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.

It’s Sunday and it’s another cool and gloomy day. I have been immersed in a battle with tomato diseases, both at work trying to give out informed advice and at home trying to save my own plants. My beautiful tomato bed seems very sparse now, I have removed tons of diseased leaves and stems. There is lots of ripening fruit still, but I wonder how long I can keep them going. It seems there are several diseases attacking tomato plants, I believe mine have septoria leaf spot. Besides removing diseased leaves I have been spraying with neem oil- although not as often as I should have I guess - or the neem oil doesn’t work. The experts recommend daconil- but I just can’t see growing tomatoes at home if you have to spray them as much as a commercial grower.

I guess you have to choose any more. Have home grown tomatoes by spraying them with chemicals or lose all your work just as they start to ripen. I don’t want to hear the junk about healthy soil and compost tea. Sorry, while those are great they don’t stop fungal disease. Every year I listen to the organic gurus spouting about compost tea and making your soil healthy. I want to see their tomato gardens this year. Some of the organic remedies, like the copper sprays, have higher toxicity than daconil. And the trial results I see on the New Ag network and elsewhere don’t give very good reports on all the organic products.

I think my raised bed soil is pretty healthy, my plants looked great and were loaded with fruit. They are off the ground and mulched. I rotate where I plant them each year. I have 12 different varieties of tomato and yes, some do better than others fighting off fungus but all have it to some degree. I have plants in pots and plants away from the one big tomato bed in another raised bed. Every plant has some degree of fungal disease.

I did get some very good tomatoes off the Cherokee Purple plant I planted. They are so yummy I just sat and ate them by themselves. They are quite ugly fruits and hard to tell when ripe- the turkeys had sampled one and that made me guess they were ready. The Early Girls are ok, as are the Celebrity. Celebrity is supposed to be disease resistant but this year my Celebrity is one of the hardest hit with disease. I have some Birkstone Orange, John Baer and Limmony about ready to pick.

I am starting to get cucumbers. The Alibi cuke we planted in the experimental garden and I planted here have proved resistant to powdery mildew and are very prolific. We are picking lots of Dragon’s Tongue beans from the experimental garden and the soup kitchens say they are great. We are overwhelmed with patty pan squash and we only planted a few plants in the experimental garden. We had more squash than the soup kitchen wanted or the seniors in our building.

I dug about 20 pounds of red and white potatoes from our 4 x 10 raised bed last night. We have been harvesting them several times a week for a month now too. The vines were getting fungal disease and naturally dying back and I decided to get them out before the tubers were affected. We now have all sizes from tiny reds to big whites. I also dug out some nice big white onions, the best onions we have grown in years.

Our sweet corn has been good too. The larger eared yellow I planted later is about ready to harvest. We have been eating the smaller early white corn for the last few weeks. I am no longer able to get any strawberries because the turkeys discovered them and patrol the beds each day. The apples are starting to color and they seem to look pretty good, even without spraying. They are still very sour though.

Horses were moved back to the east pasture to give the west pasture a rest. They were breaking down fences over there again too. Trying to keep them out of the pond area but Charlie kept going over the fence. Some of our hens are going broody on us, which is rare with Isa Browns, our egg production has really dropped.

Honey, the cocker, is going to have pups early next month. That was a bit of a surprise as I didn’t think she and Bubba mated - even though I put them together twice- he didn’t seem real interested. Guess he fooled me. She is going to be groomed tomorrow to get her coat cut close before she gives birth. We haven’t had pups here in about 18 months so maybe it won’t be too bad. I do love playing with pups but they are so messy. And the money will come in handy to buy propane before real cold weather, if they sell well in this economy.

county fair

I just returned from a looong week at the Eastern Michigan Fair. I am responsible for overseeing the Lapeer County Master Gardener building, where the wonderful volunteers put up a variety of displays and conduct a silent auction and bake sale to raise money for their awards banquet. This year we held a photo contest too.

Our exhibit had a compost display, complete with homemade bins and a worm composting display, we had a garden of tranquility, a victory garden, a medicinal herb garden set up to look like an old doctors office and a rain garden with a display of rain barrels also. Volunteers spent hundreds of hours growing the plants and making the displays.

Our problem in this beautiful building is lack of exposure. All of the buildings holding inside exhibits are at one end of the fairgrounds and all the rides and animals are at the other. Guess which way people tend to go? This year the weather was pretty good until the last day- when it literally rained inches of water on to the fairground. Later that night strong storms blew through and made a mess of the fairgrounds.

I do like the fair for a day or two, but this week long thing is pretty tiring. I really feel for the parents who camp through the whole fair so their kids can show animals. What a long week that must be. On the last day a horse barrel race was still going on through pouring rain and parents were sitting there at ringside drenched to the bone.

People watching is kind of fun. You get to see all kinds at the fair. Some visit us specifically, others just wander through. I talk to a lot of people about gardening and about pets, their lives, you name it. You also get to eat fair food, which is greasy and fattening but so good.

One thing I do not like at fairs is a “birthing” exhibit, which our fair decided to have this year. Farm animals do not like to give birth in front of crowds. It is very stressful to them. Most manage to give birth at night or in the very early morning anyway because they have the ability to delay labor a bit until things are calm. On the farm the animals separate themselves from other animals and people to give birth if they can.

The newborn young are subjected to too much petting, noise and stress at these fairs. They are poked, prodded to get up, blinded by flashing photo lights, and fed inappropriate things. They are often separated from their moms, especially calves, so the moms won’t hurt someone trying to protect them. Yes, I know dairy calves are taken away from mom and often hauled to auctions right away but it doesn’t make it right. Baby chicks hatching behind glass maybe, but leave the other animals home to give birth and through the first week or so of life. Our state fair has vet students on hand to watch the animals but at the small fairs it’s usually 4-H or FFA kids. When things go wrong they may not know what to do.

I don’t know why the Humane Society, with all the things they complain about, doesn’t complain about this. I feel it’s cruel and inhumane to exhibit animals in the last days of pregnancy and also to exhibit newborns.I don't think county fairs need to have birthing exhibits or state fairs either.

