Things are happening around here to prove that it is spring. One of my cats had kittens. Two of them. One with no tail what so ever. She looks like she will end up looking a lot like her momma. Except for the lack of that tail, that is. The other really should have been a girl so I could call him Blondie. That’s what color he seems to be right now. His tail makes up for his sisters lack thereof. Peggy tells me that if they grow into their feet they will be big ol’ kitties.
On the goat front, that white nanny I traded one of my black ones for is bagging up. So in a month or so I should have another baby goat(s).
Then there’s the stuff I’ve planted in my garden. The potatoes are going great guns. That cabbage plant left over from last year, the one I thought might head up for me, has decided it’s warm enough to set seed instead and has bolted. The year old brussels sprouts don’t seem to have done that yet but they haven’t made any of them tasty little baby cabbages either. There is hope though with the younger plants I planted last week, more cabbage, broccoli and some cauliflower. I also planted some carrot seeds but I think those have been killed off, or otherwise messed up by the neighborhood cats using my raised beds for a toilet. I do still have hope for the snow peas I planted last week.
Trouble is all of the stuff I’ve planted are cool weather veggies and it looks like we’ve skipped over the nice cool spring and jumped right on ahead into summer. Well, at least early summer. I’m tempted to plant some tomato’s and other warm weather plants now, and just be ready with a big old roll of plastic in case we do have that Easter Snap everyone warns of. Especially, as Easter will come so late this year, the last Sunday of next month, that I somehow suspect we won’t have that last ditch cold snap.
Speaking of Easter, I hear the Lone Oak Fire Dept. is still planning on hosting a visit from the Easter Bunny this year even if Easter is so much later than usual.
And speaking of the local Fire Department, I’d also like to take this chance to remind you all about how terribly dry it is out there. That big snow we had is long, LONG, gone and even the mud from that last little rain is dried up. The high winds we’ve been having are no help either, as they just help everything dry out. Believe me, if the air and the grass is dry enough, that grass will burn no matter how green it is. Besides there’s all that dead, brown, dry as a bone stuff out there in most fields that is left over from last year. That, at least, will burn plenty hot enough to catch anything else on fire. Especially if it is being pushed by the wind. So the best bet is to be extremely careful when you burn anything and to NOT burn anything at all on a windy day. Even on still day’s you should use a lot of caution, wet the area around your burn barrel (or whatever) down, keep a hose, or a bucket of sand or water, handy as well as whatever else might help you put out that fire if it tries to spread on you. A phone to call 911 and give them your address and situation wouldn’t hurt any at all either. Just in case.
Just use that stuff that’s as rare as hens teeth or unicorn horns when you are thinking of starting any kind of fire outside of a smoker or other kind of grill. That rare and valuable commodity called “Common Since.” I know it’s often hard to find and equally difficult to use at times. After all leaving it out of any kind of plan is often a lot more fun and lets you build all kinds of castles in the air. However, using it will often see to it that those castles are built so that they will stay up, even it they aren’t floating in the air. Not to mention keep them from falling on your head and sending you to the hospital.
Update to the above! I have a new little boy goat! A white one. He's sale bound soon as he's weaned! His momma had me fooled. Thought she wasn't that far along yet as I wasn't sure when the daddy goat got to her.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
From issue 11 of the 2011 Lone Oak Newsletter
Well, it is definitely spring in Lone Oak now. The night time temperatures seem to be staying above frosty and the day time temperatures are flirting with, if not hitting, eighty degrees. At least I don’t think we’ve gotten that warm yet. Probably depends on if you are doing any work outside or not.
I’ve bought some seeds down at the Farmers Co-Op in Greenville. Three for a dollar! Who could pass that up? I’ve even started working on that little raised bed out in front of my house, as well as a few other spots around the yard. The potato’s I just stuck in the ground with out any real hope of seeing any thing green from them have actually poked some leaves up out of the ground. Here’s the wildest thing though. A cabbage plant and two Brussels Sprout plants that I gave up on last spring, plants that just sat there and grew a little all summer, plants that just endured all the frosts, the snow, and spikes in temperatures this past winter? The cabbage is finely making a head and the sprouts are at least trying to make their “little cabbages.” Some of those leaves tasted fine in some Ramen Noodle soup. I bought three more cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, and some broccoli plants. They will be going in the ground soon.
