Flower-tastic

When I was home this summer, my mom gave me a little packet of seeds to bring back with me.  Zinnias.  She said they’re easy to grow and maintain, they last a season, and they yield pretty flowers.

So I was excited!  I decided to document the process.

Day 1: Seeds planted

Day 13: Up they come!

Day 25: Boom!

At this point, it was clear they were ready to move on.  Ush and I did plant them in the ground, but the next morning we found them nearly ravaged by (presumably) slugs, so I quickly moved them again to a safer place.

I also planted a few seeds in here and they sprung up fast:

I was ridiculously excited when the first flower started to pop…

And, for some strange reason, I hadn’t expected all of the other colours and shapes that followed!

I’ve enjoyed them and will definitely plant lots more next spring.

more than a bumblebee, more than an ant

(Veggie Tales reference anyone?*)

Things have been busy, hence the lack of blogging.  (I should clarify – Dreadful in the sheer busyness, but not dreadful to live through. Though Ush has been ill leaving all the dogwalking and errand-running and cooking and cleaning duties on me – we’ve also gotten to spend a lot of time together so while I’m not complaining, I do wish him better very soon!)

After work the other day, I leashed up Toby and took him down the road to the vet – his nails needed trimming (Sadie’s stay filed down just by her twice-daily walks; not sure why Toby’s don’t) and also his (TMI in 3..2..1…) anal glands needed expressing.  (Told you.)

The latter experience was, as it always is, unpleasant for my little boppins, so I decided we’d take an extended detour home and  I’d let him linger, sniff, and pee on things as much as he wanted.  So I did and he did.

I enjoyed walking just one dog for a change – it was so refreshing to be able to swing one arm at my side.  The leash-holding arm NOT being ripped out of its socket every few minutes because one dog is constantly competing with the other to be the first to smell each new smell.  How luxurious this felt!

We headed home to swap Toby for Sadie, and I wondered if it would be a similar experience walking her on her own.  (She is more.. let’s say spirited than Toby is.  Bless her.)  Upon unlocking and opening the front door, the next 5.8 seconds, I kid you not, proceeded just like this:

Sadie: WOO! YOU GUYS ARE BACK! HEY!! HI!! WOO!!

Toby: Yeah, we–

Sadie: OMG I MISSED YOUUUUUU!!!

Toby: Aw, that’s—

Sadie: SHUT UP, YOU! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, LET ME SNIFF YOU!!!

Toby: Well, come in, I’ll tell you about it.

[They begin to run down the hall together]

[Sadie leaps in front of Toby and rears up in his face]

Sadie: DON’T YOU EVER LEAVE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN, DO YOU HEAR ME?!

Me: Saaaadie’s tuuuuurn!!! [jiggling her leash]

Sadie:  WOOOOOO! MY TURN! IN YOUR FACE, SUCKA!  LET’S GO, MOM!!! [dragging me out the door]

Seriously!  In the span of 5 seconds, she went from ecstatic and relieved to curious to rude and scolding to excited and happy again.  What a weirdo

In case you’re wondering, she did settle down a minute or two later and her walk was just as enjoyable as Toby’s.  (And I’m pretty sure he handled her absence better than she handled his!)

—

*This one and this one are my favourites!

So I Married A Death Eater

The other day, whilst walking the dogs, I asked Ush – If you had the ability to perform just one spell from the Harry Potter series, which would you choose?  (It was a fun discussion, but his answer was most distressing!)

Following on from that conversation, a few days later, we had the following exchange:

[We were both laying on the couch, with one dog sprawled across us and the other scratching at the door to be let outside.  As usual, we each argued our case about why the other should be the one to get up and let the dog out.]

—

S:  Ah, if only I could just Accio! the door open.

U:  Or I could just Imperius you and make you do it.

S:  *horrified gasp* Honey! I told you, you can’t be a dark wizard!!!

U:  Why not?!  It’s so much better!

S:  No! Dumbledore says its wrong!

U:  Dumbledore is batty.

