Over the fence chat for 2-10 thru 2-16-02

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Are the weeks going by rapidly or what??? Our "Sassy" mustang went to a new home this week. I am really missing her morning calls to me. The little stinker, I just wish she had not been so lonely as my "only child". She is at a nearby farm with her half sister and several other horses and should do much better.

The daughter is almost at full-term now and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival. No big news here, just wanted to get this started.

By the way........congratulations on your article Alison, I ment to say something earlier. Where the heck is every body anyway?? Half the time it feels like I am sitting around in an empty room. Winter blaahs or what??

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2002

Answers

Well, here I am, Diane. I've been gone since Thursday evening, and just got back late today. I have read some of the stuff here, but I'm not really up to speed yet. Having been gone, I have lots to get caught up on, of course! But I'll be around. Gotta try to read EM's thread and make sense of all the stuff there too.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2002

Thanks so much, Diane. Glad to hear the horse is happier. Well, hubby left this afternoon for Montreal til Tuesday. The kids and I had homemade cheese pizza for supper then it was baths for them and bed so mommy could curl up on the couch and watch Bridget Jones' Diary...again. What is it about that Colin Firth that just melts my butter?? Was addicted to Pride And Prejudice when it was on TV..how odd he played a man with the last name Darcy in both works. Last night hubby and I went to a Valentines pot luck dinner and dance at a local hall. I had gone thrift shopping for kids clothes through the day with friends and found a winey colored jersey dress (rather clingy and low cut). It was full length (but on a non short person would have been proper length I am sure!!LOL) but I really felt pretty in it despite that it wasn't something bulky in which to hide my bulges so I bought it..took it home and washed it and wore it to the dance. Many compliments. We had lots of fun with friends dancing and having laughs. A very nice Saturday night. Gotta go get feed tomorrow. Hugs all. Alison....off to dreamland to visit Colin.......zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2002

Howdy folks,

It was a busy weekend at DunHagan. The chicks that came in last Monday are thriving and eating their fool heads off. Friday my wife's grandfather and his wife, an uncle and his girlfriend were were supposed to come visit during the day. It was the only available time before the uncle and his girlfriend had to fly back home so we took half a day off of work for it. On the way home I was overcome with chick lust and had to stop at the farm supply store and buy five Rhode Island Red pullet chicks to go into the brooder with the first batch. Despite some anxiety about their being beat up on by the older chicks it went off without a hitch.

Turned out my wife's grandparents weren't able to make it do to illness at the last moment so we were disappointed. They're from Maine orginally so come from a radically different environment than here in Florida but he's always expressed an interest in my agricultural pursuits and I was looking forward to showing everything off. Oh well, maybe when my wife's mother comes down at the end of the month we might get them up here. They're of an age now that they don't want to drive several hours themselves.

Saturday my wife had another of her once a month all day Saturday seminars down in Tampa, about two and a half hours away. It's one of her required classes to get her Masters in Library Science degree. This means that my two year old daughter and I are on our own for the day. Unfortunately, the baby has a cold and is feeling rather out of sorts and wanting to be held all the time which is a problem when I've got a lot of outside work to do. We toughed it out though and she perked up considerably when I starting moving the pinestraw I'd raked up for mulch. I filled the wheelbarrow with a big load of pine straw, plunked her down on top and off across the pasture we'd go with her shrieking and giggling the whole way and then back again for another load. What's another thirty five pounds in the wheelbarrow back and forth? It was worth it, she had fun and forgot about her cold for while.

Looking back over the weekend it seems like I didn't get all that much done but I was able to get all the watering done, hoe up and reform the water rings around the twelve blueberry bushes, three pecan trees, and a start on the apples then mulch them all heavily with about twenty wheel barrow loads of pine straw. Our traditional spring drought should be starting up at the end of the month and if our drought of the last five years continues through this one it's going to get mighty dry until late summer. If I get a thick enough mulch layer down around everything I've planted I can cut way back on how much irrigation I need to provide.

