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 |  A Journal of our Adventures in Country Living.... |
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"Home is where the heart is" and this is the continuing story of our life on the farm....where our heart is and where we make our home. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I want to thank janieruthryals for this wonderful Merit Badge: ![Merit Badge in Nature
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For the wonderful visit to your farm, all through the words in your blog.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Nature-1125.gif) |
| I was leaving a comment in Sensual Roses blog and this memory came to me. I hadn't thought of this in a long time, and I am wondering what you would have done if in this position..... When I lived in Michigan, I lived out in the country on a small lake. We were surrounded by woods and farmland with houses pretty far apart. About a mile from my house was an old abandoned house. The owners of the house had died about a decade or more before and the land was inherited by sons and daughters who didn't really care about it. They kept it as an future investment, letting the land grow up and the house fall in disarray. The windows and doors had been boarded up at one time, but most of the boards had rotted and fallen off. All the windows were broken and the roof was falling in on the back porch. The once, pretty front porch had collapsed and the front door was laying on the ground. I always wanted to walk through the house, feel the home where this farmer and his wife raised their children. I guess it was just human curiosity, but I also wanted to see what was inside the house, and how it was laid out. Several times I almost pulled into the drive way, but always thought better of it. I didn't have permission and it would be trespassing, although I knew that no one would care. Then one day, I read in the paper where a person had ventured into the house. In their ramblings they found a suitcase. When opened, the suitcase was full of money. This person called the police, who of course confiscated the suitcase. The police speculated it belonged to a drug related gang who they thought inhabited the house several years before. When counted, the money in the suitcase amounted to somewhere close to $500,000 !! I often wondered what I would have done, IF I had gone through that abandoned house and came across that suitcase. Would I have turned it in? Would I have taken it home? Could I have kept it? The person who found the case said they knew it had been laying there for a while as it was covered with dust and debris. Parts of the drywall from the ceiling had fallen and the suitcase was partially hidden. It was just by chance that they happen to see it. What would I have done? I have no idea. I probably would have turned it in.... I think! I am pretty sure I would have called the officials and told them of the find.... I think! Then I wondered, if I had found it, and kept it....what do you do with that kind of money? You can't just go out and start spending and paying off debts. The IRS would become really suspicious over the extra activity going on in your life. I probably would have put the suitcase under my bed, where it would still reside today !!! What would you have done? Would you have called the authorities and turned over $500,000, knowing that you would probably never see it again? Would you have kept it? I would like to think that I would have done the right thing and turned it over to police.... it wasn't my money to begin with. Oh..... but $500,000..... hmmmmmmmmm..... |
| Well, I drove my sister up to St. Louis yesterday and dropped her off at Barnes Hospital to have her operation. It was scheduled for 10:30 this morning. They had to run some test last night so she would be ready to roll this morning. Here it is 4:10 in the afternoon and we have heard nothing. I have called several times, and each time they tell me that they will leave a note for the doctor to call me back. I finally talked to the doctors secretary and she said that everything must have gone ok, otherwise we would have heard. The operation would have taken several hours, then the time in recovery could be 5 hours or more, so she said to just hang tight. Hang tight is hard to do when you are 300 miles away. I wish the doctor would just call and let us know that there were no hitches in the operation. My sister has a benign cancer called "Pseudomyxoma Peritonei". It is a tumor that produces a muscus in the abdominal cavity. The tumor itself is not dangerous, but it spreads and envelops all the organs, slipping into the tiniest cavities. There is no way to totally extract the tumor, as no matter how hard they try, there is no way to get all the gelatine substance out. Over the years, it grows again and spreads. If it is not extracted, then it starts to choke the organs it surrounds and that can be very dangerous. This is the third time she has gone in to have it removed. It is a very invasive operation, and they have to cut her abdominal cavity wide open. The scars from her previous operations run from her pubic area all the way up to her belly button. The first time, she went 13 years before she had to go back in. This time it was only 3 years. Another name for this benign cancer is 'jelly belly'. My sister looked like she was 8 months pregnant. The mass really started growing about 3 months ago, and you could see her stomach get bigger and bigger. Recovery is really hard. She will stay in the hospital 4 or 5 days, then the next few weeks will be spent in bed. I will have to come over every day and take care of her and my mother, her dogs and horses until she is well. I just wish they would call me and assure me that all went well. ************************** To change the subject.... The other day I was sitting in my living room by myself, David was at work, and the dogs were playing. Sherman, our 100 lb mutt and Sassy, our Black and Tan female were roughhousing. They really get into playing hard. I wasn't really paying attention to them at all. Suddenly Sassy started yelping and crying out. It was an anguished cry filled with fear. I turned around and saw her on her back, all four feet up in the air and Sherman on top of her with his mouth around her throat. He was aggressively jumping and crawling all around her and her yelps intensified. I jumped up out of my chair and grabbed the closest thing I could find, a magazine, and started beating poor Sherman over the head, trying to make him let loose of her. He would not release her, and as I watched, she started to pass out. I thought, God, Sherman is killing her !!! I turned to try to find something a bit more substantial than a magazine to use on Sherman when I noticed something..... Sherman's bottom jaw was stuck in Sassy's collar. They are forever pulling each other's collars off, but this time when he got his mouth under it, either he or she twisted and the collar tightened up on his jaw and he couldn't get loose. The more they twisted trying to get away from each other, the tighter the collar become, on both his jaw and her neck. Finally, the collar was so tight, that is was choking her to death. I tried to loosen the collar, but the buckle was in Sherman's mouth and I couldn't get to it. It was so tight, I couldn't slip it off either of them. The only thing I had was my pocket knife which I had just sharpened that morning. But with both of them jumping around in fear and pain, I was worried about sticking one of them in the neck as I tried to cut the collar. About this time, Sassy passed out. I knew this for two reasons, she went limp and her bodily fluids leaked, or I should say sprayed all over the place. She lay there not moving. I grabbed my knife and got on top of Sherman and held him still with my legs. I reached down and cut her collar hoping I would be quick enough to prevent her from dying. Thank goodness I had sharpened my knife, as it cut the nylon collar pretty quickly. The collar dropped off both dogs and Sassy fell to the floor. As soon as she hit the floor, she started gagging and coughing. Sherman was all beside himself and was sniffing her and asking for forgiveness. Ten minutes later, they were chasing each other through the house, this time with collar free. I like to leave collars on my dogs incase they get out, or if for some reason I need to grab them quickly. But after this incident, I will leave them collar free. If I had not been home when this had happened, I would have had one dead dog. I think I will look into getting my dogs micro-chipped. At least that way, if they get lost and end up either at a vets or a shelter, they can be identified. ************************ I just called the hospital again, and they my sister came through the operation with flying colors. She is in her room, knocked out on heavy sedation. That's a relief !! Now I have to get the feeding chores done. I didn't want to leave the house until I heard something. Talk to y'all later ! |
