Well its here- the fifth season in Michigan country, the mud season. I see it in the path to the barn, the path to my car and the muddy path down the laundry room and across the kitchen made by dozens of tiny and not so tiny dog paws. Today was beautiful and sunny, 55 degrees and the snow is melting very quickly. However it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, which is definitely going to make it mud season. So far the road hasn’t been too bad, but I expect that to change.
I got the hose to run today going to the barn, glory halleluiah. Hopefully if I fill buckets in the evening before the sun goes down I won’t be carrying those heavy buckets from the house twice a day. The hose runs inside my raised herb bed and as I pulled it out of the remaining snow and mulch to lay on top of the bed in the sun, I noticed that the oregano was still bright green where it had been buried under the snow. Tomorrow I will pick some for the chickens.
The chickens sit on their ramp just outside their door, but they don’t go down into the snow. The snow is still deep in their run. Its supposed to rain in the next few days so maybe it will clear it away. The little pasture and the backyard where the dogs run have most of the snow melted. The horses are also tracking the wet into their stall, making it mucky. All the lovely piles of manure in the pasture are waiting to be moved to the garden or compost pile.
Started scraping the paint off the house, its time to re-paint. I want to get it done before the plants are up too much - it will be a race to see if the weather is nice enough to paint but the plants still too small to damage. Steve’s new wheelchair ramp is up and I did some measuring to make some landscaping plans. There is so much I want to get done this spring, as usual. Time and money will decide just how much actually gets done.
Living the dream
Visiting grandmas farm.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Although it is very crisp if you are in the light breeze that’s blowing today, it’s still a beautiful, sunny winter today. The sun is starting to feel warmer and the birds are starting to sing on sunny days. I heard a goldfinch and a cardinal singing away this morning. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow we are scheduled to get a heavy winter storm.
I am not a winter loving person. The snow could just skip us and I would be fine. But many people are very excited, especially kids, who anticipate a snow day coming.
I found it interesting that kids have these little “magic” tricks to get Mother Nature to give them a snow day. They wear their pajamas inside out and tape pennies to the window. Who starts these things?
Our propane bill has been terrible this winter. I thought maybe something was really wrong with this drafty old house but my mom’s natural gas bill was nearly the same as our propane bill. That’s one more thing to hate about winter- how much more it costs to live. I would love to have the money to have one of those “green” houses that produce their own energy. Solar panels and geo-thermal heating and cooling, maybe a wind turbine- that would be so great.
We are doing a little winter home improvement. We are painting two rooms, my office and our spare bedroom in anticipation of a granddaughter coming to stay with us for a while. I have such a hard time picking colors, I drive Steve nuts. I finally choose and purchased the spare room paint, it’s a light celery green, it will have darker green trim.
I wanted red in my office but the room is too small to paint the walls dark red, so I think I have settled on a very pale rose as the wall color with dark velvet red trim and accents. I am definitely not a pink person, but I think this will work. A female power room.
We have old wood siding on our house and it needs painting too. I brought home paint samples from the hardware and Steve rolled his eyes. I am down to two choices, a soft melon green, and a pale sunlit yellow. Our house is gray now. The paint brochure shows the yellow with a beautiful bird’s egg blue as the trim but I don’t think I could get away with that. I saw a home in a garden magazine with lovely pale lavender walls but Steve looked horrified when I suggested that. It will be a while before we get to painting the outside of the house so I will have time to think about it.
I am not a winter loving person. The snow could just skip us and I would be fine. But many people are very excited, especially kids, who anticipate a snow day coming.
I found it interesting that kids have these little “magic” tricks to get Mother Nature to give them a snow day. They wear their pajamas inside out and tape pennies to the window. Who starts these things?
Our propane bill has been terrible this winter. I thought maybe something was really wrong with this drafty old house but my mom’s natural gas bill was nearly the same as our propane bill. That’s one more thing to hate about winter- how much more it costs to live. I would love to have the money to have one of those “green” houses that produce their own energy. Solar panels and geo-thermal heating and cooling, maybe a wind turbine- that would be so great.
