Oklahoma

I'm looking outside to overcast skies and thinking of all the work going on right now in Oklahoma.  They were hit extremely hard by yesterdays twister and I am reminded of the small town of Jarrell, TX that was hit a few years back.  Jarrell was hit by an F5 and Moore was hit by an F4 tornado.  The devastation is still the same...Moore is larger by more than half of what Jarrell is but the tornado as I understand it was on the ground for a full 40 to 45 minutes weaving it's path of destruction. 
In Jarrell there was nothing left standing...in fact in some areas the dirt was literally sucked away and all that was left was the limestone bedrock. 
Here where I live in Central Texas we are on the edge of the high risk zone today for tornado's but I will keep my eyes to the skies.  I have been in a tornado before.  Years ago when I was visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Virginia.  It was during my Freshman year in college and I went to visit them in Blacksburg, VA.   I wasn't a weather watcher like I am now and I guess that they weren't either because neither of them mentioned anything about the weather maybe getting bad later on in the night. 
I think it must have been around 12:30 or 1 a.m. when I hear the roar and it sounded just like a freight train was coming toward the house.  I was upstairs in a bedroom.  My Aunt and Uncles bedroom was downstairs and I expected one or the other to come upstairs and tell me what was going on...but neither of them did.  I got out of bed and went to the bathroom that was attached to the bedroom I was sleeping in and I got in the bathtub.  Don't ask me why....I just did it.  It seemed like hours passed with the noise but it was probably just a minute or two or maybe even less.  In times of stress I think that our perception of time is screwed up and what can seem like hours in reality is just a few seconds.  At any rate the noise eventually abated and I went back to sleep.  The next morning when I awoke I immediately went outside to see if all was well and discovered that the tornado had passed between my aunt and uncles house and the house next door.  Probably a small twister but powerful in it's own right as there was debris everywhere and things sticking into other things that didn't seem possible.   It was a close call and once you hear the sound, believe me you never, ever forget it.
Moore has so much to deal with and will have to deal with in the coming months and possibly years so if you've a mind to....donate to an organization that will be able to help those wonderful people get back on their feet. 
I won't suggest any here but I'm sure that any reliable news organization will have information where you can help the best, I know that I'm sure going to do my part. 

Update on the Backyard

We've made more progress on the back yard.  See that stone connecting the "sidewalk" to the bed...well, that's not staying...it was just a temporary measure to keep that area from washing away.  Washing away you are saying...yes, we've had more rain.  Yeah!!!

You can see from the picture here how the beds are filling in nicely and the swing was moved to it's current spot because as you can see from the next picture, we've now finished that bed.

We're picking and choosing the plants to put in there but by this time next year it should look great.  Sticking with natives is such a smart move in more ways than one.  But because they are natives, once they acclimate to their position they are relatively little to no care. 

In this next picture we have some plants that must have come in with the gravel.  They are called "Scrambled Eggs.".   Such a perfect name don't you think?

 

There were a couple of moments when we were bringing in the rocks for the new bed where  I got a little nervous.  My hubby is great on the Bobcat but it was a pretty tight fit and I didn't want there to be any accidents.                                                                                                                                    

We've also finally begun work on our Hell Strip.  Now that's not a normal Hell Strip like you have in the city....it's what we call the area that used to have 3 fruit trees planted and in front of the raised beds.  We had a hard time trying to decide what to do there to make it look seamless from one side of the yard to the next and we finally figured out what to do. 

We decided to pick out rocks just like we've done on the uphill side of the yard. We'd put the rocks on either side of where the trees were planted, fill in with more dirt and replant fruit trees and then the areas around there get more granite gravel and make sure that we get enough to cover the ground in front of the raised beds where there are currently river rocks.  Once we get it all done I think it will really look great and will be so much easier to take care of. 

I'll post more pictures when we've gotten a little further.  Until then...here's an inspirational picture of a dessert I made a couple of weeks ago.  It's a Tiramisu.  I'll post pictures and text on that next time. But until then enjoy.

