Crystal Garden Art

I love garden art and have been drooling over these glass and crystal pieces that I've been seeing at the flea market lately.  So, this is what Meagan made for me for a Mother's Day gift.

Isn't it wonderful?!

Paden got me a great hammock swing, but we haven't hung it up yet.  Tom said that if I want to hang it on the back porch, he'll need to get up in the attic and build a special brace.  I guess he thinks I have too much body fat to suspend from our current porch roof.  :o

Ah, They Grow Up So Fast

Mom

(If you look real close or double click on the pic you can see momma Cardinal feeding babies.  Sorry it's so tiny, but I'm never prepared with my camera and my super duper zoom lens wasn't handy)

Pop

And little geezer.

Goat Roper

We had to move some goats around in the pastures today and this goat obstinately stayed behind.  He's Daisy's only surviving triplet from last year that we ended up keeping as a companion for Billy.  I couldn't get him to go where I wanted him to and he's way to big for me to struggle with, so I asked Jordan for help. 

We cornered him at the end of the alley where he was and while he made a half-hearted attempt at jumping the fence, Jordan leapt upon him and wrestled him to the ground while I danced around them saying, "oooh, Jordan, don't get hurt!"  Jordan held him down while I slipped a rope around his neck and Jordan tried leading him with that, but when that didn't work out too well, he just took him by the horns and manhandled him into the pasture.

The Little Things

Things have calmed down around here for me.  Milking season is upon me.  I have my early morning routine with that, then the goats are out to pasture for the rest of the day.  We use about a quart of milk a day, but I've been getting enough milk so that I have a few gallons stored in the freezers.

The garden is well under way and only requires weeding here and there rather than intensive weeding every day.  So, I now have time for the little things.

Every year we have some kind of bird build a nest and raise a family in the ferns that I hang on the front porch.  This year it is a Cardinal couple and they built the nest so that we can see everything from the kitchen window.  The mother doesn't seem to mind being eye-to-eye with me as she sits on the nest and goes about her business tending the hatchlings.  I took a picture of the babies while the mother was away today.

It's amazing how such ugly little creatures can morph into beautiful red birds.

Red Yucca blooms.

None of the yucca around here bloomed last year, but this year all the big white wild yuccas are blooming and my red yucca in a pot is blooming like crazy.  I tried to grow some of this from its seeds last year, but was not successful.  Will try again this year I think.  I'd like to have enough to do a big planting by the front gate some day because it's so pretty in mass plantings.

Pickled Asparagus

The asparagus has gone crazy this year.  I've been picking it since about the end of February and it's still putting out enough shoots that I'm having to pick them so that the fronds won't be so thick.  Since the asparagus was taking over the refrigerator and I was tired of eating it, I decided to pickle every spear that was in the frig.

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and modified it a little bit to fit the ingredients that I had on hand. 

Trim the ends of the asparagus spears and cut them into pieces that will fit into a pint jar (about three inches).  Place them in a large bowl with 1/3 cup of coarse sea salt and cover them with two quarts of water.  Let stand for two or more hours.  Drain and rinse under cool water,  pat dry.

Sterilize four pint size wide mouth jars in simmering water for five minutes.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 3 1/3 cups of distilled white vinegar, 1 1/3 cups of sugar, 2 teaspoons of course salt, 2 teaspoons of mustard seeds and 1 teaspoon of dill weed (or 3 tsp. dill seed).

Add one onion, sliced or chopped.  I used red onion because that's what I had on hand and I like red onions the best, but it does turn the pickling liquid pink, which turns the asparagus a little pink, too.

Bring to a boil and boil for one minute.

Pack the asparagus spears, tips up, in the hot jars leaving.  If you have some dill sprigs, tuck one into each jar, then sprinkle in 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes.  Pour hot pickling liquid into the jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of the rim.  Wipe rims with a clean damp cloth, and seal with lids.  Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Cool to room temperature.  Check seals when cool by pressing the center of the lid.  It should not move.  If any jars have not sealed properly, refrigerate and eat within two weeks.

This recipe made four pints.

It's pretty good if you like pickled things.  I can only take it in very small doses because of it's sweet-tartness.  It also has a little bite to it because of the red pepper, which I do like.  I think I might like the onions that it's pickled with better than the asparagus.

Pony Has a Friend

A family at the church where we go gifted us with a miniature donkey.  I accepted because I thought she would be a good companion for Pony and solve her loneliness problem.

