Gimme My Egg Back!

It hasn't even been a month ago since I posted the FAKE EGGS POST.  In it I explained that snakes had run off with almost all of our nest eggs.  The post shows how we purchased more and marked them with a Sharpie so as not to get them confused.  This afternoon it was almost time for church, but I decided that I could go collect eggs first, package them and put them away.

When I opened the henhouse door, this is what greeted me:

You can see by the bulge in the snake's neck that he has swallowed on of our new ceramic eggs!  See, this snake is doomed.  His digestive system will not break down and digest a solid ceramic egg.  He has a death sentence.  The thing is, he'll slither out to the woods and die, taking my ceramic egg with him.  No sir, that's not gonna happen.

I grabbed a shovel and gave the rat snake a chop behind the head.  I used my foot to push the egg out of the snake.

The snake was greedy.  In addition to the ceramic egg, he ate a real chicken egg.  It burst when I popped the snake with the shovel and egg yolk ran out of the snake.  Hens quickly surrounded the deceased snake and began eating the yolk.  Cannibals!

On the bright side, I got the ceramic egg back and put it back in the nesting box.  All's well that ends well.  It didn't end so well for the snake.  We let these snakes go when they are in the barn.  They do a service by eating rats.  When they enter the hen house, however, it's a different thing altogether.  They pay the ultimate price for this transgression.

These snakes are pretty much harmless to people.  They'll just give you a good scare, because they get so big.  This one measured about 5 1/2 feet long.

Tricia was glad it was me that found the snake.  She's killed them before, but she'd rather not.  I tossed the ceramic egg back in the nesting box and for the time being, we still have our full inventory of fake eggs in the boxes.

Unlikely Friends

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. Isaiah 11:6 (NASB)

The Bible tells us that in the Millennial Kingdom, members of the animal family will live peaceably with other animals and with humans as well.  What a sight that will be to behold.  As we listen to the news and learn of senseless violence and hatred and see many of our cities are becoming unlivable, we pray for this time of peace to come quickly.  According to Bible prophecy, however, there are many things that must take place between now and then.  God, give us the strength to endure.  May you find us faithful when you return.

I happened upon an event that made me think of that verse.  Cats are, by nature, independent animals.  They do their own thing.  Dogs are more friendly.  Dogs AND cats together are like oil and water or fire and ice.  But not all the time.  Check out this photo of our cat, Ginger, and our dog, Belle: 

It had been raining everyday (Raining cats and dogs, you might say) for two weeks.  Belle was miserable out in the pasture so we brought her into the garage after the first day.  At first Ginger kept her distance, but she warmed up to Belle, it seems.  She and Ginger have struck up a friendship.  The canine and feline have put aside their differences and have decided to give peace a chance.  

As the Worm Turns

For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.    Isaiah 51:8

Last week we picked the very last cucumber off the vine.  They had been producing since spring.  We have eaten a lot of cucumbers this year!  Production was off the charts, especially with the Marketmore variety.  But all good things come to an end.  I told Tricia that we'd have a brief time of no cucumbers, but...

Not to worry.  I had planted some Boston Pickling Cucumbers from some seed we saved in 2016.  They ALL germinated and were beginning to vine.  It was time.  I took them out to the garden, put a little composted chicken litter down in the holes I dug, and planted the cucumber plants.  I trained the vines to wrap around the trellis.  The cucumber plants were happy.  I walked inside thinking, "We'll have cucumbers for most of the year!"

There's an old saying about not counting your chickens before they hatch.  The very next day, I walked out to check on the cucumbers and this is what greeted me:

Some little green worms were wiping the edges of their mouths with handkerchiefs and then burping loudly after devouring every green leaf off of every cucumber plant!

I had transplanted spaghetti squash in the garden.  So far the worms have not discovered them.  These right here are butternut squash.  I think I'm going to keep them right here on the patio for a little while - or at least until I can pick up some Neem Oil.

The tomato plants I planted for the fall crop are looking healthy.  If the Good Lord's willing, we may have a fall crop of tomatoes, but then again, we may not.  Here is the first tray:

And here is the second.  If you look down to the very bottom of the photo, you'll see a six-pack with just dirt and no plants... yet:

Those are Round 2 of the fall cucumber crop.  If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again.