I know I haven’t posted much on this blog lately but I’ve been busy with the launch of my latest book- Raising Chickens for Dummies. It’s a great book if I say so myself and it has all the newest and best information on chickens and it’s written so everyone can understand it. Don’t let the For Dummies part scare you- even smart, chicken savvy people will like this book.

It was agonizing sometimes writing the book. I wanted to say soooo much and space was limited. As it was they had to take out some pictures to make room for the writing.

My co-author for the book was Rob Ludlow, who owns the neat web site Backyardchickens.com. If you like chickens you’ll want to check out this site. Here’s a link
If you want to buy the book here’s the spot to go.

And if you read the book and like it go to Amazon and give it a star rating. Ask your local library if they’ll buy a copy also.

A Charlie - horse

Oh, Charlie the mini horse is appropriately named. He is a major pain to me right now. I tried to get him gelded but since both testicles are not down the vet wouldn’t do it. Today I was taking a break from writing and I went out by the pond to look for the big, beautiful dragon flies that have been out there. Usually this time of day the horses aren’t out by the pond, but today they saw me and came running. I don’t like to mess with Charlie out there so I quickly went back through the gate to the pasture in back of the barn. I heard a kitten crying over by the junk pile where the wild kittens live and I couldn’t figure out why.

About the time I discovered a tiny new born kitten on the ground Charlie jumps the fence- or rather crawls over it. He comes running for me with the idea of having some fun with me. He couldn’t step on the kitten because it was behind some wire but the chickens had also noticed me and they had came over. I was afraid they would pick at the tiny kitten and I wanted to cover it with something. Charlie was dancing around me trying to nip me and rearing up on me. I had to give him a good whack with the cover to a kitty litter pan that I picked up to put over the kitten and then it only deterred him for a minute. I tried to grab him by the halter but he is getting too heavy for me to control well that way and I didn’t have a lead nearby. I got the cover over the kitten and retreated into the barn. He then started chasing chickens around. I left him there to get back to his mom on his own.

I am going to put a lead on him tonight and give him a good manners lesson. I know he is being a normal brat boy horse but I am just glad he’s small. Steve wants to get rid of him, but I think it’s a phase just like all young animals go through. After he’s gelded maybe he’ll settle down. Poor baby boy horses get moved around a lot in life. I wanted to give him a good, permanent home but I don’t like dealing with male horses.

I really worry about Lily having a foal. If she does it will be nearly impossible to separate him from her. She’ll have to be locked in the barn or he will. I just wish I knew whether she was going to foal, she’s as big as a barrel but then she never stops eating either. She is still very active. And the other worry is that he will breed her before he’s gelded, if she isn’t pg. I need to work on fences he can’t go through too. Electric don’t seem to work with him.

Ah, well such is life with animals.

It has been an interesting week. A snapping turtle the size of a dinner plate stopped by the back door to lay her eggs, swallows have taken over the horse stall in back of the barn, the cherries and strawberries are getting ripe and Charlie couldn't get gelded because he has only one "ball" dropped.

My beautiful new roses are blooming along with the old ones. I am particularily impressed with the coral color or soft orange maybe, of the rose Carefree Celebration. Daylillies are beginning to bloom too. My oriental lilies are 8 foot tall already probably because of all the rain. I bought some stakes for them but the buds are still small so they won't need it yet.

Michael Jackson died. Everyone made fun of him while he was alive but now that he's dead everybody acts like he was some kind of beloved icon, which he wasn't. He was a weird little man, possibly a pervert and I didn't even think his singing was that good. His poor kids- at least now they may have a chance to be in a normal household and as time goes by maybe they will forget how odd he was. Once again drugs were probably his downfall and a doctor may have helped his addiction.

Every family seems to have its odd one, doesn't it? (Although in my family we may all be odd.) Every family could probably have a story written about it. Warning - family- I may someday write all about you!

Father's day

My mom and dad leave on a trip to Missouri this week to see one of my sisters girls get married. One of my sisters is going with them but Dad won’t let her drive. I worry about them, he’s almost 80. But he's a stubborn old guy and he'll do what he wants to do.

On Fathers day I have to say this. I have one of the best fathers there is. He never complains, (unless someone tries to keep him from doing what he wants to do, like shoveling snow), he was good to us kids growing up and we always knew he loved us. He didn’t drink or go out with the guys, didn’t smoke and went to church every Sunday. He waits on mom hand and foot and even though mom can be a bit difficult at times he always tries to please her. He helps around the house and helps the neighbors out too. He still plays with the little ones, crawling around on the floor, reading to them and playing games. Kids always loved my dad even though he doesn’t put up with bad behavior.

My dad had the same job all his life from the time he got out of the army. It wasn’t a glamorous job, he was a shipping and receiving manager at a Sears store. I know there were times, especially in later years as Sears fortunes went up and down, that he greatly disliked his job, but he always gave 100% and he stuck it out until retirement age. My mom was a stay at home mom- raising six kids you almost have to be, she never learned to drive. Dad made that paycheck stretch, he was good at fixing things and he never spent money on himself. He does spend a little on things he wants now, although he doesn’t have a lot of “wants.”

We went camping and fishing and on Sunday drives. And we went to church every Sunday and sat in the same pew. My dad built us playhouses and rabbit cages and fixed our bikes. He lived in a house with 6 women and only one son, a son that went to war at age 17. My brother came home safely but then he moved far away- to Australia, leaving dad in the world of women, although he does have 5 fine sons- in- laws. And each of his daughters had one son so he has 5 grandsons,( along with 6 granddaughters.)

I watched my dad cry over his father as we made the difficult decision to put him in a nursing home when his Alzheimer’s became too much for everyone to deal with. He had built his house next to his dads and had lived beside him all his life. Now he stopped every day after work to shave and feed his father where he mercifully only lasted a few months. My dad then took care of his mom, who continued living next door until she was well into her 90’s, active and alert until a stroke caused her to fall and break a hip. He then made the daily trip to visit her in her nursing home, although she didn’t always know him.

One of the things my dad always wanted to do was learn to fly, he never got the chance, and for that I am truly sorry. It makes me conscious of the fact that if there are things you want to do - do them!

