More Hay

 I ended up buying the wagon of hay I talked about in my post about Saturday's activities.  After DH got home mid-afternoon on Sunday, we went and got it from the farm of the people who do custom baling in the neighborhood (including my own field).  K3 was interested in helping unload it, so she came along.

It was a hot and humid day, but there we were, in our jeans and long sleeved shirts, to protect our skin from the stiff prickly cut ends of the hay bales.  Honestly, there were 'only' 117 bales on the wagon, so between the three of us we didn't expect it to take very long to unload and stack the hay in the loft at this little place here.

And, really, things were going well the first 50 or so bales.  And then the elevator broke. 😭😭 A link in the chain that carries the bales came apart.  After about 20 minutes of fussing with it, including unhooking the PTO shaft from the tractor so we could hand turn it to get the chain in the right spot, DH and I were able to get the link reconnected.  At which point I asked if he thought we should put a couple of zip ties on it, just in case.

To which he said No, wasn't necessary.

Well, I think you can guess what happened next.  Only took two more bales and deja vu, there we were with a disconnected link in the chain.  And now the chain had also jumped the cog at one end of the elevator, so now things were uneven, as the elevator has a chain on the left and a chain on the right with bars that run between them.  The left chain was 'up' two links from the right chain and the bars were all wonky.

More fussing with the elevator for DH and I while K3 waited patiently in the loft for us to be back in business.

We finally got the chains evened out, the right one back on the cog wheel, and the disconnected link pulled back together.  This time, DH put a big honking zip tie on it (while I bit my tongue.  Hard.)

After that, it really didn't take long to finish unloading the wagon and get that hay all stacked in the loft.  In the process of all that elevator chain-link issues, we'd gone past dinner time, and it was now after 7 p.m.  Which meant it was time to get the horses their dinner and bring them in for the night. 

K3 helped me with that, and then she requested that DH take her home so she could take a shower and change into cooler (and less nasty sweaty/full of hay chaff) clothes.  Given how gross and hot we all were feeling at that point, we didn't even try to talk her into staying for the pizza we'd planned to order--pizza being our easy-out go-to dinner after putting up hay.  So DH quick changed his own clothes and took her home.  

While he was gone, I called our favorite local pizza joint and put in an order, which he would pick up after dropping off K3 and before coming back home.  Then I jumped in the shower to cool off and clean off.  I swear I couldn't get that shower water cold enough, I kept turning it down a hair, and it only felt cooler for a few seconds before I felt the need to turn it down again.  I was going for 'Lake Superior in early June' temperature (IYKYK), but never did get it that cold before my turning the dial down incrementally ended up just turning the water completely off.

Oh well.  I did feel cooler and less covered in green 'herb' sprinkles (aka hay chaff) than I had prior, and DH arrived with the pizza right about the time I was dried off and dressed.  In shorts and a tank top.

Glad we had the opportunity to buy the hay, it looks to be good stuff.  Glad we got it up in the loft.  But man, a cooler day to do that would have been nice.  (Or, at least, an elevator that didn't break and add about an hour in the blazing sun.)

Any Given Saturday

 Last Saturday, I was (again) home alone for the majority of the weekend.  While there were some 'must dos' on my list for the day, I decided to, for the most part, tackle whatever I felt like doing around those have to do items.  For funsies, I kept a list of everything I did that day.  (Well, not everything, as I obviously didn't record bathroom breaks or brushing my teeth and hair, getting dressed, etc).

Anyway, if you're bored interested, here's what my Saturday looked like on that given day:

I fed horses their breakfast.

I fed myself my breakfast: a couple pieces of ham (I'd put small baggies of 2-4 slices of ham into a gallon sized freezer bag and put them in the freezer last year for such purposes as this) and two chocolate chip pancakes (also from the freezer, leftover from last time the grandkids spent the night).

Then I boiled six eggs and when they were done in the hot water and ready for their cold soak, I 

-went out and turned out horses

-cleaned stalls

-replaced the grossly-full-after-less-than-a-month fly ribbons hanging above the horse stalls

Also before noon, I was able to 

-clean past-their-edible-phase fruits and veggies and non-meat leftovers from the fridge and put them in the compost bucket, which I dumped in the compost bin out by the garden

-clean out the still sorta edible (like not moldy or slimy or gross) but I wasn't going to eat it things like shriveled blueberries, leftover peas (I'd already had some of the peas twice that week), and overripe watermelon from the fridge and give it to the chickens, which I let out of their coop at that time.

-wash and hang two loads of laundry on the clothesline 

-ran down the road to look at some hay I'd been offered to buy off the wagon after it was baled later that day (same family that does my hay was cutting and baling a neighbor's field about two miles away)

-rinsed my cucumbers that had been doing a limewater soak the three times rinsing and resoak in clean water 1 hour each time called for by my go-to customized dill pickle recipe

-set up the canner to heat the water to a boil and also set up another pot with the vinegar, water, canning salt and turmeric brine to simmer.

Then I fed myself lunch, which was two more pieces of ham from that breakfast baggie and some thin-sliced smoked gouda cheese made into a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on homemade bread with about a dozen sweet cherries on the side.

Wow!  I was kind of amazed when I looked at my documented activities from the morning.  Not bad.  I actually had done a lot and wasn't feeling tired/overworked yet.  So I continued after lunch.

I made deviled eggs with three of those hard boiled eggs I'd cooked that morning; the other three eggs I left for eating on salad in the coming days.

I peeled and sliced some short but fat cukes from the garden and made them into refrigerator pickles for DH to enjoy after he returned home on Sunday.

I canned dill pickles made from those cucumbers I'd limed the night before and rinsed that morning.  Three quarts and one pint worth.

While waiting on the canner, I emptied the dishwasher of clean dishes, swept the mudroom and kitchen, and vacuumed the living and dining rooms plus DH's home office.

