Signs Of Fall

Finally it seems like fall might be here, temperature wise.  Today is a lovely sunny day with a cool breeze.  Fall chores have commenced with a vengeance now, trying to get the many things taken care of before winter sets in. 

Today, participating in a fall ritual, I worked on cleaning out the garage of the accumulated hay and other debris that tends to collect even when I am looking.  I've started a little pile of things to burn when the wind dies down.  The old hay leavings will go on the gardens.  Soon the garage will be ready for the winter's supply of hay. 

Lots of laundry today too, since it's a prime day to hang it out and dry.  Slowly I'm pulling up or cutting back plants, as most of them already look straggly even before we have had a frost. 

The sheep are starting to get feisty and lots of ewe fights breaking out.  Not sure how things will go this year, since this is the first time I'll not be putting any of the ewes to a ram.  I have four wethers in with them so will see how that goes as well.   The Shetlands in particular can become quite the handful at this time of the year.  I should be able to rotate them one more time on to grass in the lower pasture, which will hopefully keep them in enough pasture until November.  If that pans out, then this will be the latest that I've ever managed to not have to feed hay. 

It really seems very odd not to be making plans to set up breeding groups!  

 

The other night I picked four pounds of wild grapes.  There are more, but I'm not sure I'll get to them.  I de-stemmed and washed the picked ones and then crammed them in the freezer to make jelly out of later on.  I'm astounded at the size of these wild grapes!   All that rain we had over the last few weeks must have been timed perfectly for them.

There are also a bunch of pears that need to be worked up that someone gave me...and some apples on the tree that need to be picked. The pickings in the garden are slim to none.  I did eat a small tomato off the vine today, but most of the fruit is small, and withered looking--even the green ones.  There are a few onions that have had a resurgence of  growth after I cut them back in early summer.  The peppers are doing outstanding right now, with quite a few nice plump peppers on them. 

This little flower is a volunteer...although I'm not even sure where it came from.  I believe it might be an impatiens, and I believe I might have  had some in a flower pot last year.  This plant sprouted up on the concrete, where the wall meets the ground, and seems to be rather proud of itself.  It was a nice little surprise. 

This little guy falls in the 'uh oh' category.  Supposedly the more black a woolly worm has on it, the harsher the winter.   So what does it mean when they are all black?  This may not be a positive sign.

"Homecoming" is tomorrow at the church and cemetery that my Mom's people are buried at.  Another sure sign of fall is this yearly tradition.  I have chicken and noodles in the crock pot and a pear crisp to go in the oven soon.  

Vacation will be in just two weeks and that is a very good, very definite sign of fall!  

The leaves are slow to turn, but I have a feeling they are going to be really showy this year. 

And finally a sure sign of Fall and cooler days and nights---the cats start to gather and puddle up in a pile with each other. 

 

 

Gabe says--me too! 

Hope your weather is lovely this weekend, wherever you are!

Celtic Festival--Part Two

One more animal shot...here is the star of the show: Fairlight Jasper--he was all over people just wanting one more scratch, one more chin rub--please! He had been sheared just a few weeks before the festival so was a good comparison to my two in fleece lambs, and Angus (his stall mate) who had about a three month fleece growth.


Next we have the telephone pole toss, um, I mean the Caber Toss. These are a series of pictures, unfortunately not of the same fellow, depicting the steps. It was very hard to get a picture of the pole as it was tossed! It blows my mind that they do this anyway. Even if I by some miracle got it the pole off the ground, it would surely topple over and kill me.


Here are two kilted fellows strolling along, deep in conversation. Not sure what that is on the ones shoulder. An arrow pouch perhaps? Surely it's not camera bag or something modern like that?

And I couldn't resist one more of the wolfhounds. Laughingly enough they call one of the four dogs 'the little one' because he is slightly smaller than the others.


Here come The Kilties! They are an all girl marching band and do a very fine job!


Lastly here are a couple photos of the clans. There were more clans of course, but I won't make you look at all of them!



All in all a nice way to pass the day. This year I again had fish n chips for lunch (and they were mighty good and maybe just a little (lot) greasy)! I also had a pastie which I took home to eat. I mistakenly thought it was a sweet treat, but instead it was a delicious little meat pie, about the size of a muffin. As usual I also bought a plate size shortbread cookie and three small springerle cookies, all of which I took home to enjoy later. Food was my only purchases of the day, since the coffee was free! ;-)

I'm thinking next year I might bring sheep and a collie(s)...but until then, sheep need to be halter broken (and socialized), collie puppies need to be born, and I need to get busy making some woolly crafty items!

