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This is what it looks like right now out my front door. The sun tries to break through but the clouds just dominate. The wind here is gusting something fierce, whistling as it catches the edges of the house and windows. I feel somewhat better today. Even though it is windy and overcast, I get a glimpse of sun every now and then and the rain has moved out. I don't mind the wind so much. It will help dry up the ground and I won't have so much mud to deal with.Yesterday after I got off the computer I went through the Market Bulletin ads looking for some bermuda hay I could buy locally. I have been buying the bales from Ladds up in Cartersville. They charge 8 dollars a bale. Now that I have Derby and the goats to feed through the winter I have to find a better price. I called a number from the ads that was close. No one answered. Hm. My second try was meant to be. Turns out this man was not ten minutes from me and I could go back roads to get there. He has over 2000 bales of Tift 44. Perfect! I should be able to keep my animals fed all winter. His price was five dollars out of the barn, or six dollars in barn. I definitely want in barn. You don't want to risk the hay having mold. It can make animals very sick, even die. I am not that savvy on types of hay. I will admit I didnt know what Tift 44 was. So I looked it up on the internet of course. The answers to everything are on here, arent they? ;) Turns out all Tift 44 is, is a bermuda hay that will grow in spring and fall, not just summer like regular bermuda hay. It is some really pretty hay, smells soooo good too. I was proud that I was able to find a source locally and for a better price, AND I am buying from a local farmer, and thats important.After Shelby and I got back with the hay we fed the horse and goats right away. There is nothing like seeing them chewing and grinding hay contently. It gives you a peaceful feeling to know they are happy.After that I got outside and was productive, and just like I knew I would, I felt better for it. I scrubbed some waterers and filled them. Fed some critters. I just put up a fenceline a couple of days ago. I will have to say it has made my life much easier. When the horse is let out he goes around grubbing, looking for any chicken feed he might be able to get into. I caught him pushing in one of my metal pens, bending the bars. I had just put feed in there for the two silkie/polish cross boys and he was doing his best to try and get to it. I am also tired of stepping in emu poo when I try to get in the gate, they are always right at the gate when its time to eat and they are so big now I can hardly get in between long necks swinging, big long feet and legs in the way, not to mention all the chickens pressing themselves at the gate. So I made a barrier. To protect my pens from the horse, and to keep the emus from being right at the gate pooing it all up. Emu poo is SLICK. Its like stepping in slick mud, and yes, just like slick mud, it makes you slide and fall on your butt. I love my emus, but they have got to give me some space to get in the gate. I also like to feed them seperate. They have their own feeder I hang on the gate. I don't want them to eat the chickens food because I mix scratch grains in with the food. Corn goes right through emus. Their bodies don't process it. Then you are left with a pile of emu poo, with cracked corn in it. Then a chicken walks by that pile, sees the corn pieces in it, and well...you know what happens next. I won't go any further. So we just like to avoid that all together. I was able to get fresh hay down in a couple of pens and in the emu bed area. I also got hay down on all the slick mud areas at the gate. Of course as usual, dark came too early and I ran out of daylight to work outside. I retreated indoors and cooked supper. We had baked potatoes and boiled shrimp for supper. The Wizard of Oz was on tv last night. Ian and I were watching that while eating supper and it made me have a happy feeling. Something I had been struggling with all day as you can see from yesterdays post about the weather getting me down. Then he turned it to crap...at nine he turned it to that Dr. Drew Celebrity Rehab junk. Its where you watch has been celebs whine and moan and groan while trying to kick whatever drugs they are hooked on. Oh this wasnt good, it was depressing, and I told Ian to please put it back on The Wizard of Oz, that this show was ruining my happy feeling. He hesitated, said he had been waiting on that to come on and wanted to watch it. I sat through a few more minutes of it and then said he was going to HAVE to change it back PLEASE. He laughed and said okay. So I watched the rest of The Wizard of Oz...and felt happy. :)I put Johnny at the top this morning because he needs to have good thoughts sent his way. He is able to stand, but doesn't unless he has to drink and eat. He is still not using that leg. I am worried about him. I took him out of the pen and tried to hold him and talk to him, but all he ever wants to do is try and bite me. I tried to sooth him by rubbing under his wings like chickens like, rubbed his chest and around his neck, but then he snapped at my hand and you don't want him to bite, because he doesnt let go once he gets a chunk of flesh. It hurts. I don't guess he will ever be one of my nice roosters, but he is still my responsibility, so I do what I can for him.
