Into the Heat

Friends, NE Kansas is descending into heat.  We are expecting a full week of 

very hot temps, and no chance of rain until at least next Sunday. 

I watered yesterday afternoon, topping off the sheep tanks, the chickens, etc. and then 

came in to do some dishes.  I had no water, or almost none.  It's time to 

be careful, I am on a deep well, but I can't just water and water, and 

have to space it out.  I waited an hour for the well to pump back up, 

and things were fine.  It was a good reminder. 

I looked out to see Snowy and Jes lounging on the deck this morning before it got really oppressive. 

See the sheep in the distance?  

On Friday, Benjamin, my yard helper, was here, and we fashioned 

a gate to the front of the old henhouse, so that the sheep cannot get into it. 

(Two must not get into any grain). 

I can let them in to graze the heavy clover over there, and I have put deep fortexes 

on both sides so they have plenty to drink.  

However, when I went to put them back in the pasture this morning, I was short a sheep...SHE WAS IN THE HENHOUSE and I had to laugh, because I think she actually low-crawled under a side board. 

I am going to show it to Sam and Benjamin tonight and we will figure out a solution so the birds 

can get in and out, but the sheep cannot. 

She had not touched the chicken grain, I think she had just wanted out of the sun 

and to lay on the straw in there. 

At any rate, the sheep are only in the yard for a couple of hours at a time. 

I keep an eye on them. 

I sat up in bed this morning to find Rusty, the feral cat who was 

raised here, calmly cleaning himself .  He became aware of me watching, but 

kept grooming. 

He has let me get two feet away from him, but even after two years, does not trust

me to pet him.  He is in good flesh, and looks healthy, he was neutered as a kitten before he came here.  Sadly, his two sisters and one brother were gone long ago. 

My African violets are doing wonderfully!  These are in the laundry room 

window. 

I love this goat. 

My living room looks like a nursery.  Jester loves that tiny bed, for 

some reason.  

This boy is going on a diet, he cannot jump onto the bed any more, and I don't need another diabetic. 

Different day, same tiny bed. 

The "June candles", (yucca) have begun blooming along the road. 

They look wonderful in the evening. 

I have lots of daylilies on the deck right now, because I took apart a 25 foot long bed where I had them. 

They will get back in the ground this fall.  I am so enjoying them. 

Let me mention a book here. 

I have a copy of  "Gardening for a Lifetime" by Sydney Ellison.  I remember reading it ten years ago, and laughing and thinking "That will never be me".  Mrs. Ellison wrote about being widowed, and being unable to maintain the huge gardens she and her husband had created. 

She had huge daylily beds.  

The book is about how she worked around all the "work" that she and her husband had created, and how she gave up and combined things. 

I'm there. 

I'm rereading the book this week. 

Keith was so very generous to me, building beds all over this place. 

He built the raised bed vegetable garden, and I still have his notes from the 

first year, when he studied vegetables and ordered them carefully. 

He built eight beds, and an additional long bed to the right 

(the one with the ROSE BUSH I am still working on). 

They had trellises, and we grew beans and cukes in 

them. 

These beds were too close together, and weeds were a terrible problem, always. 

Keith hated weed-eating with a passion.  

(a friend suggested I put down roofing to keep the weeds down). 

Last year, Chris, my grandson, dug out all these beds, and 

we bought scores of bags of good dirt and filled them.

Within weeks of planting the vegetables, 

they were overgrown and I could not even get in there, remember, I was 

dealing with a torn Achilles tendon at that point, and Chris lives in 

Garnett. 

The reason they are clean now is that I have a wonderful young man, Benjamin, 

who has been helping with heavy yard work. 

Two weeks ago, I visited Next to Nature Farm, here in Leavenworth County. 

They had an assortment of large stock tanks (Rubbermaid, I think) that they had planted with their vegetables.  These were three feet high, and as you can see, there was a variety in them. 

I LOVED THIS. 

I priced these tanks the next week, and I can afford to accumulate a few. 

This would be a way for me to continue vegetable gardening for a few more years, 

after the initial purchase and the purchase of the dirt to fill them. 

For now, I have four tomatoes in pots.... the four on the left, 

the other is a milkweed variety. 

All the tomatoes are bearing fruit.  I just shot them with Miracle Gro today, too. 

So, today, I went to an open house in Tonganoxie.  There have been few, because of Covid 19, 

and I was surprised to see this one. 

I have watched the listings to see if anything looks like it would be manageable for me and the dogs. 

This was just a gamble, it was two stories. 

The house was cramped but had been done up cute, and the second story space made into a wonderful master suite. 

I got home, and stopped in Troy and Kathy's drive to give them some magazines for her mom. 

