Saturday Night Redneckerie

So last week, we were sitting in the living room after dark, all the doors were open to let in the (then) cool breezes, and I kept hearing these clanging noises. I went and looked outside and didn’t see anything. The next morning, I discovered a mad trail of greasy raccoon footprints all over our deck…apparently a coon had gotten into a pot of grease that Jason had fried something in that he had left on the back porch.

So, the next night. Jason sets out the 12 gauge (??!!??) for the coon in the kitchen. I’m sound asleep. At 4:24am, I wake up to hear Jason saying, “Is that just wind or rain?”. I mumble something, and he jumps out of bed, crying, “It’s rain, it’s rain! I have tools in the back of my truck that CANNOT get wet!” As he is running into the kitchen, I’m trying to find my glasses and the floor, and he comes running back into our room, whispering loudly, “It’s the coon! I’m gonna make some noise.” So I tell him NO, don’t shoot the coon, because it’ll be back and we’re in a Godawful rush as it is.

We get the truck moved into the shed after a 5 minute, 3 car frantic game of Musical Cars, and we manage to get everything put away. Then, our youngest comes into our room, so I go and fall asleep with her. About 30 minutes later, Jason comes up the stairs (now 5:30am) and whispers loudly, “The coon’s back! Do you wanna see it?” “NO”, I say,”I just wanna sleep.” The next morning, he makes a huge circle with his arms. “That coon was THIS big!”, he says. So, I name the coon “Cartman”, after the little Butterball, Eric Cartman, on South Park. Cartman had managed to completely rip the plastic door off of the dog food container and throw it to the ground, as well as eat about 1/4 of our dog food. The NEXT night. Saturday night…..

We now have a .22. No more 12 gauge cannons for Cartman. We set up the gun, a little dog food on the deck, and we wait. As expected, here comes a coon, but not Cartman. No, now we have yet ANOTHER coon to contend with. I fling open the back door, and POP POP POP POP, 4 shots……………………………………………uh, no hits. Coon #2 runs off to the safety of the UNDERSIDE OF OUR HOUSE. Sigh. Now we know there are at least 2 coons living right underneath us. Great.

We set up again. We leave all of the lights off and I decide to crack our kitchen window, overlooking the deck, and stick the barrel of the gun out the window. I get a snack and I am munching away, when suddenly something dawns on me: It’s a Saturday night, I have a Moon Pie in my hand, and I’m shooting wildlife from the comfort of my own kitchen.

Yes, we have officially arrived to Redneckia.

raccoons

Home is Where the Quiet Is/Chicken Tractors

So the other day, we left the farm to go work on our old house (my Mamaw’s house) in town. We just had it re-painted and it looks wonderful, but we had to do the yard, since it was littered with painter’s trash and the beds looked really unkempt.

After about 10 minutes of working, I became annoyed at the honking horns, squealing tires, and thumping music. I looked at Jason and said, “Can we go home yet?”. I guess he thought I was kidding because he just chuckled. So I pouted a little bit and worked for about an hour or so more. Cars zoomed by, people were honking, and I grew increasingly irritated.

Living in the country has that effect on you when you come into town. People have the tendency to annoy the living daylights out of you, no matter how small the annoyance may actually be.

I asked Jason again if we could go home yet, and he shook his head no. Like a 2 year old, I stuck out my bottom lip, folded my arms, and sulked. Finally, FINALLY, we were done, and I couldn’t WAIT to get back to my farm. As soon as we turned in the drive, I felt a feeling of peace and tranquility wash over me. I don’t need to be on medication for stress…I just need to go home! Every morning when I wake up and look outside, it’s like a dream that has come true. Even the sky seems more blue here, and that’s the truth. People don’t need drugs to stay sane, they just need some space. That’s my theory, anyway.

OK, part two of this blog. Apparently a lot of people get directed to my blog by looking up “chicken tractor”. Lol. Well, here’s ours:

Jason built the whole thing out of recycled wood, wheels, and hinges. It’s small, but would work well for 2-3 adult hens if you don’t free range, OR you can use it as a portable coop for lots of chickens. Right now, it holds about 20 small chickens at night.