| Just when the weather turns bleak and chilly, my house plants start to cheer me up. I have a Christmas Cactus that is in full bloom. I guess it’s really a Thanksgiving Cactus. It’s bright red blooms add some cheer to our otherwise dreary house at this time of year. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I love to have my curtains pulled aside and my blinds open to let the outdoors come streaming in, but at this time of year, I have to keep everything bundled up tight to conserve heat. Our house is an older, one story farm house and it’s not really well insulated. The windows are old, and even though they have storm windows that I put down during the winter, we have a lot of cold drafts sneaking in around them. By keeping the blinds closed and the heavy curtains pulled, it makes for a warmer house.... but a dark and dreary one. One good grace of living in southern Missouri is that we do get nice days strewed in between the cold days. So every chance I get, I open those dark drapes and the blinds and let the sun shine in. This is one area that David and I differ. I love the sun and let as much of it in as I can. I find a room that is lit up from the sun streaming in through windows a warm and inviting room. David loves it dark and cave like. If it were up to him, we would leave the heavy drapes closed all year round. He could snuggle down and live just fine in a dark, warm cave. He loves the outdoors, but only on his terms. He goes out when he wants to, enjoys the sunshine, but then wants to return to his grotto, all dark and protected. I have allowed him to turn our bedroom into the dark recess he likes. I have the blinds closed, then have black, light blocking fabric tacked up over the windows. In the middle of the day, if you turn the light out and shut the door, the room is pitch black. I have to admit that the one reason I agreed to darken this room into a black haven was to block out our farm light that is in the yard right outside the bedroom window. I have a love/hate relationship with our yard light. I love it as it allows me to look outside and see our whole side pasture and most of the goat pasture. If there is anything going on such as dogs or coyotes getting after the animals, I can see it. It also helps when I have to head out to the goat shed to either feed or tend to a mama and her baby after dark. When the dogs bark inside the house, I can look out the windows of the house and see our vehicles to see if anyone is messing around with them. So it is a good thing to have. I hate the yard light because it clouds up the view of the stars on a clear night. Without the light, there are millions of stars to be seen. You can lay out in the yard on a blanket and stare into the night sky and wonder of what is out there. You can see the constellations and find Mars or Venus. Meteors flash across the sky, so bright and vivid that you can’t help but ohh and ahh over them. With the light on, it’s hard to make out anything unless you walk way back into the woods away from the aurora of it’s lens. I wish that we could have a on and off switch put on it that could be toggled from inside the house. I did ask the Electric Company if they could do that, and they just gave me a funny look. The neighbors horse got out the other morning and was over by our pond. I would have just left him there to graze, but he wasn’t content to stay put. He was moving around exploring this new world that had opened up to him. I watched him and let him be until he started heading up the fence line towards the road. I didn’t want him getting out on the road and causing an accident. Even though our road is not very busy, it always happens that when there is a loose animal roaming the road, that’s when it gets busy. I picked up the phone and called Ray, our next door neighbor. It was Saturday morning and I knew he probably wasn’t even up yet. Sure enough he answered the phone all groggy. I informed him that his foxtrotter gelding was out and was heading towards the road. He said he would be right over. I grabbed a rope and headed outside to try to either catch the gelding or at least turn him away from the road. He would have to come up by the house and use the driveway to get out there so I felt sure I could keep him safe until Ray got there. I felt bad for the three deer that the gelding chased up as he came trotting around the pond heading in my direction. He stopped in our side pasture to graze a bit and I saw Ray come out of his house carrying a halter and lead rope. It didn’t take long for Ray to catch him and put the horse back into it’s pasture. David and I have talked about getting a steer in the Spring and putting it out on the pasture. We could get a 400 pound calf in April and feed it until October or November. The steer should weigh out at around 800 lbs then and would be just at the age and size to butcher. We wondered of two things: Number one is if it is cost effective to do this. By the time you buy the yearling, feed it for 7 or 8 months then pay the processing fee to have it butchered and packaged, would it be cheaper to just to continue to buy our meat at the local market? I talked to the guy at the feed store about it. He raises cattle and he said it would be a lot better to feed your own. The way to do it, he said, was to buy a ‘not perfect’ calf; one that is injured in some way and no one wants to take a chance with it. He said you can get them at the local auction for approximately $30 to $80. He said the first couple of months you can keep them out on pasture and just feed a minimal amount of grain. Then you bring them up to a smaller pasture and start putting more grain into them. The last month, you have them in a feed lot and pour the grain into them. Then when they reach butcher weight, you take them into a local processor and have them done up. He calculates that you end up paying about 1.98 a pound for you beef this way. It might be cheaper to buy hamburger at the store, but you sure can’t buy steaks, ribs and roast cheaper than that. Our number two concern is: Would we be able to load up the steer and take him in to be butchered? Physically we could do it, we have a truck and trailer, but emotionally could we NOT become attached to this steer? When the time came, could we load up our steer and haul him in? I think we could as long as we did not allow ourselves to become attached. We would have to treat him as a commodity and just feed him well until it was time. A lot of ranchers and farmers look at a steer and they see steaks and roast and money. I look at a steer and I see big brown eyes and long eye lashes. I know that I have ruined David also when it comes to animals, and he would surely give our steer a personality. Same thing with a hog or two. It would be nice to fill our freezer with our own meat. We would know what was in it... no medications or drugs, free range, stress free tasty meat. I wish we had a small tractor or at least a rototiller. I would love to plant a vegetable garden, but it’s just to hard to do if you don’t have the right equipment. Little by little, we will become real farmers. As we get our place fenced and find a used tiller, we can plant our gardens and raise our animals and sit on our front porch and watch the world go by. I hope you all enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving. If you are traveling, please be safe. |