I think just about everyone from J-Land knows Ally. If you don't already know her you must get to know her. She is the sweetest, kindest person, and very very thoughtful.What am I going on about you might ask? Well I will tell you. Before I came to J-Land I saw the people on message boards as figments of my imagination you might say. Words on a screen. You never got to know them the way you do journaling. I never thought I could grow so attached to folks I had never met before, but here I sit, with my heart overflowing with love. There are in fact real caring loving people out there and Ally is proof of just that. She is a whole other country away, but I feel like I have known her forever.If you know Ally, then you know she collects broaches. She has shown some of them on her journal before. A very beautiful collection for sure. They are her treasures and this is why what she has done for my daughter Shelby is so special. If you back up a bit Ally sent Shelby a beautiful collection of cat broaches, from her own collection. Shelby was overwhelmed. She just loved this special collection from a sweet woman that we had never met, yet cared enough and thought about her enough to send these treasures. I haven't got a picture of those right this minute, but I will take one later today and post it tomorrow. Remember when I was talking about not being able to find the right calendar for the upcoming year? Well Ally came to the rescue. What could be more beautiful to look at that than scenes from a land that has been around a lot longer than the United States. Scenes from around the British Isles. Castles, coastal views, unspoiled land...just breathtaking. She also sent me a planner booklet that matches it. No one asked her to do these things, she just does them because she is a wonderful caring person. An amazing person indeed.Now, with Shelbys birthday this past month, Ally sent another package for her. Ian gave her the package and she opened it. I knew it was coming, but didn't say a word because I thought it would be a nice surprise to get what she got from Ally. She came in the living room and showed me the letter and then she showed me what was in the package with the letter. :) More beautiful broaches from Ally. Shelbys eyes were lit up and sparkling along with those broaches. She loves them very much Ally. Ally, keep being you. You are one of a kind. A very special person that touches many many peoples lives. Thankyou, we love you so much because you are who you are. These gifts to my daughter are precious and we treasure them because they are from you. XOXOXOXOXOXHere are the broaches Shelby just received in the mail. I took a picture right away...they were even still on the protective bubble wrap. ;) I also took a picture of my calendar and planner booklet. Thankyou so much Ally, really you are the treasure. :) Thankyou for being my friend.
Good Wednesday to everyone. Some days I don't have a lot to say, like today. Things are quiet around here. Ian is going to be getting off sooner than later today and I want to be ready to go when he gets here to go out on our weekly shopping trip. He has one day off this week, which is tomorrow so we want to make the most of it. Y'all know that means I won't be back until the weekend. I just wanted to say Hello to everyone and I hope y'all have a good day today.