Celtic Festival--Part One

My booth with the boys next to it. Although I had two tables and I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture of the whole thing.

A week has already flown by since the Festival! Time to get this posted or it'll end up with the myriad other untimely posts in my 'drafts' folder.

Here's the boys being anti-social (by the way, their names are Ranger (blk/white) and Ford (moorit/white)

True to this entire summer it was hot and humid. We had storms during the night before, which caused some havoc with tents and also downed some tree limbs. I loaded up the truck the night before and thought long and hard about putting the boys in the truck too, and parking it in the garage. Due to the extremely humid conditions I finally decided not to, and just hoped it wouldn't be pouring down rain the next morning. It wasn't and the boys were fairly easy to load up. I wanted to get an early start so I was pretty much loading them in the dark, but they behaved pretty good.

It was a short drive out to the festival where unloading went quickly and easily. I had some good help from my friends at Prosperine who also had a Shetland exhibit.

Scottie with Kilt and Stockings clad owner

The little boys weren't very happy. In fact they were pretty antisocial this year. I didn't have the pen set up very well to encourage lookee-lous either, but I'm sure the little wethers appreciated that!

Celtic Owl (not really)

The weather was odd, with a coolish breeze coming up early, then a misty rain, then hot baking sunshine, then clouds then..... All in all it was pretty comfortable in the barn, so I never had to turn on the battery powered fan for the lambs.

English (!) Bulldog being severely intimidated by Ranger (the sheep). This poor dog evidently recently showed up on a doorstep, half starved with some health issues

The livestock barn was a little different this year. We had one entire side for the sheep exhibit, but the Cheviot (people) canceled so we just shared it between the Shetlands. The way the pens were set up though, I was at one end with my tables and Jama and Jim were at the other, with our sheep in between.

One of the lovely Highlands

On the other side of the barn was one stall for the Highland cattle. The Dexter people couldn't come this year and the Highland breeder was a different one than usual--his cows were beautiful well groomed blondies. This fellow spent a good hour washing his cattle before ever penning them up. Made me a little 'sheepish' about my tangled and poke berry stained lambs! At the other end of the barn was the lady with the Wolfhounds--four of the big beasties this year instead of last years two.

Airedale barking at the cattle

There was also a wildlife showing for a short time. Way down across the lower part of the park was the Clydesdales in their own barn. Next to them in a grassy fenced area were the border collies doing duck and sheep herding.

There were as usual a large number of attending dogs, with owners in tow. I always enjoy trying to snap pictures of them. There were many I missed though. The event went well, although it seemed a less interested and friendly crowd, overall. Of course there were many nice exceptions. They were a real touchy-feely bunch this year, with hands buried deep in the roving and noses buried in the sachets more often than not. (Uhm....you might want to rethink sticking your noses on those things folks....you and about a hundred others). I did well and it was well worth my time to attend.

Two towering Clydesdales took turns giving carriage rides.

Next year I'm thinking about taking Ashley and maybe a little Ashley if things work out in that department. Collies would make a nice addition to the Celtic theme, I think. Not sure if my truck will hold everything though!

Pair of Yorkshire Terriers

Part two coming soon---the people and events... and food! OR--Men in Skirts, Men in Skirts Throwing Things, and Shortbread, Fish and Chips, Pasties and More!

Also---pictures of Fairlight Jasper---my much missed Fairlight Jeffery's last son. He might come back here next year for a brief time during breeding season!

Wolfhounds...The End.

Smile...It's Friday!

Gabe

Sage Grass Cat

Labor Day...Day of Labor

Newly planted mums in the wire basket garden.

Having a little time off sure is nice. This summer has been so miserable hot that allot of little chores were piling up outside. There is still much to be done, but even marking a few off 'the list' makes me feel better.

This coming Saturday is the Celtic Festival...already. I'm planning on taking Rosemary's spotted wethers, who sadly still aren't named. Tomorrow morning I'll be putting them in a pen by themselves (they can still see the flock) in order to get them somewhat accustomed to being on their own. At the same time I hope to worm all the Shetlands.

