Hello, I'm Mary, Book 5

Mary · Hello, I'm Mary, Book 5

This is continued from Book 4.

Before and after pictures are always fun. We all love the look of a nice neat flower bed, but this is what several years of being too busy with riding, vegetable gardening and preserving, and just plain living did to a flower bed that once looked nice. When it started to look bad I kept thinking that I had to do something about it, but it was so bad I just kept putting it off. Did it get better? Certainly not!

Mary

The red leaves in the first photo are a somewhat out of control Virginia Creeper. A washtub on the right side has succulents and behind it are more tubs and various pots of hens and chicks and other succulents. The Virginia Creeper crept under and around them, and the quackgrass was everywhere! The assorted tubs were on the septic tank which had just a few inches of horrible soil and wouldn't have been a good place to put plants in the ground.

In this second picture, taken from about half way to the corner, you can see tall phlox which were already going dormant, tall quackgrass going to seed, wild rose bushes, and a big elm tree. Pretty sad, and I wouldn't show you this except to give you hope for anything you think is impossible to reclaim.

Mary

After about a month of working on it an hour or two every day, making it wider and establishing new edges, digging out the few good plants, hauling the weeds away, clipping out the roses and digging out their roots, chopping tree roots out, hauling in new dirt to cover the old soil to about 3 inches, digging out and replanting plants that were too crowded in other locations, planting some new bulbs and the bulbs I found while renovating the bed, and mulching it with bark chips from our firewood, it looks like this!

It measures 55 ft from where I was standing to the corner of the fence beyond the big tree. The narrow parts are about 4 ft wide, the wider ones are about 8 ft. You can see the clothesline pole, and just beyond it a big bulge which is where those tubs of succulents sat for so many years. I planted shallow rooted plants there that will not get very tall because the laundry often blows out over the area on windy days.

Mary

Here is a "before" look into the rosebush choked corner by the big tree.

Mary

Here is the "after" picture of the same place, taken from a different side. The dark area with the rocks is the beginning of a rock garden.

Mary

When the last shipment of pansys and snapdragons went on sale for 10 cents each, I bought 15 of them for making a bright spot just outside the back door. Between them I planted crocus and grape hyacinths, so there will be another bright spot in the spring before the pansys wake up. Snapdragons will not bloom until mid summer and will be taller, so I put them in a little group next to the fence for a backdrop.

Next summer when all of this is looking more mature and blooming, I will take more pictues to show you.

God's Warrior

Good job, Mary. I look forward to next spring when you will post the pictures of the beds again.

Mary

The temperature has dropped quite dramatically in the past 2 days and so has the snow level. New snow is just about 500 ft above us, and looked very pretty with the late afternoon sun shining on it. I took a couple of pictures but they are still hiding in my camera. We have had some rain in the past few days which has been good for the pastures and flower beds, and has softened up the garden soil for rototilling. The rototiller however, is having a problem and will not run, so we took it to a repair shop yesterday. I hope to have it back before snow covers the garden.

There was no point in leaving the winter squash out any longer to possibly ripen more, or to freeze tonight under wet blankets in a night that is forecast for about 20 degrees, so I spent a couple of hours this afternoon bringing them up the hill to the house. The large wheelbarrow was the right tool for the job. I folded a heavy wet blanket that had been covering the squash, cut several squash off the vines and laid them carefully on it, added another blanket and more squash. That load was less than half of them.

As I pushed the heavy wheelbarrow up the hill toward the house I wondered where I was going to put them all. I hadn't realized there were so many. When I put the blankets over them they were hidden by big green squash leaves.

Three trips later, the top of our large chest freezer is covered, and there are quite a few on a table. I baked a few of them to mash and put in bags in the freezer. They are not fully ripened so I doubt that they would keep for very long in the basement. Sweetness is also not what it should be, so the solution is to sweeten them with brown sugar and a little nutmeg. I'll do that when I mash them. When I take bags out of the freezer they will be ready to heat and eat.

I'd almost forgotten about the parsnips which are supposed to taste better after a frost. Originally there was a nice little row of them, but then the gophers discovered them and one by one, they wilted because their roots were eaten, or they just disappeared! The deer enjoyed the tops, eating almost all the leaves and some of the stems as well. I could only find 4 today, but two of them are about a foot long. Next year I will grow them in a big tub!

When you are a gardener, there's always next year!

Mary

Yesterday morning before I went out to feed the horses, I could tell that Breezy was not feeling good. He was pawing the ground, first with one front foot and then the other and looking around at his side. There are no flies now because of the colder temperatures so this was a sign of something going on in there that concerned him. He walked a few steps into some tall dry weeds and laid down.

I put some hay in his feeder and he walked slowly to it and nibbled. He is normally an enthusiastic eater. A few minutes later he was lying down again. Not good.

Our breakfast was put on hold while I walked him up and down hills in the pasture. After about an hour I remembered that I had some pain medicine in the referigerator. He got a shot of that and we walked for another hour. Breezy nibbled at some grass. I thought maybe he was feeling better, so put him back in the pasture. During our walks he had passed some manure several times, so I had hope that things were moving through his 100 ft long digestive system.

After several hours of watching him, lying down, then standing, then lying down again, I called the vet, then loaded him in the trailer for a trip to get treatment. Breezy was put into the pipe stock again, and was given a sedative. The vet removed all the manure he could reach, but determined that there was more material in his colon that was too dry to move easily. I had not seen Breezy drink any water all day.

A tube was passed up through his nostril and down into the stomach. Mineral oil and water were put down the tube. The vet also gave him a painkiller, the same one that I had used several hours earlier, but mine apparently was too old and had lost potency, so had not been effective. This may have also been a heavier dose.

We were back home after dark, actually around 8pm. I put a winter blanket on Breezy and lead him down the hill to the corral. All he got was a bucket of water. The vet said no food until morning. I checked him at 10pm and he was lying down again when he should have been comfortable and standing.

Where to put a horse that wants to lie down when he needs to be standing, a place with some shelter from the wind? The stock trailer! After a walk up the hill to the level where the house, shop, hay shed and other buildings are, we continued up the hill to the road and back down, to try to relieve some gas. My knees were complaining about the downhills, they had done too much of that hill work earlier in the day.

Breezy was put into the trailer and I cleaned the floor around his feet so that when something came out I would be able to tell how much. I checked him again at midnight and took him for another walk, then got some sleep and repeated the drill at 2am. He was very hungry and got a few bites of green grass along the driveway. We went down the hill to the water tank but he was not interested in water.

Since he was comfortable I decided I could sleep through the 4am check. At 6:30 it was light outside and I went out in the rain and snow to check on my patient. He was glad to see me, glad to get out of the trailer, glad to eat more grass. I put him back in the corral with a small amount of hay that had been rained on so was moist and soft. While we had our breakfast I kept walking outside to where I could see him. He was still on his feet and appeared to be ok.

Later I took him some hay which I put in a plastic tub and wet down with water. I want to be sure that he gets enough moisture in his system to go with the hay. So far, several hours later, he is still comfortable. The plan is to let him out in his pasture to clean up the hay that is in the feeder, then take his blanket off and put him in the upper pasture with Patch for the night. It will be easier to monitor him there, and he won't need the blanket anymore because his system should be full of hay that is digesting and producing heat. Hopefully, after a final check at bedtime, I will be able to sleep all night.

Mary

I am thankful to have my happy horse buddy acting normally again. Yesterday he spent most of the day in the corral, and my plan was to let him out to finish up the wet hay in his feeder, then put him in another pasture with Patch. Well, how did he know that? I looked out the window about mid afternoon and there he was at his feeder, eating hay with a wide open gate beside him. Apparently he has figured out how to open the corral gate! If he had gone out through the pasture gate he wouldn't have gone anywhere, there is plenty of grass to eat and Patch was nearby for company. He never has been the type of horse who would take off to see what's down the road, he's been there, seen it and likes to stay home.

There was a break in the weather right after I discovered him, so I took his blanket off and put him in with Patch. They have been buddies for about 9 years. I dunked their flakes of hay in the water tank to add some moisture. OOO instant cold hands! I decided to get out the stock tank heater. That requires a heavy extension cord to run from the corner of the house through the flower bed, through the fence and over the edge of the tank. Then to keep them from playing with the cord, I put plywood over half the tank. They will drink more water when it is a few degrees warmer.

I checked him before I went to bed and once during the night. They wondered what I was doing out in the yard in the middle of the night in my bathrobe and slippers, and came walking over to the fence to check on me. This morning I gave them hay that had been sitting on the ground getting rained on, but then soaked some grain and beet pulp for Breezy to get some extra moisture into him. He has some green grass to nibble, but it is so short I think that is more of a mental treat than anything.

He came trotting toward me for his dinner, and again when I went out at 8pm with the apple and carrot peelings I had saved for him. Patch got some too of course. It's a blessing to have him feeling good again. Several years ago we lost his mother to colic, and the memory of that is still fresh.

This has been a strange week with the animals. About 4 days ago our full time in the house kitty, AmandaPanda started throwing up. Some cats barf a lot, she just never has. Hairball seemed to be the problem, so I reduced her food and gave her some butter a couple of hours before each meal and now that problem is solved too. How strange is it that the cat and the horse both have digestive blockages in the same week!

In other news, as the newscasters of old used to say after they hit us with the headlines, I did get a little bit of yard work done today since the weather was nice. I'm cleaning up the mess from the flower bed renovation which involves moving a lot of rocks. They are flat rocks, so we are saving them for other uses. I'm moving them a few at a time in the wheelbarrow. There were quite a few iris left over from moving things around, and I hate to throw them on the trash pile, so I am making another new little bed to give some of them a home. It will be a quick project, a few weeds to dig out, move in some good soil, and I'll be ready to plant them.

We made a quick trip to town today to take care of some bank business, and while we were there I took the plunge into chemical gardening. The discount store had tubs of Preen on sale for about 25% off. I had been thinking that I need to get some help with all the weed seeds that germinate every year, so I'm going to try it. I have always done things organically and tried to handle the weeds by pulling or digging them, but it is more work to do it that way and it's not been possible to keep up. I don't need more work, I need more flowers! None of it will ever go in my vegie garden.

Mary

We took off to have some fun on Saturday. Hubby tells people I kidnapped him for the day. Near Pendleton there is a Native American cultural center, and since hubby likes that kind of thing, I decided it was time to see it. I only told him we would be gone all day and he didn't know what our destination was until we pulled into the parking lot. We spent a couple of hours looking at everything and did enjoy it.

The next stop on the trip was down the road to a casino for their buffet, but the restaurant was closed between the lunch and dinner hours. We were quite hungry since it was mid afternoon and we hadn't had lunch. An employee showed us where there was another restaurant in the building, but we decided we didn't want burgers, or to inhale all that smoke. Why do they put up no smoking signs and then ignore people who are sitting there puffing away? The casino is located on tribal land, therefore state laws against smoking in public places don't apply there. Anyhow, between lack of food and the smoke, we left.

A few weeks ago we discovered a Chinese Buffet in LaGrande, so we went back there to eat. It was on our way home anyhow. We both had some of the favorite things we had last time, but also tried dishes we hadn't had room for last time. Then with overly full tummies, we went down the road a mile or two and got a refund on a rug we bought on the last trip, and bought another one that will fit beside the bed in the guest room.

The new little flower bed I mentioned last time is finished, planted, and mulched. Now I have started on another one. The north side of the greenhouse has been a weedy place with miscellaneous stuff just put there because it was handy. The stuff has been moved out of my way, weeds dug out of more than half of a3 or 4 ft wide strip, and cardboard laid on the dirt. Wheelbarrow loads of dirt and sheep manure have been added and some old wooden fenceposts laid end to end make a border and will help the soil stay in place. More iris will go there this fall, and other flowers next spring. I have to save a space for the 2 bales of straw I use to hold a sheet of foam insulation against the louvered vent in the winter.

Although this new bed is on the north side of the greenhouse, it is against the greenhouse wall, so some light will come through the greenhouse to it and it will get some sun in the morning and late afternoon, hopefully enough for the plants to grow well and bloom without growing sideways searching for light.

Yesterday when I was almost ready to stop working for the day I felt something sting my neck. It was a wasp who might have been on the cardboard boxes that I hauled over from a storage shed to use for a kind of weed barrier under the new dirt. The sun was setting by then, so I fed the horses their hay and came back in the house to take antihistamine. This is only the 2nd sting this year and he paid dearly for the privilage. Now I just have to deal with the itches for a few days.

Mary

I've been helping my hubby work on a plumbing and wiring project for the past few days, and when he doesn't need my help, I work on the flower beds. The weather has been nice, except for one day when the wind blew so hard we didn't want to be outside. We used part of that day to make a trip to town to get supplies.

