Back At The Farm...

Hey there!  Just stopping by to say hi!  All's well on Sand Flat Farm...

Chicken update.  I have 9 hens.  Twice this week I have gotten 9 eggs in a day.  Is that amazing or what!  I would think that it would not happen often that all of one's chickens laid an egg on the same day.  Different chickens breeds lay at different rates.  I doubt that ANY chicken lays every single day.  You who've had chickens longer can tell me if that's true or not. (I'm sure I will be corrected if I'm wrong! :- )))))

Just LOOK!

Have you EVER seen any eggs more beautiful???  I know I'm silly - the chicken-thing is still new and I still love going out to collect the day's eggs.  Of course, Tony and I can't eat this many eggs.  We give some to son and his wife, her parents, my parents, and eat quite a few ourselves, and sometimes have a dozen or two left to give to friends.  Thanks for indulging me...

Gypsy says hi!  She's got her a big ole hole dug around at the back of the house.  It had gotten so hot, so I would run water in the hole to cool the dirt.  Gypsy LOVES to lay in her hole!  

The hay's all in. I don't know if they'll get another cutting or not - depends on the weather perhaps.  Hay was much better this year.  Still could have been better, but we got some late rains that helped the ranchers and farmers out some.

I love to watch the raking.  You know, these ranchers and guys that actually take care of the hay have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in their equipment.  You should see some of the machinery that our hay guy brings over to our place!  It's amazing!  

Well, girls - gotta run - work tomorrow.  Painting later this week! YEA!  I need to put up some of my little paintings I've been doing over at my South Light Art Blog  click my button on my side bar if you're interested!   I also added a link to my website where you can view more paintings of mine.  Take care - see you soon!  Keep yer dress down!

Autumn, Aprons, A Rose is a Rose...

What a glorious morning!  The last couple of days the temps have been in the upper 60's first thing in the morning when I go out to feed and water my chickies.  I feel a little "fallish" coming on!  I don't wanna rush but it makes me long for cool days, sweaters, soup on the stove, and one of Becky's soy candles in Pumpkin Spice burning on the table.  You know that delightful shivery feeling of autumn?

Well, we've got upper 90's again coming back, but it sure is nice! What's going on in your neck of the woods?  I'm trying to get a little painting done today.   Something new for me - I'll be sure and post pictures over at South Light art blog later - link on my sidebar if you're interested...

Here, at the farm, let's see who's minding the henhouse....

Well, for starters, Mr. Black/Yellow Garden Spider is keeping watch on the back side of it, and...

Miss Gypsy is guarding the front.  Actually, I had thrown some rolls to the chickens and she tried to do some digging to get one of them and I had to shut that down.  I even gave her one of her own and she buried it behind the AC unit outside.  Silly dog.  She comes to the back door every morning and asks for her dog biscuit.  Sometimes, she eats it, sometimes, she buries it.

Did I ever show you  my vintage apron collection?  Well, if I did, you're gonna see it again.

I didn't mean to have a collection, but it just happened.  I had a couple of aprons that were my grandmothers' that I'd saved through the years.  As I visited garage/junk sales, vintage aprons kept drawing my attention and were so cheap (most of the time).  When I looked at them, I immediately thought about the women who wore them, the work that they did to feed their families, the hands that dried themselves on them, the eggs and garden goodies that were collected in them, the children who grabbed onto them pulling at their mom for some attention, and perhaps even the tears that were shed on them.  

One by one, another worn and faded apron came home with me on my forays.  I now have 18 - EIGHTEEN - yes, you heard me right, 18.  It just happened.  But you know what's fun now?  When we have friends over to the farm for supper, I shall have all the ladies put on one of my vintage aprons while we're getting everything ready.  It'll be fun for all of us!  The aprons all hang on the door in my kitchen so they're easy to grab one up and go.

See what my sweet husband brought home last night?  He stopped and bought me 3 bouquets of Tyler roses!  They are so beautiful.  "Just because..."  And they smell heavenly...  I had enough to make two pitchers full.  I love roses - I don't care if they're not the swanky long-stemmed ones.  I think I actually prefer the little Rose-stand roses - they're lovely, really smelly (  :)))) and easy to put in my vintage pitchers and vases.  He was so thoughtful!  And I'm so lucky!