After that I tallied up how much it had cost to raise the broiler chickens this year.  DS2 and DD1 each had wanted me to raise a few for them with promises that they'd reimburse me the costs of each bird they took.  I was unhappy to find that it cost me $18 per bird--although each bird weighed between 5 & 6 pounds after processing--because my original guesstimate based on last year's costs was only $13-14 per bird.  That extra $3 per bird processing fee having to not use my planned on processor really was a hit.  All the other price increases--like on feed and the purchase price of the chicks themselves--were tiny compared to that.

Plus, I also

-moved a dresser we don't need/use from the upstairs down to the garage so I can get rid of it (will list on local free pages)

-emptied the water in the dehumidifier

-weeded the four rows of peppers in the garden and 4 of the 6 rows of cucumbers

-walked to the mailbox and got the mail

-fed myself dinner of a salad and a protein bar (too hot to feel hungry)

By then it was time to bring in the horses and feed them their dinner.  Once that was done, I

-picked beans, cucumbers and zucchini

-made a chocolate zucchini cake

-loaded the dishwasher

-shut in chickens and gathered eggs

-sat on the porch swing and read Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts while listening to cicadas singing in the nearby trees

--ate a big hunk of zucchini cake still warm from the oven (YUM!)

 And that was what I did with my Saturday.

Happy Things This Week

 While I may not have taken any days off, or gone anywhere that would be considered fun this week (I do not consider the grocery store fun), and I was incredibly busy all week, that doesn't mean it was a bad, draining, unhappy week.

Am I exhausted, sitting here typing this on Friday evening?  Oh heck yes, I'm ready for a twelve hour snooze (as if that ever happens, even on the rare vacation).  The heat and humidity are ramping back up, and I certainly feel that pressure on my body.  But, as tired as I am, I can still see things that made me happy.

For one,--and don't judge me for the first picture, which is partly a before and partly an in-progress photo--I got the master bath shower scrubbed.  It hadn't had a good scouring in about a year (and, honestly, not even a half-assed one in six months or more) and was looking pretty skanky. Gotta love well water, especially iron-rich well water (and yes, we do have a water softener but it can only accomplish so much. . . )  

Part of the lapse was because I was out of my go-to wonderful shower cleaner, and found out several months later that it had been taken off the market (it was pretty potent stuff, so probably not the greatest environmental- or health-wise, but dang it did a good job with hard water stains.)  A different brand was finally recommended to me by someone else who has very hard water, and I was able to get ahold of some of that to try.

Before/During

The after picture looks much more appetizing.  'New' brand did the trick, although it says no scrubbing needed, just spray on and wipe away and I most definitely had to scrub, even with a scrub brush in some areas. Now to keep it this way. Perhaps a monthly cleaning will only require a spray on and wipe away. . . 

After

 I didn't, technically, enjoy scrubbing out that nasty shower, but I am loving how bright, clean, shiny and generally more pleasant it is now!  (Do you think I can give myself a cash bonus equal to what it would have cost to pay someone to do this unpleasant task?)

Much more fun than taking a mineral deposited shower back to pristine brightness (or as close as it gets after almost 22 years of use), was cutting a bunch of black eyed Susans from the front flower bed and bringing them inside to beautify the dining room table.  

The 'vase' is actually an antique blue glass Ball canning jar that previously belonged to DH's paternal grandmother. When she died about 20 years ago her daughters divided up her canning jars and, since they knew I was the only one of this generation (the grandchildren) who cans and preserves food like they do, they shared some with me.  The blue ones I don't use for canning, but use them for display instead.

I have been trying to get DH (and myself) to eat salad of some type--not counting pasta salads-- at least three times a week all summer.  We had an especially colorful one with our dinner the other night (along with marinated and grilled chicken breast from one of our freshly butchered broilers).

After not being home enough the last three weeks to work on anything in the Finish The Tack Room category, DH installed the light fixture I'd bought for it.  It's LED and SO BRIGHT!  But I wanted bright, like full sun daylight bright, because 1) it's a 12' ceiling and 2) there's going to be a 18" or 24" wide shelf around three of the four walls at approximately 6-7' from the floor for storing totes of out of season or otherwise not used daily/weekly horse-related stuff and that shelf is going to kinda block light coming from above.

This is the light I got, with two moveable panels so that I can kind of aim the light 'under' the future shelf, which is where the saddles and bridles will be stored.

Last Sunday evening, DH and I had a small campfire (really to burn some brush and paper garbage we'd accumulated), and while sitting out there watching the fire, I was able to do some knitting.  

Back in March, when we'd taken K3 and Toad to Sedona on Spring Break for a hiking trip, I had started working on a new pair of socks.  It pretty much got a few inches knit on that trip, and then I didn't touch it on a regular basis after Easter.  However, it was to a point that two hours of knitting on Sunday brought me to the needed foot length for beginning the toe decreases. And once you start the toe decreases, well, you get kind of obsessed about just finishing the dang sock already!

I finished the toe and grafted it closed last night while DH was watching TV.  So now I have one sock knit this entire year! Woo Hoo! I'm hoping to at least find a half hour someday soon to cast on and get the cuff knit for it's mate; maybe by Christmas I'll have a pair I can wear.  The yarn is some Trekking XXL that I've had in my stash for probably 10 years.  So if I make it into socks, does that count as decluttering my house?

What 'simple' joys did you find in your week this week?

Maybe This Was a Sign

 You know how, back in June, I posted about my struggle to get ahold of broiler chicks to raise this year?  If now, take a sec and read this.

Well, turns out procuring chicks was not the end of the difficulties in raising my own meat birds.  For five years now, I have used a wonderful processor that is about a 40 minute drive from me.  They do a great job, very nice facility, very nice people, and have been very easy to work with.  Unlike the closer to me processor, they do not require me to book my butcher date before I even have chicks in hand! (Growing time being 6-8 weeks, the closest processor is so busy they require you to book your date at least two months out, preferably three. . . )

I have been very happy with the further processor, until I tried calling them in mid-July to get on their list for last week of July processing.  Typically they only book 1-2 weeks out and don't take reservations further out than that. I've never had an issue with them not being available in the date range I need. Imagine my utter panic at having 4.5 week old birds and finding out that my beloved processor has sold their business!!  The new owners are almost another hour further from me, and they aren't set up yet.

