Shelby took this picture of me...taking this picture....
Now you see why I can't get anything done around here. We are busy playing with bugs! ;)
3 years ago
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Praying Mantis Photoshoot
I took a whole day to clean out the front flowerbed and trim all the bushes. The weather had eased off and Sunday was a nice day. While working I found a little green friend. I have seen many juveniles, but its been a long time since I saw a full grown adult. He tolerated me bringing him in and setting him on one of my little houseplants by the front door so Shelby and I could conduct a photoshoot. ;) After a few videos and some good photos I let him go back onto one of the azalea bushes. He was perfect looking other than he had lost an antenna. So yes people, this is what we do out here in the country for excitement...lol. Well, its fun for us anyway.
Shelby took this picture of me...taking this picture....
Now you see why I can't get anything done around here. We are busy playing with bugs! ;)
Shelby took this picture of me...taking this picture....
Now you see why I can't get anything done around here. We are busy playing with bugs! ;)
Friday, August 21, 2009
Playing In The Creek
Its been hot, and its been humid. We are in August in Georgia, so there ya go. When we moved here to our little paradise in the country we were quickly spoiled by having a pool to retreat to when it got to be too hot to do anything else outside in the middle of the day. We had plans to buy a liner here this month, seeing as ours has bit the dust. The crooks stealing the truck has put a hold on that, seeing as our deductable is a thousand dollars, but, we will have a pool again eventually. Until then, we have a great friend and neighbor a few miles down the road. His property has the Euharlee Creek running through it and has quite a nice set up back there for folks he is so inclined to invite back there. He tells us to just come on down, don't come knocking on the door to ask permission, one time permission is all that is needed. Some folks go back there without permission, but he doesnt seem to mind as long as they don't go tearing up stuff, which has happened on occasion with teenagers just getting a little too much back there.
Anyway, we went down to the creek and Shelby and I took our neighbor friends Laury, the lady she rides horses with, and also Aubrey and Tate, Laury's daughter and son. It was pretty hot that day, but under all the big shady trees and being right down at the creek with all that cool water kept us nice and comfortable. Laury and I took our fold out camping chairs and plopped them down into the water and sat down to watch the kids play. Tip went with us too, and had a big ole time. Joe's dog came down to the creek to visit us. Tip was a bit jealous and would bark at him, but they never got into it physically. Joe's dog is just a pup as you can see the puppy look in him even though he is as big as Tip.
Ian was off that day, but didn't go with us. After we had been there a couple of hours he did change his mind and came down to the creek to hang out with all of us. I walked around and took pictures of all the neat stuff Joe has back there in his private little park. He has built or made everything I took pictures of and some folks even have their weddings and baby showers back there. All that remained of a bridge you will see in the pictures below was a metal skeleton. Joe built it back up halfway over the creek and it is where he likes to hang his hammock and take a nice nap when he gets a chance, which isnt often, he is always busy doing something with his goats or things that need doing on his farm.
I know there are snakes in this creek. I feel you can't go around being scared of what might happen. When I was a kid we always played in creeks. We didnt have a creek this wide and this much fun, but it had snakes in it. I never got bit once. We stayed where the water flowed in this creek anyway. No one cut their foot on anything, no one got bit by a snake, no one got pinworms, everybody just had a good old fashioned fun day at the creek. :)
an old turbine of some kind that probably used to pump water out of the creek...
The screened house with booths to sit in inside and the grills...including the 'pig' grill Joe made for fun.
Ian and Joe's dog walking to the bridge...the dog is named after the roads name, Auchmutey. The history of this bridge is accounted for on the sign. Very cool.
A few more pictures of the deeper section of the creek and then where we were. The deeper section is about 12 to 14 feet says Joe. He has ladders imbedded into the sides of the bank and a rope swing, tire swings over on a big tree for kids and a little double seater swing for the adults while the kids play on the tire swings. We didnt go to the deep side. We figured that side probably was more likely to have snakes.
Ian parked his MX5 next to the truck when he came to the creek, so I had to take a picture of it. Kind of comical isnt it? ;)
Anyway, we went down to the creek and Shelby and I took our neighbor friends Laury, the lady she rides horses with, and also Aubrey and Tate, Laury's daughter and son. It was pretty hot that day, but under all the big shady trees and being right down at the creek with all that cool water kept us nice and comfortable. Laury and I took our fold out camping chairs and plopped them down into the water and sat down to watch the kids play. Tip went with us too, and had a big ole time. Joe's dog came down to the creek to visit us. Tip was a bit jealous and would bark at him, but they never got into it physically. Joe's dog is just a pup as you can see the puppy look in him even though he is as big as Tip.
