To the right we see three of the garden boxes that are in the process of being overhauled for the next growing season. The one on the far end is the one that has the first batch of chicken wire on it. We'll ad compost to all of them in due course.
It really is pretty around here once the green returns. Otherwise, it's hard to distinguish it from "Bakestan". This is a late-in-the-day shot of the next door neighbor's barn. This is the one that had its roof ripped off by the tornado. The roofers did a nice job of fixing it.
Rain means we get to see an occasional rainbow. Rainbows are our friends! This is looking northeast. You can barely see our neighbor's home behind the pomegranate tree.
Well....simmer me tubers, matey! I'm not at all sure what happened to the time but it's Christmas again! It's almost as if someone has placed an atomic-laser-plasma-steam battery in all of my time keeping devices and shoved an entire year into only a couple of months. Although, I really must say that my entire body actually feels like it has been two years that have elapsed in only the one solar cycle.
All things tallied, it has been a very blessed year.
Sure...there have some ups and downs but, "c'est la vie" as they say
in France (which hasn't been all that blessed as of late). By and large, we
have been spared many common woes and ailments and are quite thankful for that.
A feller ought not complain too much about his backed up septic tank when
others are having "real problems".
Our children, grand children,
and...gulp...great-grandchildren (I'm really not into this getting old gig) are
all doing well on planet earth. The best that I can tell (all reports are not
in but I'm waiting patiently), they are all happy and prosperous. Most attend
church regularly (still waiting on that report too) and "hangin' in
there", as they say. I was tempted to lose count of them (knowing that,
the more there are, the older you are!)
but Connie, bless her heart, assured me that there are 14 "loaves" when all grandkiddies are tallied, and a "bun" in the oven, and 3 great-grandkids.
Our bees are happy and healthy (just ask them!) and
huddling for the holidays. In fact, after this blessed winter watering of our
terrain (rain is a blessing in these parts!), we are expecting a huge bloom in
the spring. That will not only make our bees happy, it will make them
prosperous as well. Of course, I'm hoping that no one will tell them in advance
that we also hope to snatch about 3/4 of their booty and park it in quarts jars
for future needs. That will make us
happy and healthy too.
The chicken herd is not
only blessed, it has grown! A neighbor is moving to Hawaii (Hawaii is our
friend!) and had to do something with his flock of egg makers. We just happen
to want them so we struck a fair deal with him. His beautiful mix of exotic
breeds adds that special something to our batch of mixed not-quite-Mensa-grade cluckers. That makes about 63 or so that we now have.
There is no lack of eggs and no lack of clients who are happy to buy
"Rancho Relaxo Eggs" (that would be the blessed ones!). It's amazing
to see the demand climbing without us so much as posting a sign on the road!
At first there was some
concern whether or not the chickens would peacefully integrate. We could just
see the turf war brewing. The "Pampered Pecker Posse" pitted against
the "B'Gaaak Brigade". There was some thought about maybe finding a
couple of bullet-riddled carcasses when going in to feed them. Thankfully, few feathers were
mussed and the routine and normal pecking order was established.
The addition of 18 new
hens must have put Kenny Leghorn on cloud 9! The dumb cluck couldn't quit
crowing for joy! Danged if I didn't see a bit of a smile on his beak and a twinkle in his prideful eyes. Never has
anyone seen a rooster with his chest stuck out so far and strutting like he was auditioning for a movie!
We ask people if they
remember "Carnation" brand milk that comes from "contented
cows". Then, we tell them that our eggs come from "contented
chickens". They believe us because they know it's true! Ours are the best!
As part of the "chicken deal", our
neighbor tossed in a couple of rabbit hutches. Add to that another hutch and
four smaller wire cages that another neighbor gave us and you see some real
potential for growth. That restarted the train of thought about raising
rabbits. *SIGH* I really was hoping to take a day off. For now, I'd rather sop
my biscuits in crankcase oil than take on another project.
Can you imagine if we started raising rabbits, then a
hog, and a calf (or two)? Would they call this place "Hog Heaven"?
"Ham Hock Hotel"? How about "Bull Sitting Acres"? Can we
get away with "Calf-Cluck Colony" and maybe "Half-Hare Hostel"?
Perhaps, "Rancho Hutch and Such"?
Would "Wabbit Wonderland" do? "Coney
Island" has a nice ring to it albeit we would have to add some water
around here. How's "Bar Bunny Bunch"? "Randy the Rabbit
Ranger" sounds sort of ducky (or dorky) but then we'd have to consider
ducks, too. "Cluck & Duck Domain" should get us by if we did or maybe "Quack Central Station".
We're already wrangling chickens so it is still OK to wrangle rabbits at the
same time? If we raised sheep, would it be the "Ewe'n Me Ranch"? Too
much brain power required for now.
Abby, our peppy, pestering, prankster, princess
pooch, couldn't be happier and healthier (supposing that being rebellious,
digging holes in the ground, and ripping boxes to shreds doesn't disqualify a
canine from being blessed). I'm told that "puppies will be puppies"
but I need for ours to grow up and get a grip'; I don't have time to clean up
after her and fill in the holes. Thankfully, love covers a multitude of
chewing, digging, and stupid.
She is always treeing spooks of some sort and I've
even gotten up at 4 AM a few times to find out what she's tracked down. On each
occasion, me and my sagging airframe came back in empty handed not even having
seen a pair of luminescent animal eyes peering at me in the night. The other
night, she was baying up a storm. Given her track record of " barking
practice", I rolled over and went back to sleep. Wouldn't you know that
that was the night the next door neighbor got up and followed a bear that Abby
was barking at!