| Wow, I can't believe that November is almost over with. How time flies when we are having fun. Cold weather has swooped down upon us these past few weeks. I can tell because David has put on every single piece of clothing he owns, and a few pieces of mine too !! I don’t know what the man would have done if he had moved to Michigan instead of me moving down to Texas when we got married. At least here, even though it is getting down into the high teens at night, it has been making the high 40’s/low 50’s during the day. My nephew says they are having snow up north with a cold bitter wind. I don’t mind the cold weather, it’s just a pain to have to drain the hose every day so I can use it to water the animals. If it freezes up, then I have to cart water in a pail, and that’s not fun at all. I throw out corn for the deer every night and I have a small herd coming up. The other night I had eight deer out there feasting. The six does were chowing down while two young bucks were sparring in the background. I sat in the back room and watched them for a half hour or more, they were so entertaining. The two bucks would lower their heads and paw the ground. Then they charged, rising up on their hind legs, striking out and body slamming each other. The does were paying them no attention, more interested in finding the delectable cornels of corn scattered about. One night as I walked out into the back room, there was a large doe standing not 15 feet away from the picture window. She saw me and hopped over the fence and wandered back over to the area where I have the corn. David usually scatters them when he pulls into the driveway at night, but they don’t go far. Once we are in the house, they come back to clean up the last of the cornels before heading off into the woods again. Richard and Lindsey (my son and daughter-in-law) were here for several days visiting. Our grandson Aric, is now a little over 5 months old and is at that age where he is fun to play with. He would laugh and babble and have us all in stitches with his antics. I bought a bouncy horse for him. It is one of those on springs (this one has rubber bands instead of springs). Aric is to young for it now, but in another year, he could be riding it, chasing imaginary cows across the pastures. I asked Richard if they wanted me to tear it down and send it to them now, or wait a while. That's when they delivered the bad news. Richard is going to put in for Germany when they get back to Washington. He said he should know by January if he gets the assignment or not. Both he and Lindsey want to go to Germany, and they thought they should do it now, before Aric gets to be school age. He would be over there for 3 or maybe 4 years. Not only does that mean that we won't see our grandson for several years, but it also means that he will deployed from Germany to either Iraq or Afghanistan. If you don't remember from my previous blogs, he is a Blackhawk helicopter pilot. He has been flying Hueys up in Washington, but is anxious to get back to his Blackhawks. It scares me to death that he flies helicopters, even on a day to day basis up there in Washington. But it is even more terrifying thinking about him flying over in Afghanistan. The only thing I can do is pray that he stays safe. Here is a picture of Richard, Lindsey my mother and Aric. My mother is 90 in this picture. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I have another doctors appointment tomorrow morning. It’s mainly a follow up to see how I am doing on my meds for Fibro. I am also going to talk to her about my weight. The meds have turned up my appetite control to ‘super’ high and I am continuously hungry all the time. I really don’t eat that much, but what I eat is not good. It’s expensive to eat healthy. To try to keep fruits and fresh veggies on hand is really costly. It’s cheaper to buy a 10 lb bag of potatoes and some cheap minute steaks and I can fix a weeks worth of meals with a can of green beans thrown in or corn. I am hoping that she can give me something to control the appetite, then I can try to keep my calorie count down. Exercise is hard because of the Fibro, but I am getting out and walking around the farm every day. I also have some of those large rubber bands that you can exercise with. It is just totally exhausting after just 5 minutes of walking. I keep thinking that if I keep it up, it should get better, but it doesn’t. That’s where the Fibro comes into play, the total exhaustion and muscle weakness. All I can do is take one day at a time. I have used the appetite suppressants before, and they really helped me get on track. After a few weeks of use, I can wean off of them and then feel good enough to keep on eating right. David is heading down to Houston for his sons wedding on December 6th. He will take a train most of the way, then transfer to a bus to finish out the trip. I can’t go as that is the same weekend my sister will be coming home from her cancer surgery and I have to take care of my mom. This will be David’s first ever train ride. He has always wanted to take the train somewhere, and I was hoping that we could manage a vacation together and head off down the tracks. My only concern is that if he steps off the train for a cigarette break when the train pulls into a station, that he gets back on before the train pulls out again. I can just imagine the phone call I would get: “Hello, honey? Come and get me ! I am somewhere in Arkansas! Just follow the train tracks and I will be standing beside them!” I am sure he will do just fine. I mean we made it to Seattle and back on the airplane with no problems.... well, no major problems that is.... well, only a few major problems.... but we did make it. His son Patrick is a wonderful guy. He lived with us for several years when David and I first got married. He was 24 years old and terribly shy and didn’t really have a ‘girl’ friend. Then he met Sally through a friend and they hit it off immediately. History is Patrick’s number one interest, and Sally worked at the Museum of History in Houston. They have been together for several years now, and they both work at the Museum. He has really flourished under her love and companionship. I sure wish I could go to the wedding and watch these two walk down the isle together. I will give David my camera and hope that he gets lots of pictures. I walked outside last night to wait for David to get home. I meet him out on our front porch every night no matter what time it is. Last night it was around 11:30 when he finally drove up. While waiting, the coyotes started howling and yipping. I have heard them way off in the distance, behind the house back in the woods, or across the road, but they have always been far off. Last night they were really close to the house. There is a small 8 acre patch of woods across the road from us and then there is several hundred acres of pasture land that lays behind and beside this section of woods. This band of coyotes sounded like they were just on the other side of the woods. I listened as they howled and yipped and followed their track across the back of the woods, into the open pasture and down to the small creek that transverses the pasture. Here, they seemed to turn and follow the creek and you could still hear them, although far off now, when David finally drove up and got out of the car. I was a bit worried for the goats and was hoping that the coyotes stayed away from the house. This morning I was up at 5am and stepped out on the front porch for a breath of fresh air. It had rained during