Something Completed...Maybe

After the skunk incident, I installed the new foyer light fixture. As usual, I had agonized over just the right light fixture for days. I'm schizophrenic when it comes to decorating, trying to find a way to blend all of the styles I like into one place...Spanish, contemporary, glam, shiny polished chrome and/or silver, and black or oil rubbed bronze. Ack. But I finally decided and I'm very happy with it. In the picture it looks gold but it's not. It's a dark brass with a patina and an "English Pewter" (according to the product description) finish. It has crystal flowers and buds hanging off of it and it looks beautiful up on my ceiling.

I intended to install it myself. I can do those kinds of things, ya know. So I turned the breaker off, took down the old fixture and installed the hanging bracket. Then I tried, really tried to find a way to hold the light fixture up there while I wired it, but there was just no way. So I finally had to call one of the workers to help me. He got it wired while I held the fixture jammed against his face. He probably still has a leaf print on his chin, but he was a good sport and properly admired the fixture after it was lit up. According to him, it looks "Christmasy". Hmmm, not exactly the look I was going for.

Le Pew!

Yesterday, Kerry, the carpenter reported that the barn reeked of skunk when he opened it up to get his lumber. I went to investigate and found it right away tucked in a corner behind an old wheel (Yes, unfortunately, we already have old wheels laying around, although this one was left behind by previous owner). Anyway, after observing the animal for a few moments and detecting no movement, I called Kerry (on the cell phone even though he was only a few yards away) to tell him I'd found the skunk and should I poke it to see if it was alive. He told me to wait for him, which I did as he came running down the path shouting, "Don't touch it, they carry rabies!" As if I didn't know that. Duh.

I happened to be carrying a long metal fence stake that I thought I might poke and run with, but Kerry was very cautious (and chivalrous...and dramatic). He directed me to stand outside while he picked up a long piece of lumber and threw it like a javelin. It hit the tire with a big thud and still the skunk didn't move, so we pronounced it dead. Kerry scooped it up with a shovel and buried it a few yards from the barn.

I felt a little sorry for it because it surely must have died a miserable death. I don't know how long it had been locked up in the steaming hot barn with no water and probably nothing to eat. Well, I don't know what skunks eat. I supposed if they eat mice or hay, it might have had plenty, but I don't think so. Having been sprayed by a skunk as a child, or so he said, Kerry had no pity.

Mom's Donkey Review

This is what Mom had to say about the donkey situation. I thought it was funny, so I thought I'd share.

"One of the mama donkeys had her baby yesterday morning so that was a delight to see it walking around and her protecting it very well. Normally the mother is very friendly with the other donkey she is also female and purported to be "with donkey " (for some reason "with child " doesn't seem correct and as we were taught in our very young days at home , you never said the word " pregnant " in our house ?? My how things have changed!! ) Anyway , now she will not let the little colt? (donkeyling? )get close to the other donkey and will even appear to fight her off if the little one goes near. ( "This is my donkey , and I'm the boss of it !")"

Henry

Ok, so little donkey's name is Henry. His mom is Buffy, the alter ego of Kip rather than Henry. But I like Henry better.

He's so much fun - so soft and fuzzy. Surprisingly, his mom lets me pet him to my heart's content. She still won't let Hilde near him and she gets pretty nasty about it, kicking and biting her, and making mean faces. I think she'll get over that in a few days. Tom feels sorry for Hilde. He thinks she wants a baby of her own.

AND, yay! The tape/bedding/texturing is FINISHED inside the house. Finally.

Peas are growing well, squash is coming along, corn...not so much. Some of it didn't come up at all and the corn that is up is not growing as fast as the spring corn did. I got broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, carrots, and bush beans (can't remember) planted on Tuesday morning before the Gustav rains started. It rained the rest of Tuesday and most of Wednesday. Oh, and I went out to mow paths around and through the garden (pitiful, I know) and discovered that we have some new watermelons growing. I had completely forgotten about the watermelon vines. Luckily, Tom didn't take the tractor out there to mow because he would have squashed them since they are completely hidden in the grass.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I plan to take up all the paper off the floor and clean up the dust. My house will look like a home rather than a construction site.

Pin the Name on the Donkey

Baby has arrived! He was born some time on Sunday night, discovered on Labor Day. Isn't he cute! He's only a few hours old in these pics.

So, in keeping with the Bosom Buddies theme of Buffy and Hilde, I'm thinking we should name him either Kip or Henry. For those who watched Bosom Buddies way back when, you may remember that Buffy and Hilde were the alter egos of Kip and Henry. I'm leaning towards Henry. Meagan thinks we should name him Donkey Kong, but I can't imagine myself standing out in the field calling, "Donkey Kong!". "HenREEE!", I can imagine.

Fall Garden Peas

Here are the peas planted a couple of weeks ago, surrounded by some of the pine needles I raked up out of the yard to use as mulch. The second row of peas did not germinate for some reason, so I planted more a week later. The smaller plants to the left are the newer peas. Beyond those are the squash plants. I also have two kinds of corn coming up, although about half of the sweet corn has not germinated. They're the open pollinated seeds that I ordered on-line. I'll have to check their website to see what their guarantee is. I'll be very disappointed if the seeds are duds.