Ian was off that day, but didn't go with us. After we had been there a couple of hours he did change his mind and came down to the creek to hang out with all of us. I walked around and took pictures of all the neat stuff Joe has back there in his private little park. He has built or made everything I took pictures of and some folks even have their weddings and baby showers back there. All that remained of a bridge you will see in the pictures below was a metal skeleton. Joe built it back up halfway over the creek and it is where he likes to hang his hammock and take a nice nap when he gets a chance, which isnt often, he is always busy doing something with his goats or things that need doing on his farm.
I know there are snakes in this creek. I feel you can't go around being scared of what might happen. When I was a kid we always played in creeks. We didnt have a creek this wide and this much fun, but it had snakes in it. I never got bit once. We stayed where the water flowed in this creek anyway. No one cut their foot on anything, no one got bit by a snake, no one got pinworms, everybody just had a good old fashioned fun day at the creek. :)
an old turbine of some kind that probably used to pump water out of the creek...
The screened house with booths to sit in inside and the grills...including the 'pig' grill Joe made for fun.
Ian and Joe's dog walking to the bridge...the dog is named after the roads name, Auchmutey. The history of this bridge is accounted for on the sign. Very cool.
A few more pictures of the deeper section of the creek and then where we were. The deeper section is about 12 to 14 feet says Joe. He has ladders imbedded into the sides of the bank and a rope swing, tire swings over on a big tree for kids and a little double seater swing for the adults while the kids play on the tire swings. We didnt go to the deep side. We figured that side probably was more likely to have snakes.
Ian parked his MX5 next to the truck when he came to the creek, so I had to take a picture of it. Kind of comical isnt it? ;)
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Where To Begin
I guess the best place to begin, is at the beginning, so that is where I will start.
Last Thursday I spent a good part of the day getting the animals fed and watered up extra because I had a trip planned on Friday.
Friday morning I left for Phenix City, AL to go and visit Sherry, my long time friend of over thirty years. We don't get to see each other often, and since she has had her baby a year and a half or so ago it is hard for her to get away from the house. She also has her hands full with Kelsey, her ten year old daughter. It is just easier for me to go down there and we always have a nice visit at her house. I usually spend the night and come back the next day.
I planned on leaving early so Sherry and I could spend some time together during the day before Kelsey got home from school. Kelly, her husband, kept their youngest daughter while we went out galavanting. First stop was a cute little corner diner where we had lunch. Afterwards we went across the street to a little thrift store and got a few cute things there. I found a huge ceramic seashell that will look nice on the bathroom counter with maybe some rolled up washclothes in it or something. After leaving there we went to a flea market about five or ten minutes out from where we were. It was full of treasures and of course we both found things to get there. I found Ian a really neat pipe that is wood and is a carved out dragon. I found a cute sign that of course had roosters on it. I will have to take pictures of these things later, but after Friday things went terribly wrong and I haven't felt much like taking pictures of the odds and ends we found, because they seemed so meaningless after what happened.
John and Christy, if your reading this, the only reason I haven't called and told you about this before is because its better here, where details are written down and I have told the story so many times now over the phone to Teddy and others that saw my post on Facebook about it, and called to check on me and my state of mind. I am okay, I just want things to get back to normal, whatever that is.
Here we go.
Friday night we went to bed at Sherrys around 11 pm. I always always always lock the truck with the remote, which also engages the alarm. Everytime I get out of that truck, I hit that button. This time was no different. I knew it was locked from earlier in the day when Sherry and I had returned from our outting, but being the OCD person I am I had to hit that button not once, but twice and hear the chirp of the alarm being engaged before going to bed. The truck was parked in the driveway, pulled up right by the window on the house, next to the couch that I slept on that night. I never heard anything. I don't sleep heavy when sleeping over at other folks houses, so I know they never could have cranked it in the driveway. Who is they you ask.
THEY are the people, persons, person, whatever, that TOOK my truck. Yes, it was stolen right out of the driveway. I don't know how they did it. The window was not busted out. I never heard an alarm, I never heard it being cranked. Somehow they managed to steal it during the night.