the night and there was a light fog blanketing the land. I then heard the coyotes again, over across the road in the cattle pasture. David said they may have run down a wounded deer and fed on it during the night. That would explain their frenzied yipping and yowling. I think I will load the .22 rifle and have it ready just in case they decide to visit the goat pasture. I have never heard wolves howl in the wild, but it was daunting to listen to these coyotes howl to each other. It seemed that there was a main group and another smaller group a little farther away. They were howling and yipping to each other as they ran. I was just glad that I wasn’t out walking or camping in the woods alone that night. A single coyote I am not afraid of, but now that they are traveling in packs, I am just a bit leery of them. Just like dogs, they get brave when they are in a pack formation. Here is a site that has some of the vocalizations that the coyotes make. If you click on numbers 4 and number 6, this is what I heard last night when they were across the road. http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Wild_Coyote_sounds.aspx Well, that’s about all the news on the Farm Front for today. |
| I grew up in a small town in southeast Michigan, not to far from Ann Arbor. I can remember it when it was still marked as a village with its tree lined streets and painted porches with rocking chairs sitting on them. It was a sleepy little town, quiet and peaceful and by 6 o’clock every evening, it’s doors closed. Every one was expected to be home with the family for dinner. My sister and I would ride our horses into town, about a 4 mile ride, and tie them up to a parking meter in front of the corner pharmacy. We would put our penny in the meter and head inside. It was the only place in town that had a counter that you could sit at and order fountain drinks. Cherry phosphates were my sister’s favorite and chocolate cokes were mine. I grew up, married and moved away to California for a while, and when my marriage ended up in divorce 10 years after it began, I packed up my 2 year old son and moved back to this wonderful town. Home is where the heart is, and it felt wonderful to be back. Nothing had changed much except some of the farm land on the outskirts of town had been subdivided and a multitude of new families lived there now. The town also had a stop light at the intersection of the two main roads downtown and some of the old business that I grew up with were no longer in existence and new ones and taken their place. But it still extruded that small town atmosphere and it is where I wanted to raise my son. Since we lived 4 miles out of town, I knew that my son would not grow up roaming the streets and hanging out on the street corners looking for something to do. As with most small towns, there wasn’t a whole lot for young people to partake in except for getting into trouble and even that was hard to do as everyone watched over everyone else's kids. In fact, I think parents knew even before their kids got a chance to get in trouble, that something was up. My house would have been called a cottage by many, but it was home to my son and I. It had two tiny bedrooms, a living room and kitchen combined and a teeny bathroom with a shower. It was hot in the summer and cold in the winter, but it was all we needed. The house may have been tiny on the inside, but the outside was huge. We were surrounded by 100 acres of woods with creeks running all about and our house sat on the shores of a small private lake. The only other houses on this lake were my few neighbors and the house I grew up in, in which my mom and dad still lived. My son loved the outdoors and he would be gone all afternoon exploring the same creeks and small ravines that I explored when I was a child. He and would come home soaking wet and colder than a Popsicle, change clothes, eat a bowl of hot soup and a grilled cheese sandwich and then he and his dog would head back outside to savor what was left of the daylight. The town did honor the children when it came to holidays. There may not have been a lot of things for a kid to do in town on a regular basis, but when it came to Halloween and Christmas, it was a child’s place to be. The week before Halloween was celebrated as Pumpkinfest. There were parades in which most of the kids in the area participated in. They closed down the two main streets in town and had games and entertainment all day long. There were barbeques taking place and all the merchants had street sales with wonderful discounts on their merchandise. Artist would set up their easels and draw caricatures for those brave enough to sit down, and clowns bounced all around with helium filled balloons and pockets full of penny candy to pass out to young and old alike. Every evening the streets would be filled with people strolling along, shopping and watching their children playing games trying to win that dollar toy or twenty-five cent candy bar. The Kiwanis would have a horse drawn hay wagon filled with straw and they would haul families out of town to the local apple orchard, about 3 miles down the road for free cinnamon donuts and fresh squeezed apple cider. While there, the children could get their face’s painted and then go pick their pumpkin out of the huge pumpkin patch grown just for this occasion. Christmas was celebrated in much the same way with all the store fronts decorated with brightly colored lights and displays of the nativity or Santa with his bag of toys. On every corner, Christmas music would be playing softly on outside speakers and it was beautiful. The city would drape stands of lights across the street along with a banner wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. Huge shiny, silver stars and golden bulbs hung from the light post guiding the holiday shoppers from one store front to the next. I especially loved taking Richard into town in the evening after dinner when the snow was falling gently. I would call my mom and dad and we would all go and walk the few blocks that made up the downtown section taking in all the spirit of the season. We would come upon our neighbors and friends and stop and wish each other a Blessed Holiday asking each other of plans made for the season celebration. I miss my home town, but I miss how it was 30 years ago. Like us, it has aged and grown and now it is nothing but a part of suburbia sprawl. There is no farm land left and the town is no longer the quiet, nurturing place it was when I was young, or when my son was young. The streets are now congested with traffic and impatient drivers and shoppers scurrying in and out of stores . People seldom stop and talk to each other and hardly anyone knows anyone else. It has become a town full of strangers ! They no longer celebrate the seasons like they use to, there was to much theft and destruction taking place. If you talk to the new people who live there, they boast of the small town atmosphere and how much they love living there opposed to the ‘big city’. If only they could look back, when it truly was a small town, nestled amongst corn fields and dairy farms, when the community embraced it’s residents and raised the children with unselfish love. That’s what I miss, not the town itself, but the comradeship of small town living like it use to be. I miss coming out of church on Sunday morning and hearing the bells tolling from the 3 different churches in town. Even though they were all chiming different songs, it sounded beautiful. I miss going into the old hardware store with my dad, the store that still had it’s original wooden floor from the 1910’s when it was built. They would creak and groan as I walked across them holding my fathers hand. I miss the little grocery store where you knew everyone that was in there shopping, and the bag boys would automatically carry your bag out to the car for you. All the local news, both good and bad, were told here as you ran into people in the isles. Those days might be gone, but they have left beautiful memories in their wake. My son swore he would never leave our little cottage on the lake, and the town he grew up in, but alas, growing up seems to change your plans sometimes. Yes, the town is still there, as is our little house. Someone else lives in it now and I do hope they enjoy it as much as we did. We will never be able to return to that life, but we can duplicate it in our everyday living in how we treat others. Whenever I get stressed or upset, all I have to do is return to my little home town memories and a smile comes upon me and the stress eases up. |
