The Old Folks Home

[getaclue]

I got my first good watermelon from our garden yesterday. It's getting too hot for them now. I need to plant them about 3 weeks earlier next year. We did good with squash, peppers, and beans. I need to pull some onions today too. Next year we will plant strawberries in between the onions for sweetness. The chickens are doing good too. We got new fans for the coop, so their coop is not overly hot. The grow out pen is just about ready. Only a few more staples to go and it will be done, which I have been dragging my feet in doing, because I'm not quite ready to move them yet. I'm enjoying them on our porch.

 

[chickisoup]

Blessed Sunday morning everyone!

Having a bit of trouble "rising and shining" this morning

Had a too much fun yesterday. Went into town (live waaaaaaaaaaay out int in the northwoods) where they have their annual all city (and country) rummage sale. I set out as soon as morning critter chores were done and was on the road by 7 a.m. I spent a couple hours in town rummaging and chatting with folks and then spent several more leisurely hours mostly sitting in my lawn chair at an auction where I picked up a couple treasures (and a little trash

) before finally heading home in time to see California Chrome lose.

A little old for this!!! I had a great time in "civilization" but it's nice to be back in the sanity zone

 

[lularat]

Blessed Sunday morning everyone!

Having a bit of trouble "rising and shining" this morning

Had a too much fun yesterday. Went into town (live waaaaaaaaaaay out int in the northwoods) where they have their annual all city (and country) rummage sale. I set out as soon as morning critter chores were done and was on the road by 7 a.m. I spent a couple hours in town rummaging and chatting with folks and then spent several more leisurely hours mostly sitting in my lawn chair at an auction where I picked up a couple treasures (and a little trash

) before finally heading home in time to see California Chrome lose.

A little old for this!!! I had a great time in "civilization" but it's nice to be back in the sanity zone

That sounded like a lot of fun. I love flea markets and auctions. California Chrome losing was a real bummer, but he is still a winner to me. Gotta love that horse.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

...
Today I am recouping from a long (well long for me) hike to a nearby mountain lake. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was fantastic.

Amazing pictures.

...

Yesterday, Rick has just about installed all the plywood in the Hatch House.

​

Hummingbird flew by for a drink late last evening...Rick says he has a green throat. He called me to come see but I was busy messing with dinner and never made it out in time. Pretty quick visit and buzzed off.

​

He has one hanging in the man porch but I think he said he wanted to put them on the outside of the porch.

​

I love watching men and machines but some might find this as fascinating as watching paint dry...anyhoo...

​

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

Hatch house looking good.

Sounds like a western emerald hummingbird.
Chlorostilbon melanorhynchus

My front porch light is very similar but with more clear glass. I'll try to get a picture.

I always enjoy watching men work too. I used to walk a lot and I saw road construction ahead one day. One guy was a flag man and inbetween that he would drop and do 10 pushups. I HAD to go talk to him. I asked if he was being punished. Turned out he had just gotten out of the marines and couldn't take standing around and really do nothing. Sorry ladies he was wearing a shirt and had his reflective vest on but still.......

I like having someone watch. I'd prefer to have them help but in lieu of that, I'll take moral support.
I can't get any help outside here, regardless of the task.

Just catching up.
...

My perfect world would be 68 at night and 75 during the day with an inch of rain on Wednesday each week. My 20 acres would be 25% flat and 75% slightly undulating with half of it wooded with hardwood trees.

Until I can find that, anywhere I don't have to shovel or drive in snow would be fine.

...

We have nearly the same weather desires. I'm leaning more to 50 at night and 70 in the day and enough rain to never need watering.

The closest I've found is high elevation in Costa Rica like on the slopes of Irazú or Poás Volcanos or lower slopes of Chirripó. Never a need for air conditioning or heat. Just a blanket and perhaps a fire in the fireplace at night.
I'm afraid it will be some time before I can seriously think about moving there. I might have to find some other hidden gem since it's getting so expensive there.

