What is THAT ???

A couple of days ago Ed called from outside and said: BRING YOUR CAMERA!!!! I didn't know what was going on, but when I caught up to him he said look over there! And this peacock was in our pasture walking around! Wow! where did He come from? Our chickens were scared and were all squawking and making a lot of noise! They had never seen such a big chicken! I tried to get close to it, but it was too wary. I threw some corn out to it and it started to eat it, until the dog spotted it and gave chase. then, it flew up onto this electric pole that is in the pasture. It sat there for a couple of hours. Then while we were busy with other things it flew down and started to eat the corn again. (we had put the dog in the house). A couple of our uphill neighbors came down and it turned out that the bird belonged to one of them. She lives on the next road to the north of us. But she couldn't get him to go home either. He walked way down to the woods near the road and we think found a tree to roost in for the night. No sign of him since. No feathers either, so hopefully he went home.

Here is a closer look at him. He was very pretty. He has a loud, raucous call, and he would make that call while sitting on top of the power pole.

That was the only 'out of the ordinary' thing that happened all week.

I bought some vegetable plants for my garden yesterday, and hope to get them in the ground tomorrow. Tomatoes, zucchini, sweet peppers, cucumbers, and I want to plant some herbs this year. I've never cooked with fresh herbs, so this will be an experiment. I'll keep you updated.

Where is Spring?

I think everyone is fed up with this lingering winter. I know I'm tired of being cold and having to bundle up to go feed and take care of the horses. And they say there is global warming? Not in my neck of the woods!

Last Sunday our banty hen hatched out 4 chicks.It has been so nasty outside that they have been confined to their little house. The hen is getting stir crazy and wants out! Now if she can just hold on until Monday or Tuesday, it will warm up somewhat. They are as cute as can be! Sorry, no pictures yet. I will try to get some as soon as we can get her out of her house.

The spring bulbs that were given to me last fall, are coming up now. Since they were put in the ground late, they are later than everything else so they missed the major freezes. I expect some lovely flowers soon.

Here is a photo of father in law's Windmill Ranch. He repairs or builds them. He and E can be see on the corner of the back porch, grinding horseradish roots for sauce! This was taken a couple of weeks ago.

My truck let me down the other day. The electric door locks had been a bit sticky, for the last couple of weeks but would always open. Then, I was at the grocery store in the rain, and uh oh! it wouldn' open. The drivers door wouldn't open with the key. Thankfully the passenger side did! But I had to climb over the seat from the passenger side for a couple of days. Talk about turning me into a pretzel!! Anyway we got it fixed, at least for now. It did this once before, a long time ago and now if it ever happens again we are going to unhook all that electronic stuff and just use the key to open it.

I have commited myself to getting rid of the extra weight that I have been carrying around. I have started a new blog if anyone is interested in checking up on me. You can help keep me honest.

Here is the link: http://kountrylady.blogspot.com/

There's nothing new under the sun! Nuttin' to blog about. The boys and I are going outside everyday. They have a lot of fun, playing in the gravel, finding sticks, (they live in the woods) riding their little toy tractors, playing with the basketball, digging with their shovels, and just running around the yard. Since I haven't posted any photos of them lately, here is a couple that I took last week. They are little sweeties, well, most of the time!

I have been working with Maddie, our 4 year old filly. I have been doing groundwork, getting her ready for me to ride. She is doing very well, and she learns quickly. By the time I get ready to get in the saddle she should know what the reins are for, and what is expected of her. I don't really expect her to have any problems with it, as long as I take it slow and don't rush her.

My perennials are coming up and everything is growing and getting ready to bloom! I sure hope it doesn't freeze and kill everything! Spring is so early this year, but I love it!

Lovely Weekend!

