Good morning world...or whoever it is that is out there checking in on us, thank you for visiting. I'm going to use todays diary as an update.  Poor Turkey Lurkey has gone to Turkey Heaven in the sky where he will have 2 working legs and behave like a real turkey.  Sadly (for Greg) he never was big enough for stuffing..(thanks Rats whiskers ). Gertie the besotted Canada goose and mom and dad have flown off to who knows where but we expect them back next year. Earlier this week we were amazed to see a fully fledged golden eagle sitting for about20 minutes in the nest on the island in the pond, I believe that Momma Gooses' eggs made him a hearty (if not too fresh ) breakfast. Dolly the mutant cow has become a sweetheart after her very rocky start here at the ranch, I guess she heard me say that she had 2 options ( one is become a "nice cow", you can guess the other !!). She has now been joined by a very vocal buch of bucklings and is displaying an admirable amount of tolerance at their lack of bovine respect. Hassan (the terrorist) is still testing Charm' ( beauty with attitude) patience but has decided that good behaviour seems to work better with us and he is currently behaving himself.....who knows, we may have Mr Nasty back tomorrow but thats the nature of a young horse and he is an Arab !!!  Lamb Chop still thinks he is a Border collie and helps round up the sheep, he is still the ugliest sheep in the flock (the world !!) but he has the biggest heart and always makes us smile. Castration is just around the corner for him and the bucklings....I wonder if they still love us then. Got to go, time to clock in at the barn, wonder what is waiting for us there today ????? Take care, M

Yesterday WAS going to be a good day, the sun was going to shine,..MJ on Fox 13 promised ( and it did, yeah MJ !!!) , Greg woke up bright and early ( yawn, I opened one eye, very cautiously, checked out the alarm clock and determined I had at LEAST another 9 minutes...10 if I really stretched it ) Optmistically he  reeled off a list of chores that he was going to achieve by 7.30 am and thats only "clocking in" time !!. I closed the eye again and tried for the last 6 minutes..... ! Gregs first chore, sharpening the saw mill blades...end result, sawmill blades 4, Greg 1, he came back to the house looking like an extra in "The Chain Saw Massacre", his normally happy smiling cheery face,...NOT. Greg doesn't like things not going right,  it's always good for the swear jar, 25 cents a time, yesterday was a good day ! OK, put that behind us and get ready for another day at the ranch, lets pack the eggs.  Off went Greg with an armful of egg cartons......back came Greg with a carton of impromptu scrambled eggs. More revenue for the swear jar..oops. Things werent looking good but could only get better..right ? Wrong !! There I was, yowling away to my country music station (102.9, Big D and Bubba ..did I mention I dont sing very well ?) mucking out the horse stall when there was a lound bang  out side the stall door.  It didn't sound good and it looked even worse, Greg had tried to knock down the barn with the tractor bucket and the bucket had won. More income for the swear jar,..big time !! Today was not going well and it seemed like an "exit stage left " moment. Actually after beating himself up big time, sack cloth and ashes and virtual 40 lashes things turned around and Greg was smiling like a Cheshire Cat. His " DOH" moment inspired him to fix the tractor, it has been waiting for surgery for 12 months and yesterday was the day.  There he was, on the tractor beaming and beeping the horn, all was good, peace and harmony restored...I could come out of hiding. smile.   Gregs a star and the day ended as always with a smile a hug and a backscratch, life is good. Take care, M   

NOT !!! Every so often a little conscience bell in my head reminds me that the weeds in the garden are on the offensive and its time for me to take up my wheelbarrow and trowel and go to war. Yesterday was that day.....in all honesty, probably because there was a single ray of sunshine peeping through the clouds ( for about 10 minutes !!) . My wonderful friend Heidi told me "gardening is relaxing ". Off I toddled full of optimism, by evening shift my garden WOULD be pristine and weed free. I didn't take the chicken tractor roosters into account. The first clue that all was not  well in the strawberry patch was a little trail of half eaten juicy red strawberries that disappeared into the raspberry bed.  Just a little disturbed ( REALLY MAD !!!) I set off to find the strawberry thief. CLUE....the tip of a white feathered tail heading off round the  other end of the bed , the chase was on. Being smarter than the average rooster (but not much, smile) I headed it off....and, on hands and knees came beady eye to beady eye with one of our white leghorn roosters who had no intention of being reprimanded. To cut a long story short, I eventually captured the strawberry bandit but not before I had shocked myself in the electric poultry fence (that incidently is supposed to keep them in !!) flattened half my strawberries and entertained Dolly the Mutant Cow for half an hour. The penalty for this serious rooster  infraction, off I stalked, very indignant bird in hand ( still stained with strawberry juice evidence) and presented him to Greg for his penance. Result, one white leghorn rooster minus his flight feathers....and he was lucky, it could have been the soup potRelaxing ???? Ok, time to go, ready for another exciting day down on the ranch. Take care everyone. M   

What to do with Turkey Lurkey ??? We always knew Turkey Lurkey was "different"....one of our batch of heritage turkeys arrived looking "not quite normal" and after noticing that she had become a trampoline for the others we transferred her accomodations to a deluxe 4 star bird cage for intensive care treatment.  TL walks on her knees, balancing her weight on her wings she scoots around her cage with attitude. Bless her, she' s  bright, noisy and active but how long can a turkey with attitude but no legs  stay with us ? Life without quality of life.....we have a decision to make, poor Turkey Lurkey. On a brighter note, the barn swallows chicks have hatched so all the horses have little piles of  bird poo on their backs in the morning. Walking into their stalls has become a hazard with ariel gymnastics going on overhead and kack bombs falling all around us ( hopefully, sometimes they manage to land on us, yuk !) . Gertie the lovelorn  Canada Goose has gone, despite all her courting, Quest remained aloof and she remained unfulfilled. The circle of life goes on, Gertie, her Mom and Dad are gone till next Spring. Catch up with you hopefully tomorrow. Take care. M .    PS Thanks Dave, love your comments.    

