Read Your Animals

Is Spring on the way?

Rudee's Question, Still Have Snow

The view before we drop into the valley.

The view from my porch.

You can see the snow is hanging on for another one.

Hangover from the porch.

Warning:  Beware of falling slabs of icy snow!

Rudee has asked, "How in the world do you juggle both a farm and your outside job?  I imagine it's quite hard to find balance."

Yes, it is Rudee, that is why I am unbalanced! 

I usually post about me but there is a team here and we all share the work.  One person could never do this.  We, sometimes, call in extras.

Fencing is a group project, as is harvesting the hay for the winter but many things can be tackled by one.  My sister, Marcy, has her retirement home here and she does all the plucking and perserving.  Marcy feeds her chickens, goat and cats.  So unless she needs assistance with a big job, like cleaning the chicken house, she pretty much takes care of all that.

My other sister, Beverly who has a house in town, is the floater.  She goes where she is needed.  Right now she is working on a back yard project for Marcy making raised beds and clearing brush.  Beverly's object is to get all of Marcy's gardening close to her house.  Earlier this year, Beverly was helping me organize my house.

Feeding of livestock goes to Hubby.  He uses the tractor so it is just a matter of transferring feed and taking it to the right spot.

Andrew does the dog feeding and I do the house work.  These are all just daily chores. 

Hubby and I each work a regular day and come home to chores.  Extra chores, like cleaning the springs, mowing the grass, tagging, giving shots, worming and general working of stock is all done on weekends.  I mustn't forget cutting firewood, fence posts, clearing dead timber, repairing washed roads, repairing fences...gosh, the list goes on.  All these are weekend jobs.

So I guess we balance this by not having a social life and not much down time.  We are hoping to finish cross fencing in the spring, then it will only be a matter of moving stock from one pasture to another with the help of the Border Collies.  All pastures have live water so that is nice and makes our job easier.

We also call in the troops, (children, etc) when we are doing a big project like tearing down Dad's old bull pen and replacing it with a round pen.  The spring cleaning(cleaning our water source and the branch below it) is also a troop activity along with  taking the composted manures from the lot, barn and chicken house to the garden.

I guess this is why farmers always had a big family, to help with all the chores.  The main way a farm works is when someone sees something that needs done, you do it.

There is a saying,  Farmers work from sun to sun, a woman's work is never done.

Things are far from perfect, Rudee, but we love our life.  There is always a pair of muddy boots by the door, something waiting to be done, but life is good At The Farm.

I hope I answered your question Rudee. Thanks for playing along.

Foggy Sunrise

The ground is colder than the air, which makes the conditions perfect for fog on a sunny morning.

This post is different.  I  thought there may be many questions you have to ask about my life or the farm or anything.

This week I shall take a question from you, my loyal readers and friends, and write a post on each question, featuring your web site along with my answer.

Sound like fun?  You never know which direction I will go, so be fair warned and bury me with questions.  I shall be honest, hopefully funny and entertaining.

Snow Flower

A hint that spring is near?

A cat track with a rooster track

make a lovely winter flower.

Wordless Birding

All pictures should enlarge by clicking.

Fuzzy Toilet Seat Covers...Pros And Cons

Have you ever been lucky enough to have one of these beauties in your house?  I got one for Christmas but in a more laid back color.  I can honestly say, I would have never thought of this.

I admit it is very nice to get up in the middle of a cold winter's night and not be rudely awakened by the shock of a cold toilet seat.  The fur caresses your behind.  You can potty while still mostly asleep and stumble back to bed.

I think these would be nice if you had your own personal use toilet but since I share with two guys, I am not sure I like the idea.

What happens when someone had the backdoor trots???  On the pro side, if you are out of paper, you have a soft place to wipe.

I'm Gonna Thrash Him!

We are still covered with snow.

It is cold!

And muddy.

Just let me tell you...I always loved it when Mom started a story that way, she was gonna let somebody have it, tell them how the cow ate the cabbage.  WELL,  just let me tell you about Hubby!

You have see from the above pictures, this is not the fun snowy winterland from the romance novels.  This is sloppy mud over your ankles where the feed spots are and slick snow that you can bust your behind on in a New York minute. We are sliding vehicles, splashing tractors, and slipping boots just to get stock fed.

Hubby goes to put out hay, on the tractor.  He flies through, stabs the round bale with his hay stinger, floors it to the gate, splashes through the creek, flies once again through the pasture to his carefully selected feeding spot for the evening.

Yes, I am grateful we have a tractor and the hay to feed but I am telling you this man causes more work....He brings me the phone.  Why?  He can't find his cell phone.  He knows he lost it during feeding and it is probably in the creek, under the mud and he run over it with the tractor and he can't find it anywhere.  He's mashed it, it's gone forever, he's the disaster man is what he is!

Okay, so my job is to repeatedly dial his cell phone to help him locate it.  Good plan if the cell phone is reachable.  So I am dialing and dialing and dialing.  His cell cuts off at four rings, goes to voice mail and I don't know where redial is on this house phone.  Where was I?  Oh, yes, dialing and dialing and dialing.  He comes back to the house with a hang-dog expression and says I can't find it, it's gone, it's mashed, it's trashed, I will never see it again.

