May 28, 2015 part 2

It was a cool foggy morning so after eating some more strawberries, I found one that was being eaten by a green caterpillar so that strawberry and the caterpillar became chicken food. I decided to clean out the chicken loft while it was still cool and after I took a couple of the old garden strawbales apart and added them to the compost pile. Now I'm hot and sweaty and had to take a shower, ain't even Saturday night.! Going to lose my "I are a HillyBilly card". 

Mail carrier just delivered my mail, got the Morel Mushroom growing kits with instructions, one step closer…oh yea.

May 28, 2015 - New Project

Next Project will be creating a mushroom bed - Ordered two of these from a Missouri dealer on eBay (Missouri Morel Mushroom kit Morchella Esculenta spores in grow mix media)

Grow your own fresh Morel Mushrooms!
Growing kit includes a 5oz bag of morel spores in a hand selected mixed growing media, and simple detailed instructions on the recommended time of year to spread/sow the morel media and also tips on how to prepare your Morel garden. $16.50 free shipping.
Morels are perennials and will come up year after year!

May 27, 2015 part 2

10am update; We are outside, it is such a beautiful day, here comes Roofus yet again and this time he brought a friend a beautiful female boxer without a name tag, she is friendly with the dogs but not so easy around me…

The other day I went into the grocery store and noticed the front page of one of the news papers; Black Bear Spot In Willow Springs. There was a picture of a black bear in a tree right in town, I wonder what's in the woods around my place…  didn't buy the paper and couldn't find the picture online so I can't share but it makes me love it here even more…

May 27, 2015

It was around 4am that thunder woke me up, it was LOUD.! 
Not one to miss out on a thunderstorm I got up and headed out side with dogs in tow, the rain was pouring down and the lightening and thunder amazing. Herc stayed close by pressing into my leg and Abby didn't seem to care she went a few steps away and took a leak on the porch ( better than the carpet ). After a few minutes we all went inside and was heading to bed when I noticed that Abby was heading back into the living room so I followed her and Herc followed me. She went back to the front door so I let her out. She went out to the kennel in the heavy rain and took a dump, for her it was a large dump and I felt pride in the fact that at 9 weeks old she went out in the pouring rain and did her thing instead of doing it on the porch or the bedroom floor… I must be getting old when such a small thing makes me happy.

We all came back in I dried Abby off and we got back in bed, she laid down next to Herc and fell asleep. 

It was 6 something thunder woke me up again and I took the dogs out again and enjoyed the storm for a few more minutes… 

9am the sun is shinning, both dogs are asleep, the chickens are out doing there thing and I'm typing this update, thankful to be alive, able to get out of bed, walk on my own two feet, and counting my blessing…

And Roofus is wondering around the front yard again.

Another day here in the Ozarks…

May 26, 2015 part 2

Roofus came back over this morning, still using my yard for a toilet, still running down the highway, still alive... Happy to see him again... Abby's happy to see him too, Herc not so much.

May 26 2015

I got an alert on my phone that there was a tornado watch for my area but it was too dark to watch tornadoes so I went to bed around 11:00pm I had left the widow open a few inches as there was a nice breeze blowing in and a thunderstorm off in the distance. 
I was a little surprised that around midnight I was awake, the wind was howling though the widow and rain was also blowing in getting the night stand and everything on it wet. I got up, closed the window, cleaned up the water and dried off the radio, a camera lens, my phone, etc… After that I crawled back into bed I slept like a baby.
This morning I took the dogs out, all is calm. The dog bowls which are about six feet under cover of the porch had rain water in them and some of the porch had puddles of water. When I let the chickens out there was a couple of small branches that had blown off the pine tree but that's the only damage I noticed. (Thankfully)
The garden sure got a good watering…

May 25, 2015

Walked though the garden this morning and ate some more fresh ripe strawberries... I could get use to this... lol

Put the American Flag up today for Memorial Day, I like it and am considering putting up a real flag pole, since I can't think of any reason not to.

