New Life Old Farmers

A few years ago, I talked My Loving Spouse into making some chalkboard pigs.  I LOVE ours!  It hangs over the kitchen sink, where a window should be.  

Apparently, the pig speaks Chinese.

We leave our special/random messages for one another.

I think everyone should have a pig.We did have to glue his tail back on, after an unfortunate tail incident.

Even with a few scars or a glued on tail, we can still be a positive messenger…tell the family what is important…

This message may be up for a while….

…and we are blessed.

I say, find yourself a pig.

I have been painting the barns.  Well, I have been painting as far as I could reach comfortably with a ladder (a tall ladder), a paint sprayer and a can of wasp spray.  All of which did not get the job done, enter My Loving Spouse with a plan.  We attempted the plan yesterday……it didn’t work.

Today, we had a ‘new’ plan.

This plan included my driving our tractor, Blue, while he painted on a ladder…that was in the bucket of Blue.

Seriously, what could go wrong?We carefully went over our signals for when I was to lower the bucket, raise the bucket, move the tractor….not drop the bucket with My Loving Spouse in the bucket!  

Check.

I sat in the tractor careful to do everything exactly right, and thought…this truly is marital trust.  He did a great job painting the white trim.  I did a great job driving the tractor.  Any little white paint marks that dropped onto the barn red, we are pretending is bird poop.We got it done.  It looks great.  More importantly…no husbands were harmed in the painting of this barn.

We are a darned good team…and we are blessed.

The end of summer is in the air, in a way I’d never experienced in the first half century of my life living in Southern California.  There, the end of August meant very little, other than the prospect of a month or more of continued hot weather.

I have stopped watering the vegetable garden in fear of rotting my plethora of pumpkins…and all my green tomatoes just keep staying green.

The geese are in the air, taunting My Loving Spouse, as if they know, that it is not hunting season…yet.

While we are still barbecuing, our croquet games start before dinner rather than after.  The season stats would show, that although I’ve played the most, I’ve won the least.  No wonder Team Offspring just laughs, when I remind them with my ‘pre-game’ admonishment of “No Crying When I Clean Your Clock”.

The garden projects are not really complete, just broken into phases called ‘this year’ and ‘next year’.

There is a ‘Hoedown in The Down Town’.  Lights are strung and the community comes.  The event is fun, festive and free.  Folks in sandals, boots and sneakers are all one, when the music starts.  As we have finally reached the point, where all of his bad joints have been replaced with new ones, My Loving Spouse gets home from work early, to take me dancing.

…and I am blessed.

Our pups have been making their transition from Glory Farm to their new family.  These families are so important to us.  This is a huge reason to do this litter…helping good homes, get good dogs…

“June” and Carl….a second ‘family’ set.  Carl’s sister has Remi, one of our puppies from last year….  I cannot even count the number of times Carl thanked us for this little pup.

We love for our pups to go to friends, or friends of friends….

This darling girl will go to live the island life on Whidbey Island, via a Southern California friend of ours….

Speaking of Sisters…These 3 cried when they heard they were getting a puppy, but which pup?  Big sister is holding their pup, while little sister is holding their Aunt’s pup!  Sister’s getting darling black girls…Here she is…

What about the boys?  Brother’s getting our only set of black boys?Diesel and Maverick are off to great homes….these boys just make us smile.

and before we knew it, then there were 2…

..and we are blessed.

When I think of last week, I can only think…chaos.  The best kind of chaos and I smile.  There is that warm feeling in my heart, contentment and joy.  The house was full of family and dogs (14 to be exact, 4 adults and 10 puppies).  The puppies were socialized.

The weather was hot.  Hot for here, hot for anywhere and no Ellensburg breeze/wind, 100 degrees, an old home with no A/C.  However, here it does cool off at night and the mornings are lovely and it is only the afternoons that are nasty.  We appreciated the mornings and by 4:oo pm, we instituted the ‘Mike hour’ and daily worked our way through a different Hard Mike’s Lemonade flavor.  The people were socialized.

There were birthdays to celebrate.  

