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)

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:

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.

Well, so tonight Jason finished the ‘chicken tractor’.  I don’t have pics yet, but I do promise some.  I haven’t even put chick pics up yet, either! I hate reading a blog with no photos!  Anyhoo, a chicken tractor is a mobile chicken housing unit that you can move around as needed, i.e. when the chickens have pooped up the ground too much.  It is an A-frame little house built of recycled lumber and 1/2″ welded wire. It looks very much similar to the linked photo above.  We put in the baby chicks who are now 2 weeks old and feathering out, and the little boys immediately began sizing each other up, pecking each other and trying to ‘spur’ each other even though they don’t have any spurs to speak of.  It is really funny to watch as they flap at each other and jump around.  Of course, it wouldn’t be funny if they were actually doing damage to each other, but anyway.

So at least that’s out of the way for now.  You put 21 baby chicks in a rubbermaid tub, add some water, pine shavings, newspaper, heat and 24 hours worth of chicken poo and it tends to get pretty raunchy pretty fast.  Then, when you take them out to clean the tub, guess what?  Everyone decides to get diarrhea and get it all over themselves, so that’s lots of fun, too.  Needless to say, I was sooooooooo thankful that the chicken hut got done tonight!

Oh, I got to use an air-powered stapling gun tonight.  That was fun!  I actually managed NOT to perforate any part of my or Jason’s body with a 1.5″ long staple.  Fortunately, just for idiots like me, there is a safety feature that prevents you from doing such. Unfortunately, when I was throwing some PVC pipes and some wood moulding up on a shelf I nearly whacked Jason in the head (he went running for his safety glasses, and yes, he did wear them after that) and I did whack myself three times before I was sat on the sidelines with a finger injury.  I’m just not really good with tools and man-things and all of that.  Thank GOD knitting needles aren’t sharp!  At least I can do that without killing myself.

So today, I was browsing my new Seeds of Change catalog.  It is all organically raised seeds/plants.  Anyway it is like neo-hippie heaven.  I can’t wait to put up a hoop house (those semi-circular covered greenhouses) so I can raise veggies year round.  I think that will be lots of fun.  Oh, and work, of course.  Always work.  I am trying to come up with the best layout for my raised bed garden so that it gets maximum sun all year, esp. in winter.  I have been saving up all of my milk jugs and Coke bottles, because I am going to whack the very tops off, drill small holes along the bottom, and bury them next to my veggies.  See, that way you just fill it up with water, go along to the next bottle and you know for sure that your plants’ roots are getting watered.  It worked really well for some roses I had planted last year. So, if you have milk jugs or plastic bottles, send em my way!  :0)

Happy farming!

Hope y’all had a great new year’s eve. Jason and I, being the old farts that we are, decided to make some bonfires and sit around, doing nothing. He burned some piles down by the pond whereas I hopped on the 4 wheeler and worked for about an hour or so and dragged big limbs up to burn.

Let me let you in on a little secret girls…Diamonds ain’t a girl’s best friend. An ATV with a trailer and a chain are a girl’s best friend! I know that isn’t romantic like jewelry is, but let’s get real here. I can jump on my 4 wheeler, hook up a chain or a wagon, and do the same work that the boys do in record time. I’m sure I looked lovely in my royal blue Gallatin GopherFest shirt with my ever present doorag, and filth up to my knees, but whatever, I got the work done. Even Jason was impressed by the size of my brushpile. Anyway, the woods look a lot better now with all of that mess out of the way.

So, we burned the pile. I was donning my new Carhartt knockoff coat and my new ghettolicious silver headband/doorag thingy that my mom found in the trash, and my new sheepskin moccasins that I got for half off at Discount City. I always have to wonder if the neighbors think I’m pure white trash, but oh well!
We burned the pile till 10pm sharp and went inside. Forget staying up till midnight! I’d be regretting that for a week! Lol.

New Year’s Day I cooked a mountain of blackeyed peas in the fireplace, 4 pans of cornbread, 3 smoked chickens, sausage, and a head of cabbage. Ok, Jason gets the ‘meat cooking’ credit. I don’t do that part. We had our parents and his sister over and we had so much food left over that I am sure we’ll be eating pulled pork and chicken for the next several months.

So, today, I took the baby chicks out in the grass for a first look outside. I did have them on the deck until they all simutaneously decided to get chicken diarrhea and get it all over my clean deck. So, into the grass they went. Besides pooping, pecking, and peeping, they didn’t really do much, but what else are chickens supposed to do anyway? Then it got colder and I brought them back in. Ah yes, I forgot that we went into the woods and cut up some firewood. I didn’t get to wield the chainsaw this time, though. At least now we have enough to keep us warm for a few more weeks, and it was FREE, best of all.

Now, I am supposed to give a ‘shout out’ to Sarah, who specifically requested one and I think she deserves it for reading my boring little blog faithfully, so,

“WHAZZUP, SARAH!!!!!”

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Ah!  Finally a break in the cold weather.  I was able to get out and help Jason with some brush pile burning.  We have a lot of sticks and small limbs that have been laying around for a couple of months in these lovely piles, and we got to burn them out today.  I was excited that we got to work on the large pile in our (future) goat pen.  It looks oh-so-much better now!

I was lamenting to Jason about how some of the larger limbs needed to be cut up and he said, “Well, the saw (chainsaw) is over there. Have at it.”

Me: “Are you kidding me?  You know I can practically kill myself with a screwdriver!”

Anyhoo, he taught me Chainsaw Basics 101, and in 3 minutes, I was carefully buzzcutting down anything in my path.  My mind kept going back to a Reader’s Digest story that I read about 20 years ago about this unfortunate man that was cutting up some trees (alone) on his property and the saw hit some embedded barbwire, ricocheted back and sliced into his jugular.  So, here he is, bleeding to death and he manages to crawl back to his truck and go find help.  That image kept me very, very aware of what I was doing with that chainsaw!  Anyway, I had a good time learning to cut up things, and cleaning up the place.

I hope that you all had a great Christmas/holiday.  We got in our chicks from Ideal Poultry the day of Christmas Eve.  They are wonderful!  We ordered 12 Silkies, and they added 9 standard breed roosters for heat purposes.  Now I have these big ol’ chicks munching their way through my chick starter.  I am debating selling them now or waiting till later (the rooster chicks, not the Silkies).  After all, what are you going to do with 9 + roosters?  I guess we could eat them; I just am not sure about that yet.  Oh well, I’m enjoying playing with them for now.  Here in a few weeks, I am going to put in an order for some Dorkings and Salmon Favorelles.  They are good dual purpose chickens; meaning, they are good for egg laying and good for eatin’. 

Well, that’s all for now.  I am going to go sit down, rest my bones, and pore over my current issue of Countryside.