Owl by day...

  

 

 

Great Horned Owl

Weaning days....

 

A couple of days ago, we went after another bunch of cows and calves in the South Pasture.  I drove the truck in front, coaxing the cows to follow me with  alfalfa cake.  I was able to snap a few pictures as we slowly chugged home.   It was chilly, but I enjoyed having the window rolled down and breathing in the pungent aroma from the sage brush. 

 

 Today we weaned the calves from the cows.  We vaccinated about 200 head and treated them with insecticide.  It was difficult pushing them up the alley.  It seemed as though we dragged each one to the chute, one at a time.  I lost my footing while pushing up a calf and banged my ribs into a post.  I wanted to bawl, but I held off and toughed it out.  Tonight, I'm feeling much better, but it still feels like I have a wooden spoon poking me in the side through to my back.  Sneezing is painful, but for the most part, I'm just a bit sore and nothing else.

There is a lot of bawling in the corrals tonight.  It is kind of sad, but one of those things that must happen year after year. I'm sure we get the term "bawl baby" from weaning calves.  At least I think so.  In a day or so, they'll stop their bawling and settle into their new spot and learn to take their feed in a bunk.

 The sheep were just across the fence as I drove by.  I wish I could have given them some cake, but I had to keep rolling along. 

 It's very dry out in the pasture now.  It's dry everywhere.  I really wanted to burn the trash, but I don't dare until we get some moisture.  The weather man says we should expect some rain and snow in the next few days.  It will freshen up the grass for the livestock and give me a chance to burn.  We may even get to light a fire in the wood stove.

I went for a little stroll late in the afternoon as the sun was setting.  Peach and I went to shut the chicken coop and then after I delivered her at her house, I went walking through The Woods, as I call it, because I heard the hoot, hoot of a couple of owls calling to one another.  I really hoped to snap a picture, but it was a little dark for that.  I thought I saw one of the owls in the picture below, but it was not.  It was just a straggly, old, broken tree that only looked like an owl perching there.  I did find one of the owls, but he flew away before I could get a picture.  I do better at taking pictures of owls in the daytime.  They don't see me very well, and I see them perfectly well. 

November...

I've been out on my daily walks and my goodness, but they are chilly!  If I don't take a stocking cap with me, I must pull up my hood at some point during the jaunt.  Today it was sunny and we had very little wind, but the brisk temperature of 45 degrees made me realize it is definitely November.  I always think about how *nice* this type of day would seem in the dead of winter.  I'd be out washing the car in my sweatshirt on a 45 degree day in January.  But it's November.

I've noticed how very silent it is when I'm out walking now -- no meadowlark songs, no lark bunting twitters, no buzzing grasshoppers.  The summer songbirds are gone, but  I'm still seeing a few migrating robins.  The blackbirds are still with us, but they are flocked up into large, black clouds that swoop down and float back up, drifting with the winds.  I know their time here is very short now.  I did spy a Sharp-tailed Grouse along the road today.  We both surprised each other.  She flew up out of the tall grass and startled me as much as I must have startled her quiet grazing.  When the Sharptails move in to the home place, it signals winter.  I told Hubs about my Sharptail sighting and he shook his head.  I wish we didn't feel this way about the Sharptails' arrival because really, I so do enjoy them during the winter.  I love seeing their footprints and tail tracks in the snow where I walk; I adore their chicken-like chuckling, their stout bodies perched in the treetops, and their feathery feet remind me that they are well-equipped for cold, winter weather.  They are fine companions to a snow walker like me.

The leaves are all gone from the trees now.  Even the fallen leaves have been blown away by the wind.  The exceptions, however, are the Russian Olive trees.  They always keep their leaves well into the winter months.  They have set on lots and lots of greeny-gray olives this year.  Some folks say it means we are in for a long, cold winter.  I think it means we've had a good, wet spring and summer, but what do I know?  What I do know is that the Sharp-tailed Grouse will have a bountiful supply of fat-rich olives to eat.  I've tried them.  They are bitter but have a nice tang to them at the end like a glass of dry wine.  The olives are mostly seed, and very little flesh, but I suppose the birds like the seed-part too.

All of these things remind me of the Thomas Hood poem quoted in the Tasha Tudor book which I own and love called A Time to Keep.  Within the pages, every month has its words, its preparations, its celebrations, its poetry and its worth in Tasha Tudor's home.  I think Thomas Hood gives November a bad rap, but it is really quite truthful when you think about it. Poor November must usher us into Winter after all.  Tasha prefers to look on the brighter side of the month -- sketching in the corgis, a warm fire, the bounty of the year and turkey roasting on the spit.


