Once Again

Well, hello there. I've been mulling over in my mind returning to the Garden Spot. I last posted in March 2021, and then just didn't. It seemed to me that the posts were become so repetitious, as things don't change much around here at the actual Garden Spot--we are just growing older and slower. 

I've not left blogging, nor have I fallen off the earth. I've posted consistently on Ann's Dollhouse Dreams where I chronicle my adventures in mini making. I also post day-to-day happenings on Instagram where a few of y Blogger friends hang out. 

But I think I'm back. I checked my settings only to find that this last year the spammers have had a heyday commenting. I just deleted a couple dozen of their comments waiting and turned on comment monitoring, which I hope helps.

We've kept a pretty low profile the last year--you know. A new, more guarded lifestyle, staying close to home. There's plenty to do around here.

It's hard to know just where to begin when I've been MIA for just over a year. Maybe in the garden. The only thing growing right now are two rows of onions and asparagus that has gone wild. We have had a very cold, windy, dry spring so we are behind with a lot of yard work.

I like to keep track of the the wildlife that wanders through the yard--nothing exotic like bears, mule deer, or elk--we're on the prairie, not in the mountains, but we do get an interesting variety of birds. This creature is watching us from the neighbor's garage roof. He'd been stalking our gold fish and I'm afraid that he caught one of our larger Koi cross goldfish. The blue Herons are common here, nesting in large rookeries along the river basins, but they have to  travel for food. My little goldfish make taste snack for their fledglings. 

We fooled him though by covering the pond with wire mess. Not a very aesthetic solution, but it keeps him from eating my fish.

Summer visitors have arrived, the Bullock's Orioles. They will feed on the cheapest grape jelly that we can find until their little families are raised. First 4 males arrived to check out the food supply and now we see a female and an immature male. 

The Lazuli Bunting stops to refuel on his way to his far northern USA and Canada nesting grounds. Actually the map that shows his range does not include Colorado, but we seem to see at least one male every summer. They come from as far the lower tip of Mexica, so he's got a ways to go. 

Pop turned 35 April 1st and now has the pasture to himself. We lost Sundance last May. He had fractured his pelvis 4 years ago and had a really tough summer and a hard winter. Putting him down was constantly in the back of our minds, but since he was Jennifer's horse it was her decision and she just couldn't bring herself to end his life. I told her that he would let her know when it was time and he did. Pop, now blind and maybe deaf too, gets around quite well, is sound and healthy. 

                       

                       

The boys were the headline of my last post along with this sweet kitten that was just a baby then. Heather took him and named him Early Gray, but Nathan called him Moaky. Well, little Moaky got sick a few weeks ago. Heather and Nathan took him to the Vet ER and didn't bring him home. He had a massive tumor wrapped around his heart and lungs. He was only 18 months old and a devastating loss for the 13 year old by who loved him--heck, for all of us.

                                                 

But Nathan has a new kitty. Yugi. He's a sweet boy, adopted from the local humane society. 

While Nathan turned 13 this spring, his brother Jacob, 19, (how can that be?) goes to community college where he studies accounting and works. 

The girls are busy too--into everything! While they still have their horses, they've added goats to their little farm. Ellie and Lily have meat goats that they are working with to so at the 4-H fair in August

  

Lucy decided to get milk goats. These two little cuties are still babies that she bottle feeds. She has big plans for them and their milk. She's learning how to make goat milk soap that she hopes to see. We've spent the last two Sundays making goat milk soap, using milk that her mother purchased from a nearby goat dairy. This is going to be a very interesting enterprise.

Mom helped her with the first batch, a lemon lavender fragrance. She's using lye based recipes, so she has to be very careful with the caustic ingredient. Her dad made her two molds out of clear lucite.

The soap will cure or saponify--the reaction between the triglycerides in the animal fats and sodium hydroxide or lye that combine to make soap--that's the over simplified explanation.  So here is the first batch. It'll cure for two weeks than we'll see what kind of soap Lucy made. 

Soap making is pretty simple process--mostly just adding ingredients including a variety of oils, lye, and milk the mixing it, and during into the molds. 

This first batch seemed pretty thick and heavy. She probably stirred it with the emulsifier too long. And it's a dark color than what they wanted because of the type of olive oil that they used.

But this batch yesterday made with a different recipe, a lighter olive oil,  and less stirring made a creamier mixture.

