When It’s Quiet on the Blog

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Lanny

This last week was quiet here on the blog because it was hectic here at the Farm.  Thursday the water level in the Market Garden was up over where it was when we first pumped water out over a week ago.  By late Friday a few feet of the newly planted potatoes were a bit under water not to mention water up over pea beds.  Saturday I strapped on the chest waders and rescued everyone.  (not really, I just changed my socks every time I came in to the house. I should have put on chest waders.)

I dug trenches, lots of trenches over the weekend. The water gets trapped in the pathways between the beds, I needed it down where the pump hoses could move it along to the Midway Pond.  Then from the Midway Pond I pump it to the Big Pond Out West.  (Not the ocean, just the large pond on the west boundary of our property.)

Along with that I did: seed a few things in the HHHut; repotted the rest of the fuchsias and sprinkled lobelia seeds in their pots; outside I dug up rhubarb to move it to where I want it in the perennial foods garden – BarnGarden; went shopping for the first time in a long time on Friday; came home and noticed that my turnips and beets in the Market Garden are sprouting but not the carrots; weeded around the lilacs and lilies in the North Cutting Garden; rescued cabbage and broccoli plants from the slugs in the cold frame and then planted them in the Market Garden (Sunday when I had drained most of the east upper garden); tidied up in the Barn Garden so that we can cover the hoop house and move the perennials and tougher annuals down there; explained my plans for the porch closet and the chicken tractor about fifty times to Dirt who built both over the weekend. 

Bet has been up to her usual animal tending, stopping occasionally to help me move the pump back and forth between the pond and the low spot in the garden, made a new pen for her milk goat and shaved Rory’s udder; moved some little quails to a different pen so that Bennet could have their cage until he gets his permanent one (coming soon to a Barn Garden near you); and kept us well supplies with cinnamon rolls, bread pudding, Irish lamb shank and barley stew, chili, homemade hot dog buns…. 

And now today has this week off to a grand start with  hundred percent chance of rain, and yep, it’s raining. All day, every inch of sky is filled with rain. 

I’d cry but that would only make more water.

 

Oh, and by the way, it has been thirty-eight days since we’ve had a sunny day.  We did experience a day without rain and days with sun breaks but not a sunny day.  And that is the word from the weatherman, sure made me feel much better knowin’ that.

Categories: Weather | 3 Comments

Potato Planting at VF&G

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Lanny

The first of March the seed potatoes went from the well house which is our root cellar – cool and damp – into the Hippy Hot Hut for chitting .  Some folks call it greening or sprouting.  It is having the tates do on purpose what you usually don’t want them to do, sprout. 

Last Tuesday, after the onions went in, into the chilly ground they went.  A bit late according to the calendar but things are coming on a bit late according to the calendar this year – one very chilly wet spring.

Some had chitted well and had good sized sprouts, others needed more time. I should have pulled some out of the root cellar sooner so that they would have had more time to break dormancy.  Next year I will also put them up a little higher off the ground, an empty harvest box under them as well as the empty ones I put over them to protect them from my Hippy Hot Hut visitors (the Rat Terriers liked to walk on them instead of the watery aisle).  The extra harvest crate underneth should increase the warmth and help them break dormancy and chit faster.

Chitting gives them a head start on growing, going straight into cold soil could take a while, it’s like soakin’ peas or starting pansies inside.  But you want the head start to be a good head start, the sprouts need to head in the right direction and stay that way.  Carefully placing them in old egg cartons really helps.  Often you can see which way is up and that’s good, but mostly once they start going in a certain direction you don’t want to make them do a u-turn.

You especially don’t want them to have the long gangly sprouts that they get when they are under your sink.  Instead, the prime goal of chitting is to have just a few really nice thick stout stems.  This requires that they not only be warm but have some light as well.  The light causes the potatoes to turn green and yes, that is bad when you’re going to eat the potato (it’s actually toxic) but not when you’re planting them.  The tater that turns green, the seed potato, will eventually rot away (or nearly) during the growing season.

Over the years we have found that we get the best production in the food gardens with four foot wide beds with at least two foot wide paths.  The beds are not walked on at all and the various vegetables can tolerate much closer spacings than in regular gardens.  We pretty much use the “in the row spacing” all the way around the plant and sometimes closer depending on the specie and variety.

