Well the farm has a new resident. Hopefully, a temporary one. A woman brought a rabbit into our office this week that she found in her yard. It walked right up to her and wanted to be picked up. It’s a tortoise shell Rex rabbit, that means its gray and orange mottled, with short plush fur. He is very tame and was obviously a pet.
The woman put the rabbit in her pole barn, loose on the floor, while she asked neighbors if they lost it. After a few days it became obvious no one was going to claim it and her beagles were circling the barn and howling. So she brought it to the Extension office.
I tried to get everyone else to take it home but to no avail. I used to raise rabbits and show them but I soon remembered why I decided to get rid of all my rabbits. I am very allergic to them. I forgot how allergic I was getting- it was about ten years ago- but my body remembered like it was yesterday. Soon my eyes were red, itchy and swollen, stupid me was cuddling the bunny several times as it sat in a box by my desk. I drove home with it and luckily Steve had found one of our old cages and set it up for him in the barn so all I had to do was pop him in it.
He seems fairly happy there- he was too hot in the office, but every time I go near him he wants me to pet him and I can’t. My eyes start itching even when I feed him. He needs a new home quick. I am too soft hearted. I think I will call him Riley.
People are dropping animals off all over, a sign of bad economy. They think a farm will take them in or like in the case of the rabbit, that they will be able to just take care of themselves. But farms can’t take everyone’s pets in, and pet animals don’t do well in the wild, with the exception of cats maybe. Even a lot of cats die trying to adjust to wild conditions. I saw a Siamese cat sitting by the road in a very remote location. It may have come from a nearby home although I couldn’t see any homes nearby, but my guess it was dumped. After a few days they will seldom let you catch them. This one ran off as soon as I stopped.
People need to be responsible and take their pets to a shelter and surrender them or have them put down humanely if they can’t keep them. You have to admit you can’t care for them and it’s hard. It’s harder than just leaving them or turning them loose but when you get a pet it’s your responsibility to do the hard things too. Besides it’s illegal and cruel to abandon them.
I know that when people lose their homes or hard times come the pets become a lesser concern to some, but there are organizations and shelters that will help. Don’t kid yourself that a farm wants your pet or that country homes will let it hang around. And they won’t learn to take care of their self in the wild either. Man up and do the right thing. And for God’s sake if things look shaky for you don’t get new pets or let yours breed.
I wish I could help all the homeless animals but I am realistic enough to know my limits. I can’t take in any more dogs for example. I don’t want more cats but they seem to find us. We feed what comes along. The bunny is ok because we had the cage and the barn space and he doesn’t eat much but he needs a home somewhere else too. I might consider other farm animals if they were tame, but that’s my limit.
Living the dream
Visiting grandmas farm.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
nearly winter
My book is published! You can find it on Amazon - The Complete Idiots Guide to Country Living- It's getting good reviews too.
It’s a cold and wet November day, rather mild in the 50’s but just miserable. I just came back from the barn, feeding time. It was getting dark and the hen turkeys were all inside, but the stupid tom was sitting on the ridge of the barn roof in the rain. Ain’t that just like a male? Next week on Thursday evening the big white hen goes to see the butcher. It’s the closest appointment I could get to Thanksgiving. She will have to sit in the frig for a week or maybe I will freeze her - I don’t know.
I have stopped letting the horses out into the larger pasture. It’s not much good anymore and the weather has been nasty. They are getting all the hay they can eat. I haven’t been able to walk Charlie as much as he needs. He’s getting big, I let the brow band out on his halter but we may need to buy him a bigger one soon. I was able to contact our horse farm neighbor to get farrier information. She is going to send him over to our place on Monday when he comes to hers.
It’s my granddaughters 13th birthday on Sunday. She’s having a big family party. I told her I would bake the cake and asked her how she wanted it to be decorated. She wants pink and white. Of course everything is red and green now - but I did manage to find some pink decorations. The cake will be cherry chip. It’s amazing how fast time flies. Our oldest granddaughter will be 17 in January. The thought that I could be a great grandmother in a few years scares me. My next oldest sister has yet to have her first grandchild, although a younger sister has quite a few young grandchildren.
