Write Your Representative

My German neighbor said that they went through what they did simply because they wouldn't stand up and say, "NO!".
Write Your Representative and always be sure to vote!

Tomatoes

I was so excited last night! I was really late putting out my tomatoes this year and while everyone else was already reaping their harvest, I just had plants with tons of green tomatoes on them. I got my first ripe tomato last night and I gently carried it to the house, washed it off and grabbed the salt shaker.

My tomatoes are always better than anyone else's for some reason. They are very acidic and will make you get blisters in your mouth if you eat too many. Our neighbor has been giving us some tomatoes over the last few weeks and they are slightly sweet and do not have good tomato flavor. I think that he waters them too much.

My neighbor kept asking me if I had tomatoes yet and smirked about how many he was getting from his plants. I told him that was fine but I would still have ripe tomatoes for Christmas.

I really do have ripe tomatoes for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I just cover my plants for the first few light frosts and then pick all of the green tomatoes off of my plants before the first hard freeze. Then I put the green tomatoes in a cardboard box and cover them with newspapers.

My neighbor will have already cut down his non-producing plants while we have plants loaded with tomatoes. This happens every year because he gets his plants out just as early as possible and I am lazy and procrastinate.

Angus

I have kept you in suspense long enough. We went to our neighbors on Tuesday night for supper, it was the night of the ice storm. We feasted on tender Pork Roast that is like no other, fried plantains with garlic and salt, beans and rice cooked to perfection, boiled potatoes and squash, followed by wonderful lemon meringue pie.

The neighbor mentioned that he was afraid one of his cows was going to calve that night. He really doesn't have a good place to get a cow up and with the weather like it was there wasn't much he could do because all of his pasture is on a hillside.

The next day we got a call saying that she had a bull calf and she was rejecting it. My DH went to help him get her up and try to help the baby nurse. The calf was chilled, weak and covered in ice and mommy just flat didn't like him. She was under the distinct impression that one of the other cow's calves was hers and they could not convince her otherwise.

The calf was given to me, my Husband carried it home wrapped in a wool blanket on his tractor through the ice and snow. I instructed him to bring him into the house to thaw him out.

He thawed out nicely. He accepted a couple of syringes of warm goat's milk to get him kick started. I had some powdered goat colostrum that I mixed into a quart size bottle of warm goat's milk. It wasn't long before he was dry, warm and on his feet giving the house an inspection, he found it to be calf friendly.

With the weather and roads so bad, we had to go to another neighbor's to bum some cow colostrum and an antibiotic as a precaution against whatever might attack him in his weakened state. His nose was already dripping snot on assorted family members.

All went very will and he drank a quart of the cow colostrum from his bottle with so much gusto that he collapsed the bottle at 11:00 last night after we moved him out in the stall with my two does.

The does were not happy campers but we didn't have any other choice. They thought that he was most certainly a fanged, clawed, goat eating predator of some sort. They totally panicked every time he moved. It is a very large stall but they kept trying to run through the walls and jump over the gate. I don't think either of them slept a wink all night because they both had to have both eyes on him at all times in case he made his move.

My problem started this morning, he wouldn't take a bottle. I kept trying all day and could only get a couple of ounces in him at a time and he didn't want it. He laid and trembled.

I was home alone and there was no way I could get him up or carry him but he finally got to his feet and I guided him back into the house at which time he peed on my best rug which made me feel much better because it let me know that he was at least getting something. My estimate was that he relieved himself of three gallons at least.

He did finally drink about a pint tonight and I think that he will drink more later. I know he isn't getting enough and I suppose he will stay in the house. He is laying in front of my refrigerator right now and I can't even get myself something to drink.

More later...

A Day Off

My DH had a rare day off today, so the neighbor and I put him to work. We were barely out of bed this morning when the neighbor called for some help with a large dead tree that was threatening his barn. They managed to get it down without damaging anything but one top strand of a barb wire fence.