I’m trying something new this year. I’ve got it so I’m using it. I’ll be finding out how good a fertilizer goat poo is. At least it already comes in a “pellet” form.
I was rummaging around in one of my barns yesterday and found a fifty-five gallon drum I’d forgotten I had. The plan right now is to clean that sucker out and figure a way to put a small hole in the side as close to the bottom of it as I can get. Then add on a faucet. After that I’ll just need about four or more cinder blocks so I can set it up a decent height above my garden bed out front. Then I can siphon the rain water in the barrel next to my house into the new barrel and use it to water my garden this summer.
I’ve also been over to the Community Seeds gardens. They seem to be coming along fine. I just have to keep reminding Coop that “you don’t mow a garden!” He’s playing the part of the regular guy, I think. “If it’s green and growing, it’s my job to fire up the mower or weed whacker and cut it down!” I keep telling him he can’t DO THAT! I think he’s kidding. I’m sure he knows better. I think. I have known fellows who volunteered to mow my yard for me who gleefully mowed down flowers, veggies and anything else that didn’t have a fence, or a line of bricks around them. Then when I said something they looked all confused and said, “It was green. I mowed it.”
The one thing that community garden really does need is a water source. As far as I can tell there is only one water faucet out there and it is broken I think. I’ve been talking to Coop about setting up a rain harvesting system there. With all the down spouts around the old school it’s already half set up. Seems to me all we really need now is some racks to set some drums or other water holding device on where they can be attached to the downspouts or a way to pipe all the water from the downspouts into one really huge container where we could store most of the rain water. Sort of a large scale version of what I want to do at my own place. Coop loves the idea and is trying to get a grant or some such for it. I hope that comes through before the rain stops for the summer.
There’s lots of other stuff going on over at Community Seeds besides the Garden. There are classes for the GED test, among others and of course the clothes and accessories you can buy for what most folks can actually afford. Check them out. They might can help you, or maybe you can help them. Nice folks there anyway.
I’ve bought some seeds down at the Farmers Co-Op in Greenville. Three for a dollar! Who could pass that up? I’ve even started working on that little raised bed out in front of my house, as well as a few other spots around the yard. The potato’s I just stuck in the ground with out any real hope of seeing any thing green from them have actually poked some leaves up out of the ground. Here’s the wildest thing though. A cabbage plant and two Brussels Sprout plants that I gave up on last spring, plants that just sat there and grew a little all summer, plants that just endured all the frosts, the snow, and spikes in temperatures this past winter? The cabbage is finely making a head and the sprouts are at least trying to make their “little cabbages.” Some of those leaves tasted fine in some Ramen Noodle soup. I bought three more cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, and some broccoli plants. They will be going in the ground soon.
I’m trying something new this year. I’ve got it so I’m using it. I’ll be finding out how good a fertilizer goat poo is. At least it already comes in a “pellet” form.
I was rummaging around in one of my barns yesterday and found a fifty-five gallon drum I’d forgotten I had. The plan right now is to clean that sucker out and figure a way to put a small hole in the side as close to the bottom of it as I can get. Then add on a faucet. After that I’ll just need about four or more cinder blocks so I can set it up a decent height above my garden bed out front. Then I can siphon the rain water in the barrel next to my house into the new barrel and use it to water my garden this summer.
I’ve also been over to the Community Seeds gardens. They seem to be coming along fine. I just have to keep reminding Coop that “you don’t mow a garden!” He’s playing the part of the regular guy, I think. “If it’s green and growing, it’s my job to fire up the mower or weed whacker and cut it down!” I keep telling him he can’t DO THAT! I think he’s kidding. I’m sure he knows better. I think. I have known fellows who volunteered to mow my yard for me who gleefully mowed down flowers, veggies and anything else that didn’t have a fence, or a line of bricks around them. Then when I said something they looked all confused and said, “It was green. I mowed it.”
The one thing that community garden really does need is a water source. As far as I can tell there is only one water faucet out there and it is broken I think. I’ve been talking to Coop about setting up a rain harvesting system there. With all the down spouts around the old school it’s already half set up. Seems to me all we really need now is some racks to set some drums or other water holding device on where they can be attached to the downspouts or a way to pipe all the water from the downspouts into one really huge container where we could store most of the rain water. Sort of a large scale version of what I want to do at my own place. Coop loves the idea and is trying to get a grant or some such for it. I hope that comes through before the rain stops for the summer.
