The Recidivist's Adventure

Of Cows

2010-01-24T06:29:00.005-07:00

Well, here it is January already, almost February. I have been so busy fighting the weather and making sure things will be right come March that time has slipped away from me!

The girls are due to calve in March; just like most folks' cattle around us. My new friends here are worried about my new calving and have offered advice and help. Of course, part of why I wanted Dexters is that they are known in the breed as easy calvers; no calf pullers or rearranging necessary. Plus twins are common! While I have had my hands in human uteri, delivering babies, turning a calf to come out front feet first is going to be very different! Pauline has never calved before and looks to be carrying one; Billy Jean has calved before and is really BIG - but she is a big solid cow, so she may just have one.

There is the stanchion to be built, the udders to be milked, and then all of the equipment to be bought yet to make the cheese and butter.

Of course I'm nervous! We've both milked before, but never our own animals. I've pasteurized milk and made butter and yogurt, but never on a large scale. And I have never made cheese. But if this venture goes as well as the chicken eggs - which were supposed to be only a personal by-product of living on my farm and has already turned into a small cottage business! - I hope to be the local provider of fresh cream, butter, and cheeses. So many cheeses! Ricotta and mozzarella are the soft cheeses and the easiest to make (according to the suppliers) and the hard cheeses like Colby and Cheddar have to be set up and aged. I am interested in experimenting with all of them, then producing what I do best.

The guys like to kid us about our cows, friendly and teasing, not mean; Duane suggested that they need to be in the parade in May. I actually had tentative plans for that; it depends on the girls and their calves, how settled they are, or even if PoinDexter wants to behave like a bull or is still a pussy-whipped little boy around the girls. I don't want to halter a 1,000-pound animal to try to lead him through the streets if I end up getting dragged around town! Pauline is still too shy, and Billy Jean definitely the "boss cow", so we'll see how the herd dynamic changes once they calve. I may just tether one of the girls and a calf into the back of the pickup and decorate the pickup to drive in the parade; you can't do that with the big Angus or Charolais! But I am still thinking about it. Advertising, is, after all, my avocation.

It pleased me how the cows came through the winter weather; even at -47 wind chill, they hung out in the corral and stomped through the snow, still demanding their treats. Even though ice clung to their whiskers from where they'd been at the trough, and they had little frozen snow-caps on their backs, they were warm and mellow.

Sure, it would have been cheaper to just get two or three cows, and artificially inseminate them every year. But I go on the theory that one never knows from year to year what can happen; availability, federal regulations, even gas prices and the economy could leave me with two or three fertile cows and no production once they dry off. I know that people think I'm crazy and am raising 'pets' not farm or ranch animals, because a bull is just an extra expense. But the attitude that there will always be available bulls, just like there will always be available grants or federal or state money, or even available food and water, is what gets a lot of folks into trouble. I take nothing for granted. I know what I want and need, and I want to be prepared for whatever happens. Not to mention that I wanted a herd bull who could produce all three colors of Dexters and be a constant in fatherhood as to conformity, health, shape, and size. A closed herd is a safe herd. And since the girls will produce calves that are not from Poin's line, any heifers from this group can be bred to him as well. We'll band-steer any bulls and either fatten them for meat or train them to be oxen to pull. Poin doesn't know it yet, but he is a Prince who will be the only bull for many years to come! Of course, right now he is just a shy and awkward teenager.

So maybe I'm not as crazy as people think. I actually have plans and ideas, and am steadily working to make them happen. So I smile and laugh and agree, and joke back, and chuckle. Although I have noticed that those who laugh the loudest at my expense also love the eggs, are impressed at the chickens who continue to lay even in the darkest part of winter, and are waiting to see what kind of butter and cheese we will produce. So it's all good. The dogs bark, but the caravan passes on. Nothing will stop my caravan! Maybe I DO know what I'm doing, after all...

Busy Weekends

2009-11-28T06:36:00.003-07:00

More and more, I can't wait for days off when I can hang out with my horse and cows.

Yesterday we saddled Muffin. The saddle is very stiff and unwieldy, hard leather. The saddle blanket is slick as goose poop. It was difficult getting it all strapped down, as well as getting the stirrups set at the right angle, the right length, and the belly band and cinches down right. Muffin was very patient with all of our arranging and rearranging; now that it is set for her size the rest of the times should go more and more smoothly. Even though she hasn't been ridden since she got here, she did not buck or even bow up; she did not like the bit in her mouth, though! She is soo sweet. We had to get the cows out of the corral; they were curious and she got mad at them for getting so close to us. She will be a good cow horse; she is so protective and dominant, won't put up with their crap. But I had to get her settled into getting saddled up first!

Been a long time since I swung my legs up onto and over a horse back, though. As I hoisted myself up, I felt a "crack" as a rib bone gave way. It hurt like hell but I got up anyway. I rode her for about two hours around the corral, getting used to the saddle and her used to me. You can't splint a single rib bone, can't do anything with it, so there was no point in getting excited. I was too excited to finally be 'back in the saddle' again, so I was determined to ride it out. Since Muffin doesn't canter or gallop - apparently, according to the trainer, ever! - I was quite comfortable. When the big earth mover down at Rhett's cranked up, she simply stopped, looked, and blew until she felt it wasn't a threat. Then we walked on.

I really dislike the way the trainer taught her how to be ridden 'plow-handed', both hands on the reins. I am used to guiding a horse with a single hand on the reins, and remembering to change to two handed is difficult. She has such a soft mouth, though, that I have to be careful - the slightest tug on either rein and she is instantly responsive. I don't want her hard-mouthed.

I watched her ears the whole time; you can tell a lot by a horse's ears. She kept flicking one ear back, listening for my comments. I kept talking to her quietly. She would walk up to Mike and stop in front of him while he was taking pictures, ears pointed forward to him, as if she were posing. Never once dd she lay her ears back or convey impatience. She did blow her belly out when we first saddled her, but it took so long for us to get everything set for her little size that she had to give it up! LOL

After I unsaddled and brushed her out, I gave her an apple so that she would know that after rides she gets treats. I filled the trough, she ambled over and got a big drink, and then I went out front to help Mike with the Christmas decorations; he was running the timers and outlets today. Then I had to run to Valentine to get more cords and the sawhorses for the table he built for the ceramic village.

I am so busy now, but all I really want to do is hang out with the animals and do what needs to be done around the house and farm. There is so much to do, and so little time. But even though I am sore and exhausted, I am happy.

My brother called the day before yesterday and told me that I shouldn't have gotten a horse, because now I couldn't go anywhere, ever. He said that it was bad enough that I had chickens and cows that had to be fed every day, but now I had tied myself down to the farm forever. I told him that not only didn't I mind that, it was what I wanted. He likes to go off to California and Salt Lake and everywhere else for a week or two at a time, or at least on the weekends. I have had enough of kiting off. I hate being away from the farm even to go to work across the street or to Valentine, I miss it so much and my mind is always there even when I am not. I don't understand what people don't understand about that. This is what I love, this is where I want to be, and this is what I have always wanted.

Busier Than A Cat Covering Up on a Tile Floor

2009-11-07T05:17:00.003-07:00

Whew. An all day trip to Rapid with Pat yesterday filled her Suburban to the roof with all of our "stuff". Menard's had more Christmas, and I found "MuttLuks" - shoes for the ice and snow - for the dogs, and got more sweaters. I even got some fleece sheets for the guest bedroom upstairs! The big new freezer came yesterday, too; it is down in the basement awaiting its filling with the 1/4 grassfed Angus steer.

Today the hay is supposed to be delivered; 10 large bales of alfalfa. We also have to go repair the fences to make them tight and secure. All to be made ready for the arrival of the three cows and horse on Wednesday. I need to get down to Lancaster's Feed store and look at saddles. Muffin has been ridden bareback and doesn't mind it, but I'll feel better with a proper saddle. "Muffin" will probably be renamed; but that will take some time to get to know her for a proper naming.

My old-fashioned blowmolds of all of the Christmas stuff, especially the Christmas Nativity, was old and broken long before we left the South; I found the cutest new one with little children's faces. I got two new soldiers too; they'll go out at the arbor and be wired down. Everyone's going for the inflatables lately, but they are impractical when winds get up to 60 mph. The blowmolds are fairly light, too, but at least you can anchor them. I finally found something to go on that wide bare blank expanse on the West side of the house; a huge flat, lit Santa in a sleigh, as long as I am tall, that will snug in close to the wall.

We sold our first dozen and a half eggs yesterday. I am soo excited.

Folks all want to come and see our "little cows"; they think they will be amazingly cute. I know the ranchers around here think I am a leetle bit crazy, and want to see for themselves the structure and solidity of this unusual breed. Yes the cows ARE cute, but they are also a tough little breed that have no problem with coyotes or snow; they are bred for rough conditions and to fend for themselves. I know we are going to take a lot of ribbing; I am used to folks thinking I'm crazy, after all! But I hope to turn that ribbing into everyone knowing just what and why we are doing this; it's like free advertising! They are not going to be pets, but real working animals. I know some folks thought it wasn't wise to get a bull when Artificial Insemination is the inexpensive way to go; but I wanted a bull just in case. In case of what? In case the cows need to be bred right away, in case we don't have the accessibility to the semen right away, in case things all fall down and we can't get what we need to breed them right when we need to. Natural is better. He may be officially PoinDexter on the papers, but he might have a name change, too. What else do you call a friendly bull but Ferdinand? The elementary school wants to schedule a field trip! These cows have never been milked before and have to be trained to stand in stanchions and tolerate having their udders stroked long before they calve.

There is so much to think about and do to get things up and running! That may be my last shopping trip for a long while and I wanted to make it count. Soon it will be time to hunker down for the long winter and get ready for the wild blizzards and long nights of black and starlit cold. Having a horse to ride out and check the cattle and fences on cold afternoons, getting ready for the new babies and milk to come in March, Deciding to steer or to sell the little bulls that may come, or to breed the heifers that may come, to keep an eye on the chickens so that they do not set up until it is warm enough to do so, to get the garden plowed under and ready for the snow to collect the moisture....

Yes, this is what I wanted my whole life - to stop wasting time on frivolities and mindless movement, and to concentrate on the things that matter to me.

Forum Discussion

2009-10-28T22:26:00.003-06:00

I chat all the time with folks from several different forums. It's fun to have "friends" that one has never met, where one can say what one thinks and never worry about losing a friend; we're all pretty like-minded. Some of us were talking the other day about why some of us preferred to be 'country mice' as opposed to 'city mice'...

Quote:

Originally Posted by (name deleted)

Out of curiosity - if you don't mind my asking - how did you land in Cody? I grew up on a farm in a rural area, but that part of Nebraska/South Dakota seems very desolate. Was that actually the attraction rather than a deterrent?

Feel free to PM me if you'd rather... Thanks!

Naw, I'm not shy about it. DH and I were looking to get out of an area that had DEMANDED growth, and I was one of the people elected to bring it in. I was trained in development, etc, and with my compatriots started a huge initiative to turn a town of 1800 people and a county of 25,000 into a growth community. We worked at it daily for over 10 years and succeeded. The place will double in size in the next 4 years, and by 2022 that county is going to have 240,000 residents by all estimates. WE HATED IT. (Have you ever been really GOOD at something you hated?) We didn't want growth, and we didn't like the thought-control, property-control, attitudes, and we didn't like the increased ordinances and restrictions on our lifestyle that everyone else wanted and demanded. DH and I have always been down to earth country people, raising our own food, minding our own business, not caring what anyone else thought about our fruit trees, gardens, and farm animals.

So we went looking for a place to retire that had no controlling property ordinances, had an honest, simple, and decent way of life, and would never outgrow itself. We wanted a place where we could have chickens and cows and horses and fruit trees and vegetable gardens and greenhouses where no one would even think about making laws against them, and where we could go out at night without worrying about being accosted at gunpoint (a very real occurance - happened to me twice, good thing I was carrying) or being harassed in the daytime by 'do-gooders' who think that the more rules they enforce, they better off everyone is. We looked for something/someplace old and solid with a history of 'cussed independence' where we could live our life's dream of owning a small homestead farm and producing for ourselves (and our neighbors, if we had enough). I looked for property for 4 years on the internet, and the farmhouse with 60 acres in Cody was one of six properties (in NE, ND, and SD) I had on a list when I came out to look. I got to Cody - and never left. This was what we wanted, this was the attitude we sought, this was the type of property, people, and atmosphere we were looking for.

To be honest, I'm kind of glad that people think of the area as 'desolate' and unimprovable and even uninhabitable. It means that the high-end developers won't come here to ruin things with their McMansions and manicured lawns (where the cops have rulers to measure the height of your grass and fine you if it is over 1 and 3/4ths of an inch high - and no I'm NOT exaggerating) and gated communities, and that no one will put up big box stores that sell cheap Chinese goods to a mindless public that thinks that more 'stuff' means you are high class. The 'retirement communities' aren't going to rush here to build their little enclaves of endless exercise and self-satisfied, purposeless activities to keep their little minds and aging, oversurgeried bodies occupied. Freedom and autonomy mean more to us than just rhetoric - and personal freedom is what the High Plains, and especially the Sandhills, have. It isn't for everyone, and it isn't perfect (no place is) but it suited us right down to the fine hairs. When we come over that last hill and see the old water tower, we're like Dorothy, every time - "There's no place like home".

This weekend we go to buy our "miniature" milk cows... grin. The chicken coop is full, we are getting eggs every day from some very heavy chickens that love the cold, and the garden is about to be plowed under for next year - after giving us about 50 lbs of potatoes, some very nice pumpkins, and filling our canning jars and shelves. We have wood piled up for the woodstove, there are about 20 wild turkeys, some pheasant, bunnies, deer and antelope wandering through our property that need attention. The nights are silent and starlit, the days bright with sunshine or thunderous with storms or grey, dim, and peaceful with snow. Oftentimes for hours the only sound is the wind around the house, or the neighbor's cattle lowing in the next field over... we love it!

The people I worked with back there are all appalled that we "gave up so much" to go after what we wanted; many said they had no idea that we "were like that". They will never come here, either - which suits us just fine, too. They like what they have become, and we like what we are and have always been.

Ummmm.... How 'Bout NOOOO?

2009-09-13T06:13:00.003-06:00

I knew it would happen eventually.

Some folks whom I moved to be away FROM are wanting to "come out to visit". They read about, see pictures of, what I am doing here, and want to 'come out to see'. One even had the cojones to ask if I had planted part of my garden for them! LOL. Ha. Ha. J/K. Before I ever left, one person even wanted to come out, and I told her, um, NO. She was hurt. Too effing bad. But she was raised on a farm, and has over and over insisted how much she hated it, never wanted to go back to it, hated the work and the dirt and the smell of it. Why would I want her or anyone like her here? Why on earth would she want to come all this way to a lifestyle she hates - unless she thought either a) I wasn't serious or b) she could play busy and impressive City Mouse to my country farm mouse (yawn)?

Each one I have had to tell what to expect. They think they will come out to a free bed and breakfast, where they can play at being farmers without doing any of the actual work. They think they can spend time watching Mike and me work, put their kids on the horsies - or that they can sit back and be catered to while they are present, play and do nothing, chat endlessly about things and people and places that don't matter - that never did matter - to us. Ummm... NO.

So first, I tell them how to get here. They can fly into Denver, rent a car, and drive 6.5 hours northeast, the last 5 hours over narrow two-lane back roads, thru towns with no gas stations or other amenities, over miles and miles and miles of empty land where huge cattle ranches sprawl; no humans in sight. Or they can hop a small propeller-driven plane out of Denver to Rapid City (more expensive) rent a car, and drive 3 hours southeast over two-lane roads with the same amenities and scenery. Or, they can drive - 1700 miles, two to three days, mostly on interstates, but again - the last two hours on back roads.

Then when they get here, they must be prepared. There's no motels, although a friend of mine rents out hunting cabins year-round, "in town". The "town" consists of her bar/restaurant, several houses, the high school, with the feed store and the gas station on "the highway". In the summer it's normally 100 degrees, hot and dry, there's no A/C, just fans in the windows. In the winter it is COLD - breathless, mindnumbing cold; -40 degrees with the ever-present wind is common. "Breakfast" is what my daughter calls 'jump-up' - jump up out of bed and get it yourself. Feed-up is before sun-up - just chickens now to be fed and eggs gathered, but soon the cattle to be fed and milked, the horse to be fed, the dogs to be walked. Hay to be thrown out. The gardens to be tended and watered and weeded; or, in the winter, the greenhouse to be checked and worked. Wood to be gathered and cut for the woodstove. In the winter, the fire to be laid for heat; better do it right so it doesn't go out or smoke up the house. Cooking and cleaning and preserving, butchering and milking and the separating of cream and the making of butter and cheese. Work won't stop - can't stop - because we are working with living creatures whose needs must be tended. Fences to ride and check, pregnant mamas to be watched so that they don't drop babies in the snow. Hooves to be examined, health to be watched, on everyone. Is the floating water heater keeping the trough from icing up? Are the pumpkins still green at the top? Are the plants ready to come out of the greenhouse or should we wait another week? Manure to shovel, or walks to shovel.

Something else they need to know - there is NOTHING for them to do here. Not like they are used to. No malls, no Wal Mart, no shopping for a 40-mile, one-way drive, better make a list because you're not going back this week. No rows of bars and sushi joints and barbecue pits and fast food restaurants to just pop over to because you're bored with home cooking. There is a bar in town, that serves amazing burgers and steaks, and is open every day - it is great but the locals mostly sit there in the evenings and play cribbage or poker. No drunken rowdiness, no loud music.

And what gets you is the absolute silence. At night, there is only the sound of crickets, coyotes or the occasional cow, lowing off in the distance. No traffic. No noise. In the winter it is even quieter. No sound except the endless wind, whistling around the house and barns.

No, most people don't want to come here. And if they do they will hate it, no matter how polite they feel they have to be. Damned few of my friends or family would truly enjoy this for longer than three days. They would be nervous, jumpy, wanting to play where there is no place to play, wanting their excitement and their bright lights and their fast food and their desperate need for other people. There's no heating ducts upstairs! There's only one bathroom, and it just has a shower stall, no tub! How primitive! How atrocious!

But - that's why we like it here, that's why we moved here. To do the things we want to do without any bother, or having to smile at people we don't really like, want, or need around us. We like animals, we like work, and we like the silence, the heat, the cold.

So if you want to think about coming here, think long and hard about what you are willing to do - and not have. Otherwise, please, don't bother. Send emails and letters, but otherwise, stay where you are - or go somewhere else. We don't have the time, or patience, or even the inclination, to entertain you for even a day in your life. Unless you are willing to work, to pitch in and help do all the things that need to be done every day, no matter who drops by; unless you are willing to give up your sodas and fast food and shopping and partying, then you won't want to come here, be here, stay here. Go somewhere where you can feel happy - and not interrupt what we do here. We don't have the time nor the inclination to play with you, to pretend that we have the time to indulge your little fantasy of 'farm life'. This isn't Farmville or Farm Town, a virtual playtime, where things happen just right and you can leave or ignore it for days at a time.

Is that mean? Damned straight it is. It is also blunt and honest and true and REAL. If you're happy in your world - don't intrude it on mine. We left it for a REASON. And the reason is - we didn't want to be there any more, and we sure as HELL do not want it brought to us. not for a minute, not for a day, and not in the suitcases of those who think it would be FUN. No, thanks.

Butchering weekend

2009-09-05T06:16:00.002-06:00

I'm getting ready to butcher eight chickens this AM.

It's funny the reactions I've gotten this week - everything from "OMG! You'd KILL an animal??" to "You're not going to kill ALL the roosters, are you? We like to hear them crow!"

I've taken pictures of them from the first day as baby chicks, through putting them in the chicken tractors. We've fed them everything from scraps to laying mash, getting them as plump as can be. Ten hens and two roosters we will keep, for eggs - that should be starting soon! - and more chickens come spring.

I like the Barred Rock variety for heaviness and color, and the big brown eggs. Soon we'll see how their flesh is for taste, and how well they winter over.

I don't look forward to it, to be honest. It is a LOT of work. But knowing exactly what went INTO these chickens, and filling the freezer with their meat, is satisfying. Knowing that this three day weekend will end with a future for the winter is comforting.

Since Mike finally got approved for his Social Security, we are waiting for the BIG check to come in, as well as the monthly payments. This will pay off things as well as pay for the things we need to get to establish our farm. I spend time every week on my Dexter friends' websites, as well as on a horse website out of Iowa. 9 hours away is not a far distance here, not when everything is so spread out. Cows. Horses. Thinking about everything I'll want and need, to try to become as self-sufficient as possible.

Every week my friends from back East email me, or more people try to sign on to my Facebook page. Some are hurting pretty badly, some are cruising along, and some are just nosy as hell and trying to find out WHAT in the world I'm doing. The latter still don't get that I am happy here, that I moved here to be happy, to stop indulging in THEM and to start indulging in ME. Turns out this week that even my own son thinks I'm crazy and need mental help. People who thought that they knew me were no different - they knew me not at all.

People just can't seem to associate the country life with me. Everyone seems to think that I LIKED being a part of who and what they were; LIKED socializing, LIKED controlling, LIKED being in charge of things, LIKED directing a community's thoughts and emotions and feelings. They can't understand why I would ever move to a place where there are so few people, where there is 'so little to do', where I'm not going out to party and eat and control others every night. Ummmm, sushi, lowcountry boil, oysters, fried this and spiced that, everything processed and handy, quick and simple. Good god, why grow it yourself when the stores are full of it? Why hunt or slaughter when everything is so available and so easy to obtain? Why gather up light and fluffy chicken down off of birds when you can buy the nice spun plastic filler for your quilt?

"Begin as you mean to go on". That's always been one of my mottoes. If you start out to do a thing, you have to do it all the way, not in little pieces parts, half-assed. I always put my heart into whatever I did, even telling myself little stories of encouragement to keep myself going while I did it. Now I'm going to put my heart into this, do things the "right" way.. What is so hard to grasp?

I still love my friends and love to hear from them - but what they are and what I am has always been different. Sure, some try to tell me that what I'm doing is what they want to do too - someday. But for most of them, "someday" will never come. They are too afraid of what their families might say, too afraid that people will criticize them, too afraid that - in their heart of hearts - they couldn't stand to be away from the bright lights and excitement of their current lives. They are too afraid that they wouldn't be able to butcher enough food for the winter, raise enough food in their garden, milk a cow, steer a bull for later butchering, chop the heads off of chickens they've fed for four months, gather enough wood to keep them warm; that they would starve or freeze or die or - be without all of the daily excitement they daily strive for. They will never have the courage to leave that life, no matter how much they dream about it, want it, hope for it. They will never even lay the groundwork for it. The minute one of their children or friends says, "Are you CRAZY??" they'll back down. So they live vicariously through me - and I let them.

Time to get dressed and get to work.

Giggle

2009-07-18T19:05:00.002-06:00

The roosters are learning to crow.

Hee hee. Every time I hear them, I can't help but giggle.

The roosters I used to have had very clear "cock a doodle doo"s. These guys are more like high-pitched "rur -rur-RUR!" very garbled and funny. To hear them calling across the gardens, competing in their maleness, is hysterical and sounds like arguing teenage girls.

The ones in the tractors are fun to watch. They play games with the females, "trapping" them in the coops. The females will put up with it for a while, then either shove past the roos one by one or rush them in a body, shoving them out of the way. Then the roos patiently try to herd them all back in again. No reason - no danger. Just chicken life.

Holy crap. The pumpkins have gone nuts this week, putting out literally tens of flowers per plant. I have two little baby watermelons, and there are flowers all over those plants too. The Green beans have finally burst into prolific bloom, and the squash and tomatoes are blooming like mad too. I just may have a harvest after all! I will actually have to go to each plant and make sure - especially on the pumpkins and watermelons - that there are not too many flowers/fruit on each one so that they don't get too overburdened and die before they can put enough energy into each fruit to get big.

Meanwhile, out front, Mike put an inverted-tire planter on the Maple stump. I filled it with soil and put in some blooming wave petunias, and painted it to look like the stump - except for the light spot on the front, that says "Little Tara" with the signature rose (that I also have on all the fenceposts) painted on it. The petunias in the hanging pots are blooming crazily too, and the daylilies are putting out their unusual and multi-colored blooms along the fence. The neighbors are all commenting on the strange and beautiful colors!

I came home exhausted from work yesterday, and as hard as I tried I simply could not get moving this morning. Then of course I had "an episode", and had to take my meds instead, and went upstairs for a nap, went right to a sound sleep. Five hours later I came down, still drained and exhausted. It drives me crazy but it is just something I have to deal with.

Monday I have to finish up some work and Monday night I have to help at the physicals and registration. Tuesday I'll have to take Mike in for his yearly evaluation so I won't be available at all. So I guess I'd better get what rest I can, and just do what I can, when I can. Pisses me off to be so weak, but I am where I can hide my weaknesses from others now, and take care of myself when I need to, and that is a good thing.

The Year Without a Summer?

2009-07-05T06:26:00.003-06:00

It has been a lot cooler and wetter here than normal, according to my friends around the picnic table at the town's pot luck supper last night. Good for grass, corn, hay, wheat, and plants - not so good for some things. Pat's sons were tucked up under blankets yesterday, as the day was cold and wet and rainy all day until just before the picnic.

My potatoes are really taking off. Pat told Mike yesterday that I could come get all the old tires I needed for them. The kids don't use them for their paintball wars any more, and they are just sitting in their field on the hill behind the house.

I had to go into work all last week; lots of things to get out for the school year already. Physicals for the kids who want to take part in athletics are a week before registration, so we had to get the forms to them. Part of the Co-op order came in and I had to separate that out for everyone. Neat little piles in the gym, all with their names on them; elementary and High school teachers alike. Had to close out the computer program year for the food service billing, and re-open it for this year. Had to print all the registration stuff and put it in folders to be ready. Still waiting for the Board to approve the Student Manual, and Kate to approve the Staff Manual. I loaded all of the new year's registration paperwork onto a disk, because many of the forms they needed I had to regenerate. For some reason they were not saved - except as blank hardcopies in a file. Some folks still apparently think that a computer is like a big typewriter, and don't understand the uses!

I suggested that we get a scanner and scan in all of the records we have to keep so that we can throw away all of the huge binders of hardcopies everywhere. I am puzzled that no one ever thought of it before. If you need the records, why not have them were you can download them and print them - or keep them out of the way when you don't?

So I have been in "work mode" all week, not "farm mode". I have a couple of days this week of freedom, but will definitely have to go in this Thursday for a class. Rocky, Terri, Kate and I will all be attending a class in Valentine on PowerSchool, the student record-keeping program. We have started a file of questions to ask. The program is so unwieldy, but I'm thinking that if we just get with the programmers and DO the things we want, we can find out what we don't know that is making our lives so difficult. It's dumb for me to have to keep handwritten records of attendance because the program isn't accurate... or isn't being used to its fullest capacity. I'll find out which on Thursday!

Here on the farm, the roosters are learning to crow - the BIG guy in the rooster coop finally has it down. He is so showy I almost don't want to kill him; big and cocky and with a HUGE comb and wattle. Thinking about changing him out with one of the smaller roosters in the tractors; whatever genes he has I may want to keep and promulgate, not lose in the pan. It's all about the breeding and the future.

I DID protest our huge increase in taxes, and got a concession from the Assessor's office. They didn't drop it as much as I asked for, and of course I didn't expect them to - but they DID knock off over $6,000 on the assessment. I gave them pictures and an 8-point set-up as to WHY it should be dropped - including their errors in property assessment all over town. They actually sent an assessor out last week to evaluate the parts I noted where they had made grievous errors. I didn't raise hell and wasn't nasty - just presented facts. What I'm not telling folk is that, if we get approved for the tax loophole for Mike's disability, the property will come in well under the $75,000 limit set by the state for that forgiveness. So we will only have to pay taxes on the "extra" farm property - assessed at $7,000. Which should lower our house payments by about half, since the taxes are paid into an escrow held by the mortgage bank.

It is 55 degrees and I am gong out to clean out the chicken tractors and put in fresh hay, then mix up the poop and hay with more horse manure and dirt and build up the potatoes in the tires. Then I have to weed the gardens. I wish the pumpkins would start flowering - the watermelons are, and I am waiting, waiting... even have canteloupes coming up, but they are not flowering either. The onions are going gangbusters and I am really excited about them - never had so many GOOD onions coming out. The grasshoppers are starting to be a problem and I will have to fix that, though. I found heads on my oats yesterday, so THEY are actually producing, as is the wheat. So much to do...

Hot hot hot

2009-06-25T07:51:00.002-06:00

Yesterday morning I got started VERY early, before the sun was up. I mixed up chicken coop scrapings with straw, old horse manure, spoiled hay, and dirt in the wheelbarrow. I got the tires from the west garden and took them to the east garden where the remaining potato plants are. I put the tires around the potato plants, and filled the tires with my wheelbarrow mix, up tot he top leaves of the potato plants. Then I mixed up my spray and sprayed the east garden.

While I was doing that, DH was expanding the 'rooster coop'. It was too small especially in this heat. So he measured and cut, then I crawled into the rooster yard and snagged the chickens one by one. He had wire-tied some iron fencing together and made a temporary yard for them to stay in while he redid their coop. At first he didn't slide the last piece of fence over the top, but the first rooster fooled him and immediately leaped up and flew out! After a few seconds of screeching and squalling - mostly by the rooster - he went back in and we got the rest of them.

Halfway through the day I stopped and got a bucket of Icy water from the hydrant, and went around refilling everyone's waterers. The chickens were panting. I poured some water over the edge of the temporary yard and the chickens immediately started digging into it for the coolness. Today is supposed to be very hot again - and then we are supposed to get vicious thunderstorms tomorrow that should bring the temps back down to the 70's-80's instead of the 90's for another week. We had sweat rags that we kept soaked in the icy pump water to keep washing our faces with so the salt wouldn't run into our eyes, and draped them over the backs of our necks to help keep us from getting overheated. I drank over two of those BIG screw-top-with-straw bottles of sweet tea.

While I was scraping up the horse poop in the barn, I found where some Japanese beetle had gone to town, laying her larvae everywhere. I scooped them out, separated them from my manure, and put them in the rooster yard. They 'went fool' over that!

While I was in the East garden I went over and stared at my wheat patch. HEY! It ISN'T all grass! There's small green wheat heads showing!! I have wheat!

So now the roosters have a nice A frame coop instead of their small box, and all of the potatoes that were big enough are now "tired". Today I have to get into the west garden and get to work. DH is exhausted from yesterday, and has to go in to town today to get his knees shot up anyway, so he's sitting and resting this AM. I am sunburnt and sore but there is so much to be done. The grasshoppers that Utah is fussing about we are starting to have too - and I predicted them coming here after seeing the population last year.

