Go away August- weather and puppies

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

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

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

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

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

county fair

It was fair week last week in our county. The Master Gardener Program gets a whole 100-foot by 30 foot building to build displays in and we try to do it proud. This year we had a fairy garden, [beautiful plants, all kinds of tiny fairies hiding in different places doing their thing, fairy houses, a fairy boat made from acorn shells floating on a tiny pond, even fairy dust -made from organic sugar- that kids could take home]. And we had a re-cycled garden where we added plants to all kinds of things, tires cut in half, old pots and pans, old chairs, boots, wagons, wheel barrows etc. It had an ancient Maytag wringer washing machine turned into a tiny pond where water circulated through the wringer part and even had blooming water lilies. It had clothes hanging on a line with plants in the pockets and an old barb-b-cue grill turned into a planter. Then we had an indoor plant exhibit with a complete living room set up with houseplants including orchids and bromeliads. We also had a garden of plants for tea, a naturalized garden and a garden with plants for wildlife. Master Gardeners grew the plants all summer and built the props and it wasn’t easy this summer with all the heat and drought. But it all came together beautifully. I was there for seven days straight at least 8 hours a day and let me tell you, I was glad when it was over. We did get a little rain- par for fair week- but the fairgrounds got a lot more than at my house which is 30 miles north of the fairgrounds. It was too hot to even sit out in the sun in the evening and enjoy the rodeo. I wish fairs could be held in October.
This was the first year in many, many years that I personally hadn’t made any entries in the fair. Usually I enter my fudge, plants I grew, floral arrangements, etc. I was just too busy this year. My time at fair did allow me to look in the animal barns and reminisce about when I was a kid showing animals at fair. The poor animals looked miserable in the heat. Animal barns are a lot cleaner and less smelly than they were in the old days. At another county fair in Michigan this year the pigs came down with a disease and had to be quarantined. Our fair went fairly smoothly. I did see one incident of poor sportsmanship. A kid who didn’t win first place with his meat pen of chickens splashed paint all over them in protest. In the old days that kid would have been told to take his birds home, but this one was allowed to stay. We are so afraid of hurting any ones feelings we overlook bad sportsmanship.
I have an issue with the way things are judged at fairs now anyway. Seldom does a child get anything but a blue ribbon, even if he or she admits they threw the project together the night before and it looks like crap. These are “precious little beings” that we need to encourage and everyone is a winner. Then the kid grows up and goes out into the real world and doesn’t understand why his boss criticizes him because at least he tried. The animal projects are a little more objective but even there the push is to make sure everyone is “happy” whether they tried their best and the animal is deserving or not. I don’t think projects should be made fun of or kids judged too strictly, but it’s a fact of life that you can try really hard sometimes and your result won’t be as good as someone else. And if you don‘t try really hard and get the same reward as everyone who did, what does that say to the person who worked their butt off?. What meaning does a blue ribbon have if everyone gets one?
And then there’s this thing about tiny children entering fair contests. It used to be that you had to be 10 years old to enter a 4-H project and then you were usually restricted by age as to how many and what kind of projects you could enter after that. Now we have 3 year olds showing horses and entering photography projects. They can enter in just about any area. It’s called Cloverbuds here and other things in other counties and states. What happens is Mom and Dad want to show something and can’t, or they just can’t say no to a whiny brat. It’s dangerous for tiny kids to be in show rings with large animals and even rabbits are a lot for kids under 10 to handle. What ever happened to waiting until you were old enough? The kids just get participation ribbons anyway. But there has to be judges and ribbons and a lot of time invested in judging these so called projects. Maybe there should be one or two craft projects little kids could do but even in the crafts it’s obvious the parents do most of the work. One judge asked a child what he was thinking about when he took that picture and he said his aunt took it. So what did the child learn? How to cheat? Parents- get a life and a spine. And 4-H officials should also learn to say no and get off the “everyone is a winner, lets all be careful we don’t damage a fragile ego” kick.
Fair competition doesn’t hurt kids, it builds character and prepares kids for the real world. Life isn’t always fair and everyone is not equal in all things. Tell a kid what he did wasn’t good enough and let him deal with it. Suggest ways how he could improve - give constructive criticism but don't be afraid to criticize. He’ll either try harder and learn to do it better or find something he is good at. That’s where parents can help. There is usually at least one thing a child can do or wants to do really well- help him find that and encourage him to keep working on it even if he’s not the best right away.