This is Solomon, 19 years old. I have cared for him since before he was born. He was watching me getting his supper ready. This was taken about a month ago, when we had some rather cold weather. He and the girls were eager to get in their stalls for the night.
I took this one yesterday. After I get home from work, the horses will often come down to this corner of their pasture and wait for me to come outside. I was in the kitchen when I took this one of Katie. She couldn't see me with the camera. She was just watching the door and waiting.
Awww! Say 'peaches'! This was taken on Sunday. We had a lovely visit and ate way too much! We had wonderful spaghetti with meatballs; potatoes, carrots, and roast cooked in the crockpot; garlic bread; chocolate cake; cream puffs; pretzel crunch salad; persimmon bread and bars; sweet tater pie; applesauce cake for all the March birthdays; two kinds of iced tea. I'm probably forgetting something too. It was a lovely day with warm spring weather. But best of all was the wonderful companionship and good company! My parting shot, saying goodby at the back door. See you soon!

Where is Spring??

It sure doesn't seem to be lurking around here anywhere! I love the sunshine, but it is nasty cold outside and the wind blowing makes it feel that much colder! Even the crocus and daffodils haven't started to poke their heads out yet! If anyone knows what happened to it, let me know!!

This morning we drove up to Greencastle to the Tractor Supply store, and stopped at the Monon Restaurant to eat breakfast. It is a quaint little place and always busy. I had a Western Omelet with coffee. It was pretty tasty. E had biscuits and gravy with orange juice. Love to eat there, just for the atmosphere. They have train stuff all over the place, with other antiques mixed in too.

Last Monday I took Taco to the vet for an evalution. We left him there and she did surgery to remove the mass on Tuesday. Since he had to be inside (he is a barn cat) for the next 24 hours, we left him there and I picked him up on Wednesday after work. The area above his eye is still swollen, but I think it is gradually going down. He still can only open his eye a little bit. I think he was glad to get rid of that thing! He is his usual annoying self. Meowing to be picked up and held, constantly! He is eleven years old this year. We didn't spend the 70.00 dollars it would have cost to find out what it was. Just glad it is gone. Vet said it would just kill her not to know what it was! Well, she can spend her nickles to find out, if she wants to know that bad!

I'm itching to get back in the saddle again! The horses need more exercise and I need it more than they do! But all the mud, makes it so hard to do. Can't

ride ANYWHERE around here without making deep pock marks in the ground. Sure don't want them in the hay field, or anywhere else. So...we wait...until it dries up some more. I wish my ship would come in! I would like to have some of those dollars to put some gravel down and a couple of loads of sand in the round pen. We could take care of some of this mud!

I got a call at 10:00 PM on Thursday night from eastern Kentucky. I was brushing my teeth, just about ready to hit the hay! Well, it was 12:30 when her cell phone died and my phone went dead! Nothing new, just talking about her dogs, and sheep and grandkids and her own kids. Youngest grand children are 14 months, and 3 months. She did say thanks for the photos of the dogs. One of them was recently killed on the highway in front of her house. No, it was't the one we took to her. It was her youngest son's dog and he is taking it pretty hard. A female, but she said she has two puppies from her that look just like her and one will be his.

The horses want their supper, so I guess I will head out to the barn and clean stalls and feed them. Then feed us when we get back in the house. No idea what is for supper!

This has been a pretty 'ho hum' week. Most of the snow is gone, but it sure feels like winter out there. 35 degrees and rain. The rain hasn't started yet, but we are supposed to get up to an inch or so. Yuck! We have lots of mud already. My daffodils that were 4 inches tall in early January have completely disapeared. I hope they will come back and bloom. The cold weather really did a number on them.

The log splitter that E has, has been giving him fits, so this morning he took it back to the repair shop for them to try again. This is only the third time it has been there this winter! As soon as it gets warmed up, it starts to choke down, and will stall under a load. He has tried everything he knows, so maybe they can figure it out again. Third time is a charm, right?

My poor horse, Solomon. Somehow he has got a nasty gash on his face about an inch above his left eye. It has only torn the skin, there is no damage to his eye, but it sure looks bad. I couldn't find anything in the run-in shed that was protruding, like a nail or anything. Don't know what happened to him.

