Too bad I never went to sleep last night LOL!  Long story but I’ll give you the short version after I share some gardening news with you.

Saturday morning and afternoon we had a great time outside in the garden!  It just felt so good to get out and dig in the dirt, ya know what I mean?  There’s just something about getting back to the Earth and enjoying the great outdoors with the plants (veggies in my situation) and animals (cows and chickens for me!). 

Kitty and Davison (our Black Angus “puppy” cows) are getting so fat!  And they are so spoiled too.   I would have never imagined in a million years that I would begin to love cows!  But I’m really attached to them and I’m glad that we’re going to keep them through the winter and into the Spring.  To the casual passer-by they are just two black cows or steers.  But we can see how they are both so unique and different in everything they do and how they act.  Kitty has a “moo” that sounds like an elk call.  Davison has a very deep “moo” that will rattle the windows LOL  The shapes of their faces and necks are different, the “tuffs” on the top of their heads are different…. we can just see how beautiful they are and how individual each of them are.

Now the chickens, we’ll they are just so entertaining!  I had a little fun with them today.  Most of the hens had already gone into the next boxes to leave their “presents” for me (eggs) and I thought I would give another peek just to make sure one of them didn’t slip back in to lay another egg.  Well, I interrupted “Miss Priss” (her nickname for today).  She is one of the Rhode Island Reds.  She gave me a look like “Hello, can’t you tell I’m busy in here?”  Take a look:

So I quickly excused myself and went back to the garden to work a little more.  I decided I would go back later (which I did) and this time she was ready for me… head first waiting for me to open the nest box door…

For some reason she was just taking her own dear sweet time laying her egg today….   Now Buffy, she wanted to play Peek-A-Boo…

And she caught me in this pic:

DH worked on flipping the compost bins which is a big job considering they are 3×3x4′ tall and… there are 4 bins!  We really needed to flip them so that we could get some air mixed up and fluff them some AND, we also needed more room because we’re running out!  I was able to use a couple of wheelbarrow loads from the compost bins.  Some of the material on the very bottom was close to being finished - so that is what we used to supplement several of the raised beds that I was going to plant in today.

Later this morning (after I’ve had a little sleep), I’ll be going out to do some planting in those beds that DH prepared for me.  I am so excited that we are making our own compost from the leaves that fall out of our trees, from our kitchen scraps, from our steers’ manure, from our chickens’ manure, and from the lawn clippings that we obtain from our yard.  It’s had to tell in the picture above, but this stuff is rich and black. 

DH asked me what are we going to do with all of this compost.  That was an easy question to answer…. I told him that we’d be using it in the new raised beds we are going to build for the Spring planting LOL  Between that and supplementing the raised beds we already have, I’m sure that I’ll find a home for all of this compost.

Now a quick explanation of what I was blogging about with the peas and the tomato cages…. I planted “Alaska” which is a shelling pea.  The vines are supposed to grow to be 2 1/2 feet high.  So I planted the seeds around the base of the tomato cage and I’m using the tomato cage as a mini trellis.  And, around the tomato cages I planted some lettuce and some chard in the empty space.  Here’s a pic:

OK, time for me to end this post and get some sleep…. now for the reason that I haven’t been to sleep all night.  Well, around 2 PM I headed up to the office to meet another volunteer who is working on “the project”.  Well, we have so much work to do up there and we stayed until very late and until we were very tired - until 3 AM.  As we locked up and were headed to our vehicles, I saw a dog in the parking lot.  At first it scared me because you never know if stray dogs are mean or nice.  Well, the office is right next to a 5 lane highway…. I told the other volunteer that I was afraid that the puppy would get hit by a car.  Well, when I said “puppy”, he stopped, turned around and looked at me and wagged his tail.

That was it… I couldn’t leave him.  He came over to me wagging his tail and was the sweetest thing ever!  He was a full-grown chocolate lab.  No collar or tag.  I took him inside the office and locked him up in the bathroom while I ran to WalMart and purchased treats, a water bowl, a food bowl, a collar and a leash.  Oh, and I found him a huge rawride bone to chew on.  When I came back to the office, I got the collar on him, loaded him up in my vehicle and took him home.   So this morning, he is in the living room, relaxing and occasionally looking over at me and wagging his tail almost like he is saying “thank you” for saving me.  I woke DD and DH up and they are both in love with him already.  He’s just the sweetest dog.  He even knows how to sit for a treat and he minds pretty good too.

