Every morning I wake up is a good morning...I am greatful every day. I have bad days, but I am grateful for every day I have on God’s green earth. Even though we struggle at times out here, we love it in this peaceful place. I have learned so much these past few years, not enough...but, I am willing and able to learn more. I just hope my body holds out for me, it seems to take longer and longer to recover from injuries, but the nice thing is...I am not on a deadline and I have learned to pace myself a bit better over the years.
I am going to have a houseful this year for Thanksgiving,..and I am grateful for it. The surprise is my son is coming to visit from California, I have not seen him in almost six years! I can’t really afford to fly to California and I don’t think my body could handle being shoehorned into an airplane seat anymore and still be able to walk when I got there. It is tough leaving home, for both of us...we both have a lot of animals to take care of and his wife is not coming with him, she will be taking care of them. I was hoping she could, I would love them to move out here one of these days. I will have both my sons here, my surrogate son, my stepdaughter most of the spouses and the young ones! They won’t be here for a few days, but I look forward to seeing them all.
My surrogate son and his wife invited me to go with them running around Shreveport and then to Jefferson yesterday, one of my favorite things to do is shopping...lol, there is not too many places I actually go around here, but yesterday it was nice to get out and see places I had not seen. We went to a place in Shreveport that had a variety of different things, it was kind of a home improvement store/furniture store/interesting stuff store...I would like to go back some day. Jefferson is only about 20 miles from us and yesterday, I finally got to visit the little town I keep hearing about. We had lunch at a neat little hamburger joint and then went and perused a few Antique stores...lol, I love doing stuff like that...I would have loved to forget about the animals needing to be fed and watered, but I was afraid that my husband might be upset with me if I didn’t make it in time to perform my task...he took care of them! Something else to be thankful for! My husband loves me, and I never go do anything but errands anymore,so he wasn’t to unhappy with me getting home later than expected...my surrogate son even came in with me and offered to help feed the critters, but my husband had already done it.
I loved a cabinet at the home improvement store, it reminded me of a barristers book case, kind of...it was very tall, probably 7 feet, it had a lot of shelves and glass doors on it. It is crazy, but I loved the latch on it, it went all the way from the top to the bottom...and was kind of ornate iron. I think it would make a nice linen cabinet. There were several things in that store I really liked, some of the dining room tables were gorgeous, as were some of the rugs we looked at, some of the large mirrors...and they had barn doors and ship lap too! Lots of good stuff and the prices were good too. They had some patio furniture and kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, and faucets and sinks too. I am sure I didn’t see it all...but I really enjoyed looking at what I did see.
I look forward to getting to see some of my grandchildren soon, and my kiddos...the worst part of moving out here is not being to see my family very often. I will take what I can get though, and since I can’t really travel very far anymore without pain I am grateful they are willing to come visit me.
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Duck, Duck Away...
The time has changed...Fall Back an hour, but my body clock will not adjust for awhile...so I am up very early. I am not fond of the time change this time of year. It gets dark too early. It seems like there are far less hours in the day for me to jam pack everything I need to get done into what daylight hours I have...and it will get worse and worse. But, I can only work outside until dark and I am able to get all my poultry put up before My husband gets home from work, so he doesn’t have to go out there.
Yesterday was rather busy. It is suppose to get down in the thirties later this week...it may be our first freeze of the Fall. The leaves have just started changing really, I wanted to get some good pictures this year. Our place has changed so much since we bought it that I would like to document it a bit. I have the majority of my fruit orchard in...although a few trees have died and I will replace them. It is tough getting them established in the sandy loam unless they have a really good root structure. If we have a drought year, I have to water every three days or they will die. Two of my Elderberries didn’t make it, that I planted this year. I never could get the Native Cherry tree going well, but the roots pretty much broke off in the box they shipped it in. I had one of my pear trees that we planted the first year break off about a foot above the ground. One of my peach trees I planted two years ago died too. I have a second year Golden Delicious apple tree that was attacked by Carpenter Ants and almost killed too, half of it appeared to die...I finally broke down and started using ant granules on it when the Organicide and Neem Oil didn’t kill them. I cut a lot of that tree back, it has some new shoots and is starting to come back, the peach tree also had shoots come up and after they got about five feet tall, I picked one and cut the rest off, the Asian pear I did the same...but at the moment it has about six shoots, I will pick the straightest soon and cut the rest off. I moved a couple of blueberry bushes to hopefully better locations...maybe they will start growing and produce better in the next year or two. We shall see, I am hoping I get better at maintaining the trees and all of them produce soon. I would like to sell the fruit eventually.
