Hay, hay, and yet more hay

In the past week and a half, three different people have called me to donate hay.  The first had lost her last horse and didn’t want anymore.  She had about 130 bales in her barn and was looking for a place to donate it.  It took two trips, but it’s in our barn now. 

The second was a very nice couple that live about 6 miles away.  I’ve never met them before, but they called me up last week and wanted to “come out and just see what you’re about”.  So they came out a few days ago, met all the horses and we traded stories (they currently have six horses, one of them a rescue), then they said they wanted to donate a bunch of hay, but first needed to make sure I was nothing like the “so-called rescue” an hour down the road.  Apparently, I’m not.  170 bales delivered by them over the last two days now sits in our barn. 

The third is a friend of mine that is also fostering two horses and adopted Shortcake, Ginger, and Huey.  She and her husband bale their own hay and they were offered a new farm to bale this year.  I went down today while they were baling and now 82 more bales are sitting on the truck and trailer waiting for tomorrow to be introduced to our barn.  They offered more hay, but my barn is full!

 

Even though I feed round bales, I still like to have the barn full of square bales in the event that the weather is so bad that I can’t get to my round bale supplier.  I should have put “fill barn with hay” on my project list just so I’d have something to cross off!

 

I also got some training done yesterday and Mariah really wanted to hinder help!  So go check it out over on the new blog!

I was abducted by aliens!

No, not really.  But, minus the anal probing, wouldn’t it be really cool if that was my excuse for not blogging in so long?  And just think of the things I’d have to tell you upon my return!   Unfortunately, my only excuse is that I was sans computer for awhile. 

 

I have a lot to share, but my brain is somewhat discombobulated today (worse than usual).  It could be because it was 54 degrees and sunny out for most the day today.    After weeks of single digit and teen temperatures, rain, snow, and forgetting what the sun looked like, we finally had a nice day.   Did I get to ride?  Well, no.  Maybe tomorrow…

 

 

Everyone is doing well here, which is more than I can say for a breeding farm down the road.  I’ve mentioned this particular farm before, but have recently found out new information.  The woman has been breeding her same two studs for years and just found out from a buyer of one of her horses that the horse has a bad heart murmur.  Doc went out and determined that all her babies have heart murmurs because both of her stallions have the same problem!  ARGH!

 

 

Now she has 20 or so horses, with more broodmares expecting in the next couple of months, and no more outlet for her babies.  Will she stop breeding?  Will she lie to unsuspecting buyers that don’t know about a pre-purchase vet exam?  Will she put down the ones with extreme heart murmurs before they suffer from starvation any more than they already have?

 

 

Only time will tell, I suppose.   Maybe I’m a skeptic, but I foresee that situation getting a lot worse before it gets better.

Wild Friends

Louey and Dewey the ducks were killed by a critter last Wednesday, leaving Huey all by his lonesome, with only occasional visits from the guineas to keep him going.  We did end up getting him another buddy, but before we did, he found his own new friend:

 

A lone Canadian goose showed up late Thursday and became instant buddies with Huey. 

 

They hang out together constantly, and the goose has managed to get Huey out into the deeper part of the pond for the first time. 

And Huey has taught the goose that when I call “chickie chickie chickie”, you’d better run to the front of the house for scratch grains before the chickens eat it all.

 

Give it a few weeks and the goose will be marching into the house and demanding food along with the rest of the beggars!

Still Alive

Yup, I’m still here.  There have been no posts in awhile due to Jelly Belly fracturing her pelvis in four places and needing much nursing back to health and many hugs and smooches, and my allergies have made their appearance already this year.  We got a really nice thunderstorm last night which means I’m a little less whiny and miserable today than I was yesterday.  That’s a bonus for you. :)

Last night as I was sitting on the porch after dark pretending the mosquitoes weren’t driving me nuts, I heard some very non-horsey sounds coming from the back pasture and the dogs went INSANE.  I grabbed a flashlight and put all the dogs except Thor back in the house, then went to investigate.