The flower bed next to the greenhouse is planted and mulched with bark chips, and another one has been weeded. Next I worked on digging some volunteer Russian Sage out of the big lasagna bed, and planting the leftover daylilies in their place. The Russian Sage is quite prolific and I have dug up and transplanted quite a few of the volunteers. Several years ago I bought one plant, and had no idea it would be so happy here!

Last evening our full time indoor house cat, AmandaPanda, made a very energetic stampeede though the house. I commented that I wondered what had inspired her. Hubby said the back door was open and our other female cat had come inside. That one is a full time outdoor cat. The two of them fight through the windows, but when the barrier of safety was removed, AmandaPanda knew it and ran for her life. She became a full time indoor cat a couple of years ago after the other female attacked her when she was outside, and the result was a big chunk of hide and hair was torn off her side. So, for her own safety, she only gets to look at the great outdoors through the windows.

A few days ago my neighbor's horses found an open gate in their pasture and came over here to visit with my horses. I called the neighbor, but was only able to leave a message on his cell phone, so I caught one of them, and lead him down the road. The other horse followed, and I put them in the pasture with the sheep because I wasn't going to walk all over about 200 acres trying to find where they got out. Now they are just across the driveway from Patch and Breezy, and when I feed mine their hay, those two look at me like they think they need some too. Nope, they don't.

Mary

Our rototiller is home again and has been used! We got it yesterday, and half an hour later I had it in the garden. The soil had more moisture than I thought, but this had to be done, so I had to stop several times to poke at the wad of soil and vines that were stuck in the tines. A few showers could happen over the next few days, but if they miss us, the soil should dry out enough for me to run over it again before the tiller is put into the shed for the winter.

I need to fold up all the garden blankets which I draped over all sorts of things in the storage shed to dry about 2 weeks ago, and then I will be able to walk through there to put the hoses away for the winter. One hose will go into the shop, it is the one I will have to use about once a week to fill the horse tank. It won't freeze in the shop. Every time I use it I will have to coil it up again and take it back inside. The fawcett on the outside of the house will have to be wrapped up to insulate it, then unwrapped whenever I need to fill the tank.

In the past few days I have made some progress on weeding the big lasagna bed. Most of it was weeded in early summer, but of course the weeds have returned. I planted several daylilies where I dug up the dahlias, so I have no idea where I will plant the dahlias next spring, but there is plenty of time to decide. The weather is good so I will get back to work on that bed later today.

Here is a discription for those who aren't familiar with a lasagna bed. I made it several years ago using a barrier of cardboard or heavy layers of newspaper, then put sheep barn cleanings over that, and added a layer of straw to the top. All this was watered thoroughly and left to sit and decay over the winter, with an occasional hole dug in it to plant the contents of the kitchen compost bucket. The next spring I dug holes, added some potting soil, and planted perennials and a few shrubs. It is called a lasagna bed because it it built in layers and never stirred, like making a pan of lasagna for your dinner. Another name for it is sheet composting.

Mary

Today the church had the annual Thanksgiving dinner. The event is partly potluck, partly provided by the church, and there is always a good crowd and a lot of food left over. Of course I ate more than I should, and got an idea for a new salad that had finely cut brocolli, green onions, bacon pieces, walnuts, and raisins. The dressing for it was a bacon sweet and sour type. I'll try to make it soon, before I forget about it.

Tomorrow I might get the garden rototilled again. We got a little rain after the first time, but the last couple of days have been dry, so I hope the soil conditions are better. If the weather forecast is good, I might put that job off another day to give it time to dry out just a little more.

I've got a lot of house cleaning to do to be ready for the gang who will arrive late Wednesday and stay until Sunday, so that starts in earnest tomorrow. Hubby said he would do the windows outside and I'm sure I can find a few more little jobs where he would excell.

God's Warrior

That dish sounds great, Mary. Are you just going to guess at the ingredients or did you get a recipe? If you did get a recipe, please share it here. I would like to make the salad.

It sounds like you will have a wonderful house full of loved ones there with you for Thanksgiving. I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving.

Mary

Thanksgiving is over and everyone had a great time. We all ate to our heart's content, a bit too much at times, and went through a lot of food. The last of the 20+ pound turkey went into the soup pot for Saturday night's dinner which also included biscuits that almost melted in our mouths, and the above mentioned brocolli salad.

Sorry, Elena, I don't have a recipe for it. If I would have to guess, it would be about 3 cups of cut up brocolli (small bite size pieces) 2 or 3 chopped green onions, 1 cup each of raisins and nuts, 1 chopped apple (my idea, not in the original), and about 6 strips of bacon, cut into small pieces and fried until crisp. The dressing is made from a bit of the bacon fat, a little flour, vinegar and sugar. One of the guests made the dressing from memory. Look in a cookbook or on a recipe site for a bacon salad dressing. This fed 11 adults with enough left for about 4 more generous servings.

Here is another thing you might want to try: add softened cream cheese to your whipped cream and sugar mixture, it is great on apple or pumpkin pie and I think it would taste good on spice cake too. How much cream cheese? Enough so it has a distinctive cheese flavor.

Our days were busy but relaxed with various activities both indoors and out. Some of the guests took time to go to the Oregon Trail Interperative Center which is just a few miles from here. They also did some target shooting and stacked and burned a big pile of limbs and junky wood, and worked on a couple of projects in the wood shop. On Saturday I needed to go to town to pick up some things I had ordered, and buy a few more groceries, so one of the ladies went with me so she could see the town's historical district. We walked around for an hour or so, not really what I would call exercise, but we might have worked off about half a piece of pie.

Two of us did all the cooking, and one of our guests who just loves to wash dishes, kept all our bowls, knives, spoons, counters, and things cleaned up while we worked. At times we had to say don't wash this yet because if we would set something down it would disappear into the dish water. We all got along great and had a lot of laughs. We also had a great team of table decorators, table setters, and after meal clean up crews, plus there was always somebody willing and able to run downstairs to get something out of the spare referigerator or freezer, or off the storage shelves.

The weather was nice for most of the 4 days when everyone was here. We had a bit of light rain and some fog on Saturday but today was dry with fog hanging around near the mountains all day. They all had to drive in that direction and over 2 mountain passes so I think they probably had some slow and foggy miles.

Our house suddenly seems very spacious and quiet.

Mary

I think we have caught up on our sleep after our busy days and nights with all of our guests. We just aren't night people and all of them like to stay up late. After loosing 2-4 hours of sleep for 4 nights, and having days full of activity, we really felt tired.

Our weather continues to be unseasonably nice for December. The morning temperatures are about 18-20 and most days in the 40's. Yesterday we had 50, a heat wave, but then today didn't reach 40. We haven't had any rain in the past few days and the days have been sunny. I've been digging the weeds out of yet another small area to be a flower bed, as if I didn't already have enough. This is a place where we once had a 500 gallon propane tank. Regulations changed and we had to move it, so now I have this little space that needs a job. When I was digging in it today I decided that the soil looks pretty good.

The plan for this little spot is to cover it with landscape cloth and put a few half barrels of flowers on it with bark mulch around them. I have an old futon frame that I have considered painting green that might look good there, but maybe it is too big. Other ideas might take shape through the winter, depending on what I can find or put together. I'd like to make it look like a little sitting room.

My rhubarb has been put to bed for the winter. The plants are big, so I filled a 5 gallon bucket with old horse manure and put it around just outside of where the old stalks still stick up out of the soil, one bucketfull for each plant, then laid flakes of moldy hay over it all. In the spring, when the snow melts the hay will be moved, the soil will begin to warm, and the rhubarb will begin another season.

Tonight's sunset was a multicolored event with several shapes of clouds. Some were pink and some gray, all mixed together, and there were some of those white saucer shaped clouds over the mountains on the east, with more of the pink and gray above them. On the west side the sky above the mountains was a nice pinkish orange. Yes, I should have taken some pictures, and no, I didn't.

Mary

Our Christmas tree is decorated, and the outside lights and wreaths are in place. We always put a wreath on the gatepost up by the road, and I am wanting to get some solar powered lights to put up there. It is too far from the house to even think about using extension cords. We checked at Walmart today but they don't have any. The clerk said a lot of people were asking for them, so maybe next year.

We had special ordered an item at a store in the next town, where the nearest Walmart is, so went there this morning to get it and do some other shopping. It had been a while since we went out for breakfast so we did that first. I had Strawberry Cheese Blintzes. Yummy. They are crepes rolled up with sweetened cottage cheese filling and topped with a strawberry sauce. It's been several years since I have found them on a menu, and when I saw them I read no farther.

We did a little Christmas shopping, used a $10 off coupon at one store, mailed a package, bought a few groceries and were back home in time for me to do a little more digging in a weedy flower bed. Even with gloves I had cold hands by the time it was dinner time for the horses, and by then I couldn't see the weeds very well anyhow.

A couple of days ago I finished cleaning the weeds out of the space where the propane tank used to sit, so now it is covered with landscape cloth and a big piece of cardboard, and I am weeding elsewhere since the groung isn't frozen. We have cold nights, but by mid afternoon the ground is thawed and I can dig again.

The game department biologist has been driving around on the country roads counting deer. We had 19 in our pasture yesterday, 1 buck, 7 fawns, 11 does. This morning we saw 6 go through the neighbor's field next to us, and there were 9 more in our pasture. Based on the deer behavior, I am guessing that we are not in for a hard winter. Last year they were raiding my yard, this year they are not feeling desperate.

According to the biologist, the survival rate for the fawns this year was 47 per 100 does, which he considers good considering the hard winter last year which weakened the does and they produced weak fawns, many of which didn't survive. Hunting limits, areas to be hunted, and length of hunting seasons are all based on the deer populations.

Tomorrow afternoon my hubby will be volunteering on a citizens patrol in town, so I will go in with him and visit the library after I try to find some large sheets of cardboard for smothering weeds and quack grass in part of the future potato patch. We looked when we were in town on Tuesday, but the cardboard dumpster boxes were too empty to be able to reach in and fish out any flattened boxes. Maybe tomorrow I will have better luck.

Mary

Winter arrived yesterday afternoon, just about an hour after I decided that the iris I dug up the day before needed to go underground. They were crowded where they had been, so I only replanted 3 of the pieces there, then dug up a strip near the rockjack next to the outside of the fence to plant the rest of them. I think they are all the same color, either a blue and purple, or a two tone maroon. They will be better to look at than weeds and are in sort of a continuation of one of the other new flower beds.

On the way to town we saw the first snowflakes, and by the time we got to town the streets were covered. Hubby went to do his volunteer work, and I looked for cardboard in the cardboard dumpsters but couldn't reach any, went to a couple of stores for some forgotten groceries and spent a couple of hours reading magazines at the library in a comfy chair next to the windows where I could watch the snow coming down, then went back to the police department and picked up my hubby. I think I mentioned that he is mentoring in the Citizens on Patrol program.

We ate dinner in town, then had a nice drive home through the snowy countryside. The horses and cats were very glad to see us return, not really for our company, but for the food which they thought was long overdue. I fed the horses without needing a flashlight. Althought the sky was still full of clouds, it was very light from the moon, and all that light reflected off the snow. Indirect lighting was God's idea, people just copied it.

Everything looks fresh and clean outside this morning. We have 2 inches of snow which contains about 2/10 of an inch of water. Not much, but a start. Under it, the hose that I need to fill the water tank is buried, and will need to be pulled out and carried to the shop to thaw out before I can use it. That is something I should have done yesterday before we went to town, but I was not thinking beyond getting the iris into the ground because even with gloves, my hands were very cold.

Mary

Brrrr! Yes indeed, winter is here. We have -2 degrees this morning with a breeze, which felt like a wind when I went out in bathrobe and slippers to feed the outside kittys. They were camped out on the doormat and let me know they thought I was late with it!

We are planning to take a quick trip to the other side of the state in the next few days, possibly as soon as tomorrow. We need to mesh with several other schedules to try to see as many people as possible in a short amount of time. I need to call my neighbor to see if he will be able to feed animals for us, and open a gate to give the two horses in the big pasture access to water since I won't be here to chop out the little spring that ices up twice a day at these temperatures. We have a few inches of snow, but I think opening the gate will not be a job that requires a shovel.

Meanwhile, besides getting ready for that little trip, we are working to finish getting our Christmas greetings ready to mail. Last night I worked on them until about 10pm, and ran out so today we need to make a run to town to get a few more copies made. Most years we have almost all of them mailed by now. Every year when I am addressing them I pray for people and wonder which cards might be returned. Last year there were 2, and some of our friends and relatives are in their 80's and 90's. One of my aunts is 98! I hope we can all gather to help her celebrate 100 in a couple of years.

Mary

Our trip to the other side of the state was not in the best weather we could have picked. On the way over we were in a little snow storm that lasted for about 50 miles, then the rest of the trip was ok with clear roads, good visability and fairly light traffic, well, not light for where we live, but light for where we were. We had a good visit, only missed making connections with one person, and started home the next morning.

