Hello!
Out here on the Walker farm we are having jungle
weather with lots of humidity. All a
person has to do is walk outside to sweat. I don’t usually sweat so when I do
it is hot. After a first good start the heat burnt up most of the bean plants. Thankfully
we’ve had a couple of good rains since so some have survived enough to eat on.
As usual the weeds are just fine and flourishing no matter what the weather. I
planted a couple more rows of beans for this fall before the rain came. The
ground was so dry and hard. Thankfully with the rain the beans have sprouted.
I had to move my two lone guinea hen chicks back to
the hen house as something got two of my four in the shed. I declare they take
more work to raise than baby ducks or chicks combined. So far the two- I call
Prissy and Missy until I hopefully discover that one is a male (horrors if both
of them are male as I will have to figure out some different gender appropriate
names) - are growing and flourishing. I’m calling my pair of white ducks Romeo
and Juliet hoping that one day I shall see some baby ducks and not like
Shakespeare they lie down and die.
In the hen house for the first time I have a hen
sitting on six eggs. I am so excited. Of course there was a bit of drama before
the dust settled as usual. I discovered my broody hen sitting on a huge egg
that a hen had started laying in the corner where my feed barrel is up against
a row of nest buckets about waist high. I confiscated the egg knowing from
prior experience that the large ones invariably turn into roosters. I found
four still warm eggs that had been laid that day and made a hollow spot under
the brooder in some straw on the floor and tried to convince my broody hen that
this was a much better place to sit on some eggs. Do you think her bird brain
would agree? I spent around thirty minutes lying flat on the floor with my arm
stretched out under the brooder chasing her in and out- even boxing her in- to
sit on the eggs to no avail. In disgust I gave up and gathered up the eggs. The
next day didn’t I find my broody hen again in the corner of the feed barrel
sitting on a huge egg. So I took the large egg and found four more warm eggs,
which she accepted and with her beak pushed under her furry body. Since she was
practically sitting on top of the feed barrel lid I took straw and made more of
a nest around her scooting her over a bit. The next day since she was still on
the eggs I added two more. We have worked out a system where every other day
when I throw scraps down on the floor, my broody hen jumps down to eat and I
carefully lift the lid and get feed out to fill the feeders. I’ve marked the
date on the calendar when any action should begin. Now I just have to figure
out how to keep chicks that hatch from falling down to the floor. Any suggestions?
Tex will officially be one years old on the 18th.
I have bought a special bone for the occasion to celebrate his birthday. It has
been quite a year with Texie boy. Just as the blackberries faded out the grapes
started ripening and guess who had his nose stuck in the grape vines chomping
on purple grapes with his greedy little teeth? I keep checking for teeth marks
in my tomatoes. If I find any I shall know who the culprit is. Between
everything going on I did manage to paint my porch rockers and swing one day.
Of course Tex had to “help” so there are a few white paw prints decorating my
porch now.
I do have another bear story. This time Tex was
making a racket just after I got up one morning last week so I raced outside in
my PJ’s and boots to see what was going on. Lo and behold this time is was a
half grown bear in my woods. Every day I check the electric fence to make sure it
is on. Sometime in the night the wind had knocked down some branches and it had
gone down. I grabbed a stick to help the dogs chase the bear off when it turned
and charged at my dogs. I whirred around to go inside to call my neighbor
fellow to get his gun only to see his car go down the road towards town. So I
grabbed my cordless phone, woke up Dwight in town, and told him I needed help
with a bear keeping an eye on things from a distance. Twice more the bear turned around and charged
my dogs before it lumbered to the gate by Dwight’s workshop and climbed over
heading in the woods in the opposite direction of the first bear. My shed was
in a big mess. The bear had knocked over my feed barrel with a lid on it and
had eaten almost 50 lbs of the corn for the ducks. So Saturday Dwight built me a solid heavy
wooden door to the shed. The guys are
advising me to get some bear spray to carry and defend myself with if
necessary. Personally, I’d rather try my luck with a taser gun and zap the
living daylights out of it.
The hot and humid weather is hard on Dana’s
breathing even with oxygen. I’m only able to get to church twice a month when
Dwight is here to stay with Dana as he is more confused and can’t remember more
than one thing at a time. Every morning I have to give Dana eye drops, make
sure he takes his meds, checks his sugar, takes the proper amount of insulin,
does a breathing treatment, and gets on oxygen just to begin the day with. Dana
is making it out to church less than once a month now.
Whew! I shall
close this lengthy (what my brother-in-law called my letters to my sister in
the days before email and texting) epistle. Stay cool on your end and I’ll try
and keep everything going and in one piece on mine.
Until next time~
Dorcas
PS At the end of July Case had a birthday and turned
nine-years-old. Dwight got and fixed up a dirt bike for Case, who was thrilled
to death- grandma less so. These
grand-kids grow up too fast.
Fifteen-year-old Annette now has a driver’s permit. It seems only like
yesterday when I was in the front seat of the car with her mother as she
learned to drive at that age.
