Whatever happened to the....

Forest Garden I tried to create?

Well, there were some failures and some successes. None of the flower seeds I purchased for shade came up at all. But then that may not be my fault as I planted them elsewhere and they didn't come up there either. 
I'm on a search for some better seeds for next year.

The Begonias in ground did well, they didn't grow terribly large, but they were the best survivors of the things I did plant. 

The transplant of Comfrey did well also. I took some hostas out to the forest garden and some were nibbled by deer. I expected that but had no other place to put those extra hostas. 

Other successful transplants were vinca and so did the Bugleweed or Ajuga! I may move some more next spring as long as I see it survives winter.

The center area did have grass grow in it! Yippee, I did find out that deer normally do not eat grass as they are browsers. That is why they love gardens so much. Also, this solves the riddle of why the creek has so much beautiful green grass most of the winter and no one ever eats it.

My grumpy tree guy needed some sprucing up. I took out some fake flowers to pretty up my personal Forest Space. After all, I am the only one aside from kids that visit that go there. 

I added flowers here. This is the first thing a person/kid would see walking into the space. The green Alien was left by Briar, one of my young pals.

One of my favorite dragons. I've had this dragon for two years now.

He/she will come in when the weather turns to be part of my indoor decorations.

It is small enough to come inside.

The begonias happened to be the big success story. The orange cosmos did flower but the plants are pretty wimpy. These however looked great in the cracks of the large rock formation.

This is my spot with a stump for an adult beverage or a hot chocolate. The wooden chair has generally been part of my Christmas Decorations so I'll bring that in and wash it up before the snow flies.

Meanwhile...

time for a chat...

Tiny Bear makes a Predator Hellhound sit up 

and beg for a cookie.

Dude, what kind of cool helmet is that?

I stole mine from a Star Wars Action guy.

Buck says to Doe. 

You know, sometimes I'm not so sure I 

feel truly safe out in these woods!

Yes, these things happen when I have to sit all day and wait for a med delivery for hubby. I can't go far from the house. I can hear Tom's UPS truck on the ridge. He usually is late. I think we are near the end of his route. 

Stay At Home is not new to me

When we were kids, mom packed us up in the car a few days after school let out and we made a long drive 'Up North' to spend the summer in a small cottage on the same property as my Grandparents, Fred and Pearl.

From our cottage you could not see any other house other than Grandma and Grandpa's place. My Uncle and wife...and kids for a time lived on Grandpa's old place. We could walk there to play with cousins.

At first, my Grandparents had a party line for their phone. It was a few years later that you could actually dial direct. I recall sitting in the their kitchen and Grandpa getting on the party line to catch up on the gossip going around.

It was the Facebook of the early 60's!

Grandma cooked on a woodstove. We had an electric stove in our cottage.
Grandpa had a tiny TV that was black and white...I think. At first I thought summer programming only consisted of baseball games.

I can recall my sister and I playing crazy eights and keeping a score for the whole summer. We used the back of old envelopes as to never waste a piece of paper.

A game we played

...higher

and 

higher.

I'm the one leaping over the stick.

We created games to play and rarely told anyone 'there is nothing to do!' No TV, no real radio, no electronics. Just a lot of imagination and self entertaining.

So now we are are in what some people are calling a 'lockdown'. Well, it is a stay at home order. Or as our Governor says #SaferatHome. He softened the words.

We can go to local state and county parks, walk our dogs or other pets. Playgrounds are closed.
It hasn't affected me that much. Last week I was stressed out as I'd gotten into a routine going to CrossFit each day.

This week? My mind has turned to tasks at hand. Fencing, clearing burdock plants, worming the equine, figuring out how to trim feet on my own. Clearing the garden of weeds, fixing a flat tire on the lawn mower....

And I am doing it. I have buckled down and redone the front pasture just as I thought it should be done. And it works better than ever before...but just don't tell Rich!
I actually sat down and drew it all out on paper first. I spent a whole afternoon working on it. When done, I kept the drawings and stuck them in my journal. My drawings suck, but they are reminders of how I am learning to help myself get through a problem by working it out visually on paper instead.

We had a funny conversation the other morning.

