Supervisors and trimmers

I drove out to take down a section of invasive thistles that were in a huge patch in the mule pasture.
This is the second patch I took down this week. The bull thistle is usually no problem as the mules will just keep plucking the blossoms off from them and it keeps the growth and spread of them limited.
However these thistles are different and grow in close dense clusters.

The Canada Thistle is from Europe and not Canada. I should be cutting them in June, August, and September. So I'll be out again and keep on fighting them in this section as well as other stands. Controlling them will be hard as the neighbor's land has them and that is only 100 ft away.

As I cut, the mules began to grab the wilted ones.

A delicacy! Soon everyone got in on it.
Sundance ever the explorer...decided that she'd have a go at the blossoms as I made it easier for her to eat them without standing in a group of them. Easy access.

Meanwhile back in the yard...

I had Sven tied on the sandy mound of leftover fill from the house remodel. Little Richard was trimming along the red shed...
and Charlie was
supervising their work.

Charlie is the little black dot on the left.

I took a shot of the thistle patch before I started.

I went at this by hand because there was too many low woody plants in them and the weed trimmer wouldn't go through it very easily.

And the end result of an hour's worth of work with a hooked 'machete' type of blade.

The supervisors approved of my work and walked around eating the wilted thistles and hunted for grasses underneath.

Well.
That job is done until late August. Then I get to do it again.

I worked with my supervisors and my trimmers and we all got along just fine.

The final inspection was rated 'good'.

Just before dark I went out to have a talk with them and did some grooming. Mica got her sweet feed and I had to use some spray on Sunshine's legs.
The flies always seem to gnaw on her cannon area.

Sunset...dew fall...
And then darkness.

All was quiet on the farm.
Peaceful.
I like that.

Equine!

Well, I finished clipping the manes of the mules. Tah Dah!

Sundance is dealing with strange items resting on her ears. Yesterday we just spent an hour dealing with plastic pipes on her head, straps of leather, a cardboard tube that she thought was neat to blow into and make noise.
She takes a bridle just fine, but isn't quite comfortable with hands and objects touching the base of her ears.
I didn't force clippers on her, but used scissors instead, we will eventually work up to the clippers.

She was calm and cool yesterday and not the panicked mule that I'd had the day before. We revisited some of the things I'd done in the fall. She recalled all of that work.
I need to make time every day now.

Lil' Richard has been trimming and fertilizing the 'lane'. I dislike mowing it so I thought I'd use him to trim along the fence and the hillside. It is working out well. I have to rake his deposits out, but it works out quite nicely for the both of us.

Fred, who is now about 35 years old enjoyed some time with me in the yard after his grooming and clipping yesterday. He is still doing well for his age, but has slowed down and his hips and back are showing age as well as the grey hair on his once very mahogany colored face.

He is not one mule who likes getting caught, but he was pretty compliant yesterday.

Teslin is still here and she enjoys her time out in the yard. She tends to 'think' about wandering off once in a while. Yesterday afternoon she surprised me by playing with Sven for a few minutes.

Mica got her mane roached last night also. She was her usual quiet self. But the trim makes her long ears and neck stand out much nicer.

She has taken Fred's place as the Novice Rider's learning mule. She is much taller than Fred, but is in some ways more compliant than he was.

After supper I caught up Siera and took her out for a sunset spin.

I had forgotten how comfortable my hand made saddle was. It always felt too heavy to put on her before. Um. I guess working out has really helped with that. It wasn't much of an effort to put it on last night.

And we watched the neighbor plant corn.

It was a great equine day!

Yards and Gardens, Goat, Dog, Pony

I got the yard mowed again before I had to put pontoons on the mower! Well, I got most of the yard mowed. I left a section for the pony to clean up and did some manure raking by hand.
I couldn't mow the hill by the shed as it is steep and was still wet under the grass.

But my supervisors watched me carefully.

Charlie and Sven tied out so they can enjoy sunbathing 

together.

If Sven sees Charlie in the yard, he cries and Charlie

runs to be with him.

Charlie doesn't really need to be tied when he is with his Goatie friend. But since I had a huge mower out, it was a safety thing.

I have been calling Sven 'Goatie Goat' and he seems to not mind. I refer to Lil Richard as Pony and he doesn't mind. Charlie gives me a look when I call him Dog.

Later, my supervisors were bored...

An old picnic table top

serves as a place to

sleep.