Deer firearm season starts tomorrow here. The gunshots have been going off around here for weeks, now it will be legal. We saw all the “hunters” in the grocery store today loading up on beer and canned chili. I hope they kill a lot of them, we sure need herd reduction around here.
I still have petunias blooming in the old grill up by the barn. Some sweet alyssum and snapdragons are blooming under the oak tree. The grass is still very green in the yard. I like global warming so far. We are supposed to get snow here in a couple of days though.
I need some winter weather so I can buckle down and write my nest book.
It’s a cold and wet November day, rather mild in the 50’s but just miserable. I just came back from the barn, feeding time. It was getting dark and the hen turkeys were all inside, but the stupid tom was sitting on the ridge of the barn roof in the rain. Ain’t that just like a male? Next week on Thursday evening the big white hen goes to see the butcher. It’s the closest appointment I could get to Thanksgiving. She will have to sit in the frig for a week or maybe I will freeze her - I don’t know.
I have stopped letting the horses out into the larger pasture. It’s not much good anymore and the weather has been nasty. They are getting all the hay they can eat. I haven’t been able to walk Charlie as much as he needs. He’s getting big, I let the brow band out on his halter but we may need to buy him a bigger one soon. I was able to contact our horse farm neighbor to get farrier information. She is going to send him over to our place on Monday when he comes to hers.
It’s my granddaughters 13th birthday on Sunday. She’s having a big family party. I told her I would bake the cake and asked her how she wanted it to be decorated. She wants pink and white. Of course everything is red and green now - but I did manage to find some pink decorations. The cake will be cherry chip. It’s amazing how fast time flies. Our oldest granddaughter will be 17 in January. The thought that I could be a great grandmother in a few years scares me. My next oldest sister has yet to have her first grandchild, although a younger sister has quite a few young grandchildren.
Deer firearm season starts tomorrow here. The gunshots have been going off around here for weeks, now it will be legal. We saw all the “hunters” in the grocery store today loading up on beer and canned chili. I hope they kill a lot of them, we sure need herd reduction around here.
I still have petunias blooming in the old grill up by the barn. Some sweet alyssum and snapdragons are blooming under the oak tree. The grass is still very green in the yard. I like global warming so far. We are supposed to get snow here in a couple of days though.
I need some winter weather so I can buckle down and write my nest book.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Fine weather and horses
It’s a lovely day here in Michigan for Columbus Day. The trees are getting more colorful by the minute. It has been sunny and mild although that is supposed to end today. We still haven’t had a killer frost, if this is global warming I am pleased with it. I picked two tomatoes yesterday, the roses are blooming like crazy and the zinnias and marigolds are still going strong, as well as the hibiscus in front and the buddleia. The moonvine and the impatiens browned a little and quit blooming from the light frost but damage to the rest of things has been slight.
I have had some horsie fun. Last weekend little Charlie colicked. I came in the barn at supper time and found him rolling violently on the stall floor. I called the vet out and tried to keep him upright until he came. He was little enough I could sit on a chair and hold him across my lap but the struggling killed my back. The vet managed to get a pain shot in him and then tried to get some mineral oil down him but didn’t have a tube small enough so we held him and gave him syringes full of mineral oil. All night I checked on him every two hours. He was just standing in a corner with his belly contracting up and down and I was sure he would either need surgery or die. But when I went out after breakfast I could see his tail end was oily and he was feeling better. He must have passed his blockage.
I wormed him and Lily two days later and so far everything has seemed to be fine. Vet thought it might be worms, he said it’s common in foals to colic from worms. Horses have such delicate digestive systems.
My granddaughters came up the next day and Desiree, the youngest, loved brushing Lily and helping me work the burrs out of her mane. Lily is very good with kids. Desiree also got a thrill out of going in the hen house to collect eggs. We took them inside and washed them and then she got to arrange them in a carton to take home. Brianna went for a walk with her dad instead. I asked them to get me some red sumach off the far pasture fence because I wanted to do some art with it and my legs were bothering me too much to go get it myself.
