Thursday, August 30, 2012

My poor doggie

Poor Scooter had to go to the vet today to have a teeth cleaning and two extractions.    While he was there, he had to get groomed.   His groomer has been very ill and not working, so he was in real tough shape.   Besides that he has been blowing his coat for some time now.     He went in a full coated tri rough collie........................and came out like this.



Yes, he is still  under the weather, but it almost made me cry when I first set eyes on him.    I can't believe he is the same dog.     I sure hope he feels better with those two bad teeth gone.   He is crying some now, but he just got up on the couch, and maybe he will get some rest.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Sheepie Reward



The two older girls got a reward tonight because they managed to walk all the way over to the backyard of the school house.   (Well, Juni B walked part of the way.)  The yard has not been mowed, so they got to "earn their keep".    Neither one of them was unwilling to do their job.   And, when Juni B's halter fell off on the way back, she just followed along like a lamb.    Halter training is going quite well.



Wednesday, August 01, 2012

AA or Apple Abundance

When we moved here nine years ago, there were two trees in the yard.   There had been three, but one bit the dust.  One, just outside our bedroom window, was an apple tree.    It produced abundantly on a semi-annual basis.    Usually the apples sat and provided  food for the bees and deer and other critters.

This year to supplement our poor hay harvest, since we are in the drought area, I decided to gather the apples and feed them to the sheep.     I had done this on a sporadic basis in other  years, but never regularly. 


This is today's harvest.   It has been like this for several days now.    They are all windfalls, but the sheep don't mind.  The blue bucket contains some that are big enough to peel and cook up for applesauce.  The apples are not fit for eating, but the sauce is passable.   Since I like chunky, it means peeling, coring, and slicing before cooking, but it is well worth the trouble to have applesauce that I made any time of year.    I just fill plastic jars and put it in the freezer.


This is the tree.    You can tell that it has never had any attention and is terribly overgrown.   But I have a hard time overlooking something that is free and useable.


As you can see in the close up, the apples really should be picked off the tree instead of off the ground.   Maybe we will get that done when my new "toy" arrives.    I "bit the bullet" and ordered an apple peeler.   My number "1" apple peeler person will not be much help this year because of the arthritis in his thumb joints.     Maybe next year..........he hopes to get them fixed this winter.


This is just a brag........    This is the flower on my orchid plant.    I was totally shocked to find it there a couple of weeks ago.    Todd gave it to me, and I couldn't throw it away while it was alive.   As you can see the cats have snacked on parts of it, and I had just about given up hope that it would ever bloom.     It is a spindly ugly plant, but the bloom is awesome.    You just never know!