Well the other day I had been canning and I wanted to show you what I'd put up, or at least a bit of what we'd put up.  this is some of the spaghetti sauce we put up.  12 pints in all.  Then we put up 8 quarts of ground beef and 10 pints.  Yummy eating in the future.

Well, I got fussed this morning about not blogging.  Seriously I'm gonna do this.  But . . . . I don't think I have that much to say.  I'm not crafty and only can but EVERYONE cans, what interest is that.  I also garden but so does everyone else.  I have animals but so do everyone else.  So what's to read.  Unlike 1st man, I do not have cool projects.  Unlike my welsh blogger I am not nearly so funny.  But . . . . .  I'm gonna try.  I'm gonna be the best blogger . . . . . I promise.   (I think)

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing since I can't find out how to do things on this blog place.  I love reading others blogs though.  I did find my camera but then couldn't find the cord that allowed me to transfer the pics.  Oh well, I have this basket of plugs and stuff but can never find which one I need. 
Had such a wonderful weekend.
My chicken are learning how to get back into the chicken yard  . all except this one little bugger who thinks she should NOT be a part of the flock.  she never goes in and I'm afraid the coyotes or foxes will get her.  I keep trying to herd her into the yard and so does Pollie,  the blonde chihuahua.  Pollie runs after the flock and they all run pell-mell for the yard.  all except for the one!!  I need a good name for the one though, I can't keep calling her 'the one'. 
did clean up all the trash and burned it yesterday and put down black plastic and am going to solarize an old garden plot.  Want to use it this winter for maybe a large crop of ? ? ?  something.  I also bought some dent corn seed for next years plant.  Can then feed it or grind it into cornmeal. 
today when I go home I will plant some cuke seed and maybe some beets and maybe some sugar snaps, for the fall season.  Need to get some potatoes into the ground to but I need to go to the store to get some seed potatoes.

My son just left the farm for home and another work week.  We had a great time just doing little things and canning.  He picked up some organic beef in Katy on the way up and we canned most of it and wrapped some for fresh.  I made a wonderful spaghetti sauce and canned it.  I'm pressuring my last three jars.  when purchasing some jars my dil had a man ask her what she was canning and she told him her mil canned.  He wanted to now whether I would sell some of my stuff.  Well, I only can for my family but I thought what could it hurt to sell a little.  so I called the man and he wanted five jars of various stuff and I decided to sell it to him.  He seemed really pleased to get it.  And no I'd not sell it just to anyone.  We did put up another shelf system so I could put more of the canned goods in one place rather than all over the kitchen. 

I had thought to post a pic but I cant seem to find my camera.  Typical.

another day and the brit. . . .well

Well the blog from the Brit ( or maybe he's welsh) anyway he did not tell the ending of the movie and I hate it when I don't know the endings.  I'll have to fuss at him.

I read 1st man's blog yesterday and decided that I have not a creative bone in my body!!!!!  And it's really awful that he is so creative and makes such cool things and I do not.  I's almost like rubbing my face in my inability to be creative!  It's like that new show that has crafty folk doing crafty things on TV.  I won't watch it because I'll be sad.  wish I could do that stuff.  In fact, I have a drawer full of scrapbooking stuff and I've never opened that drawer since I bought it and put it there.  See, no creative juices flowing in these veins.

Now, read . . . . that's my thing.  I have close to 200 books on my kindle and that's since last June 2011.  so, I do read . . . a lot . . . .a really really lot.  I used to tell people I 'ate books'. 

Just NOT crafty stuff.  And always tell me the movie endings.

Still don't know what I'm doing

On Saturday I got 10 feathered out keets.  they are in the cage getting acclimated.  Canned more pickles and canned some green tomato pickles (will let you now later how they turned out)  Cukes are pooping out in the garden but the okra is coming in and I'll soon be canning that.  Even the tomatoes are looking a little worse for wear but still producing.  the potatoes I took to my daughters were cooked and they said they were delicious.  They want MORE!!!!!!!!!  Sorry, ladies, not until fall ones come in. 

son taking an nursing test today but we don't now the outcome. 

I interviewed for a job yesterday at a catholic school (I'm a heathen), and it's only part-time and only pays 16,200 per year.  It's looking like it's that or 72,000 per year in Alaska.  The only drawback about Alaska is that it's Alaska!!!  Who would take care of the chicks and keets and garden and newly planted trees and the house and the dog and. . . . . . .?  Maybe Luling will come through with an offer, and then again, maybe not.  Right now I'm earning lots more with the contract gig but I don't know how long it'll last.  My, my, too many decisions to make and none of them are in my bailiwick. 