All the horse fun and visitors must have lowered my immune system because on Tuesday I came down with a killer cold, the first I have had in a while. I was feeling very poorly through some of this gorgeous weather so I am glad I was feeling better the last couple days.
Lily had really eaten down all the grass in the small pen so we opened up the east pasture which curves around the pond to her and she is in horse heaven. It’s a nice pasture lined with trees on both sides but there is a bad spot in the fence up by the orchard that I worry about. Lily has the habit of going under instead of over fences and there is loose field fence along there. I fixed part of it today and hopefully she has enough to eat that she won’t be tempted to go anywhere. Last night she came in the barn to get her grain and then she and Charlie just went to sleep in the corner of the stall. It’s the first time I think I have seen her just rest. She is usually looking for something to eat. Since she has been out all day we haven’t fed her much hay but I worry she is getting fat off the grass. I don’t know how people keep these mini horses from getting fat.
I have been letting the chickens out to roam the pasture nearly every afternoon too. The turkeys are getting out all the time again and they have taken to roosting up on the top of the barn or house at night. I worry about them coming down inside the dog pen, even though they are big birds the dogs could really rip them up. One was sitting on the top of one of the kennels this morning, luckily he flew off before a dog noticed him. They come in the front of the barn now looking for cat food which could get them in trouble too.
Speaking of turkeys it’s almost time to get the big white one butchered. She is huge. I am going to have a hard time carrying a cage with her in it. I need to call and make the appointment. It’s harder to butcher when you have just one meat bird and its really tame, but that’s all these big white ones are good for. The bourbon reds and the blue slate we are going to keep and try to breed, if the dogs or an owl don’t get them.
Well this is Michigan after all. Beautiful today, blizzard tomorrow, you just never know. I better get out and enjoy it.
I have had some horsie fun. Last weekend little Charlie colicked. I came in the barn at supper time and found him rolling violently on the stall floor. I called the vet out and tried to keep him upright until he came. He was little enough I could sit on a chair and hold him across my lap but the struggling killed my back. The vet managed to get a pain shot in him and then tried to get some mineral oil down him but didn’t have a tube small enough so we held him and gave him syringes full of mineral oil. All night I checked on him every two hours. He was just standing in a corner with his belly contracting up and down and I was sure he would either need surgery or die. But when I went out after breakfast I could see his tail end was oily and he was feeling better. He must have passed his blockage.
I wormed him and Lily two days later and so far everything has seemed to be fine. Vet thought it might be worms, he said it’s common in foals to colic from worms. Horses have such delicate digestive systems.
My granddaughters came up the next day and Desiree, the youngest, loved brushing Lily and helping me work the burrs out of her mane. Lily is very good with kids. Desiree also got a thrill out of going in the hen house to collect eggs. We took them inside and washed them and then she got to arrange them in a carton to take home. Brianna went for a walk with her dad instead. I asked them to get me some red sumach off the far pasture fence because I wanted to do some art with it and my legs were bothering me too much to go get it myself.
All the horse fun and visitors must have lowered my immune system because on Tuesday I came down with a killer cold, the first I have had in a while. I was feeling very poorly through some of this gorgeous weather so I am glad I was feeling better the last couple days.
Lily had really eaten down all the grass in the small pen so we opened up the east pasture which curves around the pond to her and she is in horse heaven. It’s a nice pasture lined with trees on both sides but there is a bad spot in the fence up by the orchard that I worry about. Lily has the habit of going under instead of over fences and there is loose field fence along there. I fixed part of it today and hopefully she has enough to eat that she won’t be tempted to go anywhere. Last night she came in the barn to get her grain and then she and Charlie just went to sleep in the corner of the stall. It’s the first time I think I have seen her just rest. She is usually looking for something to eat. Since she has been out all day we haven’t fed her much hay but I worry she is getting fat off the grass. I don’t know how people keep these mini horses from getting fat.
I have been letting the chickens out to roam the pasture nearly every afternoon too. The turkeys are getting out all the time again and they have taken to roosting up on the top of the barn or house at night. I worry about them coming down inside the dog pen, even though they are big birds the dogs could really rip them up. One was sitting on the top of one of the kennels this morning, luckily he flew off before a dog noticed him. They come in the front of the barn now looking for cat food which could get them in trouble too.