Hot and Dry Gripes

I am tired of endless hot and sunny days, we haven’t had more than a trace of rain in 6 weeks. There is only about a 30% chance at the most that we will get any rain this week too. Storms pass overhead, thunder and lightning crashing, but the rain never comes. It’s almost like our little corner of the world has been given a death sentence. The lawn crunches when you walk on it, the trees and shrubs are wilting, every night I spend a good chunk of time watering things so they don’t die. I try not to think of the plants I can’t get water too. The weeds are going crazy, [some weeds like dry weather], because after I water I don’t have time or energy left to pull them. The pasture is drying up, we let the sheep roam the back north area where the fence isn’t very good, but even that will soon be gone. First cutting of hay is getting very expensive because there hasn’t been a second cutting. I shudder to think what hay will cost this winter. There may be lots of lambburger in the freezer this winter. I don’t even want to look at our pond. Many ponds around here have dried right up. I am getting paranoid about fire, I haven’t let Steve burn our trash. There is a big stand of white pine across the road to the north and it is tinder dry in there. We have a huge dry brush pile just across the road. If a fire got started it would burn right across the road through the dry pasture to the house and barns with ease. A cigarette thrown from a car could set it all off.
The flies and yellow jackets are getting very horrendous. Stable and face flies make working outside miserable, forget sitting anywhere. Where are they breeding? Manure dries as soon as it hits the ground. At least the mosquitoes are scarce.
We have had less problems with fungal disease on things this year, my tomatoes are doing pretty good except for Bonnie Best, an old variety. But the potatoes dried off early and the onions made little bulbs even though I watered them.
Our county fair is next week. I didn’t personally enter any exhibits this year, although I am in charge of coordinating a large Master Gardener Exhibit. It’s the first time in about ten years I didn’t enter anything and I’m glad, all my garden is less than winning and it‘s too hot to bake or make fudge. That’s when it will probably rain since I have to be there everyday and it can get pretty miserable trudging around in mud. But I don’t care, I hope it pours all week.

Move to the Country- just not too close to me

It’s such a beautiful day here in the country that the only advice I could give today is to move to the country! Get away from people looking at you all the time. Houses and yards so close together you can see in each others windows and hear every conversation. Working in the yard under the scrutiny of neighbors eyes. Different radios blaring at you from all directions day and night, traffic noise, sirens, kids crying. Ugh! Been there, don’t ever want to do it again. I sat outside this morning listening to the birds singing, an occasional sheep baaing, a horse nickering and wind rustling the leaves of the aspens.

Every once in a while a car would go by, we are fairly close to the road here, but its a dirt road and not real busy. But the neighbors can’t see me, no one was casually watching me and it was quiet. I can see out across the horse pastures across the road, or the alfalfa field to the east, or the sheep pasture to the west or the woods on the north- long views where the eyes can stretch out as far as a mile away. No buildings blocking the view, no concrete or asphalt.

I sat for a while watching the kittens play in my flowers and the birds visiting the feeders. My dogs were quiet in the backyard, they knew where I was and were snoozing in the sun. If anything was making noise it was those darn red squirrels, fighting over territory I guess, back and forth across the tree in the front yard. A hummingbird was visiting every red Bee Balm flower in my flower bed and she came and hovered in front of my bright pink t shirt to check it out. Doves were landing under the bird feeder to pick up spilled seeds and a kitten started creeping up on them. Birds kept landing at the feeder, they seemed to dismiss the tiny predators presence and the doves let it get almost to them before they whistled off.

