It’s Monday!

I am a morning and Monday person.  I love the early morning smell, feel and the sight of the sun rising.  I also like Monday mainly because it’s a day to reset for the week.  I do laundry. I try to pickup the weekend messes and just get the week going with a good attitude.  

This Monday I’m battling a funk.  I’m mad at my dogs they somehow got in my Muscovy pen yesterday and got my babies and mama.  I am thinking they bumped the gate just wrong and it popped open. It has never done that before.  Now it is wired.  Still I’m sad. Both dogs have strong instincts. One to herd one to hunt.  Combine them and I don’t leave them where they can get to my critters unless I’m around. They are good when I’m in eye shot.  But. I wasn’t. :(. So I have mopped and cried and fussed. I have also fought 

the funk by looking for joy this morning.  First joy I found on my circle was this. 

Don’t you love the color?  Such a deep brown. It matches the very dry brown grass. 

Further around my circle I found this. 

Yep TRIPLETS!   I kinda looked up and said “Really!?”  Some ewes I just pull the smallest or the ewe I like the color of best.  But I’m pretty sure this ewe has raised nice triplets before in the pasture.  So I will watch her a few days. I may move her to where she can have creep feed to help her. 

On to the greenhouse 

It’s never had this many blooms at one time. It’s beautiful!

I’m off to town in a few to meet a friends brother get a baby lamb. Again joy. I am bummed I need to feed powder  instead of cow or goat but hopefully it will do well. I’m sure grands will be excited when they get home.  

Ducks? Tips to make them a fit.

I grew up with chickens.  Once on my own I tried ducks a few times but they didn’t work well.  Then I fell in love with them. I discovered how to make them fit.  The main problem most people say with ducks is they are messy!  They can be but only around their water.  They splash and make puddles,  Then dig holes playing in the puddles. If you remove the puddles they aren’t messy. They are easy keepers that two foot fencing keeps where you want them and out if flower beds or gardens.  They are wonderful mowers. Keeping the grass trimmed without scratching holes like chickens do.  

Ducks need water not only to drink, but to wash their faces. They love to play and splash and clean themselves tossing water everywhere.  This isn’t something they have to have all time. You can treat them to bath. A cheap swimming pool works. If you do that I suggest that you have a swimming area and then when you dump the pool shut them out until the puddles soak in. 

This is a good example of them digging holes.  This is where our ac drips onto the big rock  and puddles on the ground.  As you can see the ducks have enjoyed digging a pit.  

 

Today I hope I fixed the problem. 

A few rocks allowing the drip to soak in not puddle. Wet ground isn’t a problem.  Only standing water. 

Here is my solution to the duck water mess.  

I use a smaller pan with a float so it stays full. I sit this in a larger tub filled with pea gravel.  The larger tub has holes in the bottom. Ducks splash and play and all the water needs up in the pea gravel. Soaking into the ground with ever making a puddle. The smaller pan is easy to dump and clean as needed.  

If you want to take the idea onto a larger scale here is my duckponics.  It cleans the water and allows a swimming hole for the ducks without any puddles.  

The tub is the swimming pool. The rocks hold back a buffer of pea gravel. This allows the water to soak in.  Because this is my duckponics it has a pump that circulates the water cleaning it for them to swim in without me having to dump and clean.  

If you have them where you have plants they will trim them. A two foot fence is needed to keep them from trimming your flowers are vegetables.    Grass is different. Once it establishes then they just become lawn mowers.  Days you water shut them out until there are no puddles to keep them from making holes.  It’s that simple. 

Here are examples of how I have flowers and ducks. 

Tuesday Morning Visit

I try to blog after morning routine is done.  I hate using the word chores for them because they aren’t and it is my choice to have critters. So after my walk to the barn to feed birds over there. A few minutes to water DIL plants since they are on vacation, and a walk back to feed birds here I refill my coffee cup come out on the porch and type.  Usually I have taken a few pictures of my morning.  

See this wonderfully well mannered dog?  He is such a gentleman today stopped bothering stuff when told to. Coming when called.  Just an amazing dog.  I have discovered he is extremely hard of hearing.  Yesterday he spent chore time tormenting guinneas. Good thing they fly like helicopters. He couldn’t hear me yelling period.  This morning was different. I put his hearing aid on and only beeped it once as he was about to loose it chasing a peafowl. That seemed to clean the ears and the brain. He can again remember not to chase birds. He even knows his name again!   