Take care, friends - you coastal folks look out for that hurricane a-comin'.  And by all means, no matter what you do, Keep Your Dress Down!

Down On The Farm...

Lots going on around Sand Flat Farm right now. I sure do miss y'all!  Canning season is here!  I have two 5 gallon buckets of plums and four 2 gallon buckets of plums, two more buckets full of cucumbers.  And these don't even make a dent in what's still left on the trees and vines!  I put a bunch of squash in the freezer, too.  I juiced plums all day Wednesday and came out with 5 1/2 gallons of juice. And that was only HALF of the plums!  But K's coming to do jelly and so is my sister and my dad, so we'll have plenty for everyone - AND THEN SOME, I do believe!

What is it?  I mean, one year we have very little rain, or too much rain, or it's too hot, or there's a late freeze, or there's not one.  I guess all the conditions were just right this year.  It's been about 4 or 5 years since we've had such a nice growing season.  I know it's not over yet, and it's getting a bit hot and dry already, but with our mild winter and early spring, it seems that most of the gardens here are well on their way to bringing forth a bounty of goodies!  We do our best on the garden each year, but God sends the rain and the sunshine and makes the conditions just right so our gardens will grow and flourish.

Here's what I did with part of the squash...  I divided it up into the big ones and the smaller skinnier ones.  The smaller ones I chopped up  and put in quart sized freezer bags for boiling or making casseroles. They freeze well.  The bigger squash I cut the necks off and saved the wider parts to slice up for making fried squash.  I'll keep these in a gallon bag and just take out what I need for Tony and I.  There's LOTS of squash and flowers on the vines, so I'm sure I'll be putting up some more of that.

We've got pintos about ready, the green beans are making, the purple hull peas are coming on, too.  The tomato vines are loaded with big green tomatoes - best I've seen in several years - and up to now, no blossom end rot, just hornworms (which the chickens are enjoying!)  Only thing that didn't do as well is my onions.  I decided to plant them in my raised garden boxes, but I believe they prefer the sandy hot soil in the main garden.  They stay too moist in the raised beds. That's the only thing I can figure... You learn something new every year.  Sometimes, the hard way!  Good thing Daddy has gobs of great onions in his garden!

Here's a few current pictures of the garden... if you're interested...

My raised beds below...

Can you see this rogue pumpkin (I think) vine that is growing right in the middle of the corn?  Last year we threw our fall pumpkin remains in the compost and a few of those seeds came up in different spots in the garden.  Think I'll leave those and see if we get any pumpkins this fall!  I hope they're not stealing moisture from the corn, but from the looks of the corn, it seems to be okay!

Gypsy is going around the yard and garden areas digging huge holes to lay in and cool off.  I don't know why she can't use just ONE hole - she's got to have several.  What she does is run down to the pond, go swimming and then come back to the house or garden and dig her a hole to lay in.  She drug up a big ole snapping turtle carcass that stunk to high heaven the other day.  We also found a goat skull that she's been chewing on - thank goodness it was already bleached white.  Now, the turtle - it was another matter.   It still had bones in it... Why do dogs like to roll in stinky stuff?  Then, they wonder why we don't wanna pet 'em. And since Gypsy is a "leaner" and has to be touching us all the time, we could possibly smell like turtle carcass, too!

Even Bug, the chihuahua, has decided that she likes chicken poop - either eat it or roll in it.  I started banning her from coming outside when the chickies are out of their pen. Yuck.  Speaking of chickies...

I liked the light in this picture.  Most of my chicken pictures have one or two blurry chickens. They are always moving, flapping, bobbing, strutting around - (note to self - figure out the correct setting on the camera to prevent blurry chickens.) 

All's well on Sand Flat Farm.  Just busy.  Jelly  season is upon us as well as pickle season, pea pickin', bean pickin', tomato cannin', salsa makin', corn shuckin', puttin'-stuff-up-in-the-freezer season.  That's what's goin' on down here on the farm.  How 'bout you???   ;-)

I'm A WINNER!

Lucky, lucky ME!  I entered a give-a-way over at Dawn's Comfy Corner (she's a fairly new blogger and buddy) and she sent me the news that I won!  And what a nice gift - it came in the mail yesterday and I'm so anxious to give them a try...  Seeeee?????