Potatoes are some of those exceptions, last year when we went back to the recommended “in row spacing” we had similar yield per plant as always but with a lot of empty space between the cluster of potatoes. 

We’ve gone back to a hand span apart on all sides and within three four inches of the edge.  You can see where the potatoes have been laid out on the bed, because of the unevenness of the soil it may look like some of them are closer together but all are approximately a Lanny-handspan apart from each other.  In a four foot wide bed with approximately a three and a half foot surface one row across the bed will have three and the next will have two.  The rows aren’t a hand span from each other the tubers are.  It sorta looks like the spots on a die on the five side.

You may notice that some of the paths are quite wide and some are about two feet.  Out in our Market Garden we designed it so that a large wagon can pass each bed on at least one side.  But not every path needed to be that wide.  This ended up putting the beds in pairs which has also worked out great in planning and putting up high tunnels over two beds at a time.

You may even notice that the two foot path between potato beds isn’t as well dug out and established as it is between the onion rows in the previous post.  We did that on purpose, the soil from the two foot path area will go on the potato plants as they grow.

For those new to gardening, or at least potato gardening, potatoes produce tubers on the stems that rise from the seed potato not from the roots that go below it.

If you just planted the potato and left it at that you would have a very scanty yield and a good many of your spuds would be green from growing out of the surface of the soil.  And that isn’t good.  Neither the poor yield nor the toxic green taters is what you’re aiming for. 

You deal with both by continually heaping dirt- er, uh soil, around the potato plant as it grows.  You can even supplement with other materials besides soil because the plant isn’t drawing the nutrition from this portion of the growing area.  But you have to be careful that the material that you use isn’t too loose.

Too loose and the plants don’t feel secure enough to produce spuds on the stems and/or what they do produce is exposed to light and turn green (remember, green potato is toxic).  Old chopped hay and straw, but not manure soaked, can be a good material, of course if you have gorgeous compost or nearly compost that is great. (Too much manure and the plants produce a great crop of leaves and not much else.)

Here at VF&G we will use the soil in the two foot path and other materials. We have in years past used the hog fuel that the highway crews make, but you can only use it on highly resistant to scab varieties as some wood chips can lower a taters resistance.  And scab is ugly.

The beds that have previously been potato beds are some of the best garden beds, full and rich with humus. Potato production is how some gardens here at VF&G were built twenty-five years ago.  They produced a lot of potatoes, but then, we love potatoes! Must be the Irish-German (Lanny) and Swedish-Irish (Dirt) heritage.

You know, they say (the they that know everything) that a person can live off of potatoes and milk alone.  I think I could for a week, then I would need to move to Florida and chain myself to a grapefruit tree!  (Taters and cream are quite inflammatory as far as foods go.)

 

Categories: Garden Methods, Potato Culture | 5 Comments

We Made Do and the Potatoes and Onions Are In

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Lanny

…The ground that is,  the nice moist soil in the raised beds not the muck and mire.

For the theme, “Make Do”, my header shows that sometimes you can’t always plant the whole bed like you planned, sometimes you just have to “Make Do”.

 

Dirt and I got back from visiting up north and seeing Anna’s little bunnies…

Only to find out that Bet let it rain while we were gone.  Oh well, the theme is make do and so we shall.

The onion beds are well out of the low area, the potatoes aren’t so lucky.  And because the onion plants arrived as we were headed out the driveway, we tackled the onion beds first.

They were a dream to get ready, not very weedy because the beds had been well prepped last fall,

so a quick weeding..(that’s Dirt’s behind not mine)…

Some raking,

Then stamping in the planting holes with my groovy planting tool

and the onions go in.  Not too deep, ’bout an inch, they like to stay right on the surface of the soil.

I ordered onion plants from Dixondale in Texas, not as cheap as seed of course but not the big fat hassle either, sometimes it pays to pay. 

Not to mention, Dixondale says that each bundle has approximately sixty plants, boy howdy several of them had nearly twice that.  I’m a pleased customer for sure.

