October 2014

Bubbles are a simple kids' toy, but this gal takes that to a whole new level. Sooo interesting how she gets little ones inside big ones.

Happy October everyone. WOW I can't believe it is the 13th already. I would have to write a novel if I tried to tell ya'll what has been going on around here this month. Hardly a moment to sit down and catch my breath. WHEW this week is going to be a week of hanging around on the farm. (I hope)

CB: Gosh girlfriend, I don't know how ya do the relocating thing. When George & I got married we moved 5 times in 6 years . Maine, Ohio, Vicksburg PA, White Deer PA and then to the farm. UUGGHHHHH I hated it. We have been here on the farm going on 22 years and hopefully are not going anywhere until we are carried away. I am NOT good with the moving stuff.

Rick: Don't go away buddy, We love ya here on the forum. Who am I going to get all those funny pics to steal and send to my friends from if you stop posting them? Animal abuse is such a touchy subject and it's not only the trainers that participate in it. It breaks my hearts to see the abuse people do to God's 4 legged creations.

ARK: I bet you are excited about getting your house put back together and ready for winter and cooler temps. Hope your ribs are healing and you can find a rib protector to wear when riding.

BEECH: Loved the photos. I'm so outdated with my photography equipment, I still use my Kodak Z712 and get great photos with it. I remember when the grand kids were small, I had an old Yashica 35mm and they wanted to see the photos, when I told them I had to have the film developed they were so confused. LOL LOL All they have ever known are the digital cameras.

TUFF: Good to see you posting. I wondered what happened to you & Don. You are so right about the Veterans, they are the reason we are still free in this country. Thank them..

ELLEN: You certainly have been a busy girl lately too. Keep having fun on the water before it gets too chilly.

GRAYMARE: Love the photos of Eli, he is such a beautiful colt.

Have a great week everyone. I'm going to try and finish painting the red trim on the first floor & help George fill in a ditch he has been working on. Trying to get the washer and dryer moved out of the cellar to the first floor. Always some big project going on around here.

Don't forget to get your flu shots and stay healthy.

Love & prayers...

I just got home from teaching a how-to-knit class. 7 women came. Fortunately, some of the already knew how to knit, but hadn't done it in a long time. The most impressive bit of muscle memory kicking in was an 81 year old lady who was taught to knit at the age of 7, and hasn't knitted since then. Once she started, the fingers started working like they had never stopped. Others had learned to knit a long time ago but never got really good at it. What made life challenging is that several of them had learned to knit Continental style, which I have never done.
We at least got as far as casting on, knitting, and purling. They seemed to enjoy it and managed to get it set up to do it again next month. I hope they practice between now and then.

I just invested in one of those power pressure cookers I saw on an infomercial. There is a trick to it though...if you buy from the regular site you will pay $29.99 S&H. While I was browsing Ebay I clicked and found where you can get the shipping free. The cooker is only $80 like that. It may help me during tax season when I have to be on the go 12-16 hours a day to make the meals Don's health requires easier.

This is supposed to be programmable and that would be a plus. I'm also considering the garden for next year and learning how to prep and can things the way I want them. If I feel I will not put holes in my kitchen ceiling I'll get a heavy duty 16 quart just for canning.

Off to feed the beasties

https://www.unitycart.com/powerpressurecooker/cart/PPX326TW.asp

Since I love gadgets, especially kitchen gadgets, I've looked at those pressure cookers. I don't NEED one at all, so I can't justify the purchase. I have enough other small appliances, that I need a shelving unit to store them.

The leaves are just about at peak color now, and a good wind will bring LOTS of them to the ground. The cottonwoods are mostly bare now. As soon as we get a dry day, I'll mow some of them to dust - again.

ELLEN
There is something very satisfying about that last mowing job of the year when the leaves are munched into nothingness!
Come teach me to knit. It has been so long, I don't know if I can even cast-on now. I bet your class is fun!

TRUDY
Our windows and skylights sit gathering dust while we await the return of the carpenter to install them.....sigh....but I do look forward to the job being done!! For one thing, we still have no t.v. linked to the outside world until that family room is finished. No Big Bang Theory, no NCIS, no news, no Once Upon a Time, no RFDtv, no nothing but DVDs. I have been reading a lot. It hasn't killed me, but I do miss the tube. We are also still waiting on the final check from the insurance company to replace our broken t.v. and pay for the new heatpump to replace the Monitor heater the guy's truck destroyed. Thankfully we have a woodstove to keep us warm.

GRAYMARE
That was quite a video! Makes me want to buy a bottle of bubbles .


Rain, rain, rain.....no lesson this week.

Ark, there are a lot of good websites that show how to knit. Some are videos, some are still photographs. Just type "how to knit" in the search box. If an 81 year old woman can remember how to knit after 74 years, you can. That really was fascinating to see her fingers remembering what her conscious mind did not.

good luck CB.... hope this move is the last for you and that this new place is just right..