We are doing a little winter home improvement. We are painting two rooms, my office and our spare bedroom in anticipation of a granddaughter coming to stay with us for a while. I have such a hard time picking colors, I drive Steve nuts. I finally choose and purchased the spare room paint, it’s a light celery green, it will have darker green trim.
I wanted red in my office but the room is too small to paint the walls dark red, so I think I have settled on a very pale rose as the wall color with dark velvet red trim and accents. I am definitely not a pink person, but I think this will work. A female power room.
We have old wood siding on our house and it needs painting too. I brought home paint samples from the hardware and Steve rolled his eyes. I am down to two choices, a soft melon green, and a pale sunlit yellow. Our house is gray now. The paint brochure shows the yellow with a beautiful bird’s egg blue as the trim but I don’t think I could get away with that. I saw a home in a garden magazine with lovely pale lavender walls but Steve looked horrified when I suggested that. It will be a while before we get to painting the outside of the house so I will have time to think about it.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Animal rights
The floor of my house is filled with sticks, pinecones and walnuts. The backyard is littered with dish cloths, socks and used paper plates. All of this is courtesy of Barack, the cocker puppy, who is free to come in and out of the house, and who is busy as a bee decorating his spaces. Then there is Charlie, my colt , who also redecorates his spaces, removing the rubber feed dishes and buckets from his stall to the paddock and bringing sticks and other choice finds into the barn. My hens, as evidenced by their foot tracks, seldom go farther than the little ramp outside the door of their coop, not wanting to tread in cold snow, but willing to brave the cold just a little to sit in the sun outside the door. There are tradeoffs for allowing animals to go outside on their own and some animals don’t find winter outside very appealing. But my animals have the choice to go outside or stay inside, which is more than can be said for millions of animals around the world.
Before I go any farther with my little rant, let me explain that I am a meat eater. I have raised my own meat, bought meat from local farmers and the supermarket. I love farming - I think it’s the best occupation on earth. However I believe you can farm- particularly raise food animals - so that the animals have some quality of life before you butcher them. I applaud all the research done to make animals healthier, but I wonder if the focus on the bottom line - how much money can we make from each square foot of space? sometimes overrides making animals comfortable before we “use” them.
Michigan recently passed some laws that govern humane treatment of animals. The law doesn’t state that all animals need to have access to the outdoors, simply that they must have room to stand up, turn around, lie down and perform some natural movements. Yet the laws were met with outrage by many in the agricultural sector. It puzzles me why the law enacted bothers those in agricultural pursuits so much, it doesn’t call for unreasonable changes, it doesn’t follow some outrageous ideas of animal keeping dreamed up by animal extremist groups, just what should be considered some very basic standards of humane treatment.
Farmers as a rule don’t like being told what to do. They worry that these laws enacted will be followed by more laws, one that are harder to follow and based on ideology rather than reality. In truth most people who keep animals sincerely believe they are keeping them in a humane way. They are told it’s the best way by the researchers, and it certainly works well for the bottom line, in most cases. Money is tight in farming; profit margins are low for a lot of hard work. So if the experts say it’s ok to stuff 4 hens in 2 feet of space then they can have a lot more hens in the same amount of room, taking about the same amount of care,but getting more eggs, than if they had 1 hen in 2 feet of space.
If the experts say the best way to raise the most pigs from a sow is to confine her in a tiny crate so she can’t lay down on them, can’t turn around to even nuzzle them, the farmer might not be convinced at first. But if all the other swine farms start doing it and they are able to achieve that slight profit edge, eventually the hold outs convert or are slowly edged out of the market. (Unless they are more intelligent than most and make their more humane methods an asset, and market to a concerned and informed group of consumers.)
As part of the argument that how big farms treat animals is better for them- experts site a new study that says pigs are healthier confined indoors- they don’t get as many diseases as they did 50 years ago when most were kept outside part of their life. And yes that is probably true, they get less diseases. We would get less diseases if we were confined to our own homes, never going outside too, but most of us wouldn’t consider that a very good life. Pigs like comfort and I bet most would choose to remain inside during a typical Midwestern winter. But during the milder months give those pigs a choice and I bet they would head outside. And the inside-outside thing is only one part of the issue. Animals need enough space to feel comfortable, to move around normally, exercise and socialize. Inside confinement space costs money and a lot of time and effort to maintain, the more animals we can stuff into that unit, the more cost effective it becomes.
