The Monkey named her Boo Boo Chicken. She's a Polish bantam and like to ride on my shoulder. I don't think she can see too well, but she's awfully cute in a goofy sort of way.
A friend gave her to me along with two Ameracaunas and a Silver-Pencilled Rock bantam. I helped him out this spring by giving him a couple of laying hens. When his chick order came, he raised them up to a decent size and passed on four to me.
Funny looking creature.
My tomato plants are looking spectacular and a few of the fruits are ripening. I've been hand-watering them lavishly. The lack of rain and an heavy mulch of pine straw has kept them mostly disease free. Next week I may start selling them at market, but right now we are hording the first of the crop as our own. Stupice has again this year taken first place in early ripening. Charlie wolfed down the first Black Prince that I plucked. Greedy man. But he has done most of the heavy work this year, so I'll forgive him.
Have you ever had that flash of insight that tells you "I really shouldn't be right here, right now"?
I had one of those today when facing a 1200 pound beastie who was thinking about bolting and I was standing smack dab in the middle of her only escape route. I noticed her decision to "spook" in the tensing of muscles, the flick of a nostril and the roll of her eye. (Never mind that she was escaping from a big block of dock styrofoam that had somehow ended up in the middle of the riding path. And that she had stood quietly while I dismounted and removed it from the path. And it was styrofoam and she is a big horse... The equine mind is one vast vacuum.)
I now have a slightly swollen, bruised foot with very little skin left on the top. It's not too bad. I can move all toes and walk with only a slight limp. I only have three more days at camp. But I am rather angry with myself for standing in that particular spot at that particular moment. In her defense, once she stepped on my foot she did a rather agile twist (thus the removal of skin...) to avoid taking me completely out.
Monkey has had a rather positive time with the horses. Today she had a private lesson with me as the campers all left for the weekend. She says she wants to gallop, but for the moment we are staying at a walk. I did let her trot today. She's my girl. I'm thinking Charlie and I better start saving for a pony...
Monkey is taking to the summer camp lifestyle swimmingly. We've canoed, swam, and shot arrows. We are working on a bird house in arts and crafts. We are here to mainly be training the horseback staff. Monkey is turning into quite the little equestrian. Hmmm, should we make Charlie buy a pony? It could live with the goats...
It is hot as Hades here in Georgia. The Monkey trotted on a trail ride yesterday - a big deal. I've been sweating my butt off in the barn on a daily basis. Hot, hot, hot. I was much more resilient in my 20's. So, this afternoon we are heading to the pool.
Charlie sent news from Little Creek Farm. There was a hidden nest of eggs with one little hen on it. So, that's where all my eggs were going. Good thing to know, I suppose. Let's keep our fingers crossed for a few new chicks. The first carrots are coming in. Oh and it's hot. Hot, hot, hot.
Cherry blossoms hold such hope! The wild ones are blooming as well in the woods. There are clothes drying on the line. It feels like spring.
And, one of the geese has started to lay (which is good). She built a beautiful nest and layed a lovely egg - right in the goat stall (which is bad). Now what am I supposed to do??? Hmmm, must think...
Today's work - process invoices then take a puppy break. Life is hard.
We took a walk in the woods after a morning of boring. There are new things to discover each day. I found a vast amount of crested iris just coming out of the ground and wild geraniums are carpeting the forest floor. Blooms should follow soon. It will be a year ago this weekend when we had our second nasty freeze and lost the greenhouse to gale force winds. The blueberries have started to bloom, so are the strawberries. The sweet cherry has a few blossoms open and the apples and pie cherries aren't far behind. It's easy to see why the freeze was so damaging last year.
I'm keeping all fingers crossed that the weather remains mild and spring-like.
I'm busy as a you-know-what. This time of year there is so much to do around the farm. For the last two weeks we've been planting - peas, lettuce, cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes. Radish seedlings and peas are starting to pop out of the ground. Inside we've started tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and cauliflower. There are onions and more onions (scallions and keepers) to put in the ground. There is also a flat of lettuce starts waiting on me. I'm waiting impatiently on the arrival of our potato order which was shipped last week. Charlie will have to plant those. I have a letter from my doctor excusing me from heavy work...