Back to the farm

Well as April 15th once again approaches, you can see how politically motivated I can get! (read post below) Anyway, I do have a farm to run, so I’ll try not to hop up on the political soapbox too much, since this is supposed to be about our homesteading experiences!

So back to farm life….the other day, my friend, Suzie, came and picked up her 10 Buff Orpington chicks that I’ve been brooding for her as well as our other Ameraucana rooster. Boy, the coop sure does look empty! Even though we still have 12 Silkies, an Ameraucana rooster, and 10 Ameraucana chicks, 2 turkeys, and 6 ducks! I am so ready to get some eggs out of this deal!

The other day, we took our two oldest ducks, which are both Snowy Mallard males, down to the pond for the first time. You would expect them to wildly zip into the pond and never come back. Yeah, right! We had to literally push them into the water, and even then they would only get where they could touch bottom. They did feed for a while in the mud, but after about 10 minutes, they jumped out and started walking up the hill, looking over their duck shoulders as if to say, “Are you coming?”. So we all had to walk up the hill together (they wouldn’t have it any other way, since they like to follow us) and I put them back in the pen. So much for the call of the wild!

In gardening news, the weather has been fairly fabulous lately, with few exceptions. We have been having temps in the 70s with plenty of rain. Part of our broccoli has been harvested as well as our lettuce. The cabbages aren’t too far behind, either. I am really excited about our potatoes, as I haven’t ever grown them before. We’ll see how that goes! In disappointing news, some of our onions are bolting; meaning, they are now sending up a flower head, which means that the bulb growing is done. Grrr! So I just went and pulled those up, and set them out to dry.

Oh, lastly, we placed an order with Angel Food Ministries earlier this month and picked up the order this past weekend. Now, y’all, I’m really serious here. If you really want to save some $ on your groceries and you don’t want the hassle of coupons, place an order with this program! I was very impressed with the food quality. Plus, all of the food is from USA or Canada (hurrah!). At least it was this past month. We ordered a ‘basic’ box and the fruit and veggie box. It cost us $52 dollars and let me tell you that it was so worth every penny! Last night I made a fruit salad with the cantaloupe and it was excellent. I ate a tangelo last night and I assure you that it was the best tangelo I have ever eaten! Perfectly ripe and so juicy you couldn’t hold it without a napkin. The cantaloupe was also excellent; it was fully ripened and very sweet. We also have eaten some of the apples, and though they are small compared to what we’re all used to getting at WalMart (ugh), they were very sweet, had great flavor, and super juicy.

In theory, one ‘basic’ box will feed a family of 4 for a week. For the month of April, I have already placed my order, and I ordered 2 basic boxes, 2 of the ‘heat and eat’ meal boxes, and one fruit and veggie box. This cost me about 150 bucks. Naturally, if you need dairy products, it will add to your monthly food bill, as well as bread if you don’t make your own, but still, it keeps you from buying all that crap you don’t need and it is good, restaurant-quality stuff. You do have to pick it up at whatever host church is in your area ((it comes in on a Saturday, and you MUST go get it that day), but I’d rather do that than go to WalMart or the grocery!

Yeah, I’m going there…

I really try not to bring up politics or religion in any conversation…I know those are taboo subjects, but I’m going to have to say something today.

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of visiting a local business, C. Miller Drilling. I found out during lunch via the Operations Manager, that Mr. Miller had become somewhat of a media sensation last year when he wrote a disgruntled letter to then-elect Barack Obama. Anyway, I was given a copy of the letter and read it on my way home. Some of you may have already received this letter via email, but here it is in its 4 page entirety:

http://www.cmillerdrilling.com/files/cory_the_well_driller.pdf

As I read it aloud to my husband while he was driving, I was not only impressed by the articulate and succinct wording of this letter, but I literally felt my heart fill with American “Can-Do” attitude and pride. I also felt simultaneously angered, because, I too share Mr. Miller’s views on many levels.

