Foster's Dairy

I was reading through threads this morning and this one tickled my
funnybones: (seen on a milk truck)

 Get High.......Drink Milk......Our Cows are on Grass !

 I have laughed all morning. It made me think of Foster's Dairy. It is out
of town a little ways from us...God fearing, hard working, cow loving
people. They work so hard to keep the milk flowing. I love a good glass of
ice cold milk, cold buttermilk, and Purple Cows, { A purple cow is a
milkshake made with grape juice and vanilla ice cream, so frothy, so cold
and soooooo gooooood! } . It reminded me of Old Bessie, my  Grandpa's cow.
I can still see Grandpa sitting on the milking stool milking her, the cats
would circle around him, he would give a good squeeze and send a stream of
milk shooting through the air with dead accuracy....all over the cat's
face...and he would laugh. I would sit down to milk, and I got swatted
with the cow's tail, Old Bessie would aim her hoof and manage to get me
along the ear at times, or the milk would be spilled on the floor. I was
hopeless. However, I can milk goats without problem. Grandma would save
the thick cream as it rose to the top of the containers, and later in the
day, we would sit and churn butter, up and down, up and down, till the
golden flecks begin to appear, and soon they cling together to form that
beautiful yellow butter. Then we would put the butter into molds. Our
molds were not fancy, just plain little wood squares that held about a
pound,pack it in, push down the handle, and there was a square of butter
to be put in the refrigerator. It also reminds me of this little saying I
love:

 If a black cow can eat green grass and give white milk that makes yellow
butter, you know God is in charge.

 The years have come and gone, rules have changed, you can no longer go to
the dairy to buy your milk in your own container, we used to buy baby
calves to raise, many times they were so weak with the scours, they would
give them to you as they had a small chance of thriving. We used to have
bottles everywhere to fill with powdered milk formula for them, and hang
the bottles on the fence. They were hungry little buggers. The funny
memories that linger are a calf pushing against a bucket with a nipple on
it, and pushed Benny into the hot wire. They both got it. I laughed till I  cried. Memories,Memories, what a blessing the Lord gives us to recall the
happy times. Life is short. Enjoy each moment.

Emmit the Coon Dog

There is something sacred to old moonlight hunters, and that is their dogs. They are upheld as idolic critters of the night, their eerie baying at unseen spirits of the dark, and noses that can sniff out a coon in the next county. At one time, we had thirteen of them, each named, each special, each with an inborn sense of finding that coon and treeing him. Benny loved to go out with the boys, they roamed the hillsides, the thickets, and valleys all over this county. Oh, the funny stories they would tell, each one boasting on his dog, but our friend Ray takes the cake. His old dog Emmit was one of the best around, and dearly envied by all of the coon hunters. Even old Sammy, with all of his trophies, did not compare to the skill old Emmit had in his nose. We ran into Ray and Ava at the cafe yesterday, and of course the stories began..and this one is surely one of the best….Ray, the dogs, and the rest of the guys went out hunting south of town, in the thick thickets, you can’t even squeeze through them, and they spent hours treeing the coons and taking care of the over-population of the night critters. They called the dogs in and all of them returned to the dog boxes except Old Emmit. Ray called and called, and became more distraught as the hours wore on, searched the tank to see if he was there, no Emmit, searched the surrounds, no Emmit, and finally, in the wee hours of the morning, and with a heavy heart, he made the distressing call to Ava…."Hon, we lost Emmit, can’t find him no where, I am going to stay out here till light, I gotta’ find him" Ava replied, "Well, you didn’t loose him, he’s right here with me, he came home about 10:30 PM"….and now the rest of the story…..Old Emmit had indeed taken off from the pack, and he ended up at some lady’s house. She found his name and phone number on his tags, and called Ava. She offered to bring the dog to her if Ava would meet her half-way, as she did not know how to find her house and it was dark. Ava drove down to the main highway and waited for the lady to bring Old Emmit home. The lady turned the dog over to her and told the funny story of bringing Emmit back home. She stated that Emmit knew every turn of the road, and if she made the wrong turn, he would start barking at her, she would retrace her route and continue on, and he would wag his tail. Ray now has a big brag……"My dog not only knows how to hitch-hike, he knows how to tell them to get to my house !"

Getting Too Old...

