More Killer Bike Adventures by Siera

I cannot believe it!

Val came walking with a Wild Killer Bicycle! You could see it was wild, it hadn't been groomed in ages!

I tried to warn her by snorting and spinning in our pasture about the dangers of spokes and wheels. But she paid no mind and left it in the grass on the opposite side of the fence. 

Sunshine concurred with me. She trotted away shaking her head but stopped a safe distance away.

"Do you suppose it will eat all of our hay?" She asked. She stared over at the bike and gave it the evil stink eye.

Oh NO! I hadn't thought of that! What if Bicycles EAT hay? Or sweet feed? Or gasp...can crawl under hot wires and and steal our food?

This called for immediate action.

I slowly crept forward and around the pen to come from the Bicycle's backside. Maybe it couldn't see from the back? I inched forward bobbing my head up and down.

I lurched forward and grabbed a mouthful of hay and then spun away ready to kick.

Sunshine followed suit, but she backed away. I suppose that was a smarter thing to do.

The Bicycle didn't move all day. It just lurked and lurked.

Later in the day Val walked over and kicked it. It fell over and we were quite impressed.

"Did you see that?" asked Sunshine, "She is so brave! She can handle that wild thing! Wow."

I was not impressed because later I came by that section of fence and it was back up and it had moved!

My immediate concern was that a Regurgitating Baby Stroller would join it when we weren't looking. 

 

Artsie Fartsy

The tree above is a real mess, but in some ways I sort of like it. I enjoyed the process so much I decided to try it again on the tree below.
I added the birds with a brush.

I used to love drawing with pen and ink. I wasn't very good at it. I was more of a Picasso artist and drew a 'interpretation' of what I saw. It tried being accurate and real, and always failed miserably.

Maybe this is why this sort of photo-draw-art-interpretation thing works for me. 

The funny thing is, this 'art' had some rave reviews with a certain subset of folks in
an art group on social media. 

However ~ can a person really trust social media these days? Rhetorical question, obviously.

This yearling deer was photographed through the back door window with my long lens. The original is here:

My 'vision' of what I imagined is here:

And then a wild interpretation that included textures and colors are here:
 

I hike or snowshoe daily with camera in hand and wonder what I can do artistically with the same ol' scenes over and over. How can I see the same tree yet interpret it differently? 

[Hey now, that would make an interesting comparison wouldn't it? This tree and scene over the years? Hmmmm....]

Below is a photo of an apple tree that I've photographed hundreds of times in all sorts of circumstances. This is the version I came up with.

This is the original:

The black and white version is more like a drawing. I like that. It really says a lot about winter. Though winter is not that dull and unexciting.

I enjoy finding out who has been lurking around by their tracks. Mr. or Mrs. Bobcat have been making a trail from one neighbor's property across our place and towards the neighbors west of us.

These shots were taken before the last snowfall. 

We haven't been going anywhere lately. Hubby stays at home and I hike out to the ridge or into the valley to get fresh air and see what is going on in our forest. 

Charlie has not been too excited over the latest cold temperatures and snowfalls. I have to make some trails so he won't have to snow swim.

Garden Garden

I do have a small veggie garden. Here is a photo of it this spring. We cut the size way down from all the past years to about half. 

What you are seeing below is the area we use for a garden. On two sides it has hot wire for the mule's pasture. The red gates are what we call a 'catch' pen. Mules are sorted there for riding or trimming. When I pick one, they all want to come.

Out in the field is a round bale feeder from the days of long ago. I still use it to put hay in during the winter to keep them from trampling on it in muddy or damp weather.

The tree line in back is my upper neighbor's pasture for her goats. Notice! NO weeds!

This photo is also just before Justin came to till the garden. 

After tilling. I planted squash, cukes, some odd flowers, and corn very late. A huge concern was the heat and dry June we were having.

July 3rd

So I'd done some watering in the evening and wrung my hands. This corn was NOT knee high by the 4th of July. To the left of the garden, I keep trimming the weeds with a scythe.

July 13th. I have free range tomatoes coming up from last year. We have had rain here and there to the tune of 3 inches at a time. 

July 22

Believe it or not, the yard was just mowed a few days ago here. Yuck, looks like I have to do this by hand today. Siera is the mule in the field. 

The corn is much taller and we have hopes for sweet corn! The cukes are just budding and so are the squash.

I had squash last year, lots of them. So many that some began to turn and I had to toss them. I rolled those mushy ones out into the pasture where about 10 plants are flowering. So, I will have more than one kind of squash.

Here is the north of our house. Nice and tidy looking. The 4 wheeler is my trash hauler, weed hauler, and fence supply hauler.

