Bye bye...

The road bans went off and Frank [the plow guy] came over to pick up the skid steer and its attachments. I took a shot through the window as he was taking the huge and heavy post pounder.

It made me very sad to hear that engine wind up and know it would be the last time I heard it. Hubby loved that piece of equipment more than he loved [cough cough] his wife??? Maybe not, but it was his the one piece of equipment he adored the most.

I told Frank about the guys taking my homemade post pounder and he told me about how he made his own too. He described the very same method that Rich used. When he pulled out the skid steer, he forgot to detach the battery tender and destroyed it. He sheepishly offered to pay for a new one.

I asked him if he could make me another homemade post pounder instead. I'd call it even as I had another battery tender in the basement for the 4 wheeler battery that I take out each winter.

Yes. Soon I'll have another handmade t post pounder! Color me happy!

He then purchased a whole roll of barbed wire and gave me the going price for it even though I'm pretty sure that Rich probably got it at a huge discount years ago.

We discussed demolishing the busted garage and then regrading the area between the house and the old garage. Frank explained it all giving me a vision and direction that I could not have thought of. It will improve the drainage around the house and will improve the view from the house. [Imagine not having to look at a busted up building and seeing the forest instead!]

I got an odd phone call a bit later. It was from the Glen the Bow Hunter who leases the land next door. He sold some more 'property' in Kenosha and needed to invest it so avoid taxes. He offered for the fourth time to buy my farm and let me live on it.

I cannot see how that would work for me. I'd feel like a tenant that could be evicted at any time. So I explained to Glen that the farm is in a trust. I didn't give him the details but said that would complicate things.

Besides, once I have excavators, the bulldozer, and the forest mulcher jobs done, along with the scrap metal cleaned up... I am going to enjoy this place and its uncluttered beauty until I decide the place is too much for me.

Thursday was the ice storm. It was awful. I did watch small branches fall from trees when the winds blew.

The 12 hour rainfall with the ice was nearly two inches.

Apparently we are to get more Friday evening with heavy rain and damaging hail and winds.

March sure left like a Lion that was very pissed off.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter Weekend.

Come on Spring!!!!

Let's make deals

 You all might recall the guy who is a neighbor, a farmer, and runs an excavation and gravel business.  He redid our steep driveway a couple of years ago. 

He has remained a solid guy for snowplowing at $50 per plow. He also checks in on me when he does plowing. I call that pretty neighborly. He knows I'm here on my own.

A week ago Frank came while I was feeding critters. I didn't have my car moved out of his way, he said he would plow around it.

Then the conversation.

"Say....whaddyagoing to do with that Chevy Truck over there?"

Junk it.

"Can I buy it for parts?"

Can I trade you for plowing?

"That's a lot of plowing."

That's less $ out of my pocket.

"That's true. I can do that."

Good Trade then, if you can use it?

"Good Trade."

I reached in through the window of his truck and we shook hands.

Deal--- Done.

There are still places in the US where a handshake is the real thing. The art of trading in a rural area is better than money or contracts.

Today Frank stopped by again. He asked if he could look at the skid steer I had. I'd previously asked him if he knew of anyone who would be interested in it. 

I am not qualified to use it or care for it. I don't get along with machinery. It is a nice piece of equipment and shouldn't just sit in a shed and get dusty and eaten by mice.

I helped him start up the skid steer and left him to it in the shed. He ran it through its paces while I tended to the mules.

When he turned it off, I walked in. 

"How much for it?" he asked.

I told him. I priced it on what we'd paid for it. I know could get more if I advertised on Market Place but I didn't want to deal with strangers calling and asking questions I couldn't answer. OR strange men coming to my place.

Then I took him out to where the hay fork and plow were sitting on the old hay hauler. I told him that the implements went with it.

We stood while the snow fell all around us. Frank seemed to be thinking.

"The implements too?" 

Yup, they go with that particular skid steer.

I asked Frank if he would consider some Dozer and Excavation work for me. I explained my project ideas while we walked back to the house. 

Frank stopped and looked at the fallen down garage.