Lately, there's what I believe to be an Australian
cattle dog (blue heeler) showing interest in her. She's eating it up and won't
give him a moment's slack. She is a full-time play dog and ready to romp while
he's so laid back that he's ready to take a nap.
Since she's on an electric leash, he merely trots
off out of reach and goes back to minding his own business. What's really cool
is that he puts up with ZERO nonsense from Abby. I love it! He keeps her in
line and she toes it, too! I'll be looking around and, if he's a stray, I'll
make him part of the ranch. He already likes me and comes right up to me and
digs the attention I give him. We'll see.
It was also very interesting to watch Abbie protect her humans from any harm! When the
heeler got close to me, she got in front of him and headed him off. She
expressed her displeasure with the matter and was vehement about it but didn't
really make growling demands of him. But, she surely was trying to dissuade him!
It rained the last couple of days here so "Lake
Constance" has returned out back and left our ground slicker than hot snot on an
ice cube. When it was time to feed the chickens, Connie grabbed her
"chooze" and headed for the coop. She took two steps and slid
about half way to Lindsay! If you were just looking at the size of her eyes,
you'd have thought that she had just made first contact with the Klingons! At
least we all now know that she can skate!
This was a good year for canning. Connie shoved
anything within reach or wasn't moving too slowly into a canning jar then into
her huge 25 quart pressure cooker/canner (that would make a lot of beans and
ham hocks, eh?). To that, she added some bread and butter pickles (the best!),
pickled zucchini (fabulous!), pickled okra (excellent!), and what all that I
don't recall. I'm trying my hand at pickled eggs and hot peppers. It's OK but I've got some ideas for improvements. Later this winter we may do more dehydrating. For now, we just
couldn't get into it.
A new member of the family is our 10 qt. "Power
Pressure Cooker" that was recommended to us by a friend. He sang its
praises until we bought one and now, we too, are singing the same praise. The
thing is just flat good at what it does. We have three different sizes of
regular stove-top pressure cookers but this one is electric. My test drives of
this baby have me ready to whip out another chunk of meat and get to cooking! It
also is large enough to do some minor canning so she's a "keeper"!
The garden boxes are
almost prepped for winter. So far, only one of the boxes is being prepared with
chicken wire strung across it (see below). I'm hoping that I can prep at least one more box
on my...next day off. Hopefully, some of the new compost can be added to the
soil. But, I still need to mix the big compost pile before I can do that. The "Ranch Rhino" has a new battery so is ready to go when I call on it to help me do the big mix job. We just need some dryer ground. There is a smaller "roller" composter but I can't quite seem to
find the time to tend to it.
We lost quite a bit of
our tomatoes to the gophers believe it or not. The buggers burrow under the box
then up about 3 feet to the roots and begin the feast. So, chicken wire is part
of the remedy. You have to pull off the top foot or so of the compost material,
then string the chicken wire across, then replace the materials. That there is
what they call "work", neighbor! When it comes to shovel
"Work!", me and Maynard G. Krebs are on the same page! It's likely
that I'll need to hire some muscles.
As an interesting side note, it would seem that
fewer and fewer kids are willing to swap sweat for shekels nowadays. Guess it
has something to do with the "entitlement" mentality. It's more than
noteworthy to the old folks because that just didn't happen when we were young
and full of vim and vinegar (and a few other ingredients). I can remember
canvassing the neighborhood trying to find anyone who would throw 50 cents at
me to mow their lawn! I cut lots of grass!
When I was 13, I was working as a bus boy, general "go'fer", scrub master, and dish washer at Gang Sue's Restaurant in Porterville. I was never unemployed during high school. I worked in the oranges, grapes, potatoes (some of those I give thanks to dear friend and brother, Jerry Lewis), and mixed chemicals and flagged for a crop duster for three seasons (M&W Flying Service). And, after high school, I was eatin' dirt with Eric Lane harvesting garlic for the "Gentry Corporation" out of Gilroy. That basically means I don't have much sympathy for some snot-nosed kid whining about "hard work".
Moving along....our church continues to be a very special place for
a very special family of believers. We come together as a family to have
church. It's quite remarkable to see everyone keeping the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. Everyone cares about each other. New folks are coming in
and they fall in love with the people and immediately feel at home. I shouldn't
wonder. We hug their necks and even throw some dead chicken at them at our
monthly pot-luck, too.
We (the church) just held our annual Christmas party
in our fellowship hall. Connie planned and pulled off a super party that
included games and such and lots of food and fellowship! We played “Christmas
Bingo” and then were blindfolded and asked to add our part to the Christmas
drawing on a large piece of paper on the wall. After a sing-a-long and some
desert, we all headed home. Everyone had an excellent time of getting to be a
3rd grader again!! I've always maintained that there aren't any "old
people"; there are old bodies and old attitudes but there are no old
people.
We haven't been able to wander much this year. We can't just abandoned our responsibilities and bug out. Besides, who in their right mind would want to baby sit a batch of chickens while we're gone (I'm still trying to figure out who in their right mind would want to raise chickens!)? So, our
trips out of town have been few and far between. The usual practice is to make
the grandkid's birthdays and such but we just can't seem to break away for two
or three days or make the 400 mile turnaround. Guess that's part of the price
you pay for swapping your days off for a few eggs. Maybe we can all have a SKYPE
conference call or such.
So, we’re looking forward to the new year here at
Rancho Relaxo. The old farm hands are bracing for any and all contingencies
that may be hurled at us in the ensuing months. The possibilities are ominous
and many. Hang close; things could get really really interesting and soon at
that.
We wish everyone a “Merry Christmas” and a very
happy new year. Our sincerest of hope is that the new year sees you all
prospering and in health even as your soul prospers.