Sit down and take your time with this entry. I have stories to tell about this horse shoe and I think you will really enjoy these stories. At the end of the story I will tell you how you can buy one of these one of a kind hand forged treasures to hang on your Christmas tree this year.My farrier stopped in today just a little while ago to give Derby a trim. After he finished we went out to his truck and I said to him "Well I guess I won't see you til after the holidays will I?" He said "Nope probably not." I said to him to be sure and have a Nice Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas. He stopped and started to think about something. He turned and asked me if I would like a reindeer shoe. I asked him "Yeah, sure! What's a reindeer shoe?" He says, "Hold on, I will show you, I am going to make you one right here right now." He asked me to get him a bucket of water while he got his tools and what not set up. I came back and he had some kind of small oven thing cranked up with his propane tank and it was glowing red hot inside. This is the story on how he came to make reindeer shoes. As he heated the ends and beat them out on the anvil he told me about it. One day he was given a whole bunch of these little horse shoes. Most miniatures and ponies are not regularly shoed so he really didnt have a use for them. He started fooling around one day and thought he might try to make something useful out of them. He thought maybe he could make a hoof pick out of them but it didn't really turn out the way he intended. Then it hit him. An idea to make reindeer shoes for Christmas time. Of course a reindeer's hoof is nothing like the shoe above, but it is the concept of Santas Reindeer wearing shoes. After he curled the ends he heated and spread the holes a little where the horse shoe nails go. Then he inserted the nails and heated them and beat them flat. He then took his drill press and drilled a hole to hang the shoe. He buffed it some with the wire brush that he had but says the brush he actually uses it polishes it to a shine. He apologized and said he didnt have all his reindeer shoe making equipment with him.Now all this is just too cool to me. Gifts like this mean so much to me, something hand made from someone. This was totally his idea and invention, which made it one of a kind for me. As if it wasnt already neat enough, he goes the extra mile and decorates it. I am not going to tell you what he does to it. I told him I wouldn't tell you so it would be a nice surprise when anyone that ordered these got them in the mail. He did tell me how he does it though, and it should look so beautiful and definitely have a country accent to it.Now, onto a story he told me about a customer of his. Just like me, he made a shoe for her. This is where it gets good. Instead of giving the shoe to her 5 year old daughter she kept it. It had been raining and made the the ground somewhat muddy that Christmas eve. The mom took the shoe out into the front yard and pressed the shoe into the mud here and there like tracks in the mud. She then left the shoe out in the yard around those tracks. Then she wrote a letter to her daughter (being from Santa, not her) asking her to look for Rudolphs shoe, that he had lost it. Well the little girl found it of course, and if that isnt a magical Christmas I don't know what is! She didn't even care what else she got for Christmas, everything else couldnt compare to that reindeer shoe she found. She carried it everywhere for two months after that. She even took it to school for show and tell. The children could have brought any one thing they got for Christmas to tell about, but she took that reindeer shoe. Isnt that the best story ever? Just made me grin from ear to ear and right then I felt the Christmas spirit around me after he told me about that reindeer shoe and little girl. :)If you would like one, they are fifteen dollars. I don't know what the shipping cost is, but I imagine it couldnt be that much. I will find out how much it costs the next trip to the post office I make. This is a one of a kind, hand forged, hand decorated ornament. If you would like to purchase one I am taking orders. Email me at Fowfies@aol.com. He has asked me to please tell anyone ordering to send money orders only. After I recieve the money order from you I will immediately call him with your order. He says he will do his best to make sure all orders get there well before Christmas. He usually sells them by word of mouth. I told him I bet there had to be someone here that thinks this is as neat as I do and that is why I am telling y'all about it. I tend to think that things like this are far more precious than anything store bought.
Johnny is my black sumatra rooster. He is not a game rooster, so I don't quite understand why he thinks he has to fight everyone to the death. He has fought through the chicken wire on his pen til it bows out. Staples to keep the wire on the pen frame are a joke so it is wired shut. Tiny and him have had this thing since time began. Tiny does not fight with anyone, except Johnny. Maybe it is because Johnny IS in fact in a pen and can't KILL Tiny, like he would do if he got loose. Once Johnny got loose and had been fighting everyone he could in the yard til he was so exhausted I found him laying on his back in the dirt. This morning I thought he was dead. He was hanging by his spurs (Sumatra can have several spurs in a row on one leg) upside down caught up in the chicken wire. This happens when he throws out his feet at Tiny to fight. I went to get him loose and he did manage to look up at me. Once I got him loose he still didnt want to move. I opened the pen door and went to pick him up and he hobbled over to the other side away from me. I don't think his leg is broken, but it is sore thats for sure. I am going to let him rest for now, if he will. Tiny went right over there taunting him through the wire and believe it or not Johnny was doing his best to try and fight again. I don't know what is with those two. I ran Tiny off. So that was this mornings excitement. After that I had all three of the emus attention. They seemed to be in the mood for some light petting so I did just that. Some days they don't want to be touched, other times they really seem to enjoy the attention. I know when I get to pet them it gives me a calm serene feeling. Getting back inside I finished making my coffee and cut a cantelope in half for breakfast. I love cantelope but I only buy it when its on sale. Last week it was on sale and this was a good pick, very sweet, not sour at all.****************************************After I left the guineas with their new owners I decided to veer off one more time and visit the neighbors Jim and Linda. Linda was cleaning her house from where they had had their chimney fixed. The tornado that came through here earlier this year damaged it, along with their garage was totally blown away and half the barn. Jim is supposed to bring me half a roll of hay today that was left over from rolling hay. It will help out a lot in feeding Derby and the goats. They just got a new bunch of cows to add to their existing herd. They raise beef cattle, small scale. We took a drive up to the barn and she was showing me the new pond they are having dug out behind the barn. Something got two of her ducks, but I got a picture of the two she still has. The wood from the demolished garage is being stored in the barn as it is coated with creosote and cant be burned. She said I was welcome to any of it that I may be able to use. I can always use wood planks and plywood. I will go back another weekend and see what I can load up. Here are a few pictures I took while we were up at the barn.