Daughter is cleaning out her garage and I'm getting some really nice steel shelving units and some bird netting for my fig trees and some rocks and anything else she doesn't want to keep.  Lucky me!!!

I think the gadget where others can blog me is fixed . . . but then again. . . . I don't know what I'm doing!

Today is 'move the bales day'.  I have a friend who is driving down to shift some of the old bales in my barn.  It's due for a clean-out and the hay shift is first.  then I'll hire the little unsuspecting kid down the road and have him shift the barn 'soil' to the yard and then all will be clean for . . oh. . .another several years.  In the meantime i mowed the lawn yesterday.  Now I'm watering the new trees planted this spring because I'VE NOT GOTTEN ANY RAIN!  I haven't cleaned the house yet and the floors are getting really grotty but I will refuse to do this chore until Jack is safely back in Seattle because he is still in the house during the heat of the day and his "Jack hair' is all over everything.  Got 10 more guinea keets yesterday to add to my squad of 'grasshopper' eaters.  A necessity during the summer.    I do wish I had some more creativity so that I could make my house as cute as the 1st man's.  alas.

I wish I were smarter about doing this blog stuff.  I want the most recent post to show up but as of yet I'm too techno challenged to figure out how to do this.  My "techno friend" keeps trying to help but dear 1st man is losing the battle with my challenges.  Bless him for trying! 

The garden is quickly going down the "hot as hell" hill but the cukes are going along nicely.  So nicely in fact, that I am losing my mind what with picking and canning and watering every night.  I think it's about time to rip out the rest of the plants and give me and them a well deserved rest.

Well, Jack is going to go back to his 'real' mom in Seattle.  Jack is an Alaskan dog and as such really is suffering from the Texas heat so going 'home' seems to be the best option for him.  He will have a great life there in the cool and his mom loves the outdoors so he will have plenty of running to do.  I'll take him next saturday to the austin airport an send him on his way to COOL.

One of my granddogs was killed yesterday and I'll miss him

I have another interview on Monday with a parochial school in the next city over.  Would be nice teaching 5 - 8 grade history.  Will let you know whether I'll be getting any of the jobs I interview for.

Blowing wind (everyone else got the rain) knocked down another snag on my dead pecan tree and really did a number on the fence.  something else to repair!  Put up dill cukes and some beets from the garden and finally put up the pineapple jam I found the recipe for.  Soon the okra ought to be coming on and I can get it started.  The tomatoes are doing very well and I might try to put up some green pickled tomatoes.  Sounds ghastly but I may try it for something different. 

I am going to mow the lawn today and am going to try to get the kid down the road to do the weeding.  I can mow because it is sitting but the weeding is not my cuppa.

Figs are looking very good and quite prolific.  don't know yet what I'll do with those other than fig/strawberry jam.  Maybe just can some for preserves. 

The heat of summer is here for sure.  Over 100 yesterday.  I get home and water the garden, leaving the hose running while I go inside.  Then out to feed the dogs, cat and chickens (ought to start getting eggs soon), then pick the garden and go inside to can in the AC.  Oh, I have squash going sorta well.  I at least get to eat some every other day. 

Waiting for fall and lower temps

I just read the brit's blog about getting revenge upon a driver by leaving a bag of dog poo on the car hood.  I do love that.  I have often done similar things and have felt good at the 'passive' revenge I felt.  I think revenge feels better when passively done. 

I am still picking LOTS of cukes and every day and canning them, either sweet or dilled.  Today I am going to the store to pick up some peppers to make some of the dills a little spicy.  We'll see how those turn out and whether the fam likes them.  The nurse boy really likes the bread and butter pickles so I'm making some of those too. 

I bought some beautiful peonies for my daughters the last weekend and they were sure nice.  Wish we could grow them here.

Was going to buy some keets but have decided against those.  The chicks are growing quite fast and should be laying soon.  The little horse is doing nicely and seems to enjoy the farm.

