Hello!
Summer has arrived with a blast of hot air. It's
hard to believe that only a couple weeks ago I was building fires in my
wood-stove due to freezing temperatures. My iris and roses are blooming while
the peonies are beginning to open up their fragrant blooms. My wisteria vine has come alive and soon the
large purple grape-like flowers will send their aroma out as well causing the
bumble bees to go crazy. At the end of
April (right after the cold snap) I hung out my hummingbird feeders and hardly
fifteen minutes later I had humming birds buzzing around. This year I have
three Eastern Bluebirds building nests in my bird boxes. I also saw a couple
pairs of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at my bird feeders. Along with the bright
yellow of the Goldfinches all kinds of color is darting through the air.
Speaking of birds, I lost two baby chicks so am now
down to five. I am having a problem of rats under my hen house so I'm putting
wire over the chicks and mother hen at night so as not to lose any more lively
little fur balls. They look rather bedraggled as darker feathers are coming in
at different places. The chicks are starting to jump up to the top of the
brooder to perch and soon will be able to fly out and explore the rest of their
world in the henhouse during the day.
My guinea hens turned into quite a shocking
experience. Pastor Sam and another fellow from our church came out one day and
screwed all the boards that I had cut in two the day before around my enclosed
garden It was quite the project- you should have seen me wrestling with 8 ft
boards to saw them in half (80 all total)-, but the fence looks so nice and is
sturdy. After the fellows left and I put away all the long extension cords etc,
I got my fishing net and chased down six guinea hens in the chicken pen. By the time I captured the birds that all of
a sudden got quite lively dust and feathers were flying everywhere and I was
out of breath. I had shut Tex up in the workshop thankfully. I put the guinea
hens into a large animal carrier and wheeled it into my enclosed garden. As
soon as I opened up the carrier on the ground the four males flew out and
didn't stop until they were over the high fence and in the back yard. The two
females behaved themselves and scuttled out and on the ground not flying
anywhere like sensible hens.
I tried to shoo the fellows back into the enclosed
garden, but they would have none of it. So I let Tex out thinking he could help
me herd them to where they belonged, but the crazy guinea hens flew over the wire
fence and into the woods behind us. I even took a can of feed and shook it
around in the enclosed garden where they could see me, but do you think the
fellows would fly back over the fence? Oh no! They squawked and pranced up and
down outside the fence from the far end of our property and back making quite
the racket. As it was getting late and I was plum wore out, I decided to forget
the crazy fellows hoping when it got dark they would fly back.
I woke up
early the next morning hearing a loud racket. All I saw was one lone bird
outside the fence. So wasting no time and in my PJ’s I ran outside and grabbed
a ladder to rescue the one lone fellow figuring wild animals had gotten the
other three. I thought the dear fellow would be grateful to be rescued, but the
bird-brained guy suddenly got full of life running up and down the fence just
out of my reach as I dodged trees and patches of briars. As I stopped to catch
my breath, lo and behold if the other three fellows didn’t appear. I decided to
use my brain instead of my waning strength, go eat breakfast, grab the net
again, and capture all of them. I went to climb back up the backside of the
ladder that I had positioned over the fence but one of the narrow rungs was
broke so I put one foot in the wire fence and holding the top of the ladder for
balance I swung my other leg over to try and reach a step on the ladder on the
other side of the fence and got hung up. I had tested the electric wire before
I had put the ladder over and there was nothing so I figured it was down again.
But guess what? The electric fence came on full force and I got zapped big time
as the metal ladder sagged against the fence. There I was struggling to get my
foot free of the fence as the electric current zinged through the wire fence,
the ladder, and my entire body. Realizing I was in a serious pickle, I prayed,
“Lord if you’ve ever helped me before, I sure do need help now!” It was quite
the shocking experience I can assure you. I was quite desperate as I struggled
until I finally managed to get my foot free and my body over onto the ladder. I
limped my way back into the house and sat down to gather my wits and flagging
strength as unfortunately I’m not as young as I used to be. Anybody else would
have given up, but I inherited a stubborn streak from my Pennsylvania Dutch
father that once in awhile flares up. I wasn’t about to let those crazy birds
get the best of me. So after eating, changing clothes, and resting a bit, I got
my stepstool, put on heavy gloves and boots, and grabbed the fish net. As I
figured all the males was still prancing outside the fence squawking away. I
shuddered to think what my neighbors were making of all the racket coming from
our place. This time I put the stepladder on one side and the stepstool on the
other side of the fence. Then I captured one bird and with the hen rolled up in
the net I climbed back over, took the fellow in the house where I had scissors
and a trash can, proceeded to clip his wings, and put the hen in the enclosed
garden where he belonged. It took me all morning to capture all the fellows and
clip them. I spent the rest of the day sacked out in my recliner while they
shook their clipped wings out and stalked indigently around.
Tex was quite enthralled with all the goings on. He
kept circling the fence to try and get in to chase the guinea hens and when
that wouldn’t work, he’d sit down, stick a paw in the 3 inch crack, and rattled
the broken lattice that was still up in an effort to get the guinea hens racing
around and squawking. Didn’t all the crazy males go flying over the fence again
with their clipped wings, around the yard with Tex in pursuit, and back over
the wire fence into the woods! It was then that I washed my hands of worrying
about their welfare and scrawny necks. At this point in the enclosed garden
there are two females and one fellow- that is missing over half his feathers
that finally flew back in. So much for guinea hens eating ticks in my yard and
woods.
Meanwhile in my garden the peas, lettuce, and red
beets are up. I planted my beans and put out some tomatoes. I also with my
grandson, Case’s, help one weekend pounded in a couple of fence posts at my
cherry bush row so I could tie up and support the large cherry bushes that were
falling over and breaking on me and made another archway (with two fence posts
and leftover flexible and straight pipes) at my garden where I had a large
grapevine on a fence that was long enough at one point to go up to eventually
meet where another grapevine had sprung up opposite the path- which gave me the brainstorm. Case would hold
the fence post with one hand and the ladder I was perched on with the other
while I pounded in the fence posts. He kept telling me, “Now you be careful,
Grandma.” I do believe in putting my grand-kids to work. At one point Case told
me that my place was the only place he would have to work and sweat at.
I stayed home with Dana on Mother’s Day. Dwight made
it for lunch and brought me a lovely hanging basket of flowers. Dawn beat me to
it that morning and called me on her way to church and then in the afternoon,
Annette, William, Katie and even my son-in-law, Randy called to wish me Happy
Mother’s Day. I must be doing something right to have my son-in- law call and
wish me well too- ha!
Dwight is slowly getting stronger and continues to
go to physical therapy. Dana has up and down days. Sometimes his oxygen level is in the 80’s and
he has to be on oxygen and other times it is high enough that he doesn’t need
oxygen. I just have to keep a check on it. I made it to the local dentist to
get my broken off tooth pulled out that I had problems with all winter. I ended
up with stitches and a swollen mouth for a couple of weeks. Thankfully my mouth
is back to normal again.
Well I shall close my lengthy epistle. Looking back
I can’t believe all that was accomplished. What a blessing! Of course there
still is lots of work to be done. Hopefully the coming month will be a lot
calmer here at the Walker farm. I shall try my best to behave myself and not
get into anymore shocking situations.
Take care on your end and stay cool!
Dorcas