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| Things are going fairly well for the Spencer's Simeon: He's fat, all healed up, happy, and Harley's always licking him in the face. We finally got a happy baby, and he's really great to be around. He smiles, laughs, and squirms with the best of them. Garden: Things are in full swing. I'm about halfway done with planting. Pole beans, potatoes, tomatoes (both cherry and normal) are doing well. Yard long bean planted on saturday are coming up. Peppers seem to be doing well, I just planting them and they are still really tiny. Eggplants have been plauged by flea beetles, killing some of the weaker ones. I spread out diatomaceous earth last night and this morning I only saw three flea beetles. Grr flea beetles. This saturday, I'm finishing planting tomatillos, both winter and summer squash, watermelons, marigold, yarrow, snapdragons, chard (how late are these?) and ground cherries. Tommorrow's going to be a very busy day. Bees: Yes, we now have a hive of bees at the farm. Our friends, the Vincents, bought a hive and placed it on our place near the garden. If you've never moved a hive of bees that we're improperly packed for shipment, especially up our road, in the middle of the night through a hardwood forest, all that I can say is that you're missing out. Chris put a super on during the cookout, but I didn't get to help b/c I was cooking burgers. I feel that I missed out. Chickens: doing well. They are out on pasture and having a blast. Last night Carla and I sat out and watched them scratch, chase bugs, and eat grass. They are funny to watch. Anytime a crow or plane (C-130 actually) flies over they run for cover in thier coop. It's an instict to protect them from hawks and vultures. We'll be ordering 35 more chickens and 9 turkeys to make up from the Harley losses. Memorial Day Cookout: Thanks to all those who came on out. We had an eclectic group of about 45 come out. The kids had a blast on Carla's hammock, and the little girls did thier best to decimate the wild flower population in the holler - at one point I saw Phoebe with an armload of ox-eyed daisies. Even the girls couldn't make a dent in the daisy population though. Lots of internationals - China, Albania, Ecuador, and Chile were represented. Got to catch up with many old friends. Carla and I hope that all had a good time. Thanks for all the help and tasty potluck dishes! Got to go pick and ID bugs. -Spence | | |
| Today was a wonderful day for the Spencers. We spent time with the Vincents, ate a big bowl of Pho at Red Palace, and came home with baby boy. As we pulled up and I opened the door of the car, Harley, our black dog, came up holding a dead chick. Looking around in the twilight, our yard looked like a battlefield in which the nation of chickens and turkeys were soundly defeated. I had left the garage door open and Harley tore into the brooder. The chicks that survived were the ones that were pinned by the falling netting. Out of 14 turkeys, only 4 are left...this includes 5 dead wild turkeys that I was raising for my neighbor (sorry Clay)...that ran a heafty 10 dollars apiece. We're down to only one out of our bronze turkeys that we were running as a test for heritage sales. Nearly 20 chickens were slaughtered. At one point I got so angry at the dog that I started clubbing her with a dead (large) turkey. Dead turkeys make good clubs. All told, we're out around a 150 dollars in poultry; the thing that really gets me is that she didn't even eat them, so we didn't even save on dogfood. Now we have to figure out do we replace our stock or just work with what we got. The problem is that several people have asked for turkeys. It's definately a thinker. P.S. - Clay, you may want to come pick up your surviving turkeys soon... | | |
| Springtime is in full force up here in the holler. The trees are leafed out, new birds are visiting the bird feeder, successions of wildflowers are blooming then disappearing. Right now you can hear the katydids and tree crickets calling to one another...and the drone of the jakebrakes on the interstate... Plants, chickens, and spring wait for no one. This weekend I'll be getting the foundations for a deer fence up - that means sinking cedar trees and t-posts into the ground with a little hard work and cement. I may have help on saturday, which will be awesome. I finished cutting down the last of the trees that needed to be felled because they were in the way. It feels good to check something off the list. The pole beans are starting to push through the ground up into the world. The soil is especially heavy there (clay) and there's some crusting which I'm not used to, but they're fighting thier way through. The shipment of plastic mulch arrives next week, which means the maters and a whole lot of other transplants will be going into the ground. Unfortuately, Carla's little mutt, Harley, has taken a liking to digging up my seed potatoes. The dog is going to be chained up when we're gone as she had went down my rows and pock-marked them every foot or so with her digging. There's no telling how much damage she's done; sometimes she just digs the potato up, other times the potato has vanished. We'll know in a few weeks. The chicks and turkeys are doing fine. I've got to build pasture pens for the turkeys and a moveable laying coop for the chickens in the next two weeks. I better get a move on! | | |
| For a while, I have considered myself a patriot; I guess fighting a year in Iraq will do that. I've always stepped up to the plate when my country called. Loyalty, Duty, Honor, Selfless Sacrifice, Personal Courage - I adhired to these values in regards to these United States. I led the way wherever I went in the Army. I volunteered for patrols and convoy escorts. On one of these missions I had my neck snapped when a vehicle in a convoy ahead of us was taken out. I also had a parachute malfunction that screwed up my hip and collapsed two discs. This year I applied to have the VA treat my injuries. I had documentation out the butt, line of duties (LODs) that detailed my injuries. Letters of support from my superiors in Iraq...you get the idea. I showed up to an assessment physical to get treatment, bringing X-rays and documentation from my civillian doctors. The "nurse" rushed me through it. Since my primary job is a student, she recorded that my injuries did not affect my daily activites. Never mind that often my hip feels that it's popping out of socket, have started to develop a limp on my leftside, my head hangs to the left even when I think it's straight, I have lost range of motion in my neck and can't look over my right shoulder, have constant back and neck spasms, blah blah pity party... The VA's response was that although there is no question that I sustained injuries to my back, neck, and left hip in either a combat patrol or jumping out of C-130s, there is no definative proof that my injuries are related to my current problems. Also, they informed me that pain resulting from injuries sustained in combat is not considered the government's responsiblity to treat. If I want treatment for my injuries, I must do it at a civillian doctor on my own dime. I am disgusted with my country right now, with a bumbling administration that started a pointless, debilitating war on false intelligence; an administration that started a war without planning, who the closest they ever came to combat was shooting a lawyer in the face while bird-hunting. America...I think we need some time off. Give me a call when you clean yourself up and get your act back together. | | |
| Well, it's pretty much offical - spring is here. We've finally dried out from the foot and a half or so of rain in march and april. The sunshine and a couple of windy days have helped to dry out the garden spot, I've also had to dig a couple of drainage ditches on the northside (clay loams don't dry too fast). The weather's enabled me to get my pole beans and taters finally planted. Simeon Clay is doing okay. We dropped him off to daycare today. He's our first successful crop of the season. We had a picnic out on a little bluffline on our hill yesterday afternoon at a place we call Cedar Bluffs. Sounds like a subdivision. We had a good time; we're hoping that others did as well. Squirt, our yellow dog, made a friend with the Denison's dog. They spent the time playing tag in the woods. It was amusing. Tommorrow, I'm planting a bunch of native plants that will be benefical plants - echinacea, red milkweed, beebalm (bergamont or monard) as well as yarrow and alyssum. I'll also be starting hollyhock, cornflower (bachleor's button) and snapdragon transplants (yeah I'm late). Our woods are filled with dogwoods and redbuds right now. The tree crickets are are chirpping. If only we could get rid of 540. | | |
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