Him: Can you shoot squirrel?
Me: Of course I can.
Him: Times get tough, you'll need to get us squirrel.
Me: Okay but I'm not sure how to clean it.
Him: I'll talk you through it.
...He winks.

I have eaten squirrel. I've even had mystery meat in a burger that Grandma cooked on a 'Smokey Joe' that my mom had brought for grilling while we were there for the summer.

I'm settled into a good routine now and don't miss the outside world that much ... like I did last week.
I have jobs to do.


And oh...so much more. The shed is waiting its next organizing effort too.

I did find skunk cabbage today on our walk.

My Doggy Vacation ~~ By Teslin

I acted all sad and unhappy when my 'Dad' left. He is a good guy but I know when he comes to the Mom house I think he may leave me for a doggy vacation.

This time was really different. Morris wasn't there. A little black doggy with a funny face was there instead. 

So my Dad left. At first I decided I would just wait for him to come back and watch out the window. 

I got tired of that and took a nap. Then Charlie said we could walk around and look for Dad.

Charlie isn't so bad after all. He is little but seems pretty nice.

And I even went and sat next to the Rich guy. He talked to me and asked me if I was okay. I wagged my tail but wasn't sure I wanted to be petted.

Well now. It seems that Dad is letting me have my own vacation. I did a lot of walking around the yard with Charlie and then we both laid down on the porch and watched the Mom person water plants. I decided that maybe I better make 'nice' with her since she seemed to be in charge of the Food Things.

I like food stuff. People food is much better. I've never seen a human beg for kibbles and that is a fact.

When the Mom lady sat on the couch [Charlie was sleeping on the porch], I borrowed her phone to see if Dad had texted.

I looked at the thing called Facebook and had seen where he posted that he was starting an adventure. I couldn't hit the like button or reply. I'll get the Mom person to help me.

It is nice to be able to spend time outside sniffing things. I met Sven, the goat. Not impressed. He has no ears and eats grass for real. 

The Mom has a great big huge monstrous pony too that eats grass in the yard. I stayed away from him.

I stick by the Mom now. I follow her into the bathroom and keep near her. I think she thought the fact that I pushed the bathroom door open was pretty funny. She laughed.

I ate food on the landing. Charlie leaves my dish alone up there. He just sits and watches.

Then later I had my 'good' stuff. Charlie ate his food at his feeding spot and I ate my 1/2 can at the same time. Charlie didn't even come over to take any.

So maybe Charlie isn't so bad after all. The Mom is still pretty nice and Rich guy is pretty nice too.

So while Charlie chews on his bone, I'm going upstairs for a nap.

Maybe this won't be so bad of a vacation after all!

Updates

Harvest is in full swing again after a few dry days. Of course that all changed over night when another round of rain swung through the area.

Most of the soybeans in the area around where I live are harvested. Some of the larger Big Farms may not be all in.
There is still a lot of corn standing. Some of it still looks green, some fields are brown/golden and ready to be harvested.
Since we had such a strange spring the planting was delayed in areas and in other areas everything went as ... I hesitate to say smoothly as nothing in farming goes exactly smoothly.

Mules. They are all happy! Siera and I were out the other day, I took time to saddle her and ride her to go and check fences. I could have easily walked, but felt like it. 15's education is at a stand still as is Sundance's. I need to work with both of them but it always seems that something else grabs my attention.

Morris. He is doing rather well. When he isn't sleeping he is more like his normal old self. He likes to nag. He wants out, he wants his new food [he loves that nasty smelling stuff!] and he still enjoys his daily walks on a leash. He won't hike with me anymore but that is fine. He still seems to get confused once in a while but that is okay too.
He gets playful once in a while and will 'zoom' around the house, being his goofy old self for a bit.
He has to get up more at night to go out and do his business, and lately has been waking me up at 4AM to go out and feed him. Well. I am making adjustments. After all, he is the aged dog.

Rich. He is back to driving locally. He went last week to an auction by himself. It was a tiring day but he came back with a Pony Tiller for the garden. I imagine it needs some work, but he says it runs. Yesterday was his first solo trip to get small bales of hay from our Hay Man.

The Dexter Cattle. We have had the ones we are keeping separated for all summer now. Our Bull is scheduled to go to processing in January. I think we'll have plenty of beef from him. Rich has put off sending the others to auction. He needs to make some decisions quickly. Deer Gun Season is only 4 weeks away and if winter settles in, hauling the cattle out of here will be too tricky on our hilly driveway.