I worked out in the garden a little and on my front porch. I had started a bunch of plants and didn’t get them all planted because I got a little carried away. I had a bunch of starter pots with dirt and dead plants in them, so I broke up the dirt and put it in five gallon buckets for next springs plant starts. I want to build a greenhouse, but have not done it yet. I need to build some raised beds too. The moles and voles wiped out my garlic plants last year, I didn’t get any...so, I will have to do raised beds with maybe wire bottoms so they can’t get to the bulbs. I need them for strawberries and asparagus too...if I am ever going to have any. Anyway, since battling poison ivy, I haven’t worked outside as much as usual, but I did get some flower bulbs planted. I am hoping to make this place beautiful one of these days...I have a long way to go, but I will get there...eventually.
Yesterday, I had my neighbor stop by with a friend of his. He wanted ducks, I have a lot of males...He wanted 15. I should have captured them the night before, but a lot of people say they want critters and then don’t show up when I catch them...so I didn’t. He showed up! The younger males were easy to catch, but the ones out in the big yard...not so much. My neighbor, the man wanting the ducks and I finally caught five more to add to the ones I had caught...he took ten home. Which was good for me...I needed the money to help pay for getting my freezer repaired. The repairman showed up to take a look at the freezer, not two minutes after my neighbor and his friend. So, between running around the yard trying to catch ducks...when bribery didn’t work and the repair guy...I felt a little like a ping pong ball, running back and forth getting nets, talking to the repairman, trying to get the money together to pay the repairman, catching a duck or two, going and talking with the repairman again...he had to order a part. He will be back today to install it. He wanted all the money up front, I said I don’t like paying for something I haven’t received yet...he accepted the service call money and with the money from the sale of the ducks I will be able to pay him in cash today after the repair is made. I guess I need to measure a few things too...right now, that freezer is out on the porch. We had to take the broken freezer out of the house to make room for the new freezer. I have to figure out where we will put the old freezer. I have a room that is only 9’x9’ that I want to create a large walk-in pantry in...we may put it in there...but, I don’t know if it will fit through the door, if it won’t...then we may have to move my egg fridge and the beverage fridge into the room...and put the freezers side by side in the laundry room....if they will both fit.
I need to do a duck inventory too. I probably have more male ducks that I could get rid of...my females will appreciate my getting rid of ten males. Poor things get overwhelmed by their amorous behavior and many of my females have been injured from the males grabbing their heads. The skin around their eyes especially. The few females in my recovery area would have been hurt again come spring, if those male ducks had not gone away. We had been talking about butchering some...that is why we need another freezer. But, it is not something we really wanted to do.
Yesterday was rather busy. It is suppose to get down in the thirties later this week...it may be our first freeze of the Fall. The leaves have just started changing really, I wanted to get some good pictures this year. Our place has changed so much since we bought it that I would like to document it a bit. I have the majority of my fruit orchard in...although a few trees have died and I will replace them. It is tough getting them established in the sandy loam unless they have a really good root structure. If we have a drought year, I have to water every three days or they will die. Two of my Elderberries didn’t make it, that I planted this year. I never could get the Native Cherry tree going well, but the roots pretty much broke off in the box they shipped it in. I had one of my pear trees that we planted the first year break off about a foot above the ground. One of my peach trees I planted two years ago died too. I have a second year Golden Delicious apple tree that was attacked by Carpenter Ants and almost killed too, half of it appeared to die...I finally broke down and started using ant granules on it when the Organicide and Neem Oil didn’t kill them. I cut a lot of that tree back, it has some new shoots and is starting to come back, the peach tree also had shoots come up and after they got about five feet tall, I picked one and cut the rest off, the Asian pear I did the same...but at the moment it has about six shoots, I will pick the straightest soon and cut the rest off. I moved a couple of blueberry bushes to hopefully better locations...maybe they will start growing and produce better in the next year or two. We shall see, I am hoping I get better at maintaining the trees and all of them produce soon. I would like to sell the fruit eventually.