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who am I going to find to process these birds in 2 or at most 3 weeks?!?  I googled.  I left phone messages.  I emailed.  I prayed, and I faced the fact that very likely it was going to be me processing these 16 birds when they were 6-7 weeks old.

I can do it.  I have done it before.  It's not fun, and I don't have the ideal equipment (no plucker for one, and last time I processed my own it was a smaller batch and I skinned them rather than plucking). 5-6 of the 16 are going to family members, so skinning wasn't going to work for those.

When the closest to me processor called me back two days after I'd left a message, and said they could squeeze my birds in the first week of August (at which point they'd be 8 weeks old), I jumped on the opportunity.  They charge $3 a bird more than what I'd planned on paying (for the other processor), and they individually bag & shrink wrap and toss all the birds into their walk in fridge(s) to await pickup at the end of the day (rather than tossing them into large bags if I so choose, calling me to come get as soon as my batch is finished, and storing them in coolers on ice provided by me). 

But you know what?  Beggars can't be choosers and nobody else I'd contacted could do them in the needed timeframe, and I sure didn't want to have to process them myself.  Too busy right now to spend more than half a day slaughtering chickens, cutting them for the freezer, and cleaning up the mess.  Cutting them up after they've been processed and then packaging for the freezer myself is way faster and easier than doing the deed from start to finish.

Loaded up to go to the processor.

Home again, looking like dinner.

The local processor that I used this time, despite being almost twice as much per bird for processing as the further away processor, really was a great experience all the way around.  And I am super thankful they were willing to squeeze me in instead of saying "No can do, you didn't book at the proper time to get on our schedule."  If I do decide to keep raising my own in future years, I'll budget in the extra $$ for using them and I'll try to book a butchering date as soon as I order my chicks.

But, back to my thoughts on this year's meat chicken experience as a whole. . . 

So, it was not only difficult to get chicks to raise, it had also been difficult (and stressful, very stressful) getting someone to process them for me in the needed date range.  Strike One.  Strike Two.

Raising them was mostly uneventful until the last week and a half of their lives.  At which point I had raccoon trouble.  The coons have been avoiding the live trap that I've constantly had baited and set next to the grow out pen since moving chicks outside from the brooder.  Instead, they've been trying to break into the pen, and it's only been divine intervention keeping my broilers alive.  The coons have yanked off the wire in one spot, but thankfully didn't realize they had a hole large enough to squeeze through.  They've pulled off a chunk of board on one side where the side meets the roof--ironically climbing on top of the live trap in order to reach that high, and again, thankfully it wasn't a gaping enough hole that they climbed in.  They've pulled small chunks of wood off a lower section of that same side.  Each morning that the destruction is discovered, DH has patched my grow out pen back together, but it is obviously on it's last legs and it's useful life is being shortened by the coons.  

I'm thinking that's Strike Three.  Rather than building a whole new pen for next year's birds, and trying to reserve birds in January for May/June delivery, and reserving a butchering date in advance of the chicks even hatching, it might be better to just look into who grows pasture raised broilers and order what I need from them.  Maybe I'm just not supposed to raise my own any more; maybe this was a sign.

Hey, What, It's August?!?

 For the last several weeks, most days if you asked me what day it was I would tell you the wrong one.  Usually a day or two ahead of what it actually was.  This week, for example, Tuesday felt like Thursday all ready to me.  So on Thursday I was sure it was Saturday, and yesterday I almost put horses out an hour early so I could change my clothes and get ready for church.  Except it was Friday, not Sunday, and thank goodness I realized it in time before I got myself all gussied up. (Which, honestly isn't very gussied but does usually involve a dress or skirt, earrings, and not having my hair in a ponytail. LOL)

While yesterday may not have been Sunday, it was the first day of August.  All ready!  

Well, no wonder I'm starting to feel a) burnt out on gardening and b) like my house needs to be gutted and thoroughly cleaned and c) like I need to run away and go somewhere relaxing!  

As the sole caretaker of the animals and the garden as well as the person in charge of all things food at this little place here, summer is not a time when I laze around, take vacations, and generally wonder what to do with my time.  Summer is like full speed ahead, balls to the wall, hit the ground running every morning and don't sit down until dark every night.  Not that I don't hit the ground running every morning all year long (I suspect this is a habit I really should change to be a bit more relaxing and warm up to the new day kind of lifestyle), but in summer with it's long hours of daylight that's 14+ hours a day 7 days a week of not sitting down with the exception of eating meals (and church on Sunday).  And, like the hit the ground running morning ritual, meals typically are not a long time of sitting, more like the minimum seat time necessary for refueling and then I'm squealing tires out of pit row and back into the race.

You know, the fact that DH doesn't adhere to the same seasonal extra-work-can't-leave-home schedule and has been gone (*ahem* playing in the name of taking various family members on canoe and kayak float trips) most weekends since the middle of June probably doesn't help with my glut of work that keeps me from sitting and relaxing.  Or taking even a day off to recharge myself somewhere that I'm not responsible for making sure 36 mouths have enough to eat (20 young chickens, 9 adult chickens, 4 horses, 1 cat, DH and myself)  and that the garden isn't shriveling up from lack of rain/watering or getting overrun in weeds that smother my veggie crops and that the dishes get washed and laundry gets done and put away and bills are paid and the floors aren't too gritty or the furniture too dusty or the trash too stinky before it gets taken out to the bin. . .

