Afternoon at the Tractor Pull -- May 14, 2011 Bremond, TX



Tractor "track" in -- digital display for length of the pull



Kudos to the Brazos Valley Antique Tractor and Engine Club; I had a most entertaining afternoon at their first event. This is the first tractor pull I've ever attended. 

The track was finished early this morning and was regularly maintained throughout the day. 

 



Hitch up to the sled, and make your run!

  We have a 1945 Farm-All H, so I'm partial to Farm-Alls. Many different sizes and shapes, but all International Red.

When the front wheels go up, life gets interesting



Best to keep wheels on the ground

.

I remember seeing Minneapolis-Molines when I lived in Wisconsin. Usually they smoke a lot more when running hard.



Tractors and drivers vary in size, tractors organised by weight class




Art admires Hot Rod tractor which uses dragster fuel



 The Hot Rods are amazing tractors -- loud as their namesakes, powerful pullers, and fast, too. Top speed today was 19 mph, which looks a lot faster in person.

6000 class tractor and another Hot Rod Tractor



Santa drives a Hot Rod in May



Suddenly "Here Comes Santa Claus" blasted out over the speakers. Santa hitched 
up to the sled, shook his hands out at arms length and settled into his seat to the roars of the crowd. What a great a great run! He fairly flew!



Deafening! Poor kiddo! I was holding my ears, too!





Nothing like the smell of diesel fuel in the afternoon!

Activities for the kids, booths with souveniers, loads of booths with barbecue and other Texas treats, a silent auction, some great emcees, and beautiful weather made the day a pleasure.

By the way, did you know there are Country Western songs about tractors?





Progress in Preparedness

Apologies for the time lapse, but sometimes life just happens, you know?

Gardens now blooming and setting veggies. I watch them grow daily, chanting " I will not pick yet. I will not pick yet." Those baby squash are looking mighty tasty!

The little green peppers are whispering my name. I must not pick yet!



Scarlet Emperor runner beans are Italian type green beans



Pretty blossoms, but no beans yet.

The drought has seriously affected the dewberries that survived the herbicide applied by the electric company. We'll probably get a handful of berries this year compared to the bounty last year. Have to start watering the pear trees before the fruit drops off.



Last year's dewberry jam burbling away



 I have canning jars waiting to fill with jams and preserves for those emergency shelves. Bought 32 pounds of strawberries to take up some of the slack left by the dewberries. Hubby and I are starting jam production tomorrow.



Things are so dry I'm finding it hard find wild green feed to cut for the rabbits. Have to plant more swiss chard to make up the diffference. Fifty rabbits can eat a LOT of rabbit food-- more than a pound an animal per week with small amounts of greens and handsfulls of hay to supplement. Today two disappointing does will go to the freezer, but none of the younger ones are big enough to process yet. The next group needs another month of growth to qualify as fryers.

Art's been feeding bunny poo to the wild grape vines we're culturing. They've taken off hugely with the extra food and water. We'll actually get some grapes this year.

 He visits the fig trees with buckets of poo and water,too. If he isnt tired enough after that, he hauls compost, and scoops it out into the new raised beds.After that, strewing rabbit poo around established plants gives them a boost in growth and productivity. Bunny poo is nature's time release fertilizer, but he also mixes it into buckets of water for bunny poo tea to water with. 50 bunnies make a lot of poo! Therefore Art makes lots of compost, too.

Hangman and brother-in-Law, Dan,brought another load of dirt. I kid him that it'll take forever if he is going to move his family up here one cubic yard at a time. He'd offered me a choice of dirt or another dead fridgie -- so hard to choose! Two of the fridgies at the shooting range moved up to the garden line-up, so the load of dirt won. A pair of young breeding rabbits left with Dan to form the foundation of his rabbit empire. Two less for us to feed, and cash to buy more rabbit chow.

Matthew and Hangman installed a water meter (found by Mr. H.) for the spigot leading to the gardens and the animal area. Now we have an accurate measure of the water --for farm use only-- to take off on our taxes.

Self sufficiency on the increase,gardens going, canning season beginning, good friends got our back, family pitching in: life is good. Hate to be greedy, but how about some more rain? Please?

WWII Motto / Raised Bed Gardening Through Recycling

"Eat it up and wear it out. Make it do or do without."

