Tag: Summer

*Low Flying Airplane Noises*

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Hello friends!

So first of all, look at this super cool video my dad took! I’ve never been this close to an aerial applicator doing their job, it actually spooked me the first time they went past and I decided to stop and wait for the next pass so we could get a cool video (don’t worry, i was the only one on my aunt and uncles mile long driveway so I wasn’t being unsafe). Only thing I would have done differently? Slow rolled as they went by so I could maybe stay with them just a little longer, you can probably tell I put my foot in it a little trying to keep up but for obvious physics reasons there’s no way that was ever going to happen. It was really cool to see it that close in any case.

Why did I refer to them as aerial applicators and not the more traditional “crop dusters”? Well, many reasons. One is, I’ve been told by a couple pilots they prefer aerial applicators, and two, they don’t really dust crops anymore, they more “mist” them, the mixtures are, in general, significantly different than even a few years ago so dust rarely comes into play anymore.

Cheesy Dad Joke incoming! Also, please ignore how dirty my car is, Clifford the Big Red Dodge has been lovingly washed since this was taken

That said, I’m totally guilty of coding switching here, depending on who I’m talking to I’ll still use crop duster, because when your 90+ year old dining companion refers to them as “crop dusters” it’s generally not worth it to correct them, and might come off disrespectful. So, if you hang out with me for a while, you may hear both. I’m guilty of that with a few things. 

Especially because I live in a very old community generally. 

(To clarify, this does not apply to rights issues and the like, I still correct all the “-isms”, I don’t entertain racism, ableism, misogyny, homophobia, etc regardless of who I might offend in the room, because if I offend you, I probably don’t care to be your friend anyway. In the same vein, if you feel the need to discriminate, you can feel free to close this blog out as well, we don’t put up with nastiness here, thank you.)

We’ve had the weirdest weather here. I live in the high desert, right, so it’s, generally speaking, dry here. Dry is nice because at 110° that’s the difference between “it’s far too hot to be outside” and “it’s far too hot to exist”. Humidity is a game changer. We recently had a string of four days of over 80% humidity. This is way too sticky even when you live in a humid place. The girls got a few days off to help manage,since it can be dangerous to work in conditions of heat and humidity that you aren’t used to. It also stormed a lot which makes sense when you consider the humidity most likely came from that monsoonal moisture coming up from the southwest. This time of year they have to deal with lots of flash flooding and storms as well. I’m very grateful we haven’t seen a lot of flooding around here but some places in the southwest got obliterated. 

We mostly just tried not to melt. Everything was damp and sticky, and it’s amazing how quickly some fungi and molds and things pop up after a few days of 80+ humidity. Even my old dead wood pile had little green patches. We had little white mushrooms pop up in the yard and several of my plants just sorta wilted under the dampness. Desert plants aren’t humidity proof. It was also weird because the grass and pasture was all weighed down so no mowing or trimming could be done effectively, the bugs were really bad, and all the the normal characters, like the field workers next door, the early morning joggers, and even the delivery guys were all absent or nearly absent trying to avoid working in the 100° weather with 80% humidity. I totally get it, no judgment here, I was also hiding out, but it was slightly eerie. 

Joe before…
…and after
plus potatoes

Not much else has happened around here. We’ve been slowing down in the garden, something ate my last two kohlrabi before they came ready, but we’ve gotten lots of potatoes. The dogs tried a new groomer out and I think we like her, I just hope she lasts a while. We’ve had a string of bad luck in the area, groomers come and go with alarming speed. There must not be a lot of business here. So fingers crossed this one works out.

Until we chat again my friends.

Odds and Ends

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Hello friends!

I accidentally bought more hay. I say accidentally because there was a total miscommunication, no one’s fault, but somehow I thought I had said no to buying more than my usual hay (which I usually actually barter with my uncle for, a lot of things in farm country can be favor for favor if you are trustworthy) and my cousin, who’s slowly taking over for my uncle thought I would be willing to buy whatever didn’t sell. He couldn’t reach me at work so he called my dad, and I finally caught up to the situation and cut it off at half a truck load. So I have some bales to figure out storage for. Both of the guys thought that the other had checked in with me, so I couldn’t very well back out and make them unload it all. That just wouldn’t be fair. So I apologized to my bank account, wrote a check, and now I’m in the process of fixing some of my damaged tarps so I can fake some long-term covered hay storage. I guess, really, it’s probably a good problem to have, although it was an expensive, unplanned line item in the budget. 

