Dear Friends,
Looks like spring is here!!! These are the three peach trees that I swore were Almond trees last spring...even laughing because our county extension agent said Almond trees would not grow around these parts. Imagine my shame as I picked several ripe delicious peaches here!
If raking builds muscles in the back, and those muscles help support an Osteoporosis weakened spine, then my back should..."should" hold up a while longer. Let's hope so. It is a constant battle around here between me and these trees...they see me raking and when my back is turned they smile and drop more leaves, and this is the wrong time of the year to be raking leaves! I keep telling myself, "enjoy", this is the perfect exercise"! I have now raked all the way to the greenhouse...
Tiny Quaker Ladies...
Baby Eli is growing and changing. Every day these big feet look a little bigger! He had his second visit to see Dr. Davis last Thursday. He had gained ten pounds and now weighs twenty five pounds at ten weeks old!
He is like a big lovable stuffed animal, has lots of wet kisses, and reminds me of a baby Polar Bear. Poppy has taught him to sit and to shake. I am having a little more trouble with the leash thing...he can be stubborn! Any suggestions will be appreciated!
Speaking of bears...we are having strange happenings around here at night! Could it be a bear! At 2 am Friday morning Poppy and I were awakened by the awful noise only six screeching, screaming Guineas could make as they flew in fear from their roosting tree into the darkness of night. We jumped out of bed. Poppy grabbed the shotgun and I got the two spotlights and out we went into the night. Poppy walked holding the shotgun in one hand and shining, shining, shining the light up into the trees and into the woods with the other hand. Everything was still and quiet...nothing was moving...when BAM!!!! Poppy fired a warning shot into the air...man, he could have said something! Every hair on my head stood up. I mean it scared me to death. I was not far from him and certainly not expecting a shotgun blast! The predator must have run down the dam because a nesting wood duck flew off her nest and into the night also! At daylight, we found more signs of a wild animal lurking around. A hole was ripped into the wire cover on the compost bin and the wire entangled with brown animal fur. Three nights straight, the chairs on the pier have been moved and turned over. Scary stuff! Poppy has set up two cameras in the yard. This should be interesting!
We are loving this spring weather...
Sorry I'm talking your ears off. Guess I've been away too long. There is lots to do these days. The garden is waiting to be worked and planted, and with Eli under foot! Anyway, thank you if you are still here. Hope to be back soon. I'm going now, need to catch up on some blogs I love to read!
Love,
Henny Penny
Looks like spring is here!!! These are the three peach trees that I swore were Almond trees last spring...even laughing because our county extension agent said Almond trees would not grow around these parts. Imagine my shame as I picked several ripe delicious peaches here!
If raking builds muscles in the back, and those muscles help support an Osteoporosis weakened spine, then my back should..."should" hold up a while longer. Let's hope so. It is a constant battle around here between me and these trees...they see me raking and when my back is turned they smile and drop more leaves, and this is the wrong time of the year to be raking leaves! I keep telling myself, "enjoy", this is the perfect exercise"! I have now raked all the way to the greenhouse...
Tiny Quaker Ladies...
He is like a big lovable stuffed animal, has lots of wet kisses, and reminds me of a baby Polar Bear. Poppy has taught him to sit and to shake. I am having a little more trouble with the leash thing...he can be stubborn! Any suggestions will be appreciated!
We are loving this spring weather...
Sorry I'm talking your ears off. Guess I've been away too long. There is lots to do these days. The garden is waiting to be worked and planted, and with Eli under foot! Anyway, thank you if you are still here. Hope to be back soon. I'm going now, need to catch up on some blogs I love to read!
