Monday, June 28, 2010

Scenes From My Life

You've probably been wondering what I've been up to.

Not that I think that others think much about what I do. Not that I don't think people know that between a full-time job, a new puppy, a new colt, taking care of my current animals, my garden, refinishing furniture, creating my new online store and marketing those items, plus the everyday tasks of laundry, cleaning, mowing and chores, that there is any explaination needed for why my blog has been so sadly neglected.

Aren't you glad you asked? Oh, you didn't ask, did you? Well, I'm gonna tell ya anyway, because it's my blog.

At least it was. And I'm on a mission to reclaim it.

This weekend I was also on a mission to reclaim my yard. When my dad lived here, he hired my uncle and my cousin to help strip the roof down to the rafters and put on a whole new roof.

This means they tore off every single shingle ever laid, including the original wood shingles. As you can imagine, there was quite a mess.

And being men (yes, I'm playing the gender card here), they didn't see any reason to clean up that mess. They did the manly stuff-- tearing off the roof and putting the new one back one--but cleaning is not manly. And it's certainly not much fun.

My dad picked up a lot of it, but working 80 hours a week consistently puts quite a damper on yard activities, so it ended up when he moved out and I moved in, that there was still clean-up work to be done.
And this weekend I'm happy to announce that I removed the last truck load of shingles!!!


I felt like uncorking a bottle of champagne, let me tell you. This is not fun work. Not fun at all. Thank goodness it's over!

I took all the shingles to the silo over at the family farm. It took me almost 2 hours to unload, since I had to do it all by hand.


In case you're wondering, a silo is the remnant of the days when there was no trash pick-up out on the farm. Farmers would burn their trash in barrels and then dump the remnants in the silo. When the silo was full, it would be covered up and a new one would be dug beside it.

Now days we throw burnable rubbish in the silo, so once it's full, instead of covering it my uncle just burns it all down, then we start again. It's pretty dang handy and it's only a couple of miles from my place.

So, cleanup continues, even tonight. I managed to get to the point where everything was picked up and I could use the weedeater. At least I thought I had everything picked up...

...until it picked up a rock and flung it into the window of my porch door.

Oh joy.

Actually, it's kind of funny. Or it will be, one day.

Moving on: my first garden harvest is here!!


Jalapenos, bell peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and zuccinni!! I made the most delicious salad that night.

There's just nothing quite as good as cucumbers and tomatoes from your own garden.

While he wasn't even born when this garden started, Russell is doing his part to help out around the farm. In fact, he's such a dedicated worker that he's learned to multi-task.


He can eat and sleep at the same time.

He's a talented fella.

Sophie also does her part. She loves to keep watch while we drive over to the silo.


On Saturday a deer came about 2 feet from my front bumper and I wouldn't have even known it if Sophie hadn't flung herself across the truck "chasing" after it. It came out of the corn so fast I hardly saw it. I'm still not sure if the brown streak was the deer or Sophie running across the cab of the truck, but in either case, we avoided hitting the deer--for now.

I realize this post has no motif, no central point, and actually no point at all, other than these are a few things from my crazy, simple life, that I deal with on a daily basis: lots of work, some silly animals, and often some unplanned circumstances (like destroyed porch windows). The only thing that is certain is life is never dull on the farm.

I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. Goodnight, John Boy.

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