There’s lots of other stuff going on over at Community Seeds besides the Garden. There are classes for the GED test, among others and of course the clothes and accessories you can buy for what most folks can actually afford. Check them out. They might can help you, or maybe you can help them. Nice folks there anyway.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
New (used) Vehicle, at LAST!
Well, folks, most of you have been reading here that I have been wishing and drooling over trucks and SUV’s because my old truck was acting up, and my left knee was not handling having to use the clutch very well. What’s a poor ol’ country gal to do?
This one waited until her IRA rolled over and went hunting for something better. Okay, so even with my IRA I couldn’t afford much. Darn sure couldn’t afford one of them whiz bang electric cars! Trouble is they just don’t make the kind of hybrid or electric vehicle I really would want. I’d want a truck, or something like one of course. Something that I could use to haul at least a couple or more square bails, and at least four to six, fifty pound sacks of feed. Haul those things all the way out to the barn, and then haul a two horse trailer full of horses, or goats, or whatever out. Maybe even be able to pull a flat bed loaded with an electric/solar powered tractor and bush hog. Yeah! Now your talking!
Sigh. Pipe dreams all, I know. But a gals gotta dream.
Sometimes dreams at least sorta come true.
I found myself a nifty little Hyundai Santa Fee at that new Hyundai place up in Greenville. The one next door to the big Wal-Mart super center. Hot diggity did I get a good deal. A 2005 Santa Fee with all kinds of add-on’s that I didn’t have to pay for. The original buyer did that, bless his or her little pea-pickin’ heart. Then they turned around and sold the thing back to the Hyundai folks who checked it out, fixed what needed fixing and sold it to me. From what the Car-fax report shows they didn’t have to do much to it other than detail it and spiffy it up.
The things got more stuff on it than I’ve ever had on my own car before. Stuff I’ve regularly pooh-poohed as being totally unnecessary. Yep, it’s very unnecessary, but that seat warmer sure felt real good this morning when it was cold. Having a seat that will slid back so all I have to do to get out is turn around, set my feet on the ground and get up . . . Now that is luxury! Especially as, when I get back in, I can just push the same button the other way and it slides up snug to the steering wheel so I don’t have to reach for it, or the pedals.
Oh, it’s got some stuff I’ll likely never use, I’m sure. There’s supposed to be a dingus on it that will learn to open your garage door or even your house! I don’t have a garage or a remotely operable lock on my front door. Don’t plan to get them either.
But that moon roof now! That will be soooo nice this spring when it gets warmer. There is even a luggage rack on the top of the thing! Guess what I’m thinking of hauling up there! Bet it’d hold at least two square bails, maybe three.
Got to talk with the salesman and his boss a little about things other than me buying a vehicle from them during this process. Seems they, and likely every other car dealer is hurting because of the spike in gas prices and the dip in the economy. Sigh. It’s bad all over, alright. Heck, the only reason I can “afford” this vehicle is the money I stashed in that 401K at work and then rolled over into an IRA when I went on Disability. If not for the fact that I had that, and never touched it until now, I couldn’t have gotten this new toy.
So tell ya what folks. Those of you who can afford a new or used vehicle, and happen to be looking for one go on by North Texas Hyundai, there by Wal-Mart in Greenville. Check them out. The folks are real nice and the vehicles are good. Best of all Hyundai’s tend to have good MPG. Tell’m I sent ya. I might make some money if you buy one. Gotta rebuild that IRA somehow.
This one waited until her IRA rolled over and went hunting for something better. Okay, so even with my IRA I couldn’t afford much. Darn sure couldn’t afford one of them whiz bang electric cars! Trouble is they just don’t make the kind of hybrid or electric vehicle I really would want. I’d want a truck, or something like one of course. Something that I could use to haul at least a couple or more square bails, and at least four to six, fifty pound sacks of feed. Haul those things all the way out to the barn, and then haul a two horse trailer full of horses, or goats, or whatever out. Maybe even be able to pull a flat bed loaded with an electric/solar powered tractor and bush hog. Yeah! Now your talking!