"I can take care of that for you too," he said. "We can do this and things will look great for when you are ready to have your auctions. I'll be happy to help out."

I was surprised and pleased. I said I wanted to bring this place back to its glory days.

When I sell this place, I want people to see this incredibly beautiful place we have without all the piles of junk laying around.

Frank nodded. "It is a beautiful place you have here. Cleaning it up will really make it shine."

Another handshake. He was giving our old truck new life as a 'parts donor'.  

He was giving the skid steer a good home too. Plus with our trade deals, we'd both come out on top.

Funny how that is. The things that were so precious to Rich will be going just a couple miles away and put to good use.

Let's make a deal.

Goings On!

Well I talked to the Insurance Adjustor yesterday. Her name is Jeanine and we've had one other occasion to talk about my car about 2 years ago. A Woodchuck chewed through my transmission line on that claim!

She remembered me and that claim because it was so odd.

She asked how it happened and I explained. She wanted to know how bad was it... and could I drive it? Apparently she has handled concrete vs vehicle claims where the underside of the car has been covered and the car is a total loss!

She concurred that my poor 'Ru had to see a professional for clean up and that it is covered under Comprehensive coverage.

The estimate for this? $2,500.

I think I am the lucky one. I'd had to think how the other car that splashed me turned out.

Jeanine said if another Very Strange Auto Claim came past her desk, the first thing she would do is to see if it belonged to me. She said she still refers to the Woodchuck Attack once in a while just for laughs.

Meanwhile...

The Wild Teddy Bears decided they better check out Frank's bulldozer.

I'm glad they couldn't figure out how to run it!
 

Hey Percy, let's check this out!

Chance, you do the pedals, 
I'll do the stick things...

This is so much cooler

than that bike!
Where should we go?

The work started yesterday. Frank cleaned out all the culverts and reshaped the waterways for run off. 

He graded the area by our back door and is putting in a gravel parking area.

I spoke with Frank and let him know that my neighbor probably had a small job for him to do before he was done at my place with the dozer. 

Frank thanked me for the referral. He was pleased as my new neighbor asked Frank to also grade and gravel his driveway too.

The final cost will be pretty pricey, however the lower driveway has seen one load of gravel in 26 years. The cost of maintaining the driveway all of these years has been very minimal. I want to have the whole thing done properly and hopefully it will last a long time.

Okay, the driveway rehab is pretty boring stuff. But I feel rather accomplished. This sort of job was always referred to Rich as he was the one who always negotiated these things. There were a lot of guys I could have called for this job, but I felt that the work should go to the fellow that was maintaining my driveway through the winter too.

Hot! Oh Hot oh and other farm stuff.

July 2023 has been one of the most unusual months in recent memory. Rarely did we have a beautiful sky in the mornings. The sunrises were orange or brown and once even a frightful red [without the rains!].

It makes me wonder how the wildfires and smoke are effecting

wonderful creatures like the Monarch Caterpillar..

 or my neighbor's crops... 
the drought, smoke, and hot days, cold nights??

What sort of strange times do we live in? 
Rhetorical Question.

Moving on.

Yesterday I spent some time with the fellow who came out to tune up our skid steer. It was having an issue. 

Caveat, I do dislike machinery. I don't like operating machinery -- farm machinery. Period. He replaced three thingies that make the lights, blower, and starter run properly. Fuses. That's what they were. He admired our nice skid steer. I did mention that I would be happy with one of the first ones we ever had. It was simple with no electronic fusies to fuss with. He offered to trade me for his older little one.

I learned a few things from him and he showed me how to check hydraulic fluid and other stuffs. He explained it nicely so that my eyes and brain didn't explode, shut down, nor did my eyes glaze over.

The gent that we have purchased large square bales called me back this morning. I said "Hey Darryl, bet you can't figure out what I called for!"

"Oh," he said, "I'm sure it was to talk about the weather or perhaps good books to read?"

He always jokes with me.

He'd been waiting for me to contact him. I gave him an estimate of the amount of hay I'd need to carry me through next year. 

I pared it down from last year. We've lost Fred and Mica won't make it through this winter. She is the grey mule we have. 