On Monday Taco (barn cat) is going to the vet for an evaluation. He has a large growth on his head above his eye. It is getting bigger and is now forcing his eye shut. His eye isn't involved, except from the weight of it above his eye. The vet won't take it off without looking at him first. We will see what she has to say about it. This growth is about 2 inches long and as big around as my thumb. It is centered about half way between his ear and his right eye. It has only come up on his head since about October. It hasn't seemed to bother him until now, when he can't open his right eye. So we will have it looked at on Monday.

I have been planning to make some Corn Cob Jelly since before Christmas. I didn't have time to get it done in time for Christmas gifts. I just today got it done. It is so pretty to look and it tastes good too. Ed likes it and his step mother has asked me for it. She absolutely loves it. It has a fruity taste, but different than anything else.

It is still winter!! I wanted to wake up this morning and find it 50 degrees! No such luck! It is SNOWING! EEEK! I hate winter!

When I woke up this morning, ED was MAKING waffles! He had his Mayberry cookbook out and was stirring up a waffle batter! That is a first! They were good too, with butter and maple syrup. Yum! (I usually sleep in on Saturday mornings.) Getting up at 5:30 is for the birds, at least until there is some daylight.

An update on the missing chicken. Our next door neighbor (the one that owns that awful dog) came over carrying a garbage pail, and said guess what I found? She had found the hen, over by her barn. There were no marks on the hen, that stupid dog just killed it and left it. Played with her I would guess. But that dog is GONE now. Thank goodness!

Did I mention that I hate winter? We have had a very hard time trying to find sawdust for the horse stalls. Last weekend we went to Rural King and bought some pelleted bedding. You have to spray them with water, then they expand and fill the stall. I had never used them before, but they smell so good and they really expanded to fill the stalls. But they are expensive so this was an emergency measure. We had tried to get someone to haul us some sawdust for weeks, but they couldn't or wouldn't. But yesterday one of the two guys finally could get some and brought it and dumped it in front of the barn. When we got home we started shoveling, and shoveling, and shoveling! It was a huge truck load! More than we could get in the barn! And it was full of chips and splinters and pieces of wood.
We shoveled all we could and the rest is still sitting there! It may last us until next October. But now we have plenty of bedding!

E has just opened the kitchen window and is trying to do away with a chipmunk that has been coming to the birdfeeder. He hates those little varments. All morning we have heard one in the walls of the house, chirping away! Now he hates them even more, because it disturbed his nap!!

I haven't been on here for quite a while. It just seems that there is not much to write about, but I will try to catch up a little.

The weather has been nasty, therefor I've pretty much stayed in the house. Yesterday it sleeted ALL day, then last night we had two inches of snow on top of an inch of ice! EEEK! But today the sun is shining and everything is sparkling and glistening! It is so beautiful! It was 9 degrees this morning and has at least warmed up into the teens.

The horses stayed inside yesterday, and we turned them out while we cleaned the stalls last evening. They ran, bucked, kicked, and farted and had a grand time, then came inside again for the night and had their supper. Today they are out for the day, enjoying the sunshine.

When Ed went to feed the chickens on Monday evening, he discovered that something had pulled the wire away from the side of the chicken house and one of the hens was missing. It was his favorite hen, a very pretty black and white one. There was no sign of a struggle, no feathers anywhere in the pen or the chicken house, no blood, no NOTHING! There were canine prints (dog?) in the snow, but not much. No sign of any thing! I walked out into the pasture, behind the barn, in the back pasture, looking for tracks, and there was nothing. Then, I found a few scratches in the snow, about 20 feet from the chicken house and 3 white and 3 or 4 black feathers. There were some marks in the snow, that would have come from the wing tips hitting the snow. There was no blood, no nothing else. Ed went to the house and called our next door neighbor and she said she bets she knew who it was. One of her dogs. But she said she had seen a strange chocolate lab running around here that day too. But back to her dog, this dog chases her horses something awful. That dog is a bad one and she very well could have been the culprit. Since there were no tracks anywhere else, she could have walked back to the neighbors and no one would have been known she was here. The neighbor came over check it out, and she said she will find another home for her. She called later that evening, and said she had. Ed was upset enough to shoot that dog on sight! Even without actual proof that she did it!! In the years that we have had chickens here, this is the first time we have lost one.

