Buddy's sons 2012

Well, we sold our bull, Buddy in January. He got out and once they start that it is hard to keep them in the fence. He was a wopping 1,800 pounds! We also sold Jr, (a steer) and Willie ( a young bull). That left us with the cows, Red and Ruby, and Ruby's heifer, Trouble.  The name Trouble of course suits her, as she has been some trouble from the day she was born. As she gets older hopefully she In May, Red had a bull (named RB) and in June, Ruby had a bull (named RB2). Of course they are all red. Thanks Buddy, but we were hoping for heifers!

Larry the CornMan

I don't have a picture of when the field corn was small, but here is a picture of Larry in the corn as of the last day in June. His sister doesn't like it...she can't see us!  It hides Marty's house too. And it will probably be there until October. Hope it rains soon or it won't matter the length of time in the field because there won't be any ears of corn to harvest. As soon as the corn is harvested we are going to plant fesque grass, I think that's how it is spelled, so the cows will have something to eat. The picture also shows how wet Larry's shirt is, but he stays out in it most of the day. A corner of his sister's (Gayle)  house can be seen to the left of Larry. We would sit in our sunroom each day and watch the corn growing..up to the bottom of her car's tail-lights..to the bottom of the window in her living-room..to the top of her living-room window..haha..where is the house?! Really she just laughs about it. But 2 days ago Larry ask her if she put a curse on our corn, because of no rain, and she just laughed and said no she didn't but she thought about it! She really is a good humored person.

drought of 2012

It has been at least 3 weeks since the last rain, and the last rain brought high winds which blew down our sweet corn. In a couple of days it was up again as seen in the pictures. Luckily the field corn didn't hurt then, but is now starving for water. We are watering what we can from our well. But things are suffering bad. Heat is very bad too. The temps are in the hunderds...102, 105, in other words HOT! I'm trying to show the corn, not the neighbor's (Marty's) house!

I'm learning to knit in my old age and this is the first thing I have made for myself. This sweater and scarf turned out real nice.

I made seven scarves for christmas, for Susan, Roger, Marty, Misty, Gina, Greg and Larry. I also made dishcloths for the girls. Gina's scarf was the very first thing I knitted. So now on to a new project. Nix that...I need to finish some old projects first! I have some quilts that I need to finish. Happy crafting!!!

The picture on the upper left is Marty and Misty's cabin building, above is the cabin blacked in. It is a nice mountain cabin and I'm happy for them. Larry and I like to go to our cabin which is not anything like theirs.

The picture on the left is when it snowed up at our cabin, 2011.

2011-12 hunting season

Finally! Next to the last day of hunting season and Larry gets his buck. We hunted hard this year, but the weather hasn't been anything like winter. January 31 2012 and the temps will be 68 today. Hope it doesn't mean a scorching summer.

New Toy

We got this jeep wrangler in the spring and have enjoyed it ever since. It has a hard top, but we took it off as soon as we could. The jeep is great to take to the cabin and goes up that road like a mountain goat. Larry hates getting it muddy, and almost washes it as soon as it gets home! Marty and Misty have a white jeep, and Kim and Harlan have a white one too. Now if Greg and Gina could get their jeep down here some time we could all go riding the back trails.

We have now put the hard top back on for winter. When we go to the cabin to hunt, we have the jeep loaded down with our essentials and drive right up to the door! That's a lot easier than packing the truck and then unpacking at the foot of the mountain (into the side by side) and then driving to the cabin and unpacking again, doing it all over when it's time to leave.

Third Farm Baby Arrived

The third calf arrived September 28th in the early morning hours. Thank the Lord, the momma didn't have any problems. The little bull, named Junior, is doing very well. He is strong for just being several days old. Larry had a trying time holding him while his brother banded him ( making him a steer). The next day when Larry went out to feed the cows, Junior mowed at him several times, Larry said "like he was mad at me". I told Larry he probably was mad at him for making him a sissy! lol He is more active than the heifers were at this age, but it was hotter when they were born.

We don't have the horse Angel anymore. Marty gave her to a friend. He just didn't have time to work with her. When he did try to ride her, she had an attitude, and Marty didn't need any possible accidents to happen. Owning a business is very demanding, especially when you are the main worker.

