One for the pot…4 for Quatre, one for the pot…5 for Quatre, clearly harvesting Strawberries and Raspberries with our long time volunteer is not a commercially viable occupation. She did have a valid (?) excuse, she didn’t have a bucket…mmmm.
The sun is shining and all around us, the sounds of long overgrown lawns being mowed. In the distance a tractor is growling and the chatter of the combine harvester warns us that it wont be long before we are busily working like an army of ants collecting the newly baled hay off the field. We usually gather about 1000 bales to store in our barn ready to feed our livestock through the Winter and sadly, the hay bale collecting fairy always appears to take that particular week off. With a little/ lot of luck “Muscles Quatre” will be at home, Carla will be fit well (and here) and our team of weekend farmers will be robust and raring to go.
Mom Sikora, Greg’s mom still reports for duty down at the barn each morning, at 91 she busily sweeps, waters and generally keeps us all in order. It has been great having her here and hope that it won’t be too long before she returns to show us all that life really does begin at 90 !!! Thank you for all your help Mom and for reminding me exactly where Greg's stubborn streak originated ! I have tried ( and failed) to limit some of the barnyard activities that I foolishly considered to be unsuitable for someone of advancing years, Mom will do what Mom sets her mind to and I have learnt to accept (and shut up !!)
Since we do have a “no blame policy” in effect here at the ranch, I am not accepting responsibility for the farm gate that may or may not have been left open by the person who took Roman out to the pasture this morning ( which purely incidentally happened to be me). It didn’t take our little goat family long to notice my tardiness and since the grass always being greener on the other side is clearly one adage they take great delight in observing it apparently took even less time for them to sample the smorgasbord that WAS my garden. Up to my eyes in poo in Lady’s stall ( I firmly believe that our Shire mare could compete with an elephant and win…I swear her poo piles are unequalled by any living 4 legged creature !! ..but I digress..) so, busily doing what I do best, I failed to notice the quartet of rumens silently munching their way through my rose bushes. Acorn, Alicia and goat kids Song and Cody were in browsing heaven, every leaf, every bud and every fragrant rose were inhaled at warp speed before their gross infraction was noticed…and I had no one to blame but myself. Doh !!!
Sadly, the goats are not the only offenders in the garden of late. The “Rose of Sharon” shrub that arrived from the nursery in a very insignificant and weary looking twig almost 3 years ago was becoming my gardening pride and joy. This year the plants have ( thanks to Lady’s aforesaid copious piles of poo) flourished and multiplied. The previously sad bare twigs have transformed into lustrous lush green leaves and I was eagerly awaiting the first of the flowers that would present a brightly coloured bank of blossoms in payback for the hours of labour and years of anticipation that I have invested in them. Doris the Destroyer ( aka Bambi) the black tailed Deer doe has made short work of my Rose of Sharon dreams, my geraniums, my pansies, my apple trees, my weeping cherry tree…in fact my entire garden has evidence of Doris the Destroyer, and seemingly overnight tolerance has become a word from a dim and distant past. “Deer Off” became the number 1 item on my shopping list and persuading our newest unwelcome resident to relinquish my garden and return whence she came became my mission. Unfortunately it appears that what repels deer also repels man ( and woman) and a concentrated and intense spraying campaign virtually forced us to abandon home and go and live in the non smelly forest. The good news is Doris the Destroyer appears to have moved on to a garden without the odour of rotting eggs and putrid flesh…the bad news is..a doe, two bucks and two fawns ( apparently with no sense of smell) have moved in. I think I may grow to be a red neck !!!!
Well, with that sobering thought I think I will have to refresh my G and T( without ice) and get this entry posted. Take care, keep safe, M
The sun is shining and all around us, the sounds of long overgrown lawns being mowed. In the distance a tractor is growling and the chatter of the combine harvester warns us that it wont be long before we are busily working like an army of ants collecting the newly baled hay off the field. We usually gather about 1000 bales to store in our barn ready to feed our livestock through the Winter and sadly, the hay bale collecting fairy always appears to take that particular week off. With a little/ lot of luck “Muscles Quatre” will be at home, Carla will be fit well (and here) and our team of weekend farmers will be robust and raring to go.
Mom Sikora, Greg’s mom still reports for duty down at the barn each morning, at 91 she busily sweeps, waters and generally keeps us all in order. It has been great having her here and hope that it won’t be too long before she returns to show us all that life really does begin at 90 !!! Thank you for all your help Mom and for reminding me exactly where Greg's stubborn streak originated ! I have tried ( and failed) to limit some of the barnyard activities that I foolishly considered to be unsuitable for someone of advancing years, Mom will do what Mom sets her mind to and I have learnt to accept (and shut up !!)
Since we do have a “no blame policy” in effect here at the ranch, I am not accepting responsibility for the farm gate that may or may not have been left open by the person who took Roman out to the pasture this morning ( which purely incidentally happened to be me). It didn’t take our little goat family long to notice my tardiness and since the grass always being greener on the other side is clearly one adage they take great delight in observing it apparently took even less time for them to sample the smorgasbord that WAS my garden. Up to my eyes in poo in Lady’s stall ( I firmly believe that our Shire mare could compete with an elephant and win…I swear her poo piles are unequalled by any living 4 legged creature !! ..but I digress..) so, busily doing what I do best, I failed to notice the quartet of rumens silently munching their way through my rose bushes. Acorn, Alicia and goat kids Song and Cody were in browsing heaven, every leaf, every bud and every fragrant rose were inhaled at warp speed before their gross infraction was noticed…and I had no one to blame but myself. Doh !!!
Sadly, the goats are not the only offenders in the garden of late. The “Rose of Sharon” shrub that arrived from the nursery in a very insignificant and weary looking twig almost 3 years ago was becoming my gardening pride and joy. This year the plants have ( thanks to Lady’s aforesaid copious piles of poo) flourished and multiplied. The previously sad bare twigs have transformed into lustrous lush green leaves and I was eagerly awaiting the first of the flowers that would present a brightly coloured bank of blossoms in payback for the hours of labour and years of anticipation that I have invested in them. Doris the Destroyer ( aka Bambi) the black tailed Deer doe has made short work of my Rose of Sharon dreams, my geraniums, my pansies, my apple trees, my weeping cherry tree…in fact my entire garden has evidence of Doris the Destroyer, and seemingly overnight tolerance has become a word from a dim and distant past. “Deer Off” became the number 1 item on my shopping list and persuading our newest unwelcome resident to relinquish my garden and return whence she came became my mission. Unfortunately it appears that what repels deer also repels man ( and woman) and a concentrated and intense spraying campaign virtually forced us to abandon home and go and live in the non smelly forest. The good news is Doris the Destroyer appears to have moved on to a garden without the odour of rotting eggs and putrid flesh…the bad news is..a doe, two bucks and two fawns ( apparently with no sense of smell) have moved in. I think I may grow to be a red neck !!!!
Well, with that sobering thought I think I will have to refresh my G and T( without ice) and get this entry posted. Take care, keep safe, M
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