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’s a cold and blustery day in Michigan. Easter and spring arrive close together this year, both are symbolic of new beginnings. Unfortunately with Easter so early this year it’s not going to be very great weather. I am a little apprehensive about warmer weather this year; hopefully we won’t get a lot of storms.

Taco the lamb is being trained to a new life in the barn. I have been taking him out in the morning and leaving him there for the day. I put him where the hay was in the barn and he has a deep cozy bed plus I leave a door to the back of the barn open so he can go out in the east pasture if he wants. He still doesn’t want anything to do with the other sheep and when I put him with them he runs to a far corner and stays there. When the weather does warm up I will be putting him with them though.

We have 7 new baby cocker pups, 5 black, 2 blonde, 6 are female which is strange. Everyone that calls will want males. I had the tails docked last week and I hate that. But if you don’t do it people try to get it done later and some won’t buy a cocker with a tail.

The puppies have to be in our bedroom as we are out of spare rooms until Taco is gone. There is one that is very noisy and fussy all night, but she seems plump and sleek, just a fussy one. I wanted to squash her last night though. All of the rest of the puppies were sleeping but she was fussing and I got up twice to move her closer to mom, which seems to be what she wants.

I am so ready to garden and get things done outside. Last Friday the temperature was in the 50’s and it was sunny and I spent a bit of time outside cleaning out the old car. Sunshine does improve my mood I wish I could get more of it. Things are slow poking through the ground this year. Not much is happening in the garden. I want to get some chickens again; the price of eggs is terrible. I can order chicks and I still may, but it takes 5 months before they start laying at least. I’m going to look for some hens at the market.

Here’s some advice from gardening granny. Get outside whenever you can and enjoy the good weather. Sunshine sets your biological clock to good times. And plant a vegetable garden this year, the price of food is only going to go up. If you do plant a garden and have excess food donate it to a local soup kitchen or food pantry, they will love it. Hard times are coming.

new car

So here’s the news. I have a new car, well new to me. It’s only six years old which beats driving cars over 20 years old. It’s a Blazer, sort of a cross between a truck and a car, easy for Steve to crawl up in. It’s only a 2 door and has less cargo space than the van or maybe even the trunk on that old chevy but it runs! Strange how I seem to end up with chevies, even though I am not looking for one, just a good deal.

New cars have all those bells and whistles that I am not used to. The second day I had it I locked myself out by messing up something in the security system- it wouldn’t let me start the engine. Now I am afraid to use the remote unlock button thingy. It has a remote start but I am really afraid to use that. The radio gets louder as you go faster, can you believe that!

We were going to drive down to my moms since we hadn’t been there since Thanksgiving and she was going to bake a cake for Steve’s birthday, but I ended up having to stay home and work on finishing my book. I messed up on the deadline, It was the last Monday in Feb, I thought it was March 15 for some reason. Well it is all turned in now, hopefully nothing to do until writer review.

The lamb is still here but he will be gone soon, someway, somehow. He pulled a frying pan of grease off the stove the other night, luckily it had cooled. The dogs quickly cleaned up the floor but it could have been a disaster. I took him out to the barn with me yesterday but he panicked when I locked him in a stall and kept trying to jump out so I took him back inside.

Gingers puppies have all been sold, even though it took a while because the weather was so bad. Honey the cocker is due any day, probably Sunday when we have said we will be going to my moms.

Michigan weather sucks. Yesterday it was 50 degrees and raining. The snow started to melt and then today it is below freezing again although we did get some sun. So everything is a sheet of ice. I got my car stuck when I moved it to let Steve get his out. And we are supposed to be getting more snow tonight, ugh.

I guess global warming affects the bottoming out temperature, the lowest temperature you get because it sure hasn’t made winter any shorter. And we have had nearly the record for snowfall since records were kept all ready this year. Even if it’s mild enough to be outside you can’t walk because of deep snow or ice. Maybe the glaciers are reforming here instead of at the poles.

The other problem is that a lot of us animal owners were praying for an early spring because hay is hard to find and very expensive. We are down to 2 bales of what we bought in the fall and we bought two bales for 6.25 each today which will feed for another week here. I don’t think anyone will deliver just a small load to us when they can sell all they have in big loads so we are stuck paying high prices at the feed store.

I have cabin fever real bad. I need to get outside, away from computers and people and dogs. Hurry spring!

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.