Better than Grumpy Cat—Waiting for spring at Lester's Flat!

I am fully recovered from my ugly flu, and getting back to being a non-grumpy person. A lot has been going on here at Lester's Flat that I haven't been able to share with the general public.

The Husband resigned from his bank job and has had these 2 weeks off (to take care of sick and grumpy wifey!). He starts Monday with a local non-profit. It's much closer to home and less stress, leaving more time for his farming (ad)ventures.

Those farm animals have been braving below zero temperatures combined with lots of wind and snow. The 3 little piggies are not so little anymore, and they're getting a little crazy in the cold. We had to zip-tie a piece of metal bedframe to the pig fence at about 8 pm one night when the 3 of them decided that they wanted to go out on the town. They were biting at my hands and head-butting the wimpy wire fence the whole time that we were out there, freezing, working to keep them where they belong. What does one do if the pigs escape?  I hope we never find out! I can't even imagine trying to convince a few 200-lb animals to come back to their not-so-cozy home...

Our 2 pregnant female goats, and their buddy Jacko, don't seem to mind the cold so much with their nice winter coats. Kids expected in early March!

Chickens and ducks are impatiently waiting for the thaw. Most of the chickens have frostbite on their combs, which looks painful. All have stopped laying eggs, except for one frozen chicken egg today—the first sign of spring!

And finally I have started putting together some artwork to sell in the little gallery in town. The Old Blacksmith Shop Gallery in Schuyler Lake was exactly that—an old building beautifully restored by a guy named Bill Isaac. I have been talking to them about bringing in my artwork for the last 2 years, and I am just about ready. These first 2 pieces are actually gifts (not for sale) but I have settled on these barnwood frames as the best way to present the printed canvas. I also have 2 stretched canvases that I want to mount on some barnwood from the falling down horse barn across the street.

The WoodMan photo is just for kicks. He looks so handsome sleeping in the sun! Sophie chooses most often to sleep on the slate floor. I guess the radiant floor heat feels nice on her old bones. I'll get some new pictures of her one of these days coming up, and if we see blue skies again any time soon, I will make an effort to get some new piggie and pregnant goat photos! Lucille is out there right now, sleeping in the baby crib full of hay. It seems to be the favorite spot on sunny days.

Grumpy Cat comes to Schuyler Lake

I am just now feeling normal again after being beaten up by some flu bug on January 19. It kicked me hard! Having never had the flu before, I was pretty cocky about not getting a flu shot. If I was at the doctor's office and they offered, I got it, but I think that only happened once, maybe 2 years ago.

The worst part about this flu was that I caught it from the owners of the newspaper, but they came down with it 2 days before me and had the weekend to recover (sort of). I got stuck with feeling the worst on Monday and Tuesday, the 2 most important days at the paper. Even though I do not believe in working when sick, especially this sick, I had to go in because the paper has to go out!

I was so bad, I even locked The Husband out of the house on the coldest night in forever. He went out to check on the animals, and I locked the door and went to bed. I couldn't figure out why someone was knocking on the door at 10 pm, even though I had just locked it maybe 10 minutes earlier... Sorry, Babe...

There is no photo that can describe the ugly flu-infested mess that I was, so you will just have to imagine me with the Grumpy Cat face and thank me for not posting a real photo of me.

Well that's a fine Howdy-Do!

Happy New Year! Welcome 2014! We're off to a fine start this January 2, it's 0° at high noon! At least the sun is shining?

I was hoping to make it to NJ for the annual Colvard-McCann party on Saturday night, but the weather does not appear to be cooperating. They are expecting 11" of snow today and possibly more on Sunday when I would be driving back. Little Sister was looking forward to my visit, but she will be happier if she doesn't have to worry about me driving.

For some color in this bleak and dreary post, I included a photo of the wreath that I won in the Adorn-A-Door Auction. Local business people and artists create some really fantastic wreath-like objects that might include coupons, pieces from their shop, or pieces of art. I also bid on the Cooperstown Distillery wreath which included a bottle of Fenimore Gin. Next year I'll know to go later in the day and only bid on the wreaths I really want...that I can also afford. I didn't even remember bidding on this nice, traditional wreath that had 2 Cooperstown mugs in the middle along with the 3 mercury glass ornaments. The auction benefits the Cooperstown Art Association.

My New Year's resolution is to create some real art and either join the Art Association or display my work in the Blacksmith Shop Gallery (in our little town) or both.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Checking e-mails before going to bed and saw one from each Sis wishing a Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas to Sisses and Bros as well as all my other (millions of) blog followers.