He’s definitely someone’s pet because he teeth are pretty and clean, he’s been trained a little, and even his toenails are clipped (meaning he’s a dog that also lives inside the home).  Let’s hope that he’s “trained” too or I’m going to wake up in a couple of hours to a mess by the front door LOL

Well, today I decided that I needed a day off.  I needed a day to “catch up” on sleep and things around the house and garden.  I’ve been working until pretty late every night and sometimes into the early morning hours.  Unfortuately, that hasn’t left me much time to do anything around the house. 

First of all, I went to bed early last night and slept until around 1 AM.  I got up, got on the internet and started browsing through all of my favorite blogs that I needed to catch up on.  It seems like most everyone is slowing down on their gardening efforts with fall and cooler weather kicking in.  Here in the South, it’s awesome weather to grow so many veggies!  I got sleepy again about 3 AM and went back to bed.

It was time to get up this morning at 6 AM so I could get my day started and get DD to school.  But, even with all of the sleep I had, I just felt pretty run down and worn out.  So after I took DD to school, I went out and fed/watered the chickens and calves and visited with them for a little while.  I came back inside and decided that I would lay back down for a little while.  Well, that little while turned into 1 PM!  I guess my body just needed some R&R for a while.

After picking DD up from school this afternoon, I went back out to feed and water as well as get some more seeds into the raised beds.  In the garden I have the following veggies planted:  lettuce (Red Sails & Romaine), peas (Sugar-Snap & Alaska), carrots, turnips, broccoli raab, radish, and some swiss chard.  I’m really getting excited about growing cool weather veggies.  In the South, we have so many bugs to worry with during the summer months.  About the only time that we get any relief is during the cooler winter months.  We rarely have freezing temps (only a couple of times over the winter months) and when we do, we try to cover the garden to keep it from freezing, which has worked so far.

The two types of peas I have planted are Sugar-Snap and Alaska.  The Sugar-Snap vines can get as tall as 55-65 inches!  I have them planted so that they can grow up the 7′ high trellis that I used for the tomatoes last summer.  I also have more of them planted where I normally plant my pole beans.  So these peas will have plenty of room to grow :-)  I can’t wait until they start producing!  They are 66 days to harvest.  I hope that I have enough planted to allow us to eat fresh snap peas as well as plenty to blanch and put in the freezer.

Now the Alaska pea vines do not get that tall.  The package says that they will grow to be about 2 1/2 feet tall.  These peas are the shelling variety (like English peas).    I have them planted next to the 3′ high fencing that surrounds the garden.  I also decided to use some of my tomato cages as trellises to grow this variety on.  I will try to take some pics and show you tomorrow on my blog.  I placed the tomato cages inside the raised beds and planted the pea seeds on the inside of the tomato cage.   They have already germinated and aren’t too far from grabbing hold of the tomato cage.  On the outside and around the tomato cages, I have planted some Swiss chard.  This raised bed is going to be beautiful once it’s mature.  The chard I planted is the 5 color chard.

I took a pic last week while I was outside working one morning…. it’s a picture that only a gardener or farmer can really appreciate LOL!  It’s 3 days worth of what I picked up behind the calves to put into my compost bins….  DH and I keep the grazing field “picked up” of the bombs that Kitty and Davison leave for us.  We do this for 2 reasons.  The first reason is that I don’t want my back yard smelling like a cow pasture and the 2nd reason is that this stuff is GREAT for the compost pile!  I like to keep everything cleaned up and tidy even if it’s in the calves’ area.  We keep it picked up using the pitch fork and the wheel barrow and then toss it into the compost bins and cover with some leaves.  You wouldn’t believe how that keeps the smell down.  When you walk into our back yard, other than hearing the calves mooing and the roosters crowing,  you don’t “smell” them and wouldn’t know that they are there.  Anyway, here’s an idea of how much manure 3 day’s worth looks like:

Our wheelbarrow has been used so much… unfortunately this week while I was going around picking up “bombs”, one of the handles broke and part of the underneath bracing broke.  That on top of the tire that must be air-ed up on a regular basis and it has several holes rusted through, well… we need a new wheelbarrow!  This is a tool that we just can’t do without around here.  For my birthday last week, my mom sent me a check — guess what I’m going to use that money on?  LOL

In closing, I would like to share a video that I took with my cell phone.  The quality is horrible but still, you will get to see how sweet Kitty and Davison are and how they are like big puppies.  I took this video last week when I went out to feed one morning.  You’ll get to hear Capri crowing several times - he’s such a loud-mouth!  I am hoping that I can get another video with the calves moo-ing so you can hear the way Kitty moo-s.  He sounds like an elk!  Anyway, enjoy!!

Finally we’re going to get a break in this muggy, wet and humid weather we’ve been having.   It’s not that it’s been particularly hot, it’s just that it’s so humid and that makes it feel hotter that what the actual temperature is.  But over the upcoming weekend, it’s really going to start feeling like FALL again!  Yeah!!!

Fall has to be one of my most favorite times of the year.  I love the cooler weather to say the least.  There’s just something different about the air… almost like you can smell the FALL season.

Fall here in the South is great.  The temperatures aren’t too hot and aren’t too cold. It’s a time when all of the oaks (water oaks) loose their leaves.  We have so many oak trees in our yard!  So, it also means a time to get out the blower and the rakes.  Of course, I’m looking forward to some more leaves for the compost bins this year.  Actually, with as many leaves as we get, I might just have to convince DH to build a couple more!  He originally had built 2 for me and then added 2 more bins right beside the first 2.  Here’s a pic showing one set of bins:

We put all sorts of things into our compost bins…. leaves (of course), lawn clippings, spent plants from the garden, clean out from the chicken coop and even cow patties from the cow field.  We kinda clean up after the cows like some people do after their dogs LOL!  But hay, it’s great stuff for the compost bins and eventually for my garden LOL.

With the change that we already had with the cooler temperatures a few weeks ago, along with the shorter daylight hours, the grass just isn’t growing as much as it had been.  That means we’ll have to go ahead and get some hay for the cows this week.  DH has plans on making a run to the feed store to check out the types of hay they have available.  Plus, our friend that we purchased our steers from also has hay that we can buy from him.  DH is planning on building a hay feeder above the “feed” feeder today.  This will keep the hay off of the ground so the steers don’t waste it.  If it falls out of the hay feeder, it will just land in the regular feeder.

Well, lots to do before I get my day started.  Maybe I will have some pics to post this evening of the new hay feeder

I hope that your week is going well!  We’ve made it past “hump day” and tomorrow is Friday!  Yeah!

These late nights working down at the office (on the “project”) is definitely taking a toll on me.  I’m just completely worn out!  This morning I couldn’t get out of bed at my regular time.  Thank goodness DH took DD to school for me.  I don’t think she would have made it there if I would have had to drive LOL 

So it’s a quarter till 10 AM and I’m still at home.  I just needed a little more sleep this morning.  Plus, I had clothes to wash and dry, etc.  But I’ll be getting my shower in a little while and heading back down to the office before 11 AM.

Something that I did do this morning was to feed and water the animals.    I have really missed them.  Thank goodness for DH…. he’s been taking care of things outside for me.  But it’s not his regular morning routine so a few things have gone askew…. like leaving the 40 lb bag of dog food out.  So this morning I didn’t have to feed the puppies at all!  Their tummies were so round from them eating for the last 24 hours straight LOL!  But that will mean that I have to stop by the store to pick up another bag of food for them today.

And the cows… well, he left the back gate open and the cows have been grazing in the area between their pasture and the garden.  And it was “mowed down” to say the least LOL  But that’s ok… the grass was getting a bit high in there.    Of course, they came running from their pasture when they saw me with the feed scoop.  They are so spoiled!  Something I noticed is that they are beginning to grow their winter coat already.  They are looking more “fuzzy” and not as smooth and shiney black.  We have begun to have some cooler days over the last 2 weeks or so.  This week is muggy and hot though.