2009-06-20T14:40:00.002-06:00

Gawrsh it's hot.

OK, it's only 79, with about 20% humidity and a 25 mph southerly breeze; but it's HOT, especially when you have to work in it.

I'm doing laundry and working on some ceramics, also decided to make ice cream today. It is smooth and creamy and sitting in the freezer right now. There are little bits of fresh strawberries and bananas in it.I got some beautiful fresh red raspberries too, and cut them up into little pieces. Most of the strawberries and raspberries I cut up and froze, but I have a small bowl of raspberries smashed with sugar in the fridge. I couldn't resist keeping them out, even though I don't have the slightest idea what I will do with them. They are my favorite fruit. I made a big bowl of tuna salad, too; and am thawing chicken and Little Ceasar's cheese bread out for supper. Pondering what I can do with those things, too.

I'm staying inside today; mostly because, after all of the running around we did yesterday, I got sick and had to take some pills and sit very quietly for several hours. I HATE that. So much I needed/wanted to do, and of COURSE I was unable to finish. grrrrrrrrrr.

The chickens are getting bigger and bigger. They really love getting moved about the garden, getting new grass to pick and new bugs to eat every few days. The roosters in the stationary pen are getting big; I pull grass and feed it to them, too. The girl at the feed store said, "Why don't you feed them cracked corn instead of mash?" - because I want the roosters to be as fat as possible, not rangy yard birds, when I butcher them.

The remaining wild mama turkey wandered through the yard yesterday -with eleven chicks in tow. So cute.

Even though it hasn't rained in four days, the soil still is damp down below and the plants are growing beautifully. I'll have to get the tires out and put them around the potatoes soon. Everything's growing, almost everything is working out the way I want... so I hate being sick and miserable, hate having to be careful, hate having to go sit down and rest every little while. There's still so much to do!

More Split than a Tree here

2009-06-13T06:38:00.004-06:00

And then, of course, there is that tree.

A major point of contention to past owners, the tree was planted on the other side of the sidewalk, right on village property. It had grown to be a huge maple, spreading wide across the street and front yard. The sidewalk was buckled over the roots, and the folks down the road had sewer problems. Some said it was because of the tree. Previous owners denied it. But what is undeniable is that the tree was not on our property. Facts are facts, not emotion.

Paul and Mike discussed it several months back. Mike told him that it was of no concern to us; that the tree was not ours, not on our property. He said that because, unlike a lot of folks, he doesn't leave that 2 foot wide strip unmowed and neglected. When he is out on the riding lawnmower, he sees no big deal about riding for a minute more to mow that strip, too. No it isn't our problem - but if you want the yard to look even, you should mow everything at the same time. All Mike asked was when they cut it down, that we get it for firewood.

Well, yesterday Paul came over and cut it down. I was at work for the morning, but heard the saws. By the time I came home at noon, the tree was already down. Three neighbor kids, sweet girls and funny - came over to help Paul and his wife Enid load the branches into the town pickup, our pickup, and onto a borrowed trailer. Then their Mom came down too. (This family and ours have the strangest connection - in a town of 177 people, both her hubby and mine have the same first and last names. And her name is - Beth. So we are called "the 'other' Mike Jones' ". )

Two pickup truck hauls and one front-end loader haul later, and the tree was gone - except for the logs that we are moving to the back firewood pile, and the big stump.

The tree had a HUGE center hole rotted out, full of bugs and chewed wood pulp, brown and damp and not lovely at all. It couldn't have even been processed for some lovely maple boards, because the rot was so pervasive. Eventually the tree would have come down, perhaps violently - and who knows what damage it would have caused.
But after it sets up awhile, the wood will make a lovely fire next winter.

Enid suggested that the stump could hold a planter; sure enough, with the deep hole in the center, it could nestle one in there comfortably.

Of course the previous owner is angry; no matter how often she tells herself that she sold the property, she is unable to let go of the fact that she raised her children here and has an emotional connection to it. But this is a VERY small town, and the neighbors don't forget things, other things that happened, nor how her ex sneered at them and told them that now that they had sold their house, all of their taxes were going up, and laughed in their faces. (I was there when he said it.) That and other things I have experienced that have been in diametric opposition to what she and the ex told me, plus the condition of not just the house but the pasture, yard, and the barns, lead me to believe that emotion rather than reason played a big part in why the town has become so friendly and open to us... and why the folks have become more verbal about insults and slights and behavior that they found, if not insulting, at least unacceptable in the past.

I try very hard to be polite and diffuse the situations and comments when they come up. Everyone has their own version of reality. And what happened here in the past is - past. All I can do is make a fresh start with folks whom I am learning to like, and establish that we may be independent - but are not so very different. Some people find it hard to adjust to new situations, they deny them, rail against them, and steep themselves in the bitter tea of regret and resentment.

We are people who look forward; not emotionally, but with reason based on facts and practicalities. Perhaps that is the difference. We could have railed against the unfairness of life that made Mike a cripple, that took so much from us. We could have stayed where we were and moped about, been martyrs and pathetic whiners with no hope, no goals, no plans, and no joy. We could have become that sad old couple down the road who never did anything, any more, except sat and watched TV, shopped endlessly at Wal-Mart, and whined about how evil the world had become; our whole house and life smelling of sorrow and self-pity. Or - we could change our latitude and attitude, and start a new and buoyant, forward looking chapter in our lives. The choice was ours. We made it, irrespective of what others thought or believed about us. We choose to be happy. Like the cutting of the tree, when the rot was pervasive, we chose to take another step into another destiny.

Grey Days and Labor

2009-06-09T17:04:00.001-06:00

Still cool and rainy here. A Tornado passed 20 miles south of us on Sunday, and today another one went south as well. The sky has been alternating with bright sun and dark rolling threats all day. This morning I got out on the first hill and finished putting in my juniper windbreak seedlings; 50 now all told. June may seem late for planting but the lows at night are still in the 40s here!

Yesterday hail threatened so I went out and put the month-old Barred Rocks in their coop. Rain they are starting to understand, but I didn't want a surprise hail to knock one of them out! We will have to switch from starter to mash, they are eating so much now that they are out of the brooder and running around! They come to the fence now inquiringly when I come out and sit on the cement block nearby. They want me to pull them some grass; it's like I am the Salad Bar caretaker at the buffet! I am watching them to determine which two roosters will get to be the breeding stock, and which will just be fattened for later. It's getting easier to tell them apart; the one that comes right up to the fence and cocks his eye up at me expectantly, the two who just hate each other and will not only chase each other around the pen but knock each other off of the top of the waterer and feeders. There are two hens that break up their little fights; like little moms or cops! Funny. I don't name them; it makes them easier to eat later.

So I went up on the first hill to put in my windbreak trees. I put them in the wheelbarrow with my SeaRich fertilizer in a lot of water. They were packed in shredded paper and so were stll green and damp. I put in the posthole digger, and a bag of sunflower seeds from the flowers last year - about 5 pounds of seed as well, and a bucket. I seem to take a bucket with me wherever I go now! The ones I planted before - about one-third were parched, windblown, and not doing so well. After I put in the remaining trees, I took the soaked-in-fertilizer shredded paper out of the bottom of the wheelbarrow, and padded the first trees with it, then covered that with the sandy soil. I threw handfuls of the sunflower seeds all over the hill around them. Sure enough, as I finished, the rains came up and started patting the seeds into the soil.

The clover and silage seed that I strewed all over the hill in February is coming up at last; bright green silage, cool green red clover, already with starting 'heads' on top. The 'honeybee' feed clover is already trying to bloom. Wild indigo is everywhere too, and some bright yellow flowers in clumps that I don't recognize, but the leaves are too flat and rounded for leafy spurge.

I don't get to get out in the pasture much; too much to do here down around the house with the garden and chickens starting. So today I wanted to look at an old tree that was laying down in the pasture. When we moved here with the overgrown pasture in the summer, I didn't see it, but with the winter die-off it was there, a grey-black length on the brown and yellowed grasses. So I went up to look at it. I pulled on the closest end, and it broke off. Red Cedar! What a heavenly smell! Not big enough to cut into boards any wider than 2 inches, and only as big around at the root as my two hands spread. I couldn't drag it back to the house today, but may tomorrow. Nothing rots here, just dries out, so the wood freed of the accumulated dirt and bark is just as sweet and fresh as it can be.

This afternoon was stormy and dark, thundery and gloomy. A neighbor dropped by with an old iron gopher trap for us to use. It springs up when tripped and drives two iron hooks into the gopher; doesn't even have to be baited. 'Way cool and 'way organic! LOL Look out you little furry demons...

Nothing Special

2009-06-06T05:42:00.002-06:00

No, really, I just don't think that what is going on here is all that special. Except, of course, to me.

Having a 100 year old farmhouse, and 60 acres, and barns and fencing and a corral and pasture and living 150 miles from the closest interstate, closest Wal-Mart, is just not that big a deal. Why should it be? It is what I have always wanted; what DH and I talked about since before we were married. Planting things and watching them grow and produce, raising animals for food - these things I have done on a small scale since I was 10, always wanting a bigger piece of property to do it on, always lamenting the tiny garden spots and tiny chicken yards I had, always wishing for something more. This is what drove me. I wanted nothing special, nothing fancy, nothing overdone, nothing high-end or fancy or 'the latest thing'.

Another thing that drove me was living thru the recession of the late 70's-early 80's. It is HARD to be hungry, hard to weigh the cost and quality of food against things like the light bill and water bill. People thought I was crazy because I collected kerosene lamps, all shapes and sizes. I'd lived briefly in a place with no electricity and no running water, though, and having such things is a comfort to me. Having them filled and sitting on a shelf now is an even greater comfort. Having a basement full of dehydrated food, and a freezer full of vegies and meats and even fresh-frozen yeast rolls, ready for the oven, makes me feel strong and decisive. Shucks, having a basement at all makes me happy! Having a stack of wood drying against the garage in preparation for next winter's storms, that makes the cast iron stove roar and boil the water pan on top, that heats the whole house upstairs and down, makes me smile and feel content.

My friends still ask, but why Nebraska? Well, the West stole my heart 30 years ago. I've lived in San Antonio, Albuquerque, and Lordsburg, NM. The mountains, the dry air, the wonderful and powerful storms - and the absolute lack of humidity - is inspiring. I was born and raised in Charleston, lived south of there for over 20 years, and the oppressive heat and humidity just wears on me. It's hard to explain to people who have never lived anywhere else. I don't like the ocean - and haven't, since I was a little girl, even though I spent my summers on it. I am inspired by mountains and hills - the mountains are just a few short hours away from me now, and the hills and rivers that surround me are breathtaking. I like being outside, working my muscles and my dirt and my animals outside, not sitting inside in the air conditioning like a beaver in its dam, trying to breathe underwater everytime I step outside.

People here are tougher than those city folk and rednecks I left behind - they don't sit on their porches all day talking about hunting and how country they are; they work from see to cain't see, and are blunt and honest and fun to be around. They don't grouse about what they don't have, and work hard for what they do. They don't care what the rest of the country does. They'll visit it on occasion, but have no interest in living there. While the Libertarians I knew back east ran their yips about the failing government and failing economy, and still shopped at the malls and Wal-Mart, and talked about their great plans for when everything fell down - these people here are true survivalists, because they do it every day. Nothing special. Just healthy, hearty, down-to-earth folk, who don't judge you on appearance, or how well you can argue down at the bar about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but on how much work you do.

In short, I moved to where the food is. It just seemed to make sense - to be where guns and hunting are a way of life and not even worth talking about, where only the teenagers collect trophy heads. To be where the cattle outnumber the people. To be where food grows - not in long endless summers, but in short windows of summer, in between snows. To be where the only trucks that come thru are the ones shipping animals and foodstuffs OUT to market, not in. If the trucks stop, the food stays right here. And it is good food, not preservative-laden and quickfix Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Golden Corral, chinese and mexican and indian and thai and all of those other overhyped and undernourishing things. I hadn't seen a radish in years back east, except for a few thinly sliced ones on salad bars. Here they are in abundance; little sweet peppery things that crunch and melt in your mouth. Nothing special; no fancy sauces or inch-thick breading or desperately exotic flavors. Just good tender meat, fresh vegetables, and pies. OMG, the folks 'round here are the most pie-baking people I know!

Yes, this is what I planned for, hoped for, dreamed about, the whole time I walked about in high heels and silk dresses and hobnobbed with the self-impressed. And now that I have it, I plan on using it, enjoying it, caring for it, and loving it. I plan on staying in my jeans and sweats and getting dirty. I'm enjoying mixing up the horse and chicken manure and compost into fertilizer and usable soil. I'm looking forward to my first big brown, free-range eggs that pop out naturally from a clucking hen, proud to produce and showing off. I'm even looking forward to hanging up the roosters, fat and squawking, by their feet and butchering them for the freezer. Because they are mine, and no one - no one - has a claim to them but me. I don't care if the rest of the world falls down, if the rest of the folk 'out there' riot and demand that the gubbermint feed and clothe and house and drug them, I don't care if the folks I left behind yammer endlessly about their preparations to survive a "Brand New World" in their passionate terrors. No matter what happens, I have my land, my seeds, my animals, and my life - just as I always wanted it. Nothing fancy. Nothing Special.

June 1

2009-06-01T05:43:00.002-06:00

Well, I FINALLY got all of the vegies in. Some of the potted ones didn't make it, but of course I save seed and added to the rows. I got my first green bean yesterday, with what looks like many more to come!

Back in the east garden, my 'experimental' garden, I am testing to see what I can and can't grow. There are wheat, oats, potatoes, mangel beets (for the chicken feed in winter), pumpkins, watermelon, and spanish peanuts. Each row filled with straw and hay and horse manure, soaked in water, then the seeds or plants added in and covered up.

So many things are putting their little heads up now; radishes, spinach, potatoes, mustard greens and lettuce. The onions are doing well, the garlic isn't up yet. I have to weed in front of the trees and around the strawberries today. The sunflower seed heads I collected will make a nice line of flowers in front of those trees along the driveway. I even got the petunias in the hanging baskets out on the big hanging planter, and the morning glories and sweet peas scattered about. Mulched the hostas at the base of the verandah and the roses around the arbor in front. Even got the planters at the front stoop planted, in salvia, parsley, and chives; the little roses look to be coming back there as well as the marjoram. I'll have to get out and do some serious weeding, and I used a little sevin dust on the pumpkins and watermelon yesterday. I'll need to do that some more today. I'm holding off on the serious bioinsecticide until everything's up and attractive to bugs, and until the bugs really get serious, but the pumpkins needed it yesterday!

Yesterday while walking the dogs, Sasha 'bowed up' at one of the trees and barked. There was a king snake, about 4 feet long, wrapped around the base of the tree. We left him/her alone - they eat gophers and are not poisonous, although they do have a nasty bite. I've also been told that they keep away rattlesnakes; will fight them and kill them. Good. A welcome addition to the garden, in that case! As long as they leave the chickens alone, we are good.

We moved the chickens outside last week; 80 deg temps outside. They quickly took up scratching and picking. They are not in the tractors yet, just a little hut with a fence around it to get them acclimated. They were terrified at first, of course; but soon got the hang of being outside. They are now eating twice as much, of course. I started giving them cracked corn yesterday to get them used to it. The cold front that came thru last night dropped the temps down again to where they are supposed to be; it will be in the 70s during the day and 40s at night again for awhile. But the chickens are getting acclimated. We lost one - she just kind of stopped eating. When I looked at her, she looked malformed, like her breastbone was separated. So one out of 22 is not bad. Our neighbor Phil told his wife that we didn't have room for chickens - but he thought we were going to have 200 or more! People here seem to like to do things in a BIG way! Apparently he thought I was going to run a chicken farm! Nope - chickens are just a little part of what we want to do.

Phil has started bringing over little mechanical things for Mike to work on; the only problem is that he's not coming back to get them yet! LOL His and Pat's sons, Landon and Luke, are working the ranch with Phil, and they leave the house every morning at 5:30 AM.

Mike is worried that I am getting too much sun; I'm not blistering, just turning red. I'll have to start wearing my hats. I am really developing my muscles, especially my arm and leg muscles, and losing some of the winter fat. It feels so good to be outside all day and working away.

We might go to ID at the end of the month for the National Dexter cattle show. My brother there has never seen them - even though there is a Dexter ranch right outside his ID town! We talked about going to the show together, and he might buy a couple of steers to put here til fall for a meat supply. He has money and no pasture, I have pasture and no money! LOL

Working in the yard and gardens for the next two months will take up all of my time and effort. I'll have to show up to work occasionally for some things; like ths AM I have to go in for abt a half-hour and file a State report, and I'll have to go in when the co-op orders come in to separate them for the teachers and have them in neat piles for them to take with them to set their classrooms back up in August. I've told Dean to just dump the stuff in the gym and I'll separate it out. But otherwise I get the summer off! Wish it was a PAID time off, but oh well - stuff happens.

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T05:46:00.002-06:00

The chicks are getting huge. If there are no thunderstorms I may be able to get out and finish planting today. The pumpkins in the pots are trying to bloom already!

I'd love to take the babies out and put them in their chicken tractors; but am worried that they'll still be able to get out underneath the 'yard' frames.

Circle C was Saturday, and we did so much - going to the school and getting the six-foot poles, the electronics, and the speakers for the parade, setting those up and announcing the parade, then tearing it all down and taking it back; getting the school benches loaded and taken down to the park then back again, helping Paul load up some BIG iron and wood picnic tables/benches, working the buffet line - whew. Mike wired in my karaoke machine to the sound system so I played music in the misty rain while folks played horseshoes and got lined up. My back and legs were sore all day yesterday, so I goofed off.

I was very tired but feel better today. I got the feeling that some people didn't like that I was everywhere and doing stuff as a newcomer that they wouldn't do. Fact is that some folks complain that the town and Circle C is dying, but on't understand that the reason it is dying is because they don't get involved. Even people whom I had asked to volunteer, who had refused, showed up. This is THEIR town, after all. I'm glad I could be a catalyst for that; I don't WANT that responsibility. Been their done that sold the T-shirt.

Turns out I have to work at least til the end of May and then sporadically throughout the summer as things happen. 10 month job, hunh? LOL Well, at least I can get prepared for the coming year and not feel like a persona non grata on campus!

It is 6:00 and I am watching some dark clouds come in from the West. I am going to get dressed in spite of them and get ready to go out. Only 60 deg, only supposed to get to 70, but I have stuff to do and this is perfect planting weather, even and especially if it rains!

2009-05-17T05:51:00.003-06:00

The birds are 11 days old, and are already showing black and white striped feathers. They are becoming less fearful and more inquisitive; checking out who brings them water and food. And they eat so much food! LOL their feeder has to be filled twice a day.

I got a lot of seedlings and seeds planted yesterday; a row and a half of potatoes alone. Today I hope to finish up. The two cleanouts from the brooder I mixed in with my other compost, put in the wheelbarrow, added water to make a mush, and used in the potato garden. I have to clean the brooder again today; the compost pile is getting pretty skimpy since I plowed everything in to the other garden rows! More horse poop to fork from the corral is needed.

Larry told me the other night at the bar that he was going to wait to put in tomatoes til he gets back from California in June, because the soil won't be warmed up until then. It is a puzzlement to me why no one grows lettuce, greens, broccoli, etc here; the weather is so cool except from late June thru July that nothing would go to seed until very late! We shall see how the section of collards does; foks around here have never seen them, and they can get to be soo bushy!

The lilacs out front are blooming and smell so sweetly. I finished cleaning out the pond and filled it. The wheat in the East Garden is already two inches high! The daylilies I transplanted here are springing up, and everything is in growth mode. The tulips scattered haphazardly around the yard were pathetic this year; only one bloom. I didn't even know they were there until they came up this year! I'll have to dig them, separate them, and put them in real beds this year to protect them from both weather and the lawnmower. Still don't understand plants just stuck in holes here and there, with no cohesion, no mulch, nothing. WTF? How do you expect anything to grow and produce if you don't protect it? The strawberries are cheerfully poking their heads up, the gooseberries are taking off, and the new blueberry blooms got nipped by the frost this week but are fine. Last year's cherry tree has blooms. The new apricot, apple, and plum trees have baby leaves.

The nice thing is that I have so much property that I can finally grow whatever I want. There is sooo much room! Ummm radishes, carrots, things that I couldn't grow in clay will do great in the sandy soil here. Mike made me another sprinkler on a tripod for the East garden, and I have the one on the West garden already. He put weed n feed on the lawn, and sandburr killer behind the West garden. He even sprayed the yard dandelions! I love the grass here; so soft and green, not weedy and harsh underfoot when it's cut, like before. Mike told Janet that he used to mow the yard with a weedeater because we had so many plants that a lawnmower couldn't deal with it.

Tammy is in Vegas again this week; I invited her and her boyfriend out but she is busy playing and probably won't come. Can't blame her there!

The High School graduation was last night; 14 graduates. What great kids! Their class colors were hot pink and lime green, their theme song was "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and their class motto was "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door". The whole graduation was lively and silly and crazy, but very moving; the kids stepped down off the stage and took their parents flowers. Afterward we were invited to two graduation parties; I had some glazed grad statues in my ceramics shop, and one was a blond girl, the other a dark-haired boy. Oddly, that described the two kids who invited us to the parties! So I painted each of the two grad's names on the statues, and attached an orange tassel to each cap - and then wired a $10 bill onto each tassel.

One more full week of work, and then I'll have more time to work in the garden! This is the perfect job for what I want to do with the rest of my life.

Beginnings Of Birds

2009-05-08T10:45:00.003-06:00

Well, the Barred Rock chickens I ordered came in this AM. They were hatched, sexed and shipped on the 6th from MO. I have 11 cockerels and 11 hens - 2 more than I ordered; most places do that, just in case.

I was expecting Nancy to call this AM before I left for work; but by 7:10 she hadn't, so I went on in. More than half of the students will be gone today; we figure on only about 20-25 at school. Most of the teachers are gone, too - we are having to double up in classes. As I was getting the coffee on and the Daily and Staff bulletins ready - and getting some cheerful picking-on by the staff who knew I was waiting for the call - Mike called and said that Nancy had just called, the chickens were at the PO. So I finished up quickly and left!

As soon as we got them home, we took them downstairs. We had warm water for them in the dispenser, and I took each chick out of the box, dipped his/her little beak in the water, and they went right to drinking. Then I scattered the chick starter on the paper towels, and they immediately started eating it. I filled the food dispenser and some wandered over to it, too. I went back downstairs an hour later and they had pretty much eaten what I had scattered already, so I fed them again!

They are all pretty cheerful and active. I am watching them very carefully; if they group up under the heat lamp, they are too cold - if they are in a circle outside of the lamp circumference, they are too hot under the lamp. Since it is only in the 60's here - with a sharp, cold north wind - they have to be kept warm and inside for awhile til they get real feathers.

Phydeaux is slightly interested in them; he keeps standing at the head of the basement stairs and listening to the soft peep-peep coming out of the basement! He is not a stair climber, though, and his curiosity has not overcome his fear. Sasha didn't even come out to look or listen; totally unconcerned. However, when the roosters learn to crow, that will change, I'm sure! Still, she doesn't like stairs either.

I've raised chickens before of course; big fat black mamas and some little banties that used to run around in the yard year-round, laying eggs and raising babies. But I've never had just babies; there's always been a mama around to sit on them, keep them warm, and protect them. Starting a whole new generation and family "From Scratch" is pretty exciting but a little scary too. I picked the Barred Rocks because they lay BIG brown eggs, are supposed to be good mamas, and are resistant to cold temps - something I have to consider here now. The roosters will fill the freezer in about 16 weeks with good fresh chicken roasters.

Funny, the Barred Rocks are not a known breed here, even though they have been around since the 1800's. Elaine and Nancy were curious about them, had never seen them before. I hope they feather out to be beautiful and fat and look the way that they are supposed to. Most importantly, I hope that they can DO what they are supposed to!

One more step on the path to being self-sufficient.... Now, no matter what "avian flu" strikes the rest of the country, or how high the price of eggs and chickens goes, I'll have my own. Far off the beaten path, away from the hysteriacs who think that first this, then that, horrible thing is going to happen to them, or what government freaks out over some contrived foolishness or other.

Trying to Work Around Work

2009-05-03T05:23:00.003-06:00

I've only got 4 more weeks or so left to work; my job only has me working 10 months out of the year. Which means in the summer I have 8 weeks or so off.

My problem is that, right now, I have more than two days' worth of work to do in the garden or at home! It can't all be fitted in. There is soo much to do... most folks don't understand that growing things organically means that you don't stick plants in the ground and dump bags of fertilizer; no, you have to work in the compost. You have to work at what you do. All of the eggshells and organic waste and ashes from the fire and sawdust from Mike's shop had melded into a huge pile; and the deeper I dug into it the blacker the earth was. That all went into the "small" vegetable garden; the garden where the usual truck stuff goes. All those eggshells and horse manure will add so many trace minerals into the soil!

The strawberries came this week , and the little strip along the driveway is where they will go. For that I worked in pitchforkfuls of horse manure and spoiled hay. I soaked the strawberries in my algoflash and water mixture, set them off to a good start. I got a yellow card in the mailbox yesterday, and I just KNOW that it is my blueberries, potato sets, and onion sets, but I can't get them til Monday - so I have to plant them once I get off work Monday. The fruit trees and gooseberries are on their way - I'm tracking them - they will probably be here Tuesday or Wednesday. They and the blueberries will go next to the driveway with the strawberries. And THEY will have to go in after I get off work too. Then the chickens are due next week; they will be inside for at least two weeks, but still. I still have one more row of juniper trees to put in on the hill.

I was so tired yesterday at sunset when I finally knocked off work. All I wanted to do was to take a shower - the horse poop and sweat simply did not make a combination I wanted to sleep in, no matter how tired I was. So I did, and went to bed. This morning I woke up, thinking of all of the things I had yet to do today - and then Mike whispered - "Get the Camera!" and I looked up and there were three of the prettiest little does, their winter fur coming off, standing at the pond in front.

Now I know that everyone around here says that the deer will eat everything, but I've rarely had a problem with it. I might here - the garden will be so much bigger, and I have no cat herd to keep them down. But still... They are soo pretty, and such a promise of food for the fall.

I simply can't wait til my time is my own and I have the time to do what I love to do, what I came here to do. It makes me crazy to be stuck inside on days when I have to answer the phones and get the billing done. All I want to do is get out and get sun and get to sweating and shoveling and digging. I need the money, of course - but I love the outdoors and what I can do in it!

It's 4:30 AM on a Saturday

2009-04-18T04:37:00.002-06:00

And even my East Coast friends aren't up yet. It is raining - it has been raining for two days already - but it is a soft and steady rain. Everything is greening up; my tulips are up but not blooming yet, the lilacs are almost ready to burst forth, the apple and cherry tree have soft fuzzy green buds on them. And today is the first day of spring turkey season. The birds must know it; our flock has been scarce this week. I'll have to literally hunt them down. But it's ok; I know where they go.

Gotta run to get some gopher kill and some large plastic sheets soon. It's about time for the garden to go in; the anxious plants in the window are waiting and waiting, stretching and growing. There's a chance that we still could get some freezing weather, so I need the plastic sheets just in case. Even if I don't use them now, I might want to extend the harvest. I need a bag of sulphur too, to acidify the soil for the blueberry plants. And Guerney's s having their fruit sale; need to get some of their trees and bushes. I need a partner for my current apple tree, two apricots, and I'll get some gooseberries and strawberries too. I haven't had a gooseberry in over 30 years. I miss them, that little explosion of oh-so-sweet in my mouth.

Last night we went to the Hub and I saw Larry, the president of the American Legion. He was sitting with Mr. Wobig, whom I had yet to meet. We hit it off immediately. He asked me why I moved here, and I tried to be politic. He grinned and was insistent. So I told him that the people were the thing that had most gotten to me. "What about them?" he pressed. "Their honesty," I replied. He grinned and sat back. Then we talked about the difference between here and most other places. He grew up here and was soooo anxious to get out into the world. Once he started working for the railroad and had traveled the lower 48, he came back here with a determination to never let this area become what the rest of the country has become. "I'm glad you are here," he said, after awhile. "Most new people want to move here and change things." "Not me," I said. "I moved here to be a part of what is here, I like it the way it is, I will fight tooth and nail to keep it this way. This town isn't dying - it is the soul of what is alive, what needs to be alive, in this country - the last bastion of freedom."

I wish I could express it to people who are unfamiliar with it, or who never see it, or who never want to see it... that our lives literally depend on our ability to survive on what we can do with our hands, our hearts, and our minds. That hard work and planning is so important, so necessary, to survival - and that handouts are never free but always cost more than most people will be willing to pay. The folks here 'get' that. Like I told my son last week - I found a hole and I am pulling it in after me. I don't want people coming here to ruin it, to make it like the rest of the country, greedy grasping mindless want want want. I need it to stay the same, to not have the infiltration of the Welfare mindset, the "you owe me" mindset.

And speaking of work - it's time I got up and did! Life is too short to waste a minute of it.

Easter Sunday Thoughts

2009-04-12T14:30:00.003-06:00

So much to do...

Got some better hanging pots for the petunias I started from seed. Got some new jeans and some more things for the house, and the wood for the chicken tractors Mike will build. Here's a pic of my favorite: Heehee. Ours will have to be a little longer to accomodate all of the chickens - and they will fit between the rows we've plowed in the gardens to help keep down the bugs and weeds. They are movable which is pretty cool. And cheap to build which is even cooler.

I have a lot of things on my mind - more seeds than planters, more plants than I thought already, where are the onion plants and blueberries that they don't ship til April (AHEM!! WAITING, HERE!), the compost pile needs turning and additions, where has the year gone, gotta get the laundry done, what will I do or be able to do in the coming months, when wll that freaking house sell... sigh.

We bought more bullets and shells yesterday. You can't find any in 50 miles; everyone's on backorder. We drove 100 miles to shop anyway, so WTH.

Finally got my taxes done. This is the last year I use Turbo Tax, what a ripoff. They charged me in Sept and again when I filed - and the filing was rejected twice because of THEIR error. Call them up and get some fella named Raj who can barely speak English and can't spell my last name. What an idiot. The IRS was more helpful! Go offshore, you fuckers and you lose my business. Done.

So like I said a lot of things pressing on my mind... all I really want is some down time to play in the yard but it is raining and icky, 46 degrees, damp and chilly. I want, I want, I want...

I need to get busy.

As The Theme from "Jaws" Plays...