Here are a few photos of our recent activites and the ice.

We have been watching this big buck at the deer feeder for weeks. He didn't show up until hunting season was over though!
This is the scene every evening starting about 4:30. They are lots of fun to watch. They rear up and paw each other and chase and smack each other with their front hooves. Wish we could get it on video!
Got snow? We have 2 inches. That is better than 2 feet! The birds are sure enjoying the feeders.

I feel pretty awful today because I have a nasty cold that I got from my boys. And my cat died. Toby, the black and white barn cat was found laying on the hay in the loft, gone on to 'greener pastures'.

Nuttin going on here. Just the usual going to work stuff.

Whats new on Sinkhole Acres? Nothing very noteworthy. Nothing to blog about. I am enjoying my birdfeeders. This one is attached to the kitchen window with suction cups and I have Niger seed in it for the Goldfinches. Here is a male and female, the male is in his winter plumage. I just learned something this week. I didn't know that the male goldfinch changed his color in the fall! In the summer he is lemon yellow all over. Now he is a dull olive like the female. I love to watch them, especially this close up! Aren't they pretty?

I have 14 gallons of mulberries in the freezer that I am starting to make into jelly. The guy that I used to work with on the horse farm, Enrique, picked them and put them in his freezer. He asked me months ago if I would make them into jelly for half of it. Said he would pay for the sugar and jars. So now I have to get this done before Christmas. I have some of it thawed out and ready to cook today, about 4 gallons of berries. That works out to about 6 batches of jelly.

On Friday evening we attended the Christmas party for the company E works for. It was held at the American Legion here in town. It was interesting to watch some of the people dancing when the band was playing. Especially one older couple. He was using a walker, but he also wanted to dance. They parked the walker, his wife took his arm and they slowly circled the dance floor. He kept time with his free arm, but his feet were too slow to keep up the beat. He danced several dances with her like that and looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself! Since I don't dance, I just enjoyed my steak and watching everyone else.

Ok, gotta go and get started on my jelly.

Here are my little guys. Aren't they cute? They are just so huggable and such fun to be around. I took these photos on Wed. so they are current. It has been a while since I posted any photos of them. They are getting to be such big, little boys!

One day early last week this bird was sitting six inches from my kitchen window on this twig. It was a wet cold and raining afternoon. I suppose it was sitting here fluffed up, napping and trying to stay warm. When I made a small noise it looked at me, startled and flew away. 

Balls of Fluff

Last Saturday E found these cute babies when he went to a farm where a friend of his stores his shelled corn. There are no houses in the area. E was filling his bag of corn to feed the deer, when these babies came running up to him! They were glad to see a human! He brought them home and we had them for several days, until we could locate a foster home for them through the local Humane Agency in our county.

These little buggers really did some damage to my house plants. They tore off the leaves of my philodendren and dumped over the pots of some of the others. I thought I had moved them out of the way! No way! They were all over the living room, climbing up on anything that would hold them, streaking around the furniture, and attacking each other with vicious baby kitten ferocity! Then, collapsing in a heap to sleep and regroup for another all out attack on the living room!

These babies were tiny, probably no more than 4 or 5 weeks just fitting in the palm of your hand. Barely eating dry kitten food. They were so soft and cuddly. And as little as they were they would purr when you picked them up to cuddle them! But alas, we couldn't keep them, so we found a foster home for them through the Humane Society in our county.

