Days of Rain

Last week,  I posted about the fact we had been sweltering through a hot summer, as so many of you are this year. 

This week, we suffered again, but... we have had 3 inches of rain since Thursday!  Two, today, from a storm early this morning and then another this afternoon.  We have a storm warning for tonight, too.  I am supposed to have a construction company here this week to start doing some work on the house, so I am not sure what this means, but I am so glad to have the extra rain. 

This happened in a storm three weeks ago.  Ben tried to get it down, but no tugging would do it.  If you look on the left, you will see one branch is totally dead, but two are still hanging secure.  One has dropped down almost to the ground now, and I am mowing around it, and yes, I am careful.  I am hoping if we do get the additional storm tonight, there will be some movement while no one is under it to get hurt. 

Look who came back this week!  (Yes, that's the ram in the foreground... impressive!) 

Nugget, who was formerly mine, was born here and she is heavy with lamb. 

It is so good to look out in the morning and see them all grazing. 

The length of time they will be here now will depend on the grass... but this rain surely helped. 

They made quick work of the weeds in the pen.  

I have let the chickens over on the "house side" of the yard several times this week.  

I looked out to see Singleton, the most dominant rooster, on the porch one afternoon. 

Singie was the lone chick that hatched under his mama. 

He is five this year, and more dominant than his brother, Buddy, the other big rooster. 

I looked out one morning to see Bob staring up at the feeder. 

There was a squirrel perched up there eating, not knowing how close Bob was. 

(or maybe knowing full well!) 

Bob was actually standing on his hind feet stretched out against the pole, but got down when he caught movement in the window where I was. 

I finally went out and called Bob, and the squirrel ran off. 

It's bad enough that I'm always running out to rescue birds from Bully. 

Here was one out here today, while the cats were all inside sleeping. 

Don't look now, friends, but the next holiday is upon us! 

I walked into the commissary at Fort Leavenworth this week to see them setting up the Halloween displays. 

I actually am going to confess that I went to Sam's for cat food today, and 

looked at all the Halloween creatures that lit up and talked, but did not buy anything.  I DID, however, buy the first two Christmas toys for the little ones for this year.  I am limiting the three great-grands to three each, and buying them early, as my hard rule is NO CHARGING GIFTS.  I have followed this rule for years with great success. 

I have one for each of the first two.  

I had just unwrapped this rocker I got at Tractor Supply when I took this picture. 

I have wanted a rocker on the porch for so long... and the wood ones were always expensive. 

This was reasonable, on sale... it is just a tad too high for me, but is comfortable and I rock Bob in it. 

I found him asleep in it today. 

There are mama and the three babies on the front porch of the big hen house the other night. 

And here they are scavenging in the barn.  When the weather is so hot, 

I leave the door open for the two cats that live in there.  They have a fan, too. 

I leave a tiny pile out for the cats when I take the food up at night, you see the raccoons are eating it.  Mama does not let the littles have any if she wants it, that one on the right is begging her. 

A friend of mine with a large farm told me her electric bill was 690.00 this week, she has fans running in all her buildings, two fans dedicated to old horses, fans in her chicken houses, etc.  I am planning on mine being between 4 and 500 dollars, because the fans have run almost non-stop, plus the air in the house.  I do have it cycling off and on, though, and try to keep it high enough to be comfortable but low enough to be tolerable. 

Here is my little Wanda crossing the porch at night... of "her" hen house.  One morning of rain this week was chilly, and I found her curled up in a nest box for the first time.  The next three days were awful, though, and I think she goes under the little hen house to escape. 

She will sleep inside the big hen house this winter, as she did last winter. 

Her eyes are looking a little rheumy again, so a trip to the vets may be in her near future. 

Here I am, caught by the camera on the porch of the hen house, doing what I feel like I did all week long... mowing... I got almost the whole yard done before the rain today.  I swear to you that I mowed last Saturday and Sunday, and by Wednesday it was like a hay field again! 

I didn't get that cat food in quite early enough! 

That's Bob.  This is a miracle. 

That's Coco, also a miracle... who HATES BOB. 

These two could not care less. 

Oh yes, he is the King! 

(see little Wanda behind him?) 

The Drama! 

Have a good week, friends.  I know so many of you are coping with fires and floods, and terrible, terrible weather.  I pray for all of you, daily. 

 

A Cold April and May

It appears we are going straight into summer from a very chilly spring!

We have had rain since Wednesday... and... after one last cool day, today, we are to dive into the nineties!  

Too soon! 

Here are some pictures from around the place in the last few weeks...

I walked out on the deck and happened to look to the east one day and saw this! 

It is in about the same place where the maple that turns into fire every fall stands... but I have never noticed it before! 

(Could the big maple have been felled??) 

It was beautiful, and shown like a beacon for several days. 

