Becoming a Farm Girl

Riding down the highway in my son's pickup truck, windows down, hair blowing in the wind, bluegrass music blaring on the radio... back of pickup filled with trash for the trash dump!  I think there is a song somewhere very similar.

Remove the farmer so that everything goes wrong and the girls have to figure it out!!  And that is how you make FARM GIRLS.

My son, Zac, left for 2 weeks to fish for salmon in Alaska.  First, several storms move through our area during the first week taking the electricity with it.  The pool pump goes down and tadpoles fill the green water pool.  The trash is building up and between the dogs and chickens - it is a stinking mess.  The chickens and ducks are running out of food.  The one rabbit dug himself out of his cage and I found him hopping around the field.  Both boys get ear infections.  And the grass is as high as my dog.  LOL - For all the real farm girls out there - I know this is a laugh.

• This was the first time I had to haul the trash to the dump.  The funny thing was, when I got to the dump, it was full of women in pickups waiting in line to dump their trash.  There we all were, crawling in the back of our trucks and throwing our trash into the big dumps.  Most of them were my age! 
• I learned I could pick up a much heavier bag of Chicken feed from the store, put it in my car and lift it up and dump it into the feed pail.  
• And we started up the tractor and the lawn mower and cut the grass

Now the pool....  Looking at the growing, dark green pool water; that complicated looking pool pump in the scary pool house (that snakes like); and those chemicals! was daunting.

I spent several days watching pool video's on how to get the pool right and trying to figure out the pump.  I finally decided I had to tell Rachel, my son's wife, that we had to call in professionals. Rachel spurred us on - "We can do this!"

The week before my son Zac left,  the pump pipe broke during a pool party.  Water shot up over the top of the enclosure.  Having this on our mind, as well as, the snakes that like the cool place - we ventured into the dungeon.  I had been given some minimal instructions on how to do a few things, but nothing seemed to be working.  Then, we both noticed  there were written instructions on the pump for the processes of keeping the pump in good condition.  Don't you know, when we followed those written instructions that were right on the pump....everything fell into place.  Rachel followed up with web instructions on how much chemicals we needed.  The water began to be less green and the tadpoles disappeared.  And finally, the chemical readings were all good and the kids could go swimming.  It was an empowering moment for us.  From that day forward, I realized we could DO THIS!!

Another funny story!!

'Never Too Old to do Stupid' - Chapter 2

Yes, I did wear my bee suit, but thought I could get away with wearing socks with my sandals instead of putting on my boots.  I probably could have worn my sandals, but balancing a beehive on your foot with sandals....is not a good idea.

So this is what happened.  We had just given Rachel her own bee suit for her birthday and we were taking the beehive apart to check on the queen.

I took off the top 2 boxes and decided I needed to remove the bottom box as well.  I picked it up and went to put it down and realized I didn't have enough room so I tried to balance it with my foot!!  OK - not such a bright idea!  I felt this massive pain in my feet, and realized my mistake.  I dropped the box - gently and started running.  The bees were chasing me as a ran.  When I got to my porch and looked down, my socks were covered in bees.  Realizing, as I ripped off my socks, that I had abandoned Rachel I looked back at the hive and saw her trying to put the boxes back together.  I quickly put my boots on and ran back.  Now the entire time I am thinking - how many bee stings does it take to go into Anaphylaxis shock.  Rachel wasn't the least bit scared and kept telling me to head home and soak my feet immediately.  As soon as we got it all together - I ran back to the farm house.

As my sister Barbara pointed out - you are only 'stupid' if you don't learn.  I will now wear boots with my entire bee suit!!  And a shout out to Rachel...she never blinked an eye standing there alone putting it all back together!!

Farm updates

Mother with 5 babies

guinea hogs in new temporary home

Mr Rabbit Free and Easy living