This morning I have been 'all over the map' working on projects. First I moved some panels around to set up the catch pen for tomorrow, then I sorted and skirted three more fleeces. This is the last of the Shetlands. I have two more of the white merino/dorset ones to do. Then some laundry and other inside chores, and finally I worked up the nerve to use my electric chainsaw.

Here she is after her first real sawing job...

My Dad got the thing for me over a year ago and I've been 'thinking' about using it since. I've spent the last three days looking over the manual, and the saw and the extension cord. Laying everything out, thinking about it some more. As I've mentioned five hundred times before it's been so hot and dry (when it wasn't pouring down rain) that things have gone to pot around here. It seems the trees have just had a hard year of it too, with quite a bit of damage.

About six weeks ago, the redbud right out the front window, had one of it's limbs slowly start listing to the southeast. Over the course of weeks, it has eased itself ever closer to the ground. It just really added to the look of overall neglect the place has acquired over this (hot) summer. Very charming.

Little bit of kindling and fire wood to add to the stack--winter is a coming.

So today was the day, and ta-da! The limb has been sawn up, with the salvageable wood added to the fire wood stack. The top limbs will go on the burn pile. While I was at it, I trimmed up some of the other redbud limbs as well. It was really quite easy, but it's clear I have some things to learn. The best part of this little saw is that you don't have to choke it or gas it or pull any cords to get it started. Just add bar oil, plug it in and off you go. It's also very lightweight. Just the thing for limb trimming and adding to the kindling pile.

Since its been so hot and dry my tomatoes, peppers and squash plants have all just either died or look like death warmed over. My little bucket garden was looking pretty harsh, and I was sick of it. So up came the non-producing bean plants, pathetic marigolds, three tomato plants and quite a few weeds. The remaining tomato and pepper plants were re-staked, trimmed and moved up in a tidy line. In the wire basket bed I planted four mums---just for the color. I'm sick of the baked in the oven look and wanted something cheerful. The view out my back door is much nicer now and it makes me feel better when I look at it.

Tidier view of cleaned up bucket garden

As for the flood. Thursday night we got around 3.5 inches in less than an hour--on top of the 4.5 we had gotten through Wednesday and Wednesday night. The ground was of course saturated and so most of what fell on Thursday ran off. We had been very dry, so dry that the grasses in the fields were turning bone white, and weeds were even keeling over, so the rain was very welcome. Until it became too much of a good thing! (and sorry no pictures... my blogging yen just wasn't strong enough to record that mess while I was in the middle of it)...

Around 8 p.m. Thursday I noticed Gabe was sitting by the front door looking at the floor. I went over to see what he had, and instead of a bug, saw water flowing into the house under the front door. Yikes. I ran and got some towels and threw them in the floor, then opened the back door (both doors open onto the breezeway) and water gushed in over the door sill. Double yikes. I shoved my muck boots on, grabbed the broom and went out. The breezeway was flooding with about three inches of running water. It was gushing over the outer door's sills. I used the broom to 'sweep' the water towards the front of breezeway and out into the yard. My brain obviously wasn't functioning at this point and I thought it was just a 'little' problem. The whole time it's still pouring rain, and lightening. Finally I go back inside and that is when I noticed that the rain had seeped in along the wall that runs alongside the breezeway and that the back of the house was flooding.

The water was rushing out from under the bed and spreading rapidly across the house. Boone was laying on the corner of his bed, oblivious to the fact that water was soaking into the beds and creeping across the floor. I booted the dogs out, and Boone just had a fit about it all. I'm not sure if he thought he was in trouble, was upset that his inside time was being used up or what. Ashley went and got one of the outside cats and they curled up on the breezeway bed (one of few dry spots) and had a nice little bonding session.

Boone hangs on...

I grabbed towels and a couple of blankets and tried to sop up the water, I carried out the dog beds, I ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off, and the water still kept coming in the house. As an old boss I used to have liked to say--I was discombobulated. The power strips over in the corner couldn't be reached, so I just prayed I didn't end up fried. I finally remembered my beloved shop vac and slopped out to the trailer and got it. I had to empty it (of course) and drag out the instructions for the wet vac part (uhm...flood could you wait a minute while I read the directions??).

Finally after some false starts and much frustration I got the vac doing it's thing and slowly, slowly made some headway. By about 10:30 and 8.5 gallons of water removed from the house later, I was finally just running a fleece blanket (all the towels were wet) over the floor to finish drying it up.