Been canning like crazy.  at least 4 pints of cukes per day and I've dried tomatoes for my daughter and canned potatoes.  My g'daughter was at the farm last weekend and we dug the potatoes, peeled them and she cut them up.  She said it would be good practice for dicing humans if the time ever came!!!  Went to Austin to deliver grands because they will be going to the water park with their auntie.   bought and put up shelves to hold my canning.  I put it in the corner of my bedroom because there is no room in the closet any longer.  too many jars.  Now that the potatoes are dug I intend to plant a little cherry pepper that my daughter wants me to pickle.  Squash is doing well and the okra is coming on and will be ready for the first pick in about a week or two.  I've gotten a new mare and her baby.  Appaloosas with really nice blankets.  The little boy is named 'Gibson'.  don't ask why because I don't know. My daughter named him.  No name yet for the mare.  smokey, my gelding is making himself the guardian of the pair and they seem to think he is an OK guy because they stick around him.    Pics of both will be posted when i have time.  should hear this week about the job I interviewed for.  Getting hotter.  As 1st man reported it is hot and hotter and hottest, but hey, there is always Air conditioner until that poops out.  I expect it too as the unit is close to 20 years old.  gotta start saving money for a new system one of these days.

Picked cukes and dilled them yesterday.  four jars of . . .If I pick every day then they are small enough to make really good dills.  The tomatoes are doing well and I am going to dry them.  i did can 4 jars but I want to dry some too.  The kids have put in their orders for the taste of the dills and both want garlic and some peppers in the dills so I will do those for them.  Me, I just want plain dills, no peppers.  I really watered the garden well last saturday and the plants already are putting on more buds.  I'm gonna dig potatoes this week because my g'daughter is coming to visit for a week.  I also want to get some more peaches while she is here and put up about 6 jars of jam and some peaches in light syrup.  she said she wanted to learn to do some of this stuff, so I'm gonna oblige her.  Maybe she can come to work with me one or two days and ???    Haven't heard from any of the schools I applied to for counseling positions but I really don't expect too.  for some reason people believe that at 69 you are too old to breathe on your own, much less to work.

Wasn' it great to see elizabeth on the Thames.  I remember watching her coronation in 53 and now she has been on the throne for 60 years.  I think that's worth going down the river for!!!!  Good-o for her.  may she reign for another 40 years.

I finally got done with all the little jobs I had to do. I took Nudles to the vet for her shot and Jack went along to get his HeartPro shot.  Pollie went along for the ride and I think just to go 'nannananan at the other dogs because she did not have anything done.  went to town to deposit checks, bought everyone a little bit at the local sonic, then drove past some of the oil wells in the neighborhood.  then to a friends to pick up some dill.  Spent a long time talking with her about every topic under the rainbow and having a great old time doing so.  I think I want to buy one of her mares and her colt.  then came home and dilled 3 quarts and 1 pint of pickles and then watered the garden.  but now that it's done I can blog.  that's all folks!!!!

Well, today and yesterday and probably next week too I'm shredding stuff at work.  I work contract work for a seismic company in my area.  and now they have me shredding all the old documents from their last job.  I am having a great time, not shredding, but knowing that I am getting great mulch for between the rows of my garden!!!  Free.  I use to get it from behind the police station but they are now shredding and then compacting their papers so I have no access, and as a result I have no shred.  But now I'm shredding and I'll have it all, all it tell you.  It'll be mine and mine alone, no sharing with anyone.  Yippee.   . . . . . . Oh my heavens, someone stop this giddy feeling.  I'm just so tickled.  I've added several blogs that I look at daily and many don't write daily.  I understand that others have jobs  . . . . .and a life (a real one), but I really enjoy seeing what others are doing in the world.  I especially enjoy the brit sites because 'they talk so funny'!!!!!  Bet that'll elicit comments.  enjoy your world today, after all you DID wake up on the right side of the grass!!!!!!!

These are some other pics I took.  These ones are of my garden.

From the Butterick book:

did you know?
     You can add years to your linoleum by varnishing it yearly?
     Attach the clothespin bag to your waist and you 'll have easy access.
     If your victrola becomes scratched, use a brush and put on iodine then buff.
     When setting a mousetrap, boil the trap.  Mice don't like the smell of their kind
     "My children will spend hours playing the 'talking machine, and I put pictures on the records so they would know what the record was about.
     Mirrors should never be hung in the sun.  A mirror exposed to direct sunlight for some time becomes cloudy.

I have laughed at these ideas and then pondered the fact that in that day and time (1927) these were like the Heloise Hints of today.  I'll put more in later, if I can get off the floor from laughing!