Living Room

Here are some pics of the living room. We tore out the ceiling. I don't know why I don't have a before picture of it, but it had the old popcorn texture, dark styrofoam exposed beams, and was uneven. Now it is smooth, even and clean.

There were three square entryways into the room, one on either side of the fireplace and one between the dining room and living room. We've added arches. And we taken the dark wood paneling down and wooden casing off the windows and encased them in bullnose corner bead and smooth texture.

Seems my camera lens needs to be cleaned.

HEE HAW

So, Buffy, when are you gonna have that baby...or are you just waiting until you pop?

Go pound sand, Hilde.

Pumpkin Harvest

I was thinking that pumpkins were supposed to be bigger than this.

And...Voila!

Guess what arrived via FedEx today?

A whole bunch of paint stirrers! At first I was baffled. Why did I get paint stirrers in the mail? Did I order paint stirrers? Do I have a lot of paint to stir?

Then it dawned on me. I expressed a wish in my blog for paint stirrers to use as garden markers (my little popsicle sticks do look so pitiful out there poked in the dirt). So I looked at the invoice to see who sent them and saw that the genie who granted my wish was a dear sweet lady whom I've known for many years and whom I consider to be family. Carline, you must be reading my blog, so I thank you from the bottom of my heart. What a lovely surprise.

And the arrival of the garden markers has reminded me that I need to make out a calender of when to plant and harvest each veggie.

Oh, and the peas that I planted on Monday had already sprouted as of Thursday! Wow, God's creation is efficient. The seeds were given to me by a farmer friend at church, so I'm not sure what kind they are.

Lamentations and Preservations

Ack. I think I broke my little toe this past Monday. I've been hobbling around all week not getting nearly as much done as I'd like to.

Tom has been chipping and shredding all of the wood we've gathered the past few months. We're going to use it as mulch since Garrett's book says that native hardwood and cedar make the very best mulch. We have quite a large pile. We also have loads of pine needles (also high on the mulch rating) that I want to rake up and use. That's something I haven't been able to do, but I've still got time before I'll need it in my fall garden. On Thursday, I mowed for the first time in weeks. Since it has been so hot and dry, the grass is just not growing. Tom did get the sprinkler system all fixed and in working order, though, so we have been able to water the lawn a bit; not enough, though because most of it is still brown and dead.

Tom is finishing up the garden prep today. We're doubling the size of our previous garden. Tom has scraped away the grass and tilled in the compost, cornmeal, organic fertilizer, and molassas. I plan to start planting on Monday.

In the meantime, I blended up and froze most of the watermelon, and stewed and froze more tomatoes. I also decided to dig up and onion to see if it was ready to be harvested and do I feel dumb or what? All of this time, I thought the onions were the bulb kind, but it turns out they were green onions with no bulb and I could have been using them all this time. So I dug them all up and put them in the fridge. That's what happens when you use inferior labels that fade out after one day in the sun. I'm going to try permanent marker on popsicle sticks when I plant the fall garden. What I really wish I had is a bunch of paint stirrers to use as markers, but I'm going to have to make do.

I've decided to keep a journal of sorts with all kinds of tips on gardening and preserving foods. I can't remember all the things I've been reading and I need a quick reference guide. So each time I read something that I think will be helpful in this endeavor, I'm adding it to my TIPS list.

We've got our house listed with Coldwell Banker. The realtor was supposed to put a sign in the yard yesterday, but it didn't happen. I don't know why. Anyway, I'm home for a couple of days to get the house spruced up. Had the windows washed today and a water damage spot repaired in the ceiling. Paden mowed the yard while I started going through his room to help get him packed for his move into an apartment next weekend.

Mother Earth

Some friends of ours bought us a subscription to a wonderful magazine called Mother Earth News (I think that's the name of it). Each month has articles pertinent to exactly what I'm trying to figure out at the moment.

This month was what to do about the extra tomatoes. Actually, it would have been helpful to receive this month's edition a little early because I had quite a lot of food that went to waste because I didn't know how to preserve it - mostly corn. Anyway, there was an article about preserving tomatoes. It said if there isn't enough time to do anything else, they can be frozen whole. There was also a recipe for stewed tomatoes that could be frozen. I did both this week. So I have several frozen whole tomatoes, which was a snap to do, of course. And I made up a batch of stewed tomatoes, poured them in zip lock bags, labeled them and froze them. To freeze them whole, all you do is wash them, pop them in the freezer separately (to keep them from sticking together) until they are frozen, then put them in a zip lock bag. This week, I'll do more of the same because the tomatoes are still going strong.

I'm definitely going to have to get a big food dehydrator because one article told me that I can dry just about any fruit or veggie. The benefit of drying is that the dried food takes up less space and most of it doesn't need to be stored in the freezer or refrigerator. The food can be rehydrated when it's time to eat it, or it can be eaten dried like a raisin. Supposedly, the rehydrated dried food retains it's fresh flavor.