Here is the part I usually don't let anyone see. The ugly crushed garage and... piles of projects that 'were' going to get done. In the weeds rests a camper that someone was 'gonna' take apart and recycle and take the stove out and put it ... um, somewhere. It simply has sat in the weeds for many years. The garage was to be torn down and he was 'gonna' salvage 'stuff' that was in there.  

To me, it is nothing but a huge eyesore and I have looked into hiring someone to come and tear it down to the foundation and clean the area up.

There is a nice concrete pad under the garage that would make a great spot to set a tiny building on as a studio or summer guest room.

The Boss keeps telling me he will 'get to this' pretty soon. 10 years later? 

So I create my own pretty spaces where I can enjoy color and beauty and ignore the ugly as I can do nothing about it without causing a huge problem. 

My house is my castle and so are my little gardens. 
Next year, I will go back to having sunflowers a gazillion zinnias, and cosmos. I just need places to put them!

I do love gardening. I love creating pretty spaces.

Oh!

I'll catch up on the Forest Garden aka by the kids as the Secret Garden later.

Frigid Farrier Fence

So I was looking for words that described my day yesterday. It was Farrier Day here. I convinced Rich to get out and visit with Dan and Danny. Son and father Farriers. The father is licensed as an international farrier and he is not your fly by night type of guy. We had a lot of those around here in the past. 

Let's just say a good farrier is worth his weight in gold. No hoof, no horse right? 
No pictures of us working. I am the mule getter and catcher... along with the mule holder and groom while all of the trimming is going on. 

Rich had a great visit and actually stayed out and talked to the guys for almost an hour. We consider that a huge feat. There have been a few times that Dan and Danny have driven out just to visit with Rich when he was recovering from his stroke and Pulmonary Emboli. We have learned a deep appreciation for each other. 

With the trimming done, I decided a good cold day would be perfect for picking up the electric line from the 'line' fence. I'd put hot wire up when we had Dexter cattle in the woods. They were great for cleaning the woods but did not respect 4 strand barbed wire fences. The photo below is of our fenceline with reverse insulators. This half of the fence belongs to my neighbor to maintain. This is actually pretty good compared to the portion of fence I need to keep hot wires to keep my mules in and HIS cattle out on the south pasture. There is maybe one rusted wire. IF I was really young, I'd hire someone to come in and redo all the line fences and then send half the bill to the neighboring properties.

But I am not and I won't be spending the next 20 years here. So I repair areas to keep my critters safe and the neighbor critters out. This barbed wire is not something horse owners really want as a fence. However, if you look at the fencing you will see that there literally is no reason for my mules to try and eat on the other side of the fence.

The only danger I've ever had from hardwire fences is that we had two young champion jumping mules.

Opal and Fred were first in their height classes for Coon Jumping.

Here is a sample:

That is Opal. 

There is a poor video of her jumping Here. 

Anyway. 

Fred is 35 and doesn't jump anymore. He will respect hot wire and that was the only way I could keep him in at one time. He would simply jump into the neighbor's grassy pasture and eat and then when he was done, he'd jump over the fence and join the other mules. Mules who Jump bump the fence first to check its height, then they step back and leap it like a deer. Hot wire keeps them from checking it out. Though Fred was our escape artist and once upon a time took 4 other mules on a walk about with him. 

I have a couple more connections to make out in the woods and then the woodland pasture fences will be set up again.

I do miss the donkeys who were experts at stripping all the multi flower rose bushes. 

I had an odd message on our answering machine. A guy called and wanted to know if Rich still had mules and he was looking for a 'good' one. I need to call him back.

No we don't have any for sale. We sold off all of our stock mules/horses/donkeys and cattle after Rich's health took a dive.

I have Mica and Fred ... very retired Senior Mules.  Sunshine and Siera are my riding pals. Mica has equine COPD with heart issues so she just is here living the Life. Fred is 35 and is here because he is Rich's first mule and he attended our wedding as Best Mule. 

Okay, I went way off track. 

No fencing jobs today. These old hands hurt like the dickens in the cold. 

This is what most of our fencing looks like:

Fence War ~ I guess it's a feud.

My 5 little hanging ghosts I'd put out in the forest on Friday afternoon got a HUGE reaction! 

You know little Halloween decorations.

I went back Sunday with some Gnomes to take some Still Life photos and walk with Charlie.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that the person bought 20 brand new yellow Do Not Trespass signs ~ and literally nailed one to nearly every tree around his stand for about 20 yards in either direction.

He also put up a camera on our/his fence line. 