I woke up around 8 am, but everyone was still asleep so I just layed there, waking up, thinking about things the way anyone does when they wake up. Kelly, that is Sherrys husband came through the living room and we said our good mornings and he walked out the front door onto the porch to have a smoke. I got up and went to follow him outside. As I stepped out the door I looked to my left and saw Kelly, standing in the driveway where my truck should have been. It was like my eyes must have been playing tricks on me, I couldnt process what I was seeing. Then Kelly turned around and looked at me and said, "Where's your truck?"
It felt like a ton of bricks hitting me in the face. Yes, yes I said, yes, WHERE is my truck??? WHERE IS MY TRUCK??!!!??!! I said this over and over as I became increasingly freaked out and started crying and walking around in the driveway in disbelief.
The Phenix City police were called immediately. They took a good ten minutes to get to the house, guess its a good thing it wasnt an emergency. :( I had Bucktooth Barney and 'New police officer trainee' guy for my policemen. BB seemed to be less than concerned about much of anything, very nonchalant, very uninvolved and had a whatever attitude. Meanwhile the trainee was trying to be concerned and take down all my information. As they called in the report the truck came back as recovered.
It had been found, according to the report, at about 7:30 am in the middle of the road next to an abandoned hospital facility just a couple of blocks away. The police had it impounded and took to the impound yard by a wrecker after they had run the tags and it had not been reported stolen. EXCUSE ME!?!?!? Oh yes, I said this to the police officers standing in front of me. I said,
"Wait a minute, your going to tell me, that you found a fifty thousand dollar truck abandoned in the middle of the road, wrecked, damaged, (I will get to that later) and three hours from Polk County and it didnt dawn on someone that I would never leave a vehicle like this in the middle of the road, that is more than likely had to be STOLEN?????"
"Well uh ma'am we can't do anything if its not reported, we just have to take it to the impound and wait on the owner to call and report it stolen." says Bucktooth Barney.
The system is obviously flawed.
I asked about the vehicle being fingerprinted. Nope, I am told it has been compromised. When the truck was found it was handled by police and by the wrecker that towed it. BS. When I went to the impound to get my things out of the truck (Clothes, stuff from the flea market, etc) the thieves had gone through EVERYTHING. I mean, the glove box, the console, even the toys in the bed of the truck I had brought for Sherrys baby! I was told by the impound yard man that all of the employees fingerprints were on file so if the police needed to pull prints, theirs wouldnt be a factor. The thieves had even thrown three of my music CDs in the bed of the truck, for whatever reason. You know their prints HAD to be on those! I will get back to these three CDs later on in the story.
So of course right after the police had been called I called Ian. At the time I was still in freak out mode. He came straight down to my rescue. Sometimes I feel like such a child and he really is my knight in shining armor. He comes and makes everything okay. I love him so much, he is my life.
While I was waiting on Ian, Sherry and I rode to the impound and got my belongings like I was saying before. I took the camera with me and took a picture of the main damage. Now I wished I had taken pictures of all the damage, I dont know why I didnt. My mind is not always on top of things like it should be.
They smashed the face of the radio, they scarred up the ignition, had pulled off the right side of the steering column cover. It was deduced that the thieves took the truck up to the abandoned hospital and did burnouts and donuts. When they pulled out of the parking lot of the hospital they had to have punched it and had it wide open. They lost it and the rear drivers side wheel slammed into the curb, breaking off the wheel from the axle. Amazingly, the wheel and tire sat down flat immediately and the axle fell into the back of the wheel, holding up the body of the truck, keeping it from smashing to the ground and breaking the body of the truck. This picture was taken at the impound, but this is also how they found it in the road.
The employee at the impound said he could smell where the thieves had been smoking crack in the truck. :( So I had crackheads steal my truck, isnt that lovely.
Sherry does not live in a 'bad' neighborhood. The houses are older houses, very modest. No one is by any means well to do, but everyone keeps up their little yards and their houses are for the most part neat. Never in the twelve years they have lived there had anything like this every happened. Then again, no one there had a viper truck parked in their driveway overnight either.
Once Ian got to Sherrys, Kelly and him went to get some cash out of the bank. It was Saturday and there was no way for Ian to get money out at the credit union at work, so Kelly fronted us the cash. Impound facilities only deal in cash, so in order to get it out, thats what we had to have.
