St. Patrick's Day

I miss teaching 3rd and 4th graders when St. Patrick's Day comes around.  One fun thing I did was use temper paint on the bottom of a toddler's tennis shoe and stamp the overturned desks, walls and chalkboard.  Then I would leave a message on the chalkboard written backwards from the rowdy leprechauns. The students would at first accuse me of playing the trick, but when they saw the paint on the walls and chalkboard, they would say, "Oh no the teacher would never do that."

Here's The Post That Shows Why I Can Endure My Husband's Cursing Fit.

http://charlottesmenagerie.blogspot.com/2011/11/its-that-time-of-year-again.html

From the first freeze until the last, this is what my Brazilian Golden Trumpet tree looks like.  It is native to zone 10.  I live in zone 8.  But I never let a little freezing temperatures stop me from having a beautiful tropical tree.  Even if it infuriates my dear husband.


Don and I uncovered it 2 weeks ago.  I do fear that we will have the "Easter Snap" as folks call the freeze or snow we often have just before Easter. But I could see buds on the tree and I worried that keeping it covered would keep it from blooming.

Now my doorbell is ringing daily with inquiring neighbors and by passers, wanting to know what kind of tree that is in my front yard.  I kind of hate to admit that I am stubborn or foolish enough to have planted such a tree, but at the same time I am so delight to have such a beautiful thing that few people around here ever get to see.

I still have the lights on it just in case.

My sweet neighbor made a sign so people don't need to ring the doorbell to ask about the tree.  

She knows Kennedy and I enjoy our noon naps on the sofa.

A Week Without Internet--I'm Back

It has been tough that my internet has been down for a week.  I know in the scope of things, it's really no biggie.  But I am grateful to have it back on and I can write a post and read the ones I've been missing.  I do have a smart phone, but I am not patient enough to wait on it to load.  So last Thursday, I bought a new modem, but I actually had cable problems.  The same guys came out that repaired my TV cable last year.  They were funny about the goats and asked if they could have their pictures taken with Billy Shakespeare. 

 They used their cell phones and I snapped pictures with my camera.

My Flock

Tender grass and weeds are shooting up and the flock is really enjoying free ranging.  

I thought they were so cute, with Rooster Big Foot leading his 6 hens, that I had to take a couple of pictures. Can it be that spring is here?

Woodpecker At Work

Today I managed to get my camera and video this woodpecker working as hard as can be in the pecan tree in my back yard.  This pecan tree is a favorite feature in our yard.  It produces lots of pecans, that we never get thanks to many well-fed squirrels. In the background you can hear one of my goats.

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

<a border="0" href="http://aruraljournal.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7159/6767202883_a67c982368_o.jpg"/></a>

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.

Trying to Woo Dottie Belle

I am such a fine looking buck.

Just look at my beautiful blue eyes.

I've tried whispering sweet nothings in her ear.

But she just jumps on top of the igloo.

Being the herd stud is harder than one thinks.

Too Much Stress--Smaller Brain

There was an article in the local paper yesterday about certain types of stress has been shown to cause ones brain to shrink.  Things like death, divorce, job loss, and cancer.  Then I googled it on line and there were many articles about it.  Here's one that I read http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/09/study-stress-shrinks-the-brain-and-lowers-our-ability-to-cope-with-adversity/

All I can say is "Don't stress me out!  I need all my brain cells.  Maybe we should be kinder and more in touch with people and things that don't stress us out.

This and That

My dear husband works a lot of hours - that's 70 hours one week and 32 the next.  This is after his 3rd job played out.  So this past week he took off--that's the little 32 hour job.  He needed some time off!  Good for him to take care of himself.  So we did a few things I had on my honey do list.  
First we hung the adorable signs that my friend, Sharon, made for me.

Same sign, I just took the picture from 2 angles.

The girls weren't sure about it and tried to eat it.

Finally 

We bought lumber and made a box for our raised bed vegetable garden project. I'm going to set it in the ground, dig out all the weed infested dirt, put down a thick ground cover and fill with bagged soil. I am so tired of growing vicious weeds that strangle everything I plant.  Wish me luck. 

The rest of the time, Don got to do what he wanted to do, well mostly.

I Won!

My husband has heard me say that more than once and is always quick to correct me.  Well, I'm talking about e-bay.  He says, "You didn't win anything. You bought something."  Of course I know the difference, but I still get excited.  My e-bay purchases have been few and far between the last 5 years.  But here is one find that I searched for over 6 months before I found a 3 leaf clover butter mold for a decent price.  I found a couple before, but they were trying to sell them for $60.  No way.  There are many "antique" molds to be found on e-bay, but I had to have the 3 leaf clover like the one we had when I was growing up.
 
My mother milked our cow twice a day.  Often times, the only thing in our refrigerator would be a very large bowl of milk.  Food was either growing in the garden, in a pen, in the freezer or in jars that Mom had canned.  We didn't go to the grocery store and buy produce and such for the refrigerator.
So the milk was in the bowl for the cream to rise and then be skimmed off.  When we had enough cream, it was time to make butter.  We had a glass hand cranked churn.  That thing was too slow for me to stand and crank.  Finally, Mom and I decided that the electric mixer might be the way to go.  It did work beautifully and more importantly, quickly.

I have this fantasy of making butter with goat milk and using this mold.  I realize that goat's milk is homogenized so it will be harder to separate the cream and milk.  I watched a video on the internet that showed how to do this. So it does seem possible to do this.  

BS believes Dottie Belle enjoys the chase.

Right now I need one pregnant goat.  All 3 of my does went into heat this month, so there will be no May kids; therefore no milk or butter.  Little 4 month old Billy Shakespeare seems to be a kid prodigy in the mating department.  He is just too short.  But he is growing everyday.  I'm only putting Dottie Belle in the pen with him.  I want only 1 goat to kid at a time.