I got my DH to move one of the roosts in the goat/chicken shed and to build a bridge for the hens to walk comfortably to all three nesting boxes. We also ran to town to get ten bags of BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) that we had ordered a few months ago.

The goats and chickens have been without BOSS for over a week and I can tell a difference in egg and milk production. I know that the colder weather will affect egg production but I am anxious to see if the BOSS makes any difference. I am only getting four eggs a day now and some of the shells have been very thin.

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, so my Husband doesn't have to work tomorrow either. I need to make a list of things for him to do, but I guess I'll give him the day off since he is a Veteran.

Exciting!

Is anyone as excited about Sarah Palin as I am? My neighbor said it best last night, she told me that she hasn't been able to vote FOR a President in many years, she has only voted against Presidents, the lesser of two evils. She is looking forward to being able to vote for a Vice President this year.

Sarah Palin even makes John McCain look and sound better. He made the right choice. Here is hoping for the next 16 years!

Writer's Block

I am trying to overcome this current round to writer's block, I have been struggling to think of anything to blog about. Pain is about all that I can think about right now. I don't really want to dwell on it but it continues to demand most of my attention.

My eldest Son and his family were here last night, he is a great inspiration, he is just a little off on the wrong side of normal. He has a great sense of humor and when he is around or when I am on the phone with him, he will bring up some odd fact or warped childhood memory that he says that I should blog about. The problem is that my aged mind can't recall what it was that he suggested when I have the time to sit down and blog.

During the course of conversation last night, my DH said something very irritating to me, I can't remember what, but I did threaten to divorce him. My Daughter-in-law jumped right in there and suggested that we both get divorced and we would go somewhere together. You see, I have this strange family, I love both of my Daugher-in-laws. I admire their fortitude for staying married to my Sons. It can't be easy, they are too much like their Father.

Happy Independence Day! Hopefully it won't rain out the fireworks like it did last year. We had a gully washer here last night, the barn is flooded again. We don't do much on the 4th of July if we can help it, this is the first day that my Husband has had off for weeks. So that means that he is going to have to catch up on all of the work that has piled up around here.

He works six days a week and we go to Church twice on Sundays, so it makes it hard to mow grass and bush hog pastures, not to mention trimming 156 feet that belong to horses and goats around here.

We do have a very accommodating neighbor who spends tons of money on fireworks every year. All we have to do is drive to the top of the hill to watch a fireworks display that rivals what they have in the nearest town. We don't have to fight traffic or crowds of people, although the word is getting out and we are starting to get lots of visitors to our neighborhood on the 4th.

The thing that makes it really nice is that we live in a valley, so with that valley behind us, we get a real good stereo with echo affect, it is like wrap-around sound. All of our horses are bomb proof, they stand at the top of the hill every year and watch the show with us, they love it.

I am a little worried about Angel though, it will be her first 4th of July because she was born at the end of July last year. She gets very nervous about loud sounds, but she is getting better. The first time we shot a gun around her, she ran off and didn't come back until the next day. We and our neighbors have shot several times since then and she doesn't like it but she doesn't run off. Tonight might cure her completely.

Back Home

I'll bet you thought that I was never going to blog again or that I had lost my typing fingers, that is almost what happened.

We have been staying at the neighbor's house while they were gone on vacation for the past three weeks. They are home now and we are moved back home. Running back and forth, taking care of everything there and everything here has nearly disabled me. I am down in my back for the most part but am getting better, I think.

I have mentioned the neighbor's parrot whom I adore before, but this is the rest of the story. She is temperamental to say the least, very moody. She will flirt with you until you fall for her cute ways, then when you try to touch her she will take off your finger.

She loves my husband and responds to him better than to me. She says "hello" every time he walks into the room. I can be with her all day and she does very little talking but the minute he walks in, she won't shut-up. However, when he puts his arm into her cage she quickly jumps on board but always ends up biting him at some point for no apparent reason. Her bites to my husband have only resulted in bruising.

She had only bitten me once when I first met her, but I have handled her a lot since then with no problems. When I walk up to her she will lower her head and press it against the cage for me to scratch her head. I get her out of her cage quite often if all of their dogs are outside or in their pet taxi's.