Fall Color. Wow.
I think this week was the last of it. Within days we went from glorious brilliant colors to the Brown Season.
Next week they are predicting our first frost. Usually we have a frost by the first weekend of October.

It is time to turn inward to the household things. Painting the kitchen, organizing and building shelves in the basement, and putting away the warm weather clothes and digging out the coveralls and long johns.

It will be a challenge to keep finding interesting things to photograph in the 'Brown Season'. I actually look forward to some hikes in the woods where I will be able to see now that the undergrowth is dying off.

That wraps it up.

90 plus days later...

On May 6th Rich had a stroke. The professionals all said, "The first 3 months are the most important. You will see the biggest improvements during that time."

Speech is still an issue. Rich gets frustrated when he talks sometimes. Fatigue is his biggest enemy. Fatigue seems to short-circuit his ability to find words and express ideas.
Physically he is doing pretty good. We had a follow up with oncology last week and learned that his throat cancer had been a stage IV. When the doctor told us that I was rather surprised. I don't recall learning the stage. Perhaps it was mentioned but I guess we focused on treatment and not the diagnosis.
So far, 2 years after treatment and still no return of cancer which is another sigh of relief.

My plan for the summer was this. Keep Rich engaged. I saw how he reacted right after the stroke when people were around. I had to stay home now to help him.
My farm and home became something of a revolving door.

Grace and Evelyn for a week, Ariel for a week, Dennis and Ariel for a week. Visitors who came and stayed the weekend. Mule riding. Fishing.
But always time for speech therapy and rest too.

I posted this photo already once but feel it sums up so many things accomplished in 3 short months.

96 days ago he could speak only one word. He ate with his utensils upside down. He needed a nurse at his side to leave the bed.

We are still working with Speech Therapy to try to improve the effects of aphasia and are going to address the possibility of driving again with limitations.

I was asked if I missed my work place. Not really. I don't miss the hours at all. I don't miss getting up at 2am to work a 12 hour shift.
The garden has been productive. I have frozen, dried, and canned food for this winter. I have been able to dedicate some rather long days to 'putting up food' for the winter.

Rich helps with chores now. I let him take care of the cattle. We will be shipping several to auction before the winter and keeping a few prospects for 'processing' later.

Things are coming together. I am looking forward to the possibility of part time work as a teacher's aide at one of our local schools. We'll see how things keep progressing.

Winter is looming on the horizon and it will be a challenge to keep Rich engaged with activities through that time.

For now... things are peaceful. I still can't leave him on his own, but I don't mind being here for him either.
Through good and bad we keep chugging along.

Here is to the next 90 plus days...

Break Time!

Late Thursday night/early Friday morning my son Ed showed up with his dog Teslin.
Teslin and Morris have known each other since they were pups and are about the same age.

Ed wanted to come and visit and help me clear some brush back from the fence on the Merry Meadow Pasture.
He brought his brush cutter and very powerful weed wacker.

He worked on Friday from his laptop and as the day heated up, I turned the air on. What a temperature change! It went from cool and nice to HOT.

When he finished work, we went at the berry briers and multiflora rose which seems to creep in from the forest.

The dogs had gone with us. Morris wore his bell which has really helped me figure out where he is all of the time without having to look. The dogs tongues were hanging out and they kept trying to get comfortable in the shade. Teslin thought that she should dip into the thick underbrush for shade.

We stopped for a rest. I looked at what we had done in such a short time. I was impressed. Without Ed's brush cutter, I wouldn't have gotten far on my own.

I thought it was too hot to continue. Besides, it was my birthday and I'd planned a nice meal for us.

Ed and Rich visited while I made supper. I looked at the forecast for Saturday and decided that we really wouldn't do much then either. The forecast was for very hot conditions again. However the humidity would be very low.
I figured that this weather with no rain and good breezes would make the farmers very happy. A lot of farming would get done in hopes of catching up to a cold wet May.

And as expected. The heat was on for Saturday. LaCrosse, Wisconsin broke a heat record of 97 degrees.