I've also been adding refinements to the brooder hover. Lifing the 2ft by 4ft hover with four inches of pine shavings on top out of the brooder box without dropping it and breaking the heat lamps inside is a chore for one person. To solve that I added eye bolts to the four corners of the hover then wired a small pulley to the rafter overhead. Now I can pull on the rope and lift the hover straight up and by tying the rope off can get underneath to change the bulbs or clean out and replace the brooder bedding. Next I think I'll add an observation window built into the side so that I don't have to lift one side up to see what's going on underneath. I'll have to build some wire platforms next to put the waterers and feeders on since the chicks are really starting to scratch. It makes an amazing difference in how clean things stay if you can get the feed and water well up out of the litter.

It's Monday morning now, the temperature is forecast to go back into the thirties tonight and, naturally, I think I'm catching my daughter's cold. Just another day in the work week. My real life is on hold until the weekend again.

........Alan.



-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002


Alan, I like the name of your farm. I have plans on naming our spread "Inis Glas", that's Irish for blue-green island. Of course I have to find and buy our spread first, but that's a minor plot point. :)

Diane, I'm glad you found a good home for Sassy. It sounds like she should be happy there with other horse buddies to run with. Does this mean you're going to take down the electric fence? We'll have more places to roam and look for herbs this summer.

I'm worried about my oldest cat, Big. She'll be 17 in August but still seems to be in good health for her age. Yesterday she had some sort of fit, I don't know if it was a convulsion or just a really bad dream. She was sleeping on the back of the sofa and then she just fell off and her legs were jerking and her eyes were wide open. She's fallen from the back of the sofa while sleeping before but she always wakes up when she hits the seat, this time she didn't. I think she was unconscious for about 15-20 seconds but it seemed like forever. She seemed pretty disoriented for about 30 minutes but seems back to normal now. Keith was upstairs on the computer and came down when he heard me screaming but it was over by the time he got there.

The other issue I'm having with Big is that she no longer will use the litterbox. I'm experimenting with different types of boxes and litter and placing them in more convenient locations in hopes of finding a combination that she likes. But as a result I spent the weekend cleaning carpets and I'm sore today. I had to come back to work to rest after the weekend! :)

The profit sharing at work was even more generous than I expected, so my tuition for spring semester is paid and I had enough left over to buy a chair to do seated massage. I may already have my first seated massage gig, a friend runs sound for a local Celtic rock band and she was asking how much I would charge to work on the band. I quoted her a price on Friday and I haven't heard back yet, so keep your fingers crossed. I like their music so I think it would be fun to work with them.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002


Hey yáll.What a gorgeous day we had here saturday!It just felt like spring!!I spent the day stencilling my daughters room with the windows open.She was away at winter camp and we wanted to surprise her with her room all finished.I stencilled the names trees all around the border.Sage on taupe.Hubby is building her a tree bed in the spring.She loved it.Our horses finally were let out again,since the ice storm the pasture has been treacherous. Diane,what wonderful news on your daughter.Everyday counts. Not much else newsy here either.This has been a great year for us in our homeschooling.I can't remember getting this much done any other year. I think our 21 yr. old is moving home ,so he can go back to school in September.I Had a big row with my husband about his differences with this son,told him he needs to be the bigger man and reach out to him.ëven though he has disapointed us he is still our son"blah blah blah ...you get the picture.Then he tells me that he bought him a pickup truck( he has to pay back) and that he arranged for him to get into the stationary engineers course......humble pie anyone.So I am recouperating from a large piece of that .Its so good to know that at 43 I still need to grow up.:) Sherri our cat is 17 also.I Keep waiting for some signs of senillity.She is deaf for sure ,and I think she is losing Weight.When you cat fell offf the couch did she lose bladder or bowel control?I think thats a good indication of seizure.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002


Hi all, just wanted to tell you I'm still here but don't have much to say. I wish summer was here already or we were moving south now.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002

Sherri, sure hope Big just had an isolated spell........the not using the kitty box thing sounds very tiresome :>( . Leave it to you to find the big positive about Sassy. Yes, will most likely take down all that fence near the brook etc. The downside is we will have to do some major rework of the fence around the goats, since Sassy was our "guardian" and did a wonderful job of keep coyote and feral dogs away. So when are we going to plan a big herb walk??? Is your chair portable?? (she says hopefully)

Alan, you sound like a neat daddy. hugs to all

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002


Thanks Diane, just doing the best I can.