—

Yes, I know, we’re a little bit ridiculous.  And yes, I know, you obviously wouldn’t use Accio to open a door! (You’d use Alohomora. Duh.)

its that day, but I’m not in the park

Whoops! Another week gone by without blogging.  I don’t know what’s gotten into me.

Sorry! I’ll make it up to you…  Here’s a photo of Toby looking cute and a bit forlorn.

He hides away in the corner sometimes when Sadie is going slightly mental.  He’s afraid he’ll catch it, like swine flu. Or alternatively he’s afraid of getting caught in her whirlwind; he’s no storm chaser, my friends.  He’s a delicate flower (and I love him for it).

Anyway!  All better? Good.

This week, Ush and I formed a band called Meat.
(I wanted us to be called The Short Rounds, but he was the one who had the game controller.)
We bought Guitar Hero World Tour (similar to and -ahem- better than! Rock Band) and also bought (thanks Ebay!) the drum kit and microphone.  My rocker is named Sue and she’s pretty foxy.  Ush made his character (whose name consists of a whole bunch of letters forming no discernible word/name) as ugly as possible with a tattoo on his forehead that says SPAM.

Singing isn’t as fun when you’re trying to do it right, I’ve discovered.  So I’m gonna have a crack at the drums next time and see how I get on.  Guitar is still my favourite.

Oh, and in other news, I don’t tweet anymore.  Since coming back from the cruise, I never bothered updating it and so I figured I’d stop.  Actually, I just now spent 20 minutes on my page reading the recent tweets of my favorite tweeters. So I may try to keep up that way, but there probably won’t be any tweeting from me.
And for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry.

Before I go, this made me giggle:-

7 days

By this time next week, I’ll have been back home for a whole day.  And I will have spent a lot of that time on the floor letting my doggies maul me with wiggles and kisses.

I miss my little monsters!

(Ok, so Toby’s not in that one.  But I’ve talked at him on Skype several times, and he knows his mama’s coming home to him soon!)

They say these things happen

Ok, I didn’t mention this in yesterday’s farm post because I was too sad.  But one of Mom’s goats died.  Jamoke. 
He had seemed unwell for a few days, and so Mom’s friend (who has kept goats for over a decade) came round with some medicine.  Unfortunately it didn’t help and Jamoke died during the night that night.

I’m still sad about it, because he was my favourite of the two.  (He was more interested in people; food came second.  If I bent down over him and made this little sip-sip-sip-sip noise, he’d nibble on the tip of my nose.  It was just really sweet, and he was a sweet boy.) 
Anyway, so we knew that we couldn’t keep Ngozi on his own because he’d be too lonely.  After weighing several options, Mom spoke to the lady who she bought the goats from and this lady offered her a male who was born a week before Jamoke and Ngozi. 

Meet Tank.

Mom had another Nigerian name all picked out for him, but soon abandoned that when it became all too apparent that the name he’d been casually referred to as was just too fitting!  So Tank it is.

He’s doing alright so far.  Normally baby goats are taken from their mother straight away and bottle fed.  But they missed their chance with this guy, apparently, and he was only taken from her last week.   So he doesn’t take a bottle, which is okay because he doesn’t need it, but it’s a shame because he’d enjoy it.  So he’s adjusting fairly well to his new home.  He craves attention and company.  I took them out this afternoon and he was really good at following me!  Even came up the stairs to the porch when I was headed in to get my camera.

After which point I took this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynhv3-GxIvo

PS - I’ve decided that Ngozi should be named Tubs, because he’s a greedy little piggy who would spend all day eating if he could.  We’re already in the habit of calling him Ngozi, so Tubs/Tubby can be his nickname. (As if it matters!) 

Just call me Ellie May

It was my job to put the animals to bed tonight.  So, I thought I’d share a bit more about this ‘farm’ and who lives here.

We have a dozen-ish adult chickens (including 2 roosters) that are out all day in the (low-fenced) orchard.  There are also 3 adult guineas that have free run of the entire property.  All of the adult birds instinctually return to the coop well before dark.  They’re all normally in by 7pm these days, despite it staying lighter longer.  The guineas tend to stay out a bit later.  All of these birds have names, but I only know a few of them. (The guineas are Brick, Pearl, and Ali.  The roosters are Big Red and Cracker.)

