A Day in the Life of Brie

 

 

That pretty much covers it.

Just a few of my favorite things

What are your favorite plants in your garden?  I’m not talking about tomato plants because let’s face it, we all love tomatoes.  If you don’t love tomatoes, you’re just weird.   I’m talking about the flower or herb that really floats your boat.  The one you can’t help but stop and admire or rub a leaf and inhale the fragrance.

I was trying to think of my favorites, but there are just way too many, especially when it comes to olfactory experience!  I love all my herbs equally and couldn’t live without any of them.  Walking through the garden and smelling the rosemary, thyme, basil, lemon balm, oregano, lavender, chocolate mint… it’s like a mini vacation from the day.

But just for you, I tried to narrow the list down a bit.

Basil has got to be my favorite herb.  Not only do the flowers entice bees to my garden, but the smell is heavenly and it’s awesome in the kitchen.  For sweet flavor I prefer the lime mint.  I could shove some leaves up my nose all day and be happy, but the plants themselves are boring.  They’re just a light colored green from stem to leaf to flower.  How much fun is that?  For a more savory flavor, my favorite has got to be the Siam Queen Thai basil.  Green leaves, purple stems and flowers, spicy basil flavor to die for.   And this is one basil where you don’t need to pinch back flowers.  Let it bloom, the flavor stays the same and the plant just keeps going. 

 

Then there’s the Opal basil.  Normal basil flavor, but man, what a  pretty package! 

 

Zinnias –  I love all the bright colors and the easy maintenance of the plants.  Not to mention they’re annuals, so won’t take over my garden beds like the catnip and lemon balm.

 

Nasturtiums – can’t live without them!  The peppery flavor of their leaves go great in salads, the different colored flowers are nice in small bouquets, and they are even said to repel some insects so make good companion plants for things like squash and cucumbers.  This year I planted a mixed variety called Alaska, which has variegated leaves and flowers ranging from pale salmon to this one, which is my favorite of the Nasturtium colors.

 

So those are my favorites, at least today.  How about you? 

Time to do a rain dance

It’s been so incredibly dry here the past two weeks.  My garden and pastures need rain so badly, but all we keep getting are hours of lightening and thunder followed by two drops of rain.  Everyone around us is getting rain, in fact my hay guy still hasn’t gotten all his hay cut because it’s been so wet at his place – 15 minutes away.  So when I had water left over from filling up the horse troughs today I backed the truck down to the garden and used a watering can to water everything.    It only took two hours.  Only.

Ack.

I looked back at the garden tour post from July 9th of last year, and now I’m terribly depressed.  My garden is so far behind this year, it just isn’t funny.   I haven’t had much time to weedeat around the beds, pull weeds, cover things with remay to protect from bugs, or fertilize with manure tea.  I’m lucky I got everything planted!

Oh wait… I didn’t get everything planted.  I have a flat of strawflowers and four more tomato plants that need a home. 

I say again, ACK.

I wanted to share with you my depressing garden so that you can all look at your own gardens and feel better about them.   I’m just selfless like that.

 

Just look at my poor pathetic corn and summer squash.  The squash bugs have already taken their toll and killed a few of the plants, the rest are starting to show the telltale wilt.

 

My sweet bell peppers were three times this size this time last year.

 

I sowed the fennel late, then the chickens were accidentally let into the garden by a visitor and they scratched up half the crop.

 

My potatoes are doing surprisingly well considering I have not hilled them up or covered them with remay and the potato beetles are having a grand time at the buffet.  I’m not expecting a big potato harvest, that’s for sure.

 

I will say one thing for this year’s garden – the soil must be ideal because I had so many thousands of volunteer plants that they were overwhelming the weeds in numbers.  Tomatoes, Pineapple Tomatillos, Litchi Tomatoes, Chamomile, lettuce, Shoofly plant, dill, melons, and Calendula have all made appearances throughout the garden, even in beds where they weren’t planted last year.  Even outside of the beds, where they will be whipped into submission by the weedeater.  Eventually. 

 

This is it for the carrots.  I actually sowed about 1,000 seeds before the garden fence went up, but the chickens took care of that crop for me.

 

Same with the kohlrabi and beets.  I think I may have four kohlrabi seedlings slowly growing somewhere, and only a few more golden beets.

The good news, is that this is the first year I’ve ever grown cabbage and so far, so good.

