~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

[maclady]

You may be a sucker for animals but your bunnies will love you so much for the extra rose petals in the hay. I specifically planted several different roses, all floribundas, just so I would have lots of roses for my one bunny. He loves them after they are opened. I bet you are excited about the ducklings. First time I had heard of this breed was from your posts and fell in love. Now I just have to patiently wait until we can move to a farm to get a couple. One question though- is a pair male/female enough or is it like chickens 1 rooster to 10 hens? I have enjoyed reading these posts and watching you transform your home. Your writing and pictures are terrific.

 

[gryeyes]

Maclady, a pair of ducks (drake and duck) is fine. I had a pair for over a year, Thelma was killed whilst protecting her hidden nest, and Louie became a widower. I bought more straight run ducklings hoping for a duck or two for him, but they were ALL drakes. So then I bought six sexed ducklings from Metzer Farms; lost two to a predator when they were young and got out of their pen at night. So, four drakes, four ducks. With that many drakes, I really should have more girls for 'em. And now I will! Or, soon, anyway. They'll have to grow up some before I let them join the flock.

I fell quite hard this morning. Laid there on the wet ground - in what had been clean, dry clothes - for a couple of minutes wondering if I broke anything. Set the roosters off, too, a'crowing in the coop. (I fell about ten feet from the coop.). Last of my clean "casual business attire" so nothing to wear if I wanted to change clothes.

Got up, found my glasses which had managed to land several feet away, recovered my travel mug of coffee also flung away from me, and said, "£[!#%} it, if somebody complains, they can bite me."
Brushed the wet, sandy loam - great soil here!! - from my left side and headed off to work.

An hour and fifteen minutes driving to work is enough time for clothing to dry. It's also enough time to realize I scraped the bejeezus out of my left calf and twisted my right hip fairly significantly. I am so gonna hurt tomorrow! A shoulder is also starting to complain.

My supervisor suspects I won't be able to make it to work tomorrow.

I know I'm gonna ask John to do something about that crooked concrete step at one end of the porch; he has already warned me he thought it wasn't safe and he should build some new steps there.

Silly me, who thought it wasn't a big deal. Well, not in broad daylight, it isn't. But when it's been raining and it's pitch dark at 0600 hours, that's a whole different scenario.

Good thing I am a hefty gal with a skeleton quite used to bearing weight. If I had been a skinny old lady instead of a stout one, I might have broken a hip.

 

[Glasshen]

Sorry to hear you fell and hurt yourself. Yes, get the steps fixed, and anything else that could cause an upset. You want to be fit and sassy for when you retire! Then you can do all the things you WANT to do but haven't had time.

I have so enjoyed your story of the move to the country, it sounds like a great place to be.

Susan from Central NY, near the Finger Lakes, also a great place to be.

 

[Noncentzter]

You want to be fit and sassy for when you retire! Then you can do all the things you WANT to do but haven't had time.

I think this is a very good description...fit and sassy! LOL!!

 

[dsqard]

I think this is a very good description...fit and sassy! LOL!!

I will agree with the sassy part!

 

[gryeyes]

My fall yesterday morning really did a non-life-threatening number on me. Nothing broken but skin in two places; nasty scrape on left calf and a some bits of gravel imbedded into my left thumb. Right side muscle tenderness from the "trying NOT to fall" maneuvers. A colorful bruise developing under the calf scrape, along my left forearm and somehow on the .. well... left side of my butt. I did not go to work today.



As I'm participating in the Easter Hatch, I've got eggs coming from three different sources. The THIRD box of eggs is sitting at my UPS Store mail-box, 54 miles away. I will get it tomorrow and just set those eggs a day late. The other two boxes arrived yesterday, so I have those to finish resting and set tomorrow. Luckily I have several incubators!

I also got some plants from Cottage Farms which I will need to put into the ground this weekend. Not today - too wet and too late NOW. I did open the boxes and set them on the deck so the living plants can recover from their shipping experiences. I received several Butterfly Bushes (buddleia), a climbing rose, and some reblooming day-lilies. (Those day-lilies will be easy to plant - I intend to stuff them into the ground on the bank between my driveway and the meadow. I may have to get something to protect them from the geese until the plants grow up a bit.)

These - and other plants I've ordered - may just be an exercise in futility, but I hope to protect them well enough to have some color along the fences.

 

[Carols Clucks]

I am hoping you are enjoying the snow!

From inside warm and snug

 

[1muttsfan]

Linda, anytime you want to play in the snow, just come on up an visit me. Anytime after October and up to April most years (although it was 65 today and a lot of our snow has melted).

 

[gryeyes]

I am so totally jazzed - I got my first snow! It snowed overnight, about 2 inches worth, and is BEAUTIFUL outside! During the day, it all melted, but it's starting to snow again now (about 5 PM).

I took about 50 pictures and will now inundate y'all with the best of the photos. The first two were taken through my bedroom window which faces the property behind mine. The non-snowy parts are under cedars and Ponderosa pines.

.

The next photo is of Kate and some ducks passing by the bedroom window whilst I stood there glorying in the view. The next is of the two-inch "drift" of snow on my deck.

.

Now some of the most spectacular views. The first is of the apple tree and the bushes along the edge of the flat portion of my circular driveway right in front of the house. The second one "looks" toward the next door neighbor but is intended to show the ponds on the first terrace and the pile of pruned apple tree branches now used by the Escapee Bunnies as shelter when they are roaming about during the day. Lots and lots of gnaw marks on the branches under that snow.

.


I wasn't able to drive the car up the driveway last night when I came home from dinner at HHandbasket and Farmer Lew's house. Snow at THEIR place, but not mine. I had checked the altitude with a new iPhone app, and they are at 2643 feet while my house is "only" at 2208 feet. Snow level dropped to 1500 feet during the night.

.

The first of these next two photos are of my wine bottle tree and the rosemary bushes at the edge of that terrace. The second is the small cedar in the middle of my front yard.

.

Angus is munching on some extra-chilled Tether Cabbage. (I put it up too late yesterday for everybody to snack before Coop Time.) In the following photo, the item under the snow is a boot scraper. The goose and duck footprints in the show made me smile, so I took a few photos of the evidence of wandering critters.

.

The first of these two next pictures is pretty obvious. The second shows bunny tracks on the ramp to the shed. (And the chicken coop next door.)

.

I think this will be enough for one post. I'll add some more in a while in a separate group.

 

[thebirdguy]

We woke up to about 5-6 inches of new snow this morning too.. very pretty (except for the mud it makes out to the farm) It was pretty much all melted by the time we got out of church which I didn't mind at all!!