A Very Hard Day

Twenty-something odd years ago, we had a Chocolate Labrador Retriever named Judy.  She was a beautiful dog - full of life.  She would run around the farm, chasing rabbits.  It was a favorite pastime of Judy's.  One fall afternoon, we were harvesting in the very last field right next to the shop, ten minutes from being finished.  Judy was doing her thing, chasing rabbits in the field.  As you harvest, the area that the rabbits can hide gets smaller and smaller.

The rabbit saw its chance to run and took it.  Trouble is, Judy ran, too - right into the cutterbar of the combine.  The sharp teeth on the combine cut deep into Judy.  She was cut up - really bad.  She looked up at me with those big yellow eyes, whimpering in pain.  I remember Dad asking me if we could save her.  I shook my head, no.  She was injured very badly and could not be saved.  Reluctantly, I got the gun from the truck and put Judy to rest.  It was a hard thing to do.  We buried her right there in the bottom cut of that field where she had gotten so much joy chasing cottontails.

Why am I telling you this painful story?  Because, sometimes animals we love get hurt.  Animals we get attached to are suffering, and a hard decision has to be made.  Last week I told you that Clarabelle, one of our Jersey cows that we JUST dried off after milking her for a year and three months, got injured.  It was a freak accident.  The two heifers, LuLu and Elsie (Clarabelle's heifer), were horsing around.  One of them was in heat and they were all jumping on each other the way that animals do.  Somehow, one of them jumped on top of Clarabelle and injured her back.

We called the vet out for a farm call.  He looked her over and theorized that Clarabelle had a back injury (slipped disk) or perhaps a pulled muscle.  He gave her a shot and said she may get up later that day or the next morning.  He also prepared us that she might NOT get up.  Clarabelle was on the clock.

Every day following, Tricia and I went out to the pasture where she had fallen and flipped her over, two times a day, to make sure her leg wouldn't go to sleep and give her a different vantage point.  That's not an easy thing to do with a large animal.  It was hot and it rains every day.  Lots of mud and mosquitoes and deer flies.  We'd bring her sweet feed and fresh water, gave her a shot of BoSe, drenches of molasses, and we'd pick fresh sweet potato vines for her to eat from the garden (her favorite).  We'd sit with her and tell her what a good cow she was.

She would try to get up, but her back legs would not work.  It was hot and so we built a tent of sorts out of t-posts and a tarp to keep her cool.  She never stopped eating and drinking water, but she was deteriorating day by day.  The other animals would come visit her under the medical tent.

She would get week and fall sideways, struggling to breathe.  Tricia and I would rush out there in the mud, pushing and pulling on her to get her back upright.  We finally got a bale of hay down from the hayloft and positioned it against her body to keep her propped up.  It became all too apparent that this wasn't going to end well.  She was breathing heavy and groaning.  She was suffering, and I couldn't allow it to go on.

Early Friday afternoon I got my handgun and made a slow, long walk to where she lay.  I didn't even tell Tricia I was going.  Clarabelle had fallen once again and had mud all over her and was panting.  I talked to my girl and told her how sorry I was that it had come to this.  I told her again what a good cow she had been, giving us good heifers and winning many ribbons and plaques for Russ and Benjamin in livestock shows.  She was our family cow and had produced hundreds and hundreds of gallons of milk that nourished our family.  But is was time.  Rest in Peace, Clarabelle.

Low Tech Redneck

Other than this blog, I don't do much technology-wise, except for computer work for my job.  I'm not on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikToc or any other social media.  I was on LinkedIn for a while for professional networking, but at some point it turned political and I turned off the notifications on my email and deleted the app from my phone.

Routines are important, I think.  Although it is exciting to be spontaneous, having something you do everyday like clockwork are vital.  Prayer, Bible reading, conversation - all good ways to start each day.  After that, at about 7 AM, I hit the road.  I work all morning on the road in a four Parish area.  Around noon I come home, take a lunch break with Tricia and then sit in front of the computer from 1 until about 4:30.