We were visiting, and I turned around and looked at the house and made an 

exclamation. 

This is what I saw. 

I realized then and there, I can't move. 

(from the big hen house porch) 

At least, I can't move for a while. 

I had a good laugh at myself. 

Yep.  She lets herself out of the chicken yard, and puts herself back in. 

That dirt in the porch planter is mighty soothing. 

Calibrachoa. 

Aren't they beautiful?

As I type this on Sunday evening, our world and our nation are still in turmoil.  I pray daily that we can all come to a new consensus 

of a better way to live. 

I pray for prejudice to end, and for me to 

learn more. 

I hope staying in touch with you all helps. 

Looking Back

Waxing nostalgic tonight, and looking back over the time since I started blogging about our lives here at Calamity Acres.  We have had so many animal members of our family in the seven years we have been here, that it seems like we have lived here much longer.

Here is our dear old pony Beau, and his goose friend, Samantha.

Samantha had a mate, Timmy, who was killed by a coyote attack, and all we found of him was his back and wings against the far fenceline.  Samantha loved Beau, and ate and drank with him daily, following him around the pasture.  She would pick straw from his coat as he laid in the sun, and I caught her doing it with the camera one day.  Sadly, something attacked Sammy and she suffered for days while I kept treating her wounds with iodine and salve... but missed a wound under a wing, and that got her. She was a lovely goose.

The brave Mama Llama, who came here to guard against coyotes after Sammy and Timmy died, with her then-little cria, Tony.

What a wonderful old girl she was!  She taught Tony and Inca well, and that's why Aztec is growing up so well today.  Sadly, Mama Llama has since died... inexplicably, in her home pasture at my friend Joni's. As Joni said, when you buy an animal at auction, you often do not know how old they really are. 

Sweet little Addie Mae, our first little pug.

Our beautiful geese and ducks.

We are hopefully going to have waterfowl again later this year. 

My little doll, waiting for me as I cleaned house.

People have come and gone too, stepson Brandon finished high school here with us, and is now living and working back in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  Grandson Chris comes and goes, helping out, and Nathan comes frequently to visit us, including this weekend.  We are hoping that once I am retired, we can frequently have family over for cookouts.  It seems now that the weekends either fly by with errands, or we are so tired that we just don't put forth the effort to have company.  I think that will change with this coming summer.

It seems like just a short time since we moved here... I had had surgery on my knee and couldn't walk, and Keith, God bless him, moved us BY HIMSELF.   I don't to this day know how he did it!

He actually painted the whole interior of the house before he started moving us, and moved me in a pain-medicine daze after he got the furniture moved.  And yet, we have had so many adventures since we moved here... Keith has built so very much.... the place has gone from a plain house sitting on five acres to a house with a pasture, with a barn, with fencing, with a garden, an arbor, flowerbeds.... it's a different place than what we bought and moved into.  It's a family place, it's home.

On the Soapbox Again

This may be a two-post Sunday... or Saturday, as it may be.  It's 11:0l PM CST, and I am still sitting here reading and catching up on blogs I have been following. 

First off... I want to thank all our fellow bloggers out there.  I am a homesteader... not in the '70's sense... but in the 21st century sense... we are trying to raise our own vegetables as much as possible, to supply those less fortunate (some family, some our local food kitchen) with vegetables, and keep ourselves in eggs and soon, in chicken, in a serious way.  We live very simply, and we have not had a vacation off this place in several years. (However, we're planning one!  Careful coordination for animal care is required!)

I digress as usual.

Back to "homesteading".... I am so appreciative of the wonderful information that my fellow bloggers are putting out there!  Whether it is just a picture of some project that you have going on, or detailed instructions, they have served as inspiration beyond belief for us.  I have so many good ideas for our new chicken house that I don't know where to even start. (Thank you Paula at Fraker Farm)  Gardening ideas... I get them daily.  I used to look at "house" blogs and "decorating" blogs, but the fact is, I live in a tiny country house with soiled carpets (pugs) and leaky windows.  We have been here seven years now and still don't have drapes in the bedroom.  There is a piece of plywood on our bedroom ceiling.  We spend too much on the outside and not enough on the inside, but WE ARE HAPPY HERE and that's all that matters.  Yes, we get tired and grumpy, and sometimes Keith has to escape to the golf course and I to the antique stores, but for the most part, we can't wait to get home daily and hate to leave.  It's a wonderful gift from God that I found a man in my "old age" (I was 46 when we met) that learned to like the things I did, and is happy here.  And a man who suggested I retire at 62... when I thought I would be working forever after working two jobs for 30 years!  Nirvana!