Being the wife/office manager of a small business owner, I can feel Mr. Miller’s emotions in every sentence that he wrote. If you think that owning a small business is easy, you’ve obviously never owned a business before! I get to witness firsthand, everyday, the hard work, dedication, and sheer pain that it sometimes takes to keep a business afloat. My husband has kept his business going for 13 years…I can only imagine how intensely difficult it was to begin. I do know, for a fact, that the local bank refused to give him a loan, because, as they told him, “If we needed that kind of business around here, we’d already have one here.” I do know, for a fact, that he sometimes worked around the clock, all through the night, to turn out enough jobs so he would make enough money to pay vendors that month. I also know that he has had 13 years of extreme physical and mental anguish that go along with running a business. I also happen to know how sickening it is that we pay several 10’s of thousands in taxes yearly, to find out that our tax dollars are possibly, and probably going to built a high-speed train from Disneyland to Las Vegas (to the tune of 80 BILLION DOLLARS, I couldn’t make that up), or something just as equally ludicrous.

What I’m getting at is this: If you aren’t pissed off about what’s going on with our government, you need to open your eyes. I used to be one of those people, in my 20s, who had never voted and didn’t really care who was in Congress or President or whatever. Because at the time, I naively believed that those people ‘up there’ didn’t make a difference in my life. That what they did didn’t directly affect me. Well, times they are a-changin’. NOW, I know that I am directly affected by whatever happens in D.C. And I hope that you know that, too. It’s so easy to sit back and put on your blinders and try not to pay attention to what is really going on in this world. I know, because I did that for so long. But please realize that changes that are made in the laws and government and whatnot will affect you, and definitely not always for the better.

I do not pledge my allegiance to any one political party. I will vote for the better man/woman, or, in some cases, the lesser of two evils. I’m not an Obama-basher, even though I didn’t vote for him. I did give him a chance, which I think he totally has blown.

I’m sorry if you’re rolling your eyes because I am on my political soapbox, but I really believe that as a nation, we’re in trouble. I’m sorry if you think I’m a conservative nutjob, but the reality for us is that as small business owners, we are being eyeballed by the government, who are trying to tax the hell out of us. If you don’t agree, maybe you should swing by and take a peek at what I have to pay in taxes a year.

So, Mr. Cory Miller of C. Miller Drilling, hats off to you. Your letter reflects my feelings perfectly; I only wish that my tired old brain could have said it as well as you managed to.

And it all comes back around again…

Yesterday, I attended a free seminar hosted by our county extension office, the title being “Growing Your own Groceries”. We had a good time talking with various people, discussing chickens, goats, goat cheese, gardening, and the like. Our own chicken tractor was on display for all to see! It was fun. I am going to go ahead and add in here; if you have never tasted goat cheese, it is DEE-LI-CIOUS! I know that everybody has this negative image of a dirty ol’, smelly goat with smelly milk or something, but let me say this…have you ever driven by a dairy cow pasture in high summer? That smell is enough to make you gag, but we drink that stuff like there’s no tomorrow. Anyway, they had some of the goats there and I swear, they’re about the cutest animals you’ll ever see.

Oh, but the cheese! It was made that morning and it was a soft, crumbly texture. It is called Queso Blanco, which of course, means white cheese. It is very, very creamy and doesn’t really have much of a flavor, but is quite similar to cottage cheese/cream cheese mix. MMMmmmmm. Yes, one day, I will have some dairy goats! And when I do, I am going to make my best friend, JJ, taste some of the cheese without telling him beforehand what it is, because I know that he is ready to vomit after reading this, lol. This is the same person who can’t eat anything but white boneless chicken because seeing the bones makes him nauseated! haha. I can’t wait (evil grin). Also, they were selling goat’s milk soap and let me be the first to tell you it is AWESOME!!! I used it last night and this morning, and it is very, very mild and lathers better than any soap you’ve ever tried, I guarantee you that. They make a lot of different fragranced and also non-fragranced soaps. We got the Coco Bolo (to die for), Tuscan Garden (also to die for, just a touch more masculine than Coco Bolo), Lavendar, Tea Tree, and Gardener’s hand Soap, which has Starbucks coffee grounds in it! It makes for a good exfoliant/cleanser. Please do yourself a favor and buy some soap from these guys:

http://www.coolcreekfarm.com/products.aspx

Check out the goat’s names while you’re there; it’s hilarious. Also, they go to events like Tomato Fest, just check the website. Oh and lastly you can cut the bars in half…they are quite large bars, and cutting it in half makes a ‘normal’ sized bar. In quarters, it would be a good size for your kitchen sink soap dish. Anyway…moving on..