I didn’t see anything, but Sadie, Stride, and Flo were tearing around the pasture like maniacs and came running up to me when they saw me, shaking and shivering like the devil himself were after them.  It reminded me of the night we found Maverick terrified and shivering alone in the dark last year when he was in the same pasture.

When Doc was out here to stitch up Sadie he suggested we get an Alpaca or Llama to add to the herd.  Not because they’re good protection, but because they run slower than horses.

Smartass.

So… I think we need a couple of mules for herd protection.  Maybe in a few weeks I’ll get the posse together and we’ll make a Sugarcreek run.  Please don’t be surprised if I come home with two mules and a Seymour. :)

Eye Candy

 

We saw this handsome fellow two days ago and the GBH (great bald hunter) hasn’t stopped talking about him yet.

 

 

Yikes!

Yesterday morning I woke up to find Sadie had been attacked during the night, by what Doc thinks was a mountain lion.  He’s treated several other horses this year with the same wounds, one of them died from it’s wounds.  It also looked like Sadie had been running all night, as she’d lost a bunch of weight in just 12 hours.

These long claw-like scratches were only down the one side.  She also had small, shallow punctures on top of her back, grouped together as a large paw might be.

 

This was the worst of the wounds and required stitches.  She also had two small punctures on the inside of her front left leg that you can’t see in the picture.  There were no wounds at all on her right side.

 

 

Doc thinks the chest wounds are from her going through something to get away from whatever was attacking her. Usually a mountain lion will attack from the back, grabbing at the hips and biting on top of the back and haunches.  Glenn came home Thursday so he was out with me yesterday looking for fence that had been torn down, but we didn’t find any.

The DNR for West Virginia refuses to admit that there are mountain lions here.  Rumor has it that they released the big cats years ago to help control the deer population and they don’t want to be held responsible for incidents like this.  However, they’ll be happy to tell you that hunting the animal is illegal.  I’m not sure I see the point in that law since they don’t exist?

All I’ve got to say is that if it happens again, Glenn will be doing some night hunting and I don’t care if shooting them is illegal!

Brain Fried Farmgirl

I have had absolutely NOTHING to tell you lately.  My creative juices (what little I had) have dried up to a slow drip and it’s all I can muster to remember what day of the week it is most days.

All I have to offer you today is a somewhat blurry picture of a buck that was grazing with Holly and Synergy last night.  I sent it to the Great Bald Hunter last night and now he’s even more homesick than before.

 

And a few pictures of Rambo and his new fan club.

 

Ok, I’m done.  That finished me.  Have a great weekend.

Hello Handsome

Come on over and hang out with my horses this hunting season so you’ll be safe.

Random Lunch – 05/06/09

 

Frog legs anyone?  I’m going to have more than enough to go around.

 

These aren’t even in the pond.  They are in the stream/run off that goes through our yard.  They’re even in old hoof prints:

 

I’ve always wondered what tadpoles eat.  Now I know.

 

 

That poor worm probably has family and friends in my garden just wondering where he’s slimed off to. 

The one death that has always terrified me is drowning.  Now I have to fear my corpse being devoured by tadpoles.  What has the world come to???

Snakes need love too

After our trail ride yesterday, the two-legged Maggie stuck around to just chill out and try to relax before finals next week.  Kenzie had seen the humans just sitting around the house and had come down to stand in front of the strawberry patch and stare at us.   Glenn couldn’t resist, so he took a handful of grain out for her.  As he was standing there feeding her, he said “MAN!  That’s a big black snake!!  Good thing it’s dead!”

While Glenn is typically a compassionate guy when it comes to animals, he’s also an ophidiophobic.   He didn’t want to see the snake suffer, but he also wasn’t going to get anywhere near the thing.  Oh, and all snakes in his eyes are copperheads.  They’re all dangerous, all venomous, and all of them will slither up his pants leg and bite him the first chance they get.  So it was up to us women to go check on the snake and make sure it was ok.