I'm all for making hay while the sun shines, but you know, I need to include down time for enjoying while the sun shines, not months from now when it's chilly and damp and icky outside.  I like sunshine. I love sunshine.  That's part of why I practically live outside in the summer months; I can't pull myself indoors away from the sunshine so I go whole hog on outdoor work.  Do I need to raise our own meat birds?  Perhaps I could, in coming years, buy them from a local person raising them.  Do I need to grow as much as possible in a quarter-acre garden and tend it by myself?  And then be the only one harvesting and preserving the bounty?  While some of that is a yes because of my dietary needs (ie avoiding a lot of additives in food from the stores), maybe we should do some budget shuffling to procure the same good food from someone else.

And then there's the whole point b) gut the house thing. . . Housekeeping is not my favorite task.  And, when I'm outside all day, housekeeping is reduced to the bare minimums.  Which, by this time in the summer, means that the inside of my house is driving me nuts because no one else here takes care of it (lookin' at you, DH, who's idea of tidying is to every few weeks stack things in piles for me to take care of).  When the weather changes and I'm forced indoors in a few months, I really don't want to be in a cluttered mess of a place.  Housekeeping fairy, where are you? I could use a visit from your magic wand. . .

Which leads me to c) wanting to run away.  The urge to take a day trip is getting stronger.  I need to wait until after this week--broiler chickens are meeting their doom going to freezer camp--and find a farm care person who is willing to not just do feeding and turnouts but also clean stalls (DH adamantly refuses to help with stalls) and then I think I going to run a few hours away and do some beachside rockhounding.  Still outdoors, but no garden weeds or chores in sight, and while it's still August, i.e. summer, i.e. sun shining!

Meanwhile, let me offer you a sampling of photos of things going on at this little place here lately.  If it weren't for the fact that phones these days are practically never separate from our bodies, and that phones have cameras, I probably wouldn't have any pictures of my life to remember summers by.  Hence, this collection of things that caught my eye, or I thought about sharing as I've gone about my busy days.

the tomato patch, with grape arbor in the background

friendly neighborhood cat (not my cat, therefore not a mouth I feed)

visiting me while I was checking for pickle-sized cucumbers

the wild blackberries on the edge of the woods are getting ripe;

this was enough to enjoy with my yogurt and granola breakfast the next morning

Faline helping me hang laundry the day DD1 needed me to watch her for a while after VBS

blue swallowtail

reddish day lilies

little green frog

a brown garter? snake

(not sure, as I don't know if they come in brown; first brown one I've seen)

running some errands in Sweet Madame Blue and she rolled 3100 miles

(that lady lives a life of luxury and goes out in good weather only)

K3 having a riding lesson/helping me train the LBM

(owner wants 'anyone to be able to jump on and ride')

Beating The Mud Battle

Part Two of our multi-phase driveway project.

With the new culvert in last summer, some of the mud issues in front of the barn and the approach to the shop were alleviated.  That wasn't going to quite fix the softening of the ground and making ruts during the Spring thaw, though.

So, in late winter, before thawing really began, DH ordered 20 yards (? I actually can't remember the exact amount) of crushed asphalt and we made a driveway to the shop.  That was a much faster and simpler project than the culvert project had been.  

We marked out, using ropes, the exact path of our new driveway, including fixing that troublesome curve.  With the arc of the curve moved to where we'd originally, in 2002, wanted it to be, it was easy to make a spur that went straight in front of the barn and the shop.

DH told the delivery driver which two spots he wanted the asphalt dropped at, and once that was done, he used the tractor to spread it and pack it.  As the ground thawed, the asphalt packed more, and not once was there a rut or a tire spinning in clay mud!

going where no driveway has gone before

the adjusted curve, with it's new spur to the outbuildings

No more muddy path to the barn or shop!

There will be yet another phase to this long driveway project, and that will be, at some point this year or next, to order more crushed asphalt and do a top coat to the whole shebang from road to garage and outbuildings and around the circle loop.  Then we'll be done hopefully for another couple of decades.

A Big-ish Project From Last Summer

 Last summer, once we'd finished building and laying mats in the remaining stalls in the barn, DH decided it was time to start another big project.  Not quite as big as building stalls in all the many facets that entailed, but still, a multi-part project that required quite a bit of use of heavy equipment. This multi-part project was a pre-req of another project we'd been talking about off and on for about a decade.  Ironically, the pre-req wasn't easier than the other project, unlike when you are taking classes and there's a pre-req.

So, what was this particular project?  Digging out and replacing the culvert that runs under our driveway up near the house/garage. Put in back in 2002, when the driveway to our house was 'built', we'd since discovered two things:

1. The driveway curve to approach the house/garage from the north wasn't quite where we had originally wanted it to be. The stake we'd put in to mark the middle of the driveway for the curve was mistaken as the eastern-most edge of the curve.  And once the driveway was installed, and the house/garage built, approaching the garage straight enough to pull in the overhead door was a bit tricky on the eastern-most door.
2. In order to 'fix' the driveway and re-route that curve to the more desirable location/arc for straight approach to that particular door, we would need to extend the culvert. And bring in more dirt/base material to build up the location for that curve.

Neither was a real hot button, and over the years there were much more pressing things to spend our time and money on.  But, while building DH's shop in the Fall of 2022, the culvert got damaged.  Being driven over repeatedly by a 25-yard gravel train (of sand needed in bringing up the grade around one half of the shop) had crushed part of it.  

Didn't affect us much until winter came, and it was a really wet winter.  Lots and lots of rain, often on top of frozen ground. Water pooled up in the circle part of our driveway because the culvert was partially blocked.  And then when things started to thaw out, that crushed culvert became an extremely leaky culvert, and a small sinkhole developed in the driveway.  Now it was a problem.

Hence, DH's decision to not extend the culvert, but to replace it.  And if we were going to replace it, we might as well get one long enough to be what we'd need when re-doing that curve in the driveway.  (And if we were going to have the right length culvert, we might as well put the driveway reroute on our calendar. . .)

