Don't Worry

My last post left a few people worried about me. Not to worry!

Someone who is an authority figure will likely be leaving my life, and leaving a large void behind. This is causing me a great deal of grief and pain, and the circumstances of his departure are very unpleasant. It's a long story, and the specifics are unimportant here. What is important is that I will get through it, and I will be stronger for it. He and I will keep in touch, and life will go on.

So what else is new?

L brought home a note from his teacher saying that his class is going to be hatching some eggs. They are seeking homes for the birds after they hatch. Guess who volunteered our home... "But MOM, there are just TWO farm kids in my class! Where will these birds GO if WE don't take them??" Okay, let's say it all together now: SUCKER! Yes, I wrote the note of consent.

Before you condemn me for being an idiot, just think of all the blogging I will be doing. Look at it as my acquisition of good blogging material.

But darnit, I had plans for that chicken coop. It would have made a cool potting shed. It truly has some cool architecture. Somebody worked hard on it when they made it. I also considered using some of the wood for the trim inside of our house. It would keep things authentic.

So, I dunno. I can't keep the birds (some sort of variety of chickens, geese and ducks) in the barn, because we have barn cats. I am also going to have to fashion something so that the trashy neighbors' dogs can't get to them.

Actually, I have no idea what poultry needs to thrive. I guess I will be doing some research.

Okay, done with thinking while typing...

B and I have worked SO hard on our yard for the past few weekends! We mowed about a half-acre of grass, back behind the garage and down the hill. There are beautiful trees down there, and cement pads that once served as a barn floor or other livestock home. The trees grew through the cement pads! We are looking forward to enjoying that area.

Our baby grass is coming up nicely in the pasture. We are still impatient, as it's such a pain to take the horses to the other pastures. And Major still has to stay in the dry paddock, unless we do a complete swap of the horses in their respective enclosures. We do, but it's not convenient. So we will be patient, and look forward to a lush pasture and few weeds.

Our neighbor K has begun his disking of his ground. It has been so unseasonably warm here that I keep wondering when they will start planting. I have to tell myself that it's only April! Hard to believe that we've had 80 degree days so far.

I have to tell you about these neighbors we have. Everybody has a tale or two about their trashy neighbors, so I will share mine. (I alluded to them above.)

Let's call my neighbor Bubba. Bubba moved in at the end of the summer, renting the house about 1/4 mile away (our nearest neighbor). Bubba just got married, and we wished him well. He "inherited" a little girl, "Annie" when he got married. Annie is 12, going on 35. She announced that our son L was her boyfriend after playing at our house once. Then she came over and told L that she was pregnant. What goes on in the mind of a 12 year old?? She calls all the time. Some days she calls in excess of 5 times. We all avoid her.

You already heard about all of my cat stories. Those were Bubba's cats. So I have a lot of respect for him, as you know. NOT.

So Bubba decides that any self-respecting farmhouse-renting country folk needs to get some dogs. So he gets himself a couple of Great Pyrenees. Yeah. Those dogs are born weighing about 100 pounds. And they are livestock guard dogs. So they need a job. Bubba decides that country dogs can run free. Come on, just think of that pretty picture! Dogs running free, playing without a care, pooping all over the neighbors' yards, chasing their horses... You can see how the vision went downhill quickly.

We were very angry about Bubba's dogs being loose. I mean, they would be loose at least 3-4 times a day. They would get into our pastures, chase the horses (who hate dogs), get into the creek, just make general nuisances of themselves. We told Bubba and Annie that the dogs risked getting killed by the horses, thinking that the threat of death would make Bubba fashion some sort of kennel or other restraint. I think they actually saw that as a challenge or something, because the dogs were loose more than ever.

And when a person lives in the country, they get accustomed to their privacy. People don't just drive by, or pop over. So imagine, all settled for the evening in your jammies, only to have your neighbor roar up your driveway to ask if you've seen his dogs. For the 27th time that day.

Well, as time went on, Bubba decided that chasing after his dogs was futile. In fact, rather than even tie the dogs up only to have them get loose and challenge his authority, he decided to just let them loose at all times. Well, no, let me rephrase that: he decided that if he tied ONE dog up, that the other would stay close.

Um, yeah, right.

And I will give him a little credit. Perhaps that WOULD have worked, had he not seen the need to acquire Dog #3. Dog #3 happens to not be quite as large of a dog. This time Bubba thought a border collie would be a good acquisition.

If you know anything about border collies, you know that they like to herd anything and everything. Bubba's border collie likes to herd my car as I drive by. I always wait for him to spring through the air, make like a 30-foot leap, as he races after my car in the cloud of dust that I leave as I barrel down the road.

K and F, our farmer friends/neighbors, spent the winter down south, so they are not aware of Bubba's Dogs and their Legacy. However, now that they are back, and getting ready to plant most of the land around us, it will be interesting to see what transpires...

I complained to the neighbor on the other side of Bubba, who keeps his dog kenneled, and he said that Bubba might be taking a job out of state and moving his family out of the farmhouse. I wonder if he'll leave the dogs for the next tenant!