Carol

I was wondering, too, if CB has already hit the road…………prayers for safety and good driving weather
for you CB………………Let us hear how it's going.

HI CAROL!

Next Thursday is G-day…………………LOL, gelding day!

First load with missymuleytude and goats and 5 dogs r there. I am still here! I have 3 horses and 6 dogs going up the end of the month......whew. the old chevy madeit to springfield and blew some oil gasket so hubby had to keep putting oil in it but limped it on into the house..thank goodness...all is well for now.
I'm just going thru things here and holding down the fort....otto, the bulldog, got skunked again and it took 2 soakings with the deskunk mix....I cAN TOLERATE HIM IN THE HOUSE NOW AS LONG AS HE DOESNT BREATHE ON ME!

CAROL when r u going to az and did u ride this summer, you have been quiet and that is not allowed u know!

Graymare....awwwww....I know it will give him a much better mind tho...but he's been our lil boy....hope all goes well.

Tuff, I use my crockpot a lot that way I put it on in the morning and its dinner in the evening....my friend has one of those cookers tho and she likes the time factor best, she ordered hers off tv....maybe one day I will try one on for size. enjoy yours and let us know how u like it.

Ellen, I learned many moons ago but I hate knitting, do a lil crocheting....very lil!

Ark, it will be so nice when u get all done....

Well, back to my boxes....oyay!

CB- Hooray that the move's been successful so far. I actually had no idea that you were so close to picking up stakes --thought you were still in the planning and packing stages. Maybe that's because just the IDEA of moving gives me the willies. You are incredibly venturesome! And I echo your request to CAROL for more news. I live such a placid life that I have to feed on others' news.

 ARK  I can really relate to the TV withdrawal symptoms.  When I switched ISPs last spring, I decided to do without TV service, partly to save money and partly because I now seem to have more and more friends who've done so and who seem to me to be smarter and better informed and more genuinely involved and productive than I am. So I got an antenna that brought in the three major networks for free, plus a Roku box, and congratulated myself. Ha! That didn't last long. How could I give up being a TV Red Sox junkie? Couldn't. Maybe I'll try again one of these days.

 ELLEN - Thanks for the info about your cameras. My Olympus gives me 10X zoom and I forget how many pixels, but clearly nothing, in both those respects, comparable to your Fuji.  But I'll stick with it for a time anyway, because I've really hardly ever used it - just for myself, that is.

You also have my admiration for teaching the knitting course -- not only because you can do it but because you're willing to share -- and I bet you're super at it, too -- which makes me think of this:  I belong to a local group committed to sustainability, and one of the many spin-off activities it's generated is skill-sharing, which has made me newly appreciative of that wherever I see it. A member, for example, will offer to teach some skill that he or she knows well, then invite anybody or all to come learn.  They work out a date via Facebook, then have at it -- no fees, no indelible commitments. That and other activities -- like a last-Sunday-of-the-month commitment to a "work party," in which anybody who wants to joins forces with others to provide group help to a member who's requested it, at cutting and stacking wood, for example-- has generated a new sense of warm community.  An absolutely terrific antidote to mechanized, isolating, and depersonalizing modernity!

And right now I'm feeling guilty because I'm writing this instead of finishing an article I promised to help beef up that group's Web site.  It's about a "high tunnel" erected by a member who's growing vegetables for a living. Its purpose: to make the growing season here as close as possible to year-long, thereby fostering both local production and local consumption while improving quality and reducing both monetary and environmental costs. Money for the structure came from a federal grant, but the whole thing -- and it's 96 feet long -- was put together by volunteers.  Whoopeeee!!!!!   Here's a pic, for anybody who's interested. (You heard it here first: Hot news on the environmental front...)


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Raining heavily here just now.  Supposed to clear tomorrow. Maybe get some more foliage pics if rain and wind haven't carried away all the leaves.

 ow back to work...

Looks like I'll never learn how to post pics.  Oh well,probably just as well.

I wanted to see the tunnel....drat! that group sounds fun and helpful.

Yep the planning stages r over and the action stages started... biggest motivation is to get. moved before roads get bad. or it gets too cold. I will miss my nice winters here, but it was 93 here yesterday....ack...weather man said something about setting record high for that date....

Ol Man where the heck have you been.....I miss hearing from you.

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That's an interesting idea, Beech. Please let us know how well it works for growing year round. If yours is a success, in your cold and snowy winters, it could work lots of other places too. Will there be some kind of heat inside?

Well, that was a waste of 30 minutes. I just went out and mowed some leaves. The wind is blowing and now that it's 30 minutes later, the yard looks just like it did before.

CB, good to see you post. Had some excitement--yeah kid on drugs robbed us. He was caught and no bad stuff happened,

I really feel sorry for his Dad. Some of the crime aroud here is a bit much!!!!

