This Weeks News

Well, just like I thought Rose's little filly is turning to a roan. She sure looks a mess now. I took pictures yesterday and will get them up in a day or so.

It has been raining on the farm, a very good thing except I do not think Sadie is too happy with it. She has hardly come off of her doghouse in days. It has sure created a mess in the mud. Since it was hot and the grass went dormant and the dirt was all that was showing. But I threw out grass seed and it is growing in just a few days time. Perfect weather. Escept for Sadie.

I am making plans for my berry field. Just do not quite yet know where it will be. One tract of land or another. I plan to plant strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, pomgranates, and other anti oxidant things. Stay tuned as this develops.

The requested Baby Pictures

Choco, and her baby, Reese. They are both full blood Galeceno Breed. He is the foal that is laying down.

Rose, is the strawberry roan shown to the right with her first baby. Rose is a registered Galeceno and she was born around 1990. She was bred a couple of times way back in her earlier days and she aborted her babies. This little filly is her first live birth and certainly one we had no idea was coming. I called her Roses' Glory but since I am not her owner it did not count. My nephew named her Sierra. I still call her little Glory.
And then the one not in pictures yet is a cross breed, of sorts. The mom is from a Morgan cross mare that we started the horse program with. May was her only baby and she came when the Galeceno stallion leaped the fence to have his first romantic trist with an older woman. The morgan cross was named Brandy. Hence May was born. May has had several babies but none survived until this little guy. We have gelded all males now, even though Peanut, our stallion, was full blood son of a foundation stallion from Mexico. He lived a life confined in the 4 acre side pasture alone for years. He was and is such a good guy- a real pet. We painfully decided to geld him and after a few months we let him go live with the herd in the large acreage. He loves it and deserves it. He is still on our place.

The little ones pictured above are from this summer so the guys will be gelded next year.

At the very top you see a black horse with a light colored baby walking in the sunshine. This was a last year baby. Beauty is the mom. She is Choco's mom and this was another surprise baby. See why we got the stallion gelded? Beauty has had just a few babies several years apart but this is the first that was not black.

The kittens, I just added them because I thought it was a great picture. These were barn kittens sleeping in a wash basin.

I will try to get Mays foals' picture and get it added to a later post. He looks just like Sierra except he has a blaze. But Roans, like Rose, can be this bay color and shed to take on the roan coat. So Sierra may be a totally different color in a few months. Mays little guy has no roan to him. So we have to wait.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, farm sister.

August 31- the anniversary of my debut on Earth

Yep, some years back I was about to spring forth and take the world by storm. I think my Mom always thought so. My brother was so cautious. He did not want to ride a bicycle for fear of falling. Eight years after he arrived in the house, I made my debut. I was not the fearful one. Later my brother made up for it and became a pilot and even did some sky diving. Did I tell you I was the one with the brains in the family? Why on earth would a person jump out of a perfectly good airplane???



Oh, well, Happy Birthday to me.

What on earth is going on?

Sometimes I am well aware of the fact that God really does have a sense of humor. And he also like to test the strength of my patience. Yesterday the air conditioner froze up at my house. Did I mention that it was HOT!!! and so many of my clients are on vacation and so funds are lower than normal. So I had to fix the darn thing. It was that the coils were dirty. This is such a dirty area here. We have gravel pits the size of Rhode Island and they are always blasting and making dust. And then the breeze is always here (thank goodness for that) but it blows that dirt. So I got coil cleaner and sprayed up there and they look pretty clean now.
Anyway, so far the ac is cool and I am happy about that.

I fuss about all of this and it is vexing but I am aware of all I can be grateful for.

Oh and we got a new baby horse on the farm. She is so very cute. Just came yesterday. It is amazing how little they look when they first come. I will get pictures this weekend.

