Peaches Down

Last week our neighbor got to uproot some old non fruiting peach trees with his tractor. He was hampered by the wire, siding, bus lights and junk entwined into the trunks of these trees and roots. It took time picking up all the trash that killed these trees. Now that these unhealthy trees are gone you can see the garage, barn and pastures. There is now a view of a spectacular oak trees.

Wandering Fawn

This week we were moving dirt around our neighbors place and up walked a fawn. She was not too afraid of us working so close to the high grass with two tractors. After looking us over she bound off into the high grass and forest. It was nice to see wildlife in the middle of the day. One of the joys of living in the Ozarks.

High Winds

This past Sunday we had very high winds and rain storms. The wind tore off the roof of our city hall and police station. Several trees were blown down on houses, fences, and out buildings. We lost power for a day. Within hours we saw our power company working hard to get the power going again. We are so lucky to have such great linemen out here in the Ozarks. The linemen are kind, hard working and very caring of our town and our people.

URO's

Our neighbor has been clearing out his acres trying to make his pastures safe for mowing and livestock. He is hampered by the unexpected trash dumps found hidden on his land. Trash left by the previous owners of the property. Old washers, barrels, tires, toys, barbed wire, car parts and URO's (Unidentified Rusting Objects). Metal object bought, moved and then tossed in random piles and forgotten. Only the frogs know how this stuff got here but they are not saying a word. So our neighbor is now an archaeologist discovering the buying habits of the tribe that lived on his land long ago. They must have worshiped the washing machine since there are so many around half buried under the weeds and frogs.

Hercules Fifth Labor

Hercules had the fifth labor of cleaning the Augean stables. He used a river to flush out the stables. Today we helped our neighbor clean the years of goat manure left in a barn. He bought a property where the previous owners never cleaned their goat barn. This old manure is wonderful for our gardens but a pain to move. We used both our tractors to haul out tons of at least 30+ loads of manure. And we still have about that much left to do. You can see the manure level as rust on the sheet metal. It is about 4 feet deep in spots in this barn. Our neighbor is also replacing the broken sheet metal to save this barn. It will be usable once the manure is removed and the floor leveled. This is a herculean task but the weather is helping. Dry manure is easier to move than the wet stuff. After this there is a second barn to do. And Hercules only had only one stable to clean.

Tomatoes and Peppers

This year I was able to can whole tomatoes for the first time. My friend gave me instructions on how she cans tomatoes in a hot bath. I do not have a pressure canner. I also got to make a batch of sweet banana peppers too. The leftover tomatoes I sliced and dehydrated to save for snacking and meals over the winter. This has been a productive season for my canning skills. I am looking forward to apples and pears for jams and sauces in the fall.

Dorper Sheep

At the Texas County Fair in Houston, MO we got to see the Dorper sheep for the first time. Our neighbor is thinking about breeding these sheep on his farm. I had never heard of this kind of sheep before. You do not have to shear them, they are a hair sheep. This is great as finding shearers is very hard these days. These sheep were very docile and stocky, sold for meat. The breeder was showing ewes and a ram pure blood Dorper. His daughter won 1st prize showing her sheep without a halter or lead rope. After seeing these sheep I think my neighbor is on to something fun and exciting to raise. We also enjoyed seeing the young children learning how to show their livestock.

Texas County Fair

Here in the Ozarks we have farm fairs starting up as fall rolls in. Though a hot 100 degrees, people brought in their livestock to be judged. There were swine, poultry, goats, sheep, rabbits and bovines. They also set up tractors for all to see. I got to see several kinds of chickens I was interested in adding to our farm. We are hoping to see the car demolition derby they are having at night this year after the animals all go home.

Making Bread

One good thing about hot summer days, you can proof bread outside. I was able to get my two loaves of sunflower seed bread to rise on my deck. They both baked up nice and brown. And my cat Daisy waits for our dinner guest in the head chair of our kitchen.

Deadly Heat

Today was a bad day for our chickens. One of our year old hens died in the coop a victim of the heat, it was 108 today. And we have 2 other hens missing at nightly role call. I had no idea chickens could die from the heat even under the shade. We had the coop open and the chickens were free to run out and into the pasture. This afternoon we installed a box fan to keep our flock cool. I hosed down the coop and the yard. The coop and the pasture are under the shade of trees. Tomorrow I will hose down the yard for the chickens and give them watermelon to keep them cool. I hope the heat will be ending soon before I lose all my chickens.

Damn Hot

It is way too hot here in the Ozarks. The grasshoppers are baking on my deck, the horses are melting and the chickens are laying hard boiled eggs. I put out 2 loaves of bread to rise on the deck and they were cooking instead! It was 105 out here and that is too hot. Everything is dry. Wildlife is coming to drink out of my horse water tanks. I can barely keep stuff watered. We need rain badly out here. This is way not normal for this area. And now it is August the hottest month normally. We are praying for a good rain in church. It has been like this for the last 3 weeks and that is not normal. I get my outside chores done before 10am and stay inside until dusk for feedings. Lets hope cool fronts come soon and bring rain for all our trees, plants and animals.

My First Love

My husband does not get it, but I had a first love before him - it was a car. It was a 1965 teal Ford Galaxie. How could someone love a car? It was not the car itself, it was the attention my Grandfather gave me while we worked on his car back in the 1970's in New Orleans. He loved this car and it was how he communicated with his first grandchild. I learned at a young age how to speak car. I learned about chrome, mag wheels, engine sounds, spark plugs and making this car purr. You take care of your car and it will take you anywhere. I understood how to maintain a machine and how it can serve me. It was my first love that car and I miss my Grandfather.

Yes, my first love had mag wheels.

Century Link- Coyote Stupid

Congratulations Century Link, you get awarded my prized Coyote Stupid Award.
I read a blog about how in Vermont they are getting fiber optic high speed Internet in very rural areas. They are using horses to pull the cable along the power poles. Here in Missouri we have horses, hills and power poles, but we also have Century Link. They have one man to install DSL for the town of Summersville, MO. Right, one guy! And that is his second job!

We called Century Link to ask if we will ever get DSL, they have no ideas. We offered to pay Century Link to install DSL at our farm, they laughed at us and said they don't do that.

I called the head of sales and he said there are not enough people on my street to make the Internet worth any money to them, nice huh? Am I living in a cave?

Basically Century Link is doing a great big nothing for the Ozarks of rural Missouri. They are keeping Missouri residents in the stone ages keeping us from having what the rest of the USA has, high speed Internet. All our Federal Government will do is just give Century Link more money. And Century Link will just buy up other phone/Internet companies and keep being the big fat MONOPOLY it is.

They did it to Show Me Power, a company that tried to get fiber optic to the small rural towns. Century Link lowered their price for Internet until Show Me Power could not make any more sales. Then after Show Me Power went belly up, Century Link stopped adding any more fiber and sat on the money.

So thank you Century Link for keep us in the dark ages. Thanks for giving the rest of our state that wholesome hillbilly backwoods backwards profile we love. Thanks Century Link for holding back sales, deliveries, movies, realty, e-mail and all other forms of Internet commerce the rest of the US uses. I am so damn proud of how you are keeping Missouri behind, I could just scream.