Now about the chickens…. they are doing great :-)  No more broody hens… and the egg production is picking back up again!  DH wasn’t able to collect the eggs yesterday morning so I had 2 days worth of eggs to collect which totaled 11 eggs.    So, something I’ve learned from my two formerly ”broody” hens… this is a normal process and it is going to happen with hens because that is how God made them.  Rather than caging them up or fighting the process, when I have another broody hen I will just push her off the nest every morning so that she will eat and drink (I want to make sure she gets enough nutrition and water) and I will let her go thru the process until it runs its course.   Sure it cuts down on the number of eggs that I collect, but that’s ok.  I think going through the broody process gives the chickens a little break in laying eggs.

Well, I need to leave in 30 minutes or so…. have a great day!  Any plans for the upcoming weekend?

Wow, I did something I haven’t done in ages!  I SLEPT IN!  I didn’t finally wake up and get up until 10 AM {{{YIKES}}}   But the reason may have to do something with me working down at the office for 16 hours per day LOL  I guess I just finally had to get some catch up rest.  But our project is going very well and we’re at the final stages.  I can’t wait for it to be completed!  Then I can get back to my life, my garden, my animals, my family and my home!  For now, I have the best husband ever who has been taking care of things for me at home, with DD, in the garden and with the animals.  Hopefully soon I can let you know what the “project” is…. I just don’t want anyone to search for information and find this, my person blog…. ya know?

NOW on to some good stuff!  Thanks so much Granny for registering and I’m so happy that I’ll be seeing some comments from you :-)  I can’t wait to try your seed mat method…. I had to go to Wally World for more computer paper the other day  and before I picked up the computer paper, I went over and picked up a bottle of Elmer’s school glue LOL   I also went thru Mickey D’s for a sausage biscuit and came back to the office to eat my biscuit and used a paper towel so I could save the napkins I got from the restaurant LOL  I am going to try the radish seeds on the seed mat…. I think they should probably work well.  I can usually grow radishes very easily.   But I’ll let you know how they do!!

Preparing the seed mats inside will save me some time because lately I haven’t been home during the daylight hours.   Plus it will be so much better in dealing with those tiny seeds like lettuce, carrots, collards and turnips!  You are so right, kitsapFG, Granny is definitely a hoot and a treasure :-)   I’m really surprised EG doesn’t use this method because you could really get some organized squares (and straight lines) with the seed mats.  His garden is so neat!

Thanks GrafixMuse for commenting!  I know, I was going through withdrawals too while my blog was down LOL  Oh the cows are fine…. they are so funny though!  They think they are pets, ya know?  And they want the attention FIRST…. they don’t think we should feed the outside puppies or the chickens BEFORE we take care of them LOL!    They have started “moo’ing” at lot more too.  Before, they were really pretty quiet.  Now when the outside puppies hear us come outside, they get excited and bark — so they in turn alert the cows who start mooing.  So as we’re entering the privacy gate from the side yard to the back yard, it sounds like a zoo with barking, crowing and mooing LOL

Speaking of mooing, I am going to try to record Kitty and Davison’s “MOOS”… it’s really funny, but you can tell the difference between them!  Davison’s MOO is so deep…. and Kitty’s is just the weirdest MOO I’ve ever heard LOL  I’m going to play with my cell phone a bit (it has a video recorder on it) and see if I can record a short video clip of them.    OH, I’ve already put in my order for my birthday/Christmas gift from my family.   I want one of those hand-held, digital video cameras.    If everyone goes in together on it, it won’t cost very much per person.

Well, got to run…. have a great day and I’ll try to post more tonight when I get home!

I hope that your Monday was nice too!  I got alot of work accomplished up at the office today - so that’s a “feel good” thing.  DH took the day off and was home working on removing flooring - he made a good bit of progress too

As soon as I got home, I just couldn’t wait to go outside and see the animals and feed.  As soon as we opened the gates, we heard the cows start mooing.  They were waiting on us :-)  It’s funny, but we can tell the difference in their “moo’s” now.  Kitty has a high, shreeking type of “moo”.  I’ve never heard one like that before.  And Davison has a very low “moo” that sounds like a big, brass tuba playing the lowest note.