| Farm Ramblings Well, I was truly surprised and proud of my sweet Scarlett today. All the horses had an appointment with the blacksmith this morning. We don’t keep shoes on our horses, but they need to have their feet trimmed about every 9 weeks or so. After I got David off to work, I dressed and headed over to my sisters to meet up with Mark. He has been trimming our horses now for about a year. I think he is in his mid 40’s and while he nips and rasps each horse’s foot, he tells us of all the local horse gossip going around. We also hear his life story, and the fact that his girlfriend refuses to marry him. They have been going together for several years now, but every time he asks her to marry him, she says maybe later, but not now !! He is also an amateur song writer and told us of his aspiring dreams to be discovered. He has a friend who knows someone in New York who knows someone in the music business, and he sent a copy of a CD to them. He gave my sister and I a copy of the CD and yes, his songs are good. I just don’t know if they are good enough to turn heads or not. Anyway, back to Scarlett. I have worked extensively with Scarlett getting her use to all the things she will have to put up with in the future. Handling her feet and having someone work on them was one of those things. I started from the day she was born, handling not only her legs, but touching her everywhere. Because of that, I have a 5 month old foal who will stand tied, let me trim her mane with clippers and let the blacksmith trim her feet. She stood like the little trooper I knew she was and let Mark do all four feet. Only once did she move around and rear a bit, but he was patient with her and let her figure out that he was not letting go. Then she stood and let him finish her up. Mark complimented me on how easy she was to work with. He said he trimmed another weanling just last week that stomped all over him. Then to add insult to injury, we wormed her after the blacksmith was done with her. Now, I say she was a trooper and stood there like a soldier.... but she wasn’t any to happy about it. Remember I told you she gets pissed really easy. After having to put up with the indignation of having her feet done, then having this paste shoved done her throat, she was more than ready to return to her mother who was already out grazing in the pasture. I had to laugh though, as when Scarlett got to her mother, she rushed in to get some supper. She reached up under the mare and got a mouth full of milk, then backed off and shook her head and stomped her feet. I am sure that the residual taste of the horse wormer made the nice warm mares milk taste like crap !!!!! The day before yesterday I was over working with Scarlett and grooming her mother, Lucy and also Time when I noticed that they were covered in ticks. This is the first time we have ever had a problem with ticks on the horses. I think they wandered to the far back of the pasture, up the hill and behind the trees and got into them there. I mean, they were big suckers, literally !! I pulled off a dozen that were probably larger than my thumbnail. It finally got to be to much, as all the horses were covered. My sister found a bottle of fly and tick repellent for horses that we had stashed away. It works somewhat like Frontline for dogs - you run a thin line of the liquid down the horses back. We treated all five of the horses, and my sister said the next day, there wasn’t a tick in sight !! Thank goodness it worked, as I hate pulling those big, nasty ticks off! Now we have hunting season to worry about. Some fools hear a noise, see a big brown animal coming through the brush and shoot before they realize it wasn’t a deer but a horse. We had one guy show up on our place a week ago carrying a rifle. He got lost in the hundreds of acres of woods behind us and just made his way to the sound of the barking dogs. That was fine and dandy, but there is no hunting back there, and even if there was, it was BOW season only. He said he had left his truck down on the highway by Logan Creek. I told him he had a LONG walk ahead of him to make it back to his truck and pointed him in the right direction. He was hunting illegally on posted property, and hunting with a rifle.... I wasn’t going to give him a ride anywhere !! |
What a wonderful day it turned out to be. You would have never guessed it if you had been sitting in our living room this morning though. If you read Tor’s blog, "Invalid Entry"  you would have thought the day was a total disaster. Yes, it was late before we got to sleep last night, or should I say early this morning. I think the last time I looked at the clock it was about 2:30 going on 3 o’clock. No big deal as we didn’t have to get up to an alarm clock and could sleep in. Of course the dogs woke me up at 6 am with their legs crossed, nervously pacing the floor in front of the door. I let them out, got the coffee pot ready, and then turned on the furnace to warm the house up. I let the dogs back in, gave them their morning doggy treat and retreated back to the bedroom into the warmth of my dear husbands arms ..... except he was not in a very receptive mood. “I’m wide awake!” He growled. “And it’s only 7 am!” He snarled. “I’VE ONLY HAD 4 HOURS SLEEP !” He protested. “So roll over and go back to sleep.” I quietly suggested. “YOU KNOW I can’t go back to sleep once I’m awake!” He proclaimed. “Yes dear, I know.” I said. “Come here and lay your head on my shoulder for just a minute before you get up.” I pleaded. He rolled over and laid his head on my shoulder and within 3 or 4 minutes, deafening snoring sounds were blasting in my right ear. David woke up again around 10 am and got up to get his cup of coffee and peek in at WDC to see what was going on. I laid in bed for another 15 minutes trying to get rid of the raging headache I had from all that noise blasting my ear drum. Then I hear it, the knocking on the front door. I knew who it was immediately, the little girl next door who was coming after her candle order. I told her I would have it ready for her today, and was going to walk it over when I got dressed. She beat me to the punch. The next thing I know, I hear cursing and stomping and more cursing. I heard dogs whimpering in fear and then the bedroom door burst open as David grabbed his pants and hurriedly put them on. I just laid there and chuckled. That’s what you get when you sit around in the house in your underwear ! Then the thought of poor little Jessie having to face a raging bull made me jump out and throw my housecoat on to run interference. I pushed in front of David who was glaring at the poor girl, while she was uttering, in her sweetest little girl voice, about Mrs Melinda and the candle order. I smiled down at Jessie and handed her the envelope with her order in it, and I waved at her mother who was standing out on the road at the end of the driveway waiting for her. When I turned around and shut the door, there was nary a dog or cat in sight. David was throwing stuff off the desk and had a roll of paper towels and a few of our bath towels wiping up the coffee that had spilled when he knocked over his extra large coffee mug. Coffee was dripping off of everything, and as the dogs came out from their hiding spots, I saw a few coffee soaked canines looking at me with that “has daddy gone mad - again” look. I just shook my head and started to plan my day. We