I worked out in the garden a little and on my front porch. I had started a bunch of plants and didn’t get them all planted because I got a little carried away. I had a bunch of starter pots with dirt and dead plants in them, so I broke up the dirt and put it in five gallon buckets for next springs plant starts. I want to build a greenhouse, but have not done it yet. I need to build some raised beds too. The moles and voles wiped out my garlic plants last year, I didn’t get any...so, I will have to do raised beds with maybe wire bottoms so they can’t get to the bulbs. I need them for strawberries and asparagus too...if I am ever going to have any. Anyway, since battling poison ivy, I haven’t worked outside as much as usual, but I did get some flower bulbs planted. I am hoping to make this place beautiful one of these days...I have a long way to go, but I will get there...eventually.
Yesterday, I had my neighbor stop by with a friend of his. He wanted ducks, I have a lot of males...He wanted 15. I should have captured them the night before, but a lot of people say they want critters and then don’t show up when I catch them...so I didn’t. He showed up! The younger males were easy to catch, but the ones out in the big yard...not so much. My neighbor, the man wanting the ducks and I finally caught five more to add to the ones I had caught...he took ten home. Which was good for me...I needed the money to help pay for getting my freezer repaired. The repairman showed up to take a look at the freezer, not two minutes after my neighbor and his friend. So, between running around the yard trying to catch ducks...when bribery didn’t work and the repair guy...I felt a little like a ping pong ball, running back and forth getting nets, talking to the repairman, trying to get the money together to pay the repairman, catching a duck or two, going and talking with the repairman again...he had to order a part. He will be back today to install it. He wanted all the money up front, I said I don’t like paying for something I haven’t received yet...he accepted the service call money and with the money from the sale of the ducks I will be able to pay him in cash today after the repair is made. I guess I need to measure a few things too...right now, that freezer is out on the porch. We had to take the broken freezer out of the house to make room for the new freezer. I have to figure out where we will put the old freezer. I have a room that is only 9’x9’ that I want to create a large walk-in pantry in...we may put it in there...but, I don’t know if it will fit through the door, if it won’t...then we may have to move my egg fridge and the beverage fridge into the room...and put the freezers side by side in the laundry room....if they will both fit.
I need to do a duck inventory too. I probably have more male ducks that I could get rid of...my females will appreciate my getting rid of ten males. Poor things get overwhelmed by their amorous behavior and many of my females have been injured from the males grabbing their heads. The skin around their eyes especially. The few females in my recovery area would have been hurt again come spring, if those male ducks had not gone away. We had been talking about butchering some...that is why we need another freezer. But, it is not something we really wanted to do.
Monday, November 5, 2018
Poison Ivy and Miserable
I have been grooming fruit trees. Mowed the front section of the acreage we use and cleaned up the flowerbed in the middle of the driveway. I knew it would probably happen, it has been a couple of years since I cleaned up the flowerbed, I got a bad case of poison ivy on my arms...I was very careful too! I knew there was poison ivy in the flowerbed, I thought about just mowing everything in the flowerbed down. I didn’t, but I had to cut down several trees that had gotten about five feet tall that were growing in it, lots of dewberry vines too...there wasn’t even much poison ivy in there. I had big loppers, little loppers and a machete and would cut the longest parts and pull things out by the roots as much as possible...and lift them with the tools to put them in piles. The flowerbed is pretty large, probably about 15 feet wide and 30 feet long. It was planted with bulbs before we bought the house, but I think a lot had been removed. The first couple of years jonquils, daffodils and bell flowers bloomed and that was pretty much it. Last Spring, more flowers popped up...Irises that actually bloomed, Spider And Easter Lillie’s. They were sparse, except a clump here and there.
I want pretty things to look at. Here everything is green, there aren’t much in the way of contrasting colors popping out...unless it is the birds or goldenrod, this time of year. We have Cardinals and Bluebirds in abundance, and humming birds, but since this part up around the house is a few acres, and there were not many trees, there was not many places for them to nest or perch really, up by the house. I concentrated on planting fruit and nut trees the first five years. I want to start planting perennials now. We have wild flowers all around the perimeter, and I let them grow in spots around the house...but, because I did that...dewberries grew too. I have to cut dewberries away from the house several times a year, otherwise they grow all over the front porch, and strangle out what flowers there were left. I had planted flowers around the patio area in the back of the house...but my poultry pretty much dug them up and destroyed all of the grass too. I was able to move some things to the front yard and tried to fill in large gaps that were empty of anything growing. I even transplanted monkey grass from one half of the porch to the other...trying to balance out the greenery that was left. I still have a long way to go in my beautification of the land around the house. I have to mark areas so my husband doesn’t mow down, weedeat or spray things with weed killer. I planted some Climatis vines that didn’t make it...and some wildflowers around a tree that are trying to come back...