So, we walked off several driveway culvert location scenarios, complete with rope to lay down as a visual so we could see which option we liked best.  The one we both agreed was the most preferable in terms of drainage and working with where we wanted to amend that curve in the driveway was in the same spot as the crushed one, but about twice as long so that it both extended further into the circle part of the drive for better reach to the lowest part of the circle and ran under and out the other side of the grassy slope we used as a way to back long trailers perpendicular to the front door of the barn and pull out straight up onto the driveway where it goes past the house.  Which is how we ended up needing 30+ feet of culvert.  

That is not an easy size to come by when you are doing this yourself and want a normal diameter corrugated plastic driveway culvert instead of some massive takes-a-creek-under-a-roadway diameter metal culvert.  Thankfully, the nearby big box store had 10' (or was it 12'? I don't remember now) sections in stock as well as the needed couplers to connect it all to the desired length.

Before the new culvert could be installed, the old one had to be removed.  DH did a little digging with the tractor bucket, and a little digging by hand, and had me wrap a strap around the middle of the existing culvert via the hole he'd dug above and on either side of it.  His thought was with the strap around the middle then attached to the tractor bucket, he could use the tractor to lift up and pull out the old culvert.

What he didn't account for was how much dirt had washed in via the broken spot (remember the sinkhole in the spring?)  That dirt was heavy, and the tractor could not pull the culvert free of it's spot in the driveway even with most of the layer of driveway removed from above it.  Which meant more hand digging.  Another attempt at pulling with the tractor broke the culvert into two pieces, the lighter of which came out.  More digging (and sweating, and, truthfully, swearing) and eventually the entire old culvert was out.  Which left a trench about a foot and a half wide across the width of the driveway.  And, now it was getting too late at night to put the new one in because the removal had taken about four hours longer than anticipated.

(Seems like every project--and some vacations--we endeavor to do there's always a lengthy frustrating delay or unforeseen problem that becomes kind of a funny memory years in the future.  Maybe someday I'll write the story of our trip from Michigan to Oregon hauling a new-to-us camper in 2008 and blowing out 3 of the 4 camper tires one by one along the way. . . )

The next day, we dug out the trench for the new culvert to sit in, using the laser transit to mark depth so that there were no high spots along the length of it.  Afterall, the whole idea of this new culvert was to get the water to drain where we wanted it to and not create puddles, sinkholes, or really muddy areas where we needed to drive which included not just the existing driveway but the area in front of the barn and the shop where we intended to create a driveway.  Getting the pitch right was very important.

Once we had the trench at the right length, depth, and pitch, the new culvert pieces were joined together and laid into the trench.  Easy peasy. Then DH backfilled, using the tractor.

We ordered some gravel, and spread that over the part of the driveway that we'd had to dig up for the culvert replacement.  Good as new!

The slop (or 'ramp' as we typically refer to it) that now had a culvert underneath it needed a little modification in width and pitch, both to protect the culvert when being driven over as well as for ease of driving a vehicle towing a trailer or hay wagon up or down.  Using dirt from a place in the field DH had been wanting to modify (for better drainage) anyway, he adjusted the ramp.  The old culvert had ended about 6' from the ramp (which had been the north edge of the existing little hill we'd built the house at this little place here on), and that distance had made a really hazardous drop off of about three feet on the driveway edge. Now, with the new, longer culvert, we filled that in so that the driveway--with it's newly adjusted curve--and the ramp flow together. No drop off for unsuspecting visitors (or drivers not paying attention) to fall off of.

That was then end of this phase of our two part project.  The second part happened during the winter.

I Did a Whole Counted Cross Stitch and Never Mentioned it Once!

 Over the weekend, I put the finishing back stitches onto a sorta large counted cross stitch project that I'd started back in January.  At which point I took a picture, so I could share here my finished product.  And then, scanning back though this entire year's blog posts, couldn't find a single mention that I was even doing any counted cross stitch once Christmas presents had been made for 2024.

Huh.  

Well, for a good part of the winter and a bit of early spring, I was working on a new cross stitch, by the same designer as the fox and the squirrel I'd done in previous years.  This one is a rabbit, and you can find the pattern here.  I actually got everything but about three colors of the back stitching done by Easter time.  And then my cross stitch got put away in the 'clean the house for Easter company' frenzy, and until ten days ago, I hadn't touched it once.

Typically summer is not a time of much stitching for me, as there is so much to be done outside and other than cooking/eating meals most days I'm not in the house until after dark.  As I get older, my eyes don't so much like cross stitching under artificial light.  So cross stitching has become more of a cold-weather day time thing for me.

However, we had some really hot and extremely humid weather lately, and in the name of not dropping dead from heat stroke, I spent a bit more time indoors than I usually would in July.  And, to be productive without actually doing housework  I pulled out my rabbit cross stitch and decided to put some back stitches into it.  By the third day of working a little here and there on it, I was surprised to find that I was done!

So, here it is!

You know what this means, right?  Now I need to pick a new cross stitch project to start so I have something to stitch on if we continue to have suffocatingly humid days this summer.  🤣  Realistically, it's time to pick a new Santa ornament to stitch as my Mom's Christmas gift this year.  I have several kits in my stash as options.

Garlic, MMMM

 Earlier this week, I harvested my garlic crop.  Last fall, I had planted it in a corner of the garden that I'd piled about four inches deep in (mostly) composted horse manure.  Since garlic is a heavy feeder of nitrogen, and horse manure is pretty high in nitrogen, I was hoping that this combination would yield me a crop of decent sized garlic bulbs.

And, for the most part, it did.  Almost every bulb of garlic I pulled, no matter which of the five varieties I'd planted, was as big as the individually sold heads of garlic in the grocery stores.  And, of a few varieties, there were many garlic bulbs that were close to baseball sized.  I am quite happy with the results of this informal experiment.

Guess how I'll be prepping my garlic beds from now on, LOL.

For the most part, every clove of garlic I had planted last fall grew and yielded a head of garlic this summer.  One variety had a smaller yield, I'd say about 70%, and those were also the smallest bulbs. But of the rest, two varieties gave me 100% of what I'd planted, and two others were more than 95%. 