Love,
Henny Penny
Those are some beautiful peach blooms! We cannot grow them up here..you are lucky! You have been busy! Is your Eli food motivated? If he is..then he should do just about anything on leash..liver usually is a favorite..small pieces...stick it in front of his nose and say lets go for a walk! Keep giving him pieces along your walk..and always end on a positive note..good boy good boy lots so he knows he is doing the right thing! Go further and longer each day and soon he will love the lead, for now keep the on lead lessons short so he doesn't get bored and just sit down Most of all make it fun! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! How encouraging! Your suggestions make me want to try the leash now, but I will wait until it gets a little later this morning. Eli is food motivated. Dan taught him to sit and to shake with a dog cookie. He seems to learn fast. Thanks again!
DeleteExciting things going on in your neck of the woods!
ReplyDeleteI know! :) Can't wait to see the pictures. Of course, the chairs haven't been touched since putting up the cameras.
DeleteOh, it really looks like spring where you are!
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing raccoons...we had four in the garden the other night...they took the lids off the compost bins and made a bit of a mess,and were chattering away to each other.The left clumps of fur around the place too.
Jane x
It just may be raccoons. They must get into everything!
DeleteWow, spring is beautiful at your house. My guess is also raccoons. They do silly things like turn over the furniture and they are also murderers of young animals. Can't wait to see what your cameras reveal. Eli just gets cuter and cute!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I wonder if it was a raccoon that killed our old female duck on the pier a few months ago. We have not checked the camera yet. I will let everyone know. :)
DeleteI hope you get pictures of the intruder, but that means it has to come back and that won't be a good thing. You could use a leaf blower. My husband has a backpack blower that's not too heavy. He got it at a pawn shop so he didn't have to pay full price. It would be worth a look in a pawnshop whenever you get the chance. If you get one and it's too heavy for you, Poppy might use it! Blowing leaves and clippings is so fast with a blower that it's not such a job if you keep up with it. Good luck with your back and the critter.
ReplyDeleteWe do have a very old leaf blower...loud and heavy! Poppy used to use it but somehow the yard work turned into my job! :)
DeleteWow! Exciting times. I do hope as has been suggested that the intruder is only raccoons. At least they are smallish and generally wary of people. A bear is certainly a different kettle of fish!
ReplyDeleteEli is just adorable and really getting big. How much will he weigh when full grown?
I envy you your greenhouse. It would be so nice to be able to start things and get ahead with their growing. I don't have many windows that get direct sun and even if I did I have cats that like to rearrange plants and such so there's really not much I can do other than waiting till it warms up and starting seeds in big pots and setting them on the patio. That way they are bigger than they would be otherwise when I actually plant them.
Some of my plant orders have come which is good since we have had several nice warm days to work in the yard. But planting these new ones in established beds is hard since a lot of the plants that are there somewhere have not come up as yet so I risk planting something right on top of something else! Nice though to see some of the garden beds coming back yet again. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever see spring again!
Victoria in Indiana
It probably is raccoons but Poppy saw a large black bear just last fall while deer hunting about a quarter of a mile away! I don't know what to do with my greenhouse now that I have it! I need to get a small heater. I did put lots of small pots of plants that I rooted last summer in the greenhouse and they did not freeze this winter. Oh, I am good at planting on top of something! Good at chopping up bulbs too! :)
DeleteWe're still pretty brown here so I enjoyed your flowers.
ReplyDeleteAnd I simply can't get enough pictures of Eli.
I did go out and buy pansies, which are kind of a waste of money since I have to toss them once the weather gets too hot. But I needed to see some color in my yard and the forsythia hasn't even bloomed yet. But here in Massachusetts we really appreciate Spring when it finally arrives.
Hey Marty! I think Pansies are so pretty, but I can never get them to grow good. I thought everyone could grow Pansies! Seems like this has been a long cold winter everywhere.
DeleteSo glad I opened your blog for a minute before heading out for some errands. Love the look of Spring around your farm and gardens, and I also bet that you have some fearless raccoons adventuring in the night. Believe it or not, we have them right here in my pool waterfall area and they fight ( or what does raccoon romance sound like?) and sound like something is getting murdered. One shoved the other into the spa, and I got down and outside to see him climb out and shake himself off. There is a fence around pool, so I keep our dog away. The coons can really hut a dog. Eli is just the best, and once he gets used to his leash, don't let him pull you. Otherwise it means he is the leader!