So, anyway, one of the Extension agents, Renee was telling someone how the people who lived through the Great Depression had it all right, and we ignored them, but now it’s all coming back around. They were right, we are wrong, and we’re going to have to go back to the way that things used to be. I couldn’t agree more. I was a child of the 80s…we were so spoiled compared to past generations! Remember the song, “Material Girl’, by Madonna? Didn’t that say it all about the 80s? I think we were all raised to be materialistic, if not by our parents, then by all the commercials and crap that the media shoved down our throats. It’s just as bad or worse today! I HATE watching some of the kid’s channels because every 5 seconds they are trying to push some crappy Chinese made toy on our kids. My 3 year old can sing the jingle to Peek-a-Boo Barbie, for crying out loud!

Anyway, back to my point: it is time to simplify our lives. It is time to learn that we don’t have to run out and buy everything new. My new favorite phrase is the oldie but goodie, “Use it up, wear it out. Make do, or do without.” I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you that I don’t ever go buy crap I don’t need. I know that I shouldn’t, but old habits die hard. But, what I have been trying to do it use what I have, and if I don’t have it, get it secondhand. My SIL just gave us a couch and a kitchen table for no cost! They may need a little work, but they didn’t cost us a dime. I have even considered stopping and picking up furniture on the side of the road that people toss out. Don’t think this Junkyard Gypsy won’t either! I have dug things out of dumpsters; I have stopped and asked people for furniture that they have sitting by their trash can. I have scoured alleys and taken various things that people have thrown out. And I’m not ashamed to admit it! I don’t know why we have this stigma about using other people’s ‘trash’. You would be amazed at the things people toss out, I assure you! But let me get back to the Depression folks…

When I bought my Mamaw’s house in 2004, we had to do a through cleaning of all the cabinets. At the time, I laughed my way through the 9,000 butter and cottage cheese containers, 4,000+ yards of fabric, 500 rolls of old wrapping paper, years of rubber bands scavenged from newspapers, and saved bits of tin foil. I shook my head in amazement at the 25 bottles of dishwashing soap, 50-odd still-packaged dishtowels, and bottles upon bottles of various cleaners. Then, it was funny to me. Now, it’s not so funny…it was just plain damn smart! At that time, I thought, good Lord, Mamaw should have joined “Butter Tub Savers Anonymous”. Now, who could it be, that has about 60 plastic bottles and milk jugs saved out in her shop? And who is it who stocks up on dish soap, toothbrushes, shampoo, and toothpaste when it is next to nothing/free at CVS??? If I hadn’t had my head up my rear at the time, I would have been saving things all along. Because, after all, who knows when you’ll need some of those things that we are all so used to tossing in the trash? I use coffee cans for feed scoops, and cut off milk jugs for mini-greenhouses and to protect my plants from frost, and old half and half containers to start my plants in. I don’t have to buy a Jiffy greenhouse kit, or pots, or feed scoops. I hope that all of you will walk away from this and really, really think to yourselves about re-using what you already have, and stocking up on things when they are little to nothing at the store. Times are getting lean, and we all need to take away some notes from our grandparents! And for crying out loud, we don’t have to try and ‘keep up with the Joneses’!

Busy month, spring is so close!

Well, I apologize for taking sooooooooo long to touch up on this thing! My computer has been in detox/repair a couple of times and so I have really gotten behind! Plus, it’s planting season and baby chick season and I have been so terribly busy. We got in 10 Ameraucana pullets (that’s females in chicken speak) and 10 Buff Orpington pullets. The Buff Orps aren’t mine, but I’m holding them for my friend, Suzie. One of them is a real B, if you know what I mean. If you put your hand in the enclosure, which I have to do at least 2 times a day, she will try and take a beak-sized plug out of your hand! I usually call her a little buff B, and threaten her with the stewpot. Lol.