No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! - November!
~Thomas Hood,  1844

What do you think?  Does Thomas Hood give us a dose of reality with his November poem?  Does Tasha choose to see the bright side and ignore the rest?  I happen to like them both.  I think we need both reality and imagination, and I for one, need to see the good that comes from darkness, cold, and short days.

Toast!

Give us this day our daily bread.....

Do you eat bread every day?  I think I do most days.  This is a sample of our daily bread, fresh baked.  Saturday was bread-baking day and Peach and I played Betty Crocker and Suzie Homemaker together while Toodles took her morning nap.  It was so much fun (for me) to have another baking helper at the counter as I did years ago when my children rolled and patted and formed their own little bread loaves and put them into child-sized pans while I made the big loaves.

I've been making our daily bread for three decades now and I have a hard time bringing myself to buy bread from the store.  For me, it's more about being able to make different kinds of bread, it's about freshness and the smell of homemade bread in the oven.  Since I can make bread and I know how cost efficient and healthy it is to make homemade, I just do it.  I like to do it, and that makes a big difference too.  

Quite some time ago, I did the math on the cost of making bread at home, and I came up with 30 cents a loaf.  It could be a little more these days, but not much more. Ah ha!  I found one baker here that says she makes her bread for 75 cents per loaf, but if you buy your supplies in bulk like I do, I think you can further reduce that price. My kids used to beg for "town bread" back when they were littles and now they prefer homemade breads.  Third-Born son even started baking his own bread after he left home when his sister-in-law gave him her bread machine.  I was so proud of him!  Only Daughter bakes bread now and then for her family and so does my daughter-in-law.  I think it's a good skill to have and to practice because we all know.... practice makes perfect loaves.

I love to eat just plain old bread & butter, especially when it's warm from the oven, but I go in spurts with my choice of  spreads.  Most mornings I have a stack piece of toast with my eggs or yogurt or oatmeal, and I love to make what I call a "dessert toast" at the end of breakfast.  Right now Honey and I are in a grape jelly trend.  A hunter gave us several jars of his own homemade this fall and I'm telling you, it's the best grape jelly I've ever had!  Before the grape jelly came to us, we were on a raw honey kick, and I'm figuring we will be going back to that soon since the jelly is nearly all ate up.  I love raw honey on bread or toast or straight off the spoon.  When I was growing up at home, we had toast with peanut butter nearly every single morning with breakfast.  I still love it -- the toast almost burnt  (but not entirely) with a thick spread of creamy Jif Peanut Butter melting on top.  I craved peanut butter toast when I was pregnant.  Sometimes I get hooked on cinnamon and sugar toast.  I have a glass cheese shaker with cinnamon & sugar all mixed up so it's handy for sprinkling on toast.  All I know is that I love it all.  Love toast!  Do you?

Your First Loaf at the Fresh Loaf 
Pauline's Wheat Bread (very similar to my everyday loaf)

Blue jeans quilt .....finished!

 It is finished!  I have been shoving this project to the sidelines for several months and at last I was able to get back to it and devote a good day to it.  It is far from perfect.  My excuse -- jeans are hard to work with.  The stretch, the weight, the variation of denim all contribute to its imperfection and to its individuality and character.  The denim that was contributed to this project came from my stash of family jeans that have been collected down through the years so there is a little bit of each of us sewn into this quilt. I used my quilt-as-you-go method here.

I hope our Fifth-Born enjoys his quilt.  He has been waiting long enough for it.  Oops-- do you see the other imperfections here on the back?  I honestly didn't until I took the photo.  Ah well, my boy will see far beyond the imperfect and believe it is perfectly good for him! 

My fall & winter gift....

I can practically set my seasonal clock by this Lovely.  Every year since I've had her, she has bloomed for me continuously from Halloween through Easter.  I think of her as a gift from God to sustain me through the cold, bleak months when there is nothing blooming outside my window.

This *Christmas Cactus* started out in a very tiny pot.  I picked it out at my local Pamida store when the seasonal plants were on clearance.  Since then many years have passed, and Lovely has grown to an enormous size and never fails to shower me with the most vibrant, complex blossoms I have ever seen,  and all she requires from me is a little water now and then and a shot of fertilizer a couple times a year (if I remember).  I keep thinking I ought to transplant her into a larger pot or perhaps prune her a little.  She's totally taking over a large spot in my laundry room.  Yes, this Lovely lives away from the eyes of those who might behold her beauty and lavish praise upon her.  That is why I think of her as an especial gift, for I am the only one who really sees her.  I do,  on occasion, when the washing is all done-up, bring a visitor in to see and admire her, but for the most part, I am her only beholder.

 

I feel blessed.  I am blessed.  She isn't on display in a fancy greenhouse window.  She isn't in a dentist's office for every paying customer to behold.  (Our dentist has a lovely Christmas Cactus too, but not nearly so pretty as mine.)  She is in a homely laundry room amidst the dirty rags,  filthy jeans, and dusty lint awaiting the praise and admiration of the humble homemaker.  Isn't she such a gift?  I'm glad you came by to see her.