The Husband and I had a nice quiet Christmas at home. We did take a little trip up the hill this afternoon to visit with our neighbor Don, who also celebrated a birthday yesterday. We brought a bottle of yet-to-be-released Game of Thrones Red Ale from Brewery Ommegang, and some Beer Batter Bread that I made this afternoon. Frankly, the Saranac Pale Ale chaser was just as good as the pricey Ommegang.

The dogs had a nice walk earlier in the day, so we left them home by the woodstove. It's still plenty cold up here, so the idea of wandering in the woods with them up at Don's house did not seem appealing.

These photos are from a few short minutes ago. I tried to get pics of the sleeping dogs, but the flash awakened them. The Christmas tree looks just fine with no flash, but you can't see the pretty wreath in the window that I won at the Adorn-A-Door auction in Cooperstown.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday of your choice, and a very happy and prosperous 2014!

From frosty and frozen to mud and puddles

After a few weeks of really cold weather and plenty of snow, now, just in time for Christmas, everything is melting. At least the ducks are happy to be seeing unfrozen water and green grass.

I think Woody was happier with the cold. He was fascinated by all the tracks in the snow, following each and every track to the end. Only once did he find one of the track-makers, a sad looking black cat who wasn't going to back off from the big barking hound.

Since propane prices are out of control, I have been burning a lot of wood instead of using the heat. Problem is, I am not that good at keeping a steady temperature, and sometimes it gets to be over 80° in here. But that doesn't stop the Wood Man from getting up close and personal with the woodstove. I don't know how he can stay that close without burning up.

We have the tree up and decorated, most of the Christmas cards written and sent, but there are still a few things to get done before Wednesday. Unfortunately, the newspaper (where I work) needs to get printed before then as well. Work is taking up way too much of my Holly Jolly time...

Life goes on

The 3 black roosters are now safely moved into the coop with the girls. They have settled in and seem to be accepted as part of the flock, but probably not ruling the roost just yet.

We had some excitement here at Lester's Flat this week. Sophie took a wander down the middle of the road while I was walking Woody. She usually hangs out close to the house, and when I left her, she was walking toward the back, but I guess she changed her mind. She was picked up by a caring young couple. I was out searching frantically for her when they called on my cell to say they had her and were bringing her back home. Luckily both phone numbers are on her tag because I was outside and not planning on coming in until I found her.

That same day we had a little visitor, young Abe the studly goat (right). Karen, who sold us our 3 goats, brought the little guy over to spend some quality time with Lucille, who is in heat. After chasing Jack around the pen a few times, Abe found his new girl and took care of business.

Helen (top photo with bigger piggies in the background) looks a little confused by this whole situation. We are hoping that she goes into heat by tomorrow, before we have to return Abe. There are moments when they are all out there looking like best buddies, and then moments like a few minutes ago, where Helen and Abe were butting heads to the point of becoming a little bloody.

I think that means she is coming into heat, but I don't have much experience recognizing the signs. If both girls are bred, we should have kids by sometime in March.

Life goes on...

Life and death on the farm

We lost our Rooty Toot today. He bravely fought his way back from some critter attack in June, but never got back to his healthy, obnoxious self—the one you can see staring me down in the photo. He got a respiratory infection a little over a week ago, and even though he was well taken care of in the Chicken Hospital (a dog crate in the garage with food, medicated water and a heat lamp) today he gave up the fight. We buried him by the garage and planted sage over his grave.

When I was hunting for this Tough Guy photo of him, I found it was taken on the same day as this one of Soda Pop, my friend Jane's cat, February 19, 2012. When Jane passed away (we miss you, Girl!) her husband did not want to keep Soda anymore. He is hardly ever home, has 2 beagles, and is not a cat person. So I made it my job to find Soda a new home.

It took a year and a half, but I finally, about a month ago, found her a great home with Marcia in Clinton. Soda got a styling ride home in a new silver Mustang! Marcia just called this week to say how Soda was a bit shy for about 24 hours, but has very quickly settled in and become the loving cat that we knew she was going to be. Thank you, Marcia for giving that cat with the beautiful eyes a beautiful new home.

And since I was looking in the February 2012 photos, I found out that we got the 3 new red hens and the blue-egger the day after I took these other 2 photos.

So that's pretty much an even mix of the good and the bad, life and death here at Lester's Flat: Poor Mr. Roo, a Happy Soda, 4 Happy Chicks are now 4 Happy Hens, and a reminder to me that we lost the other blue-egger chick to my Big Lester only a few weeks after we got them.