One of the adult chickens, named Daisy (from my mom’s first ever flock of chickens), is pretty broody every year, and this year she sat on 4 eggs, two of which hatched last week and produced guinea chicks! (The other two were duds.) Daisy and the babies are kept in their own cage in the coop storage room.  She has just started taking them out during the day and it’s adorable (not to mention amazing) watching them follow her around, with her clucking constantly at them, instructing them to follow her, teaching them how to scratch, eat bugs, etc. Amazing.

There are also about 15 ‘teenage’ chickens. They are only around a month or so old, and thus are not quite ready to be integrated with the adults.  They spend their days in a high-fenced chicken run next to the orchard and then instinctually, like the adults, climb into a large cage before dark.  We then carry that cage into the storage room with Daisy.

Finally, there are also two white ducks (we haven’t yet checked their respective genders – they’re pretty nervous birds) whose names are Rose and Ted.  (Get it? RoseTed? Roasted? Yeah.)  Anyway, we think Rose might be male and Ted might be female, based on the pitch of their quacks. So we may have to switch their names around.  (As if it matters )  They are distinguishable only by the poof of feathers on top of Rose’s head.  They stay in the orchard all day with the chickens.  At night, they go into a reconstructed and rather souped up (a la my dad’s superior construction and creative skillz) doghouse.  Sometimes it takes some encouragement to get them to go in. 

The goats don’t need much attention at night.  They have a plastic doghouse lined with hay as their bed and go in whenever they’re ready. They live in a fenced-in enclosure and will eventually have a whole pasture at their disposal (as soon as the new fencing is built.) 

Tonight, I managed to get all the birds in with just a little help from Jack

I went out around 8:30 and everyone was in.  The teens were in their cage, but there was one guinea also in the chicken run.  It was Ali, the ’special’ one.  I figured I’d deal with her later, and went about putting the teens into the storage room. 

That done, I went into the orchard where the ducks were hovering (and quacking nervously at my approach) in front of their house.  I walked the long way around until I was in front of them, slowly moving forward, hoping they’d step into their house so I could put the screened door on the front of it. No such luck.  They dashed sideways in a panic. 

OK, I figured, I’ll come back in 15 minutes and see if they’ve gone in.

I headed back to the house, whistling for Jack, who was over by the goats’ enclosure, to follow me.  He came running and as we were nearer the house, we both noticed Ali wandering around by the driveway.  I hesitated, wondering if I should try to coax her towards the house.  Jack read my mind and, though he’s not allowed to do this and despite my protestations, TOOK OFF after her!  I swear, that dog thinks he’s a sheepdog.  I don’t know where he got those instincts, because he’s done it with the goats too! 

I watched (and ran to catch up) as he chased, turning the corner towards the coop, and then I saw Ali flutter into the air, over the fence, and then land in front of the entrace to the coop and hop in.  Success!  So I went over, closed and latched the door, and then turned back to see where the ducks were.  Sure enough, hovering in front of their house again.

I moved out of their field of view and crossed my fingers.  I waited a few moments and then one of them hopped into the house.  Followed by the other.  Success again!  I tiptoed up, picked up the door, and latched it into place.  Quick glance over to the goats’ enclosure – nothing stirring! Can’t believe my yelling at Jack didn’t wake them up!

Anyway, I’m happy everyone is in safe for the night.  (So many creatures around here would love to get their paws on those birds!) 

In the morning, we start again, but in reverse. 

We open the door of the coop and the chickens/roosters/guineas will come pouring out into the orchard.  We open the duck door and they will only come out once we’re a suitable distance away.   We carry the teenagers’ cage out and release them into the chicken run, where they also pour out and scatter.  Daisy and the babies’ cage is opened.  The goats will be bleating away.  Everyone gets food and fresh water.  Mid-morning the goats also get a bottle.  A walk or two as the day goes on.  Collect eggs from the coop.  Scatter some grains for the birds. 

