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.

animal dilemmas

I am faced with two animal dilemmas. I have way too many dogs already and can’t afford to care for another. But there is this dog that’s been tied in a vacant field all year. Someone comes and gives it food and water from time to time and it has a house of sorts, the house has lost the north wall, not good in winter. It is a large mixed breed adult dog.

I don’t know why someone thinks this is a good situation for the dog. I suppose they live somewhere where they can’t have one. I have never seen anyone there but a neighbor that lives closer has seen people feeding it. No one knows how to contact these people. If I call animal control they will come and take the dog probably. But then he will go to the animal shelter and be held in a cage, scared to death until he’s put to death. So he lives a sort of half life tied to a tree with no one around or he dies. Poor choices. At least outside he can hear and see things and probably isn’t scared. He’s thin but not starving.

I guess I can try and make his home a bit better if he will let me. I just can’t bring him here as I am stretched to the limit with dogs, and my dogs love to fight strange dogs.

My second problem is the lamb Taco. I never dreamed a lamb could be this much trouble.
I tried taking him out to visit his relatives but he was scared to death and kept trying to get through the fence to his dog friends. That’s the only time I have seen him scared. Inside nothing fazes him. He climbs, jumps, chews and is generally destructive. If you swat him with a newspaper he takes it as a challenge and comes at you harder.

He especially won’t leave me alone. I can’t read a paper, he pulls it out of my hand or he jumps on me. When he takes a flying leap and lands on you it hurts. This seems cute but after a while you can tell he is just doing it to get your attention so you will chase or otherwise interact with him. That’s ok, I’ll play for a while but it wears on the nerves. He leaps and runs through the house with his dog friends chasing him. He is tall enough to reach the tabletop and counters and pulls everything off. He chews electric cords and walls, won’t leave a book or paper in reach until it’s shredded.

Last night in order to watch Comanche Moon without having to get up every 2 minutes to save something I locked him behind a gate in the kitchen. This is not a baby gate but a stout tall piece of metal grate we installed to keep some of our dogs confined. He got a running start and hit it with all his force, buckling it out at the bottom, then crawled through to continue his havoc.

If he can’t pester me or Steve he starts on a dog. He likes to pick on ones he can intimidate, he’s much bigger than them now. He chases them around, biting and pawing at them. He tries to mount our cocker all the time for some reason. He jumps down on them off the top of furniture. He has been bitten a few times, once quite good on the face, but it doesn’t bother him.

I know he knows the word no. He stops what he’s doing for a moment. But he is like an obstinate defiant toddler and goes right back to what he was doing. If you put something out of his reach he keeps trying to find a way to get to it. He knocks my glass over if I set it down and he knows enough not to do it while I’m watching. But if I forget for a moment over it goes. While I was up getting paper towels to clean up my spilled pop last night, he jumped in my recliner and peed on it. I have about had it. I know why sheep are not kept as house pets now.

I tried taking him outside on a leash but he won’t learn to lead, he just about kills himself.
When he is loose he won’t let you catch him. So outside isn’t fun or practical. He doesn’t like it outside. He truly believes he is a house dog.

We do have a large dog carrier that we lock him up in at night but he is fast out growing it. All of our rooms either have things he could destroy or are occupied by other animals.
There is plenty of room in our big barn but he would be alone except for cats. We would also have to go out there to feed him. He hates being alone and would be miserable, but its about to come to that.

My husband suggests lamb chops are quite tasty. I would never eat him but seriously I am thinking about selling him to the next person who comes along and they might. It’s kind of like the dog problem. He can live outside and alone or be eaten.

January Thaw

In keeping with my New Years resolution to write in this blog more frequently I am writing this. The little lamb Taco has not found a new home yet and he and his dog friend Buddy are terrorizing the house. He will eat a few cheerios from my fingers and will nibble hay. I just don’t know what we are going to do with him as he grows. I can integrate him into the flock when it gets warmer but that will be a while.

Gingers little puppies are barking and growling now. They are three weeks old and so cute as they wobble around. Steve fixed them a little bigger pen today so they can explore safely. They need to be wormed for the first time and started on soft food.

We are having a January thaw already. It is supposed to get near 50 degrees the next couple days but its going to be wet like today. I like it warmer, but the dampness makes everything smell and it looks awful outside. You get rid of all the snow but get mud in its place.

I am busy writing away on my book as the half way deadline is approaching. Hopefully my next advance money can be used to buy another car. I may have to cut my hours back at the Extension office because we got about half of last years numbers for the Master Gardener class this year.

