Saturday, October 28, 2023

Back to High School

I used to blog daily!  That was actually while I was still working and taking care of a lot more animals than 24 chickens and eight cats!  

It seems I am busier now than then, and I apologize for the long gap. 


This was my yard at the beginning of the week. Dreadfully dry.  


This was our temp on Monday. 


This is today, right now.  
We have had over 3 inches of rain, and it has been raining steadily all afternoon. 

This was, unfortunately, the day of the Jack O'Lantern Jamboree at the 
National Agricultural Center.  The grounds were decorated, but a decision was made to bring it inside the barn at noon... and I am sure the train did not operate, as it cannot run in rain. 
I feel sorry for all the kids looking forward to it.  The volunteers were all there 
and the businesses offering candy, and I hope a few at least got to have fun. 

I just got word that many families did show up and had a good time, despite the steady rain all afternoon! 


Sorry for the graphic photo.  This is Wanda, my little girl that lives in the big hen house. 
Wanda was injured about 3 1/2 weeks ago, and you can see here the top of the tear.  
The stitches (purple string) are now out, and the hole is almost closed.  We went to the vet every other day for two and a half weeks and she has been living in our office (smallest bedroom) since the start of the treatment.  She is doing amazingly well! 
The hole was treated with a poultice of sugar, honey and silver, because there was not enough skin to pull together over it.  It looks clean today and is healing fast.  
I'll try to get a picture tomorrow of how it looks now.  She is in for another few weeks, and is welcome to be an inside cat if she wants. 


There are still some baby raccoons out there. 


And, some giant ones! 


I turned the warming light on over the Kuranda bed two weeks ago, and Cleo loves to sleep on it. 


This month marked the seventh anniversary of Keith's death.
I cannot believe it has been that long. 


My friends Snickers and Doodles went home a week ago tomorrow. 


Along with Snowball... at fourteen, I don't know if she will be back next year. 
I really miss them already, but am also glad not to be carrying water in buckets, since I have dropped my hoses. 


This is Sammy, the Salmon Faverolle, and Reddy, the red production chicken, 
neither of whom lay. 
I have a lot of pensioners here. 
Someone contacted me today... I don't know how he got my number two years later... he must have kept it... I rescued two chickens from him TWO years ago... he wanted to know if I could take ten roosters from his parents, they had bought chicks at a feed store and ended up with ten roosters. 
I respectfully declined and told him I hoped they could find someone. 

I am down to two roosters, and holding there. 
Buddy has taken over his brother Singleton's flock, and spends most nights in the old hen house now. 
Every once in a while, I find him back in his own big hen house.  There are two very old hens in there, and I don't know if they will make it through the cold this year. 


Two weeks ago, I celebrated my 55th high school reunion. 
Yes, folks, my 55th! 
That's your blogger in the middle of the group... these are 1964 graduates of 
St. Peter's Cathedral Grade School, now called Resurrection School. 
There were 8 of us there and there were two more expected, who were unable to come. 
Please excuse my crazy short hair, and it was a sight that day! 
I had on my Ringo Starr tee shirt because my childhood friend Debbie, who 
you can see in the middle of the two ladies to my right (left in the picture) is a huge Ringo fan and could not go to the concert. 
About 52 classmates showed up, and we visited and ate barbecue and generally had a great time. 
I think we are all past trying to impress each other. 
We had lost seventeen classmates since the 50th... 
we met in our school cafeteria.  
I can't tell you how good it was to see my old friends and have a good face to face visit. 
(each grade school had their pictures taken together... some had only one or two representatives, as time is really taking its toll on us). 

We've become our grandmas. 

Somewhere in this computer, I have some lovely photos taken on my big cameras.  I can't find them. 
The program I have used for years is no longer active, and I have to save them willy nilly, and I am losing the darn locations. 
I'll try to do better next time! 

Happy Halloween! 


This is from a wonderful yard in Garnett, Kansas, that decorates every year for Halloween.  My grandson Chris and I went to the Mennonite store on Tuesday, and came around to the side to take some pictures. 


If it had not been raining, we would have gotten out. 
You see on the tree the yard is all lit up for the display at night.
Truly remarkable! 



P.S. 
My hair looks SO STUPID in that picture :-)