Its so spring its scary

It’s a beautiful St. Patrick’s Day in Michigan; we may actually get to 80 degrees and we have already broken the record of 72 at 76 degrees at 2 pm.  All week the weather has been very warm. We had some serious storms a few nights ago, with a tornado touch down or two just south and west of us.   But for the most part it has just been beautiful.  We opened the big pasture up to the horses and they have been trying to find those itsy green blades which are sprouting up.  The chickens are out scratching and they must be finding something because their feed consumption has gone way down.

 The frogs are singing like crazy, robins, red wing blackbirds and turkey vultures are back.  Mosquitoes and bees are out.  The crocus are in full bloom and some things are leafing out.  The buddleia, the honeysuckle, the roses by the back door, all are getting leaves, it’s just amazing.   In 2009 and 2010 we had an early spring but not this early.  Our windows are open and I have the ceiling fan on here in my office.  I worked outside cleaning a flower bed this morning and got so warm I quit.

 The warm weather is forecast to go all through the next week, with storms here and there.  It is nice but also scary because the fruit trees will bud and then probably we will lose the crop to a frost or freeze.  That’s what the fruit experts are predicting.  Maple syrup season has been a bust.   There may be considerable damage to perennials and trees that leaf out early too.  But there is nothing we can do about it.

We had another batch of sizzle chicks hatch yesterday.  I think just 3 lived though it looked like a couple more hatched.  There was a huge cache of eggs under the hen and I think the other hen was continuing to lay there so who knows what will happen.  I will probably wait until tomorrow and then clean the whole nest out.  The bigger chicks are still in there and don’t seem to bother the little ones except by stepping on them, which the tiny ones are fast learning to avoid.

 The guineas, which we call the terrorists, have taken to roaming the yard.  They are so noisy that I am seriously thinking about getting rid of them.  They are mean to the other birds too, they even chase the turkeys.  Steve said I should clip their wings like I did the turkeys and ducks so they can’t get in the yard.  But I decided t wait until I get ready to put the garden in, maybe in their wandering a few will just disappear.  And when they are out of the chicken pasture the other birds have some relief from them.

 

My stupid dogs which could be outside in the nice weather seem to want to stay inside.  Even when we were both outside this morning, working where they could have seen us from the yard they stayed inside.  Maybe its too warm for them, there isn’t much shade in the yard right now.  And unlike us, they don’t feel like they have to get out and enjoy it because it might not last.

 Hopefully I will get to my woods this weekend and look for surfaced bottles and other junk.  There is an old farm dump out there and I like to look through it in the spring when there is no undergrowth or bugs.  I have found some interesting bottles and things.   I used to look for old things as a kid around some old farm buildings I could walk to.  I wish I still had some of the stuff I found there.  There’s money in that old junk.

Yes the weather is nice but it's a bit scary.  It's like waiting for the other shoe to drop or acepting a trade off- we get warm weather but a bunch of tornadoes.  Or we get warm weather now and winter in April.  But there's nothing we can do.

Lifes little problems

On Saturday I had a garden event to host and Steve was left to care for the farm.    On the way home all I was looking forward to was handing him the salad and lasagna I was bringing home from lunch for him to have for dinner and getting into my chair where I could put up my swollen, aching feet.

Instead I walked into a minor disaster.  When Steve went out to do the evening feeding he heard one of our old dogs, Bugsy throwing a fit inside the box that protects our doggie dog from the direct outside air.  It looks like a giant doghouse, the doggie door opens into it from the house, and then the dogs go through the box to the outside.

 Bugsy is having difficulty walking in his old age and Steve realized he had probably fallen in some way where he couldn’t get up inside the box.  That meant that Steve in his wheelchair would have to go around through the yard to get to the outside of the box.   He tried looking from inside the house and couldn’t see why Bugsy seemed caught and couldn’t get him to come close enough to grab and pull him through the door.

 
When he went back out to go around the house and into the yard to save Bugsy he was in a hurry and didn’t check to see who was at his wheels and Ginger got out of the house and ran right for the barn.  So Steve had to hurry there because Ginger is our worse chicken killer. 

 The barn door was closed but as Steve chased Ginger around in his wheel chair trying to catch her she kept circling back and trying to get through the door and she finally squeezed through the bottom and got inside.  Steve heard the noise - she was going after Frizzle and the black hen I had turned loose in the front of the barn because she was being picked on. 