I may get back to my practice of planting onion seeds directly in the fall and in flats in early winter but for now, I sorta like this method.

On Wednesday, tomorrow, I’ll bring out some plastic garbage cans, maybe just one for now, set them by the onion patch, fill them a third of the way with fresh horse manure, just the nice fresh “pasture apples” (we have a bit close by) and then nearly fill with water, gathered from the pasture puddles, let it sit for a day.

On Friday I’ll siphon off the liquid, put it in a sprayer and spray the onion plants in the morning.  Replenishing the water and manure as needed and repeat each week.  Onions are heavy feeders, they like a lot of nitrogen, some weeks I’ll add some extras like Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salts) or Sea-90 into the liquid in the sprayer. 

When the manure solids get high and are lookin’ depleted, instead of putting more manure and water in the big bucket, I’ll scoop the slurry out and use it in and around other plants, especially light nitrogen users

I’ll tell you all about potato plantin’ tomorrow, I wrote it all out but moved it to another draft, too much to read in one day!

The visit with Anna and Justin was wonderful and it was very sweet to get together with our dear friends the Coulters.

Thanks for holdin’ my place in the world Dear Reader, visits are good and necessary to the soul but gettin’ back in the saddle just feels right. It’s where God put me afterall, must be why it always feels so very good. 

For now you might want to wander over to my side board and go see what the others have for my theme pick. “Make Do”.

Categories: Garden Methods | 9 Comments

You Can’t Take It With You, Sometimes

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Lanny

Dirt and I are abandoning Bet for the weekend and heading north to see the newlyweds and our good friends the Coulters.   

Not only will I not have a bunch of time to catch up with blogs or write, I won’t be taking the computer at all, for now this is how I compute.

Up in the office stuck to a desk.

But it has a nice view at least, one of many favorite views of mine.

Anyway the desk stays and the computer stays on it, all convoluted and set up with the aid of our kitchen TV, no longer needed since we cut off normal TV reception, and a wireless keyboard and mouse that Dirt bought me a long while back that nearly went into the give away pile recently.  Lesson?  Don’t throw out stuff you don’t use?

Have a good weekend Dear Reader, I’ll miss you.   I will be staying safe and having a good visit.  Bet is under strict instructions to not let it rain anymore while we’re gone because as soon as we get back there are twenty-two times sixty onions to plant, lots of transplants of the brassica type, Rugosa roses, Elderberry, Witchhazel…. the list is long to plant in the Market and Hedgerow Gardens.

Categories: Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Just Now – Tips of Red

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Lanny

It’s Red this week for the Headbanger challenge, not much red out were I’m at, oh wait, look at those tree tops and the catkins beginning to bloom and the red twigged wild roses down low.  Even reflected in the water, which I dedicate to Tom who chose the theme, spends much time on the water and loves reflections.  Check the side board and click on the links to see what the others have for the Headerchallenge of “Red”.  Oh and we’ve added someone new and when I remember how I did the sideboard thing I will add her over there on it, until then here is her link Sandy

Get Red-dee

All week when I thought of “red”  I kept saying, “Red dee” to myself.  Don’t really know why, ‘cept that I’m ready to be red-dee I guess.  Ready to run fast and hit hard!  This will be a better year than last (but next year will be even better, God willing that I get there)!

Lots of things have been busting loose and I’ve not had much of a chance to sow any seeds except in my Hippy Hot Hut and those planting dates really don’t need to coincide with phenological events, mostly Lanny’s got time events, and the almanac said to the day before sorta thing.

But this week I am red-dee and it will be an outdoor planting week on into Tuesday next, potatoes will go in their beds, beets, carrots, turnips in one of the root beds (they went in at the end of the day yesterday) and hopefully a plethora of things in one of the salad beds. Onions plants should be arriving any day from Dixondale.

Neither of the whole fifty foot bed for the roots nor salad greens will be planted this week.  They will be more spread out date wise, succession planting it’s called.  That way we’ll have a nearly constant supply of fresh from the ground produce of the greens and roots during late spring and on through summer and fall. 

Round ’bout July, for some roots and August for others and greens, we will put in larger amounts to take us on through winter and into early spring  of next year.