The farther we went the worse the weather got. We were in blowing snow, poor visability and downright dangerous conditions for over 200 miles. Many cars and semi trucks were off the road, stuck in the snow, only one lane was plowed, the state troopers had checkpoints set up along the way to make sure the semi trucks and anybody hauling a trailer put on chains. We had 2 mountain passes to go over, and only learned the next day when checking the news that one pass had been closed almost all day until about 30 minutes before we crossed it. I'm sure God had something to do with the timing of that.

For about 50 miles of the trip I was peering through the swirling snow to alert my hubby whenever I could see tail lights or the shape of a vehicle ahead of us. This was on a stretch of road over the mountains where there is no place to stay overnight, and is a divided roadway with very few exits where anybody could turn around, so we prayed and kept going. We were very glad to get off the interstate and on to smaller country roads with much less traffic. By the grace of God we made it home without going into the ditch, hitting or being hit by any other vehicle.

The storm we traveled though was the beginning of 3 days of heavy snow, strong winds, etc that effected the whole northwest. Several snowfall records were set, mostly on the west side of the state where we started our return trip.

In the week or so since that storm we have had more snow and wind. Our driveway has needed plowing almost every day. Yesterday our neighbor who has a plow on his truck, got stuck in our driveway and I had to pull him out with the tractor.

Today our son and his wife came out from town and our son plowed the driveway again. We have moved the car up to the top of the driveway by the road so we can get out to go to town when the driveway is full, snowshoeing up over the drifts. Son and Daughter in law missed coming out on Christmas because hubby and I both came down with colds after our trip to the other side of the state. Today was hubby's birthday and they brought him gifts, as well as bringing out our Christmas gifts, and they finally got to open their Christmas gifts which were waiting under our tree. I made a dutch oven full of cioppiono, a tomato based fisherman's stew. Four of us ate almost all of it. I hope they did not take our germs home with them.

Last week when the weather was below 0, I realized that the furnace in my greenhouse was not running and many of the plants in there had frozen. I waited several days after hubby got the furnace going, trying to see what is really dead. Some of the plants are history for sure, some are ok, and quite a few are questionable. I watered what looked good and the questionable ones, and will wait a few weeks to see if new sprouts appear. The 25 year old Jade plant is in the wait and see category, as is a beautiful orchid that had a bloom spike with about 6 buds. The definitely dead ones will be dumped soon, and survivors repotted. I see the opportunity for greenhouse cleaning and more bench space for starting plants next spring. And...... I learned an important lesson: Check the furnace!!

Mary

We have a warm wind blowing now for about the last 36 hours, some bare ground is showing in places that had either been plowed or had been swept clean by the wind when the snow was coming down sideways and being rearranged into drifts. I woke up to the sound of snow and ice sliding off the metal roof. Puddles of icey water awaited my unwary feet as I did my chores this morning, but thanks to water resistant boots, my socks stayed dry.

Early yesterday morning I glanced out the window and saw a horse's foot sticking up in the air and not moving much, went to another window and could see the whole horse, stuck in a halfway upside down position in the snow. He had been rolling and the melting snow compressed under his weight, leaving him helpless in a dangerous position. Horses die upside down and of course I couldn't tell how long he had been there. A few minutes? Several hours?

It didn't take me long to put on my overalls and boots, grab a halter and lead rope and a shovel, and walk down through the deep snow in the pasture to free him. Pulling on the lead rope, I tried to roll him more onto his side, the side where some of the feet were pointing. Horses are heavy, and even through he tried and we made some progress at getting him off his back and into a flatter position on his side, he still couldn't get up.

I started to dig out the snow under his legs, to make a pit for his feet to go into, but he got scared and started thrashing around. I dropped the shovel, grabbed the leadrope and pulled as hard as I could with all my weight on the rope. Up he came! Praise the Lord!!

This is one of my old retired endurance horses, one who carried me over 5,000 miles in 10 or 11 seasons and has been a pasture ornament for several years. He had been abused before I got him, and evidently someone had beaten him with a big stick. I can't get close to him with a shovel or a pitchfork in my hands. His fear of that shovel saved me a lot of work yesterday.

Mary

Happy New Year everybody! We have a fresh coat of snow covering everything like a clean canvas for the new year. Under the snow cover my spring bulbs are busy making roots, perennials are in limbo, and many varieties of butterflies and moths are sleeping in their cocoons, also waiting for the warmth of spring, still months away. None of them know anything about new years, they just do what God has programmed them to do.

We did not stay up last night to see the new year come, millions of others in other parts of the world had already seen it. That's good enough for us. The last time we did that was in 2000 when we were guests at the home of neighbors who stay up to play board games, eat the traditional Hoppin John, (they are from the south and we Northerners had never eaten it but had a lifetime of "good luck" anyhow), watch the televised celebrations, listen to traditional music, and toast the new year at midnight local time.

You may remember that Y2K arrived without so much as a flicker of the electric lights, contrary to the dire predictions that had everybody all excited, hording food, buying generators, etc. Lots of people spent a year or more preparing for something that never happened. Laying up treasure in heaven and preparing for eternity makes a lot more sense.

As for "good luck", although nearly everyone uses that phrase, I prefer to believe in the providence and blessing of God. As one friend of ours said "I don't believe in luck, I believe in Jesus".

God's Warrior

Amen and Amen! Happy New Year, dear friend.

Mary

Snow! Lots of it came overnight and continues to fall. Last night's storm also brought wind. Snow + wind = drifts. Feeding the horses this morning gave me more exercise than I have had in several days! Some of the drifts I waded through were up to mid thigh. My 2 wheeled hay cart refuses to roll, so I was carrying hay one or two flakes at a time to toss over the fences to the horses. It all amounted to a good aerobic workout!

Our flock of 200 or so tweety birds sure do go through a lot of birdseed! I think it costs more to feed them than it does to feed 4 horses. Between storms I don't fill the bird feeders, I make them clean up the spilled seeds under the feeders. Yesterday when I knew this storm was coming I did fill up all the feeders, and this morning refilled them. They'll be empty again in the morning. The birds eat like there is no tomorrow when they know a storm is coming.

Yesterday I should have taken the car back up to the top of the driveway. Now it is snowed in, sitting near the back door, with snowdrifts around it. Our carport roof is sagging and we stopped parking under it when there is snow on it, or when there is more snow on the way, so basically, that will be all winter. We hadn't planned to go anywhere today. It's really nice that hubby has retired and we can make our own schedule, otherwise he would have been out there in the storm on the tractor, plowing snow so he could go to work. Or, we would have made sure the car was out near the road.

Last week I called my farrier and made an appointment to have the horses' feet trimmed.... today. Saturday would have been perfect, the driveway was passable, I could open pasture gates, the temperature wasn't too cold, the wind wasn't blowing, and the sun was shining. However, he was busy with something else that day. He called this morning and said he is snowed in too, so we decided to take it day by day. When he thinks it looks good from his end he will call and see how conditions are here. That'll work, eventually.

Mary

My farrier came today and trimmed all the horses' feet, so that job is out of the way. It was possible for him to drive all the way down our driveway because the snow stopped falling yesterday afternoon and my hubby spent a couple of hours on the tractor pushing snow around. We have some sizeable mountains, and a lot of lanes where we can walk or drive. My hay cart rolls again! That makes doing chores a lot easier and faster.

According to the weather forecast, which we take with not just a grain of salt but often a healthy pinch, we will be in a warming trend for the next couple of days. Already the snow has been sliding off the roof, and drips are coming off the roofs where there is still snow. I worry that a cat will be under a big load of snow that suddenly comes off and lands with a THUNK.

Our mailbox didn't fare too well with this latest storm. The snowplow goes by it at about 40-50mph and throws a heavy load of snow off the road. The side of the box is caved in leaving a gap on one side, and the door is very hard to close. We were snowed in for a couple of days, and yesterday when hubby got us plowed out and went to get the mail (a mile away), he brought back a soggy bundle. He said the mailbox was packed full of snow. One of the letters was from an elderly friend who sends us one letter a year. There were 3 full sized pages, hand written with ink that had run everywhere, rendering the letter unreadable. We need to build a shelter to shield the mailbox.

Mary

Absolutely glorious! That is how I see the scenery around us today. We have had 2 days and nights of freezing fog. All the bushes, trees, twigs, fenceposts, wire, horsehairs hanging from the fence, and nearly everything else is covered with fuzzy half inch long whiskers! This morning the sun came shining though, the sky is bright blue, and the mountains are shining in all their snowy splendor! I feel so blessed to live here and see this, walk through it, and look closely at the intricate patterns made by God placing each tiny drop of moisture in the fog just where it will look best! There is not enough air moving to disturb anything, and with the temperature at 8 degrees at daylight and only about 20 now, the sun isn't warm enough to melt anything.

Yesterday I helped my neighbor with the annual partial shearing job, known as crutching. The shearer was early this year by a couple of weeks, but that's ok. My neighbor had to spend a lot of time plowing snow in the corrals and alleyway, then time with the shovel to dig out gates so they would open, and remove snow and ice from the chute that leads to the shearing trailer. Now the ewes, 115 total, all have a clean area around their tails, udders, and belly. The lambs won't start arriving for a couple more months, but the ewes will still be clean enough then. We need to be able to see from a distance when a ewe is in labor, often watching through binocculars to save a trip out into the field when things are busy at the barn. Lambs will find the fawcetts easier, and will not be sucking on a mouthfull of dirty wool. Right now the ewes look kind of funny with their woolly coats and bare bums.

Some of the ewes also got excessive wool sheared off their faces so they can see again. White faced sheep have woolier faces, sometimes having way too much of a good thing. It's hereditary, not something we want, but sometimes other good qualities in the ewe lambs overshadow the wool blindness problem when the replacements are selected. And on a 5 month old lamb, often the face doesn't look that wooly. Out of 115 ewes, I think I only saw 2 or 3 that had so much facial wool as to cut off their view of the world ahead of them.

We made an effort to boost the local economy this week with the purchase of some new living room furniture. Our present furniture is a lot of hand downs, most of it 20 years old or more, and it is looking very tired. One chair has been covered with sheets for years, it is a very comfortable chair which is one reason we have kept it, and also is the one by the window which Fritz has used for his launching pad when he stays with us. He jumps into it from several feet away, and when he sees something within his view that needs to be chased, he bounces up and down on the chair seat, barking his fool head off! When things are quiet, he sleeps there, ready to attack! With his real people owner getting married this summer and not going to the mission field for summer camp ministry, Fritz will not be likely to be needing his chair at our house.

And so, in about a month, the truck will deliver a new comfy recliner to replace that old worn chair, and a fouton to replace the worn and shabby looking hideabed. The chair has to come from the factory, they didn't have the style and fabric combination in the store. A few days before that, we will call the Salvation Army and have them come to pick up the old donated furniture. I'm sure they can sell the hideabed, and the 2 chairs will be giveaways, usable but not good enough to sell. They get one more life before they hit the landfill.

Mary

A couple of nights ago, just as I had turned off the kitchen light and was making my way towards the bedroom I noticed some lights on the curve on the county road near the end of our driveway. I thought it was somebody stopped to talk on a cell phone, but being curious, tippy toed back through the kitchen to get the binocculars. When I got back to the window, no lights. I watched to see if I could tell which way they went, but couldn't see any tailights in the thick fog.

About then I heard a funny whistling sound, and since my hubby was already sound asleep and snoring, I thought I was hearing a new wheezing sound. Then there was a loud knock at the back door. I turned on lights and went to see who it was. A lady who was housesitting for a neighbor had missed the curve and was stuck in a snowbank. She was trying to find the defroster switch in the neighbor's pickup, driving on a foggy night on an unfamiliar road, and took the corner too wide.

Hubby bundled up and got on the tractor, I drove the car up the driveway behind him so we would have lights, and in a couple of minutes we had her back on solid ground. I'm glad we were home, she would have been a very cold lady because she was not dressed for walking in the cold, and would have had to walk more than half a mile to get anybody to help her. We usually go to bed about 9 and this happened at least an hour after that. She had seen the lights and knew somebody was still awake. There was no flashlight in the borrowed truck, so she had walked down our driveway in the dark, whistling to let somebody know there was someone there before she knocked at the door.

Mary

Today I got an unwelcome surprise: the heater in the stock tank had stopped working and the tank had a 1/2 inch layer of ice on it. That meant that the horses had not been drinking any water for several hours. They need water to moisten their hay and keep everything from getting into gridlock inside a 100 ft passageway to the other end of the system. A life threatening colic could result from that.

Assuming the problem was the submersable heater, I found our floating heater, removed the tank cover, positioned it where Breezy could not reach it, put the cover back on the tank, and connected the heater to the extension cord. Just out of curiosity I went to an outlet in the hay shed and plugged the submersable in, and it worked.