Speaking of turkeys it’s almost time to get the big white one butchered. She is huge. I am going to have a hard time carrying a cage with her in it. I need to call and make the appointment. It’s harder to butcher when you have just one meat bird and its really tame, but that’s all these big white ones are good for. The bourbon reds and the blue slate we are going to keep and try to breed, if the dogs or an owl don’t get them.
Well this is Michigan after all. Beautiful today, blizzard tomorrow, you just never know. I better get out and enjoy it.
Friday, October 10, 2008
And Wall Street falls
Granny’s advice is serious today.
How does the old song go- “somebody told me Wall Street fell but I was so poor I couldn’t tell”. I have been able to be oddly calm in the face of the frenzied chaos that has been occurring in the financial world. We have just a little money in the bank and it’s been a long time since we had any stocks and bonds to worry about. It does affect my Dad- he had some money in managed pension accounts – but he owns his house and one other house and he and Mom can live on their Social Security without any great strain.
What a shame it is that retirees will bear so much of the burden of this disaster. They don’t have time to wait for a market recovery. I bet they wish the money was in a mattress instead of the stock market or at least a bank. We all learned from this.
While Steve and I survive on very little, we do survive. I guess that’s one time having a Social Security disability check is actually a benefit to the lifestyle. Who would have thought it? I have been hoping to get another book contract to ease our budget a bit and that might be slow in coming because of the financial mess but we can say we are better off than we were a year ago. Life is strange. I am so glad that the disability claim was settled when it was- if we were going through it now the news of the economy might have really put us over the edge.
I know what it feels like to go to bed scared that soon you won’t have a home. I have used food stamps and commodity foods. I feel for the people who are scared to death right now but it will get better. People are going to have to re-adjust their thinking about what a good living is all about.
We were all living on future earnings- there was a time when we did that too. Then Steve got sick. Everything changed rapidly. Never count on what you assume will be there someday. Live on what you have today.
Stop talking about a handout for those who were “taken advantage of” by big credit crooks offering adjustable rate mortgages – usually the handout promoter says mortgages made after 2002. Lots of people were smart enough to buy a home they could afford, with a conventional mortgage and they too are having problems making mortgage payments. They may have bought the house 20 years ago. But if you lost your job and can’t find a new one you are in as much trouble as the dreamer, who believed he was entitled to the house he wanted today and would find a way to pay for it tomorrow. Help everybody who is struggling.
Drop all interest rates to 4 % and give amnesty to all overdue mortgages. Put the unpaid months on the end of the loan. Adjust the loan principal to more correctly reflect the homes current value. If they can’t afford the new lower payment, then let the mortgage holder give the bank the title to the home and walk away without damage to their credit.
One thing not to invest in should be stocks for cell phones and cable TV corporations. People need to take those out of their budgets right away. Put up a TV antenna, watch local channels for free. Carry your cell for 911 calls only- they will work for that after you cancel the contract. The amount you save on those two things might give you enough to pay the mortgage.
How does the old song go- “somebody told me Wall Street fell but I was so poor I couldn’t tell”. I have been able to be oddly calm in the face of the frenzied chaos that has been occurring in the financial world. We have just a little money in the bank and it’s been a long time since we had any stocks and bonds to worry about. It does affect my Dad- he had some money in managed pension accounts – but he owns his house and one other house and he and Mom can live on their Social Security without any great strain.
What a shame it is that retirees will bear so much of the burden of this disaster. They don’t have time to wait for a market recovery. I bet they wish the money was in a mattress instead of the stock market or at least a bank. We all learned from this.
While Steve and I survive on very little, we do survive. I guess that’s one time having a Social Security disability check is actually a benefit to the lifestyle. Who would have thought it? I have been hoping to get another book contract to ease our budget a bit and that might be slow in coming because of the financial mess but we can say we are better off than we were a year ago. Life is strange. I am so glad that the disability claim was settled when it was- if we were going through it now the news of the economy might have really put us over the edge.
