Bits and Pieces

I read some blogs today, catching up... and commented on a few.  Sometimes I am intimidated, when there are 20 or 30 comments, and feel like my words will be swallowed up in the whole.  I read along with those who are hurting, who are happy, who have been busy... and find their lives (YOUR) lives fascinating, and I learn so very much!

One thing I learned today was very important... backing up your blog.  I refer to this post at

Cedarhill Ranch, and please be sure to go take a look... it will help all of us in the end.  Besides, this is a great blog!

I'm going to do it tonight.  It's funny, I have thought of it from time to time... and it would be so disheartening to lose everything...the week I thought I had lost control, I felt some of that panic.

We had a wonderful day here, except that Keith was worn out from his trips to Harveyville, and rested as much as he could, since he is going down again tomorrow afternoon.  He used a bit of his winnings to get some protective shirts to carry in his go kit, and a hat to protect his face from the sun when he is on a disaster. I took a picture of him in this hat but it is a little blurry, so will not use it. 

It was extremely windy here today, but the wind did not come up until 2 PM.  I tried to get a picture of the llamas blowing in the wind... check out Aztec's haunches, where her wool is blowing so hard.  She is bigger than her mama now, and built like her daddy.

Tony is laying down behind them, he's smart, and stays out of the wind.  The girls were interested in what I was doing, carrying feed and water back and forth.

We keep a bowl on the counter in the kitchen for scraps for the chickens, so they had quite a treat... apple peels, crushed egg shells from breakfast, leftover brownies and some other things.  Oddly enough, the brownies are the FIRST things this flock did not care for.  I noticed when I locked up they had even eaten the apple peels.

I'm sure the mice will take care of the brownies tonight.

Speaking of mice:

I lifted the nest box to see what was under there.   Remember the babies from two weeks ago... batches two and three were under there... I put it down quickly, I was afraid the hens would go nutso and I did not want to hear the mice squealing. We'll be cleaning out the henhouse soon enough.

What we had for dinner.. well part of what we had.  I browned the hamburger, added a drained can of corn... and seasoned it with this:

I love what this does to hamburger, though I think it was designed to put in tomato sauce, I use it on hamburger. 

I then cooked some noodles, and when we ate, we had the meat, corn and noodles all mixed together.

Simple but satisfying, and I will be eating it for lunch for the next 3 days, I think.

We had some baked beans, too, but I always doctor them up.

Yesterday, I cruised Craigslist for a while... I love to see what's for sale in Farm and Garden.... and I was very saddened to see this:

Folks, this is Peppy, who we bought about six years ago and had here for a few short months.  You see, even though I had had riding horses, I let my heart urge Keith to purchase a package of minis.  We got this lovely little Bond-bred stallion who was so very gentle, and two mares, one past breeding age and one already bred.  Our vet came and sat down with us (our first horse vet here, who we soon found we could not afford) and explained to us that Peppy really needed to be kept separately from the mares, and that he could harm the coming foal.  We also had just adopted Beau, the gentle old pony, and Peppy tried to kill him.  (THAT was an evening!).  We ended up returning (for free) the stallion and pregnant mare to the seller, and keeping Lacey, the elderly mare, and Beau.  Peppy wasn't just a beautiful little stud, he was smart and gentle.  He would graze in the yard and come up behind you and rest his head on your shoulder.  When we let them out to graze for a while, a call to them would bring them cantering up the pasture to the pen.   I wish there was some way we could buy him again, but we are not set up here for stallion-keeping.

His owner, an elderly man, sadly passed away in December.  This ad was on Craigslist, with about four or five stud colts born to this herd last year.  The family must be selling part of the herd, now that the patriarch has passed on. I am hoping that Peppy finds a good home where he'll be well cared for.

Tonight, we did some porch-settin' since it was too windy to try to put the plastic on the hoophouse. 

Notice when WE porch-sit... so does Lil

 This cracks us up, in fact, we sat there laughing so hard it was hard to take pictures.  She is like a third person sitting there looking around while we talk.

Now she's out in the yard in the dark, guarding a starling that she killed earlier.

This post is getting out of control... I'm going to leave you now, take an Aleve, and try to save this blog according to the instructions in the Settings tab.  That's if I can find it!

Have a good start to your weeks... and let's hope Mother Nature is calmer this coming week so the poor victims from last week have time to catch their breaths.