How happy do we need to make animals? How do we know what quality of life means to them? Do they miss what they never had? All hard questions to answer, but most of us know instinctively that there should be a balance between profit, modern farming methods, protecting our food supply and humane treatment of animals. Asking that food animals have enough room to sit, stand, lie down and perform natural movements while waiting to serve us certainly shouldn’t be considered animal rights extremism and an infringement on farmer’s “rights”. It’s just doing the right thing.
Before I go any farther with my little rant, let me explain that I am a meat eater. I have raised my own meat, bought meat from local farmers and the supermarket. I love farming - I think it’s the best occupation on earth. However I believe you can farm- particularly raise food animals - so that the animals have some quality of life before you butcher them. I applaud all the research done to make animals healthier, but I wonder if the focus on the bottom line - how much money can we make from each square foot of space? sometimes overrides making animals comfortable before we “use” them.
Michigan recently passed some laws that govern humane treatment of animals. The law doesn’t state that all animals need to have access to the outdoors, simply that they must have room to stand up, turn around, lie down and perform some natural movements. Yet the laws were met with outrage by many in the agricultural sector. It puzzles me why the law enacted bothers those in agricultural pursuits so much, it doesn’t call for unreasonable changes, it doesn’t follow some outrageous ideas of animal keeping dreamed up by animal extremist groups, just what should be considered some very basic standards of humane treatment.
Farmers as a rule don’t like being told what to do. They worry that these laws enacted will be followed by more laws, one that are harder to follow and based on ideology rather than reality. In truth most people who keep animals sincerely believe they are keeping them in a humane way. They are told it’s the best way by the researchers, and it certainly works well for the bottom line, in most cases. Money is tight in farming; profit margins are low for a lot of hard work. So if the experts say it’s ok to stuff 4 hens in 2 feet of space then they can have a lot more hens in the same amount of room, taking about the same amount of care,but getting more eggs, than if they had 1 hen in 2 feet of space.
If the experts say the best way to raise the most pigs from a sow is to confine her in a tiny crate so she can’t lay down on them, can’t turn around to even nuzzle them, the farmer might not be convinced at first. But if all the other swine farms start doing it and they are able to achieve that slight profit edge, eventually the hold outs convert or are slowly edged out of the market. (Unless they are more intelligent than most and make their more humane methods an asset, and market to a concerned and informed group of consumers.)
As part of the argument that how big farms treat animals is better for them- experts site a new study that says pigs are healthier confined indoors- they don’t get as many diseases as they did 50 years ago when most were kept outside part of their life. And yes that is probably true, they get less diseases. We would get less diseases if we were confined to our own homes, never going outside too, but most of us wouldn’t consider that a very good life. Pigs like comfort and I bet most would choose to remain inside during a typical Midwestern winter. But during the milder months give those pigs a choice and I bet they would head outside. And the inside-outside thing is only one part of the issue. Animals need enough space to feel comfortable, to move around normally, exercise and socialize. Inside confinement space costs money and a lot of time and effort to maintain, the more animals we can stuff into that unit, the more cost effective it becomes.
How happy do we need to make animals? How do we know what quality of life means to them? Do they miss what they never had? All hard questions to answer, but most of us know instinctively that there should be a balance between profit, modern farming methods, protecting our food supply and humane treatment of animals. Asking that food animals have enough room to sit, stand, lie down and perform natural movements while waiting to serve us certainly shouldn’t be considered animal rights extremism and an infringement on farmer’s “rights”. It’s just doing the right thing.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Just jabbering
We had hoar frost the last two mornings or ice fog. It’s when there is moisture in the air that condenses on all the trees and other surfaces and then freezes, like frozen dew. It’s so beautiful, although it can make the roads a little slick. I don’t mind this kind of winter weather too much, although it’s been a bit gloomy. Our temps have been in the low 30’s daytime and 20’s at night. Enough to keep the plants dormant but not too cold and we haven’t had any big snow or ice storms.