I bought 2 Broad breasted Bronze turkeys day before yesterday. I wasn’t sure what breed they were, but from process of elimination on the dealer’s website, i figured it out. That is disappointing to me because they have been bred to have so much breast meat that they are incapable of reproducing naturally. Yes, that means artifical insemination. Yes, that means they’ll probably be destined for the dinner table cause there’s no way I’m going to be a middleman in any kind of turkey sex!

You all should research about Broad Breasted White turkeys (that is what you will get @ the grocery). These are totally freaks of nature. Not the real Nature, but human nature. What I’m saying is that these birds were bred, inbred, etc, ad infininum, to make these turkeys that have freakishly large breast muscle, to keep us, the American public, happy. They can’t even breed because they are so heavy in the breast, that the males can’t perform their, uh, duties. Now, Broad Breasted Bronzes are the same thing, just in their natural coloration. I am really, truly interesting in ‘heritage’ turkeys; read: natural, heirloom breeds. These turkeys can breed normally and some raise their own young. Other turkeys must be hatched in incubators because the broodiness has been bred right out of them. So, in other words, my little baby turkeys may literally be our Thanksgiving dinner. Kindof weird to say, but I don’t really need BB’s as pets. Anyway, so I’m getting off of the soap box now, but what I was going to get into was how different turkey chicks (poults) are, as compared to chickens.

You may hear that a turkey is stupid, it will drown in the rain, blah blah. I really hate to use the word “stupid” when referring to animals because I think, “Well, ‘stupid’ when compared to what?” I mean, I’m sorry, but I know a great many people who could be outsmarted by a carrot. Anyway, after doing research, I learned that poults are a little……..slow. They move slow, their wings sort of droop, and they are slow to learn what and where the food and water is. However, I love them. When I stick my hand in, they come running to peck at my ring. Slowly, of course. I did read to put something shiny in the water and food so that they learn to peck at it. I grabbed a couple of beer caps for the water and a Mardi Gras bead necklace and ran it into the food dish. It just so happens that my shiny objects are alcohol-related…don’t let it fool you; I very rarely drink and I got the necklaces for a song at a garage sale. I didn’t have to flash anyone for them!

Anyway, these little poults are so endearing to me. Sorry to say they may end up in the freezer, but if it isn’t them, it would be some random, saline-injected turkey that lived a miserable life in some God-forsaken turkey ranch.

I also got my 4 Cayuga ducks in, and we have 2 Snowy Mallards. Now, ducks are a whole different ballpark. The negative is that they are SO MESSY. Just un-Godly messy. Now, that is when they’re in their enclosure indoors, I mean. I have never seen a creature consume that much water and splash it that much. It is like trying to raise a baby whale on land or something. They manage, within a few short hours to totally drench all of the bedding and their brooding box. I mean flooded, and totally stinky. If you don’t like to clean, don’t get a baby duck. On the other hand, when they are in their outdoor enclosure, that is no problem. Plus, they run after you at super-duck speed (at least 65 MPH) and manage to try and trip you with every step. They love to eat bugs here and there and mine also eat a great deal of sand for some reason. Anyway, I love my ducks!

