Its June

Today I took the long way back from the post office just to see the beautiful countryside. The dogwood is blooming and the air is full of the scent from blooming autumn olive. That stuff is so invasive but it does smell good. The bees love it which may be another reason to tolerate it to some extent, because bees are getting so scarce. Autumn Olive can take over a pasture in no time at all if it isn’t grazed. Sheep and goats love to eat it, horses and cows will eat it when it’s young. The red berries it makes in the fall are attractive and they are higher in lycopene than tomatoes. They can be made into jelly that’s very pretty- but it doesn’t have much taste. I’ve tried making it.

Speaking of sheep, ours are gone. We sold them including Taco, who went to a pet home. It is dry this spring and our pasture wasn’t supporting them well. Hay was up to $7.00 a bale. First cutting of hay is being made this week around here, but with the weather so dry it will probably be grabbed up at a good price. My husband made the point that we could be doing a lot of home improvements or I could be buying a lot of plants for the $100-$150.00 dollars a month we were spending on sheep. They kept getting out and destroying trees and shrubs and we need to fix many of the pasture fences.

I always feel bad when I send animals off but we just weren’t using the sheep like we planned, which was to make some lambburger for the dogs. I can’t justify spending that much on pasture pets. Now the grass is growing longer, but I have already started planting new young trees in the north pasture- I am going to make it my arboretum.

One of our old ducks died. They had started their walk- abouts looking for girls this spring- two old bachelor ducks trolling the neighbor’s ponds. But he died in our pond- from what I don’t know- maybe just age- they were 8 years old at least. The remaining duck is very lonely. However I was given some baby mallards whose mom was hit on the road and when they are a bit bigger they will go out on the pond.

I bough some more baby turkeys, a cross between Bourbon Reds and Blue Slates, heritage breeds, and put them with the ducks. It helped the mallards find the food better. They all sleep in a little pile together. Our other baby chicks are quite large now and have the run of the inside coop. In about two weeks I will let them go outside. The white turkeys we bought with them developed leg problems, probably genetic, and are in various stages of lameness. They still eat well so maybe we will be able to eat them soon.

We sold all the cocker pups but two. The little Jack Russell puppy also went to a new home. I gave a cocker puppy to my sister, hope that works out, sometimes these family things don’t. We could have used the money from her but its nice to be able to see one of your babies from time to time. We have one more litter to go this summer and then I hope its over with puppies for a while. All the males but the cocker have been neutered.

There are probably 15 kittens in and around the barn. They are all getting around a bit now and I am so afraid the dogs will get them. They are so cute when they are tiny but then they turn into pesty cats. At our place many of them become victims of our dogs, coyotes or owls. I guess its population control.

I have finally had some time to work on the gardens. We built three large raised beds for the vegetable garden. One is 12 x 5 feet and is planted to sweet corn. The others are 4 by 8 feet and I have planted tomatoes, lettuce, onions, a pepper and potatoes so far. I plan to add cukes and a pumpkin or two. We also have a raised bed up by the propane tank that I planted a few cabbage plants and some carrots in.

I covered the paths between the beds with old roofing from the barn addition we tore down. Recycle, reuse. If we get some rain, maybe the garden will grow. Our May was very dry about an inch and a half below normal rain fall totals. I am hoping it will rain tomorrow as predicted.

I have started working on the flower beds finally, what a mess. I still haven’t bought all the annuals etc, I want but I intend to finish that this week. I work on the guideline- get what you have planted before you buy more! There’s kind of a lull in flowers here right now, Dames Rocket and alliums are about all that’s in bloom.

The Orioles and the other birds are going to take what money I saved from selling the sheep. They are going through a suet cake every other day and a jar of jelly a week plus sunflower seed. I hear baby birds everywhere. But I sure love to hear Mr. Oriole sing!

Well let’s start with the weather. Doesn’t everything start with weather? Here in Michigan we had 70 degrees yesterday after which came severe weather. We had 2 inches of rain in about 36 hours. Everything is soaked but the good news is that the pond is filling up and the grass is getting green. The crocus and iris reticulata are blooming. However it is supposed to snow tonight. Welcome to spring in Michigan. It won’t stick, but the cold isn’t welcome.

The sheep are starting to get a little grass. Thank God because hay at 6 dollars a bale is hard on the budget. If the weather holds we should be done buying it in a week or two. Taco the bottle lamb has finally became part of the sheep herd. He has a girlfriend, one of his cousins. I have even quit giving him a bottle and he is eating hay, like a sheep should. I still sneak him some animal cookies everyday.

We had a new baby lamb born about 2 weeks ago. It is another Hereford marked one but I still don’t know whether it’s a boy or girl. Susan surprised us with two Jack Russell puppies, we knew she got bred but she never looked pg. One died, but the other little female is doing fine. The cocker pups are eating well and trying to get out of their pen constantly. One little female is the most successful, then she waddles over to me and wags her little stub tail wanting to be picked up.