Lather rinse repeat!

To all of my city friends, if you haven’t experienced this sort of thing, you must.  It’s really pretty fun.

There ain’t no ticks on me

I know I keep talking about the goats.  But really, the animals around this place take up a lot of my time and attention these days!  Not that I’m complaining.  It’s a nice way to live!  I like taking care of them, I enjoy the routine.  (I remember when we visited my great-grandma Olive.  Alex and I kept going back and forth between checking if the chickens had laid any eggs in the coop and scattering feed for the sheep.  Doesn’t sound like much, and it wasn’t, but we loved it.  We really wanted to do some farm work.)

Today we broke routine as we went up to Milwaukee for my biometrics appt.  One hour and a couple of cranky yet timely civil servants later, we were out of there - my shaking hands steadied and the intense knot in my stomach began to ease.  Back to ‘the farm’! 

I let the goats out for a wander. 

They never wandered too far away.

See that tiny sliver of red/orange near the top?  That’s the house. We headed down into this little ravine and then into the woods, but I never ventured deep enough to lose my sense of direction.  

The greenery through the trees up there leads to the meadow, which leads to the house.  They happily munched all along the way.

         

I was happy to wait around while the goats munched because I was well protected against kamikaze ticks.

I even brought back the super cool French roll on my jeans, to keep the little bastards from climbing up my pant legs.

Ngozi is looking at me like, “Steph… really?” and Jamoke is trying to help out by undoing that horrible trend that hopefully will stay in the 1990s where it belonged!

Just before the batteries died

It was so fun walking with them this way! 

(I was contemplating taking them through the woods, but I was a bit worried about getting lost.  My dad mowed a few paths through the meadow and it’s more open to the sky – fewer trees above me with ticks waiting to jump on my head.) 

We’d walk along, they’d stop to munch, so I’d stop too and watch the birds or do some sort of aerobics while waiting for them. (My bum is sore from the lunges.)  Sometimes, just to see what they’d do, I’d walk further ahead, just out of sight. Pretty soon they’d notice I wasn’t there and start calling out. I’d call back and they’d come trotting towards my voice until they could see me again, then they’d either come up to me in relief and admonish me for going so far away or they’d just go back to munching. We went on like that for nearly an hour.

I’m still surprised at how much I’ve taken to them, but they really are fun little pets.

No sheep were harmed

I’m blogging with sunglasses on right now.  (Normally I’m a bit wary of people who wear sunglasses indoors, but I’m doing it out of necessity so its okay.)  The weather is so dang gorgeous today and there is a window right behind the monitor and the brightness of the sun is blinding me a tad.  Hence the shades.

A random aside: I sat at the back of the room in the 3rd/4th grade Sunday School class (where my parents help out) this morning and they sang a song during which I mis-heard the lyrics as “I swung me a sheep! baa-baa baaaa!”  I was pretty confused.  Speaking of sheep and Shepherds, check out this little girl reciting Psalm 23.  Surely?)

Anyway!  I had quite a ‘Little House on the Prairie’ moment today.  My mom had to work this afternoon and so she asked me to bake a ginormous cake for the youth group tonight, so while I was searching around for pans, mixers, ingredients, etc (it’s hard to navigate someone else’s kitchen) I realised we only had two eggs in the fridge and I needed six.  So, I meandered out to the coop in hopes that the chickens had been productive today.  And lo!  They had! There were five eggs in there.  I’m just so amused by that.

I had a nice conversation with my dad while he was painting the reconstructed (by him) dog house that someone gave us to use for the ducks out in the orchard (WOW. This place really is becoming a farm!).  I came away with so much to ponder about my life (our life, Ush) and how I want it to unfold and paths I want to take. 

I had intended to go a bit deeper in this post, but I can hear goat babies outside bleating away, so I think I’ll go hang out with them instead. Maybe take them on a walk through the meadow.  If Mom left her camera here, I’ll take some pictures for you too.