We seem to have gone straight from summer to winter, like earlier this year we went straight from winter to summer. What's going on with this weather? If this summer was a preview of the Devils House, I sure don't want to reside there! Today, October 3rd 2010, there is a north wind blowing and it was a cool 52 at 8 o'clock this morning with the sun out. Kinda feels good though.

Up-Date on Farm Babies

The farm babies are doing well. The first two pictures are of Buddy the bull, Red and their baby Stormy. Bottom left picture is the babies, Stormy and Smokey, and in the background is Ruby, who hasn't had her baby yet. Hopefully she will have one by Labor Day!! Bottom right picture is Stormy checking out the water barrel. It is very hot out and they all stay in the shade most of the time. I stay in the house most of the time too! Garden not doing well. It started out too wet and now is too dry.

Smoky the new little Heifer

June 14, 2010. The second of our calves has arrived, and she had a tough time getting here. Larry had a trip to go on and I had a feeling Minnie, the smallest of the herd, was going to have a bad time birthing her calf. OF COURSE SHE WOULD. I'M HOME ALONE!!!! I had been checking on her and she was grazing like the others, then a thunderstorm happened in the afternoon, with wind and rain. It was really hot outside too, heat index in the triple digits. Around 3:30 pm I looked for Minnie and she was laying down, but she soon got up and I could see she was trying to have her baby. She would lay back down and I could see her pushing but the baby wouldn't come out. Just it's front hooves with a little of the legs and a bit of the nose was all that was out. I tried to call Larry's brother.... no answer, I called the neighbor who has helped his granddad-in-law pull calves.... no answer. I called Larry's other brother to see if the neighbor was at his house.... no answer. I called Marty to see if he was close by to help, no..... he's in Huntsville. BUT, he did have the neighbor's cell number so he called and asked him to come down and help me. Then Larry's brother called me back and said he would be over to help. Well, he made it just as the neighbor got the calf out. Minnie the mom, started to clean her baby off right away, and it wasn't long before Smoky the new little heifer was on her feet, wobbly, but up. She is grey in color, her mom is white, and her dad, Buddy, was a red color but looking more blackish now. These pictures was the only ones I have gotten so far. She sleeps a lot. In a few days she may get up more and run around with Stormy. That should be some good pictures!

Stormy the Calf

Well, the first new baby calf is finally here. And because of the thunderstorm we had last night, her name is....Stormy!!! She is pretty, I think. So here are some pictures of her taken at 6:30 am this morning, June 10, 2010. Larry just checked on her and she is already jumping around and bucking. I love to watch babies play, two legs or four legs, they are sooo cute.

The waiting game

I have always heard that a watched pot never boils. And I am anxiously awaiting the new calves we should start having any time now. This is RED, and she is resting in the shade at the pond. Hopefully she will have a calf sometime this weekend. MINNIE, the white heifer, is due soon too. Marty and Misty's calves will be later, I'm thinking July or August. Gina asked what we would name it, and I haven't thought of a name yet. Any suggestions? For a heifer (girl) or a bull (boy)? So next post will be the baby pics. LOL

The Garden

I know the garden looks like it is as big as last year, but really it's not. The rows are wider. Larry has worked it out beautifully, inbetween the fishing trips! But as hot as it is getting the fishing may be coming to a halt. Time for staying in the air conditioned house!!!

The

Can't seem to get away from the snow! When we left Alabama for Ann Arbor Michigan, there was very little snow and mostly in Tennessee. Ohio and Michigan didn't have any. But that all changed in a matter of days. The pictures are in reverse order. The first one is the morning after we got back home, and the next one is in Kentucky, Ohio, the temperture in Ohio, and then at Gina and Greg's home. But we had a good visit with Greg and Gina and celebrated Gina's 30th Birthday with her, a month late, but we still celebrated!!

January in Alabama

ROLL TIDE!!! Alabama won the National Championship, as if that was news to anyone.