I always know I can go to my dad with my problems and he’ll listen and try to help. I can’t imagine life without him, even though I have begun to prepare for it. How sad it is that just as we begin to appreciate how wonderful and wise our parents are, that they leave us. I just hope my dad has 20 more good years, where he’s active and happy.

Trip through the valley

We took another one of those trips to Saginaw VA today. It is an overcast day, with the sun occasionally breaking through, not terribly hot but muggy. The flat fields in the Saginaw valley look like they got planted a bit sooner than some around here and the crops are coming up. I particularly noticed two things today as we passed old the old German- Dutch farms. One was the beautiful clematis that many had in bloom. Even small plants seemed to be blooming and unlike the common purple Jackamani variety I have blooming, these seemed to be mostly a large pink flowered variety. It was like they had passed starts of that vine from person to person. Maybe they had or maybe it’s an old variety that the German- Dutch farmers preferred. Many yards had few other flowers but they had a pink clematis climbing something. Peonies were in bloom too and those were common sights around the old farms.

The second thing I noticed today was that many of the old farm houses had very narrow porches, porches where you could sit in a straight chair against the house wall and rest your feet on the porch rail. Some of the porches curved around 2 or more sides of the house, some were just across the front. I guess this was economy of building, why make a porch any wider than a place to sit? This too must be some kind of custom from the homelands.

I love the big old barns, on most of these places they are well kept and painted either red or green with white trim. There are lots of small buildings around these old farms too, I can recognize the typical chicken house but many of the buildings I can’t place a use for. I would love to have a wealth of small buildings like these, perfect for a couple pigs or a few turkeys or separating big chickens from young chickens- which may be the uses the buildings were built for. My husband laughs at my interest in barns and out buildings. He says it’s a good thing I don’t have a lot of them as I would fill them with animals.

I do love the ride through the Saginaw valley on a nice day. The terrain is so flat you can see for miles. Then as you travel east to the Kingston area the terrain gets to be rolling hills, closer to where we live. There are heavily wooded areas, ponds and farms with more livestock than crops, mostly beef cattle. But if you keep going east toward Sandusky you get back to the flat, level crop lands. A trip across the thumb with all its interesting points, and roads with telling names like French Line, English Road and Germania. Everyone should take such a trip from time to time, from the Saginaw Bay to Port Sanilac.

Locust trees

I had someone bring me a tree sample for identification. The piece had tiny white pea-like flowers in drooping clusters with the most delightful scent. The small round leaves made me think locust- as well as the flowers and when looking it up I found I was right - it was a Black Locust, considered by the author of the reference I consulted to be a “weedy tree” but I really liked it. The young guy who brought the piece in said the tree stood in an empty field and was quite huge. He wanted to get a young plant or seeds from it. I want one now too. Someone should make a perfume from that scent. On the way home from work I actually noticed two of the trees in yards, because of the white flowers. You would think a native tree that grows in poor soil as this one is supposed to do would be found in more places. It gets to 60 foot high and has rough interesting bark .

Our Bristly Locust is blooming right now, it’s flowers are larger but pea-like also and a pretty shade of pink. It has bristles up and down the stem and weedy does describe it. It makes small trees but spreads through runners and soon takes over a spot. We allow it to grow along the east side of our property by the road. It doesn’t have that nice smell but it is pretty this time of year.

We have had quite cool weather but I have taken the chance and planted out my tomatoes. I did something different this year and real redneck re-cycling- orientated. We had the box springs from a double bed in the spare bedroom we were going to throw out. It had a nice wood frame so I pulled it outside, took off the cloth on top and the layer of batting and excelsior under it and laid the frame over one of my raised beds, propped up by black plastic pots on each corner so it stands about 18 inches off the ground. I took the matt of batting and excelsior and laid it on the soil under the frame and cut holes through it to plant the tomatoes. I want the tomatoes to grow up through the frame of wood and wire springs and spread out over the top, off the ground. We will see what happens. It will be easy to throw a cloth over if frost threatens too, although it’s June and we shouldn’t be having frost! I am going to get a picture of it and post it here soon.

I saw the wild little kittens last night. There are at least 5 of them. We have 5 female cats on the farm and normally by this time we would have tons of kittens but this is the only litter we have had. Not that I’m complaining, its just strange. These will be real wild, I did pick one up because its little eyes were glued shut and it didn’t see me coming. It hissed like crazy but didn’t fight too hard. They are about 5 weeks old I think. It was nice and plump and besides its little eyes looked healthy. I pulled the eyelids open and put it in the feed dish where it started eating. The others snuck out after I went up to the barn and sat down. There are a lot of mostly white ones, our cats tend to be mostly white or black although we do have two striped ones now.

They say that the color of the feral cats in your area can give you clues as to where the original settlers of the area came from, as the color of the feral cats reverts back to the original stock after a while and different ethnic groups preferred different colored cats. I think the black and white / gray and white ones like ours were supposed to be Dutch, which could be, German- Dutch people did settle this area early on and the Amish are German derived. There are a lot of cats marked like ours in town too.

Today Charlie will get his first hoof trimming. This should be fun. Hopefully neither I nor the gal coming to do it will get hurt nor will he. This girl is a friend of a neighbor and hopefully she knows what she is doing. I could not find anyone who wanted to come out here just to do two mini- horses without charging an arm and a leg. I tied Charlie up to a post the other night to try and get a piece of wire out of his tail and he managed to break the post and take off dragging it which scared me to death. He stopped though when he got to where Lily was and I was able to walk up and unsnap the lead. It was hitting his legs and belly and I was afraid he would kill himself. The post was rotten- that should teach me a lesson.- Maybe him too, hope he doesn’t freak out being tied today.

Planting time and fat horses

It’s planting time and no matter how I try I always have more things to do than time to do them. Today after some office work I got outside just in time to get half my corn planted before it started storming. Steve made and filled a nice new 5 x 10 raised bed for corn. It doesn’t seem like much but we had plenty of corn last year from a bed that size.

I have got onions, potatoes and lettuce up and growing. I made a trip to a packed greenhouse last Saturday and picked up some new plants, one of them is quite intriguing its got large, wine red trumpet shaped flowers on a trailing vine and is called LoFos, which is short for some long Latin name. I guess it has been popular in Europe for a few years and is called Trailing Gloxina there. I got my mom and daughter in law each one too.