Lemon Poppy Seed bars. 

The girls still have their horses. Ellie is training Hank to run barrels, while Lucy is doing cow work and ranch events with Mariah. Lilly still rides, but not as much since she doesn't have her own horse. Oh. And the Pigs. I forgot the pigs. I haven't met them yet, but I hear that they are characters. One belongs to their neighbor where they live and one is Ellie's that she will show at fair.

And there you have it. Hopefully I can share more with the garden. It's cold this week and we may get some snow. Yes, I know. It's May. June is almost here and we have to protect our tender plants from the cold. I planted all of my hanging baskets, but they are on the patio to avoid freezing. Around here we just say, "It's Colorado." 

Well, it feels good to be back. 

Thanks for visiting. 

Have a great week. 

Just a Hint of Spring with a Dose of Cuteness

It's not safe to say that Winter has made his exit. He's still hanging around waiting to surprise us. We know the routine: freezing cold followed with a few days of Spring-like weather, teasing a warm up followed by more cold with some snow just show us who's the boss. We are in that cycle now. Today it is very warm, but there are threats of cold weather returning--please just bring some moisture.

Pop may be enjoying the warm sun during his afternoon nap, but he really isn't doing the best. He's not liking his feed, preferring the pasture feed. We are doing all we can, but he's got his own way.

The extreme cold weather caused other problems. The components on the horse tank froze and caused a flood before we discovered it, which I must say pales in comparison to what Texans are going through.

This one of our Black Jersey Giants, or should I say the remaining one. So is she green or is she black? Well, both, I'd say. 

While we cuddled and admired her, the other ladies escaped. They loved scratching in the freshly tilled soil.

Callie, the barn cat, has two more babies. I didn't get an appointment to have her fixed over the winter, so that is on the list for this week to make an appointment. The granddaughters may take this little gray-black kitty. I think they have bonded.

I'm not sure just how cute turtles are, but they are interesting to watch. Just to get out of the house for a spell, we visited two of our garden centers. The Head Gardener was looking for onion sets, but we were about two weeks early, so we watched turtles at the one nursery. As the HG walked around their habituate, I know they were watching him as they 'sunned' themselves underneath the heat lamp. 

And that's life at the Garden Spot this week. 

I hope you had a good week. See you next time 

and

be sure to join me at Mosaic Monday hosted by Angie.

Thanks for visiting.

 

 When we look at today's weather map, we all see the same thing: the Polar Vortex that covers both Canada and most of the USA. Our sub 0 temperatures began late last week. Inside we stay cozy and warm, but we have to worry about the outside critters--rather the Head Gardener who tends to them has to problem solve the effects of such extreme cold, like the -15 degrees that held through most of the night. Even at -6 and a heat wave of 0 cause certain problems for horses. Take POP for example. At 34 while he looks robust and even acts robust,  but the cold is hard him. The HG dug out his winter blanket late last week and covered him up. Sundance suffering from arthritis is stiff and presumably, like we humans, probably has cold aggravated pain. 

                   

Experts will say that horses are build to endure the cold, that blanketing isn't all that necessary, often overheating them, even in this extreme cold. The most important way to keep a horse warm is feed, which as the Vet told us fires up the horse's internal furnace. So Sundance can graze, but POP can't because he doesn't have good enough teeth to grind up forage, so he gets pellets that become a warm mash with hot water added. Only, yesterday his mash was freezing before he get it eaten, so late in the evening when the HG became frustrated that he couldn't keep the mash soft, I suggested using the dog's heated dog food bowl and it worked. We felt much better knowing that POP would get his full ration of food, hoping to help keep him warm.

The Barn Cat Callie is quite spoiled with a heated lamp above her dog crate home, still her water freezes, as does the pigeons' water. The hens stay toasty in their house with another heat lamp. The ponds are frozen, so we try to keep the bird bath filled and the feeders full.

Today the sun shines, giving hope that it will soon warm up. The weather app says that it reach 14 by 4 PM. Not much improvement there. There's a gradual warming trend all week that will take us above freezing. I'll be enjoying that.

Mo doesn't worry about the weather; he just sleeps through it. He's taken to sleeping in my chair by the kitchen window on the soft cushion, made even softer with a towel that I laid over the cushion to keep his hair off of it. He'll sleep here for hours then demand some food or water--but only from a dripping faucet. He's 20, so I guess he has the right to be so demanding.

