HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY & HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Not only is this July 4th Independence Day...

1776 The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

But also on this day in ...

1802 The U.S. Military Academy opened at West Point, N.Y.

1804 Author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Mass.

1845 American writer Henry David Thoreau began a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond near Concord, Mass.

1939 Baseball player Lou Gehrig, afflicted with a fatal illness, bid a tearful farewell at Yankee Stadium in New York, telling fans, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."

1959 A 49th star was added to the American flag to represent the new state of Alaska.

1960 The number of stars on the American flag was increased to 50 to honor the new state of Hawaii.

2004 A 20-ton slab of granite, inscribed to honor "the enduring spirit of freedom," was laid at the World Trade Center site as the cornerstone of the Freedom Tower.

2007 The birth of our little blog, Rural Ramblings!

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to us!
Hope you enjoy our missives and come back and visit often!

Chicks & Peafowl & Frogs & Bats

It’s been another hot day on the farm, and high time to get the bigger chicks out of their brooder box and into a "big chicken" pen.

They weren’t too sure what to make of such a big wilderness to explore, and didn’t want to come out of the cage at first. The Farmer walked up behind them and shook the cage a little to encourage them to go out.

Once The Farmer moved out of the way, a couple of the peahens decided to come up on the other side of the fence and check out the small fowl. That gave the little ones the needed incentive to move. I'm sure those peahens looked gigantic to them!

Besides, they were thirsty, and I had put out a fresh jug of water for them.

This evening when I went out and checked on them, they were running around in the tall weeds at one end of the pen, playing hide and seek. I stayed a while to watch them flitting about, then walked down into the bottom pasture to enjoy the fireflies fairy twinkles for a while.

From there I wandered on over to the pond and listened to the frog chorus. I got a surprise bonus, and watched a fancy aerial display from several bats.

They were munching up some of the bugs flying above the pond. It was too dark for the camera to focus on them zipping around down close to the pond, so I had to catch them up in the sky. Listen close and you can hear the frog chorus, with a short solo from our peacock.
Summer nights may be hot, but they're still pretty cool.

Hidden Cameras?

The Farmer and I went down the driveway you see in the header of this blog. It's across the road from our driveway. We wanted to see what exactly is back there.

There's a house way off from the "main" road which we'd never seen in the 10 or so years we've lived here. It's a lovely setting with a creek in the front, and a swimming pool and big field in the back.

The neighbors work someplace far off, and only occasionally come back for brief visits. Since they're gone so much, they ask one of our other neighbors to look after the place, and have ADS security.

They also have this sign on both the front and back doors...

I smiled and waved when I read the one on the front door, and The Farmer did the same when he read the one on the back door.

Just one thing... I hope whatever jobs they have don't require great spelling skills.

Egg Survey

A quick question here...

If you sell eggs, or even if you just were going to sell eggs, do you feel like they should be cleaned? Or do you feel cleaning is up to the person who buys the eggs?

I'm curious... so tell me EGG-xactly what you think!

Picking up Pastured Poultry & Delivering a Single Sheep

It’s been a busy weekend, and it’s not even over yet since we’ve still got Memorial Day!

Friday afternoon I went out the back roads through places I’ve never been, and ended up at Mountain Fork Farm to pick up my order of pastured broilers.

Yes, I know we have chickens here on our farm. And yes, I thought about raising some for the freezer. There’s just one catch, but it’s a BIG catch. If I raise them, I have to process them, which is a nice way of saying I have to chop their heads off, scald, pluck and gut each chicken. I’ve done it in my time, but at this stage I don’t have the stamina for such a big project, so I decided to support some other farmer who does.

It was a nice drive, and what I saw of the farm was gorgeous. They had a canopy set up a little ways down their driveway, right before you go through the gate to their property, with chickens in coolers ready for pickup. I wish I’d thought to ask how many acres they have. It has to be pretty good sized, because I couldn’t even see their house from where I was.

The first thing you see is a big greenhouse in a field to the right of the driveway. They also sell a wide variety of vegetables that are grown using sustainable agriculture methods, so no doubt get a lot of use from the greenhouse.

They have a shed not far from the greenhouse with big coolers for the chickens and such.

There was a big field to the left, and the road winds on back through the trees. I could hear chickens way off, and I know from their website they raise turkeys, Berkshire hogs, Dexter cattle and horses. I was disappointed not to see any of that, but maybe I’ll be able to go back again another time.

Saturday I spent catching up on work in the house, with laundry and cleaning and baking a couple of Cherry-Orange coffee cakes, several pizza crusts, bread for us, and “Birdie bread” – made with whole grains and veggies, cut up in cubes, and fed to my picky parrot.