 

Good-by Old Friend

Let me start this post off by saying that I love, love, love things that are well built and hold up to the test of time when they are taken care of properly.  I had a washer that lasted over 30 years and bought one exactly like it to replace it when it died and it lasted a month over the warranty...shameful.  I have jackets and sweaters that are almost 30 years old, but because I have taken care of them and they were of great quality when they were bought, they are still in great shape and I am able to wear them.  My husband owns a Filson Vest that is about 30 years old and he can still wear it.  My parents have a refrigerator that is over 50 years old.  Now that in itself is pretty amazing but that small refrigerator was bought in Oklahoma and moved to Texas...in Texas it moved twice and then it was moved again when it was packed up and moved to Okinawa where it also was moved twice.  Then it was boxed up again and moved to California, then Nevada (moved twice in NV.), boxed up and moved again over the ocean...this time the Atlantic to England and finally to Texas again where it has been since 1974.  It's still working, has had no repairs done to it except for the little knob on the freezer.....it was replaced in the 70's sometime by my dad and that repair is still holding up just fine.  There should be an award for appliances that stand the test of time....Maybe we should contact GE to let them know about this amazing little refrigerator, but that's not what this post is about.

 Our Wheelbarrow was bought about 3 days after we got married.  It has hauled probably in the neighborhood of several tons of rocks, brush, gravel, granite, dirt, compost ,leaves, yard debris and trash. It has mixed probably thousands (yes, thousands) of gallons of cement and mortar.  It has even provided me with a bed (I curled up into a ball and slept in it) on a day that started some where around 4 a.m. with a 6:30 a.m. concrete pour that didn't get finished until around 2 a.m. for all kinds of reasons.  It has been a workhorse for us and a constant companion.  But she is old, tired and no longer repairable.  It is time to replace her and it makes me just a little sad.

 We took very good care of her, washing her out every single time we had to mix concrete or mortar in her.  She was always on her end so that her bucket didn't catch and hold the rain and her handles were oiled to keep them supple and free from splinters. 
But as all equipment eventually does....she developed tiny little cracks and holes in her bucket.   We've replaced the front wheel several times.  We've replaced just about everything but the bucket.  But after 30 years we've done everything we could possibly do to take good care of her but the time has come to start fresh. We took care of her for 30 years and she gave her all but it's time for her to go to the big wheelbarrow heaven....or maybe I'll just re purpose her and plant flowers in her.  That way  I can still look at her and remember how she served us so well. 

Update on The Great Experiment

Well, today marks 2 weeks ago that I started feeding pumpkin to my dogs in order for them to stop eating poop.  And I must say that so far....so good. 
I ran out of the pumpkin that I had put up for pumpkin pie in about a week and I found a can of 100% pumpkin puree in my pantry and fed that to them until it was gone. 
I must say that both my dogs really enjoyed eating the pumpkin and looked for it eagerly at mealtimes. 
So we'll keep our fingers crossed that this continues and if they start to stray again then I will whip out the pumpkin and begin to feed it again. 
I just love when something works out like this. 