Cousins came from over the hill with their Grandson, brothers came, friends came….kids and dogs and chaos…the best kind.  The family from different branches, with different names were socialized.More cousins came, San Diego cousins, because after all they were only in Portland and we had puppies.

We found them beds and said, ‘Just stay’.

The pond was played in.  THE Grandson helped me put the candles on his Mama & Daddy’s cake.

Water balloons were launched, because when I saw the launcher, complete with 100 self sealing balloons, I knew that my son, needed it for his 29th birthday.

The San Diego boy cousin rode the mini bike…and rode it into the barn, cut his leg open and it was time for stitches, ‘real life’ was in session!  They changed their flight, and as their Mom got them organized, I took these younger cousins into town…for ice cream and bought them books, because I like doing both of those things with kids.  I told them stories of My Special Uncle, their Great Grandfather, who taught me to do those things with kids, by doing those things for me.  I told them stories about their Grandfather, my cousin, the funniest man I have ever known, who died too young, and they’ve never know…

I guess, that is my job now, my gift…to be the family story-teller and help paint the family picture…and probably, to buy water balloons.

…and I am blessed.

I do not really like to paint.  I do, however, like the results painting brings.  I hadn’t planned to paint this summer, but as we know here….plans are often over rated.  I have painted enough this summer to pass on 6 really crucial tips that will make any painting job you tackle better than ever!

1.  Paint Value  Buy good quality (possibly pricey) paint.  High quality paint makes the job easier and looks better, which is the whole point.  Sherwin Williams and I are pretty much best buds.  I would love it, if they were paying me big sums of money (or even small sums of money) to say that, but they do not really know this blog exists.  Sherwin keeps track of everything I buy, so I can get the same color again when I need it, because if you think that I might keep track, you’d be wrong most of the time.  My Loving Spouse and I had one of our biggest discussions/arguments about the cost of buying paint for the barns for me to paint them this summer.  Decent paint for me to do the painting is not a frivolous expenditure.  Someone/My Loving Spouse was acting (only for a little while) like I was buying myself diamonds or cows or something!
2. Appropriate tools  Summer time, farm, wasp spray…enough said.
   
3. Crisp lines.  Good painting outcomes are always the goal, especially when you don’t really even like to paint.  Getting crisp lines in an old house was always problematic.  My Loving Spouse heard of a new way to get sharp edges and let me tell you they worked!  I zipped to Sherwin’s for some Alabaster White for ceilings, (after all Johanna Gaines loves it), so I figured I could not go wrong.  The room had already been painted green, but we needed to clean up the trim and the ceilings.  My Loving Spouse applied painter’s tape, a bead of caulk, ran his finger down the caulk, painted over the tape and caulk, then pulled the tape off to crisp lines.  We were practically giddy with excitement!
4. Cleaning paint brushes.   Not everyone will agree with this tip, but let me tell you, it has made my painting life sooooo much easier.  Since I am the one who does most of the painting, making it easier on me is important.  I state this up front, because My Loving Spouse does not actually agree with my use of this tip, but I am standing by it.  The best way to clean your paint brushes effectively is to just throw them away.  No, I am not wasteful, this is just practical.  I cannot get them clean, and it drives me crazy and no, I do not want to learn how.  Remember, I don’t even like to paint.  New paint brushes are a small price to pay to have me do most of the painting around here.  P.S.  I think Sherwin probably doesn’t mind, that I buy new brushes.
5. Find a Friend  I am blessed by a Sweet Friend with a love of painting.  No, I do not understand it and you can bet, I am not going to make fun of it, because she likes to help me paint!  I don’t like to paint, but I do like spending time with my friend.  I have even spent time painting her fence, because she needed help, and because every job is better when you do it with someone you like.
6. Pat Yourself On The Back  Painting old barns is a lot like pulling weeds.  No one else will really notice that you’ve done the job.  People (other than you) will only really notice when it needs doing.  Sit back, enjoy your hard work and maybe…buy yourself something special like wine…or a cow.

What is better than visiting puppies?