We had Gus the stud Jack Russell neutered but it didn’t stop him from tearing open his kennel again and then into Crickets kennel a week later. The vet says we may still have puppies from this, sperm still lives in the reproductive tract a while. We have left him with Cricket, we have new kennels to put together for the outside dogs, but the weather and time haven’t allowed us to get them done yet.

We had a young couple stop by the farm looking for scrap metal. He was out of work and they were cleaning up yards etc for metal to sell. I showed them the back of the barn were we had a tangled mess of old wire pens and told them they could have that. Then we looked at the shed tacked onto the back side of the barn that was collapsing. We didn’t feed the sheep from the barn this winter because I didn’t think that mess would hold up all winter and would fall on them or make getting feed to them hard.

Anyway they agreed to tear it all down and stack the good lumber if I gave them my old car. In one day while I was at work they ripped it all down, sorted and stacked everything and hauled a bunch of it away or burned it. This was a big shed, 20 by 12, that we had built with pallets, (yes pallets), about 12 years ago. Had we put a better roof on it, it might have lasted longer. I had to burn some more of the old pallets the next day and then they came and removed the rest. There is still some rusty fence here and a pile of old roofing but the change is immense.

The barn possum was a casualty though. He was hiding in some wood when it got thrown in the fire. The back side of the barn cats were all a little spooked but I fixed them some new beds just inside the back door of the main barn and they are settling in.

Next we tackled the fence between the dog yard and the sheep pasture. The dogs have been terrible this spring getting out under the old chain link. The wood posts we had were rotted and the bottom gave too much, they could dig a little then push the bottom and lift it up to go under. Steve freaks out when they get out when I am gone, they won’t let him catch them and he can’t move fast enough. I had tons of cinder blocks and boards along the bottom but nothing worked for long, they just found another spot.

So last Sunday we replaced it all with 5 foot high welded wire on metal posts. It was the first big day long project we had done in a good while and we were both exhausted. I put a board all along the bottom that I nailed to the fence, laying on my belly in the pasture. The next day I had to fix a spot where Ginger got through but it’s been fine since. We still have to replace the walk gate and re-work the drive gate but we are almost done with that. Then it’s on to replacing the fence along the back of the barn, and rebuilding the dog kennels. And the east pasture needs the fence along the woods repaired and up by the orchard.

I want to take some of the old lumber and make raised garden beds for vegetables, all the flower beds need cleaning out and I have baby chicks arriving Tuesday to get ready for. We need to make a new trellis for the grapes and move them as they are in too much shade now. And then of course there is the porch/laundry room roof that needs to be torn off and replaced, my son says he will be up around the first week of May to do that. When that’s done I want to put up a 6 foot wide deck on the east side to make it easier for Steve to get in the back door. I think we can do that. What I need is several strong grandchildren to use as labor but they are too far away!

It amazes me what changes this house and farm have been through in the 13 years we have been here. And what changes we have been through ourselves. When we moved here Steve was capable of doing things like putting up sheds from pallets, and getting in and out of the house on his own. I seemed to have a lot more energy and physical strength too. I just keep thinking that when certain things are done everything else will be easier, but the work just never seems to end. I love spring but it is such a busy time!

It has been interesting weather around here, first snowstorms and then thunderstorms. It’s so wet, mushy and cloudy I’d almost rather have it cold and sunny. In the middle of the night I heard the water pump running and running, the hose to the barn had unfrozen and the valve was open and the backyard is now a lake. Not great. I hate February, I’m glad it’s a short month.

I was doing some research on line about the satellite that is going to fall later this month and I came upon some interesting stuff. It’s amazing how when you go on line first you find one thing that has a link to another thing and then another thing etc. Anyway from that search I did learn that the satellite was launched a few years ago, didn’t work and has a tank of rocket fuel on board that could cause a problem when it re-enters the atmosphere.

However there is not a whole lot of concern because they think it will break up and the chances are nothing will fall on inhabited earth spaces because so much of the earth is uninhabited. That was the little bit of info that intrigued me and when you think about it it’s pretty amazing. There are what,- 5 billion people, in this world. 70 % of the world is covered in oceans and of the remaining land space only about half has any dense population so yes only 15% of the world is closely inhabited, leaving 85% of the world for the satellite pieces to fall on. That doesn’t help much when it’s your house it hits.

I think I read once that even without using the inhospitable places there would be 2 acres of land for every soul on earth. So why do we crowd together so badly? Once again it has something to do with politics and money. Many people will never even own the tiny shack they live in. There is enough food in the world to feed every man, woman and child a full 2,000 calories a day but millions are starving- because of greed and politics.
Man is mans worse enemy.

On the lighter side of things a new species of humming bird described as cobalt blue and ruby colored was found in South America. It’s interesting that new species of birds and animals continue to be found, maybe because only 15% of the world is inhabited! This hummingbird has a pretty good population in numbers but a limited home range.

