First, the drought of 2011. We have not had any real rain since May and it has been severe and terrible for all the wild animals, the domesticated animals and the human animals. I heard about a month ago that at that time, we needed 12 inches of rain to be able to see an end to the drought. My pastures are usually verdant green. I usually have plentiful bermuda and johnson grass and the wonderful man who leases my farm would have cut and baled hay several times by now in a normal year. He has not been able to cut hay once this summer and has been having to feed hay since August 1. They can't find hay for the livestock right now and so from Oklahoma and Texas record numbers of cattle are being sold off.
I have my horse in the back lot and in past years my dear neighbors Mike and DeeAnn sent their foreman, Jaren to brush hog (mow) the back lot because my horse could not eat all of the grass produced there. This year I have had to resort to watering the backlot some; not so much for grass for my horse, but to keep her from eating the grass down to the dirt and to make puddles for the birds and chickens to drink out of because it was so hot they could not drink the water out of their watering vessels. I had a water bill totaling $371 last month and this month's bill is $575.00, not easy to pay but I was trying to keep everything alive.
I discovered something very interesting this week. I have 3 pear trees that have been LOADED with pears. The pears were almost ripe when I checked them last week. I have been putting soaker hoses on my trees intermittently to keep them from dying. This week I tottered out to see if the pears were ripe. I was sick and thought a ripe pear sounded yummy. I got out to my trees and there was not ONE pear on any tree, not ONE pear on the ground, not ONE scrap of a pear anywhere. My first reaction was to be angry at the coons, possums, squirrels, wasps and birds but then I thought to myself how badly they must be starving and that the pears were better given to them than to myself. There will be other years and lots and lots more pears for me. I feel like I want to spend all my money buying feed to put out for the deer and other wild critters.
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| Pastures that are usually a brilliant verdant green are not here |
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| Serious Rain Clouds |
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| Glorious Puddles |
My neighbor said that she thought we received 4 inches of life-giving rain this morning and more is anticipated for tomorrow and Monday. I can only praise my wonderful Lord Jesus for this drenching rain.
I stood at my kitchen window watching the rain and puddles were just starting to form on the driveway. The birds were frolicking in the puddles and bathing and preening. All different kinds of birds. I never have cardinals in the summertime but I even had a cardinal bathing in the puddles. My chickens that I call my babies have not ever experienced rain before and I went out to let them out of their pen. Half of my hens stayed in their dry hen-house but the other half came out and shortly they were soaked and looked like drenched rats. I told Will about it and he said that he had always heard that chickens have brains the size of a pea but at least they have the sense to stay out of the rain....ha ha....only half of mine do.
I have a hen that has decided that she doesn't want to live with her sister hens anymore. I have shown photo's of her before, she is Whitey. She has decided that she is going to dwell from now on in the backyard with my two dogs, DeeDee and Taylor. I have carried her out to the hen-house once at night and the next morning she jumped right back over the fence to be with the dogs. Another morning, I picked her up and brought her out to the front yard to be with the other hens and before I got back out to the backyard she was already back over the fence and hanging with the dogs. She roosts at night on the shelf that Will built me over the gas grill.
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| Whitey the chickdog |
I have a chicken who thinks she is a dog. I have a horse who thinks she is a dog. I have dogs who think they are humans. I think I need animal parenting skills. I told Daulton that I need the dog Rex from the movie Babe to come oversee my animals to instruct them that they are not to fraternize with each other and that a chicken should act like a chicken and a horse should act like a horse and a dog should act like a dog. I think now that we have had some rain and some green grass should grow maybe some normality will be returned to my farm. I don't think the animals will behave without an intervention or shock therapy but at least the cows, deer, horses and chickens will be able to eat and aren't being baked alive day after day.
Will was off last weekend and is off this weekend. I was too sick to play last weekend and this weekend I am working at the store so he has been learning to operate his metal detectors. He picked Daulton up from school today and they went to Pennington Creek to search for buried treasure.
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| Pennington Creek |
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| A Pink stoned ring he found in the creek |
He has a Tesoro Tiger Shark which is water-proof and a Vibra Probe 580 Pinpointer. We experienced high drama checking the UPS tracking via smartphones, computers and satellite waiting for these two pieces of technology to arrive. I was truly worried that UPS was going to experience an enraged dirt digger if they did not deliver his toys on time. They have arrived though and he went to his friend Box's yesterday to show off his technology and skill and discovered these wonderful treasures.
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| Does anyone know what this tin pot is? I don't know whether it would be a rouge pot or a compact. The quarter is a 1942 silver. Cool huh? |
As I am hacking up a lung, I will say good night to all, I hope you enjoyed the weather today wherever you are as much as I did.
PS, Kessie, for you, here is one photo of an arrowhead that Will found in the sand piles.
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| Arrowhead from Will's Sandpiles |
An arrowhead picture! Thanks so much! Those other treasures are awesome, too, like the silver quarter and that container. What fun! I hope you feel better soon. Colds like that are totally rotten.
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