~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

[gryeyes]

Experienced my first deer "strike" this morning on my way to work. This doe just leapt out of the brush into the right side of my car. All I saw was a blur of front legs and its head and those ears, peripherally, at the same time I heard the thunk.

Pitch dark. I turned around, afraid of what I would see, worried I'd have to call someone to come dispatch a deer with broken legs.... But she was just standing up, in the grassy area slightly lower than the surface of the road, shaking her head. Kinda wobbly, she stepped out into the road AGAIN and crossed, no broken legs, no obvious bleeding. Guess the impact had stunned her.

Okay, no carcass left in the road, no keening, injured, broken animal on the side of the roadway. Whew!

And all it did to the car was knock the side view mirror slightly askew and leave a small depression in the front passenger door.

Guess I do need a deer whistle.

On the positive, Bambi, side of the deer issue, there is a doe and two young deer (no longer fawns) which used to wander my property before the fence was installed. They now travel along the fence line up the side of my gully, and around to the unfenced properties behind my house. One side neighbor feeds them. Occasionally they'll stand and watch my wayward pullets who have built a nest I cannot reach on the other side of the fence, nestled down in the vinca. Durn birds. The deer look at them, the pullets hunker down and get very quiet, waiting to leave the nest after the deer have wandered away. Two of the Minion RIR cockerels also stand guard on the side of the fence near the hidden nest; they can't fit through the gap the little bantam Faverrolle girls are utilizing.

I am going to have to hike the perimeter of my property, from the front drive gate, up the deer trail on the side and back towards my house, to get to that "secret" nest.

 

[dsqard]

Linda I have to agree with Carols Clucks about the land lady. I understand you want to try to maintain the friendship, but you had paid up until the 30th. In the eyes of the law, you had until then to get your stuff out. Now, if she is being "gracious" about outside stuff that is still on her property, then I can really understand you wanting to keep the peace. It's a shame that she couldn't have given you those extra days to finish getting things out of the house. It's not like she didn't know it was coming and it's not like you left in the middle of the night without paying the rent. OK I will stop going on about this, just don't like seeing nice people taken advantage of.

 

[caspernc]

I LOVE this story. And gryeyes is the Damsil that saves herself!

 

[HHandbasket]

I would like to say that I made apple pie today out of apples I confiscated from Linda's apple tree.

Oh man, them's some TASTY apples & they make awesome pie. I think I might try making applesauce out of them. I think they're gravensteins.

 

[Kansaseq]

Great, now I want PIE!!

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
This is it, exactly. <*heavy sigh*>

Now, on to "catching up a tad."

Wednesday, whilst I was at work, my contractor started on the gutter replacement project, delivering the materials. We'd had a telephone discussion earlier in the week, discussing the situation. Four downspouts, two front and two back. The downspouts for the back of the house will be attached to buried flex pipe, routed to the gully (same place where the grey water dumps out). White gutters, not painted to the house trim color. White just looks sharp. Leaf guards.

He talked me out of six inch deep gutters; said the extra cost really didn't justify their use, because a downspout at each end of the gutter, and the leaf guards, will be sufficient to handle the run-off. He said, "People get the six inch deep gutters because they're trendy and they work even if debris builds up in them - enough depth to carry the water. Yours won't get debris, so why spend the money?"

Okie doke.

Thursday he removed the old, crap gutters and the rotting fascia boards behind them. Or perhaps it was Friday.

Anyway, Thursday night, I saw a light colored "something" behind the house and panicked, thinking "Oh, no, that's going to be a dead chicken." But it wasn't - it was Amelia, a little Salmon Fav pullet determinedly sitting on a clutch of eggs. There has been that nest of eggs the pullets have been laying on the other side of the back fence, but they were gone. A few eggs were piled up against the wire fence, and Amelia was sitting on the rest of them about a foot inside the fence. I guessed maybe John (the contractor) had seen them and rolled them into the yard...

Friday after work I stopped and got more pine shavings, so I had fresh bedding to put into a large, covered kitty litter box. I took Amelia's eggs and put them in the "broody box" and placed her inside it. Then I picked the whole thing up and brought it to front porch. However, this morning, she had abandoned it and I found her squeezed up against the fence trying to cover the few eggs on the other side of the wire. So I took the broody box back to where I'd found her Thursday night, picked her up and put her in it, then added those other eggs. She was quite happy. I don't particularly like having her back there, but it IS where I can see it through my bedroom window.

John showed up this morning (Saturday) as I was leaning on the veranda railing with my first cup of coffee and smoking my first cigarette. First day of my vacation, still wearing my long, comfy nightshirt. Hair every which way. Crap. It's "decent," but not exactly what I would like gentleman callers to see me wearing. Yeah, he was here to do work I hired him to perform, but still! Durn early risers. And I kinda like him.

Buffy and Sister One are team-brooding a large clutch of eggs and they hatched a few chicks yesterday; I heard cheeping from underneath them last night. This morning, they had four chicks following them around in about one third of the coop, scratching and pecking and cheeping up a storm. So I made John look at them through the open upper half of the Dutch door. "Oh, yah, you need more chickens, Linda!" Then he blurted, "Oh - look at them! They're SO tiny!" Yup, cotton-ball sized goobers with beaks and legs.