Today we delivered a ewe to a friend’s farm way out back of beyond. You even have to drive through a creek to get to the farm. I reckon they don’t go anywhere during hard rains! They were supposed to be home by mid-morning, having gone to a Fiber Festival earlier this weekend. We got there mid-afternoon, but nobody greeted us but the dogs.

Of course, that’s a pretty big greeting, considering they are HUGE Great Pyrenees, and there were about ten of them prancing around us. They will not, however, win any awards for vicious watchdogs, as they were far more interested in seeing if we would pet them. Of course, we’ve been there before, but even the young pups we’d not seen before were eager for their share of attention.

We wandered around the yard for a while. The dogs were all barking and the one inside was going nuts. I knocked at the door. No answer. What to do???

Fortunately, they have several pens, and there was one unoccupied behind the house, complete with shade tree, so we put the ewe in there, got her a bucket of water, left a note in the screen door, and went back home.

The funny thing is, a couple hours after we got home Kim called me. I figured she was going to comment on the new sheep and tell me where she’d been. Wrong! I said, “Did you find the present we left for you?”

Turns out she hadn’t, and she’d been home the whole time. I’m not sure where she was working, but her mother was in the house and never realized we were out there, or unloading sheep in the pen right by the house. I figured there was no way they could NOT know we were there considering how the dogs were carrying on, including the one in the house. We’d left a note in the screen door and left a sheep, so there’s no denying we were there!

At any rate, the sheep got delivered, and I got to check out a bunch of the ewes and lambs she had running around.

We’ll do the check and registration thing to each other through the mail, so … all’s well that ends well?

We tried a different route home, and I couldn't resist snapping a picture of this lovely red barn we passed. Oh… and Robin… you won’t believe how many wild turkeys we saw on the way to and from their farm! They never stood still long enough for a picture, but I promise, we really did see LOTS of them!

Firebugs and Berry Blooms

After a lot of rainy days, it was nice to see some sunshine today. Since everyone was home, it was also a good day to get a few things done around the farm.

The Cave Geek (aka Youngest Son) helped the Farmer get all the rotten particle board and other junk off the front porch and in a cart to be hauled down to the bottom pasture. Farmer Firebug likes to burn things, so he started a nice fire.


While Farmer Firebug is setting the world on fire, Toby the Wonder Dog is making an ash out of himself, chasing hot ashes all over the pasture and jumping up to catch them in his mouth. (This is the same dog who catches bumblebees. I'm not sure if he thrives on danger or is just an idiot.)

He seems mesmerized by all the floating ashes, either watching them or chasing after them.

While down in the bottom pasture, I noticed that the wild blackberries are in full bloom. Maybe the bugs and birds will leave a few for us to enjoy!

Update from the farm...

I'm soooooo far behind on everything and anything these days! Briefly, the facts are these:

1) We're still working on the bathroom. The new (again!) counter/sink was delivered, and this time it is all in one piece, so The Farmer is going to install that tomorrow if all goes well.

2) The place is awash with blooms. There are azaleas blooming, and also coral bells, ajuga, iris, lenten rose, tea roses, tiarella, honeysuckle, geraniums, and all kinds of wild flowers. I have clematis vines blooming in purples, blue, variegated and white.

This particular clematis is on a fence alongside the yard. The blooms are about 6" across.
3. We've got a new occupant in our pond, a great big turtle. That's okay until The Farmer decides to stock the pond with fish. We don't want to buy sushi for the turtle, but for now he can subsist very nicely on frogs and tadpoles. We have a bazillion of those, ha!

4. I still haven't got the sheep shorn. Note to self... set a date SOON!

5. I've also been trying to give away 3 roosters. No luck. They're tearing the feathers off the backs of the hens. They need to go one way or another.

That's the short version. I just don't have time to write about everything that is going on right now. Why? Well, I'm taking a 6-week class, and it is INTENSE. I barely have time to keep up with regular chores, let alone any extras.

So if my posts are sparse, you'll know why!

Springtime on the Farm

I love this weather. It's still cool at nights and the first part of the morning, then warms up in the afternoon, but doesn't get so HOT as it does later. Unfortunately, this moderate weather usually doesn't last very long, and we have a very brief bout of spring.

Trees, bushes and flowers are in bloom all over the place! When I walk out our front door, there's a flower bed with a white pulsatilla and several ajuga in bloom, coral bells and iris with buds not quite open, and several other plants greening up but not yet in bloom.

