August

August is over… Where, oh where, did the summer go????

 

• I set the trap for a couple more weekends and haven’t had any takers, so I think that any raccoons that have been visiting me are gone.  For now anyway.

 

• Doctors can be very testy when you haven’t gone to see them for a while.

 

• Tetanus shots hurt just as much as I remember.  I just don’t remember them making me feel sick before.

 

• After much blood, sweat and tears (literally), I finally have my tractor fixed.  And I got it done for under $50 – which is a far cry from the $150 the shop wanted to charge me just to get the tractor to the garage.  You have no idea how relieved I am that it’s done and I feel as though a lot of stress has been lifted off my shoulders.  I have the property cleaned up and now I can work on some other projects.

 

• I forgot how much bee stings hurt.  And itch.

 

• I’m happy to say that the Guineas are still around and the babies are getting big!  It was funny watching them actually jump to reach branches over their head.  I don’t know what it was they were eating, but they wanted them pretty badly 

• I was very excited to find a way to put the stuff on my DVR onto a DVD.

 

• I’ve become addicted to vanilla malted milkshakes.

 

• I hate whoever makes the decisions of what goes on TV.  A good show like Eureka is cancelled, but they put on crap like Whisker Wars.  Bah.

 

• In the world of yard care, Weed B Gon and Spectracide Weed and Grass Killer are the best products on the market.  I couldn’t believe what a good job the Weed B Gon did on my very neglected lawn.  And the Spectracide works leaps and bounds better than Roundup.

 

Out of all the things I wanted to accomplish this Labor Day weekend, I didn’t get very many done.  I am so lazy.

This Week

 

• I caught two raccoons over the weekend.  I had to start setting out the trap because they aren’t being the friendly neighbors that I want.  They  destroyed some stuff in my shed, but the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back was when one knocked down Robin #'1’s nest and ate all the babies.  I have no idea how he got up high enough, but he did – I caught him in the aftermath.  Now I am on the warpath.  I plan on setting the trap every weekend until I stop catching any more raccoons 

 

• I got my first red tomatoes!  And a couple beautiful cucumbers… I am so happy 

 

• And the other good news is - I *am* getting peppers!  It’s weird how they are growing… it’s like all the flowers were on the underside of the plant, so I didn’t see any of them.  The peppers are still teeny-tiny, but at least I know I’ll be getting some 

 

• I had my first (veggie) BLT of the season.  I can’t even begin to describe how good it was.  I’ll be eating these at least twice a day until the frost kills off all my tomatoes… I wait all year for these 

 

• That all being said, I threw three baby bunnies out of my (fenced in) garden 

Back for a Visit

I’m so tired at the end of the day lately, I just don’t have the energy to write any posts… it’s been so long, I doubt anyone reads this anymore (not that many did to begin with!).  This update is (obviously) pretty much for me.

 

• The heat has been awful this summer, but it’s not any worse than summers I remember as a kid.  I remember all the summers being hot and humid in July and August.  Maybe we’ll have an old-fashioned winter this year too.

 

• I’ve been seeing a *lot* of young deer with antlers.  I never see deer with antlers, so deer sightings have been a whole lot more interesting.

 

• Two of The Ladies can’t decide if they want to sleep in the coop at night or not.  Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.  On the nights they don’t, I have to wander around the yard to collect them and lock them up 

 

• I’m still getting baby robins… Robin #2 produced three fledglings while Robin #1 is currently raising #’s 7, 8 and 9… she’s a busy mom!

 

• I cat-sat a week for a friend.  One of the few pets I never had growing up was a cat.  I can definitely say that I am a dog person and I wouldn’t ever get a pet cat.  I think that dogs are way easier to take care of and definitely cleaner around the house!

 

• …and speaking of dogs, my sister’s dog is growing up so fast.  She is going to be such a great dog when she’s all grown up.

 

• I was stunned last week when the guy I work next to asked me what the new guy’s name was.  The ‘New Guy’ has been working with us for over three months and works within 20 feet of us 

 

• I went on a field trip with my Mom and sisters to Lily Dale.  My Mom and one of my sisters had a reading – I wish I had had the $$$ to have one too… it was pretty interesting to hear what the mediums had to say – they were on the mark with a lot of stuff.

 

• Just about every street I take going to work has a car counter on it.  I just know that construction on every one of those streets is going to start on the same day.  And it’s going to take forever to get to work when it does.  And it’s going to go on for months.  Ugh.

 

• There has been a family of Guinea fowl hanging around my house – they are so cool.  I hope they make it through the winter, but I’m not too optimistic as they aren’t native to cold climates    I wish my camera had a better zoom.