Our Thanksgiving

We got up early and ate a quick breakfast of cereal for me and Peaches and Cream oatmeal for E. Then I made two dozen eggs that I had cooked the night before, into deviled eggs. We stopped at Rural King in Martinsville to purchase a couple of Christmas presents for the grandchildren.

Then, it was off again to Lebanon to the familys pitch-in Thanksgiving dinner. We were told that no one was bringing deviled eggs, but two more people did anyway. So there were LOTS of eggs. There was plenty of food to go around, as several brought more than one dish. There were about 30 people, some of which after 10 years of being in this family, I still have to ask E their names! Some of them I only see once or year, sometimes less than that.

It was a good day, warm, sunny and unusual for mid November. We drove home, a two hour drive, and fed our horses, chickens, dogs and cats and called it a day. We brought home enough leftovers for another meal or two. Yes, I'm ashamed to say, I ate too much. My bad!

Boxed Puppy!

This is Missy. She has decided to be an indoor dog this winter. Since she didn't have a bed of her own, she took over the cats bed! Does she look comfy? Well, we did go and buy her a bed of her own and she loves it! But I thought this was cute.

Here are the photos from McCormick's Creek State Park. I could not get them to load for the last two days! Arrrrgh!!

McCormick,s Creek State Park

Saturday was a beautiful day. The sun shone brightly, the air was sharp and clear, the trees were in their fall glory!
E and I went to McCormick's Creek State Park for the first annual "McCormick's Flavor", an event to celebrate the joys of outdoor cooking. But...we couldn't find it! Then discovered that I didn't check the date! It is NEXT weekend!!! Since we had already paid our 5.00 to get in the park, we drove around the park and took photos. It is truly a beautiful park, and it is 5 miles from our house!

Here is a couple of photos that I took while we were in the park.

Hiking In Autumn

Last Sunday my baby sister and I went to Greens Bluff Nature Preserve and hiked down a beautiful narrow trail to the Bluffs. There are large hemlock trees growing on the face of this huge cliff, overhanging the creek. Here are a couple of her photos. The trees were just starting to change color so there isn't much in these photos, but it was a quiet, restful, beautiful place. Come and go with me, and we will do it again, now that the trees have really changed. We can walk her from my house. It is about a 30 minute walk, maybe a little more.

Stinky!!

A couple of summers ago, I went to a plant sale put on by one of the churches in Bloomtown. I spent all of 50 cents! I bought a 3 inch, single stem, rooted cutting of a Carrion Flower.

It has grown very well, and recently it sprouted 5 flower buds. Two of them actually developed into flowers. Here is a couple of photos that I took within the last 3 weeks. The flowers just opened today. They are 8 inches across.

Why is it called the Carrion Flower? Well, if you get your nose within a couple of inches of the flowers, it smells exactly like 'road kill' ! I suppose in the wild it attracts insects for pollination.

I think this was my favorite view of the lake. In another week or so the trees will be in their full colors! I want to go back and take more photos, and just enjoy the scenery.
This isn't a large lake, but is was beautiful. The water was clear, and the trees are just beginning to turn colors. A walk around the lake was so relaxing and peaceful.
The Bloomington Photo Club, of which I'm a member, had our annual Club picnic in Brown County State Park, yesterday. It was an absolutely beautiful day!! Here are a couple of photos that I took of Strahl Lake, where we picniced. And I didn't even know Brown Co. had a lake!!

Here is the chute that Ed made, for us to be able to unload hay, with just the two of us doing it. The other end of the hay elevator is up on the loft floor, and I stand on the trailer and slide a bale down the chute and he catches it at the top, and stacks them. Wasn't he clever? It has sure made a hard job easier! We load the trailer with 80 bales, and put 20 in the back of the pick up truck. This week we hauled 204 bales of hay from the farmer and put them in the barn. We have approximately 55o bales of hay for the winter. That is one job that I'm glad to see done for the year!!!