The hens are upping their egg production and I've started a collection to put in the incubator. Normally I store them in the cool garage until I have enough, but yesterday's temperatures were around 80 degrees so the eggs are in the house where it's a tiny bit cooler. The ducks have been moulting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that one of them will go broody. I'm hoping that the geese will do the same. If not, I'll load up the incubator after the chicks hatch. We didn't order any chicks this year. The money situation is rather tight at the moment and my eggs are free.
Ah, and money - it is tight. We have a company to run. And if you haven't heard, there is a recession going on. And we are an area that some consider a luxury. Thank god, not everyone considers their landscape and natural resources a luxury, but still... Our expansion funding didn't come through (at least not yet...) and we had four expected clients (that would be loads of money...) decide to not sign contracts at this time (so really, no need to expand, really). One client has cut back so much that it is basically non-existent. It's not good to be tied to the real estate market at the moment. We had to make some really tough decisions in the last couple of weeks. We stopped our expansion and had to lay off a few employees. Hopefully, we will be able to hire them back soon. We've decided to use one as a contract employee. And after talking to our accountant Charlie decided to not move into the new office space in downtown Asheville, but convert space here at home to office space.
It does make more sense. The garage is big enough for office space down and a studio/loft up top. And money spent on it only increases the value of property we already own. Most of our work is done on-site and on-line. There really is no need for expensive rental property. I'm also excited because we are going to go back to doing some residential work - just design, no installation. That's easy, creative and enjoyable. You draw what fits in someone's budget and meets their needs; they pay you (half up front, of course) and you're done. I'm hopeful that we'll be back to turning a profit soon. Oh, and the dogs are excited that they get to go to work everyday. Anyone for a frisbee break? I'm going to go plant lettuce.
It was almost 80 degrees today. I really have a bunch of things I want to write about, but I'm over the top busy. So enjoy Moonpie and Tank as they enjoy spring.
I could seriously take pictures of him all day long. I'll try to show some restraint. We are trying out the names "Goose" and "Tank", but we most often end up calling him "Little Man".
We had a wonderful weekend. It was a great start to spring break. Saturday's weather was the best so far this year. It was around 70 degrees and sunny. We all were sporting lightly sunburned cheeks.
The garden called. I planted shallots and a lettuce. Charlie butchered one rooster, two guinea fowl and a turkey hen. We spent the afternoon clearing vines out of the woods and cleaning up the streambed.
The turkey was close to 40 pounds. We roasted one side of the breast for Easter dinner. Oh, it was so good! The rooster is ready to become coq au vin. Tonight I'll cut it up and put it in marinade. Monkey has been begging to eat him for months. He attacked her and has since been in solitary confinement. And to think, at one time I worried about how she would react to eating the animals...
We planted more lettuce on Sunday afternoon. It's that time. Yesterday we set up shelving in the living room (we must garden when and where we can), and started flats of peppers, cauliflower and some lemon grass. Tomatoes are next. I need to get some peat plugs. We've had the best luck with them for tomatoes. It makes it really easy to pot them up as they grow. I am missing the greenhouse, but some day we will rebuild. We have the plans, it's just that money is oh so tight at the moment. Some days owning your own business is not so pleasant (but that's a whole other blog entry...)
Today just enjoy those bright blue eyes and soft, soft fur. That's my plan for the rest of the afternoon.
My mother presented me with a box of daffodil bulbs from her yard the first summer we moved here. After almost 4 years they are well established. When she died, I searched for something to keep her memory alive. I miss her, (I didn't know such sadness could exist until she died), however these a lovely and gentle sign of her continued presence in our hearts. I didn't need to search so hard. They were here all along.
This is the last thing we need at the moment. But how could we refuse? Who would dump such a creature?
I said we would foster him and I'd start training, but I'm in love. He needs a name...
We've been spending a lot of time playing in the woods lately, especially on the warmer days. Today isn't that warm and I'm stuck inside cataloguing photos and working.
This afternoon we'll be planting peas and some lettuce. It's also time to set up the growing shelves and string up the lights to start all the tomatoes, peppers and other goodies that will go out when the soil and air are warm enough.
