Poppy our "mostly outdoor cat that thinks he is a dog" caught his first field mouse. Poppy is an overfed walking mousetrap so it is good to see him earning his keep for a change. He did not eat the mouse but brought it to my car just for me. He waited all day lording over his prey until I came home to congratulate him.
This past Saturday was our annual Fish Fry at our historic Mill in Summersville, Missouri. The day got started early with setting up the food, tables and chairs, pumpkins and fish. Since I was setting up and serving food, I did not get any shots of that, too busy! But I did get shots of Roy our Mill coordinator and his blue donated shuttle taxi. You can also see our new park benches on the Mill porch. The log counter was made with the help of donated materials, skills and time by friends of the Mill; it turned out great! I missed getting a shot of the Bluegrass Fiddlers who played for us while people enjoyed the fish and desserts. It all turned out to be a wonderful event to get ready for Fall.
I had the pleasure visiting with crafter and writer Darlene Kenaga of Mountain View, Missouri. She is a quilter, knitter, tatter and rug maker. She has also written and printed her own book about her youth, "Four Kids in a Model-A". The book is only sold at events she is attending, like ours at the mill. She was there to sign books and demonstrate her crafting. I am always amazed at the skills people of the Ozark have and use on a daily basis. You just don't see this anymore in the modern city lifestyles of today. It was nice to stop and just listen to what she had to share. And she is a wonderful teacher of her crafts, a very patient.
We bought some grey Guinea keets and baby Barred Rock chicks from the local hardware store. The keets are straight run so who knows what sex they will be. The 4 barred rocks are to be pullets; however 2 have rooster looks to them. All are growing fast and big since they were older when we bought them. The keets are an experiment since we have never had them before. Guineas are great for tick control and are very independent.
We put up the OSB walls and dragged in the rubber mats for the horse barn. It took several trips up and down the hill to unload these 100 lb 1 inch thick rubber mats into the barn. The baby horses tap danced upon these strange new floors. Now our horse will have warm stalls for the winter and dry floors to stand on. All we have left is to make the stall doors.
One of our neighbors has lent us his original roping saddle. It needs a good cleaning, new latigo and keepers but it is still usable. It weighs more than a pony. We were told it has an iron tree under all that leather. We are very honored to have such a nice antique saddle to try out.
Now that we have our horses we are looking for saddles to ride on. So we are testing used ones and borrowed ones. It takes time to evaluate a good saddle to sit in and one that fits our horse.
We moved Luna and her colt home to our pasture after being away for since we got her, almost four months. Luna had to get used to being number three horse in the herd after Dolly and Maple. And Mr. Bean, Luna's colt, is last in the pack. But after a full day of kicking, biting and running all horses seem to be getting along. There is enough room for all in the pasture and stable. It will be nice not having to getting up and drive to feed our horses in the mornings.
Here are more views of our stable add on to the chicken coop. We got the roof and skylight panels in place. We need to put up the OSB walls and gates for the horses.
Mr. Bean adores his green bucket. He has claimed it since he could get up and walk to it. It is the bucket I use to bring his grain in. While empty he still insists on licking the bucket clean. Then I remove the bucket until afternoon feeding. And Mr. Bean will wait all day for his turn on his little green bucket, again.
This week my goal was to use up all the apples I purchased. I did not want any to go to waste. So after canning half a bushel I dehydrated the rest. I borrowed my neighbors apple peeler/corer and I so have to buy one. I love this cool device. It makes dealing with apples fast and easy and it was fun to use. You can find one here. I put the apples slices in lemon water then into the dehydrator. And now I have crisp and very tasty apple chips with no sugar nor preservatives added.