I had to take Charlie, the little stud colts halter off because it was getting too tight for him. He reminds me of someone who isn’t wearing their glasses when you are used to seeing them with glasses on. He keeps hiding the water bucket and feed dishes on me. It’s amazing how well he can do that when they are now locked in the small paddock and it’s covered with snow. He put the water bucket inside an old shelter we had for the ducks. He dropped one of the big rubber feed dishes inside an old burn barrel, which is empty and just sitting there and the other was hidden beneath the bottom of a tarp we have stretched in back of their stall door to block the wind. These are not areas where you would just expect him to drop things when he was done playing, it’s like he does it on purpose. And that means he must use some kind of reasoning when doing it. I think we underestimate the power of animal minds.
I have started teaching the Master Gardener program again. A new class of people eager to learn more about gardening. It always amazes me the range of ages and range of professional occupations that take the class. All these wonderful skills that they have outside of gardening. And you can almost predict that there will be the joker, the frowner, the overly anxious and the know it all in each class. I do think that most people enjoy our Master Gardener class and do learn a lot.
I know that for the most part, I enjoy teaching it. I wish we had the funds to offer it for free, and I want to make sure that the class thinks it got its money’s worth because it is expensive for them to take. I do get tired standing and talking for 4 hours - it’s amazing how that wears you out. And then of course you get to talk before and after class to all the students who need your personal touch. It’s a good thing I like talking!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Banana bread and paint
One good thing about working from home part of the time is that when I feel like leaving my cubby hole of an office and baking something in the kitchen I can. Today I had a hankering for some banana nut bread - the yeast kind baked in the bread machine. I thought I had some mashed frozen banana in the freezer and put it in the microwave to defrost. Turns out I defrosted some beef gravy-well banana does get brown when you freeze it. Luckily I discovered my mistake before I poured it in the bread pan.
So I looked for some banana in the freezer and couldn’t find any- but we did have tons of frozen apple slices. I chopped some of those up, added walnuts and it was just as good as banana bread. We had hot bread with supper. The nice thing about a bread machine is once you throw those ingredients in the pan you can just go back to working in your office with out a worry.
My office is looking very sad right now. It was originally the smallest room in the house and painted a cream color. The cream is definitely dirty looking. When I get done with this next book I am going to take some time to paint it, put up some shelves and get things organized a bit better. My trouble is deciding what color to paint it. One day I decide on pale green, the next chocolate brown, the next deep red and so on. I think someone needs to develop mood paint. You paint the room with a paint that you can switch colors on by touching a button. Come on inventors, surely this is doable.
I thought about painting each wall a different color, (husband’s idea), and then turning my desk to face what color I preferred that day - but I think that’s too much trouble. Reminds me of when I was a kid and my sister wanted to paint our bedroom lavender and I wanted to paint it green. We ended up painting each side a different color, and believe me, it wasn’t pretty. Maybe I’ll paint a forest mural on the walls, and hide among the trees. I bet the office dogs would like that.
So I looked for some banana in the freezer and couldn’t find any- but we did have tons of frozen apple slices. I chopped some of those up, added walnuts and it was just as good as banana bread. We had hot bread with supper. The nice thing about a bread machine is once you throw those ingredients in the pan you can just go back to working in your office with out a worry.
My office is looking very sad right now. It was originally the smallest room in the house and painted a cream color. The cream is definitely dirty looking. When I get done with this next book I am going to take some time to paint it, put up some shelves and get things organized a bit better. My trouble is deciding what color to paint it. One day I decide on pale green, the next chocolate brown, the next deep red and so on. I think someone needs to develop mood paint. You paint the room with a paint that you can switch colors on by touching a button. Come on inventors, surely this is doable.