Larry and I have been hunting and as much as we can, as I can if the weather is ok. I'm a fair weather hunter. I don't like the bitter cold, blowing wind, clouds. I like to sit in the sun. Anyway, at 55 years, 11 months, and 2 days old, I got my first deer. We had been at the cabin in Paint Rock for 2 nights and I didn't see any deer. Larry saw one. It was cold and windy, 18 degrees this morning. So, we packed it up and came home. It turned out to be a nice day, 45 degrees. So we decided to go to the "Rock Pile" and afternoon hunt. This was my first time to hunt there.

I got in the stand by the "green field" and sat and sat, my mind wondering here and there, thinking of things I could be doing instead of sitting in a tree stand. But, I wanted to go hunting with Larry and he has been excited for me to go with him. I looked around and was picking out spots that I might be able to get a shot at a deer if one came out in that area. I had pulled my hood over my head and was still sitting when I heard something behind me. I sat still and waited and a doe and a smaller one came out to my left. I had to ease my gun around to get the shot. Now, I had held the gun up and looked through the scope and checked all that out before hand. But when it came down to shooting the gun I hadn't. Things kept popping up in my mind, like do I hold my breath or let it out as I shoot, squeeze the trigger don't pull it, get the crosshair behind the shoulder blade. With all the clothes on and the angle I had to hold the gun (shooting to the left) with the gun on my shoulder, I put the crosshair on the doe but could not reach the trigger! So I put the gun under my arm and well that's when the scope got me on the nose. I thought I was far enough away from the scope. But with the gun butt under my arm there was nothing to stop the gun from sliding backwards as it kicked. I knew my nose was hit but it didn't hurt. I kept my eye on the doe and was watching her to see where she was going. She headed up the mountain a short ways, and then I had to just listen to tell where she was, AND try to stop the blood, it was going all down around my nose, mouth , chin and hands. I didn't have anything to stop it with but my gloves. I finally found a piece of tissue and stuffed some in my nose. That finally stopped it. I waited for about 30 minutes before I got down out of the tree ( as Larry had told me too) and just sat on a rock to wait for him. He was in a stand past me. We looked for blood where I shot her but there was none. Larry went up the mountain and I looked around the area where I had shot her but still didn't find any blood. So we fanned out and I finally came across her about 50 yards from where she had been shot, in a down the mountain pose. I hit her VERY close to where I was aiming. The pressure is off now, and I can be selective in what I shoot next. LOOKING FOR A RACK.

That's all my adventure for now. Larry had gotten a doe on Saturday, and a buck. Of course he has tales too, but this is my blog and I do the story telling!!LOL I may have pictures of a racoon in the near future (ME) :)

Fall and Our Building Additions

The fall colors were so beautiful this year. Unfortunately they are all but gone now. It didn't last very long. I can't believe winter is upon us. We have been busy with projects around the homestead, not just the cabin. We built a well house/garden shed for storing tillers, mowers, insecticides, fertilizers, shovels, hoes, etc, and protection for the well pump. I love it. Larry says I have it junked up already. But it is more organized than his shed! And we have built a garage out back on the old basketball pad. It is for the boat, 4-wheeler, t-rex, and maybe my durango. When I took the picture the big doors were not installed yet, in fact the door man is doing it today. We hope to get it organized and then clean the old shed up and get it more organized. It is hard to find anything in there, and definitely hard to do any work in there. So there is my update for now. With winter coming on maybe I can keep up to date, for a while at least. That is, if I have anything to report. Who knows, the next update maybe a hunting one! Happy THANKSGIVING everyone!!!

Our Animal Story

We have quite a history with animals, some really funny stories, but not funny at the time! Well, here is one for 2009. Marty and Larry went to work on a man's air condition unit. This man lives about a mile and a half from us. He is going to move and had a cow and horse he can't take with them. Larry was interested in the cow, but of course Marty was interested in the horse. They ask the man about the cow. He had already promised the cow to somebody else, but the horse he still had. When Marty inquired about how much he was asking for the horse the man told him he would give it to him. Larry and Marty came home and was excited about getting the horse for nothing. My first question was "is it sway back? No, ok is it crosseyed, blind?" No, in fact the horse is a good looking quarter horse, as you can see by the pictures, and seems to be gentle. She comes when we call her, she can be petted and led with a halter. A man next to the horse owner, said he rode her and she does real good. Not much of a story you say...... Well, now begins the story.....