I got some petunias because I can’t resist some of the gorgeous colors they have even though it’s hard to find a place for them here. And I bought more lavender because some of my plants didn’t make it through the winter and a single pepper and some cinnamon basil. My sage is finally getting some new green so it did make it through the winter and the pineapple mint is also coming back- although it’s hard to kill mint. I also bought a couple new perennials. I spend way too much on plants.

A Master Gardener friend brought me some of his “trilliums” which he said his woods were full of. They turned out to be mayapples instead, but that’s ok - they look great in one of my shaded gardens and the silky white flowers scanned well for my scan art pictures. It was great weather for transplanting stuff too.

My horses Charlie and Lily took a little trip last Saturday morning. They pushed the gate out at the bottom and walked up the road in time for breakfast at the big horse farm. The neighbors were kind enough to lead them home and put them back in the pasture without waking us. I was quite puzzled in the morning though, because the gate was all bent up but the horses were inside with both latches on. I spotted a mini manure pile next to my hosta which I knew wasn’t there the night before and then I did some sleuthing and found the tiny hoof prints going up the road. I guessed they had been out - Lily wasn’t that hungry, another clue, but couldn’t figure out who had put them back without us hearing, dogs didn’t even wake up. The neighbor rode over on Monday and told me about it.

I am trying to decide if Lily is PG or just fat. If she is pregnant she would have at least a month before she foaled. If she’s just fat I got to try and get her to lose weight. In a day or so I’ll post some pictures of fat Lily so you can be the judge. I didn’t want to say anything to my husband because this happened before when we got our Shetland pony Tinker, I thought she was pregnant and made him put up more fence so she could be alone and it turned out she wasn’t pregnant. He thinks I’m nuts. But Lily was with two males, a mini jack donkey and a mini stallion or at least close to them and the man who sold her to me said something about separating her from the rest of the horses because she was always trying to protect Charlie. I got her when Charlie was two months old, which would have given her at least two heat periods before I got her. Charlie was born July 19 and mares come into heat about ten days after foaling, gestation is 11 months more or less, so that leaves about a month before its possible for her to foal.

The tree frogs are really noisy tonight. It’s amazing how big a sound their little bodies can make. They like this warmer wet weather. I guess I’ll take a walk outside as the rain has let up, and get carried away by mosquitoes.

Beautiful Sunday

It’s a beautiful spring Sunday morning in Michigan. My orioles are back, they are eating their grape jelly at the feeder, but I still haven’t seen any hummingbirds. Yesterday I bought a beautiful red wave petunia, just one to plant out front to attract them. Their feeder is full and waiting. The nursery was full of beautiful things but I restrained myself to a bleeding heart, (I don’t have any here), a new heuchera, a small agave, and that petunia. Its so nice to wander through a greenhouse on a day that’s not too hot but all those silly people buying tomatoes and all kinds of annual flowers may be in for many more trips to replace what they plant out too early.

I was talking to the greenhouse manager who is growing some tomatoes for an experimental garden we will have at Extension to see what is disease resistant and grows well in this area. I bought some unusual seeds and wanted them to be grown in a greenhouse so they would be nice and sturdy. The manager was telling me despite the fact that things were a little behind outside they are actually ahead of last year in the greenhouse as far as plant growth. But the farmers have not been able to get into the fields - and the plants they grow for some of them, tomatoes and such, are getting lanky.
That’s going to become a real problem around here soon, its getting late to plant and some fields still look like swamps. Field crop planting is well behind schedule.

I am hoping that some of this water, we have everywhere will dry up before we get any more. Rain is supposed to return mid week. Steve is outside mowing the backyard and I am inside babysitting the dogs. They have to be locked inside because he is doing the back yard, their space, which is about 6 inches high. He goes through the west pasture to get into the back yard so I had to move the horses over to the east pasture so they wouldn’t be in his way- lots of moving and prep for a simple task. The rest of the lawn may still be too wet to mow- he got stuck a few days ago in the front yard on the mower.

The April showers and cool weather have made the flowers pretty. The tulips are blooming, and forget me nots. Dandelions are blooming - and I saw some bumble bees on them. Now if I had more time to work on the yard it would be great. I did get things straightened up on the back porch where some plants over wintered and I started some cabbage seed in a flat there.

I am going to get out later today and go over some of my flower beds carefully to see what survived winter and what didn’t. It looks like my lavender plants are gone and maybe the sage. The roses by the house are leafed out as is the clematis but the roses in my big open bed still don’t show any green. Ferns are coming up but I don’t see any hosta tips yet. I did find some pretty pink violets on the west side of the house where it’s shady. I planted them years ago, but didn’t see any for several years, but strangely they are back. Lose some, win some I guess.

Mr white duck has disappeared without a trace. I have let the horses go down by the pond to eat the last few days and left the gate open to the west pasture for them. He probably went through the gate and once in the pasture he can get through the field fence and wander the neighborhood. He and his friend used to go on walk abouts every spring. Now he wanders alone, I guess. Wild ducks are visiting our pond so he should have stayed. I saw the yellow warblers down by the pond too. That pond is as full as it’s ever been. It’s got to be 15 feet deep or more on the east end.

I was just saying to Steve that it was unusual that we didn’t have any kittens yet and when I went out to feed Friday I heard new kittens crying from under the wild cat’s shelter. They all came out of there so I don’t know who had them. Don’t want to lift that to look either. Haven’t heard anything since, maybe they died. The little black and white cat that comes around from time to time is very pg. She is tamer than our wild cats but very secretive with her kittens. She’ll bring them here to eat when they can walk.

Kittens may be the only babies around here this year. There won’t be puppies and I don’t need chicks. One of the turkeys may hatch eggs but it doesn’t look great for that. No lambs, and probably no foals, although Lily is a little plump. That will be strange - spring without babies.

spring

I have had a beautiful weekend on the farm. By chance good weather coincided with my editor quitting her job and the company hasn’t replaced her yet. We are in the middle of author review on my book so that isn’t good, but I had the weekend to just relax and enjoy the weather- well not relax really- I worked on my gardens. Today is a little overcast and cooler than yesterday, but the sun peaks out from time to time and it isn’t that bad. I worked a bit outside and did some overdue house cleaning.

