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Hi Everyone,
I could write about my whole week, and that is what I started to do five hours ago. I spent an hour typing, but didn’t get very far. Then it was time to go outside and do the evening chores—because Papa was gone for the evening and therefore Mom and I had to do his chores. What an adventure we had!
We gathered up the dog food, egg buckets, and the alfalfa for the calves—but on second thought we decided not to separate the calves since the cows have been giving us so much milk. We took the bucket of feed with us anyway, for we thought that the heifers would like a little evening snack. We were just fixing to head off in the golf-cart when Catalina decided to hop on and join us. The cats love to go for rides in the golf-cart and the Gravely. Sometimes they even like to ride up front in the basket of the golf-cart, or where the window should be in the Gravely. We let Catalina ride with us for a little bit, and then we had to drop her off—for they do not like going out to pasture with us. Our first stop was the back cow barn to drop off the alfalfa for the heifers. When we came to a stop we saw a wild bunny. We have seen it around quite a bit lately—although sometimes we find Catapus stalking the rabbit. We thought that we would throw the rabbit some alfalfa, but the motion scared it away. We opened up the barn doors and called the heifers to take a break from munching on grass to come get a little snack. They came a running!
Our next stop was the garden—I just had to see how the broomcorn survived after yesterday afternoon’s torrential down pours and 30 mph wind. It was leaning over some, but for the majority it was doing just fine—even though it is about 14 feet tall. The cucumbers, yellow squash and zucchini are done—and I didn’t get to eat enough of them, and never got enough to preserve any. I will say that I enjoyed every bite I did get to eat. One of the cucumbers was all yellow, so I thought that I would bring it in and save the seeds. When we got back inside I cut it open—and threw it away. It was so rotten that I didn’t care to even look for viable seeds. Our fancy little boxes that we built and filled with woodchips and compost in order to grow our pumpkins, lemon squash and spaghetti squash—were a failure. The woodchips sucked all the nutrients out of the compost, and therefore the plants are still about six inches tall after 2 months. We were discussing leveling them out, tilling the bed under and covering it with silage tarps. Then I saw it—one of the spaghetti squash vines had actually grown out of the box and was growing strong and green, and had a wee little spaghetti squash on it. I am just thrilled! The pumpkin might recover, but time will tell.
After we left the garden we drove up and down the fields looking for a water leak. Our water pressure is really low, so we have been trying to figure out if we have a leak somewhere. So we drove up the fence line of one two acre field, and down the fence line of another two acre field, and up the fence line of a third two acre field, and down another, and up another—finding nothing. So we stopped to feed Yasha the dog who guards the bulls. She was very excited to see us. Then we headed up to the sheep field so that we could feed Jill—the dog who guards the sheep, and she was happy to see us. We drove all around the field looking at the sheep, taking notice of all the dead trees that need to be cleaned up, and finding a whole bunch of wild watermelon vines. Only one section of vines actually had melons on it. Mom was told by a friend that a melon is ready to pick when the tendril at the top of the stem turns brown. We found two ripe melons, and harvested them to feed to the chickens. They are not the red watermelons, but the inside is green. We then headed down to the pond field to feed Sheba—the dog that guards the chickens and she was very happy to see us. Then we gathered the eggs from the first house, and as we were gathering them I began to feel something wet on my leg. When I looked down I realized that a chicken that was on the roost above me, had decided to go to the bathroom. May I say that chicken poop STINKS! There was nothing available to wash the mess off either—it was down my dress, across my sock, and onto my shoe. The more I walked the more my dress brushed through it, and the dirtier my leg got. Papa always complains about gathering eggs in the dark because the chickens poop on his shirt—I think that I could have handled a poopy shirt much better than a poopy sock and hem of my dress. After we finished the first house of eggs then we headed to a different field and gathered the eggs from the second house.
Our last stop was the poultry barn where the old chickens turn scraps into compost. It was there that we intended to feed the melon to the chickens. While Mom gathered the few eggs, I attempted to bust open the melon. I slam dunked it on the ground—and it bounced. I did it again—and it bounced, and I did it again—and it bounced. I then attempted to throw it against the wooden feed a few times—and it bounced. Mom came out and tried throwing it down a few times. I told her to throw it against the side of the hard plastic duck pond—it went kersplat in the dirty water (ducks don’t know how to keep their water clean). We then proceeded to throw it against a dead tree—and it bounced off unto my foot. We threw it at the tree quite a few times, but it just bounced. Mom then decided to throw it against the corner of the barn wall—and it bounced. I then decided to walk 75 feet to the garden shed to get me a machete, and came back and with two whacks I had it split in half. The chickens and the ducks and goose were all enjoying their close to bedtime snack.
When we arrived back at the house we found Daisy and Daphne—the ducks, sitting inside the garage holding Catalina captive. Those ducks love to pester the cats. They chase after them every chance they get. When we arrived the ducks came out, and Catalina was happy to be rescued—what a scaredy cat. We headed into the courtyard to enjoy the beauty and the ducks and all three cats came to join us. We sat down on the ground and the cats curled up in our laps—but the ducks would come up and run them off. One duck decided to jump in my lap as she investigated my button. Once she tried to nibble on my leg. Catalina and Catapus are intimidated by the ducks, but Sunny Boy just lays there holding his ground not budging an inch. Therefore the ducks give up and leave him alone.
The sun was beginning to set, and I realized that I had best come inside and clean myself up from the chicken poop, and get going on this journal.
I hope that you have a great week—and a wonderful 4th of July!
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare