We Are Getting Closer

Your blogger is down for the count with a summer cold. 

As in, skipping church, in bed all day down for the count.  I made it out to open the henhouse and give the little kittens their daily bowl of food, but other than that, I have been in bed all day.  As I type this, the sun is breaking out of leaden skies, and the heavy rains we had last night seem to have gone away, though my phone tells me we may still see some tonight. 

There have been many changes this past week. 

We have had two horses come to stay with us for a while in the pasture.  They were on a dry lot, and the owners were feeding hay all summer.  The horses were glad to get on some green pasture.  I will go in tomorrow or Tuesday to cut down some weeds, but for now, they are going to do the trimming.  

The mare, Nelly, who is taking a good look at Jester there, is unbroken, the gelding, Ranger, has been ridden.  I would say neither are safe to ride.  They should be here only about to the end of September.  For some reason, Jester and the mare have taken to each other, but she is so big I will not let him in the pasture anywhere near her.  

That's Ranger, and his owner mistakenly cut out part of the tail he needs for fly-swatting, because it was so tangled.  I feel sorry for him.  They seem happy in the pasture, though.  

The humidity was terrible earlier in the week.  Our girl Lil knows how to get cool, though. 

I have a water line leaking.  

Tuesday, a local man showed up to fix the leak. 

Unfortunately, when I got there Wednesday, 

the leak was just as bad.  He is going to have to run a new

line from the wellhouse to the pump by the old henhouse. 

I need that pump to run water for the horse tank. 

So now I have a mud mound AND a leak. 

My contractor said "You need to call that guy"  and I said "I did" and he said "When will he be back?" 

I said 

"when he's good and ready".  And folks, that's the truth.  They do not listen to women, I wish I could say it is different, but it isn't.  I dealt with this for 32 years before I married Keith. 

It's frustrating. 

Did you notice the color of the house in the picture with the skid steer? 

The yellow is the color our tenant painted the house when he moved in, he picked it. 

Here is the color today.  

The new gutters and downspouts are up, and we are progressing right along. 

On Thursday, my awesome contractor told me he thought it would be 3 weeks. 

The cabinets are being made, and one day this week I will stop by the cabinet shop and pick out the bin pulls I want.  I am looking at lights, but honestly, I have felt so awful since Wednesday that I am not getting around much. 

I did get two days of moving things with my grandson Jacob this week, who really came through for me.  In fact, we are renting a cargo van on Wednesday and Thursday and trying to get even more out of here and into the storage shed at the farm.  I have given up sorting for the time being, I just want to get things moved and then each box will be gone through before it is brought into the house.  I suspect the Salvation Army will be getting a second large donation. 

My plan now is to put this big house on the market when I am out of it.  It is just not practical with two dogs and a skittish cat to have strangers plodding through it.  

Speaking of cats: 

I honestly have never seen Sister playing with a ball before! 

He will play with Jester, but not toys.  

And out in the henhouse, at least 3 of the four feral kittens 

are still with me... and I have figured out where the raccoons are getting in 

at night.  I will be working on it in the next few weeks. 

I take the kitten's food up when I go out to put the hens up every night, 

(I leave a big handful) but they have all day to eat. 

As far as I can see, they rarely sleep!  They are up at all hours of the night on the game camera. 

Day camp is now over at the Ag Hall, and Nugent, the little bunny I took care of all summer, has gone home to her bunny herd.  I will miss her, she was a lovely little bunny (whom the kids called "Oreo", of course). 

These are some dirty eggs that have been under a hen who wants to go broody. 

They are infertile, of course.  

I have been careful to fish them out from under her since this day, she does not need to be setting forever.  I am getting plenty of eggs, but the fact that I am letting the girls run all day long in the yard means that there are some eggs I am  never going to find. 

We have all been enjoying the odd root beer float, too!

Did I mention I have poison ivy on about half of me? 

Yesterday and Today

First off, I have the crud.  I don't want to say it's flu, but 

it FEELS like flu.  Headache, stomach upset, aching all over and little chills. 

No fever...yet. 

Crossing my fingers. 

This... is NOT A NORTHERN FLICKER as I said yesterday on Facebook. 

It's a red-bellied woodpecker, and yes, I know he has a red head. 

He is not a red-headed woodpecker. 

Here is a Northern Flicker, in our yard today...

Not even close, Mary Ann. 

Thanks to Teresa Perrin at Eden Hills... if you have never read her blog, you are missing a treat.  I'll tell you more about Teresa sometime this week. 

I also have GREAT bird support from my friend Jill, whom I can't thank enough. 

These beautiful peacocks are at my friend Roxane's... she has milked goats for 

years, and they are on the roof of her milk storage house.  See the little goat peeking out? 

Roxane is on a list to get bread from a bread store here.  She has been called 

3 times in the last few weeks... she gets a huge load for 24.00.  She does not have many birds right now, and she let me know to come and get some.  She sells 30 loaves for 5.00. 

So.... I have gone over there several times to get bread and take it...

To my friend whose chickens I am caring for.  She feeds bread at night to her poultry. 

It was in the high thirties - low forties today, but is PLUNGING as of tonight. 

The dogs had a great time running around in the good weather. 

I found a door hanger from the tree-eaters last Friday at the 

old place.  Yesterday when I came to do evening chores, I found this. 

Actually, the cedars were still standing, and the two workers asked me if I wanted them down.  I said "YES"... they overgrow fencelines so. 

Here is the view today:

They had the debris picked up by 9 AM. 

Keith will cut these stumps down to the ground, along with the only other one left to the left of these. 

This beautiful red tail was on the levee at County Road Five this afternoon. 

Notice the color of this hawk's head. 

He flew across the road in front of the car near my friend's this morning. 

Now look at the red tail above it. 

Here's a closeup: 

See the bands on wings and tail, and the lighter head? 

This is a juvenile red tail, the only one I have seen hunting around here, though there 

must be many more, since it is the most prolific hawk in this area.  

I have been seeing many, many bluebirds drinking on the porch.  I'm going to take care to keep that heated water bowl full for the next few days, as we dive down into single digits again. 

I have to admit that this is the FIRST bunny I have seen on the porch camera! 

Plenty of kitties, though... look at the eyes BEHIND this one!  

I've switched the camera view around so you don't have to see all the junk still on the porch. 

The wheels of remodeling move slowly. 

Keith has been kind enough to run out and check on the birds tonight and fill the water bowl on the porch for the wildings as I am so under the weather. 

Thanks, honey! 

Friday Evening

We did not get much more rain than we did last night, despite heavy clouds most of the day.  It's hot... 91... and very, very humid, too humid for the pugs to go out for more than a minute.  I sweated through the chores tonight.  In fact, tomorrow morning I'm going to raise the heat lamps way up above the chicks... they are a month old now, and I think would be fine in the heat of the day without the lights.  Then tomorrow night I'll raise them up higher, so the chicks don't roast.

Butch, my pet rooster, loves to roost on top of the bantam trough where he can keep warm in the light at night.

So far, there is still only one chick in the doghouse in the pen in the pasture.

The two brown mamas moved the eggs back into the corner, but I saw them when they both got up to get some water.  The Mille mama actually went outside to poop and get water, so I have a feeling that none of the other eggs will hatch, for whatever reasons.

Click on this to make it bigger, and you'll see two baby bunnies hiding in the grass!

I know some of you are wondering about my sister.

Kathleen is still with us, but still so very ill.  I am going over tomorrow to spend some time at her bedside, as it is too hard for her to talk to people now.  It is so hard to see her like this,  and I pray that she does not have to wait long to go to her heavenly home.