Howard Garrett's book was wrong about when to harvest a watermelon. His book says to wait until the vine is brown and dry, which is what I was waiting for as my watermelons got bigger and bigger. Then I discovered that one of the biggest ones had burst open. It didn't look like it was done by an animal and none of it was eaten. It looked like it just had burst open from over-ripening. So I picked one of the other biggest ones and cut it open. It was so ripe that the center of it had turned mushy. I scraped out the mushy part and threw it away, but the rest of it was delicious, so I cut it up and put it in the frig. I picked two more and brought them home. I intend to cut them open and if they are still good, I'll blend up the meat into juice and freeze it.

P.S. I'm rereading my blog (and, boy, in hindsight, do I sound ignorant).  Just wanted to say, those whole frozen tomatoes are still in my freezer.

Towards the Light

Every time I see a light at the end of the tunnel, the mine caves in.

The wood floors are 70% installed - everything except the master bedroom and the living room. The texture is done on the walls/ceiling in the hall, entry, and office and the master bedroom. The living room was almost done enough to tape and bed then...

somehow, the workers convinced Tom that the ceiling needed to be torn out and replaced in that room. Yes, the ceiling was sagging. Yes, it had termite damage around the edges. Yes, it had the ugly popcorn texture. I was prepared to live with all of that even though it would have been more beautiful if it were fixed. But I wasn't willing to open another can of worms and postpone the finishing of that room just to have a pretty ceiling.

Well, it's done. The ceiling is torn out. I wasn't there, but Tom said that the rafters are undamaged. That's one good thing. So I guess tomorrow starts the re-sheet rocking of the ceiling. Who knows how long that will take. Then comes the tape/bedding, then painting.

Then maybe we can get the rest of the floors installed.

I've ordered my baseboards on-line since it was cheaper that way than to buy them locally.

I ate a cantaloupe out of our garden this week. I think the vine only made three. It was good, but could have been a bit sweeter. The watermelons are growing quite large. The corn is done producing, but I haven't picked it all. The tomatoes are still going strong. If fed the rest of the lettuce to the goats because I didn't like the bitter taste. Onions are still growing and not ready to harvest and there are about three cute little pumpkins growing.

It's almost time for fall planting and I'm NOT READY!

Tomorrow

I've hired a carpenter to finish the sheetrock, build the arches in the doorways, and to do a few other jobs. He estimates that it will take him two weeks and he's supposed to start tomorrow. He already does not have a good track record on returning my calls, so I will actually be surprised if he shows up for work tomorrow. If he does, yay. If he doesn't, no big surprise.

Floor installers are scheduled to start on Wednesday.

Goat Lumps

Part of last week's bad news was that Pansy's lump had not already burst like the vet thought. It burst on me. Think...a grape...no, a muscadine, filled with thick disgusting pus. Now, think of it popping and splattering on you. Do you feel like retching? Yeah. That's the feeling.

Thank goodness it did not get on my skin. It splatted on my jeans and I could not get those pants off fast enough.

So, as soon as the abscess bursts, it's contagious. Now Hyacinth and Billy have been exposed to CL abscess. Great.

Lesson reinforced...do not buy a goat of undetermined origin. Especially do not buy a goat that has a visible funky lump.

Overwhelmed

This has been a terrible week.

While driving home from the farm close to tears but still hanging on to my composure, I passed a man and woman riding their bikes up the hill. The man had his hand on the woman's back, obviously giving her a boost to make it up the hill. Despite the fact that he was also pedaling up hill and the effort it must have taken to pedal, steer with one hand, keep his hand on her back and help push her up the hill, he cared enough to do it.

That struck me as so sweet and poignant that it put me over the edge and caused me to sob a couple of times. That is something that Tom would do for me if we were cyclists. He does it for me in a million different ways.

Holy Hairy Heel Warts Batman!

So...Hyacinth has an eye infection. I discovered it on Friday, the Fourth of July. Of course, no vet office was open, so I had leave her to suffer over the weekend. Her eyes were very runny and her cornea was hazy - like a cataract. And it appeared that Billy was getting whatever Hyacinth had.

I did a search on the internet and decided that it was probably pink eye. I also discovered that pink eye can be very serious for goats. While I was looking up goat diseases I looked up that funky lump on Pansy's neck and though it might be a "CL Absess". Don't ask me to explain what that is, because I can't. Suffice it to say that both pink eye and CL are contagious and can spread to the whole herd.

So today I called every vet in the local phone book looking for one that would make a house call, or ranch call, as it is called out here. Oddly enough, there are very few.

Anyway, one of the vets that called me back was very nice and asked me to come to the office and he'd talk to me about my goats and give me some meds. So that's what I did.