We found the three foot rat snake alive, but tangled up in a piece of the deer netting that I had used to keep the chickens from tearing up new seedlings in the garden.  The poor thing was punctured from a stick that was also wrapped up in the netting, and the netting itself had sliced him in a few places.  Maggie picked him up and took him to the house while I went to get some antibiotic cream and the camera.

 

 

 

 

 

The snake stayed pretty calm the whole time.  While Maggie was cutting away the netting on his back half, the front half was slithering around in her shirt looking for warmth.

 

 

Once the netting was cut away and the little guy was free, Maggie coated his wounds with Neosporin and took him back to the chicken coop where we found him. 

Lesson learned?  Today I’m going to pull all the deer netting and throw it in the trash.  I’ll use chicken wire instead, which will protect my seedlings, but shouldn’t hurt any local wildlife in the process.

 

As for the trail ride, check out the Training the Unwanted blog for a Gentry update.   I dreamt last night of sitting in a jacuzzi for hours on end – does that give you a hint as to how it went?

Toad Fest ‘09

Every year, for one day only, my friend Anne is treated to the spectacle of dozens of fornicating toads in her pond.  This excites both of us, in the same way the loads of rotted manure that we picked up yesterday excites us. 

Get your mind out of the gutter.  We’re excited because both of the things mean that Spring is here, not because we have some kinky toad fetish.

The whole toad orgy starts by swimming up to the bar and ordering a couple of wet flies on the rocks.

 

It quickly turns into a fumble on the second yard line with 10 seconds of the game remaining.

 

Football is such a violent sport.

 

I really think Anne should have a photo blog of her own.   She takes WAY better pictures than I do and has an awesome camera.  Besides, it would give her a new hobby and me one more blog to check out on a daily basis.   And maybe, just maybe, it would encourage her to bring her camera over to my place and help me get better pictures of all these adoptable horses.

{HINT}

However, Anne needs encouragement.  So if you liked these pictures and this one, let her know in the comments.  Hopefully between you guys giving her gentle encouragement and me beating her with a 2x4, she’ll get the hint and start her own photo blog.

Fishing for Deer

By now you should know that we do things a little differently around here.

While I was coating some butternut squash with maple syrup, pats of butter, and brown sugar I heard Brie outside barking and growling at something. After I shoved the squash into the oven (oh my, the smells... mmm...) I opened the door and peeked out to see what she was barking at. Apparently, I have superhuman powers and can see in the dark. Glenn is a mere mortal so he had to grab a flash light to see what was going on.

We found Brie down at the pond barking at a deer that she'd chased into the pond. The poor thing was already wounded and wouldn't come out of the water. It was then my job to hold the flashlight while Glenn aimed his incredibly LOUD gun and pulled the trigger. I was in a panic because I was worried he'd hit Brie instead. It was dark, the flashlight was shaking in my frozen fingers, and I really didn't want him to shoot the doe while I was standing there watching. I knew it had to be done since she was already injured, but I didn't want to be a part of it.

One shot, the doe was down in the water. A split second later Brie was on the doe trying to make sure it was dead. In her excitement she managed to shove the doe out into the middle of the pond. Brie likes to swim, but that water is cold and even Brie isn't that stupid. So now Glenn is standing there staring at the doe wondering how he's going to get it out of the water. I watched as the light bulb above his head started out as a dim glow, then grew quickly into a brilliant spotlight. He had to add extra weight to the lure, but it only took five casts to hook the doe and drag her in.





Because we know what's in that pond we vowed never to eat anything we caught from it. Yet he's out there gutting and hanging the poor thing now. If he thinks I'm going to eat it, he's got another thing coming!