DH said that with the amount of rain we’ve had this past summer and fall, there should be plenty of hay available for a good price through the winter months.  If so, it looks like we’ll probably keep our cow babies until the Spring sometime.  They will be a year old in December :-)  We’re definitely going to miss them when it’s time for them to depart.  But, it’s already been decided that when that time comes, we’ll be ready to get a couple more baby cows to raise.  I really like the idea of raising our own beef and knowing how well the animals were treated.  Ours will probably be the most spoiled cows ever LOL   They are never mistreated and are always pampered.   When we do get our next baby cows, they will be younger and hopefully at the bottle raising age!  If you raise them from young babies, then they will be every more tame and gentle than the ones we have now

I am happy to say that this is the 2nd day that the broody Ameraucana wasn’t sitting on a nest when I went out to get the eggs.  So, I guess I can’t call her a “broody” Ameraucana anymore LOL   She’s joined the rest of the flock and hopefully will be laying beautiful blue-green eggs again soon.  Now the “broody” Rhode Island Red, well, she’s a different story.  I pushed her off the nest again this evening and made her go and eat and drink.  She had adopted an egg that one of the other RIR’s laid today LOL  And she wasn’t too happy with me when we went back to the nest box and found that I had stolen her egg LOL!

On another note, I’ve almost finished laying out and planning my fall garden :-)  I am hoping to get everything in the ground this coming weekend

After the rain stopped this morning, the sun came out.  Wow,  it’s getting hot again - feels like summer!  The high today was 89 degrees.  Of course with all of the rain we’ve been having you can imagine the humidity! 

We’ve been working inside the house today on the flooring.  DH is getting it up. Actually, it is 2 linoleum floors - one on top of the other.  The people we purchased our house from had new flooring in the kitchen and breakfast installed right on top of linoleum flooring that was already down.    So we have double the work to do to get all of the flooring up to the concrete.  The worst part is the adhesive that the original flooring was glued down to the concrete with.  But DH has a scraper tool that he is using that is doing a pretty good job.

We went outside later this afternoon and fed the puppies, cows and chickens.  All are doing very well.  So far none of the other chickens are acting the least bit sick or ill.  Whatever it was must have just affected the one Barred Rock Hen.   On a good note, the Ameraucana “broody” seems to not be as “broody” lately.  I noticed this yesterday.  And today when I went out, she wasn’t even sitting on a nest!  So, hopefully she’s over her little spell and will get back to business LOL  Hens do not lay eggs when they are broody.  Now, the Rhode Island Hen is still just as broody as ever LOL  I have to make her get out of the nest box so she will go and eat and drink.  And she’s just as grouchy as ever LOL

DH took a couple of pics of DD while we were outside.  I know that I’ve said it before, but our cows are like really big puppies LOL  They will come running when you call them.  And they are so sweet. 

Well, I’m finally making it home after a very long day!  How’s your day been?

I was so pressed for time today that I didn’t get to spend much time outside with the animals.  I also didn’t even get to walk through the garden!   All of the chickens had not yet layed (it was still early) so I only found 1 egg.  The two broodys might have been sitting on a couple more though LOL    The cows were doing great…  “mooing” at me because I didn’t feed them first ;-)   They do not think I should take care of the chickens first!

I spent many hours at the office today working…. we all had to take a break though when the 2nd storm of the day blew though around 4:30 PM.   The thunder was rattling the walls!  I disconnected the DSL line and turned off the computers “just in case” ya know?  I had just spent several hours re-doing one of the computers due to a virus that I couldn’t get off.  So I had to reformat the hard drive and start over from scratch.  I surely didn’t want have any of the computers to be struck by lightning or a power surge.   But I did step outside the back door to take a look and wow, the clouds were awesome!  I took a pic:

Our office is in a building that contains a bank at one end.  Behind us is “Wally World” and another strip mall.  But just look at those clouds rolling in!  The news is forecasting more rainy weather for the rest of the week.