Stuck the pole in the fence, and it worked but I didn't like it so I found a 10ft section of EMT conduit and attached it to the fence, stuck the pole into it with a couple of hose clamps to hold in up, liking it alot better...

May 24, 2015

Took the dogs out this morning and walked though the garden, ate a few fresh ripe strawberries, can life get any better? 

We got a visitor shortly afterwards, Roofus stopped by, I called the number on his tag but his owner didn't seem to care that his dog was running loose...

Roofus hung around for awhile and then trotted down the highway causing a minivan to slow way down and lay on the horn to get him out of the way. He came back at least twice more this morning, hopefully he won't become a regular visitor...

May 22, 2015

Dustin and I did a little sightseeing this afternoon...

  

May 21, 2015

Picked up some plants from town and got them planted this morning...
Even had a loud cheerleader cheering me on...
I pulled the strawberries, peas, and yacon plants from the straw bales and transplanted them. 

Planted several varieties of tomatoes, some straight neck squash, stevia, peppers, watermelon, and even some marigolds.

How can something so small make so much noise???

Christi Scott "My stevia is going crazy. I plan to dry it and put it in when I boil my tea, other than that I'm not sure what my plan is. Do you have any ideas uncle A?"

Thinking of drying it too, may try juicing some fresh leafs but I don't think it will store so it may be more trouble than it's worth. Dehydrating is probably the best way to go. Wonder if you can dehydrate the juice? Let me know how your plan works.

May 20, 2015

Awoke out of a sound sleep, reason unknown, better take Abby out, Herc comes with us and to my surprise it is not raining as the weather guessers said it would be... Everybody's done so it's back to bed, then I noticed a small piece of wood chip on the comforter, oh crap, it's crap! Herc stepped in it and his front paw is full of crap and wood chips. Got Herc into the tub and washed his paw, Abby's barking because we left her, that job done it's back to bed... Wonder what time it is, oh 4:20...let's get back to sleep, Abby it's not play time! 4:45 after playing for a while and licking the back of my head for way too long Abby is sleeping against the back of my neck the rooster is crowing and I'm wide awake... Thankfully there's Facebook... lol

May 19, 2015

Major change here in the garden, two of the straw bale beds
are gone and replaced with raised beds. It took a lot of work
and I had a lot of help from Gaby Ruiz and Dustin Slim
Ketner. Thank you both SO MUCH, Love you guys...

The strawbales didn't work the way I have seen in videos or have read about. I think that the bales may have come from someone that grew it for the straw and didn't harvest the grain at all, just cut and baled it plus they were full of all kind of fungus. I'm going to compost the bales so they won't go to waste, just lost some time and learned a few things along the way. And the chickens enjoyed the wheat grass...

May 17, 2015

Strawberries are getting there...  - feeling hungry. 

MO stuff growing...

May 8, 2015

Standing on the front porch with the dogs during the rain this morning a hawk flew by and landed in a tree across the highway, had to get the camera and tripod.

What's A Canon?

May 7, 2015

Had a tender moment this morning, I had just awoke and felt something soft and warm on my arm so I slowly opened my eyes to see Abby inches in front of my face, front paws on my arm just watching me. She eased her head forward and held her muzzle against my face. (What a little Angel) I got up and took her out to pee, afterward went back to bed and she was playing at the foot of the bed with one of her toys. I got a tickle in my throat and coughed, Abby comes bouncing across the bed climbs upon my face opens her mouth and covers my nose and bites me with her razor sharp teeth. (El Diablo) THAT HURT YOU LITTLE BITCH!

 That's Glue On The Cement

That's Glue On The Cement

Herc and Abby are getting along pretty good, sometimes she gets too wound up and Herc has to put her in her place but he is a lot better with her than I thought he would be, I’m thankful for that, didn’t want him stressed out with her here…