Yes, I know it's probably a pear tree that needs to be cut... but gosh, 

it was beautiful.

Jack Flash is always around, always watching.  The other cats are scared to death of him, and I am not kidding.  He has beaten up Cleo several times, and she fears him.  I have to carry her food to her now. 

He comes on the deck about 4:30 AM, and curls up in the chair by the door. (camera)   At 5:30 or so, I haul myself out of bed, and go to the door, having filled the dry food bowl the night before.  He jumps down as soon as the door opens and eats his breakfast, and yes, he will let me pet him now.  He is the only one left not neutered... and I am working on that slowly.  The other males are gone (except Bullseye)... Yeller and Rusty are eating across the road at my friend's house now. 

The orioles are back, both Baltimore and Orchard. 

However... I could not feed on the deck as I did last year, so I have not seen them "up close and personal" .  Cats.  Cats everywhere. 

The feeder is way out in the yard, and after trying it on the shepherd's hook for a day, I moved it to the flat feeder that Ben built for me last summer.  

They will be gone in another week. 

Oddly, I have had the hummingbird feeders up on the porch for two weeks, and have yet to see a hummingbird.... also cats?  I wonder. 

I could move them down in the yard in the shade... and may try that, but the littles are everywhere.  The littles are Wanda, Coco and Bullseye, even though all are a year or over a year now.  They are all small and young cats.  They are also good buddies. 

Wanda and Coco playing on the trellis and fence. 

That is literally the cross bar of the big main feeder Keith built. 

No wonder I am not using much wild bird seed right now. 

I have to admit they make me laugh all day. 

The rainy cool days caused us to spend a lot of time inside. 

I have never grown sweet alyssum or lavender, isn't that crazy?  I had no idea that 
Sweet Alyssum actually smelled so wonderfully sweet!  I know it is spring-flowering, but, my goodness... it's wonderful!

I planted lettuce at the back of that planter, you can barely see it.  It did not 

germinate well.  The flowers in the front are all volunteers, so we will see what they are. 

(they look like daisy foliage) 

Here are more volunteers... Batchelor's Buttons, from the planter 

directly above them on the deck.  There is also catnip growing out of sight on 

the right.  I am leaving all these, they are doing wonderfully. 

There are pink versions around the corner there on the right. 

Serendipity, folks. 

The crazy thing is the planter is my "pasture flower" planter that was planted with a 

wildflower mix.  These were obviously seeds that dropped from it. 

On Monday, my young friend Ben stopped by to invite me to his graduation party. 

Any of you who have read this blog over the past year knows how Ben has helped me so much... he weed eats, does simple maintenance, builds, fixes... the list goes on.  I was afraid I had lost him forever, as he is working at the local bank this summer.  He reassured me that he will still work for me this summer, and I can't tell you how happy it made me! 

I have a list already. 

My local friends are so tired of hearing me talk about On The Hook. 

They are in about six states... if you have a chance to eat their fish and chips, try them! I am NOT a seafood lover, but I could eat their cod every day of the week, and believe me, the weeks I can hit the truck more than once stand out in my mind!

(My friend Gloria calls it "The Truck" and that is how I think of it now, even though there are many food trucks) 

They have the best tartar sauce I have ever tasted! 

I rarely eat more than a few french fries, but I savor every bit of the cod. 

I bought four pieces last Saturday (dinner comes with three) and ate every single bit. 

They are five miles from me this Saturday... I will be there as soon as I leave the Ag Hall. 

Speaking of the Ag Hall, we had our first Barnyard Babies Family Festival on the 23rd... and had a decent crowd after not having it for two pandemic years. 

This is not a very good picture, but you can see that people are starting to gather around the Southwest Dairy trailer to watch a milking demonstration. 

It was so good to see families enjoying themselves, and we had many, many animals there for them to see (and no, I did not get pictures, I'm so sorry) 

In the afternoon, I was the Schoolmarm in Island Creek School, and I invited kids to come up 

and draw on the blackboards behind the teacher's desk.  There are no blackboards in schools today, and it's a novelty to draw with chalk and erase what you have drawn. 

Unbeknownst to me... a young artist drew ME. 

My granddaughter, Paiton, was there helping me all afternoon, and she laughed and said 

"Grandma, turn around and see what is on the board."

I couldn't believe it!  She had actually captured me perfectly, and oddly enough... there was also a cat on the board to the left of me!  

I did not get her name, but she was very talented! 

Another young girl drew a city across the board... it was really something to see.  There is so much hidden talent in our young people. 

My little Zoey had to make a trip to the emergency vet on the 24th... she had a bladder infection, they thought.  She was on meds for over a week, and seems to be much better.  We go on Monday for a checkup with her own vet to make sure.  

She and Jester did a lot of resting up during the chilly week. 