The clinic was extremely busy, so Pearlie and I sat patiently waiting while everyone else got taken into waiting rooms, or picked up their pet, or bought their meds, and the receptionists answered numerous phone calls. Finally, one of the receptionists called me up and I explained to her my reason for being there. I asked were they always that busy. She said yes and proceeded to tell me about some woman calling about her cattle's hairy wart problem. Looking over at the other receptionist, she said, "I've never heard of hairy warts, is that a real ailment?" The other gal said, "Yes, you don't want your cattle to have hairy heel warts. It's very serious." All this cracked me up, so I said, "Well, my goat has a funky lump. If y'all can treat hairy warts, you can surely treat funky lumps." We both laughed until we cried.

Anyway, I finally got in to see the vet. He was very nice and helpful. I described the eye problem. "Yep, pink eye. Did you get your goats from a barn sale?" "No, I bought both of our Nubians from individual breeders, but my husband got a little goat from the flea market, although she isn't having an eye problem." Vet told me that she probably came from a barn sale and they usually carry pink eye and other diseases. She's a carrier and gave it to Hyacinth. Treat all the goats at once and they should all clear up. Don't buy any more goats from the flea market.

Since he didn't seem to be in a hurry, I asked him about the funky lump on Pansy's neck. "Is it crusty or oozing?" "No, just a hairless lump." "Yep, CL abcess." "Is she contagious?" I asked. "No, the abcess has already burst and healed over. Those lumps are what remains and it should eventually go away. BTW, those barn sale goats also frequently get crusty-something-or-other on their mouths. If her mouth gets crusty on the corners, don't handle her, it can spread to humans." Great. "Is there a treatment?" "No, it just has to run it's course."

So, when I got home, I enjoyed the experience of locking each goat's neck between my knees and spraying them in the eyes with the medication. They didn't resist too much, but each of them spit in disgust several times. You'd think I was squirting it in their mouths the way they carried on.

Finished Barn

Yay! What a great feeling to have something completed. The barn was finished yesterday. Now we can start moving things in. Here are a couple of pics. Our stalls look great enclosed in the new barn. There's our hay stored away, a view of the where the apartment is planned, and a view from the side door of the barn.

Spider On My Lips!

Spider on MY LIPS! AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHuhuhuh.... **Shudder**

I was reaching out to pick a tomato off the vine yesterday, focusing on the tomato and I planted my face right in the middle of a spider web. With the spider on the web. I felt it's spider feet tap across my lips. ACK! It was one of those beneficial garden spiders and harmless, but still, spider feet should never touch human lips. Ever.

Brain Dead

Why can't I remember to take my camera with me out to the farm? Even if I get it out of the charger and set it right here on the desk in front of me, it will remain there until I return from the farm...mocking me.

It's no fun getting old. An attorney friend, Greg, says to eat blueberries. Apparently, they have been proven to be the only food that will regenerate brain cells. I definitely think I need some.

Aphids! Not.

I did some research and discovered that the problem I'm having with my tomatoes is blossom end rot...not aphids. I've read different philosophies on what causes it and how to treat it, but most of them agree that uneven soil moisture has something to do with it. I can see where that might be my problem since I wasn't watering the gardening at first. I was just letting the rain take care of it. Then I decided that I needed to water and I soaked the ground every 2-3 days. Maybe not such a good idea, but I really don't have much of a choice since I'm out there for 2-3 days then gone for 2-3 days.

Some websites say not to panic, that only the first fruits will be affected. That seems to have been the case with mine. Unfortunately, now that the blossom end rot appears to be gone, the vine ends are splitting open, rotting, and are getting eaten by ants. Grrr! I've read that the soil moisture can be a cause of this problem.

Despite the problems I'm having with the tomatoes, we've actually gotten to eat some of them. I've been harvesting them before they are completely ripe - not as tasty, but still quite good. On Saturday I cooked lunch for Tom and myself at the farm. We had, from our garden, squash seasoned with a tiny jalapeno, salt and pepper, sauteed in butter, sliced fresh tomatoes, sweet corn (having problems with ants and caterpillars) and a little dab of leftover pork BBQ. It was so good. I'm not much of a squash lover, but even I liked it fixed that way.

The wood floors that I ordered have arrived (partial order as expected). Tom decided to scrape the popcorn ceilings himself and has been working feverishly on that. He got all of the kitchen/dining/hall area done and started on the master bedroom. He's planning to finish that on Wednesday, then we will have the floors installed. After the floors are installed, even though the house won't be completely ready, we can start moving in. We'll finish the rest as we have time. It's important for us to move some of our belongings and mostly live out there for two reasons: (1) we need to make our current house show ready by cleaning it out (2) we need to be at the farm most of the time so that we can work at making our farm productive.

Also, the barn is being built. When it's finished, we'll be able to store a lot of stuff in there that we don't have a place for yet.

Aphids!

Friends came to visit us at the farm today and I took the wife out to see our garden. We discovered that some of the tomatoes had ripened, but when we went to pick them, every one appeared to be rotted out on the bottom. My friend told me it was aphids. They suck the juices out of the bottom as soon as the tomatoes start to ripen. I've got to find a way to get rid of them right away or they will ruin my whole tomato crop.