2009-03-29T06:44:00.002-06:00

Dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum....

Another snowstorm is approaching. It should be here tonight. Lots of things to do today. Need to get the leftover limbs cleaned up and stacked, out of the way. Need to finsh the laundry. Need to get the turkey cleaned and ready to roast. Need to get things going. Need to have everything battened down, dry and ready. Bake some banana bread today? Hmmm. Blueberry pancakes for breakfast? Hmm. Let me think. Have to clean out the woodstove today, for the fire tonight and tomorrow. Get those ashes and the two kitchen compost bins dumped into the compost pile.

I thought I heard a racccoon thump onto the verandah last night. "THUMP" and then that chittering sound of a pissed off coon. Couldn't see anything, though. There is still a drift next to the verandah; about 5 feet long and three feet high, swirled on top. I just KNOW they want underneath, in that warm safe place. I check the latticework all of the time, looking for a break. Get in, sneak down next to the dryer vent, and I could have skunks or coons under there. Not a pleasant thought. Like rats - once they get in it is all but impossible to get them out. So I check, and re-check.

Naturally suspicious, me.

Watching the world go by outside my world, via computer. Will Blondie go to ND with the Red Cross? Will Debbie get her new place? Will Rebecca's new job help her at all? The passions play out, and I am the voyeur, watching them all, listening. But none of it affects me. Here there are too many things to do.

Chris is talking about coming out in July or August. I don't believe him. I'm sure he WANTS to but he could never seem to make it 300 miles, much less 1700. Rob and I email back and forth. If TSHTF, he thinks he and his family could make it here. I'm not betting. I invited him - like most - knowing that most will stay as long as they can where they are, thinking and telling each other it will never get that bad - until it is too late. It is useless to tell people anything about themselves. They don't want to hear it, no matter how much they demand to. I proved that once again two weeks ago. Yammer yammer yammer help me help me I am so unhappy tell me the TRUTH - then, of course, dead silence. No one wants the truth. They want THEIR truth. They want what it is convenient for them to believe; what it doesn't hurt them to believe, what makes them feel all better about themselves. Shrug. Not much to do there. Most people will wrap themselves in a familiar pain rather than reach for an unfamiliar and frightening possibility of pleasure.

Tammy wants to bring her new bf Jim to meet us. Still on a wait-and-see with that one, too. I really don't want to get too excited - too many men follow her around because she is smart, funny and beautiful, thinking only what they can get out of her - trying to increase their reputation by being seen with her. Not a whole lot of trust here. She can pick whomever she wants, but time will tell if I like them or not. And I don't want to seem too excited or happy or anxious - because if she has to dump him I don't want my opinion to matter.

The sun is up and the plants are reaching for it as it grazes across the table. Stretch, little babies. The green beans are already six inches high, everything else is expanding. The peas already have 5-10 real leaves apiece! Soon I'll be transplanting the bigger ones into cups. A month to go to put them in the ground and I am soooo impatient.

The chickens I ordered won't be here til May 8 or 9. The incubator is set up and ready to go, though. I could have snatched up some at the feed store the other day; mixed breeds and who cares? I care. Begin as you mean to go on. I may be looking at other options, but I know what I want and why. Blowing money on a spur of the moment purchase was never my style.

Ah, the chickadees are finally up. They discovered my stash of sunflower seeds in the garage; sneaky little devils. I don't mind. Plenty to go around. And the ones in the bag are too hard for them to get into. They flock around the corn after the turkeys leave. Little tiny cheerful survivalists. They are flitting around the pond in front, getting their little sips of morning water. When I cleaned it out last weekend they sat in the lilac bushes and swore at me.

As the sun comes up golden in the east, the grey and brooding western sky seems to just be grumblingly stirring. Today it will be warm - over 50. And clear enough to stack the new wood to weather over for next winter. Stretch and face the new day, knowing that the storms tonight will being in changes... and preparing for them.

What a day!

2009-03-21T18:23:00.002-06:00

Well, this morning we got up bright and early as usual, and bustled out of the house by 7 AM. We went to Valentine. At True Value they measured out hose for the sink connection so that I can water the plants in the bay window (some are already over an inch high!). At Baumgarr's Farm Supply I got the equipment for my brooder; the heat lamp, the feeders, the waterers. We got groceries and then went to Pizza Hut for lunch. I took the long way home and Mike slept whle I drove around the Dam. There is no ice now; the waves were battering the shore like always. All along the way we saw pheasants, turkeys, deer, and antelope, bounding out and enjoying the beautiful sunny day.

When we got home I went to the computer and ordered the chicks for the brooder. 10 cocks and 10 pullets. I'll raise the hens and slaughter all but two of the cocks when they are 12-16 weeks old. That way I can have the eggs I want and still have babies! Mike is going to build chicken tractors to put out in the garden to keep down the bugs and weeds, for when the chickens get old enough to be outside.

Then we went out to chop wood. I wanted to fll the woodbox; this next week looks to be pretty bad, with lots of rain and snow and ice. We may even get a Snow Day out of it! So I got the axe and the mallet and the wedge and was splitting logs. Paul came by and offered to help cut down the tree that is uprooting Mike's shop; so they tied a chain around it, girdled it, and yanked it down. I scooted over to Pat's and got some beer for Paul and root beer for us. As they cut up the tree, I loaded it in the wheelbarrow and stacked it neatly next to the garage, to dry out for next year.

Finally at 5:30 we were done. I'm going to go take a shower (pheeewwweeee!!!) and we will have leftover pizza for supper.

MAN what a busy day! And so satisfying - a wood box full of wood, ready to go for a week of snowstorms, chickens that will come in a week or two to fill the brooder in the basement, and green plants growing in the bay window. Life doesn't get any better than this. I'm very tired but, ohhhh, so satisfied!

At Peace

2009-03-15T07:32:00.002-06:00

I have been worrying and fussing and thinking and planning and so damned impatient lately.

I was looking online at the Dexter webpage. I want my cows but can't get them yet; reading the info and learning from folks is keeping me in the loop. It's calving season, and they talk about how they don't have to 'pull' the calves; Dexters apparently drop their calves like puppies or kittens! But who is breeding, who will be selling, how can I get a bred cow or three - all important questions. I know I'll probably have to wait til the show in IA in June, but still, it makes me crazy waiting. Looking at their comments keeps me sane.

Then I was looking online this morning at the hatchery where I plan on buying my chicks. I've been looking at it for months now; clicking on the descriptions and pictures, debating on number, type, and size. Since I plan on butchring the cockerels (most of them) early on, I am debating how many chickens I'll have left, how big the coop will have to be, how big the run will have to be. So many things to think about. Will my neighbors fuss about the rooster crowing? Will Dwayne have the chick starter I need? How long will I have to keep the chicks in the brooder in the basement? What will the weather do? How long will I have before I have to build the coop and run?

My neighbor down the street has his own construction company. I'll probably ask him to build the greenhouse; he has a tiny front end loader and is usually pretty busy, but still takes his kids out on the loader on the weekends, teaching them to drive it. To put the greenhouse in the ground for the size I want will take more effort and more equipment than we can do. Which I knew of course.

I am anxious and thinking and plotting and planning, hoping Tammy's potential buyer starts the paperwork today on the house. I was sitting here, aggravating myself with costs and expenditures and worries, when suddenly a voice in my head said simply, "Don't worry so much. I am looking out for you." It was so strange - and suddenly I felt as though, yes, there was Someone looking out for me, watching over me.

Sometimes I forget why I moved here. There were a lot of factors involved, but always, in my rushing around, my aggravation, I knew - knew! - that I was supposed to move, I was supposed to come HERE, that I was directed to this place. When I first saw it, it was like an arrow in my heart, like Brigham Young standing over Salt Lake and saying "This is the place". All of the other places I was going to look at seemed to dissolve away. I have a purpose for being here. I don't know what it is, yet. But there is a reason I was sent here. Just like I was sent to Hardeeville to help Rodney - and I didn't even know it at the time, didn't know him, didn't know the area. But I was sent there as surely as I was sent here. It was only later that I discovered why. And then when it started to fall apart, when Rodney lost his way and fell apart, my father came to me and told me - not in a dream, but as a real person, his usual angry and outspoken self, asking me what the HELL I thought I was doing, that I had done all I could there, that my purpose was fulfilled and I could not help there any more, and I was wasting TIME. That changes were coming and I had to change too. I hated hearing that, but Dad was always right. I know people reading this might think I'm crazy, and maybe I am. But I saw Dad for four hours, as clearly as I see this keyboard and screen, standing on that balcony of my room at the Hilton Head motel, backlit by a raging thunderstorm. I remember crying and arguing with him when he told me there was no more hope there for us or for me; that changes were coming - bad changes - and I needed to get out of there. I packed and went home shaking early the next morning, and told Mike all about it. And it was that night I knew that that was not my purpose anymore, that things had changed - and I would be at peace only when I changed with them.

For some inexplicable reason, this is now my purpose and my life. For some unknown reason, I feel as though I have paid my dues, have done what I was supposed to, have moved on to further my life, my knowledge, my experiences. Everything will work out, as long as I do what I am supposed to, what I feel in my heart is right. Never mind the screaming panic and hysteria that springs up sometimes late at night, the regrets, the tearful sadness of leaving some people I really and truly loved, the "maybe, if I'd done THIS" feelings. All is for naught. I am supposed to be here. And I will be cared for. By Dad, God, or some unknown being, who knows? I am safe.

Mad at Myself

2009-03-14T14:13:00.002-06:00

I do not have enough ass.
Dammit.
I do not have enough ass to keep that rototiller in line in the sand!!

I used to be able to wrastle it through the clay with no problem - there was enough resistance on the tines and wheels to keep it steadily going, munching through everything. But in the light sand here, it just takes off, even when I pull the bail down to 1/3 speed.

Now I either have to start hoeing lines - which will take forever - or DH will have to do it. ARGH. He can only do a little at a time; probably a half a row at a time, because of his injuries. I started to get the hoe out and he told me not to... he'll do it. Of course it will take lots longer than it should. Not that I'm ready to plant immediately or anything - but still. It pisses me OFF when I can't do the things I want and need to!

I need a tractor, dammit.

I can still get out there and get the trash and carpet out of the East Garden. THAT will take a hoe - bundles of carpet laid and scattered, willy nilly, folded and twisted and rotted. I'll just back up the truck and pile it all in the bed and take it to the dump. Paul uses it there to keep down weeds.

I did manage to get the woodbox filled again. As beautiful as it is today, the sun shining, 60 degrees outside, warm and springlike, I know that there will be more wood for the fire needed. Even though the maples and the lilacs are budding out already, I still know that snow is a usual thing in April here, sometimes even in May. No seeds will be planted here for at least six weeks, and certainly no plants will be put out - at least, not by me.

Tomorrow I will get out the pump and pump out the melted snow from the pond and get it cleaned out; put the stones around it that Tammy brought me in November.

Grrr. Think I'll go bake something - maybe caramel rolls? - to cheer myself up.

Challenges

2009-03-14T07:17:00.002-06:00

The seeds are in the pots in the window.

Drives me nuts. I wanted the greenhouse already! I wanted shelves and shelves of these!

Oh, well, one does what one can. I seem to be a very patient person, but in reality I am eaten alive by wants, wants, wants! I want it all and I want it now!

Sigh. Patience is something I have HAD to learn over years and years. I can't make a ceramic product without pouring the mold. And Waiting. Then popping it out of the mold. And waiting. Then undercoating it. Then firing it. And waiting. Then glazing it and firing it again. And waiting.

I can't make the little green heads of the plants pop out of the soil. Can't force them at all. I can water and sun and warm, but I can't MAKE them grow. Dammit.

Lots more seeds in the basement. Old seeds. Not going to waste pots on maybes - but I AM going to plant them ALL this year, bit by bit.

Do I REALLY have two WHOLE FLATS of green beans and peas, and a whole flat of Zucchini and crookneck? Betchreass. They send me HUNDREDS of these - and only 16 tomato seeds per packet! One Mortgage Lifter tomato packet, and two Opelaikas for paste, and one cherry tomato packet for Mike because he likes picking and eating them right off the vine. Grrrrrr. Good thing I like these things! I'm not planting anything I don't like or won't use.

Last year I carefully saved my basil and marjoram seeds, and dried the herbs. So what do they send me as my free seed? Oh, go on. Guess. Herb seeds aren't hybrid and can be saved year to year, so I do. Sigh. But I did order the sage, chives, and the parsley. We like Parsley.

And the Wave petunias have to be babied, scarified (rubbed with sandpaper) and soaked, and then planted in soilless mix - not covered. Argh again. Another reason I hate hybrids - but the Waves got so much comment last year, spilling over the hanging pots. They really look nice come July. Sigh. The Morning Glories and Coreopsis I can just throw on the ground, but noooooo. Not the Waves. Sigh.

Still to come are the plants - the onions, the potatoes, the blueberries. They won't send those til April - a good thing. I talked one night at the bar to the guy who plants the potato farm near here, and they won't plant til April. So it is a good thing. My Daffs and tulips (TULIPS!! That I don't Have to dig up every summer!) haven't even poked their heads up here yet.

I have to make my spreadsheet, show when I planted what, how long it takes, when I put them in the garden, etc. I want to do this RIGHT so I know and understand my new growing seasons, and what will grow here and what won't, so when I DO start to sell bedding plants I'll have the right ones.

I have to confess here that, as much as I have always NEEDED more room for more plants, dreamed and salivated and desired more space and more more MORE seeds planted and growing, I am a little daunted by the size of these gardens. This is what I've always wanted, dreamed of, and worked towards - but now I have to DO it. I am a little scared.

I think that instead of going to O'Neill for the Irish Festival next weekend I'll stay home and order my chickens. I have x amount of money, and I am going to spend it all - or at least a good amount - on my future here, not on a brief day of frivolity. My friends at work laughed at me - they take days off to go places and do things, and I've told them that the day the chickens come in at the Post Office (Nancy at the PO will call me) is the day I'll take off so I can get them started. You have to take each shipped chicken by hand, dip their little beaks in the water, then turn them loose in the brooder under the carefully adjusted heat lamp. Then you have to scatter the chick starter around so that they can find it. THEN you have to watch them for the first few hours to make sure that the lamp is not too close or too far away, to make sure that they don't smother each other because they pile up when they are cold, etc. Sigh. Everything has to be carefully done because they don't have mamas - and I want them to think of me as their mama. At least until they start breeding on their own in the yard!

So many decisions and so little time. So much space and so few seeds to fill it. So many hopes and dreams about to be realized by my own efforts. I have to ignore that little tremble in my heart and just DO it. Argh.

More thoughts

2009-03-08T18:20:00.002-06:00

Barb walked up to the house today. Since she was attacked by the dog last October, she hasn't been walking much. So we walked together for awhile and talked. I really like her and Delbert. We talk about plants and cattle and seed and flowers and horses.

I am sad to see one of my online friends stop her blog. She is selling her homestead in WA. Five years and she has done so much there - but now she has to move to VA for a job. It was Debbie who introduced me to Dexter cattle for homesteading milk and beef production. She will try to buy some property in VA and do the same thing. Her livein boyfriend seems to have grown tired of her and her pursuits, though, and will probably not go with her this time. Turns out he actually had to do real physical labor and he's not keen on doing that again. Typical of some folk - they desperately want to move to the country and live there, but like another friend says, they think it is all picnics on the back forty and not dirty disgusting hard physical work. Like most people, they want the benefits of a lifestyle - any lifestyle, be it Welfare, big-city, high-end, or farming - but want to do none of the work.

I have to say that this irritates me. I've seen it so often. And what really bugs me is the people who trust them, those ones that live off of others, to pull their own weight - and they never do. They have dozens of excuses and reasons, but they want to live a certain way and see no reason to put an effort into it. They drag their partners right down with them, too - they won't work so they make their partners' work double.

I've watched so many friends get destroyed by their choices in partners and friends. They totally believe that this is the best choice possible, that someone else is willing to put in 50% of the labor and love and effort - and then they end up pulling all of the weight in the relationship. Sometimes they realize what has happened and discard those vampires - but mostly they struggle to live with them, appease them, care for them indefinitely, until the vampires themselves wander off, leaving my friends as empty shells of themselves.

I'm watching a friend now get sucked dry by his vampire friends and family. Friends he chose, it's true - but family, too, that will not stop demanding that he put whatever money or effort he has into them, their hopes, their dreams, their day-to-day lives. Makes me sad - like Debbie, he will never shake them loose until he has nothing left to give, or changes his life in one fell swoop that dislodges them permanently.

Meanwhile, while my 'old' friends watch TV and have parties and skim the Internet and go to the latest restaurants, I drive down to the Hub and have the Sunday grass-fed Angus buffet for $6.50, and chat with friends and co-workers at the school. Then I come back and look at the Internet, comparing tractors and accessories, cattle prices and feed costs; look at the auctions for farm equipment and antiques, and dream and hope and plan. My life is so far removed from them now. A walk around town with a friend is more satisfying and fun than any TV show, the Hub is more pleasureable than any trendy restaurant. And I am sad because they will never have what I have, see what I see, do what I do - and never want to, either.

Winter/Spring midground thoughts

2009-03-08T09:02:00.004-06:00

My long-lasting cold is better now. Less coughing and more energy.

There are so many things I want to do! The vegetable seeds are "on their way" shipped Feb 27th, a whole WEEK after I ordered them... arggghhh. They'll probably come in this week while I'm at work. Next weekend is Spring Break; I'll get this Friday and next Monday off. I hope the weather is warm enough to do everything I want to, need to, do outside.

The ground outside has a light frost of snow It isn't really cold - well, not for here - about 27 degrees and climbing already. Too cold to go out and dig my trenches yet; I'm afraid my cold will come back gangbusters if I do. I could shovel some more manure out of the corral.

Still thinking about the chickens I will order this month... or next. Want my chickens. Badly. But I don't want them to be full grown before they can come out of the basement. Patience, patience!

Talking with some new friends I have made on some forums. One works on a 300-cow dairy operation and owns a sheep farm. We talk about the cutting of farm subsidies, the niche market that everyone seems to be trying to adapt to, first one than another - then about the labor intensiveness of real farming as opposed to the pie-in-the-sky ideals of newbies who haven't a clue about supply and demand, fertilization, harvesting; that think that growing things against Mother Nature is EASY. Another is moving to AK and is talking about how to alter his soil. I wonder if he has any idea of the costs involved of shipping everything he wants to AK, but I am too polite to ask.

Meanwhile, it turns out that one cousin is living in the second most kidnap prone capital of the WORLD - Phoenix, AZ! Another lives in Orange County, CA. They both talk about the increasing crime, burglaries, robberies, and violence. They blame the economy. I prefer to blame - Congress. Bailing out their buddies while the 'gimme' generation sits and waits for everything to be handed to them; when it isn't they will take it from others. And I think how glad I am to be out of all that.

My stressors are small and merely frustrating compared to many other people's. I watch how their lives, this country, is changing, and I think how awful it is, and how minor my problems are by comparison. My neighbors having to undersell their beef and not seeing a real profit. My mind is full of profit and loss on my scale, but when comparing it with others it seems minuscule. I told them it was coming and no one listened. I know it will only get worse, and no one notices. They are all about surviving the changes, and I know that for some there will be no surviving. I know of one who will definitely commit suicide before the year is out. He and those around him don't know it yet, but I see it as plain as red paint splashed on a white carpet. But I can't save any of them. I know. I've tried. All I can do is struggle on in my own little world and listen and watch. And wait for my seeds and plan my plans, and survive as best I can.

And Then There's...

2009-02-22T12:03:00.002-07:00

Silage.
Yup, grains and grasses to improve the pasture too.

There's something here called "leafy spurge" or as I call it, leafy SCOURGE. Very pretty yellow flowers. Completely worthless and inedible to animals. Hard to get rid of; so far no one's found anything to strangle it. It is rhizomous, which means it can propagate by seed, but most frequently takes over by the roots, growing year to year. What to do besides digging it all out and burning it - and hoping that you get all of it?

I'm a big believer in strangulation. Well, ok, not for people - they take a swift knockdown like a bullet; the Roundup of the animal world. But for plants - if you don't like what's growing, try to overwhelm it with something you DO like.

So this year I'm going to start preparing the pasture for the future cattle. I've ordered some sweet clover - not the kind you see dotting the roadsides with pretty red and white flowers, but the grassy kind you use for honeybees. And then I'll mix with it some sweet silage, some high-sugar-content grasses specifically for cattle; two kinds of that. then I'll broadcast it over the closest two acres of pasture and see what happens. If it works, then when it goes to seed I'll harvest it and use still more seed next year. I'll plan on increasing my banked seed and pasture proliferation year by year until its time for the cattle.

And then there's the oats and the wheat that I'm going to try too. Hulless oats, so I don't have to beat it to death to get to the oat grain. That will be good not just in my bread but in my breakfast - and the cattle later can feast upon the straw. Because yes I will save the seed from that, too...

Wheat - well, I have a grinder, why not see if wheat will grow here too? And then I can practice making my own flour - unbleached, with all of the naturalness, the nutty wholesome taste, of the wheat germ built right in.

Slow growth. Slow and gradual progression towards a goal. A bumper crop of oats that just might get its seed mixed in with the pasture grasses, too.

I have a purpose and a plan. I am willing to spend a little to test a theory, and to either improve the growth around me that I will eventually come to depend on - or to disprove a theory and try something else later.

I know that folks who have depended on the local pasture, free-range, would probably laugh at me. Meanwhile some of my friends back east have puzzled looks on their faces - why do all this? Why work so hard for cattle that aren't even there yet? Why trouble yourself so hard, and spend so much money, time, and energy, on something that may not work, on a future that may not exist?

Can't help it. When I was planting my peach trees years ago, one of the tiny neighbor children came up to me and asked, "Well, if you aren't getting peaches this year, what's the POINT?" The point is that sustainability takes time, takes work, takes attention, takes investment - and takes a leap of faith. Just moving here was an immense leap of faith. Now, the other smaller leaps towards my realization of self seem almost predestined, preordained, as I grow to meet the challenges I have set for myself. No true gardener believes in Armageddon... because there is always something else to do, to try, to grow, to experiment with.

Wishin, and Hopin', and Dreamin'

2009-02-22T09:07:00.003-07:00

I always bite off more than I can chew. I know this about myself. Sitting in a sunbrightly-lit living room, perusing the seed order catalogs, going online and making lists - this is what I have done every season, every year. Oooooh, look at that! What about THAT? Should I try that one or this one? What if I ordered two?

I look at the huge south-facing bay window, lit up with the glorious intense midmorning sunlight. The orange trees are doing well in the big dining room window; almost all of my windows are ceiling-to-floor here (not good for a nudist who has had to retrain herself). The sun that pours in here, all day, every day, will be perfect for the trays and trays of seedlings and bedding plants. Sixteen flats with 72 cells each will give me 1172 tiny little plots for seedlings. The question is - will it be enough?

Well, the potato cuts and the onion plants will not go there, of course. Neither will the blueberry bushes. Yes, blueberry bushes. The mangel beets I'm going to try - for future chicken and cattle feed - may not go there either. But because I moved from a Zone 9 to a Zone 4, almost everything else will have to. I'm talking and dreaming about a luscious and productive garden, dreaming about harvesting vegies and fruits, and the grasses are still brown on the hills. Seems like a lot of hope that is currently frozen - the temp here, right now, is 20 degrees.

I'm keeping back the canned vegetable seed I bought last year; it is all heirloom, open-pollinated, sealed airtight and oxygen-free for a guaranteed 5 years in a big #10 can. I don't want to use that yet, or at all, except in exigency. Too much chance of cross-pollination. It is emergency seed, ready if and when I need it. Things are not so bad yet! But if I get a late May snow (like they did here, last year) I may have to start over quickly.

I've always wanted to grow some things that I never had space for before. The big pumpkins, the potato towers of old tires, all will be relegated to my east-side "experimental" garden, right in with the already-established asparagus. The mangel beets will be there too. I want to have a fall 'punkin patch' for the neighborhood kids, and now I can. I hope.

The west garden - the one where the horseradish lives - already has the walking onions in it. We'll see how soon they pop up; then I can put in the "keeper onion" plants - the red, white, and yellow plants I'm ordering of onions that will keep for a year after harvesting. No sweet Vidalia-types here - their sun requirements just won't jive.

Peas, green beans, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, radishes, carrots, cabbage... the list goes on and on. Cool weather plants, warm weather plants. I saved some collard seed from last year; we'll see how it does. Herbs like basil and sage. And even some flowers as well; petunias and morning glories. The petunias I'll probably start in the hanging baskets where I'll keep them all summer.

Thinking about what to put where; no restrictions on space here. In my mind, I can see the rows of vegetables in the West garden as clearly as if I had planted them months ago. No clay soil to fight to eke out a few stunted carrots or other root vegies here, at least. In the sandy soil they will grow straight and clean without having to push against the hardpack.

I know this will mean a LOT of work; as soon as the seeds and supplies come in I'll have to rearrange the bay window to set everything up, get all of the little babies going. Then once the frost line drops in the garden, I'll be out there hoeing and digging and sweating in my hoodie. Hills for the pumpkins. Hills for the potatoes. Long cuts with side fencing for the peas. Bush beans instead of pole beans. I can put the cherry tomato vines around the front of the house, in the flower garden. The morning glories along the board fence and up the trellis that spans the walkway. Lots of digging, lots of carefully percolating the compost pile as soon as the weather warms so that every bit is black and crumbly.

I pop in to some forums now and then and read where folks want to have a self-sufficient lifestyle. They dream of growing their own produce, of canning and dehydrating and preserving. Few understand what hard work it is. They think you throw some seeds down, add water, and POOF! - food! I know how hard it is - and every year I try to do more and more instead of less. Now that I've got a big enough place, I can do what I have always wanted to do, without restrictions or worrying that the neighbor's brats will steal or destroy everything.

There. The order's in. $200 worth of seeds and supplies. It should be here in two weeks. And next month I'll order the chickens and I'll really get moving. The winter solstice is far too short a rest period...

Snowing and snowing and snowing!

2009-02-15T07:25:00.002-07:00

I just can't help it. I love the way it just keeps coming down. Friday it snowed in the morning for three hours after sunrise, and then by that afternoon had melted away. Saturday I woke up to grey skies, and snow drifting down. We went out to start building the new chicken coop, and the snow started to come down harder and harder, so we came back inside. Sometimes it comes down so hard you can't see; sometimes it is in little invisible pellets and sometimes big soft floating flakes. This morning when the sun shone dimly through the clouds, it reflected off of the snow on the verandah roof outside my bedroom window and lit up the room like a white and glowing fire. Last night when I walked the dogs, the faraway streetlight and the flashlight lit up the snow like glitter; it looked like every 'snow scene" I had ever made for my ceramic displays.

This weekend it has been fairly windless; only 10 to 15 mph. The snow eddies like dancing fairies in the breezes; swirling around in little gaggles, blowing away across the yard again once the dance is finished. You can almost hear the fairy music in the endless silence. Everything is muted in the soft cushions of snow; even the occasional car going down the gravel road sounds like it is whispering its presence.

You can always tell when the Cheneys have stoked their fire. In the morning the white smoke suddenly pours from their chimney. At night you can smell the fresh load of wood they've put in for the night. It is a biting smell that cuts across the cold clean air; not unpleasant at all. A home with 5 kids and one income, and they use wood to heat their home. They bank it down once it gets going, and you can't see any evidence, can barely smell it - a good use of product and ember heat. When you do it as a daily matter of course you don't waste time staring at a huge wasteful blaze.

This morning the snowfall is larger drifty flakes; coming down like the last remnants of a ripped-open feather pillow. It lies dry and light and soft on the ground, the house, like a good down quilt.

I can see why some folks hate snow; if you've lived in the city and seen it plowed up with sand and salt and rocks, shoved into piles and against curbs everywhere, turned into black and green slush with trash and unidentifiable objects scraped into it and frozen into garish piles or melting into a sticky morass - yeah, I would hate that too. Hate having to live around it, drive around in it, slip and slide and watching others do the slow careen from stopsign to stoplight, coasting through, swearing, banging, huffing of the snowplows that never seem to stop. Hate having to walk around the piles, falling into them, slipping and sliding on salted sidewalks and drives that have refrozen in the night, dodging the slippery spots from downspouts and overflows that have frozen into dangerous black and dingy glaciers - city snow is so different. Here all that happens is that an occasional car drives down the gravel road and leaves a dark-brown path that is soon covered over by the ongoing snowfall. Our footprints, the horses' hoofprints, the rabbit and turkey and antelope prints, fill in and become nothing more than obscure circles - and then - nothing.

Quiet, quiet, quiet. Today's a good day to bake and create things, sealed away from the world, MIA, grey and peaceful, soft and happy, in a world, a country, all my own.

Another Busy Weekend!

2009-02-07T16:55:00.003-07:00

The Speech Team for Aca-Deca needed some practice and some help. So I volunteered to help them with their speeches this weekend. So there I was, back at the high school on a Saturday this morning, to give them a hand.

It was fun. These kids are really great. It is nice to watch them struggle and grow, and all at different times and places in their lives and experiences, all taking the challenge of doing things that most teenagers would never dream of doing,...

Tomorrow it is supposed to start raining and turn to snow tomorrow night and Monday. Tomorrow is the big fundraising dinner for the Catholic Church in Nenzel, and we have tickets. A prime rib dinner, a band, and Marty's cowboy poetry... I really do NOT want to miss that, so I hope the weather stays clear enough to drive!

Tomorrow morning I need to stock the wood box and make sure we have enough for three or four days, in case the power goes out, with the ice on the lines and the high winds predicted for Monday. Of course it could just peter out or pass us by, and we won't have a problem - but it doesn't pay to hope for the best and not plan for the worst!

Today I was talking to Terri and asked her about her family's grape growing. She was amazed that I was interested, and invited me out to come and see it. That is really exciting - grapes in Nebraska. When the weather clears, I will. Terri is scheduled to go to classes 4 hours away Monday, and to take the Leadership teens to Ainsworth, two hours away, on Tuesday. If the weather gets bad Sunday night, she won't go. She doesn't want to be stranded after the Monday's predicted ice and snow.

Around here a lot of what happens has to do with the weather; planning around it, planning for it, planning in case of it. Will there be school Monday? Will we have electricity? Will we be able to drive? Will the cattle be ok? Will the kids have to stay home and ride out to feed and water them?

So many things to consider....

Antelopes and OMIGAWD!

2009-02-04T21:19:00.003-07:00

There were five antelopes on the hill this morning. I didn't have time to grab the camera, and they were gone at Sasha's first bark. But five pronghorns is a sight to see, bounding over the hills. They are pretty stupid creatures - they will chase a car or just stand there and stare most times (sans dog) if you walk up to them.

