It's Been a Hot Summer

And I guess the title is true for most of our country, this year. 

It's been hot here in Kansas, too. 

Fans running in all the henhouses, and a fan running in the barn for Mama and Teenie. 

Bullseye was taking a lazy way of watching the birds one morning... and actually, he does this many mornings!  I'll look out there and see all four paws in the air. 

I looked out the window to see Wanda here one morning, and I watched as she calmly walked all over the roof, and then jumped down and walked along the top board on the fence. 

Cleo lived in the barn with Mama and Teenie for the last two years.  Either Teenie, who has a notorious temper, or Bob, the (former) Porch Cat, now laying on my kitchen table as I type this... has run her out. 

She eats at the fence daily, and sneaks into the yard to eat dry food in the garage.  She is so beautiful, and my heart is breaking for her.  She sleeps under Troy's shed or under the implements. 

I am hoping we can get the whole situation rectified before cold sets in. 

This week, Troy and Kathy gifted me with this: 

Friends, I no longer can anything, so I passed most of this along to the Manus family, whose sheep come here.  Ben, the middle brother, has been my stalwart helper doing heavy yard work for the last three years.  He left yesterday for college in Arizona for his sophomore year, and it's likely he will do summer studies next year and won't come home.  I am hoping his younger brother Isaiah will be able to help me. I have been so grateful to have Ben's help for these last few years. 

Those tiny tomatoes had the best taste ever... and I saved a bunch back to make nachos today. 

Troy and Kathy's daughter Sarah has a one acre garden at her place... and Kathy has been working in it constantly, even in the heat.  They had a wonderful yield this year. 

I know you all want to know the upshot of the Great Tank Blowout. 

It took four phone calls to get the company to get out here and put a new gauge on and check the tank for leaks.  I called the provider I used at my old Calamity Acres in Kansas City, Kansas, and made arrangements to switch tanks out and go with his service.  

The driver dropped the old tank out by the gate and it was picked up a week later. 

My neighbor Troy did the same. 

Last week, in the dreadful heat, was the Leavenworth County Fair. 

Here comes a group leading their bucket calves along the walkway. 

I will have to say entries were down, and it was not just me who noticed. 

I went at midday on purpose, to avoid the crowds because ... covid has reared it's head in our area again.  Just being cautious. 

This was the champion market ewe that Isaiah showed, and will be coming here this week. 

She's a beautiful girl. 

There were some beautiful goats. 

Very few bunnies... maybe thirty... were on display, and those included cages for sale.  I will give the bunny parents much credit, though... because they had fans set up every three cages and the bunnie's fur was literally blowing in the wind. 

There were some beautiful quilts on display, but overall, 

entries in all these categories appeared to be down. 

When my sister was alive, she often entered quilted goods in the fair competition. 

Coco has become almost an indoor-only cat.  She came from a feral colony, this is a huge about-face for her.  Every once in a while, she lays on the back porch for a little while.  It was NOT 115 that day, unless that was the heat index! 

The flowers are still looking good, because I have literally watered them sometimes twice a day. 

Thank God my well has not had any problems since earlier in the summer. 

I planted my tubs and troughs this year with either wildflower mixes or hummingbird mixes. 

I honestly do not see hummers around them, but I have very few around my feeder, either.  I am taking that feeder down daily and putting up a clean one, the few I am seeing are almost ready to leave. 

Here is what I have to say about the mixes... they have been glorious but they must be watered heavily.  Deadheading the zinnias can be onerous... I need to do it today again, in fact.  I have decided that I am going to cut the deck containers in half next year, and plant lower-growing flowers in these troughs. 

They have been beautiful, I have to admit. 

That's amaranth behind the portulaca... I had not grown in it in years.  

It has looked good, but it has been attacked by the Japanese beetles badly.

My mom could not grow anything.  She marveled that I could.  

She loved cypress vine, and I try to plant it every year in her honor.  

 

It ain't Kansas if there isn't a sunflower or two! 

That's all, folks, thanks for bearing with me.  I'll try to post again 

in a week or so. 