I took an extension cord out to replace the one I had been using. After I got that hooked up, I thought ok, maybe the circuit breaker tripped so I need to check it, just in case. Nope, it hadn't. About that time hubby brought me another extension cord, one that has a light in the end where the heater would plug in. So I replaced the 2nd extension cord with that one. Now I can see the light from the porch.

Since I was not sure if the horses had enough water to go with last night's hay, I decided some beet pulp would be a good idea. I soaked it in hot water to speed up the expansion and added a generous scoop of whole oats. In about 2 hours, the hard beet pulp pellets had soaked up all the water and were falling apart, the mixture was luke warm and it was time to treat the boys. While they ate I fished chunks of ice out of the water which was already feeling a little warmer to my bare hands. The ice, however, was still ice. When I fed the horses tonight I checked the water in the tank, it didn't feel as cold, so that is progress. I could also see that the horses had been drinking it.

Our great horned owls have been talking to each other a lot for the past couple of weeks. As far as they are concerned it is time for romance, home (nest) inspection, and soon they will have eggs in the nest and one of them sitting on it almost 24/7 for the next several weeks. I need to read up on their behavior again. I don't remember if, Mr O helps with the eggs or just feeds his Mrs. Some years they only have one baby to raise, usually there are 2 and now and then they raise 3. That takes a lot of rodents!

A few days ago when we were on our way to town we saw a big porcupine about a mile from our house. He was going the other way. We both said "Keep going". I don't want porcupine quills in horses noses, and I know our neighbor doesn't want them in sheep, cattle or horse noses, or to have his dog tangle with that spiney fellow. It's is only the second one we have seen in 15 years of living here.

CajuninKy

So glad you got your water thawed. Our horses on the farm drink from the river that borders the pasture. The horses we have in the barn all have 20 gallon water tubs in their stalls. They have been freezing over and we have to break ice every morning. Some of them freeze hard and some just get slushy. I have sawdust heaped around most of them to help insulate them. It's funny how some of the horses know to lick the ice and melt it to get a drink. Five out of the 7 horses in the barn get warmed beet pulp twice a day. Max doesn't get it because he is a roly poly and Tug doesn't get it because it will mess up his bones while he is growing. I know lots of people who only have 5 gallon buckets in their stalls and just fill them once a day. They say I go through too much trouble for mine with the 20 gallon tubs. It's not too much trouble if it keeps my horses healthy and happy. I top the tubs off each day and every week or so I let them drink it down then empty and scrub it and fill it back up. I have only had 1 colic scare in 4 years and that corrected itself. Dealing with the number of horses I have, that is pretty good so I must be doing something right. I thank God for keeping them safe and healthy.

Your beet pulp comes in pellets? Ours is shredded.

Mary

We most commonly see beet pulp in pellets here. They take less room to store, but the downside is that they take more time to absorb water so I can feed them to the horses. The shredded pulp sounds like a better deal for you if you don't live where your horses live.

Mary

Winter is back with fresh snow on Saturday night which drifted the driveway closed by Sunday morning. With the wind howling, snow moving around to find places to make drifts, and the wind chill at about -20, hubby opted not to go out and plow the driveway so we could get to church. In this kind of weather there are many places on the highway to town where the snow drifts over the road, visability is bad and there is little traffic so a car off the road might not be found for quite a while. Cell phones don't work out there either and there are no houses along a 7 or 8 mile stretch.

And so, we stayed home yesterday and had a leisurely day. I cooked some coarsely ground oat cereal, but we didn't eat all of it for breakfast, so I made 2 loaves of whole wheat bread and put the cereal in it. Baking bread sure does make the house smell wonderful, and somehow when the house smells good it doesn't seem so wintery just outside the window. Bread really is comfort food, even before we eat it. Yesterday was a good day for soup, and I had some leftover chicken in the referigerator, so it went into a pot of soup which was perfect with the fresh bread.

Yesterday morning the horses were watching something and acting silly. When there was enough daylight, I saw that the neighbor's sheep had all drifted with the storm and were standing in a corner of the pasture looking like a big mass of something. The ones on the outside kept worming their was toward the center, so the thing moved!

Oh my! To a horse, who is somewhat defenseless and has survived for generations by running from danger, anything different can be scarry, and mine had spent the night in the sheltered lower corner of the pasture, having a windbreak provided by the house, so maybe they hadn't seen the sheep arrive. Anyhow, they would trot toward the sheep, stop, snort, then trot back with their heads and tails high in the air. Silly guys! Later when the sheep left to go eat, the horses just stood and watched them go, probably feeling embarassed!

On Saturday, knowing that a change in the weather was coming, I took advantage of a somewhat warm day and filled the water tank again. Now with the wind blowing hard I can see waves in the tank, a sure sign that the thing hasn't frozen again. While it filled, I fed the horses and watered the surviving greenhouse plants, then disconnected and drained the hose, coiled it up and put it back in the shop where it won't freeze.

The fawcett wears a foam cover in the winter, even though it is a frost free type that supposedly has no water in it for a couple of feet before it comes out through the house wall. I'm not sure all the water drains out, because sometimes it isn't possible to turn the handle, so I cover it.

Today we still have the wind, but most of the snow has found a place it likes. The sky is blue, the sun is shining and we can see the hills and the mountains. That view is a nice change after about a week of thick fog.

When I did my horse feeding chores this morning my face got so cold I thought it was going to fall off! Hubby is out there now plowing the driveway and wearing a ski mask, but he didn't put on his insulated coveralls, so he will be cold when he comes back inside. I'd better put another log on the fire and have a mug of hot chocolate ready for him.

CajuninKy

Our shredded pulp comes in 40# bags and a 50gal drum will hold 80# of pulp. 5 3# butter tubs of dry pulp will expand to fill a 5 gallon bucket when soaked. We soak it from the am feeding to the pm feeding or vise versa. 5 gallons will do 2 feedings. We warm it and add it to the grain and corn. They love it.

I would die at -20. My muscles would hurt so bad I couldn't stand it. I am so nonproductive in the winter it is pitiful. I barely manage to take proper care of my animals. If it wasn't for them I would never leave the house. I cringe to think of what you guys have to contend with.

God's Warrior

Me too, Cajun! All I can do is wait for spring and it can't come too soon for me and my chilled bones.

Mary

It's 0 here this morning but the wind stopped blowing, so it feels warmer.

God's Warrior

Brrrrrrr!
Melody and Lisa are getting some terrible weather. Just talked to Melody and their power is still on but Lisa's is off. Lisa does have a generator however.

CajuninKy

A generator is a must have in hurricane country. She gained her knowledge the hard way.

We are having snow, ice and freezing rain but it's not as bad as predicted at this point. The temps are a bit higher so the ice is not so bad. Kids are out of school again today. Yestarday too. At this rate they will be in school till July 4th!!!!

God's Warrior

I hope all stays ok for you. You Cajuns are getting a real taste of winter, that is for sure. Maybe this won't dip into much of your summer camping fun. Smile

CajuninKy

We have had snow, sleet, rain, freezing rain and ice. Trees were breaking all night but none closer than across the road. The creek is rising now. We lost power early last night and got it back between 8 and 9 this morning. The temps have risen just a bit so the ice is melting. DH and Knock have gone to the barn. I am home nursing a headache and painful muscles. I am about to take a zanaflex and crawl into bed with my heated neck massager. Just wanted to check in.

God's Warrior

Praise the Lord you guys are ok. With so many people suffering in so many ways because of this terrible ice storm, I was hoping you weren't being as badly affected as some others. Thank you so much for letting us know. Stay warm and I hope you feel better really soon.

CajuninKy

Thanks. Seeing what so many others are having to contend with, we did get off easy. They are in my prayers.

I'm afraid whatever was in my lungs is trying to make a come back. Hate those repeat performances.

God's Warrior

Get plenty of rest, stay inside out of the cold and try to get better. We love you and want you well.

Mary

The trap is set and baited, but so far I have not caught the stray cat, only my own. Just before bed last night I went out to check, heard frantic meows, and there was poor Neut. I let him out and he rubbed against my leg in gratitude while I reset the trap. It may take a few days to catch the right cat because I think the stray makes a trip back here to check from somewhere else, stays as long as he finds food, but goes away if he doesn't. Neighbors down the road keep food available in an old milking parlor for their cats so he could just stay there instead of coming back here. He already has marked our place as his territory, so attacking our cats will come soon.

It's not that I don't like cats, I do. But Neut, who came to us many years ago as a stray, has FIV, an immune difficiency, and when he gets in a fight, he can't fight the resulting infections. I have spent a lot of time doctoring his various wounds, most of them punctures. Even when the wound is where he can clean it himself, he isn't able to keep the infection out.

We have had many wandering cats, as most farms do, and Neut is the only male who never caused a problem. We called him Tommy until his trip to the vet for alterations, then he became Neut. Our other outside cat, a female, was a tiny kitten when she showed up here a few winters ago on a horribly cold and windy day, scared, cold and hungry enough to eat a hard french bread heel I had thrown out for the birds.

CajuninKy

Hope you are able to catch the offender soon. Neut should be able to feel safe in his own home.

Funny story. Many years ago my brother had a stray cat showing up around the perimeter of his garden. He knew it was a female because it was a calico and as he didn't want kittens he "encouraged" her not to stay. He would shout as her and chase her away but she kept coming back. He was picking cucumbers and as he had neglected them for a few days he had some that were way too big to be good. He saw the cat and threw some of the huge cukes at her to make her leave. When he realized she was eating them, he didn't have the heart to run her away any more. He brought her to the house and fed her. They had the cat for many years before she passed and she never had a single litter of kittens. They named her Malnu as in malnutrition.

Mary

Sunlight is just hitting the mountaintops to the west of us, and making some stubborn dead leaves on a tree shine like copper. When the sun hits the snow in the pasture we get an effect like diamonds scattered everywhere. Some patches of bare ground have shown up on the hills that get the most intense sun. We are in a calm and dry weather cycle and have just enough breeze this morning to turn the ornamental windmill very slowly... just a few turns before it stops. Our snow is evaporating, and the ranchers are becoming concerned about next summer's water supply. We need a lot more snow in the mountains.

No stray cat in the trap yet, and we haven't seen him again. Hopefully he found a better home and will stay there. Neut had enough of the trap the night he explored it and spent a few hours in it before I rescued him. I hope the stray has had no experience with a trap because if he has, he won't go into it.

On trips to town we have been watching little calves, hundreds of them, all black Angus. They are at a purebred ranch that has about 1000 cows. Every year they have a couple of big production sales, and oooooweeeee the prices they get for some of them make my eyes roll. These are no ordinary cows, they are seed stock for ranches all over the US. 75% of the calves are born in a 2 week period according to their website. I will try to link that here.

http://www.thomasangusranch.com/

If you go to the website you will see that modern cattle ranching has become very technical, with syncronized breeding programs that include embrio flushing and transplanting, artificial insemination, but I still see a lot of the old west in their methods, such as a man on horseback riding slowly through the herd to check them. A horse and rider just moseying along disturbs them far less than somebody riding out there on a 4 wheeler. The cows will just continue to do whatever they were doing, and the rider has a good vantage point from about 10 ft above the ground.

We went to a wedding last Saturday, a nice small home wedding with just a few guests and even a dog and a cat present at the ceremony. The dog, a very mellow old Border Collie, is the groom's shadow. The cat belongs to (or maybe owns) the house where the ceremony took place and kept a small table with a horizontal spindle between him and the dog. Even with a very small wedding, the bride said she was very nervous!

I have been volunteering at the food co-op for the past few weeks and have increased my discount to 30% on anything I buy there. So, yesterday I bought a 25 pound bag of red beans, and smaller amounts of many other things. This store is the only place in town that carries bulk foods, and also has many organic items which are unavailable in regular grocery stores.

One of my recent jobs at the co-op is to break down large amounts into smaller bags, weigh them and print labels for them, then put them into the bins where the customers can select the size they need. Before I learned the packaging routine, which has to comply with health department regulations, I did a lot of cleaning. The store only has a few paid employees, the rest are volunteers. It is a non profit company with the savings passed on to the owner/members. We automatically get a 5% discount, but volunteer hours can increase that. I will order some other big ticket items to stockpile for the months when I will be too busy with riding and gardening to volunteer much.

My hubby had been doing some volunteer work with the city police department. When he makes the trip to town for that I go along and put in some time at the co-op without making an extra trip to town. On the same trip we go to the bank, library, other stores, and treat ourselves to lunch, so we get a lot of things done with just one trip. It is a 40 mile round trip, so we don't just jump in the car and run off to town without some planning.

CajuninKy

That sounds like a great deal you have there. One where everybody wins. Can't beat that with a stick. We don't have any organic stuff here.

Will you be working with the lambing this year?It must be getting close.

I love that the guy had his dog at the wedding. In England, folks take their dogs with them all over. Wish we could do that.

Has your GH come back from the lack of heat damage?