We had it towed to the nearest Dodge dealer and had it put in their shop. Of course then the insurance had to be called and dealt with. At first, things seemed to be going nicely. Our agent was very accomodating. His contact for sending out an adjuster called me, we talked in length, the adjuster would be out Tuesday to the dealer. The estimate the dealer gave for repairs was approved by the adjuster. Everything seemed to be going great.
The dealer called me and said he just needed the okay to start on repairs and I gave the okay. Being older and wiser I ask a lot of questions. He told me what was on the agenda to be repaired. Thats when it all fell apart.
The whole axle, wheel, tire, would be replaced...great!
The whole radio would be replaced...great!
BUT, the ignition switch was not approved to be replaced.
How could this be? It looked like HELL. It had been monkeyed with no doubt. Yes, we knew it would crank the truck, but it had been compromised. It was not in the condition it was before all this took place. WHY would you pay over 4000 dollars in repairs and decline to fix a small thing like the ignition switch and steering column cover??? I have no idea, so I called the guy that was in charge of the adjuster coming out and began to give him a very agitated conversation.
He said whoever stole it had the key.
WHAT????? NO THEY DID NOT! I said
Then he said we had to do a recorded interview because of this discrepancy. So he asked me a bunch of stuff and I answered. Then we got back to the ignition. He says his adjuster says,
It is operable, it works, so it would not be replaced.
BULLSH*T
If that was the case, if I had a big dent in my fender, but the truck still worked, they would decline to fix it??? I think not.
I told him it looked like they took a screwdriver to the thing and it is all scarred up and I want it replaced. It had been compromised, they had started it by tearing into that very area.
IT WILL BE REPLACED, thats all there is to it. I mean it, I wont have it any other way.
I am supposed to get a phone call this morning after the guy reviews his adjusters pictures and report. It better be all good news, thats all I got to say.
So, now you know, what has been going on, oh, I said I would get back to the CDs.
I had a phone call from the Phenix City police department yesterday. The policeman that was handling my case. He said that he was just calling to make sure I got my vehicle back. Ummm yeah, I sure did. That is not all I had to say to him though. I expressed my extreme displeasure with how this whole thing had been handled by the police officers that made the report and I explained to him they could have easily taken prints off the truck, the filthy thieves had had their hands on everything. I even told him about the three CDs thrown in the bed of the truck. This seemed to peek his interest. He actually seemed to care, and asked me if I still had the CDs. I said yes. He said to put them in a plastic baggie and handle them as little as possible doing so, and if I wanted to bring them to the police department for fingerprinting he would be happy to see to it. Wow. Someone was actually going to do some real police work. Amazing. I thanked him for doing this and told him it really meant a lot to me for someone to take the initiative to do something, anything. So, when we go back down there I will be dropping them off. It will take about a week for them to be processed. I am not holding out too much hope. But this is better than nothing. We will see.
I have a lot of other farm news, pictures to take, but I think this has been more than enough for today. Here are a few pictures of my beautiful truck I took right after detailing it, which I will be doing soon as I get it back home, to get every last inch of it clean of the nasty filth that is on it from those no good lowlife thieves.
Isn't she just a lovely, beautiful thing? I do love this truck.
Last Thursday I spent a good part of the day getting the animals fed and watered up extra because I had a trip planned on Friday.
Friday morning I left for Phenix City, AL to go and visit Sherry, my long time friend of over thirty years. We don't get to see each other often, and since she has had her baby a year and a half or so ago it is hard for her to get away from the house. She also has her hands full with Kelsey, her ten year old daughter. It is just easier for me to go down there and we always have a nice visit at her house. I usually spend the night and come back the next day.
I planned on leaving early so Sherry and I could spend some time together during the day before Kelsey got home from school. Kelly, her husband, kept their youngest daughter while we went out galavanting. First stop was a cute little corner diner where we had lunch. Afterwards we went across the street to a little thrift store and got a few cute things there. I found a huge ceramic seashell that will look nice on the bathroom counter with maybe some rolled up washclothes in it or something. After leaving there we went to a flea market about five or ten minutes out from where we were. It was full of treasures and of course we both found things to get there. I found Ian a really neat pipe that is wood and is a carved out dragon. I found a cute sign that of course had roosters on it. I will have to take pictures of these things later, but after Friday things went terribly wrong and I haven't felt much like taking pictures of the odds and ends we found, because they seemed so meaningless after what happened.