But what I DID get a pic of was the turkey on the hill this evening! Geez, he musta weighed 40 pounds!

This ol tom must think that spring is here, with the snow melting and the 50 degree temps.

Getting Plastered on Super Bowl Weekend

2009-02-01T16:34:00.002-07:00

Well, Ok, not the way you think!! LOL
There's this wall in the basement that the stairs are attached to. The plaster has been broken off in a huge chunk from the ground floor basement door clear to the far wall, showing the strips of board underneath. It's been bugging me.

Well, Of course I have plaster, it's what I make my ceramic molds out of. So I was mixing up little batches of it yesterday - plaster dries QUICKLY - and patching the hole. What a drag! There was a little hole right around the light swtch, so I did that first, and then started down the wall. I was going to sand it down today, but it is still cool to the touch - not cured yet. Sigh.

Nancy had Jim bring one of the BIG rolls of hay for Lake yesterday. We put Lake in one of the stalls and shut the gat. She could smell it, though, and was pawing the dirt impatiently. He was kind enough to put it in the corral and turn it so we could roll it into the barn. Lake came immediately out of the stall when we opened the door, and went to munching. She is soooo fat already, but you'd'a thought she was starving! LOL It was warm yesterday - 50 degrees and sunny, with a wind. Today it is 35 and REALLY windy. They said we might get more snow flurries and it really clouded up for awhile but then the clouds went away and it is still sunny. I've been working on a deer roast and making apple turnovers and doing laundry.

I really don't care about the Super Bowl this year; I'll go in and watch it in between times but no team I like is playing, so I'm not glued to the screen. I have stuff to DO, after all!

Tammy finally got hooked back up with Mark again; now maybe they can sell that house. She is flying out to be with her new BF in Vegas soon; just for a short visit. He paid for the ticket. That's the first boyfriend she's ever had that WASN'T a parasitical whiny selfish pile of horse poop; that actually spoils her and treats her like she deserves. I'm glad she finally found someone decent. I kept telling her that the Jasper County and Aiken trash wasn't good enough for her, and I'm glad she finally realizes that there are more types of men - honest, hardworking, and decent - out there besides the scumsucking barbarfs she has been meeting. I of course am reserving my opinion of him until I see how he treats her without all of the sugar and spice, once the "new" wears off. Trust no one. But at least he has a J-O-B that he has had for years, and has some idea of where money comes from!

So we've been IM'ing back and forth, and Rodney sent me an invite to join Facebook, so now I'm on there with Jimmy and Blondie and the people I still like. It's fun to a degree; but I have a lot to do and can only bump in occasionally. And Linda Hunnicutt, the Granny Warrior whom I spent so much time with last year, found me on there too! Good - ANOTHER crazed old lady on there makes me feel less like I'm trying to fit in with the kids!

Who has TIME to drink and REALLY get plastered? Grin. When it warms back up into the 50's again, I HAVE to go clean that spoiled hay and horse poop out of the corral and wheel it over to the compost pile. And come March I'm ordering chickens, so we've GOT to get that garage down to build the coop! Sigh. Soooo much to do... And now it's already February! Winter's almost over and I feel like I haven't done a THING!!! ARRRGGGGHHHH

Walkin in a Winter Wonderland

2009-01-24T21:38:00.002-07:00

Lake didn't come up to eat today. By noon I was getting kind of worried - she is an old girl, after all. So I decided to go and find her, somewhere on the rolling 60 acres.

When I say rolling, I mean rolling - you can't see the back hill from the house, and you can't see the house once you cross the first hill. It isn't all straight back and north from the house, either - the property jogs sharply to the west, then north again. Sometimes all you can see from the middle of the property is the town water tower - and it is so short they are not required to put lights on it.

The snow has been pouring down all day. It makes the back hills disappear in a fog of snowfall. So I started on my walk, bundled against the cold, with snowflakes dusting my coat and hat and scarf before I was over the first hill.

I walked first to the valley that she likes the best. No Lake. I then started up toward the Twisted Cedars - a grove of cedar trees that have become so twisted and warped by the wind that their roots are exposed, yet they still grow. One of the big branches - thicker than my thigh - was smashed by wind; I'll need to clean that up, but not now, later.

I headed west, the wind at my back whenever I topped a rise, but otherwise eddying around me. Not a lot of wind - only about 10 mph today. I can see the distant fence posts, but not the barbed wire attached to them, marching like dark pencil-sentinels over the hills. Finally, topping a rise, I see Lake - head down, munching and meandering. I walk toward her, and she walks away. This is a good sign - she can move, just doesn't want to be bothered. I half-heartedly herd her a little, mostly just wanting to make it to the western fence to see the rest of the landscape, make sure nothing is out of place. She ambles away from me, intent on her own horse priorities. I can see that she is confused - she didn't expect me to come out there, not in this weather. She nickers and snorts, and casts her ears forward, as if asking if I'm okay. Even when she puts her head down to munch, she still looks at me inquisitively. I talk to her a little, to reassure her that I'm not completely crazy. She apparently doesn't believe me. Of course, she's the one with a snowdrift on her back!

Then I walked back to the middle of the property. The wind is against me, and the cold is cutting across my cheeks; I pull my scarf up over my nose up to my eyes and keep walking. The snow is squeaking under my boots, but that's the only sound. There's no traffic on the state highway on the outskirt of the town. There's no sound at all. There are turkey and rabbit tracks in the snow, but no lights, no sound, no movement anywhere. Then I walked down the fence line to the gate at the middle of the property, the gate that opens up onto the last road at the western edge of town. I slip through and secure it tightly again, and walk up the street toward home. Again, no sounds, no movement. Everyone is inside away from the snow. They probably think I'm crazy, walking down the middle of the street in a snowstorm that is untrammeled by any feet, walking in between the car ruts that are fast-filling with the falling snow.

I cannot understand why people dislike snowstorms, avoid them, don't like to be out in them. Being trapped or stranded is one thing, but when you live in it, why not enjoy whatever it brings?

Changes!

2009-01-24T07:43:00.003-07:00

Three days of temperatures in the 60's this past week - and I had to be at work. I took an extra hour off so I could shovel up some mulched leaves, grass, and wood chips from the schoolyard into my pickup, and add them to my compost pile, mixing in some spoiled hay and horse poop, throwing it all together with the remains in my initial compost heap. I soaked it all down and got it working again.

Even though it was in the 60's for several days, we still have a few frozen 'glaciers' on the property. Most of the snow and ice melted from the front yard, but in the back along the pasture fences, there are still slick and frozen-solid white mounds.

Yesterday the temps dropped back into the 20's again, with blowing snow flurries. Today it is breathless, windless, as the snow clouds gather overhead, and flurries whisper and wander down. It is supposed to snow all weekend and into Monday. No blizzard this time - just soft flakes piling up in silence. No violence. Peaceful.

The principal and I promised to stay in touch this weekend, to cancel school on Monday if need be. It is such an iffy thing - most of the time the roads stay clear even in snowstorms, because of the blowing snow everywhere that doesn't stick, and only piles up against the windbreaks of trees. Sometimes the snow piles up so high near those windbreaks that the nearby fences are covered in gently sloping drifts, that the cattle and horses can walk over and out with impunity. Note to self - plant windbreaks well away from fencing... Not a problem on my property, of course; most of it does not meet the road, and the way it is situated, windbreaks on the hill don't have to be near the bottom slope where the fences are. Now if I could just keep Lake the horse from scratching her belly on the short trees...

New friends keep asking me if I still like the Nebraska winter. I am puzzled. Of course! In it's raging violence or it's silent encroachment, it is beautiful; living breathing nature.

Why I Love it Here

2009-01-17T10:27:00.003-07:00

Today I opened a can of blueberries; a big #10 can, and drained them to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast and some other thngs. Thinking about a blueberry-cheese coffeecake. Yum. But I also love the blueberry juice; I don't waste a drop. It goes into a pitcher in the fridge.

While I was doing that I thought, "Hey, I haven't listened to the CD I got from Donna." Donna gave me a CD of her husband's poetry for Christmas, and as hectic as things have been, I hadn't had time to listen. Marty is a Cowboy Poet; and the one poem she let me read just tickled me to death. So for Christmas she gave me one of his CDs.

And all I can say is, WOW. Now maybe you don't like poetry, but I do. I used to be considered a poet in my own right; well-published and all. But I got away from it when I started reporting for newspapers and writing my columns; being a poet gave me the ability to turn a phrase and have an impact that most folks can't. I love the written and the spoken word; the rhythmic cadence of life. It's the Irish in me, I guess.

But Marty has a way to make you see what he's talking about; the glorious beauty of the Sandhills, the solitary gravestone, the Not-so-Handsome Man, the woman he's telling about Prairie Grass and Water. And his sense of humor is subtle and then sudden; smacks you upside the head like a blast of cold mountain wind when you top a rise, and makes you burst into involuntary laughter.

Marty's poetry will probably never be read at an inauguration or praised and dissected by professors in the halls of Yale or Stanford. But his poetry reminds me what I love about the West, and why I wanted to move here - specifically HERE, not somewhere else. Like all really good poetry, it inspires you, makes you stop and think, pause and reflect - and evokes a feeling that lasts, long after the words are silent. I'd like to send copies to all of my friends, so they could understand what I feel, what this place and its people are like, and why I love it so. Sadly, most of them would probably say, "I don't like poetry" or not find the time to listen, and then tuck it away somewhere to collect dust. I recognize - and have, all my life - that people who get it, just naturally get it - and people who don't get it, never will. And I'm not just talking about poetry...

Winter Setting in

2009-01-11T12:03:00.003-07:00

Well, Christmas is over, the lights are down and boxed away. Now comes the deepening of winter; the colder days and nights of January, February and March. Now is the time that people complain about cabin fever; the long days and nights of chores and the same faces and people around us, the desperate desire for sunshine and mobility and fun.

The deer that has been hanging in the garage for three weeks now is still frozen solid. No mice or anything have ventured near it; it is frozen too hard - even when the temps climbed to 40 degrees for two days straight! - and is untouched. So today DH and I went out and, using his electric hand saw, cut it into managable pieces, loaded it into the wheelbarrow, and took it down into the basement. There it sits, loaded into the big laundry sink we installed this summer, waiting to be cleaned and thawed. I think I'll set a table up next to it and just cut it down there; it will be easier to clean and cut without worrying about my smaller kitchen sink and countertops.

Looking around the basement; since we didn't get the greenhouse set up, I will have to start the seeds in the warm basement. The catalogs are in, and this and next month I'll be ordering the flats and lights and seeds. We have already determined a spot for them to go, to be close to the water outlet and in the warmest room. The cooling room right off of the basement outside egress is too cool; it will have to be reserved for my potato storage and, in the future, the milk cooling room for the cows. Oh, all the things I want to grow here! Carrots and radishes and onions and peas and spinach., and all of the other 'normal' things. Going to see how well collards do here, too.
I need to get a couple of bags of forage seed for the hills in back; not only to help retain the sandy soil, but to start it on its way to providing for the planned cows, and hopefully choking out some invasive weeds as well. Mangel beets, too, for additional winter feed; those will go into the east garden along with the corn. I'd like to add to the windbreak in back; probably not right away, but I'm thinking that the Black Hills pines ought to do well here too. The Black Hills are only 150 miles away, after all. And they grow fast and are very big, conical, and pretty.

I love the winter doldrums, planning for spring and laying out what will go where. We'll have to start the chickens in the basement too, but in their own little area until they can grow big enough to go outside; but I won't order them til March. Probably going with the Barred Rock variety, that lays even in winter, the big brown eggs I love, and still has good meat. Debating how many to order - 10 cockerels and 25 hens; butcher all but two cockerels at 12 weeks and have a freezer full of chicken? Or butcher all but one cockerel? I really don't want to put all my future eggs in one basket - with my luck the one rooster I don't kill will be gay, suicidal, or get himself killed, and then - no babies. Sigh. Do I really want to start them in the ceramics room right near the heater, will the smell waft upstairs thru all the vents? Argh. Thinking and planning and debating.

DH came up with an idea. We were planning on tearing down the garage - it is so decrepit that the insurance fella said he couldn't insure it - and that was going to be remanufactured into our chicken coop. However we need a place to store the mower, etc. We were going to have a new garage built with the $$ we were supposed to get from one of his settlements (that was promised in Sept., but as usual, no such has been forthcoming yet). DH said why not close in one end of the pole barn, and move everything into it, then we can tear down the garage and start building the coop. Hmmmmm... good thought. I don't like my chickens running outside of a pen and yard; they are too much trouble to catch and deal with, and I don't want the neighbors complaining.

Meanwhile I am soaking some pinto beans to make bean and bacon soup for this next week, and have a corned beef brisket simmering for Sunday supper. All I have to do now is finish the laundry and put the potatoes and cabbage in the brisket. Later I'll cook the beans and fry some bacon and get that pot stirring as well. I've got a big can of blueberries on the counter that I have to drain and repackage and freeze - maybe blueberry muffins for dessert?

Who has time to be bored?

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH

2008-12-29T09:18:00.003-07:00

It. Never. Freaking. FAILS.

Here I am, another week to go on my Christmas vacation, and things are finally starting to work out. The gold and silver did beautifully in the kiln, finally finished all of those ceramic thingies. I have to help butcher the 2nd deer hanging in th garage - even yesterday with the temps at 40, it was frozen solid. Got a letter from Joe Wilson, saying he is working on the project I asked him to and he will let me know the minute he hears something. It's good to have friends.

I wake up this morning and I have another. FREAKING. kidney infection.

With my SLE (systemic lupus) I have grown to expect these. If it isn't what's left of my colon freaking out, my kidneys are in revolt. I can't drink too much pepsi or even eggnog or cider, even unpolluted with liquor, because my kidneys go nutz. As long as I stick to water, tea, and coffee I'm ok, but you know I love the holidays... sigh.

The meds I take taste terrible. You'd think they could put something that horrific in a gelcap, but noooooooo. They make my whole mouth taste like I just licked clean a metal kitty litter box. Plus they make me sick to my stomach, so even though I am supposed to drink lots of water with them, just the thought turns my stomach. Arrrrggghhh.

So much to do and so much I want to do and my stupid body cannot keep up with me. Stupid body.

Winter Picnic

2008-12-26T14:00:00.002-07:00

Well, we went for a picnic today. I know that sounds kind of nuts, it being 30 degrees and all. But we made ham sanwiches and took the cheese, crackers and salami, and some chocolates, put the dogs' sleeping bag in the back of the car, and went down to Merritt Dam. Since snow was predicted for this afternoon and tonight, we wanted to go while it was clear and pretty.

I posted some pics a long time ago from Merritt Dam, with the water rushing down the blowhole, and the dammed river behind it. Today, though, it was frozen at the blowhole... and all across the river. What looks at first glance like waves are where snow has drifted into the frozen 'waves'.

Below the two-lane road, you can see where the falls have frozen in place. Further down the hill, the water is still running at the base of the dam; still a pretty good undercurrent. But up on top it is frozen solid!

We took the dogs out for a long walk, and they tracked deer and startled a grouse in the high weeds. There were rabbit, turkey, and raccoon tracks too. The dogs were very pleased. Sasha loves to run with the wind in her face anyway, and that wind blowing across the ice was a good 20 degrees colder than back at the house! When Sasha couldn't get a good sniff at the tracks, she would shovel her nose under the snow to sniff at the dirt beneath, throwing the snow up high an spraying everyone with snow! She was having so much fun!

Then we went down to the riverside for our picnic. These pictures are from the opposite shore from the dam...

The sky is really that blue, and the river reflecting the sky from that angle looks like water with waves on it. It isn't until you step closer that you see the lines of the frozen surface, and realize that it is frozen. We had our little picnic here, with the dogs dancing for the ham we brought for them.

Then we took the back roads back home again. They are very narrow and sand-covered, but pretty clear even after all of the below-zero temperatures, blowing snow, sleet, and ice of the past month. We crossed over the Niobrara again, and in a lovely valley I took these shots of the smaller but still beautiful river...

The snow clouds were starting to gather, and puffing up all big and full of portent. The wind continued to pick up as we drove home, and by the time we got here was up to 25 mph, a good steady wind. "I don't know if there'll be snow" but it was breathtakingly beautiful out on the ice today!

My First Christmas

2008-12-25T15:19:00.002-07:00

Like most Christmases, ths one has been a rush of hurry-up; stuff not working right before it goes into the kiln, taking forever to mold up, not doing what it is supposed to IN the kiln... and money shortages and time shortages. Sigh. One thing you can't rush through is firing clay. Another thing I haven't had time for is the baking I love to do. All week off work, and other things just kept intruding...

Our first Christmas here is beautiful. There has been snow on the ground all week, like thin frosting on a cake. Today though it is 34 degrees, and everything is melting! The Ruggles' kids are all back in town; and one of them got a sled for Christmas. That hill behind their house still has a glaze of snow, and they are sledding down it! How cool is that. Gunshots over by the range; I wonder if someone is getting deer or turkey or just having fun. The sun reflecting off of the snow is so bright, glowing, and fresh looking. It still looks like a picture postcard from the '50's here; so calm and happy, brilliant and peaceful, shiny and new like a Christmas toy.

So why am I so introspective, today of all days?

I do miss my friends and Tammy. Lots. Wish I could just bundle them all up and bring them here. Tammy is going 15 different directions; new boyfriend, wants to move, can't move, doesn't have a job where she wanta to be, is getting treated like crap -as usual -in her job back there. people taking advantage of her, wanting to get away, feeling trapped. This is what I want, and where I want to be, and I have good friends here, but Christmas they are all very family-oriented so no one drops by.

There's plenty of food like always, and the cider and eggnog are hot and cold respectively. Everything is set just like it always is, table groaning with the snackages.

But I miss my friends. I knew I would. I knew I made a definite choice, it's not like it's a surprise. And I miss them not just today but all the time - knowing that my dreams are not theirs, knowing that we'll probably drift apart, knowing that we'll probably never see each other again. It's hard to think about that even though I knew it two years ago, ten years ago. I've moved 10 times before, and it always hurts. I am happy and sad - I am happy and want to share it with them like I always have, and they can't even imagine what it is like, and are busy doing what we all used to do. I want to show them the things I see, let them feel what I feel, and learn what I learn, but they can't. I think that is what makes me sad... that I can't share this happiness with them.

Tomorrow it is supposed to snow again. I think I'll try to go driving before it snows, look at the river, walk next to the lake, and enjoy the stark and living beauty of the place. And wish I could be with my friends and show it all to them!

A Merry Christmas To My Friends

2008-12-05T05:25:00.002-07:00

I do love Smilebox. They have come up with so many awesome designs lately. I hope you, my friends, enjoy the pictures and the wishes for a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Hit "play" at the bottom of the screen to cycle through, and slow it down with the button at the bottom left.
Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thanksgiving Contemplations and Discoveries

2008-11-26T22:11:00.002-07:00

Holy crap.
Who knew I had this many Christmas lights and decorations? Hands?
OK, I was pretty worried about having enough lights to decorate this new house - it has sooooo many more places to put things and soooo many more eaves to hang lights. Today after work I went down into the basement and started opening all of those "Christmas decoration" boxes so we could hang things while it was "warm" - 50 deg. Down at the bottom of each box, there were strings and strings and STRINGS of lights. Icicle lights, garland lights, straight-string lights. I started to set aside groups so I would have enough for the tree, but then I had to separate that pile... Too many even for the seven foot tree!

The Big Tree will go in the bay window, and I'll do the red and gold this year. My kids always thought I was crazy, carefully saving the color-co-ordinated tinsel year to year, wrapped in sheets of flat newspaper to keep them uncrinkled. Well, I have the silver for my blue and silver decor, and the holographic for my multicolor decor, and the red and gold for - well. I found all of my trees, too - the tiny ceramic one, the rotating fiber-optic one, the tree-in-the-burlap base one, and of course the Big Tree. Each one will have its own special place...

Then there's ALL those tabletop and wall decorations... The huge glass elk, the sterling-silver deer, the birch tree candleholders, the candles candles candles!

I brought eight big boxes up from the basement, all outdoor decorations, and left the seven boxes of indoor decorations downstairs for later. We finished the lights on the front porch and out on the arbor; a large chandelier tree hangs from the porch ceiling. Then the twinkling-star LED lights and garland all around, with big red bows to finish off the porch. Next was the bay window - "glittering" icicles that twinkle on and off asytmetrically, and, yes, twinkling net lights laid across the roof of the bay window to add to the movement. Tomorrow we will hang the verandah lights; the icicles and front-entrance framing lights, and an even bigger chandelier tree will hang on the verandah! I'll stretch net lights across the roof of the verandah as well, underneath my bedroom windows. I've already put up huge wreaths on the front and verandah doors already - another thing no one understood, WHY I save my wreaths year to year, and make or buy more. Well, this year I have DOORS to decorate!

So tomorrow I'll cook Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us. No one's coming to dinner, our company all came last week. So we could just bake pies and eat them - but we'll have the fixin's we like for dinner and several dinners to come; the Turkey, the potatoes and gravy, the stuffing and devilled eggs and cheese and sausage on crackers, along with the pies. Then if I have the energy, I'll probably do some inside decorations, since the wind is supposed to be pretty brisk tomorrow. Saturday we'll finish up the outside, and Sunday night at sundown - per my agreement with my neighbor Pat, not one minute before! - we'll turn everythng on. And Saturday night we're supposed to get some light snow...

Today was a half day at work, So after everyone went down to watch the play I put up my red metallic backing paper for our Christmas bulletin board. Once Cheryl comes back Monday, she and I will stay after school and finish it. The Drama club kids bought me flowers for working on their costumes and helping them with makeup. They are sooo sweet! I have to fix Dustin's Puck costume this weekend, and finish up some work for school.

All in all, a very peaceful and happy little vacation. I miss my friends, but I wish THEY were HERE; I don't want to go back THERE! But I'll take pictures and send gifts to let them know I'm thinking of them all the same...

WHOO HOOOO! A nice Surprise!

2008-11-22T08:07:00.004-07:00

My brother will be here in two hours!

Tammy came in from Vegas Wednesday morning, and is upstairs asleep right now. I just got a call from my brother Jim. He is loading potatoes in O'Neill and has to go to Blackfoot with them. So he is coming by on State Hwy 20, and dropping in to see us! What a surprise for Tammy! What a joy for us! To see my brother again!

He hasn't seen the house yet, although I've been sending him pictures. He and Dorren were thinking about coming by sometime around Christmas - but distances and time may keep us apart still, as they always seem to do. Driving down to North Platte a few months ago to meet him was a treat. He is always on the road, though, it seems, and we haven't been able to hook up since.

I can't wait to show him the place; the house, the town, and for him to see Tammy again.

Of course we had plans for the weekend; we always have plans. But this is a GREAT interruption! I think I'll make a CD of pictures of the house for him to take back to Dorren. And smuggle a couple of jars of pickles into his truck. Oh, wait, he likes horseradish, too - I'll clean some up and put it in a jar for him, too. What fun!

I really should get dressed first! LOL But I won't wake Tammy just yet... she's driving back east today and needs her sleep. She liked Las Vegas and now, finally, is ready to unass the east coast and come out here with us. I am so glad, especially with how those poor, pathetic, miserable folks back home are spending thousands of taxpayers' dollars to try to 'prove' that what we did was criminal back there. Well, it wasn't - that's what we had an attorney for - but they in their vicious and spiteful ignorance demanded a forensic audit and have now called in the State to investigate. What they will find is exactly what we found - the person who was ripping off the town did it legally if not ethically, and we fired her for it even though we couldn't prosecute her for it. As much as we wanted to. And she immediately sued us for 'discrimination' to muddy the waters and screw things up as much as she could, desperately struggling even in her guilt to hurt others. Tammy does not need to be there to hear all of that cruelty and meanness - cruelty and meanness that is endemic to that place. I'm glad she will finally get out of there. While here and in Vegas, she met REAL people - decent, honest, and fun-loving, who know how to live their lives cleanly and honestly, without knifing others for pure pleasure and excitedly wallowing in their own filth, because they have nothing better to do. Whew. She had no idea that there were whole AREAS of decent, intelligent, and thinking people who have real lives! And now that she has seen what the different areas have to offer, she is looking forward, not backward, just as we are doing and tried to teach all of our children to do.

It's funny how people who have no dreams always try to destroy the dreams of others, isn't it? I thought for years that all that had to be done was for them to be shown, and they would move ahead, move forward, eagerly and happily, rising ever upward in thought and action. I was wrong. The only thing one can do then is to shake them off, let them wallow, whine, cut and knife and torment each other for eternity, and move on. Tammy sees that now, and I'm glad of it. So she'll go back there and make her plans and then move out here! If you can call 1700 miles away "out here".... LOL So I'll have my brother, my son, and my daughter all within a reasonable distance. Life is GOOD!

Gotta get to work! Hee hee... My brother's coming!!!!

Second Place!!!

2008-11-14T06:30:00.002-07:00

The Drama Club went to Hyannis and came in second!!! Seven of the kids received honorable mention, and one was runner-up for Best Actress.

These kids are really committed, awesome, fun-loving. Jais painted the sets in two hours once the Club built them and set them up. We worked on makeup and costumes for two days - slavishly, because they had missed four days, Thursday thru Sunday, because of the blizzard. Now these kids go on to compete in the District finals, and then State.

They remind me of the kids that used to hang out at the house back east; fun-loving, determined, educating themselves instead of waiting to be handed things.

Tammy came in Sunday morning at 630 AM. She left Wednesday to spend the weekend with her brother in Las Vegas - they are actually going to California for the weekend for a Renaissance Faire to perform with Thomas' troupe. So in a week's time, Tammy will have traveled from one coast to the other, and seen the places she has always wanted to see. She'll be back here next week to hang out with us. I will be able to spend more time with her then - getting ready for the Drama Club's performance Wednesday was so rushed. We did manage to make Taco Tuesday at the Husker Hub. Pat told me she will be decorating for Christmas this year - heh heh heh.

Mrs Schneider - the wife of the fellow who owns the Propane and Oil company here - came to talk to me yesterday. Her hubby had told her about the basement room where all of my Christmas ornaments are in boxes, waiting to be put up. She hasn't decorated in a couple of years either. I told her that the FFA kids will put up her decorations. She may decorate again this year.

No one had signed up to do the front bulletin board at school for December, so I talked to Cheryl (who loves snow and mischief as much as I) and we signed up to decorate it. Heh heh heh. I went online and found exactly what we wanted and had talked about putting up. We signed up as "the Cody Elves".

Folks who thought I would be homesick, would pine for the past, the warm and humid southern way of life, were so wrong. The people who move to places and don't fit in, who get homesick and want to return to a previous life, are the ones who puzzle me. I chose Cody not just because they have snow and cold winters - I could have found that anywhere out here. But because the people are so busy and so easy to inspire, because they have good hearts and are industrious and honest and just plain fun.

Yes, I would still love to bundle up the people I love and left behind and load them into my pickup and move them here - but that is because the people whom I love would fit right in, too. They would find their souls again here. They would be able to share their joy and not have it stifled, warped, cut, and wounded, by all of those nasty, selfish, and cruel people who hurt others for their own bitter and self-promoting pleasure. Yes, I miss my friends and my daughter, so very much. But just as I have found my happiness here, I want them to be here and finally, blissfully, happy too.

Homesick? Who has time to be homesick, when life here is so intense and living it is - at last - so much fun?

Blizzard Aftermath

2008-11-08T07:02:00.003-07:00

Well, it was HUGE - 50 mph winds for two days, heavy snow that blew away and into drifts higher than my head. 300 power lines down, and power out to the west of us. Think of it - without electricityin the country, there's no power to pump water from the wells, either. So many ranches had not fired up their propane heaters yet this year - and their heaters wouldn't start when the storms came in. Thursday school was cancelled because of the wind and blowing snow; whiteout conditions most everywhere. I could barely see the corral, and not the hill behind it at all. Friday school was cancelled because so many children did not have power, did not have water. And yet - this sort of thing is normal, accepted, something one deals with as best one can. No sense of entitlement here, and no whining - suck it up and figure something out. You'd better, because no one is coming to 'save' you.

Folks will say I'm "lucky" because we bought in town, where the water tank flows no matter what, where the roads get plowed after the storm stops, where the power lines are buried and the power - for the most part - stays on. Lucky because if all else fails, the woodstove will heat and cook for us. Not lucky. Knowledgeable. Knowing what you want - and what you can handle, as well as what you can't - is paramount.

We spent the last two days setting up The Winter Village on the tabletop in front of the bay window. Snow, a town, a skating pond, even a small river over which the train trestle runs. I'm baking cookies for the Veteran's Day celebration; it is at the school but the whole town comes. Getting Tammy's bedroom ready - she is determined to get here as soon as possible. She was supposed to stop in Macon but kept right on after work; made it almost to Nashville last night. So she may be here tonight instead of tomorrow night! Oh to be young and vibrant and strong, and to not feel sore and achy the next day! I remember those days!

My friends are afraid that I won't like this weather, but I truly do. I don't like being afraid of slipping and falling, but I do love a real ripping winter, with snow and icicles and darkness and cold. It is my favorite time of year. I am a "winter person", I love the dark burgundies, greys, greens, blues, and blacks, and sparkling snowy whites and silvers. I love the deep introspection of the long nights, and the brilliant blue glow of the moon sparkling on snow and ice. I love the howling wind and biting ice pellets that sting my face. It makes me feel alive, happy, warm inside when it is cold outside. My only wish right now is that I had a horse that I could saddle and ride comfortably at a slow walk over my hills, punching through the ice-crusted snow, looking at the silent and glistening landscape, and watching the wildlife duck and hide. Ah, well, it will come. All things come.

Some Rot is Good

2008-11-02T06:01:00.003-07:00

I worked and turned the compost pile yesterday, before I added the jack-o-lantern and straw from the scarecrow that I took down from Halloween. Black and crumbly dirt, rich and smelling of clean wet soil. A 'crust' had formed on part of it, of ash from the woodstove and sand, but when I shoved the shovel through it, what came tumbling out was loose and damp and rich. I could probably use it to fill my flats this winter to start my vegies! It looks and smells like the bags of potting soil you buy at the store. All of the kitchen compost; the eggshells, the rotted vegie peelings, have mixed with the sawdust and ash and coffee grounds, and the green cuttings from my discarded plants, and the horse poop, so that there is nothing recognizeable any more.
The raked up leaves are even starting to rot from less than a week ago!