The interesting thing about living on a farm is that you quickly realize that some seasons are generally more expensive than others. For us, summers always seem to hemorrhage money, no matter how hard I plan ahead. Case and point, unplanned couple hundred dollars for hay. I’ve had to put a couple extra hundred in bug maintenance this year and even more into the ever expanding collection of first aid supplies for humans and critters. I seriously need to just invest in Bandaid stock at this point (I’m not blaming anyone either, I’m the worst offender, I just think about doing something and I have a new injury). We also had a weird amount of equipment failures this year which cost in one way or another. 

In other news, we had a lovely, unexpected visit from some old friends. Some of our friends from our church when we lived in the Puget Sound also have family in this area and they come by to visit every so often. It’s absolutely lovely to see them. I used to teach their youngest in my 3s, 4s, and 5s class when I taught Sunday school and now she’s a senior in high school. I taught that Sunday school class when I was in high school. Time flies. I can’t believe she’s almost an adult, and speaking with her, she’s such a mature, intelligent, put together young lady. Way more prepared for college and beyond than I ever was.

We also had a bit of a weird experience this week relating to the canal. As I was going about my morning chores I noticed a really rotten smell. It seemed to linger but I didn’t really pay too much attention to it after I  made sure it wasn’t a wound on the girls or a small animal nearby needing help.I have honestly come face to face with skunks and possums, and while this didn’t smell like that, I still basically convinced myself that it was one of those things. It got progressively stronger and less fun to be around as I went about the morning but it somehow didn’t even occur to me to check the canal. When I walked back up to the house and smelled it on the porch as well, that’s when I thought enough of it to bring it up to my dad, who mentioned it might be something slowly floating its way down the canal. Unfortunately, it’s not the most uncommon thing to have wildlife occasionally fall in the water and become fatally trapped. We still didn’t really feel it was that big a deal until the ditch rider came by and had a proper freak out.  The Ditch rider drives along many times a day looking for issues within the canal, for context, and he had apparently seen something because he drove back and forth and made some phone calls. I got a little nervous watching this because we’ve all heard the stories about people falling in, or worse, and I really, really didn’t want it to be something like that. 

Luckily it wasn’t a human. However, it was a crime. Someone had dumped a poached deer into the canal to hide it, and it had gotten caught up in the weeds by my corral. They took the antlers and nothing else. Such a waste. I won’t go on one of my long rants again, but really, it’s so unnecessary and disheartening. 

Cool storm cloud? Anyone?

Like I said, there’s relief in knowing my fence line wasn’t a human crime scene, and I’m quite relieved I didn’t investigate and find it myself, but it’s quite sad to know people are still making selfish, unethical choices. 

I think I need to be paying more attention going forward though, especially to gross smells.

Until we chat again my friends. 

Two Steps Forward…

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Hello friends!

Anyone else ever get to feeling, sometimes, like they are just forever reacting to things instead of actually accomplishing new tasks and making any actual progress? This has been the whole farm this summer, seems like I cannot for the life of me get ahead, I just keep reacting to issues as they arrive. It’s not the world’s greatest feeling.

Take, for example, this water trough. I’ve been having consistent issues with it, finally thought I had it fixed and now we are literally back to square one. Basically, after the hard winter the frost free had no pressure and when it did, my auto waterer wouldn’t turn off. Then we got the pressure back and the valve itself wore out. Got that fixed, and the auto waterer working, but by that point the trough had gotten bad enough from not being circulated enough that it needed more than just a spring clean. So I very carefully tried to work around the auto waterer, emptying the water slowly through the little release valve instead of just dumping the trough. Got it clean, filled it back up. Now the auto waterer leaks again and on top of that, the little seal has started leaking too. I have checked and tightened, looks like I’m going to probably have to seal it with an external product, probably something like flex tape (I’m not necessarily recommending that product, I don’t have much experience with it, but the couple times I used flex seal I was pretty impressed). Seems like I can’t quite get the water situation solved.

Too cute for her own good (tried to crop her swollen leg for those who don’t enjoy that sort of image)

Same seems to apply to the sprinklers and the misters in the barn, constant leaks and blockages and cracked hoses, and whatever else you can imagine can fail in a sprinkler or mister system. I almost lost a huge chunk of my pasture because one of my lines just wouldn’t stay cleared. Craziness. 