I thought about painting each wall a different color, (husband’s idea), and then turning my desk to face what color I preferred that day - but I think that’s too much trouble. Reminds me of when I was a kid and my sister wanted to paint our bedroom lavender and I wanted to paint it green. We ended up painting each side a different color, and believe me, it wasn’t pretty. Maybe I’ll paint a forest mural on the walls, and hide among the trees. I bet the office dogs would like that.
Friday, January 1, 2010
It's a New Year
Well its January 1, 2010. It’s a typical blustery winter day and I’m in my office working, not celebrating the New Year. I really don’t make New Years resolutions, just wishes. We did stay up until midnight. I was reading a book - a new type of book called a cyber novel. It’s called Level 26, quite a gruesome story about a serial killer of amazing and creepy abilities. I have gotten half way through the online film clips of the book- the cyber portion, although I’ve finished the book. I can read faster than my dial up connection can download film clips. I will say I have not been totally impressed. I never liked it when movies took liberties with a books story line and I’m a bit disappointed that the on line clips seem to stray a bit from the book. There are so many interesting things that could have been exactly like the book. Some of the clips weren’t worth the download time, like number 9.
Level 26 is a pretty good read, you can tell in spots it was written to make a movie from- which is hard to explain - but on the whole it was interesting. I did like getting an image of the killer in his white condom like suit and the reptilian way he moved from the on line clips. On the other hand when you just read a book you can imagine the characters anyway you like - which could be different from the way someone else would imagine them. I certainly would imagine the hero a bit differently from the scruffy little guy in the clips.
The author is a CSI writer, and the way the book is laid out is like a TV show, you can almost feel the places where a commercial break will take place. It was written to make a serial line of books, which is obvious, so I guess I will have to see if the next is worth it. A lot of serials fizzle after a book or two. This cyber thing needs to evolve a bit if it’s going to work. And one of my wishes for the New Year is to have high speed internet out here at an affordable rate.
I have been able to get a few books read over the holidays. My treat to myself. An excellent book was the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, a mystery by a new writer. I also read a new Stephanie Plum book- Finger Licking Fifteen. I like those books but they seem to be getting sillier, on the border line of being too silly.
One day I will attempt to write fiction. Oh gosh, is that a New Years resolution?
Level 26 is a pretty good read, you can tell in spots it was written to make a movie from- which is hard to explain - but on the whole it was interesting. I did like getting an image of the killer in his white condom like suit and the reptilian way he moved from the on line clips. On the other hand when you just read a book you can imagine the characters anyway you like - which could be different from the way someone else would imagine them. I certainly would imagine the hero a bit differently from the scruffy little guy in the clips.
The author is a CSI writer, and the way the book is laid out is like a TV show, you can almost feel the places where a commercial break will take place. It was written to make a serial line of books, which is obvious, so I guess I will have to see if the next is worth it. A lot of serials fizzle after a book or two. This cyber thing needs to evolve a bit if it’s going to work. And one of my wishes for the New Year is to have high speed internet out here at an affordable rate.
I have been able to get a few books read over the holidays. My treat to myself. An excellent book was the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, a mystery by a new writer. I also read a new Stephanie Plum book- Finger Licking Fifteen. I like those books but they seem to be getting sillier, on the border line of being too silly.
One day I will attempt to write fiction. Oh gosh, is that a New Years resolution?
Monday, December 21, 2009
Last day of natures year.
On Thursday when Steve went to the barn, he found Sarah, our old Jack Russell wasn’t doing well. Of all our dogs only 4 still live in kennels. Sarah shared a huge kennel with Bubba, the easy going cocker, who was willing to submit to her authority rather than with the other two kennel Jacks. But Sarah is at least 15 and has been suffering on and off from some kind of mouth problem, her teeth became vastly overgrown, with the incisors down outside her mouth. She had two dental cleanings and several rounds of antibiotics but the problem still smoldered. I think it is some sort of cancer, our old vet just shrugged and said maybe. I had noticed Sarah was increasingly weaker, we had been giving her soft food and coaxing her to eat.