The agony and the ecstasy of Mother Nature

I was extremely busy last week with the part time job that has turned into a full time job.  The woman that I work for had open heart surgery about 2 weeks before Christmas.  Then 13 days later they had to open her up again because apparently the valve that they put in her heart was too small, and as you can imagine...one does not bounce right back after that kind of surgery at 75 years of age.  So she has not been home since then.  It has fallen on me to take care of her home, animals, bill paying, plant watering, swimming pool maintenance, and bill collecting for the renter that she has.  On top of all of this is the fact that there are 3 Boer goats that are preggers and about to give birth.  So I've been a bit distracted.
Last Wednesday morning I arrived to feed and took a real good look at all goats to see if they had any mucus coming from their vaginas and if the area around their hips has sunken in at all.  These are both signs that birth will happen within hours or at least a day or two.  One goat in particular had both these signs and so I figured that she would either give birth later that day or probably sometime during the night.  Births with goats for some reason happen a lot at night or maybe because that's always been my experience that I feel that way.  Anyway, I fed as normal and went about my day. 
The next morning imagine my surprise when the youngest of the goats was there to greet me at the gate with bloody muscus coming from her vagina...that means she has in fact given birth.  Her baby is no where in sight and because she is just a year old and unexperienced I think that maybe I should go looking for this baby.  On top of that....another goat is missing...the one that I had expected to go into labor soon. 
So off I trotted into the pasture and found the new baby who looked just fine and just beyond her was the goat that was missing and she was in fact in labor...or so I thought.  As I approached I could see that she was down on her side and she had a head, ears, tongue and the front two hoofs out of the birth canal and so I just stopped right there and figured that I'd leave well enough alone and go on about my business.  This particular goat gave birth last year with no problem....she seemed to be doing fine and leaving her alone was the best for everyone involved.   I fed as normal, checked mail, paid some bills, took a look at the pool and went home.  
I did some chores around here, told my husband what was going on and went back up to see how she was doing around 11:30 a.m.  
As I looked out in the pasture I couldn't see mama goat and so I figured that I best go see what was going on.  
When I saw mama goat I could see that labor hadn't progressed and called on my friend Andy who has raised a lot more goats than I have and he's raised Boer Goats.  I've only had milk goats and although they are both goats, there are differences in the way they give birth and other things.  Andy's advice was to wait a bit longer and if she hadn't progressed then to call him because maybe we'd have to pull the baby. 
So I waited all that I could which was about an hour and called him.  He arrived and we walked out into the pasture together and as he approached mama he could see that she was in trouble.  What he saw with his eyes was not one head but two.  And this was probably the reason that mama had not progressed anymore in her labor.  He knew immediately that both these babies were dead.  We have no way of knowing exactly how long she had been laboring but once the birth process begins, if the fetus does not come out within 30 minutes or so you begin to have problems.  So he got a piece of mule tape (it's a flat rope) and was able to get it around one head and pull that baby out, and then he pulled the other out. 
One baby was huge...it must have weighed at least 5 or 6 lbs.  That is very unusual for a goat...normally they weigh between 1.5 and 3 lbs.  The other dead baby was much more the normal size and we were just sad that this mother had been suffering for so long.  It's quite unusual for them to deliver two at the same time...I'd be safe in saying that this is an extremely rare instance although it does happen...it is rare.  
Mother goat happy to be shed of her problem is now heading straight for the barn and water and as she is lumbering toward the barn I see another sack appear and she gives birth to a third baby.  We are fairly certain this one is too probably dead because he has been in the birth canal waiting to be born for lord only knows how long.   But when we reach him he is struggling and so we quickly clean him off.  We get the muscus out of his lungs and nose and do a quick little mouth to snout air blowing to see if he responds.  Which he does.  He's tiny and he's wet but he is alive. 
Back to the barn we go with baby and Andy is able to catch momma and we put them in a horse stall.  Drop in some hay, give momma a bucket of water and wait to see if she will accept him.  
After an hour or so and she is showing no interest we decide to take matters into our own hands and milk momma so that baby can get some of that first milk with the anti-bodies that he needs to survive down him.  His suckling is not very strong and so we take a syringe and fill it with milk that we have collected and make sure that he is able to take as much as his little belly will hold.  Then we wait again. 
Andy has errands to run and so do I but we meet up again about 3 hours later to see if momma is bonding with baby.  We find that she is still not paying him any attention but Andy say's that this is kinda normal behavior with what she has been through.  He says that if we can just get enough milk to feed him for a couple of days, then when he begins to pee and poop and momma can smell her scent through that, then she will take him as she should have done in the beginning.  We feed him again making sure that he had a full belly and left.
When I arrived Friday morning I was pretty sure that he would not be alive but to my surprise he was alive and trying very hard to stand.  Momma was paying more attention to him but I could see that he was still not nursing from her and so I fed him until he went to sleep.  I fed everyone else then and did a few more chores and then left for home coming back sometime around noon to feed him again.  When I arrive he was almost standing, momma was very interested and so I fed him again and thought that I would check on him one more time before I would leave him for the night.  
When I arrived home I had a message from the Dr. that told me she would be home the next morning but that I was to go ahead and feed and she would call me when she arrived home.  So I went back up to her house for the last check and fed him and was extremely pleased with how he was doing. 
When I got home I sat down and wrote out the whole story for the Dr. and told her how to feed him unless she could see that momma and baby had bonded and that I would be in touch with her after I got back from my dad's. 
So Saturday morning I fed and could see that real strides had been made in his recovery and although not nursing yet, I could see that he was going to probably make it.  The hardest part had been the first 24 hours and he seemed to be beginning to thrive. 
The Dr. and family arrived home around 4 p.m.....so much for arriving 1st thing in the morning...had I known that I would have checked on him immediately after I returned home but that's water under the bridge.  I went back up there to give them instructions on how to milk and feed and milked momma for what I figured would be the last time as she was really paying a lot of attention and beginning to be very protective of baby.  I was finally able to take a breath and figured that we'd won this battle. 
 I had a call from the Dr. on Sunday around noon and she just said that the baby was dead.  Didn't give me any details and said that she'd already disposed of the body etc.  I was saddened and shocked.  He seemed to be doing so well and I really thought that even though he'd had a very rough beginning that he was going to make it through and thrive. 
I don't even pretend to know why things happen like this...I want to say that maybe he had some sort of defect that I had no way of knowing and that Mother Nature did what she does best and took him before it was evident that he would have to be put down.  So I'm sad but I do realize that Nature sometimes knows best.
The last goat delivered a lovely set of twins without incident on Sunday morning.  So we have the agony of the death of triplets and the ecstasy of twins and a single.