I am getting tons of garden catalogs already and I always sit and make lists of things I would like to have. I watered the plants out on my enclosed but unheated porch today. The geraniums are still blooming and the diasca is blooming again also. The rosemary really seems to like the conditions. But I forgot to move some coleus back to where it’s warmer and I think they are gone.

Inside both my Christmas cacti are blooming quite nicely. One of the plants is very old, it was my grandmothers. You can read my article about Christmas cacti by going to www.gardenandhearth.com/plant-guides/christmas-cactus-care.htm They are wonderful plants that deserve more attention.

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.

A lamb named Taco

Well I haven’t written in my blog in a long time and trying out a new computer is as good a time as any. I like getting new things like this but it is such a hassle setting everything up. I have two computer s running at my desk now as I try to change files over and it is very crowded. I do like my new wireless keyboard- at least so far. I am wondering how long the batteries work.

We are having a major snow storm outside today. On Friday it was sunny and relatively mild and we had a set of twin lambs born. We have one older lamb that was born the week before Thanksgiving. There were no babies at noon but when I went out to feed about 4 pm there was a baby by a tree and one in the run in barn with it’s mom. The one outside was in the sun and dry and alert so I carried him to the barn. Mom and sibling huddled to the back and I didn’t want to spook mom into running so I set the little boy down at the entrance. He was reluctant to proceed any further, it was darker in there but finally he went over to the other two, the other lamb came up to him and he followed it back. It looked like everything would be ok so I left.

Next am I carried some hay and grain to the barn because mom didn’t want to bring the little ones out and I noticed the little male I found was up by the front of the barn and the other lamb was with mom in the back. That didn’t look right, and sure enough as I stood and watched the ewe wouldn’t let the male lamb any where near her. So reluctantly I carried him inside. We put him in the big dog carrier in the kitchen to protect him from the dogs. That’s the problem, we have every room allocated to something now. Old Sarah, [ a Jack Russell dog], had to be brought inside after she had her teeth cleaned and her gums were infected, then she was so old and weak acting we let her stay in the spare room after that. Ginger surprised us with 4 puppies last Thursday and she is set up in our bedroom. Of course here in the office I have my two dogs who don’t play well with others. So we are animal crazy right now.

Anyway little Taco as I named him, is as cute as can be, wooly chocolate brown with a big white spot on top his head and a broad blaze. I was a bit worried at first because he didn’t want to suck the $25.00 a bag milk from the $3.00 nipple I had to go and buy, but he decided this morning to suck finally and chugged a bottle down. He is good sized, bigger than the one left with mom, who I do not know the sex of yet. It is more red brown, with the same spot and blaze and some spots on the legs. They stayed in the barn today and I carried hay to them through the snow.

Taco thinks I’m mom now and will follow me around the kitchen. I have actually never bottle fed a lamb before, although I have fed plenty of baby goats. Our sheep usually don’t need any help with things. Goat kids usually take to a bottle real fast, but Taco took several feedings of me dribbling milk down his throat before he decided to suck.

He is so cute but a big headache. I can’t trust most of the dogs around him and I have to lock them out of the kitchen to give him some time to walk around. When he gets more active in a day or two he won’t be happy in that carrier. And a ram lamb that’s bottle fed turns into a dangerous ram when he’s older. They have no respect for humans and will try to knock you down, we had one that really hurt both of us at various times until we got rid of him. So he will have to be neutered and become a pet or become meat. And it’s hard to turn something into meat you bottle raise.

I do need a white elephant gift for work- what’s better than a baby lamb?