He told me I had some very friendly chickens; they'd followed him around when he was working. I named them as he pointed out the usual suspects. And as others came up, I named them too. "Didn't you say that one was Alex?" Noop, that's George, his brother, see the two longer tail feathers? "How do you keep them straight?" When some of the minions milled about, I said they hadn't been named because they were going to a friend's yard to be chicken and dumplings before too long. "Shhh, don't say that so loud - you'll give them a complex!" We laughed.

He thinks the geese are gorgeous. He's noticed the ducks are always smiling. When I asked about the eggs moved from the neighbor's property to mine, he denied touching ANY eggs. So I dunno how they got from the other side to where Amelia was covering them.

While John worked to install PERFECTLY STRAIGHT and level fascia board on the front of the veranda, I pottered around unpacking boxes of books and filling up the bookcases. Because he wears ear-plugs when using power tools, we didn't carry on much conversation. But when we did, it was delightful. I learned "the string" is the contractor's secret to perfection.

When I started trying to convince Kate and Angus they really, really need to start getting into the stock tank instead of just settling for the kiddie pools, John stopped to watch. He had a suggestion: use a larger, wider board as the ramp from the terraced level to the top of the tank. Well, guess what - that helped! I got so involved in the slow success of getting them closer and closer, all the way up to Angus standing on the board with the tips of his webbed feet just barely over the edge, that I didn't notice John had gotten down off his ladder, snuck down the driveway and was standing with his body behind a tree to watch.

When Angus stepped off and into the water, John said, "All RIGHT!" and that's when I saw where he was standing. Angus swam in a nice large circle, then started doing the bottoms-up maneuver. John and I exulted at the evident pleasure Angus was experiencing. Kate watched, then stepped closer and closer, gabbling. I stepped closer to her, she took another step and tumbled into the tank. Angus came up out of the water over the side of tank and she flapped and swam/ran to the edge and jumped out. "Ohhhhh," said John, "She got scared!"

We're pretty sure it won't take much more time before the waterfowl start using the stock tank, now that Angus has discovered how wonderful it is to swim without having to pull his legs up against his body. And to be able to tip over and submerge his upper body!

When John left, he said he'd be back on Monday. I am to get some paint for the fascia board, matched to the house.

Paprika came into the house again today to try to lay her egg, but I chased her out twice. She finally laid it in a nest box in the coop.

I think I can get a table dragged into the house tomorrow....

 

[momofpets]

Gryeyes,

I am so mad at you! I was supposed to have gone to bed early tonight but stumbled across your interesting thread and have been sitting in front of my computer reading it for the past 2.5 hours. So tomorrow, when I am a grumpy woman on a broomstick, it will be all your fault.

You really should set up a blog.

 

[HHandbasket]

She totally should.

Hey Linda... we tried really hard to save you some of that pie. Ooops. LOL. I'll bake another one today. I have plenty of apples & if I need more, I know where your apple tree is. Heheheh.

Actually, the apples from your tree taste like they'd make a really good applesauce. I've never made homemade applesauce before, but this just might be the year!

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Let me know, I have an awesome and easy recipe. In fact, I am making some today for son and dil.

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Don't lolly-gag about that task; yesterday I watched the geese yank on specific branches to shake down apples! Twice!

This is where the new gutter supplies have been stacked. Also, you can see one end of The String where it's showing the straight line on the fascia board.

And here's the other end of The String.

Here, in all its glory, is the full view of The String.

This is Albert. We lost his Fiona, but Amy and Amelia the Salmon Fav girls took over the care of his cheek feathers. Well, until Amelia went broody...

As hoped, the ducks used the stock tank this morning!!!

Kate watches two drakes and a juvenile duck enjoy the tank.

One of the Cayugas didn't quite get the idea and had to peek over the edge of the tank at the swimmers.

This area is where there was some sort of pond either present or planned before the house became vacant well over a year ago. I'm going to dig it out for a larger goldfish pond, using the largest of my pond liners from the rental house.

Some curiosity - and a touch of challenge! - is evidenced in this next photo.

And, yes, that IS some of my furniture in the yard, covered with a tarp.

This is Barbie, a bantam Barnevelder. Yesterday, she was surprised in the middle of the driveway by stopping to drop a shell-less egg, which broke open and drew the velocoraptors to the scene of the accident.

Some chickens in my "meadow."

Some bantam chickens higher up in the meadow (before it turns into a gully).

This is Phoebe, a BLW who came to live with us almost a year ago. She was a bossy, mean pullet in a small, rooster-less flock and it was quite a shock for her to joined a large flock with a few roosters. I think she still resents me for it - what do you think?

Okay, that's enough for now. I have to go meet my friend, Soose1, in Plymouth when she gets there. She and Maggie (her dog) are spending the week with us. I'm excited to show one of my bestest friends the REALITY of my home instead of just e-mailing photos.