Teri, I probably ought to know this but what the heck is a "stationary engineer"? Does this mean he gets to sit in a chair all day watching control boards? ;)

.........Alan.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2002


Hey all!! Well, looks like I picked a great week for my vacation - NOT!! I came home from work yesterday am with a miserable head cold, plus it's grey and chilly and damp and dreary outside. YUCK!

I know what you mean, Diane. I've just been so tired after work that I can't seem to think of anything to say. I usually check in twice a day - mornings when I get home and in the evening when I get up; sometimes it seems like there's nobody home. Guess maybe everyone is feeling the same.

I'm working on a poster sized picture collage of Jessie. Tonight is Senior Night at the ballgame - last home game that my baby will cheer at - I may sniffle a bit as her Daddy and I walk her across the gym floor; I can blame it on my cold, can't I?! Anyway, they have each of the seniors hang a collage - it's really cute! I found a lot of pictures that were similar in pose, but several years apart in age, and have put them side by side. Like a photo when she was six, dressed up for Halloween in a little she-devil costume, next to a photo of her in her red prom dress from last year. Also the requisite naked baby picture; photos of her with all the critters, the first day of school and waiting for the school bus photos....dang, I need to take more anithistimine; my eyes are watering or something!!

Hubs got my seed starting shelf finished up and will haul it in for me tonight. I need to get my broccoli and cabbage started today or tomorrow. I swear, I had my seeds all nicely sorted out and arranged and now the darn things are scattered all over the house. Bleep-blap seed swiping poltergiests!! Ah well, it will give me something to do while I feel too lousy to work outside. I've also got a bunch of canning jars to wash up that I got at auction the other day. And cabinets to clean and organize. Wish I had enough energy to get out and scoop poop, but I may not have to! Neighbor Janet stopped by this morning and wanted to buy some eggs - told her I'd just swap them (weekly) for a couple of hours with her Hubby....and his tractor and scoop!! Hubs said if I'd get the tree service to deliver a couple of truckloads of woodchips, that he would start putting them in the pathways for me when it is still light outside when he gets home from work - can't turn down a deal like that, now can I?! Pop is even getting garden fever already!

I've been using the heck out of the pressure cooker that Hubs got me for Christmas - and now he's getting in on the act as well! He made a roast chicken for supper Sunday night; then put potatoes, carrots and cabbage in the pressure cooker to make a side dish to go with - Mmmm-mmmm!! I can't wait for the green beans to get ready!! I just really like the way the colors of the food stay bright.

Hubs has been busy building a weight bench and lifting station and putting it together down basement. He had to clean out the space where he wanted to set it up, so I may never find a lot of my things again!! He swears that he didn't move any boxes of books, though!! I've been on another reading frenzy - mostly trash fiction. Friend Jon and I are going to hit the used book store tomorrow - YAY! And the big Chinese buffet - double YAY!! Want to take bets on wether or not I sleep all the way home?! Food and books; what more could you ask for?!

Well, I'd better go get that collage done, so I can fit in a nap before I have to run it over to her. You folks all take care,

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002


Oh shoot Polly!!!! All I had to do is read about "senior night" and yeah got me weeping. Weep on girl.......it only gets worse before it gets better!!!

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002


Sorry I haven't been on much lately. The last few days have been mind boggling horrible. The 11 year old son of one of my friends hung himself last Friday. Supper was ready and they called him to come to the table. He was on his computer and was really mad because they interrupted him. So to get even he was going to scare them by pretending to hang himself. Only he really did die.

Sharon found him and since she is an ER nurse she tried to revive him but it was too late. This boy had ADHD to the max. Bounced off walls, once he jumped off the roof of their house.

This was the toughest funeral to get through. It was the first time I've ever seen the priest cry saying the funeral mass.

I cannot wait for the end of winter, I need to see pansies and some sweet peas.

On an up note, I have a new kitten. My niece scooped her off the street on a cold rainy night. Boy, was she ever narly looking. Andrea's parents won't let her have pets! So, I agreed to care for this little morsel of kittenhood. She was full of fleas and her ears were full of mites. But, her feline leukemia test was OK. As the vet said, what a lucky little kitten. Now, she is clean and pest free and will become a beautiful cat. She's a long-haired calico and her name is Miss Buttons.