It seems I’m going to have baby pigeons again. I have figured out if I hold my camera up into the nest. I can see what’s happening. 

Mama didn’t seem to appreciate the invasion. 

Something, probably my hard of hearing dog yesterday plucked my turkey hens tail feathers.  

She seems fine just short a few (all) her tail feathers. 

Hope everyone has a blessed day! 

Cinders

This is Cinders today, 9-23-19.  

This was Cinders when I found her, May of 2014. 

We had burned the dump and despite our best efforts to not have anything but trash it seems she was in it.  She was maybe a 6-8 week old feral kitten. Mom was gentle and came and went. But always had her kittens somewhere away from the house.  Once she was hurt though mom had to have brought her to the house.  

I discovered her because the dogs were eyeing something in a turned over flower pot.  I always assume snake. So I went to investigate. Instead I found this scorched burned kitten.   

I’m sure no one thought she would make it. But I used an eye dropper to give her milk and water and soon she was licking the dropper.  I bathed her in emu oil lavender and frankincense.  Spent hours holding her and rubbing it in her burns.The tips of her ears came off her, toes came off but she ate and drank and amazingly healed.  She is beautiful and special, but an outside cat. 

Detox Tea

For close to 20 years I have battled eczema on my hands. They crack, they ITCH, they have water blisters pop up all on the palms. The palms turn white almost because they are so dry. I have tried everything possible but nothing fixed it. Some things like hemp oil soothes them. Nesiporian cream with pain relief also helps when they hurt so bad I can’t sleep or function. Neither are dealing with root cause.  

That is the main reason over the years I have changed my diet the most is trying to find the trigger. Or how to heal the root cause.  I seem to have stumbled upon something.  I do believe all the diet changes are beneficial but doing detox teas every day seems to be impacting them in the most positive way.  If I stop the teas then I’m about 3 days my hands start itching and making blisters.  The itching isn’t surface itching it’s like the meat deep inside is itching and my hands burn like I slid across gravel on them.  On days I’m in a hurry I brew my tea add enough ice to cool it and chug. If I’m home I brew as I head out for chores and about noon fill a glass with ice add the tea and water and drink.  

I don’t know which tea or if it is a combination but hey it’s working!  

Hump day rambling

Thought my to LGDs were Mia. Coyotes cut loose about 6:40 this morning and the dogs went crazy. Then when I headed out to do chores they weren’t around. I thought I could here them barking way up on the neighbors.  It wouldn’t be a big deal but there are many snares in fences trying to keep the coyotes down.  I finished chores got my coffee cup and started off to check. They shoes up. I was very thankful.  

Laugh of the day are these picture.  Everything in the second picture identifies as a bovine.  They also identify the cow on the first picture as mom.  

She is the only mom any of them have ever had.  She licks them all like her babies. Fed them and protected them. Think that makes her mom. The lambs don’t have any desire to associate with sheep. They aren’t interested.  I’m sure the buck will have different ideas as they cycle.  Usually in time the drift over and become sheep not cows. 

Morning blog

Morning chores are done. That’s not saying I don’t have things I should be doing besides what I am.  Which is setting on the porch enjoying a second cup of coffee watching my ducks and blogging.  

I did clean dragon cages this morning. They are both molting or what ever you call it when they shed. 

Apollo

 Peaches

They usually are very different colors but right now they are about the same.  Peaches was not thrilled to be bothered this my.  Usually he/she is the more layed back one.  Today it was the other one. 

Because I want to find something beautiful every day to share I picked my two crown of thorn cactus.

  

They about a foot tall. 

I have coffee Fellowship in about an hour. I know one friend is planning to come maybe more.  I enjoy the visit.  Letting go of the expatiation of needing a reasonably clean house to invite people over has been hard.  I say reasonable because I have never mastered housecleaning. 

I did end up crocheting yesterday. Love the hat I made. It is soft bulky yarn.  Maybe my favorite. I made another one earlier out of this yarn for me as an ear warmer. I used it on vacation. Loved it. No ruffle/brim just big enough and tight enough to stay on and cover my ears well. I don’t do cold and ears. My ears need protection. 

Off to make a new pot of coffee and see if I can clean the kitchen table off enough to sit at it. 

It’s Monday!

I must confess I like Monday’s. It’s a day to retake my world. I do laundry usually water greenhouses and generally get back in sinc of husband at work me doing my own thing. 

