2010 - Day Forty Four...

WELL, how do yer majesty? Welcome to our world. I guess my tiara has better connections than I expected! While the overworked and overwhelmed tiara is off on a brief hiatus, it arranged for guest tiaras to appear on the blog. Today's guest is the tiara belonging to the second most famous Liz in contemporary times (first place belonging to the Liz of axe fame a century ago), the one, the only QE ____ (insert Roman Numeral of your choice here). She does look stunning in that faux hat kind of way, doesn't she. I can hardly wait for tomorrows guest now, BUT I am not sure this one can be topped. You may be wondering why I refer to the tiara as 'it' rather than gender specific. Well, in reality, the tiaras given name is 'Pat', and, well,you can figure out the rest yourself. Worse than trying to figure out the sex of a cat, all those little shiny bits!

We had a pretty good freeze last night, and I ave come o the conclusion that, when all is said and done, the only things that will remain on earth will be the cock roaches and the weeds. It seems weeds are invincible to freezing weather. I do not understand why the plants that we try our best to nurture and coddle will succumb to the tiniest hint of foul weather, but the weeds can survive several days of temperatures below freezing and not even look the least bit concerned. We will have wait until sprig to determine if any of the palms around the pool will survive. There is one privet that we think is a goner, and I will shed no tears for that. It was not the healthiest plant last year, but some good trimming seemed to give it a new lease on life, but it looks pretty sad right now, compared to the other privets around the pool.

I have not said much about our cat (OKAY, Jody's cat), Missy in a long time. She led a hard life before Jody rescued her about fourteen years ago. Ever since then, though, she has led a wonderful life. Jody found her, and brought her home. We both thought she had recently had a batch of kittens, and he went back to where he found her but could find no evidence of a litter. When she was taken to the vet, we discovered she had been shot (bb's or shotgun, not sure) and there was some evidence still inside her. Since then, she has gone blind in one eye and is now content to lead a life of an indoor cat. When we lived in the condo, she stayed inside. When we moved to the farm, we let her venture outside every now and then, BUT after the foundling little black cat 'Mischief' was abducted by either the coyote or the hawk, we decided to go back to keeping Missy inside. She has recently re-discovered this bed we bought for her a decade ago, and you can hardly get her out of it, except for food and her ritual of being petted and loved on once Jody gets into bed for the night. Funny animal!

I think there is a trip into Taylor in our future today. I am going to get up from here and put on my clothes and walk out to the pasture to check on the cattle. Maybe I will be able to figure out who the new heifer calf belongs to. We shall see...

After breakfast this morning (Jody made blueberry pancakes. All the blueberries sink to the bottom of the batter, and in honor of Valentine's Day, I got the prized pancake!), I noticed this Great Blue Heron out by the tank behind the house. They are VERY SKITTISH of people, but they do not seem to be so skittish of other animals. Jody said that the Dog was out there the other day raising a ruckus, and the Heron was not annoyed at all...but let one of us get too close to the window (probably a good 50 yards or more away), and it is all over. Jody also said he had been watching birds with the binoculars the other day, and saw something that he could not identify until it moved its' head...turned out to be a brown pelican. He looked it up in the bird book, and it seems that it is not that uncommon for brown pelicans to be in this area. They even go so far as Midland! Who knew?

Okay, we were ready to go to Taylor, and of course I got the truck stuck (there is that word again) in the mud. I had to get the tractor to pull it out, and Jody steered the truck for me while I did it. We felt like actual farmers! We had the tractor, the chain, the stuck truck, everything we needed for that particular challenge! We got into Taylor, and I got the cattle feed, and on the way home we stopped at the Dairy Queen for our usual spoiler.

When we got home, we both took naps (I was kind of restless because my feet were cold), and when I woke from that, I went out and fed the cattle and put out a fresh bale of hay for them. All is well on the cattle front. The littlest new heifer calf is doing wonderfully well, and I am getting more and more convinced that she belongs to Orchid. I still have not seen her nurse, but she is not feeble, and she just runs and plays like a big girl. This is how muddy it is out in those pastures, especially where the cattle go back and forth. I will have to plant something in these areas this spring if it ever quits raining. It is CRAZY wet! As usual, Mr. Speckles was the first one to hit the fresh bale of hay. HE IS THE RULER OF HIS DOMAIN! Let there be no question about it. This blog seems to be becoming PHOTO INTENSIVE, so I may need to start taking the sizes of the photos into consideration when I am posting them. I think photos make the entries much more interesting, but there is a limit. Maybe the smaller format will allow for more photos, but this is just an experiment right not. There is usually not a lack of things to take photos of, and cows are one of my favorite subjects. Not everyone gets a chance to be up close and personal with a bunch of cattle, so I think other folks find the photos interesting as well. Of course, if you ever want your own up-close-and-personal experience, just let us know, we can always use another hand. Try to make it on a weekend when you can help with feeding and stuff like that. DON'T FORGET TO BRING BOOTS. We have pretty much all the other stuff you might need.

We decided we will be going to Catfish Parlor for dinner tonight, and after that we may stop at the auction to see if they have anything interesting. We had seats reserved, and then we changed our minds and called and cancelled them. BUT, since we will be in the neighborhood, we may go ahead and stop.

THAT'S IT!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, STUCK TRUCKS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!