A Trip to the Animal Hospital

Rabbits and squirrels aren't the only bad guys taking up residence in my big backyard.  Nope, in fact the worst pests of all are the foxtails. Rabbits and squirrels are definitely annoying and have caused a lot of damage to my garden but the foxtails have injured my poor sweet little dogs on more than one occasion. Tuesday morning when my husband let the dogs out before work, they were just fine. By the time my daughter fed them about two hours later, Lola had snorted a foxtail up her nose and it was making her very ill. My little darling was sneezing violently and was acting completely lethargic. I knew I had no choice but to take her to the vet. I also knew it was going to be expensive. This wasn't the first time Lola had sniffed up a foxtail, so I already knew she would have to be anesthetized in order to have it removed. Lola's big sister Gladys had a foxtail in her ear once. Those are much easier and cheaper to yank out. So off to the Vet we went. When they gave me the estimate, it was just as expensive as I had expected. I realize that it is not standard practice to bargain for medical services, but I had to ask if this was the only way to get out the offending foxtail. Of course I was willing to do what it took to relieve my pet's suffering, I just wanted to know if there were any options. Lo and behold, there were options. Lola was 'intact', meaning she had not been spayed. If we chose to get her spayed, it would be much less, almost half the cost, and they would look up her nose for free. Sounds good to me! The next day after her surgery, Lola was back to her bright and bubbly self again and everyone except Gladys was very glad to have her back home.

So, that's the story of how Lola went to the vet have a foxtail taken out of her nose and ended up getting her uterus removed.

Chickens Love Spinach

Even though I know I need to get a job, I am really enjoying my time at home playing "homestead".
I love to get up and feed the chickens, tend to the garden, cook and even clean. Along with job hunting and computer class, I've been sewing and making jewelry. I've also been researching making homesteading a reality and not just a fantasy.

After doing my chores, I love to kick back in the yard with the dogs and the chickens and sometimes Frank the Tank, the tortoise. I bring treats for everyone and they all gather around and we have lunch together. So far I have discovered that chickens LOVE spinach and so do tortoises, but dogs, not so much. Dogs eat carrots 'Muppet style', which means they will take them from you, chew them up and let the pieces fall out of their mouths and all over the ground. Tortoises will eat carrots, but they have to be cut into small pieces. Chickens politely refuse. Dogs and tortoises do like pineapple, but the chickens do not. The chickens love grapes though. I think grapes are their favorite treat so far. They just go crazy over them.  I have to give Esther whole grapes so that she will run off to the corner and peck it to bits, otherwise she will just gobble down the cut-up grapes before the other birds even have a chance . Haven't offered grapes to Frank so I don't know how he feels about them, but I bet he would be a fan. The dogs also eat grapes 'Muppet style'. Everyone likes tomatoes, figs, peaches and bok choy. And now you know that.

Ripe Tomatoes!

Moving the tomato plants was surely the right thing to do, because we finally have ripe tomatoes!! Nothing beats home grown tomatoes. If you have never had one, you need to get yourself a tomato plant right now and grow some. You don't need a big garden. As you can see, they will do just fine in a pot, as long as they get lots of sunlight.

  When I went to water them today, I got a very pleasant surprise. See those tiny little green tomatoes? They were as big as BBs just two days ago, now they are the size of grapes!

I gave the first ripe tomato to my niece on her birthday. She absolutely loves tomatoes, so I always give her the first ripe fruit of the season.

Don't want to jinx it....

One of the areas of 'self-sufficiency' I have been struggling with has been my garden. Every time I try to plant something, it gets eaten up before it can even get started. I was about to throw in the towel when I found some super cheap gallon size tomato and pepper plants at the Home Depot. Some of them already had fruit on them, which is normally not a plus, but it was so late in the season I knew if I didn't get cracking there would be no tomatoes this year. What the heck, they were only two bucks each, so I went for it. I decided that putting them in the ground was not going to work out so I would try to grow them in containers on my upstairs deck, out of the sight of those devious squirrels and rabbits.

 I'm afraid to even say anything. but so far moving the plants to the upstairs deck has worked out beautifully. I am knocking on wood now. The two tomato plants have three tomatoes each and several more flower blossoms that are in the process of becoming tomatoes. The basil plant is suffering, only because we just don't use very much basil so the leaves are just getting droopy. The pepper plant has lots of little buds which I hope will all turn into peppers. Or maybe not...when I bought the plant I chose it for its lovely green and curly leaves. I had never heard of "Caribbean Red" peppers before. Did a little research and discovered that they are one of the hottest peppers in the world! Twice as hot as habeneros! No bueno for me, I am a real lightweight when it comes to spicy food.

I picked up a couple more of those super bargain plants at the Depot yesterday. This time I went with what I knew and got "California Wonder".

What's new...

I've been slacking on my posting duties. Been busy with my chores, and taking classes at the Career Center so I can get certified in Office 2007. I need to be able to put it on my resume'. I am also trying to re-learn touch typing so I can get a typing certificate. I am typing without looking at the keys right now, so this post will take about 10 times as long as usual. I gotta practice though, no matter how frustrating it is. It is really embarrassing to be at the Career Center and be typing this slow. I type about 22 words a minute, which is not very good.

The chickens are doing great, though. They love being out in their pen, and as soon as we finish securing the yard, they will be able to range freely for part of the day. They are so cute, they get so excited when they see me coming out into the yard. I bring them treats, like the ends of the tomato (the part you don't eat) and grapes, and they love spinach. I have a table and chair set up next to the pen, so I can eat my lunch outside and of course I must bring goodies for the animals. It's like Dr. Doolittle out there, me eating my lunch while dogs, chickens and a tortoise all beg for treats. I love it.

Here's a short video of the chicks enjoying some corncobs that I saved from our dinner last night...