The daffodils are blooming here in Michigan. Its been a long, slow spring and we are supposed to get more cold weather soon. But this beautiful weather spell the last few days helped. The frogs have been really noisy, but I have yet to see a snake. I see plenty of buzzards but haven’t seen a bluebird or my orioles or hummingbirds. I bought grape jelly for the orioles at the store but I hope the hummers are smart and stay south a bit longer.

The birds are nesting though. I watched a grackle picking up huge mouthfuls of dried weeds and try to fly off with them. The little sparrows were getting horse hair from where the horses had rubbed on the fence. The squirrels are probably nesting too. The buggers are eating the buds on the trees right now. I know they are hungry this time of year but they are so destructive.

Its dry enough the farmers are working in the fields. In fact we could use a little rain. I want the grass to grow well in the pasture- it seems to have slowed down. Charlie and Lily seem to be grazing ok, although I have been throwing in a flake of hay from time to time. Charlie is getting to be a real handful. He really needs to be gelded, although that will have to wait until my next advance check now. The hens are getting out nearly every day and getting some of their own food. The turkeys have quit laying for a while and it’s comical to see them outside taking dust baths.

My birthday was this week and I have been thinking about age and its consequences. My dad turns 80 this year. I can’t believe I am this old, how quickly time flies. It seems like yesterday when I was out helping my grandmother in her yard, going to the swamp after school, riding my bike. Then I had that little house in the city, and this time of year I would have been getting my garden ready and dreading working long hours at the Kmart garden shop. Then Steve and I working on that same yard, putting in a pond, going to spring bird shows with our birds. And even the times when we first moved to the country we would be out there chasing steers or pigs probably and making those long commutes back and forth to our city jobs, wasting hours of time each day.

I think of my son graduating, the grandbabies I sat in the room and watched being born and the ones I didn’t get to watch toddling about the farm. I think of family reunions and weddings and funerals. It seems I have had several different lives, different eras of time and different me’s . Ah life, it is so grand and goes so fast. I wonder what’s ahead?

Frogs in the Snow

It’s snowing outside and the frogs have quit singing. On Sunday night at 11 pm it was 40 degrees and I could hear frogs outside my office window. On Monday morning we had six inches of heavy wet snow on the ground and it has snowed on and off since. It’s a good thing the ground was still warm and some of the snow melted or we would have been buried. I hate snow. Poor robins. I put some dried cherries out in the bird feeder but they haven’t found them.

The grass was growing and we had the pasture on the west side all fixed up, ready to move the horses over there, but the forecast made us wait and I’m glad because I would be carrying buckets of water through the snow instead of using a hose. Charlie is getting to be a real little terror. He needs more room to run.

Our poor white pine in the backyard lost more branches due to the heavy snow and so did a scotch pine in the dog kennel. It’s another mess to clean up. By the time you get one winter’s messes cleaned up its time for another winter. I want to start gardening- hauling manure to the beds and making another raised bed rather than shoveling snow. Oh well in Michigan it may be 80 in a few days.

On the nice days we did have I was able to sit at the pond for a short time and once I even made it to the woods. Our pond is the fullest I have ever seen it and when we add the runoff from this last snow it should really be something. I went to the woods to pull up some fence posts out there we don’t use anymore and I noticed new bottles and junk sticking out of the ground so I stayed to bottle hunt a bit.

The woods was where the previous owners of this place all the way back to who knows when threw their trash. Its swampy woods with a steep slope off the pasture. So each year new stuff surfaces, most is broken, like some Depression glass plates I found but sometimes you find a good piece. I need to dig there but its always so busy in spring I never get to it and then the bugs get bad and it gets hot soooo. This time I found some old rusted enamel coated pans and pots. I brought a pair up to use as planters.

The big tree that fell over a few years back has a ground hog burrow under the uprighted root ball. It’s the first groundhog burrow I have seen on our place in a while. And the stump left is sticking out at an angle about 20 feet long. My son cut the tree off where it lay across the old pasture fence and then the remaining stub lifted up so the end is about 6 feet above the ground at an angle. On the underside something has a pretty good sized hole in the trunk, I am hoping a screech owl. I am going to keep an eye on it. That’s one thing our woods has, plenty of dead trees for cavity nesters.

Most of the trees left in the woods are popple and birch. There were some nice elms and ash but they are dead now, lost to their respective pests. I have some small pines and spruce planted and I am trying to get some maples in there. It bothers me that there are no wildflowers there, no trilliums, no bloodroot, no trout lilies. I suspect the deer took care of that long ago. I want to try and get some started in there. I could haul some old fence down there to protect them maybe. But first I need to get the gardens around the house cleaned up.
As a garden writer and teacher I want my gardens to look good but I never seem to have enough time and money to do it right. My resolve this year is to start nothing new and get some of the old beds really renovated. Maybe I will have the time this year, ha. Ha.

A few words on a lot of things. I have a lot I have been thinking about but no time to write about. First- Gardening Granny’s idea of what should be done with Detroit. I have a wonderful idea for making the oozing sore on Michigan into a tourist attraction. There are literally miles, many square miles of property in Detroit that are essentially abandoned. The square mileage of Detroit is like three times that of most major cities. So we offer the few remaining homeowners in some of those abandoned stretches homes of greater or equal value in areas where the neighborhoods are a little more populated. The state or city owns many such homes.

Then we bulldoze miles of abandoned houses and stores, pour a few loads of manure on the land and plant native prairie plants and plants like switch grass. We also put up several wind turbines to produce energy which won’t affect the rest of my plan. After the prairie is established we add some buffalo. Of course we will need a huge fence around Detroit, sort of like the one they are building on the border with Mexico.

Now with buffalo grazing on the restored prairie we hire some Detroiters to act like they are buffalo soldiers- remember them? Or Native Americans and then they can lead horseback tours through the prairie. People can stay in Detroit’s big hotels, visit casinos or sports stadiums and have an outdoor adventure too. Maybe we can set up some French trading posts along the river and take people on canoe trips down the Detroit River too. Turn Detroit into one big amusement park. Something to laugh in, not at.