Her COPD/heart situation has been depleting her strength and condition. It would be cruel to let her hang on into the cold. 

Today she wouldn't even trot up to the next pasture rotation. She literally walked slow while struggling to take breaths. It would be cruel to keep letting her suffer like this. 

Anyway, Darryl said he'd make sure we get what we needed. I have it delivered all at once and stack it in the machine shed. I pay him on the spot.

He said he was turning down a lot of requests and was taking care of his regular customers first.

I get it. We are grateful that we've been faithful customers of his for the last 10 years.

Rain. It would be good to get some.

We mowed some of the yard yesterday. This morning I cleaned all the stock tanks and put out fresh cool water for everyone.

I even got out of making supper tonight! Ms. Olive invited us up to her place for homemade pizza.

Stay cool if you can.

Dirty Gerti and other things

 Mystery solved. Gertrude aka Gerti was a pup that Olive got. Gerti was an accidental breeding between a mini poodle and a mixed blue heeler. It happened on an Amish farm and since the farmer was breeding for other 'doodles' and had a hard time getting 'rid' of these pups according to the sources...

He proceeded to begin to 'shoot' the pups. A lady stepped in and got the crossbred dogs and began to find homes for them. This lady also had connections with Olive through work.

Olive's hubby said no. Olive said maybe. And then like any strong willed woman would do, Olive brought Gerti home with her. Gerti adores Olive's little boy and is amazingly gentle and sweet. 

Gerti and Charlie hit it off right away. Charlie did the butt sniffing inspection and after that, they trotted off while we hiked. Gerti followed Charlie most of the time.

Hello Gerti!

She has a blue heeler - ish saddle markings mixed in with her Poodle coat. 

She is adorable.

Olive was trying to explain why she needed Gerti and I said 'I get it.' Indeed, Gerti was exactly what the doctor ordered. Woman to woman...we understood exactly why Gerti was needed.

Gerti had no issues at all with playing in the creek or getting full of mud and sand.

Rich dubbed her as: Dirty Gerti

Gerti won't shed thanks to the mini poodle part of her. Olive and Gerti make a great loving team. I'm looking forward to many adventures with our two dogs.

The 11th was also hubby's birthday. As an extra special treat, I washed his skid steer which was really quite dirty and dusty!
I treated him to a culinary delight of strawberry shortcake, the Bisquick kind, along with Steak and Tators.

I also did some cleaning and reorganizing in one of the closets and rooms upstairs in prep for Ariel to come for a visit. I found Morris's old toys in a bag. I hadn't had the heart to toss them. 

And at first I thought Charlie would like to inherit them. 
Charlie has always been a tough on toys. 

If it has a squeaker and it is stuffed, the toy is usually torn apart in minutes.

One toy fell out of the bag and Charlie picked it up.  

He didn't mutilate it. Maybe now that he is 5 years old, he won't tear things apart like he used to?

Did you know that April 11th was also dubbed #happypetday by social media?

These eyes of innocence melt my heart:

Morris and some of his toys in 2011:

And now?

I'm caught up. This morning, I am sitting on the porch with a cup of decafe watching the sunrise color the sky by the old oak tree to the east.

Wow what a day!

 Here is my Foodie Photo / Foto.

I never 'present a dish' but I am not knocking those who do because...well, I AM jealous because you folks that cook and make beautiful dishes are awesome. 

I decided to decorate Fred's morning meal. Fred is a pony mule who is 37 years old. He is retired and now gets special grain mixed with alfalfa pellets that are softened. I bring it in and let it soak. I had some cut flowers that I was going to toss out. 
Instead, I decorated his meal.

Yeah. Hubby rolled his eyes and shook his head. Why not though? Fred was/is probably the only reason we met each other so many years ago. I admired the little mule and recalled the man telling me his name was Fred.

I didn't recall the cowboy dude's name for most of the week we rode together. But I recalled the awesome little tough mule he rode.

Fred was at our wedding. He was best mule.

The farrier was to show up at noon and I got Rich up from his nap so he could visit with them while I got out ol' Fred and cleaned him up.