First picture is of the mother with twins, except you can only see one of the babies.  Second picture is of the young mother "Wendy" with her baby.

60th Wedding Anniversary

March 16, 1953 these two lovely people got married in Big Spring, Texas.  Both kids from the East Coast and high school sweethearts.  He was 22 and would turn 23 in the next week. She was 23 and would turn 24 in August.  This is their wedding picture.

So much time ahead of them with so many possibilities.  Duty stations far and wide, across both oceans and a little time stateside.  Long seperations during the Viet Nam era and long distance calls that involved an overseas operator and the word "over" when one was done with their side of the conversation.  Reel to Reel taped letters and hand written letters when he was away. 

First one child, then two, three and four.  Life was indeed full. 

Now there is just one and his plans for the day include a trip to the cemetary to place new flowers on her grave and to reminesc about the past and then meet up with us all for dinner. 

Here's to my parents who would have celebrated 60 years of marriage today.  I love you both so much and miss my mom more than words can express. 

The Great Experiment

This is just a brief warning for those reading this with a weak stomach, don't read this if you are eating something.

My hubby and I have 2 dogs.  Pepper who is 16 years old, a Schipperkee and "my" dog.  Bonnie who is 6 years old, a Blue Lacy and "his" dog.

Bonnie from the day she came to live with us has always had a problem eating stuff that isn't good for her.  As a matter of fact...we weren't sure that she was ever going to grow to adult hood with all the stuff that she ingested.  One of the worst habits of hers was that she liked to eat "poop".  She ate raccoon poop, she ate possum poop, she ate her own poop, she ate human poop (don't ask)...she just likes to eat it. 

The proper term for this is coprophagy.  There are all kinds of theories on this nasty habit but I don't think that anyone really knows the answer to this...it just is with some dogs. 

We were at the Vet's for the various reasons when she was a puppy for all the perdiciments that she seemed to get into and asked the Vet what to do about it.  She said that some dogs respond well to the various products on the markets and a lot of dogs just simply grow out of the habit.  And that's really what seemed to happen....until I discovered that my hubby wasn't in fact picking up the poop in the yard...he thought that I was....and the ugliness of the situation reared it's ugly head.  She was in fact eating it again.  And this time....she had a partner in crime...her sibling Pepper!!!!  Why my dog at her advanced age would pick up this nasty habit is beyond me but that's the truth of it.

There is not a lot that turns my stomach but this really does.  Just the thought makes me really sick. 
So I did what every good dog owner does and I went to the Internet to read about this nasty habit and what to do about it.  I also ran by Petsmart and picked up some spray that has some sort of bitterness factor in it so that when you spray the poop it doesn't taste good(How could poop taste good?) and they stop eating it or so says the bottle.

I sprayed some freshly laid turds and then later that afternoon Ms. Bonnie ingested it with gusto..lord give me strength. 

So back to the Internet to see if maybe there was something I had in my pantry that might help me through this. I'd already tried sprinkling it with jalapeno juice, cayenne pepper and regular pepper to no avail.  

I stumbled upon an article about Pumpkin and pineapple juice.  This sounded promising because I had both in the pantry and actually I had real pumpkin in the freezer. 

I've decided to try the pumpkin first. 
So what you do is put a couple of teaspoons of the pumpkin in the dogs bowl and mix with food when you feed them and it's supposed to make poop taste bad and it breaks the cycle and they stop doing it.  It should be 100% pumpkin or pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie mix. 

So I started today, they got a dose at lunch time and I'll put more in at supper time.  We'll hopefully see how this goes.  Keep your fingers crossed and lets hope this works.