were going to head over to my cousins, Cherry and Charles, in the Bluff this afternoon. We were to leave around 2 pm, but then my sister called and said there had been a change in plans and we were going to be leaving in approximately an hour. No big deal. I had a load of clothes in the dryer to get out, a shower to take and then once dressed, I would be ready to go. I hustled David along, we got our showers taken, and were ready to go when my sister and mother stopped by to pick us up. Needless to say, David was in a foul mood. He looks so cute with a frowny face, and those pouty lips are so dang sexy !! I just smiled at him sweetly and told him that I loved him !!! Of course our other cousin, Leslie, who was originally suppose to get there at 3 o’clock, and then called to say she was going to be early, didn’t show up until 3:30. We had a real nice visit with my Aunt Noreen and Cherry and Charles while waiting for her to show and enjoyed Kentucky Fried Chicken and some home cooked vittles that Cherry cooked up. David and Charles escaped out to the barn and played with the remote controlled mechanical roping calf. You see, Charles is a roper and has his own little arena and roping chutes. He has this mechanical roping calf that he practices on and they were having fun playing with it. Gawd I don’t know what they were doing to it, but David was in a pretty good mood by the time they came down from the barn. Leslie, my cousin that was visiting from Oregon finally drove up and we had a wonderful afternoon talking about family and comparing all the family folklore that was passed down to us. We finally wrapped it up around 6:30 and headed back home. It truly was an enjoyable afternoon. My sister Evelyn and I plan on getting together with them tomorrow and hanging out for a while. Thankfully, David will be able to escape to work and not be subjected to a bunch of cackling women. |
| Back in the late 70’s my first husband and I were operating our own training and show stable in Woodside, California. It’s kind of a ritzy little town snuggled up close to the mountains that stood between us and the Pacific Ocean. Shirley Temple Black had a house in Woodside and Mr. Folger of the coffee empire lived next door to us. Joan Baez also lived down the road from us at the time. We lived on a multi million dollar estate, in the apartment over the stable area. We had full control over all the horse facilities which included the barns, pastures and training rings in exchange for taking care of the property. The property consisted of 6 acres, the main house, a gate house and then the stable area with the 2 bedroom apartment. The owners were a middle age couple who owned several large car dealerships in the San Francisco Bay area. The main house had 62 rooms, I know because I spent one full evening counting them all. They would often travel overseas, and when they did, we moved into the big house and stayed there until they returned home. Sometimes it would be for only a week, and often it was for a month or more. Not only were there 62 rooms, but there was a full attic and a full basement also. I had never been in a house so grand before and was always awestruck when we would stay there, no matter how often it happened. There was a grand veranda that caressed the entire back of the mansion and this overlooked the gardens and beyond that the Olympic sized pool with it’s own pool house and aviary. We also maintained the lawns, gardens and pool along with the tennis courts. I truly enjoyed the work, heading out in the mornings to cut grass or trim bushes and plant flowers. The couple left it up to us to make all the decisions regarding the planting and caring of everything. They were hardly seen outside the house when they were home, except for when they entertained company on the veranda. Our afternoons were spent working horses and taking care of our customers. We often had people enquiring about horses we had for sale, and one of these people happened to be Patty Hearst. We had a big white faced, 5 year old, Saddlebred for sale. He was bred to be a top notch show horse, but had learned to buck because of some bad training experiences. We obtained him through a friend of ours who heard that they were going to send this horse off to the local auction. He was big, black and really a magnificent animal. The white on his face was enhanced by his four white legs and with his elegant head carriage and leg action, he turned heads where ever he went. His only problem was that he had been hurt by previous training methods used on him and bucking was his only means of escape. It only took a week or two of working with him for him to become a rather trusting and engaging mount. He was really fun to ride and was willing to go where ever you pointed him once he learned to trust you. His show days were over, but he was a wonderful trail riding horse and whoever ended up with him could be proud to be seen on him as he was beautiful. Patty Hearst hadn’t been out of jail for to long when she and her body guard (I can’t remember his name) stopped by the farm one day. They had heard of ‘High Fidelity’ through another trainer and decided to check him out. I gave them a tour of the barn and told them the story behind ‘Fidel’. I explained to them that he should never be asked to present himself in the show ring. The stress of the rigors of training that it takes to get a horse ready for the show ring was just to much for him, and he could revert back to his defensive ways. She was very receptive to all of this as we headed towards his stall. I opened his stall door and he came over and laid his big beautiful head on my shoulder. He did this so I would scratch his chest, his favorite place to be scratched. Patty was awestruck. This was a big 16.2 hand gelding, and Patty was a small person and she was just a bit intimidated by his size at first. I led him out and turned him loose in a small paddock so he could run and stretch a bit. Both she and her body guard (who later became her husband) were just mesmerized by ‘Fidel’. He had that affect on people because of his size and sleek black coat, white markings and way of moving. We stood there and talked for a good hour. They finally left after making another appointment to come back later that week, when they had more time to ride him. The following Saturday, Patty and her guard came back out dressed to ride. I lunged ‘Fidel’ to get the kinks out of him and then put my western saddle on him. I rode him at first to let them see how he looked and to explain some of the cues I used to signal him for the various movements he could do. I then dismounted and let Patty ride. She did real well with him. ‘Fidel’ had energy. He was not a pansy that like to hang his head and plod along, and I wondered if she would be able to address his energy and channel it correctly. At first she was unsure and anxious, but soon realized that this horse wanted to work with her and not against her. After about 20 minutes, they were heading out down the road to do a bit of trail riding. When she returned, I unsaddled ‘Fidel’ and put him up and Patty, the guard and I went into the small town of Woodside and ate lunch at a marvelous French restaurant. We discussed ‘Fidel’s’ history again and what I thought of his future. We discussed price and delivery options and other pertinent things regarding the sale of a horse and we just talked about life. She was very pleasant as was her body guard, and we laughed and joked and spent a wonderful two hours over lunch before heading back to the stable to seal the deal. She signed the paperwork and made arrangements for us to deliver ‘Fidel’ to a small farm over on the coast in Pescadero, just south of Half Moon Bay. She was going to keep her horse there for a while, until she settled down and had a permanent place to keep him. My husband and I loaded ‘Fidel’ up and delivered him the following weekend. There was an older couple who met us there and they had a stall and paddock