Kinda feels the same way with my sweet mares this year too. While every day is a wonderful chance to spend time with them, and I am really loving our time together, work or play, this year any time we attempt to accomplish anything the horse in question goes lame. Poor Ro has limped her way through the summer so far, effectively halting our work on lope transitions and bravery on trail rides. We’ve been trying more on the latter but it’s hard to be brave when uneven, rough footing is hurting you. So we have slowed down and tried to be a little more cautious about that. Nellie’s leg has been huge most of the summer due to the high temperatures and while the vet isn’t necessarily concerned, I’ve been warned to go very easy on that leg. It doesn’t seem to hurt her as much as it seems to annoy her when her range of motion is affected.

I’ve spent a lot of time and money this summer trying to aid these issues, but we kinda seem to be spinning our wheels a little. Like I said, it’s never time wasted, I love working with these sweethearts no matter what the pace is, but it’s funny how it seems to be the summer of setbacks. 

When you can’t hold your own head thoughtfully, have your mom do it

On other news, we have had a nice little potato crop. After a lovely roast potato dish the other day, we’ve had enough continue to grow  that we took some to my grandma as well. Potatoes are such a  lovely crop to grow, and something we eat a lot around here, so I definitely think more of the garden will be devoted to potatoes next year. 

As well as kohlrabi, because that’s also been a hoot and a half to grow. Super cute plant, very tasty payoff.

Unfortunately a decent amount of the garden got eaten by something, and what it didn’t eat it slept on and squashed, so I have been doing a little bit of research into container gardening in this part of the country. I did a little of it when I lived in Seattle and it was helpful for the critters there. It would also give me more potato space for next year. Win win. 

potatoes!

Anyways, I won’t catch up with farm chores by complaining so I better get back to it. Lots to do, especially the stuff that needs doing before the heat hits each day.

Until we chat again, my friends.

It’s Warm

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Hello friends!

It’s officially that time of the year where we have to be very careful not to melt. We don’t see highs below 100 or lows below 70 for the foreseeable future.

Honestly, I don’t mind it. I’d love it if it was a little easier to get outside in the mornings, work kinda makes that hard sometimes, but I really don’t mind the heat so much if I don’t have to drive anywhere. My car doesn’t have AC any longer so to drive anywhere is wholly unpleasant.

I definitely don’t like the fire conditions either, and we are deep, deep, deep in that part of the year. Last year it was so smoky and so much of the country was on fire, that I think everyone is a little more on edge than usual this year. The Willow Creek fire in Oregon from a few weeks ago burned close enough to be viewable from my back porch (we weren’t in any immediate danger as the Snake River was between us and the fire, if it had jumped the snake we probably would have had bigger issues, however it affected some in my community). I was really worried that was going to be indicative of the smoke watch but so far, we’ve been very blessed to stay mostly clear.

The sunrises have been amazing lately

But it was a very clear reminder to be vigilant about fire safety and to keep a very close eye on the brushland behind the house. Just in case.

There’s a notorious hill in my area called “Chicken Hill”. I don’t know if that’s its official name or just something locals call it, but it’s a bit notorious because of its proclivity for catching fire. It regularly seems to go up and despite this well known fact, people continue to camp, live, and launch fireworks up there all summer long. This is the first year since I moved here full time that the hill hasn’t burned yet, and to be honest, I’m suspiciously waiting. Last year the chief of police was the one to accidentally set it on fire, so no one’s immune. It also always seems to burn out of control for longer than expected, you would think the fire department would have a specific Chicken Hill response plan by now (I say this in jest, firefighting is seriously scary, hard work and I have nothing but major respect for the work they do, especially the chronically underfunded rural departments). Very often it’s the 4th of July that sends it up in flames. We’ve been lucky so far.

In other news, I tried a new recipe with the kohlrabi from the garden. I have never grown or cooked kohlrabi before so I was pretty dang excited. First of all, kohlrabi totally looks like an alien vegetable out in the garden, with its big old leaves and funky green bulb. Super cute but definitely a little off looking. Based on appearance alone I was worried it would be a more bitter veggie but boy was I wrong. It honestly tastes like sweeter broccoli. The skin is a little tough but even so, I could totally see myself eating a fresh kohlrabi straight from the garden like it’s an apple or something.

Kohlrabi stir-fry

The recipe was super easy, fry some bacon. Then saute the kohlrabi, garlic, and green onions in the bacon fat. Wilt in your kohlrabi leaves (and some spinach if, like me, your leaves left a little to be desired in the bulk department) with a little stock, add your bacon bits back with some soy sauce, toss like mad, and serve. Salt and pepper to taste but remember this has bacon and soy sauce so… be careful about salting without tasting. It was such a tasty side, we served it with rice and pork medallions. I will be making that again.