All this time I had been dreading capturing eight of the sixteen young guineas that the guinea mom and dad had done such a great job of raising. Believe it or not they all trusted me as much as a guinea can trust a human. (They are always wary) Doing what I did made it even harder and made me feel guilty. Last week I got a cage from the neighbor so I could round up some guineas for him. I have a hard time letting go of anything around here, but they went to a very nice family with 11 acres and will be very well taken care of. I have to tell you it was VERY easy to 'catch' them. I opened up the cage, put some millet birdseed down in the bottom and everyone just couldnt step in fast enough. I had eight plus mom in a matter of minutes. I had to get the net and scoop mom back out and I had to make sure the one young one I knew for sure was a girl wasnt in there. She wasnt. I closed up the pen and there I had it all ready to go. Ian helped me tote the cage over to the old truck and put them in the back. At first I thought we should sell the old truck, and if someone comes along that wants to buy it then we will sell it. It has turned out to be of a lot of use to us from transporting bales of hay to transporting animals. It keeps the dirt, poo and scratches out of the new truck bed. I called the neighbors up and let them know I was on the way over. They used to buy eggs from me sometimes but now they have their own chicken flock. He has a very nice bunch there on the farm. I pulled on around through the gate and to the back where he had a pen all set up and ready for them. With guineas you want to pen them for a couple of weeks to make sure they will stick around. They aren't as domesticated as chickens and you have to make sure they know where home is when nightfall comes. 
After he got them settled in their pen we talked awhile and I took some pictures of his chickens of course. His americauna rooster is just a sweetie. He is just so pretty. All of his chickens are pretty tame. He has red sex link hens, americauna hens, and a black austrolorp hen. He also has another americauna rooster but he is not with the flock and keeps to himself. Then there is the white rooster...I don't remember for sure what breed he is. Here are some pictures I took when I was over there.
Look at that pretty rooster face baby! Isnt he just handsome? So so sweet too.So I headed back out down the driveway, taking a few pictures of some of their horses out in pasture...
We made a trade...guineas for three buff orpington hens that he didnt care for. He says they seem kind of dumb. Not unheard of, I have a few red star hens that look like there is nothing there, just empty space...when you look into their eyes. Buff orpingtons were my first chicks ever though and I hold a strong love for that breed so I gladly took the girls. Here above is a picture of them still at his house. I have them in a pen for now so they can see the flock and the flock can inspect them without any fights breaking out. My silver laced wyandotte hens tend to always be looking for a chance to assert their dominance and one kept doing just that yesterday evening. She would go over to the pen and flare up, a hen in the pen flared up and they would be sizing each other up. I would make the wyandotte go on, but she would be back in minutes.There may be some fussing when I put them in with the others but after a few days things will settle down. Well this is getting kind of long so I am going to wrap it up for today. After I left the neighbors house I stopped over and visited another good neighbor...but I will talk about that tomorrow, with pictures of course. :) Everyone have a nice Monday!