This came up in my Facebook memories this week... Little Snowy in the haybarn, looking for mice. She was as dogged a huntress as is Zoey! 

How I miss her sweet little face! 

Here are the three littles caught by the deck camera.  They are together, many times, when I look outside. 

And to close... proof that there are still a few wildings around. 

However, I don't know whether it is because I am feeding MUCH less feed, or whether it's because I went to a cheaper feed, but 

I have nowhere near the number of wildings eating in the yard now. 

The cameras catch only one or two, not ten or eleven, as they used to. 

Last week, I had a raccoon strike during the day, and kill one of the silkies I use for education at the Ag Hall. 

I have not had that happen, though I have had coyotes strike in daytime. 

I have watched for a raccoon around the place... but have seen only an opossum hurrying home early one morning. 

I know it was raccoon.. it had pooped under the bird.  

And on that happy note... 

goodbye until next time, I am going to deliver some eggs! 

 

Back to Normal

I promise to start posting again. 

There, it's official. 

I took this in the doorway (the porch) of the 

old henhouse when I went in to clean the water bowl a

bit ago.  There was something coming up from underneath 

the ground, I thought it was something iron, like an old tub. 

Notice my assistants helping me. 

In a house in which my mother and I lived years ago (many years), 

I unearthed an old iron clawfoot bathtub in the back yard, I don't 

know if some one had used it for planting at one time, or what. 

It was completely buried, and no, I didn't dig it all up. 

I thought that is what was happening here. 

But, on closer inspection... I realized what it was. 

We bought this place in 2005.  The very first project 

Keith did was fix up the building that became "The Old Henhouse"... it had been 

used as a baby-sitting place for the kids of people who came to pick at the old strawberry farm here. 

He laid stepping stones across the yard, so I would not get my feet wet.  I had totally forgotten them, 

and most have sunk into the ground at this point.   I think there was one in the doorway of the henhouse, which later became our pony, Beau's, stall.  I suspect that is one of them. 

I'm probably going to have Chris dig it up, so I don't trip over it. 

I ran this bucket from the pump by the Hen spa.  You see the sediment? 

It has been strong since the well froze last month. 

I am not drinking the water currently... and am thinking 

I'll have to start filtering again, I did not have a filter put on 

after I moved in.  I do keep bottled water to drink, but use this 

for everything else.  We did have the well tested before we 

rented the place, and I have never had one qualm about drinking it (always did, Keith 

didn't.)  My sentiments are purely because of the sediment, I am not worried about the purity. I am blessed to have a 120 foot deep well. 

The maple tree is budding out big time, and still looks pretty good. 

I am calling an arborer to come look at it, and at the old walnut. 

I would like to keep it if I can (it is not bearing)... but... 

(and I just realized you can see Troy's house in the above photo... from the front door, I can't see it behind the barn at all!) 

It's trunk is in bad shape.  This does not give the true perspective, it's a massive 

trunk. 

Another view.  If you saw the next side, you would know how hollow the trunk 

really is, our renter poured a bag of cement in there to stabilize it, I believe. 

I suspect it is going to have to come down. 

That's my mulch "pile".  Thanks, girls. 

And speaking of mulch and gardening...

I dug a test hole in the south flower bed just out of curiosity this morning. 

I was actually going to have this bed all torn out, the landscape timbers 

Keith used have all rotted, and this was terribly overgrown the last few years. 

It was never properly planted.   HOWEVER... when I saw how nice the dirt looked 

underneath, I had second thoughts.  I am now planning on either trying to dig it out 

myself, or have it dug out.  In the old days, I would have been out there all afternoon with 

the digging spade, but right now, I am not capable of it.  

You long time readers will remember that Keith and I made these beds according to the "lasagna-gardening" method, we used newspaper, straw, manure, and good topsoil to build them. 

So, then I went over to the north bed... 

It was considerably harder to get the spade in there.  You see, the 

north bed was completely planted, and phlomis grew up in this area and took 

over everything else.  I want it gone, actually.  This clump I finally got up is full of 

roots, so I suspect I am going to have to remove about half this bed, and 

replace the manure and topsoil.  It will take all season, but next year I should have 

a wonderful perennial bed. 

I am guessing I need a little tiller again, though I would like to practice 

no-till.  I just don't know if I'm capable of it at this point. 

There are a lot of nice iris in this bed, and also, some lovely lillies, still. 

Here comes my boy up out of the pasture this morning, he LOVES to go down in the pasture and 'splore... but I usually try to keep an eye on him.  Unlike past years, I have not seen any 

coyotes lurking in the daylight, but I know they are there, I can hear them. 

'Splorin makes you tired

My girl likes to snack on cat food from the critter feeder. 

My "Valentine flowers" from my kitchen windowsill. 

Hope everyone has had a lovely Valentine's Day.