And get this. Scientists have found that the chirping noise hummingbirds make when they dive comes not from their throats but from their tail feathers. The feathers have a notch that makes the noise. They dive when fighting and courting and do those little buggers ever fight.

There is so much you can learn when news skimming on line. I wish I had more time to scan the good stuff like science findings and research reports.

On the home front I am learning that I want to get rid of my sheep. They have been jumping the fence around the pond- 4 feet high- and eating the bark off trees. Before I realized it I think they may have killed a beautiful spruce we planted when we first moved in here that was about 20 feet high by girdling it. We shall see in the spring. I think I fixed the spot they were jumping over and I also surrounded the trees with wire but those devils will probably find a way to leap over and get back to the trees. They could have girdled poplars- we want to get rid of them, but no – they go for the nice stuff.

They are not hungry- all of them are still heavy and they get grain and hay twice a day. I think they are just bored. Well they are about to be turned into lambburger for the dogs to eat. Including the house monster.

I want to replace the sheep with some cute mini horses or maybe donkeys. Just for pets. Even the big horses were less trouble than these Barbados sheep. I’m hoping I can rescue some and give them a good life.

Gingers puppies are ready to go to new homes this week. They are so cute but so noisy and messy. I think Bessie may be pregnant but I hope the rest are not. We tried to breed Honey the cocker, but our stud, Bubba didn’t seem real interested for some reason. We are going to get our stud Jack Russell neutered soon, as we cannot keep him in his kennel when anyone is in heat. He has went through chain link and heavy corn crib wire by bending them until they break. He has climbed 10 foot fences and ripped open solid wood doors. That is why we have puppies on Gus’s schedule not ours. I am just tired of it. Our Jack females are getting older so we just won’t breed.

September is here

Well it is September now, lets have that nice fall weather please. My Mom and dad were up to our place for the first time this year. Not much was in bloom in the garden, although I do have some impressive hardy hibiscus in the front of the house. They have these huge, dinner plate sized flowers of crimson red or bright pink. Very showy. They love moisture and are doing very well where they are because that us where we diverted the water from the kitchen sink. I chose to write about them this week in my garden site at www.gardenandhearth.com/plant-guides.htm

Mom and Dad and Steve and I had a pleasant talk while we watched the birds in the front yard and the friendly kitten tried to talk mom and dad into taking her home. We didn’t barb-b-que, just had some nice sandwiches and potato salad. I like to get mom to talk about relatives and the old days. There’s lot to learn about family ties. I feel bad for Steve sometimes as his mom and dad are both dead and his family doesn’t seem to keep in touch very well. And that reminds me that his brothers new address is now lost, as the big puppy carried the address book I keep out into the yard and Steve mowed it into a thousand pieces.

The new puppies are all doing well, although I did have one more dog incident this week. All my fault too, I was having a senior moment or something. I give Hazel, our old Border collie mix a pheno-barb tablet each night because she has seizures. She will only eat it in a piece of hotdog and we have an evening ritual at the house of giving everyone a piece of hotdog or two, right before bed. So I prepared Hazels piece with the pill in it and then I handed it to Bessie, who eagerly gulped it down of course. Bessie is the mother of the 6 pups and right away I was concerned that the pill would hurt her or the pups. So I called poison control- which by the way seems to have gone to a foreign country for its service-and they told me to feed her a large meal then give her 2 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide to make her vomit. She had just finished her bed time nursing mom meal of chicken and rice, so I measured out the hydrogen peroxide and surprisingly enough she took it without fighting me, although I had to give it to her in 3 syringes. Then she just sat there for a few minutes, just when I thought it wasn’t going to work the fun began. Poor Bessie, she heaved for quite a while. But the next day everyone was fine and I sure learned a lesson.

I am waiting for a fall crop of lambs I believe I am going to get. Our Barbados sheep are not seasonal breeders and will breed back after giving birth if the ram is with them. I have had double lambings in other years especially if the first set is born early or is lost. Two of my girls had their lambs die when we had that really cold below zero spell last February. I think they are pg but I also think the white ewe that had one lamb is too. They are all as fat as butterballs, even the rams, so it is hard to say, but my hunch is the 3 girls are going to lamb again. Which is good because it will keep them from having spring lambs too early next year too. I think they should lamb fairly soon, but it’s just a guess.

We need to sell off or butcher the two young rams as they are beginning to fight and fight with their dad too. They are quite handsome both of them and have a good set of horns already. I haven’t been able to afford an ad to sell them, but I probably can’t afford the butcher fee either. They sure would make good lambburger for the dogs. Barbados lambs can go longer without castration before butchering and still have the meat taste good, but they need to go soon. I can’t afford to feed that many of them this winter as the cost of hay is going to be out of sight. Thank God the rain came and got the pasture greened up again so we didn’t need to keep buying hay this summer. There is quite a bit of good eating out there for them right now.

I won ten dollars on the lottery last week. Let’s hope that is a sign that the money will soon start rolling in here and we can get caught up on everything. At least August is over and we survived one more month.