Lil' Richard was in his area cleaning up around the machinery and the old Jeep which has finally been sold. I'll move him and then rake out the manure there. The next trouble spot are two places I can't mow. I could weed wack it. But I'll wack down the weeds he doesn't eat..

The mules moved to what will eventually... I hope, be a picnic area overlooking the ridge to the north. I just love to sit under the big old Box Elder and enjoy the view.

After my mowing and whacking, I decided to plant some flowers. I'd gotten marigolds for the right half of the porch and planted seeds on the left side with a mix of cosmos, zinnias, and sunflowers. Some of the sunflowers reseeded themselves so I will move them around when they are big enough.

I tried something different this year.

I picked up the logs from a tree that was cut down last year. It was hollow and I thought it would be fun to try planting stuff in them. I moved other logs to the Morris Garden to be used as holders for my pails with plants. It is fun to try and get a bit creative with plants and planters. 

I have one spot under the kitchen window that may need more color this summer. I may transfer some seedlings or pick up some more Marigolds. I never liked marigolds as a kid, but now they are fun and I love their late summer hues.

My bleeding hearts are doing well and as they fade out, the iris's will shoot up with purple. As the iris flowers fade, the Blazing Glories will burst into color.

After that the zinnias should show up along with the 4 oclocks.

I don't know that I will do a veggie garden this year. Seems I have a lot of vegetables left over from the abundant garden of last year. I still need to string the electric wire down by the creek. 

At least I am not running out of things to do.

Whirlwinds...

Just this and that...

I've been hunting Morels like a mad woman.
Well, that and mowing the yard, trimming with the little mower and using the pony and goat for those impossible areas to get to.

Sven is in this photo near the light colored mule on the outside of the fence. He is trimming what I couldn't get with the mower.

I've been going to see MIL in the nursing home. She is sure that she is going home the very next day. She is fairly non compliant with the things she needs to do for her leg edema which is getting worse as her legs are starting to leak.

Our visits have been good, but it just means I need to pack more into the latter parts of the day.

Rich has been okay sort of. He is maintaining an slightly better attitude. I feel badly because I am running around like a mad woman outside doing as much maintenance as I can to catch up on these dry days.

This includes taking Charlie and Sven on Morel Hunts.

In two days I've gotten enough for two meals and have dehydrated some for use this winter.

I have been crazy busy this week.
But spring is quickly changing the woods...

And I have to remember to stop and take a breather and enjoy it once in a while....

And....
I'm off and running again...

Color me empowered

Fence fixing. This was a simple fix. That is until my Kenosha Pal teaches me how to safely use a chain saw. I knew the oak branch would eventually come down and the storm two days ago did it...

Without a lot of extra work, I just re routed the wires and it was good as new. The soft rope fence stretched but didn't break.
I was back in business.

This will be the mules next rotational pasture, they pick and choose differently than the Dexter cattle do. I'm even negotiating some pasturing for my neighbor's goats. I call them the clean up crew as they eat what the mules and cattle won't. What a perfect way to clean up the woods! Multiflora rose and briers BEgone!

While fencing I found ground bees. But they weren't the wasp kind. I was nailing temporary insulators to trees [think about carrying 15 t-posts through the woods for a temporary pasture]...when I heard and saw bees buzzing around near me. I kept going and walked slowly to work on another section of the woods.
When I came back they were still there. I stood still and watched them. Finally I saw a tuft of leaves that they were going under and into the ground. I made a mental note to not disturb them while putting up wire. The bees were foraging out to the wildflowers in the woods and they were very tiny and not colored like the ground bees that are so aggressive.

I tied Little Richard out next to the garden so he could use his pony power and do some organic trimming while I was working on other things.

I went back to the house. Time for mowing with the push mower and trimming with the weed eater. Well, nix the trimming with the weed eater. I ran out of string!

Rich came out and mowed part of the yard after instructing me on how to operate his mower. Is is a country clipper with a 'joystick'.

Time for me to start buckling down and learning how to use our machinery.
While he was preoccupied with the mowing, I sat on the 4 wheeler and read the instructions.
I was able to start it and turn it around and park it so I could mow in its spot.

Hmmm. After supper I took it for a drive around the yard, then I drove it up the hill to the neighbor's house.

My neighbor came out and looked it all over with a bit of a glimmer in his eyes. I told him to take it for a spin and then teach me what the 'stuff' was on it. How to check the oil, brake fluid, and where the lights were.