Silly me, even after living with this man all these years, I feel sorry for him.  I pull on my muck boots, wrap up warm in my big coat, don my wonderful mittens and start to search.  Tracking Hubby is easy, it is like tracking a herd of wild horses, easy to follow.  I did tell you it was cold, right?  I am walking and looking and hoping his cell in not brown, cause that is the only color I am seeing with occasional spots of white. 

My sister has heard his sad tale and joins me in the search.  We are cold, it is getting dark, but because we are nice, we are still looking.  I said, Marcy, it's too cold to look for a phone. She said, I'm getting cold, I think I'll go in.  Me, too.

About this time, Hubby hollers, I am going to the office to see if my cell phone is there.  Now, if you lost it while feeding, why would you look in your office?  We are frozen stiff, muddy and now, I suspect, I am probably gonna get a little mad too.

That's right, it was in his office, just where he left it!!!  I am gonna thrash him for sure!

I Said Pillar!

It's over!  I have reverted to total hickdom.  I have always prided myself on not speaking the dialect.  I can't loose the southern twang but I can say the words correctly...I thought.

I have always  pronounced words correctly and only used ain't for a dramatic effect. 

I heard myself say pillar instead of pillow and I knew it was over.

 I am Jubilation T Cornpone reborn (The statue, not the lady)

For the color of  a flower I will now say yeller, in fact, I will even call the flowers, flares from now on. I will no longer have yellow flowers. From this point forward, I shall have yeller flares, I shall look out the winder, I will put pillars on my bed, and I will become meller while relaxin'. 

I shall now say oncet and twicet and I shall hear a Si Reen when the police come fer me.  Nothing will be pretty any more, it will be purty.  I will bake with flare (flour) not to be confused with the yaller flare.  My dogs will now officially be "dawgs".

How could I know, all those years visiting Dogpatch USA would cause me to end up in this corndition??

A Meme...High Five!

Rudee, A Knitting Nurse has caused a panic.  I love posting, getting awards, conversation by email but meme's scare the poo-diddle out of me.  I usually get away by not answering them.  I can't let Rudee down!  Shall I tell the truth and say what ever comes out first, or do research and answer intelligently?  I voted for what comes out!

WE are supposed to list the five highlights of this year.  I haven't done anything.  Rudee had done some really amazing things...a home for her child, a prize winning shawl, mittens for me, and the list goes on.  She is a caring nurse who is sometimes taken advantage of because she is so darn nice.  You really ought to visit her.  She is also a talented blogger.

Rudee, now that your chest is swollen with pride, I just have to say, Thanks a lot!!!  How can my five compete with the wonderful things you have done?  I know , it's not a competition but...oh, heck, here goes.

My top five accomplishments for 2009.

#1  I did not permanently maime myself with any farm equipment, animals, nor tools while working At The Farm.  This is an accomplishment because I am usually doing all these things while wearing flip flops.

#2  I am retirement age!  While I personally did not have anything to do with attaining this goal other than growing older and not getting fired, I am very proud that I can walk now at any time and know I have a retirement coming.

#3  I am a grandmother!  Again I did not personally contribute to this. I do encourage their rowdiness.  I spoil them, when given a chance.  I do love being a grandmother even if I have been one for thirteen years.  Each year is a prize with three grandsons.

#4  I am a foster mom for dogs.  During this year, I have adopted one, kept one, a possible adoption coming up, so that is a grand total of one adoption.  Well, strike this one, that's not much of an accomplishment.

#5  I have racked my brain trying to come up with this one!  I guess it is an accomplishment to have been married to the same man for thirty-seven years, he has never hit me and still puts up with me...that would be his accomplishment, not mine. 

Oh, wait, I know, I rode my horse, Magic Man, freshly trained and under saddle (Magic, not me).  I placed that flip flopped foot in the stirrup and threw, no dragged, my leg up and over.  The horse did not fall nor did I...Now that is an accomplishment.

Thank you, Rudee.   It was fun after all!  I shall return the favor, one of these days, when you least expect it, an odd meme will find its way to your doorstep and you will have to answer when it knocks.

Sharing The Beauty...

Monday morning sunrise with the moon, a jet, and sparkles.

Tuesday afternoon, still snow covered

Snow covered water garden and local watering hole

Snow every direction I look.

How Deep?

This doesn't seem like much if you are from a snow state, but here, in Arkansas, this is a lot of snow!  The official measurement was twelve inches.

The animals seem to love it.

Orange has to stays in tracks

because it over cat deep.

Let It Snow!

Ice coated wire against the sky by Marcy

A Sunday morning walk with dogs...

Silly me, two pairs of socks, leg warmers, some wonderful warm mittens and clothes in layers did not keep out the cold.  The sun deceived me.  The crystals of ice reflected the sun.  Did I tell you, it was cold?

Too much snow for me!

How deep in your snow?

Ours is dog deep!