The potatoes might actually be planted in succession, not on purpose mind you, but because I can’t fling the water fast enough, but that’s another story.

(Dirt came home and fixed my pump last night so I will be flinging water fast today, but really, that is another story.)

The phenological events this week

The view in the header is facing west from my Market Garden, a perfect place to see the tops of the trees turning a more brilliant red against the dark green of the evergreens and the grey blue of the tumultuous spring sky as they begin to bloom out.

The Killdeer are nesting.  They nest on the ground out in the horse pasture in a very open nest, a dangerous place to raise a family of short people if you ask me.  Her whole wounded trick won’t be of much help if little Missy Marvy goes a galloping that direction.  And I don’t think our egg hounds are put off much by her limping distraction.  The dogs have to stay inside when we come out to the Market Garden, someone, not sure who, already stole one of mama’s eggs. There were two on Friday but only one on Saturday.  It could have even been a wild enemy and not one of the dogs, but I’ll not have yolk on our hands or paws. 

She did promptly lay another by Monday, these eggs are whoppers! I can see that it would take her a day in between to recover, there should be more eggs added to the nest unless she only lays four per nesting even if one is jacked from the nest.

She and her kind usually have four eggs to a nest and that she replaced the one missing (it could have been such that I came upon them after two had already been stolen) is good for the whole phenological timing thing. For we are clearly catching her at the very start of her first nesting of the season, she will have more nests through out the summer.  They take a very long time for such a little bird to incubate, somewhere round twenty-eight days, a full month!  That’s more than a chicken.  When you’re talking early spring planting and phenological events, a month is a lifetime!

The leaf buds are swelling on the Salmon berries, Rubus spectabilis.  You can tell that they are salmonberry bushes not Thimbleberry because they are covered in prickles on the stems.  It can be a little confusing as to who’s who, for both berries grow like gangbusters all over in the woods here, but one is prickly, really prickly and the other is not at all.  Sorry no picture, the camera wasn’t in my pocket.

But I do have pictures of the pear that is busting…

And the colored hyacinth is near bursting….

Update on earlier Phenological planting.

How did my peas planted according to Indian Plum bud burst do?

They all came up very well thank you.  Even the ones that are paddling around with water wings on in the wetter part of the Market Garden.  The Market Garden actually has several wetter parts. very swaley land. Only a very few of the beds are out of the water for their full length.  Most of them have one end or the other that dips down and has a good bit of water in the paths, unfortunately a few beds actually have water covering them as well.  But that’s another story….

If you’ll remember, Dear Reader, I put them in and then we received our coldest snowiest weather for the year for here.  But they came up and they did so in good time.   So Indian Plum buds bursting still holds as time for pea seeds.  Next year I might have to run a experimental patch and push the timing forward on to some other event, just to see…

Note of caution

I was over at a friends house the other day and from the corner of my eye was perplexed by a flower that was blooming a bit out of season.  I didn’t think too much of it at the time as we were busy chatting and after all my Tete-a-tete daffodils are very much earlier than all their cousins.  So it could very well have been the case with what I saw but didn’t explore.

Then I read on Far Sides blog, a little aside comment about her crazy batch of day lilies already coming up, she said they do this because they are planted directly above a heat duct to an outside building (or something to that effect).  It reminded me of a tree that is late to turn in autumn and quick to bloom and leaf in the spring because it is planted by an on ground electrical station that feeds a huge reader board.  Clearly a lot of unnatural heat is created. 

Moral of the story.   Only go by reliable and very very local events for your timing.  In reliable settings, not by buildings or places that could fluctuate from year to year even if they are on your own place.  To pick a bush that is tucked in and away that might bloom earlier or later is one thing.  It will bloom earlier or later each year, but don’t pick one next to a building that perhaps is kept warmer this year over other years.  It is just best to key in on things in your own vicinity that are away from buildings and that you know are not planted over underground stuff.

Categories: Garden Methods, Weather, Wild Birds | 8 Comments

Spring Will Be Here in Just a Few More Minutes

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Lanny

oops, it actually got here, at 4:21 (7:21 EDT), while I was distracted from posting this post….

But as we all know the season comes when it wants to and often none of the seasons ever seem to coincide with their appointed times, solstices and equinoxes. 