R.I.P. Rooty Toot, blue-egger chick, Red Sweetie (the red hen who just disappeared), the black hen who lost her life a few months ago to some attacker that got into the Coop at night, one of the black chicks who was killed just a few days after we got him, and of course, my Big Lester who is still very much missed here at Lester's Flat. I had a dream about him just the other day... He said he is happy in Pooch Heaven...

A tale of 4 roosters

Since he was attacked back in June, Mr. Roo has been improving, but slowly. Then just last week after I returned from my NJ visit, I noticed he was looking worse than ever. I took some photos to show the vet, but I won't post them here because he looks so awful. Vet says he has a respiratory infection. It was so bad they did not think he would recover, so I was prepared to send him off to meet his maker on Tuesday morning (with the help of Don on the Hill, AKA the Terminator).

But Tuesday morning comes around and there is Rooty Toot out in the coop looking all healthy and eating and drinking like normal. Some of the girls were in there with him, I think to protect him. They told him this was his only chance to make himself look good...

So I went to the vet and picked up the antibiotics that may or may not cure him, but at least now he has a fighting chance. He is in the garage in Chicken Hospital, under the heat lamp with his food and medicated water. He is standing tall and looking pretty proud of himself.

I think we will take this opportunity to move the 3 "baby" roosters back to the real coop. That way there won't be any competition for Roo until he's back to his fighting weight—he was awfully thin when I picked him up to carry him back to the hospital!

Now the little boys will only have to defend themselves against the big girls!

Be nice, big girls!

Heading to NJ for the weekend

Going "back home" to visit with Little Sister and Jersey Girl. I took 92 photos this afternoon, hoping to get a few good ones. I did, but have no time to process them. So I leave you with a single photo of one of my 3 handsome baby roosters. Take note of all the apples on the ground. The ones that got away... The smell is absolutely delicious!

Three little pigs aren't so little after all!

We picked up the 3 new piggies, 6 weeks old, this morning from Tammy, our pig breeder in Smyrna. The second photo is of the 3 of them in the back of the haywagon (the CR-V). The 2 lucky ones got to ride in comfort in the dog crate. We thought it would be big enough for all 3, but these little piggies must have been eating up a storm because they are much larger than the ones that we picked up last year and the year before. Poor little black piggy had to be stuffed in the cat crate on the right...

As usual we had a tough time picking names for them, but we decided on Alice, Nora, and Irving for a few of our favorite authors. (Up to you to guess which authors we named them for...) Alice is the mostly red one, Nora the black one with pink go-go boots in the front, and Irving, the only boy, has the most white and the most spots.

I got out of work a little bit early yesterday due to some computer virus at the newspaper office. I came home and tried to fix up the pig shed in time for their arrival today. I got about 4 nails hammered in when I must have disturbed a wasp nest. Even though I got stung twice, I am happy that we found out before we had all the little babes in there. As much as I don't like using insecticides, there's nothing like a good can of wasp spray when you need it!

Pigs are settling in nicely. Goats are curious about their new neighbors. Dogs just went out for a walk with us and checked out the newbies.

For the first time ever, I just noticed while we were out there that 2 of the older hens were lying down in the shade with our 3 young roosters. The young ones are still in the "baby coop" at night, but young and old hang out back here by the house for most of the day. They are all free ranging together.

Bushels of apples and picking up those little piggies

Last week, we (mostly I) picked 10 bushels of apples and sold them to the Fly Creek Cider Mill to use for making "a special batch" of hard cider. I had planned to bring them (reluctantly for reasons I won't mention here) to Dyn's Cider Mill, just up the road from us, but when I found out they charge $3 per gallon of cider to press our apples, and they need a minimum of 7 bushels, it seemed like a waste of picking effort (and apples). I can buy local cider for $3.99 a gallon.

The box in the photo is exactly one bushel. I found out that the easiest way to measure is to pick them in 5-gallon buckets. 2 buckets=1 bushel.

This was quite a banner year for apples here, and I probably could still pick another 20 bushels from our property, but it gets a little difficult when you get all the low-hanging apples from the close and easy trees, and then have to venture into the weedy, goldenrod-infested wild territory.

So we made $50 for easy pickins, and then I spent $20 of that in their store before I left.

I did, at least, find out that our wild apples are not all that wild, and at least some of them are probably Northern Spy apples.

I also cooked up my first batch of homemade apple butter, and am quite proud of the results! Yum!

Next weekend we pick up those baby pigs from the last post. More pics to follow!