I was puzzled when Nancy said that they raked their leaves - to take them to the dump. Take them anywhere? Why? Leaves are blankets of warmth and rot for plants; I mulched the red-twig dogwoods, the strip garden along the fence, the garden around the pond, and the two by the front porch, with them, stomped and wetted them down. That will hold water far better than the processed bag mulch, and will keep their little feet warm for next year. Maybe some folks don't think that they are as pretty as a clean-swept yard with summer-green twigs popping up everywhere? I don't understand the concept or the motivation. I like BIG luscious gardens, falling over themselves with green, and flowers, in the spring and summer; not little sticks struggling to survive in sand that drains water as swiftly as you pour it on. And a simple thing like dead leaves piled around them in fall will give me that. A few weeks ago, Enid saw me pouring coffee grounds on my roses and asked me why. Well, roses like acidity - they got enough of it when I was in the south surrounded by pine trees that covered them in the mulch of pine needles, but here in sandy soil, not so much.

I know most of the folks here probably have a sneaking suspicion that I am crazy, wanting to move here to grow things when it is so much easier to grow things in a Zone of "9" instead of a "6". It IS easier to grow things there - if the ordinances and neighbors aren't complaining, or if you can keep the invasive weeds down (a constant struggle - what is good for plants is GREAT for weeds!) or if you can keep away the mold and rot that hangs in the humid air like summer fog. My roses here have all lost their black spot and fuzzy white fungal growths, thanks to the drop in humidity. So SOME rot is good - but plants that rot while they are still trying to grow is NOT good. Once I get my garden system set up, I'll work far less here than I ever did there - because I won't be constantly spraying fungicides, trying to balance watering with discouraging mold.

Got a call from Boo today; she'll be starting her drive out here this Friday and should be here by Sunday night. We are soooo excited - she hasn't seen the house since before we moved in, in March. Oh, I send her pictures of what we've done, but still! Mike is busily making a bedframe off of the old iron headboard and footboard we found next to the garage; it should be ready by next weekend. Then we carry it upstairs, inflate the air mattress, and make the bed in the spare room upstairs.

Well, today I am going to the school to quietly organize my little office without interruption; it is so full and frustrating to deal with, everything shoved here and there, and so disorganized. I have a tackle box to organize the kids' meds - the plastic container there is so helter-skelter, it drives me NUTZ! - and I am going to dust and clean and redo a lot of stuff. I simply can't work in such a small and disorganized space! So I'll take my vitamins, drink my coffee, and get started.

Fall Evening

2008-10-28T18:45:00.003-06:00

Just some quiet midweek thoughts tonight.

Today I started out late; Tammy and I were up last night IM'ing until late. I didn't hear Mike calling me from the bottom of the stairs; when he finally came up and woke me, it was 10 til 6. Yikes. So I came down, had my cup, and went back upstairs to get dressed. I skipped the Drama Club and went straight to work. Set up my computer and coffee and got to work. A few sudden challenges that I quickly overcame; communication breaking down that I repaired or called for help for - things went swimmingly all day. I'm finding my routine and getting into the rhythm of things, I think. Two more days of school and then all day Halloween off. Schools have the weirdest schedules! The teens and preteens are having a Halloween dance at the school at 8 PM Friday; which means that most of the late-night trick-or-treating will be curtailed. Seventh through twelfth grade having a dance together would be unheard of, impolitic, anywhere else in the world, but here it is just another community get-together.

Came home and intended to rake the yard but I was just tired. My feet and hands have been cold all day - unusual for me, and it was 60 deg outside, not cold at all! Donna asked if I was coming down sick but I don't THINK so - just feel cold. I warmed up this afternoon, though.

Tammy is so looking forward to her trip in two weeks; and a little scared too. I am looking forward to seeing her again; but am scared for her. OK it's stupid - by the time I was her age I'd made that trip 4 or 5 times, mostly by myself, but still... that's my BABY.

Looking forward to the dress-up Halloween night. Let Mike sit on the front proch and give out candy while I play wicked witch. No dry ice here - sigh - so no evil witch's brew. Oh well...

I will probably go to bed early tonight. My email box is full of jokes and election year stuff, but nothing personal so no hurry to read it all. It is so silent here; the stars are out and look close enough to touch, and no breeze is stirring the trees. It is only 7 PM but the air is still and peaceful, like midnight. Lovely. 70 degree temps tomorrow and Thursday... then a little cooler but no rain or high winds. The fall air smells so wonderful; no pine scents or leaves burning, but woodsmoke from our and others' woodstoves spice the evening air like cinnamon.

Wind, Weather, and Horses

2008-10-26T05:48:00.002-06:00

We got a nice windblown-down deadfall this week; it fell off of a tree in the schoolyard and (after asking permission) I drove the pickup truck down and loaded it in. It was so huge that Mike had to sit in the bed and hold it down. Yesterday we filled the woodbox with it!

The weather stations said it would be in the 20s last night; but right now (6 AM) it is only 37, but windy.

Nancy came by yesterday; we talked about all sorts of things. She seemed anxious to know if the wind bothered us. Wind? It blows here almost all of the time; sometimes light and frivolously, sometimes - most times! - strongly and purposefully. One expects wind in an area that is so hilly, though. It drives the fine sand up under the doors and into the window frames, and has carved the northernmost post on the verandah like a sandblaster. Still and all, it is similar to the winds I had in the hills of TX and NM - I was caught once in a huge dust devil up around Santa Fe that knocked me to the ground and sent my camping goods flying! So even though I haven't experienced wind like this in a long time, it doesn't bother me. It was kinda irritating this morning when I was loading the woodstove and the precise and forceful angle of the wind was actually blowing the smoke back DOWN the chimney, though! Argh. Stop that.

Nancy has been trapping cats in town; some kittens but mostly adults. The shelter won't take adult cats. I asked her to bring me one. I feel bereft without a barn cat, something hanging about that occasionally demands to be picked up and cuddled. Sasha likes to nuzzle, but only sometimes, and usually only when she wants something, and she doesn't do it for long. Plus she is far too big to be a lap dog! Phydeaux is solely Mike's dog; he will sleep with him all night and follow him around all day.

Nancy really came out to look at Lake. She wants to put her down but doesn't have the heart. We had to traipse all the way to the west gate crossover to find her and the other horses. When we got there, Lake looked at her like, "What do YOU want?" Nancy checked her feet and determined that they needed trimming. I joked with her that Mike and I were trying to figure out how to make hoof covers for her feet to keep the ice from forming between her hooves and the frog of her foot. She can't feel it and it could cripple her. I told her we thought about cutting up one of our blue tarps and making velcro bands around it - can't you just see the neighbors driving by - "WHAT is on that horse's hoofs? BLUE BOOTS??" I hung out with Willie and Snip and Pretty Boy to kinda keep them away from Nancy and Lake; they will crowd around someone, anyone, that gives Lake attention. They are starting to get their winter coats and look fluffy. The other three will be gone by the end of next week; back to their little corral in the middle of town. It will be better for them, especially Willie - he is still scrawny and needs to be in an enclosure for the winter.

So things are settling down for the winter here. The low tonight is predicted to be 15. I don't know whether to believe it or not... and here it is just a number anyway. As long as the humidty stays low, it is as comfortable at 20 as it is at 50 or 60, especially when the sun is shining. We've got the candy for Halloween, and I still have tomatoes to dehydrate, and a pumpkin to carve, but otherwise it is getting quieter and quieter... even with the all-pervasive wind.

No Snow just rain... sigh

2008-10-23T17:11:00.002-06:00

OK, there were a few flurries today, but nothing that stuck. Down south and east of us, had snow; not a lot, but at least it stuck. Sigh.

This morning at 6:45 AM I went to the Drama club's practice for the high school at the community center in town. These kids are really good. I'll be helping them with makeup and costumes - I've already emailed Thomas in Vegas to see if he has some contacts there for what we'll need. Gone are the days I could just hop in the car and drive to Acme to pick up what I needed. The closest place to walk-in is in Rapid, about three hours away. So we'll find what we need online or wherever we can.

Had a success at work; the filing I had to do for the state was stymied by a simple problem that the secretary in Lincoln solved by tapping a button on her keyboard. Pow - put everything in, submitted, done. After the training from our online data managing group yesterday morning, and the DVD I got from the State, it still was not simple - but just getting to know the process and getting the paperwork straight and THEN filing it neatly will be a help. I HATE flying blind.
I'm making recoerds of everything I learn and everything I do to not just remind me what needs to be done but so that if I am not there, anyone can pick up where I left off.

Came home and loaded up the woodstove again. The wind has died down to 15 mph, but the damp cold is pervasive. Tomorrow is a half-day and I will take Mike to Valentine to pick up his meds and to get a few things for the house, and of course the Halloween candy. Got to get the spiderwebs up, and carve the pumpkin yet. Well, this weekend it should be in the 60s again.

Snow??? Hope so, but...

2008-10-22T16:33:00.004-06:00

Well it was supposed to start last night, but all we got was some 50 mph winds out of the North; cold and hard and cutting. Now they're saying maybe some after midnight, tomorrow, with 4 inches tomorrow night. THAT should make the football game interesting! Although the highs are supposed to be in the fifties Friday again; the snow should be gone.

There's propane in the tank; about 16% still. We just set the thermostat for 65 degrees; so it won't get too cold in here once the fires in the woodstove burn out at night. I'm the firestarter in the family; the woman who used to build the three-day, pouring-rain fires in the yard, who started a fire in a tropical storm that dried out all the camping gear and cooked our meals, should be the one to start a healthy fire that can warm the house! LOL But this house is pretty tight; built solidly, and even after it was let go for a while we were able to get it sealed again. It's windows and doors are tighter and stronger, and walls are more solid, than the house we owned in SC - and that house was newer by about 70 years!

I've been canning still; tomatoes and green tomatoes, and dehydrating cabbage. There are tomatoes lined up in rows of five on the counter, still turning red. Raking the yard and packing leaves around the tombstones - yup, we have tombstones and the coffin in front of the house! The scarecrow from the front porch is doing double duty as a mummy, and one of my ceramic skulls is perched on top; we've run lights to it and into the skull so it looks really creepy. The trees still have golden leaves on them in the east yard, so pretty. The red twig dogwood by the lane is glowing pink, too.

I like my new job as secretary for the school and am having lots of fun doing it. It is hard not having records saved from before, though; and all of the reports that have to be filed with the state just for food service boggle the mind! But I'll be going down to the community center to help with the drama club (at 6:45 in the morning!) and that should be fun too. And Tammy's due to come out in November; I can't wait to show her around!

Still busy as I've ever been, but having lots of fun... and looking forward to the snow again!

Yes I Am Selfish

2008-10-12T07:22:00.004-06:00

It's raining all weekend, that cold drizzly rain that makes your bed sing to you like a background siren, a comforting escapist hole against the world. Rainy days make me pensive.

I've dropped in on some friends this morning, in a blogworld sense. They are still ranting or worrying about who is the best candidate for President, why my friend Joe Wilson is an incompetent Congressman and human being, and needs to be replaced, how the populace has suddenly realized that Congressman Harry Brown is a lying sneaking pandering and self-righteous moron, what they feel and think about the fiscal collapse of the Union...

Yawn.

I used to be a part of all that. People don't understand why I stepped out and back and away from it all, why I want nothing more to do with it, why I won't go gangbusters ever again trying to convert the ignorant or the innocent to the logical and socially responsible platforms of this, that, and the other. More - they can't see HOW I could, when I was, in their words, "so damned good at it".

The fact is that I slowly came to the realization that people in the main are determined to be ignorant, determined to be emotional, determined to sacrifice themselves for any and every cause, and expect everyone else to do the same. Not being of the Kenyesian persuasion, the self-sacrificing hordes who think that they have a right to be in everyone else's lives, that everyone should sacrifice themselves for the good of the whole, I stepped back, out, and away. I'm done.

I am tired of directing the minds and thoughts and emotions and reactions of fools who need to be told at every turn what is real, honorable, good, and just. I have a disabled husband and an auto-immune disease that weakens me if I push too hard. I have an excuse, but it goes deeper than that. The truth is that I got tired of the viciousness, the lies, the snide remarks, even the phony sympathy-without-helpfullness that I encountered. I refuse to argue with them, defend my thoughts and positions with them, while neglecting the one thing that is more important to me than anything else - my happiness.

Yes that IS selfish. I cheerfully admit it. I seek a quiet, uplifting, emotionally relaxing and physically expressive life. "Kicking against the pricks" is futile, because then there are just - more pricks. Those who are determined to be pricks, who want and need to argue, to shove their opinions down everyone else's throats, bore me. They always have. But their insistence on stomping on others brought out the Don Quixote in me, the defender of the innocents, the Vox Populi in me. No more. There are too many self-determinedly ignorant, arrogant, and obnoxious pricks in the world, and too many permanently innocent, permanently needy folks along with them, for me to exhaust myself repetitively trying to educate or save them all. As most of my friends know, when I say, "God I'm BORED!" - things are about to change. Well, these types of folks began to bore me to distraction. So it was time for a change.

It is vitally important that one seek one's own happiness. I have found mine. Of course it isn't perfect. If I won a lottery, I wouldn't go for all of the immediate and fast-passing pleasures that others do - I'd buy my garage, greenhouse, chickens and cows straightaway instead of planning for them. But my new and very fun job, my new house and property, my new and much-longed-for lifestyle, have all brought me closer to where I want to be for the rest of my life.

The wind is blowing, out of the Northeast and HARD. The rain is whisking across the hills, and the clouds are tumbling just above them. The leaves on the maples and hawthornes are glowing golden. I have things to do, and friends coming over later in the evening for some simple board games, chess, and fun. I love where I am, what I'm doing, and who I'm doing it with. Not for me, the upheavals and passions and rages of the helpless or the mindless any more. Not for me, listening to the endless yammering about the next American Idol, be he from the phony television show or the phony election races. They can say whatever they want, now - I'm not a part of it and never want to be again. There is more to life than that. I've always known it, and I can finally live it. Selfish? You bet.

Yeah, But Who Eats Worms?

2008-10-04T05:45:00.004-06:00

My friends all know that I am NOT a morning person. Grumble grumble grumble don't wake me don't bother me, sun's not even up yet grumble grumble grumble. But lately I have been getting up earlier and earlier, long before the sun, getting up before a bird chirps in the trees outside my window. Last year I HAD to get up early to get to my job 40 miles away on time every day. Driving in the dark, a second cup of coffee in my hand, grumbling at the world, calling my other friends and chatting because they had to get up early too, might as well be miserable together.

Now it's different, though. Like I told my buddy Kimburrkay, I get out of bed every morning now like it was Christmas. I've got lots to do and daylight is getting shorter and shorter. Soon the wild turkeys' lives will be in danger. Heh heh heh. And there might be other critters I will need to attend to.

Of course, my new job requires that I be at work at 7:30 AM. That is not a struggle - a short 5 minute walk away. I can drink two cups of coffee before I hit the shower. As the days grow cooler and wetter, maybe even snowy, I'll still walk it though it might take me a couple of minutes longer. Last night I stayed up downloading my pictures of the Homecoming Day, and a little cowboy logo to disk to play with at work. This is going to be fun. Everyone knows my motto, "If you can't have fun, why bother?" But I guess my idea of fun is a little different from many - creativity, inspiration of others, having fun and enjoying life, putting my heart into whatever I do, is my stock in trade.

So this morning it was Saturday, and my eyes popped open at 4:49. Well, there's a lot to do - pump out, then scrub out the pond, winterize it by getting it cleaned out and bringing in the pump for the winter. I dread getting caught by my unawares with cold weather, and I surely do NOT want to be scrubbing that pond when it is cold.

The pumpkin seeds are dry and need to be put away. I am anxious to carve that other pumpkin for the front porch, but don't want to do it too early and have it rot, so I am restraining myself. It has a flat side, perfect for what I want to do. There's bread to bake again, and laundry to do. I want to get down into the ceramic shop and play some more, work on some stuff. Have to check on the sunflower seeds, see if they are dried out enough, and get them ready; and am debating whether or not to clean and paint the birdfeeder to hold the smaller seeds.

Tammy is back at the old house still, cleaning it up, and has pulled up a lot of my cement border stones. She has a brilliant idea - she is putting them in the bed of her little truck to make the drive out here in November, in case she has a little trouble getting through between us and her brother's house in Vegas. On the way back, she'll drop them back at our Cody house. She knows how much I liked those cement border stones! And of course I know just where I can put them...

The air smells like rain comin', so I guess I'd better get started. I don't think my bedroom window will be open for too many more days, but I am enjoying the scents of the changing weather outside. Yes, I am an early bird now, getting ready for whatever comes this year...

Quiet Saturday

2008-09-27T12:14:00.003-06:00

Well, after the Homecoming parade, picnic, and game yesterday, Pat's birthday was down at the Hub. I got home at 1:30 AM, but got right back up at 6:30 AM as always. We are out of bread, so I needed to bake more. If changes happen the way I hope this week (further, deponent sayeth not!) I might have my time cut shorter than ever, so today I am baking two batches - one whole wheat and one oat batch.

Today is our 26th wedding anniversary. Mike is cleaning the 'stuff' out of his closet to go up into the attic - suitcases, an army cot, all sorts of things under the list of 'don't need now, will need later or someday'.

It was chilly this morning, and poor little Phydeaux's old bones just couldn't take it. So I put him in his turtleneck sweater, which of course he hates. But he has stopped his shivering and is nestled on Mike's bed. He dug his way under the comforter and sheet. It feels good to me - lovely and cool - and I am quite comfortable. Sasha is of course a walking rug - but she got so jealous when we put on Phydeaux's sweater that apparently she wants one of her own! LOL Dogs.

Looking forward to the real cooler weather....

Beans Tonight

2008-09-24T15:29:00.004-06:00

Ummmmm. I love baked beans.
But I don't just pour 'em out of a can, uh-uh, no way. First I fry up about a pound of those ends and pieces of bacon til it is crispy. Then I toss in some onion, and brown it. Then I mix up my sauce - I can't tell you what is in it of course, but it is sweet and tomato-ey with a peppery spicy tang to it. I cook that a little bit til it gets almost like caramel, then add the beans, stir well, and either bake or simmer til done. With cornbread or home fries - you have a meal.

There used to be (and maybe still is) a brand of beans that comes close to mine called (I think) Big John's. It started with some of the same stuff I do, but somewhere along the way they lost that additional bite, that flavor tang. Maybe its all that bacon grease; who knows?

So since we went to town this AM, I fried up some of those end pieces to make bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwiches (with homemade oat bread, toasted) for a quick lunch - and used the rest of the bacon to do the beans.

Think I'll make a BIG pot for the town picnic Friday, and see how it goes over. They have to know the new girl can cook, after all! And maybe some itty bitty corn muffins, too....

The Onions! Are Up!!

2008-09-23T20:17:00.004-06:00

Yup, there they were this morning. After an inch of rain last night (I'm surprised any hit the ground, the wind was blowing so hard) I had little green stems, about half an inch high, popping up in 2 neat little 25 foot long rows.

Ummmmm. Onions!

I finally managed to get out on the roof of the porch and paint my bedroom window frames. Then I had to repaint the basement door one more time; it really looks good. Mike was kidding me about the red rectangles on the door; I told him that since the door and the house were white, and on the north ( incoming snowdrift) side, we might need to find that door! Being very fastidious, he put a good strong molding around the door too, to help seal it against the weather.
So I painted that red, too. You can see it even behind the storm door. 'Way kewl.

I made sausage and gravy and biscuits and green beans for lunch, and then I cleaned up - really scrubbed - the kitchen. I love the smell of Ajax powder; so clean and 'bleachy'.

I went out and scrubbed that area rug one last time. The smell is gone at last. I need to hang it now instead of having it spread out on the pallet on the sawhorses and spray it down really really well one last time tomorrow; that should do it for the smell and the colors. It practically glows now.

Tomorrow we have to go to Valentine to pick up Mike's meds. We also need some cash - it's Homecoming on Friday, and we need to go to the town picnic and then the game. The picnic is free but the game is $2 apiece. Plus Pat and Cathy and I are going out again this weekend for Pat's birthday... I need to bake some more bread, there's only 2 loaves and some rolls in the freezer; I'll do that Thursday I guess.
So busy...
But - the onions are up!

Work and storms

2008-09-23T07:17:00.003-06:00

Well, yesterday was supposed to rain, first in the AM and then in the afternoon/evening, and by golly it did! (I love Weather Underground - FAR more accurate than the Weather Channel -who diss us in the flyover states- or local advisories.)

So I was down in the basement all morning, testing and repairing Christmas streetlights (look, the Village takes a whole DAY to set up alone, with the train and all) and reorganizing my craft bucket while I was doing laundry. Ever wash 'snow'? well, my snow blanket had to be washed, and the miniature skating pond had to be finished, and I am working on a ceramic water feature for Enid (shhhh) using seashells and ceramic pixies. I've got all the 'plug-in' lights for my ceramics in one central place, as well as all of the feathers and ready-to-use decorations for the mistletoe balls and baby wreaths. I then put together another wizard and a dragon.

Then I made a big lunch, and carried the old door outside to set up for Mike to work on. We have a lot of old doors and trim and boards to play with, and the door into the basement from the outside needed replacing. It faces North, the side that takes the most wind, sand and snow in the winter. So we had a nice solid door downstairs, with good sturdy panels - all it needed was to have a new doorknob and some faults repaired and to be planed and sanded down a little. So I put it on the back of the pickup for him(wide area, easy to stand next to and work on), and Lake was in the corral looking depressed. I got the curry brush and went into the corral and started brushing her. Within 5 minutes I was surrounded by horses! Everyone wanted attention too. I felt like a teacher in a schoolyard - no, wait your turn, Lake gets hers first! Pretty Boy and Snip kept nuzzling my neck and elbows and back, while Willie just stood there patiently. There are honeybees everywhere, and a group of them decided it was time to harass the horses. There were four that stayed around Snip, and they were flying toward his legs, butt-first, to sting him! There was some kind of residue on the horses; like thick sticky pollen, and all I can figure is that the horses found a honeybee nest and had plowed through it. It was a little difficult getting them all brushed with them stamping and biting at the honeybees, but I did it. They all got their 'love' and neck cuddles and - then I went back to the laundry and the basement.

Mike called me when he was done and we took the door to the basement doorway and hung it. Then I had to take a break from the basement work - the door needed paint. So I got my white paint and the red for the trim and went to work. By the time I had gotten the first coat on, it started to cloud up - from the southwest, big black dark clouds. Arrgh. So I put the second coat on, and scurried back inside.

The wind picked up to 40 mph, and the warm air inside the house dissipated quickly as the cold wind blew through it. It was lovely and cool inside, and blustery and stormy outside. The lightning was incessant and the thunder rumbled across the hills, echoing. We got a little hail for about 20 minutes, and then the rain came. The wind was blowing so hard out of the West that it made a mist out of the rain! After about two hours, the rain stopped, the thunder faded into the east, and all was silent except for the slow drip-drip of water from the trees.

So today I'll put another coat of paint on the door, and drain the water barrels from last night. It is lovely and cool and clear this morning, 63 degrees, and no rain is predicted for at least 5 more days.

Best Laid Plans

2008-09-20T18:35:00.007-06:00

Well, I WAS going to paint my bedroom window today. Fortunately it is big enough that I can crawl out onto the porch roof from the window, and even though it is slanted I can stand on it and work.

But today the turkeys were back, and a stray dog came up into the yard to chase them, and they went up into the trees. Tammy wanted pictures of her Dad in the corral, so I took them this morning while I was out taking pictures of the turkeys in the trees. Then we emptied the horse trough that I had brought up to the porch two months ago when it was so hot - Mike can't swim any more, but I wanted him to be able to sit on the porch and at least be able to put his feet in the water when he got hot. The sump pump put the water out to the poplar and ponderosa pines and the red dogwoods, while I watered the rest of the yard. Then... we decided to tackle the woodburning stove.

It is a cast iron stove, and as you can see there was a leak up in the roof that dripped down onto the stove - or, it would have, were it not for the cast iron pot on it. Unfortunately the pot had apparently overflowed onto the stove a couple of times, and underneath the pot was rusted some, too. The bottom pipe was rusted pretty badly, so it had to be replaced - not a fun thing to do! - and the cast iron would have to be cleaned.

Now, I've owned cast iron all my life, and the one thing I know about it is that, as heavy as it is, it rarely rusts through. You can take a rusty piece of cast iron, wire brush or steel-wool it down, and then oil it and heat it and it will come back black and shiny. Of course it takes a lot of effort!

Of course the pipe wasn't cast iron, so it had to be replaced. We'd bought the pipe, we just weren't looking forward to wriggling it out of place, and wriggling the new one in. There was a bird's nest in the cast iron flue, so we cleaned that out and reused the flue - not hard; drill two holes in the pipe and insert the flue. As rusty as the pipe was, the flue wasn't damaged at all. I thought it odd, though - we've had two fires in the stove since we got here, and the birdsnest didn't burn up! Another nice thing to see was that there was no creosote in the pipe, all the way to the roof vent 12 feet up. If a fire has very little smoke and the fire doesn't have a lot of green, damp, or 'oil' wood like pine, it will burn cleanly and not leave the residue that starts chimney fires and burns down houses.

It took us about two hours all told to do it - and then I spent another three hours scrubbing out the pot and lid, and seasoning them in the oven with oil, and then scrubbing down the stove and oiling it, too! So here's the finished project:

We got on the roof and "buttered" the roof seal with heat caulk; it had been tarred in place but the tar had cracked, hence the leak.

But we weren't done yet! D'ya see that little door in the wall to the right of the stove? That door is probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen, because it opens onto a wood box that has been built onto the back of the house. So I got the wheelbarrow and filled it with all different sizes of wood from the pile next to the garage, and then brought them over and stacked them neatly into the enclosed wood box. Mike helped me by breaking up the twigs into small pieces and putting them in a bag that we keep in the woodbox so that they are readily to hand. No spiders or other late night surprises in the house because of the wood indoors, and dry wood that is readily available without having to go outside, especially in snow.

If it doesn't rain tomorrow, Maybe I can get to that window and paint!

Turkeys, Paint, and Tacos

2008-09-19T12:04:00.003-06:00

Here's what we saw first thing this morning in the garden -

The turkey chicks are getting BIG - ready to crown a dinner or two. I've been putting corn out to keep them around; now I'll aggressively put it out the last 3-4 weeks to help sweeten the meat and fatten the little darlings. I hate the feathers but I do love the meat!

And I did get up on the ladder and onto the bay window overhang to paint; now my house looks like a candy cane and seems so clean and pretty. It will make a perfect backdrop for my Christmas lights! See the scarecrow on the front porch? The garden where the turkeys were is on the right, right behind the East side porch, which we call "the verandah".

And since it's Mike's day to cook, he has planned tacos, burritos, and refried beans. This and the Hub are about as close as we get to "fast food" any more!

We went to Valentine yesterday, and the road back was so beautiful with all of the leaves turning bright colors. We want to go down to the river this weekend and take pictures of the glorious fall colors here. The reds and yellows are iridescent!

But right now, I've got to go turn off the sprinkler on the onions and get washed up for dinner!

Fear

2008-09-17T14:50:00.002-06:00

I am NOT afraid of heights! (Yes I am.) Am NOT. I am afraid of falling, which is NOT the same thing.

I happily worked the night shift on computers in a 48 story building, and used to go up to the top to look out over the city to watch the snow come in like a rolling wave. Once we scurried up to the top to watch the newspaper warehouse burn, down the street from us - all those heavy giant rolls of newspaper could not be put out for hours, and it was awesome to watch, especially because it was snowing -hard! - at the time. I wished I had a camera, the shots were just amazing, clouds of snow and burning paper whirling about... I danced on the roof, loving the height and the beauty of the night. I love going up in a glass elevator on the outside of a building.

When I was a kid I was the original "yard ape", always up a tree and climbing higher. I felt safe in trees - lots of branches, I was a tiny thing, and I could climb higher than anyone else. When the wind blew I would hang on and rock to and fro with my tree...

But going up on a ladder scares the bejesus out of me. Long narrow ladder. Wide load butt. Topheavy front end. Paint can in one hand, paint brush in the other. Big flat feet that catch on rungs going up, slide around them going down. Why do they make rungs round? Good. Lord. I have to paint those window frames and the trim while it is still pretty out. Have. to. The house looks unfinished. I'm all there is, the only one, to paint or climb. The windows are too small to be climbed out of. It's all up to me. If I could, I'd lash a rope around my waist and rappel down the house, but I can't. So it's the ladder or nothing. I'm not afraid, I'm not, I'm not. (Yes I am.)

Remember - three rungs up over the edge at all times. Remember - angle it outward, the wider the angle the less chance of slippage. Who made roof tiles so slippery? Who thought gutters should be so fragile? Watch the window, idiot.

OSHA like the idiots they are say no ladder should be climbed after it is raised until it is tied off first. Tied off? Who's up there to tie it off? How did they get there without a ladder? OSHA. Paugh. What a typically brilliant, totally useless idea.

OK, my hands are gripping the window frame like it was my last dollar. I can't paint like this. Let go. Let. GO. Don't drop the brush. Don't drop the bucket. Don't drop the brush INTO the bucket. Put the bucket on the roof overhang. Careful - it's slanted. There. Paint out to the left. Good. Paint out to the right. Good. Paint very carefully in the middle. Good. Now climb back down and move the ladder three more feet and do it again. WAIT - don't forget the bucket!

I am not afraid of heights. Am. NOT.

Impatience

2008-09-16T20:44:00.003-06:00

I knew better, of course, but I had to go check to see if the onions were peeking up through the mulch today. It will be at least two weeks before they get big enough to cut; and we may get a frost by then. But that's OK, they'll be back in the spring. They're not up yet. A watched onion never sprouts, I guess!

Almost time to cut the sunflower heads for the seeds. Once dried, I'll save the largest head for seeds for next year, and shell and use the rest for bread additions, even nuts in cookies and on top of casseroles. It's the simple things we like. Like the bookcase Mike built this week, of old discarded boards that were on a shelf in the barn, the boards that perfectly match the rustic and rough grey wood of the walls of the family room; it looks like it has always been there.

I can't dig the horseradish until the first killing frost. That great big patch out there is calling me like a siren, though. There are so many things I want to try with it; not just making my own sauce (I do love the extra bite of horseradish on my rare meat), but seeing if I can make the sinus cures and muscle rub with it as well. Fascinating stuff, horseradish. Who knew? I've never grown it before; the clay soil in SC just wasn't conducive to it. But here in the sand it grows wildly, even almost joyfully, springing up thickly, its wide leaves waving and rustling in the wind.