You may, depending upon where you live and your mind-set, have considered that spring has already arrived days or weeks ago with your first crocuses or the purchase of spring chicks, or you may have yet to believe it is here (or will be in a few hours) if you still have snow and ice and there isn’t a bloom to be had in your neighborhood. 

And then maybe you live where the only sign of spring is the change of fashion or the arrival of a certain holiday as it is warm enough and bloomy enough to always be considered summer. 

The rest of the season’s arrivals are not much different. More feelings less noxes.  By the way, right now is when you can stand an egg on end unassisted.  Or so I’m told.

Now for those who know me as the one person in the world who is slightly less than favorable toward spring, don’t get me all wrong on that, there are things of spring that I love and would hate missing out on. 

Asparagus.  Daffodils and many of the other spring-only blooming delights.  Flowering trees and service berries and ever so many blooming bushes. Chicks and lambs and kids.  The spring cacophony of tree frogs.  And the wooing warble of robins, and the hailing of the red winged black bird.

The way the light begins to play through the bathroom window in the spring is a welcomed soothing delight, most assuredly best enjoyed when in the tub soaking spring garden pain away.  Each season sees a change in the way the light plays in the house, much like how the sounds outside sound very different with each season.  In the spring it is the light through the bathroom window that I’m especially fond of.

Some things taste and smell better in the spring.  Havin’ a Coke in the garden (unfortunately long necked bottles were the best), drunk while resting up from some strenuous spring-only garden project, usually moving soil or intense spring weeding and planting. Salads and lemon pie are at the height of their experiential give-a-ways in the spring, coconut too.  Even if I just had a sneak peak earlier round ’bout mid winter, lemon and coconut any-things (but especially pies) just all of a sudden taste better when it is indeed spring.

Dirt (the earthy kind) and diesel smell their best in the spring.  A person can’t helped but be bowled over and enchanted from the mingled smell of both in the spring of the year.  Along with that, is sweat.  To me sweat on my husband smells delicious in the spring, at other times of the year it’s just sweat, sometimes slightly intriguing and sometime slightly annoying. 

There are some smells here at the Farm, their origins I still have not located, that are only here in the spring time, and speak of times that the girls and I would break from our work and stroll around or paddle on the pond looking at different things.

The scent of daffodils rips open the bag of spring garden fragrance and irises close it up.  Spring certainly has some things to call her own and for me to delight in.

So in spite of my bad attitude towards her fickleness, and downright unfaithfulness, I do welcome spring.  Thank you, spring, for arriving and for the most part on time.  But could you, just this once be a bit more sunny in my neck of the woods, like you are else wheres?

 The prompt writing and publishing of this post was interrupted by a First of Spring feast, more of a look ahead to summer actually, hot dogs, tater salad, baked beans.  Then the pump had to be taken back out to the Market Garden.

And Dirt brought home Coke for our First Day of Spring Feast!  And I didn’t even ask, he musta picked up on my brain waves all the way into Yelm.  Which is a sight lot better than what he brings home with a list.

 This is what he brought home Thursday when Bet asked if he could bring home soda bread because she was a bit busy already, yeah he also brought home Guinness but I asked for an Irish nut brown ale of some sort.

Hmmmm

Categories: Change, Flowers, Food and Drink, Seasons | 6 Comments

Retro Part Two

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Lanny

My offering on Wednesday for the Header Challenge, “Retro”, was some very retro materials.  Some pulled from my own fabric stores and two quilts made sometime before nineteen-fifty.

And now for the post to go with the header…. 

Retro.  Looking back.  A look back to look forward. 

Fabric and a certain application, quilting, is on my mind and went on my header.  Both quilts in the picture were hand made by my maternal grandmother, Florence Pape. 

There are several quilts and quilt tops piled high in the memories of my childhood that came from my grandmother’s hand and scrap baskets.  I only have two in my possession, the two pictured here, but for me they are incredibly special. 

The one on the left is done in the double wedding ring pattern and lay just under my dad and mom’s bedspread for as long back as I can remember, until I was in high school and it began to be too worn and the folks switched to a king size bed. 