Mary

This morning I found a lot of feathers that appear to belong to a barn owl. They were under one of our big cottonwood trees where our Great Horned Owls live. We haven't had barn owls for years, so I am guessing this one might have been from down the road and wandered into our owls territory. They might have been competing for the same mouse. A little meal may have turned into a big one.

Today I worked in the greenhouse for a couple of hours while it was nice and warm in there. I've got an invasive plant that I will never be rid of, but hope to control. It is oxalis, related to shamrocks but with smaller, reddish leaves and little yellow flowers. The roots run a bit and sprout, and it makes little seed pods that dry and pop open, spreading seeds which are almost too small to see.

I got down on my knees (ouch, the crushed rock is sharp!) with a trowel and cut off the roots below the soil level in the rock pathways and under the benches, put them into a bucket and dumped them in the burn barrel. There are a lot of seed pods among the rocks, and when new plants appear I will do it all again. If they are going to annoy me, they are going to have to work for it. Next step is to take a spoon and try to cut them off under the soil in the pots where they have been enjoying the easy life and fertilizer every couple of weeks.

Some of the dead plants (frozen) have been cut off. That was not easy to do to my big jade plant, but necessary. I cut until I found something green in the stems, and I'm hoping something will sprout. It might take months. Maybe tomorrow I will go out with my pruning shears and do some more. The parsley has some aphids on it, so I will set it outside to freeze the bugs and hope for the best for the tops of the plants. There is plenty more in a flower bed under a foot of snow, these were just some that came up when I was weeding last fall and instead of planting them back in the bed, I put them in pots in the greenhouse.

I see signs of life in my big potfull of aloe vera. When I repot it I might find more. Most of it died, but right in the middle where it was somewhat protected, I see green. Most of the amaryllis have new sprouts, and all the bulbs feel firm. Frozen bulbs would be mushy by now. Some of my cactus survived without damage, a couple of them need to be cut off, allowed to callous over for a few days and then repotted. They might live. Basically, it is a pretty sad and disheartening situation to go out there to work, but when I get it all cleaned up and reorganized, I think I will feel better.

The first lambs are due March 7, and yes, I will be out there bringing babies into the barn in the middle of the night. Calving is due to start a few days later, so I imagine I will be doing a calf check as well.

CajuninKy

Enjoy your rest while you can. It sounds like you will lots of babies on your hands before long. Hope it's warmer by then.

Mary

This morning, just after it was light, I noticed a big bird way down in the pasture, a bald eagle, standing on the snow next to a dark object. I couldn't tell too much more than that even with binoculars. A couple of minutes later I looked again and there were 2 more, one was a youngster with white body blotches. They don't get the white head and tail feathers until they are 5 years old.

The youngster was pecking at the dark object on the ground and then he tried to fly with it in his talons. It was too heavy, so he ate more, and tried again, several times. I took a couple of minutes to go get dressed, and of course he left while I did that. One adult had already left, and the other flew away a couple of minutes later.

We treated our son to breakfast this morning because it was his birthday. Goodness, my "baby" is 47! That makes me realize that I am not a spring chicken any more. After breakfast we went to a couple of stores to get some bargains, and then to a hardware store to see about replacing the rechargable battery in a flashlight.

I asked the clerk if it was cheaper to replace the battery or just replace the whole thing. He looked at it and asked me how long we had had it. About 5 years I think. Well, it is obviously defective and we replace defective items, and with that he got a new one and handed it to me, tossed my old one in the trash, and told the cashier to ring it up as a replacement for a defective item! It does pay to shop at your local hometown hardware store!

After we got home, I went to talk to my neighbor about feeding our animals for a couple of days next week. He had found a ewe on her back this morning, alive but aborting her lambs. I changed my clothes and went to help him with her. He called the vet and now it is a case of wait and see if the ewe will loose her other lamb, we assume she has another one in there but didn't want to introduce germs into her uterus if it wasn't necessary. The first lamb was already dead. They aren't due for another month, but a lamb at 4 months gestation when the normal time is 5 months, is just too immature to survive.

This afternoon I dumped more dead plants. It's a sad job so I don't work at it for too long at a time. Today I waited for the greenhouse to cool off before going in there to work. The sunny day and warmer temperature had heated it to over 95 degrees, causing the automatic vent system to come on, but the vents were blocked and insulated. I took the insulation off and moved the straw bales that held the rigid foam on the lower vents, then unwired the piece that covers the upper vent. If our weather turns back to winter I will cover everything again. We are having warmish weather like we usually don't get until at least a month from now.

Friday I volunteered at the co-op again, and logged 3 1/2 hours toward my March discount. I am now getting 30% off anything I buy there. I did some packaging, then some cleaning, and then when a load of freight was delived, unpacked it and checked items off the invoice. This shipment was a whole lot of personal care items, everything from lip balm, toothpaste, deodorant, bar soap, essential oils, hand and body creams, hormone cream, several other things I have never heard of, and 2 gallons of castille soap! The store puts a pump on the gallons and provides small bottles for the customers. They fill them and pay by the ounce for the products.

Mary

Overnight winter returned with teeth! I awoke and heard the wind whistling past the house, and soon thought about the foam insulation boards that I had pulled off the greenhouse vents last week and stashed behind the straw bales where they would be handy. If the wind got them moving, they would fly like frisbees!

I intended to run out quickly in bathrobe and slippers, but when I turned on the porch light and saw snow I changed my mind and got dressed before I ventured out. One of the pieces got away from me briefly, but it got stuck against a fencepost and one of the big tire feeders so I was able to grab it and get them all safely into the garden shed.

Mid morning I helped my neighbor move his cows to the corrals, a very short trip down the county road following the feed truck, and then we sorted cows into one corral and calves into another, took the cows back to their pasture behind the feed truck again and turned the calves out into a pasture behind the barn. All this with a strong wind blowing snow in our faces and the temperature at about 20. My neighbor had spent yesterday putting feed out for the calves and digging snow and ice away from gates so we could open and close them, so he didn't want to have to do that work over and have the snow ruin the hay.

When we finished with that we went to tend to the ewe in the barn. She lost a second lamb, has a temperature and needed another penacillin shot. She needs to eat but isn't interested. Maybe she needs an old farmers remedy to stir up her digestive juices. I know just the thing, oatmeal and beer! The tricky part is getting it down into the stomach without any of it getting down the wrong tube.

Hubby and I had planned to travel across the state tomorrow and return the next day. This bad weather is supposed to continue for a couple more days, so we will try to go on Friday, or maybe next week. As usual, we are trying to connect with several people on the same trip.

Meanwhile, we will enjoy watching the snow blow across the fields and fill up the driveway. I have a water tank to fill today (am kicking myself for not doing it yesterday when the sun was shining) and should put the foam insulation boards back on the greenhouse vents. Our sunny days this week heated the greenhouse to almost 100 degrees, and being overly optomistic, I thought maybe our bad weather was over. In February? Confused

Silly me.

CajuninKy

Did you have any plants left in the greenhouse? Glad you were able to rescue your boards.

I hate working in cold weather. I hate cold weather. Have I mentioned that?

Sad about the ewe. Does he think she will still be a viable ewe for the herd or does he plan to cull her?

Mary

My guess is that he will keep her. She is young, born in 06, and had at least twins in her, so she could be around for 4-5 more years. Given the same set of circumstances for an old ewe and he would probably sell her. Most of them are good for about 7 years before their teeth get too bad for them to raise good lambs, or they get mastitis.

Yes, I do have many live plants in the greenhouse. Most of those need to be repotted, so after I finish dumping the dead ones I will start on that. The last day I worked out there I found a little sprig of a live succulent plant under the branches of a dead one. So now that cute little fella has his own pot and hopefully will grow more roots.

CajuninKy

So glad life goes on. No wonder you were willing to brave the blizzard for your insulation. Did you have to put it back on in the middle of the night?

Mary

I could have, but I waited and did it in the daylight. Trying to see what I was doing with a flashlight and needing 3 hands didn't interest me when I rescued the foam.

CajuninKy

Did it stay warm enough without it to keep the rest of your plants safe?

Mary

The insulation helps with the greenhouse temperature since it restricts the amount of air that can be forced in through the vent system. Every greenhouse has weak spots, usually in places that open. The cool air intake vents are plastic louvers that do not close tightly. Wind is forced through them and that change in air pressure causes the exhaust vent to flap. It is also a louver, metal but not very heavy. It is designed to be closed just by it's own weight when the exhaust fan is not pushing air against it, but will flap whenever air comes into the greenhouse. When it flaps warm air goes out and more cold air is forced in. The propane furnace and it's thermostat is directly below that vent.

Air tends to flow like water, going where it has the least resistance, or where something pushes it.

When the vents are covered with foam board insulation, they keep a lot of that air from moving into and out of the greenhouse. The result of not having them in place is that the furnace runs more. Since I tend to be a very frugal person, I don't want to run that furnace any more than is absolutely necessary. As long as the furnace is working the plants are safe. It has a pilot light and will work without electricity, but is more efficient if the electric fan will circulate the warm air.

Today the weather is not anything like yesterday, but we have already cancelled appointments based on the forecast sounding like more of yesterdays snow and wind for the next 2 days. It is tricky forecasting for a mountainous region, and since we would be traveling west (where the weather usually comes ashore) and then retracing our steps to come home we don't want to be running head on into a storm on our way west, and then getting into the tail end of the storm and traveling with it all the way back home. Now we are looking at the forecast again and thinking we might try for a Friday/Saturday trip.

Meanwhile, I brought part of a bag of potting soil into the house yesterday so I could repot house plants. The ripsallis started to bloom and I lifted it off the kitchen windowsill where it was growing horizontally behind other plants, and put it on a high windowsill so it would have more room and hang down as jungle cactus would normally grow. It was quite heavy and in a plastic pot which didn't have much weight in comparison with what now hangs down over the edge of the windowsill. I could just see the whole thing falling off, pulled down by the weight of the vine and leaves. Now it is in a larger ceramic pot, and I won't have to worry about it that, but might loose buds as they try to reposition themselves. It should have been repotted and moved weeks ago.

I have several other plants that need to be repotted but I forgot to bring in pieces of broken pots to cover the drain holes. I'll get them when I go outside to feed the horses.

Seeds that I had stored in gallon jars in the basement are now on the dining room table. I thought I had onion seeds and wanted to start them early, no onion seeds. I brought some pots inside to use for starting onions. So, since the seed catalogs have arrived, I will make lists of haves and needs, and get then ordered. This year maybe I will get extravigant and buy some of those wave petunias although they don't seem to be getting much cheaper.

I'm wondering if the weaned calves stayed behind the fences, but can't see anything from here. The first couple of days are when most of the escapes happen. The cows don't miss their calves that much since the calves are several months old now, but they will answer when the calf moos for momma, and of course that encourages the calf to find a way to get back to her. In about 4 days none of them will care much.

God's Warrior

Could you take a picture of the plant you repotted? I am not familiar with it.

CajuninKy

I have never heard of it either.

Good thinking to wait out the storm. I hate driving in bad weather.

How are your horses doing?

Mary

Today's weather was a tamer version of yesterdays, but is supposed to be better by morning, so we are going to make that trip before another storm comes along. Please pray for us to have a safe trip.

Elena, I will post a picture of a similiar plant with narrower greener leaves and flowers that look the same as the one I have blooming now. I will try to remember to take a picture of the one in the house when we get back and I have daylight. I doubt that the flash would show the true color of the leaves.

I helped my neighbor give the sick ewe a dose of oatmeal and beer to wake up her appetite. When we started to go in the pen with her, she tried to jump out, probably remembering the penacillin shots. Ouch! She still has not passed the afterbirth from the last lamb she lost. It could cause a problem. By the time we got about a pint and a half of oatmeal gruel and beer syringed down her throat, she was smacking her lips and seemed to be enjoying the taste. I put the last little bit of it on some grain that she has in a trough that she has been ignoring, thinking that if she likes the new flavor, she might eat it and then start on the alfalfa right next to it.

The newly weaned calves have stayed in their own pasture for 24 hours +, and so that is good news. In fact, when I was down there today, I didn't hear any mooing from either side.

God's Warrior

That is a really neat plant. Thanks for posting the picture.

I hope the ewe passes that afterbirth and gets ok. I am glad she is eating now. Hopefully the owner will stay on top of things once you are gone.

I'm prayng for traveling mercies for you and your hubby.. ..... Please let us know then you return. Hopefully you will be able to make the entire journey without encountering any storms.

Mary

We made that trip in between storms and are back home now. Some of the people we needed to see where not going to be home this weekend, and so we left here at 6:10am on Wednesday, saw everyone we needed to see, stayed overnight, left to start home about 2pm on Thursday and arrived home just before 9:30pm last night. No bad weather, although it was snowing when we left home and we did contend with thick fog for a few miles about 100 miles west of here.