But something I've never read about and am thinking about - you know, you can make capascin oil, from ground dried hot peppers mixed with vegie oil and water, to keep animals and bugs off of plants; it is a natural insecticide and deer don't like it either. But I'm wondering if the flavenoids in the horseradish root will do the same? I've made up my mind to experiment with it. The gophers don't seem to like the roots much, they avoid the patch; and although the grasshoppers and cabbage moths seem to like the leaves, they don't seem to handicap the plants any. Still, it is worth a shot - use what you have.

Working on cutting up old clothes for a quilt pattern right now. So many of this size, so many of that size. I made quilts when I was a young mother the first time, so long ago that it has taken a while to come back to me - but it has. Why cut up perfectly good material into tiny squares or strips and resew it? Because, out of something old and faded or outgrown, or otherwise useless, I can make something warm and pretty and uniquely - me.

For some reason Lake has been spending a lot of time in the corral; she seems to like our company more and more. When I took a break, I went out and brushed her again today. When I am old and decrepit, and can't do anything but wander around and eat, I hope someone feeds me Oreos and brushes my knots out too. Her constant presence of course has increased my supply of readily-available horse poop; it's time to rake out the barns and corral again, add it to the compost pile. I dug into it yesterday to dump in some potato peels and egg shells, and the still-green-but-dying petunias from the pots; everything was turning black and really working. No poop smell, just dirt and rot. Can't wait until the leaves start falling - more mulch for the pile! Scraping it off, digging more in, digging it down deep then repiling it, is keeping it warm and active. Temps are in the 80's all this week, with 50's at night; good for rot.

I just love how things can be recycled over and over; green to poop to green again, seeds to flowers to more seeds and more food, maybe even horseradish to help things grow. Old clothes instead of being sold for a quarter or thrown away, turned into something useful again. Watching and waiting for the natural cycle of growth and death and rebirth is so like the advancing season of fall, when things start to slow a little and one can think about the changes, plan for them.

I am learning patience again.

Rain and Cold, Oatmeal and FIRE!

2008-09-13T07:09:00.003-06:00

Yesterday wasn't really COLD, but it was wet. Wet all day, a slow and drizzly rain without wind.

Oatmeal was on sale a few days ago, 10 lbs for $10. I snatched it up, right next to the 25 lbs of sugar for $12 ($5 off), more honey and raisins. So yesterday morning I made a huge batch of oatmeal/raisin/pecan cookies while I was puttering about the kitchen. I will buy things on sale - IF I normally use them. And in the fall and winter, I use a lot of oats; must be the Irish in me, but I LOVE oats. I made a huge casserole of garlic pasta, Italian sausage, and limas in my Alfredo sauce, and that went well with the tomato/basil bread and cookies.

While I was preparing lunch, the bus went by from the school, loaded with football players. Oh, crap, I had forgotten about the game! So I went out to Mike's shop, told him lunch was ready, and reminded him of the football game. We ate lunch and went. It is only five blocks to the football field. It was great fun; everyone was there, and the bank put on their annual brat grill (free to all) but we had already eaten. The Color Guard from the American Legion presented the colors, and even in the rain all cowboy hats, baseball caps, and even helmets were off the heads and over the hearts of everyone there. We sat in the drizzling rain and cheered the team. I had gotten a heads-up from my friend that THIS was probably not the game to watch, as this visiting team always beats our Cowboys. They are some very big boys, and Mike and I discussed the need for our local fellas to maybe switch to pork chops, collards, and cornbread for a dietary supplement. In the programs we were handed at the gate, there were the names of every single player - and his parents.

Oh, yeah, they don't play the games at night, but at one o'clock in the afternoon. I like this better - no sitting in stands as the sunset blinds the players, and no slowly freezing to one's seat as the sun goes down and the nighttime kicks in. We don't have a large set of bleachers here - but it's ok, everyone brings chairs or sits in their cars facing the field, and blowing their car horns on good plays. We don't have built-in bathrooms, but semi-permanent portapotties, and no one complains. We are a small town and no one demands anything, because they know who pays for it and who has to take care of it.

So anyway, we went home after the game. The house was very chilly, damp from all the rain in the air. So I fired up the cast iron stove. Now, this stove is small, the firebox can only take wood that is 22 inches long or less, and it sits in a corner of the family room on a brick pedestal. But with a pile of twigs to start, and three small logs, and some careful adjusting of the flue and intakes, I had a rich red glow from it in half an hour, that lasted until we went to bed at 11. With the placement of an oscillating fan in the doorway, the whole house was at 70 degrees all night, and even this morning.

Today I'll put my onions in, and tonight there is a 'smoker' at the fire station. This is a big barbeque they have every year, $10 a head, all you can eat, that lasts from 5 PM until 1 AM, beer extra. BEER? Yes, BEER - you see, the folks here are grownups and don't need a nanny government telling them that they are not mature enough to drink. The fire department has to pay $40 to renew their liqour license annually. LIQUOR LICENSE? Yes, that's what I said. Again, no Eastern cramp about "what if" or "we have to MAKE them responsible" - since they are all adults, they are assumed to BE responsible. And - gasp - they ARE. Imagine that.

As we slide into fall, the smell of the woodsmoke from our fireplace, the sounds, activities, and smells of fall are everywhere. And we are loving it.

The Poop on Walking Onions

2008-09-09T09:45:00.003-06:00

YAY!! The Walking Onions are in!!!

Booo... I haven't dug their bed yet. Dangit. Oh, well, they'll keep for a couple of days as long as I keep them cool...

Walking onions - those heirloom buggers that actually produce bulbs at the TOP of the stems, not the traditional root crops. No Vidalias here - the soil is too alkaline, and sandy to boot. Of course, the winter weather would nosh all over any sweet soft onions anyway.

But walkers - man, have I waited to try to grow these! Non-hybrid, which means that I can save any production and replant without worrying about any silly extra stuff getting in the way of yearly production. Long keepers, too; up to 12 months if harvested and stored correctly. And the best part - this fall I can use whatever comes up as green onions (betcher I'm gonna dehydrate those too); and then when the winter snows hit and they die back, I simply wait til spring when they will pop back out again.

They are called "walking onions" because when the tops fall over with the bulbs attached, they plant themselves where they fall if they are not harvested. So they will 'walk' all over a garden if not maintained.

I DID manage to get one of the pole barns and the main corral raked up yesterday, so I have horse poop in a pile, along with my kitchen compost, right by the garden gate. I soaked it for three hours yesterday. It should be working and getting 'hot' even in the cool weather - lotta green, lotta bug activity, lotta brown material and the manure, mixed together and sopping. So by spring till-in I should have some good water retention as well as nitrogen working. There will be residual calcium, too, from all of those eggshells.

Finally living in a place where one can pile up horse poop without comment and complaint from the neighbors! Of course, once it starts working, the only thing it will smell like is - dirt. I've thought about making those cool little manure animals for decoration and fertilizer, since I have the molds and kiln and all - but 1) I'm selfish about my poop, and 2) I don't think the smell of baking manure would be too - um, inspirational!

Hi to Blondie and Casey, and much love. You guys would love it here! I'd ship the bread but it doesn't have preservatives so it might not hold up well! Guess you'll have to come out to get a taste... grin.

What a Sweet Smell!

2008-09-07T10:24:00.002-06:00

It is dismal outside, cool and cloudy and drizzling rain. A perfect day to harvest the basil and thyme seeds and leaves. A quick stripping, and into the dehydrator the leaves go, into small 'snack' Ziploc bags the seeds go, for next year's tantalizing and spicy harvest.

Today is Sunday Chicken Buffet day at the Hub; as the leaves dehydrate and fill the air with their sweet and spicy odor, we'll go down and socialize. Yummers.

Doing laundry too, nice smell from the basement of clean linens, rising up thru the basement door and wafting on the slight breeze from the dryer vent outside.

And to top it all off I dug out my "fall" decorations; they have been tightly wrapped in plastic bags and boxed up since last winter, along with the cinnamon/clove potpourri I sprinkle liberally about this time of year. Ummmm...

All these smells make me want to make some spicy tomato/basil bread, to get ready for holiday baking already. The house just glows with soft lights and intoxicating, comforting scents. Ahhhhhh. A perfect "gloomy" day.

Sigh.

2008-09-04T17:32:00.002-06:00

Well, it has been a busy two days. Pickled some and dehydrated some yesterday, then helped Mike load the pickup with not one but two loads of trash for the dump (Wednesday is Town Dump Day). Then I went to a meeting in Valentine; while I was there I got a library card.

Today I started in immediately this morning, canning the last of the pickles and making more bread. Today's bread was light and moist and poufy, rising pretty quickly and prettily, and came out with a flaky crust and a soft interior. I made noodles to go under the last of the beef stew for lunch. Then after lunch I sat down to rest.

20 minutes later my right shoulder that had been grumbling since the dump trips finally, truly started to ache. Sigh. So I helped Mike tarp the wood pile ( it is supposed to rain tonite) and put everything away. We walked the yard with the puppies and talked about what we were going to do with the stuff around his shop, still piled on the North side.

Barb came up and told us that there was frost at their ranch this morning in the valley. Frost already! We didn't get any here - their ranch straddles the SD line north of us. But still....
I checked on the sunflowers; they are doing well and in two more weeks I should have scads of seeds. As long as we don't get a killing frost they should be OK.

I stll have to clean the kitchen ( I am a messy pickler and baker!) and grind the dehydrated tomaotes into powder. When it rains tomorrow I should have everything pretty much done and can look at the book I got from the library. It goes deeply into the plants, soil makeup, and water resources around here. I need to have an idea of the different things I need to look at - like soil acidity/alkalinity, etc - and figure out how to deal with the 'noxious weeds' here. I'd rather starve them out than try to fight them continually!

So tomorrow I can rest this silly shoulder. Maybe!

Weird Day

2008-09-02T22:52:00.003-06:00

Well, I had made a huge pot of beef stew this morning (we eat our big meal at lunch now), and had been out in the pasture gathering up deadfalls for the woodpile. I was just about to sit down to lunch with some of that homemade bread, when I noticed the oddest thing - there were 10 students with a guy dressed in jeans and a tie standing outside my pasture gate. I put my food up (Sasha is not above eating off of a plate on the counter) and wandered outside. It was the HS class from across the street, learning about plants. I invited them into the pasture where there are lots of different plants - everything from yucca and cactus to grasses and black-eyed susans - and we talked about weather and soil types and how they influence zygonomic and rhizonomic reproduction. The teacher was thrilled that a mere passer-by put so much emphasis on plant life, and was as excited as he to share that knowledge.

Yeah, I know, everyone thinks I just like plants. No one knows that I have studied everything from plant structure and flavenoids to plant reproduction, alkaline vs acidic soils, and even CO2 uptake by plant life. I may have started life with a green thumb - but I have to know WHY things work the way that they do. That's why I want to put rabbits in my greenhouse - not only do they provide one of the most perfect organic fertilizers on the planet, but because rabbits in a greenhouse can contribute up to 300% of the necessary CO2 for plant 'green-up'.

Anyway, it was a good day, and they will be back now that they have permission to come into the pasture and explore and learn about plant life.

I finally ate my lunch an hour later, and then went out and cut up that firewood, did two loads of laundry, and picked up that wire fencing that was strewn about in the east garden and propped it next to the garage. Whew. Guess I'll have to pickle and bake tomorrow - plus I have a Community Development meeting in Valentine tomorrow night. Sigh.

Cold Front

2008-09-02T07:22:00.003-06:00

My brother's house in Soda Springs, ID, got 3 inches of snow yesterday, from the same cold front that swooped though here last night. Of course he lives in the mountains, even though we are basically on the same latitudinal line. So all that cold front did here was drop an inch of really fast, really cold, really driving rain over a couple of hours - and take the temps down to the low 40's. It is supposed to get even cooler tonight, down to 38. Perfect for the first of September!

Yup, time to start getting out my fall decorations, and getting ready for Halloween, and planning for the cool weather. I dried apples yesterday and made apple/pecan bread, and I've still got some more cucumbers to pickle and tomatoes to dehydrate. Then of course we have stopped buying the soft and gummy loaves of store bread, so there's bread to be made. We also were informed by Lake the horse that she was NOT happy about all of those huge tree limbs near the watering trough, so I'll be gathering those today.

Lots of things to do today and this week, and with the coolness in the air, it will be so much easier to move and get them done. Looks lke the summer with all of its grinding heat is over. Now comes the real work!

Wood You?

2008-08-29T15:18:00.002-06:00

Well, here I sit, exhausted at 3 PM. Sigh.

Got out to beside the garage this AM at 730. This is where the previous folk kept their firewood - and a whole lot more. I am a very organized person about my firewood, because I found that it pays in the deep snow to have everything where you know where it is and can grab it. On some snowy days it has been too dark to really see, in my experience, so the less time one scrabbles around in the cold, the better!

So I lit into the stuff next to the garage. I pulled out old metal cans, soda cans, metal strapping, as well as all types of wood. Now, when I cleaned out the firebox in the family-room woodstove in May, I found a lot of things that were not ashes - nails, screws, bits of melted plastic - that had obviously had the wood around them burned for the heat. I am funny about that - I really prefer to burn just wood. So first I had to separate everything out - and I did it by size, as well as by burnable, burnable with screw/nail removal, etc. First stacked up again was the 'squaw wood', the stuff that starts the fire. I lined it up as the closest pile to the back door, right next to the garage. Next came the 'tween wood' the wood that is bigger around and burns a little longer to help ignite the 'big wood', the all-nighters that go on top.

Most of the 'big wood' logs will have to be split; the firebox is kind of small and very tight, even though being cast iron it puts out a lot of heat. (We tried it one bitter, pouring rainy, 40-mph-North-wind-blowing night after we got here; by the time I banked it and went upstairs, the whole house was toasty.) Finally came the notso good wood, the leftover pieces from projects, the nailed wood that will have to be stripped, stacked on a pallet outside the northernmost corner of the garage. Those pieces I hope to only use in emergencies! But nevertheless, better to start now and get them stripped down before we need them.

Of course the "squaw wood' is the biggest pile; it always is. It is easier to go around and gather sticks than it is to find bigger pieces. As I was stacking them, Mike came out and pitched in (he's been working on getting a drain valve for the water line in, so that we can drain the water lines that go out to the hydrants to keep them from freezing and breaking).

With him there, once we got the wood stacked neatly next to the garage, we went around to the back of the garage, between the garage and corral fence. This is a nice storage/catchall for all sorts of things to keep them out of the wind - too nice, too well-used, and too cluttered. So he got the weedeater out of the garage, and we went to work. There was a huge limb back there that I chopped mostly apart, as far around as the big clippers would reach, which gave me another wheelbarrow full of squaw and tween wood. We cleaned out all of the metal and refuse that had stacked up there over time, and even found some good pieces of big wood to add to the stack.

I'm sure that this all seems pretty boring to those who read it, but it is pretty important to us - to get wood stacked, neatly available, for winter, and to get as much garbage and waste out from around the garage as we can. For one thing, it is an invitation to the scurrying things to nest and move in; for another, it is hard to keep it neat and clean when there is so much there that can't be moved, allowing weeds - even some pretty large tumbleweeds! - to grow.

Because the wind is supposed to pick up Sunday and be pretty intense, and then a cold front will move in Monday (maybe rain - maybe not), I also have been watering everything. The dry winds here kind of scorch whatever's growing pretty quickly if they are not watered. As much as I like fire in a safe place in the winter, wildfire scares me to death. So watering things not only keeps them healthy, but cuts down on the fire danger. The fire department already had an all-day working grassfire this week, south of here.

So the Labor Day weekend that everyone else is enjoying I will enjoy, too - my brother from ID called, he is driving his rig through North Platte, 150 miles south of us, on Sunday, and wants to meet us for lunch. We haven't seen each other in four years! I'll enjoy it a lot more knowing that the wood is stacked, the yard is a little cleaner, and we are a little more prepared for winter.

But lord am I tired! Grin

Nothing Wasted

2008-08-28T09:34:00.004-06:00

I'm taking a little sit-down break; a coffee break, if you will. Today I'm peeling and puree'ing tomatoes, pouring them onto the flat sheets in my dehydrator, and making dried tomato paste. Then I'll pulverize it and have tomato powder.

I've got some peppers I'm cutting up to dehydrate on the shelves, too. Not hot peppers; green peppers. Once dehydrated, I can add them to anything - soups, stews, whatever - and add the flavor of summer green peppers. I can even crush them and the tomato powder together and mix them in my bread dough for a really great bread... or mix them with eggs and flour for homemade noodles with a bite.

I've got still more cucumbers and they will be pickled this afternoon. Meanwhile, it is 60 degrees outside, with a brisk North wind, and I'm watering the yard. The "terrible storms" that threatened two nights ago dropped absolutely no rain, but produced a lot of wind that dried out my plants. Which reminds me - time to harvest the basil and thyme. If the weather holds and my sunflowers continue to bloom and produce seeds, I'll have to dry all of them too. Fortunately the lack of humidity here doesn't promote rot; I can air-dry the herbs and seeds if I want. (But putting the herbs in the dehydrator makes the house smell so gooood!) Plus the quicker they dehydrate, the more flavor they hold. After the first frost, I can harvest that horseradish out in the garden, and make not only horseradish sauce, but cold medicine and even a nice rub for sore muscles and joints. I'm wondering too about the possible use for insect repellent; they don't like the capascin in the hot peppers, maybe they won't like the flavenoids in the horseradish either! So much to think about....

The multiplier onions I ordered should be here soon. They are planted in the fall to overwinter, then harvested in late spring. I ordered 50. They also dehydrate well, and even without dehydration, keep for up to 12 months in a cool, dry place (which pretty much describes the basement!) They are heirloom, which means that they and their progeny can be planted year after year with no change in their cellular makeup, like happens with hybrids. Their tops in spring also make great green onions!

I just hate to see things go to waste; especially edible things. And I can't wait to get really started on the greenhouse and the plant starts for spring; already I'm thinking of what to put in for not only my garden and future produce, but to sell.

Yes, it sounds like a lot of trouble to go through, when one can buy things in the store, already processed and ready to cook and eat. But it is fun to do, it keeps things from being wasted - and who knows what food, even the basics, will cost in another six months, or what will even be available? Not to mention what goes into the processing of such things? At least I know what is in the food I'm preserving.

So with disco on the stereo, I'm bustling abut the kitchen, making plans.

Eat a Vegie A Day

2008-08-27T18:17:00.007-06:00

"Eat a vegetarian a day, and reduce your chances of being infected by idiots."

I love vegies, but I really love meat. Smoked ham with that delectable juice, bloody medium rare beef with the blackened taste of the grill across it, spaghetti with a rich meat sauce and big sausage/ground beef meatballs, turkey with the crispy skin peeling off, chicken roasted, stewed, souped, riced, or sherried... ummmm. Yup, even hot dogs or hamburgers wolfed down two at a time, covered in mustard, saurkraut, onions raw or grilled, and thick slices of melty cheese. Dark and flavorful deer meat, steaks, cubed steaks, even stuffed into sausage skins and grilled. Yummers!

Of course some fanatical vegetarians produced a miserable ad about how feeding your kids hot dogs could kill them with cancer. Gotta say that I started my educational life in Catholic school, where they served "lunch" - a hot dog en bun, a bag of chips, and a carton of mlk every day except Friday, when we could eat our choice of tuna salad, egg salad, or a fish sandwich. (Being a stubborn child, I asked if egg wasn't a baby chicken and got spanked for my curiosity.) I ain't dead yet; and, with about 200 days a year for five years of hot dogs, and hundreds of poverty-stricken days afterwards when hot dogs were the only meat I tasted, I still don't have cancer!

" The animal rights crazies at the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) are at it again, blanketing America with a TV ad re-branding hot dogs as the new cancer stick. But is anyone buying their baloney? The Associated Press noted last night that PCRM’s research is lacking; and the children in its ad, who claim to have terminal cancer, don’t.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPaxW3BrgIY

A new TV commercial shows kids eating hot dogs in a school cafeteria and one little boy’s haunting lament: “I was dumbfounded when the doctor told me I have late-stage colon cancer” …But the boy doesn’t have cancer. Neither do two other kids in the ad who claim to be afflicted.The commercial’s pro-vegetarian sponsors say it’s a dramatization that highlights research linking processed meats, including hot dogs, with higher odds of getting colon cancer."

I wish people would just shut the hell up. "We are ALL gonna DIE!" if we do this that or the other. Guess what? We are all gonna die ANYWAY. And I'm going out with meat and vegies and probably liquor and who knows what in my gut, because life is too short to let fanatical crazies tell you how to live.

Working my tail off

2008-08-26T15:39:00.008-06:00

Would it were true; but every time I turn around, there it still is, right behind me. Sigh.

But we were determined to fix everything up by winter; to make it a showplace, to make it beautiful. Folks have stopped us on the street, or talked to us at get-togethers, telling us how much they love what we are doing to the place. We love this old house; so much potential, so many little surprises, so many little things that would cost a fortune - literally - back east. Check out the 2 inch baseboards in the upstairs BR at the end; you can't find anything like that anywhere any more, and they are all throughout the house. So here's the tour...

Here's the pond, before and after..

Yes, that raccoon with the bucket came with us, and is pumping again quite happily in its new location. You can't see the tiles I laid in the bottom of the pond, right into the fresh cement, that make a pretty little picture of flowers in a basket. Just something for when the pond doesn't have water. All of my little daffodils and narcissus bulbs are planted around the pond, too, just waiting for next spring...

The house front - Before and after - Remember that, on the paint, it ALL had to be redone as a condition of the sale, so we and the sellers painted it bright white everywhere. The red, the plants, the statues, are all my own. Once the hot weather and the wind die back a bit, I will scrape together my courage, go up on the ladder, and finish the red trim on the upper story and bay window!

The east porch and yard - of course the trees leafing out for the summer really helps, but if you look close you can see the red paint and trim, and the poor sad fence that needed repainting. The Sunflowers and daylilies and roses in the new garden that lines the fence, are all mine, too...

The West Garden - in the before picture, you can't see the whole fence, but it was pretty ragged and needed sanding. Note the red stylized roses on every post, in both the east and west yards, that match the red trim on the house and porch posts. (Cheaper than spending $2 per finial and sawing off the posts flat to accomodate them!) That big bunch of green in the middle? Horseradish! From the previous owners - now THAT'll keep us warm this winter! LOL

And the upstairs guest room, of which I am now inordinately fond, since I repainted the walls a rich lavender, and polished the floor!

Oh, there's so much more to show; the freshly waxed and oiled doors and trim downstairs that make them sparkle, the new lights in the basement that really make my ceramics shop and the laundry room glow, the way we have redone the tack shop inside so that Mike has his man-cave, the redoing of the barn roofs and corral gates, and the gates and fences all around the gardens and pasture. Yes, as fall weather approaches and things grow cooler, our new home is starting to take on a lovely, warm, even happy character. There's a lot more to do, and we will gradually do it. But this is the place we now call home - and we love it here. Not that you could tell...

In a Pickle Here!

2008-08-20T17:04:00.003-06:00

Well, I WAS going to finish sanding and painting the fence today. Best laid plans... sigh.

But I woke up and realized that I have a big mouth. I love cucumbers - and told a neighbor so. Well, she is swamped with produce - especially cucumbers. I also told her that I pickle and can. So this morning I was faced with the third bag... a lot of sweet corn on top, and still more cucumbers below. So I had a sinkfull of cucumbers! Nothing to do but to pull out the canning stuff and make pickles!

If you've ever pickled you know that no matter how carefully you cut and measure, you are always going to have too little - or too much - pickle brine. Of course at first I had too little. So I made more. Then I had too much. The jars were all full. I'm out of lids (but never out of screw tops - still trying to figure THAT out, like a half-dozen mismatched socks). So I went downstairs and found one last BIG glass pickle jar, washed it out, and sterilized it too. All of the "leftover" pickles - the hamburger slices, the big munchy slices, and the spears - went into THAT jar, along with most of the leftover brine. Success! All of the little lids went "shnick" and popped down - sealed pickles. The big jar will be the house jar, the one we use and dip out of.

The corn (which I love but cannot eat) I shucked and cut and blanched, except for the last two ears - I cooked them for Mike. By one o'clock, everything was canned and pickled. I even had enough left over for my late Dad's favorite little splurge - cucumbers and onions in the pickle brine in the fridge. I took half of that, chopped it, mixed it with chopped boiled eggs, more spices, and mayonnaise, and came up with a pretty neat vegetable/chip dip. And it was a damned good thing I did, too.

Because at two o'clock Miss Enid appeared at the door with a bag of tomatoes, green peppers - and cucumbers! ROFLMAO

I don't need meat this week - I have vegies! Yummers!

Guess whose getting two big jars of pickles!!!

And guess who has to go into town this week after all - to buy canning jars, lids, and some more spices! Oh, well, I was promised a birthday dinner at Cedar Canyon, so what the hell....

There's a Blister on my Thumb

2008-08-18T21:18:00.002-06:00

There's a Blister on my thumb, on my thumb, on my thumb
There's a blister on my thumb thumb thumb
I felt it growing by the minute
Knew but couldn't stop it, end it
Too much work, had to finish
No time to be a little skittish
There's a damned blister on my thumb!
Dammit. I brought this huge rug with us when we moved. I bought this rug 12 years ago. It is a beautiful thing - or, was. Deep blood-red and cream, with intricate roses and flowers, shaded and simply gorgeous. However, kids and dogs and cats tramping and shedding and bleeding and in general making a steady mess - I tried several times to clean it, but it is so big and heavy it just wouldn't dry. It sat rolled up for several years in the utility room til we moved here. Today we set up sawhorses, stretched an extra long pallet between them, and unrolled then draped the rug over it. Using carpet cleaner, the hose, and a heavy brush (hence the blister!) I scrubbed and rinsed, scrubbed and rinsed. Then I turned it over, scrubbed and rinsed. It started to rinse clean water at last - but there was still that ruggy smell, of old cat and dog and dirt. So I got my bottle of Simple Green. Turns out you can use it to 'spot-clean' carpets - and it has a nice wintergreen smell. So I mixed it up triple strength in a bucket and scrubbed the back, then the front, again, rinsing as I went. This time the water ran clear again - but now there is a much better, minty smell.

In SC, you can't hang much out and expect it to dry - between the frequent storms that come up in the afternoon, and the constant high humidity, it would take a week and the rug would still be damp. Here, however, where the humidity started out this morning at 50% and dropped all day, and where the entire week is forecast to be clear, warm, and dry, I'm thinking that this rug may actually dry by tomorrow night!

But I am NOT pleased about the blister - mostly because I plan to wake up early, and get out at sunup (6:30) to sand and paint that loooong fence around the front garden, that spans about 1/2 acre. Just one more thing to irritate me - like the sunburn I got yesterday at the tractor pull, that is still making my eyes water and my lips chap. Grrr... So much to do before the cold weather comes... Arrrrggghhhh.

There's a damned blister on my thumb! Grumble grumble grumble.

I did have an inspiration today. Out behind the garage is an old metal frame, heavy-duty but rusted. It is the frame for what looks like an old gas-station type sign, shield-shaped. Pretty cool. So Mike is going to trace out the pattern on plywood, jigsaw it out, wire-brush it down (ok, that will probably be me) and we are going to make a plywood sign to slide into the frame for the Farm. Maybe we'll hang it on the fence, or maybe we'll hang it from the arbor. It is made to be hung, deserves to be hung. There are a lot of cool things around the property, just begging to be put to use. It is as much fun as a scavenger hunt, living here!

Add that to all of his other projects - right now he is making a quilting frame for my birthday. What a way to get some use out of all of those silk and other outfits that I no longer need. He loves having his shop, loves finally doing things again instead of sleeping in his chair, watching TV, playing Nintendo endlessly. We were at the fair this week, admiring our neighbor's kids' cattle for the 4H group. Our neighbor, who manages an Angus cattle ranch and hog farm, came up to Mike. "We have a lot of equipment on the ranch that doesn't run, needs to be repaired, and we don't have the time. You do that kind of thing, don't you? Would you come out and repair our stuff for us?" Not a 40 hour a week job - but then he can't do that anyway, not with his handicap. Just on an as-needed basis. Mike was proud to say yes. (Screw all those worthless punks who looked down their noses at him after he got hurt, telling him he was useless without saying a word.)

Things are sure getting better and better. This was definitely the right move for us.
Now if I could just get rid of this blister.....

A Tractor Pull, A County Fair, and a Rodeo

2008-08-17T18:09:00.006-06:00

This is Miss Lila; in her sixties, she always competes in the local tractor pull. I have a new hero - hard-drinking, hard-smoking, loud and ornery, blunt and friendly - and yes she wins.

The above are the "enhanced" tractors; they are souped up and inject water into the engines to give them more RPMS for the gradually increasing weight - that's where the black smoke comes from.

Quilts, produce, art, and more quilts - a lot of people participate in the fair.

Friday and Saturday nights were the pro rodeo circuit nights - Sunday was the local ranch hands showing off their stuff. The local guys did much better at the team roping and bronc riding! It is one thing to do it for show - another to do it for a living, because you have to. The rodeo games are based on what these guys still have to do, every day, out on the ranches.

A Pet Cock Solution?

2008-08-10T11:29:00.004-06:00

Well, yes, actually. You see, the plumbing down in the basement that controls the yard and barn hydrants was leaking. I had tried to use it to keep Lake's watering trough full, and that was when the trouble started. A regular drip, drip, drip from the faucet down below, that would fill a 1 quart bucket to overflowing overnight.

Then we went to the garden, where another hydrant is, and tried to hook up the sprinkler. This is a sprinkler attached to a 4 foot section of pipe, that runs down to (what else?) an old tire rim for weight and stability, and is hooked to a short section of hose that hooks to the hydrant. Well, the sprinkler was shot, the pipe was full of dirt (when the water pressure built up in the pipe, it shot six inches of dirt three feet up in the air). We replaced the sprinkler head, cleaned out the pipe, and - still, almost no reach, no pressure.

And the pipe in the basement leaked more. The only solution - fix that pipe. The faucet was old and rusted and didn't turn off completely, so Mike bought a pet cock. And since the pipes were not in such great condition either, he bought some extra connections and fittings - because, he said, with his luck, the pipe would ring off when he replaced the faucet. He was right.

But the most interesting thing was the buildup of 100 years or so of stuff in that pipe. It was half clogged with rust and dirt and disuse. So once everything was replaced... uh-oh. You could hear the water RACING thru the pipe. So we went out to the hydrant - which we had left open for bleed-off. The water was rushing: no, slamming out of the pipe! We hooked up the sprinkler - and with a sudden gurgling gasp, the water flew out of the end and started spinning that sprinkler head, reaching from driveway to road to road to back field. POW!