 

 

 

Already Into July

How could it be almost a month since I last posted? 

I actually composed posts in my head, and never sat down to do them. 

We have had some hellish temps here in Northeast Kansas, friends. 

Clear back on June 13, Ben and Isaiah came to get the sheep.  They literally had eaten the pasture down to dirt.   I went out there last night and took a good look, and with the little rain we have had... it has not come back.  I seriously do not think I will see my sheep friends again this summer.  Yes, I miss them. 

The pen they are standing in grew up, I had to mow it yesterday, but when I went around the back of the barn, it was still eaten to the ground.   I do miss hearing them and watching them. 

A week ago today, I went out at 4 PM to find my propane tank blowing off gas, the smell of sulphur filling the air, and a sound like a freight train coming at me.  

Two trucks from Stranger Creek responded... that is Sam, the third brother of the sheep owners, who is a volunteer with them.  They stayed two hours... the feels like temp was over 100. 

Here is Tristan behind my house, directing water... 

 They put 500 gallons of water on the tank.  The head of the safety valve was five feet from the tank. 

The first fireman to respond got my hose and began cooling it, but I turned the tank off myself. 

Yes, my hand was shaking. 

My propane provider was called, because the tank, which had been filled on March 22, was still reading 80% full, and we don't fill past 80%.  The gauge is broken. 

No one came or called from Ferrelgas.  The next morning I called and talked to the "emergency line" and my call from the day before had not even been logged.  That was alarming.  

A technician returned my call and was 70 miles away.  He walked me through turning everything back on, and told me he would enter an order to replace the gauge.  I called yesterday to see when they were coming, and there was no order... so... I went through the whole thing again and it is now scheduled for Monday. 

My next door neighbor, Troy, is a captain on the volunteer fire department, and he stayed an additional hour on Friday to make sure everything was okay, and then came over Saturday and relit the water heater. 

Never in a million years did I expect Bob the Porch Cat and Bullseye to share a chair. 

The next day they had a knock down drag out. 

No one is laying here currently.  

The next day I removed her from the little hen house where no one is laying.  She keeps striking out. 

I did lose one in the heat.  She had been in front of the fan for two days, and had good, cold water right next to her.  I believe there was an underlying cause. 

I have never had raccoons come in the middle of the day like Mama does. 

She must just be starving. 

Here she comes up the back porch... eschewing the steps for some reason. 

I had a camera out there that caught her. 

My poor Mama cat was laying where the fan could blow on her.  I keep the door open now during the day to the shop.  (This was the now-neutered mother of last year's kittens). 

And the shop cam caught a raccoon laying in front of it a few days later. 

Coco was beaten up one too many times by Bob, and started hanging on the back porch. 

She is now... 

Coco the House Cat. 

When Bob comes in to sit on my lap in the morning, Coco has to be locked up in my bedroom for safety's sake, and yes, it gets harrowing in here. 

She is spending very little time outside now.  

Look!  There are still flowers here! 

I planted so many wildflower mixes and butterfly mixes this year, and my gosh, except for the fact that I have to water EVERY DAY, I have loved the beautiful, beautiful flowers blooming. 

I planted one cherry tomato plant, and I am going to go out and pick some right now, and make myself some nachos for dinner. 

Everyone have a great weekend, I will be at the Ag Hall of Fame tomorrow. 

 

What the Heck? Another New Post!

Second post of the year and it is only the fourth! 

Man, does this tell you how the days have been going?  I have already done chores but will go back out in a few minutes to move some chickens around.  When the cold is bitter, I do not let them out at all.... today they can be out with the frozen sleet/snow on the ground.  It is being stubborn and only slowly melting, and unfortunately, we go back into the freezer tomorrow for two days. 

I have a good friend in Canada (Hi, Leanne) and she tells me it is MINUS 40 Fahrenheit there right now... UGH... she says her three dogs run out, potty, run back in, and that is the extent of it. 

I would be worried sick about all the wild animals. 

