Tag: farm

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Critters

I’ve got way too many cats running around here! Lets see now, in the neutered male division we have a large red, (from whence he got his name, “Red”), and a rather large and imposing solid black, who goes by the name of “Rocky”. In the spayed female ranks we have “Wild Thing”, sometimes referred to as “Momma Cat”, and a big fluffy grey we call “Jada”.

The newest of the bunch is a small striped grey that looks a lot like “Wild Thing”, in coloring, yet to be spayed. They all eat way too much and to top it all off they are all save the kitten bigger than my one house dog, a small female purebred shizu. The dog is nuttier then a fruitcake and twice as dumb! But ya gotta love her, she’s just so darn cute!

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Time Honored Family Traditions

I have to admit that the holiday season’s are still pretty tough for me considering that I am living at the homestead and farm that we all grew up on and our parents were running up until they passed away several years ago now. It is just me here, all though I have a ton of relatives that live close by. All of those holiday traditions are the hardest. My eldest sister and her family all try so very hard to keep most of these traditions alive and are always there for me each and every day and they go the extra mile during the holidays.

I haven’t spend a full Christmas day here at the house yet. So far I go over to my sister’s house and spent Christmas eve with them and spend the night there so that I can be there to see the kids eyes when they come down the stairs early Christmas morning. Then I am there dealing with the kids while my sister is busy in the kitchen preparing all the holiday foods for that evenings Christmas meal that she has taken over from my mom, with the rest of the family is on the road on their way to her house and the place gets filled up quickly through out the day.

One of the holiday traditions that we now have is going over to the family cemetery to pay our respects to our parents and all the other members of the family that are there with them as well.

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Mending Fences

Today I spent all day mending fences – literally.  Last night a drunk driver ran off the road and through a large section of my fence.  Thankfully the police notified me that the fence was broken before I let the cattle out into that pasture.  I would have been really upset to have to try to herd the wayward cattle back after they had escaped!

So today I had to spend most of the day mending fences.  The worst part about it was the memories it brought back about how my parents were killed by a drunk driver.  I think that all cars should be equipped with a breathalyzer box and the car refuses to start if the driver has had too much to drink!

mending fences
Fencing For Cattle
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North Carolina Furniture

One of the things that I am determined to keep around this place is the north carolina furniture that my mother worked so hard to find and to purchase. Back in the day when there wasn’t the Internet to find and order items from, a person would have to travel a long way to find some things that you just could find locally.

My parents took several trips down to North Carolina to pick out the perfect living room furniture for mother to decorate this old house with. At least it wasn’t too long of a drive for them to handle and sometimes that would incorporate a visit with some distant relatives that lived down around that area as well.

Mother was looking forward to taking another trip down south to pick up some new furniture for the dining before they both passed on. One day I’ll get around to replacing the very old and well used and worn furniture in there myself. But right now I have other things to deal with and besides that old dining room table holds a lot of memories that I’m just not ready to part with.

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Firewood

In this heat it really sucks getting firewood ready to burn for the cold winter months that are ahead us shortly. With the price of electricity who the heck can afford to heat their homes with the rising costs involved. So I’m trying to be a bit pro active and getting what I can get done while I can.

cutting wood
Being pro active by chopping wood in July
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Bugs Everywhere

As much as I try to handle pest control naturally, I am having a heck of a time dealing with bugs is year. The mosquitoes are particularly thick and ferocious. I cannot step off my porch after 4:00 in the afternoon without being attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes.

Today I found a bunch of Japanese beetles all over the roses. I picked off most them but will have to check the roses every day now so they don’t get eaten up by the beetles.

The spiders have become very prolific, too. There were spider webs in all the shrubs and I even saw one big Black Widow crawling through the grass toward a tree. I had to kill that one – they are poisonous and hard to get rid of.

Times like these I wish we had more birds and snakes around the house to  eat and help eliminate all these bugs.

pests all the way around
Pests, Pests and More Pests
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Good Quality Tarps

I could have sworn that there were plenty of tarps in the back shed that I was counting on using in a month or so, but I’ve looked time and time again and they are no where in sight, so I’m counting on using the Internet to find the best deals possible on a few good quality canvas tarps. I can’t stand those cheap cheesy looking blue tarps that we all see in a lot of folks drive ways and yards, they just stand out like a sore thumb, when I really think they should be blending in instead of being an eye sore to their neighbors.

Running this farm along with the house and all, it is always good to have plenty of tarps on hand. My father always bought good quality tarps, he refused to buy them from Home Depot or Walmart because he said they were not worth their salt in weight and so I would like to continue with his ways and wishes as much as I can. So I am going to take advantage of some of the promotions that are out there for online shoppers like myself and see what I can come up with, soon like.

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Being Single

I love my sister, all of them actually, but my one sister, who lives in New Jersey has it in her head big time, and she is trying very hard to get me hooked up and married off. She has made this one of her lives missions and is constantly trying to get into my business.

It’s not that I wouldn’t like to meet a young lady, but right now the farm is my priority and is taking up all of my time, effort, blood, sweat, tears, money and love. There just isn’t enough of me to go around the place.

Sis found someone in her hometown that has been utilizing an online Dating Site with over 30 years of experience by the name of Great Expectations. Her new friend had many positive things to say about how this company goes the extra mile for their clients and she has made many new friends, online and at local functions that they host frequently. Sis then found out that there is one of their offices in Richmond, VA, which isn’t far from the farm and she immediately sent me an email with all of their information and the link for the site.

I’ll take a look around, might as well, just can’t promise anything, but it wouldn’t hurt to look since I spend what little extra time that I have online anyway.

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Expensive Flat Tire

This morning started badly when I found that my tractor had a flat tire. So I had to take the flat off and take it into town and buy a new tire. I thought the tire was going to cost about $250, but I ended up having to also buy a new tube to put inside it, plus they charged to remove the old tire from the rim, and put the new tire on the rim.

When all was said and done, it ended up costing me $514.  And you thought farming was cheap! This is one crappy April Fools joke.

Tires for the tractor
Tractor Tire
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Trash Pick Up Changes

Even though I live out in a remote area we are lucky enough to have trash pick up provided to us each week. For as long as I can remember the trash was picked up on Monday morning. So each Sunday evening the trash goes out to the end of the long drive way.

This week there has been a change, instead of the usual Monday morning pick up, we have been notified that it will now be a Tuesday afternoon pick up. No big deal but it’s something that I have to adjust to after all these years.

It will be nice when they start offering the recycling items as well. They have been talking about this for several years. The wheels of justice turn so darned slow. Right now if you want to recycle items we have to take them to the recycling center that is over 45 minutes away from this place. What a pain, but if you want to recycle that is the only way to do it around here, for now.