We've had a couple of days of scattered showers since I harvest the garlic, but on the non-rainy days I've been spreading the garlic out on the front porch in the breeze and (indirect) sunshine in order to dry the necks down and cure the heads.  Once the 'stems' are all dried up, I will cut off the heads and bring them into the basement to separate out the ones I want to save for this year's seed garlic (the largest heads), and store the rest for eating.

So. . .

 First, I want you to read this old post.  Partly because it covers quite nicely the 'joy' of free food sent to my home by my mother-in-law.  And, partly because some of it is rather funny.  At least it is to me, reading it seven years after the fact, and remembering how horribly overwhelmed I was by life at that time (but successfully chugging through without totally losing my shit  mind).  Not that I haven't been quite frequently overwhelmed by life in the years since, but there's a certain naivety to that post I see now, having gone through so many frustrations in between.

Okay, did you read it?  Now for today's little rant.  Which is much like the noodle rant.

It's actually been quite a few years since Mother-in-Law sent down a ton (not literal, it just feels like it right now) of food I don't want/need.  Since covid she's mostly caught family members when they are up visiting and requested they 'shop' her breezeway for various grocery items she's brought home as leftovers/unclaimed food from the weekly food pantry she volunteers at. I like that approach much better, as I can say "I can really use those two boxes of elbow macaroni" or "I'd love to have three jars of creamy peanut butter" rather than having the responsibility of not wasting foods I don't/can't eat foisted on me. I can leave all the processed food I can't eat behind.  I can turn my back on the half-dozen cans of canned prunes.  Walk away from the cases of  super sweetened 'sports drink' and forget it even exists.

Until this month, that is.  DH went up north to retrieve a new mattress we'd bought at the store of his friend who gives us great deals.  The store is less than two miles from Mother-in-Law's house.  Which means DH had to stop in and see his mom while he was in the area.  He came home with not just our new mattress (which I was eagerly anticipating sleeping on, our other one having developed some quite uncomfortable hollows in recent years), but also with a 'box of food'.  A box, which, upon inspection, holds dried pinto beans.  Just dried pinto beans.  Nineteen one-pound bags of pinto beans.

*Sigh*.  Here we go again.  I checked with my kids to see if any of them would like some dried pinto beans.  Got rid of two bags.  With all of them working full time (except Surprise who is going to school and trying to do a little side hustle perfume business as well as still learning to be a mom, and Two-EEs who is on maternity leave for another few weeks), they are not interested in food that requires enough forethought to put it on to soak the night before you want to eat it plus an hour or more of simmering the day of.  If they want refried beans for taco night, they will grab a can at the grocery store.  

Because refried is pretty much the only way we've ever eaten pinto beans.  And, honestly, I'm in the same boat.  Can I use these beans and make refried beans?  Yes.  Have I made refried beans from scratch using dried pinto beans before? Yes.  Do I want to now?  Uh, not really.  I'm rather working full time plus myself this summer between the horse business and tending the garden.  I'm all about buying my refried beans by the can from the grocery store currently.  (On sale, and in multiples so I never run out, LOL).  

And with just DH and I at home to feed, I certainly am not going to soak and cook up an entire pound bag at a time.  It would take me YEARS to use up 19 pounds of dried pinto beans.

Does my local food bank want them?  Nope.  They want canned goods that people can open and heat, no skill (or soaking time) required.  (Honestly, I'm thinking that's why these 19 pounds of beans went unclaimed at the food pantry pick-up the week Mother-in-Law brought them back home so they didn't get thrown away when the pantry closed.)

But wait, there's more!  The beans aren't my only "What am I going to do with this? Where in the world am I going to store this?" food item this month.  Because when Mother-in-Law came down for Rascal and Octavia's baptism, she brought fish. 

Specifically, individually packaged, frozen lake trout filets.  Which sound like a great thing to be given, right?

I'm allergic to fish.

I have been allergic to fish the entire time I've known DH (and Mother-in-Law).  I'm pretty darn sure she knows I'm allergic to fish, the number of times we've been at her house in the last 34 years and I can't eat what she made for dinner because it's fish and I'm allergic to fish.

So, thirty frozen lake trout filets are not what I want to have to put into my freezer.  Because not only am I not going to eat a single bite of one of them, let alone thirty, I'm also not going to invite people over for dinner and serve them fish.  My allergy has gotten to where not only can't I eat it, but I can't cook it (for years I would occasionally cook fish for DH and the kids) either.  And, if I go into the house after someone else has cooked fish in my kitchen, I get ill just from the lingering fish oil in the air.  

This isn't just a matter of what am I going to do with this food I can't eat and don't want to throw away because it's good for other people who do want it.  No, this is more like being told you have the responsibility of caretaking this thing that could maybe kill you.  But you should be grateful for that responsibility because this thing didn't cost you anything.

I don't even want the darn things in my freezer, where I keep the meats that I can eat.  Not to mention the fact that we have a quarter of a beef on order that is going to the butcher in late August.  I need my freezer space for beef, not fish.

Do my kids want any of them?  Not really.  Because of past icky experiences with Mother-in-Law and seafood she has gifted them, they are all running away as fast as they can.  Nobody wants to take a chance on these fish even though both DH and I checked them thoroughly on arrival to make sure they hadn't thawed the least little bit (the thawed shrimp--from the food pantry, previously frozen--Christmas gifts one year are the reason for the adamant refusal of any seafood coming from Mother-in-Law).

Any ideas on where I can donate this fish?  Not that I have extra time in this incredibly busy season to call around and then drive it somewhere that can use it. . .

Happy Friday!

 It's been a busy week.  In the past seven days. . . 

--Rascal and Octavia got baptized! 