  I've been keeping myself busy making greeting cards for my DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) chapter to ship to Cards for Soldiers in Michigan, an organization that takes handmade cards and ships them all over the US, but mostly to soldiers deployed overseas. I host card parties here in my basement where several DAR members will join me every few weeks to make cards. Our last party created valentines for the residents at the Cheyenne VA nursing home.

This group of cards are all occasion cards that soldiers will be able to send home to loved ones. As an avid scrapbooker, over the years I have acquired quite a stash of embellishments and papers, so I dug it out and began to create. Mostly we have done Thank You for Your Service themed cards in red, white, and blue, but this program gives us the opportunity to be more creative. It's relaxing and gives us a great sense of contribution to the men and women who serve in the military.

                 

Your can find Cards for Soldiers on Facebook while you are at it, take a look at our Overland Trail Chapter, NSDAR on Facebook, too. 

I am going to close with a personal note, not something that I normally write about--health, but I feel that I should share my experience with my COVID-19 vaccination, more as an FYI just to let you know what you could expect and sort of as a cautionary tale.

Know that I am not making a recommendation to get the vaccine or not to, just to let you know about how I reacted to the shots. 

I took my first shot January 19.  I had just turned 74, so I fell in the age range, so my health organization UC Health of Colorado sent me an invitation (as it is being called) to accept my pre-assigned time. I could choose my location: Pueblo, a 3 hour drive; Colorado Springs, a 2 hour drive; or Poudre Valley Hospital in Ft. Collins, a 20 minuted drive. You know where I chose. 

There was no line; the shot was given, and I was asked to wait 15 minutes to make sure that I did not have a server reaction. My arm got sore, just as the news reports said it would and then it hurt even more and then the 3rd day I barely knew that I had a shot.

February 9th I reported to the hospital for the second injection, expecting to walk in, get the shot, wait 15 minutes and leave. Not so.

The line began almost at the elevator when I stepped off it. It moved quickly and soon we were at the entrance to the cafeteria where the shots were being given, but this time we were directed in other direction.with a very long line, all the way down one side the hall and all the way back up the other side. It took about 20 minutes to make the journey down one side, turn at the end of the hall and moved back toward the cafeteria. 

I asked the nurse about the line and she explained that in the beginning the hospital was assigned only a few hundred; now they are doing 1600 a day from 7 AM to 7PM. Despite the wait, it is actually a very efficient system.

If you research side effects, they will vary from none to pretty sick with fever, chills, body aches, headache and last 1.5- 2 days or 48 hours, as mine did. I spent the next day in bed, not eating, drinking a bit of Gatorade throughout the day. The night was the same. The next morning I was feeling better, but couldn't taste my breakfast and went back to bed. By mid afternoon I was feeling better, but had a headache which steadily got worse through the night and then diarrhea most of the night. At this point, I'm not sure if these were side effects or maybe stress related from not taking my normal prescriptions and not eating and drinking enough, but it was a rough couple of days.

The good news: simply that my side effects were not out of the range of what the medical experts say are normal and are a sign that the body is working to build up the antibodies. 

The bad news: I gained an important insight into my age related health problems and this is the point that I want to make. As a diabetic on medication with high blood pressure, taking daily doses is important in order to keep those functions under control; however, when one gets sick those medications that require food to be taken and one's not hungry and skips those medicines, well that's where the trouble can start. The blood sugar can easily get out of wack as will the blood pressure.  I'm sharing this more as a precaution to remind even healthy folks that when you get sick, you have take care of yourself, even go to the doctor to make sure that you are doing all that you can to regain your health because once one block loosens, the rest will tumble, too. I am thinking that as an older woman, my good health can be rather frail when it becomes challenged, so this experience has made me realize that I have to be even more cognizant of taking better care of myself when I do get sick, even asking for help if I need to. 

I'll be joining Angie for Mosaic Monday--I guess I'd better whip up a mosaic.

One of our favorite spots during the summer is the Colorado State University test garden in Ft. Collins, CO where you can see the new varieties of your favor flowers, a real alphabet from A-Z of the newest beauties along with some interesting garden structures and visitors. The garden has grown to the the side of the street, with fountains and more walking paths. This day we were treated to a not so rare, but not often seen, Queen butterflies, easily mistaken as a Monarch, it can be found on the Colorado prairie, but seems very much at home in the city nibbling on the butterfly bush. 

Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope everyone keeps warm and stays well.

January to July

Not to be negative, but what a mess January has been. Usually we can at least look forward to National Western Stock Show. I took the girls last year. We had such fun.This year the big stock show where ranchers, cowboys, and cowgirls come from all around to compete and show their animals that they have groomed, fed, and trained to compete for generous awards was canceled due to the pandemic. The grand and reserve grand champion beef, sheep, and hog are auctioned off with the winner receiving the proceeds which also are shared with the organization to provide scholarships and to fund the next year's event. Last year the top steer brought t$150,000. 

Here, too, COVID cases shot up along with the controversies that seem to define the pandemic. I took my first vaccine shot with only soreness at the injection site. I get the second one February 9. The Head Gardener has not received his invitation from our health care organization. We continue to be cautious about going out. I use the Click List for my grocery store and do parking lot delivery. It is so much easier than trudging through the store where I am inclined to over spend. I go to Hobby Lobby routinely, but it's never crowed, so I feel less intimidated shopping there. And that's about it. 

January brings the end of year bookkeeping and tax prep. Ugh. 

Yesterday we loaded up Brody to take a drive out on the prairie, the Pawnee National Grasslands. This time of year a dead, brown landscape meets the pure blue sky. The land is dotted with the remnants of century old, abandoned homesteads, such as the black circle in this photo that isolates the homestead of my husband's great grandparents, Pete and Ella Rasmussen. As the story, goes they were the first to lose their homestead when the government began reposing properties for back taxes. We used to be able to drive up to the site, but the roads have  been shut down. While this road serves the windmill, only the rancher has use. Along that ridge are the remnants of teepee rings where the plains Indians camped. The area, bland as the land is, carries a rich history of the growth of the west. 

I always find myself imagining the very harsh living conditions year round; it is little wonder that farmers went broke and lost their farms. And before them the Indians who no doubt traveled their own paths, headed to the mountain hunting grounds.

While Montana is known as the Big Sky state, eastern Colorado had plenty of big sky, too. 

And then as we return back west to head home, the Rocky Mountains suddenly appear, less snow capped this year with the snow pack far before normal. We're in for a drought wrought summer.

July will be the hot month. I had to take this photo last summer as I returned from shopping one day: 100 digress at 1 PM. On this cold, dry winter morning, the warmth certainly sounds inviting.

July--red, white, and blue, the patriotic month as Lucifer corcosmia give that splash of red in the center garden that is irroestiable. 

My little super market red, white, and blue baskets lasted all summer and served the humming birds too. 

Larkspur added the splash of blue that lacks in the garden. This spot is a very hard spot to grow because the red ants eat the vegetation, but I did add a pop of orange with the poppy. She survived the winter, so hopefully she will thrive this summer with some special attention. Some one warned my about the poverty plant taking over, but that's okay. I need spot fillers. 

I bought a new DSLR camera, too. It has a photo editing feature that allows you shoot in that mode to get interested photos without editing. A fun feature to play with.

From the heat of red to the cool of white, the cosmos bloom all summer long

The Head Gardener got tired of weeding and decided to do some fishing, but first he had to customize his little pontoon and then take it for it's maiden voyage. Brody had his first introduction to water. 

He likes it.

As January leaves us, February brings the glow of love. The granddaughters spent the afternoon making things. I had some soap making supplies, so we melted the soap blocks and made pink hearts. I also shared my Valentine card making supplies and they spent the afternoon making Valentines for friends.

Little Lily brought me a bouquet of dead things that she found outside. I loved the thought and enjoyed the variety of material that she found to make a little arrangement. It will spend the rest of winter here. I pulled my Lenox tea set out of the cupboard to make a sweet little spot. 

             

One bright spot in January: the arrival of the season's seed catalogs. Burbee's arrives first The Head Gardener is already after me to pick my favorites as he has his overly ambitious plant list made. Why do two old people need a dozen tomato plants? 

My list will include lots of my favorites: a variety of sunflowers and an awesome collection of zinnias.

Now, it's time to get dressed, eat some breakfast, and get my day started.

Thanks for visiting. Drop by Mosaic Monday where I'll be linking my own Monday Mosaic.