Fall colors at the lake

Today The Boy and I went up to the lake to take out the dock and boat lift. I just don't want to do it by myself anymore. Too hard. With The Boy there it seemed so easy.  Much quicker. Still work but easier on the Old Man. Took these pics cause the colors are at peak right now. They certainly do not do the colors justice. They seem dull and washed out in the pics, but are very vivid in reality. Oh well, need a better camera I guess.

We fished for awhile but didn't get much, so we packed it all up and came home. Maybe next year.

Squash and Pumpkins II

Anyone need some butternut squash or mini-pumpkins?

We got frost the other night and it was hard enough to kill the leaves on the squash and pumpkin vines. They turned black the next day, so yesterday we picked all the S&P.

As you can see there was quite a few.

There was also quite a few that didn't mature, so the boys will get those. Next year we will have to run a tighter garden-ship so we don't get so overwhelmed. All these grown in clay and composted horse manure. One time when I was in the barber shop and old guy said that horse manure was no good for growing things. I think maybe he just didn't like horses or something. Our garden in Ham Lake was planted on top of the old manure pile and our tomato plants got taller than me. Now, on a chicken note, we have been getting three and four eggs a day lately and on Sunday we got five! That's pretty good considering the Welsummers are only supposed to lay every other day. Simone is laying every day and her eggs are getting a little bigger. I'm puttting another addition on the coop and making new nest boxes, so we'll see how much "Chicken Trauma" that causes and whether it stops the egg laying. Critters are so much fun.

Field Day and Bucks

Saturday Gramma and went to a "Draft Horse Field Day". We met the FD there and watched as people plowed, disked, dragged, cultivated, cut hay, raked hay, picked potatoes, and threshed grain with draft horses. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately Gramma and I forgot to bring a camera. What????? Yes, totally lame, but we're old. The FD took lots of pics, so if she puts them on her computer she said she would send them to me and then I could post some. Hopefully this won't take too long.(Hint, hint) Yesterday evening we saw two young bucks and a doe in the West field and the two bucks started to fight.

Best pics I could get with my camera.

They didn't fight too hard,just practicing for when they get bigger.

Oops, they see me.

This morning the same two bucks were in the backyard. One went in the woods just as I got the camera, but this guy hung around for awhile. He's actually an eight pointer, so with this many points at such a young age he has the potential to be a trophy. Cool. The other one was a six pointer as far as I could tell. Hope nobody shoots them. Been seeing some nice big does lately, so maybe we can put some venison in the freezer again ths year.

Ingrid

Yesterday we had the farrier out. The vet said we needed to have Ingrid's hoofs cut as short as possible in the front. He called it squaring them off. This allows her foot to turn over quicker with less pressure on the toe and therefore less pain. So we waited to give her the pain meds until an hour and a half before Fred came. Even before we gave her the meds she was walking without limping. Yay. She didn't care for the wet hay, so we have been trying to get it somewhat dried out. That helps some I think, but also I think she realizes that she isn't getting anything else and has been cleaning it all up. Anyway she seems to be getting better. We are going to have to keep Aksel off the grass also and feed him the same way or it could happen to him also. Now I need to find some marginal hay and I think we might get a couple of cows so the pasture and good hay don't go to waste. We'll see.

FDIL

OK. Just so you know. FDIL= Favorite Daughter-In-Law. Okey Dokey.

Horse Trauma

Our chubby mare Ingrid has Equine Metabolic Syndrome. (Look it up so you understand) This is very painful, but if we follow the vet's advice she should be ok. It's going to take awhile and it's going to be more work, but we're going to get her well. This affects her feet and can lead to other problems. So she has to lose weight and can no longer graze on pasture or eat hay freely. The vet said it is like diabetes and she needs to get off the plant sugar. This affects overweight horses and those like Fjiords who are easy keepers. Our pastures and hay are too rich and they don't get enough exercise. You work hard rotating, mowing and dragging pastures to make them nice and then find out they're too nice. So she has to be in the barn for awhile and get pain meds. She can only have 1% of her body weight in hay a day and it has to be soaked in water for a half hour to leach out the sugar. So no more bale feeder for her, she will have to get fed twice daily and it has to be weighed. When her feet are better she will have to be exercised regularly. I'm going to try and find someone who puts up meadow hay or other marginal hay so we don't have to always soak it. Aksel is not happy. Guess we should have got some Quarter Horses with big butts. NOT!

Squash and pumpkins and potatoes

Yesterday we picked a couple of squash. These are Butternut Squash.

As you can see they are not miniature like the pumpkins. Yikes.

They are much bigger than the ones Gramma buys in the store and there are lots of them. So  the FD and the FDIL will have squash to eat too. I read that these squash make better tasting pumpkin pie than pumpkins do, so we might have to try that.

Here is the squash and potatoes from our garden roasted along side Gramma's yummy chicken. Oh Yeah.

Gramma

Today is Gramma's birthday.  

Once upon a time there was a little girl with curly hair.

Even though she was poor, she got to grow up on a lake and go swimming and ice skating whenever she wanted.

Then she became a teenager. (Glamour shot from the 60's)

Then she met a Handsome Prince who made her laugh.

And he hung around until she graduated.

And they were married.

Her new husband was in the Navy, so she moved to California to be near him. (Sigh)

And she made many new friends and had many adventures along the way.

And then she became a Mommy. Three times! (That other kid on the bottom right isn't one of ours.)

And she went on adventures with her children.(Some places required wearing of large hats.)

And while she raised her children she also raised dogs.

Lots of dogs.

Sometimes people gave her prizes for her dogs.