They are thick and absorbent and she made them very generous to scrub and wash all my dishes and pans!  Can't wait to use them.  I imagine I'll be gettin' to that shortly cuz I've got NO dishwasher other than myself and a sinkful of dirty dishes from breakfast!  Thanks so much, Dawn!  (Just noticed my "Butt Rub" seasoning for BBQ back there behind...  oops! - Promise that wasn't staged.)

In other news, my oldest son, Adam, is home for a few days to enjoy the farm, the tractor, AND most importantly - Fishing with his Pop (my daddy).  He said the rest of the spring is going to be very busy in the music industry and he probably won't be able to come home anytime soon after this.  EVEN THO it's supposed to rain torrents later this week/weekend.  He and Pop may have to find other things to do besides fish!  My middle son, the Kiwi son Josh, is a photographer, and he did some publicity shots of Adam last time they were home together...

 Josh is doing a great job, I think!  They took these photos down at the old train depot here in our town...

New topic...  about 3 years ago, a friend of mine gave me several starts of her white iris.  I spread them out in one of my flower beds behind the deck, and planted them and they've done really well at spreading and filling in and making new leaves.  They lived through our drought last summer, too.  I was about ready to pull them up and move them because in 3 years, they hadn't bloomed.  I thought maybe they weren't getting enough sun in their locale.  I even threatened them out loud that they were about to get yanked out of the ground if they didn't bloom this year.  Well, lo and behold...

THEY BLOOMED!!!

Think it was just time?  or think it was the threat???  Who knows, but I'm glad they decided to show their pretty faces!  Yes, they're all white, but I think I'll add some more colors to them.  I had intermixed them with some blue hydrangeas, but they died during the drought even tho I really babied them to no end.  So, iris it shall be!

Fruit trees are blooming their little hearts out...

My lovely onions.... Do you see some bare spots?  Well, my sweet little Gypsy decided to do some digging in the boxes.  I repaired as best as I could, but will have to get another bunch or so and fill in.  I can see some fencing in the near future around the garden, but that's okay.  The last 3 years, the coyotes ate most of my watermelons. Drat.  I've been asking for fencing since the first year, but THIS is the year for a garden fence!!!  Gypsy is one of those puppy dogs that buries her treats, her bones, her chewies, and goes back later when no one's looking to dig 'em up and eat 'em.  Another lesson from being a stray I suppose.

Kathy, you know what this means, doncha?  WAR ON GOPHERS!!!

Gypsy tries to dig them up, and if she finds one on a trap, she pulls the trap out of the ground and carries it off to eat the gopher.  Yuck.  (note to self - get worm medicine from vet...)  So... I've lost several gopher traps and at $6-$7 apiece can't afford that.  We've taken to driving a piece of rebar into the ground and wrapping a wire connected to the trap around the rebar to save our traps!  Works pretty good...

I've already caught two, and possibly 3 more that were eaten off the traps.

Ok, my peeps - love you all and I wish you the very best of weeks!  We have beauty outside right now, but rain is promised.  Only thing to deal with today is 30 mph winds!

Keep yer dress down!

The Robins are BACK!

Spring is just around the corner here in East Texas! YEA!  Altho I must admit we might get another cold snap before it's all over with.  It was in the 70's here late this afternoon.  So nice, so me and my camera and Gypsy went for a stroll around the farm, well, part of it anyway.  Robins were everywhere- swarming up in the hackberry tree - picking the little tiny berries and chasing each other away from their branch.  They're pretty territorial about food I guess.

Had to go to pay the water bill today and I ran across the photos below on the way - just down the road from us.  The sun didn't come out til about 3:00 this afternoon - it was still a little cloudy...

Below, my plum tree is coming out.  Think I may have already showed you that one last post.

And I USED to have a lovely real wicker settee on the front porch that I loved to go out and sit on.  You see who has taken over that settee, don't you?  No point in trying to keep Gypsy off of it.  She's claimed it and it's hers now.  I think when it gets warm, she'll be laying out in the grass or dirt.  But for now, she perches on the settee and stays there all night keeping a watch on our place.  She is a good watch dog and barks to alert us to human or varmint.  So I guess that's a good trade-off for her using my settee.  Ya think?

Keep yer dress down...