The one on the right is from my bed, from as far back as I can remember until I left for college.  It was on my bed in the winter under my bedspread and in the summer it was often the only cover I chose to have on my bed.

For too many years I have had the desire to quilt as my grandmother did.  Not purchasing fabrics in just the right amounts to make a particular quilt, although those are lovely and I have done two of those in my life, I desire and need quite frankly, to quilt strictly from scraps. 

My grandmother wasn’t just a quilter, she sewed.  She not only sewed for her own family, nearly every single thing they wore, but she also sewed for others, like the basketball teams in the county.  Every quilt she made was from the scraps left over from sewing or from the barely worn spots on clothing that were no longer usable.

There was not one quilt in my memory of her quilts or quilt tops that I recall which were not beautiful, incredibly beautiful, even the plain square block quilts out of old wool suit material were beautiful.  My own mother was a very accomplished sew-er and made beautiful tailored outfits for the older children in the family but she never pieced a quilt and by the time I was middle school-aged she had closed up the sewing machine.

My mother was an English major in college, not home-ec so her talents at both the sewing machine and the kitchen counter were from her mother, time, and, God given.  As are the few talents in those departments are for me as well.  No formal education save a short stint in high school home-ec, just the stories and a few techniques taught to me by my mother, and the vision of those two women in my mind to spur me on.

I’ve been a sew-er all my life, from the cardboard cut outs with holes punched all around the edges that I “sewed together with fat yarn, to the beautiful romantic dresses I crafted in the years between childhood and motherhood, to the sweet little clothes I made for my girls, to the projects I lent a hand and bit of a head to that my girls made while learning to be good women.

From those projects I’m positive I have saved every little bit of scrap.  Not to mention all the fabric that never made it to the cutting table.  All of that material is now out in my Fiber House.

It has all been waiting.

Waiting for when I truly knew, without a shadow of doubt or reservation, that it was what I wanted to get into.   As I said, I’ve always sewn, knitted, crochet played a bit with embroidery, Now I have added quilting in more than just an experimental phase.  

I cannot imagine not sewing.  Having been away from it, for the last few years, has felt very odd indeed.

But I won’t be sewing clothing that much any more, it is hard to find the large block of time and concentration that I need for a piece of clothing.  I cannot start a clothing project, set it aside and then come back to it.  Rough doing. 

Even projects that aren’t a I need it for next Saturday type project, I can’t seem to make it back to shelved clothing projects.  So my need to sew, but my need for set it down and come back to it, will be fulfilled by piecing quilt tops, and hopefully then putting the whole project together to make an actual quilt.

 

Dear Reader you either commented or most likely thought I have a lot of fabric when you saw my header on Wednesday.  And I must say, that is only the tip of the iceberg.  What you see here is only a third.  Maybe a fourth.

And to say that I will only be a quilter would be misleading for sure, basically an out right lie really.  I have a few more projects in mind than just quilts, but still the sort of thing I can either cart around or come back to.  Like tea cozies, pillows, seat cushions, hot mitts… those sort of things, that yes, could be made from a quilt square but also just might need a big scrap.

This sort of got me in a quandary as to how to store my scraps for my new adventure, but now that I know that along with being a quilter I would also like to make a few things that might call for a larger piece of scrap that a little three inch piece I knew my fabric needed to be stored in it’s entirety and in a way that I could see it at a glance and have an idea of how much was there.

A good amount of my fabric has been trimmed ever so conservatively folded to nearly a square and set in a clear storage tub set on its end so the fabric could be “stacked” and then when the tub is set right it looks like a fabric file.

Most of my “as purchased” fabrics were also folded smaller than what they were when on the shelf in the now “office room” and set inside a tub.  Most folds have tags that tell the width and the cut length.  Ah a flicker of organization.

But then there are a lot of tubs and

cardboard boxes that just have material stuffed in them.  Ah a flicker of impulsivity and/or procrastination.

But amid all that is going on, I am determined to chip away at the mess in the Fiber House.  The washing machines at the one end of the Fiber House are really the only thing that needs to stay free and clear at all times.  The rest of the room, the fabric, the machines, the fiber, the accessories and notions, the paper patterns, for the most part can be slowly shifted into shape an hour or two at a time, three or four times a week and then maybe by June or July I will be ready to tackle my first project on the road to becoming a quilter like Florence Pape.