On Thursday she was so weak she stumbled and wobbled and Steve brought her inside to a warm room. We gave her a box with low sides and a soft blanket over a heating pad and she appeared very grateful. She has been there since, she will get out from time to time, she drinks and we have been able to get her to eat one thing- hot dogs. Nothing else, canned food, scrambled eggs, bacon, broth, - just hot dogs cut into little pieces.
She is incontinent and I have to change her bed several times a day. She doesn’t seem to be in a lot of pain although that is hard to tell. She may have had a stroke, or maybe the mouth problem moved into her ears and causes the balance problem, but she is very uncoordinated in her movements when she does get out of the box.
When I went in before bed last night I got her up to change her bed and she stood long enough to drink and even shook herself and wagged her tail. I helped her get back into her bed and she wanted me to rub her face so I did, it doesn’t feel swollen but there is one small hard lump on her jaw. She liked to have her face rubbed before she got the mouth problem so it is hard to say whether or not it is bothering her. She eagerly ate the hot dog I brought her.
This morning I went to try to get her to eat and she was laying in her box deep in sleep, she didn’t move as I came in the door although I could see her breathing. When I touched her she looked at me, and stretched a little, then went back to sleep. At breakfast we had discussed whether to bring her to the vet to be put to sleep and decided that if she didn’t appear to be in pain we would let her die peacefully at home instead of subjecting her to the stress of the car and vet. I’d rather have her die in a warm bed than on a cold table.
I sat by her and watched her sleep, her breathing was deep and even and she appeared to be very comfortable. I am hoping she slips away, peacefully in her sleep. She responds if you touch her but she seems just to want to sleep, weary unto death. I left her alone, warm and peaceful, so my presence doesn’t make her try to stay, so she can go peacefully.
That country song, “I was almost home” plays in my head. Hopefully Sarah is remembering all the good days, hunting, playing, nursing babies, being stroked and petted, eating the good stuff, splashing in the pond, and lying in the warm sun. It’s the shortest day of the year, the end of natures year, a fitting day to end a good life. I hope she dreams herself peacefully away, the way I want to die, in my own bed.
On Thursday she was so weak she stumbled and wobbled and Steve brought her inside to a warm room. We gave her a box with low sides and a soft blanket over a heating pad and she appeared very grateful. She has been there since, she will get out from time to time, she drinks and we have been able to get her to eat one thing- hot dogs. Nothing else, canned food, scrambled eggs, bacon, broth, - just hot dogs cut into little pieces.
She is incontinent and I have to change her bed several times a day. She doesn’t seem to be in a lot of pain although that is hard to tell. She may have had a stroke, or maybe the mouth problem moved into her ears and causes the balance problem, but she is very uncoordinated in her movements when she does get out of the box.
When I went in before bed last night I got her up to change her bed and she stood long enough to drink and even shook herself and wagged her tail. I helped her get back into her bed and she wanted me to rub her face so I did, it doesn’t feel swollen but there is one small hard lump on her jaw. She liked to have her face rubbed before she got the mouth problem so it is hard to say whether or not it is bothering her. She eagerly ate the hot dog I brought her.
This morning I went to try to get her to eat and she was laying in her box deep in sleep, she didn’t move as I came in the door although I could see her breathing. When I touched her she looked at me, and stretched a little, then went back to sleep. At breakfast we had discussed whether to bring her to the vet to be put to sleep and decided that if she didn’t appear to be in pain we would let her die peacefully at home instead of subjecting her to the stress of the car and vet. I’d rather have her die in a warm bed than on a cold table.
I sat by her and watched her sleep, her breathing was deep and even and she appeared to be very comfortable. I am hoping she slips away, peacefully in her sleep. She responds if you touch her but she seems just to want to sleep, weary unto death. I left her alone, warm and peaceful, so my presence doesn’t make her try to stay, so she can go peacefully.
That country song, “I was almost home” plays in my head. Hopefully Sarah is remembering all the good days, hunting, playing, nursing babies, being stroked and petted, eating the good stuff, splashing in the pond, and lying in the warm sun. It’s the shortest day of the year, the end of natures year, a fitting day to end a good life. I hope she dreams herself peacefully away, the way I want to die, in my own bed.
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