The father son farrier team has been with us since 2017. They always make the appointment with us so that they can spend extra time visiting with Rich. They also come out once in a great while during the months they aren't so busy to sit and chew that fat with Rich.

I couldn't catch Rich's old mule Mica later on, so I left a pen open and got our little pony for a trim. Rich walked out and told me he'd go catch her. He was annoyed that I didn't run around the pasture to chase her down.

As I predicted, the old mule walked right into the catch pen as soon as I was busy with something else and she waited until Rich walked in and haltered her. He was quick to point out that HE caught her.

We all watched with our mouths wide open in amazement. 

I murmured something to the affect that I thought all the exercise he was doing during his PT appointments were obviously paying off well. Chalk one up for exercise!

I took over for him after the Danny finished her first hoof so he could sit down on a stool they'd put in the truck just for Rich. [What thoughtful people they are!]

The guys finished up and then stayed to visit. 

I got a text from Daryl the hay guy who said he would be by in the late afternoon with our winter hay. Daryl is a kind soul. Rich used to go get the hay from Daryl, but since his stroke, he doesn't drive and we never have to wonder too much where we will get hay from. Yes, it costs more to have it delivered, however, it gives me peace of mind to know I can depend on him as a source each year.

Daryl and Rich visited. Rich complained about the price of hay. Daryl reminded him of how much he loved watching his mules and was that worth the price? 

There was a discussion about brush hogging the pasture. Daryl pointed out that he could probably have the pasture brush hogged twice a year for about 15 years for the price of the one he'd pay for his skid steer.

Rich moved the bales into the shed, never missing a beat and had them all stacked up neatly for me to feed out this coming year.

Charlie and I took down a temporary fence that we'd put up for the summer near all the old 'stuff' parked in the weeds.

With all that done, Rich said he was exhausted.

He had to be! All day he had to be sociable!

It was amazing, he laughed, he told jokes, he caught a mule. He wrangled the skid steer and 20 huge square bales. 

All in a day's work.

The Fixer

So. 
Basically the doc said I should be okay unless something more happens. In simple terms my older eye had stuff that is pulling on the retina. It caused the flashes of light and the weird things. 
Take it easy, don't be lifting a lot of weight. I'm not sure he understood that 15 to 50 lbs is not much weight to me, but for now I'm going with it. I will behave myself and put myself on 'light duty' for now.
I was told it is okay to hike but be reasonable. Pfft.

The Fixer. Well, that's me. 

Hubby couldn't get the skid steer started after he charged up the battery.

The man is a whiz with a skid steer and we've had a few of them over the years. This last one is his pride and joy. He came in the house frustrated and out of breath. He dropped on the couch and proclaimed that he was good for nothing.

I made a couple of phone calls. One to the guy who was fixing the mower. It will be delivered tonight or tomorrow night.
I called St. Joseph Equipment Company and they had a guy in the area.

I swear, if IT has an engine, I cannot fix it. Give me a dog, a horse, a mule, or even a donkey and I can get them to do most anything for me. Anything that uses gas? They are mysteries.

The electronics wouldn't work because the battery had died and the switches all shut off and needed resetting and a relay went bad. It took the tech guy about an hour to figure it all out and he was super nice [I'm sure the bill will be nice also].

I gave Rich the news and he beamed, he can't wait to get out and grade the driveway. I worked out a plan with Stan the Tech to get Rich out at least every two weeks to keep the 'steer' running. Stan also laughed and offered to take our machine to his house and bring it back when we needed it. He could keep it busy!

These machines like to work. 

And before Rich got ill, our skid steer was always busy. 
Like clearing brush and going into places to get stuck.....

Or digging out an Oak stump that we were told couldn't be dug out. Um, yeah, he stuck it good and we used a truck and a tractor to get it out of the hole, but by golly he did move the stump out!

Back in the day, Rich would often get a supervisor to ride along for easy work. Morris loved riding in the skid steer with Rich.

One year we used it to transport a Dexter Cow into the shed when she was injured.

And this is the machine that has always done the chores around the place, the heavy lifting and moving of large bales of hay, plowing snow, digging a grave for a beloved equine, or pushing downed trees out of the way so they could be cut up.

