Muscadine Wine

I've heard of Muscadine Wine.

But, well, you know...

Anyhow.

Kyle was working out back the other day.

We are moving the chickens all the

way to the back of the property.

Pros:  further from the house, so when

it RAINS, less likely to stink us out.

Cons: further from the house, so feeding,

and closing the coops at night will

require a little walking.

Not necessarily a bad thing.

Unless its RAINING.

Anyhow.

In the process of clearing out some of the

growth back there, he noticed 

we have a LOT of grape vine.

Then Jim dropped by,

and he was super excited to

identify it as Muscadine!

The vines are DRIPPING with grapes!

Most aren't ripe yet,

but give it a couple of weeks...

The next day, Kyle found THIS!

Aren't they pretty?

And really sweet and yummy!

TEENY tiny, and they have 3 or 4 seeds,

so you have to pay attention

you can't just pop them in your mouth.

But they are a nice treat!

Rats

Goodness Gracious!

The rats are taking over the zoo.

Kyle and I were out by the barn,

enjoying the soft evening breeze

as the sun was slowly going down.

And suddenly we saw a HUGE rat

running along the top rail of one

of the horse stalls.

Kyle headed into the house and 

grabbed a shot gun.

However, since the rats are in our barn,

and a shotgun has a BIG shot pattern,

he sent me back into the house

for his .22.

(I got another shot gun first, I thought

the .22 was the gun behind the door...)

Oops!

(while he was waiting he saw SIX!)

Once he got the right gun,

we discovered one of their hiding places

and started shooting.

A couple got away.

(those little guys are FAST!)

One got ... got.

(And only a couple of small holes

in the barn wall...)

Then after dark,

when all the chickens had gone to bed,

he sat in wait by the leftover chicken feed.

This time he used the shot gun,

since he wasn't aiming at my barn.

And was rewarded with a GIANT rat

the size of a small rabbit.

He honestly thought it was a baby possum!

(We aren't big fans of possums, since they

carry a disease that is fatal to horses...)

GOT IT!

(And took out half the feed trough. Oops)

Today I am taking delivery of another of

the electric rat zappers.

Our other one died.

And on a blog the other day I read that

rats LOVE cherry flavored Starburst.

So I have a bag all ready for them.

Wish us luck!

Little Bob

Bob is my favorite name.

(Hello Kyle ROBERT!)

(LOL)

(I actually only noticed that a couple 

of years ago...)

(Yup, I'm on the top of my game.)

Bob.

It was my male breeder rabbit.

Bob.

My equine dentist.

Bob.

Our attorney while dealing with

all our crazy people in the past.

Bob.

My betta fish.

Of course, we all know betta fish,

like goldfish, don't live for a LONG time.

The above bubble used to be on the wall

in my office.

And then we moved our office
30 miles north.
In my individual office I had a heater
and I kept it nice and warm.

In our new facility, we are all in
one giant room together,
and it's COLD in here.

And Bob is a tropical fish.

So he is now moved to my house.

Where it's plenty tropical.

And he's happy.

*Well, actually "he" is dead.  He didn't

survive the move... but betta fish are ALL

named Bob and this one is actually about 

the 11th or 12th edition...

And he appears to be happy.

So I'm going with it.

Sad News

We received some sad news earlier this week.

Rod's Aunt Anita passed on

after battling with lung cancer.

She had a tough year.

Her dear husband Ronnie (of 48 years)

died unexpectedly last year.

They came down for George's funeral,

and I got to spend an hour or so visiting

with Ronnie.

They were an awesome couple.

It really threw Anita for a loop.

She came down for a visit late

last year.  It was so good to see her!

She was doing well.

And then she was diagnosed with

Stage 4 lung cancer.

It hit her really hard and fast.

Last week her daughter said the 

doctors had done all they could

and expected she would pass in the

next few weeks.

She lasted hours, not days.

Anita was so loved by many many people.

She was outgoing, loving, caring,

FUNNY, kind.

Rod, Tim and Angie are heading up

to Tennessee this afternoon to

attend her funeral on Friday.

I wish I could have gone with them,

but I don't have enough time off

from work available.

I know she is beyond happy now to

be reunited with her beloved Ronnie.

But boy she is missed here.

STORY - Have You Ever Won Anything?

Some of the story prompts haven't really 

"spoken" to me.

But this one did!

Have I ever won anything?

YEARS ago.

1240 CKXL

(that's AM radio for all you youngsters)

ran an "I must have been a 

BEAUTIFUL baby" contest.

You had to call in and talk for 30

seconds without pausing or repeating

a word in order to win $100.