ReplyDeleteHey Pam! Gosh, I can't imagine having more than one raccoons. They must get into everything late at night. We haven't looked at the pictures yet. Oh, I can picture Eli pulling me. Sometimes I think Eli thinks that I am a puppy too and Dan is the master.
ReplyDeleteHenny, I commented yesterday on your post but I am so bad to hit sign out instead of publish and I never got a chance to come back. I am so glad that everything is going good at your house. I hope what ever is terrorizing the animals will soon be gone. I am so glad spring is here. I am ready to start planting flowers and herbs. I would love to have a green house that is on our list of things to get for the farm. Frank made us some starter beds and he has them planted with herbs, vegetables and flowers. I can not believe how big Eli is getting he is so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteLove you, Vicki
Hey Vicki! I thought I was the only one who hit wrong buttons! Get a comment all typed and it disappears! Sounds like you and Frank have a good start on growing this spring. I don't know what to do with the little greenhouse!! Love you!
DeleteJust trying to get caught up with your posts! Hope the intruders are racoons rather than a bear, or I wouldn't be venturing out there after dark! Your place is so nice and tidy looking....or maybe you are like me and try to leave the messy parts out of the photos? I laughed when I saw all your plants sitting in the pots. For a few years I worked at a nursery in the Spring, and was always bringing stuff home. Didn't know where to put it though, so it sat in pots for years until most of it died from neglect. Are your peach trees in pots? I hate to say it but I have fruit trees still in pots, I'll probably kill them off too.
ReplyDeleteEli is just like a big white teddy bear:)
I echo Farside's advice with the leash. Keep the treats tiny, so you can give lots when he is doing the right thing. If you are struggling, and then have a break through and he gets it right, that's when you have a 'party'. Lots of praise and treats, given one at a time, one right after the other. That has more value than giving him a handful all at once.
I make my own treats. I freeze liver, kidney or heart. Then when it is partially thawed out, cut it into tiny cubes, about 1/4 ". Cook in a slow oven 250-300 on a cookie sheet until they are cooked/dried, but are not like rocks. Keep in a bag in the freezer, and just grab a handful as needed.
Yes I do leave out lots of messy spots when taking pictures! :) And the peach trees are in pots. The roots have grown into the ground through the pot. Now I am afraid of killing them if I try moving them! Guess I will just enjoy them like they are. I appreciate the recipe for the dog treats. I do plan to try it. Eli and I did not do so good this morning with the leash!
DeleteWe have a walnut tree that has also grown through it's pot and into the ground. We were going to get it moved before this growing season, and we haven't, and it is in totally the wrong spot, and is getting quite big.
DeleteWhat a beautiful spot you have here !
ReplyDeleteThe puppy ~ cuteness overload .
Willow! Thank you! What a surprise and thank you for following my blog. You have such a beautiful blog and such a beautiful place. I just enjoyed looking at your "dogs in hats parade!
DeleteI want to see more of your greenhouse and trees. Love the peach/almond flowering. Unfortunately there is a good chanceI the donkeys have killed our lilacs and I'm ready to send them to the time-out corner for a very very long time.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I have lots to ask you about the chickens!
I sure hope your lilacs will come out and are not dead.Lilacs are beautiful and I would love to have them in my yard. I know what you mean! We are surrounded by woods and leaves and dirt...but the chickens go straight to my flower beds to peck and scratch when I let them out!
DeleteWhoa- that's a lot of excitement going on at your place! I hope you find out what has been agitating out in the yard. Love your greenhouse...I've been thinking hard about one because we eat so many salads..it would sure be nice to have a good place to grow veggies.
ReplyDeleteTerri, thank you! I am always surprised and excited to get a new follower! You have such a great blog! I wish I knew more about using my greenhouse! :)
ReplyDelete