John and Christy, if your reading this, the only reason I haven't called and told you about this before is because its better here, where details are written down and I have told the story so many times now over the phone to Teddy and others that saw my post on Facebook about it, and called to check on me and my state of mind. I am okay, I just want things to get back to normal, whatever that is.
Here we go.
Friday night we went to bed at Sherrys around 11 pm. I always always always lock the truck with the remote, which also engages the alarm. Everytime I get out of that truck, I hit that button. This time was no different. I knew it was locked from earlier in the day when Sherry and I had returned from our outting, but being the OCD person I am I had to hit that button not once, but twice and hear the chirp of the alarm being engaged before going to bed. The truck was parked in the driveway, pulled up right by the window on the house, next to the couch that I slept on that night. I never heard anything. I don't sleep heavy when sleeping over at other folks houses, so I know they never could have cranked it in the driveway. Who is they you ask.
THEY are the people, persons, person, whatever, that TOOK my truck. Yes, it was stolen right out of the driveway. I don't know how they did it. The window was not busted out. I never heard an alarm, I never heard it being cranked. Somehow they managed to steal it during the night.
I woke up around 8 am, but everyone was still asleep so I just layed there, waking up, thinking about things the way anyone does when they wake up. Kelly, that is Sherrys husband came through the living room and we said our good mornings and he walked out the front door onto the porch to have a smoke. I got up and went to follow him outside. As I stepped out the door I looked to my left and saw Kelly, standing in the driveway where my truck should have been. It was like my eyes must have been playing tricks on me, I couldnt process what I was seeing. Then Kelly turned around and looked at me and said, "Where's your truck?"
It felt like a ton of bricks hitting me in the face. Yes, yes I said, yes, WHERE is my truck??? WHERE IS MY TRUCK??!!!??!! I said this over and over as I became increasingly freaked out and started crying and walking around in the driveway in disbelief.
The Phenix City police were called immediately. They took a good ten minutes to get to the house, guess its a good thing it wasnt an emergency. :( I had Bucktooth Barney and 'New police officer trainee' guy for my policemen. BB seemed to be less than concerned about much of anything, very nonchalant, very uninvolved and had a whatever attitude. Meanwhile the trainee was trying to be concerned and take down all my information. As they called in the report the truck came back as recovered.
It had been found, according to the report, at about 7:30 am in the middle of the road next to an abandoned hospital facility just a couple of blocks away. The police had it impounded and took to the impound yard by a wrecker after they had run the tags and it had not been reported stolen. EXCUSE ME!?!?!? Oh yes, I said this to the police officers standing in front of me. I said,
"Wait a minute, your going to tell me, that you found a fifty thousand dollar truck abandoned in the middle of the road, wrecked, damaged, (I will get to that later) and three hours from Polk County and it didnt dawn on someone that I would never leave a vehicle like this in the middle of the road, that is more than likely had to be STOLEN?????"
"Well uh ma'am we can't do anything if its not reported, we just have to take it to the impound and wait on the owner to call and report it stolen." says Bucktooth Barney.
The system is obviously flawed.
I asked about the vehicle being fingerprinted. Nope, I am told it has been compromised. When the truck was found it was handled by police and by the wrecker that towed it. BS. When I went to the impound to get my things out of the truck (Clothes, stuff from the flea market, etc) the thieves had gone through EVERYTHING. I mean, the glove box, the console, even the toys in the bed of the truck I had brought for Sherrys baby! I was told by the impound yard man that all of the employees fingerprints were on file so if the police needed to pull prints, theirs wouldnt be a factor. The thieves had even thrown three of my music CDs in the bed of the truck, for whatever reason. You know their prints HAD to be on those! I will get back to these three CDs later on in the story.
So of course right after the police had been called I called Ian. At the time I was still in freak out mode. He came straight down to my rescue. Sometimes I feel like such a child and he really is my knight in shining armor. He comes and makes everything okay. I love him so much, he is my life.
While I was waiting on Ian, Sherry and I rode to the impound and got my belongings like I was saying before. I took the camera with me and took a picture of the main damage. Now I wished I had taken pictures of all the damage, I dont know why I didnt. My mind is not always on top of things like it should be.