Sharing puppies!  With 10 healthy little pups and a Mama dog, that is willing to let people hold her babies, (as long as they scratch her head first), there are enough puppies for everyone.Santa left these boys an IOU about 18 months ago, for a “Puppy when the time was right”.  Guess what time it is?  Right!  There was a brief discussion with their Dad, to try to talk him into 2 pups.  Dad wouldn’t visit the pups, because he knew he’d weaken and say, “Yes”.  We’re delighted that one of these little black male dogs will belong with this great family, be trained up and learn to hunt with these boys.Fuzzy tail picture, yep, someone is ‘wagging’ it!Our Friend the Farmer stops by for a quick visit, a drink and a puppy cuddle.We had no plans to keep any of the pups, but this little yellow male is working his way into our hearts.  He is calm and sweet.  My Loving Spouse says his name is “Gunner”, however, if you are British you pronounce it “Gun-na”.

Not all the pups have been spoken for yet.  This is a bit easier on me, because as soon as I know which family they are going to, it feels like I am caring for someone else’s dog.  However, I do prefer them to go to great people we know, or friends know, so I am trying to not be anxious, that they are not all spoken for at this time.  They are 3 1/2 weeks old, which means they will be climbing out of their whelping box soon!  Some of them are showing signs of climbing out, so we spent yesterday evening securing the perimeter of the yard!

Stay tuned for more puppies adventures, and if you live nearby…come visit!

We have true free range chickens.Unfortunately they like to hang out on the porch on windy or hot days…or still, cool days…or rainy days.  Yep, just about everyday, hanging out, pooping on the porch.  They have a short memory, because they get chased off with a broom by me often!  Then they jump into what was supposed to be a strawberry patch-flower garden and take a dust bath.  The high price of fresh eggs.The girls do provide what I think are the best eggs in the valley.  Even Our Friend the Farmer, said, “Oh, I sure do like your eggs!”  He has geriatric hens that have stopped laying, so he has joined my small, but faithful collection of egg customers.I set out a dozen eggs, in a cooler.  I have a low tech, collection container for payment.It is all done on the honor system.  Folks pay for the eggs and then help me out by laying the sign down and putting the cooler beside the fence.

Do people steal the cooler?  No

Do people steal the eggs?  No

Do people bring back egg cartons, even when there are no eggs?  Yes, lots.Is life good?

You bet!

 

We have a few flies here at the farm.  Flies are ugly, nasty, gross insects.  Where there is poop, there are flies.  I can well remember my mother, Betty, hollering at us kids,

“Do NOT put the fly swatter on the table/counter!!!  Flies land in dog doo!”

It left a mark on me.  She was right.  Flies are gross.  They land in dog doo and any other doo they can find.  Fly swatters are gross.  Flies in the house are gross and annoying, swat them with a swatter and they smear on the surface.  Swat them with a random ball-cap and you might (I did) break a window.

We saw this video of a man shooting flies with salt.  My Loving Spouse was on the internet ready to buy it.  He found it for $50, gotta say, that did slow us down.  We waited a bit, after all….would it really work and $50 is one expensive Fly Swatter.

I was then off to JoAnn’s fabric shop to check out a sale in Yakima.  Some one was really thinking when they put this store in, because next door to the shop is a very nice Ace Hardware.  Not to stereotype anyone, but ‘if a wife is shopping for fabric, a husband does have somewhere to go.’

I needed a door magnet, so I popped into Ace.  There I saw it.I asked the Old Boy who was helping me,

“How much fun have you had with that Bug-a-Salt?”

‘I LOVE it!  It really works and it is a hoot!’

I was on the phone to My Loving Spouse.

“They’ve got the Bug-a-Salt at Ace.  Only $40.”

He said only two words, “Buy it!”

This is the most fun I’ve ever had killing those gross flies.  No mess, just a bit of table salt added to the dust we already have, (hardly worth mentioning).  Everyone who I’ve let try it, wants to know how to buy one and has a long list of people they want to buy it for.  

If you visit, I will no longer be embarrassed at our flies.  I will just hand you our Bug-a-Salt and let you have some fun.

Life is good…..if, you are not a fly.