all ready for him. I don’t know if they were relatives or just friends, but I never heard from Patty again. I often wonder if she and ‘Fidel’ enjoyed their time together and what became of him. The next summer I happen to be in the area where we delivered ‘Fidel’ and I glanced over the pastures and I couldn’t see him. I hope he had a good life. As a side note.... We lived on this property for several years taking care of it and maintaining the lawns and gardens. The couple sold the house and grounds and the house remained empty for several months. In the meantime my husband and I divorced and I moved back to Michigan. He informed me later that the property sold for $8 million dollars and the new people tore down the house and built an even bigger one. They also tore down all the stabling and fencing and divided the property up into three, 2 acre lots and sold the other two lots for several million apiece. While showing horses in California, I had the opportunity to hob-nob with quite a few well known people. A lot of the movie and television celebrities had show horses as a hobby. Not only would we show with and against these celebrities at the shows, but on the horse show circuit, there are a lot of behind the scenes, private parties that we were invited to. It was fun to dance with William Shatner and laugh and joke with Amanda Blake. We went out to dinner with Charleton Heston and Steve Reeves. Steve wanted us to come train his horses, but we declined the offer. We also would run into Robert Conrad who showed hunter and jumpers. There were numerous other ’name’ people that I just can’t remember now, but it had to be one of the most interesting times in my life. I was in my mid 20’s and totally out of my element. I mean, I was just a country girl from southeast Michigan, and here I was engaging with some of the most intriguing people that I had ever met. I mean... they were movie stars !! It sure created some fine memories to carry with me through the rest of my life. |
| Updated Farm News.... Well, really, there is no news, so I guess that’s a good thing isn’t? Goats are just being goats, although David says he is going to rename Addy. He was sitting there this morning watching out the window and Addy and Obama were up by the gate just head butting each other. They would stand back, rear and then come at each other trying to prove who was the stronger buck . You could hear horns knocking and a cursed bleating going on between the two of them. David said that from now on, Addy will be known as McCain, since it reminded him of the polital head butting going on. The funny thing is that all the other goats, were at the far end of the pasture not in the least interested in what was going on back at the stable. They were busy moving about trying to find some morsel to consume, minding their own business. Whoever wins will be their leader, and they will follow that buck wherever he leads them, whether it is advantageous or not. Who ever would have thunk that goat politics mirrored out own ! I really need to make more of an effort to sign into WDC and read and comment in some blogs. There are several reasons (excuses) that I don’t. The number one excuse is that I just don’t have the energy. By the time I do the essential chores around the house, I am just whipped. The other excuse is that when I do get on the computer, I gravitate to Pogo.com and sit here and play these stupid, but fun games. My sister got me addicted to Pogo and now I find myself working diligently trying to achieve the badges that they activate every week. Why? I don’t really know, as fulfilling the requirements needed to win a badge achieves you nothing but ... a badge. Sometimes I feel like I wasted a whole lot of time that could have been used in some other endeavor like posting and commenting on WDC. Oh, and some of the necessary achievements needed to win a badge require no skill what-so-ever. Just mindless playing of a boring game over and over again until that feat is accomplished. The ones that require a bit of skill are fun and I enjoy those. I am heading out the door soon to run into town and pick up some goat chow and corn for the deer. I also need to get some gas as I am almost out. Thank goodness gas is down to $2.75 a gallon. I never thought I would see it below $3.00 again. It feels good to fill your tank and only spend $30 instead of $50 !! After the feed is picked up and the truck gassed up, I am going to play with the horses for a bit. I am feeling pretty good today and thought I would take advantage of it. The horses are looking pretty scraggly and need to be clipped and groomed. Scarlett has taken on a new method of complaining when asked to comply to human demands. If you remember, when she was younger she would use her two back feet pretty darn freely to kick out when asked to do anything she didn’t want to. I mean just asking her to move her butt over would result her getting pissed and kicking out. A few good spankings put a stop to that right quick. Now if asked to do something, even if it is something as simple as standing tied to be groomed, she is attacking with her teeth. I was grooming her last week, had her tied so she had to stay put, and those cute little ears of hers went back, her tail starting swishing and she tried to bite me. I spanked her good and she jumped in surprise as I am sure she thought she was going to win this time. It’s not like she doesn’t like getting groomed. She stands there with her head stretched out, her upper lip quivering in pure joy when I rub the curry all over her body. She especially loves her tummy to be scratched.... but if it isn’t her idea, then she gets pissed. I blame it all on her mother who is such a wuss. She will not discipline Scarlett at all and lets her get away with murder. Because of this, Scarlett thinks that every one should let her have her own way and just gets down right mad when she is disciplined and made to behave. It is quite funny to watch her, as her little ears go back, flat against her neck, she starts wringing that tail of hers and stomps her feet. She is getting better as I make her work every time she gets this way, and she only gets to stop work when she gets her happy face on..... ears up, tail quiet and feet still. So little by little, she is learning that throwing little temper tantrums just makes her life a bit harder and it is way easier to stay in a happy mood than it is to get pissed. A lot like raising kids isn’t it ? Weather here in Southeast Missouri has cooled down somewhat. It’s been down in the low 40’s at night and I do believe we had one night in the high 30’s. High’s during the day are in the mid to high 60’s with some days reaching into the low 70’s. It’s my kind of weather !! Great sleeping at night, and wonderful for getting outside to work in the yard. I just wish I had the energy and strength to do all the things I want to do. But that’s ok, it just takes me a bit longer to get-er done ! My sister has to go into the hospital the first week of December to have a cancerous entity removed. It’s not a life threatening cancer unless it is left, where it grows and starts to choke out vital organs. The doctors describe it as a gelatin substance that just keeps on growing and spreading throughout the stomach cavity. She first had it removed about 13 years ago. The doctors said it is impossible to remove it all because of it’s nature and makeup, and it would have to be cleaned out every 5 years or so. She was lucky and went 10 years, before it started causing problems for her. Three years ago she went in and they did what they had to do, and now she has to go in again. She almost looks like she is in the early stages of pregnancy, with this pouch of a lower abdomen sticking out. When she has digestive upsets and a hard time breathing, she knows it’s time to have the procedure done again. My sister is 63 but you would never guess it. I have a brisket in the oven slow cooking at 225 degrees. Will let it stay in there all day long, and it should be nice and tender and juicy by the time David gets home around 8:30. It sure makes the house smell good ! The day before yesterday I fixed sweet and sour chicken with a dish of broccoli and beef on the side. Yesterday we had a Mexican salad served in a crispy tortilla shell. Can you tell I do like to cook? Well, that’s about it for news on the farm front. I promise I will try to stay away from Pogo.com and get in Writing . com more often and start to comment to the blogs that I read. Y’all take care now.... |