And she went on more adventures and met more new friends. And she became a Gramma. Eight times! (So far)

And she kept her Grandchildren in little cages. (Just kidding)

And here is the whole gang. (So far)

And here is Herself, "The Queen of the Land" with her little dog and her new toy and now she is on another adventure with horses and piggies and chickens and cats and of course, dogs. So we'll see where this one leads her. And the Handsome Prince is still hanging around just to see where it goes and to try to make her laugh now and then. And the little girl with curly hair is still there, you can see her when she catches a fish or finds an egg or plays with the piggie boys. And yes her hair is still curly. Happy Birthday Gramma, Mom, Cindy. We love you. Especially me, The Old Farmer.

Morning walk

This morning I took the dogs out about 5:30. (Slept in) I don't turn on the outside lights because in the summer it draws bugs. So the only light comes from the kitchen lights through the window. Well we're out there and the dogs are doing their thing when we hear a loud screaming sound. The hair stood up on my neck and the dogs got nervous. Went back in and got a flashlight and a gun, but couldn't see anything when I went back out. After they ate Heide had to go back out again, so I took the gun and turned on the spotlight over the deck cause it shines out enough to see the woods. Didn't see anything. I googled bobcat sounds and I belive that's what we heard. I know we have them around here cause I've found their tracks before, once right alongside the garage. I'm not worried about them, but that was one of the spookiest, and weirdest sounds I've ever heard. I'll be turning on the light from now on,You Betcha.

First Pumpkin

Yesterday I harvested our first pumpkin. Now we used to grow pumpkins when we lived in Ham Lake, But this is the first one from our garden at the farm. The Bayou Girls helped Gramma plant them.

Probably won't win a "Giant Pumpkin Contest", but it's pretty cute.

Might be a kinda hard to carve, but a magic marker could work to make it a jack o' lantern. I hadn't realized Gramma had planted miniature pumpkins until this one started to turn orange. She kinda forgot too. Next year we'll plant some regular ones for the Grandkids, but I think we'll plant some more of these too cause they're so darn cute.

Turkey lurkies

Today I had some visitors in the backyard.

A large hen and seven young turkeys walked through.

The hen never put her head down. She was totally on alert the whole time. They walked and fed across the yard and finally disappeared down the trail to The Boy's deer stand. In 21 days turkey season opens. In the spring you can only harvest toms with visible beards, but in the fall any turkey is fair game. I think a big hen will taste just as good. I have been seeing quite a few hens and young ones lately. Not sure yet where I'm going to sit., but the season is thirty days instead of five in the spring, so maybe I've got a chance. We'll see.

Simone's Eggs

Today Simone laid her second egg.

The egg on the left is Alice's then Lucy, then Simone's first egg. Smaller, as is expected of first eggs, but darker.

Alice, Ethel, Simone's second egg. We are very happy. Gramma says she is going to enter Maran eggs in the County Fair next year. Cool.

Labor Day Weekend

Well we had a good weekend. Gramma and I went to Minneaplolis on Sunday to see a play at the Orpheum Theater. It was called "Wicked" and was the musical story of the witches of "The Wizard of Oz" and how one became a bad witch and the other became a good witch. Gramma really liked it. I really liked the parts I could hear. Monday, The Boy and his family came up and the FD came over and we had dinner together.

Here is Bubba and the Princess. This was her answer to "smile please". That's chocolate cherry cake and ice cream Bubba is working on. Gramma made lasagna. Yum Yum.

Here is the rest of the gang sharing a joke that I didn't hear. (Probably about me:) Our FDIL wanted to shoot the Boy's shotgun, so we set up some cans on the pistol range for her. She had never fired a shotgun before and an 870 12 gauge is  not a toy. She did great! Very proud of her. Next up, rifles. On Tuesday our FDIL called and said her brother is interested in renting the FD's little house. Yay! So he's going to call me to set up a time to come and look at it. This would be a good thing. Also on Tuesday I found a chicken nest on the side of one of the hay bales in the barn. Lucy made a nest and laid an egg in it. I don't know how come she didn't fall out, cause it was actually on the side of the bale. Anyway when I found that I saw Simone sitting on another nest on the ground. well I discovered 6 eggs in there. I don't know how long they were there so we're giving those eggs to the boys. Simone went back to the nest and sat, so an hour later Gramma and I went down and looked and she had laid an egg. Yay! We now have 5 hens laying. We are happy. So it's been a good Labor Day Holiday for us. We hope it was for you too. Oh yeah, I got a coyote on Tuesday too. :-)

Chickens and pigs (Big surprise huh?)

Hey. Well I wrote this at lunch time, got down to the last couple of sentences, wanted to check my spelling on something and somehow deleted it. So here goes again. I was working on the haybine this morning when I heard a chicken cackling in her "Boy I'm mad" voice. So I went and checked it out. Turns out Alice wanted to lay an egg and Ethel was in the box. Now there's two compartments in the box, but everyone wants to use the one side. It's like having kids. I went back to work. In about two minutes I heard it again and this time Antoine came running to the barn , so I went and looked again.

This is what I found. Alice, sitting on Ethel. So I got my camera and got this pic.

Then she stood up and laid an egg. Can you see it? Then she hung around for a minute and then left. Ethel sat on her egg. She is our broodiest hen. She is also the only hen who doesn't mind if I pet her or take her egg when she is in the box. The other girls all get upset and make funny noises or bite me or both. So I took Alice's egg.  After awhile Ethel laid her egg and when she came out I took the divider out and made one big box. We'll see how that goes.

Here are the "Three French Hens" from the "Twelve Days of  Christmas                                                                                                             

Pinky.

                                                                                 Perky                                                                                                         
Perky is smaller in length and height than Pinky, but I think he weighs about the same. Mmmmm,  porkchops. Yum.