Random Lunch 10/14/08

Today I discovered the nifty little Macro feature on my camera. I've only had the camera for two years, you'd think I would have discovered this sooner. I probably would have if I had read the instructions, but I am not fluent in Korean. So during lunch I flitted from flower to flower looking for things to photograph. Be prepared for totally lame pictures of a bee on one of my Hyssop plants.

Coming in for a landing.




Diving into the nectar buffet.




Showing me his best side.




Leaving the trigger happy human with the camera.



I think my camera and I are finally starting to come to an agreement.

Oh, and check out the Training blog for an update on Meghan and her future humans!

Flying Rodents

On Saturday our neighbor brought over his baler and we baled up all the lose hay from our hay mishap a couple of weeks ago. We recovered 31 bales of hay from that mess. Woohooo! He also helped us unload the stock trailer. That boy can chunk some hay bales! He tossed 88 of them up from the stock trailer into the second floor of our small barn. He was throwing them a good 12' up and hardly broke a sweat! We still have another 380 that need to be moved from the big barn into the small barn, but at least we have a borrowed electric hay conveyor that we can use once we get 400' of extension cord for it!

We lost two of the guineas over the weekend. I have no idea how, both little bodies are still in the pen. I'd think if an animal killed them, the offender would either still be in the pen or the bodies would have been eaten or at least drug out of the pen. I'm wondering if the heat got to them because there's always a few birds that don't sit in the shade or go into the coop during the hottest part of the day. Any guinea experts out there want to shed some light on this?

Yesterday I canned 15 quarts of Methodist Pickles. YUM! The cucumbers are still growing and are covered in flowers so it looks like I'll get to try some different pickle recipes this year. I wanted to share the Methodist Pickle recipe with you. This is a pickle that I grew up on and LOVE. I got the recipe from my aunt, who got it from my grandmother, and so on down the line. I have no idea how long my family has been making this pickle, but it's darned good. The measurements are odd, I prefer weighing cucumbers in pounds, not quarts. But I usually just eyeball it anyway. My 15 quarts from yesterday were two different batches. A recipe batch usually makes 7 quarts.

5 qts sliced pickles
4 medium onions

Brine:
6 cups sugar
6 cups white vinegar
3 tbls celery salt
3 tbls mustard seed
3/4 tsp turmeric
6 whole cloves - I like to use 8

Wash and slice the cucumbers and onions, then sprinkle with pickling salt and let stand for an hour. Make brine and bring to boil. Drain cukes and onions and add to brine. Bring to a boil again for 5 minutes, then pack in sterilized jars and seal in a boiling bath canner for 5 minutes.

These things are so good that Glenn can sit down with an unopened jar and a fork and have the jar emptied in under 30 minutes. We gave away many quarts of these last year and heard nothing but rave reviews from everyone.

It was way too hot in the kitchen and I was ready to sit down somewhere cool by the time the pickles were done, so I didn't clean up as I should have. The canner stayed on the stove with the rack and about 6" of water in it. I always forget to remove the rack and it ends up rusting. Last night was hot and sticky and I'm the electricity nazi. So instead of turning on the AC I just left the front door open. Besides, it was in the 50's this morning. Who needs AC?

So around 9AM when I went into the kitchen for some juice I noticed that once again, I had left the rack in the canner. I cursed myself as I was lifting the rack out, then just started cursing. Period. In a very loud shrieky voice. Totally unlike me. When I was 5, my babysitter tried to teach me how to scream. Seriously. It's not something that comes naturally to me. So when I lifted out the rack and saw something live clinging to it, all I could do was squeal out some favorite curse words. Luckily, Glenn had already gone off to work. But I'm sure he'll laugh at me later.



Yes, it's my fault for leaving the door open.



But come on... we must have some really stupid wildlife up here in WV. First the moronic groundhog choosing to live under our porch. Now this dipshit flying into a house with 5 cats. And why the canner???



I guess I should just be happy he chose the canner and not our bed.