If you didn't make it, you won $1

for every second you went.

I called in and got on!!!!

That NEVER happens!

And you KNOW I can talk...

I got on a roll.

I must have been a beautiful baby.

I had lovely silken black hair

and gorgeous hazel eyes,

blah blah blah.

When I got to my super cute chubby

legs, I got caught on the word

"dimply".  I just couldn't get it out

and stuttered over it a couple of times

and they called me on it.

I made it TWENTY NINE seconds!!!!!

Pam Lansidale (sp) called me and said

she heard it!

And I got $29.

So there's that.

Cold Adventure

We need a dish washer.

Well, need is a strong word.

We have a dishwasher.

But you kind of have to wash the dishes

before you can put them in the machine

and then it's anybody's guess

what you will get out.

So about 2 years ago we quit using it.

Washing dishes by hand is kind of

relaxing - just standing there,

watching things get clean.

But the other day I decided I wasn't

having fun doing it anymore.

We had looked at new dishwashers

(and fridges, although we don't need one, YET)

last month (Memorial Day) while shopping at Lowes.

But we decided not to buy anything.

We hadn't butchered the cows yet

and we didn't know if we were going

to make any money.

Anyhow.

I figured there would be another sale

for the July 4th weekend,

so it was back to Lowe's we went.

And sure enough, the dishwasher was on sale.

A pretty good price!

And the fridge we had looked at before

was an extra $200 off!

($2500 marked down to $999)

So, we decided to buy both of them.

Our fridge is nearly 20 years old and

although it works perfectly,

who knows when it will die.

And who knows how much a new fridge

will cost at that point.

Old fridge

Unfortunately, they didn't have any of 

the fridge at that particular store,

but there were 2 just 35 miles south

in Vero Beach.

We paid for the fridge (holding it for us)

and headed south.

(dragging the horse trailer)

When we got to the store in Lowe's,

it turned out they actually DIDN'T have

any of that particular fridge in their inventory,

but there were 2 another 45 minutes south

in Jensen Beach.

(By this time it was too late to drive down

before the store closed...)

We turned around and headed back to the house.

(via Bob Evans Restaurant - we haven't eaten there

in YEARS and YEARS.  It was good.)

The next morning we went to church

and then headed back to the house 

to pick up the horse trailer again

and head south.

2 hours later we pulled into Jensen Beach

and their local Lowe's.

Thankfully they actually DID have a fridge

(Rod had called and confirmed not only that

they had a fridge but even the spot it was sitting

in back in the storage part of the building...)

An hour later we had the fridge all loaded

into the horse trailer and were heading north.

As we came back into town, we decided

to just go to our local Lowe's and pick

up the dishwasher we had also paid for

(but didn't pick up because we were rushing

to get to the Vero store before they closed.)

We joked about our consistent lousy luck

this week.

On our way to pick up the calves,

the owner texted she had already sold them,

so we ended up with the ones we have now.

Then the fridge required 6 hours of driving!

What were chances this was going to go smoothly?

Sure enough.

After about 30 minutes, the poor girl

from the front counter came to apologize.

She and the manager had spent the last

20 minutes in the back looking for

our dishwasher.

No luck.

But they DO have one in another store

and they will bring it to their store

(and even to our house) for free!

(No thanks, just bring it to the store,

we don't like to have people come to 

our place and didn't want to have to take

time off work...)

And to show how sorry they were for

all the inconvenience,

could they knock off an additional $100?

SWEET!!!!!

So we now have a new fridge.

A nice "smoked stainless"

with french doors and a freezer

drawer on the bottom.

It's MASSIVE!

And I love it!

Unfortunately,

still no dishwasher.

LOL

New Babies

Our new little girls are quite shy.

They stay away from the people

And they haven't eaten much of their

molasses covered grain.

But that's not a big surprise.

They were in a dirt lot when we bought them.

They are quite taken with all this grass.

And are often found happily 

taking a snooze in the shade

of the hay shed.

The red and white is a "beef master".

"They" say they get to be a pretty good size.

She is about 5 months old.

The little black and white is a 

Brahman cross (probably crossed

with hereford, but that's just a guess.)

She is only 3 months old.

Originally I thought the black on the left flank

of the red cow was just dirt.

Their paddock was pretty muddy and she

looked like she had mud on her head too.

But it turns out that is her color.

She is a tri-color.

And upon closer inspection,

the little black has teeny tiny horn buds.

NO HORNS!

So our next adventure will be getting

those taken care of.

And, of course,

they are going by the collective name of

COWS.