Rattlesnake!

Yesterday at the ranch, wee were busy loading debris in the trailer. There were nails, tin, a barrel, etc and we were loading it to haul to the dump. We'd been sifting around in the pile for 20 minutes when Dylan screamed, "SNAKE, TWO OF THEM!"

I am so lucky no one got bit. Brandon grabbed the post hole diggers and gave me a shovel. Funny, my shovel was much shorter than his post hole diggers! I killed one and he killed the other. Its creepy how they still move and rattle without a head.

We dug a hole and buried the heads. The kids learned a lot about where snakes hide and why I am always telling them not to play in this post pile or rock pile. They each took one decapitated snake to school today. I'll bet their teachers love me!

How does your garden grow?

Now that we are moved in and somewhat (LOL) settled, we decided to start the garden. I always had a garden at our old house, but we didn't have one last year as we were in the throws of a remodel and move. So this year we went for it and even decided to make it a communal garden with our cousins who live next door. My husband built raised beds because I hate weeding, pretty much. I had a raised bed a few years ago in an old fiberglass Loomis trough and it worked great. Of course this year we went 4x as big in the raised beds. We started the garden about a month ago, some with seeds some from plants we bought.

You can see the little strawberries already!

We decided to put all the zucchini, squash and melons on the ground though, so we dug rounds for them, this way they can spread out. It is the only part I am questioning, but I think once their roots take hold we can water in these little ditch circles around them.

Finally, the heat has arrived. Many of the plants have been stagnate hunkering down through the wind and cold.... until... it officially got hot this weekend. It was 90+ all weekend and boy how the plants are starting to grow. So far we have only lost one tomato plant and a couple zucchinis. Those things will grow like weeds though now that it is hot.

Let me know if you want some tomatoes, we went a little crazy... Brandywine, Roma, Cherry, Beefsteak, Earlygirl, pink stripe and a few more. If they do well, we will have more tomatoes than we know what to do with!

Oh and here is a shot of my front yard, just because. Apparently purples do well here. I am not even a big fan of purple, but somehow 90% of the front of my house is purple. Better than dead! Everyone should have a cow skull in their flower beds, I have two. If you need one, let me know, I have plenty.

My porch... an eclectic mix of things. The bench was a gift from my good friend on my birthday last year.

Country living is never dull

This morning as I was about to shower, I heard the dogs in the back yard barking and going nuts. I figure the horse or horses are in the back yard or something... its happened. So I go out and one lab is soaking wet from a refreshing swim in the 40 degree morning air and the other two labs are barking at the pool.

A half grown American Coot. I thought it was a duck, but apparently Coots don't have webbed feet, they have these weird feet.

She (or he) was sticking close to our Mallard pool chlorinator. Apparently they were in love.

After a quick call to the neighborhood animal rescuer and bird expert, Steph, we caught her with the pool net and she was relocated to the pond. Never a dull moment around here.

Random thoughts and pictures

Of all the days I did not bring my camera to the ranch with me, I came across the most amazing sight last week. All I had was my iPhone, which takes terrible pictures. If I had my Canon with my big lens, this would have been an awesome shot. Kicking myself now.

This is a bald eagle in flight with a large mouth bass in its tallons. He swooped by the barn and got my attention, then landed on the power pole. I saw that he was clutching and chewing on a fish! When he flew off, I clearly saw it was a bass about 1-2 pounds. If I had my good camera, this would be clear and up close. I am pissed.

Here is Ally with her steer Curly. He is such a big pet... aren't they a cute team?