Categories: Building A Future, Change, Fiber arts, Things My Mother Said (or Did) | 3 Comments

Retro Part One

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Lanny

Somethin’s up with the camera.  And the computer is on its death bed.  I keep hearing Cheyne-Stokes respirations and thinking that any moment it will be giving up the ghost, but it comes back for another day of torture, its as well as mine. 

All that to say, I am lagging behind with my post due to technical difficulties as you can see in the header photo.  Argh. 

So there it is and the story to go with my retro fabrics will come at a later time, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.

For now, know that I am still alive and haven’t fallen into complete despair over things in the news, or in my own little life, all is well, no matter the apparent situation.  And go see what the others (links on sideboard) have for “Retro” this week.

Me?  I’m getting up from said dying computer and making Swedish meatballs, gravy and the last of our garden taters boiled for dinner for those that are living.  Why?, why Swedish meatballs today?  Well go see Far_Side.  Swedish meatballs were the closest I can conjure for Finn food, Dirt can bring home pickled herring and then we’ll be set for a feast.

 

Categories: Blogging | 10 Comments

Friends

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Lanny

My greymail scooped up the e-mail last week that announced the theme for this week’s header.  I found out what it was on Monday.  “Friends”.  Well was a little late to call for a party and have everyone over for a big photo.  Besides. 

There is not enough space on my header for all our friends, and not FB type friends either (you know, people you barely know or don’t really know, all six hundred of them), but actual real friends.  So yes, Mildred and Daisy are quite correct when they say I am rich.  Friends, many and good, dear, honest friends are top on the list of wealth. 

There are a lot of odd “friends” on the Farm, duck and turkey, cat and dog, rabbit and goat.  Odd pairings and groupings wander every where. 

I was thinking of all of this while working in the green house, fairly settled that at some point in the day I would have to roam around with my camera and catch a shot or two of those odd pairings of friends.

I was in the middle of moving some things around  and prepping a work space when an unfamiliar car came in the driveway.

She had come down to tell us that one of the little black and white dogs had been hit by a utility truck down on the highway.

I called out to Bet and she and I ran down to the end of our driveway to the highway fearing what we would see. 

A neighborhood EMT had stopped and was attempting to pick up our little dog Swift.  She screeched, growled and snapped at him so he backed off as we came around the corner.  She was sitting in the wet ditch and her back leg was sticking oddly behind her as we rounded the corner. 

The woman had witnessed the dog get hit, she said that a utility truck had swerved to miss the dogs.  Dogs?  Yes, two little black and white dogs.  No little brown and white dog with them?  No, just the two. 

Of course not Amber, she is too chicken to go with Martin on one of his adventures.  So Martin and Swifts naughty little adventure had ended up badly for Swift.  And now the other two Ratters were sheepishly down at the house, eagerly they had run in when Bet opened the door.

Here were were now in the ditch, the EMT kindly explaining to Bet that Swift’s leg needed support when she picked her up.  The EMT began to say that it was a Tacoma Utilities truck, but I assured him my dog did not belong on the highway and I didn’t blame the driver.

However, later I did wonder why the person who actually hit the animal wasn’t the one who cared to take time to make sure it was going to be taken care of.

Bet scooped her up, Swift clearly knew she needed her because she barely whimpered as Bet made sure she had a hold of her. Her leg wasn’t an open wound but it was completely broken, as if there wasn’t even a bone there.

Both good Samaritans assured Bet and I that a quick trip to the vet would fix everything.  I thanked them for their kindness and apologized for ruining their day.  – Not a nice thing to have happen right in front of you even if it is a dog you don’t know.

On the long walk back down the hateful driveway I had a rough time thinking that the leg could be attached – the bone fixed – with any amount of reliability for future use and that maybe we would end up with a three legged dog.

At the house I changed as Bet waited on the back step for me holding on to little Swifty so that she wouldn’t move, I dawdled a bit waiting for Dirt to return our phone call. 