This morning I had second load of laundry on before I headed to the barn. I watered greenhouse yesterday so today I headed off to check sheep after feeding guineas and turkeys. I do have guineas needing to rehome.  

I saw several new lambs that were born while we were gone.  Lots of very fat ewes too. Since they have cleaned the mesquite beans up on the back side I opened gates for them to come clean them up on the front side. They are a good food source this time of year. 

I even saw two deer. They weren’t disturbed by my presents. My presents includes a passel of dogs.  All running and sniffing everywhere. They watched and sorta ambled deeper into the brush without ever moving faster than a walk. 

I did discover my fat puppy is out of shape. Between two weeks of yard and getting “tutored” he gave up and joined me instead of running with the rest of the dogs. 

My in ground garden with drip is doing so good. I had to admire it while feeding birds here. That is why I have it right?  Grand was out with me and was admiring the flowers with me. That always makes it extra special. 

I hope to accomplish more today. Not sure what. Perhaps floors?  They need a lot of attention. 

Maybe just crochet! That sounds a lot more fun. 

Life Back Home

Came home to see baby Muscovies.  Since grand was just as surprised I am guessing they hatched that day.  

To say dogs and cats were excited to see us would be an understatement.  Dogs were nuts. Daughter had already been theeating to muder them. They seem to have finally calmed now.  Inside cats were just as bad but different. The gray cat was a love machine.  While Mis Priss ignored everyone until she caught me alone. Then she was all over me.  She even slept with me part of the night. For her that was lots of love.  She didn’t come by her name from her outgoing personality. 

Some of my plants are looking really good.  Look close at all the buds on this star cactus. They have beautiful flowers that are the size of your hand and stink like something dead.  They use flies for pollinators.  

This is Malabar spinach. Not really a spinach but eatable and healthy like spinach 

I bought two different kinds this is the red. The other didn’t come up I only planted one seed of each. 

This morning I discovered where my Muscovy are hanging out.  The large duck seems to be having as much fun as the Muscovy. The geese and regular pond ducks didn’t seem as excited.  

I’m laughing that the male Muscovies are to lazy to walk to the pond.  I have 4 that are hanging out with mama Muscovy and her 7 babies. 

Rv is empty and clean!  Dh is rebuilding the back bumper. When we bought it it had a toolbox back there. This trip it got really loose and we almost lost it.  He spent the rest of the week rebuilding it in his head.  Now it is building to his specks. 

I also did some idea changing. The “closet” on my side of the bed needed help.  I used these stackables in it this trip but it failed. So I tried something new.  I ziptied them together and have them sitting on my side of the bed.  I can still access my drawer type clothes probably easier now. Hopefully easier now. Next trip will tell. 

I still have room beside the bed for phone and glasses.  I’m hopeful it is a better solution than in the closet.  

We are now trying to decide where to go next month and what grands get to go.  

If you waded through all this leave a comment. 

Carlsbad NM

We decided to split up the 10 ish hour drive home. Carlsbad is about 1/2 way.  The state park is nice. Not fancy and the lake is in definite need of water.  We didn’t go past the campground. They have water and electric hookups, a dump station and showers.  Weather cooperated and we sat outside until dark. It was nice to not be cold. I crocheted and visited with dh while we watched two little cottontails play.  

Next morning we went to the Living Desert Muesuem and Zoo. We have been coming since oldest kids were little. It has always been a nice little zoo with lots of plants not only identified but uses of the plants. This time I was disappointed in the animals. Saw very few and some of them mainly the bison didn’t look good. They could be very old.  I have an old goat that looks worse. So giving them the benefit of doubt.  

My favorite is always the big cats. The cougars were in hiding. You could see them just barely.  The bobcats on the other hand were upfront and chatty.   They were meowing and rubbing the fence and talking back to me.  The Tom cat on the other hand ignored everything except twitching his tail.  

The bald eagle was also out and about.  I’m sure he is a rescue. I don’t think he can fly.  He is still beautiful.   They had a ladder for him to get high in the pen. 

They have some beautiful lily pads. I couldn’t get the frogs next to the flower.  

The greenhouse of succulents from around the world is neat.  I did a video of it but it won’t let me load it. I wish they had plants for sale from there.  They did have a few plants for sale but not the ones I wanted. 

From there we headed home!  Not much to see but trafic, man camps, and oilfield related life from Carlsbad home.  We made it safely home about 5 pm. About 2100 miles in two weeks. Lots of fun.  Lots of hats!

If you want one just ask!