I do not trespass period.
He has owned that land for 15 yrs and made it clear to all of the folks in our area that he would not allow anyone ever on his land.
I have no reason to go there, it is a large corn field and rather boring.

I would call his reaction to my little ghosts a bit over the top...I'll explain in a minute.

I have a trail cam set up next to one of the Halloween decorations. There is a nice photo of a small buck grazing not far from it. So yeah, it didn't bother the wild life at all. 

It was the Huge Purple/Pink Dildo that he strapped to one of the trees that I thought was in poor taste. I almost was offended, but then decided it was probably one of the funniest grossest things I'd ever seen. The guy's trail cam is aimed at the huge dildo strapped to the tree. I suppose he thinks I'd find it so offensive he'd catch me on camera stepping through the fence and removing it.

Tempted to make a sign and put on my side of the fence.

"Is your wife missing this?"

But then I'd stoop to his level. 

I didn't get up close to look at it, but if it is plastic or rubber, the raccoon will have a field day with it. I know, they've chewed up my dolls I had back there for Halloween past decorations.

Odd things happen to items left out in the woods....remember the Teddy Bears at the creek?

So just to be clear, I've decorated that area of my woods before with zombie dolls and skeletons so the neighbor kids could take a long walk and do a Treasure Hunt in that section of woods. 

Well obviously I won't have any Treasure Hunts back there for a long while now. At least until the forest creatures chew up the purple/pink thing.

Also...something I thought very funny. This fellow had to actually make a huge effort to go out and purchase the signs ... then spend a fair amount of time nailing them up.
He had to use a step stool or something as the signs are about 6 ft up...and god knows where he got that offensive huge Purple/Pink Dildo, but he spent a good amount of time NOT hunting.

Here is a view and I smudged the offensive Purply Thing. The flowers are on my side of the fence. 

I'm thinking of my next move.

This is starting to be really quite funny. However, I think my point was taken. 

Don't Shoot on my Land. Recovery yes. 

I am totally bored with this Isolation/Staying at Home situation. So I can have a bit more fun with this. 

Think Blair Witch Project? 

I am very creative. But I won't stoop to offensive behavior. 

Oh...

Here is the Gnome project I was doing!

That is all I have for today!

Have a great day. I'm going to be busy again!

Moving right along

Oh happy Day!

Mike, the Tow Truck Man showed up in the late afternoon. No apologies needed as he tows for all over our county. He'd told me on the phone he'd try and get to me first thing ... but all it would take would be a phone call and that would change things.

I watched Mike back up our driveway as the places we use to turn around would have been too soft for his heavy truck and our truck on the flat bed.

Chris or Mr. DeLap will call sometime in the next day or so to let me know what the 'damages' are and what needs fixin'. I'm okay with fixing the truck and running it for a few more years. As Mike the Tow Man said, "Hard to run even a tiny farm without a good truck!"

I can't believe how considerate and decent these guys have been to me. [Of course I haven't heard what the costs are yet either.] I've been treated with respect so far. And that goes a long way.
Not like my experience last year where I was treated like 'a Dumb Woman' and ignored until I walked into the shop and stood toe to toe with the manager of the shop.

While waiting on the tow yesterday, I set up what I call the 'winter' fence. It keeps the mules closer to the house, yet they can get into the woods. This serves two purposes. I can usually spot them easily and keep an eye on them...AND during Deer Gun season they are near enough to the house so as not to be mistaken for a Mule Deer. [Insert a crossed eyed emoji here]

Snow!
I woke up to the lovely beautiful white stuff coming down in gobs! Mica and Sunshine were surprised when I led them out of the shed.

Charlie didn't want to venture out at first.
Chores are done.

The snow is coming down hard and it is calling me into the woods!

Goings On

Rich hasn't felt well enough to go visit his mother. It isn't a very long drive and we could do a short stay.
However he still fights for oxygen saturation. If he walks across the floor...say 10 feet across the house, even with 02 flowing, ... his 02 drops into the 80's and takes a few minutes to come back to a low acceptable saturation.

Talking exhausts him. Quiet conversation between us is halting with a little grunt or look from him. Like clockwork now he gets up about 9AM. I get his coffee, help him with getting his breakfast and meds. By 10:30 he is ready to lay down.
If we are lucky, I fill him in on what I have to do on the 'farm' and errands I may have to run by then.

Today I used his 'nap' time to run to the feed store and get mineral salt for the mules and sweet feed for Mica who needs more calories than she is getting. She is a hard keeper and has been since she arrived her 17 years ago. 
I was able to fit in a CrossFit class and I'm glad I did. It felt good and I met some different folks.
All ... very nice.