The horse farm has a beautiful roan and white quarter horse mare in the pasture right across from our house. I get to watch her graze without having to buy her food and shoes.
There’s something soothing about watching animals graze on a beautiful day. It’s kind of dry here, the fields are turning yellow faster than normal, but it’s still pretty. We have turned the sheep out into the back pasture along the woods to eat weeds out there and what little grass is left. The back fence isn’t in good shape, but so far they have stayed up close to old pastures, I don’t think they like walking through tall stuff, they have to eat it down as they go.

My Oriental lilies are starting to bloom and the scent is heavy on the summer air. They are about two weeks ahead of normal bloom time I think. Casa Blanca, Tom Pouce, La Reve, Silk Road, and a few others are blooming. They seem to survive drought fairly well, I am watering them a little though. What’s sad is out toward the pond, where my lilacs, mock orange, forsythia and other plants are beginning to wilt. The hose won’t reach and carrying water from the pond would be extremely difficult as it would mean going up and down a hill and wading in mud to get to where the water has receded. So they suffer. There is no rain in sight for at least 5 days, and that doesn’t even look too good. This weather has sure been strange, people 20 miles away got 5 inches of rain last week, we got a sparse 1/2 inch. No matter how much you water, plants always seem to do better with a good rainfall. I will have more watering to do tonight. I try to water a different bed each night. Farmers around here had such high hopes this spring for a record corn crop as prices are high, now the corn is rolling up in the field. Most haven’t been able to get a second cutting of hay off this year so hay will be expensive this year. We may have to sell the sheep, it might mean choosing between hay and propane on our budget this year, or we could turn them into lambburger I guess. But we’ll get by and I thank God we are still living in the country.

Conserving water

We finally got a little rain yesterday and today, not a lot but enough that I didn’t have to water all the plants for two days. That was a nice break. I was getting a little crabby having to haul the hose around every night. I have all these plants in pots that I am growing for a display at our county fair. Pots have to be watered every day and it was so dry that I had to mercy water my flower beds too. We had to buy hay because the pasture is drying up. Yard hasn’t had to be mowed in three weeks. So the rain is very welcome. All those perky little weather girls on T.V. who assure us that the rain won’t spoil our weekend sure don’t live in farm country. Severe weather is a possibility tomorrow. Now I don’t want that. But I will take the rain.
All this talk about conservation and global warming and this drought have got me to thinking. Last fall we ran the drain from the kitchen sink out through the wall and down a pipe to my front flower bed. It didn’t freeze up all winter because water doesn’t stand in the pipe. The original drain had ran into a dry well somewhere under the house I guess, because it wasn’t hooked up to the septic. One of those old house mysteries. But it clogged up or was full and to hook it to the septic meant knocking a hole in a foundation wall in a crawl space, a job that neither my husband or I thought we could handle, so we improvised, redneck style and its worked pretty good. Keeps the front flower bed watered. In fact I would like to run the laundry water out to the vegetable garden or another flower bed. It’s a shame to waste all that water. Grey water, which laundry water and sink water are, is legal to reuse on plants and lawns. And the water won’t hurt them either, unless they get too much and the ground doesn’t drain well. My husband isn’t quite convinced yet on this one. But it would save on electricity too, pump wouldn’t have to run to water the plants. So maybe we will do it. Just think if all the gray water, shower and bath, laundry, sinks etc were reused to water lawns and flower beds what a massive savings across the globe that would be. It would be nice if some of it could be stored to flush toilets too, so clean water wouldn’t have to be used. That’s Granny’s advice for this week, let’s all try to re-cycle some water.

