Bird??........what bird??

Today I saw the strangest sight..

A dove with no tail feathers...as it

took off in flight...

What could have happened? I wondered all the while....

In the yard I found them lying in a pile...
"It wasn't me! Said old Max in woe....
hack, cough, sneeze, I'm too old and too slow! "

Boo said, "I've been here..sleeping all the day!

I would have never taken it's tail feathers away!"

Abbey?..Abbey... What about you?.....

"Me?...NO!!..yawn, stretch..

I've been sleeping.....it's true!"

Salem...where are you, have you not heard?

"Uumm, me? not me! ....bird...what bird???

Salem, you have feathers from your head

to your feet! ....

"The bird gave them to me...he's so very sweet!"

"He flew down beside me and said we could share.....I get his feathers...

he gets my hair!.....

Now Salem, the birds are like family...we don't eat them you know!

No more grabbing birdies, or outside you can't go!

"I promise" says Salem, "to be good from now on"

and just enjoy birdies for their lovely spring song.

I wont grab their tail feathers or pounce in their way

and right by your side I promise to stay"

Love Grows Among The Thorns

Sweetie and I took a long walk with Sophie the other day. Talking about the things we would like to do on the property.....when we noticed this....

a heart shaped cactus! It has more than one heart on it as well! To bad I did not notice this during Valentine's day..lol.
I usually dig up any cactus I find on the grounds. If let go, they take over every area and then it is extremely hard to get rid of. However, this is just too cute.... so I will clear the grounds around it and make sort of a bed. I love cactus when it blooms also. So now, what kind of weird plant or even a strange looking animal have you seen around your place? I can't wait to hear!

The Many Jobs of Gideon Rooster

Everyone associates a rooster with waking them up early in the morning with their loud cock-a- doodle-do......even on their days off...

and chasing the hens around the hen house.... and sometimes...we get thrown into the cooking pot.However....I have my side of the story to tell....
My name is Gideon Rooster. Yes, I am the farm's alarm clock, but I have so many other important jobs to do. I am the "guard dog " of my lady friends of the barnyard. I always watch everything that is going on around on the grounds.

This is my main squeeze....Pearl. She is the matching set to me....Kathleen calls us the salt and pepper shaker set of the barnyard.

I keep an eye on the inside and outside of the hen house. If old man coyote or his crawling friend, old man bull snake, come hanging around..... I am ready to fight for and defend my ladies.

This assurance of my protection gets many eggs laid...

and many offspring hatched .

Whether we roam the grounds.....

or walk the hen house fence.... I am constantly on the job, keeping watch over my brood. Each lady is dear to me.

When night gets ready to fall.....

I head everyone back to hay filled nests of the hen house,

and make sure everyone is with me, where we gather for a restful nights sleep. I have an important life.... I am known as the ruler of the roost.....and I am treated like the king!

A Bouquet of Fish?

Another Valentine's day has passed.....I expect you all are loaded down with boxes of candy and blooms of every color! What could be better than a bouquet of flowers I ask?

How about a bouquet of fish in the most vibrant of colors! That is what I got this year!
They are so very tiny...only about an inch . I can't wait to see if this one will stay like a calico or completely turn orange.

This one is so pretty, a little larger. I love the black and orange together.

This one is all white with just a hint of summer yellow on all of it's edges. The others are in colors of solid orange and mixed orange, white and blacks.

This is one of the fish that has been in the pond for almost a year now. It was only about and inch long when we got it.....and now look how big and beautiful it is!

If you see the tiny fish in the bottom of the bucket, it is easy to see how much bigger this fish is.

So new life has been added to the pond. I can't wait to see how these new fish grow. I am in search of water lilies to give the fish some kind of shade. We bought a couple of lilies last year, but they did not sprout. I am hoping to find ones that are already leafed out as in plant form. Do any of you, who own ponds have water lilies? How about turtles? Where do you purchase your pond accessories from?As always I love your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I would love any information on this!