Garden-wise, I have gone ahead and planted all of my herbs. I hope that we don’t get a frost, but if so, I’ll have to cover some of them. Tomorrow I am going to go ahead and plant my tomatoes, peppers and the like. This is a very exciting time of year for a gardener in Zone 8. March 15 is our typical last frost date. However, you all know that Texas weather is anything but typical. I’m going to take my chances, though. Back to the herb garden…I made a little mini-fence out of American beautyberry limbs, honeysuckle vines, rattan vines, and grapevines that I harvested out of our woods. Let me confide in you here for a moment. I do say curse words. Fairly frequently, actually, but never in the presence of children or company, or people that I don’t want to think badly of me (of course, my BFs don’t care, but anyway). Well, my dears, let me tell you that ‘gathering vines’ is work. Saying, “I gathered vines today.” sounds like something that comes out of Martha Stewart’s mouth, and certainly not mine. Saying, “I gathered vines” is like being stranded in a boat on the Pacific for 3 months with no water, no food, while being sun-bleached and having to eat seagull poop, and telling everyone upon your rescue that, “I took a little seafaring excursion for the last several weeks.” Ok, maybe it’s not that bad, but let me tell you, I figured out what kind of vines Tarzan swung around on. That would be called the rattan vine. I don’t know if that’s the proper name, but it’s a green, smooth vine that has the tendency to twist around a tree, cutting into it, and eventually weakening it to the point of death. How befitting! This same vine is the one that I scraped my arms, bruised my calves, and worked up a gallon of sweat trying to rip it out of trees. I decided that if I ever made a grapevine wreath, it would go for about $435,000. My God, I don’t know if there are anything tougher than vines. Naturally, as I was pulling with all of my weight, one of them came loose, and I flew backwards and bruised both of my calves on a log. And then that vine broke in half, so that added insult to injury. Anyway, I was down in the bottom for about an hour and a half, swinging, quite literally, from these titanium vines. But, I did manage to get a pretty good amount of them to use in my fence. It’s pretty cool, and I’ll have to post pics soon. Oh, and back to my cursing….throughout my vine ordeal, let me tell you that the woodland creatures really must have gotten an earfull that day. It’s a good thing that Bambi doesn’t know English. His father would wash out his mouth and send him to bed with no supper. It’s also a good thing that my woods are not close, at all, to anyone’s home. Also, may I add that no children were at home that day to hear my tawdry use of language.

Well, my fingers are tired, but I hope to get some pics and post more tomorrow.

IT’S GARDENING TIME…YEAAAAAA!!!

Before I go into our gardening, let me tell you what happened to me this morning…well as you all probably know, I’ve been having a rough go last month. So, naturally, I have been really mentally exhausted which leads to pretty extreme physical exhaustion. SO this morning, I was trying my best to sleep in a little, and our youngest was in bed with us (she has a cold and woke up really early). Jason moved onto the couch as her feet kept digging into his back, and shortly thereafter, so too did Zoe follow suit. I naively thought that she was with her daddy, and I dozed back off.

Just as I was catching some more zzz’s, I hear a little voice say quietly, “Look, Mommy, look at the little squirrel. He’s so cute and tiny!” I opened my eyes, and mind you, I am half blind anyway, but here is this huge mouse stuck to a glue trap about 5 inches from my nose with my tiny daughter holding the whole shebang. I nearly fell off of my side of the bed trying to grab this totally pissed and angry mouse stuck to an industrial strength semi-super glue from the tiny hands of my child. Well, there’s one way to get me out of bed in the morning! Here is a photo of something similar.

Now, on to gardening. We have put in our mini-orchard, consisting of 2 plums, 3 peaches (2 Redskin and one Luling), and soon to be 2 dwarf apples. Also we put in a “Wonderful” pomegranate tree, 2 Arapho (thornless) blackberry vines, and i have already set out some strawberries, even if it is a little early. As far as our veggies go: onions were set around Jan 20th. As of this month, we have set out asparagus, carrot seed, spinach seed, 3 kinds of lettuces, 2 kinds of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and some green onion seed. I also bought 2 more blackberry vines. On the 14th of this month, we’re setting out our potatoes, and I am going to plant my peas ASAP. That isn’t your “southern” peas (like crowders sp??? and black eyed peas), these are your English, sugar snap, and snow peas.

Today, Jason set the posts for our fence around the garden…I’m really stoked about getting up a fence! We also bought an irrigation kit with the mini-sprayers and drippers, to conserve water. We haven’t put that in yet, but we will soon.

So, if you live in Zone 8, where I am, February is the time to plant many things! Check your hardiness zone here: Texas Zones

Also, here is the method we are trying this year: French Intensive gardening. This means that plants are packed very closely, just like ‘cottage’ gardening to crowd out weeds as well as conserve water. You plant the plants very close together, semi-ignoring what it says on the package. Also, “succession planting” is something I’m going with, where as soon as a crop is done you immediately plant with another type of crop. You can even interplant plants in some cases. We have 16 beds right now. Now, it is wise to not plant the same crop in the same place for at least 3 years. So, we are going to rotate the beds every year. What happens is that if you do plant the same thing in the same place, host specific diseases and pests build up in that soil year after year, reducing your harvest if not ruining it altogether. By rotating where I plant what, it will help me to achieve the best possible harvest. That being said, on my asparagus and blackberries, they will not come into the rotation as asparagus produce for about 20-25 years (!) and you plant them very deep. Also, you don’t rotate berries and things of that nature, just seasonal crops.

