What Do Politics, Farm Animals and Family All Have In Common?

They have all been topics for my first year of blogging.  I started keeping a diary as a preteen.  But I found it hard to be a faithful writer.  I have always started and stopped.  But I love blogging because I can use pictures and videos.  They seem so alive.  This year I have written 138 posts. I also love comments from others.

Favorite Video of 2011

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Wuker Connor and the Chef

Connor's dad is a contractor and his hero. Connor's play is often imitating his dad. So this is Connor's work van and the box he is dragging, with the chain I use for my goats, is his trailer.  I wrote "wuker" because that is how Connor says worker.  He was busy picking up trash and supplies in his work van.


While he was out, he notice that my neighbor was having company.  She had invited a group of ladies over for dinner and hired a chef to prepare it.


Suddenly they heard the mail slot open and a child's voice asking, "Who is that man in your house?"  Linda opened the door and told Connor that he is a chef.  Then she asked, "Do you know what a chef is?"  Connor replied, "Yes, we have a chef at the cafeteria." 

Spending Time with the Goats

With rainy weather, meetings and everything else going on, I have not spent a lot of time brushing the goats.  I give them food and water and then rush on to other activities.  So today I decided to brush all four and trim their hooves if needed.  They were all great at standing on the milking stand and letting me do this. But I noticed that Billy Shakespeare, my 5 month old buck, really loved being brushed. So after he finished the food I put in the bucket for him, I let his free and he continued to stand perfectly still while I brushed him.  The girls don't do that.  He is so tame and such a baby.

 The video is a little strange, because I'm brushing him and holding the video camera.

I also got a video of Gypsy and Dottie Belle on the roof of the goat shack playing. 








Gypsy got up there first using the chair that is against the house. 
 
Gypsy is by far the smartest, most curious and, yes, mischievous one of the 3 girls.  It took Dottie Belle a long time to figure out how to get up there. 

 
 Honey Bunny never even tried.  She just found a warm spot to sun bathe.
 I know I have not painted their house yet.  I have the paint scraped on 2 of the 3 sides.  I will do it before summer.

In The Dark Afraid

I was standing in the dark garage after being chased there, and luckily just as I ran in, I managed to pull the door down.  Now I'm listening to hear if he is just on the other side of the door.  After a few minutes I hear him call to the others and they all move a few feet from the door.  I really feel foolish hiding in the dark in the garage, but he is determined to engage me in a "fight to the death."  His reasoning I can not comprehend.  I raised him since he was one day old.  Gave him food, water, a warm place to live and held him several times a day.  He never lacked for attention.  Now he has chased me into the garage where I am hiding in fear.

He's got a problem and making it mine.

I Got an Award Last Night

Last night was a church experience I will always remember.  A month ago, I received a letter saying that Mount Canaan Baptist Church was going to award me the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Leadership Award. 

Me and my sister, Debbie

That was amazing and very exciting to me.  





So I invited several family members and friends to come and share this celebration with me. Among them were my husband, Don, my sister, Debbie, her husband Ken, Tafta and my daughter and son-in-law, Jacquie and GB and my current school board member friend, Mr. Hooks.

There were 14 awards given with 2 of them being the M.L. King Community Leadership Award.  A little into the service, Pastor Blake, looked out into the sanctuary, packed with familiar church members and 2 small groups of white people and said, "Welcome to all our white friends and put your seat belts on because it is about to get loud."  He was not kidding.  The choir was great.  Never seen such enthusiasm in the Presbyterian, Baptist, or Universal Unitarian churches of which I have been a member.  The service lasted for 2 hours and 20 minutes and I don't believe a head nodded off.  You really knew it was a CELEBRATION.

Lola May, Me, Curtis Hooks

My long time friend and former School Board colleague, Lola May was the chair of the selection committee.  She and I both grew-up in Northeast Louisiana, just about 5 miles from each other.  Then many years later we ended up sitting next to each other as members of the School Board in Northwest Louisiana.  So I truly appreciate her input on this award.  She is a good friend whether we agree or disagree on a particular issue.  And that's the kind of friend everyone needs.
 My sister, Debbie, also blogged about this event@ http://debbiesknowledgetrain.blogspot.com/2012/02/mlk-community-service-award-winner.html?spref=fb

Valentine Tea For Three

 

Sweetheart Kennedy showed up on Valentine's morning all decked out.

So we surely need to think of something special to do.

Grammy knew just what to do.  She gave Grampa his Valentine's gift.  It is tea that blooms.  Grammy first saw blooming tea on a blog a lady wrote who lives in Nebraska.  She also gave my family a tea set, Uncle Paxton, Aunt Jacquie and GiGi (Grammy's mother) too.  She really got excited over this.

So Grammy, Grampa and I had a tea party.  I was dressed just right.










This is when you know the party is over and it's time to clean up.

