My garden took precidence..

...the last few days.
(Once I got over this Tick phobia, H.O.W. says I have! I did super clean house and against all my ideals of good clean air, I bombed the place! And NO MORE Border Collies allowed in until they've passed a thorough search done by the Tick Patrol!)

I did something I haven't done in maybe 23-25 years....plant my veggie garden before June! Sure hope I don't regret it! Was caught in a dilemna...I go to MN in a wk & half, so couldn't plant til after the 15th...which would be fine too; BUT I usually lose seeds & sproutings to birds, so by planting now, Hubby can inform me on the progress or regress of it's growth while I am gone. If need be, when I fly back home, I can stop somewhere to buy more seeds to replenish what might have disappeared. That's killing two birds with one stone...since it is 1 & 1/2 hrs away for me to buy seeds...and the airport is there...no point in having to make another trip, which would eat up my "gains" of my own freezing & canning this year with the price of gas!
Ya know, as I was planting, I could hear the Blackbirds & others chirping, sitting on the chicken coop & in a nearby apple tree. I'm 100% positive, they were mocking me & just waiting for me to be done so they could swoop thru & start making dinner choices! It happens EVERY year! They may as well be sitting on my shoulder laughing in my ear! I did a check this a.m., & sure enough, some of the bean seeds were laying on top of the soil. I'm sure they had been "sampled" and set aside until they get swollen and ready to burst with life! I just went along and shoved them back into the earth.
So we will see what June 15th blesses me with upon my return!
P.S. I've always planted a large enough garden to accommodate the birds...and the deer, who graciously seem to know that, and don't help themselves until I am through with harvesting all I want. The birds, however, aren't quite as appreciative! I think they feel I should just keep on feeding them all summer! There's been years, I've continued planting again & again, through the 4th of July. Finding seeds that time of year is a tough one though!
P.P.S. That "thud" my Hubby made the other day, the one I ignored, atleast nothing was broken. Pretty sure he bruised his ribs tho. (He's been broken, banged up, and laid up enough to know!) Coughing is not painfree, rolling over in bed is a challenge, and saddling up another colt & climbing on?
Well..........it's gotta get done! All part of survival!

Tick Tick, Tick Tick....

...and I don't mean Brad Paisley's song either! That is gross! I HATE ticks! Worse than any other critter on earth! Worse than scorpions which we experienced in Az! If you live where there is a tick problem, like we do...read this about Ticks.
My wonderful Cowboy Hubby takes off riding the colts everyday, through the CRP ground, through creeks; over hills and back. The Border Collies work, run and romp along with him, mile after mile. With Hubby being a horseback, he rarely gets a tick on him; however, Mac, Tess & Millie come home loaded! Hence, they come into the yard, on the porch, and Ol' Mac, no doubt brings 'em into the house ('cuz he's spoiled now that he's 13 yr).....which brings me to the subject and even more reason for me to hate these critters! Two weeks ago, just by chance I happened to notice a 'spot' on my boob while getting dressed, IT WAS A TICK! Already embedded! Didn't even feel it! Well, last nite I flew outta bed at 4 am...'feeling' something...sure enough, just below my tailbone...was Yep! a tick! It hadn't embbed yet, thank goodness! FREAKED me out! Couldn't even go back to sleep! CREEPY!!! Picking ticks is part of our evening routine, before coming in for supper. I find them (Hubby's fingers are too rough to feel unless they are engorged) and Hubby plucks them....I just can't stand to do that! We have a jar of alcohol on the porch to put them in, as the article says, and it's getting quite full! YUK!!
Boy! ...is it ever noisy around here at 5am! Birds up the gazoo in the Hawthorne tree out our bedroom window, wild turkeys gobbling off in the distance, rooster crowing like there is no tomorrow; horses whinning for their breakfast, goats blahhing (?), calves bawling on the knoll for Momma & a 'drink', Millie & Tess barking from their kennels....with only 4 hours of sleep when I was rudely awakened...all these noises irritated me more! So, I just got gave up trying to sleep somemore, got up and made my morning coffee, sat on the front porch listening to all the morning chatter going on and surprisingly, when you aren't trying to sleep, it's quite beautiful "music" !
Hubby helped a local rancher move his cattle today, very uneventful he said. Came home and worked another colt....I heard a 'thud' while working in the garden, but I ignored it. He wasn't hollering or anything! So how was I to know he hit the ground and knocked the wind out of him.....again! Wonder how long 'til this eating dirt, gasping for air, barely walking comfortably gets him on a different path! He ain't as young as he used to be.
With the economy going the way it is, his age, where we live.....the cards are stacked against us! Hopefully, this hosting the MontanaTV1 Ag & Ranch Show coming is our ticket to some relief! Time will tell!
edit: 9/27/08MontanaTV1 failed this summer and will not resume...

