And So It Goes

Harry now sports a dangle stick. It's not a comfortable thing.

The idea behind the dangle stick is that as soon as he starts to run, or even walk fast, it will trip him up. With the dangle stick, he cannot chase chickens.

Chicken Sez

"Are you going on holiday?"

(One would need to have seen the claymation movie, Chicken Run, to appreciate the sad hilarity of that question.)

Twenty-two Reds?

So, today was day two of free ranging. Tom let's Harry out of barn, chickens out of coop and leaves to go to a property tax hearing.

I look out the window and see Harry dashing around chasing a chicken. I put on my shoes and run outside, "HARRY! NO!" and hang around telling Harry "no" for another 15 minutes. He finally gets bored and goes away to chew something. So I go to work in the garden and Harry follows. He hangs around for a while and then leaves. I wonder what he's up to, but I'd never get anything done if I'm constantly checking on Harry.

So when I get done weeding the garden (with Paden's help) and drive the cart around to the back of the house, I see Harry pouncing on a chicken laying on the ground. I go get him and see that the chicken is laying there with no visible signs of life - limp, eyes staring sightlessly - really, very dead looking. So I take Harry away and tie him up.

When Tom gets home, I tell him the sad news, "Harry has killed a chicken." Tom goes out to check and lo and behold, the chicken lives. Tom puts it in the isolation cage. Personally, I think it should be put out of it's misery, but then, I thought he should have put the broken legged chicken out of it's misery, but he has recovered.

**sigh***

Freedom With a Price

Tom started letting the chickens free range yesterday. I thought it was too soon.

And Still More Excitement!

Tom has heeded my pleas for gates into the pastures on the driveway side. How wonderful is he?! You may remember that I've been having to climb the fence if I need to get into the pastures, which is frequently. He and Charlie have built two and there are four to go. I think they look great and will be, oh, so useful.

The Queen of All Garden Sheds

This is one of the projects that Tom has been working on - turning the loafing shed by the garden into a garden shed. We used one of the windows taken out of the house during the remodel and the front door (so it has a peek-a-hole, as Tom calls it). Tom, his friend, Charlie, and Paden all worked hard digging out the old hay and tall bermuda that had grown up in there, and they used the old bi-fold closet doors from the house for shelving. I used more of the saltillo tile that we took out of the house for the floor.

The only thing we lack is a doorknob and the metal sheeting for the walls. We're waiting for the metal store to get some seconds in so we don't have to pay full price.

I LOVE my garden shed and can't wait to move my gardening stuff in. There is an electric line run out there already and Tom is going to put in an electrical outlet (I'm secretly planning to put one of our unused stereo systems out there) and overhead light. I'm giddy!

Clown Feet

Larry says that Harry is so clumsy because he has clown feet.

Great Pyrenese and Anatolian Shepherds both are breeds that have double dewclaws. They look pretty funky, but I guess they have a purpose.

Too Gone for Too Long

It's not that nothin' is happening around here, it's just that too much is happening around here.

I had a wedding to go to in Maryland two weekends ago. Before that, it was shop, shop, shop trying to find something to wear. I don't know why, but I always feel like I need something new to wear to a wedding. Maybe it's to celebrate the new relationship that is being formed...or maybe I just want something new. I bought three dresses with the intention of wearing one and taking two back. But I am bad. I kept all three. I figured I've got all of my special occasions covered for the year...even the big lawyer's firm X-mas party. And two of the dresses I can wear for more casual events.

Then last weekend I went to a wedding in Oklahoma. We had to get someone to farm sit.

And this coming weekend we're having a big Fourth of July bash, so all week is being spent on getting ready for that. Well, for me, anyway. Tom didn't have to shop (I got him something new to wear), so he spent his time doing projects around the farm. Pictures of those coming soon. But he will be spending the next two days strictly on the party prep.