The pond is scummed over with pollen. Our vehicles turn yellow overnight from all the pollen the trees are puffing out.

We have a row of cherry laurels across the front of the yard blooming.

This is the first year the two dogwoods I planted in the front yard have bloomed. I really like the pink variety.
On the north end of the house, the hostas have got a good growth going, the Lenten Rose is still full of blooms, as is the Viburnum bush.

The honeysuckle (Alabama Crimson Red) is also blooming. I saw a hummingbird enjoying some nectar from the honeysuckle blooms just this morning!

When the wind is right, the sweet smell of the viburnum in the front yard and the lilac in the back yard mingle, and oh! What a heavenly aroma!

It won't be long until the roses start blooming, and out in the woods, I've seen trillium, mayapple, trout lily, and all kinds of wild dogwoods in bloom.

It's wonderful to see all this color. Later in the year the flowerbeds are still colorful, but when traveling down the road, it's mostly green that meets the eye, with only a few splashes of color from things like crepe myrtles or butterfly bushes.

I guess I'll enjoy the plethora of colors and moderate temperatures while they last, and try not to think of the heat to come!

You Know You're a Redneck....

Yes, you know you're a redneck, if you open the paper and read this about yourself, or your wife...
I have to wonder what she wears to Wal-Mart? Or for that matter, what is the proper casual attire to wear to the Dollar Store?

What a hoot!

A Sunny Sunday on the Farm

After record breaking warm temperatures earlier this week, it’s back to cold weather. Yeah, I know “cold” is a relative term, and what’s cold for us is a balmy day further north. There was a hard frost this morning, but the sun came out and it turned into a lovely day.

The return to cold weather hasn't obliterated all signs of a coming spring either. After doing the critter care chores, I went for a short walk in the woods. I noticed the redbud trees have - what else? - red buds appearing.

I noticed other signs of growth in a slue towards the back of our wooded area that is filled with water again, thanks to the recent rains. The algae is bright green there. The moss in the woods also continues to green up, and there are a few plant leaves poking up here and there.

In my flower garden, the plant my Granny used to call "Live Forever" is already showing new growth for this season.
This particular variety is officially known as Sedum 'Matrona'. It has lovely pink flower heads that the butterflies and bees dearly love.

The animals enjoy the sunshine too, and I noticed a bunch of the guineas in the front yard, headed down towards the pond.

All in all, it's just nice to enjoy a sunny Sunday here on the farm.

Wild and Weird Worms

Okay farm fans, here’s the trough full of water after it rains…

And here’s the question:
How does the earthworm get in there?
Seriously, every time it rains, I find earthworms in the feed troughs. I understand they’re coming up out of the soggy ground to get some air, but how in the world do they manage to crawl up the slick sloped plastic sides of the water trough and end up in the water there?

However they manage it, they can’t seem to get back out of the trough and it’s full of water. I reckon it correlates to “Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” only it’s “Out of the mud and into the water.”

All of which equals one dead worm.

Stormy Weather...

We've had some wild weather here today! For a big part of the afternoon and evening, there was a tornado watch. Thankfully, we didn't have one, just a lot of rain and straight line winds.

Here's a video of the rain and wind blowing through the trees - these are mature trees, so it was moving some heavy timber!


We didn't get away totally unscathed. A fair size limb blew down out of one of the walnut trees in the back yard.

The wind also blew down part of the pallet fence The Farmer built around my lilac bush and trumpet vine to keep the goats from eating them.

All things considered, we didn't fare too badly. Just a lot of wind, and almost 2 inches of rain, which we really need!

Perhaps there's still a silver lining to every cloud?

This Polar Bear Club is for the BIRDS!!!

I spoke too soon yesterday about being glad I didn't have to chop ice. Figures. I went out this morning and there were empty heated water bowls in the peafowl pen and poultry pens. That meant I either had to carry water out from the house, which is a fair distance, or chop the ice off the top of the unheated water buckets so I could pour water out of them into the heated buckets. Follow that?

I chose the latter, and whew! That's tiring work. The good news is I had enough water to fill the bowls back up. The bad news is, if it's still this cold tomorrow, I'll have no choice but to carry water from the house to the distant water bowls.

While I'm chopping through ice to fill water bowls for the domestic fowl, some of their wild cousins are trying out for the Polar Bear Club, and splashing around in the birdbath.



Even though this birdbath has a heater to keep the water from freezing, it's not THAT warm, and the air is FRIGID. Personally, I think they're birdbrains to be playing in the water when it's this cold.

I figured I was providing drinking water during the cold weather months for the birds, but never imagined I'd be providing a heated spa!