The poor little guy was soaking wet, shivering, and half drowned. And because I am who I am, I left him on the stove to dry out. I even turned one of the burners on the other side of the stove on low to give him some heat and help him dry. I should have let the cats have him. But even though they look like winged rodents and give me a case of the creepy crawlies, they do eat a lot of bugs and are good for the garden. Let's just hope this particular dumbass doesn't breed more idiot bats.

Babies, Birds, and Baby Birds

No, I'm not pregnant.



But a great big happy dance happened on Monday when my friend's mare finally had her baby. Anne has been sleeping out in the barn for weeks waiting for the stork and on Monday morning at 1:30AM the little one finally made an appearance. She's absolutely adorable. But what foal isn't? I have lots of pictures from Anne, but don't want to steal her thunder. But I did get permission to put this one up on the blog. I love this picture and it was a total accident according to Anne (who I believe is a professional photographer in disguise).













Here's another great picture not taken by me (hey, I never claimed I was a good photographer). Ever since we hung up the hummingbird feeder on the porch we've been accumulating more and more hummingbirds. We started with one, then two days later we had three, now two weeks later we have seven that I've counted. They fight over the feeder constantly and when I sit out on the porch working I get dive bombed regularly. Glenn only had to sit out with the camera for five minutes before he caught this one. I may just let him take all the pictures from now on.








Over the weekend I took the table that Glenn had built for my seed flats, flipped it upside down, and wrapped it in hardware cloth. The guineas are much happier in their new home, even though it's really ugly.

Little guys are getting big fast, aren't they?? Some of the older ones are starting to spread their wings and fly a foot or two around their cage. Guess it's time to put a top on the cage.

Can you tell I really have nothing to say, but just feel guilty for not blogging in a few days? Oh, but I can tell you about dinner tonight because I was especially proud of it. Not because it tasted awesome, but because it was completely horrible to look at and Glenn ate it anyway. Glenn calls dishes like these my "concoctions". They're nothing special, but I guess when you're used to hot dogs and mac n' cheese, pasta with basil & spinach pesto and chopped tomatoes seems pretty fancy.

Ingredients:
boatload of fresh from the garden sweet basil
one or two spinach leaves, depending on size
cup or two of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
tons of Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta, combine everything else in the food processor. Chop maters. Put everything together and stir it up till it looks green and disgusting. See, so easy and quick. I felt so Rachel Rayish, but only because as I was adding the olive oil I called it EVOO.

When Good Dogs Go Bad

Brie is a killer. I've known this since she was a pup. Her first summer, when she was only a few months old, she started bringing home ground hog corpses. MANY ground hog corpses. 23 dead little beasties that summer, and those were just the ones I saw. Some of them were as big as she was. But I didn't mind. Fewer ground hogs meant fewer ground hog holes for the horses to step in. I even considered renting her out to cattle farmers and other horse owners as pest extermination. The only problem I had was that she brought them home to marinate them in the horse trough before devouring. The horses weren't at all crazy about this and Junior would regularly tip over the 100 gallon trough and kick it around the field after she got her ground hog out, and sometimes before.

Today while I was out in the strawberry patch pulling weeds I heard her up in the trees barking and yapping at something. I jumped up and ran up the hill with the other dogs once the screaming started. I was just hoping it was the ground hog that had dug a ginormous hole in the side of the hill in the horse pasture, instead of the stray orange tabby that I've seen now and then at the barn. At one point the screaming sounded like a cat and my heart sunk. But then I got to the top of the hill and saw that she had a little brown body in her jaws and was just standing there tossing it around like a toy. When she saw me, she dropped the corpse and looked at me waiting for approval. That's when the corpse raised it's little baby raccoon head and whimpered.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I love animals. All animals (except ground hogs). I have a huge amount of compassion for animals and very little left over for humans. I know this is the way animals die. How few wild animals die of old age anymore if they're not at the top of the food chain? I know all this, but still. It was just a baby, only about 10 or 12 lbs. And it was adorable. I used to know an orphan raccoon by the name of Tiffy. Tiffy grew up well loved in a home with a family of cats, then after raccoon finishing school she was turned loose to live in the wild. I hear she has a great career, four well behaved children, and a loving husband now. Tiffy was awesome. She had this big orange plastic ball (I think it was actually a tacky 70's light shade) with a big hole in the bottom. Tiffy would curl her 25lb body into this little ball and roll herself around the floor. We used to say she was bowling for cats because at times it seemed she'd aim right for them.

