No mow May

You might have to hunt for the Jessie in this jungle. We mostly held off on mowing until after the daffodils were done blooming, and for all the other good reasons not to mow in May. This left us with quite the lush greenery given all the recent rain.

Poor Jessie had her own painful/itchy experience in the last few days—she must have angered a wasp or 10—and was stung several times on the top of her head, both ears, and either in her mouth or on her snout. 

I was able to treat her with my recent favorite Benadryl pills and cream, but didn't notice how bad her nose was until after she scratched the heck out of it.

Thus the big blue donut yesterday. She was NOT happy. She would not eat. Would not sleep. Would not talk to me for the almost full day that I made her suffer so.

I left in the afternoon to go to a concert with Tara, and came home bout 3 hours later to see she had removed the collar (I don't know how but she did). Thankfully it was on just long enough for the itchy nose to heal, at least to heal enough that she stopped trying to take off all her skin. 

After some heavy doses of prednisone for me, and one dose of donut-head for Jessie, we are both done with all the itchiness that was cast upon us.

Yay for that.

How not to spend your birthday

Posting the pretty picture instead of the ugly ones I have been sending to the nurse/doctor.

On a quick trip to New Jersey about 2 weeks ago, I managed to pull all the English ivy off of one of my sister's oak trees out front. I threw all the vines around the base of the tree and picked them up when I finished.

I noticed one little 3-leaf sprig of poison ivy under the big pile after I picked it up. I was not wearing gloves, but had long-sleeve jacket and long pants, so I figured I would be okay.

Came inside and washed my hands for a very long time and thought I was good.

It all went downhill from there. Apparently there was plenty of poison oil on the jacket and pants that I did not realize. Put pants in the suitcase and wore the jacket after I got home. Duh.

Since May 19 I have been fighting what started as a little rash on my arms only. I did a video visit (twice) with a Prime Care nurse who gave me a script for several things, including prednisone. She recommended Sarna lotion to stop the itch.

What I didn't think about, since the rash didn't start until the day after I got home, was that I also slept in my bed, and still had the jacket and pants unwashed, like me until the day after.

It's over 2 weeks since I was there. Once I realized what was going on, again I thought I was doing everything right. But no. Sarna lotion felt so good that I used it too often and burned my arms but good. Stopped the lotion and continued with Benadryl, and was doing really well until I accidentally wore that pair of pants yesterday. Not sure if they had been washed once with the jacket, but even so now I have spread this over my body. At least my legs are clear. Yay!

I would like to say I learned a lesson, but I didn't really. I did wash the sheets and affected clothing 4 or 5 times today. Not sure that that's a lesson.

Happy birthday to me.

A break and returns

We have had a break in the rain (finally) and a return visit from Bonnie, a sweetheart belonging to the Drs H. A disruption in Jessie's routine always seems to be a good thing, especially when the current routine is waking me up at 5:38 every morning.

Jessie returned to Breezy Acres kennel a weekend ago, while I made a quick return to New Jersey to visit with Little Sister, and Uncle J&E, AND about a dozen old volleyball friends.

My job for today was putting together a Gorilla Cart (smaller wheel barrow) that I gifted myself for an upcoming birthday.

It was too easy, so I also prepped the dog crate (that has never been used for dogs) for some chicks I am hoping to hatch. 

More on that later.

Rainy May day

Monkey sleeping (or trying to), Martin bird-watching, Jessie looking sad and pathetic outside on the porch—this is how we spend a rainy Sunday here in Upstate NY.

Jessie spent most of the morning indoors and shared some pancakes for breakfast with us, but she still cannot overcome her desire to be outdoors, even on rainy days. No matter how many times we ask her to come in, she stays out almost every day until dinner time.

I was bragging about my Eglu chicken coop in Friday's post, and then today when I was moving it, the nest box crashed to the ground with a chicken and 5 good eggs going with it. I succeeded in getting it back together, but all the Humpty Dumpties turned into chicken breakfast.

The Eglu is still worth every penny—yesterday I saw either the biggest fox ever, or a young coyote darting across the backyard in the middle of the day. The girls might not be thrilled with their living quarters, but at least they are alive.

Mostly pics

Farm next door

Bird bath

I couldn't decide which of the pics to make big, so I did them both. It was a beautiful day today, at least while the sun was shining and it wasn't raining. It did some raining while the sun was shining too, but I didn't catch any rainbows.

My 6 remaining chickens are still alive only because they are housed in the Omlet Eglu. I am sure they would be much happier roaming free, like we have always done with our chickens, but the red fox is still coming here checking out the situation all the time. We may never have free chickens again...

Dry Martin(i)

My apologies... The young man just loves to help out with the laundry. He especially likes to spin the drum of the washing machine when there are clothes in there. I know enough to do a full search before turning it on.

Martin also spends a fair amount of time helping with washing the dishes. He just loves playing in water! In the sink, in the shower, taking his toy mousies for a swim in the dogs' water bowl—any water will do.

Blooming daffodils must mean that spring is on the way. It is supposed to go up to 61° today, but at 1 p.m. it's still cloudy and windy and too cold to play in the dirt!

Spring moons and triplets

The moon always looks better in daytime photos. This almost full moon in an almost cloudless sky was captured at 7 a.m.

Earlier that same day I woke up and saw it peeking through the clouds at 4 a.m. There was no focusing my iPhone (no glasses on), Hub's big head was kinda in the way (at the bottom), but I do think it looks pretty cool.