 When he got the door open and started inside Ginger ran by carrying Frizzle by the neck.  He chased after her, she let Frizzle go once but Steve’s wheelchair got stuck in the slush and he couldn’t get there before she grabbed him again.  She had him on the ground pulling out clumps of feathers when Steve managed to grab her.   He thought Frizzle was dead but when he came back around the house after putting Ginger away Frizzle was gone.

 Bugsy was still howling and crying all this time so poor Steve had to hurry around the house, through the yard to get to him.  He had to get out of his chair and lay on the wet ground to reach Bugsy inside the box.  He had caught a toenail on a metal grate on the ground inside the box and had twisted his leg trying to get loose.  He was hurt and scared and bit at Steve several times as he freed him.    Poor Steve. 

 When I got home Steve had just got back inside and could barely talk because he was out of breath.  Bugsy was inside and seemed fine.  Steve was more upset than him.  He told me he had looked in the barn for Frizzle but he wasn’t there and thought he might still be alive outside somewhere.  Steve was in tears from his exertion and the pain it caused and went off to lay down.

 So even though my legs were ready to fall off I got my boots on and went out to look for Frizzle before it got dark.   We had about 3 inches of snow the night before so I was looking for tracks but the yard was a mess from Steve’s wheelchair.  I was about to give up when I saw Frizzles head sticking up out of the snow and weeds way down by the roadside ditch.  

 Frizzle managed to hop away from me until he was up by our front porch where I managed to catch him, screaming his head off.  I saw he had lots of feathers missing, but strangely enough I didn’t see any blood or holes.  He was limping pretty badly though, hopping on one leg. 

 I carried him back to the barn and settled him on his favorite perch -  high on the hay stack.  He settled down right away.  I looked around for the black hen but couldn’t see her anywhere.  Steve had said he didn’t see Ginger get her but didn’t know where she went.

 The next morning I almost expected to see Frizzle dead but there he was still high on the hay.  I helped him off and he ate and drank even though he was hopping around still.  This is the third time he survived a dog attack.  He sleeps with the cats; maybe some of their nine lives have transferred to him. 

 I found the black hen hiding under the steps to the loft later in the day.  She seemed fine when I shooed her out and when Frizzle saw her he felt good enough to jump her so I guess the old bird is going to make it.   He managed to make his own way back up on the hay last night and down off it this morning, although he is limping badly.

 Life is just too exciting around here sometimes

Don't abandon your pets

Well this has been a strange week.  At work someone found a small kitten under the cars in the parking lot and brought it into our office.  We all couldn’t take a kitten home but we made it comfortable by feeding it and providing a litter box.  It was playing around the office and the boss thought it was cute and said maybe it could be an office cat.  But then a client came in and started talking about her 17 year old cat dying and we introduced her to the kitten.  Love at first sight and the kitten went home with her.

That was Tuesday.  Thursday I came home from work and a little dog ran up to meet me when I got out of the car.  Problem is it wasn’t any of my dogs.   It was chasing poor Frizzle my little yard rooster and I was worried that it would get my baby turkeys out in the yard.    I tied it up - no collar but he was a friendly little thing and after dinner we drove around the neighborhood asking people if they lost a dog.  No luck.

My instinct is that he’s a drop off.  Steve said he was outside a half hour before I came home and it wasn’t around then.    The dog is a little black and tan, wire coated thing, maybe a schnauzer-rat terrier mix.  Very loving, but a whole male, so he can’t come inside.  I didn’t see any fleas; he’s real thin but looks healthy.  I put him in the kennel outside with Sarah.  Sarah is really old but still active Jack Russell who has always been an outside dog.  She has a really large outside and inside run.  She loves male dogs, she’s a big flirt.  She can’t get pregnant and they are about the same size. 

I decided to name him Justin Bieber for now.  He’s not really happy outside but only cries for a short time after he sees me.   He wants to snuggle under my arm constantly.  He’s a little big for a lap dog, but not a big dog, just long legged and gangly.  We have called all the vets and put notices up at the stores but my bet is that an owner won’t be found.  I can’t keep a whole male here as some of my girls aren’t fixed and I can’t afford to neuter someone else’s dog.  So we’ll be looking for a home for him.

Then this morning- Saturday- I started outside to go do chores and stepped on a cat. It was lying on our porch steps in the sun, half dead from starvation I think.  The poor thing was skin and hair.  She probably didn’t weigh 5 pounds and was a large cat.  It was an adult female gray domestic shorthair, also with no collar.   I fed her of course and I thought she was going to settle down on the porch but later I saw her walking down the road.  She had a scrape on her back - I wonder if she was locked up somewhere and finally escaped and is trying to go home.  She ate well here so maybe I helped her.