Funny what a simple little pet cock can do...

You people are perverts, you know that?

So Much to Do

2008-08-09T10:55:00.003-06:00

Arrrggghhh.
Yesterday I spent 5 hours getting evaluated. Normal procedure - no doctor worth seeing ever hands a patient 10 days worth of 500 mg Cipro on their word, even if they have their medical records in hand, or a road map of surgical scars on their belly. Still, it was frustrating. Hey, I didn't want pain pills - don't need them, Tylenol PM knocks me out if I need it! - I'm not a drug addict, I swear!

But I have so much to do! Mike put a board up to cover a gap from the settling of the cement steps to the verandah, and I had to paint it. It will be a temporary fix til we can pour an additional concrete step. But as it gets cooler, I don't want critters under the verandah... a raccoon would be aggravating - a skunk would be NO fun at all. And we saw where someone had run over a rattlesnake down the block yesterday. I don't like rattlesnakes, but at least they TELL you where they are. With fall on the way, gotta keep an eye out. Don't want ANY critters thinking that my dryer exhaust is a nice warm place to nest!

But now I want to paint the stairs on the verandah to match the ones on the front porch, and I can't. Because I have to wirebrush them first to make the paint stick. And because the meds make me dizzy and sick to my stomach. Dammit dammit dammit. I'll do it soon. At least I'm feeling better now, not so puny. I HATE being sick! And this week is the county fair, and I don't want to miss ANYthing there. So here I sit, maddeningly still, sucking on boullion and chewing on toast, while a Tower (4 layer!!) carrot cake sits in the fridge. Dammit dammit dammit.

The Gang has cheerfully informed me this week that, should they have to evacuate in the event of a hurricane, they will be heading this way. LOL Some are threatening to stay! What a nutzoid group. IF they come at all - which I very ruefully doubt - I can pretty much bet on who would stay - and who wouldn't. But if they did, what fun it would be! Good thing I've stocked up on essentials. Lets see - Blondie and spouse, Shane and spouse and kids, Rodney and who knows??? - and Kelli and her son. (LOL Note to self - Got to hook Kelli up with a REAL cowboy if she comes out, let her see what a real man looks, smells, and talks like! AND got to put her son and Shane's kids on a horse, or at least let them see what the kids out here do!) Better get ready to get out the inflatable beds and sleeping bags and fold out the couch! LOL

Oldest son's birthday was yesterday, and in the spirit of 08-08-08, he gathered lottery lucky numbers from everyone to play. Ah, I hope the birthday boy had better luck than we normally do!

Mike is mowing the gardens today, before we are supposed to get thunderstorms. He will do the yard tomorrow - again, before we get the storms. Tammy is on and offline, debating how long and when to come out here in November - Thanksgiving or before? - and painting the floors of the old house she is fixing up for us to sell.

Arrrggghhh. I want to get up and DO! Gotta remember to ask Nancy for Lake's tack, especially if she gets a blanket in the winter. Gotta remember to do soooo many things....

I need a list! Oh, well, that's ONE thing I can do while I'm just SITTING here griping.

The Locusts are Singing...

2008-08-03T08:58:00.003-06:00

Six more weeks of summer. Six weeks until the first frost or freeze.

Gotta say that it is really great to finally be with people again who know what the weather signs are, and who know what's coming. Nice to sniff the air and say, "Rain Comin" and have people agree instead of look st you funny. Nice to know what a "mackerel sky" is - and to have others around you know, too. Nice to walk with the neighbor lady who doesn't look at you funny when you talk about hardening off of plants before winter, but who offers her own experiences and advice.

The locusts are singing. So much to do. Summers are blessedly short here. Real autumn is coming, when the leaves actually turn color and fall off the trees, when the seed pods that have formed dry up and tumble to the ground, when flowers shut down and start preparing their roots for the bedding time. Tme to finish off summer projects and prepare for fall ones. Gather fresh vegies and dehydrate or can them. Get out and restack all the firewood. Prepare the basement entrance for the cold north wind, get everything picked up and put away so that the cold doesn't crack plastic and freeze water to explode containers. Finish off the room upstairs so it is cozy for holiday visitors. Clean and oil the weapons for the hunting season. Put the cracked corn in a bin so no rats end up living in the garage. Figure out a way to replace those two shingles missing way up high on the back of the house. Caulk and seal everything that can be.

Of course it won't happen suddenly, and it won't hit and stay - yet. There will be tolerably warm days, maybe even Indian summer days. But the fall is coming.
The locusts are singing.

I Love Laundry Day

2008-07-25T16:21:00.003-06:00

Well, I do. Well, NOW I do.

I used to do laundry in a 5X8 foot cubicle. Just enough room for the washer, dryer, freezer, and a rolling clothes rack. Now I do laundry in a room in the basement - a room that expands over 1/3 of the bottom of the house! I have a washer, dryer, a big ol' laundry tub, a corner laundry table with cabinets and drawers, and a clothes pole that hangs from the ceiling. If I have to iron, the ironing board is hanging under the basement stairs - and even folded out, there is still room to walk around it and everything else. Over under the head of the basement stairs is a laundry chute, where dirty discarded clothes slide down into a nice tall box. The big kiln - the one I could bake a body in, the one that according to a coroner gets hotter than a crematorium - has to sit in there next to the dryer, since both are 220. It is between the dryer and the laundry table, with plenty of room on all sides to walk around.

When you come down the basement stairs, if you turn right, you go into the laundry room. Beyond that is a doorway that leads into what used to be a bedroom, nicely carpeted - but which is now an excercise room where the Bowflex lives, with a cabinet that holds my extra storage of can lids, BIG empty glass pickle jars, large empty plastic sealed containers, and boxes and boxes of bar soap, that we got when we installed our water softener in the old house and never used.

If you turn left, you go into the small room. It used to be the "cooling room" for the dairy. I'm using its shelves to store my seasonal stuff - vases, fall decorations, Christmas decorations; everything boxed and neatly labeled. There is an old refrigerator down there that still works. The door to the backyard is off that room too - nice to have it open to let the breezes in. The steps are a little steep and uneven, but it is a convenient egress if I want to hang clothes on the line or check out the weather while I'm down there.

And I'm down there a LOT during Laundry Day. Because the room behind the cooling room is my ceramics shop. One whole wall of shelves has my molds, the other wall of shelves has my finished ( and not-quite-finished) works. There are three tables set up in the middle. Down there, I'm pouring, painting, carving, sanding, attaching, patching, and getting ready to fire or refire ceramics. Why go up and down stairs to check on the laundry, when I can sit right there and hear the dryer shut off while I'm creating?

In between the ceramics room and the exercise room is a connecting walkway with shelves on one whole wall, and two clothes poles on the other wall. The plastic trash cans with my 50 lb bags of sugar and flour fit nicely on the clothes-pole side, while the "extra" food items like spices, mustard, mayo, lemon juice, and canned dehydrated foods line the shelves. Buying a little extra each week is filling those shelves rather nicely, too.

I know that people wonder why I bought a BIGGER house instead of a smaller one, since Mike and I are on our own. Easy. One, we can afford a bigger house with the children gone - and two, we were horribly cramped in that smaller house, between his shop and mine, our own hobbies and interests, our storage of things that we needed often, occasionally, or "might need". Now I have walking room - and going up and down stairs is good for me. It's good for Mike, too, even though it is a lot harder for him than it is for me.

Looking around the basement bedroom, nee exercise room, we have discussed the possibility of either a two-man hot tub ($899 delivered) or a small self enclosed sauna ($2500 delivered). There would be enough room for either, and either one would be good for us in our physical conditions. And -it would make the winters rather cozy and private, too. Maybe later. We are still working on things around the house. But having this much room is simply wonderful - and comforting. Yes, these days, I do love Laundry Day!

High Humidity??

2008-07-20T17:04:00.003-06:00

Well, it was 91 with 51% humidity today. Perfect day for sealing the cement pond out front with Kool Seal. We will let it cure overnight and tomorrow - hopefully - seal it further with waterproofing cement. It looks pretty bad right now - you can see where the pond cracked in several places - but honestly, the KoolSeal was to seal it after we wirebrushed all those cracks down, got the dirt and plants and small crumbling rocks out - the cement should be the smoothing, finishing, filling touch. It looks like it was done backwards the last time - first the cement was spread thickly everywhere, then the KoolSeal used to try to fill in the still-leaking cracks. We had to buff down a lot of that cement; it was crmbling away from the cement like cornstarch.

I say "hopefully" because today and tomorrow were supposed to be rain-free; hot and dry. The first clue was the high humidity, the second was when the wind kicked up from the east. Point blank, low pressures suck - they draw wind. Our vicious storms have come from the West and North so far, so when the sky is clear and the humidity starts building, then the east wind kicks in - POW. We'll probably get rain. Dammit. that means I'll have to wetvac tomorrow AM and wait for the sun to dry the KoolSeal so we can put down the cement. Oh, well, at least we'll see how the KoolSeal holds... it is supposed to cure for at least six hours, we were done by 3 PM, so it may - or may not - have completely cured by the time the rain hits - if the storm doesn't go around us completely and kick Valentine's bootie.

I imagine that there are some pretty pissed-off ants right now; they have been happily building homes underneath that pond, putting their little mounds in the cracks, feeling all safe and sheltered. Now with the KoolSeal, they have - hopefully - no access to that nice smooth cement protection, and the diggable dirt underneath.

Got to get this done; need to get in my daffs and narcissus bulbs for next spring, and finish planting the daylilies around the pond.

Hoping to see if I can lay my handpainted tiles that I made several years ago into the cement. I was making backsplashes for the sink and stove at the old house and just never got around to setting them in. They are, when laid out, a painting of a basket of roses and other flowers. If it works, there will be pretty flowers in the bottom of the pond all year round, no matter what else grows (or doesn't) around it. We'll see.

If the rain doesn't ruin the curing, and if tomorrow morning we have water standing, at least we'll see if the KoolSeal worked... sigh. Just wish I could leap in and do things without so much preparation! But life doesn't work that way... we even missed the Sunday Chicken buffet at the Hub today, we were so intent on our work. Sigh. Oh well - blueberry pancakes, ground sausage, and eggs for breakfast made a good meal for us to survive off of. Think I'll go take a shower and get this sweat and grit off!!!

Minnechaduza Daze

2008-07-19T08:58:00.003-06:00

Yup, today is Minnechaduza Day. I bought five turtles for the turtle races over the spillway, and there's supposed to be a canoe jousting tournament- one highly touted grudge match between the Valentime Police and Fire Departments. All put on by the Valentine Chamber members, in the City Park - a huge piece of property on the east side of town that has the Minechaduza River running thru it. Tonight there will be a barbecue supper and a Beer Garden. An all day affair of fun and pure insanity - so like the people I've met here.

Mike joined the Cody Fire Department this past Thursday. Well, he can't be a firefighter, but his knowledge of fire trucks and operations and repairs will help the community and the volunteers. His experience in small motor repairs is already being used - and they are glad to have someone with Paramedic training in the Department as well. He can't practice of course but he can advise on medical matters and operations, which he is good at. And the guys here - instead of discounting him as 'old school' 'crippled' and 'no longer useful' - are enthusiastic about his help and participation. He's not being sloughed off like old and useless skin here. No, these folk are intelligent and mature enough to understand that experience and knowledge are valuable commodities.

So it is chilly - 60 deg - this morning, and rain clouds hover. We are going to the Park to have some fun and to share some laughs and food, to participate and to share. Never seen a canoe jousting before; this should be fun - that water is COLD and clear and the plastic turtles should swim well too. I don't really care if mine win a prize - it is just fun to play with people on the same level.

UPdate! : Well, we arrived, and the first heat of turtles had already been run, and I won a $10 gift certificate for coming in second! LOL I owe it all to my turtle... LOL

Here's the turtles racing around the final bend in the river:

And here's the jousting at the Old Mill Pond...

These guys were serious! LOL It was a lot of good fun and actually got hot out there toward 1 PM. We got hot and tired and came home. What a wonderful park right on the edge of town! Lots to do, lots of water running thru it, hilly and cool under the trees. And again - no graffiti anywhere, everything clean and well kept, no one tearing anything up or bothering other folk. Sigh. What a lovely day!

Oh HAIL!!!

2008-07-16T08:22:00.004-06:00

Well, it had to happen. It was so hot and dry the past few days, but I had to take Mike to the doctor today, and that took several hours while they did some tests, and I got home and finally started watering. Within an hour, the sky grew dark and thunder rumbled and BAM! a hailstorm hit. Marble sized hailstones bouncing scross the yard, a cold wind blowing them and the rain onto the porch.

Today they are predicting highs of 99 with afternoon ripping thunderstorms again. I have to say that I was laughing at the cold air, the pounding hailstones - because it was so amazing, so swift, so intense - and then an hour later it was all gone again. Lightning striking repeatedly far south, lighting up the sky, while the sun weakly poured out its orange setting glow onto the soaked and battered landscape.

I went to the town meeting last night too. Nice folks there. I wanted to make sure that Mike and I were within codes for construction of the greenhouse, chicken coop, etc. Guess what? No codes. They had some once but no one knows where they are or what they were. Not that we are going to build anything outrageous - but I wanted to make sure we didn't get halfway done and then run into a permitting problem. No problem - no permits. Kewl. Someone seemed to remember that there are to be no livestock - but someone else said that was in reference to feedlots.

Mike Burge from the Community Development County org was there to talk about enhancing growth, wind turbines, and ecotourism. He encouraged the board to do a webpage for Cody. They talked about the businesses for sale in town and what the town could do about keeping them and enhancing them. All very fascinating. I did not tell them all of the things I know and have experienced - that would have taken too long and been rude - about development. I just sat and listened. All bright and enthusiastic thinking people there. What a change.

The day before yesterday I poured a lot of molds in the basement, and yesterday I started cleaning them. Can't wait to paint and fire this stuff and get it going too.

Well the wind is blowing and it's time to get to work before the storms come again!!!

It's Cold This Morning!

2008-07-12T07:59:00.002-06:00

Well, cold for July - 55 degrees and windy. Winds that blew out of the north all day yesterday took the temps 'way down last night. The dry air here does not permit the heat to stay trapped and stifling.

There is a wonderful little hexagonal pond out in front of the house; a shallow thing that begs for koi and flowers around it. However, it is cracked in several places and will hold water like a sieve. So yesterday, there I was, with a hammer breaking up all the loose stuff, then the wire-wheel grinder to smooth and get rid of the loose stuff. Today I'll finish grinding it down, then scrub it and wet-vac it, prepping it to be sealed.

Sunday (tomorrow) the temps will be back up in the 90's, and it will be warm enough again to set the repairs. First the KoolSeal in the cracks as filler, then the webbing cement over the whole thing to coat and seal it.

The bread I made last week is already gone; it went in two days. Something about homemade bread just cheers you up and makes you feel self-satisfied. I need to make more but I don't need to knead in cement dust, so I'll have to put it off til Monday. I also need to start the laundry and get into my ceramics shop downstairs as well. I got a gallon of glaze from the ceramics shop in Valentine yesterday; I have an idea of some things I want to get started on. Today, though, I'll just put water in the bucket of rock hard dried clay to make it into workable slip again, mushy and soft. Thursday the stove dials came in at last, and we took the stove completely apart to clean it and sand it. I had to use a putty knife to scrape the grease out from around the Jenn-Aire fan underneath; it had been let go for a long time. It worked; the burners heat up so much more quickly and the dials work so now I have four real burners instead of two. That took all day. Jobs always take twice as long as you expect, especially when you are obsessive/compulsive about perfection! LOL

Sometime this week I will get up the courage to get on the extension ladder and finish the red paint for the trim. This past week I sanded and painted the board fence out front; bright white again, the flowers will look good against it as they bloom. The tops of the posts are cut at a sharp diagonal. I had a choice - cut the tops flat and order finials to finish them off, or - take the red paint and a rose stencil I already had, and paint a stylized rose on the top of each post. I decided on the roses. Right afterwards, Pat's hubby stopped by to tell me how nice it made the whole yard look. Neighbors were stopping their cars to look that evening, and yesterday the girls at the post office complimented me on the house and the work we've done. It is so nice to actually feel like I am accomplishing something, especially when I wake up itchy from fly bites around my ankles and creaking and groaning in my joints! LOL

Oh, well - no flies yesterday or today, too windy and chilly, so time to get to work! LOL Although according to the paper the largemouth bass and the walleyes are biting everything being thrown into the water - I'd really rather be down at the reservoir fishing today... Sigh. Maybe we can go tomorrow, after we finish the pond and it is drying. Sunday is always a good day - tourists leave on Sunday.

A Back Porch Present and a Bun in the Oven

2008-07-07T14:46:00.002-06:00

There it was, dead as dirt. A large mouse (not a rat - I know my rats) lying down on the walk from the back porch. Obviously had been bitten a lot and toyed with, which means "cat". Good cat. Left me a present. Wild cat. Not a resident. Maybe hoping? Hence the present? Or just force of habit?

I had suspected we had a cat when I found the grackles in the barn. Hate grackles - the poor white trash of birds. Loud and rude and always attacking the smaller species. Good cat. Then I found a bluebird. Bad cat; but how do you tell them to tell the difference? They can't and they won't and that's that. Take the good with the bad.

Saw a calico come darting out of the open basement door a couple of weeks ago, and Mike has seen a black cat wandering about. Whichever, whomever. Glad I have one that isn't demanding food, but doing his job.

Decided to bake some bread today. Unbeknownst to Mike, I ground up some oats to put in the 'white' bread. We need grain, after all. Also used honey and eggs; honey because the yeast reacts so much better with it than with white sugar - and I like the flavor; and eggs because it adds body and a better texture to the bread. Only problem is that I can't remember the last time I actually baked bread, and so had to follow a real recipe. Sort of. I always add stuff or take stuff away or change stuff out... Well, it said it made one loaf or two small ones - by the time I was ready to shape them, I had to divide it into thirds. So - two loaves of bread, and one pan of cinnamon rolls! I had the streusel left over from the blueberry muffins, so I spread most of it on the dough and rolled it in, then put the rest on the bottom of the pan in a honey-butter mix.

So now we'll see if I'm as good as I thought I used to be. Everything's in the oven right now, and the smell of warming yeast fills the air. Hopefully that'll change to cinnamon, soon, but I really like that yeasty smell. Wish I hadn't waited so long to bake my bread. I really like doing it, even though it takes time and forethought and yes, effort, too. Ummm... smells lovely.

$10,000 away from greed

2008-07-05T22:44:00.007-06:00

Pssst... wanna see something beautiful?

Yup, Mr Schneider and his family and friends put on a fireworks display tonight. It lasted an hour and a half, with three creshendoes and a grand finale.

The whole town - 125 people - parked their cars at the ball field, and took blankets and went into the ball field to lay on their backs and watch. Ooohs and ahhhs and cheers - and some folks who stayed in their cars honked their horns and yelled at every big display. Cannon shells, Shower shells, mortars, all of every firework you can see every and anywhere else, and lots of them.

And the town paid... nothing. No taxes in this town, just in the county and state. The folks get together and donate money, have raffles (pooh on you, SC - NE has a lottery but allows casinos and private and public raffles too) and everyone pitches in to make things work. Everyone brought something to the town picnic first, then everyone piled into their trucks and went to the ball fields.

It cost us from $5000 to $10,000 every time we used to put on a fireworks display. Of course that didn't include the pay for the fre trucks and police officers standing by, etc; that was just for the pyrotechnicians and the fireworks themselves. Here, Mr Schneider and his group got together and put on the show for their own town. No outsiders had to come in and light them off. No cops were any where around - they simply weren't necessary. The volunteer fire department stood by, of course - a grass fire here means hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Since the volunteers are ranch hands, they know what they are doing...

Know what else there wasn't?

No graffiti spraypainted on the public toilets. No damaged volleyball nets, basketball nets or backboards. No boomboxes blaring music louder than anyone could talk. No rude spoiled brats screaming, cursing, running past or into, or bothering others. Just a lot of laughter, a lot of talk, and several pickup games of volleyball.

When the fireworks were over, everyone walked back to their cars, laughing and talking. No one pulled in front of anyone. Everyone waved politely for others to walk by. No one revved engines or squealed tires on the way out of the fields.

1600 miles and $10,000 away from selfishness, greed, wanton destructiveness, and casual cruelty; where people expect their gubbermint to pay for their own constant entertainment, police and fire protection, children, and lives. I am a stranger in a strange land...

Empowerment!

2008-07-04T07:25:00.003-06:00

OK, I have to admit it, I was pretty scared.

We moved from a barely-1,000 sq foot home to a 1750 sq foot home. We used to pay $250-$350 a month in electricity. We got the electricity changed over to our names the first of June, by talking to the meter reader (things are really that casual here - they called Nancy and she gave them our names and mailing address). For the past month, we have been using a LOT of electricty - the sump pump worked for a week straight, we had to keep testing appliances as we worked on them, then had to use them to do tasks. We have been using sanders and grinders and saws and drills, inside and out, getting the house in order. Five box fans run pretty much full time, as do the ceiling fans in every room - and since we are both in the house all day, and we have eschewed the whole 'going out to eat' thing except for an occasional pop-in at the Hub down the street for burgers and conversation, the stove and oven have been working at least twice a day, and sometimes all afternoon.

I was anticipating the first electric bill with dread. The meter reader had told us they would just tack the deposit onto the first bill, too. In SC that was $300.

We got the first bill yesterday. We opened it like we expected a snake inside.

And...
$156. That included the $50 deposit.

POW. What a shock! What a relief!
OK we don't have AC, most people here don't. It isn't necessary between the dry air that takes the temps to the 50's at night, and the constant winds. The heat is a propane tank that we haven't touched yet, of course, and the wood stove that we DID use one night the first week because it rained for three days and then got windy and icy cold. So that eliminates a lot of power drain. I realize that. But, still... holy crap. I can't remember the last time I had a power bill that low. Wait, yes I can... when I lived in the desert in NM and didn't have electricity at all!!

I talked to Mr Lancaster Wednesday. He runs the local feed store and fire department, and is on the City Board of Commissioners. I asked him if the town was still looking for property to put up wind turbines, and he said yes. I told him I would lease the back hill to the town for $1 a year and free electricity. He asked if I knew that they intended to sell the electricity as well - I told him no, but I expected that they would. I told him that I knew that wind rights alone on property were going for $60,000 an acre, but that I thought that was stupid... so if they wanted the property then we could make arrangements. As long as my cows and horses could graze around the turbines unmolested and unpoisoned by any hydrolic fluid or oil spillage, I would be content. He was... surprised. He did say that of course the town and the electric co-op would rather own the land, but...

Look, I could make money off of the deal if I pushed it but what would be the point? That would just raise the costs and make it harder for everyone, especially my neighbors. Why should they pay my bills... actually, they will be paying my electric bill. And with "free" electricity, I wouldn't worry about price escalations, and would be able to light and heat barns and coops and even the greenhouses, and do the things I want to do with the farm area... But at least it would be a fair trade; the town would get what it needed, and I would get what I needed. Why rip people off when they need help the most? This could be the impetus they need to get the town going again, to make money instead of just providing services. And I have always been a huge proponent of alternate energy. Mike and I have talked about putting up solar collectors and wind turbines anyway; why not let someone else do it for us, and we could 'go green' in our own way, and share that with others as well.

That was one of the things that Rodney and I were working on "back home"- the Electric City concept - that they will now never see because of their own short-sightedness and cutthroat, me-first politics. Their loss - and I am in a world now where people understand and appreciate the value of working together and getting things done that benefit all. Now THIS is home... and a damned sight nicer one. Smarter group, too, that know the value of a dollar because they actually work for it.

So the second Tuesday this month I'll show up to the Board meeting and see... by that time he should have talked to enough folks to get an idea of what their thoughts might be.

Road Trip!

2008-07-02T08:16:00.003-06:00

Well, we DID go to Rapid Tuesday. We cut up thru Merriman to Martin, SD, and went to I 90 on the back roads... it was fun driving those swooping hills. We came up over a rise - and there spread below us was the southeastern tip of the Badlands. Once we got into the Interstate, we took the Highway 240 loop thru the Badlands. It was a little more crowded than the last time - but there were a lot of people our age and older in RVs, and some Japanese and Spanish tourists with children.

What got to us was all of the cars with out of state tags that insisted on flying past us. The speed limit there varies from 45 to 35, depending where you are; some areas are not very scenic and don't have "viewpoints" while other areas have pullovers every half mile or so. So many folks seemed to just want to rush from one spot to the next, or to get thru as quickly as possible. You can't really DO that when you are looking at the intricacies of the geologic wonders these layered rocks and ash and old lava represent, though. Why would you drive from Illinois or Minnesota just to blow thru something you paid money to see and experience?

Well, after we left there, we went to Sam's in Rapid. Spent 3 hours there; it was exhausting. But we filled 2 carts; so many good deals in bulk buy items. I have always been a hoarder, especially of food, and since we moved I have felt distinctly uncomfortable about not having my food and dry goods storage readily available. Now the larder is full and we are back up to the norms I am comfortable with. Whew.

It was 4:00 by the time we got out of Rapid; not enough time to take the hour long trip into the Black Hills and to Rushmore like I wanted. That will have to wait til another time. We did, however, go another back route home - thru Pine Ridge and over to Wounded Knee. We stopped and Mike got out to read the commemorative sign at the spot of the Massacre. While the kiosks were unoccupied and the tourist info center was closed, we did have some Lakotas come up and ask us if we wanted to buy their jewelry (same as last time but not the same people). I bought Mike an arrowhead necklace while he read.

We chased a single huge thunderhead all the way from Rapid to home; occasionally we would hit spots where it had dumped some rain. But it never rained on us. We got home at 8:30; tired and dusty and gritty but satisfied at the day's productivity and fun. Next road trip - the Dexter cattle show next weekend in Hastings!

The Rain Barrels Are In!

2008-06-30T16:47:00.002-06:00

Yup, there they are; three in front and one in back. They hold 40 gallons apiece.
Mike and I put them together and installed them. We had to cut the downspouts to slide the barrels underneath. Now why on earth would we need rain barrels?

One, because the downspouts keep getting clogged at the bottom in front when the grass grows.

Two, because the downspout in back drains right next to the basement wall - which means that the rainwater on the roof gets funnelled directly to the basement and soaks thru. Now, that may not sound like a lot to you - after all, an inch or two of rain isn't that much, is it? Well, no - but when you multiply that over about 1000 square feet of roof, by golly, you get a LOT of water!

And three, because these rain barrels can provide us with rainwater for watering plants when it doesn't rain - see the hose attachments? Hook a hose to that and drain it into whatever garden, wherever we want. No pressure spray, of course... but "free" water all the same.
In this next picture, you see two downspouts. We ordered a diverter to hook up the front downspout to the rear one and divert its water into the barrel, too. Naturally, we ordered both at the same time, the barrels were on backorder, so they sent the diverter thru the Postal Service - it is still en route. The barrels were shipped three days ago by Fed Ex and are already here...

Look at the area below; see how the rainwater has pounded the ground so much from the downspout that it is almost bare? All that water, pouring straight down toward the basement wall, and collecting.... Now it will collect in the barrel instead. (You can also see where I've been working on gradually berming the basement wall to keep the water out. )

I am really excited about getting these in. They have a filter in the top to keep out the leaves and trash. Because of the wind here, we weighted the barrels with bricks and rocks - and that will raise the water level too a little bit when it rains, to give us a little more water flow when we turn on the thumb valve to water.

Ok, maybe small things really do amuse small minds; but they are just so damned neat. The FedEx guy was very curious as to why we would want rain barrels - guess they don't think much about that kinda stuff here.

Tomorrow we go to Rapid City to go to Sam's. I have a huge list; stuff I like to buy in bulk instead of 'running to the store' every couple of days. I HATE to shop anyway, and the closest grocery store is 38 miles away - just too damned far to go when I am so busy HERE. I am going to take Mike thru the Badlands on a side trip, and (he doesn't know it yet) I might talk him into going up to Mt Rushmore, too. Might as well make a day of it; we'll leave first thing in the morning - about 6 - and it is a three hour trip, so we might as well do some stuff while we are 'out'. Probably won't be too crowded, either - no one gives a damn about history or topography or geology any more, and no kid wants to spend his summer vacation doing 'old' stuff. Rapid only has a population of 40,000 - not a very crowded city, after all! And hard to get to unless you drive, and driving or flying is so expensive... we'll see just how harsh the impact is on traveling. But this ain't Walt Disney World, after all! The less people, the better...

I'd better swap out the camera battery just in case; don't want to miss a thing...

My Ass Update

2008-06-25T18:51:00.005-06:00

Well, I cornered the little buggerer in a stall last night. They came up late for dinner - obviously out carousing - and I simply closed the corral gate while they were eating. "Wolfie" decided to try to go under it, so I stepped in front of it. Then as they went to the water, I walked over and opened the stall door, then walked back to the gate. After about 10 minutes, Wolfie's curiosity got the better of him and he went in. I swung the door shut.

Man that was one PO'ed little ass. He kicked the stall walls repeatedly, and tried to reach through and bite me thru the panels. Lake and I stood outside the door for a few minutes, and I stroked and scratched her. Then she wandered out of the corral. Then little Wolfie really got nutzoid. He started digging under the door. We put a piece of goat fence in front of the gate, and he really got mad. We had several storms last night, and before they hit we could hear his little angry brays coming from the stall.

Sure enough, this morning, his little ass was trotting up the hill with Lake. He had kicked one of the boards down in the night and gotten free. His owner, Mike Jones, called us this afternoon and told us that he was sending a friend over to try to collect the little ass.

Taylor came by about 6. He told us all about this little hellion; he really hasn't been able to be kept anywhere, and he kicked Taylor in the leg. Wolfie is like a cat; gets out of everywhere he is being put. He refused to stop nursing his mother and made her puny, and resented being separated from her. He is not merely stubborn, but mean, to the kids, to adults, to his own mother, to everyone. Taylor has suggested that he be put down - he is unpettable and refuses to be trained. The vet cannot neuter him because he is too young. The vet said Wolfie's attitude is not hormonal - the ass really is just an ass. Smart as a whip, and a damned shame to waste life - but he simply does not want to be contained; he wants to be a wild ass. He is still too immature to breed - even though he is determined to do so!