 

• I’m not very excited about my garden this year.  Because the spring was so wet, everything had too much of a late start.  The only thing that is looking OK is my tomatoes – everything else is either super small or non-existent.  Corn, beans and peas never happened.  Maybe we’ll have a mild fall and I’ll get something from the rest of what I planted.  We’ll see.

 

I can’t believe that tomorrow is the first day of August.  Ugh.

Babies!

The robin’s nest that is in my stairway to my basement finally has had some action.  This nest is way better than the one in my outbuilding… this one is almost at eye level, so I can see up close and personal what’s going on.  Of course I wait until Mommy and Daddy Robin aren’t around when I peek, so I don’t stress them out 

So yesterday, I glanced in the next on my way to the basement to make sure the eggs were still there and instead of three eggs, there was two eggs and a teeny tiny squirming little pink thing – one of the eggs had hatched!  Today I saw that all three eggs hatched - the babies are soooo teeny.

Here is a picture of two baby robins that are only a couple of hours old…one is kind of sitting on the other and you can see the third egg in the back.

 

And then here you can see one looking for something to eat - it was hard to get a picture of all three with their mouths open at the same time… I didn’t want to hang around too long and upset Mom and Dad.

I’m going to have to come up with names for them…  Any ideas?

Update…

I have been so bad about posting, but in my defense, there hasn’t been a whole lot to write about.  If you’re reading this at 2 o’clock in the morning because you can’t fall asleep, this just might be your ticket to some rest…

 

• My back is back to normal – well, as normal as it can be for me.  And for that, I am very grateful.

 

• My garden isn’t any near being done.  All I have in is lettuce (which is doing well!), some tomatoes and peppers.  I do have corn seed and cabbage seed in the ground, but they haven’t come up yet.  My peas never came up.  I still have a lot of stuff I want to get into the ground yet…

 

• Mrs. Robin #1 had already raised three babies, but it looks like she hatched some more.  I can only see one beak (if you click on the picture, you should get a bigger version), but I’m guessing there are probably more in the nest…

 

• I now have a Mrs. Robin #2, who built a nest in my back hallway.  She flies away every time I go in or out of the house, but she’s sticking to her guns and staying with her nest.  If the eggs hatch, I should be able to get a really good view of the babies…

 

• All my chickens lay brown eggs, except for my Polish chicken, who gives me white eggs.  She is a very reliable layer – I can count on an egg a day from her.  Which is why I was wondering why they stopped all of a sudden.  Until I found the nest she had made out back…

 

 

• The Polish chicken is pretty skittish – for which I don’t blame her, because she gets picked on a lot.  But it makes it really hard to get a decent picture of her…

 

• …and then I have another Lady who doesn’t think the nesting boxes are good enough for her either.  She’s been laying her eggs every day on top of the old brooder I have put away… I really don’t understand how she thinks this is better.

   

• My car broke down this past week.  It cost me a week-and-a-half’s pay to get it fixed 

 

• Our town farmers’ market opened two weeks ago.  It’s been a lot of work the past few months and it’s not showing any signs of stopping.  We are hoping for a great season this year, even with the bad growing weather we’ve had this spring.

 

• I’ve really had the itching for a road trip.  I don’t know where, but I would love to go away somewhere for a few days.   Unfortunately, I just don’t see that happening for a long time…

 

….Ummm.  Yeah.  I think that’s about it, besides working a lot.  If you made this far without falling asleep, congratulations!

Wordless Wednesday

Again

Last Sunday for Mother’s Day,  we had a busy day.  The first part was spent with Thomas the Tank at the Medina Railroad Museum.  I’m really glad we went last weekend – we had beautiful weather, not the ark-building weather we’ve had this weekend…  This spring has been sooooo wet.  I really hope this isn’t a sign of how the summer is going to go 

The event was really well run and we all had a lot of fun.  That night, the kids were asking my sister for their train tickets so they could go again 

The museum was pretty cool too.  I’ve been at the railroad station before, but I hadn’t been inside – the model railroad display they have set up is HUGE!!!!  I highly recommend visiting there if you ever get the chance 

 

However, the whole day wasn’t all fun and games…

I thought I broke my camera.  I had banged it pretty hard accidently and wasn’t able to take any pictures after that.  Fortunately when I got home, after futzing around with it for a while, I managed to get it working again.  Thank goodness.  I love my camera.

After the afternoon in Medina, we went to my sister’s house for Mother’s Day dinner and picnicking – again, we couldn’t have asked for better weather… but in our horsing around, Casey put a hole in my favorite pair of jeans.

And I messed up my back.

Again.

Except this time it’s my upper back, not my lower back from before.

It’s a week later and my back is still killing me.