Friday on the farm...

It was beautiful out there when I went to do chores this morning. The weather has warmed up again, and I wore a light jacket instead of my heavy winter coat. Even at that, I pulled off the jacket before I was half way finished with the chores. Though the sun was shining, it’s pretty dreary. What colored leaves we had have either turned brown, fallen to the ground, or both. Still, there’s a little color peeking through here and there, like this lovely little violet.Toby was in rare form this morning, galloping all over the place, carrying around a big piece of lumber he found somewhere. He’s got to have a piece of wood in his mouth, whether it’s so tiny you can barely see the end of it sticking out of his mouth, or so large it’s twice his size and he’s dragging it along behind him.

He’s the farm jester, always finding ways to make me laugh, no matter how grumpy I might be. He loves to play in the water. In the original game, he jumped up and bit the water, but later it evolved to him wanting sprayed while he ran around with his lumber stogie in his mouth.

The other animals generally ignore his lunacy, unless he gets too close. Then they’ll scoot out of his way while casting a wary eye in his direction.

Eventually, they’ll go back to munching their hay or grass or whatever they were doing.

It’s another beautiful Friday on the farm.

Another Frosty Morning

For our part of the world, it was downright cold this morning. It was 27 degrees F (-3C), which doesn't sound so cold if you're in Maine or Canada perhaps, but it's all relative, and for us.... brrrrrrr....

We had another hard frost, and the sheep were sporting icy wool this morning. It's easiest to see the frosty fleece on a dark colored sheep like Papaya.
I don't like HOT weather, but I'm not too keen on this really COLD stuff either. The wind is wicked sharp out there today. The rocks and fallen leaves were covered with ice crystals.

Dare I say it? I wish this frigid weather would *leaf* us alone!

It Makes Me Smile…

Yes, it makes me smile...

* When I head out the door to do morning chores, and my parrot hollers, “Bye-bye, see you later!”

* When I go outside and take a deep breath of that crisp, cool air that smells of leaves and fall.

* When I walk out in the back yard and all the chickens come running to greet me. (Okay, so they’re just looking for me to throw out grain, but it’s still fun!)

* When the hen I raised from a hatchling cause her mom deserted her waits for me to hold out a hand full of grain so she can eat from my hand.

* When our crazy dog comes running with a stick as long as he is hanging out of his mouth, then wants me to play games with spraying water at him while he runs around and still has the long stick in his mouth.

* When our cat plops down in front of me, and rolls over to have his tummy rubbed.

* When our Sheep Matriarch comes nosing around my hands to see if I have any treats.

* When our old goat gals come hobbling out of their pasture in the morning, ready to rock and roll even when they wobble like Weebles.

* When our llama puts her nose in my face to greet me “Good Morning.”

Living in the country sure makes for lots of smiles!

The Frost is on the Pumpkin

Okay, I lied. The frost is NOT on the pumpkin. However, we did finally get a hard frost last night, and as I was headed out the door to take pictures this morning, I was just sure I'd be able to use that title. Wouldn't you know the few little pumpkins I bought were in sheltered locations and didn't get frosted!?!

You can see it on the windshield of Youngest Son's car:

You can see frost on the sheep's wool and where they were sleeping:

The last of the roses got frosted:

And of course, the grass and fallen leaves are frosty:
The sun hitting the newly frosted leaves is causing a shower of leaves to fall this morning:


Right now the oak trees, like the one shown here at the end of our driveway, still have most of their leaves:But the leaves are falling faster and faster:


So I figure it won't be long until all the trees look as naked as the walnuts do:
(... that picture is for you Robin! See, you're not the only one with leafless trees!)

And last, though you can't see the frost on the trees in this picture, I decided to include it because I like it, even if I do have it upside down here:
It may not LOOK upside down, but it's not really a picture of the trees, but a picture of their REFLECTION in our pond.

So, even though the frost wasn't on the pumpkin...
It was on most everything else this morning!

It's really fall...

Today was a beautiful fall day with lots of sunshine and a vivid blue sky. It was just a tad chilly, with lots of wind. It was my kind of day!

The pine trees to the left are along the front edge of our yard, and the big tree at the right is a huge oak sitting at the corner of the yard by our driveway.

We don’t seem to get the right weather conditions to have a lot of leaf coloration in the fall. Most of the time the leaves just turn brown and fall off the tree, but we do have a few with some colored leaves.
Here's a close-up of some of the leaves near the top of the oak. It was tough to get a sharp picture since the wind kept blowing the leaves around!

There were all kinds of bugs out busily gathering nectar from any flowers they could find.