I think I finally got a Favicon!

I've spent days trying to 'get' one! I have gone to many many site, uploaded, downloaded, uploaded, downloaded...over and over...'til I got dizzy! and to no avail. I don't have any fancy programs such as Photoshop, or even a newer 'puter...I'd unzip, or not, and try to upload yet always got the response "don't recogonize the program"! We'll see in a few days if Favicon accepted mine and then I can put it here and on my other site "Our Life" at ClancysCorner. Which,by the way, is done with Yahoo SiteBuilder, and it doesn't accept favicon.ico.....but I'm gonna try! I just keep playing and playing and playing around with this HTML crap...and don't hit "save" until I GOT it!
Udder'n that, today was pretty uneventful. Helped Hubby work on his upcoming premier showing on MontanaTV1.com Ag & Ranch Show. It's a new venture, out of character for him, but he should, we should, have some fun in the process. Finally! 'Cuz we need some fun in our lives!Hubby has always said, as long as I can remember... "If Bull-Shit were gold, I'd be a millionaire!" He is good at that and everyone loves him! Especially ME! (Obviously, it isn't gold...not even gold dust! Of all our family & friends, youngsters & old timers, we are the poorest people we know....and that ain't a joke!)

Ok......so it's a Holiday!

...Memorial Day weekend. Bet most everyone out there is doing something fun, going somewhere exciting, cooking on the barbie, or picnicing...whatever.
As per usual...we are staying at home, doing nothing special. Being a Cowboy's Wife, a self-employed Cowboy you might want to call him, means WE are the one responsible for making sure all the critters are fed, watered, healthy and safe. 24/7 ! Don't live near anyone to ask to watch over things...besides, it's a Holiday! And anyone within a 6 mile radius of us, is no doubt doing things I'd like to be doing!
We miss out on sooooooo many things Rrrrrrrrrr!
So, I'll just do what I do.....garden! and Blog, of course, unless the weather gets warm and beckons me outside, like it did today. I stirred up my veggie rows some more, mixing that wonderful decomposted manure and compost pile additives another time. Besides, everytime I do that until planting time, it rids the space of more baby weeds! The more weeding you do, it's the game "pay it forward" ! Within a few years, the weeds will become the minority! And boy is that ever a reward!
I planted things friends have given me and moved and replanted others to accomodate the new things. I am frequently changing my mind on things, as they grow and as new arrivals show up on my doorstep. But what the heck, it gives me another chance to use some more of my sweet-aroma compost dirt in every hole I dig. And the plants give thanks to me by blessing me with beautiful colors and/or frangrances!
9:30 pm our time...and as the days get longer, we stay outside way too long; eat supper way too late. Not healthy! and no matter hard we try to change that, the habit was established so many years ago, we just can't seem to break it! So, now that is past sunset, I'd better get off my duff & fix some supper! Sorry, Hubby, Beef! is NOT what's for supper tonite! Just good ol' Nachos!

BEEF! It's what's for dinner!

.....so my Hubby says! He also says that if it doesn't walk on the earth's dry ground...than you shouldn't eat it! (obviously, you guessed he won't eat fish!) Yep, so that's what we had...our own home grown beef! (Roast to be exact).
Boy, there is a lot to be said for home grown anything! Be it beef, chicken, eggs, or veggies! Our beef is basically organic. They are born on our ground, raised with their Momma, brought in for weaning, and then left to grow up just grazing. Around 18 months, we bring it back in, and feed it corn (gives THEEEEEEE best flavor!), hay for minimum of 60 days, and water of course. We don't, and wouldn't even if we could afford it, vaccinate, or inject anything into the animals. They are raised like they were 100+ years ago! You know....survival of the fittest....and boy is it the bestest tasting! Healthier too, for the animal and us! Heck, we know exactly what the animals have ingested, so that is what is going into us....all natural foods!
I raise and put up all of our veggies too. Organic also! The pens where the horses, cows and chickens get kept sometimes, need to be 'cleaned', so all the proceeds get dumped in a pile out in one of the fields. The following year, after decomposing, scoopfuls (with the borrowed neighbors tractor...thank goodness) are brought in, dumped outside my fenced garden, where I then wheelbarrow it into my mounded rows and pitchfork "stir" it in. My garden's rows have always been in mound fashion. The soil warms up earlier in the Spring and they never get walked on to be compressed. Except.........by all the durned cottontails we have! I do have a compost pile too, actually 2. Coffee grounds, egg shells, some grass clippings, pulled weeds, you name it, goes there (if the goats or chickens aren't in line for it). One big pile (and I mean BIG! Like Mt. Compost!) I keep adding to, stirring and watering. My other pile, is much smaller and more manageable. I 'pull' from the big one...the what has decomposed the most...add it to the little one, more dirt, more water and more stirring....and it is ready to use at all times. I treat my flowers, my shrubs, my veggies with it! They love it!
It's been a stranger than strange Spring this year. I still won't be planting until June 5-15th. People are amazed that I don't, but ya know? My gardens always catch up and surpass most others! I do plant a few cool weather veggies for the eagerness to get gardening takes over and we did have fresh leaf lettuce and radishes for salad tonite.
Wow........wasn't going to stay on here this long! Get to talking about my passions, and I can't quit!
Spent all last nite, until 3:30am on this darned blog....'playing' and trying to change and add etc. Kind of tough to research and implement, and then change it all over again, with this slow dial-up I have! So calling it quits tonite..................