I know what it feels like to go to bed scared that soon you won’t have a home. I have used food stamps and commodity foods. I feel for the people who are scared to death right now but it will get better. People are going to have to re-adjust their thinking about what a good living is all about.
We were all living on future earnings- there was a time when we did that too. Then Steve got sick. Everything changed rapidly. Never count on what you assume will be there someday. Live on what you have today.
Stop talking about a handout for those who were “taken advantage of” by big credit crooks offering adjustable rate mortgages – usually the handout promoter says mortgages made after 2002. Lots of people were smart enough to buy a home they could afford, with a conventional mortgage and they too are having problems making mortgage payments. They may have bought the house 20 years ago. But if you lost your job and can’t find a new one you are in as much trouble as the dreamer, who believed he was entitled to the house he wanted today and would find a way to pay for it tomorrow. Help everybody who is struggling.
Drop all interest rates to 4 % and give amnesty to all overdue mortgages. Put the unpaid months on the end of the loan. Adjust the loan principal to more correctly reflect the homes current value. If they can’t afford the new lower payment, then let the mortgage holder give the bank the title to the home and walk away without damage to their credit.
One thing not to invest in should be stocks for cell phones and cable TV corporations. People need to take those out of their budgets right away. Put up a TV antenna, watch local channels for free. Carry your cell for 911 calls only- they will work for that after you cancel the contract. The amount you save on those two things might give you enough to pay the mortgage.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
new horse
I am a horse owner again. I went out and bought a mini-horse mare and her two month old colt. Lily is a nice little six year old sorrel mare and Charlie is her bouncing sorrel baby. At least I think he will be sorrel. I have all this pasture full of knee high grass and I can’t put her out in it and leave her because she was being kept in a paddock without any grass since the foal was born. It would make her founder. So Steve and I made a small pen just outside the stall in the back of the barn and pulled all the grass out of it. It was last weekend, when we had 5 inches of rain – we worked on and off in the rain.
Lily and son have a nice 10 by 12 box stall that opens to a roughly 12 x 20 pen outside.[ The picture is of Lily in her previous home.] I have been putting her out in the pasture for a short period at a time, which they both love. Twice Lily has managed to get out of the pen into the pasture, the lure of green grass is so strong. Once was in the afternoon and I know she wasn’t out more than 2 hours. The second time was at night and I have no idea how long she was out but she is fine.
She eats like a horse- she went through a bale of hay in about 5 days- with very little waste. She isn’t thin- even nursing she is well padded. I don’t want her to get too fat, mini horses look awful with big pot bellies and then they founder easily. I would like to get her out on the pasture more though, Charlie loves racing around and rolling in the grass. And hay is so expensive, we bought it at the feed store and it cost $7.00 for the bale. I have to check with the neighbors to see who has hay for sale. At least she will be easy on the grain – 2 cups twice a day- the bag should last for a while.
I am going to have to mail order a halter for Charlie. You can’t find a mini-foal halter very easily in stores. He is quite friendly and loves to be scratched but is already giving me a bit of a hassle when I try to bring them back into the barn. He follows Lily to the gate then runs off. It takes a lot of coaxing to get him inside.
When I let them out in the morning I have been letting the hens out in the pasture too. The horses don’t seem to mind them, although Lily chases cats. The turkeys look so funny out in the grass. They have been flying out of the pen for some time but they like to go where the hens are going. They roost outside every night on the top rail of the pen. Steve tried to put some chicken wire there yesterday because we are afraid they will get hurt out in the yard but they got out anyway- one was on the barn roof calling its head off this morning.
Tomatoes are about gone but pears and apples are getting ripe. We have some runty grapes too. I need to dig up the potatoes to see what’s there. Cucumbers succumbed to downy mildew. No pickles there. I did make a few pints of tomato sauce but the tomatoes really struggled with the fungal diseases this year. Our pumpkins are small and green. I doubt they will mature. I need to harvest some sage. My moon flower is finally blooming- we haven’t had frost yet although it has come close a few times. Got to get the porch ready to bring in my plants. The zinnias and morning glories are looking good. The ornamental kale is coloring up but I doubt we get to see much of it as the turkeys have found it. They seem to like big leaved plants. They eat a lot of comfrey and that’s fine by me.
