So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good bye

As those of you who out clicked on my jenny/jack news yesterday, knows that tonight I am leaving.

The adventure begins as thus, we made a mistake. We trusted someone that we knew better than to trust. We were informed by our brother-in-law that he had a neighbor with a stock rack and that he would find out if we could borrow it. A week goes by and there is no news. My husband called him and asked about this stock rack, the brother-in-law had never asked the neighbor and informed my husband he would head over there right that moment and ask. He never called back.

I know that some of you do not know what a stock rack is. I attempted to find a link with a good definition. There is no such thing. I tried to find a picture of a stock rack to share. How very sad that the only good one I could find was a toy truck! The cage on the back of the truck is a stock rack. I called around and was informed that it is difficult to find them anymore, most people want trailers. ~sigh~

I found myself calling and looking up used trailers for sale or trailer rentals. You can not rent a horse trailer in the state of Kansas. Now what? We leave soon. My brother-in-law, a different one, has a trailer. It has no lights and needs new tires. Guess who gets to go and buy a harness and get new tires for it today. You guessed correctly, me!

And of course my sister-in-law is treating me badly, questioning why I had to go to Texas to get a donkey. What she doesn't understand is that it's not just about the donkey. It's about a friendship, and about my husband and I being without children for a weekend. The only vacation we have ever had.

Hopefully, tonight we are leaving for Texas to go and pick up the demon donkey. There will be no posts from me this weekend. But if you wish to follow the drama, you can keep and eye on me over on Tales of a Texas Farmwife. Marina's blog will be my Saturday blogroll call.

Sundays make it from scratch will be Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I will be back Monday to tell you all about it.

Rubber ducky

We had a long day on the homestead yesterday. I cleaned out the barn. I thought I had pictures of how hard my two youngest work, but alas it seems to have been erased. But I can tell you that they worked up quite the sweat, as they sat in the lawn chairs under the barn awning, petting goats and watching me clean.


Rubber ducks! oh wait, these ones scream not squeak when squeezed.


Six ducks and one goose taking a bath in my bath tub! Nasty little things.

If you have ducklings, they should stay out of the water until their adult feathers start coming in, unless of course you are allowing the mother duck to raise them. This is because the ducklings do not produce their own oil yet, and they can end up too cold to survive in the water.


This White Crested Duckling can't seem to get his hair on right.

ETA: We will have a baby Jack or Jenny in late July!

As I bit into the nectarine,

While at the farm store last week, I noticed something very odd. They had a Naval orange tree for sale. These trees tend not to survive temperatures under 30F. This tree was outside, not in a green house, and I am sure it didn't survive this cold snap.

I digress, I was going to tell you about Nectarines. They are glorified Peaches, so please refer to my peach post for planting and care.

Nectarines can be planted from seed, but you are running the risk of getting peaches instead. Sometimes your nectarine will produce both peaches and nectarines at the same time, this is something Darwin called Bud Mutation.

That was a short post. . . any questions?

I am going to complain,

My shoulders are screaming. You do not under any circumstances mix wet, cold weather, bad shoulders and scythe work.

I went and tried using my Christmas present for the first time yesterday. The mighty pampas won. I had to stop only half way through the plant. I think sharpening the blade will help a bit.

This was what I was afraid of . . .


My peach tree. The blossoms have been killed.

One of my grapes, all of them look like this. I am hopeful everything will bounce back. But I am cautiously so.

All my broccoli and cabbage plants are dead. My potatoes are snug under a thick layer of straw. But one never knows what will happen.

Today I will be heading into town to buy donkey supplies. I have my list, now let's see if anyone has them.

Frost Damage

Sorry I missed Make it from Scratch Sunday, again. I won't be able to do it next weekend either, gggrrr....

The snow and freezing temperatures may have reeked havoc on my young fruit trees, especially those that had already began to flower. Alrescate was right in her reply " I suppose the snow knocked down the pollen count at least..." Unfortunately that was not something that we needed. Yes, I know there are many people that are grateful not to suffer with their allergies if only for a few days, but those of us that are attempting orchard's, well, it's a whole other story. We need those pollen counts to be up so that are trees can bear fruit. With this cold snap, the pistons of my peach tree, which are the most delicate part, will not be able to reproduce. If they are able, then there is a high chance that my peaches will be deformed, and not very tasty. And the only way we are going to know is by waiting until the summer.

apple

On the bright side, my late blooming berries and fruits should be fine. Everyone is mulched in and trying to keep warm. I still have a few sticks in the house waiting to be planted, I will have fruit this year, in one form or another.

Last year's sticks