Sigh. Pipe dreams all, I know. But a gals gotta dream.
Sometimes dreams at least sorta come true.
I found myself a nifty little Hyundai Santa Fee at that new Hyundai place up in Greenville. The one next door to the big Wal-Mart super center. Hot diggity did I get a good deal. A 2005 Santa Fee with all kinds of add-on’s that I didn’t have to pay for. The original buyer did that, bless his or her little pea-pickin’ heart. Then they turned around and sold the thing back to the Hyundai folks who checked it out, fixed what needed fixing and sold it to me. From what the Car-fax report shows they didn’t have to do much to it other than detail it and spiffy it up.
The things got more stuff on it than I’ve ever had on my own car before. Stuff I’ve regularly pooh-poohed as being totally unnecessary. Yep, it’s very unnecessary, but that seat warmer sure felt real good this morning when it was cold. Having a seat that will slid back so all I have to do to get out is turn around, set my feet on the ground and get up . . . Now that is luxury! Especially as, when I get back in, I can just push the same button the other way and it slides up snug to the steering wheel so I don’t have to reach for it, or the pedals.
Oh, it’s got some stuff I’ll likely never use, I’m sure. There’s supposed to be a dingus on it that will learn to open your garage door or even your house! I don’t have a garage or a remotely operable lock on my front door. Don’t plan to get them either.
But that moon roof now! That will be soooo nice this spring when it gets warmer. There is even a luggage rack on the top of the thing! Guess what I’m thinking of hauling up there! Bet it’d hold at least two square bails, maybe three.
Got to talk with the salesman and his boss a little about things other than me buying a vehicle from them during this process. Seems they, and likely every other car dealer is hurting because of the spike in gas prices and the dip in the economy. Sigh. It’s bad all over, alright. Heck, the only reason I can “afford” this vehicle is the money I stashed in that 401K at work and then rolled over into an IRA when I went on Disability. If not for the fact that I had that, and never touched it until now, I couldn’t have gotten this new toy.
So tell ya what folks. Those of you who can afford a new or used vehicle, and happen to be looking for one go on by North Texas Hyundai, there by Wal-Mart in Greenville. Check them out. The folks are real nice and the vehicles are good. Best of all Hyundai’s tend to have good MPG. Tell’m I sent ya. I might make some money if you buy one. Gotta rebuild that IRA somehow.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Worldwide Revolutions, Or Alt Op #9
Is it just me or is revolution really popping up all over the world? The mid-east is blazing with it. Literally in some cases. It may even be showing up in some other repressive places. These United States are not immune either it seems. Particularly if you look at the Tea Party and some of what it talks about.
Just look at the reactions of the unions up north, and the teachers and parents in Dallas and other big cities to some of the budget cuts. I’m betting Lone Oak is going to take a hit in the education area too.
I guess we all are just going to have to learn how to do as much, or more with less. Heck, I’m actually considering teaching my billy goat or a couple of nannies to pull a small cart. Just as far as the DG or the LOG. If you live here you know where of I speak. I’d rather have one of those cool big tricycles with an electric motor but that’s a bit on the expensive side.
I’d also love to have some solar panels on my roof and a wind turbine in my back yard. Rain gutters, rain barrels and a drip irrigation system would round out my wish list with just about every square inch of the yard near my house taken up with edible landscaping. Chickens would be nice too, for meat, eggs, and fertilizer as well as the good ol’ chicken tractor.
Ah, such are my dreams made of. If anyone knows how I can come up with any of that stuff without shelling out a bundle of cash I don’t have, let me know. As long as it’s legal.
I have had some offers for my baby billy goats that would bring in enough to buy a little more feed. This one fella said he was interested in one, but I’ve got one more who has to go. Goats have no shame and I really don’t want the boys around when mom, aunty, and sis go into heat. If you want one let me know through this newsletter, or I am in the phone book. I’m on Face Book to, and I have two blogs where you can leave a comment. I know I misspelled rural in the following title but if you don‘t spell it the same way you‘ll never get there. It is: www.arurualpointofview.blogspot.com In this new one I just reprint new and old Alternative Opinion pieces. (Of course you already know that as you are reading this as a blog and not as a newsletter article!) In the old one I’ve posted some of the stuff I’ve written in the free writing classes I’m taking at TAMU-C. Most of you probably know that is at www.bettyamontgomery.blogspot.com
As for the cuts that are likely to be made everywhere but at the top, don’t y’all sometimes just wish you could plunk some of those folks making these decisions down here, where we live on next to nothing, and tell them they have to make it here for at least a year before they could even think of going home to the hundred dollar hair cuts and thousand dollar suits. Not only that but they have to obey the same rules we do and no caviar care packages from home. Sort of like that TV show “Undercover Boss,” only they have to stick it out for way more than a week and live on what they make and nothing else.