Burpees, Box Jumping [I jumped on and off a stack of 45 lbs weights], jump ropes, ... that was our WOD at AMRAP. WOD...work out of the day. AMRAP...as many repetitions as possible in a given time. This was after 3 sets of 500 meter rows combined with bar lifts and shoulder touches. No worries, this was all foreign language to me a while ago. But the end result is that I felt good afterwards. I felt relaxed and ready to take on the rest of the day.

I grabbed 50lbs of feed and a salt block and headed home in time to wake Rich up and feed him a later lunch. All was good.

During his afternoon nap, I moved Mica to a separate paddock next to Little Richard, filled the large stock tanks and filled Mica and Lil' Richard's water buckets.

Charlie and I spent the rest of time tidying up some loose end on a few items that needed a quick fix. Like the place where a deer had broken a wire.

I gathered my fertilizer [the kind that melts ice] sand, and old hay chaff together. This combination is my secret weapon for ice.

We are supposed to get some snow tonight that will turn into rain. On frozen gravel roads and driveways that causes the road to become an instant ice rink.
If we get the heavy rain we will have creeks and rivers rising from the quick run off.

Yesterday was a 'free' day. I did chores and not much else. I did put Charlie's Christmas sweater on and took him to see my MIL. I took some shots of her with Charlie and sent them to a few relatives.

Funny. My MIL has always said she didn't like dogs. She likes Charlie.

Charlie also met another resident who asked if he could pet him. I said yes. The resident gave Charlie a ride in his wheelchair.

Charlie made the day for some of the folks at the elder apartment building.



Yup. I think I'm set up for the winter storm. I wonder if it will track this way or go north?

Master of invention or?

...am I just strange?

The day started out beautifully.

A wonderful Sunrise shared with Charlie on the ridge.

It was warm and muggy at dawn so the day promised to be ... hot.

Charlie enjoyed his new car seat.

See?
I guess he can see where we are going!

He was subdued but didn't act sick at all.
Slow and steady improvement!

On to getting the hot stuff out of the way right after chores.
Blanching carrots, corn, and green beans.

I gave away a bucket of green beans to the neighbor just because.

Mid morning found me putting up fence posts and wire to make an electric lane to move our Bull named Bart from one area to another. He is getting shipped on Monday to become our winter meat and hamburger. My good neighbor Jeff the dozer man will take him for us.

Justin came down and worked on the ash trees to cut them up for his winter wood.

I worked on the 'electric lane'. The challenge is to walk a bull from his paddock to another paddock that has a paneled 'catch pen' and a gate in it. He will be loaded from the catch pen into a trailer this evening and Jeff will take him to the processor. I guess process is the politically correct term.
I look at it this way. Bart has done his job and now it is time for him to complete his task and feed us through the next year. I cannot go back to grocery store burger for the life of me.

Anway, I ran into a problem. I have to run the lane across a portion of the driveway and door yard. It has a hardpack gravel and sandstone base and unless you have a drill, there is no way a post will go into it.

Remember the glider I took apart? Well, I haven't gotten to the dump yet, and I pulled a heavy piece of 'something' out of the weeds and used that also.

The frame of the old slider acts as a post, I added those brown insulators to run the fence through.
As of Monday morning, one less Dexter to feed.

I am leaning towards shipping the rest too. I'm not sure how the hay situation will be if Rich isn't able to drive to get round bales. I'm having an internal discussion as to whether the cost of the cattles' feed all winter justifies keeping them just for whatever break on taxes we get.

After the fencing job was done and tested, I moved on to mowing.
Over the years I've had a pony who is very good at doing trimming in some of the areas of our farm. The problem is, he poops and unless I rake it out, it just sits there and eventually dries out. However if I rake it, it dries out quickly and fertilizes.

So I came up with a plan.
I found a chunk of cattle fence in the junk pile.
I used a rope to tie it to the back of the 4 wheeler and then I put a weight on the fence and used the 4 wheeler to drag over the areas of manure. It did a fair job, but the weight kept rolling off.

I've gone back to the drawing board on this and I think I can use a bit more rope to keep the weights on.
I told my neighbor what I was doing and he kindly smiled and mentioned that they 'made' drags for just that purpose.
I smiled back and said I was having fun by doing it with materials I could find.

A chainlink fence chunk would work even better than what I am using now.

However, it worked pretty well!

I don't know if I am inventive or just odd.

But I think I am on to something. Now to get at the poo piles in the meadow.
Hey, at least I am having fun on the 4 wheeler. I'm am making it into a useful tool for my farm work!