This goldenrod seemed to be a particular favorite for all kinds of bugs and bees!

Somewhere along the line this summer, some butterfly bush seed must have floated over to the pond banks, since I see we now have a little bush growing there. It's even blooming!

The pond water is beautifully clear around the edges. A lot of leaves have fallen into the water, which the wind has blown to the edges.

If we're really lucky, we'll have a lot more nice weather like today. I'm not going to count on it though. A hard frost can't be too far away, and winter coming fast behind that.

But for today, it was fall and it was beautiful.

Morning on the farm...

When I went out this morning to do chores, the little guineas were running around. These are the smallest and youngest of our many guineas.

They ran from the main pasture to the "back yard pasture"... mixing with the sheep and goats.

Everyone's after the same corn I threw out!

Cades Cove - Cable Mill Historic Area

First, a little history -- the first known people in the Cades Cove area were Cherokee. They called it Tsiyahi, meaning otter place. They used the Cove to gather food and hunt. Later, pioneers from Virginia and North Carolina settled in the Cove.

Gristmills became the first industry there, followed by blacksmith shops, wood workers, storekeepers and distillers. By the 1850’s, Cades Cove supported about 132 families or 685 people.

Most of the buildings that are now in the Cable Mill Historic Area were moved there from other locations in the Cove with the exception of the blacksmith shop and the gristmill. The John P. Cable Gristmill still operates today, grinding flour and corn weekdays 9am-5pm.

There were several buildings there, and it was quite an interesting place. I have several pictures - to check out the slide show, just click on the picture below, and it will open a new page. Click on the thumbnail-sized picture in the upper left corner, and that will start the slide show.

I enjoy seeing how farmers lived in the past, and some things are still viable today, but I wouldn’t want to go back to such labor intensive work to do everything!

Traveling through Cades Cove - The Scenery & Wildlife

Late one afternoon of our trip to Gatlinburg, The Farmer asked if I wanted to go somewhere and take pictures, like up on top of Clingsmans Dome. I decided I’d rather take a drive through the Cades Cove area. I’d read somewhere it was only about an 11-mile loop, so figured we had plenty of time.

However, it was further away than I was thinking, so it took us somewhere between 30-45 minutes to even get there. We stopped at a station at the beginning of the loop, picked up some information, and got started.

My first inkling this was going to be a longer “project” than expected was when I read during the fall tourist season, traffic could be heavy and it could take 2-4 hours to complete the loop.

Uh-oh. Now whose bright idea was this? Oh yeah… mine…

The scenery was lovely, even though the leaves on the trees hadn't changed colors for the most part.

It didn’t take long to spot some deer.

In fact, we saw numerous deer at various spots throughout the drive.

We also saw wild turkey (picture in previous blog entry), but never saw any bears or foxes that were mentioned as possible wildlife sightings. Too bad, I’d love to see a bear in the wild.

It was a pretty drive, but it was busy, and with people stopping to look at the deer and stuff, it took a long time to travel those 11-miles.

There are also various old buildings, and we stopped and looked through the Cable Mill historic area, located about half-way through the loop. Stay tuned for a description and pictures, hopefully coming soon!

Living in the Past.

What if???

The Farmer and I were at a restaurant this week that had paper placemats on the table. On one side there was a game called, “What if?” There were several thought-provoking questions.

One of them was, “What if you could go back in time? Where would you like to go and why?”

I thought about that for a while, mulling over the possibilities of living in times past, and discarding ideas almost as fast as they came to mind. While there were some interesting eras, I couldn’t come up with one where I thought the good stuff outweighed the bad. It might be okay to visit some of them for a little while, but I wouldn’t want to go back to that time and live my life there.

I guess I’m just a wuss, but I really don’t want to do without modern conveniences for any length of time. Indoor plumbing, electricity, tractors, wells with an electric pump, rototillers, stoves, computers… I like to be able to pick and choose what technology I'll use.

Nope, guess I’ll forget the time machines and stay right here.

Hay, Hay, Hay!

We’ve been trying for some time to find a good source of hay this year. With the drought conditions here this summer, the price of hay is going through the barn roof. Some places we called wanted $8-9 per bale! Thankfully, we don’t need near as much as we used last year, since we sold the biggest part of the animals.

It’s been difficult to even find any hay to purchase at whatever price, though the big round bales are easier to come by. However, we don’t have the equipment to handle those, and certainly not enough muscle power to move such a huge thing. I don’t like to use them with our sheep anyway. I personally know of two people who have lost sheep due to the huge bale collapsing down on the sheep while they were eating.