I'M SORRY !!!! You just can't rely on your farm hands ! All Greg had to do while I was gone was gone was...clean out stalls..pens..chicken coops..turn out horses..sheep..goats feed ..groom ...and I trusted him to keep the daily diary updated in his spare time !.  It's not really an acceptable excuse that the cows broke through a fence line (the grass on the other side greener ???)  The new baby chicks arrived, the fencing crew gave a days notice of their arrival and needed the fenceline mowed before they arrived and the bucklings needed to be  removed from the hareem as they had started "practising bucking!!!" Not to mention all the other little crisis moments over 4 days ! His "excuse".....he was busy !!! Seriously, thank you Cowboy, I really do appreciate the blood sweat and tears you shed while I was away suffering at the side of a pool in Las Vegas with a mint julip in my hand. It was tough. I had 4 days helping my twin sister and her family celebrate 35 years of marriage. I was a "surprise", Malcolm her wonderful better half and my second favourite man knew I was going, as did her lovely kids ( who made me SO welcome).  I sat in McDonalds, 3 tables away from theirs and the kids pointed out a lady who looked "just like Maureen". Annies vision, (slightly second to a moles ) took a few moment to squint in and when I stood up to walk past them, she dived on me...It's a good job it was me, she'd have been in prison now ! I had a fantastic time with them at a very special time for their family in a very special place. Love you all. Las Vegas was fun but it is Soooooo good to be back home..in the rain...in the poo and with my Cowboy. Life is good. Daily diary should be back to as nearly normal as I can get.  

Five oclock came far too quickly this morning, it seems that I had only just got my feet warm and the alarm was going off. Greg is really great ( or maybe he doesn't want to risk an owly ranch hand )  he gets up every morning and brings me a cup of tea so I get to snuggle down for another ten minutes and check out the weather and what new crisis we may have to start worrying about ( as if there wasn't enough stuff going on around the world !) The forecast was for a lovely hot sunny day,  looking out the window I could only see wall to wall clouds but who am I to doubt the double doppler. Hot sunshine gave me a potential dilemma....what to wear. At the end of the Summer each year ,when you realize that shorts and T-Shirt = goose bumps and double pneumonia they get folded away until the next time the sun shines. For the past couple of weeks I have cautiously folded and rearranged my "Summer Stuff" but this morning I bit the bullet and did the "do they still fit " thing. Its a bit nerve racking, how do clothes manage to get put away fitting great and then shrink while they just sit on the shelf ??? Thankfully, I have avoided an emotional melt down, they fit, no bulging buttons or burst zips... life goes on and I wont need a counselor (this time !!smile )!!!  We took the stock trailer to the dump this morning, I have never had this adventure before and I wondered why it seemed to be taking me so long, then  I noticed that I was tidily placing things on the pile whilst  everyone else just launched things and then, like magic,  a huge yellow Tonka toy flattened  and mowed it all up...GONE.!... gave me a whole new concept on housework !  We got our first chicken tractor going today, it actually isn't QUITE how I had envisioned it and Greg was getting a bit hissy after he took a chunk out of his finger, hit it with the lump hammer and then gave himself some shock therapy on the electric fence so, discretion being the better part of valour I decided to shut up ! We re- homed 6 roosters who are now happily munching their way through my weed ( I mean vedgetable !!) garden. I love it !!!! Hopefully they are going to stick to the weeds and dont get partial to my grape vines or I have a feeling they will be in the soup pan. Time to go, take care M

It's a bit of a shock finding out that the UK is having a better Summer than we are !! Thank you fellow Brits for sharing that with us ! I am sitting here in front of the window trying very hard to think of something that I can do AND stay somewhat dry. There is always housework but that choice is a bit (a lot !!!) drastic and dust will surely be there tomorrow and the next day and the next..........when it will STILL  be raining if MJ ( Fox channel 13) is to be believed. All this rain and the chickens are on strike, the sheep staged a revolution when we went to take them out to the pasture, poor Bran got T boned by Annie (our boss ewe)  and when we closed the gate on them they just stood looking at us like "you cannot be serious !!!" We are seriously considering issuing water wings to the stock,... even the ducks are fed up. The goats refused to leave their pen and the chickens have retired to their nestboxes in disgust !  Charm my golden Palamino (beauty with attitude) is having a great time, the wetter it gets the muddier he gets, Heaven !!rolling is no fun when you stay clean. Lady and Quest stand looking over the gate trying to catch our eye, "ok, our fun bucket is full, get us out of here !" and me...I just look like a drowned rat. Decision made, I'll make Greg some brownies, I'll be warm dry and there's nothing Greg likes better than goodies. Take care everyone, stay dry. Bye for now, M