This weekend major big Limu meeting in Dallas. I will be there and have several coming with me. Maybe we will see you there

Holiday Roound Up

Well, July 4th has come and gone. Man, was it hot! I took my mom out to the Fireworks Show at Runaway Bay and it was good. We just sat in the car and watched. I rolled the windows down and I did not hear it but I think there was a little maitre de mosquito that said "dinner is served" my feet were eaten up. I found some Silver sheild gel in my purse and some essential oil in the back pocket of my purse. I still have not looked to see what kind it is. I put the two on and it seemed to help.

My garden is doing great now. The yellow squash is doing well and I also have some butternut and acorn squash. I think it may have to grow all summer. I have green beens and purple hull peas and swiss chard, beets, and tomatoes out the wazoo. I had a bit of green beens I hope they will revive and make more.

Yesterday morning I was awakened with a call from my neighbor. Did I know of anyone who has a large dark brown donkey? Seems it was down on the road and they had got it into their yard.....humm....dark brown donkey...could be mistaken for dark brown mule...which would discribe my fence jumping mule, Mercy. And sure enough it was. It was so hot and I had to get her back home. She can be trouble sometimes. I just have to remember how cute she was when her mother brought her up from the pasture as a newborn. Mom, Beauty, was standing at the water tank and I noticed there were 4 legs on the other side of her. I never knew she was pregnant. I mean, it was August and the grass was good and plentiful and I thought that was what her extra size was. Nope, oh Mercy Me, there stood the cutest little mule and we named her Mercy. But she is willful sometimes and when she is she goes where she darn well pleases and yesterday it was South.
When I was putting her in I found that the miniature Donkey had escaped his confines as well. One of the horses was in heat and he slid UNDER his fence to go investigate. This is one of my favorites and his name is Beau. So neat, until he takes a bend to misbehave. And he can slide under fences when he wants. And he does not know he is not as big as the rest of them when he gets with the horse herd.

Well this is how I spent my holiday, Sadie could not be too much help as she and Mercy do not see eye to eye. Thank Goodness, for my nephew who is willing to help me.

Time in the Garden- Peace on Earth

Early morning in the garden is heaven on earth to me. To go out there when the day is new and look to see what God has done with 24 hours is just such a great way to start the day. It is quiet and calm and the sun is rising.

My garden is not too big right now, it just feeds two of us. But I am planning to make it bigger. One bed at a time. Much of what I have planted this year is in containers. I will be working on beds as the summer goes on but this year I am testing the container gardening theory out. My Potatoes are doing great and tomatoes are looking really impressive. The squash really prefer being in the ground, I think. It looks kind of puny. The first picture here is my newer potato pot. The first I planted in a bag. Then I found a potato in the pantry that had sprouted little sprouts all over and I had a couple that had not gotten planted from spring so I decided to plant it in a big pot. Same theory- just keep adding dirt. I will let you know.

The second picture is my tomatoes, also infront of the tomatoes there is a pot that has blackberries and plants in the ground- onion, beets, turnips and squash. The pots with dirt have strawberries that are struggling. If you notice the dirt in the background? Much of my place is like that. Before I got this place somebody came in and scraped the top soil all off. I do not know why. But, what to do? I am thinking of making raised beds in that area. I can move the horses water to a different location and they hang out under the trees. But, in the area in front of the trees I think I will make the raised beds.

One thing about it, there is time as long as there is time. It gives me something to do and stay out of the shopping centers.

More garden talk- potatoes in a bag

Ok, so I have been remiss in my posting. The garden is growing well. I started it really too early and one night just before Easter had to haul all the big pots of tomatoes in as the temps dropped to 23.

One neat thing I did was to plant potatoes in a bag. It was so easy and they are growing actually. You buy like 3 seed potatoes and a bag of compost. You sit the potato in the sunny window and it will start to "sprout" then you pour 3/4 of the bag of compost into a trash can with a lid (at my place it keeps the outside cats from using it as a litter box) . I then took sissors and poked holes in the bottom of the compost bag. And I put the nearly empty compost bag in a big pot and rolled the sides down and buried the potatoes in the compost. And watered. In a few weeks the plants are growing and you cover them with more compost and just 2 inches of plant showing. You just keep adding compost from the trash can and leaving just a couple inches of the plant showing. As time progresses roots will grow off the little joints where leaves come out and those roots will grow potatoes and soon you will have a bag of potatoes.
I will let you know the size of my crop when it is finished.