I keep wondering if the two are connected, the dog and cat, someone’s pets that they dropped off.   Or maybe left behind in a house and finally escaped.  I just don’t understand people, there are so many places they could take unwanted animals and to think that dropping them off at someone’s house is the right thing to do is so stupid.  People- just because we are a farm don’t mean we want your unwanted pets!  And yes- one more does matter!    Dropping animals off in the country is about the dumbest, most inhumane thing you can do.  And it’s illegal too.

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.

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.

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!

Saginaw valley

I had to drive through the beautiful Saginaw valley here in Michigan last week as I drove my husband to the VA hospital in Saginaw for his regular check up. I love seeing all the German –Dutch farms along the way, brick or white clapboard farm homes, big red barns with green roofs, often with hex signs or the farmers name on them, and always neat and tidy. Along this route you seldom see the type of farms with collapsing barns and hundreds of pieces of rusting machinery in the yard.

Sugar beets are being harvested now and we passed a piling station with huge flat topped mountains of beets. It’s strange to think that sweet white sugar comes from those huge brown ugly lumps. Sugar smells awful when it’s being refined too, sort of a burning sugar smell crossed with cooking cabbage smell. We have a refinery near us in Caro and this time of year the smell hangs over the town.

The farms in the Saginaw valley produce a variety of things from sugar beets to corn. Corn harvest is just starting around here. Winter wheat has already been planted and is coming up.

We had some light snow last night and some of it actually stuck long enough for me to see it as I went out to do chores in the barn. I need to get out and finish cleaning up my garden, composting the corn stalks and picking that last pumpkin. Its sunny today and the next few days aren’t supposed to be too bad but I think winter is closing in.

I had to rescue a hen this morning. We have one who won’t stay in the pen with the rest of the hens, she’s always out with the turkeys. This morning she had managed to get into a fenced off area where we keep junk- rolls of old fence, metal panels, timbers etc. This area is sort of a buffer area between the dog yard and the pasture in back of the barn. There is a metal panel 4 foot high along the bottom at the pasture side with 3 foot of wire at the top of that. The panel keeps the dogs from spending all day barking at the horses or chickens when they are let out.

Somehow this bird had managed to get over seven feet of fence into that space. The dogs could see her and they were going nuts. She tried to fly back over when she saw me but couldn’t make it. I had to go around through 3 gates to get her, carefully working my way through old junk once inside. Not a good way to start the morning. Once she was safe I returned to the barn to see I had left the door open to the hay storage area and Lily and Charley were in there happily munching away- they had found the mother load.

I am trying to teach Charley to lead. He does not like being told what to do at all. He’s little enough I can handle him but he can be a real stinker. We went for a short walk through the pasture today but all he wanted to do was rear and buck. The wind makes him frisky and it makes me cold and willing to quit early.

Tina, our youngest Jack Russell terrier also had an adventure. We bought her a new collar, hot pink, because her old collar had gotten too small and she had been running around for weeks without one. First time we put it on she ran outside and came back inside with it in her mouth to play with- too loose. So Steve added another hole.

Yesterday while I was at work he noticed Tina wasn’t with the other dogs. It was sleeting outside and everyone else was inside. He started to go take a nap then decided he’d better check outside. There was Tina, hanging from the fence. She is a fence climber and her new collar had snagged on a bit of protruding wire, leaving her dangling- her hind feet were just able to touch ground. If she had struggled much and twisted the collar it may have been all over for her. Steve rescued her, a little cold and wet but not harmed otherwise. Needless to say the collar is off again. Thank goodness Steve had a bit of intuition there- he’s not usually the one to act on a hunch.

And so go the adventures of the farm.

dog games

It was raining all morning just lightly, good for the plants. We got up and were so glad that our son came up and re-roofed the porch yesterday. It was a toss up for us because both days were supposed to be rainy. He and a friend decided to come up Saturday and do the best they could. Although the skies looked threatening for a long time the rain held off until long after they left in the evening. New roof and it got tested right away.

Our weather has fallen into a kind of tropical pattern with thunderstorms almost every afternoon or evening and hot humid weather earlier in the day. Today we had the cool rainy weather early and now it’s sunny and steamy. We have been blessed that none of the storms here have been bad; the bad ones go above and below us. And there has been some wild weather this year in my corner of Michigan. Huge hailstones, wind, tornadoes, torrential rains and lots of lightning have hit close by.