Ok, that’s done. Now on to my dislike of ruling by committee. Nothing gets done. Look at our senate and Congress and just about any city council or school board. Everyone is out to make sure their interests are covered and nothing gets done. Or bad things get done- here’s another Detroit reference- look at their city council or school board. People should vote for people they believe can lead them- choose a leader- and let that person make decisions. If the decisions are wrong then vote out the leader. Of course every leader needs advice and suggestions. But this crap about everyone having their say and let’s not offend anyone ( at least those we like) . All the time and energy spent arguing and posturing, pretending to study issues and look important is wasted time and money.

Leaders have to be strong enough to stand up and lead and to take the blame for bad decisions if they make them. We could save a whole lot of time and money for our country if we got rid of most of the senate and house. Maybe allow one person from each state as a representative and maybe one from each region for the house. Even that is probably enough to slow things down but this country demands such a scheme. At least now, maybe in the future people will see what a mess we have created. Get rid of political parties and just vote for the best person for the job. Small committees if we have to have them, where all the people know who represents them.

And school boards and city councils? I’d eliminate them and choose a leader. Someone who can work swiftly and decisively. He or she can have advisory committees if he or she doesn’t let them drag down decision making. Most businesses don’t work by committee, they have a boss. The most successful businesses generally have a strong leader.

Now on to the furor over the AIG bonuses. If the furor was back when they received the bonuses it would be one thing, but it was months ago when they got those bonuses. We are asking people to give back money they expected to get and probably spent already. Was it right? NO! but it was the governments mistake, they handed our money out without any rules. Learn from the mistake and move on. Make sure no company receiving money from taxpayers gives out bonuses until the money is paid back. Stop hounding the rich idiots who received the money and get mad at the government who gave it to them. Another one of those stupid committee decisions.

Now my plan to cure the mortgage crisis. Demand that all banks lower interest rates to 5% on all mortgages under $500,000. ( Primary residence only). This would lower the mortgage payment for most home owners, leaving more disposable income and allowing people to pay for health care etc. Now go over all of the mortgage holders in trouble and determine if they have the means to pay the lower payment. If not, banks should offer to trade the current home for one that the bank already owns where they can afford the payment. Some people will still lose a home but most would be helped. It’s simple and effective. Yes banks would lose some profit. Maybe they should drop bonuses. Better some mortgage payment coming in than none. Maybe the 5% rate could be allowed to rise for new mortgages after a few years.

Another fix would be to set the limit on current mortgage payments to 30 % of a family’s income, re-evaluated each year. Yes, some people would get really good deals on big houses they couldn’t afford in the first place but remember the banks greed allowed them to get those bad mortgages. And new mortgages would be exempt.

Nothing about the farm here. I’ll save that for the next time when I am feeling mellow.

The animals are springing themselves!
We had one glorious spring like day on Friday, sunny and almost 70, then it was back to winter. On that one glorious day I was emptying all the frozen water dishes and cleaning up a bit around the yard. I went out the gate to the pond from the horse pasture to dump out the ducks dish. The dogs in their yard could see me and Tiny Tina decided I needed help so she climbed the back fence and came after me, then chased all the wild cats up trees, which incited Peanut, her grandmother to climb the fence too, and Peanut went after the poor old duck. Since only the edges of the pond were unfrozen he couldn’t swim away from her as he does in the summer and she chased him across the pond ice to the bank near where I stood then caught him by the leg. He didn’t fight her at all, didn’t do anything even make noise. I had caught Tina to keep her from joining in and I was trying to get down the steep slippery bank holding her under one arm.

I finally managed to snag Peanut by the collar and now I am laying on the muddy bank, a dog in each hand. I couldn’t stand up, it was too steep and slippery and if I let either of them go they’d go back for the duck, who was alive and not bleeding, a good sign. So I crawled up the bank on my belly, pushing a dog before me on each side while holding on to their collars. What an exciting life I lead!

The duck is 8 years old at least, his last bachelor friend died last spring. He’s a white Pekin, but very wild. I made him a shelter out by the gate to the pond and have been wading through the snow all winter to put food and water over the fence. Last winter the ducks came up to the lean-to on the barn for shelter but we had torn that down and put up new fence since then. So he was kept alive all winter only to be caught by the dogs. He’s still alive actually, but I think a leg is broken. He is staying in the water and on the bank near where they caught him, I tried to catch him but he gets in the water just out of my reach and I can’t trust the ice. I threw him some bread but I don’t think he ate it. He’s used to eating dry cat food. This morning we had a dusting of snow and the gate latch was frozen so I couldn’t even get down by the bank.

The dogs were excited by the spring like day and so were the horses. I let them out in the bigger pasture and they ran and ran, kicking and rearing and having a great time. No grass but a lot more room. They decided they liked that I guess, because when I went out this morning they were out there all on their own, gate still closed. They had pushed some fence away from a post and squeezed through. By the time I went through the barn they were back in their stall area, quite innocent looking, waiting for their sweet feed. I tried to fix the fence but I didn’t have tools with me. Then I thought I would just open the gate to keep them from making any more damage, but its latch was frozen too. Hopefully they will remain in the small pasture today.

As soon as it warms up and the grass begins to grow we are moving them to the west pasture with the run in shelter but that may be a month or so. We have to fix a gate and put up some fence on top of the five foot fence to keep the dogs from climbing the shared boundary when they see the horses. It seems like I am always trying to keep something in or out.

Charlie really needs to be gelded. That’s the next big hurdle, and he needs his hoofs trimmed for the first time too. They both need some work, they have become bratty over the winter. Charlie wants to bite or kick me all the time.
Ah, the sun has come out even if it is cold- Hurray!

Monday in Michigan

It’s Monday in Michigan, a cold and blustery day. I used to say I didn’t want to live in Florida, but I may be changing my mind. I just went up to town to buy some goodies for my husband’s birthday tomorrow and everyone I met complained about the weather. I drove by the stockyard, Monday is market day here and there were even a few brave souls set up outside where the flea market is and where they sell small animals. There were quite a few cars, everyone must have been inside at the calf auctions or buying hay at the hay auctions.