I don't think anything got ruined. My computer desk did get some water on it. Not only did it flood through the breezeway but also in a little from the back wall. I've worked at building up the backyard over the last few years, but there was one small low spot and it came in there.

Friday was shoveling along the outside of the breezeway to make sure the drainage isn't being stopped up and washing and drying a million towels. I still need to fill in the low spot behind the house and then wait for the next deluge and see what happens. The house has flooded about three times since I've been here (25 years on September 1st!), and I had thought some of the things I've done had stopped it, but I guess it ain't so. This was probably one of the worst.

Fortunately the fur brats were so traumatized by the shop vac and water everywhere that they stayed in the front part of the house where the flooding was contained by towels. Boone stood grimly looking in the back door from the breezeway the whole time.....

But no permanent damage, and it could have been much worse--there was allot of flood damage in homes around the area.

Well, I best get busy putting together things for the Festival this weekend! Have a great Labor day!

Puppies, Floods & Blog Block

Where to start? I seem to be suffering from writer's blog block. So, should I start with puppies or, the Great Flood of 2010?

Probably puppies right? Okay here they are----

Funny looking puppies, you think? Look eerily familiar? Yes, Tempe, you look especially eerily familiar.

So the word on the pups is--no pups. Yes, it was disappointing to say the least. It seems Ashley really did have a secret---it's called a false pregnancy. So up until about a week before her due date, I was firmly secure in the fact she was going to have pups. So was her breeder.

Then I gave Ashley a bath and further de-haired her.

Hmm... there sure wasn't much dog under that fur. Not much at all. In fact she looked a little thin. But she was very clean.

Boone got a bath too. Actually two baths after he rolled in the dirt immediately following his first bath. He and I were not happy campers. This picture was between his two baths.


Back to Ashley. After a flurry of emails and calls Helen decided to come and see for herself. So Helen came and saw for herself. And it wasn't a good thing. Ashley was not pregnant, unless she was cleverly hiding them in some tiny space in her skinny body. Being basically paranoid and over protective of everything I went ahead and treated Ashley as if she were right up to first due date, second due date and three days after second due date. Which meant she got to stay in her 'gorilla cage' during the night and the day when I wasn't here to watch her like a hawk.

And while Ashley even went so far as to produce milk she did not produce puppies. Now she is slightly depressed (whether from being kicked out of her 'special pen' or because she wants puppies I don't know). Lots of attention, cheese smeared on a rawhide bone and a little competition from Boone is helping. She also got to mother one of the cats last night during the storm and she enjoyed that. I'll be keeping a close eye on her to make sure she doesn't develop any infections or problems of that nature.

As for the gorilla cage? Well, I needed a cat secure area for Ashley to whelp her puppies. An area I would be able to feel comfortable leaving her and the puppies while I went to work. An area that no cat could stick their nosey nose into.

Enter the gorilla cage. All my furniture in my tiny living room was shoved over into the equally tiny 'dining area' and spilled over into the kitchen itself. But this then left me with a nice roomy area for Ashley. Horse panels do cost a bit, but they last forever and I can use them for tons of things. A couple of 16 ft panels cut to size, a couple of used 1 x 2s wired across the top, some chicken wire to enclose the top and ta-da! Almost instant whelping pen. The swimming pool is one of Boone's old ones and would have been the 'whelping box' instead of the cat bed if Ashley had had puppies. Pretty nifty. Even if my house did look like a commercial kennel and I prayed for no visitors for the next 8-12 weeks!

Here is the pen. It really didn't need to be that tall, but I didn't want to cut the panels up any more than necessary. I will say the cats have gotten their money's worth out of the whole non-event. Such fun they've had. I expect they are going to be crushed when I move it out tomorrow. That is my couch just on this side of the pen. It normally sits against that back wall. I'm thinking of getting a different couch too...but that is another post.

So sadly no puppies for now. I was really hoping to get it done and behind us so Ashley could be spayed and go on with things. This would have been a good time for puppies with the warmer weather. We'll have to try again next heat, and hope the results will be more positive.

And since this post is already long, I'll wait to tell you about the great flood...of Boone grimly perching on his soaking dog bed as the water rose. Water in the front room, water in the back room. Water everywhere....

Things happen when you get eight inches of rain in less than 24 hours after a long terrible dry spell.....