A friend of ours and her husband were excited Marty and Larry was getting a horse. She loves horses, rides, and knows quite a lot about them. They brought over their horse trailor so Marty could get the horse home, as we didn't know how well the horse was with riders, and not wanting to just take someone's opinion. It was misting rain and the horse was out in the pasture with the cow. So our friend's husband went out in the field to see about getting the horse, WITHOUT A HALTER OR ROPE. He went right up to the horse and was petting her, but didn't have a rope to put on her to lead her to the trailor. In the next pasture, was three other horses belonging to someone else. Those horses started running the fence line and got our horse to running. Marty and our friend was in the upper part of the field and her husband was in the lower part of the field. One of the horses in the other pasture was running toward the fence and either slid when trying to stop or was going to jump the fence and didn't make it, in either case it got caught in the fence and fell down entangled in the fence. Our friend was going to try to get it loose but it was scared and kept trying to get up and finally pulled free, but cut it's leg bad in doing so. Now the race was on to find out who owned the horse and get them to call a vet and get that horse taken care of, before it bled to death. After going here and there, calling this one and that one, the owner was notified. The horse is ok but the vet said it cut a legiment in it's leg and the horse just wouldn't be the same anymore :( We don't know why those other horses went crazy like that. No one was anywhere around them.

Marty got our horse home and put her in the pasture with our 4 heifers (cows who have not had babies) and Buddy our bull. We thought it would be fine because she, the horse, was in a pasture with a cow. Well, were we ever wrong!! Our herd was scared of the horse and I guess she knew it because she chased them through the fence! Larry's brother called us and said " your cows are running out behind my house". We thought he was funning with us. haha on us! Larry's brother was on his porch with another neighbor and they saw the horse chasing the cows and then Larry's brother-in-law told Marty he saw the horse chase the cows around the pond 2 times and thought to himself "where did that horse come from". Well, the cows went through the electric fence and across Marty's back yard, Larry's brother-in-law's property, Larry's brother's property and two went up the road to the church. A neighbor on his 4 wheeler cut them off (at the pass, LOL) and drove them back to where the others were. Marty, with a bucket of feed, went through the woods and pastures of our neighbor behind us, to try to find them. Larry and I were in the T-rex (a side by side 4 wheeler type vehicle), going up and down the rode looking for the cows, looking for the neighbor with a key to unlock the gate so we could get in the pastures behind our house. Marty had to go on a work call (his own air conditioning business) so it was up to Larry and me to get the cows home. The cows followed Larry across the neighbor's pastures until they came to the ditch, and they didn't want to cross the ditch. We finally got them across after Larry talked his brother into putting his dog up. The dog was wanting to chase the cows and they weren't about to turn their backs on that dog. We led the cows home (bribing them with sweet feed all the way). While I was leading them the last little way home, Larry went to open the fence up to put them back in the pasture and put the horse in the other pasture away from the cows. THE HORSE, BY THE WAY, DIDN'T LEAVE THE PASTURE, even with the fence down!!! Maybe the horse wanted the pasture all for herself. After at least 5 hours, maybe more, the cows are home, Larry and I are wore to a frazzle, and ALL the neighbors have heard Marty's free horse caused Larry and I to have to chase down our run away cows!! It might not sound like much, but if you have ever had to round -up runaway cows, well......let's just hope you don't ever have too!

Gulf Shores

While our jetsetting younger daughter Gina and son-in-law Greg, was in Europe, Larry and I went to Gulf Shores with our son and daughter-in-law, Marty and Misty, and nephew Scott and his family Wendy and Kylie. We had a great time and Larry even went swimming in the ocean!!

Short Michigan Trip

We had a wonderful but short time in Michigan last week. We celebrated with Greg on his birthday at Buddy's Pizza, yum, and then helped them get ready for their housewarming party two days later. Larry cooked 8 boston butts on the grill (and 3 were eaten off the grill!!), just a sample of the way it's done down south. I think Gina likes to show off her southern heritage a little, haha. The weather was cool, but for Larry and I it was refreshing.

I hope everyone knows how much it meant to us that you came to see us and Gina and Greg's home. We would liked to have stayed longer and spend more time with you but as you know Larry has a health problem that needs attended to. I will try to update the blog on the news we get. Just keep us in your prayers.