January 2014 . December 23 Well, it began with me unloading bags of feed....had about 350 pounds to unload.....had managed to get them off the truck and to the cans to be filled....trying to lift up the bags....had ripped open the string tags...and then I found I could not even lift up a bag.....what was going on....found myself having a hard time breathing....had no coughing.....no edema......no pains.....just could not figure out what was going on....drove myself back to the house and had to hold onto the rails to walk up the porch steps....this is really crazy, now.... I just ignored it for a few days, but Benny insisted I see his Dr. and he made an appointment.....EKG was not good, showed left brachial damage....so off to another appointment in Abilene with an echocardiogram and blood work done.....then another appointment with a cardiologist in Abilene.......trying to figure out what is going on.....another EKG was done....still showing bad signs...no pain, no swelling, no coughing...just short of breath.....everyone kept asking me, why won't they put me on oxygen or an inhaler....because it is not my lungs..it is my heart...just have to try to see what is going on...so now they ordered some meds....and they helped some...but now they have ordered a heart catherization to be done.....OH MY.....no way out of this mess....I was not nervous about it, just wanted it over and done with......the OR was sure cold.....how I remember that from when I worked OB, ER, and Surgery myself...but soon the job was done and I was in recovery....with a nice warm blanket.....and so it went for several hours during the day.......Dr. stated my arteries were clear.....had been brought on by high blood pressure, but my pressure was not registering high.......strange......anyway, the damage is done, will just have to slow down....and my Dr. told me I was like a cake....I am not the icing on the top.....I am at the very bottom, but with meds, he will try to me me toward the middle of the cake.....LOL...so I just go every day at a slow pace....trying to get my frosting intact... We think we are strong, and we work hard at our farming, gardening, taking care of our animals, but we find we all have to slow down.....so now I am in the idle mode of my tractor....LOL

January 2013

Time........the moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on....and I feel so much older as the days go by....trying to get things done for the New Year...and lists of what I need to do....but I am older, and slower, and can only do so much....
Decided to move my craft building down here to the newer house....did not want to leave it on the rental property, in case I decided to sell it somewhere down the road...finder a mover has not been easy....the funniest part of it all....my newest RENTER moves buildings....LOL...so he said he would do it, and we agreed, and then we had snow, and rain, and fog...but he was not deterred..so the move began this morning.... First...moving out the cinder blocks and putting pipes under the building... Turning the building....... Getting it onto the trailer... . And down the road we went,..... Backing over the culvert in front of our place...WOW...Daniel is a fantastic driver.... Getting it blocked up again ...... And finally it is home where it will stay........ With a big thanks to the guys who came to help out...and to Daniel....what a blessing to have it down here...now to reassemble all the stuff I had moved out....LOL

Old Memories of Christmas Past

I went back on an old blog tonight, and found a poem I had changed around for Christmas cards that year...so many memories....only have two of the animals mentioned left....Cookie, the pygmy goat and Hombre, the Longhorn Steer...we still have lots of cats, from the old barnyard cats prolific behavior...the farm to market road has claimed many of them, but it is fun to look back and remember all the critters we loved... Went way back on my old blog for this one....lots of memories of critters we had....and lost.... Christmas at Laughingstock Farm March 31, 2006 T'was the night before Christmas at Laughingstock Farm, The critters were quiet, out in the barn. The goats were so sleepy, the pigs grunted low, The chickens were droopy, the mice tip-toed slow. Ditzy's long ears lifted ever so slight….. What was that noise? Look! There goes a light !!! Something was moving, up high in the sky, It looked like a wagon, and some bearded guy. Cocoa and Ho Ho looked up in the sky, Jingle and Noel stood closely near by, Wobbles said, “JJ, what do you see?” Cookie said “Nothing!” “Don't look at me!” The doves started cooing, the roosters did crow. The guineas were pot-racking, the geese's wings were a-flapping, The pigs started grunting, the hens started running, The guinea pig peeked from his cage. The cats were Meowing, the dogs were a barking, The entire barnyard was engaged! And Hombre the Long Horn bellowed, with all of his might, Merry Christmas to all, and let Peace reign tonight. Gaynelle, Benny and all the critters Ditzy was my favorite goat...she was a Nubian, a wonderful milker, and gave milk for years to keep the grands in good health, and I loved to make herb cheese as well...she was loving, always nuzzling me...I had spent many a cold night outside in the barn with her, even pulling babies that would live to run around the barnyard, and those that sadly did not....Ho Ho came to us on a Christmas eve....he was not one of ours..found him in front of our gate crying with his umbilical cord still dragging the ground...he was so cold, we did not know if he would make it or not, but he was strong willed and produced some beautiful babes for us....Memories, they make me smile, and they make me cry. I am too attached to my critters....I know where each is buried on our land and think back to the good old days....I am getting older each day as well, but my critters left knowing they were loved.....I hope I succeeded in being their caretakers for their time here on this earth, they gave me love, joy, and happiness, they were beyond price...Suzi and Jimbo pig now sleep together...their work of untying my shoelaces and licking my shoes is over, and they never let a bit of kitchen leavings go uneaten for me or the neighbors...Jimbo loved to be sprayed with the water hose in summer....they piled up all kinds of sticks around their bed in winter...I would be followed around the barnyard with little grunting piggy noises...yes, I miss them.....Memories have no price tag....The guinea pigs and the guinea hens are gone, and no more geese to fly like planes down the pathway to me....just a few old chickens left....and some doves...but the llama, the donkey, and the pygmy goat make sure I am aware of them every day....Lots and lots of baaaaaaaas...but no humbugs....the llama quit humming after he had been here for about a month..he is content...