I had to stop at the feed store and there was a sign up about a horse that was found quite close to me. The clerk said it had been up there a while. She said people are finding horses all over- people are just turning them loose because they can’t feed them. She said someone told her there was a herd building up in the state game area north of us. I could afford another small equine mouth to feed maybe, I feel bad for the poor things. I can’t imagine that they couldn’t give them to the Amish or some 4-H kid.

I felt sorry for the few Amish horses tied up outside with their carriages at the stockyard and at the grocery store today though, and even sorrier for the Amish women walking out to them in their black shawls, with their long dresses blowing around in the wind. At least I had a warm car to ride home in.

You know what I would like to do? Ask an Amish woman what she thinks about the single mom having 8 babies on top of the six she had. I wonder if they know about that and what they think. And I would like to ask them what they think about Mr. Obama, the talking head. If you didn’t hear him yakking would you think he was doing anything? He can sure talk but the best politicians all do that. Maybe when its warmer I will try to start up a conversation with some Amish and see what they think.

I was at the VA hospital with my husband last Friday and Mr. Obama was on the TV in the lobby talking about ending the war and some dumb woman kept clapping. Everyone else ignored her and him. I gave her the evil eye and then she got up and came over right next to me and sat and started clapping. It was deliberate. 10-15 years ago I might have told her what she could clap but I wisely ignored her. I don’t think my husband would have liked to come out of his doctors office and find me rolling around on the floor with some stupid broads hair in my hands. But then maybe that would have been a good birthday present for him. Chick fight.

I guess I am just going winter nuts.

Go away February

I wanted to get something written and posted today since it has been a while. When you are writing a book it takes a whole lot of your time. I do have other interests that I follow though; one of them is the octuplets mom and her saga. I was outraged at first like many people, although I would never dream of threatening her or her babies’ lives. What is wrong with some people? Maybe the stupid doctor should get a good beating though.

What fascinates me about the story is that there is something we still don’t know, I smell it. I want to know how she had the money for the in vitro’s and the plastic surgeries, the nanny, the private school for one of her other children etc. I want to know what hold she had on that doctor to get him to continue with the implants even after he was begged not to do it by the sperm donor and the grandmother, and the fact that he risked his medical practice.

It’s obvious that the mother has a serious mental problem and this brings on serious ethical debate. Should the children be taken away from her for their own good? Should people help her with both time and money because they are aiding and abetting her fantasy? But the children will suffer, both new and old, if people don’t help and they are innocent. In my own mind I go back and forth on this topic. Appoint a court guardian to oversee any funds the family receives and order her to undergo mental evaluation and treatment. Make sure she is truly there caring for her brood she created, not out making book and tv deals. Caring for them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the next 18 years., all the family money going for food, housing and medical needs, not mama’s nails or even schooling. And that doctor should be ordered to spend about 40 hours a week helping care for them too, which would teach him.

I wonder if she will even be allowed to stay with her brood. After all its obvious she has committed fraud in a number of ways by withholding income she had stashed some where, income she used for plastic surgery and fertility treatments. Food stamps, student loans, and other state programs she used require that you disclose all income and assets, and have income guidelines. And it appears to me her disability claim was also a fraud. Does she think she won’t go to jail because she has 14 kids under age 7? And hey out there in California- are we investigating this?

I say I wouldn’t buy a book or look at a show that brings her a monetary award - but then I think it might help the kids and hey, I want to know what went on in her mentally ill but clever brain and what type of sleezy deal she had with the doctor. Of course it would probably all be lies, because that’s all we have got out of her so far.

Ok done with that. I need to start planning my summer garden and deciding when to have a certain little boy horse gelded. I need spring, not this snow and cold crap. Too much winter. It was so cold out this morning- teens- even though the sun is shining today. I am worried with all the ups and downs the weather has been doing that as the plants start breaking dormancy a lot of things are going to be damaged. It’s the end of the season that hurts them generally.

Will there be a vegetable garden on the white house lawn? Some people are lobbying for it. Is the president strong enough to overlook any racist connotation some people might give that? Maybe if they don’t plant collards and watermelon. I think it would be lovely. Everyone needs to turn their lawn into a garden. And hey didn’t that guy promise his kids a dog? Where’s the dog? Just not a pitbull unless he really wants to stereotype himself.

It’s a good thing I have a good book to read tonight. Stupid Oscars, rich people giving awards to other rich people will mess up tv viewing all night. I can never understand why the public is so interested in the movie industry employee of the year awards program. All that wasted money. Think what good it could do. Shame on people that watch this junk.

Go away February.

Kill deer-tax cell phones

We had a couple nice days here lately, with temps above freezing a bit, enough to make me think of spring and get the urge to wander outside a bit in the sun. The sun was great but the knee high snow soon put an end to my exploring. That will wear you out faster than a treadmill.

I noticed the deer have been up in the yard and exploring all around my gardens, no bad damage yet. I think they may be jumping into the horse pasture to finish up any left over hay. Our neighbor hit a deer on her way home from work Sunday. It shook her up and damaged her car pretty good. I think the state should have to pay for deer damage to cars. After all, they own the wildlife and make the rules about hunting them. If their loose animals damage cars then they need to pay. I also think that those that intentionally feed the deer, despite a state ban on feeding, should be responsible for part of the damage bill when deer damage things like cars close to their home. They are encouraging them to collect near the spot.

With all the hungry people and all the damage deer do to cars and landscapes you would think more people would be hollering at the government to control the herds. Just think of all the venison some sharp shooters could donate to food kitchens. Instead people get emotional every time a plan to kill excess deer is attempted. If deer had long naked tails and beady eyes like rats then the hue and cry for exterminating them would raise the roof.

Deer carry disease just like rats and just like rats they do a lot of damage when they are out of control. People are more likely to die or be injured because of a deer, than a rat. But beauty counts in this world still.

Ok, lets go further into that beauty kills thing. With all the people out of work and losing their homes, getting food from soup kitchens, do you think they stop buying make up to smear on their faces and jewelry to hang on their bodies. Nope. Women still buy hair dye and even pay to have their hair and nails done when they are losing the house and their kids are hungry. And its not just women, men buy some of that stuff too, expensive aftershave lotions, tattoos- there’s another money waster. When I think of some of the dollars that some tattooed idiot in the commodity food line wasted it makes me want to scream.