One night, I can't remember which one but it was right before the neighbor's were scheduled to fly home. My husband was on the computer in their computer room and I was sitting on the couch in that same room. All of their dogs were in pet taxi's for the night, my dog was loose in the house but I had shut the door because I had Lolita on my shoulder.

She walked down my arm and buried her face against my chest. I was scratching her head and neck and pulling on her feathers and she was purring like a cat. We had been doing this for some time and each time I tried to stop she would find my hand and put her head under it again.

My husband got up to leave the room and left the door open. Chloe, my dog, came in which wasn't a big deal but I didn't want her in there, so I yelled for my DH to please get her out and close the door.

Well, when he came back he raised his voice at Chloe because she didn't come out as soon as he asked her to and Lolita nipped me but it really didn't hurt that bad, so I didn't react. He yelled at Chloe again and this time she went out and he shut the door loudly. Lolita bit me again and this time she took a hunk of flesh off of my index finger's knuckle.

My reaction was to push her backward off of my arm and onto the couch but she managed to stay on my arm and grabbed the hand of the arm that she was standing on in the webbing between my thumb and index finger. Then she bit me twice more on the thumb. This time I put her on the floor and she walked off calling me names and mumbling to herself.

She finally walked back over to where I was sitting and I put my arm down for her to come back up on, but she wouldn't do it. I was bleeding anyway, so I yelled for my dear husband again to get the hand held perch and come and get her. He stuck his head back in the room and seen that I was bleeding, so he went after the perch and got her put back into her cage and bandaged me up.

I was very upset because I didn't want her not to like me. So he got her out of the cage with the hand held perch and he brought her over to me and she came onto my arm as soon as I offered it. We didn't have any more problems after that and I managed to control my fear.

The bites weren't too severe but I did get a little infection in the hole that she made in the web area between my thumb and finger. I still love her, she is just a normal parrot, and I have started begging for one of my own but I don't think my DH will give in on this one. The neighbors did have will's made out recently and we get the dogs and the birds.

Here are some pictures that I took of Lolita taking a bath, she is a Yellow-naped Amazon.

Storms

I haven't had time to blog for several days because I am trying to take care of a neighbor's house and pets while still trying to take care of my own. They have four house dogs, a cat, two cockatiels and a loud mouth parrot that I just adore. The horrible storms haven't helped much either. My computer has been shut off most of the time recently. It seems like there is a new storm moving through every few hours.

We only got 2 inches of rain here on Friday night, but central Indiana got 10 inches and from what I have heard it is nearly impossible to get to Indianapolis from the southern part of the state. Bridges are out and roads are under water.

Our barn did flood again on Friday night and I did fall again yesterday in the same place that I fell the other day. This time I didn't have time to try to catch myself, so I am not quite as sore. I walking into the goat/chicken house and all of the sudden I was laying flat on my back looking at the sky trying to catch my breath. The good news is that only my backside was covered with mud and manure this time. I have told my DH that I am not going back in that lot unless the ground is dry.

Our last mare is getting ready to foal. The foaling stall has an inch or two of water in it, so we are hoping to get it dried out before she decides to foal.

I will probably blog more than once today if it doesn't storm.

Time

I talked to someone who reads my blog each day and was informed that I need to blog more often, maybe six times per day. I am a pretty decent typist and can usually think of something to say but I don't think that I can come up with six blogs per day because of the constraints of time and my memory. You see, I can think of things to blog about while I am out doing things but somehow I forget what it was by the time I am sitting in front of a computer. Now if I had me one of them there handy, dandy hand held computers I might do better.

Time is in short supply around here anymore. I have heard a man that I greatly respect say that everyone has the same amount of time and while I know that is true, it really isn't a logical conclusion. Everyone is given 24 hours per day but not everyone has the same responsibilities.

Responsibilities are the time thieves that make a difference in the amount of time that a person has. The amount of time that you devote to those responsibilities determine how much free time that you have.

