Opa's place -Where an old rooster visits with friends

[ranchhand]

Good day all,

Not much excitement here, which is a good thing! Still hot and muggy, so I'm going to tackle the neglected inside today. Paperwork all over the place and the cats like to spread it even farther. The fleas have mounted a counterattack and I am determined to take a few of them out today. Grrrrrr.....

DH is producing copious amounts of peppers, mainly mild bananas and some extremely hot jalapenos. I have stuffed them and pickled them and still have zillions left!

I was a bad daughter for several years, too. Since I lived 2 hours away it was difficult, but my sisters and I finally hired someone to ride herd on Mom, after she started having the fire dept. over for dinner every night. On the funny side, she did do some things that had us rolling on the floor. It was a very difficult time, but worth it. In fact, Mom's dementia was the reason I moved back to SC after more than 20 years in TX - the best thing was that I finally married my old college boyfriend and haven't looked back since! Mom was very pleased by that, I'm so glad she was with us long enough to know.
CCMH, it isn't easy, but that's what family is all about. Bless you. Has your heart rate slowed down now?

PK, I'll be darned if I's going to share precious cherries with my chickens! I wave a piece of bread and they come flapping in from the woods, the DBH can really fly and be a bit alarming if you don't learn to duck!

Mary, that mental image of the Princess is perfect!

Congrats on the grands!

Opa, good talking to you the other day, as always! I still can't believe you haven't gotten quail - yet. Good luck with the predator battle. Most of mine are of the slithery variety. Some of you may know, but I don't think I posted about it- we caught a 6 foot rat snake one evening and DH was going to relocate it on his way to work the next morning. He forgot. I was worried about the "poor thing" in a bucket on the porch getting too hot, so I brought it into the living room for the day, in the AC.

Every time that bucket moved I jumped and the 3 cats, 2 dogs were having a field day.

Is walleye any good for smoking?

Highlander should be back by the end of the week, looking forward to stories from Budapest, Hungary! Harlan, I still think we ought to leave your DH at home and I'll go with you!

Hi MamaG,

and thoughts of strength to you and yours.

Hope everyone is doing as well as possible, seeya later!

 

[ranchhand]

Am I crazy or did I see fatboys farm and viejo loco in here? Where you is, fellas? And IIF, come back, where'd you go? You're the one who started the quail thing,

 

[viejo loco]

Hello Ranchie.
How are you and the rest of the gang doing. Thanks to Opa. The coffee has chocolate in it today. I need it. Had to have my favorite cat put to sleep Satuday, and still bummed. She was 16 years old, and just decided it was her time. I didn't have a choice.
Hope CCMH's mother's hand gets better. I know how everyone feels when taking care of their parents. I did it for a number of years. Taking care of them is much easier than the inevitable alternative. I still miss mine, even now.
Rained last night, so it's too wet to mow weeds. I judge it will take about two pots of coffee to dry out enough to get back out there. Didn't seem to bother my old biddies though. Some times I wonder if they are half duck. Sun shining. About 78 degrees. Light breeze about 10-15 mph. Big white fluffy clouds. Maybe the second pot could be out at the barn.
Opa, I don't know how you can have so many chickens, and not keep a few (dozen) quail also. They are so small, and sooo cute. They wouldn't take up much room, and the eggs are just the right size for pickling..
Later my friends, and keep smiling.........

 

[ranchhand]

viejo, that weather sounds like darn near heaven.

Very sorry about your old gal pal cat. I have had to do it many times with many critters, and it doesn't get any easier. I have just had to cope and eventually move on. Don't know if it works where you are, but I always bury them with a huge thank you and plant a fruit tree or rose on top. I thank them and cry again when they produce the first fruit or fragrant rose. Hopefully someone will do that with my ashes someday.

I mowed the weeds last week out in the front "yard". Since I don't walk real well we have a John Deere riding mower - I have more fun on that wee beastie.... yeeeeeehaaaaaaa! Cowboy hat got smushed though, looks like a hayseed hat now.

I am making huge progress in the house today- if it doesn't move it goes in one of 3 piles in the back of my truck - recycle, donate or trash. So far the donate pile is biggest, I hadn't realized how much of my deceased SILs stuff had filtered in from the shop/garage.

Found a stack of abused cast iron skillets in various sizes. Time to call Opa, he knows his cast iron!

Well, back to the salt mine.

 

[chickencrazymamahen]

Afternoon everyone, sorry I missed the coffee, but was sound asleep between 3 and 4 this morning!! Mom is doing good, back to grumbling instead of whining so I know she is much better!! Yep, this is one of the toughest jobs in the world, thought I knew what I was getting into, but really had no idea. Thank goodness for the days that make me smile. Ranchie my heart is doing much better, liking a much quieter day around here; just doing some canning and chicken watching.

viejo, so sorry about your special cat, we get so attached and it so hard even when we know that it is for the best.

MamaG thought of you and lifted you up in prayer today.

NAF, hoping that all is well with DD#4 and her baby, will be lifting you all up in prayer today and in the days to come.

PK what a great image of you, cherries and chickens...

They can drive you crazy sometimes!

Have a blessed day everyone, time to get back to whatever it was I am supposed to be doing instead of playing on BYC!

 

[Ec_Prokta]

Hey, you know those 1 subject notebooks? They're 15 cents at Wal*Mart!

I got 4 of them! Hmm... Maybe I should get some more.

 

[ranchhand]

PK, I love those notebooks! I use them to keep track of my online sales and just the daily to do list!

What a deal!

 

[viejo loco]

PK I tried that image of your herding experience, but I kept coming up with high top tennis shoes...

Ranchie I came from the Arizona desert. This weather is almost heaven to me. The old timers tell me it won't last. We are due to warm up any time now. :-(

 

[Opa]

Ever notice how some mornings the coffee tastes especially good? This morning seems to be one of those times. The aroma alone was almost too much. I use a Bunn coffee maker and it makes coffee in about 3 or 4 minutes, yet I couldn't wait for it to finish and had to pour myself a cup.

It will be light before long and I will go open the large fowl coop to allow the birds to get their day started as well. I'm curious as to how successful my traps have been overnight. I set three live traps and hopefully they have performed up to expectations. So far I have gotten five coons this year. I hate having to kill them but if one looks at the on going thread I started "The worst predator" you see just how destructive coons can be.

Looks like we are on tap for another round of extremely hot weather. Temperatures over 90 degree are on tap for the later part of the week and no rain is forecasted for the foreseeable future.

Well it was finally light enough to go open the coops and the traps are empty. The bait has been taken from all three and I can't help but envision a family for raccoons sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows. As much as I hate doing it, it looks as if I must resort to a more drastic method of eradication.

 

[NotAFarm]

Good Morning Opa! You're quite the early bird this week.

It's a bit damp here this morning and the coffee tastes especially good (We've got a Bunn coffee maker and LOVE IT). I'll have to check your predator thread later when I have more time.
Temps are not even suppose to reach 80 today.....but we'll see. Showers last evening into night with a slight chance of scattered showers later this afternoon. Not problem though since I'll be at work and wouldn't be able to outside working anyway.
Hoping you all have a great day today.
Later, Mary