Late October

It’s a beautiful but chilly fall day here in Michigan. I have lost Henny Penny, my pet hen. She was here Wednesday evening, I put her on the shelf in the barn because she couldn’t get to it because we had moved a table she normally used. Steve said she was there in the morning following him around. But Thursday evening she was no where to be seen. No feathers no carcass in the road, I looked everywhere. I wonder if someone stole her, if so, I hope it was to keep her for eggs. I miss her. I guess eventually I will get some more hens, I had Steve re-building the little pen in the barn a few days ago, I thought I would get her a few friends.
I also lost the male black and white half grown kitten that I called Skunk. He followed me into a dog kennel one night when I was feeding and I didn’t notice. Next thing I knew I heard him crying. I ran back in and rescued him but it was too late, he died the next day. That’s why I say cats are just stupid. He knew these dogs don’t like cats. He was well aware there was a dog in there. They don’t go in the kennels any other time. I guess they think if they are with me they are protected. I feel bad that I didn’t notice him. He could have climbed the gate to get out of Bubbas way, he probably tried to stand Bubba down. Just stupid.
My car is missing too. It’s been at the shop all week. They promise it will be fixed tomorrow. Last Saturday after my big Education Seminar I had it all loaded up with left over food and supplies and it wouldn’t start. Luckily, just a few days before a guy down the road fixed Steve’s car. He was very nice and fixed it for $25.00. Steve was able to come and pick me up and we went back the next day to try and start it with no luck. It had some sort of electrical problem and it took the mechanics a long time to find it, then they had to order a part - for a 22 year old car. Hopefully we will soon be able to afford a slightly younger clunker. Steve’s van is all caved in the front from a deer collision, the lights don’t focus in the right direction , there is only one wiper blade, seatbelt doesn’t work and if you press too hard on the accelerator it sticks wide open- very scary. So its just for emergencies in the daylight. A deer owes us a car.
Last night we had quite a heavy frost, there was ice on water outside the barn. Maybe the tomatoes will finally die. I never dreamed I would be tired of picking tomatoes, here it is the end of October and just a few days ago I picked some from 5 different vines. The petunias and marigolds are still blooming too. At work we have had daylilies start blooming again. The Farmers Almanac predicts a mild dry winter. We will see if their predictions are better than last year. I don’t mind mild but I wish we could get more moisture. Our pond has never been this low, it is only a fraction of its normal size. We had about an inch of rain yesterday but it barely dents the soil deficit and none seems to make it to the pond. I want to find some way to channel water from the roof or even the washing machine down to the pond. I am sure glad we never got around to re-stocking it with fish this year.
We had to pen the sheep up in the west pasture. They had started getting out of the north pasture by the woods and then coming up to graze in the yard. There are lots of hunters around already and its safer if they aren’t in the woods. The grass is green but it isn’t growing much and we will have to feed hay now. The two ewes I think are pregnant are huge, if they aren’t pg then they are extremely fat and won’t need much hay. I have had Barbados lambs in October before but October is almost over. We peeled a whole bunch of apples last night to make pies and I took the peels out to them this morning thinking I was bringing them a big treat. They acted like I was trying to poison them. Yet they will break a fence down to reach some Bittersweet berries.
I sent Steve out to sit in the sun. He needs to go out each day and not sit around watching football or talk shows. The sun helps heal depression and keeps your body clock working right. It is very hard for me to be inside on nice sunny days. I know I get depressed when the days are dark and rainy but I have a book deadline to meet and it’s much easier to be inside writing if the weather is nasty. So let it rain- or snow- as long as it isn’t too deep.

July in October

It’s hot here in Michigan- too hot. I like my seasons the way they are supposed to be, not summer in October. 90 plus degrees and humid is just awful. My poor sheep were getting their winter coats and are miserable. It is supposed to storm tonight and get cooler- I hope so. I don’t want winter yet but gee, fall would be nice. And we really need rain. All of my houseplants are still outside, I put them on the porch for 2 days in mid September but they have been outside since. That is a new record. I am picking ripe tomatoes and peppers, that’s got to be a record too.

I had to go into town this morning and I took the back road. There is a little color in the trees and all the fields are being harvested- dry weather is good for that. In town I came behind an Amish buggy going to the stock yards, it’s market day. I felt sorry for the poor sweaty horse and I wondered if the Amish family inside the buggy were regretting not having a faster ride, one that would at least give you a little wind as it went down the road. Their life seems hard, but sometimes I wish my life was more like theirs. An Amish boy from nearby was injured by a piece of horse drawn harvesting equipment last week. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital and then air lifted to Children’s Hospital in Detroit. How quickly his life changed, not only the severe injury but an onslaught of technology. I wonder how his poor parents get to visit him. Maybe one flew down with him.

I had to drive about 150 miles through mid Michigan Friday for a meeting. It was a pretty day and the county car I was using was air conditioned so the ride wasn’t bad. They are harvesting sugar beets all through this area and I saw numerous semi-loads of the big, ugly, lumpy beets on the road. I passed by several towns where they were cooking sugar- it’s amazing how something so sweet and tasty can smell so bad in the making. I passed through the Isabella Indian reservation, where the Soaring Eagle casino is located. The casino is very modern and nice looking as are several big hotels nearby- but the area surrounding them- where I was passing through- looked very poor. I have no interest in casino gambling and can’t imagine sitting inside on a nice day feeding my money to a machine.

Granny’s advice today is make something sweet out of something ugly. This hot humid weather means I don’t have to run the furnace or feed hay.