Holy Crap

I’m not even sure I have anything to say about this.

 

http://blogs.dogtime.com/animal-hoarding-news-and-info/by-tag/humane%20sanctuary%20inc

 

Other than, WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING???

If you’re tougher than I am and think you can handle the pictures and videos, click here.

Go read the article then take your time vomiting afterwards.  I’ll still be here trying to figure out why it took authorities so long to do something.  And why, oh WHY, would someone submit not only the animals to that kind of neglect, but their own 97 year old mother as well???

As mad as this makes me, I know I can’t lay all the blame on Kathy Witzman.  Because let’s face it… if it wasn’t for the wanton breeding of dogs for the almighty dollar, and the ignorance of people that don’t get their dogs neutered/spayed and let them roam the neighborhood, she probably never would have ended up with so many dogs in the first place.

Unfortunately, I’m facing a similar challenge with Cattle Baron and his sisters.  They started with one unspayed German Shepard female who found herself a boyfriend next door at Drunken Neighbor’s place in 2008.  The first litter of puppies froze to death on the front porch.  The next litter was lucky enough to be born in the summer.  Of course, none of those puppies were ever spayed or neutered, because no way would the sons breed with mom or their sisters.  Their God would not allow that!!  Drunken Neighbor’s dog has since died, but oddly enough, those females just keep pumping out the puppies.  So much for deity intervention.  Six out of eight born last month froze to death.  The girls finally got a clue and brought the next litter into the house.   Last I had heard, there were 10 puppies from two different litters, with more on the way.  There are at least four females over there of breeding age.

I wonder how long it will take for them to have over 160 dogs? 

Willpower

Normally, I have none.  Zip.  Zero.  Nada.  Especially when it comes to kittens or puppies.  Or ice cream.  Or chocolate.  Or peaches, cherries, strawberries, blueberries…   I could go on, but you get the drift.  So when I was invited to a cookout at the Olive Branch Rescue today, it should surprise and impress you that I did not come home with one of these.

 

They were cute.  They were cuddly.  They really wanted to chew on my fingers.  So I let them. 

This one had better things to chew on, but he still tried so desperately to impress me.

 

As I walked away, their crying and whimpering broke my heart. 

 

I tried so hard not to go back into the cat house.  I did, I really truly did.  I had already been in there once, for just a minute, and the overflowing kitten population had just been too much.  I was afraid if I went back in, I’d bring one home.  Or two.  Or ten.  I told myself in no uncertain terms was I going back in there.

 

Of course I did.  Was there any doubt??

 

 

Oh no, I’ve been spotted.

 

Oh kitten, please don’t.  You just don’t understand how weak I am.

 

Or maybe you do.

 

That one was so close to coming home with me.  I can’t tell you what a close call it was.  When I finally clawed and pulled myself out of the cat house, I felt relief wash over me at the freedom I had gained.  Yes!  I had done it!  I had proven to myself that I did at least have a smidgen of willpower.

Then this rubbed against my leg and purred.

 

I made the mistake of petting the needy little thing for a minute, then it wouldn’t leave my side.  He followed me everywhere and I was afraid he would jump in the truck with me and I’d be forced to take him home.  Luckily, someone else petted him and he became their problem. 

It was a long hard day fraught with emotion, danger around every corner, and a tremendous sense of inadequacy. 

One that I wish to repeat tomorrow, please.

Garden Overload

Honestly, how many more pickles could I possibly make?? Luckily (???) for me, my cucumber plants have succumbed to the squash bugs and are dying at a rapid rate. I can't believe I'm happy about that.

Our chest freezer is just about full of frozen tomatoes. I'm going to have to buckle down and do some canning soon. Very soon.

This was Saturday's harvest. It's been this way, or more, every other day for the past week at least.

A closer look at basket #1. Just enough corn for dinner, a red onion to slice up on the burgers, and tomatoes. Of course there are tomatoes.

Basket #2 is mostly filled with cucumbers, with some cherry tomatoes here and there. There are also a ton of pineapple tomatillos on the bottom of the basket. And oh look! More tomatoes.

Here's a little advice for those of you who are still impatiently tapping your fingers waiting for your tomatoes to ripen: grow orange. I keep meticulous (read: anal) notes on my gardens, and for the past few years my orange and yellow tomatoes have consistently been the first to ripen, no matter how hot the weather. I would suggest these heirlooms: Orange Oxheart (great for sauce, mostly meat and big!), Kelloggs Breakfast (technically a yellow mater, but ripens to orange), and of course my favorite, the Pineapple tomato. For a pink tomato that ripens first in my garden I'd go with the Brandywine mater. Big, juicy, and some say the best tomato taste ever.