Well, I’m sorry that I don’t have pictures for you today, but I promise to put some up soon!

Today’s favorite: Cello brand Silke pens.

I admit it, I’m a total pen junkie, so when I find a pen I really like, I have to brag about it! I am assuming that you pronounce it like “silky”, as the exterior of the pen has a matte, silk-like finish. Writing is super smooth and there is no skipping. This pen is very light and best of all, CHEAP. You get a big package of like 24 or something for a few bucks. I found these at WalMart, and honestly I bought them because they come in nice pastel colors (the ink is black), and I was sick of the men at work running off with my pens. Now I arm my pen arsenal with pink, purple, and yellow pens and haven’t had one walk off yet. ;0)

Gettin’ Better

Well, last week was pretty tough! We decided to go and look at the animal shelter for another dog. The plan was to get another large outside dog as a companion for our Mastiff. The reality was that we came back home with a Bichon Frise! Hello, total 180 degree turn there. Anyway, here are some before and after pics of “Rickey”, now re-named Theodore, or “Teddy”, as we call him:

Teddy Before his groom

rickeyjan09-033

As you can see, Teddy cleaned up quite nicely! He is a tiny bit scared, but getting better everyday. He is getting pretty good at housetraining, and he and Fran are best friends. We are glad to have found him!

In farm news, Jason did a great job of making some new veggie beds right in front of the house. We are doing something called French Intensive beds, which is essentially a raised bed with no sides, a lot of compost on top, and plants will be packed in closely to help battle weeds and retain moisture. I do have pictures, but they are out in the car and we’re under a winter storm warning and it’s just toooooo cold to go out right now! Lol. Jason planted about 100 onions or so. In the coming up weeks, we will be planting spinach, peas, taters, asparagus, cauliflower, cabbage, and carrots. It’s very exciting. I hope that I inspire at least one person to try and grow some of their own food! It is really scary to find out where your food comes from. Homegrown food is SO worth the effort!

Also, in other exciting news, we got 3 peach trees, 2 plum trees, a pomegranate bush, and blackberry vines. I am brand new to the world of orchards and fruit production, but hey, we all have to start somewhere. I am trying to ‘plant by the Moon’, that is, plant my plants during zodiac favorable days. Sound nutty? Well, Jason and I both had grandfathers who did it and they always had a great garden, so why not? You too, can find out favorable days by going to the Farmer’s Almanac website. There are even favorable days for digging holes and weaning your kids! Anyway, so far, so good on that.

Well, I do promise pics on how everything’s coming really soon.

Favorite thing of the day: CitraSolv cleaner

Made from concentrated oils in the rind of citrus fruits. It comes as a concentrate or as a premixed formula. It is much cheaper as the concentrate, though. I use this for wiping down kitchen counters, cleaning floors and pet cages, and well….just about everything but cleaning glass. If you love the smell of oranges, you will LOVE this stuff. I buy it at Break N Bread here in town. That is a natural food store. You can also get it direct from CitraSolv’s website. It contains the citrus oils, surfactants and that’s about it. I like using it because it seems like a very natural, no-frills cleaner that really works. Try it sometime!

A Longer Week

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Last night, as we were getting ready to go to bed, Jason called up our two other dogs (besides Fran), Hoss and Coco. Hoss is an English Mastiff and Coco is a Toy Poodle. We like to call them Big and Little Enis, if you will. Yes, they are quite a pair to behold. They never came, and so Jason came back into the house, miffed. I went outside and called Hoss and soon I heard the tinker of his collar, running up the hill behind the house. Coco never came. I thought he was just being a little snot, like he does sometimes. It never in a million years occured to me that he did not come because he couldn’t.

This morning, we expected Coco to be waiting for us when we left the house. He was not. In the hurry of the morning (we were late) and for all of the events that have happened this week, I did not notice that I never saw his little fluffy self bounding around our legs. We left work soon after lunch. Coco did not come to the gate. He is always, always waiting with Hoss at the gate. Jason and I were now really worried. Did he get hit by a car? Stolen? Attacked by other dogs?