 

Of DS1 and K2's children, K3 and Toad had been baptized, but shortly after Rascal was born, K2 decided she did not like our church, tried a few others, also decided she didn't like them, and just plain refused to baptize Rascal anywhere.  Since by then DS1 was constantly walking on eggshells to not send her into a wild mental health episode (there were four suicide attempts and at least one OD in the two years before Rascal's birth and the three years after he was born  and before K2 died), Rascal just did not get baptized, no matter what anyone other than K2 thought was good for him.  Now, with it being several years since K2 passed away, and having another child about to be born, DS1 made arrangements--and explained to Rascal why he believes baptism is important--for Rascal to be baptized at the same time as Octavia. K2's brother along with his wife and sons (who live out of state) came to the baptism; it was wonderful to see them there.

--I worked in the garden a lot, catching up on weeding and mulching.  Sweaty, tired, sore, but the garden is looking great finally!  

That is, if you ignore that woodchucks or deer or rabbits ate all my pepper plants off to nubs.  I'm hoping there's time for them to regrow and produce peppers yet this season, but also keeping my ears open for somewhere I can get peppers of the right kinds in bulk when it's time to can salsa (after onions are harvested and once my tomatoes come on) and pickled peppers.

--My hay field finally got cut.  

This spring/summer we've had quite a bit of wet weather.  Which is great for making things grow, but really difficult to plan when to cut hay so that it's not either being laid on wet ground or gets rained on before the hay is dry and baled.  So, I have rather overmature hay (I'll be looking to buy more with better nutritional value elsewhere), but it can at least be fed to the 'air ferns' who get fat just by looking at hay as well as be used as 'busy hay' for feeding in the pastures over the winter or in the stalls on inclement weather days.  The fact that it was cut dry, baled dry, and put in the loft dry takes a load of worry off my shoulders.

Now, hopefully the weather will cooperate to have it grow fast enough that we can get a second cutting done in early to mid-September.  After that, it's really difficult to get hay to dry in Michigan. I'm planning on looking for about 200 bales of second cutting grass/grass mix hay to buy locally in the next month just as insurance that I will have enough hay in the loft to get through to next year's hay season.

                                    

--We got a cold front through on Wednesday night that brought our daytime temps back down into the mid-70s for Thursday and today.  Hooray!  I was out of bread and not really looking forward to heating the house up even more (it's been sitting in the 80s indoors; we don't have AC) by using the oven to bake more bread, so this cold spell arrived just in time.

--DD2 met DH and I yesterday evening for another free concert in the park of the nearby town.  It was an orchestra group made of high school kids from a town about 45 minutes away, and they played Celtic music.  The weather was great, and we had an enjoyable time watching and listening to these talented young musicians.

--When I went to the local Tractor Supply store this week for more broiler chick feed, I saw that they were clearancing out all their Schleich toys at 50% off.  Looking through what was left, I was happily surprised to find four horses that look just enough like the four horses that live at this little place here that I figured my grandkids would love to play 'Grandma's Horse Farm' with them.  So I bought them.  Now there's a herd outside, and a matching herd inside, LOL.

     

                                   

--Yesterday afternoon while I was out replacing some of the t-post insulator caps on my pasture fences (the clips that hold the electric tape had broken off, typically a result of deer trying to go over the fence and hitting it), about 20 feet in front of me popped up the twin fawns that have been living in my greater pasture area this summer.  They didn't run off, but rather stood curiously and watched me work for a few minutes before moving further away.

        
                                                                   

--This morning, DD1, Faline and I went and got hair cuts.  This was Faline's first hair salon experience (DD1 has been trimming it so far).  She will be going into kindergarten in about a month, and is getting to the stage where she wants to brush and fix her hair all by herself, but it was down almost to her waist and just too long for her to manage on her own.  

DD1 has been growing her hair since shortly after Buck was born (he'll be 3 in October) and was ready for shorter hair herself.  Mine hasn't been cut since shortly after K2's funeral in 2023 and has been sorely in need of a trim to even it out.  

So, when DD1 mentioned that she and Faline were going to go have their hair chopped and donate it to one of the foundations that makes wigs for children, I said "sign me up!" 

Both of my daughters have donated their hair twice in their lives; once in elementary school and once about the time they were entering high school, but mine has never been long enough to be donatable without leaving me with hair that would be super short.  Since I like brush-n-go hair (or, more accurately, brush-ponytail or braid-n-go), I didn't want my hair to be shorter than the tops of my shoulders.  It's been really slow growing since I was in my late 20s, and seems like it has taken forever and a day to get to mid-back length, which is where I felt it might be long enough to consider donating.

Come to find out, after I told the stylist at the salon this morning that I wanted my hair to be shoulder-length once the ponytail for donation was cut off and before finishing the cut to even out my remaining hair (because I have naturally curly hair and knew that shoulder-length after cutting would sproing up to closer to chin length when finished), I had 12" of hair to donate, of which about 10" was really usable because my hair has gotten thinner and straggly at the ends the last few years.  

Well, that was several inches more that I'd thought I had of donatable hair, so I told the stylist to go for it!  What the heck, it's hair, it will grow back.  Maybe slower than I'd like, but it would grow back.  As long as I could still get it into a low ponytail for neatness under a riding helmet or to get it off my neck in the summer heat, it didn't really matter how long of hair I was left with.

So she cut it level with the tops of my shoulders.  A nice long chunk to use for making some child's wig.  And, true to form, once it was cut, then washed and trimmed evenly (I told her nothing fancy, just blunt cut because it's almost always pulled back or twisted up into a bun) the curls did their thing and shortened it by another few inches.

Do I love my new short hair?  Meh.  I wear it pulled back 98% of the time anyway, so really it doesn't matter if I like the length of it down. 

What does my family think?  My youngest daughter doesn't remember when I had short hair in 1999.  And none of my grandkids have seen me with hair that didn't go at least several inches past my shoulders. It's going to be harder for them to get used to than it is for me.  And it'll grow.  Right?  Yes, it will grow (do you get the feeling I'm really hoping it picks up the speed at which it's been growing?)  In three or four years (*fingers crossed*) it will be back to a length that braids to about mid-back.