What Happens On A Windy, Dusty, Day?

Sophie looks longingly out the window towards the road that takes us on our long walks together. She knows there is no way she can get me out today for a walk. The wind is roaring outside and the dirt is thick and heavy in the air.
I won't even let the chickens out of their pen to walk the grounds today. The wind would blow every feather off.....enough for the farmer's wife... miles down the road to gather and make a nice pillow with! We can't have that...now can we? {: Today they will stay in the shelter of the hen house until a better day comes to roam. So...what's there to do on a day like this?

Abbey, who loves to sleep on her back, thinks it is the best day for a long nap.

Salem, who spends his days roaming outside has agreed with her and settles in for the day.

Max......well, Max always thinks a day is for sleeping. He doesn't even know about the wind outside.

Don't you think everyone should sleep this well?

Boo has found her comfy spot and is just about to close her eyes.....if I would just stop taking pictures. But she is smiling for me.

Sophie sighs a deep sigh, glances at me while I sew, and lays down her head. .....If you can't beat em, join em!

Keeping A Garden Journal

Through the years, I have kept many kinds of journals. Perhaps it's because I love to write and I also want something left behind for my "some day grandkids "to read. {: One kind of journal I keep is because it really helps for the upcoming season. It is a garden journal. You can find these in book stores or on line at times, however, I like to "create" my own. Sometimes I use large spiral binders with folders inside.....

Sometimes I use pretty bound journals. I hand paint on the outside and inside. I make it ....me.....my garden..Inside, I write when I plant something....by seed or plant. I write every week or so on how that particular plant is doing, or if it dies. How well it did, when it sprouted, bloomed, and produced. This way I can go back and look over last years triumphs and failures and do things better.
I have a dear friend who sends me articles out of newspapers and magazines covering different things on gardening and on the folks who grow things a particular way. I keep these along with other informative articles I come across in a spiral filled with folders.

I also keep small garden catalogs and tags off of bushes and trees I purchase.

I find a lot of information on the Internet that I copy off and also save.

In these journals, I save leaves and flower petals. I write about when I picked them and where they grew. This is an enormous morning glory leaf out of the morning glories I grew a few years back.

I also make out my garden plans. Drawing where I want different flowers or vegetables to be planted that year. This really helps me to get my grounds ready.

I like to be creative and have something whimsical to also be seen. I either draw a little something or I paste clippings from greeting cards or magazines on the pages. I also attach my empty seed packets on the pages as well.

I found that placing packaging tape completely over a pressed flower, making sure to get all of the air out...preserves the color fairly well. I write what kind of flower is on the page, what color it is, if it has fragrance and how long it stays in bloom. This gives me an idea next year of where I want certain colors in my garden to be.

I also place a lot of photos of the grounds in the journal. I usually pick a new journal each year. If I have a lot of space left over, I will use the journal for the next year, leaving a page blank in-between to show a new planting season has started. I looked over the journals of the years I just started out gardening... and I am amazed at how much I have learned through the years. Do you keep journals as well? Do you keep notes about what you plant and how it turned out? I would love to hear!

No One Is Dressing This Bunny, Funny!!

My name is Hercules....and I feel just like what the name stands for. I am a big, tough. and strong bunny. I have been on the farm with Kathleen for almost a year. When I was very young, she walked me around on a little leash with a harness. I finally got too large for the harness, so Kathleen lets me hang around in the house to get my exercise.
Imagine how insulted I was when, today, Kathleen tried to dress me in this!! This is for "Barbie's" bunny. Kathleen is not Barbie, and I am not this kind of rabbit.

As patient as she was to try dress me in this, I was not patient. A few good scratches and a bite on her arm, soon made her realize that this horrid green and pink thing was being returned to the goofy store she bought it in.

Let her dress Max in it. He told me she has dressed him in baby clothes when he was little!! Really, I just had to have a talk with him. I hope he takes my advice about this matter.