It was so nice to visit with family, and get caught up on the preparations for our granddaughter's wedding in July. They will have the ceremony in the church with my hubby being part of it, and then the reception will be at the family home, with an estimated 300+ in attendance. I don't know how they do what they do! This wedding will be the first of 4, and the family is all girls, so that could get expensive! However, they always manage to do big things quite economically!

While we were at their house, for dinner, overnight and breakfast, I was shown some cloth bags they have been making with fabric about the weight of denim, webbing for handles that can be bought in fabric shops, duct tape and staples! That is all!

So, we pulled out some fabric scraps, scissors, stapler, ruler, pen, duct tape (it comes in colors but I used silver because it was the best combo for my fabric) and about 45 minutes later, I had assembled a fairly water resistant bag for shopping. It will hold light/medium weight things. Recently they had a bag making session at the church for about 50 girls and ladies, ages 8 to 80, and everybody took home a bag! And so I have another item that needs to be photographed for you to see!

Our neighbor fed the animals for us. When I called him this morning to thank him I asked about the ewe, she did eat a little hay after we dosed her with beer and oatmeal, but apparently has more infection, temp was up to 103 yesterday. I may check on her later today if I see anybody at the barn when I go past on my way to or from town.

Today is our volunteer day, so I will be at the co-op most of the afternoon. I wonder what today's jobs will be.

Mary

This morning when I was feeding horses and filling the water tank, I took a quick walk to the south end of the house where there is bare ground, looking for little green shoots coming up and YES there is just one, it's up a whole half inch and looks like a crocus! Maybe there will be more tomorrow. I always get excited when I see flowers starting to come up where there was snow just a couple of days ago. Some of those brave little flowers don't waste any time! More than likely they will be covered with snow a few more times before we really get to have spring.

I have to admit that I am tired of winter. Sitting around waiting for better weather is not my cup of tea. There is still work to be done in the greenhouse, and I wonder if I am prolonging the disappointing task of dumping the dead greenhouse plants by working at it for about an hour at a time. During my last session I found another little baby plant hiding under the dead residue of the frozen momma plant. Many of my greenhouse plants also need to be repotted, so as I work my way through, I am giving those plants new root room and fresh potting soil.

CajuninKy

How big is your GH?

Mary

It's 16 by 20 ft. I have had it so full at times that I've wished for more space!

CajuninKy

My goodness! That is a big one. I'd be tempted to have a garden in one that big all winter long. LOL Do you grow any veggies during the winter?

Mary

Two moons, in the wrong place, at the wrong time in the morning! After all, the sky was already getting light. I couldn't believe my eyes as I lay there half awake looking through the bedroom door at the living room window. And I was right, I couldn't believe most of it because it was only reflections but yes, the moon, just a skinny sliver, had indeed just appeared over the horizon, but not where I was seeing it.

I got out of bed and found the real moon, visable near where the sun would be coming up about an hour later. What I had seen was the reflection of the moon shining through one living room window, reflecting off the other one which faces it at a right angle. They both have double panes, so I got 2 moons! How strange!

Several days ago, while I was on my way to the hay shed, I looked back toward the house and there was Breezy, standing quite calmly in my living room! Of course he was not, but I was looking through one window, through the corner of the living room and out the window on the other side, seeing Breezy standing in the pasture right behind it, perfectly framed by the window openings.

Do you think I need to have my eyes examined? Or maybe my head?

Most years I do grow winter vegies in the greenhouse. The tomatoe plants that I had started late in the fall for winter production in the greenhouse were frozen when the furnace failed to work, baby green tomatoes and all, and I have not started more, but I should have. I also need to plant some radishes, chard and lettuce in the open bed along the south side. They'll provide a few salads, and when the aphids get too thick, I'll just pull the plants up and toss them out in the snow to freeze the bugs before they multiply any more. I am very reluctant to use poisonous sprays in the greenhouse to control bugs.

Today I was lazy, spent a lot of time playing on the computer and reading a library book and didn't do any greenhouse work. I only went in to feed the goldfish in the tank, but had laundry to attend to and other things to do so I didn't stay. Yesterday everything that is still alive got a drink of fertilized water, so they will be good for several more days if the temperature doesn't get into the 90's from the sunshine, greenhouses do get hot on days when the outdoor temperature is still chilly.

More and more bare ground is showing every day with our sunshine and above freezing temperatures in the daytime. Our overnight temperatures are usually around 20. We have had no storms for a couple of weeks. I am guessing that the worst of winter has passed, but there is always a chance for a relapse, one year we had a blizzard in mid April.

Our old hideabed and two upholstered chairs were picked up on Wednesday by the Salvation Army, and the next day our new recliner and futon were delivered. The futon pad was the wrong one, so the store owner, who had been part of the delivery crew because one of the delivery men was sick that day, saw that it was not right and he made a special trip back to replace it with the one we thought we had purchased.

Apparently, the pad on the futon frame in the store was an odd one, not in their inventory. The store, in a college town, has an economy frame which we bought so we could finish it to match other furniture. It is a popular item pared with their economy dorm special pad. The salesman put in the wrong number and they delivered the economy pad to us, but the cover we had selected definitely did not fit it. I told them that the one we had just given to the Salvation Army looked better, and the owner agreed that something was definitely wrong.

He called his manager, and they left everything here, said go ahead and use it and we will make it right. Later the same day the store owner came back in his own pickup to deliver the pad that had been on the demo, since that was what we thought we were getting, and took the cheap pad back. He said he didn't know where that pad came from, they have never carried it. Possibly it was delivered to their warehouse by mistake, and since it was an odd one, somebody just put it out on the demo model in the showroom.

We do not think this was a "bait and switch" attempt, but may never know for sure. If they sold others between the set up of the showroom model and our purchase, it was probably to college kids who seldom complain about such things. There was no charge for the upgrade or the additional trip, and the owner said his company wants the customer to be satisfied. The pad we got was worth a lot more than the first one they delivered.

Mary

All signs of spring have disappeared and it is NASTY out there! I awoke to hear wind blasting sleet/snow into the window, 10 ft back from the edge of the porch roof. The outdoor kitties were waiting for their breakfast by the back door, looking like snowballs! And I am really glad that job with the heifers in the neighbor's corral was yesterday! The vet came to give them bangs vaccinations and the ear tags and ear tatoos to prove it. By law, this must be done by a veterinarian before the heifers are a year old.

I made 2 loaves of banana bread yesterday, and would have made yeast bread too if I hadn't had to go help my neighbor with the heifers in the middle of it. So, today I'll do that. It's a good day not to have to go anywhere. When I looked at the weather forecast last night, I don't recall any hint of what we have this morning!

The horses that I had turned out into the big pasture have come back for shelter and hay. I'll have to wear all the winter stuff again when I go out to feed them. I need to go fasten the wire to keep the greenhouse exhaust vent from inhaling this winter blast, (the north wind makes it flap and that makes the thermostat cold so the furnace runs more that necessary), and the straw bale needs to be rolled back against the intake vent. Yesterday I got a good look at some of the early growth in the flower beds, some daffys are up about 2 inches. They won't mind the snow.

I see that the neighbors ewes have all ended up in the corner where they drifted moving with the storm until the fence stopped them. Cows in another pasture have done the same thing, all standing with their butts to the wind. I'll feed the horses where they have a bit of shelter so the hay won't be gone with the wind. They might appreciate an earlier than usual breakfast, and it is also time to start cooking ours. A good day for hot cereal I think.

CajuninKy

Hate to hear that old man winter is back. We had nice weather today after a little rain this morning but we are supposed to be getting colder in the next two days and then snow on Sunday. Have I mentioned I hate cold weather?

Mary

Often, on Saturday mornings, we get together with our son and daughter in law to have breakfast, visit, and catch up on the family news. This morning we only had breakfast with our daughter in law, our son was at the church's men's retreat. She took the time to have breakfast with us today because she missed last weekend, being up to her eyeballs in schoolwork, taking 16 credits this term. Mostly the weather has been nice enough for her trip to the college, 40 miles from home and with a bad canyon on the way that is notorious for bad storms and treacherous road conditions. And accidents!

This last week, on the morning I woke up hearing something frozen bouncing off the bedroom window, our daughter in law was on her way to college classes about an hour before daylight. One minute the road was clear with good visability, and the next minute she couldn't tell where the road was. She was afraid to stop because somebody might run into her, and afraid to continue because she might run into somebody else, or off the road.

She punched the quick dial on her cell phone and called our son, and he prayed with her. He didn't pray for the Lord to remove the storm, but for the Lord to give her eyes to see though it. She made it without an accident! Praise the Lord!

On the way to town we saw some animals on a ridge about half a mile from the road. I had been thinking that they might be antelope but the color wasn't right. Hubby stopped and found the binoculars he keeps in the car. I rolled down the window and looked. Nope, not antelope, and not deer. Elk! Lots of them. We have never seen elk in that area, but there they were, most of them bedded down on the sunny side of a hill, out of the wind, like a bunch of cows.

Hubby counted them. 57 elk where we had never seen any before! We looked for them on the way home, but they had gone.

Mary

Something strange is going on with my neighbor's flock of sheep. Two ewes, almost full term pregnant, were found dead last week, no predator damage, no obvious sickness. Then another ewe went into labor, and when it was obvious that she wasn't able to deliver on her own, the neighbor tried to pull her lambs. They were HUGE, but dead, and the ewe was infected, so he called the vet and the vet couldn't get them out either. The ewe was euthanized, and blood and tissue samples will be tested to see what is happening and if it can be stopped. The only new animal added to the flock in the past year was a ram, all the ewes are homegrown from years and years back. Nobody else closer than a mile away has sheep.

Yesterday the neighbor asked if I could check the flock in the evening since a ewe had been pushing and straining earlier in the day, and then later when he had gone back to check on her , she was laying down, looking comfortable. I checked, and found nothing. The lambs aren't due for a few more days. This is definitely a bad start to lambing season.

The snow is mostly gone now, replaced by mud. I took a walk around the yard this morning, looking for little green things in the flower beds. Mostly I see tulips and daffys poking up through the mulch and soil, but also some Autum Joy sedum, another one that is similiar, and a Shasta daisy with a few little green leaves.

Nighttime temperatures have been warmer for 3 nights, encouraging snow to melt and grass to grow. We had 25 deer in our big pasture picking little green grass blades yesterday. And I think that maybe the baby owls might be hatched because today the parent owls are doing a lot of talking, and one of them flew out of a tree to go hunting in the daytime. Miz Owl must be telling him she needs more groceries.

CajuninKy

Sure sorry to hear about the sheep. Hope the rest are fine. What is the ratio of ewes to rams?

Our forcast has us looking at warmer temps for the next few days. I am so thrilled.

Mary

Winter had a relapse, bringing us more snow and wind, but then yesterday was sunny and most of the snow melted. The high temperature was just barely above freezing for part of the day with wind enough to cut through clothing like an icey knife blade.

Last week our local feed and farm supply store had a sale on fencing materials, so my hubby bought 200 heavy duty steel posts and 8 rolls of barbed wire, 1/4 mile per roll. That put a dent in our project money, but today we are going back to take advantage of the sale price on railroad ties and get more wire. The first load really made our old pickup hunker down. We will take the flatbed today to make it easier to get a full bundle of ties that can be loaded at the store with a machine and then unloaded easily here with our tractor. A full bundle is too heavy for the tractor, so the metal strapping will have to be cut and the ties taken off a few at a time. They are very heavy, being saturated with creosote to prevent rotting, which makes them excellent for fence corners and gate posts. The metal posts will make up the majority of the fence, between the railroad ties.

Our south and east fences have needed to be rebuilt for many years, and have been patched together and patched again. This rebuild is one of those property improvement, investment types of things, and will help keep our animals and those of our neighbor in bounds. The sheep and calves have been leaking out through weak spots, even with a couple of hot wires in place, something that makes the neighbor who owns the adjoining field unhappy because he is raising hay and grain there. Good fences make good neighbors.

Yesterday I remarked to my hubby that the geese hadn't shown up yet this spring (that term is used very loosely here) because we had seen some pairs elsewhere looking like they were thinking of goslings. This morning I heard a familiar honking sound, looked out the window toward the pond, and there were 2 pairs of Canada geese, right on time! They waddled around on the edge of the pasture for a while, then walked out on the ice, and finding no open water, flew away. They'll be back. I wonder if they are ones who have nested here before, or some that were raised on our pond.

Spring might be coming after all, the geese think so.

Mary

No lambs last night, and another dead ewe. She was alive and on her feet when I checked her, but died in a few more hours. I could smell her when I opened the barn door, and her breathing was rapid and shallow. Ok, you don't need the rest of the details. The lab reports on another one should be back today, maybe that will give us some answers.