She is nine months old and so very cute.  Her breeder told us that she is very sweet and tame, but I think at the moment she is completely freaked out by being dragged into a trailer, taken away from her mother for the first time, and thrown in with a bossy horse, so she is a little skittish.  She is also more interested in Kip and Buffy on the other side of the fence (and they with her) than she is in befriending Pony.  Hopefully, she'll come around.

Pony is tiny.  Donkey is tinier.

And such a cute little pouty face.

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.

Beautiful Moth

I'm seeing a lot of these this year.  I don't remember seeing them around here before.  Don't know what they are, but when I get time, I'll look it up.  I think the chickens might be eating them up beause I've seen a wing here and there, too.

Cannas Anyone?

I thinned out my yellow cannas this week, separated and potted them up.  If you live nearby and want some for free, come and get 'em.  They are supposed to be a dwarf variety, so said the label, and only get about four feet high, but they actually grow to at least six feet high.

They are beautiful, but beware, they spread like crazy.

In June of 2010, I planted this sparse row.

By August, they looked like this.  In the summer of 2011, they doubled and pretty much took over the whole bed so that the dwarf ruellia (the pink row of flowers) could hardly be seen. 

Sad Pony

About a week after we got Pony, I had the farrier come to trim her hooves.  He told me that she was close to foundering and I should take her off all feed and just let her eat the grass in the pasture, which I did.

A couple of days, she foundered anyway.  I called the vet and he told me that miniature horses were prone to foundering.  Turns out our pastures are just too rich for her and she's gorging herself on all kinds of goodies.  He told me to put her in a stall and give her only hay, which I did.  She got better right away, but she absolutely hated being in the barn by herself.  I only left her in there about two days, then moved her out to the pasture that had been grazed down the most. 

She was fine for a while, but after a couple of weeks, I could tell her feet were getting sore again.  So, back into the barn she went.

This picture isn't out of focus, but it looks like it is because Pony has paced round and round stirring up dust.  The dust has caused a deep cough. 

 "Let me out!"

After about four days in exhile, she was much, much better.  I put her out in the round pen for about an hour on the second day, then a couple of hours the next day, then I had Tom mow the pasture as short as possible.  Back outside she went.  Mustn't have her coughing.  She was running around kicking up her heels and tossing her head, so happy to be back outside.

If keeping the pasture trimmed short doesn't keep her from foundering, I don't know what we're going to do to get through spring and all the new growth.  I read up on miniature horse websites and they recommend not letting them graze until about July when the grass isn't as rich.  I really can't imagine how we could manage that.  I  just can't keep her in the barn.  The only thing I can think of to do is to make a smaller pen within the pasture to keep her in and let it go just about bare.

Oh, and she lost all that extra weight she was carrying around.  Looks much better.

Straw Bale Gardening

I'm experimenting with something new in the garden this year.  I heard about straw bale gardening a few months ago and thought it sounded great.  We have a bunch of bales of old hay, our first cutting from our first year here, that I've been wanting to use up.  This seemed like a perfect way to do it.

Of course, straw and hay are not the same thing, but I did some reading on it and hay will work as well as straw.  The problem with hay is that it will have more seeds in it that may sprout lots of weeds.  Theoretically, straw has already had most of the seeds threshed out of it.  But, there is a benefit to using hay and that is, that it has more nutrients in it.

I liked the idea because it gets the garden plants up off the ground like a raised bed. With that, the benefits of keeping the weeds from encroaching and not having to bend over so much to reach the plants.  Of course, if my hay sprouts a bunch of weeds, then my weed problem may be worse than it is gardening the conventional way.  I may totally regret this, but I thought I'd give it try.  Besides, I really like the look of it, the neatness, and I get great satisfaction in making things look neat and orderly...and beautiful, if possible.

This gives me great pleasure to prepare and look at.

I'm only doing three rows

And the raised bed that Tom built last year (not so much pleasure looking at this because I need to get out there with the weed whacker).

I've had the bales set out for a few weeks now and have been watering them.  I plan to start planting in them in about 10 days or so.  For more information on straw bale gardening, you can google it and lots of sites will pop up.

I'm supposed to be able to put potted plants directly into the bales.  To plant seeds, I have to spread a thin layer of soil over the tops.  The plants are supposed to get all of the nutrients they need from the hay or straw because the watering has caused them to start to compost.  Eventually, the hay will completely disintegrate.

