More Farm Life

It's not that I don't mind living out in the middle of nowhere. It's actually quite peaceful. Where else can you go out at night and literally see a million stars? Or, take a blanket and watch meteor showers without have to drive to a dark and deserted place? You're already there! In the mornings when we go out to feed the animals, we're greeted with Elvis' long bleat. Elvis is our gimp sheep. For those of you who have the little toy of "This is what a sheep sounds like, Baaahhh." You've got the wrong toy! Sheep don't sound that way! Then, there's Max, our Nigerian Dwarf goat who thinks he's a dog. He just wants to be pet and watch out if you leave the door open to the house. Max will be up on the couch watching t.v. with the rest of the dogs! The horses will stand impatiently in the barn kicking at the walls waiting for their food. They are always hungry. You open the tack room door and are greeted by not one, but two RATS!!! We still cannot get rid of these things. Tom grabbed his rifle and went to go shoot them, but they scattered. It's always good to have a gun in the country! One ran under the plywood board on the other side of the tack room. He lifted that up and what did he find? A 3 foot snake!! I was hoping that the snake would eat the rat, but no such luck. At least he shot the snake as he wasn't doing any good. You figure if he was that long he had been there for awhile. He wasn't a good rat catcher! Since that episode, we haven't seen the rats and sticky rat traps are next. I know how to shoot the rifle but I don't have very good aim with it. I'll leave that up to Tom! Ahhhhh, just another day out on the farm. At least the radishes and lettuce are growing very well!

Farm Life!

How many flushes does it take to empty the well? One of the many adventures living out in the country is that we don't have city water! That is a good thing in itself. You don't have to worry about all the junk that the city and state had decided is good for you and what you need or don't need to have! I like having well water! It's fresh, clean, tastes good! I decide whether I want to put flouride in my mouth or not. The only time having a well might prove to be a hindrance is in bad weather when the electricity goes out. Then it's always nice to have jugs of water on hand to brush your teeth, wash your face and flush the toilet!

Or, when something happens to the motor of the well! Such is the case that happened a couple of days ago. Sitting in the living room we hear a horrendous noise coming from outside! It's very loud, whiny, horrific. It's the motor for the well. This happened about 5 years ago and we had to replace the motor! I guess they only have a 5 year lifespan? As I walked past the wellshed there was a horrible stench of burning rubber. We figured that whatever was left in the well tank would be all the water we would have for the next day. In the morning Tom check the motor. The good news is that the motor was still running fine! The bad news is that the pulley was lying in pieces on the ground with the belt shredded beside it. Hence the smell!

We had a good homeschooling lesson in conservation that day! Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth and only to rinse out the toothbrush and your mouth. Wash your hands quickly. Do we really need to wash dishes today? We can wait on that shower too! Tom came home that evening with a new belt and a new pulley. The pulley worked, the belt did not. Another day to conserve water. We ate out that night! Another day to conserve dishes. But a new day a new belt and all is well in our household. We did not run out of water in our welltank. The dishes are done and we all smell good! Oh, and all toilets were flushed as we never had to conserve on that end! All in all, farm life is still good. Now, to take care of those two rats in the barn!!

I always wanted to be in the news!

You know how you always hear about slow downs on the freeway? I never thought I would cause something like that! It's been one of those days! Due to a big gust of wind, I heard those words going through my head! Pick up on aisle 12 as I saw boxes falling off of my truck! Thankfully, no one was hurt, no accidents were caused. But, as I was pulling over to the side of the freeway all I saw was a sea of mitts floating across 5 lanes of traffic!

Well, if people just opened their doors and reached out and grabbed one, they would have gotten a nice treat to take home for their showers!! At least the work guys will have something nice to pamper themselves with tomorrow!

The misunderstanding of blogging!

Everyone tells me I need to start a blog! Why? Do I really need to? Everyone has one, right? Do, I really need to right down my deepest thoughts, my passing fancies? How do you go about writing a blog? Do you start rambling on like a raving lunatic where no one wants to read what you post anyway? And, if you do start to write one, who really is going to read it in the first place. Is it wise to tell all your friends to check out your blog? Or, should you wait till you really have something significant to say? I feel I've been using the computer since there were gopher holes back in the 80's to even get on the internet. Why do I feel so inadequate in writing a blog?
So, this will be my feeble attempt in trying to catch up with the mainstream and write what comes through this scattered brain of mine. Maybe something good will come out of this? We'll see. Can you teach this old dog new tricks?

We'll see!