Anyway, I have had the poison ivy rash for over a month now. It was the worst case I ever had. Normally I just get a spot or two around my wrists, just above my gloves. I got it all over my arms, got some around my ankles, on my legs, my neck, chest and stomach too...even in my hair although just a light sprinkling everywhere but my arms. I went to the doctor and got a shot, but even two weeks afterward...I am still itching. Most of my wounds have healed now, some of the blisters were awful and I still have a few scabbed spots. I still get intense itching too. Usually at night, an extremely hot shower helps, but...I have bruised myself a few times scratching the itch. I know that you shouldn’t scratch like that, but it feels almost like something is in my skin crawling around! I will go scrub with jewelweed soap and hot water and it helps, or put Biofreeze on...but it has been driving me crazy.
We have had a lot of problems with things breaking down on us the past few years too, our latest issue was our freezer. I freeze a lot. I freeze my garden vegetables like broccoli and green beans, I chop and freeze bell peppers and onions too, and blueberries and peaches. Our freezer went out last week...it was not good, we lost a lot of the fruit and vegetables and about a fifth of the meat...maybe more. The fall and winter months are lean months for us. My husbands shop doesn’t get as much business, so I try and make sure the freezer stays stocked up with meat enough to get us through to spring. I probably should have thrown out more of the meat, a few things I have fixed lately tasted freezer burned and went to the dogs after I cooked it. This winter may be a bit tough. We had to purchase a new freezer. We have a repairman coming today to see if the old one can be fixed. It would be nice to have two freezers, we had talked about getting another freezer the past couple of years and going in halves on a cow or pig for meat, things just didn’t happen. If we can fix the old freezer it will be great!
I want pretty things to look at. Here everything is green, there aren’t much in the way of contrasting colors popping out...unless it is the birds or goldenrod, this time of year. We have Cardinals and Bluebirds in abundance, and humming birds, but since this part up around the house is a few acres, and there were not many trees, there was not many places for them to nest or perch really, up by the house. I concentrated on planting fruit and nut trees the first five years. I want to start planting perennials now. We have wild flowers all around the perimeter, and I let them grow in spots around the house...but, because I did that...dewberries grew too. I have to cut dewberries away from the house several times a year, otherwise they grow all over the front porch, and strangle out what flowers there were left. I had planted flowers around the patio area in the back of the house...but my poultry pretty much dug them up and destroyed all of the grass too. I was able to move some things to the front yard and tried to fill in large gaps that were empty of anything growing. I even transplanted monkey grass from one half of the porch to the other...trying to balance out the greenery that was left. I still have a long way to go in my beautification of the land around the house. I have to mark areas so my husband doesn’t mow down, weedeat or spray things with weed killer. I planted some Climatis vines that didn’t make it...and some wildflowers around a tree that are trying to come back...
Anyway, I have had the poison ivy rash for over a month now. It was the worst case I ever had. Normally I just get a spot or two around my wrists, just above my gloves. I got it all over my arms, got some around my ankles, on my legs, my neck, chest and stomach too...even in my hair although just a light sprinkling everywhere but my arms. I went to the doctor and got a shot, but even two weeks afterward...I am still itching. Most of my wounds have healed now, some of the blisters were awful and I still have a few scabbed spots. I still get intense itching too. Usually at night, an extremely hot shower helps, but...I have bruised myself a few times scratching the itch. I know that you shouldn’t scratch like that, but it feels almost like something is in my skin crawling around! I will go scrub with jewelweed soap and hot water and it helps, or put Biofreeze on...but it has been driving me crazy.
We have had a lot of problems with things breaking down on us the past few years too, our latest issue was our freezer. I freeze a lot. I freeze my garden vegetables like broccoli and green beans, I chop and freeze bell peppers and onions too, and blueberries and peaches. Our freezer went out last week...it was not good, we lost a lot of the fruit and vegetables and about a fifth of the meat...maybe more. The fall and winter months are lean months for us. My husbands shop doesn’t get as much business, so I try and make sure the freezer stays stocked up with meat enough to get us through to spring. I probably should have thrown out more of the meat, a few things I have fixed lately tasted freezer burned and went to the dogs after I cooked it. This winter may be a bit tough. We had to purchase a new freezer. We have a repairman coming today to see if the old one can be fixed. It would be nice to have two freezers, we had talked about getting another freezer the past couple of years and going in halves on a cow or pig for meat, things just didn’t happen. If we can fix the old freezer it will be great!
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