The smaller bales work much better here. I can break them into even smaller flakes to scatter around in several places. There has to be lots of piles available, or the goats commandeer all the hay and the sheep don’t get any.

We finally found a place with the smaller square bales at prices that wouldn’t require the loss of an arm or leg to pay for it. I don't really know why they're called square bales when actually they're rectangular, but they're not round, and I guess 'square' is quicker to say.

At any rate, yesterday The Farmer went and picked up our hay for the winter. It took a couple of loads, and a lot of listening. The guy is bought it from is a TALKER. He’s always interesting, but don’t go there expecting a quick get-away!

That’s one less task done in preparation for fall and winter!

Thanks Farmer!

The Farmer Turns Lumberjack

I mentioned a few days ago that The Farmer bought a new chainsaw. Naturally, he had to test it out. He chose a tree in the front yard as his first victim. This tree had gotten progressively worse for a long time. Every year there were fewer and fewer limbs with green leaves as the tree got deader and deader.

There were a few problems with this project, however. On one side of the tree was a fence. Behind and to the other side were more trees. Most importantly, our house was in front of the tree, and worse, the tree was leaning in towards it. Therefore, the problem was to get the tree down without smashing the fence, or inflicting damage to the house.

The Farmer thought he had it all figured out. He put one rope on the tree he wanted downed, and another rope on a second tree behind it, then connected them with a winch. The theory being, of course, that once he had the tree sawed almost in two, he could tighten the winch and make the tree fall AWAY from the house.

Of course theories don’t always prove out exactly as expected.

The Farmer turned lumberjack had the right idea. He cut a wedge out of the tree on the side he wanted it to fall.

Then he sawed almost completely through the other side. Next, he started winching (not the pirate type of wenching, mind you, but the cranking a handle kind of winching).
Here’s where the trouble began. The ropes had stretched out, so even after all the cable was winched back onto the spool, the tree wasn’t leaning far enough in the right direction to fall down. However, if the cable on the spool was loosened to allow the winch to be repositioned, the tree leaned dangerously towards the house.

A pretty problem indeed!

Being mechanically minded, The Farmer decided to go get his tractor to keep the tree propped up long enough to loosen the ropes and shorten the length, then reattach the winch and start cranking the cable tight again.

Unfortunately, the tractor didn’t cooperate. It had a dead battery, so naturally wouldn’t start and couldn’t be moved to where the tree was. The Farmer was in a fix all right. It takes something pretty big to hold a tree in place.

At last, The Farmer decided he didn’t have anything to lose by finally trying his assistant’s suggestion. (It’s an unwritten rule that men cannot act on a woman’s suggestion until she has repeated it at least three times, and they have tried at least one idea of their own, and preferably two or three.)

The suggestion? Connect another piece of rope to the anchor tree, thread it through the loop at the end of the rope attached to the sawed-upon tree, then secure it back to the anchor tree, thereby keeping the leaning tree from falling on the house. That allowed The Farmer to attach the winch to a shorter piece of rope so he could tighten it up more and get the tree falling in the desired direction.
Once all that was accomplished, the project moved forward again. The tree started to fall in the right direction, but the upper branches caught in the tree beside it. The branches were dead, but still fairly sturdy.

Finally, after a little more judicious sawing, and some resounding thumps with a pry bar, the tree fell in a serious of crashes of trunk, then several big limbs.

I stopped the camera just a little too soon and missed The Farmer saying,
"At least everything missed me!"
The Farmer was lucky to survive his lumberjack experience, as one of the dead limbs caught in the tree barely missed landing right on top of his head when it finally dropped. You can see the force of the landing by how the log is driven deep in the dirt.

I don’t think even The Farmer’s head would have been hard enough to withstand that! I guess his guardian angel must have been looking after him, allowing him to walk away unscathed.

Just another day in the life of The Farmer turned Lumberjack.

Busy as a Bee!

Bang, bang, bang! I can’t decide if I feel like I’m sitting in the middle of a shooting gallery, or it sounds like someone shooting off fireworks. Dove hunting season began at 12 noon here, and there are obviously LOTS of hunters busy taking advantage of it.

According to Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency, the mourning dove is the most hunted migratory game bird in North America. I believe it, and I think every possible hunter is out there for the start of the season. The dove may be the symbol of peace, but they’ll be in pieces if they show a feather today.

While hunters are busy terminating doves, here on the farm we’re hoping for new life. One of the peahens is sitting on 4 eggs. It sure would be nice to see some little peachicks running around in the aviary. It just hasn’t been our year for peachicks. So far, zilch, nada, none.