Maybe that would give them some real empathy. Then again, if something like that did happen, how long would that empathy last? Likely until they saw a drop in their own bottom line. Yep, having lived poor for a while, that’d likely scare them silly. Which might cause them to do things that’d cause us poor folk even more trouble. Oh, well, it sure feels good to think of them trying to survive what we do and falling on their faces in the attempt. I know they aren’t really bad folks at heart, but dang! They have no clue!
Goat update! Shortly after this went in to the newsletter the fellow who'd shown an interest in one of my baby boys decided he could use them both. So, as of now the only male goat I have is the future father of more goats. The plan is for all of those kids, male and female to go to the sale barn where they will hopefully earn enough for me to buy pappa and the momma's feed for a couple of months. Such is life down on the farm.
Just look at the reactions of the unions up north, and the teachers and parents in Dallas and other big cities to some of the budget cuts. I’m betting Lone Oak is going to take a hit in the education area too.
I guess we all are just going to have to learn how to do as much, or more with less. Heck, I’m actually considering teaching my billy goat or a couple of nannies to pull a small cart. Just as far as the DG or the LOG. If you live here you know where of I speak. I’d rather have one of those cool big tricycles with an electric motor but that’s a bit on the expensive side.
I’d also love to have some solar panels on my roof and a wind turbine in my back yard. Rain gutters, rain barrels and a drip irrigation system would round out my wish list with just about every square inch of the yard near my house taken up with edible landscaping. Chickens would be nice too, for meat, eggs, and fertilizer as well as the good ol’ chicken tractor.
Ah, such are my dreams made of. If anyone knows how I can come up with any of that stuff without shelling out a bundle of cash I don’t have, let me know. As long as it’s legal.
I have had some offers for my baby billy goats that would bring in enough to buy a little more feed. This one fella said he was interested in one, but I’ve got one more who has to go. Goats have no shame and I really don’t want the boys around when mom, aunty, and sis go into heat. If you want one let me know through this newsletter, or I am in the phone book. I’m on Face Book to, and I have two blogs where you can leave a comment. I know I misspelled rural in the following title but if you don‘t spell it the same way you‘ll never get there. It is: www.arurualpointofview.blogspot.com In this new one I just reprint new and old Alternative Opinion pieces. (Of course you already know that as you are reading this as a blog and not as a newsletter article!) In the old one I’ve posted some of the stuff I’ve written in the free writing classes I’m taking at TAMU-C. Most of you probably know that is at www.bettyamontgomery.blogspot.com
As for the cuts that are likely to be made everywhere but at the top, don’t y’all sometimes just wish you could plunk some of those folks making these decisions down here, where we live on next to nothing, and tell them they have to make it here for at least a year before they could even think of going home to the hundred dollar hair cuts and thousand dollar suits. Not only that but they have to obey the same rules we do and no caviar care packages from home. Sort of like that TV show “Undercover Boss,” only they have to stick it out for way more than a week and live on what they make and nothing else.
Maybe that would give them some real empathy. Then again, if something like that did happen, how long would that empathy last? Likely until they saw a drop in their own bottom line. Yep, having lived poor for a while, that’d likely scare them silly. Which might cause them to do things that’d cause us poor folk even more trouble. Oh, well, it sure feels good to think of them trying to survive what we do and falling on their faces in the attempt. I know they aren’t really bad folks at heart, but dang! They have no clue!
Goat update! Shortly after this went in to the newsletter the fellow who'd shown an interest in one of my baby boys decided he could use them both. So, as of now the only male goat I have is the future father of more goats. The plan is for all of those kids, male and female to go to the sale barn where they will hopefully earn enough for me to buy pappa and the momma's feed for a couple of months. Such is life down on the farm.
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