After lunch, we make coffee.  We sit down in the sunroom and get out my old Android personal cell phone.  Every single day we play Wordle.  Wordle is a free app, if you don't play, that shoots out one puzzle per day for folks to solve.

Wordle is a simple puzzle for simple people.  I like to think it keeps your mind sharp, but my mind has never been very sharp in the first place.  It goes like this.  You have six chances to guess the word of the day.  The word is a five letter word.  Letters are not supposed to repeat, although for some reason they do from time to time.  

Tricia always like to start with the word "ARISE," because it has three vowels and two popular consonants.  If none of the letters are in the word, the squares will be black.  If the letter is in the word, but in the wrong place, it will be orange.  If the letter is in the right place, it will be green.  The keyboard at the bottom alerts you to letters you have already used versus letters unused.

For our first word today, Tricia went with her old standby, "ARISE."  You'll see NONE of the letters were in the word.  She knew she needed an "O" and a "U" so she guessed a five letter word with an O and a U than did not contain an R or an S.  She guessed CLOUD.  And what do you know?  She was Right!  Solved the Wordle puzzle in two tries!

We high-fived each other in the sunroom.  She was happy.  I was a little unhappy since I didn't even participate...  It keeps statistics.  We have a running streak of 147 solves.  For the life of me, I can't understand how we can have a 105 win percent?  But you can see we have guessed the word in the second try only 9 times.  Most of the time we solve it on the fourth try.  Wouldn't it be crazy to guess the word right the first time?

We're simple folks that enjoy simple pleasures of life - a good cup of coffee and a Wordle game.  Now it's back to work and then later in the afternoon, we'll gather eggs, harvest some produce from the garden, feed the animals, walk together and then go to bed.  

While Waiting on Our Fall Potatoes to Sprout

Our Fall crop of Irish Potatoes are in the ground.  We used small potatoes from our spring crop for the seed potatoes for the fall crop.  The spring crop has stored surprisingly well.  Firm.  No big growth from the eyes.  Beautiful.

So while we're waiting for the fall crop to grow, we might as well eat some of the spring crop, right?  Here's one of our favorite recipes using Irish Potatoes.  Years ago, I found the recipe for a side dish called Crash Hot Potatoes.  It quickly climbed to the top of the kid's favorite list.  It is simple and tasty.

15 potatoes
4 T extra virgin olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Fresh Rosemary

Heat your oven to 450 degrees.  Boil a pot of potatoes until they are tender, testing with a toothpick.  Put a little olive oil on the bottom of a baking dish and place potatoes in dish.  Get a potato masher and mash down on each potato until it barely breaks open and then turn the potato and mash again.  Drizzle the top of each potato with olive oil.  Add salt and pepper to the top of each "slightly mashed" potato and then put fresh rosemary on top.  Put in the oven for 25 minutes.

We had these for lunch after church on Sunday.  They were so good they made me want to holler.  That's something my grandmother would say if she were still around.

Perhaps by the time we eat the rest of the spring crop potatoes, the fall crop will be harvested.  That would be neat.  Year-round spuds.

Trying a New Thing with Okra

Our three rows of okra has really produced this year.  We've given a lot away.  We've eaten a lot - mostly oven fried okra, stewed okra with tomatoes and onions, okra with ground meat over rice, and pickled okra.  We began putting bags of cooked okra up in the freezer for "gumbo season."  We even eat some of it raw.

We never tried dehydrating it and thought we would try that out.  Here is a day's picking of the three varieties we grow: Clemson spineless, burgundy, and Beck's Big okra.

Prior to dehydrating, Tricia blanched the okra.  Notice how the burgundy okra loses its color:

She cut the okra in half and laid out on the trays of the dehydrator.  She dehydrated them on the vegetable setting for 12 hours.

And then they were dehydrated.  We ate a bunch of them.  Crunchy.  Tasty.

They are probably 1/3 or 1/4 the size of what they were when we put them in the dehydrator.

The remaining ones that we didn't eat were stored in a quart-sized mason jar.

We'll snack on them.  I like them.  I'll experiment and shake some salt and other seasonings in the jar to add a little "pop."