 

Out of the billion or so Litchi tomato seedlings that came up this year, I left three.  The potato beetles and flea beetles are doing their best, but it just isn’t enough to stop these thorny beasts. 

 

 

Oh, and more bad news.  It’s time to break out the canner already.  The collards and chard are calling to me.   I’m really not ready to start canning yet.  Honestly, I’m not.

 

 

Oh well.  As depressing as the garden is, at least I always have my little buddy to cheer me up and keep me company.

 

That’s a face only a mother could love!

Morning Chores

Last September I posted about what it’s like to get all the horses fed and at that time, there were only 13 horses here – ah, the good old days!  Things have changed quite a bit since then and I’m sure there’s someone out there wondering just how the heck I manage without a real barn.  If there isn’t anyone wondering that, I’m going to tell you anyway.  So there.

Right now there are 27 horses here.  Maggie over at Ponies in Med School is adopting Synergy and Holly in a few weeks, so they’ll be leaving soon.  I’ve already had interest in Jacob (what a hunk!), so hopefully he’ll be moving to his new home shortly.  But for now, here’s how the morning chores go:

Feed and water meat chickens, laying hens, and rabbits.

Feed Synergy, Holly, and Kisses. 

Feed Jacob, Stride, Quest, and Maverick in the bachelor pad.  I let Stride out to eat since he’s the slowest.  Mav finishes first, but he’s also lowest on the totem pole so doesn’t steal anyone else’s food.  Jacob finishes next, but doesn’t dare come near Quest while he’s eating.

Meg, Dolly, Junior, Sadie, Duchess, and Semi are usually waiting at the small gate by this time so I let them out into the yard and feed them.   While they’re eating, I head up to the main barn to feed.  We have 10 standing stalls and one box stall in the barn now and here’s how that plays out:  Gentry, Ellie, Kita, Frisky, Abbi, Maggie, Quill, Jewel, Willow, and Classy all go in standing stalls.  Jasmine and Sky go in the box stall.  Kenzie and Marbles eat on the left side of the barn behind four of the standing stalls.   Once everyone is done eating I turn them loose, then head back to the house to round up the old fogies in the yard and put them back in the pasture.  Sometimes I’ll leave one or two out in the yard to graze, but only if they don’t decide to go walk about around the countryside.

Since my pastures are crap and need to be burned and reseeded this Fall, I’m still feeding round bales to everyone and have no more need of square bales (whew!).  All of this only takes an hour and a half.   Then I start my job at 7AM, taking quick breaks twice throughout the day to feed the new girls.  When I get off at 4PM, I start the process all over again and include grooming, trimming, or riding once everything is done.   That is, if I don’t have to run to the feed store or drive into town for water.  Or run to Walmart for dog and cat food.   Regardless of what I find myself doing after work, I usually finish up shortly after 9PM when it’s starting to get dark, grab some dinner, jump in the shower, then fall into bed.

So that’s my day and I love it!   The only thing I miss is the yoga I used to do in the mornings, but I just can’t picture me getting up at 4AM to get it done.

Nope, can’t picture that at all.

Synergy and Jacob

These are the second two horses from the same family where Holly and Kisses came from.  Anne and I got home shortly after 9PM last night with them.  Holly and Kisses recognized them immediately and came running up to the trailer to greet them.

This is Synergy, a 7yo Trakehner mare.  She’s a very sweet and personable mare.

 

Jacob is an 8yo Percheron / Standardbred cross who is definitely not hurting that much in the fat department.  He’s a great big sweetheart that scored a 65% on his first dressage test!

 

He went into the quarantine pasture with his girls last night, but after feeding this morning I put him in the bachelor pad with Quest, Maverick, and Stride.  It was a fairly uneventful meeting, except that Jacob managed to kick Maverick in the leg.  Mav gimped around for a few minutes, then was fine.  Whew!

I’m on-call for work this weekend, but have Monday off.  I’ll get on Jacob Monday for evaluation then get him up on the website.  I’m also going to finally try to get pictures of Frisky and Gentry for the website.  Wish me luck!

Four-legged kids

Earlier this week I got a call from a man looking for a rescue to take four of his horses. He and his wife had hit hard times financially after they moved here from TN and were going hungry themselves so they could feed their two toddlers and six horses. Eventually, even that sacrifice wasn’t enough to keep all of the horses fed and their neighbors started calling animal control and threatening them with media coverage if they did not do something about the horses.