And now I had a baby Tiffy lying there on the ground dying and whimpering at me. I had a brief huddle with myself to discuss it. Be strong, be tough, finish the little guy off and don't let him suffer. Raccoons carry rabies. Brie was just doing her doggie job in life. He would have probably raided the chicken coop eventually anyway. This is the way things are in the country, now toughen up and do what has to be done!

I didn't have my pocket knife on me for some reason. I always carry that thing. I wasn't going all the way back down to the house for a gun because it would take too long and I have no idea where Glenn keeps the ammo (maybe he's smarter than I thought). So I went in search of a large rock, all the time preparing myself for what I had to do. By the time I found a rock large enough to do the job, it wasn't needed any more.

Brie didn't even want to eat it. She just killed it because she could. Or because it was on her territory. Or because she was PMSing. Who knows. I just know I'll be thinking about his cute little face and hearing that whimper in my head for the rest of the night.

What Happened to Spring??

We've had a few nice weeks here of 60's and 70's weather during the day, but still pretty chilly at night. The past few nights it hasn't gotten below 60 and today's temp got into the 90's. What the heck? I thought I'd at least have another couple of weeks before I'd need to trudge off to Lowes to get a window AC unit for the bedroom. The animals spent the day on the porch with me while I worked as usual, but they laid about like a bunch of wet dish rags and didn't budge all day. It was even too hot to go inside to get a drink. I had to bring them a bowl of water (with ice cubes) -- which they promptly drained in a matter of minutes. I know it's hot when the hairless Ho is panting. I guess it's time to warm up the clippers and clip the hairy huskies.



On 5/13 I posted about a rabbit chomping on my garden and wondered why Zeus wasn't chomping on the rabbits. Since that post I haven't seen any evidence of wasically wabbits and I thought maybe Zeus figured out his job and took care of business. Now I think maybe I was giving the BDD (Big Dumb Dog) a little too much credit. I'm pretty sure I should be feeding kibble to the black snake that left this 6' skin in our back yard.





Zeus is as dumb as a box of rocks, but I did find one of his talents the other day. While out on the porch working our neighbor's cows made their daily escape and pilgrimage to our front yard. Usually I let them be because they stay up near the road and don't get too close to the house. But I looked up from my laptop the other day to find them about 20 yards from my garden and eyeing my maters! I called the neighbor's to let them know, then I yelled and waved at them like a fool. I was "on duty" at work so couldn't leave the phone to chase them out of the yard myself. This is when it hit me that I have four dogs and certainly one of them might be good for something. Had I let Cody off the porch he would have walked over to the tree to lay down in the shade. This is his job. Brie might have wondered over to the cows and sniffed them. Heidi has proven herself to be pretty bright about cows in the past. When at a friend's house visiting someone had left the gate open. We were in the house and heard Heidi barking up a storm. We looked out to find her in front of the gate barking at a cow that was meandering her way into the yard. The cow totally ignored Heidi because she lacks conviction (and large backup). I might as well send Jilly Bean out to chase the cows.