More later about my little chicks. Sadie has not met them yet. She is doing great with the puppies. They play "mouth" through the fence.

There is quite a bit going on so will write about that this weekend.

Ms Green Jeans- Spring time in the garden

It is just almost spring here on the farm. Sadie is having a great time with the puppies(still known as Brother and Sister). There are at least 100 Cardinals in the trees and some little wrens too. I have been digging and working the garden. Of course, here at Windsong that means I have to make the garden. I have been working too many days in prior years to manage to make a garden. So, I just love digging in the dirt.

I feel it is such a needed thing to do- grow your own food. And that is followed by cooking your own food. Most all of the really bad stuff added into food- like High Fructose Corn Syrup- is not in your kitchen. Well ,yes it is in your kitchen, as it is in so much. Like Yogurt! boy does that chap me. All major brand yogurts have HFCS in it. But there are other more organic versions that do not have it. It is in Ketchup, marinades, apple sauce, jelly, and so much else. But I would bet in the canister where your sugar, flour, and such there is no canister for HFCS.

A side note- sugar free or lite yogurt does not have HFCS in them. They have Aspartame or Splenda and they both are horrible for your health.



Back to the garden, I planted brandywine and homestead tomatoes, and some sweet 100s and a another kind. Spinach, turnips, and peas are planted as well. I have a number of veggies started in flats. Woo-hoo! almost time to plant. My garden beds are an adapted form of the Square Foot Garden theory. I love doing it this way.

From Ms. Green Jeans

Today I took the puppies out to meet Sadie. She had not seen them before. Though I think she knew they were here.

One of the hard things about living in the country is that you find animals that are dumped way too often. Brother and Sister are a perfect example. Thrown out on the roadside at 3 weeks of age, just nursing puppies. The puppy I call Brother was in the middle of the road when my brother saw him. He thought he had run over him! He stopped and picked him up and brought him back home. Long story short I went back with my nephew and found Sister in a pile of dead leaves on the roadside. I have been bottlefeeding them and they are thriving now. They will make terrific pets for someone. We can usually find homes for them. I have no idea what kind they are and will wait to see. If Brother is any sort of farm dog I will keep him. Sadie really does need some help and a buddy as well.

I have used puppy formula and colostrum (Natures Sunshine Products) as well as probiotics and they are really doing great. Hopefully I can get pictures to post!

From Sadie

I still haven't found the blog baby. Ms. Green Jeans is still poking on the little box, well she has been doing that alot anyway. She stops every so often and goes away from the window. I still hear puppies and cannot find them. I think they are in the house but there are only two dogs in the house. And they are too old to have puppies. And too grumpy too. There is a little fuzzy one that Ms. told me was a poodle and another that is a rat terrorist. They have been here a lot longer than me.
The weather is changing and tonight will be cold and that means I will be on guard tonight. I think I will take a nap.

From Sadie of Windsong

Today is the Birth of the Blog. That is what Ms. Green Jeans says anyway. I have had a very hard time finding the baby though. You see, I am the Guardian of the Farm. Ms. Green Jeans calls this place Windsong Farm but we all know who this farm belongs to. It belongs to me, Sadie, the Great Pyrenees of Windsong. And it is my job and mission to first and foremost guard the babies. So I really need to find this new Blog Baby. I do not know what it will look like. I have had sheep, ducks, geese (sometimes these have a REAL bad attitude!), donkeys, and horses. And cats. And I have to guard all the babies. I think I hear something in the house but I swear it sounds like a puppy. Does a Blog look like a puppy?



Ms. Green Jeans is poking on the little box again. I can see her through the window. If she is poking on the little box then she must not be worried about the baby so I think I will take a nap. I had long duty this weekend as she was gone to the city for a big convention. Came home talking about a Blu Frog. Now I have NEVER seen a Blu Frog. At least I know what it will look like. Now for that Nap...