One can also create raised beds with the bales but using them as "walls".  Just line up the bales to create an enclosure, then fill the enclosure up with soil.  The bales hold the soil in place and bring the garden up to non-back-breaking level.  Googling brings up some very nice pictures of straw bale gardening and raised beds.

Wish me luck.  I might end up with a great pile of weeds and no veggies. 

Barn Workshop Cabinets

Tom has been planning a workshop area in the barn ever since we got it built.  He needs a place for all his tools and projects.  So, since our nephew is here, we're taking advantage of his considerable talents.  I think that was Tom's ulterior motive in getting him here anyway.  *wink*

Yesterday, this wall looked like this.

This morning, it looked like this...

Wow!  he is fast.

This is going to be far nicer than I envisioned.  Those cabinets have a quartz top...free.  I was at an antique/junk shop several months ago and this big slab of quartz counterop was leaning up against the wall.  The shop owner asked if I knew anyone who would want that slab.  She just wanted to get rid of it and was giving it away.  I didn't want it, but I mentioned it to Tom when I got home.  He went and got it, had it cut in half and ended up with two six foot lengths.

Sweet!

And More.

I went to check on Pansy and Buttercup (the Boers) this afternoon because I thought Pansy was pretty close to going into labor this morning when I gave them breakfast.  Sure enough, she was busy cleaning up twins.  She still looked big and she kept laying down and getting up, so I wondered if she might have another baby that hadn't been born yet.  She's never had triplets before...just two males every year, but I watched her for about 20 minutes or so, then I went off to do some other things.

I went back some time later and there she was, cleaning up another one.  Tom had just gotten home and Jordan was driving up, so I enlisted their help in getting Buttercup, Pansy, and the triplets into the barn.  I probably would have just left them out if it wasn't supposed to get cold tonight.  Pansy was very upset about moving her babies and we had a hard time getting her to follow us to the barn.  We ended up having to play "leap frog" with the babies.  I took one, Tom took one, and Jordan took one.  I'd set mine down and Pansy would run to it, Jordan would set his down several feet ahead, and she'd run ahead to that one, while Tom was setting his down several more feet ahead and she'd run to that one.  We did that all the way to the barn.  Buttercup followed sedately along.

Now all the babies are safely ensconced in the barn and I'm waiting on Buttercup to deliver hers.  I'm so relieved that everyone is in, safe, and healthy and I can finally sleep soundly at night.

Boy, girl, boy.

Wide load.

Kids, Kids, and More Kids

I needn't have lost all that sleep over Daisy.  After several nights of getting up at all hours to check on her and even sleeping in the barn apartment a couple of nights so I'd be nearby in case she had triplets and needed help, of course, she had her babies while we were at church and didn't need me at all.

\

Girl.

Girl.

Girl!

Four out of six kids are girls this year.  We usually have all boys with a girl thrown in here and there.

Yay!

Udderly Ridiculous

Hyacinth's udder is, once again, as hard as a basketball and bigger than ever.  At least I rememebered this year and started the babies on a bottle right away.  Since her udder had gotten hard about two weeks before kidding, I started giving her Vitamin C back then in the hope that it would soften up quicker and be ready to feed the babies, but it didn't work.  At least, it hasn't worked yet.

I'm torn about what to do about her.  On the one hand, she has this same trouble every year and it makes life difficult for all of us since she can't support twins at first.  I can't, in good conscience, sell her to someone unless it was to someone who wanted only a pet and didn't want to breed her because they'd end up with the same problem.   On the other hand, I have so much time invested in her.  When her udder softens up, she's a good milker.  She has calmed down on the milk stand and hops up on it willingly.  She's a leader and the other goats will follow her and she will follow me, so that makes it easier to handle the other goats.  It doesn't seem fair to just toss her out because of a few weeks of udder problems.  But, is it fair to continue to breed her?  Is it a genetic problem that will pass to her babies or is it something that was caused by the mastitis she had the first year?

I really just don't know what to do about her.  It's too difficult to have a doe that can't be bred because it makes pasture rotation too complicated when I have to keep the does separated from Billy.  That's the reason I sold Rosie last year and I thought I had finally simplified matters.

**sigh**

On another note, I've been checking on Daisy every few hours, for the past few days because I'm sure she is going to have triplets.  I don't want a repeat of last year, so I want to be present at the birth.

"Just put me out of my misery."