This left the BDD. Was he even smart enough to realize the cows were there? This is the dog that barks at EVERYTHING and here he was lying on the porch in a daze and not even looking at the cows. If he did chase the cows, where would he chase them to? Would they end up in my garden? Would he push them through the fence? Would they end up on the porch with me? The cows were getting closer to the garden and one of them was actually drooling. It was BDD or buh bye garden. I crossed my fingers, opened the porch gate, and watched him go. It was amazing. It was like he knew his job. It was like he actually had a brain. He chased the cows back up the driveway along the fence and out into the road. He stood there barking for a minute as if to say "Now don't come back!". Then he turned around and came back to the porch for a nap.

So even though I think he failed me in the rabbit department, he certainly proved himself with the cows. Maybe he's not a BDD after all. :)

R.I.P Little Bird

The little bird from the other night didn't make it. I had brought in all the cats I could find, which left Lucifer outside after I put the bird in the back of the truck. At least he was nice enough to leave the dead little body right in front of the door on the porch so I'd find it in Saturday morning and not have to wonder if he made it through the night. Luci is so considerate that way. Almost as thoughtful as Noodle when he brought a baby bird in the house screeching today while I was working. Poor baby didn't even have any feathers, but it was still rather large. I really didn't need to hear the poor thing crying so shooed Noodle back outside with his prize. It wouldn't have done me much good to save it since it was so young and I had no idea which nest it came from.





Check out the thunderstorm we had this afternoon. This picture was taken about 15 minutes after it started to rain. We had "ponds" between each raised bed and all I kept thinking was how glad I was that we did raised beds this year!


























I guess the rain hit a little too fast for Jack, who got caught out in it and came running in the door crying. Heidi was quick to jump up and help him dry off. But even that didn't improve his mood.





















I think that look says it all.

















A work-friend of mine came to visit on Sunday with her family. They were up from Maryland for a graduation and they stayed in a small town only 15 minutes away. We had never met before, but had tried on several occasions and just couldn't make it happen. Besides being an incredibly cool family (and her daughter Jessie just got engaged on Friday... CONGRATS Jessie and Derek!) she brought me a little sign that says "Cats are like potato chips, you can't only have just one." It now hangs by the front door to warn all visitors of possible cat allergies and dead little bird bodies everywhere.





This is one of those small towns where everyone knows everyone. Ever seen the movie Doc Hollywood? Remember the line: "You can't poop in this town without everyone knowing what color it is"? Well, that's this town. We went to a BBQ last night for Memorial Day and all 12 adults there knew our neighbor, Worthless Horse Owner. And the general consensus is that once she sobers up she'll be over to get her horse. But no one seemed to have any guesses on when she might sober up. Could be days, weeks, months... there's no telling. So for now appybutt is still hanging out with Mav, driving Willow into a sexually frustrated frenzy, and shaming Junior to no end with his womanizing ways. What happens when he goes? Will I put Junior back in with Mav and once again separate the old married couple? Or leave Mav by himself? Don't worry, I've got something up my sleeve. ;)

A bird in the hand

Is better than two in the bush. I never understood that saying. It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. But it was the first thing that came to mind when this happened tonight.

Glenn had just gotten home from work and we were in the living room just discussing our plans for the weekend. I was just revving up for a fight because he had once again put off our riding plans to go fishing on Saturday. But then we heard the screeching out on the porch and I made him go out and save whatever poor critter had been caught by a cat.

The victim tonight was one of my favorite little birds that has a nest in one of the bird houses by the garden. I know, they all look the same, how do I know it's one of the ones from the bird house? Cause it's my story and I said so. :)

The poor little guy was terrified. Glenn could roll him over and pull out his wings and legs to check for injuries, but the bird just didn't care. In his little birdie mind we were big giant predators and he was resigned to being eaten. The question was, what do we do with him? I've tried saving injured birds in the past and it just hasn't worked out. And where would we put him outside where the cats wouldn't find him again? The cats manage to get on the roof of our house, so no place is really safe. In the end I made him a little cubby hole in the compost that I hadn't finished unloading from the truck earlier and left him there. Hopefully he'll come to his senses and fly away before he's discovered by the beasts.

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.