Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 Last week I went with Gary on another well job.  This time it was to our neighbor-across-the-river.  Mary G. is in her 70s, lives alone, though her boyfriend, as it were, lives just around the corner from her a ways.  He is in his 80s.  But Mary had back surgery here a couple of weeks ago, so while she can maneuver around, she has to be very careful.   She has chickens and Guinea fowl, and they need water.  But her outside water source in the well house below is/was a spigot underneath the tank there as you can see below.  You can't really tell in the pic, but that door is rather narrow. So she wanted Gary to install an outside spigot so she would be able to water her flock by herself instead of calling on Carl, or other neighbors to help her.  So off we went. This pic is where he is cutting back an elderberry bush.   Things were going along swimmingly until he went to remove the old spigot so he could install the fittings to attach the new hose to get it from the tank to the spig

 The past 3 weeks or so when I have taken Bella for an evening walk out in the West pasture up here on the ridge, she has found an armadillo that seems to have taken up residence in a series of abandoned groundhog dens over by the former milk barn. In this pic he has retreated from her to a place of relative security between two large tires on a truck that has been parked out there for a few years.  Groundhogs have excavated a den under there.  I've no clue why Gary has that mall there.  I need to snag it and bring it back to the house. Bella is by breed a herding dog, so it is in little danger of being killed or injured by her.  It is rather funny because when she comes across it out in the field she will freeze, duck her head, and creep toward it.  Armadillos have poor vision and are always preoccupied with foraging so you can usually get quite close to them, especially if they are in the weeds.  So sometimes Bella will hover over it for a few seconds before it notices her.  It w

 This fall I haven't taken many long walks in the trees as I would have liked, and by now the colors are past their peak.  But I have taken a few pics this past week. This one was taken close to sunset here on the place looking north toward the road. I took these yesterday morning on a walk with Bella down along Four Mile Creek.  With this drought the creek bed is bone dry. But the rising sun through the fall leaves made for a pretty sight. This set of trees is unique.  At certain spots where the winds rubs them together and they have formed scarred spots where they seem to be growing together as they heal.   I couldn't resist getting pics of the sun between them.   To end with, here's another sunset shot.  It looked like everything had been doused in light that had shone through a bottle of golden honey.  

  So. Today I don't really have any new photos to share but here's a picture of Ellen and her friend at a wedding a few weeks ago. This was a wedding of one of the boys from church that they sort of grew up with.  It was a sweet ceremony; his grandpa performed it.   ********* In other news, I survived my first half day subbing gig as an "actual" teacher in a 3rd grade class.  The kids behaved pretty much as I'd expected; unruly at first, but fortunately for me, there was an IT tech working on their Chromebook charging station, and she reamed them out for me.  After that we did fairly well.  There are paraprofessionals and others coming and going all day, so I was never really alone with them.   The great thing, too, is that they had their "special" class, music, in the morning from 9:55-10:45, so I was able to be alone in the classroom.  I walked them out to the trailer, then went back and got them at the appropriate time.  Then their lunch break was fro

The number of days between blog posts are lengthening.  Ugh.  I've been pretty consistent all year, now things are getting busier. My vendor events at an antique mall this past Saturday wasn't a stellar sell out.  But I made my booth rent back well enough.  On Nov 9th I'm signed up for a table at the Long Lane Lions Club Christmas Bazaar.  I think there will be a great deal more customers come through.  I hope they will want stuffed octopus toys...teddies and what not. ****** Today I subbed for the first time at the middle school.  I just followed a 7th grader around.  He was fairly well able to do for himself, at a lower level, he just needed a bit of help staying on track. ****** Last week was the third Thursday of the month, which means I attended my writers club meeting.  I love them all, they I spire me to keep writing.  We were to write a something spooky to share.  I began a story which I didn't finish.  But I wrote a poem and shared that.  They all loved it.  I

That title sounds like a potential work of fiction, with a bit of alteration.  Night before last we had our first frost, a pretty heavy one.  The rose was so pretty with the frost on it; a rather bittersweet sight.  This time of year the bugs are dormant, so it was able to bloom very prettily, and you can see another bud there in the background. But I guess that one isn't going to get a chance to bloom. At the moment, 6:30 AM, it is 34 degrees out, and might be a bit frosty, but at least it's not a hard freeze.   I'd brought in everything that needed brought in; the sweet potatoes, onions, spaghetti squash and all of the pumpkins, decorative and otherwise.  I need to get on top of it and get the pie pumpkins baked down and in the freezer.  I just haven't had the time.  Seems like every week there is another project or two or three to get done.   Today I am going to go help Gary with a well job because the guy who usually helps him, Doug, is processing walnuts.   Indeed.