It looked stormy out there this morning so the barn builders did not come. Tom and I got up early so that we could be out there at 8:30 to meet the floor guys. They didn't show up until about 10:30, so of course, they didn't finish today. They are planning on arriving at noon tomorrow to finish the subfloor.

Produce

Our first crop of hay has been baled. Our neighbor even custom baled it for us so that the bales wouldn't be too heavy for me to handle. We've already used some bales in the goat pen and as soon as we can, we'll pick up the bales and store them in the existing barn.

The erection of the new barn is supposed to be started tomorrow and the installation of the plywood subfloor in the house started on Monday - should be finished tomorrow. It's good to have the dirty concrete covered.

Also, I was able to harvest a couple of squash, the corn is growing ears, there are lots of tomatoes on the vine - still green, the lettuce needs to be picked again, and some new plants have sprung up that look as though they might be some of the bell peppers I planted and gave up on. It remains to be seen if they will produce anything.

Bad news. I had another kidney stone attack at midnight Monday when I was out at the farm all alone. That was horrible, but I called Tom and he drove out in the middle of the night to be with me. Is that love or what?

Views of the Farm

Looking out over the pasture by the barn and a view of the path from the barn to the house.

Amazing Feats

Really, Tom has accomplished so much. After he spent Monday afternoon sawing off the tin overhang on the existing barn, he got up early this morning and sawed off the overhang rafters. That was a big job. Everything is ready for the foundation pouring in the morning.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

First Harvest!

I picked the lettuce today even though I'm not exactly sure how to do it. I decided that since the outer leaves seemed to wither and die while being replaced with younger leaves in the middle, I would just pick the outer leaves. I picked about half a plastic grocery bag full. Then I picked the one little jalapeno.

More Projects

Just when we think we've got the big projects done, something else crops up.

We went out to the farm for a couple of days to clear away several things from around the existing barn because the builder has scheduled the concrete foundation to be poured and they need lots of room to manuever the trucks. Tom got everything cleared away and the builder told him, "By the way, you need to cut off the overhang in the back so that we can set some poles."

So Tom spent the afternoon on the hot tin roof. First he started to pull off the whole roof, but after one strip, he saw that it was just too big of a job to get done in such a short time. So he ended up taking a saw and cutting the tin off along the back. He's going back today and tomorrow to cut the overhanging rafters off. The foundation is scheduled for Thursday. He'll take the rest of the roof off during the 7-10 day concrete curing period.

I've scheduled with the wood floor installer to begin the installation of the subfloor on Monday. We're almost ready for that, but there are still a few small projects to be done ...and one big one - the rebuilding of the office wall.

Tom has to go to Houston on Thursday and Friday for some Republican voting thing. He has been elected as a voting delegate. I think the convention he is attending is for electing the electoral college delegates from among the district delegates.

In the meantime, Tom went to a hearing on our property taxes. He prepared and presented his case to the panel. They ruled against him, but were intrigued and excited about the information that he presented. I asked why they ruled against him if they were so convinced. One of the reasons was that if they ruled in his favor, it would set no precedent. They want him to file a suit and go to court because if he wins, it will benefit everyone in the county. In the meantime, they did lower our appraisal by 30%. But, really, does Tom need another project?

Amazing Progress

It is quite amazing what Tom is able to accomplish. In just a few days he has torn out and rebuilt much of the living room walls that were eaten by termites. When he tore everything out, we were astonished that the room was still standing. It must have been held up by the window frames. One whole wall had to be torn out, window taken out and replaced. And these are not tiny sissy windows. These are huge slabs of glass about five feet wide and six to seven feet tall. Fortunately, he only had to remove and replace one. For the rest of the repairs, he was able to pry out the damaged wood from underneath the windows and shore them up without removing them. He had help from friend, Nolan, for two of the days and I was there, but wasn't much help with the heavy work. Mostly, I just tried to keep the area cleaned up so he wouldn't have to work amongst the debris.

Now he has to tear out and replace about one and a half walls in the office. Except for that, we're ready for the wood floor guy to come put in the plywood subfloor.

Yesterday, the granite countertops were installed. The installer did a horrible job. But to correct the problems would mean selecting new slabs and causing further damage to my lovely new cabinets by taking out the granite. The fix is worse than than living with the bad job. I'm not willing to go through it, so I will live with it. Otherwise, the stone is beautiful, the island turned out great with a big curve across the back so that we have some space to sit at the counter on bar stools.

Two New Goats

Since Billy was so lonely, we decided to get him a pal as quick as possible. On Sunday afternoon Tom went to the Canton First Monday Flea Market and bought a little goat. He was told that it is a Nubian, but I'm pretty sure she is not. She's a little white goat with light tan markings similar to a Boer goat and she has some funky ears - long and pendulous like they are supposed to be, but they turn up at the ends.

I think I'll start my flower themed names with her and call her Pansy.

After Tom got that goat, I happened to check Craigslist that same evening and found a registered Nubian nanny. I went to see her this morning and bought her. I think her name should be Hyacinth.