I'm being cautious this year. Last spring taught us what mother nature is capable of tossing our way. Here's to keeping fingers crossed and row covers ready at a moment's notice. There is already a stack of fleece blankets ready to cover the young fruit trees.
For now we'll enjoy the last brisk days of winter and look forward to spring.
The first of the fruit trees has burst forth. Our little Saturn peach opened up some of its blooms yesterday. Saturn peaches are supposed to be frost hardy. Let's hope so. They bloom very early (earlier than the cherries). I planted it last spring. It survived the terrible hard freeze and drought of last year. The plum was not so lucky... If all goes well, we may be rewarded with some lovely flat, white peaches this summer.
The blossoms are beautiful.
I've had questions from agaless, liz and others about starting the violin as an adult. In all truth, I didn't plan on starting it. The Monkey wanted to play the violin and I signed her up for a Suzuki class. A friend of mine teaches children. With Suzuki, it's very important for the parent to participate, so I rented myself a violin and practiced along with Monkey. Monkey amazed us with her ear. She can recognize notes and scales and rhythm with amazing accuracy. After about three months she lost interest. It was difficult for her four year old hands and she's an impatient sort (I have no idea where that comes from...). My friend thought that the violin wasn't the instrument for her - the piano might be better. And I didn't want to push a four year old, no matter how musically inclined, to play the vioin. So Monkey became a Suzuki drop-out. We plan on starting some sort of musical lessons next year when she's six.
I, however, really loved playing and continued with my friend for awhile. I bought my violin and committed myself to learning. I later switched to another teacher, mainly because of scheduling conflicts. I love my new teacher. She's young and passionate about music and playing. She's an accomplished classical player and a fiddler, who has worked on various recordings and plays in an orchestra. She challenges and encourages me - which is what I need. We sort of combine classical, Suzuki and fiddling to learn and that works great for me. I'm not her only adult student. However, most of the others played much more as children than I did . I played for about a year, and really remembered nothing. I do remember how to read music, which is a big plus. I don't remember that from violin lessons, but from my music classes in public school - when the arts were still taught and considered important...
There's a quote that has been stuck in my head lately. I have no idea who said it. I saw it on a refrigerator magnet. Profound, I know. It says, "It is never to late to become the person you want to be", or something like that. While I will never be a concert violinist or world renowned fiddler, I can enjoy making music. My goal is to be able to humbly play along with my musical friends.
I practice almost every day. Practice is easy when I'm working from home. I take a break from my work and pick up my violin. I do that several times a day. It's particularly good when I need a break from the chaos in the house. I go into the office and close the door and run through scales and bow exercises. It has taken a while, several months, to sound decent (at least to teh rest of the family). But my fingers have developed some muscle memory and know where to fall on the strings most of the time. I'm still working on my bow hand. I have arthritis in my right hand and wrist, so it's not as fluid as I would like. But the movements are helping my hand become more limber. It's good for me. Now that the weather is getting warm, I've been going outside on the porch and playing for the birds. I'm not sure how the new neighbors feel, but it has to be better than the noise created by the guinea hens.
I took a walk in the woods today with Gigi and Bill the Cat. Bill the Cat loves to go on walks in the woods. Gigi has taken to leaving her balls and frisbees along the trails. I told her I'm not carrying them home, but she pays little attention to me. She's sort of a rock star right now. She and I were on the news last night and today because we gave an agility demonstration at the Nature Center yesterday afternoon.
Anyway...
We found the first bloom of spring over by the upper spring. Later we found more down below the waterfall on the creek. I say "we", but of course I mean "me". Gigi was too busy loosing her toys and Bill was too busy climbing trees and leaping over logs.
I'm coming back from my self-enforced hiatus. I've been hibernating for most of February. I needed it. February is the worst month. But now it's March. We've had rain, the grass is greening, the tree buds are swelling (red maples are blooming), daffodils are starting to bloom, and green is starting to peek out of the leaf litter on the forest floor. It will probably snow again, but spring is coming.
I'm itching to work in the garden, but still must take it easy because of my back/hip. I'm down to one physical therapy appointment a week from three, so that's an improvement.
We've had a half an inch of rain today. That makes 2 inches for the week. There's a carolina wren singing outside my window and the bluebirds have moved back into their house on the garden fence. Bring on the longer days!
