By the time I finally did get up, I made coffee and went out and checked all my various meters and gauges, and came back in and read the paper. By the time all that was done, everyone else was up (our guests Jim and Bonnie dress MUCH more formally than we do) and we decided to venture in to Denny's in Jarrell. What would you like with your bacon, sir? I think I will have more bacon, thank you! So, I had eggs over easy, a short stack and two orders of bacon. Nothing spectacular, but it was satisfying. When we got home, Jim and Bonnie were ready to get on the road, so they left to go and visit with some friends in Georgetown. I went back into the pastures to make sure all was good with the cattle (it was about 10 o'clock) and Jody and I messed around the house doing various chores, and then we decided to go run errands in various cities; Taylor, Hutto and Georgetown.
In Taylor, I first stopped at Tractor Supply to get a new float for the water trough where the cattle are now. No floats. I am going to make this story shorter and less boring by saying we also went to the Tractor in Georgetown, and they had no floats either. I was given a stern lecture about the fact that there were 2,000 floats in the warehouse, and they could easily sell 1,000 of them, but could I please tell them why there had floats in the warehouse and not int he store? I decided it was 'human error' but I am not certain that the man in the Georgetown store bought my theory. I think he was more of a 'black helicopter coming over the horizon' kind of guy. They are supposed to have floats on Tuesday, but I think I will wait until Wednesday just to be safe.
Okay, next stop was at Beall's where I bought a nice Dockers three piece suit. Everything seems to be on sale 'pre-Easter' so that is pretty nice. Next stop was the Lowe's store in Hutto, where we purchased (more) supplies to keep the chickens away from the beds of morning glories. See the story about this several paragraphs below.
If you want to hear the story of us standing in line for four hours at Lowe's, you are welcome to ask, but my voice might become a little shrill. I realize that is nothing out of the ordinary for many of you, but...
Next stop (after the Georgetown Tractor Supply) was the Dairy Queen, where we each had a hot fudge sundae, and we contemplated the thought of having TWO sundaes, since we had missed a sundae by not visiting the Dairy Queen on Saturday, but we exercised considerable restraint, and settled for one each.
Next stop was Kohl's where I TRIED to buy a very nice suit; they had the correct coat size, but not the correct pant size. Here again, we got to stand in line for QUITE a long time (whatever happened to customer service you ask? Well, I can tell you, it was sacrificed for the bottom line!), to be told that they had the correct size pants at their Round Rock store, but if I wanted them to be sent to the Georgetown store (approximately 15 miles away) it would take SIX WEEKS. So, we asked them (since their computer said they had ONE PAIR of the trousers in Round Rock) if they could call the Round Rock store to confirm that and hold them, but the phones were not working. Not sure which phones were not working, but obviously one of the stores had not paid their phone bill, and communication between stores was at a standstill. BUT, I could go to the KIOSK and order a pair of trousers, and they would be shipped to me between April 21st and 28th. I went to the KIOSK and order the coat and the trousers, which only took about 20 minutes. AND I got $30 worth of Kohl's Dollars which will be available for me to use TOMORROW! BUT, I did find a nice pair of trousers on sale for $10, and I just had to have them!
That was the end of our errands, and we headed home. SO, BRING ON THE CHICKENS! I figure I have spent about a hundred dollars to try and out-smart the chickens and to try to keep them from scratching around in the areas that I am trying to grow morning glories. I am prepared to go as high as $1,500, but I hope this will do it. If this works, I will next remove all the dead morning glory vines from the trellis, but I must be careful to try and collect all the morning glory seeds that are still clinging to the vines. I will try to save them for next year. I think that will be possible, but about this time next year I will be wondering WHERE DID I PUT THOSE FREAKIN' SEEDS that I spent hours last year harvesting? I know myself WAY TOO WELL! But, just let one of those chickens even try to get into this little area. Only time will tell. I was inside watching the news stories about the wild fires in Oak Hill (still not clear on exactly what is happening there, I will pay better attention during the 10 o'clock news) when Ira came to say he was pretty much finished with the fence. We both went back there to check things out, and it all loos very nice, much better than it has been, and of course I was counting cattle. I only counted 12, and Ira said there was one cow way in the back. He said it was pretty unusual for one cow to be hanging away from the rest of the herd, but I told him she looked alert, no signs of trauma, but I thought she was getting ready to have a calf.
About thirty minutes later, Jody and I were getting ready to have dinner, and I told him I thought Daphne was getting ready to have a calf. I went out by the pool to empty the skimmer basket and I took the binoculars with me. I saw Daphne had some placenta hanging and saw a little black and white lump in the hay, and I went back in to tell Jody she had calved. The two (formerly) most recent calves were hanging around, very interested in what was going on. Jody and I got back there, and Daphne let me get right up to her calf, close enough that I could check HIM out to see that he is a bull calf. As I posted a little while ago on FaceBook, we have bull calves coming out of our WAZOOS! BUT, this calf is another beauty. Very nice... The perfect ending to another great day on the edge of nowhere!
Deeds, Actions, Changes, NEW CALVES, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!
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