Harry, hope you and Alma get over that cold 'thang' soon. I know how miserable it is. Glad the treatments are winding down too. That has to be hard on both of you. I am not a fan of highway driving at all (getting old at 46!) so I can relate to the driving.

Not much happening here either. My mom is ailing and taking that day to day. Four heart attacks this year (last one Apr.1) but bless her heart she has been hanging in there. They found a cyst on her kidney. Can't do anything about it I guess. She is too weak for surgery. I offered to take her shopping this past weekend but she has been having stomach trouble and didn't want to venture out. Can't blame her on that one.

The weather here is weird. 85 degrees and muggy. Last week it was 39 at night, now need the a/c again! Jeez.

Got 2 tomato plants hanging in there...barely. Hard to believe 8 months to another home-grown 'mater.

I never did get to that farm I wanted to look at. I did call...61 acres...55 tillable. No buildings though. I knew there was a catch LOL! Still a decent price for the land...139k. But wanted at least a fix-upper on the property.

I kind of want to move to a warmer climate anyway. Someday, maybe...someday.

Have a great week everybody!

Duane

Harry, I wish you would send some of that rain down our way. We are still over 6 inches behind and need it badly.

Weather has been unusually hot, in the mid 80's. We are supposed to get a cold front later today. I am ready for it.

We sold part of the Holstein heifers yesterday. They did pretty well, but the market was a bit soft. We have 8 more and another bull to sell later this month or next. We might sell sooner, DH is getting tired of feeding them and we are planning a short trip to Tennessee and hate to leave them unattended while we are gone.

Not much else going on here. We are still clipping some fields to keep ragweed and pigweed in check. Weeds always thrive in drought. Why is that?

I am still digging and dividing daylilies and irises. I finally just started planting rows in the garden because I ran out of bedding space and can't bring myself to throw out the excess. I don't really have flower gardening friends close by.

Have a good day.

gld

The fall veggies that I planted are up to a good stand. All of them except the spinach and I may have to plant that over. Now, if I could keep Charlie, the dog, out of the beds. He loves to get in them and dig, dig, and dig.

The weather is supposed to be cooling off this weekend. Prediction is that the temps will down in the 40's at night. That sounds nice. It has been really hot here for this time of the year.

The rabbits are doing good and growing. I will wait until about December to start breeding the New Zealand Whites for processing.

The little chickens are growing too. Ready to be moved in with the older chickens, I do believe.

One of the little girls that I kept when I did childcare in my home, came home with me yesterday from school. I let her pick some of the last Tommy Toes and feed the chickens with them. She loves being out around the animals.

I substituted at school three days this week in the fourth grade. I enjoyed working with the students. They were a good group of kids. I picked up some kind of bug from some of them. I guess that is where I got it. Coughing my head off and chest and nasal conjestion. I hate this. I hope it doesn't mean a bad winter with sickness all winter. Lots of folks around here seem to be a little puny.

Nothing much is going on here. I am thinking about getting another goat or maybe two this time so they will have company. I think though I need to fix them up a little pasture so they won't have to be staked out everyday. Especially if I am going to be working away from home during the day. I sure would hate for them to get tangled up and hurt while I am gone. And it's not fair to them to leave them in a pen all day long. They need to be where they can run and play.

Any ideas on how to make a small pasture for a couple of young goats? How many strands of wire would I need to keep them in the pasture if I have it hooked up to an electric fence? Any good sites anyone knows about would be appreciated. I want everything ready before bringing them home.

The man that I buy my animals from has several nannies that are ready to give birth in a month or two. So I could probably get a couple of them.

Here's hoping that everyone has a great weekend.

Jan

We have just been working for the last couple weeks, trying to get everything done. The rains came and all the pastures really greened up quickly! Looked like spring, all bright and shiny green grass. I got everything mowed again just not very short. Hoping it spurs the grass to do another growth spurt before frost hits us.
I got lime spread on a couple of the fields. I did the powdered lime, supposed to be better, last longer than the pelleted lime, cheaper too. It was a real pain spreading by lawn spreader, having to wear a mask for the dust. Interesting how the wind comes up, starts blowing pretty steady about noon, then drops off again about 5pm. Made huge clouds of dust so I would have to stop, then go back.
We have been working on leading the foal around without his mom, she is eating in her stall. He is getting better, she is much less excited about seperations now.He is growing like a weed in the sun. He is on his second halter, only two holes left to go. Stands about 54" now, withers level with my armpit. Much bigger than the belt buckle high of his birth! They are usually grazing apart out in the field now. I have been adding other old horses as company in her field to let him practice his herd skills. He really likes having other horses to play with, just stand and watch. He canters or gallops most of the time, both fast like a racehorse and slow as the best Western Pleasure horses. I have only seen a few trot steps all summer.
Foal is a good baby, good to lead and loves brushing. He will stand close as long as you will brush him! Has had his feet done a couple times, did pretty well standing and balancing. He has grown out all his foal hoof feet, chipped and trimmed off, now has totally new BIG hooves since birth. Almost the size of the palm of your hand.