I think this week our potatoes should be just about ready to go, they are starting to show signs of readiness, at least according to Google. A lot of how I garden involves a good old Google search, everything from bugs to harvests to produce storage. A modern farmer if you will.

Other than that it’s been pretty normal on the farm. I briefly headed up to the county fair (most of which was shot down due to heat) to support my little cousin who won grand champion in his 4H rabbit project. Super proud of him for working so hard. Ro has been basically on stall rest for everything from a pulled shoulder to stepping on a bee hive. She’s had a rough week or so. Poor Nellie still is struggling with that swollen leg of hers, which is somewhat normal for this time of year. It doesn’t hurt her as much as it just annoys her because it slows her mobility. But I give her time off, just in case, because learning should be a fun thing for her too, not stressful walking around on an uncomfortable leg.

One of Aaron’s prize-winning bunnies

Anyway, that’s all for us here I think. Stay safe and cool out there.

Until we chat again, my friends!

Squishing Ponies

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Hello friends!

In a happy turn, it looks like some of the garden that we thought was a goner is still with us! Some of our kohlrabi has come back, our potatoes are on their way, and maybe, just maybe the squash is holding its own. Pretty exciting considering the hard battle it had to fight. 

It was about 101 degrees when I went out for these photos…

We’ve had a lot of little things to fix and figure out on the farm lately. We have a sticky valve problem in the sprinklers system which means no matter what your intentions are, you are watering the backyard. It’s also a little hectic because the particular zone that wants to always be stuck open waters the garden path and the driveway, which basically means if you are trying to get down to the rest of the farm, ya know, maybe you want to go to the barn, you are going to get wet. Really really wet.

Super fun things happened this week as well! My little cousin is coming out to ride again, and that always brings so much joy to the farm. 

We goofed a little in that we had planned on her riding after I got off work, and the universe planned on that being the first day to climb above 95 degrees. It was unfortunately very very warm, so rider, horse, and yours truly all melted a little. It was not supposed to do that according to the forecast. I broke a couple of my working horses rules to pull that one off, but since it’s not actually terribly difficult work for Ro at this stage we were able to fudge it a little. 

…so I am adding all of them regardless

But we had so much fun anyway. Lots of smiles and giggles and high fives. She’s a little taller now, so her cues are starting to be recognized. Ro still ignores them in favor of listening to me, but at least when I say “squish your pony and cluck” we are squishing actual pony, and not just saddle leather. When I help her make the cue with her leg, we can actually feel Ro react, moving gently away, and that was an aha moment for sure. Soon she’ll be able to do it all on her own.

(Squish the pony is a very silly alternative to telling someone to kick, because as my riders get older it’s easier to teach them to escalate their asking methods to meet the pony’s needs, than to deescalate. Squishing the pony requires a constant, firm but not sharp pressure, and when the pony responds, is a very fair, clean cue with a simple end.)

She’s also got a lot more confidence in herself and her actions, which made for a much more interactive ride. She was able to let go of the horn more and use her reins, and she was able to raise her little voice and ask Ro to whoa. She even asked me if I could mark her reins so she could remember where her hands go (little hands have to put down the reins a lot in order to do other things). I was super proud of her for advocating for herself.

I promised her that soon she would be getting her own official, certified riding helmet and a set of safe boots. She’s so so so excited. As she’s working with a new found confidence, I really want her to be safe while riding. Injuries are absolutely inevitable, if she’s lucky she’ll never have more than a bruised ego and some squished toes maybe, but more than likely she will have a fall or two, pull or strain a muscle, scrape a knee, hopefully nothing worse. But a correct helmet and boots will just be one step in the right direction for ensuring she walks away from a dust up with nothing but a good story. So, one Saturday soon, when I can get some time, we will be heading to the tack store, which is just incredibly dangerous for my wallet.

I am also spending some horse focused money on finally getting the trailer up to snuff. It’s been the project that just keeps getting pushed back but the problem now exists that if I want to keep my current farrier, I need to travel to his place for the foreseeable future. He no-showed our last appointment and has been having a generally hard time the last little while, so I don’t mind making his life easier, but it’s also another project I really didn’t need on my plate. It’ll be fine though, realistically it’s the kick in the tail I need, what if I have to trailer to the vet? Or pick up an unexpected animal? Or wanna go trail riding in my childhood happy place? It’s time to get the trailer functional and the girls retrained.

This was simply too cute to not share even though it has nothing to do with the post

There’s always something that needs doing on a farm anyway, might as well be a trailer restore.

Until we chat again my friends.

Fiddlin’

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Hello friends!