While the hunters were after doves and the peahen sitting on her eggs, The Farmer was busy mowing the back yard today. This is news because it’s the first time he’s done it in years. We sold off the majority of our sheep and goats, and don’t have enough left to keep the grass eaten down like we used to.

He also tried out the new chainsaw he bought today. His previous chainsaw expired from old age. He sent it to the shop to be fixed and the bolts fell apart. Yeah, you could say it was extremely old.

While The Farmer was busy checking out his new chainsaw, some old trouble showed up to see what was happening. And what’s the biggest source of trouble on the farm? Why, the ornery little goats of course.

The one busy chewing Farmer’s pants is his special pet, a cashmere goat named Tom Thumb. He is the rare goat that would rather be petted than eat cracked corn.

And while the hunters hunted, the peafowl sat, and The Farmer sawed, there were bees and bugs busy gathering nectar from the newly blooming Sedum ‘Matrona’.

All around the area today, people and critters were busy as bees!

Country folk get sick too…

You’d think living that nice, healthy country lifestyle, everyone would be nice and well…. healthy. Too bad it doesn’t really work that way.

Nope, when it comes to illness, people living in rural areas are no more exempt than people living in towns, cities, or whatever urban environment you think of. I would guess that the different types of environments do prompt some different types of health problems, but however you look at it, country living doesn’t guarantee excellent health.

Just like in the city, the rural areas also have their share of people with chronic illnesses. Neuropathy, chronic pain, diabetes, fibromyalgia, arthritis, bi-polar disorder, CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), depression, lupus…. the list goes on and on.

Now you generally can’t tell by looking at these folks that they have a problem. I mean, they look GOOD, so they can’t really be sick, right???

WRONG!

That’s why these are dubbed “INVISIBLE” illnesses.

If you’re living with a chronic illness, you can’t just stop living your day-to-day life and wait for it to go away, because chronic means it isn’t going away! This is a long-term problem, and living your life won’t wait until you get better. So even though someone has a chronic invisible illness, you may not be able to tell it by how they look or act.

If you or someone you know lives with an invisible chronic illness – and I’m betting since almost 1 in 2 people have one, you at least know someone who does! – check out this little video about living with chronic illnesses.


National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week is coming up soon, Sept 10-16, 2007. Be kind to yourself and others, and learn all you can about this problem that affects so many people. Check out the Invisible Illness website.

Cause it doesn't matter if you live in the city or in the country, it could become your problem, too.

Light Pollution

Last night was supposed to be a great night for watching the Perseid Meteor Shower. We went out a couple hours after sunset and checked out the sky from the yard, but no luck. Then we were out standing in our field. Didn’t help It was a beautiful night with a gorgeous sky full of stars, but no “shooting stars”.

We decided to try the driveway. Although there are a lot of big trees there, it’s a darker area. We did see a couple of meteors at first, but then nothing. I had quite a crick in my neck and decided to head inside.

I went back out about 1am to see if I’d have any better luck. I saw one really nice one right off, then a smaller one, then again, nothing.

Maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place, but I think it had more to do with the fact we have too much light pollution these days, so were only able to see the brightest meteors.

When we moved here I could go out in the fields and easily see and photograph fireflies, the moon and stars, and yes, we could see shooting stars too. Not any more.

What used to be a dark in-the-country sky here has become a suburban light display with dusk-to-dawn lights, porch lights, and even light pouring from windows. Although there’s about 3 acres between our farm and the new subdivision, it’s a pretty flat field, so there’s nothing to shield us from all that light. The night has became bright.

Sure wish we could get rid of all that light pollution. I miss the dark country nights.

Southern Heat

I don’t know about global warming, but I know it’s plenty warm here in the south. I’m not too thrilled when you pass a bank thermometer and it has THREE digits!

Even though it’s in the shade, our thermometer has been reading 98 degrees F. for the last three days. (For those of you using the Celsius scale, that would be almost 37C.) That’s just TOO hot.

Everything here on the farm is trying to cope with the hot weather, from “A” to “Z”. (Okay, so the closest I have to the front of the alphabet is cat, with sheep at the tail end.) All the critters look for shade, but have different habitats and various ways of beating the heat.

Spot, the Cat, likes to lounge around in the shade under our truck, and keep his thirst quenched with Birdie Broth, otherwise known as water out of the bird bath – just a “faint flavor of birdie essence”. I'm not sure if I put fresh water in there for the birds or the cat.


A dust bath is the method of choice for a quick cool down for the Chickens... … while the Dogs like to hang out under the back porch or in the shade of the big walnut trees in the back yard.