I have quit measureing my grandson now that he is a jr in college. I so wanted him to make 6 ft but he still likes 1/4 inch,

he is in ROTC and really eats it up. Pfc was best I could do. Missed second cutting so have just finished clipping and it looks like a super good winter pasture. Had a lot of rain.

Gosh gene, were u home when he broke in? I'm so glad you and virginia r alright, but that is scary stuff.
My oldest granson is 5'3 when strtching ....he so wanted to be taller. his younger brother therin was taller than kyle when he was 12. he is now 5'10. sometimes life doesn't seem fair....as long as they are doing good in life is what counts.
Your hay field sounds good for winter pasture. Post more often I worry when u don't!


What kind of fertilizer does everone use? I need to fertilize my fields, but its come a long way baby from using the cow manure and spreader....

Well, back to sorting, getting rid of, etc......woke up with an upset tummy this morning, that's all I need...ugh....neighbors goat was bellowing loudly, woke the dogs and horses and me up early....it sounded awful....poor thing.

ELLEN - That "tunnel" has no heat source other than the sun but works more effectively than small hoop houses because its height and size permit it to trap more heat and hold it longer. Though, in fact, what really does the trick are hoop houses (more plastic stretched over hoops close to the ground)set up inside the big house ("tunnel"), plus, sometimes, row covers over crops inside the hoop houses. Eliot Coleman, who apprenticed, years ago, with Helen and Scott Nearing here in Maine, has been pioneering this technique successfully himself, now, for years. You can check him out on Wikipedia, or look up his books on Amazon, or go to his Web site here at http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/resources/index.html#greenhouses. I have enormous respect for him. If I ever finish this piece about my friend's tunnel here, I'll post our Web site so you can learn more about our efforts, if you like.

OL' MAN  I'm glad to see you, too!

Hi gang. I am here and read to catch up. Am having a hard time getting/staying logged on. Right now I am somehow locked of pikkle barrell ..... just so frustrating when you have to argue with a MACHINE!!!!

I am in Arizona ..... I stayed through the summer this year ..... got pretty darn how!!! LOLOL

Wow, carol, I didn't know you stayed. are you going to bring your horse down and stay year round. I just was out feeding my starving beasts....they r always letting me know I am to hurry up!

Well I am done sorting the stuff inside and have more than a pathway thru the camper...now for a good vacuuming in here, but I thinkit will wait until tommorrow....just had dinner and kicked back watching x factor with a tall glass of ice tea....pretty quiet.

Wow, Carol! I'll bet it was a lot different than Minnesota heat. Do you still have Ice? At least you avoided the trip up and back. That would be a long haul.

RICK:
 Awwwwwww!  So cute!  Is this Jillian?  


OL'MAN:
  Really great to see you!  I am so glad no one got hurt in the robbery.  Did you get your things back?    Second cutting hay here was very sparse, too.   I saw some guys putting up hay today, so you know they are late getting anything.  With all the rain we had this week and now cool weather, they will be lucky to get it dry.  We had about 3 inches of rain a couple of days ago.  


CAROL:
 It is really great to see you, too!  You and Gene have both been missed.  Besides hot, how did you like AZ in the summer?  It sounds like Minn. gets pretty hot in the summer, too.  Was the humidity better for you in AZ?

CB:
 Is Harry staying in Missouri for awhile while you are getting ready for the next haul?  We only moved animals about 75 miles, but it sure was complicated enough.  Your move is staggeringly scary!

BEECH:
 Wow!  I hadn't heard Scott and Helen Nearing's names since college.  We used to read a lot about them in our 'back to the land' days.  They both must be gone by now, what happened to their farm?   They were really well thought of.  
 That tunnel is interesting.  I hope it works out as well as expected!  Veggies in the winter in Maine would be wonderful.  


Donnie and I tacked up Ivan in Daisy's Australian Stock Saddle today and I climbed on to see how it felt while riding Ivan.  Wow.  That saddle is heavy!  I need a groom to just lift it up on Ivan.  (Thankfully I married one ).  I didn't have a clue how to do the girth, but Donnie did, so Ivan stood around calmly while he showed me how to fix it up.  It is actually kind of interesting.  Other than the weight while tacking up, it wasn't bad to ride in.   I am actually getting ready to put it on Areion after I ride Ivan in it for awhile.  I will be a bit more secure when she decides to leap out from under me next time..... Ivan and I rode around in front of the barn since the other horses were in the arena and are a pain to ride with while they are loose.  We trotted a little, but the stirrups are an inch or so too low and when I trotted, I came out of them.  We are going to put on safety cage stirrups and shorten the leathers a bit.  The girth is getting a little old, so I'll probably replace it, too, and use a somewhat larger saddle pad.  It may be fun to try out for awhile.  I hadn't sat in it in years.  It is so different from my English saddle.

Pix of course!