We, with Hoss following us, rode to the back of our property, calling for him. No answer. We passed the pond and rode down to the bottom of the hill behind our house. Hoss ran over to the small creek and took a drink. But he didn’t come back to me. Instead he just kindof stood there. I knew that he had come from that direction the night before. I had a bad feeling. I turned my head and saw a tiny pile of fluff. The fluff moved. I ran to Coco. He was laying in a small indention in the ground. I thought at first that maybe he had fallen into a hole and broken a limb.

I asked Jason to get me a flashlight from the truck. Coco whimpered, but could not make eye contact with me. His breathing was rapid and weak. I shone the LED light in his eyes. His pupils barely responded. Emotion took over and I knew immediately that this was really, really bad. His limbs were almost frozen in place. Carefully, with tears running down my face, I gathered him in a blanket. We carried him to the house and I checked his pupils again. Even though he could not see me, I knew that he recognized me. We put him in the truck and as I was placing him in the seat, it occured to me that the blanket I had used for him was black, like a death shroud. I had a sinking feeling.

I called our vet’s office to tell them we were in route. Before we made it to the main highway, I turned around to check on him. His pupils were dilated and he was no longer breathing. Coco was gone. I couldn’t catch my breath, so I had to have Jason call the vet to tell them we would not be coming. I cried the whole way home.

We adopted Coco from an animal rescue almost 2 years ago to the date. He was a good dog; he was Hoss’ running buddy and sleeping partner. I know now that Hoss was not coming up to the house that night because he was trying to help his friend. If I had thought for a nanosecond that Coco was in pain, I would have gone looking for him.

He was a poodle with the heart of a terrier. He barked at strangers and was not afraid to nip them if they did not heed his warning. He was an excellent ratter, by choice. He would tear up the boxes in our storage area to get to the tiniest mouse, and he always knew when there was one around. He loved to be petted and groomed. You could tell that he loved a haircut by the way he pranced around…except for the day that I had to shave his ears because he had a run through the woods and got them all knotted. That day, he hung his head in shame.

He was not one of those spoiled rotten little poodles that everyone has pictured in their mind. He was my “ATP”. All-Terrain Poodle. Just like God meant poodles to really be. Adventurous, fearless little hunters, with a heart of gold.

He loved to swim and would fetch pinecones that you threw into the lake. That is, if Hoss didn’t get to them first. He loved to bite the ankles of anyone daring to come too close to the kids.

I loved him for the annoying, but loving little dog that he was. I know the Coco is up in Heaven, probably biting the angel’s ankles. We love you.

A long week..

I’ve had a pretty tough week this week! I’m really ready to see Friday night, crawl in bed and sleep in late Saturday morning. I’m sure we’ve all had days like that!

I finally uploaded some new pics to share with you. My first is entitled, “A Chicken in Every Pot” :

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This is one of the baby Silkie chicks at about 2 days old. (Please note: No chickens were harmed in the making of these photographs)

Here is one of Fran, and even though it’s blurry, I think it’s really hilarious the way she looks, as though she’s thinking, “MMMmmmm. Finger lickin’ good!” Don’t worry, she didn’t do anything other than the Excited Chicken Dance. I didn’t let her get any closer than that.

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Now the chicks are about 3.5 weeks old and I need to get pics of them. They are mostly now feathered out and trying to fly. Well, except for the Silkies. Poor things look like a maribou boa gone bad. They probably couldn’t fly if they tried.

I’m excited at the prospect of ordering my layers! Yes, yes, that DOES mean more chickens! My family and friends already think I’m nuts as it is for having as many birds as I do, and I’m sure I’m destined to be the ‘Crazy Bird Lady’, when I’m old. But I digress….I am also going to get some ducks and a pair of geese (to help eat up some aquatic pond weeds). Oh yeah, and probably eventually some turkeys. (!!!) Ah well.

Not much else in farm news. We’re constructing plans for my garden out front and trying to come up with plans for a cheap ‘hoop house’ for year round gardening.