In other words, a typical teenager... Too bad. If I had the time, patience, and strength - as well as a sturdy place to keep him confined! - I wouldn't mind working with him, maybe seeing if he could be reached; he is really smart. But I don't and neither does anyone else. And would the gain be worthwhile? He is too small to do any real work, and we don't have grandchildren to ride him. I don't see the use of keeping any animal that cannot be utilized. I'm sure my liberal, save-the-animal-with-glass-eyes-and-no-back-legs would be horrified... But there it is. A purposeless life is not worth preserving - especially one that is detemined to be purposeless. So we'll see if Taylor puts him down...

Jackass Love

2008-06-24T11:49:00.003-06:00

OK, had a busy day planned again today; and, as usual, something interrupted. Lake wandered up this morning - very unusual; she usually comes up in the evenings.
But this time she had a surprise for me. She didn't look too pleased about it either. Seems she had picked up an admirer...

He was following her around, and shall we say that his passion was very self-evident? Now, this sorta reminded us of the time when our Chihuahua Wolfie fell in love with our Spitz, Prissy... a lot of unrequited love (we thought) until Prissy ended up pregnant. All we could figure was that Wolfie had found a stepladder. Not much chance here - we hope - Lake is a 26 year old mare, and, well, there are no stepladders in the pasture.

Still, there he was, passionately trailing her, making advances, and narrowly avoiding her disgruntled hooves. Where did he come from? There goes my morning, shot in the ass, as I now have to go put on my boots and walk the fence line to find out where the little jackass got in. Dammit.

So I go down to the west gate. This gate backs onto the westernmost road in town; I was hoping he was a townie ass, and didn't come from the property that backs up to our back forty. Lake likes to hang out at the West gate; I don't know why. Sure enough, there in a backyard was the prettiest little jenny, looking at me and crying. Her man had left her alone. I walked down the shared fence line and found the spot where the little jack had wormed through; he had even left a knot of his mane on the barbed wire. So I called Mike on the walkie, and he drove down to the gate with his wire and fence cutters. We repaired the fence. The whole time little jenny was crying next to us, seeking comfort. Lake and her ass were nowhere in sight, but we fixed the fence. I left a note on the door of the house that was in front of the yard, telling them about their ass, and that we had fixed the fence and they could get him any time. I hope that they get home soon and take the little jack off.

He is wearing a halter. If they come back together this evening for supper, I'll close the corral gate and snag him with a longue line and walk him home. Little ass took two hours out of my day, and probably ruined Lake's!!

ROFL Ok, this was too funny NOT to share. But every word of it is true, I swear!

Sleepy Sunday

2008-06-22T14:01:00.006-06:00

Today was oddly productive and lovely. We are unpacking faster now; we are down to the last 20 boxes or so. Out of over 300 that is some accomplishment! The front room with the bay window is all set up now; looking neat and tidy except for a few stray boxes that have to go downstairs. Now we are to the stage of re-packing; finding things that are not useful right NOW, like Christmas ornaments and winter clothes. We set aside boxes for them and in they go.

But Mike got the pictures hung and I have the bay window set up at last with the vignette I planned; the North vs South chess set I made for Mike seven years ago. The base is Fort Sumter. It is huge and heavy and very substantial - and if you look thru the window at it you can see either the GWTW poster or Scarlett on the opposite wall. We put a gooseneck spot on it and light it up at night. I like it better than the standard light on the table in the window... It will of course change with the seasons; the Christmas Village and the Halloween stuff will succede it in time, but I am very proud of that chess set!

I finally got my cherry tree planted today. It is so hard to pick a spot - can't be too close to the corral, because its leaves are poisonous to cows and horses. Can't be out in the middle of nowhere, or a snowplow or car might impact it when the snow gets heavy. Can't be under one of the big hawthornes or maples or it won't grow. Has to be protected from winds and snowdrifts... So I put it near the tack shop, between the tack shop and corral. Used the Guerney's fertilizer for Fruit Trees that I had for my peaches, and lined the hole with aged horse manure.

While I was out there, Lake came up... apparently she was feeling rather lonely and curious, because it was still morning. Mike and I fed her Oreos and talked to her. She is still a little shy but getting better. While she wandered around, I raked up a lot of cut grass that Mike mowed down with the mower, it has dried and looks like green hay. I loaded it into the wheelbarrow and wheeled it inside the corral. I headed for the north barn to put it in the gated partition; and Lake came over quietly... and began nosing the grass out of the wheelbarrow onto the ground! LOL Brat. She was cutting her eyes at me while she did it, too. I treated her for flies again yesterday; they are vicious and gather around her in swarms. Nancy says I'm spoiling her, but hey, at that age she deserves to be a little spoiled!

Must bring in the rest of the clothes off the line and finish painting the porch but it is Sunday and I am sleepy....

Today was not a good day

2008-06-16T21:29:00.003-06:00

No, not at all. Bad stomach cramps in the AM, and it was raining at 600, so I went down into the basement for 4 hours and quietly unpacked my molds and kiln furniture and ceramics. I arranged my room as much as I could. I need to get the other two tables up, but I was trying to be quiet and peaceful, hoping the pain would go away. It didn't. When I came upstairs, I was hurting so bad that I went back to bed. I took my medication - I HATE it; it makes me so tired - and Mike made me two rum-n-cokes and I fell asleep for an hour. Then I just kinda lay around and watched TV.

The sky was red and gold this morning, and it was chilly. It was so pretty I had to take a picture of it, though. I knew it meant more rain, but I just can't get over the powerful colors in the sky here. I so much wanted to get out and rototill the garden today! It should be totally different than digging thru all of that hardpack clay down South. Because of the rain and resultant cold, most folks' freshly planted gardens are not doing well. The grasses on the hills are so tall and green already, though! Since I haven't been able to plant too much, I'm thinking that everything but the cole crops could still go in... The cabbages, peas, and lettuces will have to wait til late August to take advantage of the fall weather. I have a feeling that it will get pretty warm here pretty quickly. The sunflower seeds I dropped in the garden between the roses and daylilies last week are already coming up. I'll have to get that white fence sanded and repainted to give them a good backdrop - and before I put too many drops of white paint on them! LOL

Nancy got me hooked up with the local artists' group here; there is a retreat of sorts this week and I plan on dropping by. It is at Merritt Dam at the cabins, so nice and peaceful. And yesterday at the Hub I met a lady who invited me to the Relay for Life in Valentine on July 12. Well, I want to take part but the day before we are supposed to be in Kearney at the Dexter show, so I don't know... a little late to get involved, and I would rather work with a team than just walk a track.

Dearest Charles wrote me a response to my most recent email to him; he says I have so much energy I make him tired. If he would have seen me today, he would not think so! I bust my butt until I just collapse; not good for me, I know, but I have to take advantage of the days I feel good and get things done. But, dang, I noticed today that my muscles are coming back with a vengeance; especially my tummy and thighs. I love being muscled, tough, and strong, and hate being fat. The more I do the more I CAN do, and that is a good feeling. Until a day like today!

Taaaa Daaa!

2008-06-15T06:47:00.003-06:00

So there I was yesterday, mowing the last bit of grass behind the house, when the mower (not me, for once) ran out of gas. Suddenly I heard an engine roar - and there was Mike, tooling around on the riding lawnmower! He busily cut the high grass next to the garden, then came up in front of me! He was grinnin like a mule eatin briars...

We'd just bought it last Saturday at the auction. The ad said it ran, but when we got to the auction, the owner said it ran - last year, but not this year. They tried the motor and it was struggling to turn over - no binding or hesitation - but would not. So we got it and the push mower together for $125. Mike has been working on the rider ever since, in between all the other stuff - getting the washer and dryer downstairs and working - while I struggled to mow the yard with the push mower. No way I was going to tackle the garden in back with it, or the side garden, but the yard HAD to get done.

Oh, I'd knew he'd do it - he's never met an engine he couldn't get to work. There was oil all over the points and plug, and they were dirty - apparently the thing had never had a tuneup. So he took everything apart and cleaned it and sanded the points, and voila! Riding lawnmower!

FINALLY we can get that wild and woolly property next to the house mowed down and reasonable for growing things!

I took him to dinner at the Hub to celebrate, and Pat was astonished. First that we had bought something that wouldn't work, then that Mike could get something like that to work! She said that her hubby wouldn't even work on something that wasn't running if it had been running when they bought it! I didn't say anything, cause Mike used to be the same way - he was working and didn't have the time or the energy. Now this place IS his work...

Yesterday evening, I went out and brushed Lake with the bug repellant on the curry brush. She liked the brushing - the smell of the bug stuff, not so much. When I went out the gate to get more bug stuff, she went into the corral; when I flipped the gate lock, he looked at me - I swear she laughed! - and galloped out of the corral into the pasture! Well, I wasn't going to chase her - even though she stopped and looked back and seemed to expect me to - I just laughed at her and waved, went out and shut the gate. At least now she has SOME protection.

Long day today...

2008-06-13T20:55:00.002-06:00

It dawned clear and warm- 63 deg - this morning, so I went down into the basement. In between doing loads of laundry and taking them out the back to the clothesline, I worked on unpacking and repacking all of my ceramics, Christmas stuff - everything that had been taken down to the basement. I unpacked everything except the five BIG boxes of small molds and put everything up on the electrical room and ceramic room shelves, clearly marked - the fall decorations, the spring decorations, the miscellaneous vases, bottles, and glassware. Lots of Christmas stuff; everything from lights and garlands to della robbia wreaths and trees.

I'm a little nervous about those shelves in the ceramics room; they are made of wood shelves and cinderblock supports, not nailed together like the ones in the electrical room. My molds are so heavy! The big tree I had to put under the shelves; it was just too tall. I'll have to unload and label the molds in the boxes and stack them as best I can - the little ones on the shelves, bigger ones on the floor. Glad the furnace is in that room; it will help keep the molds dry. It'll also dry out my greenware a lot more quickly in the winter when I'm down there! Unlike the garage I was in, in Hardeeville, this room has a readily available water source for my mud mixes.

I cleaned and vaccuumed the utility room, too. It smells so good down there now - not musty and damp like it was starting to again. Having the big outside door open all day helped that, too... the breeze coming in and freshening it.

Set up the shelves for food storage when the order comes in, too. I hated waiting to order til we got here; it takes eight weeks to fill orders and they are having some trouble filling orders for some items. Everything dehydrated and in either #10 cans or pails that vary in size. I ordered a lot - more than a year's supply - so we'll see what they can ship. The shelves in that room are good and sturdy, screwed into the wall. It is next to the furnace room so the cans and pails should stay pretty dry this winter; but not IN the furnace room so things don't get too hot.

Nancy left a lot of empty pickle and other glass gallon size jars, as well as glass cider jars, down there. They should prove good for storage, especially of the opened cans' and pails' foodstuffs, as well. I boxed them up and put them in the food storage room.

So basically I spent the whole day organizing the basement, except for going out and hanging the laundry, then bringing it back in again. I ran out of space and had to use the dryer for one load.

I went out to feed Lake; she has been coming in to the barn when I go into the corral with her feed. Today she ate one Oreo but spit the other out; don't know why. As she went to her feeder, I saw that she was covered with flies! Poor little girl. I went online and got some herbal recipes for fly repellant, but wrote Nancy an email to check and see if she had a preference. Since she is not MY horse, I can't presume to just do whatever I want.

Anyway, Mike made supper and folded the socks after I brought them in. I was glad of it - I was starting to get tired, bringing in and folding all of those clothes! I'm glad I won't have to let them pile up like that again! He hung the pic of Scarlett O'Hara right where I wanted it; you can see it from the front door when you come in, and it looks like she is looking dead at you!

I wore my big knee brace with the big metal hinges all day yesterday and today; I just stripped it off. What a relief! I hate wearing it; it starts to chafe and burn, but I HAVE to or I'll not be able to walk the next day. Aggravating thing.

I have been wearing jeans and no makeup for two solid weeks now, except for the day we signed the papers and last Sunday for Mars' graduation party. It feels wonderful to get up and just throw on jeans and a shirt, maybe a jacket, and GO. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm and pretty, just like today, and drier still - think I'll be able to finish mowing the yard tomorrow once the dew dries up. Then I might tackle either the front room or the family room boxes. I wonder if I am purposely avoiding the remaining boxes of clothes upstairs? You betcha! LOL It's getting organized but it is still frustrating to find all of those clothes that I used to wear and can't fit back into yet. Oh, well - maybe another month.

Kewl Discoveries

2008-06-10T22:56:00.006-06:00

We went into the garage today to get the lawnmowers; Mike to work on the riding lawnmower, and me to push the self-propelled mulcher around the yard - with all of the rain we've had, and the lawn not being mowed in three weeks, the grass was almost knee-deep! So I got to work, but Mike called me back after an hour - he'd found the old metal sign for the dairy that used to be here. Rusted but I might clean it up and hang it.

The garage is coming down eventually; it really is too far gone to do anything with, the insurer said he couldn't even insure it! 100 year old wood and cedar shingles can be used elsewhere; the chicken coop or the greenhouse. I could probably sell the wood on EBay and make a killing, but I won't - too useful. Everyone uses and reuses everything here. Some old metal signs - old billboards- actually make up one side of the tack shop.

The door to the basement from the backyard we finally forced open yesterday. It is spiderwebby between the outside and inside doors but it is a quicker access than going up the stairs into the back porch, then going inside and going down a flight of stairs! So much easier to bring the laundry out to the clothesline. Yes we have a dryer but the wind blows here all of the time and clothes, even jeans, dry in less than two hours. And the air smells so sweet! The cottonwoods are blooming now and the air is thick with the scent. Now so are our clothes. Beween the pure untainted water and the fresh sweet air, our clothes are soft even off the line.

Yesterday too we found the local supplier of honey. I have never seen honey so pale yellow; the bees only hang out in alfalfa and clover fields where the cattle graze, and the honey is so light and sweet and rich. I bought two bottles; and I think I know what some Christmas presents will include this year!

The last little discovery was something so small and so dumb... The movers had unloaded my molds onto shelves in the basement. I walked into the room and there sat a two foot high mold of a dwarf that I didn't even know I had!! Many of the larger molds I got from Janine's daddy when he passed I didn't even look at or open. It was odd seeing that.

Today it got up to 85; but the south wind was so dry and cool that even mowing all of that grass was - well, ok, not pleasant but tolerable! It is still blowing tonight; gusting occasionally up to 30 mph, but so warm that it is still 73 degrees out there. The storms predicted for tomorrow look to pass us by to the West and North. Yesterday I got another great pic of a huge rainbow that seemed to touch the earth right on our back hill. Those storms went around us, too.

Tomorrow I will finish cutting the back yard and get some more clothes out on the line. It seems kind of boring I know but it isn't; the weather and the little surprises every day make everything just seem to flow into the next thing, the next day, the next job to do. We have the house open tonight and the wind blowing thru, it is warm and smells so good; dry. flowery, fresh, and so relaxing after a long sweaty day.

Sunday Already??

2008-06-08T13:06:00.002-06:00

Wow. It has been raining most of the week; over 10 inches as of yesterday morning, and we had still more last night. Last Sunday the wind was from out of the north and it got so damp and chilly we lit a fire in the woodburning stove. Before that, though, we went to Merritt Dam and walked the pups around it, just to take a break - we had been unpacking steadily since the movers came Friday. I drove south on 97 towards Mullen just so Mike could see how vast the river was, and all of the parks, campgrounds, and fishing holes that lined it. Black storm clouds loomed and we decided to turn around. We no sooner walked in the door at home than we heard that there had been a tornado 30 miles north of Mullen that had crossed Highway 97!!

This week has been a bear; with all the rain everyones' basements have flooded, ours included. We wetvac and then take the water up in five gallon buckets. It isn't too bad - it is a huge basement and the water spreads out- but it is damp and cold down there. Mike caught a cold and is in bed today. Today I went down and wetvac'ed and carried buckets - then took a mop and bleach down with me and poured the bleach all over the cement. Then I mopped it up with the remaining water. It smells much better now; not so dank and dreary. Today the west wind has blown the clouds away and it is sunny and windy and about 70 degrees. So I opened up the house and the basement door to air everything out.

Yesterday we went to an auction 1/2 mile up the road; a family sold their farm and we needed some stuff. We got a washer and dryer for $100; they are only two years old. We got a riding lawnmower and a gas push mower for $125, too. I need to do laundry; I am out of jeans, even after losing one pants size already due to all of this work!! But I have to dress a little today; Jaqui's daughter is having her graduation party in Valentine. Valentine is only 38 miles away, but in the Central Time Zone; we are in the Mountain Time zone. So while the graduation is at 4 it is actually at 3 my time. Here they call it "Fast time" and "slow time"... You can leave Valentine and get home at the same time you left! My car clocks are on Central time, my house clocks are on Mountain time. Have to remember to get laundry soap and Downy while I am out; once we get the washer and dryer down into the basement tomorrow, I will be doing laundry. There is a laundry chute into the basement, but I'll still have to bring the clean clothes up when I'm done! LOL

Mike has a walkin closet off of his room downstairs; one whole room upstairs across from my BR is a closet for me. Mike's bed and new recliner were delivered Wednesday this week; the bed raises and lowers the feet and has massage. His chair is called "The Beast" and it dwarfs my little recliner... he has every comfort now for his back and hip.

I told the folks at the Hub the other night that I was to the point of chunking everything into the yard that hadn't been upacked yet and having a bonfire!! LOL

I got the girl at True Value to mix up the perfect red for the outside trim of the house; it is a deep Bing Cherry, almost black-red. Startling and so pretty. We have matching gliders on the verandah and I managed to plant quite a few daylilies and roses from my tarped SC plants. I am busy all the time and have a huge list of things that need to be done, but at least here everything is cheap and readily available.

Busy but very content. This is how I wanted things to be...

Been Here a Week...

2008-05-30T05:13:00.002-06:00

And the movers bring the furniture today.
We were supposed to close today, but probably won't - this is a typical screwup from this bank's loan officer. She normally disappears the week of her closings, doesn't return calls, etc. So we will close next week sometime. We are moving in anyway. Changing over the bank was a pain. BOA doesn't have banks in either NE or SD, nothing close, so we had to roll over to Wells Fargo. Now, BOA lets illegal aliens hold bank acccounts and even wire money to Mexico, but they won't let me wire money from my account into another bank unless I am standing IN their bank. So we transfered the $$ to Tammy's shared account with us and she wired it.

The appraiser dinged the house on so many things; mostly cosmetic. What did he expect - it was built in 1910. But you gotta do what they require, so we replaced siding on the west addition, and have been painting. I was going to change the colors anyway - too many icky blues and greens for the porches and trim - so we did mostly bright white with dark grey porches.

Sasha and Phydeaux have been tied up outside every day; stll haven't been inside. I'm sure they are wondering where "their" couch and chairs are! Once the movers get done today, They will finally be 'allowed' in. So much more room, but it won't seem like it at first with all of the boxes!!

Last night Mike and I and Nancy were there til late; the coyotes started howling on the hills - our hills! - with their pups. Yesterday we got our first real plains storm; wild and windy and full of portent - but it blew around and over us. Nature is alive and well out here; so many songbirds and so much turmoil in so many little ecosystems. Birds fuss and fight and sing and sneak about.; I have bluebirds, scarlet tanagers, all manner of birds I have never seen before as well as robins and chickadees. Amazing. The lilacs are ready to bloom; over in Valentine they are already blooming, but here they have yet to start.

Folks here work steadily from sunup to sundown; time is not an issue. Lunch is at the Husker Hub; great big angus burgers. The cattlehands - men and women, in jeans and chaps - come in smelling of sweat and dust and cow to sit and laugh and talk. They only spend an hour, then go right back to work. Folk occasionally drive up in the driveway and you sit and talk for an hour or two. But otherwise it is work and work; a good thing, a healthy thing. Th guys across the street are reroofing a garage, we wave as we start work together.

I had to paint the last peak yesterday; I was scared to death to be up that high but it had to be done so I did it. I got it done, slowly and carefully. Now all that is left is some trim on the front and east sides. The house just glows in the sunshine now! Once I get the red for the trim and finish it, it should be really outstanding. We'll be buying cleaning stuff this morning and heading out to meet the movers - they couldn't pack my cleaners, so we'll need a lot of stuff. I just might pick up a set of overalls too!

It will be good to finally be in our place tonight. Probably won't have internet for a couple of days now, til the utlities get turned on and set up. First thing - get a PO box for mail! LOL

The Packers come today

2008-05-19T05:15:00.002-06:00

Well, the packer... Denise.
Can't believe they are only sending one woman; poor girl!! At least Tammy came over Sat and Sun and helped Mike in the attic; what a chore that was! I have been down here throwing out stuff, packing stuff. Got to pack the suitcases today; we will need a week's worth of clothes just like Tammy and I did and be prepared to do laundry.

Mike and I are both sore and tired, and the burn pile has been going non-stop. Late yesterday he found the box of documents and photos we had gotten from mother years ago - her divorce decrees among them from her two husbands before Dad. That should make my brother Jim happy! We will give him the one from his Dad.

Rodney's little party for us Saturday night at his club was so nice; Cheetah and the guys and John the bandleader were so funny. "Have you ever worked a farm before?" Yes, but always someone else's, except for our own chickens and produce. I told them about working on the farm in OH; over a thousand acres and I plowed it on a tractor, ripping off my shirt to get a tan because it was hot and there was no one around for, well, miles. Cheetah grew up on a farm, and is now a bartender and real estate guy. He likes being in busyness and bustle. He is smart and funny and young. Working with him and Freddy and the rest of the guys was so much fun. Rodney bought me so many cards and such a beautiful wooden plaque with a picture of us together. I will miss him sooo much. He has been so wonderful and such a good friend. 20 years is a long time to be such good and trusting friends. He is not the only person I'll miss, but he is my dearest friend and always will be.

Last night we hugged each other and said, Three More Days! The drive will be hell, but we are going to go as slowly as we can to give Mike and the puppies an opportunity to rest and walk and relax.

Oh, well, back to work!! Probably won't get back on here til we are on the road, with my laptop.

Well the Appraisal Went Thru

2008-05-15T06:27:00.002-06:00

Monday I got a call; and now we are certified and I can move! Made all the calls to verify all of the plans we made earlier, just hoping, and getting everything straight between the movers, DirectTV, the financial people - everything. We had hoped and planned but were not really sure until the house passed the appraisal - for far more than we are paying. Whew. What a relief.

Lots of viciousness, gossip, and lies going around here; but those folks live off of the pain and suffering that they cause others. They deserve what they asked for, and they'll get it. I turn in my resignation from Council tonight, and I'm gone. Poor Rodney, my dearest, bestest friend - all of the lies he has put up with over the years, and all of the people now taking such vicious pleasure in hurting him and anyone associated with him. Pathetic, screaming, fingerpointing, gossiping, small minded people - Christians, they call themselves. And they wonder why Mike and I attend church in a place where no one talks about each other, instead of within their local churches' walls. They will point at each other and say, "She means YOU!" They have no idea what they are really like, how life is like in the rest of the real world. No idea of what their real future holds. How sad and pathetic their petty viciousness is... the saddest thing is that they will never realize it.

I hate leaving Rodney in it, but I cannot help him or these people any more. We will do something for ourselves, not them. If they can't deal with it, oh, well. We - Mike and Rodney and me - have something to look forward to, not backwards on. We did all we could to take care of them; and now, we are going to take care of ourselves. Oh, well, Delos and TR will be coming out next year to hunt, and we can all still love and care for each other in phone calls and emails, in the in between times. Rodney's sons are soo sweet and funny, just like our own kids. It's nice that we all still love each other so much and can take care of each other, even long-distance.

Still busy

2008-05-09T12:38:00.003-06:00

Packing and packing and throwing away stuff. Wish I could burn this useless stuff; it isn't what I want to be in the trash dump where anyone can get their hands on it.
Not enough boxes!!! Arrrgghhh. And lots of ceramics stuff; I'll have enough to decorate for every holiday. The front room/bay window will be our front office and 'pretty table' presentation for the window. The Scarlett O'Hara portrait and GWTW framed ads will go there, along with the computer and the table with the Fort Sumpter chess set. Then for Halloween and Christmas I'll have plenty to put up there on the table as well...
Showed Jimmy the house pic last night on my phone. He loved it. He knows that this is what I want; have always wanted. Sent him the links to the webpage and this blog as well; so he can keep track of us and how things go. Blondie has been keeping him posted, but hadn't told him we were leaving so soon.
The house appraisal was yesterday; Nancy texted me to let me know. She said that they told Larry he'd have to be done by Tuesday! So I guess my little conversation with Reba worked; I'm glad. Dave Nelson from the furniture store called this week too; Mike's bed was unavailable so they ordered a slightly more expensive one. It should be there when we get there along with the chair. They were nervous ordering a chair in "forest green" - didn't want to pick the color without my approval; I told them that as long as it wasn't yellowish it would be fine! The two recliners - his and mine - will go in the 'family room' - with the woodburning stove at one end and the entertainment center at the other. We can turn the chairs to face either if we want! LOL
It has very few windows, small and very high up, so it will be cozy; a little "cave" of seclusion. Think I'll put the freezer on the enclosed back porch; a nice little pantry shelving is there already. Perfect for food storage and a mud room; keep things cool and there are hooks and nails for outerwear in the winter. Might get Mike to make doors for the shelves, though. Have to see what the summer is like.
Been packing clothes in my BR in clear plastic tubs. The tiny room upstairs with the slanted roof we just might turn into a walkin closet. One thng for sure is that I won't have to buy clothes for a loooong looong time! Glad I'll finally NOT have to be in different clothes all of the time so I can stop worrying abot how I look and what people think if I wear the same thing over and over. And NOT having to put on makeup will help my lupus lesion on my face. Bad enough I was never much to look at anyway; the lesion just looks so bad and sometimes hurts and bleeds. No more of THAT, either. If the two weeks I spent out there drinking that pure water and eating that natural food is any indication, we are going to be a lot healthier, too.
I need to find a local rabbit supplier for the greenhouse when we get out there...
Can't forget the Star Gazer party the last week in June on the Reservoir, and we have been invted to the Dexter Cattle Show in Hastings July 9-11. Looking forward to meeting all of the people I've been chatting with on the CityData and Dexter Forums!

Growing things

2008-05-04T13:28:00.003-06:00

Well, wandering around my garden today at the 'old place'. The cabbages are about ready to bolt - it has been too warm here. Blackberries are in abundance, and the daylilies and roses are blooming. All of these plants will have to be dug up the last week, put into the back of the pickup, tarped down, and hosed down to keep moist. If they get too dry on the trip, I'll have to find a car wash and hose them down again.
The echinacea is up. These should do well in NE; they are, after all, a plains flower. Don't know about the spearmint; the peppermint grows better in cooler climates, I've been told, but the spearmint is a peculiarly Southern breed. I want to make sure I get the daylilies and roses and the daffs and narcissus especially; the front yard of the new place is rather barren of plant life. Roses will have to be carefully placed; don't want the forced walkways thru the snow to cause them to be trampled. But I do want them arching around the 'verandah' - also known as the side porch! - wherever possible. The front walk is a quandary - daylilies and daffs, or ground roses?
Again, snow - and salt - will be a consideration.

Talking to Mike about whether or not to take the covered swing. I want to, he hadn't thought about it. Don't know where it should go, or if it will even hold up out there in the dry cold. PVC mostly, because down here everything else either rusts or rots. But that verandah just screams for rocking chairs. The front porch needs hanging baskets, and they both need wind chimes - the big ones are going with us; our "tubular bells" predict rainstorms too well to leave behind. But the smaller ones we won't take; they are mostly shot anyway.

Looking at Lehman's online and saw scythes. Wondering if, with all of the uneaten dry feed grass on the hills, if that is a good idea or not worth the trouble. Trying to behave - looking at Lehman's is like looking at a seed catalog in December. Sigh. Everything you want, and sets you to dreaming.... I do need a new pressure canner though, this one's pressure gauge never did work right and has been missing for years. Just wandering around in thoughts of needs.

Nancy, the seller, told me that she moved her blue-roan horse, Lake, back to the pasture at the house; I am really glad. Lake has been living on another farm, and Nancy has been paying for the privilege to have someone else keep her. But that property was sold, and she had to move Lake again. For one thing, Lake is too old to be shipped around from one farm to another. She needs to be home. For another, fire is a major concern, especially out there in all of that untouched grass; Lake would be doing me a favor if she kept at least some of it grazed! And finally, Mike is very uncomfortable around horses - his friend's head was kicked in by one long ago - and a nice mellow horse that just needs to be curried and fussed over would be an ideal partnership for both of them. Nancy thinks I'm just being nice but really I'm not - I won't charge her to keep the horse there, why should I? She needs a home, and that home needs a horse. Lake can stay as long as she wants.

Closing is May 30th; it is May 4th. I am so impatient. The moving truck will be here the 21st, and we will leave then, drive nice and slow and take our time and that way Mike can experience the whole of the area before we sign and settle in.

But First Things First

2008-04-15T20:06:00.003-06:00

See that hill behind the pole barn? That's where the underground greenhouse has to go.
Right in the side of the hill, facing south to get the sun. That is the first priority - since we'll be getting in there the first part of June, that will be too late for starts for sale. Not too late though for my tropical oranges and other plants to live in; they are in pots and should survive the trip. Also will be taking the chameleons from my current greenhouse via terrarium to see if they can survive in the underground one up there; they are the best creatures for keeping out the whiteflies and other greenhouse pests. I love my chameleons; when the males puff up their red throats, and stand there all proud of their manhoods, they are a sight to see.

I've studied up on things, and they say that rabbits in a greenhouse in the winter can produce up to 300% of the CO2 needed for plant proliferation in the wintertime. So rabbit cages on the bottom, and the shelves for plants at hip-height right above. Fertilizer and CO2 from the same animal waste. And, later, bunnies for meat and fur... Warmth held in by the soil around it, and shelves of starts. The smell may be rough but not as long as I keep the cages clean. They do it in England, after all.

The neighbors have to drive 40 miles or more for good starts in the spring, and they are just the plain-jane stuff that everyone carries. I plan on introducing all sorts of things; herbs and some of the things I grow from heirloom and other seeds that self-propagate. They say that the growing season may be shorter than I am used to; we're in a "4" after all. But short-season instead of long, and hoop houses to extend the seasons in the garden later, and I am betting I can grow almost year-round. In this cool weather, collards should do well; I may have to introduce folks to them. The garden is large enough for a half-field of mangel beets for winter feed for future cattle; but first, first, the greenhouse!!

We have a plan written out, step by step, to make this venture not just a joy but hopefully, eventually, profitable. All of the research I have been doing in so many places, and for so long, will hopefully prove itself out. And I won't have to work outside the home and yard any more; something I never liked doing to begin with, but always had to. Smaller living, smaller gains, smaller losses. Fingers crossed, and all my hopes and dreams since I was 14, all bundled together...