Neffie takes a rest (above), while Toby enjoys chewing on a hunk of wood while lazing in the shade (below).

Even our Garden needs help with the heat, especially considering we are also under drought conditions. I’ve had to water the peppers and tomato plants almost every day. (Thank goodness for well water!)

Of course the Goats like to hang out under the shade trees in the back yard with Neffie.

Keira the Llama often joins them, but she also cools down by “burying” herself in a sea of green plants in the bog area of the bottom pasture, though it’s not much of a bog right now!

In the aviary, the Peafowl go for a combination of bathing in the dust or pool.


Last, but not least, the Sheep also opt for spots under the shade trees. Our flock matron has a special spot under a pile of lumber and gets double shade from that and the overhanging tree branches.
One way or another, everyone is looking for shade and the coolest spot possible. I’m thrilled to be able to enjoy the air conditioning inside the house. Yep, I admit it, when it comes to extreme heat, I’m a Wuss.

Beating the heat from "C" to "W" -
Just keep that air conditioning on for the "W" please!

Rascally Raccoon

Last night I was sitting on the couch in the living room, minding my own business (I do that occasionally!), when I heard a loud “THUMP!” on the front porch. Being the curious person that I am, I immediately went to the front door, turned on the light and looked to see what the commotion was all about.

A raccoon was zipping away into the night, after knocking over a bucket of peafowl eggs I had setting on a shelf out there. They fell to the concrete and smashed quite satisfactorily, making a raw omelet of nasty smelling eggs and shells spread over a wide swath in front of the door. These were eggs from the incubators I’d culled because they hadn’t hatched, so some were pretty foul smelling (yeah, I know, all eggs smell FOWL.).

It’s a good thing Peepers is in a sturdy cage, or the raccoon might try having her for a snack too.

No doubt it also helps itself to the cat food when Spot doesn’t eat it all.

This morning I had the task of cleaning up the mess. I scraped the eggs off the porch and sprayed off the rug and concrete. There was already an army of ants helping themselves to what the raccoon left behind.

That’s the country life for you – raccoons raiding the area for whatever chow they can find, and the ants munching up the leftoers.

Redneck Surprise

Our closest neighbor likes to hunt. If there’s anything in season, he’ll be out in the woods hunting with gun or bow. Deer, quail, turkey… I’ve heard him talk about hunting all sorts of things. He also likes to fish.

He picked between two cable companies by going with the one that has “The Outdoor” channel. He has a monster ATV he rides all over creation. The further he can get out in the boonies, the better he likes it. Lean and lanky, with a nice southern drawl, he’s just a “good ole boy”. In short, if you’re looking for the definition of redneck, he lives next door.

At least, that’s what I thought when I first knew him.

But people are generally more complex than you suppose, and he’s a prime example of why you “shouldn’t judge a book by its’ cover” or rely on stereotypes too much.

Having lived here all his life, he knows everyone in the country. And come summertime, it seems just about everyone he knows with a garden brings him some of their produce. As he’s told me many times, he doesn’t have any need to fuss with gardening, cause he gets more than he can use from friends.

Just last night, Mr. Hunter called over to ask if we could use any fresh green beans, tomatoes and/or cucumbers. He informed me he had four boxes of tomatoes, and was tired from standing all day canning them, and would I like to take some off his hands?

Yes, this Super Redneck Hunter does the canning at his house. He cooks too.

I never would have dreamed this macho hunting machine would ever be caught dead in the kitchen when I first knew him. A redneck chef? Nahhhh… but he does indeed cook and can and who knows what else I may discover the longer we live here and the better we get to know him.

Yep, he’s a real Redneck Surprise.
I just love such fun kinds of suprises!

HAPPY JULY 4th!!!

Not only is today Independence Day in the United States, it’s also American Redneck Day, American Hillbilly Day, Barbeque Day, National Barbequed Spareribs Day, National Country Music Day, and even Tom Sawyer Fence-Painting Day in Hannibal, Missouri.

That all sounds pretty country to me, making this a great day to start a running commentary on life in the country -- my ramblings about rural life.

Living in the country has its’ rhythms, flowing with the seasons. It has it quirks, with the unexpected happening with livestock, crops, pets and people. One minute it’s a peaceful existence, the next madness and mayhem. Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it’s sad, but rarely is it boring. It’s a patchwork quilt of events of all shapes and colors, to wrap yourself in and find comfort.

Many people live the country life. Many more dream of doing it. And even more enjoy hearing about life in the country. “Rural Ramblings” will take you there. So drop in often, read the latest tale, and enjoy my take on life in rural America.

Y’all come back!