We have had a very green summer. This last 5 inches of rain will make the plants and soil moist going into dormancy. Since the ground was pretty dry before it started the flooding around here was minimal. I am just glad the rain wasn’t snow we would have been buried. Summer has been fairly mild too, the way I like it. I hope fall is long and mild.
Lily and son have a nice 10 by 12 box stall that opens to a roughly 12 x 20 pen outside.[ The picture is of Lily in her previous home.] I have been putting her out in the pasture for a short period at a time, which they both love. Twice Lily has managed to get out of the pen into the pasture, the lure of green grass is so strong. Once was in the afternoon and I know she wasn’t out more than 2 hours. The second time was at night and I have no idea how long she was out but she is fine.
She eats like a horse- she went through a bale of hay in about 5 days- with very little waste. She isn’t thin- even nursing she is well padded. I don’t want her to get too fat, mini horses look awful with big pot bellies and then they founder easily. I would like to get her out on the pasture more though, Charlie loves racing around and rolling in the grass. And hay is so expensive, we bought it at the feed store and it cost $7.00 for the bale. I have to check with the neighbors to see who has hay for sale. At least she will be easy on the grain – 2 cups twice a day- the bag should last for a while.
I am going to have to mail order a halter for Charlie. You can’t find a mini-foal halter very easily in stores. He is quite friendly and loves to be scratched but is already giving me a bit of a hassle when I try to bring them back into the barn. He follows Lily to the gate then runs off. It takes a lot of coaxing to get him inside.
When I let them out in the morning I have been letting the hens out in the pasture too. The horses don’t seem to mind them, although Lily chases cats. The turkeys look so funny out in the grass. They have been flying out of the pen for some time but they like to go where the hens are going. They roost outside every night on the top rail of the pen. Steve tried to put some chicken wire there yesterday because we are afraid they will get hurt out in the yard but they got out anyway- one was on the barn roof calling its head off this morning.
Tomatoes are about gone but pears and apples are getting ripe. We have some runty grapes too. I need to dig up the potatoes to see what’s there. Cucumbers succumbed to downy mildew. No pickles there. I did make a few pints of tomato sauce but the tomatoes really struggled with the fungal diseases this year. Our pumpkins are small and green. I doubt they will mature. I need to harvest some sage. My moon flower is finally blooming- we haven’t had frost yet although it has come close a few times. Got to get the porch ready to bring in my plants. The zinnias and morning glories are looking good. The ornamental kale is coloring up but I doubt we get to see much of it as the turkeys have found it. They seem to like big leaved plants. They eat a lot of comfrey and that’s fine by me.
We have had a very green summer. This last 5 inches of rain will make the plants and soil moist going into dormancy. Since the ground was pretty dry before it started the flooding around here was minimal. I am just glad the rain wasn’t snow we would have been buried. Summer has been fairly mild too, the way I like it. I hope fall is long and mild.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Early September
The sun is shining at least for a while today. We had the remnants of hurricane Gustav yesterday and the remnants of hurricane Hannah are supposed to be here tonight. The almanac has some interesting things to say about heating and cooling cycles as they relate to sunspot activity and they seem to think we are heading into another cooler period and winter will be cooler than normal.
We are having water problems. When you live in the country that’s one of the things you deal with – your water supply. We had a new pressure tank put on last fall but they didn’t change the pump- now it seems some little box thing on the pump is going- the pump stops working when it sits overnight and Steve has to go down there and give it a thump- then it turns on. I guess that means a repair bill soon. You never realize how important water is until you don’t have free use of it.
And I spent about two hours this morning trying to repair the kitchen floor after one of our lovely dogs tore a piece of the vinyl up right in the middle of the room. There had been a small tear there that had been repaired and glued down, some dog found that to be interesting and enlarged the tear and removed a small piece. You never know what dog you want to get rid of until you catch them eating your floor.
I was grumping about how awful and boring the presidential race was until the new GOP vice presidential candidate was announced. I really like Sarah Palin, 100 times better than O”Bama. Now those who are just enamored of making history can vote for her instead of a conceited, power hungry, half black guy. I too wonder how she is going to manage all the family things with the high powered job, but if she thinks she can do it, I say go for it. We would never ask a man the questions we ask her about family.