Good Sunday morning. :) I thought I might just drop a few lines this morning since it has been almost a week since I have been able to post. I am alright. After our outing on Halloween I became sick with something. I still don't know what it was. Strange sickness. I had a pretty steady fever starting Monday afternoon and lasting until Wednesday evening. My skin felt sensitive and prickly all the time and I was so cold feeling. I was glad it was warm on those days. I wrapped myself in a warm blanket and sat out in the sun on the front porch warming myself. Can you imagine, it was 75 outside and I was cold. I know it was the fever but still. After several sweat fests the fever thankfully finally broke Wednesday evening. The strange part was that I never had any other symptoms. No stuffy nose or sore throat, nothing. After the fever broke I had some fluid in my ears for a couple of days. I only knew it was there if I bent over though. I had a sore neck and a slight headache for a couple of days, but that is gone now.I don't know what it was. Never had a fever that doesnt turn into something else with it. Anyway, it is gone and I am glad. Shelby nor Ian caught whatever it was.Speaking of Shelby, she was an angel while I was sick. She practically waited on my every need. I was really thirsty a lot and she got me drink and she took care of the animals for me while I was unable. The fever made me hurt all over if I tried to walk around or move too much, so she did a lot for me to save me from having to do those things and feel worse. She even fixed Ian some soup and sandwich right before he got home from work so he would have something for supper when he got in. I couldn't tell her enough times how grateful I was for all her help. She never complained once either.Ian has been home since Friday so the computer has been taken up by him most of the time. When he is home I don't really try to get on much anyway. I haven't had time either way. I have spent the past two days catching up on laundry, dishes, and general cleaning up around here from being down and out when I was sick. Shelby also didnt have school on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday so we have been making up those three days Friday, Saturday and today.I am going to be catching eight of the sixteen offspring from the adult guineas today. They will be getting a good home just down the road from here. A neighbor that takes very good care of his animals. He has a few chickens, about 7 horses, a pony, and a pot belly pig. The guineas should be a nice addition. On a sad note, the barred rock hen did not make it. She was just too sick to fast. On a better note, the cochin pullet is still recovering. She is eating and drinking with gusto but hasn't been able to find her feet completely yet. Bubba is back out in the yard, but still very nervous about any other rooster getting too close in his personal space. Can't say as I blame him after the beating he took from the psycho twins. Those two boys are still locked up and will probably remain that way. I called one of my neighbors down the road the other day and asked if they would like to have some of these tubers from the daylillies we have been digging up and breaking apart. They needed to be broken up badly. They were choking themselves out. I still have nine clumps to dig up, and have more than enough to share with them and I will also be taking some to Mama and Daddy when we go for Thanksgiving to visit.I am sitting here drinking my coffee and now that I have written a bit in my journal I need to go and visit everyone that I can before I have to get started on the day. I will make my rounds over the following days to see what y'all have been up to. See you when I get there. :)
Halloween was so much fun! We went and met with Dirk, Nelishia, and Katie at a huge church that went all out for trick or treaters to have a safe Halloween. There were so many vehicles decorated up and lined up giving out candy in the parking lot. We were late leaving and it turned out that Nelishia and her family were late leaving and we ended up getting there at exactly the same time. We parked up on the hill and took a few pictures up there before going down to the trunk or treat. There was lots of hugs too! She is just such a wonderful person, so full of life and love, just like I imagined she would be. :) Katie is just a living doll. She is such a sweet little girl. She was shy at first but warmed up to Shelby fast. It was funny because she held Shelbys hand the whole time and just talked away to Shelby. Shelby was so good with her. Dirk is so nice too. He is the genuine article. That is one thing I loved about it all. We were all ourselves. I think we all felt pretty comfortable with each other and I felt like I already knew them and this wasnt the first time we were meeting. Ian can be kind of quiet, but I was glad to see Dirk and him were really talking it up. After the kids got their candy