Hyacinth is as affectionate as Billy. When I put her in the pen with Billy and Pansy, both Hyacinth and Billy were jostling for a place to stand next to me. Neither wanted the other to be near me. This resulted in a head butting contest which was hilarious to watch.

They would both stand their long ears straight up, which made them look like little donkeys, then they'd rear up on their hind legs and come crashing down, butting their heads together. After watching that scene for a while, I decided that if I left, they might be able to work out their differences. I watched them from the house and they did stop butting heads soon after I left. In a short time, they were all happily grazing together.

The building in the background is the previous owner's new barn. Ours will look similar to that. She chose the same colors as me so that our properties would kind of look like one big place and everything would go together.

Veggie Tales

Yippee! We have veggies!

Don't snigger at the grass in my garden. I know it's out of control. I spent the morning hours pulling it out from around my veggies, but I just didn't have time to pull it out from the middle of the rows. Hopefully, when we get the house in shape, I'll have more time to tend to the garden properly.

Despite the neglect, my lettuce is growing good, I have baby squash and a cute little green pepper. Tomatoes are blooming, so if the bees are doing their pollinating job, I should have some tomatoes on the vine soon. The watermelon vines are growing like crazy, but I forgot to take a picture of them.

Thirty Years of Dirt Is a Lot of Dirt

Nasty discovery today. We took the paneling down in the living room and office and discovered extensive termite damage.

Before we bought the place, we had a wood destroying insect inspection and the inspector noted in the report that there was damage, but there was no evidence that the bugs were still active. So, somewhere along the road, termites were eating the house, they were discovered and euthanized. Unfortunately, the damage was not repaired. It was hidden by that hideous paneling. Above is a picture of what the gypsum board behind the paneling looks like. It's going to have to be torn down. Also the bottoms of all of the window frames (in that room) are all eaten away and have to be replaced.

Also, after removing the baseboards, I was sweeping and vacuuming up the endless supply of dead bug carcasses that were behind the baseboards. I noticed that in one spot, I'd vacuum up a pile of sand and more would replace it. I spent a very long time vacuuming us sand that was falling out of the wall. It was pouring out as quickly as the vacuum could suck it up. I gave up after filling three vacuum cleaner bags. I'm sure there is more. I think that at one time, the house was infested with ants and they built the mother of all ant hills in the wall. Who knows how long it has been there...or how long it will remain.

Billy Goat Pics

I finally remembered the camera so I've got lots of pictures to show. These are of Billy. He's afraid of Pearlie and she fancies herself a herding dog.

Making Hay

It's amazing what we don't know. lol

I had an uncomfortable feeling that we were supposed to be doing something about our pasture that is supposed to be coastal Bermuda hay but looks more like a huge weed patch. I finally did a google search and read up on it, discovering that there is a small window of about two weeks in which to cut the hay so that it will be at it's optimum - retaining the most nutrition for the livestock and not being too wet or too dry.

What I did not read and didn't find out until just this week by asking one of the locals is that you're supposed to mow the pasture early to knock out the weeds, which can't grow back as lustily because of the heat. That way, you have a lovely field of hay which is more nutritious and healthy for the livestock.

Needless to say, we did not do that. So our first cutting of the hay will be full of weeds. It's not a total loss because the goats will still eat some of it and it can be used for bedding, too.

Apparently, the second and third cutting of a hay field yields the best hay. Unfortunately, fuel has become so expensive that it is knocking a lot of hay balers out of business, so we're going to have to really search for someone to bale our hay for a price that won't break the bank.

Billy the Goat

The goat's registered name is Stony something-or-other, but Tom insists on calling him Billy. There is no fighting it. He will be Billy. And Billy is a character. He's just like a pet dog. He wants to be with us, not out in the field. He bleats and bleats. He wants us to pet him constantly and will stick his head under our hand to achieve that. Sometimes he makes a funny spitting noise, "Puh!". I don't know if he is actually spitting because he has only done it when I wasn't looking - I think out of disgust for his not getting attention. I don't know if goats can spit, but it's hilarious to hear him.

We went down the road about a mile or so to talk to the owners of a goat farm. We thought they might have a little female Nubian for sale. But they raise Boer goats and only keep a few Nubians. The woman informed me that she won't sell her goats for less than $400.00 each and that I shouldn't either. And she won't sell her goat milk for less than $8.00 a gallon and I shouldn't either. I don't know if she was giving me good advice or trying to keep me from competing with her.

What she doesn't know is that we have no intention of going into the goat raising and selling business. We only want enough to be self-sufficient and aren't looking to make a profit. However, I've been told that one Nubian will produce up to a gallon of milk a day. I don't think there is any way that we'll use that much. We don't even consume a half gallon in two weeks. So I'll either be learning to make butter (which I intend to do), buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream, cheese, etc. or I'll have to give the milk away or sell it...that is, if I'm successful and keeping the goats alive and learning how to milk them.

Livestock

First, above is a picture of one wall of my kitchen cabinets. It's the "command center" where I'll put my computer, keep farm records and recipes, and have the intercom system.