They smashed the face of the radio, they scarred up the ignition, had pulled off the right side of the steering column cover. It was deduced that the thieves took the truck up to the abandoned hospital and did burnouts and donuts. When they pulled out of the parking lot of the hospital they had to have punched it and had it wide open. They lost it and the rear drivers side wheel slammed into the curb, breaking off the wheel from the axle. Amazingly, the wheel and tire sat down flat immediately and the axle fell into the back of the wheel, holding up the body of the truck, keeping it from smashing to the ground and breaking the body of the truck. This picture was taken at the impound, but this is also how they found it in the road.
The employee at the impound said he could smell where the thieves had been smoking crack in the truck. :( So I had crackheads steal my truck, isnt that lovely.
Sherry does not live in a 'bad' neighborhood. The houses are older houses, very modest. No one is by any means well to do, but everyone keeps up their little yards and their houses are for the most part neat. Never in the twelve years they have lived there had anything like this every happened. Then again, no one there had a viper truck parked in their driveway overnight either.
Once Ian got to Sherrys, Kelly and him went to get some cash out of the bank. It was Saturday and there was no way for Ian to get money out at the credit union at work, so Kelly fronted us the cash. Impound facilities only deal in cash, so in order to get it out, thats what we had to have.
We had it towed to the nearest Dodge dealer and had it put in their shop. Of course then the insurance had to be called and dealt with. At first, things seemed to be going nicely. Our agent was very accomodating. His contact for sending out an adjuster called me, we talked in length, the adjuster would be out Tuesday to the dealer. The estimate the dealer gave for repairs was approved by the adjuster. Everything seemed to be going great.
The dealer called me and said he just needed the okay to start on repairs and I gave the okay. Being older and wiser I ask a lot of questions. He told me what was on the agenda to be repaired. Thats when it all fell apart.
The whole axle, wheel, tire, would be replaced...great!
The whole radio would be replaced...great!
BUT, the ignition switch was not approved to be replaced.
How could this be? It looked like HELL. It had been monkeyed with no doubt. Yes, we knew it would crank the truck, but it had been compromised. It was not in the condition it was before all this took place. WHY would you pay over 4000 dollars in repairs and decline to fix a small thing like the ignition switch and steering column cover??? I have no idea, so I called the guy that was in charge of the adjuster coming out and began to give him a very agitated conversation.
He said whoever stole it had the key.
WHAT????? NO THEY DID NOT! I said
Then he said we had to do a recorded interview because of this discrepancy. So he asked me a bunch of stuff and I answered. Then we got back to the ignition. He says his adjuster says,
It is operable, it works, so it would not be replaced.
BULLSH*T
If that was the case, if I had a big dent in my fender, but the truck still worked, they would decline to fix it??? I think not.
I told him it looked like they took a screwdriver to the thing and it is all scarred up and I want it replaced. It had been compromised, they had started it by tearing into that very area.
IT WILL BE REPLACED, thats all there is to it. I mean it, I wont have it any other way.
I am supposed to get a phone call this morning after the guy reviews his adjusters pictures and report. It better be all good news, thats all I got to say.
So, now you know, what has been going on, oh, I said I would get back to the CDs.
I had a phone call from the Phenix City police department yesterday. The policeman that was handling my case. He said that he was just calling to make sure I got my vehicle back. Ummm yeah, I sure did. That is not all I had to say to him though. I expressed my extreme displeasure with how this whole thing had been handled by the police officers that made the report and I explained to him they could have easily taken prints off the truck, the filthy thieves had had their hands on everything. I even told him about the three CDs thrown in the bed of the truck. This seemed to peek his interest. He actually seemed to care, and asked me if I still had the CDs. I said yes. He said to put them in a plastic baggie and handle them as little as possible doing so, and if I wanted to bring them to the police department for fingerprinting he would be happy to see to it. Wow. Someone was actually going to do some real police work. Amazing. I thanked him for doing this and told him it really meant a lot to me for someone to take the initiative to do something, anything. So, when we go back down there I will be dropping them off. It will take about a week for them to be processed. I am not holding out too much hope. But this is better than nothing. We will see.