Gone Molin'

Gone Swimmin'

Isn't it amazing how animals just automatically know how to swim? Harry was completely unconcerned the first time he went deep into the pond and his feet could no longer touch bottom.

Texas Sunset

I can't take credit for this picture. A friend borrowed my camera and took this while visiting our farm.

Weeding Results

I've almost got all the hairy vetch and the bermuda that was growing beneath it pulled out. It's taken about 2-3 hours of pulling weeds almost every morning for a couple of weeks now. It's so satisfying to look back on those cleared garden rows.

The tomatoes are growing fast and there are several unripe tomatoes on the vines. I didn't get tomato cages on all of them, so that might be a mistake. I thought I'd get something better than I had last year, but ended up not getting anything at all.

Still, my corn is not doing well. It seems that there is one row that just doesn't want to grow corn. I've planted three times and have little to show for it. The lettuce is out of control. I need to make a note to myself not to plant so much lettuce.

I stopped milking Hyacinth on Monday. Tom and I decided to start leaving the goats outside at night and hope for the best. I was going to gradually stop milking, but when I checked her udder on Tuesday morning, I could tell that Cosmos and Rose are still nursing. Leaving her out with them keeps her milked out. So much for weaning them.

One of Pansy's kids has a funky lump on his neck. Uh-oh. I thought it might be CL abscess like his mother had, but the sites that I looked at on the internet say it's a wattle cyst. I hope that's right. Ugh.

Storms

It's stormy here in Texas today. I didn't take this picture until after the worst of it, but it looks like more is coming. At about 1:45 a.m. lightening struck our power pole again, knocking our fuse off and causing a power outage. Tom called the power company to let them know. We thought they'd be around in the morning to fix it, but about 20 minutes later their truck pulled up. I was shocked that they would come out at 2:00 a.m. to restore our power. I'm impressed. The last time that happened was on a Sunday morning and they arrived about a half an hour after we called them.

News Flash

I heard a little news brief on the radio today and I wish I could remember all of the statistics they gave, but I can't (stinkin' aging brain). But it could explain somewhat why Americans have such a hard time keeping weight off.

The gist of it was that our food has more fat and less nutrition in it than it used to, even 20 years ago. They gave the example of chicken...something like 165 more fat grams, because instead of the chickens free ranging and eating what they would naturally eat and getting exercise, they are all stuffed into those chicken farms, standing around doing nothing but eating the fattening food that they are fed all day. Same for feedlot cows, pigs, etc.

And our vegetables don't have as much nutrition because they are treated with chemicals, which causes them to grow faster and they are picked before they have a chance to develop or absorb the nutrients that they would normally have.

So even those people who are trying to eat right by eating chicken without the skin, "lean" cuts of meat, and lots of veggies aren't able to keep the weight off or stay as healthy as they could.

Today's Projects

After mowing a couple of pastures and helping a friend load 90 bales of hay on his trailer, Tom put in a water line to the garden. Previously, the faucet was just outside the fence and we had to have hoses running across the field out to the garden. That causes problems for mowing since I'm known to mow over whatever is out there. Paden helped Tom dig the trench to lay the pipe. Some of the area had hard packed clay and rocks and was much more difficult to dig up than the ssand. About halfway through it I had the bright idea to bring the tiller out there to break up the ground so it would be easier to dig the trench. It worked, but the tiller gets away from the operator easily and Tom ended up breaking a piece of the fencing. So, the trade off for easy trench digging is fence repair.

I had an easier time of it today. I spent a couple of hours digging out bermuda grass and weeds from the garden and trying to recover from the setback the hairy vetch caused. Then I replanted some corn, squash, and cucumber. The rest of the day I spent doing mostly inside projects.

It's a chore keeping Harry out of the garden. He doesn't really do anything, but he's so big and floppy that he crushes plants wherever he goes. I ended up tying him to the golf cart while I worked because it's impossible to get anything done while constantly watching, yelling at, and chasing Harry. I'll be glad when he gets to big to squeeze under and through the fence.