too dangerous. Steve wants me to sell him and get another mare for Lily’s friend. But baby bad boy horses need someone who cares about them too and he’s likely to get sent from one place to the next. If he ever gets gelded maybe he will calm down. Age will help too. I just hope Lily doesn’t get bred by him before he is gelded. We haven’t been able to separate them - he finds a way to get to her no matter what we do. He just turned a year old so maybe we are still safe.

If I could afford it I’d send him to someone to train. But it’s hard enough to afford hoof trimming, hay and gelding costs. So I should get my act together and just do it- right? (The training, not the gelding part.) Make him the poster boy for mini horse studs or mini horse geldings. A good Charlie horse instead of a pain in the butt Charlie horse. Ok, it’s a resolution- I’ll report on my progress here.