Second, these are the guard donkeys. Tom wants to call them Hilde and Buffy, after the characters in Tom Hank's early hit TV show Bosom Buddies. I kind of wanted to call them names of flowers like Hyancinth and Daisy. Maybe we'll compromise and go with Tom's choice so I can save my flower names for the goats.

Speaking of goats, we ended up getting the little male goat yesterday...earlier than I had planned, but that's how it worked out. He's like a pet dog and wants to follow us around. It was very sad to leave him out in the pasture when we came home because he was standing on his hind legs looking over the fence bleating his little heart out.

Joanne (neighbor, former owner of farm) said he was bleating last night and they thought he was so cute. They felt bad for him and watned to bring him into their trailer to stay with their dog. I told Tom to tell her to feel free to do so because we felt bad for leaving him out there.

Both of the donkeys are pregnant and due soon - maybe within a month. I'm kind of bummed because they won't let me near them and they are not halter broke. I had wanted to have plenty of time for them to get used to me and let me handle them so that when their babies are born, I'll be able to get close to them. Since they're due so soon, that may not happen. It is also problematic that they aren't halter broke. There is no way for us to move them into another pasture if we need to.

Cabinets

The cabinets are installed. It went off almost without a hitch. The man that I hired to install them was very good. Very meticulous like me. Not once did I have to tell him, "That's not right!" or "This goes here." or "Where did that big scratch come from?" or "That's not level."

They look great. I'm more than a little miffed with the designer, though. I only wanted a couple of cabinets with pull-outs in them. She insisted that I needed pull-outs in the big tall cabinets. I gave in on those against my better judgement. But I told her to order the other cabinets without pull-outs. Well, almost every cabinet has pull-outs. It's a huge amount of wasted space for those stupid drawers (I'm all about using space efficiently)...and it's an upgrade that costs more. I mean, if I had wanted drawers everywhere, I'd have ordered drawers instead of doors. Bah.

And, she didn't order any shoe or scribe moulde. I mentioned it to her before we ordered, but she waved my suggestion off as something that wasn't needed. Well, we need it. So I'm going to have to order some and have the installer come back to put it in.

I forgot my camera, so don't have any pics, but I'll take some when I remember to take the camera with me.

Also, I bought two donkeys today. We got the truck fixed (it just needed a fuse), so I'll be able to go pick up the donkeys and the goat this coming week. I got two "Jennys" (female donkeys) that are supposedly pregnant and due to foal some time this summer. Cute baby donkeys in the future!

Painting

I spent yesterday and today painting the guest rooms and hall leading to them. I finished the biggest one and ran out of paint before finishing the second. I'm painting everything Antique White and it took two coats to cover the green and purple in the biggest room. I think there were a million pin and nail holes in there that I had to patch.

Direct Buy has an account with Sherwin Williams paint supply store. I'm happy about that because that's the kind of paint I like to use anyway. I got the paint half price with the Direct Buy card, which was a happy surprise.

The cabinet installation is scheduled for Friday. Yesss!

When I got to the house today, there was water on the floor in the soon-to-be kitchen. Uh-oh. I think it might have come in under the doorway that we blocked off. I'm not sure what the short term solution to that will be, but the long term solution will be for us to build the new entryway that we were planning...and soon.

First Livestock Purchase

I put a deposit on the goat today. We'll have to pick him up within two weeks.

I wasn't able to go to the farm. I had too many things to do at home and still didn't get them all done. Mostly because I spent the evening watching TV. Oh well, hopefully I can do them tomorrow evening.

Snake!

We were out at the farm Friday evening and Tom was out in the carport moving a small stack of lumber. When he lifted up one of the pieces, there was a snake under it. He called me out there to see. I was sure it was a young rattlesnake. It was about 18-20 inches long and very slender. We couldn't see a rattle, but I thought that was because it was too young. We prodded it into an empty Gatorade mix can and put the lid on it. Then wondered, "What do we do now?" Kill it? Take it out and set it free?

Larry called a little later, so we asked him. He told us it would already have a rattle if it were a rattlesnake. Tom showed it to our handyman friend, Nolan, in the morning and he told us it was a bull snake. Since that's a good snake, they set him free. Perhaps he'll help us out by eating mice or something...that is, if we didn't traumatize him by making him stay in a Gatorade can all night.

With Nolan's help and a 14 hour work day, we managed to get the kitchen ready for the cabinet installation. The new window is installed, the doorway is blocked off, all the electrical work is done, all of the drywall patches are in place, and the 2x4's to raise the height of the cabinets have been nailed in place.

We're going to retain a bit of the 70's by reusing the 30 year old sound system control. It's a radio/intercom system that was also hooked up to an eight-track player. We took out the eight-track and moved the radio/intercom control over to where my desk is going to be. Then we'll hook up my under-cabinet mount TV/DVD/MP3 player to that. There are speakers in every room and on the back porch.

Blackberries Galore!

Happy discovery! There are loads of wild blackberries everywhere. All along our fence line, all along the fence line across the street. I really need to take some time to pick them before the birds get them all. I don't have the time to make anything from them, but maybe I could at least freeze them for later? I've eaten a few and they are quite good.