You can see that spring is doing it's best to show up—the snow is gone, grass is turning green, some of the trees are starting to show their leaves. The goldfinches are shedding their brown feathers and going back to being gold.

We are hoping this is the end of temps in the 40°s, which is what the high was today. Next week we get some high 50°s and even high 60°s.

And the last photo is Miss Lizzie offering a comment on what it's like raising triplets. We had a total of 14 kids this year, from 10 does. They are so cute when they're little and bouncy (even if Lizzie doesn't think so!)

 

Sleepy sunny day with guest

Shout out from our guest, Miss Bonnie, to her mom, Miss Julie: 

"We know you had a lot of fun in Maine, but why did you have to tell them about my affinity for horse dookie? I love you anyway. And I miss you. Happy Birthday Mom! Pooch smooches, Miss B."

The Peters and their sleepy pets wish you a big happy as well.

Goodbye snow!

I love when the sun makes the creek glow.

It is not unusual for us to still have snow on the ground in March, in fact we had the biggest snowstorm since we've been up here on March 14, 2017, but after 2 days of warmth and sun, the beautiful brown grass is back again.

Stella and a curious newborn

The Husband has been outside being the farmer tending to his goats. With only a bit of help from me, we've been busy birthing babies. All of them (so far) have the half ears from their dad, a LaMancha, even though their moms all have big ears. About half of them also inherited dad's black color, although some of their moms are black and white like their kids.

The "Blood Moon" occurs when the sun, earth and moon are perfectly aligned and the earth's shadow turns the moon a very earthy red color. I didn't realize that it was only supposed to begin at 1 am. My favorite alarm clock, Jessie, woke me to go out at 12:30 am. I could not get back to sleep after letting her out, so I came out in my PJs to watch the eclipse, which didn't actually fully take place until almost 2:30 am.

None of the pictures showed the true colors of the blood moon, but it was fascinating to watch...until my fingers got too cold to take any more bad pics. Lots of pretty stars though!

1:53 am

2:22 am

Music and birds and kids

I went with the Hub to a bluegrassy kinda jam at Council Rock Brewery a week or so ago. Since I was not a jammer, I was pleased to have one of my Jersey cousins magically show up with her hub and 2 friends.

I was all set to post this (not great) pic of a red-winged blackbird 2 days ago. They showed up on the same day the green grass reappeared, and I wanted to celebrate the first signs of spring. Too late...the snow and ice and too much wind are back again.

Now for the good news—our first 2 kids were born this morning. As we borrowed Black Bart (a LaMancha buck) for only a few weeks, this was the first time that we could actually predict when the kidding would begin.

These 2 kids look just like their dad—mostly black with the little gopher ears of that breed. Our females are a mix of colors, a lot of them white like Rainbow here, and all of them have big ole goat ears. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the kids look like.

Even more wind and snow, no blue

Two tufted titmouses,
one black-capped chickadee

The Adirondack chairs and the bench are disappearing. The fire pit has been gone for weeks. The BirdBuddy is still busy, but the birds have to hang onto it for dear life...kinda like the Tilt-A-Whirl without the seatbelts.

All the inside beings are warm and cozy. It is such a blessing to be retired and not have to worry about venturing out into the snowy wilderness.

Monkey and Martin are still figuring out how to be best buds. That last pic may look like a peaceful chat between the bros, but the thought balloon above Monkey would say "try that again and I will smack you down again". The fur goes flying now and then.

The only one without cabin fever is Jessie. She is outside by choice, since this morning, and even now it is only 19° with winds up to 46 mph. At least she is on the porch, but she still gets a coating of snow with all the wind.

I can only try so many times to bring her in.

Wind and blue

For all my complaints about gray skies, now we have plenty of blue skies—but they come with too much wind. Poor Jessie isn't comfortable with the noise inside or out. She's just not happy. I am talking to the vet about what I can do for her.

Cyrus is happy inside and out. Rolling in the snow is one of his favorite things to do. And Monkey is happy with the peace and quiet inside. (What noise?)

The birds don't care about the weather, just the food—although sometimes it's tough to hang onto a swaying BirdBuddy.

Katzenbirds

It was hard to find a good BirdBuddy photo with a blue sky in the background. There has been a constant few inches of snow on the ground for weeks now, with gray skies, wind, and flurries to top it off.

I had to go back to January 3 to get this photo of a white-breasted nuthatch. He usually sneaks off before the camera can catch him, but this time he struck a pose AND there was a blue sky.

Martin and Monkey truly love watching the birds at the bird feeder right outside the window. It's better than a video for cats because it never ends...until it gets dark dark or when I forget to fill the feeder with sunflower seed.

These boys are still working out their friendship, but I am sure they will make it work soon enough.

New Jessie, BirdBuddy and cat buddies

Jessie has been reliably coming in in the mornings and evenings for a while now. She sleeps overnight in the cozy spot on the floor next to our bed. 

She also reliably wakes me up at 5:45 am to go out for a pee, but the new Jessie comes back in and stays in the house until about 12:30. That’s a big deal!

And yet she still insists on shivering out there on nasty, cold, windy, snowy days like today, until I convince her to come in when it gets dark and she gets hungry. 

The BirdBuddy has a hard time getting good pics on days like today when the birds have a hard time hanging on long enough to catch a seed or 2. That was a white-breasted nuthatch who succeeded. 

Monkey and Martin are getting better at being buddies. They still have a boxing match at least once a day, but then they act like BFFs. 

And the last pic is what happens when I spend too long writing a post. Even in his sleep, Martin tries to get my attention away from the phone (which was in that hand).