Eddie

Eddie came over and introduced himself today while Lisa and I were putting the chain link fence back up. He was on his tractor and had seen Andy over in Heidi's pasture mowing with the little mower. He finished it in about 20 minutes. We like Eddie. It would have taken Andy at least two more hours. Country neighbors are awesome! He's the one that lives in the gable house.

It was nice out so we spent plenty of time on our wonderful porch. Andy asked me the other day what I really wanted for my birthday. I told him a white 4WD pickup truck. It's not 4WD but it is brand new!

Long Haired Scarecrow

Kathy said we needed long hair on our scarecrow to make it more scary. We thought it needed a scary face too.

I could while away the hours

First - Be sure to check out Cathryn's Blog and send your best wishes to Jennifer, Cory and Natalie! Happy Birthday Natalie!!

We have a lot of tomatoes getting ready to turn ripe and the birds destroyed the last two as soon as they turned red. We moved the spinney thing over next to the tomatoes and put up a scarecrow. If Dad was here he could paint a face on the bucket we used for the head. We might get it a hat. Hopefully it will keep the pesky birds away from the tomatoes.

Paige was watching us through the window. Paris will bark at the scarecrow of course.

It has the appropriate "big blue" colors and the name of the local sports collective.

I made a tripod by lashing three of the bamboo posts together. The arms are just another piece of bamboo cable tied to the tripod. The shirt and shorts came out of the rag bucket.

Nell was all tuckered out from her hard day.

Food and Water

We took Dolly, Lulu and the Larrys some water and food. The sheep are always happy to see the truck. Larry could care less. He's going to be a hand full when we have to load him up. We'll need a corral and head gate by then.

The Herd grazing.

The sheep get locked up for feeding.

Their wool is coming off.

It flops when they run.

Lisa brought horse treats. Sundown noticed first.

Treats!

Filling the water bucket with the drum in the back of the truck.

Horses under the walnut tree.

Sheep get treats too.

This is where we moved the old deck from the end of the house. Lisa can use it with her gardening bench.

Heidi Rejoins the Herd

With Josie out in the fields with the other horses Heidi seemed to feel really left out. Lisa decided to open the gate and let them all run together. These pictures were just before that. They all did well. The little horses all went over in to Heidi's pasture so she went back over there too. They all fell right in together and were running across the field before long. It was good to see Heidi with her tail up high and a big bounce in her step. She looked thrilled running with the herd again.


We were a little concerned as Heidi is slightly larger than Bo. If you look closely you can see that Bo is biting Heidi through the gate. He tried it later when they were together and she just took a step forward and almost knocked him down.

Arizona is getting big. She is caked with mud. She must have been wallowing somewhere yesterday in the rain.

Bo and Josie aren't much bigger than Arizona. They are kind of soft too. They must not have got a lot of exercise in their old home. Arizona is like a little tank. She seems so solid and sturdy next to them.

The garden is starting to feed us. I picked cucumbers and got a whole Walmart bag full. The Brussels Sprouts are doing well except for the cabbage worms ate the leaves. They didn't hurt the sprouts much so we'll still have some good meals. The corn has ears but it seems a lot smaller than the corn in the fields. The smarty pants farmers probably knew exactly when to plant.

Did you miss us?

I have three posts today (four counting this one). I apologize for being absent. My computer got a virus and I had to rebuild it. It was the conflicker with a touch of fake antivirus 2009. My computer is always last on the priority list but I did get it done. No real excuse there because I could have used Lisa's computer or the media center, but it did have me busy. I didn't get any pictures while Lisa and her mom were out of town but Andy and I stayed busy this past weekend. We moved the old porch/deck around to the backyard under the kitchen window. Lisa is going to use it as her gardening deck. Andy brought a gardening table down with him on his last trip so it can have a nice place to sit. I cut the brush along the front fence by the road, which still needs to be cleaned up. I'm going to spray herbicide on it after I clean up.

We also spread the gravel out on the side of the garage. Now this should have been photographed. We had rigged up the railroad iron as a drag harrow, you might recall seeing it in a previous post. Andy pulled it behind the four-wheeler but it wasn't digging into the pile enough to spread very much at one time. We thought that it needed to be weighted down more so it would dig in. Yeah, I was the ballast. I stood on the iron as he dragged through the pile. It worked great! We had it all spread out in a lot less time and easier than using a shovel. If you've ever stood on top of a drag harrow acting as ballast while being pulled behind a four wheel drive ATV...you might be a redneck. If we had video it would be viral on YouTube.

Josie Turned Out

Josie is behaving well enough that Lisa decided to turn her out into the pasture with the other horses. Heidi is still in her own pasture though. She's so big it will probably be best for them to get to know each other through the barbed wire.

Barbara and Lisa went down to try and get Larry to take the feed. He's not a feed whore like the sheep are.

Josie behaved nicely on her lead. Josie eating the fresh grass.

The herd.

Heidi is the big one.

The Vandivers

Lisa and Barbara went down to Tennessee to visit Matthew, Lisa and Keira. They had a great time visiting and catching up. Matthew's friend James and his son Jace were there for dinner too.

Barbara and Lisa. Jace explains something to Matthew.

Lisa didn't really have Keira by the scruff. James and Jace.

The Berea Craft Festival

I've been slacking lately with the blog posts, sorry. Last weekend, July 12, we went over to the Berea Craft Festival in, you guessed it, Berea. It was at the Indian Fort Theater outside of town. We had fun walking around in the woods looking at all the crafts. There were musicians playing and food being served. We got some kettle corn.