Rural Weekend

This one's for Dad. This was my view while Dad and I were talking on the phone, I was sitting on the back porch enjoying (bragging about) our awesome weekend weather. The picture shows the down-slope side of our property, which is not fenced yet. Jerry has planted grass seed in the yard area, further down is a nice green grassy pasture with lots of pine trees and oaks. The road curves down along the property beyond our view. As we were talking, yellow clouds of pollen were drifting down from the trees, like sifted flour. Everything is covered in a yellow dust. It's worse today. We have to hose down the vehicles to go anywhere and see out the windshield.

Are you looking at this picture thinking, "Well how nice, Jerry is actually taking a break, sitting back peacefully enjoying life?" Are you? Well, lets just angle this view a bit more and zoom in on our subject. Shall we???

And folks, this is for real....
He is on Gopher Patrol..... (the gopher lives)
What can I say... the man makes my life more than I ever dreamed of.

Does this qualify for a "you know you're a redneck".....?

I call this "Lawn Crew Siesta". We turn them loose, we get a trimmed lawn AND fertilizer.

Notice they stand head to tail, you can see the tail swishing action, automatic fly swatters.

Cort didn't think it was fair for the horses to enjoy dinner without him. He thought he was being sneaky, and this was the response to my , "Hey Cort, what are you doing?"

This was his answer to my question. Sharing horse food.

Maybe I should have titled this post Red Neck Weekend. I hope you enjoyed it.

I am using Jerry's new cable, plugged into the phone card in my laptop, it attaches to a small antenna on the roof of his office, and my Internet connection is very much improved. I guess I'll have to go get one of these for myself. Or I'll have to come out to his office every time I want to get online.

Sunny Sunday

Time skipped by again. We had surprise out-of-state visitors from Wednesday until yesterday. Jerry's son, son's wife, and her dad. We had a nice visit, short but sweet.

Today was good. It was warm (80s), sunny, and very green. We had an excellent Church service this morning. Then we spent the rest of the day organizing our tack room and doing other odd and end jobs around here.

I took pictures today and had hoped to share a few but I have not been successful in getting them on this post. It sure is frustrating.

I'll try again tomorrow using a 'booster antenna device' that Jerry just bought for his laptop.

Saying good night now......

More Surgery

Case #1: Do you remember this patient from an earlier post?

And the surgery removing that very large lipoma (fatty tumor) from his neck?

Well here he is recovered and sporting a much more attractive neck line!

Case #2: I thought you may find this case interesting.... What's wrong with this picture?

Case#3: And then we have this little one. I'll call it, "not a tumor...." Can you find what's wrong with this picture?

Case#4: The ugly mass on this dog's rear leg turned out to be a lymphosarcoma. A bad cancer of the lymph nodes.

Case#5: Another tumor. This one is on a female dog,she is laying on her back in the picture. Another bad one. This one was a mammary cancer.

My message here is, please don't wait too long if you notice a lump on your pet that isn't going away or continues to increase in size. Better for everyone if it can be surgically removed while small.

I wouldn't want anyone to think all I do is follow Jerry around the place taking pictures of him working. Or that I spend all of my time riding and skiing..... Sometimes I actually work. ;-)

Sunday

Twenty baby Redwood Trees in a temporary tree nursery in our garden. We will replant them as soon as Jerry does some earth moving in front.

This thing is worse than riding a mechanical bull.... (maybe I have done that; in a younger, more foolish time in my life, maybe)

Gettin' er done...

There's a small Church in a nearby town that we went to on Easter. We both like it and have gone each Sunday since. I sure do like friendly, rural, small towns. After Church, we went to the grocery store, checked out an antique shop, then hit the Feed Store. We are being warmly greeted by new neighbors everywhere we go.


We had a quick lunch of tacos at home and then went outdoors to work. (Jerry still doesn't understand the 'day of rest' concept.)


Work will never end here. We thought it would be fun to put in a veggie garden. The garden area had already been created by a previous owner but has been sadly neglected in recent years. There is a 6 foot deer proof fence, an irrigation system, and tiers. Easy enough eh??? Hahahaha.


Jerry has spent several days doing bits of roto-tilling. First he cleared an area for the baby trees. Then started on the vegetable area. We finished up today. I helped. The tiller is a mean machine, it shakes and jumps and jars body parts. I didn't know that. If I had known, I would have made a strong case for supporting our local veggie farmers and not competing by producing our own food. But the tilling is finished. Now all we have to do is wait a few weeks and place little plants in the earth, water and fertilize, and harvest the bounty. Hahahaha. Are you kidding, I know it won't be easy like that, at all.

This is not taken in a local tavern. This is in our house, for goodness sakes.... All we need now are peanut shells on the floor and neon CORONA signs on the wall. Could be a country/western song....

*sigh*

Good night.

Back in the Saddle

We haven't ridden our horses since one fell on me in the fall and Jerry had the heart attack in November.
Saturday we loaded up our horses, saddles, and headed up into the 'hills'.


Only 15 miles from our house is a real nice camp ground and trail head for horses and hikers. The three horses ready to head out and Jerry adjusting his chaps.

Jerry on Cheyenne and leading Remington. We didn't want to leave Rem at home alone and he needs the exercise too, so he carried the pack saddle.

We rode up hills and down little canyons, this was a nice overlook area, actually it was a heli-pad clearing, up in the middle of the woods.

Big trees, the scent of pine and fern, silence.....

It was a very good day.

Good to be back in the saddle.

Winter Fuel

A fallen, partially sawed, very large Digger Pine, laid in our front yard. Apparently it had lain there for quite some time. Not attractive yard art. Fallen trees have significant eco-value but not in my front yard.


I should have had included something for size reference in this photo.

This angle shows the front of our yard. There is a rickety, decaying, rather smashed wooden fence that eventually we will be replacing. Woven wire fence remains and keeps roaming dogs and goats out and Cort in.

Jerry, J.J., two chainsaws and the tractor cleared that tree in one afternoon.

Several large wood piles neatly stacked in back.

This was only one of our fallen tree projects.

A log splitter will be on our Christmas list.

Same view as the first picture. All that remains is dirt and pine needles that didn't completely burn with the first fire.
Note the plowed yard, Jerry dug it up and has it planted with a pasture mix grass seed. We need more rain.

Goofing Off

We have White Lilacs!

We have dark Purple Lilacs!

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

"You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard."

I found this cute flower quiz through Lynn's blog today. I am not sure about the 'sunny disposition' though. And that last part sounds obnoxious. I do like daffodils and we have lots growing here at the Log House. I have no idea how to link you to that gardening blog so you can take the quiz. I think you just click on 'What Flower Are You'.

My Mom is a gardening wonder, I wish she lived closer to help me identify what we have growing here, and to help plant new flowers.

I have the day off. I slept in. I had a bowl of Mocha IceCream for breakfast. I played 'chase around the house' with Cort. My pictures on my computer are now up to date and in titled files or folders. I have been playing on the computer, reading some of my favorite blogs and looking up silly things. Now I am going to go out and play a bit. I don't plan on doing ANY tractor work or physical labor today. I should be organizing my office and working on taxes...... maybe later....

I plan on posting two blog entries today. I want to share some of the work we've been doing.

Oh yeah, Jerry is out of town for a few days.