My Fall Garden

I woke up this morning and remembered that not too many years ago, I woke up every morning without an ounce of pain. Now it's pretty much routine for me to wake up stiff and aching. I'm not sure why, if it's the extra weight, the exercise, the extra work. I hope eventually the pain will subside. I mean, it's not incredible, unbearable pain. It's just uncomfortable, and not normal. Or maybe it is just growing old.

I drove the route we took on the bikes last night. It was 5 and 7/10ths of a mile! It's not too hard to get that kind of distance out here, since there are long, long roads with miles between stop signs, and no signals at all. At least not out in our area. We went north on the main road that goes by our property about 1/2 mile, then east for about 2 miles, then south for about 1/2 mile and then west again, through a neighborhood area which eventually took us back to the main road that we live on. The first little stretch is downhill, the next two miles are downhill - this is just the slightest grade, but enough that you can definitely feel it when bike riding. The next 1/2 mile is uphill, as was the next 2 miles. And the wind was blowing. Not too hard, but enough that you could feel it.

I realized while riding yesterday that it makes sense for what is uphill and downhill, if you take into consideration the flood control: the canals, the washes.

Ds2 helped me with hoof trims yesterday morning and this morning. The last ones we did were on July 30th and we didn't trim the herd sire's hooves. His don't seem to grow as fast as the does. We have two bucks, the other is a Nigerian Dwarf and he almost never needs hoof trims. I probably did his six months ago and his hooves were barely overgrown. Wish I could somehow pull his genetics for feet into our herd.

We did fourteen sets of hooves. We also gave everyone a shot of BOSE, and took girth measurements on them all. I'm still trying to do things to increase milk production. Everyone has stayed about the same. BOSE is given for selenium deficiency, and we live in a deficient area so we give shots every six months or so. It can also cause milk production to drop.

L's milk production went from 2 pounds one day to 3 pounds the next day. She used to give 5-8 pounds, so she is still down. They are supposed to increase every year, not go down!

Here is my progress on the baby sweater. I was able to put on a few rows while waiting for dh to throw 17 bales of hay on the back of the truck. I'm supposed to make this piece somewhere around 7 inches long. I'm getting there.

I put in one bed of my garden tonight. It has been over a year since I have tried to garden. I think it's been over a year. The gophers win every time lately. It's been a big fight out here. The first year, Fall 2002, I just put the seeds in the ground. The birds came from far and near and ate every single tiny green shoot coming up. So dh made a chicken wire cage about 18 inches tall to surround the entire garden. I managed to grow some that year. The next year we made a chicken wire enclosed garden. That worked for a couple of years, keeping out most of the birds (the smallest could still slip in through the 1" chicken wire), ground squirrels, ground chipmunks, cottontail bunnies. Until Fall 2004, when the gophers came. They took one look at the succulent goodies inside and burrowed right under the fencing.

I tried again last Fall, but had no luck. Tonight I just tossed seeds here and there... well I kind of tried to put them in specific places, but as I was planting seeds I noticed the dirt was also overrun with fire ants. Those cannibalized my okra one year. I put Amdro down around the perimeter of my garden, hoping it will get rid of the ants.

I am not sure why I'm trying again. It makes me sad to not have a garden. Here's a picture of my garden in October 2004.

Until next time.

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Riding Bikes

Last week sometime, ds2 and I went on a bike ride one night, then for a bit the next night. I think it was Sunday and Monday evening.

Anyway, I haven't gotten on my bike again until tonight. We rode between 4 and 5 miles. It wasn't too hard, but my wrists were hurting a lot. I have always had a bit of carpal tunnel syndrome problem. I put some Arnica Gel on them when I got home.

Earlier today, I was working on my blog, labeling some of my earlier posts. I was trying to think of a good label for the ones where I was griping and complaining. I looked up the synonyms for complaining. I have decided to use the label Aggravation. Because usually I'm very aggravated about something, hence my complaining.

Speaking of Aggravation. There is a game with that name. I wonder if it still exists. Ah, here is is, Aggravation, manufactured by Hasbro. It was my stepfather's favorite game, because he loved to aggravate his stepchildren. We (myself and my six siblings) were always being quoted that Bible verse:

Ephesians 6:1 KJV "Children obey your parents; for this is right."

Not until I was in my twenties did I know about:

Ephesians 6:4 KJV "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. "

Okay, obviously my stepfather chose to blatantly ignore that passage. God rest his soul, he passed away a few weeks ago. He was not one of my favorite people, unfortunately. He caused me a lot of grief as a child. He wasn't very smart either. I remember being 10 years old and realizing I was smarter than him in many things. It's why the men in my life have to be smarter than me in SOMETHING, or I have a hard time having any respect for them as a person. I also remember listening to him blathering on at the dinner table, talking about things like how lucky we children were to be eating with the adults. Because when he was growing up, the children ate scraps after the adults had their fill. This was always said in a threatening tone, as if we didn't watch ourselves we might be doing the same one day. I remember thinking to myself, if there wasn't enough food for everyone, I'd go without before I'd make my children eat scraps. Then he'd tell us about how his grandmother used to beat him every day and that's what made him such a good person. And how if she'd beat him more, he'd have been an even better person. Whatever. Dude. Get. A. Grip.

Now you know why I don't believe in hitting children.

I hope I'm not sore tomorrow. And I hope I sleep well tonight. I did put on a few more rows of the baby sweater, but I'm not going to photograph it tonight.

Until next time.

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