I could have also filled those baskets with chard and carrots. But I wasn't in the mood for canning and scrubbing. They'll hold till the weekend when I will hopefully feel more inclined to spend my day in a very hot kitchen scrubbing and cursing. Maybe.

You know how you almost always have trouble getting a group picture? Like at a family reunion, there's always an aunt Betty who wants group pictures of everyone and you spend an hour trying to make her happy?

First, someones eyes are closed.

Then someone is sticking out their tongue and making faces at the camera, while someone else is bored already and eyeing the buffet table.

Then the hungry buffet seeker is subdued, but the face maker has decided to go play horseshoes, the camera-shy kid is unknowingly walking through the picture, and someone else is, well, licking their butt.

I love family reunions.

Random thoughts for the day

"What do you think they are?"
"Food"
"Well, duh, but do you think they are white meat or dark meat?"
"Who cares?"
"Good point. Do you think mom put them in the cage to keep them in or us out?"
"I dunno"
"Do you think they'll grow more? They wouldn't last us long as they are now. And it's hardly sporting to kill something so small."
"I dunno"
"What do you know?"
"I'm hungry."
"Me too."


Don't worry, no guineas were harmed in the making of this post.



This is what the terrible three look like when they are behaving. Take a quick look, it doesn't last long.




Tonight's harvest. Kohlrabi (already peeled), beets, and baby carrots for munching on with some Ranch dressing tomorrow during work. That tomato in the back is not from my garden, but from a farmer's market. One of those roadside stands where you think you'll get fresh veggies. Nope. The tomatoes I got from them did a really good impression of cardboard.



I really have no idea what to do with those beets. I sliced them up and threw them in a ziploc for now. I'll look up some recipes later, but if anyone wants to share their favorite recipe, I'm all ears.


These two luscious little beauties came off my Tristar everbearing strawberry plants tonight. Usually I snatch them off the plant and pop them in my mouth before they even have the chance to know what's happening. But the other night I made the mistake of mentioning to Glenn that the strawberries have been really good so far.

"We have strawberries?? Why haven't you been saving me any???"

Oops. That was supposed to by my little secret. My guilt made me bring these in the house tonight, clean them up, and put them on the counter for Glenn when he gets home. They're still sitting there. Just waiting to be eaten. All by themselves. I wonder if they're lonely? Maybe I should go sit with them.




My tomato theory: the plants grow a foot a week. AT LEAST. These cages are 5' tall and it's not even July yet. I also feel that if the plants are this big then they need to be putting out some ripe maters. Is there a tomato plant union that I don't know about?




I had an awesome ride on Kita tonight. I've only been riding her a few times a week lately because of everything else on my plate. Even though she's 9 years old, she's still what some would consider "green". When down in VA I had very little time for riding because of work and my 3-5 hours a day spent commuting to and from work. The barn I was at didn't have a riding ring and no outside lights, so finding time to ride was difficult at best. Kita doesn't rear or buck, but sometimes the steering is broken and the gas pedal sticks. So we've been working on circles, transitions, and a little collection. She's got a great natural head carriage for a Standardbred and she's a decent mover. But my goal in life with her is to make her a steady and trustworthy trail horse that can also be used to pony the younger horses. Tonight, she was incredible. She was flexible, responsive, relaxed, and totally into it. She stopped throwing her inside shoulder around the corners, she never stuck her nose out and made faces while trotting, she stayed on the bit and collected the whole time, and she seemed very happy. Those are the kinds of rides that I live for.

I'm hoping to have time this weekend to hit the trails across the road on the neighbor's farm. A nice relaxing trail ride on my favorite girl is just what the doctor ordered.

Back to my happy place

After making that last post I still needed to cleanse my soul of what I learned today (and really didn't want to know). So the dogs and I went outside for our daily play and horse feeding ritual. This time, I actually remembered to bring the camera with me.



Play time usually means "everyone gang up on Heidi cause if she runs we can't catch her anyway". Today Brie chose to pick on Zeus, who loved the attention and has a secret crush on Brie. Heidi just chased Brie around barking at her the whole time saying "chase me! chase me!".

After play time was over and everyone was taking a break, Jack had to go over and make sure his canine buddy was ok.

"OMG! Are those laugh lines? And where'd my puppish figure go?? Is that a double-chin???"













I can't wait to get chickens and guinea hens. And apparently, I'm not the only impatient one. This is one of Jilly's favorite spots -- the door to the chicken coop!









Those that know Cody and read my blog keep asking "where's the pictures of Cody???". Everyone who meets him loves him. Yes, he looks like he could take your arm off, but he's really the sweetest dog and wouldn't hurt a fly. He's afraid of his own shadow and loud noises, shares his food with the cats, and gets along with anything on four legs (and most two-leggers).