This morning I helped hubby unload the 25 railroad ties we bought. We drove on nicely frozen ground out into the big pasture and put them on a hill out there where they will be handy to get to when we start rebuilding 3/4 of a mile of fence in that pasture sometime this spring. We used the tractor to unload them.

On the way back I discovered that our 1000 gallon propane tank has rolled over because 1, it is on a fill, 2, because the concrete supports the propane company used when they installed the tank are too small and sank into the ground which 3, has been heaving because it freezes and thaws. I could smell gas, so hubby turned off the valve. Don't know how much we lost. The propane delivery guy didn't put any more in it last time he came because he saw that it was sinking on one side, but said it would be a couple of months before they could do anything about it. Well, today they have no choice.

Now we will have to relight the pilot lights for the shop and greenhouse furnaces, maybe the house furnace too but I think that one is an electric ignition. I need to learn how to light the pilot lights without going boom!

CajuninKy

Sure hate to hear about the dead ewe. I hope it's not something that will spread through the whole flock. Has he lost lambs with the dead ewes?

I don't miss having a propane tank. We had one when I was a kid and when I got married we had one. The house we still own in La has one. They are common in that area. But it's a pain to have to wait and hope the gas man can get to you before you run out. Hated lighting pilot lights.
Is there anything left in your green house that might suffer from no heat again? You might have to roll in a 55 gallon drum and build a fire in it. LOL

Mary

Cajun, I neglected to answer a question you asked several days ago. The ram to ewe ratio is about 30 to 1.

Probably nothing in the greenhouse would be killed if there were no heat in it now, since our night temperatures are not lower than about 10 degrees and it warms up every day, but some things that were really knocked down by the freeze have started to grow back and another freeze would set them back again and might finish them off. One amaryllis grew new leaves and bloomed, so I brought it into the dining room so we could enjoy it. We have electricity out there with plenty of outlets, so I could just plug in an electric heater. I know now that I should have done that last fall. Hindsight is 20-20!

The man who came to reset the tank relit the pilot lights in the greenhouse and shop. It was done before I knew it was time to go out to look. The furnace in our basement is one of those smart ones that shuts off when the gas pressure fluxuates and relights itself when the pressure is right again. That is a very nice feature which is probably designed to be a safety feature as well as a convenience.

I'm checking for new lambs every night, and so far have not brought in any, but yesterday a ewe had triplets which are all alive, and today a yearling had a single lamb. She is so nice and calm, when I walked over to her pen to see her baby she didn't bother to get up. The notation on the barn chart says CALM in big letters, so I would guess she will be in the flock for a good long time.

Yesterday when we were on our way to town we saw that big herd of wild pronghorns (aka antelope although they really aren't). There are a couple hundred animals and they have a very large area to roam. When we came back home we could see a trail of muddy footprints going across the highway. We had been looking for them, thinking that it should be about time for them to be showing up. They winter along the Snake River at a lower elevation that seldom gets deep snow, and as the snow melts and the grass starts to get green they start moving to higher ground. They will move back and forth until late fall so we will see them several times, usually about every 2-3 weeks.

I will start a new thread for 2009 lambing season soon.

CajuninKy

I can hardly wait. I do all my sheep farming vacariously through you and your adventures. LOL

Are the sheep seperated in groups of 30 ewes and 1 ram or do they all run together?

Mary

Mostly, they all run together, although some of the white faced ewes were put with a nice white faced ram one year that I can remember, for about 3 weeks and then they were put in with the whole flock. That was to increase white faced replacement ewe lambs as most of the flock had been crossed with Suffolk rams (black faced) for a couple of years and it was getting hard to find 20 or 25 white faced ones to keep. The white faced breeds are better wool producers, and seem to be a bit calmer, and stick closer together when out in the pasture. That's important in big pasture situations, and range flocks are made up of white faced ewes. It's safer for them and easier to move them when they stay closer together. These sheep are also trained to come to a whistled signal which the owner uses every time he feeds them, even if they are standing right there next to the truck. When he wants to move them he just whistles and they all come running. His cattle do the same.

Today I spent 3 hours at the food coop packaging big boxes of dried fruit into small bags, weighing them and putting on labels, then putting some out into bins for the customers and storing the others where they are handy to replenish the bins. We use plastic bins that are like little drawers with lids. They fit into frames and have a label on the front. Today I packaged mangos, papayas, figs and pineapple. 25 pound boxes take a while to put into approxamately 1/2 pound bags. It goes faster with 2 people but today I worked alone.

CajuninKy

In reference to the dead ewes, is it possible one of the rams might be passing something onto them during breeding? Has your neighbor gotten any news about the deaths and what might be causing them?

What was the reason for breeding the suffolks into the flock. Are they hardier?

Is the food co-op like a regular store where anyone can come and shop? I love dried fruit. I have a small dehydrator I use quite a bit. We love dried apples so when they go on sale I buy a bunch and dry them. It takes lots longer to dry them than to eat them. LOL I wonder if you can dry canned pineapple. DH loves canned pineapple. I make trail mix to take on trail rides and car trips. Did you use your hours to get any goodies?

Mary

We are in the midst of typical March weather, sunshine one minute and snow or rain the next. Blustery winds accompany most of it, so I'm still wearing my winter overalls and all the rest of the warm stuff when I go out.

Cajun, the Suffolk breed are a good meat breed, and as most of the lambs are raised for the meat, it is good to cross the whitefaced or whiteface cross ewes with them. The ewes are kept in the flock for several years, so they provide wool as well as producing lambs. Whitefaced breeds make more wool with longer strands, and it is finer and softer than that from the black faced breeds.

The coop is open for anybody to shop there, but they pay full price, and they can buy a lifetime membership any time to get an automatic discount of 5%. Volunteer hours give a bigger discount. The coop just made a website, and if I can find it, I will post a link here.

http://www.bakercounty.net/BakerFoodCo-op/index.htm

CajuninKy

The co-op sounds like a great deal. I wish we had something like that here.

It's been raining here 3 out of the last 4 days and just before the rain set in we had a 5" snowfall. Needless to say it is a muddy mess here. It is still chilly but is suposed to warm up for the next few days. I sure am ready for warm temps.

I remember seeing lots of black faced sheep at the fair back home. We have a county fair but they don't have the facilities to put animals on exhibition. They just give $10 and a blue ribbon to every animal entered. Knock made $70 last year. He used it for spending money on his summer trip to La.

Mary

Today I finally finished dumping all the dead plants in the greenhouse. It was such a nice day that I just parked the wheelbarrow outside the greenhouse door and started carrying pots outside. I filled it with the soil, took that to a flower bed and used it to fill a low spot. I found another plant with little live shoots under the frozen leaves, so repotted those and hope they will grow. All the dead tops went on a trash pile. Somehow working on that project on a sunny day was not as bad as the shorter sessions I found depressing a month ago.

Tomorrow I need to wash a bunch of pots and then dunk them in bleach water. It's time to start some seeds and I am sure my neighbor will be borrowing greenhouse space from me again this year. He pays me back by providing fresh eggs! His chickens get outside to scratch around and find green grass and bugs so the eggs have very bright yellow/orange yolks.

CajuninKy

Love those free range eggs! I can't free range my chickens. They wouldn't last a week with all the cats around.

God's Warrior

We used to let our chickens and mallard ducks out in the back fenced in yard when we had our wonderful female German Shepherd dog to watch over them. The eggs that they produced were wonderful with the darkest yellow yokes imaginable. Ah, those were the days. Now we eat "store bought" eggs that are probably not half as healthy for us.

CajuninKy

And surely don't taste as good.

Mary

Yesterday the annual war on wasps began. The day before I had killed 3 wasps right outside my back door. Yesterday there were half a dozen so I started looking to see where they were hiding and discovered that the porch roof support board on the house was apparently the source, and they were crawling out through a little space between that and the siding. Sixteen years ago we covered the old horizontal beveled lap siding with a housewrap product, then put plywood siding over that with vertical boards to make it look like board and bat. The spaces under the edges of the old siding apparently make good places for wasp nests. I had never thought of that!

And so, having located the source, and having a few cans of Raid left in the shop from last year (we stocked up when they were on sale) it was time to attack them before they have a chance to multiply or attack me. I spread out some newspapers to catch the drips and the sick wasps when they fell, and had an old chair to stand on and my trusty fly swatter to finish them off. I expected to have a few wasps fall out, but that's not what I got. There were at least a couple of hundred, some full grown and many youngsters. After I thought I had them all, I carefully folded up the paper and burned it with the household paper trash. I killed at least a dozen in the hour or so after that and this morning I found more that had crawled out overnight. Today I got out the canister type vacuum and slurped up about 15 that were crawling out as the sun warmed the side of the house!

I may have to spray more Raid in the crack, but won't do it today because the wind is blowing and I don't want the spray in my face or sick wasps all over, including on me! Yesterday they fell almost straight down. Some things just work better when it is calm.

Mary

Well, the day is pretty much shot. My neighbor called and asked if I could help him get a cow in that wasn't claiming her calf. It was easier said than done, and took us a couple of hours. If she had been cooperative we could have had her to the corral where her calf was waiting in about 20 minutes. As it was we ended up bringing in all the cows and their calves, and after a lot of zig zags and start overs we got them to the corral. The cow we wanted was the first one through the gate, as if to say, "see you didn't need to bring everybody", but yes, we did, because she wouldn't leave them.

The trouble started yesterday morning when she and another cow both gave birth near each other and their calves got together. When my neighbor came by at daylight he tried to decide which calf went with which cow. He paired them up in a way that made sense to him because one cow seemed to like one of the calves better than the other, so he ear tagged both calves, wrote the info in his little notebook and left. Later he found one calf way up the hill by itself and this cow we brought in today not even looking for it. He brought it to her, she walked away.

Since it was cold and windy, he loaded the calf in his pickup and took it to the barn to get it warm, then later took it back to her and put it in a sheltered spot. She ignored it, and hours later he found the calf way up the hill again. So, he took the calf back for another warm up, then put it in a small sheltered corral and came to get me to help get the cow to the same spot.

When we got her into the pen with the calf, she just stood there and let the calf get a good drink of milk, like nothing had ever been wrong. She needs to stay in with it for at least a week to really bond with it. We think the other cow took over so quickly and kept her away from it that she didn't really realize she had one, and maybe thought it belonged to the other cow. This cow has a kind of timid nature so wouldn't challenge another, more dominant cow.

This afternoon we went to a town about 40 miles away to get something that is not available in our town. We also had lunch there, then bought a few groceries at a discount store that sells overstock items and dented cans, or ones that have had label changes. It's all good food, and cheaper than other places IF you can find what you want. I need to make an apple crisp because the bag of apples we bought today broke just as we reached the car and they went bouncing and rolling in all directions and will be a mess of bruises if they aren't cooked soon.

God's Warrior

Do you have a recipe for the apple crisp? That sounds good. I love apples and hope to make some old fashioned small fried apple pies in a couple of days. I am soaking the dried apples tonight. They were dried by our mutual friend Melody.

Mary

Elena, I just kind of guess at the ingredients for my apple crisp. Make the apple part just like you are making pie, and then for an 8x8 inch pan I use a generous cup of quick oats, about 3/4 cube of butter, about 3/4 cup of brown sugar, a shake or two of cinnamon and cloves, sometimes some grated orange peel if I have it. Mix all that together with a pastry blender and put it on top of the apples. Bake at 300 until the top is crispy, about an hour. Lots of guesswork here. I make rhubarb or peach crisp the same way.

In a week our weather has gone from beautiful to nasty, to snow covering everything 2 mornings ago, to another beautiful calm sunny day yesterday. I hauled about 10 wheelbarrow loads of old manure and put it down in stripes where the garden rows will go, then rototilled a few rows. My onion sets need to be planted, but that won't happen today as planned because the wind is howling again and although the sun is shining, it is most unpleasant to be out in it. I had also planned to plant some Swiss chard, spinach, and beets today, but the seeds would surely be gone with the wind.

One day last week I walked way down into our hilly pasture to see why I had been only seeing one horse when I should have been seeing two. I headed for a place where I could see a lot of bird activity, the kind of birds that gather when something has died. Bad news, it was my oldest horse who had probably died a day or two before. He would have been 30 years old in a couple more months. We left him where he was, the scavengers will clean his bones. This may sound heartless to some, but that's what we do here. Burying a large animal is very difficult and the scavengers just dig them up anyway. He is in a spot where the winds carry the smells away from houses. If he had died in a bad place we would have had to move him with a tractor and chain. He was my original endurance horse, retired now for about 11 years after carrying me over 5000 miles on the endurance trails.

CajuninKy

Mary,
I am so sorry about your horse. Even when they have led a long, full and happy life we miss them when they are gone and hate to see them go. It's nice you have had so many years to make memories with your friend. 5000 miles is a lot of together time. I'd love to see some pics if you have any.

God's Warrior

I am sorry about your horse dying but it is good that he lived a very long and happy life. It is hard to part with any of our much loved pets but making sure that we give them the best of care is something that we can feel good about even when they depart.