Summer Time and the ground is HOT !

Where did Spring go ? Seems like it was just yesterday that we had a little rain and it began to green up....then it was hot, dry, sweaty, and I kept wishing it was Fall...Guess I am never satisfied... We had a hail storm that showered us with golf ball size hail...it stripped leaves and fruit off the trees, we had them check our roof on the house and one of the rent houses, and the roofs will need to be replaced. We will go with metal this time...the metal roofs on the other rent houses held up well... The Tiger Lillies were beautiful....a gift from a homesteading friend... We had some plums from the plum tree and they became jam and jelly... Also made plum leather...will be so good to chew this winter.... Wild Garlic thrived, we have enough for winter time supply.... The onions will be used all up by fall.....grateful for what we have.. The corn was so good, but the ears did not completely fill out on some...have some dehydrated for winter use, anyway.... The Okra thrived, we managed to have canned, pickled, and dehydrated okra.... the strawberries were a waste of money....could buy more in a box than we got off the plants, but we had a few.... Went out last week to feed the quail as I do every day, but with all the heat and dry weather, we had fans going as well, the best of food, fresh water, they were all dead in the pen....will not replace them...the feed became so high it defeated the purpose of having them for meat and eggs. But my daisies bloomed, and brought me so much joy, loved to see them every day....even they are gone, burned up from the heat, but the Lord will provide our needs, we are thankful for the blessings we have...... The tractor is in the shop, something happened with an oil line or something, spraying all over the place, so it had been picked up today and sent to Abilene for repair......it will be back in time to cut down grass burrs....hate those things..... I am ready for Fall to come....to see the wind blow the leaves off the trees, we have lost several big trees to the drought this year, also a cherry, pear, and apple tree, lost one of my grape vines, no grapes this year from the remaining one... I have moved all of Benny's fathers' rocks down here...many indian artifacts...all the arrowhead collection is on display at the Cisco College, and they have written a book about the huge collection...hundreds and hundreds of arrows, spear heads, and such.... To every thing there is a season.....

Spring is in the air......

The temperatures have really warmed up, eighty during the day and low sixties at night, so the ground should warm up enough in a week or so to get the okra planted. We decided we would really have a big garden this week, so many of our renters have it rough, and we can at least share the produce and fruit the Lord blesses us with...we worked all day, I hauled about 6 to 8 carts of bricks out of the garden area so Benny could get to the tall grass, which was then cut with the tractor mower, and then Benny plowed it up....he also had to go do a friend's garden, when he saw we were tilling our area up...the area will be like a big L shape...it goes down, then turns to the left for another large strip where the corn and okra will be planted....


I checked out the plum tree and it is loaded with little plums...we have not had fruit for over a year and a half because of the drought, but we are blessed this year...



Check out the apricots....we have not had any in two years, but the tree is loaded this year....


The grapes are leafing out, they were so shriveled up last year due to the drought, but they gave us enough jam to make it through the winter...God is so good, He always takes care of us....

I always stick old rusted out shovels, rakes, work tools in the fence, I don't know why, I guess because they remind me of how hard we have worked and we used them up...LOL...I am a strange character, I know...
Lots of wild garlic is up....will have lots for winter next year...

My new Elberta Peach tree is blooming, it is so pretty....



Wild flowers are blooming all over the yard....


Benny mowed down all my blue bonnets this week, but hopefully they will come back next year...
And my Hen and Chicks are thriving...

I almost for the radishes I grow in pots in the front yard, they are so sweet and good..



My strawberries are planted in the containers, and are growing nicely...even have some blossoms and berries on them...I love to smell the earth, love to put my hands in the dirt and watch seeds grow....May your gardens thrive and the Lord bring you blessings this coming year...Growing and Green...Love it !