However after breakfast Saturday we were out on the porch waiting for the neighbors to come down and visit when a red Mini Cooper drove into the yard.
Ed's wife had come to surprise us!

The look on Rich's face was priceless and I'm sure that I was surprised also. I ran across the yard and gave Joy a huge hug. She'd been on duty as a firefighter the previous 24 hours and had left work to drive up and surprise us.

Sunday came too early. Ed and Joy helped me finish up some much needed work that I hadn't attended to as I'd been too busy with doctor appointments and other errands.

Finally things were just starting to feel like they were getting pulled together.

After the kids left, Rich went to lay down and I sat on the porch and "Painted some cheer" on some of the wood blocks left over from last year's house remodel.

I pondered my upcoming week as I picked colors out and swiped them onto the wood.
Appointments, phone calls, taking the car in for maintenance work, garden, fencing, ads for sale, hay, ...
A day away from the farm would be nice too. A day hiking by myself with my camera would work out perfect.  Okay, maybe just a few hours.

Hot & Humid Day at the Farm

The Dexter cattle were sleepy and content in the meadow.

Thor was ever the alert Jack.  He always keeps an eye on movement around the farm.

Morris, the supervisor watches the guys wrap bales of oat hay.  

He is a great supervisor.  Yes he is tied up, machinery is too tempting for him, he'd try and hitch a ride on the skid steer or help out with the operation of the bale wrapper.

Just before sunset, I went out to check on the mares in the back meadow.
Belle, our farm hound who is a people 'shadower', followed along.

The boys in their pasture where doing the 'fly' swishing thing.
Funny how they lined up.

Chores were done late to avoid the high heat from the sun.

Our skies have been orange nearly every night.  I don't know if that has something to do with the wildfires out west and the smoke in the atmosphere or not.

But last night the colors conveyed the heat quite well.

And then darkness fell and the crickets began their night song.  The Robins chirped their songs and fell silent.
Off in the distance young coyotes ran and yipped.
Thor and Bob brayed their challenge.

And our small farm went to sleep for the night.

Ahhhhh, Morning All!

It is cold this morning!  Brrr!  50 degrees cold!  I still would like it to a bit warmer at sunrise!

This is predawn this morning looking through the yet developing corn.  It should be tassled out and have ears, but that is slow in coming.

Yesterday evening we moved Bart and his ladies into another area for grazing.  These Dexters do such a nice job of cleaning up weeds as well as grazing grass.  They all seemed content.

After a supper of fresh zucchini, bacon and eggs...and toast [I know breakfast for supper]... I took Morris and went for an evening walk up the road to watch the sunset.  We'd had beautiful clouds all day and poof, they were gone come sunset.
I found the prettiest sky in the east though with the layers of colors quite beautiful.

Miss Siera seems to be back to her former self.  No lameness at all.  We've had a few hikes together and today...I think I'll tack her up and take her for a short ride.
Here she was patiently waiting under the Hickory tree for me to do chores.

She enjoyed her brushing and pampering.  She is absolutely fantastic with her lead rope manners, but can get a bit frustrated when she is tied up and not accompanied by a human or other animal.
She just stood there and watched the activity in the yard.  Good Girl!

The farrier comes tomorrow for his regular visit.  She is on his list.  Also on her list is a nice haircut!

Hubby got his post pounder thingy that attaches to the skid steer all set up just about.  Now if he gets the last part together...watch out.  New wooden fence posts are going up on the farm!  [See how technical minded I am?]

I've made a deal with the nieghbor girl [and her parents].  I am going to start mentoring her in all things mule.  She was too shy to ask me and her mom said something about wanting lessons.
I'm not going to do lessons for money.  Why do something I can do that causes me to feel good and paid for it? 

If I can get a young girls [girls if her sister joins in] interested in mules/horses and be safe with them, it is a win win situation for me.
We will be doing this much like the 4H program.  It isn't just about riding.  It is about learning colors, parts, sickness, care, foot care, grooming, cleaning tack, and safety above all else while handling the animal.

Me?
I'm pretty happy about it.
Our schedules will be haphazard at best, but I am looking forward to it.

So on with my day.
Siera is waiting for a short ride to the ridge.  

She has no sign of any leftover side effects from her crisis last Monday.
I am so grateful!