My tomatoes have quarter sized fruit and my corn just may be knee high by the fourth of July. We have been eating leaf lettuce, although that’s better when there are tomatoes to go with it. It’s been hard keeping up with the weeds but everything is looking nice in the gardens. My landscape roses are blooming and some daylilies. Evening primroses and dayflowers are nice right now.

I just came in from fence fixing again. We have 15 dogs on this farm, yes that’s right 15, and 14 of them generally stay within their boundaries, either their kennels or the large fenced yard. We have 8 foot fence around the yard with a board at the bottom and boards on the inside to discourage diggers. In the back of the yard, where the fence shares a boundary with the east pasture and there is a view of the back of the barn we erected a secondary fence 10 foot from the first fence also 8 feet high.

Despite this Ginger, our small red Jack Russell – Yorkie mix manages to escape pretty much at her pleasure. This wouldn’t be quite as bad except when she escapes she likes to kill small things, like kittens right now. Two days ago she jumped to the top of a rail 4 foot off the ground, walked down it to a spot where the top half of the fence wasn’t tightly hooked to the bottom fence and squeezed through. Then yesterday before the guys arrived for the roof she managed to get through both fences in the back by climbing one and digging under the second after squeezing between some privacy type fencing that’s there and the newer wire fence.

I, of course don’t see her do this, I go out and look for signs. She never tries to escape when she knows anyone will see her. The other dogs usually tell on her by barking wildly if they see her getting out. For a while her son Buddy was following her, but he is too heavy to climb well and most of her recent escapes have involved climbing. When ever we hear a certain kind of frantic barking we run to check on Ginger.

Our house dogs have a doggie door that they come and go from into the fenced yard. Ginger has always been a house dog but we are at our wits end. Next weekend weather permitting, we are going to rebuild the whole east boundary fence. It just seems like we are spending a lot of time on one little dog’s mischief. She is the dickens to catch once she gets out. She won’t come to you until she is tired. Her sole aim is to get to the kittens or ducklings or chickens or what ever she can grab. Her eyes light up and she seems to be having loads of fun, but it isn’t fun for us or whatever she is chasing.

In the old days a dog like this would have been destroyed. But she is so cute and loving to family and so smart I could never do that. I am afraid to find a new home for her because I would worry that she would get out and be lost. She is also great at darting through doors between your legs.

I have had the bad experience twice of finding homes for older dogs and having them run off soon after they got to the new home. In both cases I spent days trying to catch the lost dog with a lot of sleepless nights and anxiety. One of the dogs, a female named Peanut was gone for over a week in cold weather and when we found her was semi-conscious and near death. I nursed her back to health and she is still at our home, although her health has never been great after that experience.

The other was a six month old male, who took off on the elderly couple I placed him with by slipping a collar. He was hanging around their farm but wouldn’t let them near him. He had seemed happy with them when he left. I couldn’t coax him back either, although I saw him several times on their farm and spent hours sitting on the wet ground trying to convince him to come to me. Dogs get funny when they are scared and lost and sometimes even avoid those they know.

We ended up catching him by setting a live trap baited with hotdog. Once back inside the couple’s home he was again his loving, happy self. They decided they still wanted to keep him. They brought him back once to visit, and 3 years later he is a spoiled and well loved pet and now has the freedom of the farm.

Back to Ginger, if you are reading this and thinking she should be obedience trained- well she is. Inside or in the yard she will do anything I tell her. She completely ignores every bit of training when she gets loose. I know she gets bored. But she has a large area to run in and several dogs to wrestle with and lots to watch around her. They get to run in the pond area every so often, which is an even larger fenced area with tall grass, and water to splash in. Most of the dogs love that, Ginger just goes around looking for a way out.

It may be the attention thing, none of these dogs ever thinks they get enough attention. But mostly I think she is smart and has the hunting terrier instinct in her so strong she can’t help herself. It’s like working a puzzle to get out and then there’s that addicting thrill of the chase. The worse thing is that she is learning that when the other dogs “tell” on her the fun is cut short. So she is sneaking away when the rest are quietly lying at our feet and even the kennel dogs aren’t watching, for more fun before someone realizes she’s gone.

So we are playing this game of chess. I move then she moves. When I am through here in the office I will let her out of the room she is shut in and see how long it takes before she is loose. Sometimes days go by before she figures something out. Then we start all over.

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.