The fiddle festival was in town last week! I had so so so much fun! I always love that little festival each year, love the camaraderie in the air, the music, the sunshine, and the inherent nostalgia for a different time. Love the visitors enjoying a town that’s close to my heart, the excitement from the shop owners and residents, and the busyness of main Street. The town really comes alive for those few days.

This year I was able to enjoy the festival a little more than I have in a while, even if it was the smallest version of the festival yet. I didn’t end up in charge, or helping much at all, with the float for our local charity, and while I missed being involved more in the planning and building, it was a much needed change to just enjoy everything as a tourist. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again and again, if you are tired of living where you do, try playing tourist for a day or two and see if you can restore a little of that goodwill, at least temporarily. Everywhere I’ve lived that advice has worked, especially when I am especially fed up with the day to day.

Thursday I went into town to soak up some of the atmosphere on our main street. Our main street is actually called state street, and main street more or less just connects state street to the highway. State street has its ups and downs, right now a lot of the little mom and pop stores have had to close up, and when the grocery store collapsed a few years ago and had to be rebuilt, they chose to leave state street and move out to the highway for a bigger building and lot. It was a smart move for them but a bit of a rough one for the smaller businesses on state who enjoyed the impulse stop business of customers on the way to grocery shop.

Nonetheless it was light and happy all up and down the street, and its neighbors, on Thursday. First stop was the second hand bookstore, or course, where I managed to spend so much money it was a little silly. But I love to support local businesses and I really love old books so, win win, ya know? I got so many fun titles, my intention had been to pick up a couple Agatha Christie titles, because while I love my kindle for some things, mystery novels sometimes need to be physical. You need the dusty smell of the old book, the well loved pages, the slightly damaged cover where someone clearly clutched it too hard while reading… these all add to the perfect mystery book. And let me tell you, I found some great examples. I’m So excited to read them. 

The Nancy Drew books were for my collection, the Evanovich was a book my mom read and loved, and the Marsh book was suggested to me because I love Agatha Christie! Let’s not talk about my clear lack of self control displayed on the right.

Then we went to a music store, focusing primarily on stringed instruments used in bluegrass and folk styles, but they also carry a few other things. My brother fell in love with some electric drums, and to be honest, if I can swing it, I might know what to save for his Christmas gift (don’t worry, he doesn’t read this blog). I wanted to ask about mandolins, as I’d really love to learn in my theoretical free time (the same theoretical free time I’d love to use to read more, learn languages, reintroduce myself to piano, etc) but some actual, legitimate musicians came in around that time and I opted to step back, since there was clearly a sale to be made there whereas I was just information gathering. Also, I live here, so I can go back whenever, no biggie. Of course no tourist day is complete without stopping by the candy shoppe, which also serves lunch and snacks. I got a soft pretzel with cheese, which I haven’t had in a while, and very much enjoyed the snack.

Finally we moved onto the festival grounds themselves after meeting up with a few of my extended family members, and while there were some cool things (I purchased some freeze dried candy, which I had never seen, taffy and skittles, and it is a new obsession), unfortunately as of late the festival itself has been slowly declining. I take some comfort in knowing it’s done this before, and comes back better than ever, but my love for this festival, and this town, makes me want to get involved and try to help fix it up. Unfortunately, anyone who’s dealt with small town politics knows why that’s a very daunting, possibly unattainable, goal.

But don’t worry, we still listened to the music and walked through the small festivities before scaring the pants off the workers at our local pizza joint. Twenty two people in a party is a lot for a Thursday evening. 

I sorta got so wrapped up in playing tourist I forgot to take photos of the festivities… Sorry about that.

The parade was on Saturday and, like I said, while it felt very weird to not be involved, it was so much fun to see the parade for the first time in years as a spectator. It was a short little parade this year, which makes sense with the smaller feel of the festival all together this year, but the turnout was big. It was so fun cheering on the charity and some of my family from the sidelines, as well as getting to see all the lovely participants. Lots of local Pageant Royalty, lots of horses, I was super happy to see the local 4-H participating as they had a bit of a rough patch. I got to reinstate my tradition of getting a fancy drink for the parade, usually I try to get something uniquely fiddle-y if I can, this year I tried a mint latte from the ever popular candy store. While we waited we also hunted down a small pawn shop that was new to me, and saw some lovely vintage jewelry.

All in all it was just a lovely time, got to reconnect with my town, unplug and get away from the normal, and see some family. I definitely need to take my own advice more often and go play tourist. My family often does, and I always “have to work” but this was a good reminder that work doesn’t trump everything.
Until we fiddle again my friends!