Having said all this.... Usually, Friday and Saturday nights are my only two nights to sit and catch up on blogs.  Yes, I'm addicted to some TV programs... I grew up in a tv family (unlike Keith, who does not consider watching endless sports to be "watching tv") .... and I love to nestle amongst the pugs and watch my shows.  This will shortly come to an end, the season is ending, and we will be spending mucho time in the yard (on the John Deere!).  People... I beg you... TURN OFF WORD VERIFICATION!!!!  When I sit here for three or four hours, I double my effort by having to type and retype the nonsense words.  It is very wearing.  I bet I have done it 40 times tonight all ready, and the fact is, in almost three years of blogging, I have yet to have even one piece of spam.  Someone said to me this week (a blogger who has closed her blog) that she was afraid of people in other countries reading her blog.  This, to me, is the wonder of the web.... I have traveled to other countries VIA people's blogs.  I love to see the sights in Scotland, England,

France and Australia, and I gladly enjoy seeing how folks live in other countries, which really, is so like we do.  I admit it worried me when I posted pictures of my little grands and googled it next day to find the little girl coming up... but the solution for that is to simply NOT write about them  again.  In the same three years, I have only had one comment that was in the least weird, and when I followed it back, it was to a site, a personal blog, of someone struggling with mental issues, and not a threat of any kind.  If my eyesight - and back - were better, it would not be an issue, but typing the nonsensical "words" is very wearing. 

For those of you posting recipes... thanks... as we are trying to eat fresher and healthier.  I love finding things we can adapt to the way we are trying to eat now.  It is so different from the meat and potatoes way we have been (of course, we had steak and potatoes tonight, but that is a treat now).  I love to cook and bake, and I am getting quite the library of recipes from blogs. 

People with Goats and Sheep:  I thank you!  I am trying to learn about your animals.  No, we are not getting sheep, but they are so interesting.  One week I am Pro-goat, and the next, Maybe-Not-So-Pro.  Tomorrow I am buying goat milk from Roxanne at Screamin' Oak's Farm down the road, to try my first ricotta cheese.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Her daughter Justyne has the most beautiful dairy in Tennessee, so go there to Noble Spring Dairy (google) to see it. 

Several nights this week Keith and I have marveled at the way lives have changed in the last 20 years.  My mother, God bless her, did not understand before she died in 2008.  She would never have understood our blog, or even what it was.  Ten years ago, we would not have.  Now, I enjoy writing daily... and reading about all the wonderful things that people are doing across this nation and world.  I have laughed and cried at the adventures that many of you are having, and taken strength from your advice and consideration.  

Some blogs I follow have disappeared recently, and some have gone on hiatus.  Yes, it's hard to post frequently... some nights I am tired, and some nights I just have nothing to say.  I'm not funny like Suzanne McMinn at Chickens... and not a good photographer like so many of you.  For those of you who have decided to close down, I understand... and those on hiatus, I hope you come back stronger than ever when you are ready.  Do I follow the "famous" blogs... I like Pioneer Woman and am in awe of Rhea Drummond for the fact that she has become a Thing... and will now have her own show on Food Network... I can't get comfortable with Dooce....I hop in and out at Chickens in the Road now, because I think Suzanne has stretched herself thin.  I used to follow a lot of the decorating blogs but no longer do, some are very slow to load and I do not have the patience when blog-hopping.  I like simple things, with people who like to get their hands dirty and their minds engaged.  I love animals, and gardening, and reading and .... blogging. 

Homeschoolers... I salute you!

It's now 11:31, and I have been sitting here blog-hopping for 3 hours.  Keith is snoring in the bedroom (along with Abby and Gertie) after digging and pouring cement for the footings of the henhouse.  This week he will be away at a training course, and I will be guiding our fortunes here at the homeplace, but we will be together in spirit, and that's what it's all about. 

Do I want to quit sometime?  Sure.  I get sick of carrying water in the winter, slipping and sliding across the sloping yard.  I get tired of cutting grass and weed-eating and pulling weeds and getting chicken doo doo all over me and cleaning up after the dogs, etc. etc. etc.  We all do.  Sometimes I think it would be easier to be living back in town with just the dogs, and cutting a small yard again with a push mower, and fixing up a small old house to be our cute nest for our senior years, but the fact is... one step off the porch in the morning reminds us daily why we are here and why we love it. 

I hope the full moon is shining down all you all tonight... that your snow is melted, and the winds have stopped blowing, and your animals are safe and snug in their houses.  Thanks for all the inspiration and laughs, and I hope we have many more.

Calamity Acres farmhouse, when we first moved here... no deck, no cross-fencing.. just a house and beautiful land....

And we fell in love.