Speaking of wild animals, I poured this pile of cat food out of the bowl 

two nights ago, and left it for any animal that happened by in the bitter cold. 
It was still there yesterday morning, and I set the bowl of new food by it (you can just see it). These are in the old garage, where I keep my tractor and gardening things. 

This morning, it was all gone. 

It was these guys, I am sure.  Here they are in the shop, my cement-floored barn... where the 

feral kitties are fed.  They are cleaning up spilled food in there.

There is also a heated basin of water in there for them and the mice... I have three of these basins in different areas.  

My boy Bullseye is outside right now, and cried to go out even in the bitter cold. 

He kills songbirds, though, so it is hard for me to let him out.  This morning I found a vole 

dead on the side of the house, it must have been very hungry to come out in this weather. 

(one of the cats got it) 

I put all of Christmas away by yesterday afternoon... it's a good way to start the new year with a clean house. 

So, over the course of the weekend, we had very bitter cold and a sleet/snow episode.  The ground is still partly covered with this icy mixture, which thawed a little yesterday and then re-froze. 

Please know I am taking extra care when walking ... breaking a leg or hip would be a disaster for me. 

I worried about the feral cats.  In the shop, there are two large cages that are bedded with hay. 

It is clear cats are sleeping in them, but yesterday I found the largest was also full of poop, which I hope to clean out this afternoon and re-bed. 

There is a Kuranda dog bed in there with a blanket.. someone has slept there. 

There is a dog house on blocks in the old garage (the shop and garage are on the original property line, far from the house) and Wanda sleeps in there regularly.  But I had not seen Yeller daily, or Cleo, the beautiful calico. 

For the last three days, I have left a full bowl of cat food on my porch, and last night, I looked out and Yeller was eating.  I opened a can of food for him and took it out, and he ran back up and ate it all. 

So, I relaxed a little.  I had not seen Cleo since Saturday morning, and was worried.  I saw cat foot prints coming through the gate as I worked it loose from the ice... but no cat anywhere. 

I could have relaxed. 

For the very first time, when I sat down to review the cam from the shop... there she was. 

Sigh. 

Now that I know she is aware of how to get into the shop, I will rest easy. 

She clearly knows how to come in through the hole in the wall.

Oh, Hi!

But this also relieved me... it's Diamond Lil, whom I call Lil, eating yesterday.  I had not seen her for four days, she is very secretive... I was glad she had made it through the bitter cold.

There goes Yeller across the deck yesterday, and there he is in the shop eating on the first, so I can relax about him, too.  I had not seen him in the shop since Diamond Lil (Lil) and Coal (Coco) were put in there.  

 

Here are my two buddies, Wanda (Wawa) and Coal (Coco) eating on the first. 

These two girls greet me when I go out to do chores, and run alongside me after running to me. 

As of this morning, Coco has let me stroke her back twice as she eats.  Wawa wants to be 

my buddy so badly, she will run to me and roll on her back, batting her paws... but she is still just a little too scared of human interaction.  

Coco and Lil came from a large feral colony on the Missouri side of our state lines... and were truly, truly feral.  For Coco to let me touch her was a big deal. 

These girls are also frequently in the hen houses hunting mice when I go to close up at night. 

Wanda did not look great the morning of the coldest night... but she soon warmed up.  I am 

too afraid to put an electric heater in the shop without a human being in there. 

I did have a heated cat house ... but no one ever went into it, it was pristine and I finally unplugged it two days ago.  I believe, because it had a flap on the front, they were too afraid to try it.  The two 

cages full of straw have been helping them with the cold. 

The sheep barn also has a deep bed of straw in it, but no one appears to be using it. 

I have seen NO raccoons on camera since the end of last week. 

Right now it is 40 degrees... I am going to go work on that cage (re-bedding it) and 

move some chickens.  The little silkies who go out to a pen every day cannot use their pen right now, it is full of snow-sleet.  I am putting them in the "feed room" side of the big hen house where they can move around more than their brooder pen they sleep in.  Not ideal, but it works, and they will all have to be in for the next two days. 

Stay warm and safe, friends!