My other chi is named 'Nudles'.  so in Czech I have two dogs named 'noodle soup'.  I once had a third chi named slepitza meaning 'chicken'.  chicken noodle soup!!  But chicken was given to a good friend who loved her.  anyway, nudles was my first chi and she is a 1/2 sister to Pollie who was born 6 months later than nudles.  Nudles is my 'brave little soldier'.  She attacks the cow when she comes too close to the fence and attacks the horse when he wanders into the yard.  she also chases birds from the yard but she leaves the guineas and the chickens in the yard without attacking.  she also stands up to Jack and Two-Vir (more about him later) when she feels they are too close to me!  At the first sound outside of 'something', she races outside yapping at the top of her voice.  sometimes she chases and sometimes she stays on the porch and yaps.  All the while, her sister , Pollie is inside the house (usually in her sleeping bag or under the couch pillows) and Pollie is yapping too.  Pollie has no idea of what she is yapping about, she just likes for everyone to know that, she too, is 'on guard'.   Nudles claims everything as hers and all the animals knows to stay away from  'her' objects.  she follows me everywhere and is so loyal.  she is 14 yoa and Pollie is about the same.  I don't know what I'll do when she dies.

I have no idea whether the saved draft posted or not.  I'm still figuring this blog stuff out.  I have taken a few more pics and will post them now.

Been getting a few things in the mail lately.  Ordered these items.  One came yesterday.  I had read on one of these logs about the Butterick book of Recipes and Household hints.  Started reading it (published in 1927) and was laughing because most of the hints and recipes were the same hints and recipes were exactly identical to the ones we hear so often today.   Things like don't eat read meat more than three times per week, buy skim milk instead of whole, eat fruit twice per day, by whole grain cereal, eat butter not margarine, use moderate amounts of sugar, etc.  I find this funny as we always feel that we've "discovered" the right way to do things.  Taint so folks, what's been discovered was done so years before us.

Picked the garden again last evening and watered.  We need a little rain as the yard is cracking again.  Mowed the lawn.  Daughter is going to meet me and is going to have me to dinner.  Wonder what she wants?? 

The big news around the farm is that oil and gas wells are being drilled at an incredible rate and that rate should pick up in the future.  I'm still waiting for my well to be dug.  A deep 3_D seismic is going to be shot over the next year or two and I'm hoping they find a HUGE pool of oil under my place.  I'd have the money to do . . . . . Of course I'd have lots of sleepless nights because the drilling rigs are big and lit up.  I bet the space station could see the lights!!!!

Polefka (soup in Czech language), called Pollie is one of my chi's.  She is the scaredy cat, couch potato chi.  always has been.  when I first went to pick her out Henry (breeder) handed her to me at two weeks (eyes barely open) and she growled.  Yep, growled at me.  I laughed so hard and knew she was the one for me.  Pollie is peculiar to say the least.  she will jump in your lap but when you start to pet her she will balk and sometime she bites, but she really wants to be loved and petted.  she just can't get over her scaredness.  don't know why.  she's never been hurt or abused or hit but she is still so scared.  She is also a hidey hole couch potato.  Her favorite place is under the covers or the pillows or the blanket.  In fact when you sit down on the couch you really have to check whether you'll be sitting on Pollie because 9 out of 10 times, . . .you will be.  My daughter sent her a present when we were in alaska.  A sleeping bag, just her size.  when I opened the package and put it down she promptly crawled inside and made herself to home.  It has become her favorite location.  when I have to wash the bag she is not happy and when I take it from the dryer she crawls inside the nice warm bag and goes to sleep.

The weekend was long.  I read all of these blogs that everyone really likes and puts on their blog site and it struck me that many of the bloggers are gay.  Interesting that my girls are gay but I usually hear from only their friends and their opinions.  I enjoy reading others opinions and ideas and am really glad that I stumbled onto this site.  Found another one today, the guys live in Michigan and one drives a hearse! 