I have a lot of other farm news, pictures to take, but I think this has been more than enough for today. Here are a few pictures of my beautiful truck I took right after detailing it, which I will be doing soon as I get it back home, to get every last inch of it clean of the nasty filth that is on it from those no good lowlife thieves.
Isn't she just a lovely, beautiful thing? I do love this truck.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Couldn't Make It Three In A Row
I thought I could make it three entries in a row, but it didn't happen. Things got busy around here and I had to heed the call. Its been really hot and sunny here and so I had to get out in the morning while it was still agreeable to feed and water. I spent two mornings constructing a dome type shelter for the emus. They really needed some substantial shade. I will take a picture of it later. I got pretty hot the first day and had to stop and come in. My skin felt hot and I was breathing like I had run a marathon. I drank my weight in ice water and came in to enjoy the air conditioning and sat down in front of my floor fan til I cooled down. The temps have been in the nineties and the heat index has been 110 to 115, so I really have to watch it...oh and thats my weather stations report from...THE SHADE! The humidity has been unreal too.
I have five and a half acres and with all the rain we have been having I have had plenty of mowing to do. I do like to mow though. It is very relaxing for me. I had let it get away from me in one far corner though and had to mow on high just to get through it. When I was done I had flecks of grass and had dandelion seeds all over me, not to mention all the little tiny bugs sticking to me. I am going to go over it again this afternoon once it is dried out. We haven't had any rain in days yet with this humidity the tall grass was very wet near the ground, even in the afternoon. I have to say though, this is the best the yard has looked since we moved here four years ago. All the rain we have had has really made the grass grow thick and choke out some of the weeds.
I spent a good part of the day yesterday cleaning the screen porch. It really needed it. Some of my smarter chickens have found a rotted screen and deemed it a chicken door. There is nothing for them to eat in there, but they insist on checking anyway, and leaving their little presents on the outdoor carpet. I got it all cleaned up yesterday though, and it is looking decent again. Blue is the smartest one. He finds a way in and eats the cats food and drinks the cats water. If it was just him, that would be okay, but Samson, Sophie, and a few layer hens have watched and learned from him.
On weekends when Ian is working I tend to work outside a lot, and he is working this weekend, so I am going to get on out there. It is already ten o'clock and I am late this morning getting out there. Ian, Shelby and I stayed up too late last night and Ian is probably regretting that at work this morning. I was fortunate enough to lay back down after he left and got a few more hours of sleep. Shelby is STILL sleeping, but then she is a teenager and teens need like ten to twelve hours of sleep. ;)
I know I have been slack and I want to come and visit y'all on your blogs soon. I am thinking that in the heat of the day I should sit and read a few blogs and catch up with my friends and my faithful readers that hang on here. Thankyou for sticking with me even though I have been erratic. :)
I have a few pictures to share with my entry of course. I always like to have pictures.
Bougeanvilla flowers
We have a lot of hummingbirds this year, I am happy about that. The swallows have had a successful hatching season. The nest have been full of babies constantly up until a couple of weeks ago. They have stopped sitting on eggs now.
Samson is really looking beautiful, even in his juvenile lanky look, he is going to fill out and be a really handsome man. I just might have to show him in February!
You may remember Einstein...he was stomped on by overzealous emus and they broke his leg. I didnt have the heart to put him down and hoped he would walk again. He recovered very well and gets around nicely. Here he is running by, busy as ever, and his leg does kick out to the side when he tries to run fast, but he does get around fine and can roost at night. He is SO SWEET and always comes to see me when I am outside.
I am off to see what I can get done today. I promise to visit a few blogs today. I hope to get by yours. :) Thanks for being my blogger friends.
I have five and a half acres and with all the rain we have been having I have had plenty of mowing to do. I do like to mow though. It is very relaxing for me. I had let it get away from me in one far corner though and had to mow on high just to get through it. When I was done I had flecks of grass and had dandelion seeds all over me, not to mention all the little tiny bugs sticking to me. I am going to go over it again this afternoon once it is dried out. We haven't had any rain in days yet with this humidity the tall grass was very wet near the ground, even in the afternoon. I have to say though, this is the best the yard has looked since we moved here four years ago. All the rain we have had has really made the grass grow thick and choke out some of the weeds.