Katie got on some of the inflatable slides and whatnot. She loves those. She tried the rock climbing, thought she wanted to do it but that first jolt on the line to put her up on there worried her I think and she said she changed her mind. Before they could get her belts off she wanted to try another section of the wall, but again, it was just too much for her. She is four after all. To even think about getting on that rock climbing wall is brave to me!I wanted us to be able to do some more trick or treating at the mill village near our house, but it was just too dark and too late by the time we got there. Shelby didnt seem to mind and said she was about ready to go home anyway. Well, they had come all this way and we were so close to the house I asked them to come on over if they didnt mind a little mess. You know how it is when your in a hurry, getting ready to go somewhere and you leave everything lying til you get back...like a towel you had wrapped around your wet head, make up, brush, things just kind of in disarray. It seems I always have some sort of mess outside around the patio that needs cleaning up, and I did this time too. I just told myself they would have to like me and my mess. ;) They didnt go running back out to leave, so I guess it wasnt too bad.We got in and Tip had to do her usual...barking at new people. She is so silly. Once she settled down she really took to Dirk bringing him toys to play with. She was even trying to nose his glass of drink! That is overkill though, and I told her to stop that. You see, when I have a glass of drink with ice in it I will almost always give Tip some ice from the glass. I won't tell you HOW I give it to her, but THEY got to see how I give it to her...lol. Its too redneck. Okay, I will tell you, but you have to promise not to lose any respect for me. I shoot the piece of ice out of my mouth up and out and Tip catches it. Okay, now that you have a visual of THAT...we can move on. ;)We visited and sat and talked and just really all hit it off so nicely. Katie was mezmerized with all the toys in Shelbys playroom and dived right in. If you read Nelishia she says it was a mess, but believe me it has been a lot worse than what Katie did. We all picked up the toys before they left. She said a lot of times when Katie has a friend over the mom won't make their child help do some cleaning up from playing before they leave. Nelishia said they didnt want to be like those folks. I took Phoenix out of his cage (he and Clyde are inside now) and brought him over for Nelishia to hold and pet for a while. Phoenix loves any and all attention. He loves it so much that when I put him back up and got out Clyde, he knew it and was pacing and making noise the whole time...yes, thats right, he was JEALOUS. I think Nelishia really enjoyed holding my sweet little boys. Nope, they didnt poop on her either. Both of them are pretty good about letting you know they have to poop and will try to get down off of you.I hope I can get over to their house now soon and have a nice visit. I know this is a busy time of year with the holidays coming up, but I plan to squeeze in a visit somewhere sometime soon. :) I really enjoyed the company and you know what is weird? A lot of the time Nelishia and I would catch each others thoughts, we would be thinking the same thing right before the other would say it...lol. Talk about being on the same wavelength! That usually only happens when you have known someone forever. Alright, enough talk. Here are some pictures.
Another funny thing I just though of...when I called her to say we were running late she said that was okay that while Dirk was driving she was putting on her make up...what was so funny is I said REALLY? I am doing the same thing!! My hair was a mess. I forgot that my hairdryer had pooped out on me and didnt get to blow dry it straight. Oh well. There I am, in all my glory. Ian says I shouldnt worry so much, but I am fat, and thats a fact. I havent been comfortable with pictures being taken of myself for a long time. I never give up though, I keep on trying to lose the weight. Even if I am 80 years old I will always battle it til the end. I won't give up. In the meantime Ian is right, just be happy to have memories of this good time we had together. So that is what I am doing. :)Here are some pictures of Shelby in her costume. She is a pirate of the female persuasion. She looks so grown up! When did that happen??? ;)
I just realized that all the pictures are not on Photobucket that were supposed to load! I had some of Katie on the rock climbing wall...so I will have to go back and load those and then I will post them on the next entry. HMMMMM...how did Dirk escape my camera shots? Beth, you pointed something out that I will have to remedy when we all get together again. :) Up until his camera pooped out on him he was taking pictures too so in all fairness I was trying to stay out of his way while he was taking pictures too.