This machine is where Rich feels joy. 

He is chomping at the bit to get out tomorrow and do some 'skid steerin'. 

The Fixer put a smile back on his face.

It was a good day.

And yes, I am following the doctor's advice and have a follow up in 3 weeks.

This turned out to be a good day. The other half is still smiling.

May Day!

I'm not exactly sure what is going on! But so far it is good news for us. The rest of the world is not in such a place but I count my tiny blessings one at a time these days.

In the morning my neighbor's daughter had a project to do and needed to do some 'Community Volunteer' work for someone. Lauren had asked if I had anything her daughter could do for me. I thought about it and texted back that I did.
Two weeks ago Allie asked if she could have make a tiny video for a school project. The theme was Western. So she dressed up and came down. I handed Lil' Richard to her ... he is our tiny pony that stands at 32 inches. Mom took her video of Allie saying hello to her on line school mates and loved every second of it!

So I told her mom that since I tied Lil' Richard out in different areas would she mind spreading some of his piles of manure? I normally do it every day to break down the manure but had been a bit remiss lately.

Allie chattered the whole time we worked together while keeping our distance. She made short work of the manure.

We ended up pulling some old burdock by Rich's junk pile. I let her toss the burdock with out the big balls of seeds into a pile. When she ended up with burdock on her hat and jacket she decided she'd like to get rid of the ones coming up!

I showed her how to use a long bladed shovel to dig the burdock up by the roots. She went about that with great gusto.

When that became tedious we hunted around for some wild parsnip do dig up. Allie said she had two hours of work she wanted to do.

So we went on the hunt for Parsnip. A few things happened during our two hours. Allie learned to recognize parsnip leaves and burdock leaves. She asked if she could come down again to rake up Lil' Richard poop... She chatted on as we talked about burdock being the inspiration for Velcro. She told me a story of how band-aids were invented.

And when she found out that I actually would eat the wild parsnips, she gathered up the ones we found to take home. I gave her the directions on how to wash and prepare them for cooking. She repeated the directions almost verbatim back to me.
True, wild parsnip can be eaten and it is tasty! It is also a pain to clean and prepare, but so worth the extra effort.

Allie went home with an armful of wild veggies that she was so enthusiastic to try.

What a great morning I had!


After lunch I worked on my fencing project and got it all set up finally. The mules will have some fresh grass. Though we seriously need some rainfall as everything is dry as a bone around here.

My next huge surprise was when Rich came out of the house and fired up the skid steer.

There are two huge piles of dirt next to the driveway. One pile was manure and is now composted into some fantastic dirt. It has been there SO long that it felt like part of the scenery.

The second pile of dirt is road gravel and ditch dirt. About 5 years ago the township cleaned the ditches and Rich told them to drop the 'fill' next to the compost pile.
In truth, I never imagined after all of Rich's health issues that he'd ever...EVER get anything done outside again.

Since his stroke and then the PE, he has been a Hermit who did not go out for any reason other than a doctor's appointment.

Justin came down to get some of the 'fill' and apparently the talk the two men had motivated Rich.
I think so at least!

I spent the afternoon with Rich while he operated the skid steer and we began cleaning up ruts and holes in the yard. These projects had been on permanent hold and I'd given up hope for ever getting things tidied up.

I did the hand shoveling work, he brought the dirt to fill in holes and ruts all over the yard.

He is talking about tackling the side yard which has been an utter mess since we remodeled in 2016.

Last night he cooked steaks on the grill.

Okay.
I need a nice soft place to faint.

Good and Bad

Old Fred is at least 33 years old. You can see it in his face. The mule who hates being caught, let me approach him and give him a long grooming!

He is still the feisty little pony mule but a bit less 'full of it'. He loves his Senior Feed and comes running for it.
Here you can see the age in his face and across his back. Time awaits no one, right?

So I asked, begged, and egged my husband to see if I could get some dirt for a project that I've wanted to do for a while now. I wanted him to take dirt from an old compost pile of manure and put it under the kitchen window on the east side of the house.