Some women can and do manage beautifully. She knows better than anyone else what she is capable of doing and it’s a once in a life time chance a woman would be a fool not to take. She is smart, feisty, conservative and experienced. I hope the two of them, McCain and Palin win. McCain has devoted his life to serving this country and this is probably the last chance he has to become president. He will run it at least as well as O’Bama, probably better.
O’Bama needs to go back to work and actually get some experience and decide what side he is on, take some stands even if they aren’t popular, show he knows how to lead etc. Maybe he can try later although personally I think a man who has written two memoirs at this stage of his life when he really hasn’t accomplished much is a bit too set on himself. I think he feels superior to most of us, a cut better than the average person and he wants to be president just to add to his memoirs. The presidency of the Untied States isn’t just another game to be won so you can boast about it.
Let’s move on- hey, these are my memoirs here. The hens are laying well now. So well I am giving away eggs. Eggs and tomatoes. My vines may look awful now but they are still ripening fruit and the tomatoes taste great. I don’t really have enough to can but I make a little sauce. I will really miss fresh tomatoes when I can no longer have them, store tomatoes taste totally different. Our corn is done but we are enjoying corn from other local growers. I just bought some Michigan apples and a watermelon too.
Gardening Granny’s advice here is not about politics. It’s to get out to your local farmers market if you don’t have a garden and see what real food tastes like. And take the time to make something from scratch just once anyway, whether it’s a pie, salsa or bread. Eat like you were dying!
We are having water problems. When you live in the country that’s one of the things you deal with – your water supply. We had a new pressure tank put on last fall but they didn’t change the pump- now it seems some little box thing on the pump is going- the pump stops working when it sits overnight and Steve has to go down there and give it a thump- then it turns on. I guess that means a repair bill soon. You never realize how important water is until you don’t have free use of it.
And I spent about two hours this morning trying to repair the kitchen floor after one of our lovely dogs tore a piece of the vinyl up right in the middle of the room. There had been a small tear there that had been repaired and glued down, some dog found that to be interesting and enlarged the tear and removed a small piece. You never know what dog you want to get rid of until you catch them eating your floor.
I was grumping about how awful and boring the presidential race was until the new GOP vice presidential candidate was announced. I really like Sarah Palin, 100 times better than O”Bama. Now those who are just enamored of making history can vote for her instead of a conceited, power hungry, half black guy. I too wonder how she is going to manage all the family things with the high powered job, but if she thinks she can do it, I say go for it. We would never ask a man the questions we ask her about family.
Some women can and do manage beautifully. She knows better than anyone else what she is capable of doing and it’s a once in a life time chance a woman would be a fool not to take. She is smart, feisty, conservative and experienced. I hope the two of them, McCain and Palin win. McCain has devoted his life to serving this country and this is probably the last chance he has to become president. He will run it at least as well as O’Bama, probably better.
O’Bama needs to go back to work and actually get some experience and decide what side he is on, take some stands even if they aren’t popular, show he knows how to lead etc. Maybe he can try later although personally I think a man who has written two memoirs at this stage of his life when he really hasn’t accomplished much is a bit too set on himself. I think he feels superior to most of us, a cut better than the average person and he wants to be president just to add to his memoirs. The presidency of the Untied States isn’t just another game to be won so you can boast about it.
Let’s move on- hey, these are my memoirs here. The hens are laying well now. So well I am giving away eggs. Eggs and tomatoes. My vines may look awful now but they are still ripening fruit and the tomatoes taste great. I don’t really have enough to can but I make a little sauce. I will really miss fresh tomatoes when I can no longer have them, store tomatoes taste totally different. Our corn is done but we are enjoying corn from other local growers. I just bought some Michigan apples and a watermelon too.
Gardening Granny’s advice here is not about politics. It’s to get out to your local farmers market if you don’t have a garden and see what real food tastes like. And take the time to make something from scratch just once anyway, whether it’s a pie, salsa or bread. Eat like you were dying!
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