I’ve never had upper back pain before and this is just as bad as lower back back, except with different issues.

I really hope this is a fluke thing and my back works itself out and gets back to normal soon – well, as much as normal as it can get… 

Spirit

My Mittsy was a black lab.  She was the best dog in the world. 

I think she has come back reincarnated…

 

 

Yep.  That’s Mittsy’s spirit in another dog 

Royal Wedding

I watched the Royal Wedding – not live, because of work, but one of the endless repeats being shown on a dozen different stations.

I consider it to be a historical event and it was fun to watch…

I haven’t really followed much about William and Kate, but they look good together.

I was fascinated by the hats of the guests.  I guess that if you are a rich or prominent lady in England, a hat is a necessary accessory – and the odder, the better.  There were a few I thought were very pretty and flattering, but most of them made me laugh…

 

I loved the carriage ride at the end – that was so romantic 

…and I couldn’t believe how old Charles looked!

Best wishes to the new couple 

At Least…

So tell me – what’s the first thing that pops into your mind when I tell you that I hit a bunny rabbit on the way into work?

I know… I feel horrible about it.  Poor thing 

So what did my co-worker say when I mentioned it?

“…At least it was after Easter.”

Was I wrong to laugh?

Ugh

Holiday weekend.

I’m sick.

Need I say more?

I could be accomplishing so much. 

It’s not fair.

Ugh.

Sunday Bullets

• This weather is making me very crabby and grumpy.  I’m sick of rain.  I’m sick of mud.  I’m REALLY sick of cold, cold wind.  Right now it’s snowing.  Hard.  This is the total opposite of last year’s most wonderful spring.  That being said, my grass needs cutting already.

 

• We’ve had two family birthdays this month already and one more coming at the end of the month… April is a happy, but expensive month around here!

 

• I’ve been feeling hopelessly lazy lately.  I have so many things that I want to get done, but when I have the time, I just don’t feel like doing any of them.

 

• Most of The Ladies are laying every day now, which is a good thing.  One of the adopted ladies is still eating some of the eggs tho’ – I caught her again today.  They all seem to be getting on OK now, except for the  Polish chicken - she is still getting picked on badly.  I have the stuff to build her own private place, but I would like to have some nice weather to get it put together…

 

• It cost me over $65 to fill my gas tank today.  Do you know how many hours I have to work for that?  A lot 

 

• I love OK GO – they are especially creative with their videos… they never fail to disappoint me!

 

Wordless Wednesday

Casey

Last week my sister got a new puppy.

This weekend I’m “baby” sitting her already 

I miss having a dog around since Mittsy left me. Casey is soooo cute – but because she’s so little, she needs a lot of watching…  If I were to get my own dog again, I think I’d have to get one that’s a little older and already house-trained.  I feel like I’m taking her outside every hour, just to make sure that she doesn’t make a mess in the house    I think for now, just having a part-time dog is perfect for me.

She still has that irresistible puppy-breath and those oh-so-cute puppy-paws…

I found out that she’s afraid of The Ladies, but even tho’ they are three times her size and ten times her number, The Ladies are even more afraid of her     Of course that made it impossible to get any good chicken-and-dog pictures 

 

…and she can fall asleep anywhere 

Wordless Wednesday

Extra

My normal routine every night is to wait until dark and all The Ladies are in for the night before heading out to lock up.  If I go out before they are settled in, they tend to take longer to turn in because they think they are going to miss out on treats or something if I’m there     Anyway, after I do a head-count, everything is all locked up for the night.

Tonight was a little different.   There was an extra head in the head count…

 

That’s not how I found him… he (she?) was actually huddled in with the other chickens.  My initial reaction was to try and get him out as quickly as possible, and in that attempt, he tried climbing as far up as he could (which really wasn’t much) to get away from me.

None of the chickens seemed to mind that he was there, but still didn’t make me feel any better.

I didn’t have gloves on or anything, so I ran to the house to grab gloves, a towel and my live animal trap (and of course my camera).  My plan was to put the towel on the guy, put him in the trap and then relocate him somewhere far enough away that I wouldn’t have to worry about him again. 

As all my well-laid plans go, it didn’t work out that way.

I got him out – and wow!  Raccoons sure can have a strong grip on a whole lot of nothing     I was surprised (and relieved) that he didn’t try to bite me… but I wasn’t quick enough to get him in the trap, so he got away.

I now have to be vigilant to see what’s going to happen next.  Is he going to be so traumatized that he won’t come back?  Or did he make friends with The Ladies, and nothing will prevent him from visiting again?  Will he bring friends?  Will they be hungry?

I think that I am going to try and set the trap and see if I can catch him anyway.  I would feel a whole lot better if I knew he was gone…