I'm sure you've been enough places to have found something close.

Our farm was 100 acres, 50:50 wooded and open, 3 larger pastures/hay fields and a few smaller grazing meadows.
The woods were a mix of hardwoods and eastern red cedar and about 8 acres of old growth shortleaf pine. Mostly rolling hills.

...

The trick with any AI is timing. Our pig semen came overnight delivery from another Island so it was stressful when the plane was delayed. We may have missed the perfect timing for the first gilt. Even will know in about two more weeks

How do you judge the timing?

You would not like it here. It is 101 right now and the forecast is for 105 Sunday and Monday.Tuesday is back to 101 so we will have a cool down then.

That's rough.

That Sacramento weather is tough. You get 80 degree changes between summer highs and winter lows.

Stay cool Ron.

It's the usual 85 today with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms.

In the last 2 years, we've had a 125 degree spread.

Rough weather here yesterday, high winds and a couple nearby tornados.

I read a report on Global warming. It said that the South West an the North East have warmed up the most over the last 30 years. The North East is 1.4 degrees Warmer but the South West is 3.5 Degrees warmer. Arizona was named as one of those South West places.

They do not need to be any warmer over there....
We are on the edge of needing cold hardy breeds for winter but really do better with heat hardy breeds in the Summer. My Penedesencas do so well here. The Pene x Cream Legbars are champs too.

Enjoy the nice weather over there.

The weather here is not particularly nice. The humidity is stifling but at least it is never over 92 and never below 65 on any day.

...

I

The benefit of living on the water. I imagine it's warmer inland.

I got my first good watermelon from our garden yesterday. It's getting too hot for them now. I need to plant them about 3 weeks earlier next year. We did good with squash, peppers, and beans. I need to pull some onions today too. Next year we will plant strawberries in between the onions for sweetness. The chickens are doing good too. We got new fans for the coop, so their coop is not overly hot. The grow out pen is just about ready. Only a few more staples to go and it will be done, which I have been dragging my feet in doing, because I'm not quite ready to move them yet. I'm enjoying them on our porch.

Wow, I'm just getting to transplanting the started melons now, along with more tomatoes, chilies and herbs.

Blessed Sunday morning everyone!

Having a bit of trouble "rising and shining" this morning

Had a too much fun yesterday. Went into town (live waaaaaaaaaaay out int in the northwoods) where they have their annual all city (and country) rummage sale. I set out as soon as morning critter chores were done and was on the road by 7 a.m. I spent a couple hours in town rummaging and chatting with folks and then spent several more leisurely hours mostly sitting in my lawn chair at an auction where I picked up a couple treasures (and a little trash

) before finally heading home in time to see California Chrome lose.

A little old for this!!! I had a great time in "civilization" but it's nice to be back in the sanity zone

Rather than getting much needed work done yesterday, I spent the day at the green homes festival at MOBOT.
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden....ts/signature-events/green-homes-festival.aspx

 

[Pozees]

That sounded like a lot of fun. I love flea markets and auctions. California Chrome losing was a real bummer, but he is still a winner to me. Gotta love that horse.

I agree. The Preakness proved to me he's the real deal, I think between the grueling schedule, difficult trip, and having to compete against fresh horses, he was just used up. Needs a rest. There is a reason only 11 horses have won the Triple Crown. I still get weepy every time I watch Secretariat's stretch run in the Belmont. I don't believe we will ever see another horse like him.

 

[JW12]

I agree.  The Preakness proved to me he's the real deal, I think between the grueling schedule, difficult trip, and having to compete against fresh horses, he was just used up.  Needs a rest.  There is a reason only 11 horses have won the Triple Crown.  I still get weepy every time I watch Secretariat's stretch run in the Belmont.  I don't believe we will ever see another horse like him.