For people who live in a house with a small yard to mow, may find that they have plenty of time to devote to other endeavors, like entertainment or hobbies. I tend to get a little annoyed at people who say they are bored or don't have anything to do. I always seem to find plenty of things to do, there are just somethings that I don't want to do.

We have 30 some odd horses that require care, 7 goats, 13 chickens, 2 dogs and 1 cat. They all have to be fed everyday, one goat has to be milked everyday. We have a yard that needs to be mowed and pasture that has to be mowed. We are fortunate to have both of our children living close by and so we have our children and grandchildren at our house quite often. I have a swimming pool that requires constant care during the summer months. Stalls and buildings have to be kept manure free and hay has to be bought and picked up then stacked in the barn. Fence is always in need of repair.

My husband is working two part time jobs, so he only occasionally gets a day off, he has been working six days per week, he does get Sundays off but we go to Church twice on Sunday. We have four Church services per week that we attend. In addition to that my husband is teaching a Bible Study one night per week.

When the neighbor calls with a problem we always try to be there for them. Just the other night a neighbor called because him lawn mower had quit and he needed to borrow a mower, my husband had tons of stuff to do but he dropped everything and took our mower to him. Then he came back and hauled two loads of manure over to their house for their garden.

I am not complaining and do not want anyone to feel sorry for us because we chose this life and enjoy it but I am venting. Sometimes I feel like my husband is stretched beyond his limits and then gets criticized because he doesn't want to do certain things or go to social functions. The thing that really gets my goat is how other people judge you.

My husband's favorite saying is, "Everyone is right in his own eyes." Everyone thinks that they are busy and I have heard people say, "Well, they think they are busy but they don't know what busy is, they should have to follow me around for a few days."

I personally don't do as much as I used to do because I can't with my back the way it is but even if it weren't for that, I know that growing old tends to slow you down. When we were young we were looking for something to do all of the time, now we are looking to get rid of as many responsibilities as we can. I currently have enough website and halter work, more than I need. I don't feel like I can get anything else done. Which would be great if I were making decent money but I'm not.

Don't judge other's lives. Don't think that you know what others are going through. You aren't them and you have no business making a judgement about someone whose moccasins you have never filled. Vent over and this subject is laid to rest.

Rain, Mud and Wind

My husband talked to a neighbor last night while hunting for my dog. Angel had disappeared, which is not like her at all. She never gets too far away from her goats. But when it was time to feed yesterday evening, she was no where to be found and didn't come when called.

The neighbor raises bottle calves and has an abundance of them, people just keep bringing him more all of the time. He has suffered many losses this year due to the weather.

He has very nice huts set up for them with lots of straw but he says that the huts have to have a door and he just can't keep all of this rain out. Then he brought to my husband's attention that with every rain that we are getting, it is being followed by lots of wind. This does dry the ground up somewhat but having a strong wind after a cold rain is very hard on young animals. His bottle calves are getting pneumonia and even with antibiotics, vitamins and minerals, he isn't having too much luck saving them.

Not having a dry place to bed down is hard on any animal but especially the young and with the weather that we are having there just isn't any such thing as a dry spot. Which brings me back to Angel, we had called and called for her and she didn't show up. I did think that I had heard her rabies tag tinkling a couple of times inside our barn/house. I looked around but didn't see her. My husband was very upset because he doesn't want a dog that runs the neighborhood. I just couldn't believe that she would leave the goats like that.

Finally later in the evening I detected some movement in the corner of our barn/house, back behind our lawn tractor. She was hiding in a nice dry spot, she knows that she isn't allowed in this barn. My husband had mercy on her because as he pointed out, she is just wanting someplace dry to sleep to get ready for her night watch.

Our goat/chicken shed is continually wet this spring, we clean it out and put fresh straw down but with the goats and dog tracking in and out in the wet and mud, it doesn't stay dry for very long. Goats are also very indiscriminate about where they use the bathroom, they just go wherever the urge hits them. So, with the lot being nothing but a mud pit and the shed not being much better, Angel sought and found a warm, dry spot for a much needed rest.