Spoiled Lamb

We have had about 8 inches of snow here today in Michigan for the dawning of a new year. Yesterday another sheep had a lamb on our farm and the poor little thing was having a hard time following Mom in the snow. They will soon have a track from the run in barn to the fence where we feed them and it will be easier. I did take some hay to the barn but I don’t know if mom stayed inside with him. We don’t baby these Barbados sheep and they lamb all year in all kinds of weather. I have one more due but I think it will be a few more weeks.

Ok, I said we didn’t baby them but one lamb is sure a baby, the one I brought inside before Christmas as mom abandoned him. Taco is a brat right now. The dogs are pretty used to him and he runs around the house when we are home, which has been a lot the last 2 weeks. He and Buddy, our youngest dog, a Jack Russell Yorky mix male just under a year old, are best buds. Best buds who destroy the house together with wild romps up and over furniture, back and forth all through the house. Taco is taller and helps by pulling things off tables so he and Buddy can chew them up.

He won’t let me sit a glass down, he has to see and taste what’s in it. I can’t read a magazine or book without him trying to eat one end of it. We have brought in hay and grain for him to nibble but so far he likes dog food and animal cookies best. He is on his second $20.00 bag of replacement milk formula and eats more like a horse than a lamb. He is now taller than all our dogs, all legs.

Our daughter in law brought a cousin who had just come home from Iraq with her for Christmas dinner. He probably thought we were nuts with a lamb running through the house. Taco was a little scared of the strangers at first but he was soon showing off for them. Buddy however went outside and hid. I keep threatening to give him away and maybe he thought that was why everyone was here.

My granddaughters fed him his bottle and giggled over the butt washing the dogs give him. We never have to worry about lamb poop hitting the floor, the dogs think its candy. They fight over who gets it. Now if that don’t reveal our redneck side I guess nothing will, dogs who clean up after a lamb who isn’t housebroken.
All in our house at Christmas, but my son and his family are used to it. I’m sure glad we don’t have carpet though, as he pees where ever he wants.

I told my husband that if we could have a lamb this big in the house why not a miniature horse. He thought I was serious at first. Seriously I need to find Taco a home because I don’t think I can eat his little lamb chops now. If the weather was nicer I could leave him outside with his “wild” brother and cousins to play, but he is used to inside conditions and I don’t want to go out there to feed him.

By the end of January though, he will need to find some new place. The puppies will be running around and that is another problem. They are the same age as Taco, born the day before, but much less mobile. We are trying to decide whether to breed the cocker. She is in heat and it is soon or never. I don’t know if I want another cocker litter, the pups are so big and she always has a big litter.
Steve wants some, he loves the cockers and he will be the main caretaker so she may get to visit Bubba.

Why not visit my garden site to see the new things I have written. I ahave articles on Christmas cactus , manzanita, African Violets, and much more. You get there by going to
www.gardenandhearth.com/Plant-Guides.htm

I hope everyone reading this has a Happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous 2008.

Go away August- weather and puppies

February and August, those two months are the ones I can’t wait to end every year. At least February is a short one. August just drags on forever. In March you know winter is almost over and the days are getting longer. In August you know the heat and humidity is almost over. We have had a long miserable week, and last night was a scary one with tornados popping up every where in Michigan, including 6 miles from us. But thank God we have not had some of the even worse weather other parts of the country have had. Grass is getting green again and we can now burn the trash. The sheep are finding stuff to eat in the pasture. Rain is good but I could skip the heat.

Dogs are driving me nuts too. Aug. 12 we had two litters born, one with 6 puppies and one with just one. On Aug. 19 after going through two days of off again, on again labor, Susan, one of our Jack Russells had a single puppy, too large for her, and born dead.

After we took it from her she got in the box with Sadie who had the other single pup. I thought ok, two mommies. But when Sadie left for a minute Susan would not let her back in the box. Sadie is a calm mom and she wasn’t too upset for a while, it gave her time to sit on Daddy’s lap. But after a few hours she wanted her puppy back and a fight broke out. We got Susan out of the box but she was frantic for a puppy. She was looking everywhere, whining and crying. It was near bed time and I wanted to get a good nights sleep having been up with Susan a good part of the previous night. So I had an idea. I moved Sadie and her single baby to the bathroom and then I went to Bessie who had the litter of 6 and stole a puppy that looked similar to Sadie’s and gave him to Susan, whose bed was in our room, so I could hear if anything went wrong. She didn’t have a speck of trouble accepting him, she was desperate for a pup of any sort. Bessie seemed to be ok with her remaining 5 pups in the spare room. But in the middle of the night Sadie came and got in bed with me. I remember sleepily muttering, “go back to your puppy“. She did after a while, but it was too late. When we got up in the morning no puppy was in the box with Sadie. A short search located him in Bessie’s bed with her pups, but he was dead, a single puncture wound at the back of the head. I thought I would hear if anything happened, but I was wrong I guess. Bessie obviously can count, and expected to have 6 pups in her bed. I didn’t understand why she had killed it though.

