Got It!

Remember, I started working on the Briar Patch this week, the patch with the terrible cockleburs. 

Ugh. 

So, today, the dogs desperately needed a run, and off we went. 

When I got there, the gate to the pasture was wide open, and someone had clearly been 

coming in and out. 

Yes, I freaked a little.  We have been so lucky not to have anyone bother our place for 8 months. 

My helpers immediately started sniffing around and inspecting the whole pasture.  I am so grateful to have them.

I turned back to the car to get my gloves... and when I turned again... here came 

Troy in his pickup out of the pasture. 

This is what he has been doing, bless him! 

He is going to put all that wood to great use. 

The smaller branches, like the one to the right in this picture, I will drag down to the 

brush pile.  

I know it's hard to see, but where you see the straw color in the middle of this photo... 

is the chicken wire that has been caught in the grass since March!  I finally got it 

all loose, without having to cut it! 

You can see it a little better in this picture.  This was tie-wrapped all around the sides of the dog pen that the Mille Fleurs lived in.  Those are my Fiskar's big cutters, not wire cutters, but... I pulled up almost all of those horrible cocklebur stalks.   They were dumped out on 

the burn pile in the driveway.  I am going to have to spray Roundup on this spot (you know I hate to do it)... but I have GOT to kill these burrs.  There are also two landscape timbers I need 

to dig up and move, and then Troy said he would come over and mow it even with the rest of the pasture. 

The wire and the grass in which it was entwined are going into the back of the HHR to 

go to the dump.  

"The Tree" is still beautiful, but it's color is fading.  The hills behind it are fading, too.  I had the 

little camera in my pocket (always). 

I had left the light on in the henspa two days ago, and Troy reminded me, so I ran over to turn it off. There is a metal cabinet in there that needs to come home with me this week, too. 

It won't be tomorrow, as we are expecting rain.  

I snapped this picture as I went by the garden... it's my white lilac... look at the buds on it! 

Beau's tree in the pasture has dropped all it's leaves... and the others are dropping, as well. 

November... doesn't seem possible it has come already. 

A word about the blog... 

last night, I had a nasty entry in the comments, which I have deleted.  I suspect 

it was put there to entice people to it's source, because it was a hacker, etc.. Always be careful 

of clicking on those links. 

I have also noted that blogs that have never had Word Verification before have it now, and I need to 

see if mine does, all of the sudden.  I suspect Blogger did this... because of perceived problems across their network. 

I hope everyone's month has gotten off to a great start! 

Keith is feeling pretty well... he will be seeing a specialist within the next two weeks...

and following up with a permanent implant for his dialysis.  Yes, it kicks his behind, but 

he thinks he can live with it easily. 

Thanks for all your prayers. 

A Visit to the Vet

Here's Dr. Hamilton, the fill-in vet, checking out Jester this afternoon. 

Both Jes and Lilly got their shots today, after the doctor and I had a talk about inoculations and why we give them.  Having read lots of information lately about them, I wanted to be 

sure about what we have and why we are doing it.  Dr. Hamilton was straightforward... and we did all the boosters, rabies (2 year rabies) and leptospirosis.  Several cases of lepto have been 

reported in Leavenworth County lately, and I don't want to take any chances. 

Lilly came along too, and had her shots... and saw her friend Rhonda. 

We saw this truck on our way there.  I had to laugh. 

Since the dogs were so good at the vet's, we went out for a short run.

I'm learning to use the sun to my advantage... slowly. 

Very slowly. 

This mess... it's a patch of cockleburs, horrid, horrid cockelburs. 

They get so tangled in Lilly's fur. 

Why are they even there?  Why did Troy not cut them? 

This is where the pasture dog pen stood, where the little flock of Mille Fleur chickens lived. 

I wrapped the bottom of that pen with poultry wire, and tie-wrapped it to the wire. 

When we took the pen down in the spring, as we re-homed the goats and some of the chickens, we cut the poultry wire off but we did not roll it up immediately.  The grass has grown through it, and it might as well be attached to the ground.  I can only get one corner up.  

I am going to sit down on the ground in a week or so, and start cutting, and try to 

cut it up enough that I can get it all out. 

Then I'm going to cut those dang burrs down and put them on the burn pile of grapevine and saplings.  

They. Are. Wicked. 

The mums in the garden are still going strong, though fading around the edges. I noticed yesterday that they are all gone from Walmart now. 

I'm seeing the flower beds in a whole new way. 

These are monarda stems. 

Daisies?????  (not sure) 

Phisostegia????  It really helps to focus on the seed pods, which are quite beautiful in their own ways. 

There are still a few buddlieas blooming, but I saw only one butterfly. 

Most of them look like this, and believe me, I'll be cutting them back this year, remember, I nearly lost them this year after the terrible winter we had. 

Since both dogs had just had shots, we didn't stay really long. 

And besides, Mama was hungry. 

Look who was outside doing a little bit of work when we got home!  Yes, he's feeling so much better, but trying to go slow as he adjusts to dialysis.  The weather is being very cooperative, it 

was in the sixties and very pleasant. 

The dogs are tired tonight and I am ready to veg too, since we have to get up at 5 to drive to the dialysis center.  

I'm going to try to go to the lake on Thursday afternoon to take some pictures of the wild geese there, and make another trip to my friend's to get a "chicken fix" and take some pictures of her flock. 

Now, for Game Six!