By the way, My Big Fat Geranium that lived by the front door this summer is now in hiding.  She has been trimmed back and has the dirt removed from her roots.  I put her in a paper sack tucked in with newspapers for a winter sleep.  In the spring I will re-pot her and see what she does.  Thanks to those of you who had good tips on overwintering geraniums!

Have a cookie and get your candle lit....

 I made sugar cookies yesterday and invited the neighbors to come and help frost and decorate them.  We had such fun.  See these woolly (coconut) sheep?  Well, the cookie cutter was a cow, but I didn't have enough flour in the dough so they puffed up into sheep when I baked them.  I'm glad. 

I did add in some more flour to the cookie dough and tried the cow cutter again.  Hooray!  We had a few cows along with our sheep, pumpkins, and leaves.  

 

Peach decided this cow was going to be a bull.  After all, our bulls sport orange ear tags.  Isn't she an observant child?  Yes, she is!  And smart too!

Now for one of my favorite poems for Halloween by John Ciardi.  He's one of my favorite poets and you must not miss The Man Who Sang The Sillies, a collection of his poems with illustrations by Edward Gorey who is such fun!  The Stranger in the Pumpkin reminds me that we all need to "get our candles are LIT!"   I was just reading from my Bible that we all need to be filled with Light, if not, the darkness is very dark indeed!  (Matt 6:21-23)  When the kids were at home, we always recited and read aloud Halloween poems.  In fact, just this morning one of my sons told me that he could still recite his favorite, scary Halloween poem and he planned to share it with some of his friends.  I wonder what they'll think of that?  Well now, on with my poem.

The Stranger in the Pumpkin

The stranger in the pumpkin said:

"It's all dark inside your head.

What a dullard you must be!

Without light how can you see?

Don't you know that heads should shine

From deep inside themselves--like mine?

Well, don't stand there in a pout

With that dark dome sticking out--

It makes me sick to look at it!

Go and get your candle lit!"

~John Ciardi

And now for the scary poem that S. likes. 

Read it in your scariest voice, slowly. Very slowly.

The Broomstick Train (or) Return of the Witches

LOOK out! Look out, boys! Clear the track!
The witches are here! They've all come back!
They hanged them high,--No use! No use!
What cares a witch for a hangman's noose?
They buried them deep, but they wouldn't lie still,
For cats and witches are hard to kill;
They swore they shouldn't and wouldn't die,--
Books said they did, but they lie! they lie!

(to read more of this long, long, long poem, click here.)

~Oliver Wendell Holmes

One more poem, this one is another favorite of mine.  

(I can't help it, I like a very little scare)

LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE
by: James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916)

INSCRIBED WITH ALL FAITH AND AFFECTION

 

To all the little children: -- The happy ones; and sad ones;
The sober and the silent ones; the boisterous and glad ones;
The good ones -- Yes, the good ones, too; and all the lovely bad ones.

 

ITTLE Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,

An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,

An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,

An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep;

An' all us other childern, when the supper-things is done,

We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun

A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about,

An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you

Ef you

Don't

Watch

Out!

 

Wunst they wuz a little boy wouldn't say his prayers,--

An' when he went to bed at night, away up-stairs,

His Mammy heerd him holler, an' his Daddy heerd him bawl,

An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wuzn't there at all!

An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an' press,

An' seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an' ever'-wheres, I guess;

But all they ever found wuz thist his pants an' roundabout:--

An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you

Ef you

Don't

Watch

Out!

 

An' one time a little girl 'ud allus laugh an' grin,

An' make fun of ever' one, an' all her blood-an'-kin;

An' wunst, when they was "company," an' ole folks wuz there,

She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care!

An' thist as she kicked her heels, an' turn't to run an' hide,

They wuz two great big Black Things a-standin' by her side,

An' they snatched her through the ceilin' 'fore she knowed what she's about!

An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you

Ef you

Don't

Watch

Out!

 

An' little Orphant Annie says, when the blaze is blue,

An' the lamp-wick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo!

An' you hear the crickets quit, an' the moon is gray,

An' the lightnin'-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--

You better mind yer parunts, an' yer teachurs fond an' dear,

An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear,

An' he'p the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about,

Er the Gobble-uns 'll git you

Ef you

Don't

Watch

Out!

(so glad I didn't have to type this one out!  Thank goodness for the internet and copy/paste!)

Do you have a favorite Halloween poem or tradition?

  How about a favorite poetry collection?

Do share!

Jack-0-lantern tip....