We carefully kept the bedroom door shut, where Susan was doting on her foster pup. Sadie mourned only briefly, she went back to being princess dog with little fuss. Bessie gave no indication she was still looking for her 6th pup. But a few days later, when I came home from work, one of the “glad to see ya mom fights” broke out as I walked in the door. Steve had been in the room with Susan and he rushed out to help me break up the fight, leaving the door open behind him. Susan came flying out to join in the fray. While everyone else was involved in the fight, Bessie saw her opportunity and rushed in and grabbed her pup and started running back to her bed with him. I yelled and Steve grabbed at her and the pup was dropped. I scooped him up and he was bleeding. Luckily he had only a small wound in the chest area. He was screaming his head off though, poor scared thing. Bessie went to her bed, Susan became frantic so I put the pup back in her bed. He cried for a long time and I was worried I had killed another one with my meddling, but he seems to have healed without any problems. I think Bessie gets nervous when she is carrying a pup and bites down too hard. It just amazed me that after 3 days she still remembered and was plotting to get her puppy back. She waited until everyone was occupied then went for it. I thought any mom with 6 pups wouldn’t really miss one, but that’s not the case I guess. We are really watching the door now and Susan is starting to relax a little too. I hope to put them back together when they start eating, it’s not good to raise one pup alone once they start interacting with each other. Susan should be easier to convince that it’s time to relinquish foster care by then. Isn’t it amazing what animals do think and feel?

So by this time in September we will probably have crisp days and cool nights, maybe even a frost to kill the bugs. And the puppies will be starting to eat and play and almost ready to go to new homes. Hurry August and just get it over!