Hints of Spring

The daffodils are out all over town, the tulip trees are blooming (I'll try to get some photos of that soon, too) and I can tell that spring is right around the corner here in East Texas.  Sure didn't feel like spring today tho.

Plum and peach trees budding...

Iris coming out...

Tail-end of my pansies...

Tiger lilies coming up...

We had a quick blast of cold last night.  Rain, 24 degrees Saturday night, 30 degrees last night, and strong winds.  That's about the extent of it for now.  By Wednesday we're supposed to have temps in the 70's again.  I sure hope so - I need to start getting things outside cleaned up around here.  Flower beds need new mulch and weeds pulled.  You know all that little spring green rye and purple flowery thingies?  They are coming up every where.  Tony already mowed once!

Garden is plowed and ready to go!

See what I scored in the dumpster at my office?  YES!  One can always use another birdbath!

Gypsy came a runnin' when I went outside.  She was sopping wet, and of course her being an Aussie mix, she had to "lean" all over me.  My jeans were muddy and wet, but I guess I knew that before I went outside.  She's a sweetie.  She had to roll over for a (wet and muddy) belly rub...

Tomorrow promises to be beautiful and clear - too bad I have to work.  I've gotta get my square foot garden beds constructed - Dad's gonna help me - just a few and then my row crops. I've already got my onion starts.  Dad's already set his out.

Ok, well that's all for today.  Keep yer dress down!

Gypsy

Mind if I gush about my dog for a few minutes?  I got Gypsy a few months ago after much debate about what I wanted as a farm dog.  She was actually a stray that someone was trying to find a home for.  I feel so lucky to have her!  She was used to being on her own, a little wary, very food possessive, but still friendly enough that I thought she might work out here on Sand Flat Farm.  She had a rough dirty coat and was stinky and skinny, so I know that she'd been fending for herself for awhile.  But I decided to take a chance on her anyway.

She just got back from the vet.  I waited a little bit to see if she was going to stay here before I forked over $200 for vet care.  She's an active herding breed and she's an outside dog, so I just didn't know.  Evidently, she likes it here, and I'm proud that she has adopted ME as her person.  She has come to trust me, even with her food, altho I still feed her by herself because I don't want her biting my chihuahua.  I guess she knows she's going to get plenty of food now and she doesn't have to fight for it.

She just back from a 2 day stay at our country vet's office.  Gypsy got her shots, her heartworm/parasite tests, and she also was spayed while there.  She's a little sore today, but doing so well.  I've kept her in the house since yesterday morning, but today she wants out.  She's housebroken and all that hair keeps her quite warm so I don't really worry about her being out in the cold.  I've seen her lying out in the middle of the pasture sound asleep on some of our cold days (which haven't been many - it's 80 degrees out today!)  She loves the water and gets in our pond and loves to just run, just for the sake of running.

We concluded along with our vet that she's probably an Aussie cross - probably with Border Collie.  Either way, she loves her exercise and just because she had surgery doesn't keep her still.  She minds well, and when I'm outside (and while she's inside) she and I are inseparable.  I think we've bonded.  She wants to be close to me, she's a "leaner".  I have to really watch her when we're walking because she has to be touching my leg and I really don't wanna take a tumble tripping over her.  I'm sure some leash work would alleviate that problem.

Gypsy's a great watch dog, too.  She lets us know when something is amiss or there is a stranger walking down the road or an animal comes near the house.  But she's not a yapper.  I've really grown to love her.  When I went to pick her up from the vet, he came out with her and told me what a really nice dog she is.  She was good for the staff and did what they wanted her to without complaining.  They bathed and dipped her before her surgery so it wouldn't be so hard on her after.

She tries to talk to me.  She whines and makes little noises at just the right appropriate times and we have long conversations.  Something funny she does is HOWL whenever she hears a siren.   We can hear a siren and either Tony or I will say, "just wait," and pause expectantly, and then we'll hear Gypsy break out in a heart-wrenching howl.  And she'll howl til we can't hear the siren any more.

I think we've got a keeper.  Right now, she's lying on my feet napping, Bug by my side.  Gypsy may feel pretty lucky to have found a good home, but actually I think that I am the lucky one. Don't ever be afraid to adopt a rescue or a stray.  Sometimes, they make the best dogs because they are SO grateful to have someone to love them.  Ok thanks for listening!