Thanks for the recipe. That is something that I want to make right away. You have recipes much like mine. I guess at most of the recipes that I prepare unless they are new ones that I am trying. Once I get finished changing the ingredients in recipes it woud be hard for someone else to recognize the originals. Smile

Mary

Thank you, Elena and Cajun. I still look down into the pasture and expect to see him with the other horse that had been his pasture buddy. I'll have to look for a picture. I don't have any from competitions because all the ones I have are the kind I would have to scan, and I don't have a scanner. He was 1/2 Thoroughbred and 1/2 Arabian.

Today hubby cleaned irrigation ditches with a blade on the rear of the tractor, it does a good job but can't do it all, so there is plenty of shovel work. I did some of that this morning. My planned job for the day was to get those onion sets planted. They're still in the bags, the wind came up and it is too strong to be trying to control powdered bone meal that I want to put in the rows before planting. I had thought maybe I could get them planted Sunday afternoon, but then our son and his wife came out to visit and stayed for dinner. She wasn't exactly dressed for garden work, so we visited in the house.

Our neighbor had another new calf in his field this morning. Now there are 13 cows left, and 6 are heifers who are bred for later calves to give the prospective mothers a bit of extra time to grow. In the lamb department, there was another set of twins this morning and only about 5 of them left to produce something.

Hubby needed to do some things in town today, so I went along. We had lunch at our favorite cafe, then I put in an hour volunteering at the coop. I packaged flax seeds, scooping them out of a 25 pound bag and into small plastic bags containing about 1/3 to 1/2 pound. The bin in the cooler was empty so about 20 of them went out there, the rest are in a plastic bin in the cooler. We make small bags because flax seed goes rancid quickly. Some products that I have worked with tend to be full of static, flax seeds are in that category, they stick to the bag, to the scoop, to my plastic gloves and anything else that gets too close. We will have some of them on our oatmeal in the morning. They have sort of a nutty flavor and are full of the good kind of oils, I don't remember if it is Omega 3 or 6, but I do remember that it is good for high blood pressure.

The farm calendar often has very funny jokes on it, this month the cartoon shows a farmer talking to his banker, and he is saying "Why find new ways to lose money when the old ones work so well?"

CajuninKy

Mary,
I still expect to see Ginger when we go to the farm. I miss her and I only had her for 2 years. Your guy must have been a regular fixture on your place. I'll bet his pasture buddy misses him to. Have you noticed any different behavior with the remaining horse?

What is the bone meal for?

What breed of cattle does your neighbor have? The calves sure are cute when they are little. We went to a friend's house and saw his calves. He has a nice crop so far.

Seems like the lambing went quick this year. Of course, that is from my arm chair vantage point. LOL

I have never eaten flax to my knowledge but I have read about it's good properties. Is it actually seeds like sesame seeds?

Mary

Yesterday was beautiful and without wind, so I put bone meal down along the rototilled strips, then ran the tiller over them again to mix it with the soil and manure. Then the planting began. I think I have all the crops in that like cool soil and cool weather. Onion sets (200 of them), Swiss chard, spinach, 4 kinds of lettuce, 3 kinds of peas, 2 brocolli varieties, cabbage, radishes, kohlrabi, and probably others that I can't remember now. The hoses were in the shed so I got them carried down the hill and watered all my newly planted areas, then called it a day.

My rows are never straight, I don't bother with sticks and a string because they were never straight when I did, the wind always made a bow in the line. My method now is to run the rototiller and follow the line the depth guide bar makes between the tines. I plant most things in double rows, making a little trench about 6 inches to the outside of the depth bar line and another like it on the other side. For cabbages and brocolli I make a zigzag pattern, making a little planting hole 6 inches out from the center line on one side of it, then doing the same on the other but about 3 ft down the row. I can plant 15 plants instead of about 9 if they were planted straight down the middle. I might have to take more pictures of my planting patterns, because, as everyone knows, a picture is worth 1000 words.

Today's weather is cooler, and very windy, with a chance of rain and/or snow showers in the next 4 days. I knew the good weather was too good to last, so that is why I worked so hard to get all that planting done yesterday. When I woke up this morning and heard the wind blowing, I smiled, knowing that my little seeds were all tucked into their rows and watered.

Bone meal is good for root and fruit development. It breaks down slowly, so will feed the crops all season. The chemical analysis is generally something like 3-16-0. The first number is nitrogen, and the manure I add has enough of that but is short on phosphorus. The hardest thing to add organically is potassium.

My neighbor's cattle are a mixed bunch. He has used bulls of black angus, brangus, shorthorn, beefmaster, tarantase (sp) and Piedmontese. The cows are black, gray, red, blonde, and everything between. Some of the 1/2 piedmontese are the color of Jersey milk cows, brown with darker noses, eyes, tails, and legs. We have invented names for these odd colors, light burnt cookies, dark burnt cookies, and peanut butter. Several years ago many of the cows had body markings in dark brown and white. One of those cows had both front legs white with a white band over her shoulders connecting them. We called her Stilts. She produced calves that looked like her, so we had Stilts 2, Stilts 3, etc. Her female calves were kinda nutty acting so all of them were sold or butchered.

Occasionally his cows get a visit from the neighbor's hereford bull, so there are 3 cows in the herd that are half hereford, very evident by their white faces. Most of this year's calf crop is sired by the Piedmontese bull, but when the heifers calve theirs will be 1/2 black angus. The reason for that is angus produce low birth weight calves which are easier for the smaller heifers to deliver.

Oops, forgot to answer the flax seed question. They are about twice the size of sesame seeds, and come in a golden color or chocolate brown. I noticed that the golden flax cost about twice what the brown ones do but I'm not sure why. They are the shape of sunflower seeds. Sometimes in those multigrain cereal mixtures you see whole ones.

CajuninKy

I wonder if I should add some bone meal. My stuff is planted in old potting soil, composted horse manure, composted hay and composted sawdust. I may try the bone meal in one area and see if it makes a difference. Is it expensive and where did you get yours?

I covered my broccoli and strawberries for 2 nights but the temps are back above freezing now. We hardly got any snow and what fell didn't stick. Thank the Lord.

I have never heard of those last 2 cattle breeds you listed. I'll have to google them. I have a friend in La who raises an uncommon breed. It's called a French Blonde D'Aquiteinne. They are large and gentle. Great for 4H calves. And their biggest selling point is that they have almost no body fat so the meat is healthy. They have so little body fat the ground meat won't even hold together. But it is very tender and delicious.

How do you cook the flax seed?

Mary

Here's a link that gives a brief history of some of the cattle breeds I mentioned.

http://www.bovinebazaar.com/history.htm

Flax seed question. We sprinkle a bit of raw seed on our bowls of oatmeal, but it can also be added to bread. Flax seed meal might be better for baked goods.

Bone meal: It isn't cheap. Most garden centers have it in boxes of about 4#. Mostly it is associated with planting fall bulbs so it is easier to find in the fall. It also comes in larger bags that are more economical. 2 cups is recommended for 100 sq ft. Work it into the soil before planting if possible, but it can also be used on shrubs and trees, just scratch the soil around the drip line and try to work it into the top few inches. It's smelly, so dogs and other critters might do some digging. One year I planted garlic after working bone meal into the soil, and a racoon uprooted most of a row.

I became convinced that it is good for everything when I planted some lettuce plants that were in 4 inch pots. Halfway though I remembered the bone meal and added it to the rest of the row. Those plants were greener and larger than the ones without it. The neighbor who taught me about organic gardening used it for everything. I worked for her before I had my own garden, weeding, planting, harvesting, etc, and was paid in vegetables, but that wasn't all. I got knowledge! We became good friends.

She had a daughter who was a Christian, but her mother was turned off because her daughter was preachy. I let her know in subtile ways that I was also a Christian, but never pushed her. When she was dying of cancer I gave her a little booklet that gave a simple explanation of sin and salvation, and told her that I didn't intend to offend her but thought it was time for her to read it. When her daughter came to visit her the next day, my neighbor said "it's time". Her daughter thought she meant that it was time for her to die, but she said "no, it's time for me to be a Christian". So her daughter was able to pray with her for salvation a few days before she went to be with the Lord.

CajuninKy

Such a wonderful testimony of the way God was able to use you. I know many Christians with all good intentions turn many sinners away because of their zeal. My DH and I are completely the opposite. Of course, people know we are Christians and that DH is a pastor and a preacher but we never preach at them. Everybody has to come to God in their own way and in His time. They know they can come to us and talk and many times they do. Lots of times people come to our barn to visit and they ask us questions about God. I know as long as they are asking that means they trust us and when the they need to know more they will come to us. We pray for them all and their families and count them all friends though we don't partake of the things they do. They are still our friends and we are their friends and God can work with that.

Thanks for the links. I will check them out. I love learning new stuff. I like to read.

Also thanks for the info on the bone meal. I am going to have to look for it and give it a try. Is it actually made from bones?

Mary

Yes, bone meal is actually made from bones. There is also a product called bone and feather meal, made from poultry. It would be higher in nitrogen because of the feathers.

Yesterday I noticed that one of the neighbor's cows appeared to be having trouble delivering a calf, and a few minutes later my neighbor came up though our pasture where he had been checking to see if there was enough grass for his sheep. I told him where the cow was and he went to check on her. Later I saw his pickup in the field near where I had seen the cow, so I went to see if he needed help. He had walked her to the corral, so I helped get her into the chute and we pulled a big calf out. It was in the right position but just so big I don't think she could have ever pushed it out by herself.

Day before yesterday he had another cow with a huge calf that he was able to pull in the field. That one has both front legs turned under at the first joint, so he made splints for it. It can't stand up to nurse so he has to get the cow into the chute to milk her, then try to bottle feed the calf. The calf gets tired of sucking so then the rest of the milk goes down a tube into his stomach. Hopefully in another day or two that one will stand up and find out that momma has 4 nice fawcetts!

CajuninKy

Seems like he's having better luck with the cows than the sheep. Did he find out what they were dying from?

Mary

Cajun, he probably did find out, but I haven't thought to ask him. There's always something else getting our attention. Like this:

Today started out with the fun of helping my neighbor catch his horses that escaped and lead him on a merry chase. He has them pastured with some cattle, and when he went into the pasture with his feed truck he thought they would be attracted to the hay, but instead they went out through the gate. This morning he has too much "help", his niece and nephew who are city kids, who chased the horses in the wrong direction trying to catch them, which only added to the fun and made the horses run down the road. I took the proper bait, a bucket with grain, and a halter, and walked right up to them, or more exactly, they walked right up to me.

Here is something else that got our attention this week, it's 15 miles away but still way too close for comfort. 15 miles is nothing for a wolf.

http://www.bakercityherald.com/Lo...nfirm-wolves-killed-Keating-lambs

And in the few days since that happened, here is another news story.

http://www.bakercityherald.com/Local-News/

Yesterday I cleaned off an unused patch at the top of the garden where I built compost piles a few years ago, then rototilled it. I had removed all the rocks and miscellaneous things from the surface, but the rototiller found a lot more, and when it did, that made the tiller jump around in odd directions and take me with it. This new patch is for tomatoes and potatoes. Last week I had rototilled a place I intended to use, but then changed my mind when I remembered how many plants had their roots nibbled off by rodents in that area last season. I needed new ground because of potato diseases caused from planting grocery store potatoes, and burying potato peelings in the compost. I hope this cures the problem.

Today is another beautiful day, so now I'm off to the garden to get dirty!

Mary

The story of the wolves killing livestock continues, now they have attacked and killed a calf.

http://www.bakercityherald.com/Lo...lves-shift-their-tastes-to-cattle

On the home front, the weather has been beautiful for several days. I planted my potatoes yesterday and mulched the patch with strawy manure, or maybe more accurately, manurey straw. It's mostly straw, and also has some alfalfa hay in it. Today I need to fork a bunch of it into a wheelbarrow and put it on cardboard along the old asparagus row. That's a job for a calm day.

Other things on my do list today are lawn mowing, and laundry. I don't always get to everything on my list, but it is good to have a plan!

I have jury duty from May through August this year. Winter would be more convenient but I don't have the option to choose. Yesterday I was notified that I will be serving on the grand jury instead of on courtroom cases. That will be more convenient for me because they usually meet on the same day every week, except in the case of a serious crime. For instance, say there is an armed robbery, somebody is shot, the suspect is in custody, and the case needs to go forward quickly.

The grand jury is presented with the evidence the DA has for a case and listens to witnesses, but no defendant or defense attorney is present. A decision is made on whether there is sufficient evidence to take the case to court for a regular trial. It's a secret proceeding, some defendants don't even know, and then WAM, an arrest warrant is issued and they find themselves charged with a crime and bound over for trial. Other times somebody is already in custody, or know the police are onto something they've done. It will be interesting.