Yes...We're Busy, Uh-Huh, Uh-Huh

Here's the gutted kitchen. In the background is the living room full of the new cabinets still in their boxes.

Bad Dog

And while we were busy putting the roof back on, Pearlie was wandering around outside, knowing she was not allowed. I turned around and she was rolling around on the ground, undoubtedly in something odoriferous that I couldn't see. So she had to go around for the rest of the day with weeds stuck in her hair. See, she's too embarrassed to show her face on camera.

Well Cover, Well Covered

Another project completed! Yay!

The roofers finally came out to shingle our little well cover that Tom had taken down weeks ago. So Tom was able to put it back up with the aid of me, Wonder Woman, and the little red tractor that could. This was a clever idea. Unfortunately, this idea caused a little damage to the shingles.

While Tom was wildly dangling and swinging the roof from the tractor bucket by the chain and straps, it managed to rub some of the color and texture off of the front edge of the roof. No, it couldn't have rubbed it off the back, that would have been too easy. Anyway, probably in an effort to keep me from noticing and getting upset, Tom thought it would be a good idea to spray paint the rubbed spots red.

Of course, that was a failed attempt. Tom is not equipped for such subterfuge. What's the first thing I saw when I looked proudly at the finished roof perched on top of it's new supports? Red spots. I was thinking to myself, "What are those red spots." I supposed it was my puzzled look that made Tom 'fess up. Then he tried to wash the paint off. That was a no go. Oh well, there are worse things in the world than red spots on a red roof.

Dog ... or Donkey?

So, I was sure I wanted to get a Great Pyrenees to serve as a guard dog for the goats that we're going to get. But while I was looking on Craigslist checking out goats for sale, I came across "Guard donkeys, raised with goats", which piqued my interest.

I did a google search for guard donkeys and, lo and behold, people use donkeys to protect their goats and sheep. Apparently, they have a natural dislike of canines and will bray loudly, chase, and even attack dogs and coyotes and some other small predators. Of course, they can't handle mountain lions or bears, but we don't have those at our farm anyway. We do have the occasional stray dog and definitely coyotes. When we spend the night out there, Tom and I can hear packs of them howling and yipping.

If the donkeys are raised with sheep or goats, they bond with them and become protective and possessive. In fact, they are so protective that during lambing (or kidding), they have to be removed from the flock for a while because they will sometimes view the new babies as intruders and will hurt or kill them.

I can definitely see a benefit to having a guard donkey as opposed to a dog, the main one being that the donkey can graze with the goats and I wouldn't have to buy dog food. And the donkeys that were for sale on Craigslist were only $100.00. Seems like a bargain.

Floors and Windows

I ordered the kitchen window today. Just went with a simple slider style rather than something beautiful or different. We've been spending so much money, I couldn't bring myself to spend much on the window. Hopefully, it will just blend in and not be a noticeable feature of the room.

I also ordered the wood floors. One little snafu...the floors are from Brazil and they are having some kind of strike over there. I'm getting all of the stock the company has in the U.S., but it still leaves me short a few hundred square feet. The rest will be on back order and is expected to arrive sometime in June. Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later.

Our gospel meeting started yesterday and goes through Wednesday, so we aren't planning to spend a lot of time at the farm until the meeting is over. Tom went today and got some work done, but I stayed home to take care of the ordering of supplies.

Wildflowers

Our drive to the farm is beautiful at this time of year because of the wildflowers...that is, if you can look past all the trucks, cars, and guard rails to see them. The primroses are like a river of pink all the way down the median of Highway 80 around Forney. I've included a picture, but it doesn't do them justice. Click on the picture for the big view.

We're making good progress. I keep forgetting my camera, so I don't have pictures of the latest. Let's see, Tom has the kitchen completely torn out, including the tile. In preparation for the cabinet install we have to take out the door and drywall over the opening, Tom has a few plugs and light switches to reconfigure, a couple of drywall repairs need to be made, the texture on the ceiling needs to be scraped off, and the window above the sink needs to be replaced.

I wasn't going to scrape the ceiling or put in the new window until after the cabinets were installed, but Tom insists that it needs to be done before. So, that's next on the list to do. I haven't even ordered the window (on my to-do list for tomorrow). Hopefully, it there is not a long wait time to get that in.

The barn builder has put in the forms for the barn foundation, which is exciting. We're not on his schedule to actually pour the foundation for at least a couple of weeks, but it makes me feel like something is happening just to see the shape laid out. And at least we can go ahead and getting the plumbing in place for the apartment.

The garden is coming along. Everything sprouted except the onions and bell peppers. Bummer. I'm not sure what happened with those. But I went ahead and planted more green beans, corn, and lettuce in the places left bare by the unsprouted ones.

We tried to open the double doors in the dining room this week. We knew the doorknob didn't work, so I took it off and we still couldn't get the door open. Turns out, it has been painted shut on the outside. I guess the former owners decided that it would be cheaper and more convenient to never use the door rather than replace a broken doorknob.