I have torn out a couple of flower beds, was surprised at how many bulbs were under the ground! They were huge, got lots of babies, splits, and tubers, to replant. Some of my lily bulbs are as big as apples, with a dozen bulblets attached. Had to add a lot of dirt to raise the beds, prevent the water pooling from drivway runoff. I had a dirtpile from scraping the horse paddocks, lots of sand and "organic material" so should be good for plants.

All the nurseries are having sales, found a good selection of perrenials and shrubs marked way down. Should give the yard and flower beds a new look in the spring. This is a good time to plant here, they grow until ground freezes in Dec. I like flowering shrubs, easy to grow and pretty to look at. You can get something blooming all season if you plan well. My new Witch Hazel is a fall bloomer, bright yellow, should add a burst of color with red leaves to my Oak trees in the corner. Splitting perrennials will help fill in the beds too.

Husband is digging around the barn driveway, got the drainage changed behind the little barn. Water has just been like a funnel with the cloudbursts, drainage going right into the back door. I have found the horses standing in fetlock deep water several times, then had to dry out the tie stalls and drag out the mats! Told him the fall rains were coming, something needed to be done. DD and I started project, moved a lot of dirt! Tried to be done as a surprise when he was gone for the weekend. Ran into some problems, didn't finish until today. He had fun with it and came up with some stuff I hadn't thought of, filling and leveling. Looks real good, have to see how the water runs when it rains!

I had DD help me clean the carriage barn, rearrange carriages and get seasonal stuff around to the front. Found the tire chains for tractor, leaf sweeper, made a pile of stuff we don't use to sell at the winter tack sales. Put the summer stuff way in the back, carriages we won't use in winter are behind.
Have a pile of leather to put conditioner on, may need a couple coats. I like reins, harness, to be soft and smooth in my hands before I pack them back away. Saddles need a wipe down and some conditioner as well. I have a couple sets of synthetic harness I need to run thru the wash, so it is nice and clean when we start working horses regularly again. I do like that synthetic harness, so little work!
We are doing some work with the 3yr old, he doesn't mind wearing his saddle blanket and surcingle. Bridle goes on well, just doesn't understand bit and reins directions yet. Also very unfit, totally sweaty in about 15 minutes. Of course the temps DID drop about Thursday, maybe 55F will be more to his liking than 85F of last Sunday.

Sent the little Corgi to get bred. Hoping for puppies in early Dec. Little late for Christmas sales, however the male dog owner said he never has problems with selling puppies, even in January. Kind of exciting, we haven't had puppies in about 10 years! Female is red and white, marked like Lassie. Male is a tri-color, mostly black with a nice white necklace and feet. DD is hoping for puppies of both colors. I don't know what to expect. Owner of male said the red color stays brighter, when crossed back with the tri-color. Our female was bred that way, her whole litter was red and whites. Surprises are fun, they will all be cute.

Fall color is just getting started, just a few splashes of red or yellow. No frost yet, though warnings are out for further north of us. Huge crops of nuts and acorns just carpeting the ground. I could use a couple more weeks of cool, not freezing weather! Have to finish the garden beds!!

Happy Thanksgiving to "All" the readers who are celabrating the holiday today and a "Good Weekend" to "All" the readers from other parts of the world. My DH and I have been delivering mail on one of the Rural Routes while the Gal is on three weeks holiday. It's our home route and we take the parcels/mail to the Post Office at the end of the route (Highway). The Bakery has a new, most beautiful rustic building with the most gorgeous rockery and view, so our "treat" is to have coffee and a goody before picking up the "outgoing" mail and heading back. We finally got all our apples picked. One afternoon, found a black bear had broken down our fence and had had a feast. They do so much damage by reaching up and breaking the branches to get the fruit. Hope my chickens are safe in their house. Probably one push from it's paw and the lean-too part may collapse. Give the chickens lots of greens and let them out when I get home. The bears are getting dreadful, not afraid anymore and I'm hopin with NO fruit in my yard, this one will tell the others, I've seen on the highway and they will go somewhere else. I opened the fence and took a box of apples to the next door neighbour and found some of the shrubs along the fence are growing too far over their way. Two projects here today, before we put the canopy back on the truck, is to go over there and prune, also, our DD&SIL put a new roof on their barn so we'll head out there and get some old cedar shakes for kindling so I can lit the basement stove. I made a big batch of soup thinking our "trucker son" would be coming home for the night as he was across the "pond" on the Island but had such a cold he decided to go straight to the mainland. Only seen him for 10 min. since Xmas, just long enough to give him some baking when we were in the lower mainland Labour Day. Will take the soup to our DD as the kids will love it. Also have to see how their new shop they are building is coming along and to visit with my dog that is staying there while we work. I know she thinks she's died and gone to heaven. The new Pyr pup is growing, we delivered a parcel there and she sat for a biscuit. Tother mail lady, at one time had 5 dogs and 1 cat meet her at the boxes that are approx 2 klm off the highway. Only 2 there now and they are fenced in. It's a beautiful fence. Slab wood, the boards run straight up and down, one board rounded and some bark still on, the next the flat side and that alternate way all the way up their line. She has the bagged hanging baskets with red/white flowers and the greenery hanging down.