The drive to the vet was hard.  Swifty’s sweet little wet face all covered with road grime looking up at me and that leg, just sticking out so ugly like.  I kept looking at her abdomen, it didn’t seem to be injured from the outside and it wasn’t distending out at all like there were internal injuries.  I figured the worse it could be was a three legged dog scenario. 

The vet’s office was great.  And luckily our favorite vet, Dr. Sage, was there.  She is so good with the dogs, and with their owners.  She kept saying stuff about the pelvis possibly being involved because of Swift’s reluctance to use it to stand on the other leg or sit by herself, always just in Bet’s arms. 

I ignored the possibilities that the injury was anything more than the leg.  Even when we got home and Dirt was saying that a little dog and a truck would only meet at large tire height and that it was amazing and unlikely that just the leg was involved.

I thought of my assignment for today.

I was thinking to use the Rat Terriers for a sweet little pose, sitting at the table waiting for their friend to come home.   The vet office was going to call after x-rays were taken and those had to wait until the morphine kicked in.  I was restless.  I asked Dirt to come with me to the hot house.  He said he needed to wait by the phone.  Oh, right. 

I made myself busy in and out the back door.  Finally after a long time with no phone call I went to the hot house. 

And stared at my seedlings.

I realized that I needed to start a fire as it was a bit chilly from the cloudy breezy day. 

That is when Dirt came in, as I was finally getting the fire going and staring at the flames.  He didn’t have good news and he wasn’t able to tell it well.  The poor little thing was all crushed on her back end.  All the hip joint balls were crushed, repair would be impossible.

I wailed.  Dirt left. I wailed some more.  Said “crap” a lot.  Crap for no fence across the driveway to keep the silly little dogs home.  Crap for them wanting to go down there and not stay up here on their eighty acre playground.  Crap for the new housing development across the highway that seems so attractive.  Crap for having things in my life that I get attached to.  Crap.

So this weeks banner is of the little black and white dog that I will most certainly miss for quite sometime.  That’s a surprise, I thought for sure twenty-five years here watching things die would have made me a bit more geared for loss.  Guess not, not in all cases.

I tried to get the other two to still do a little pose for me.  They wouldn’t.  Amber looks sad, but that is just the way her markings are around her eyes. 

I tried to look through all our pictures of Swift thinking I would do a collage.  But I couldn’t bear looking through too many.  I’m glad I found this one in one of the first files that I came across labeled “pets”.

 

Oh, by the way, since I figured out more about my side board thing-a-ma-jiggies, I’ve gotten rather lazy about telling you to go see the other fellas, no cutting and pasting links etc, (not a fav thing to do of mine), its all there on the side board, mixed in with the current winners and all.  So go see them, this week cuz I told you, and every other week, cuz I mean to tell you and you just should.

Categories: Pets | 10 Comments

Makin’ Money

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Lanny

So after Dirt did our taxes now that we’re a farm business and all, he said the IRS would be after me if I didn’t turn my columns around.  I seem to be “in charge” of the only division on the farm that has ninety percent of the outgo (monetary and labor) and zero income. 

I was sure I made something last year but I guess not.  I keep giving stuff away, sort of a market testing thing I guess.

So I was thinking about making money this year.  And I was watching the news and thinkin’ about how the world works.  Feelin’ a bit bad for teachers, firemen, highway workers and the like who are now experiencing cut backs and such.

In all my watching and listening, I realize that I need to be very particular about who I pattern myself after if I always want to make the most money with the very least input, well no significant input really.

There seems to be one section of folks that the economic down turn just doesn’t seem to phase, they never get fired, and in fact if they are ever let go say for near criminal activity (the only fire-able offense), or their department found unnecessary after fifty years of obsolescence, they are given a severance package that would keep me and my children going until death. 

I think that I need to look closely at what they do and style myself after them.  Then perhaps I can make money.  Branding is key isn’t it. Knowing who you are, your goals and aspirations.

I was thinking that I would begin my styling with a name badge or door name plate.  And it would say:

Lanny Person

Vicktory Farm & Gardens

Chief Administrator

Bureau of Manure Management

 

I do believe that about sums up all I’ve gleaned from what the world has to teach me.   Now I’m off to make money.

Categories: Nation | 6 Comments