I missed Farm Club...

..today! And it was our last one for the year as the busy season of farming & agriculture is upon everyone! Just love that club! There are so many cool women! Believe it or not, I am one of the youngest members (3 younger than me) & the range goes to 94! In this very small rural community, there are a lot of women living into their 90's + . Is it the hard work? The clean fresh air? I'd like to think so, yet this ol' body should have moved here sooner instead of 3 years ago!
Had my hot dish all ready to go & then H.O.W. got on a whirlwind of a discussion about changes we need to make in our situation!
Being broke all the time is taking a toll on him too! He's been bucked off too many colts, stepped on by too many ill mannered horses being a Farrier for 30 years, built & repaired too many fences, broke too many bones (including his back!) and just plain used his (and mine!) Brawn instead of Brain more times than not! Of course, it was always out of necessity as funds never accommodated us the privilege to buy things that could help...like tractors, tools, etc! Kinda hard to change things...when you've lived the Cowboy way your whole life! What else is there??
As he sleeps, as I sit here typing, I pray that a solution will come to him in his dreams!
Only three years ago when we moved here, the economy was different! We could actually get by with what little money we were making, heck, 6 months ago wasn't so bad either! But, wow! There's been a drastic increase in groceries, gas and hay prices! Don't know how the government expects people, who were already in the poverty ranks, to keep on surviving!
We've never wanted for much, and needed less..........but this is getting scarey!!!

Worn out cowboy boots....

...and rain, don't make for warm bedfellows! Danged rain today, anyhow! It was supposed to be a good day!
Hubby worked most of the horses he has in here to start, rivers running off the brim of his hat, down to his seat in the saddle. Yea, he decided to call it quits early today hoping he could come in, dry off and 'cool off'! It plummeted from 89* the past 3 days to 56* today.
At 2pm, "Could you please replace the rusted out bathroom sink with that cheap, sale bin, Home Depot replacement we bought 2 months ago?" That's all I asked of him....grumbling, he set out to oblige. Mind you, we have renovated almost every house we've lived in, yet plumbing is NOT his forte!
Here comes 5pm and much cursing later, mission still not accomlished due to this 107 yr old house we live in....none of the the prior renovations, plumbing-wise, was done with the idea someone just might have to replace things! I hollered that the goats are out eating my ready to bloom Irises and Columbines!
Well, without creating more grumblings & cursing, as I've learned to do over all these years, the only choice was for me to gather my rain gear, slip on my boots and collect the goats myself! (if I didn't do that, my sink would never get attention for maybe another 2 months! Which in my earlier years, I'd have just done it myself, but time have taken a toll on my strength...and doing things a woman should not have done, has given me nerve damage in my most used arm...I'm a lefty)
Goats and me don't get along real well...at least not the "goats on the loose"! They have a tendency to want to eat up all my hard, rewarding work! That being my flowers! Sure, Keith thinks the goats have a purpose....to train the young Border Collies on, but my thoughts are different!
Needless to say, by 7pm the sink was still not in working order...he stripped the copper fitting for the water connection! so who knows now, when it'll get finished! We don't live anywhere near a hardware store and with the price of gas, and many miles to travel...and now money that's so hard to come by anyhow, must be spent....could be next year!
..........OH........back to the worn out cowboy boots....yes, Hubby's old Olathe boots are in dire straights and he notices their condition (or should I say lack of!) more when the mud seeps in chilling him to the bones in the wind and rain! Oh, well.........could be duct tape is in order! Been there....done that many times! LOL!

Here comes the W.O.W factor!

Finally, after much ado, I'm able to join the Blog world! But, now it is so late, this old lady needs to get some sleep.....will get a good start on my thoughts to share with the world, tomorrow! (As long as Blogger doesn't decide to lock me out again cuz they think I'm a spammer! Geez, all I got accomplished was my title description....and BAM! I was locked!)Anyhow, tomorrow will be a good day! These ol' bones are telling me so!