Who is this short-haired woman?!?

I *do* love my new little ponytail poof.

Does DD1 like her new shorter hair (just below her shoulders and she donated a full 12" of usable hair.  I should mention her hair is mostly straight with only a little natural wave.) Yes, she's feeling lighter and freer.

Does Faline like her new shorter (about shoulder length) hair?  Oh yes.  It's swingy now! She also fully enjoyed the beauty salon experience complete with hair wash, trim to a new (very simple) style, and having it blown out by the stylist.

It's been a good week, and I fell like we capped it off with some real warm fuzzies by sending away our hair for someone else to use and enjoy.

Excuse Me, Ma'am, I Think You Dropped Something

 Last summer, the Poetess gave herself toe cracks in both right feet mid-summer by stomping flies.  It took them pretty much all winter to grow out, and that included some packing and wrapping of the affected feet to keep the cracks from getting bigger. Honestly, the rear foot wasn't totally grown past the top edge of the crack when the flies came this spring.

This year, I decided I would be more proactive than just using fly spray, and ordered her a set of Shoofly Leggins.  I had heard good things about them, and decided rather than try similar brands at a lower price, I would shell out the bucks for the real deal.  Afterall, I reasoned, one set of Shoofly's was cheaper than having front shoes put on the Poetess once. Let alone shoes all around (you typically don't shoe just one foot of a pair front or hind.) So if they lasted the whole season, and prevented her feet from cracking and busting up (potentially making shoes necessary), the cost was well worth it.

This post isn't intended to be a commercial for Shoofly's, but I have to say I'm loving them!  And, other than still insisting on lifting her back feet exceptionally high the first 3-4 strides after I put on her Shoofly's every morning, the Poetess seems to also approve.  That front foot hasn't cracked at all so far (fingers crossed I didn't just jinx us by saying that).  The rear foot, while it hasn't cracked, does have a chip out of it currently in the spot near where last year's crack was. (And so this month I'm back to packing and wrapping that one . . .)

But anyway, the real intent when deciding to write this post was to share a picture with you.

This is the Poetess one day last week.  She went to the pasture in the morning with all four Shoofly's on.  She came  in from the pasture at dinner time with only three.  

"Excuse me, Ma'am, I think you dropped something."

After removing all her fly gear and putting her in her stall, then bringing the other three horses into their stalls for the night, I went walking in the pasture the Poetess had been turned out in that day to look for that missing Shoofly.  Being blue, it was easy enough to find in the short green grass.  

I had expected to find it laying open, thinking that I probably hadn't secured the velcro down the entire length it, and that she'd pulled it open by snagging it on something.  Nope, that hadn't happened.  It was still tubular, all velcro attached to itself, as if she'd just plain stepped out of it.  Strange, but okay.  I was glad it was recovered and undamaged.

How she managed to get it off like that, I have no idea.  As if she just took a high step and it slid right off.  Hasn't happened again, so far.  And apparently it wasn't off so long that she stomped a lot from having flies on her legs.  At least, her hoof on that leg looks crack- and chip-free so far.

Horses.  They do the strangest things.

Apparently I'm the Weird One

 Indulge me in a funny little story, and I'll give you a 'custom' recipe at the end.  

Last weekend, I got a text from DD2.  (Which reminds me, I should do an update on DD2--big positive things have happened to her this year!)  She asked for my no bake cookie recipe saying "I thought I had it written down, but I can't find it anywhere.  And none of the ones online have coconut in them."

To which I replied "That's because coconut in no bakes is something I started doing many years ago at your Dad's request."

Then I told her that the coconut came from DH's fond memory of his childhood friend's (the friend with the appliance/home furnishings store at which we buy all our household brand-new big stuff) mother's no bake cookies.  Only she called them 'haystacks' and used no cocoa powder, but lots of peanut butter and coconut in them.  As an adult, DH had lost his fondness for peanut butter, and asked me once upon a time to add coconut to my regular no bake cookie recipe. (side note: all the haystack recipes I've seen use chow mien noodles, but DH insists these haystacks did NOT have chow mien noodles only oats.)

So, every time since then (looking back, I realized it had been definitely more than 22 years, and since DD2 is only 27, she doesn't remember any other way) I have put coconut in my no bake cookies unless we are out of coconut.  And since it's long been my goal to never run out of pantry staples, it's been pretty rarely that I've made 'normal' no bake cookies in this century.

DD2 then texted me back: "I can't believe the coconut is just a Dad preference.  I always thought that was normal for no bakes and have argued the point with friends before because no bakes without coconut are weird to me. But apparently I'm the weird one here."

Which gave us both a good laugh.  But, if you think about it, this is a great example of how our belief system is shaped by what we experience as kids. What we consider normal versus abnormal or weird.

I did let her know how much coconut to put in a to-everyone-but-her normal recipe for no bakes.  She made them for her new housemates and guests (they were having a moving in party), all of whom thought they were the neatest take on no bake cookies ever.  

Here's *my* (and DD2's!) no bake cookie recipe:

2 cups sugar

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

1/2 cup milk

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup shredded coconut*

3 cups rolled oats (or quick oats, if you prefer less 'meaty'/chewy cookies

Top a cooling rack (or two if you don't have a large cooling rack) with waxed paper.

Put the first four ingredients in a medium-large saucepan, and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted and the mixture comes to a boil.  Boil and stir one minute.

Shut off burner, and stir in vanilla. Then stir in cocoa and peanut butter until the peanut butter is melted and mixture is smooth.  Add the coconut and oats, stirring until completely combined with the hot ingredients.

Using a large table spoon (like you'd eat with), place cookie mixture by spoonfuls onto the waxed paper.  Let sit until firm and cool.

 * if I'm a little short on oats, I add more coconut to make up the difference.  This helps keep the cookies from being too runny, yet I can still make a batch rather than miss out for want of a half-cup or less of oats.