Another dilemma that we are facing is that we don't have anyplace to put the new foal and his mother to make room for the other two mares that are overdue to foal. Under normal circumstances we turn the mares with their new foals out on pasture as soon as the mares have had a few days to recoup. But this weather makes it impossible to do that.

My DH keeps saying that we are never having March babies again but I keep telling him that this is the first year that we have had these kind of troubles. Our neighbor with the calves has never had these problems before either. It rained here all night again last night and the wind is suppose to be strong today with the temperature dropping all day down to 30º tonight.

Additional thought: I posted on the first day of March that it came in like a Lamb, yesterday was the last day of March and it certainly went out like a Lion!

Life's Not Fair

When I taught school the kids all loved to say, "That's not fair!", to which I would reply, "Life's not fair, so get over it!". Life certainly is proving me right at the moment. Our old bachelor neighbor was here this afternoon and he told me that he was getting really tired of this cold weather for some reason and I told him that usually happens in February. He asked me if he would get over it in March and I told him that he would, especially towards the end of March.

He also told my husband that he sounded just like his calves that he is doctoring for pneumonia. This is true, my husband seems to get pneumonia if he catches a cold. I am not complaining, well, maybe I am a little bit but I feel so bad when he is so sick and he still has to go out in the below 20º weather to feed and water. I try to help as much as I can but I am not much help.

Add to this that we have a psycho horse that has to have her back leg re-bandaged everyday and I am feeling like life isn't fair. For one thing she is without question the hardest horse that we have to handle and the injury is on a hind foot and it is difficult to wrap. She also has to have a shot everyday. She has to be kept up in a stall, so that means a stall that needs cleaning everyday. I can shovel a little manure but my back prevents me from doing much of it and there is no way that I can wrap her leg, for one thing she wouldn't let me and for another I couldn't stand in that position. So, with my husband being so sick, this is something that we didn't need right now.

The weather is another thing that we don't need right now. It is 6º at the moment and the wind chills are awful. We are suppose to get sleet and snow for the next few days and that may stop me from being able to help out at all. I hurt myself the last time that we had ice. I just feel guilty when I can't do my share of the work.

Enough whining around, Spring will be here before we know it, this cold weather can't last forever. The March winds will dry up all of the mud, the grass will start growing and the horses won't have to be fed as much. Morning's leg will start healing, the dressing won't have to be changed as often and the shots won't have to be given after Feb. 28th.

I just ran out and watched the Lunar Eclipse, I almost missed it because I didn't know it was happening tonight and since this is tomorrow's blog that I am writing now, if you didn't hear about it, you missed it too.

Think Spring!!

Egg Shells

We save all of our egg shells to be recycled. When we use an egg the shells gets tossed in a bowl and left out on the kitchen counter to dry. After a couple of days of drying, I crush them with my hands into a big mortar and pestle for grinding.

Then I put the ground egg shells out for my chickens to eat, they love them. It puts the calcium and grit that they need right back into their bodies to make their next eggs.

The trick is to make sure that they don't look like egg shells to them, so that they don't eat their own eggs or another hen's eggs. Birds love eggs as well as egg shells and when they start eating eggs it is hard to make them stop.

When babysitting our neighbor's parrot, I feed her boiled eggs and she loved them. I haven't done it but I'll bet my chickens would love boiled eggs as well.

Chickens love protein and will eat meat, worms and insects are their favorite food of choice, they prefer these delicacies over corn and seeds.

I noticed the other day, one of my Barred Rock hens running for her life past the bedroom window. So I went to see what was chasing her, it was the other hens and the rooster. The funniest thing you ever saw was this hen running all over the place with a dead mouse in her beak with all of the other chickens in hot pursuit. One of them finally grabbed it and a tug-of-war began until the other hen won the battle and ran for the hills. She found a good hiding place and enjoyed her trophy. I tried to get some pictures of the chase but they were too fast for me.