An Afternooon Trailride

I liked Ruth's idea to include us in her early morning walk with the dogs. I ride Katie 3 or 4 times a week and thought I would take you all on a trailride with me. In the photo above we are just leaving the barn area. We will ride down the hill, (in a wide zig zag fashion, as it is easier on the horse than walking straight down). We will enter the woods at the red arrow.
Here is where we enter the woods at the bottom of the hill. The weeds have grown all summer and some of them are 6 feet tall! There is a deer trail that we follow. We are heading for that open field in the distance, through the trees in the photo below.

An Afternoon Trailride

As we come out of the woods into the neighbors hay field we make a right turn and walk a hundred yards or so and make another right turn and climb up this winding trail in the photo above.

We come to a Y in the trail and which way will we go today? Hmmm, OK, lets turn to the right, and see what little surprises we discover today.

Just a little way along this trail, if we look to our left, we see a green scummy pond. In the summer there are turtles sunning themselves on the fallen logs that are in it. There is almost always a few frogs that jump in and startle the horse! This pond always has water in it.

As we continue on our way, we walk under this scraggly looking, small tree, and hanging in its branches are lots and lots of wild grapes!! I think I am seeing some grape jelly here!! Hmmmm! Gotta tell Ed about this!

We pass under the 'grape' tree and follow the trail that a neighbor bushogged for another neighbor, so she could ride her horses. (She has 3 horses but never rides them). When we get to the far end of this little meadow, we will turn left again, and

turn into the deep forest. This is a Nature Conservancy of about 200 acres. We can walk in the woods, but that is all. There is no hunting allowed, or anything else. It is just for enjoying nature.The trail meanders along twisting and turning and following gentle grades up and down the ravines. As you go along, look to your left,

and you will see some long deep ravines that seem to have no bottom. They are full of mature trees and fallen trees that have rotted over the years. Here and there is a trickle of water going toward the bottoms. It eventually ends in the river.

Here is another trail that goes off to the right. We will explore that one another time.

As we near the Y in the trail, near the beginning of our ride, we can turn left at the Y and come out on top of the hill under the Power Lines. The Power Company that owns the lines keeps this part cleared.

As we stand under the lines, we have to decide, do we want to go down that steep hill today? I don't think so, Katie and I have had enough exercise today. We will do that hill another day. I hope you have enjoyed our ride. I enjoyed having the company and sharing the sights with you.

And a good time was had by all!

Yesterday, E and I went to the Paragon (little town) Homecoming. It is mostly just a town wide yard sale. The streets were blocked off and there were yard sales all over the place. They had food venders and bands, etc. It was nice, and the weather was good, 70 degrees and partly cloudy. I enjoyed spending time with E, just walking about and talking.

We went to a large flea market near Columbus today. I found a nice big wooden birdfeeder for 2.00. The birds will eat well this winter. It was a fun day. Now it is back to work. We are trying to make a 'sawdust stall' in the barn. We have an area that we put sawdust in, in one of the stalls. But it needs fixed so we can fill it up and not have to go and shovel a pickup load of sawdust every two weeks. When we get this done, it will hold a lot of sawdust. Tomorrow we are going to Lebanon, E's dad has an elevator that E wants to use so we don't have to shovel the stall full. The elevator should unload the sawdust into the stall and we can get a lot more in it. Lets hope it works!

We have had some very nice cool, cloudy weather, thanks to Ernesto. I am enjoying every minute of it! After all the heat and humidity of the summer,IT IS WONDERFUL!!!!
Here is a scene I saw today when I looked out the window, while feeding the boys their lunch. Isn't she a beautiful doe? This photo was taken through a window with a screen on it, which gives it the out of focus look. This doe has a fawn that was still in the woods, out of sight.

My boys' mother has returned to Germany, so we are on our own again, and they are happy and doing wonderful. They are beginning to walk all over the house. Last week they started taking a tentative step or two, but now there is now stopping them!

Here is the website that I tried to send in a previous post:
www.heritagestonework.com . It was up and working today, so try it again.