I've been watching the Olympics. I love to watch downhill skiing. I wish I were that brave. Tom learned to ski at Snow Basin, or rather he says he learned how to fall at Snow Basin. Mighty sore and full of bruises he was that day. I guess they have no bunny hills, so he learned on pure ice. Now we are lucky if we don't fall walking the dog!

Bring on spring!

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002


Oh Vicki...I'm so sorry to hear of your friend's loss!!! And I thought I was having a bad week! IMO there's nothing worse than the loss of one of your children.

After reading everyone else's posts, sounds like we're all going through the winter blahs...with the exception of Alan :-)!! It does seem like the days drag on sometimes, but like you said, Diane, the weeks really are going by rapidly. When I get "sluggish" about this time of the year, I just keep telling myself that winter is necessary to give Mother Nature a break. And next summer when I'm up to my eyeballs in green beans and weeds...I'll be sooo looking forward the the restful days of winter. There...did I convince anyone else??!! I haven't even been watching the Olympics. How unpatriotic is that!!

We had our coldest night of the winter last night. Here it was 6*, but other areas of the state were in the minus numbers. Our wood cookstove does a really great job of keeping us warm, though. If we stuff it full of hardwood at midnight and close it up tight, it will hold good-sized coals til about 6 a.m. Our inside the house temp gets a little "nippy" (about 48*), but whatever doesn't kill ya makes ya tougher...right??!! Now, if I could only learn to bake in the oven :-)!

That's it from Maine...for now. Have to go check on one of my does. She's due today and has lots of the "imminent" birth symptoms. And right now I can hear my old lady of the herd hollering...like something is amiss!! Talk to you all later....

-- Anonymous, February 12, 2002


Vicki,

I am so sorry to hear about your friend's tragic loss. I can't even begin to imagine how hard this will be to deal with. I have several close friends that have lost young children. I have had a miscarriage and even though that was difficult I know it becomes even harder when the child lost has been with us for many months and years.

Even though last year's winter was so harsh it seems that this year's is so much harder to get through. So many people seem to be affected in this way. I guess a lot of it depends on what is going on in our lives at the time.

Our German Shepherd puppy is doing very well and much loved here. Wow! I cannot believe how quickly a German Shepherd gets LARGE!! She is only twelve weeks old.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


My cat had another bad spell last night so I took her to the vet today. They are running a full blood panel and the results will be back tomorrow afternoon. The preliminary diagnosis is hyperthyroid, if that's the case then the treatment options will be oral medication or radioactive iodine treatment.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002

Sherri, I guess the fact that is treatable is good news........but radioactive iodine??? Will Big glow :>)

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


Oh, Vicky, how awful for the poor family! I am thankful I haven't ever had anything similar occur!

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002

Wow Vicki, that is SO unbeleivably awful..........I cant imagine........

I have good news.......I hope.......we seem to have sold the farm; really good offer too; these people even want to use the greeenhouse; i was so worried it would go to waste......course we did this twice before, and both times it fell through, but this one looks good, and they want to close in four weeks. Cross your fingers for us......

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002


Good luck on the sale of your farm, Aunty Em!!!!

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2002

Vicki,so sorry to hear about your sons loss.My son lost a friend in September.He was killed rollerblading in the dark.It hit all the kids in this area hard ,we all miss him very much.Our thought s are with your son,and his friends. Alan, stationary engineers run boilers and stuff.I have always told my husband that it IS a secret society of chair doilies!! EM.so happy for you!Hope it goes well for you this time!

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

Yes, good luck from here too Earthmama, on the sale of your farm! I've done that too many times. Always hated the whole process of having our places up for sale and will have to do it one more time in the near future.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

Okay, EM, I've crossed everything I can think of! Hope it works! :-D

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

Well, my doe that was due on the 12th decided to wait for Valentine's Day! Even though she's had the hollowed tailhead "look" for a good 36 hrs. she just kept me waiting!! Worth the wait, though. She had two beautiful doelings (one looks exceptionally long and elegant). Textbook birth, too! Happy days....no more store milk :-)!!! That's one doe done...three more to go.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

Hope that the third time is the charm EM! Marcia, baby goats! Wish I could see them.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2002

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