| The dentist stopped by today. He brought his tools with him and ended up filing some teeth, knocking off the sharp edges and then pulling one tooth that was infected. Bet you didn’t know that dentist made house calls did you? Well, when your patient weighs 1000 lbs, has four legs and lives in a barn, it is a heck of a lot easier to go to the patient than to have the patients all waiting in your office for their appointment. Yes, the Equine Dentist came for his yearly visit the other day. Since my sister and I have geriatric horses, their teeth need to be checked at least once a year. When I told David that the ’horse’ dentist was coming, the first thing he said was: “Don’t you dare tell me that ’Scarlett’ needs braces!” You see, horses teeth never quit growing. Through the natural act of chewing, they are kept ground down and level to allow the horse to fully utilize it’s feed. If a horses teeth start to grow uneven, or if they are not ground fully, they become jagged and start cutting the inside of the cheek. When this happens, the horse can’t chew properly and drops grain or wads of hay out of the side of his mouth. If the problem is not fixed and allowed to worsen, the horse will lose weight and not flourish. My sister has two horses that are in their 20’s and “Time” my Morgan mare is now 21. As the horse ages, the angle of the tooth changes. This is one way that you can tell the age of a horse is by the angle of his front teeth. As they chew, because of this change in angle, the outside of the tooth continues to grow while the inside of it is ground away. Before long, the outside forms a very sharp ridge and this is when it starts to cut the inside of the horses cheek causing pain every time he chews. The solution is pretty simple. Take a large file and file the sharp edges down. I have done this before when a dentist wasn’t available, but it’s better to have it professionally done as a equine dentist can get all the angles back to where they should be. Sure enough, all of our older horses had sharp edges. I knew this as I had checked them several months ago and actually cut my finger when I hit one of the edges. This is when we made the call to our friendly neighborhood dentist and set up the appointment. I had noticed that ’Time’ had some swelling on her lower jaw, and suspected a bad tooth. Sure enough, when the doctor looked in her mouth, he found the culprit. He wiggled it around and then grasped it with his giant pair of pliers. He rocked it one way, then the other and using the speculum for leverage, he popped that bad tooth right on out. The mare didn’t even flinch. He does mildly sedate the horses for this procedure. He then puts a device in their mouth, the speculum, that helps hold their mouth open. This way he can get his file way back to the back teeth and work. Most of the time, the horses just stand their, in la la land with not a care in the world. ‘Lucy’ had a few sharp edges starting to form, so he knocked them off and he even checked ’Scarlett’ just for the hell of it as it was a good lesson for her. She did not appreciate it at all that this man put his whole hand in her mouth, grabbed her tongue and checked her teeth. But she was a pretty good girl. Here is a picture of the tooth that was pulled out of ‘Time’. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Fall is in the air. The nights have been really cool, down in the low 40’s and the house has a chill to it in the mornings when I get up. It’s great for baking those cinnamon rolls first thing in the mornings. The sweet smell drifts through the house and the heat from the oven helps take the chill away. The trees are starting to change color. We don’t get the brilliant colors here like we did up in Michigan. Instead of the bright oranges, yellows and reds, we get rusty reds, burnt oranges and deep golden yellows. Deer season has started and my deer are really cautious now. They jump at the littlest noise and run the minute they see a person. Before, I could sit out there, not 50 feet away from them and they didn’t care. I could hear them crunching the corn as they ate it and see them twitch a fly off of their body. Now the only way I can watch them is from inside the house. Even then, if they happen to see me move in the window, they become alert and ready to dash off in a second. The other night we had 3 does and one fawn out there eating. I was in the spare bedroom sitting there watching them. David went into our bedroom. When he turned on the television in the bedroom, all 4 deer jumped straight up in the air and hit the ground running. They only ran a few feet before they stopped and cautiously turned back to the feed. I hope they make it through the hunting season but chances are pretty slim this year for them. With the high cost of beef, everyone is talking about taking a deer to supplement their meat supply. People who haven’t hunted in years are hunting this season. Even though it is only bow season right now, I have heard many shots way out back in the woods, from high caliber rifles. Don’t think they are shooting squirrels or rabbits with those guns. My hummingbirds have departed for the season. I had two feeders out this year and had quite a few hummers feeding. I went through about 5 pounds of sugar a month feeding them. I have taken the feeders in and put them up for the winter. Now I have to get my winter bird feeders ready. The only problem I have with them is that the neighbors cats come over and prey in my front yard on the birds. I have hinted to them several times that I get upset when their cats come over, but they don’t care. I hate to feed the birds just so the cats can get them. The only thing I can do is keep a watch out for the cats and chase them away when I see them. That’s pretty easy to do as all I have to do is let one of the dogs out. We put up hay last week. Got about 300 bales in for the winter. I sure am glad that is over with. Thank goodness we had some help this year. My sister and I put up the first 100 bales. David was off one day when the hay was cut and he was able to help us with 50 bales. Two insurance guys, dressed in suits happen to drive up when we were unloading the bales and they jumped in to help. Each bale weighs between 65 and 80 pounds and we stack it 6 high, so it’s a chore to toss those bale up there. Between David and the two dudes dressed in suits, my sister and I didn’t have to do anything that time, except to supervise. My sister and I did another 50 bales, and the last 100 the farmers son and daughter in law came over and unloaded it for us. I just couldn’t do any more, and my sister was on her last leg. You have to remember my sister is 63 years old. I guess they felt sorry for us and offered to come over and help. They ended up unloading the whole trailer as we just couldn’t do it. I spent the next two days in bed recovering from the exertion !!! Oh, I have to go into the hospital next Tuesday and have a D&C and cauterization done. I tried talking the doctor into just doing a hysterectomy, but she wouldn’t do it. I had a bunch of test done a few weeks ago and they all came back borderline, so she wants to go in and see what’s happening. She said she will not do a hysterectomy unless it was absolutely necessary. Dang it ! Oh, and David has all of next week off......... I see a computer war about to take place !! That’s about all the news from the farm for now. |
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