Making My Garden Grow

That looks like a lot of work and we are just getting started.

In a previous post, I wrote about building a box for a raised bed and digging out all the weedy dirt. 





We made it 12x12 because my husband did not want to do any sawing. Actually, he didn't want to do the bed at all.  

Dottie Belle is sniffing the dirt for quality control.

So I am happy with what he will do; because I have never touched a skill saw and have enjoyed having 10 fingers.  After the box was made and the bad dirt eliminated, we bought 40 bags of dirt; actually 20 bags of cow manure and 20 bags of topsoil. 

 Don and I worked together emptying the bags.  I spread several layers of newspaper in hopes of discouraging any remaining weeds from sprouting, while Don spread the dirt. I think BS and Dottie Belle were going to turn those boxes into goat manure. We realized we would need at least 40 more.  So I went back to the store, while Don took a break. 

 After I had climbed up in the truck and unload 30 bags and spread them; I could not do 1 more bag.  I went in the house and told Don that I had spread 30 of the second load, could he please do the last ten?  He said, "That's impossible.  You did not just spread 30 bags by yourself."  Well, I was very proud of my stupid, stubborn self.  And he could not believe what he saw. So he was happy to do the last 10. But even 80 bags were not enough for a 12x12 bed. I understand that I could have figured this out mathematically ahead of time.  But I like for reality to descend upon me slowly.  To know how much work and money is involve ahead of time would likely stop the project altogether.  We did all of this on Saturday.

On Sunday, I decided that in order to reach the plants, I was going to have to divide this box into fourths.  I then brought the level of 1/4 of the bed up to the proper level.  In that quadrant I planted 18 broccoli plants, 24 Texas sweet red onions and in the middle sowed spinach seeds. You see I can't wait to plant something, so when I made the second trip to Lowe's for the dirt, I bought the broccoli and onions.

Broccoli on the outside, the onions, and spinach in the center.

Then I realized that I have to solve another problem.  











How to keep the goats, and even harder, the chickens out of my garden? Boy am I glad that I don't think of all these issues ahead of time. With previous gardens, I didn't own goats and the chickens stayed in the coop.  I was too afraid to let them roam around the yard. Now that they have tasted freedom, there will be no going back. They almost knock me over every morning to get out.

Oh look!  They made us a lovely dusting box.

So thinking quickly and using what I have on hand (I was way too dirty to go to any store) I put the cones I use to cage tomato plants and made a barrier to keep the critters out until I come up with something better.

Spinach sprouts after 9 days! Not ready for a salad.

Nine days later the spinach seeds have sprouted! 












I'm still working on a better solution for keeping the chickens out.  Hopefully, I will need the cones for tomatoes. Today Don stopped by Lowe's and bought 20 more bags of dirt. 

 So soon we really will be "dirt poor" if we keep this up.

"Laissez les bon temps rouler!"

The Mardi Gras season is in full swing in Louisiana.  When I was growing up in rural northeast Louisiana, we did not know anything about it.  





Mardi Gras was for Catholics and we were Southern Baptists.  Mardi Gras was a city wide party with parades for drunks and crazy people in New Orleans.  Today, I have never been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. 


But Shreveport and many towns and cities through-out Louisiana have Mardi Gras parades now.  Even schools have them with the children making floats out of shoe boxes. They try to make the city parades more for families. 





It is fun for kids to stand on the side of the street and catch beads and such as some very imaginative floats pass by.  I've attended several through the years but not really very often.

 

The grandsons and I did hang ornaments and beads from the Cypress tree in my front yard.  And I put a purple, green and gold wreath on the front door.






 Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday this year is February 21.  That is the last day of feasting before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. In the Roman Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the season of preparation for the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.

So from now until the 22nd, let the good times roll.
"Laissez les bon temps rouler!"

Dig It

 Wow! The weather here has been in the upper 70's and it even hit 80 this week.  Tuesday, Don and I dug all the weed infested dirt out and set the frame for the raised bed garden.  You can see Kennedy was our little helper.
The chickens also helped us rid the garden of a lot of fat juicy grub worms.

I cannot believe how the grandsons and their friends have been entertaining themselves for years digging holes.  I even bought Connor, age 5, a small shovel for Christmas.  Chase has been digging one hole for about 5 years.  He used to be able to hide in it.  A few weeks ago he read a book about kids digging tunnels, so he decided he was going to dig another one and connect the 2 with a tunnel.  Well, his father axed that plan after he realized what great progress the boys were making.  We were afraid that it might cave in on one of them.  Never the less, most afternoons the grandsons and a couple of friends can be found digging in my side yard.  I don't believe I would have let my own kids dig up my yard, but whatever the grandchildren want to do is just great.



















You can see they are still in their school uniforms.  Also, they are wearing shorts in February.


















The tunnel goes about 3 feet.

Our soil is mostly clay, so they have also been making bricks.