Second Post Sunday

There's a new little friend sitting with me now sometimes.

Gertie Lou has always been my little buddy.  She's such a good little girl, but I have a nice story about Abby that happened last night.  Keith was gone on an errand late in the afternoon, and it darkened outside.  Abby was laying in the doorway of the room, and jumped up and began to bark.  I kept telling her to calm down, that everything was okay, but she would run down the hall (think Lassie) and then run back and bark at me.  I finally got up to see what was wrong... and the front door had come open by at least three feet!  Abby was letting me know that something was wrong and I needed to see it!  I was so proud of her.  We have noticed since we adopted her almost three years ago now that she is very protective of us, and a very brave girl to boot.

While blog-hopping earlier today (pre-nap) I came across two new "pug" blogs... It's Tiffy Time, and Pug Possessed, with the most wonderful little pugs.  I read a number of pug blogs... I can't help myself, they ARE truly the most wonderful little dogs.

Please ignore the fact that our John Deere has been sitting out in the elements all winter. It has a tire that has been going flat for months, and has to be aired up every time it is moved... on February 27th it goes in for it's annual tuneup and by golly, that tire will be fixed for good!   What I really intended for you to see is the torque in the trunk of the huge old walnut tree.  It began last summer, and sometime in the last two weeks, a great big piece of bark just out of camera view to the left came off in a big sheet.  There is a hole on the left, also, that leads into a den inside the tree, where the trunk is hollow.  It bore very few walnuts last year. We estimate it is probably 100 years old, and one day soon this year I bet we find out (Keith!)

Cost of removal of this huge old tree is prohibitive... yes, people want walnut, but they want logs brought TO them, they no longer come get them.   Is it going down on the shop and Keith's dad's boat?  We hope not!  (Keith!)

Walnut trees are the very last around here to leaf out in the spring, and ours started dropping leaves in July last year.

While we feel better today, Keith was able to sleep in until 1 and I did not go to church, which I rarely miss.  It was not fair to the congregation to sit and listen to me cough my head off and I felt it was better to stay home as I MUST go to work tomorrow.  After all, it's my annual review day. (!) Thank heavens, it's technically the last one, though I will have to do one for this spring.  It will be a transitional one, I'll write it as I plan to turn over things to whomever my successor will be.

We did chores early, and I fixed us a decent small meal of spaghetti red... and we are waiting to see if we have the appetite for a wonderful dessert we saw yesterday morning on The Pioneer Woman Cooks on Food Network.  If I could find the link to it, I would give it to you... but it was a banana dessert (Ree Drummond hates bananas!) that she made for her mother in law and kids, who were camping out.  You took a banana, sliced it about 3/4 of the way down, open it a little, put in caramel pieces, chocolate chips, mini marshmellows, then pulled it together, wrapped it in foil, and warmed it in an oven (or over a campfire) at 350 degrees for as long as it took to melt everything.  YUMMM. 

Keith got the ingredients at the store yesterday but doggonit, we are still not up to eating it.  I think if another day passes, we should be back to feeling a little more normally.

Spring is evidently springing in the henhouse.  Rambo came across the rafters today, jumped down, and ambushed one-eyed Butch. It looks worse than it is, though.  We cleaned him up and put Neosporin all over him.  Our problem, though, is that spring IS springing.  I noticed that the big roosters are riding the tiny hens in with them terribly, and something will have to be done about it.  I am praying that once the new henhouse is finished, I can sort everyone out and get the bantam girls away from the bigger roosters.  And yes, we are facing having to thin the rooster ranks again.  I have protected Butch so far, but I can't put him back in his pasture pen and let him have the run of the pasture because it would mean keeping Rambo and the bigger flock in again.  Once the new henhouse is up and running, most of the hens still laying will be heading that way. Then we'll sort out what to do about the rooster population.  The mild winter also meant that the older roosters, whom I did not think would make it through another bad winter, all lived.  I do have one little old hen not looking well right now, but we'll see how she does over the next few days.

Have a good start to your week, everyone!