Remember Chessie and Duchess? When their owners had trouble feeding them, their neighbors brought them hay and feed to help out. So what went wrong here??? Is it because this family was not from the area? They were outsiders, therefore, not deserving of a little compassion?? Granted, the horses are thin. But not because they are neglectful or uncaring owners! When we got there the horses all had hay and three of them didn’t look bad at all. They called other rescues, but either never got a return call or were turned down. They had been trying to find homes for the horses for awhile, so it’s not like they weren’t making an effort. They even gave me their winter blankets, halters… and you wouldn’t believe the paperwork! They had made up a folder for each horse, complete with registration papers, medical history, vet records, a CD with pictures and videos, training summary, etc. Holly’s folder is an inch thick!

There were many tears as we drove away with two of the horses last night. Does this sound to you like people who don’t care about their four-legged kids?

Me either.

Holly is the oldest and skinniest horse of the bunch. She’s no where near as bad as Ellie was when she got here, but she’s still pretty bad and because of her age will take more time to recover than the fat cheeky little Ellie pony. I’ll be posting about Holly over on Rescue Recoveries.

Holly is a 17yo registered Holsteiner, shown successfully at second level dressage. She’s a big mare, standing about 16.3h-17h, with a very sweet disposition.

Kisses is a 3yo Quarterhorse filly. She’s already had ground work done with her and was the easiest horse to load last night. She’s a real sweetheart and loves to be in your pocket getting attention.

We go back to pick up the other two tonight. They are keeping two of the horses that are in good weight and have found a five acre pasture to move them to. Hopefully they’ll be able to stay fat and their owners can save some money on the feed bill and finally catch up.

Meghan and Tabby Finally Go Home

Whew!  It seems like forever ago that Emilee and Mikayla fell in love with those girls and now their dreams are finally true!  Their parents finally found the time to get some pasture cleared and the electric fence up and the girls went to their new home tonight.

Let me tell you, it was traumatic… for Classy and Kita that is.  Since Sadie has been in the quarantine pasture for a few weeks, Kita has buddied up with Meghan recently and the two have become joined at the hip.  Kita kept trying to get in front of Glenn when he as leading the other two to the gate in an attempt to stop him and practically ran him over a couple of times.   Once Glenn had Tabby and Meghan out of the gate, Kita and Classy raced each other around the pasture kicking up their heels in frustration. 

Meghan and Tabby just followed Glenn and quietly loaded into the trailer without a fuss. 

When they got to their new home, they unloaded, looked around at all the grass, and completely forgot that they were once enemies.

 

Yup, they’re going to absolutely hate their new home.  Can’t you tell?  I mean, just look at all that icky grass they have to eat their way through!  What a tough life they’ll lead.

 

 

Emilee has been away visiting family for a few weeks and returns home on Wednesday.  She doesn’t know yet that her horse is waiting for her just a few steps away from her bedroom.  I wish I could be there to see the look on her face when she gets home!

More Garden Porn

Glenn came home from the road late Monday night and has been home all week.  It’s been nice having him home, but he hasn’t accomplished much of his honey-do list during the week, so I have to put him to work this weekend.  We started by trimming more feet after morning feed today, then hauled Genesis to Anastasia’s for pony training.  

Anastasia then forced us to sacrifice part of our day to mosey through her gardens while munching on handfuls of sugar snap peas fresh from the vine.

It was torture.  Honest.

 

 

 

Anastasia will be writing about training Genesis over on Training the Unwanted again this year, so be sure check it out.  Believe it or not, Genesis is even more laid back than Hunter.  Her training should be fairly uneventful, but fun nonetheless!

Garden Porn

 

 

 

 

More Bunny Fun

Since my success in the garden yesterday with Travis I decided to give the girls their opportunity for freedom today.   Maud and Loretta bounced around the garden in gleeful exploration, then plopped themselves in the shade of some greens and helped themselves to the buffet.

 

 

 

Lily stayed to herself for the most part and didn’t get as hot as the other two darker girls.

 

 

She sure is cute with her half-flopped ears.

 

I think this will become a daily thing for the bunnies since they enjoy it so much and it’s got to be healthier than being locked up in a hutch all day.  And besides, they’re adorable when they’re out there. :)