I spent a good part of the day yesterday cleaning the screen porch. It really needed it. Some of my smarter chickens have found a rotted screen and deemed it a chicken door. There is nothing for them to eat in there, but they insist on checking anyway, and leaving their little presents on the outdoor carpet. I got it all cleaned up yesterday though, and it is looking decent again. Blue is the smartest one. He finds a way in and eats the cats food and drinks the cats water. If it was just him, that would be okay, but Samson, Sophie, and a few layer hens have watched and learned from him.
On weekends when Ian is working I tend to work outside a lot, and he is working this weekend, so I am going to get on out there. It is already ten o'clock and I am late this morning getting out there. Ian, Shelby and I stayed up too late last night and Ian is probably regretting that at work this morning. I was fortunate enough to lay back down after he left and got a few more hours of sleep. Shelby is STILL sleeping, but then she is a teenager and teens need like ten to twelve hours of sleep. ;)
I know I have been slack and I want to come and visit y'all on your blogs soon. I am thinking that in the heat of the day I should sit and read a few blogs and catch up with my friends and my faithful readers that hang on here. Thankyou for sticking with me even though I have been erratic. :)
I have a few pictures to share with my entry of course. I always like to have pictures.
Bougeanvilla flowers
We have a lot of hummingbirds this year, I am happy about that. The swallows have had a successful hatching season. The nest have been full of babies constantly up until a couple of weeks ago. They have stopped sitting on eggs now.
Samson is really looking beautiful, even in his juvenile lanky look, he is going to fill out and be a really handsome man. I just might have to show him in February!
You may remember Einstein...he was stomped on by overzealous emus and they broke his leg. I didnt have the heart to put him down and hoped he would walk again. He recovered very well and gets around nicely. Here he is running by, busy as ever, and his leg does kick out to the side when he tries to run fast, but he does get around fine and can roost at night. He is SO SWEET and always comes to see me when I am outside.
I am off to see what I can get done today. I promise to visit a few blogs today. I hope to get by yours. :) Thanks for being my blogger friends.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Feathered Friends
Hmmm, yes, well...a peacocks rear is probably what you expected to see first thing when you opened up todays blog entry from me, but even the backside of a peacock is pretty to me. Emerald hasnt gotten in his big boy feathers yet to impress the girls, but he is working on his angle, practicing. The white one is a boy too, but he doesn't display as much as Emerald does. Right now I can't remember his name, so forgive me.
Okay, so here are two shots that aren't all rear end...
In the fishpond news, it isnt good news. Unfortunately I really didn't THINK ( I know, big surprise) about how HOT it is out here with no shade, and that the pond was BLACK and would just soak up the heat from the sun. I managed to kill the two fish that Teddy gave me. On the upside, she ribbed me about it and said I did in one day what she has been trying to do for sometime now. Nobody seemed very upset to see these fish die except me. I told Ian, Shelby, Teddy, and no one seemed to really care, so I quit beating myself up about it. In light of this, I won't be getting any more fish for the pond until I come upon a good solution of keeping the pond cooler. Shade is the obnious choice but I was also reminded of what I do to keep all the buckets and pails of water cool for the animals drinking water, something that may have saved the lives of the fish, but, the thought came too late. I freeze 2 liter drink bottles filled with water and toss them into the drinking water of all the animals and rotate them out once they are melted with more frozen ones.
On a happier note, my best serama girl was sitting on five little tiny eggs under a pallet laying beside the sultan pen and after 21 days has hatched out five perfect
little babies. Saturday night came a terrible torrential downpour. Lightning, thunder, heavy rain, lots of wind. We were on the road home from Newnan going up Highway 27 headed right for the storm, and it was a storm for sure. I am not going to risk my life for chickens, but as soon as I felt it was safe after we got home I ran out and lifted the pallet and made a pocket with the front of my shirt and put the babies in there and carried mom in. I put them in a carrier and put a heat lamp on them. I was so afraid she would sit on them even if under the pallet was flooded and would end up drowning them. It was damp under there, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Enough talk, here are Sheila and her babies. One picture is of Jack, Sheila, and the babies. :) Daddy had liked this little fellow and I named him after Daddy. After these two paired up, her name became my Mamas name of course.
The duckies have grown so much...I can't tell them apart, but I named them, Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo, and Tod, like the name Todd, except one d, for The Other Duck. ;) They are a fun bunch.
Its time for me to close this entry now. Two days in a row is a record for me isnt it? Maybe I will surprise us all and have an entry tomorrow too. ;)
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