Spray Paint Hand Cramp

Been spray painting my patio furniture.  Ack!  What a project...all those curlicues!

But worth the pain.

Most Excellent Dog House

Here's another one of nephew Jordan's projects.

A house for Harry.

Since we fenced the back yard last year, Harry can't get onto the back porch, which he liked to do when it rained.  All winter we've had his bed right by the front door, which I really didn't like.  Who wants a huge, dirty, stinky, dog bed right by their front door?  And when the wind blows just right, he gets wet anyway.  We thought he needed a place to go during inclement weather and not have him banished out to the barn or mower shed.

So, now he has approximately 64 cubic feet, 16 square feet of cedar sided, tin roofed living space.

A flap in the front and back lift up for ventilation.  The inner walls are particle board wrapped in Tyvec.  The floor is a pallet, which is nice because Tom can use the hay fork on his tractor to move the house.  For the roof, he used tin left over from other projects.

What is really cool about this house is the siding.  Tom had to cut down a big cedar tree a couple of years ago and it was left out in the field all this time.  We have a friend that has built himself a saw mill, so Jordan took the tree over to our friend's place and they milled it into planks.  Jordan used those planks as siding for the house.

I painted the house with a clear polyurethane sealer to help preserve the wood.

In Over My Head

That's what I told the vet when I took Pony for her appointment for shots, coggins test, and to check her cough.  He just laughed.

I've had horses before and they were a breeze to take care of.  So, how hard could it be to take care of a tiny little miniature?  Turns out, it can be pretty stinkin' hard.

First of all, she came to us as fat as a butterball and within two weeks, she was on the verge of foundering, so says the farrier.  "Don't feed her any grain, just let her eat the grass, she's too fat."  he says.  I was only giving her a handful of sweetfeed a day anyway, but I cut out the sweetfeed entirely.  Still she munched, still she got fat, then she started limping and was reluctant to get up and walk on her sore feet. 

So, I called the vet.  He said, "She's eating too much lush grass and clover, take her out of the pasture and give her only dry hay."  So, into the barn she went.  In the stall, she paced round and round and stirred up all kinds of dust, then she started coughing.  So, I had Tom mow the pasture short and put her back outside.

She gained some of the weight back, but was not limping any more.  Now she was coughing.  I thought putting her back outside would clear up the cough.

OK, to the vet we go.  Vet told me she was, as I thought, coughing because of the dust and now her airways were irritated so he gave her some antibiotics and a bottle of medicine for me to give her a shot twice a day.  Then he said, "I'm not worried about her feet, I'm worried about her weight.  I see at least two horses a week foundering because this season our pastures are so lush that the horses are eating themselves sick.  Put her in a dry lot and give her only hay."  "I don't have a dry lot." I say.  Every inch of our pastures is lush green.

My solution was to put her in the smallest pasture and to keep the grass cut very short.

  She is lonely and longing to get out and run with the donkeys.  BUT, so far it seems to be working.  She is no longer coughing, she is not limping, and she looks to be a reasonable weight.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this plan will continue to be successful.

Goat Gone Bad

This is a mean goat and is about to get herself sold.

She is one of the two Kiko goats that we bought last year to replace the Boer nannies that died of parasites.  Kikos are supposed to be hardier meat goats that are not as susceptible to internal parasites, which has proven to be true of our two thus far.  When we bought the two Kikos, they were very shy and flighty.  However, this one has become downright aggressive, so much so that I'm afraid to go into the pasture to feed.  When I have the feed bucket in  my hand, she tries to head butt me and hook me with her horns.  She also actually makes a growling sound.  I'm not going to put up with it any more because she could really do some damage with those horns.

A Bit of Country Garden

I'm slowly filling in my flower beds.  The Irises have bloomed wonderfully this year.

Three varieties of purple iris.

And a sort of golden brown one.

Birdhouse left by some owner long ago.  It used to be nailed to a tree, but was blown out by winds.  I screwed it to the top of the fence.

I bought this little copper bird feeder at Arbor Castle Birdhouses in Edom.  They have the most fabulous birdhouses and I'd love to have one, but they are more expensive than I can justify just to have something pretty to look at.  Have a look at them at http://www.arborcastlebirdhouses.com/

I had to move the fairy garden out of the herb tub last fall because the herbs had gotten so big, the fairy garden was obliterated.  I moved it into this old iron pot and now even the little plants are taking over.  I think the fairies are not doing their job, but this yellow sedum is very pretty.

Crazy Daze

My stepfather, Jim, died suddenly on Saturday.  He would have been 86 in July.  Last Thursday he played golf with his sons.  On Friday he transplanted some roses to make a space for the cannas that I had given them, then went to a group Bible study that evening.  Saturday morning he got up and started mowing the lawn.  He sat down to rest in the lawn chair and quietly passed away.

We had the funeral on Monday.  Jim was well-loved and it was a packed house.  We had congregational singing led by three of his grandsons, one of which was my son.  The singing was nothing short of phenomenal and very uplifting. 

Jim was buried in Oklahoma on Tuesday, but Tom and I didn't get to attend because we came down with what appears to be the flu.

My father died in 1972 when I was 12 and my mother married Jim two years later.  He was a brave and generous man to take on four new children ranging in ages five to 18.