And cell phones- don’t get me started. Every article on saving money should start with GET RID OF THE CELL PHONES. You are not serious about spending less unless you do this.

I can’t believe how much money people spend each month to call someone from the grocery store to say “What’s Up? A cell phone is nice to have for emergencies. Buy a simple phone with pre-paid minutes and keep it turned off unless you have an emergency. If you are going down in an airplane disaster, or trapped in a crumbling building or attacked by wolves your emergency cell phone is there to use. An emergency is not that you are bored or want to show someone how popular you are. Money is spent for special ring tones- ring tones- how important is that? Special colored covers, little ear plugs, all kinds of cutesy accessories. Phones that play games, phones that show tv and take pictures. If you are rich then get the toy. If you are using food stamps and have no job then you don’t need expensive toys. Most people today can’t really afford those toys if they are honest with themselves.

Yes I know some people have replaced their home phones with cell phones. But they almost always fall victim to advertising and wanna be rich syndrome and buy phone plans that allow them to yak all over town for some outrageous amount, way more than a land line plan. Kids do not need cell phones. No, they don’t, they managed just fine without them 15 years ago. If there is some outstanding reason they might need an emergency phone get them one that only calls 911. No teenager that drives should ever have a phone that does more than call 911. Talk about spending money on something to die for. There should be a law like there is a seatbelt/carseat law because their parents are too stupid to protect them.

I think there should be a big tax on each minute of cell phone use. That would rake in the bucks, even just one cent per minute of a call or 5 per transmitted picture. Cell phones are a luxury for most people. Just like beer and cigarettes. If they are legitimately used for work there could be a tax credit.

Whew- I’m done. We’ll talk about cable TV another day.

More griping about weather

Well Mr Obama is in the white house, when is he going to fix this weather? I am sure he will want to do some changes in this awful weather pattern we are having. Hey Obama, we need change here!

The winter weather got me to thinking about moving somewhere warmer and that got me to thinking about how my ancestors decided to settle in Michigan anyway. My mothers folks are from Missouri and southern Illinois, where they have winter, but not as harsh as ours. My dad’s folks are from the Windsor, Ontario area and they had roughly the same weather. So winter weather didn’t scare my ancestors when they moved to Michigan to be close to the factories.

I wonder what would have happened if they moved west or south to Texas or Arizona. Of course the factories where a poor man could make a decent living were all in the Midwest. They were country people, both sets of grandparents, but then where they settled in Pontiac wasn’t too citified when they first built next to each other. Now it’s horrible, smelly, dirty, congested and dangerous, but my dad will never move. He owns his dads house and his, although they sold off my mom’s mothers house. My son lives in Grandpa’s old house. My only regret about moving out of that mess is that I am far from my parents and grandchildren, although an hour and a half is closer than many people are to their family. I wish my grandchildren were growing up next door to me, instead of my mom.

It’s real funny, people who stay in the city talk about the country is where the hicks live, with jacked up cars in the yard and chickens everywhere, where you smell manure and deal with dirt roads. Yet I go into the city and see far more ugly surroundings with junk and boarded up buildings everywhere. Their roads are so full of potholes our dirt road is better. And the smell- well lets say I’ll take manure over rotting garbage, car exhaust, stale cooking smells and polluted air. I can smell Pontiac or rather city- from the time we are a couple miles outside Oxford- which is a smaller but just as crowed and polluted city 15 miles to the north and it gets worse until we are there.

One of my sisters has moved to Missouri, her husband was stationed on an Air Force base there just before he retired. They intend to move back to Michigan some day when they retire for the second time. My brother surprised all of us and moved to Australia where his winters are quite mild and opposite our winters. He doesn’t seem to miss Michigan weather. One sister stayed in Pontiac, not far from the folks, and the other two moved out to more pleasant areas of Michigan like me.

Now as much as I talk about moving somewhere warm, I don’t like hot summers, which usually come with mild winters. So unless I can find a place where winters don’t freeze and summers don’t go above 80, I am stuck. I am sure those places actually exist but I probably wouldn’t move anyway. I don’t like too much change. I like to put down roots.

When we bought this house I said we would never move again and I kind of think we never will. If I could build a new house on the property I might, but I like the area. Except for winter. Well actually the last few winters spoiled us. This winter is more like winters in Michigan 30 years ago.

This fall I said, “I’m going to just leave that zone 6 hardy grass right there in the garden instead of carting it in. It will probably make it. And I am going to plant the rosemary and give it a shot too”. So I guess I jinked the weather because I didn’t carry those plants inside. And I didn’t mound soil over the base of the roses either. First time in many, many years. My fault, this weather is my fault. I told my husband we should buy a snow thrower, that should get the weather back into the 60’s fast.

The nights have been so cold that the plastic door on the dog entrance cracked in two and now the east side is open to the wind. There is a box on the outside of the house that the doggie door opened into, then an opening in the laundry room wall covered by a flap that lets the dogs into the house. We are attempting some repairs today, that’s all we need, more cold air in the house.

Horses, chickens, turkeys, cats and outside dogs all seem to be doing fine in this weather. I guess they have adjusted. The turkey hens are finally starting to let up on the egg sitting. I hope they lay another clutch a bit later when conditions will be better for hatching. As soon as spring gets here I want to separate them from the hens. They will probably be out all the time anyway since they fly so well.

We are down to 4 bales of hay so I am starting to look for more. It truly amazes me that those small horses eat so much. We bought 30 bales and we only had 50 bales last winter and that fed a dozen sheep all winter. These horses aren’t that much bigger than those sheep. And they eat the hay up with less waste than the sheep. Charlie, the young one is really getting to be a handful. I am glad he’s not bigger. He needs to be gelded soon. And that should be interesting, lets see if that really calms him down. He snuck up on me when I was raking out their stall and bit me in the behind. He wants to bite and kick all the time now and still won’t lead worth a darn.

Such is life on the farm in the winter. Hurry Spring.