Cats aren't that smart

I don’t think cats are as smart as some people believe or as smart as they seem to think they are. I have this fluffy white cat named appropriately enough, Fluffy, who has been stepped on or rolled over by my husbands wheel chair any number of times, to the point of breaking her leg one time.. Yet she stills sits right on the door step and doesn’t move as you step out. If you manage to miss her there she will soon be underfoot somewhere else and must get stepped on at least once a day. She has successfully raised some kittens this year thanks to the help of a little black cat who either lost hers or combined them with Fluffys. They are about 3 months old now and running all over. They get under the car and I spend 5 minutes everyday checking and re-checking to make sure I don’t mash them. The kittens aren’t real tame, they will tolerate handling but they love making me part of their games if I sit out in the yard. I was on the ground trying to take pictures of them and they kept leaping up into the camera. Henny Penny was with them, she follows the cat family around now that her rooster is gone-victim of a loose Jack Russell. She also was very interested in the camera and kept poking her beak into the lens.
We have a number of barn cats- the number changes constantly as they come and go. A couple months ago a small black and white cat showed up, pregnant but very friendly. I figured some one had dropped her off here as they are prone to do, when they noticed she was PG. She usually ate with the back of the barn group, we have two cat feeding places, although she would be rubbing around my legs the minute I walked in the barn. I knew she had her kittens about the same time Fluffy did, but I never saw or heard them. As Fluffy’s kittens started running around I kept watching and finally I noticed the little cat dragging a rabbit almost as big as she was back toward the barn. When I was done with what I was doing I snuck over to the pasture where I could see the back of the barn and there they were, 5 of them. I didn’t see her or the rabbit, but the kittens were in the sheep feeding pans, eating a little of the stock feed that was left behind. They vanished like shadows when they noticed me. I figured out that she had kept them under the ramp to the inside entrance of an old dog run on that side of the barn. No dog in it of course. I felt sorry for them, so I started dropping a little cat food in the old pen where the sheep couldn’t get to it. A week or so later I noticed they were creeping into the back of the barn when I fed the back of the barn cats and eating with them. This week however they have totally disappeared and Mom too. It’s really strange. Maybe she came from one of the farms around here and finally felt it was safe to lead them home. Don’t know and I guess I shouldn’t worry about it. I can’t afford to fed the ones we have.

little mysteries

My husband and I were on the way to the grocery store this am, taking the backroads on a beautiful June morning, doing some sight seeing. [That means, gee his corn looks good, they're just getting off the first cutting, look at that pretty little donkey, oh my God, that house burned, we should pick these rocks up where the grader came through.] Anyway, we came upon this older black cadillac driving very slowly, all right for a few minutes, maybe they were looking too. Then we noticed the plate, black with white lettering. Who has that type of plate? we wondered. As we got closer, she[ it's an elderly female driver] now had her right blinker on and there's no where to turn and we got a good look at the plate. It was a Michigan plate[ our state] but it's from 1979- and there was no updated tab on it. Something began to buzz in me. there's something wrong here. The lady is on and off the road. We followed her until she turned onto a main road, construction ahead and busier traffic. First one blinker on then the other, going about 25 miles an hour. We hoped she was going to turn into the grocery store where we were headed, it looks like it, but at the last minute she veered back onto the road. So I pulled into the parking lot and dialed 911, described the car and the direction she was headed, and they promised to send a patrol car that was close right after her. We got a quick glimpse as she passed, a tiny lady with both hands clenched on the wheel, looking straight ahead. I hope they were able to prevent her from hurting herself or anyone else. But now I am left with the mystery. My husband keeps laughing at me but I want to know what happened. Was the cadillac with the 1979 plates sitting in a garage somewhere until she decided she was going on a road trip? Would it still be drivable, the gas good, etc. after 28 years? My husband says no, it would have to have been started up every so often, new gas put in etc. There was no temporary plate on it. The car looked like the body was in excellent condition, but it was a cadillac from the 70's according to my husband. If she was stopped from driving 28 years ago would she still be able to make it to the car and get out on the road? Was the car her husbands, who started it up and keep it running for 28 years without renewing the plates, who recently died and she decided to use it? Was it put out by the road by her family to sell and she saw it, escaped from them and took off in it? I keep imagining she is suffering from dementia of some kind, but maybe she just decided years ago not to renew the plates because all she did was drive to church and the store and she has never been caught. Maybe she stole the car from where it was stored! Oh well, I will probably never know. I want to call the sheriff back and ask if they found her- it also worries me that she could have turned off the main road and is still driving. But my husband thinks I shouldn't bother the sheriffs department and he thinks its silly to be worrying about it. But still.... I hate this sort of thing. It will bug me forever.