I got Cody from a rescue when he was four months old. The rescue had found him and his two sisters and mother somewhere in WV. When they found the dogs, mom was tied to a post in the middle of a yard at an abandoned home with no shelter, food, or water. She was emaciated and had given all she had to the pups. Knowing her pups were in good hands, she quietly died on the way back to Maryland. Cody's two sisters were rambunctious and outgoing, while Cody would roll over on his belly and lay his ears back when approached by a stranger. It took years for him to get past that to become the dog he is today. Now he's 11 years old, a little arthritic, but really none the worse for wear. And he is definitly the patriarch of the pack! He doesn't put up with any nonsense from the pups if he's not in the mood and they know when to swing wide of him if he's grumpy!







My last pic of the day is of Junior and Mav playing in the field. I've really been surprised at how well Junior has bonded with the little guy. Junior has been with only mares for so many years I thought he'd ignore Maverick more than anything. Yesterday at lunch we were outside for a bit watching them. A thunderstorm blew in pretty quickly and we watched as Junior moved to Mavericks' side and used himself to block Mav from the rain and wind. They were so close their bellies were touching and they just stood there until the rain stopped. Then it was off their separate ways to stuff their faces once again.

Day of pics

In other words, I haven't got much to say except that life in the garden is pretty good. :)


We've got one more bed to build and fill and Glenn plans on making that one huge. The one in the foreground was just filled and planted yesterday with lettuce, a few herbs, and pineapple sage and monarda for the hummingbirds. Corn and cukes will be sown in there soon.










It's almost time to dust off the steamer!

















A bug's eye view of the kohlrabi and beets.















The "sacrificial" Brandywine tomato plant that was put out way too soon not only survived, but is thriving. Maybe one of these flowers will be the illusive 5 pounder of my dreams?

Our new "pet". He's here every day, several times a day, to fish. Sorry for the picture quality, he's a little camera shy and I had to take this one at dusk through the kitchen window screen.













The ancient tribal Totem of Dog.

Getting Started

Ah, the beginning bloggers first post. What to say? Where to start? How much can I babble on without losing you? I guess there's nothing for it but to hit the ground running and see what happens!


We bought our first property in September 2007 and moved up here in November. Woohoo! I never thought owning my own place could be so fulfilling and so... unbelievable. I walk around the place thinking about things I'd like to change in the house and I sometimes get that thought in the back of my brain that says 'you need to check with the landlord first'. Ack! Maybe the fact that I am the landlord will sink in eventually, but it hasn't yet. The other day I noticed the cats were tearing up one of the window screens in the living room. When they want to come in the twins climb the screen and hang there until we notice them and let them in. No matter how cute this is, it does very little to increase the life of the window screen and the first thought that popped into my head was 'we'll have to replace that screen before the lease is up'. How long will this last??


We've got a fairly secluded 40 acres here and some mighty grand plans, to include huge organic garden and orchard, riding ring and barn for the horses (that's really for me, the horses couldn't care less), milking goats for making my own cheese, a small beef cattle herd, and chickens. We want to tear down this house and put up something that doesn't have two stair steps going into every room and looks like it was all built at the same time instead of a room here and there over the years. And where does all this DUST come from?? We cleaned the house last night and included the dreadful dusting chore this time. Now I remember why we gave up on dusting for the winter. This morning there was a visible coating of dust on everything again. Ugh, the dust battle goes on.


I would also like to dally a bit in bee keeping and the love of my life (because he may read this) wants to go off grid and experiment with solar power. The place already comes equipped with a high-technology spring-fed cistern that uses some new process called gravity to provide water to the house. This is all fine and dandy, until it rains and our crystal clear delicious water that comes out of the faucet turns into brown silt-laden, do I even want to boil pasta with it, mud. This area had a very bad drought in 2007. People had to haul water in big tanks for home use and livestock all summer, and some are still hauling water on a weekly basis. We listen to the locals tell us all about it and just nod our heads like we believe it... it has done nothing but rain or snow since we moved in! Oh to be able to step outside and not sink into 6 inches of mud, or walk thru the grass without water squishing up to your ankles. This whole place is like a big sponge coated in red indian clay - which makes the sponge very slippery! I have hit the ground enough times to permanently turn the backside of my blue jeans brown. But even with all the problems we've run into so far and the ones I'm sure are still to come, we love this place and wouldn't trade it for anything!


Still here?

If I haven't lost you yet, then check back later for gardening tips, horsey talk, canine hijinks's, feline jokes (I'm almost always the butt of these), and home improvement adventures that will probably never end!