Much to my surprise, while I wasn't paying attention to Rich who had been sitting on the porch...I heard the skid steer start up and viola!

The bearded wonder had not only gotten into the skid steer out in the shed, but had started it and delivered dirt!

Somehow I think this Hermit Life is working for him perfectly!
[The day after this photo, he clipped his beard and now sports a clean face with a goatee and mustache.]

Above is the area that I wanted to make into more garden. I wanted a place to put out my 'non' Fairy Garden.

First load...

 After the second and third load of fresh compost.

I had a LOT of shoveling and raking to do. I sort of had a plan, but nothing fixed in my 'head'. I knew that I wanted a walk way down the middle of it so I could weed from the middle when the plants were up. And I wanted a nice looking border, but decided to use what was available already.

So ....there are the rocks from an obscure place that I'd stored them years ago. The plastic is from old round bale covers that were shredded. I found some flat rocks to use as stepping stone and  filled the missing 'steps' for now with old bricks until I can find the perfect rocks and carry them up from the creek.

I love rocks. I'd love to display the rocks as much as the garden so it will take me a bit to get the just right rocks for the pathway.

I added some gnarly stump pieces from the woods. They will be part of the Unicorn and Dragon hideouts.
After all, can't I just be a kid and have some fun? I don't mind gnomes either, but apparently they are not welcome in this garden either....

As I said, a Dragon/Unicorn garden. The Fairies can go find another place, however they will probably show up.

A look at the walk way that needs mulch and new stones...

I had to spend most of the day waiting for a UPS delivery that has to be signed for. The new way of doing things is that the driveway physically has to see the person to make the delivery and then he signs for you so there is no contact between him and the customer.

After getting the meds, I decided to listen to some music on my phone and get down to the business of picking out the weeds from my vinca ground cover bed and dig out the areas that I'd plant 4 o'clocks in if I can't get petunias or marigolds.

The rest of the afternoon was spent planting two rather sad looking tomato plants in buckets along with moving dirt and weeding around the rest of the house.

This requires very close work on the knees or sitting. I have to be careful to pull out last year's dead stuff and pick only the crabgrass and other tiny weeds that surround some of the bulbs that haven't come up yet.

These are blazing stars.

My daffies blossom first near the house. The bleeding hearts join in a bit later along with the irises. 

The vinca provides a pretty dark green ground cover with purple flowers.

Late summer I hope to have some pots with blossoms of some sort in them.

It all depends on how available these things are and IF I can actually shop for them safely.

I went into my seed bucket I kept in the basement. It is a bucket I use to deposit all the seeds I've picked from my sunflowers and other flowers that I gather the seeds for each year.

I was upset to find that mice had somehow found my seeds! I have plenty of orange cosmos and some zinnia seeds, but most of the 4 o'clocks were eaten along with the sunflower seeds.

Good thing I keep back up packets!
Next year...I'll keep them in a sealed container. And the mice will have traps to contend with!

I hope to get some mulch today for the 'walkway' among other things. I figured to get this done before the large veggie garden and the mowing take over my time!

Note.
Two days ago we had our first confirmed case of Covid-19 in our county. It isn't like this virus knows county boundaries.
I see some friends who are now calling the outbreak a scam and that we should all just get on with our lives. I get that. They have families to feed and their hours have been cut. Things are dire all over.

I was told that the numbers were 'fake', deaths were 'fake', wearing masks was not warranted.
Let me rant here.

I get it.
But the state numbers are still creeping up as are the deaths. I don't have the answers but I know that I am deciding to keep isolated as much as possible.
The Hermit Life has been excellent for Rich. He is doing much better now than in the past two years!

He has been operating the skid steer, taking an interest in grooming, taking an active interest in what I am doing in the yard and gardens. This is HUGE!

So keep your 'fake' deaths, drink your disinfectant, believe the liar liar pants on fire. Go ahead and protest, yell, scream, ... but don't ask me to.

I'll go ahead and plant my Dragon garden, I'll enjoy being isolated. And yes, I am one of those lucky people at least for now...that can stay home.

I have a duty to protect my husband. And I will do so.