Jack the alaskan dog barked all last night and since he sleeps on the porch I heard him VERY clearly.  I finally got tired of it and yelled at him and, guess what, he was quiet the rest of the night.  Jack is a very weird pup.  when my roomie in alaska came home one day and said would I mind her getting a pup, I told her everyone needed a pup of their own (I have the two chihuahua's).  she made the decision to get the pup and brought him home. (TWo weeks later the mother and all the rest of the pups were dead)  He was the cutest bundle of white fluff and he was constantly being harassed by the chi's who absolutely did not believe that other pups ought to be allowed in their house.  When roomie came home to Seattle she brought Jack but could not find an apt to allow that large of a pup so she sent him to the farm to live.  Jack is BIG and hairy.  And hen I say hairy I mean hairy.  I allowed him into the house until he got used to the farm and the amount of hair that dog dropped was just unbelievable!   so, he now lives outside at least most of the time.  I have one of those screens that you see advertised on TV (you tack it to the door frame and when you go in or out it snaps back together with magnets) and Jack makes regular use of it.  when he comes in he will sneak into the kitchen (he is a counter surfer) and when told to get out, he backs up two or three feet where you can't see him and lays down.  when you see him again and tell him to get out he does the same thing.  He can't hide though because his nemesis the chi's bark at him and EVERYONE knows he is still inside.  He is so funny.  I worry about him in the summer heat.  during the 'snowstorm of the century' in alaska he would stay outside even during the snowstorm and would survey his domain from the top of a HUGE pile of snow.  He loved his snow mountain.

I wonder if one day some mother with a child that is gay will even think about it.  I hope she will only think in terms of LOVE!!!!

got up just after the crack and sprayed my grass around the garden with vinegar and orange oil.  will work for a few weeks but it works and naturally too.  got the pup ready to get her arthritis shot from vet, went past feed store and got feed.  chores done, well I've still got to pick garden this evening during the cool.  saw a giant club of a cuke when I was spraying so I'm still missing some. 

fixig rice right now.  shoud be watching it so I don't burn it.  Leads me to a family story.  We are cajun partly and we like our rice.  My brother always cooked the rice in his family but always ended up burning it.  His wife decided that enough was enough and she wasn't gonna take it anymore so she found this "new" product for my bro and brought it home.  It was called 'dat dat ta da dddddaaaaa'  SUCCESS RICE.  In a mesh packet, you just put it in a pot of boiling water and pulled it out when ready.  No more burned rice . . . . . . except, later she smelled burning rice and rushed to the kitchen.  Seems bro just left it and the water boiled out and the rice in it's nice plastic mesh bag had burned so badly that she had to throw away her pot along with the burned rice.  and so it went!!!!!

No wind this morning and there is always wind on the top of my hill.  found out there are 20 pads in my little area ready for oil drilling.  Nothing on my farm yet and I WANT a WELL.  Guess my running out to the gate naked waving my arms to try to get the rig trucks to stop at my place hasn't worked.  I wonder why??????

got to figure out how to post pics.  Chore for the day.  Bye

First day, first blog.  I am accustomed to writing a journal but this seems to be the rage these days and I want to rage too.  At 69 yoa, I feel I am heading to somewhere but I just don't know where that might be hence the title of this blog.  I really enjoy reading others blogs and on some I laugh like crazy so maybe I can contribute to making someone else's day as laughable as some have made mine.
I named my farm Stargate Farm when I first purchased my 45 acres because living here after moving from Houston felt like I was moving to a 'different world'.  It still feels that way almost 20 years later. 

For the last four years I have worked in Alaska, in two small Eskimo 'bush villages' accessable only by plane or boat.  I was there during the drought of 2009 when I lost most of my trees and one 'beautiful' huge peach tree.  that drought even killed an old native pecan tree in the paddock.

My farm used to be cultivated for soy and corn but now I only have Jiggs and Tifton planted.  I have 1 old horse (cantankerous), three totally useless donkey's (they like to eat bananas and vanilla wafers), one borrowed bull (don't know yet whether he has played with the girls or not), 5 cows, four old ones and one that is my 'lesbian' (named Motyl (butterfly), age 15 years.  Two big outdoor dogs, (one from alaska) and two very yappy chihuahua's.  I have 20 buff orpington chicks and two lovely guinea's.  I plan to get some more keets soon.

I am an old lady.  I have two new knees, mostly lab teeth and a new eye thingy (cataract).  I am too fat and I need to lose weight but . . . . .  (enough on that subject).  I have a daughter who is a Travis county sherriff's officer, a son who is a nurse and another son who is (the black sheep and I haven't talked to him in nearly 20 years).  One younger sister and one older brother.  I like genealogy and money.  I am working a contract part-time gig in a small community about 20 miles away and I hope to be working through September but there's no tellin' when I'll lose out on this job.  Have applied to three schools as a counselor but I think they'll not hire me because I'm too 'old' in their minds.

Since I'm just learning how to blog I hope to experiment with photos tomorrow.