Meet Sadie

It is a beautiful Sunday in Michigan. One of the things about working freelance from your home is that you have to discipline yourself to actually sit down and write when the weather is like this and you would rather be outside working in the garden. I decided to start with the blog first to see if I can get myself in the mood and get the dogs calmed down enough to concentrate. Steve decided to turn off the t.v. and go outside to mow and I went into the office at the same time to write. This left the dogs on their own in the house and one of the first things they do is bark like someone is at the door- if that doesn’t bring me out of the office they get into a fight. The terrier girls usually gang up on Honey, the cocker. This brings me flying out of the office to break it up- which is what they wanted so I am rewarding them. But if I don’t break it up Honey may get hurt, so I am stuck either way. I just went out and got two of the terrors,[ yes the spelling is right] in the house- they go out the dog door into the yard and fight outside the office window. That is so they know I will hear them. I locked them in the bedroom where they are now barking and slamming themselves against the door. They can’t come in the office with me because Cricket and Hardy live in the office. They have their own dog door to an outside pen. Cricket hates every other female dog in the world with a passion, although she gets along just fine with males and people. She is a Yorky- Jack Russell cross not a pitbull, although you would never know it. She weighs about 15 pounds but every other female on the place is terrified of her. If she gets out they all try to hide. She does leave my old female Border collie mix Hazel alone but not Honey, the cocker, who is at least twice her size. So she was banished to live with her son in the office where my time in here is supposed to be her time to have my attention. Why these dogs are so attention hungry is beyond me. Now that Steve is no longer working they have someone to follow around and sit on 90% of the time. Yet all I have to do is go in here to work or go outside when he is also outside and all heck breaks out.
As you can see from the above, we have a lot of dogs. I should be an expert on dog behavior and I guess I am on a lot of their normal dog behavior. Some one who lives with this many dogs should know how to control them with a single word. HaH! Jack Russells are not normal dogs and 10 of the 14 dogs here are Jack Russell or Jack Russell crosses. They are very smart and manipulative. They are very aggressive with each other. They love people as a rule, although it may take them a few minutes to trust a stranger. But get them excited about something and they start fighting each other or they are biting the back of your legs as you attempt to address what caused the commotion. That’s why they are muzzled when they participate in races. Why do I keep them? Well, if I had really known what they were like before I got my first pair to breed I might have had second thoughts. I used to breed Yorkies. They have a little terrier grit, but nothing like Jacks. But we had moved to the country and wanted more outdoorsy dogs.
Someone gave us our first Jack, Sadie. She was a pup still, about 5 months old. She loves people with a passion, she will lick anyone to death. She was always licking the child of the germ phobic previous owner and when I say lick, she has an obsession to get right in your face and try to lick your mouth. So we got her, we loved her because she was so playful and sweet. She actually curls her lips back into a mimic of a human smile to try and get you to pick her up. You can tell her to smile and she does it. When you do pick her up she goes right for your face with her tongue. Over the years we have learned to deal with it. She knows she isn’t supposed to actually kiss us, so she air kisses, she gets her tongue going lickity -lick but just not quite touching- unless you talk sweet to her, which is more than she can stand. Sadie - or grannydog as we now call her, is getting older and likes to spend most of her time under the covers of our bed sleeping. If she can’t get to the bed and it’s at all cold- like under 80- she will find another way to cover herself up, like pulling the cover off the chair down around her, or jumping in the clothes hamper. But at any whisper of excitement she throws herself quite vigorously into the fray and growing older hasn’t slowed her much. She is also one of the time keepers- Hazel is the other- that means she knows when certain things are supposed to be done, like snacks or bedtime and she wants to make sure that the schedule is followed. She gets restless and starts pacing or barking, which makes the other dogs take notice too. She gets on you and tries to “kiss” you. She pulls at bedcovers, whatever it takes. Now our dogs can come and go into the yard as they want through a dog door so it’s not nature calling. They have food and water available at all times too. So it’s not what she needs but what she wants. Before bed we have the hotdog ritual. Hazel needs medication each night so she gets it in a piece of hotdog. Everyone else needs to get a piece too or she suspects a trick- like someone trying to give her meds. So the hotdog thing is a ritual and that ritual should take place as close to 10:30 pm as possible, according to Sadie and Hazel. Hazel is a very good old girl and will go lay back down if told to- but Sadie will not. My husband takes a nap at a certain time each day and Sadie loves to nap with someone. She will leave her spot under the covers and come get him when it’s time and he better not want to do something else. And so on. Sadie can tell time. And she bugs you until you get very mad or give in. Once she has told all the other dogs its time for something and they get in on the act, its mayhem. They watch me intently. My slightest move in the chair, even the word OK spoken to my husband about something- dogs do understand human speech- begins the barking and jumping. If you ignore it things may quiet down until the next wrong word or move a few minutes later and usually it’s just not worth the hassle.
So you have met Sadie. I will introduce some of the others another time. Dogs are like kids. Sometimes you don’t know why you have them but you love them anyway.

Granny's Guide to Everything

I have always been an opinionated person. Just ask my husband. I have an idea about how to fix everything. It may not always work and I'm quick to admit that. I also have no problem requesting ideas from others. It's solving the problem that's important. If you don't find the right answer the first time, try again, that's my motto. I can be persuaded to change my mind about something if your reasoning is sound so don't be afraid to comment, suggest solutions, and ask questions of me on this blog. I basically started a blog so that those who read my writing on other sites have a place to go to get to know me better. I intend to post personal ramblings and opinions as well as tips and advice and little tidbits of information I have learned.

Some personal background. I was born and raised in a midsized grungy factory town in Michigan. I was the oldest of six children. My grandparents lived on either side of me and they were a big influence on my life. My childhood was fairly happy, I was never a child who longed to grow up- instead I had a rather Peter Pan view of life, I knew childhood was going to be one of my fondest memories to say the least. I was a tom boy, roaming the woods and fields near our suburban neighborhood with my brother and his friends. I learned to read before kindergarten and devoured books of all kinds. I was good in school, rarely a behavior problem, a kind of shy, average looking girl with glasses. At home I was a bit more of an instigator and leader, always coming up with some new scheme and talking my brother and sisters, and neighbor kids into it.
My greatest wish was to live on a farm and own a horse and I lobbied my parents endlessly to move to a farm. It didn't happen, they are still in the house they built, between the houses my grandparents built and where they grew up.

Fast forward to college years. A counselor talked me into going to a local Christian college on a scholarship and student loan. I was taking pre-med courses. Maybe because it was a safe environment to explore "limits", I became a little bit of a rebel. In a big college I would have seemed like a fairly average college student, here I was part of the "wild" crowd. I got a boyfriend who was not a college student and after my second year of college he persuaded me to take a year off. That has always been one of my biggest regrets.