I've been setting out a few of my Halloween things and had this good idea for stabilizing candles in your jack-o-lantern jars.  Use Epsom salts (or any other salt).   I thought of this idea after remembering this cute tip for holiday jar candles.  I have used mason jars with Epsom "snow" for Christmas, but never thought of using it for Halloween.

 

When the kids were all at home, we made these cute jar-o-lanterns.  Martha Stewart had this idea on her site and we liked it so much we gave them a try.  They were quite simple to make.  We used orange spray paint on the inside of the jars and printed out Martha's stencils for the faces.  Some of the more creative kids designed their own faces.  In her how-to instructions, she says to print off the jack-o-lantern faces on adhesive paper, but we didn't have that.  Instead, we printed off the faces on regular paper, then put masking tape on the jars where we wanted our faces to be.  We cut out the paper faces and taped them onto the masking tape part or drew the faces onto the tape with a Sharpie.  When we were happy with the face placement, we took an Exacto knife and cut away the eyes, nose, and mouth and then painted the open parts with glossy black paint. Let the paint dry and peel away the tape.  You can use the jars to hold treats or add a tea light inside like we did.  I put Epsom salts in the bottoms of our jars to raise up the candle a bit and to keep the spills and melting wax from melting onto the jars. 

Tonight Skelly is peeking out from the picture window and Scarecrow is welcoming visitors and trick-or-treaters by the front door.  Our only trick-or-treaters will be the next door neighbors -- the grands.  Now I'm off to bake up some Halloween Sugar Cookies.

Happy Halloween!

Old-timey homemaking....

William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) Wash Day Back Yard Reminiscence of Brooklyn 1886

 

I was about to season my cast iron skillet again and went to my trusty Homemaker's Heritage Extension Club cookbook to refresh my mind about temperatures and times.  This book has been on my shelf for 30 years and was given to me as a wedding gift.   After I found the recipe for seasoning cast iron, I took a little time to read some old-timey homemaking tips.  Some are so interesting that I wanted to share a few with you while I wait to recoat my skillet with more bacon fat.

Ladies Hair Treatment
A barber recommends ladies to have their hair shampooed once a month.  This will bring out the natural luster, soften it, clear it of dust, and rob it of that musty smell which comes of having long hair wound up closely for any length of time.  It will remove that itching of the head which some ladies find so troublesome.


The Feet
The largest pores of the body are located in the bottom of the feet.  For this reason the feet should be frequently and thoroughly washed and the stockings changed often.  If great cleanliness is not observed, these great pores become absorbent and the poisons given off are taken back into the system.

For Head Cold
As soon as you feel that you have a cold in the head, put a teaspoon of sugar in a goblet, and on it put six drops of camphor; stir it, and fill the glass half full of water.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then take a dessert spoonful every twenty minutes.  This is a sure cure if taken as directed.

1900 Carlo Cressini (Italian 1864-1938) Laundry

Pre-Automatic Instructions
1.  Build a fire in the backyard to heat kettle of rain water.
2.  Set tubs so smoke won't blow in eyes if wind is pert.
3.  Shave one whole cake lye soap in boiling water.
4.  Sort things.  Make 3 piles.  1 pile white, 1 pile colored, 1 pile britches and rags.
5.  Rub dirty spots on washboard, then boil.  rub colored, but don't boil.  Just rinse and starch.
6.  Take white things out of kettle with broom handle.  Then rinse and starch.
7.  Spread tea towels on grass, hang old rags on fence.
8.  Pour rinse water on flower beds.
9.  Scrub porch with soapy water, scrub privee seat and floor with soapy water caught from porch scrub.
10.  Turn tubs upside down.
11.  Go put on a clean dress, smooth hair with side combs.
12.  Brew up some tea.  Sit and rest a spell and count your blessings.
Note:  This last one is a copy of a letter from a pioneer woman to her daughter.

I hope this last one is helpful to you this weekend as you get those britches and rags washed up for next week!

On the street where I live....

 

Miss Turkey came down the street where I live early this morning. The waddle under her chin is bright red with the sun shining behind her.  I wonder what she's thinking about when she walks around the place alone?

 

Cows were trailing out to pasture on the street trail where I live.

I was driving the feeder truck and the cows were following behind.

 

 

It's time for a big drink before we finish the long walk to the Nine Mile Pasture where the other cows are grazing.

It's called Nine Mile because it's nine miles from our little, bitty town.

 

Here's where I leave them off.  The guys will take the cows a good two miles or so down this trail before they reach the pasture gate where that dot-of-a-tree is.  You'll have to click the pic to enlarge it and see what I mean.

 

Gray clouds mixed with blue sky and sunshine where above the street gravel road where I live.  I enjoyed a windy, brisk daily walk to the mail box.

 

 

Big Sky Country is what it's called.

It is the Heavenly Ocean above the street where I live.