Mr. Neighbor did and then showed me how to put air in the tires along with checking it out. He then asked if he could grease it. He'd gotten a new grease gun that attaches to the zirks and wanted to show me how it worked.
Mrs. Neighbor began to milk her goats while Mr. Neighbor worked on the 4 wheeler. Then Mrs. Neighbor came out with a frosty Pina Colada and life suddenly was very good.

I'd set Rich up with a Western Movie and so I had a bit of extra time to listen and learn more about the 4 wheeler.
After we said our goodbyes, I drove off with the lights on and got the mail then carefully drove back down the steep hill and parked it so I could hook up the little trailer to it and pile the fence posts, insulators, wire, and post pounder in it for the next days work. I was tickled to death. It meant I could make one trip instead of several. My alternative was to drag all of it in a 'sled' to the woods.

I stood in the dark, under the skies and just beamed. I felt energized and powerful.
Next up?
The Country Clipper and the ultimate? The Skid Steer. And...chainsaw? Eeeks...

I know that I need to learn to do these things on my own because eventually I will be solely on my own. This doesn't make me happy, but I am a realist.

I love our little house and would like to stay here for a while longer.

Gardens and Donkeys and Ponies

Well now those things really don't mix together now do they? Or do they?

So why on earth would I even put them together in the same blog post?

Well because I worked on these things in the past couple of days.

The new garden. It is in the place where all of the 'stuff' from remodeling sat most of last summer and through the winter. I dug it up after cleaning up the bricks and pieces of carpeting. I hauled the mess to the dump. One huge load that filled the back of the Jeep cost only $10 to get rid of.

Anyway, I looked at the huge ugly bare spot and decided early that this would be a fun spot to put some iris's and maybe some other plants.

And the project kept growing. I put in 50 vinca plants and tossed in some other transplants.
Last week while we were at the hardware store, I begged for a garden cart and hubby agreed to buying me one.

I am using old rusty and busted up buckets as planters again this year. I think they make a fun contrast to the beautiful flowers growing inside of them.

Photo from last year

So I began to add a few things like a brick border. Bricks I found in a pile over by the garage. And some rocks from another garden.
I just place things and then constantly rearrange them.
I thought just to be fun I'd add a Yard Gnome. I am not a fan of Yard Gnomes, but it would be a fun little twist anyway. I also considered a Dragon.
Someone notified me of this item: The Gnome Massacre

Now this would be perfect and would definitely satisfy my strange sense of humor.

I looked it up on Amazon and some other sites. My finger was itching to hit the 'order' button. I may still do that.

Imagine my surprise at finding some marigolds sprouting up in the 'new' garden area. I tossed last year's marigold blossoms and dead heads into the 'junk' pile. Apparently the seeds were good!

I've arranged the odd rocks I collect while hiking in Awesome Creek. The neighbor kids call it Dog Poo Rocks. I admit, they do look like dog poo. But they are such odd rocks, I have to have them somewhere!

Someone else said I needed to put some of my 'skulls' in the garden for display.
Hmmm, that would be interesting too. I should take some of those old skulls and paint them.

These flowers begged me to purchase them at the store. I walked by the Petunias and was ready to put some into my cart when I stopped and looked at these.

My father was pretty fond of these flowers. I've heard them called Pansies and Johnny Jump Ups.
My father called them the Happy Flower. He said they looked like little smiling faces.

So I brought these home. Some will go in containers and some will go in the East Garden and ... well, I haven't thought it out yet, but the flowers will all find homes.
And I will smile at them.

I thought the porch could use a freshening up, so while waiting for a shower to pass, I washed it and scrubbed it with a barn broom.

Then I while hubby took a nap, I went out and decided to do something about the troublesome area on the north side of the Big Shed.
Bob's Pen had turned into muck so I thought Bob could do me a favor and clean up the grassy/weedy area I had thought I could keep under control with a weed wacker. And I thought "Why waste the gas on a mechanical tool, when a donkey could do the job?"

This is a poor shot from my cell phone, but you can see that Bob is quietly working on cleaning things up for me.

Next week I have some summer pasture work to do. I need to clean the brush off the electric lines.

And I have to fix Lil' Richard's tie out line. He has some work to do also.

Last but not least, I must include my Supervisor.
Mr. Morris.