Is it just me? California chrome looked like a smaller horse when they were showing all the past triple crown winners. We were pulling for him because his story,and the owners and trainers are just a feel good story. As they were showing all the past winners it just looked like he was much smaller in build. Maybe it's the difference in TV's now I don't know. Secretariat won a month after I was born so I have a connection with that horse I guess and I might be a little biased lol. I have been a lurker on this thread for a while and I really enjoy it, and hope you don't mind if I join you. I'm a middle aged old timer I guess, my kids just say I'm old so I don't know

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Secretareiat's run in the Belmont was amazing. On the other hand, there were only 4 other horses in that race. Only 5 other horses in the '73 Preakness

 

[chickisoup]

Quote: I agree totally about the "Big Red" horse

Did you hear the report that Chrome injured himself out of the gate? Stepped on a back hock I guess. I don't agree with his owner calling those who enter fresh horses in the Belmont cowards but I do have to with his reasoning. I think a more appropriate word would have been "opportunistic". It really has become far too common in recent times for owners of "also rans" to take advantage of the grueling schedule of the triple and only run their horses in the Belmont.

 

[Peep_Show]

Hi all! I'm new here. I qualify for AARP....does that get me entry into Old Timers?

Love reading about the AI stuff. We did that with our horses years back when we had a difficult mare that we didn't want injuring the stud. I took my stallion to a breeding farm to be trained on the use of a phantom (breeding dummy, which is an apparatus that looks like a gymnastics horse that the horse bothers from the long end). Blue came back to the ranch and a friend drove up and parked his convertible in the driveway next to the paddock fence. Pretty soon it was obvious the car would have to be moved as the stallion was lusting over all the leather in the backseat bench which had similar curves to the apparatus, I guess.

Anyway, back to the present, I live in New Mexico now. We had hecka wind yesterday. It went from 0 to 50 in an instant and swirly crazy. Turns out it may have been a mini tornado as I looked out the back window to see a wide column of dust headed down valley....and there were real tornado sightings further along east of us. No damage, just intensity.

Summer of 2013 I purchased an abandoned farm-ette (house vacant for two years and in need of updating for about 25, plus unattended yard) and have spent the last year renovating the interior and restoring the exterior for habitability, which was a gradual process of back and forth from Las Vegas, NV. We made our final move of the last truckload over Memorial Day, so we're officially here. (Got out just in time...heat spiking at 107 there now as the start of the season affectionately called "Hell" begins) Put in a cider orchard recently and have been working on the gardens, but it looks like our main crop this year is cottontail rabbits on the lawn...I swear, some evenings it looks like a bad Australian documentary there are so many of them. (Our coyotes are slacking). Husby has cleared a spot for a chicken coop, so looking forward to building that and incubating a flock. I love to garden, cook and raise critters.

Watched the Preakness yesterday and could tell California Chrome wasn't quite focused....his ears were flopping all over in a segment of the race and a horse that is REALLY concentrating will have his ears pinned back. I used to work as an assistant in Large Animal Radiology at UCD vet med hospital in Davis, CA) and the majority of our clients were racehorses from Golden Gate Fields (and an occasional elephant from Marine World Africa USA). Racing is extremely hard on 2 y.o. horses and their legs (indeed, it's a very small percentage of 2 y.o. racers that get to see their 5th birthday) and it's a hard campaign to do a Triple Crown. I hope California Chrome gets to enjoy a nice retirement that all colts would envy. If his owners were savvy, they'd sell him to a breeding syndicate and enjoy their retirement, too!

Hope everybody's doing well this fine Sunday morning. Weather is calm and sunny out. Gambel Quail are calling up and down the valley. It's still a bit of morning cool. Seems like a nice quiet time to go enjoy a cup of coffee outdoors and snip some roses. Enjoy the day!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Wow, I'm just getting to transplanting the started melons now, along with more tomatoes, chilies and herbs.

Same here. I planted most of my stuff yesterday, still need to get a few more tomato plants in and get my herbs in. But it is TOO HOT out there right now to brave it (79 and sunny). I'm inside with the fan on me trying to get 20 more patches made for a quilt top I have been trying to put together since December.


Welcome Peep Show!