Next chapter of my life. Always one to care for strays I picked up a boyfriend fresh out of 2 tours of duty in Viet Nam. He was an alcoholic and had a host of other mental problems. Like a lot of optimistic women I thought I could help him. Then I got pregnant. He wanted to marry me but something in me said no and I didn't, despite the tears and pleading of my mother. I had already dealt with too much drama and despair. I knew that I couldn't raise a child in that situation. I decided that I would devote the next 18 years to being the best mother I could be, making my childs welfare the top concern. I had a job in one of the major box store chains and I worked hard to get promotions and support myself and my child. I managed to buy a small house in the same grungy factory town and my son attended the same schools I went to. I rarely dated, although I had friends of both sexes and a quiet social life. I had a big garden, several pets, and I read back to the land magazines with a passion. I still wanted a farm.

Next chapter. My son was in high school. He was talking about getting married to his girl friend already. I realized that he wouldn't be around forever and I was lonely. When he left on a summer vacation to visit my sister in Alaska, I decided to put some serious effort into dating.
At age 40 I found my soul mate and married him. The woman everyone thought would never marry, did. I also acquired two teenage step children, the oldest, a girl, got married a few months after her father and I married. There were some rough spots with my son and stepson but it all worked out in the end.

Three years after my husband and I married, company he worked for went bankrupt. He found a new job, but it wasn't in the same field. It did leave him with a little more time and flexibility. We had been talking about moving "beyond the sidewalk". It was time to do it. We didn't have a lot of money so we searched long and hard until we found the perfect small farm for us, even though it meant a long commute. We jumped into the back to the land thing with both feet, chickens, beef steers, milk goats, pigs, giant garden, fruit trees. I got my horse, and a pony for the grandkids. A lot of work and a lot of fun. Our kids, all now married and presenting us with grandkids, stayed in the city. [ Although my stepdaughter did move to a city in Minnesota.] At this writing we have seven grandchildren and are expecting another.

A few years after the big move, there were more changes. My company offered a buy out and I took it. I went back to school and got a degree, educational counseling, and got a job working in the AmeriCorps program. My husband also lost his job, due to another business closing, and got a job a bit closer to home. We had shorter commutes but a lot less money. Then there was my husbands illness. He has a congenital disease of the spine and had to have surgery on his spine. He was in terrible pain and losing the use of his legs. After the surgery he had complications, including a terrible staph infection in the wound. He was able to go back to his job in a limited way for a few years but is now unable to work and is in a wheelchair.

So the big farm animals are gone, I also have physical limitations with severe arthritis and diabetes. But we carry on. We still have a few chickens, a small flock of Painted Desert sheep, and we raise Jack Russell Terriers and Cocker Spaniels. There is a garden, smaller than before, but perfect for us. We love our country home and hope we never have to leave it. It's quiet here at night, crime is very low, I can sit on my porch and listen to the birds while looking at pastures full of pretty horses and fields of corn that belong to neighbors. No boom boxes or sirens wailing. I can hear the rain coming across the fields before it gets to us. Our house is small and old, needs lots of repairs and both cars we own are over 20 years old. But we still think we are living the good life.

I now work for the local Extension office, it's a part time job and doesn't pay very well but I do love it. I teach gardening classes and answer homeowner questions about their gardens and lawns. I also do some freelance writing.

We are waiting for my husband to receive Social Security Disability. He was turned down the first time, although we were told to expect that as he has a back problem, which almost always means a delay. He's 59 years old, confined to a wheelchair, on strong narcotics to control pain and has a host of other medical issues yet he was told he could still work. We have a legal advocate working with us and he and our doctor both say we should be successful at the next hearing. Trouble is, it's been over 6 months since he applied and we are told to expect another 6 months. Things are a little tight, you might say, as we wait for a decision. I am told there are ways to speed up the process. If anyone knows of such a way, please comment in this blog and let me know.
I do some freelance writing to try and make ends meet, you can read my online work at Garden and Hearth [ I'll post the url soon to my new page there], or at the links listed below. I write about gardening, animals, political opinions, you name it. I get a tiny bit of money each time someone reads my work on one of these sites so please take a look. Every little bit helps- thank you. read about Taking Care of Gift Plants here
or read about the cruelty of piercing a babies ear here
or read about how to pass your passion for gardening on here
read about how to plant a tree here
You can read my article about zoonotic disease here
or about breeding mixed breed puppies here