The Grand Chicken

I have friends of the feathery kind, one in particular who was introduced in the previous post...Miss Piggy. Each evening I secure all the chickens in the coop so that the neighborhood raccoons don't mingle. And each night I have a helper, Miss Piggy.

She has found that hanging out with me keeps the others from pulling out her tail feathers, at least for a little while. This particular evening she was enjoying towering over the others and I think she started to think that she could soar like the others birds outside the coop.

She is a fun chicken who makes a mundane task very interesting.

P.S. So far she hasn't left her mark.

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Harry has Hedwig and I have a...chicken?

At my new place there are 80 chickens I help look after, mostly on weekends, after a while you start to see their personalities. For instance there is one that follows me everywhere hoping that I will drop food. Others squawk when I get to close to the nests, and then their Miss Piggy.

Miss Piggy gets her name from her ability to go right for the source of the food...the food can. When I am filling up the feeders for the rest of the chickens she waits til my back is turned then jumps into the open container to gorge herself. No other chciken has figured this out, so she has zero competition for an unlimited source of food. Well unlimited until I turn around and lift her out.

It was because I was constantly picking her up that she got comfortable with me holding her. Now she actually seems to enjoy sitting on my arm which on this one occasion became my shoulder.

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Winter has established itself...

What a crazy winter this has been. It seems like we have had snow on the ground as soon as the dishes were done from Thanksgiving. So, needless to say, it has been a beautiful white winter but incredibly chilly.

Starting Dec. 1st I have been taking care of cows and chickens on the weekends. i have been getting the feel for what living on a ranch or farm would be like. Believe or not I have been enjoying it and I am looking forward to owning my own property some day; (of course, check back with me in a year). This winter weather has been enjoyable, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I can't wait for Spring to get here. I have already got the itch to start planting my garden.

I get to start a new garden this year, since I moved (more on that later). I am hoping to add more varieties of plants and vegetables. Since my gourds did so well last year I would like to have one or two vines of pumpkins this year. There are more rabbits at my new place so I am going to have to start thinking about rabbit deterrents. Does anyone have a good idea? At one point I thought of leaving Kody and Willow out in the garden, but then I remembered how much they like the soft soil of the garden. Maybe I could create a moat around the garden and keep them there, kind of like dragons protecting the castle.

Kody and Willow are enjoying this weather; Kody especially with his big winter coat. The cats...well, no so much. They are enjoying the warmth and cuddliness of my couch. Speaking of the couch, I think it is time for me to go stake out my spot before the cats completely take it over.

Stay warm!

If only I had a Fishin' Pole

I survived the rain, and I didn't even have to get out the boat. If you watched the 136the running of the Kentucky Derby then you saw that Kentucky was getting hit with some wet weather, to put it mildly. Well, that wet weather decided to hang around all weekend.

I didn't realize how much water we had received until I went out last night to return a movie. my normal 15 minute route into town ended up being a detoured route of an hour. Low bridges were impassible because of high water, and even places where there wasn't a stream, or a creek there was high water covering the road. the pasture in front of my house had become a lake and the dried up and filled in well next to my house was full. Not to mention the old root cellar near my house was full of water. I am glad there wasn't a tornado or I would have had no where to go.

This morning's drive in was a little better. I did have to take some detours to work because the water hadn't completely receded but everything seems to be getting back to normal.

And normal for me means weed eating. Yeah!!! I actually saw the grass grow this weekend, not a happy sight.

A Rainy Weekend

Saturday and Sunday the heavens decided to open up in the afternoon, and not just a light drizzle. If I stood outside with my head back and mouth open I would have drown within a few minutes. The rain hasn't stopped yet; convincing the animals to go out this morning was interesting and exhausting. Let's just say I won three out of four. The minute the sun peeks out from behind the clouds my lawn is going to bust out and be a jungle. I will need a machete to get to the front door. At least I have had a reprieve from the weedeater for a few days. The rain this weekend did make the Rolex Kentucky 3 Day Event interesting. I have more to come on that subject, along with my day at Keeneland.

With Spring comes spring cleaning. I am thinking that I am going to have a garage sale, instead of taking everything to Goodwill. What I don't sell will go to Goodwill, but it would be nice to make a little money off of my, at one time desperately needed, stuff.

Neigh-bors

One of the benefits of living on a horse farm in Kentucky are my Neigh-bors.

*(I couldn’t resist the pun.)

Let the Projects Begin

Wow, what a weekend. I was surprisingly productive even though I didn’t get started until after 2 each day. Apparently I needed to convince myself to start my projects that I wanted to accomplish.

Looking back I did get a lot done. I painted my once white rocking chairs to a vibrant red, planted a few chill hardy flowers, scrubbed one side on my house, cleaned off the porch, watered my parched plants, and of course the ever present...weedeating; a never-ending project. I also did some window shopping at two of my favorite stores, the Peddlers Mall in Georgetown and Lowe’s. I got some great inspriration for new projects. I am so glad it doesn’t get dark until almost 9pm or I would never get what I need to do done.

Since I am sure everyone is dying to understand why I painted my rocking chairs red, here is the simple answer. They sit next to a white wall and are visually boring. I wanted contrast, which seems to be my theme this spring; bright, bold, contrasting colors. Plus, the white paint was chipping.

I am ticking a lot of projects off of my to-do list. One of the big ones is the backyard fence. I stained my picket fence a dark mahogany and painted my chain link gate black. The backyard now ties in with the horse farm fencing completely surrounding me.

I have a few big projects still looming in front of me; like painting an existing table for outside use. I just haven’t decided what color to paint it, but I guarantee it is going to bold and colorful. I also have to till my vegetable garden...again. I have some very persistent grass and dandelions that won’t go away. Grrrrr!!!! I would also like to make window boxes for the front of my house. Normally this would be an easy project but there is metal over the wood, making it almost impossible to hang window boxes. I am thinking that I could make a standing window box. Problem: Dad and Casey are the engineers in the family, they live in a fw hundred miles away. I am the free flow artist…I don’t like to measure, which doesn't work to well when you are tryinig to get the correct height and width.

All these projects, plus some smaller ones, has got my mind whirling. These don’t include what I need to do in the house…notice I didn’t say want I “want”, but what I “need”. I would rather be outside getting dirty. Goodwill is going to get a big donation from me. Right now I am at the point of making a bigger mess trying to decide what to give away. I really need a professional to come help me break some ties.

Rain or shine, this evening is designated to the destruction, um…I mean, cleaning of my home. Wish me luck. I would rather be outside.