I make things do in other ways when I can.  Recycling in the garden works for me!  It also helps with my "the ground has gotten really far away" problems. I cant "do without" raised beds. I just can't garden at ground level very effectively on crutches (can't get down there, or especially back up!), but I've learned there's a way around just about every problem.

Raised Garden Beds a la Recycle

Take an old refrigerator or freezer, remove the door, puncture or shoot holes in the back, remove any spare parts and drag by truck or tractor next to a fence or the area of your choosing. Add rocks or fill to the bottom 1/3 and top off with the best soil and compost you can get.

Add some transplants or seed with veggies you 'll eat. The squash transplants in the fridge behind this one looked great last year, and produced well. Everything is a little less waist  height and easy to plant and care for.

 Seeds finally germinate; waiting patiently is tough. Plants can be trained up a nearby fence when they're ready.

I realize you can sell some fridges/ freezers at scrap yards, but this is just too handy.

Folks have started bringing me their old "coolerators", so the garden expands.




Three more gardens are down at the shooting range being aerated for drainage. I need to paint the outsides with Rust-O-Leum this year, but I'd like to enclose the lines with fence pickets for a rustic look, eventually.

If someone gives you an old truck tire, that works also. A saws-all rids the tire of some of the sidewall for more planting space. This puppy's so big I can lean my backside against it for a rest.  I cant treally reach across it, either. Follow the same directions for filling a fridgie-planter.

I'm thinking of covering the tire this summer with some white cloth to bounce the sun back and keep the tire cooler.  During the winter, the black color soaks in sunlight and warms the plants within.

I love it when recycling makes my life easier. I love gardening and don't want to give it up.

Reclaiming Old Gardens and Other Projects

Years ago they were poultry pens, then changed to gardens, then ignored for two years. Everything beige and twig-like are the skeletons of Roosevelt weeds. AKA poverty weed. They grow where ground is disturbed and left to its own devices. The pile is the first one we cleared out of gardens B and C. More have been pulled and stacked as we reclaim these spaces.



One view of garden C

 Matthew had built raised beds a long time ago, since the ground and I are not on speaking terms. Pulled the Roosevelt out, and will do grass and small weeds next.
Seedlings of squash need clear space soon to spread out and produce.





Opposite end of garden C

Paper shreds from Hangman's family and Maggie's old papers collection form a clean space to walk while choking out most weeds. Barely visible is my "settin' stool" at the upper left edge of the garden. More grass to pull, but rabbits enjoy it.




View of south fence of garden B

 Not all bad news, though. This wild grapevine trained itself on the fence, and is sporting tiny grapes already. Art rewarded it with a few shovels of "bunny poo", our favorite time release fertilizer.
There's another started on the north wall of garden C, too!



Garden B nearly cleaned out and ready to go.

 With our all purpose vehicle, the M-37 (Dodge), Art hauls buckets of compost from the rabbit and poultry area near the house to these back gardens to enrich the soil. Once dumped he smooths the rich blackness in place or fills holes he's dug previously.

Once done, he boards the M-37 and rumbles back to the critter area to plant fig trees (thanks, Hangman) near the old goat pasture. Meanwhile I'm planting okra , watermelon, and cucumber seedlings in another garden area, across from the tractor shed. It contains some lovely recycled raised beds, a topic for the next blog.

I've re-discovered my favorite quotation from WWII in an issue of Reminiscence Magazine that applies to these raised beds. It's a thought very much on my mind as I watch our economy. Preparedness is a garden, no matter how odd. 

Cheap Cologne Saves Bunny

Under the bathroom sink, an old bottle of men's cologne lurked for more than ten years. I meant to throw it out but never did. It finally got some use Thursday morning.

One of the does delivered a litter of 6, but they were dead when I found them except for one little runty bunny. Scaredy Kat had chewed on one (yes, gross, but sometimes happens). I didn't want to leave the live one, considering the mood Scaredy was in,but I didn't want to bottle feed a newborn bunny. Or collect rabbit night dung, dilute and feed with milk, to ensure the baby got the correct enzymes. GACK! Don't forget stimulating elimination, too!



Specs and her combined litter

  I remembered something about fostering babies with another doe. Specs had delivered the day before, and had room for another. I needed some Mentholatum, Vicks, or something smelly to block her sense of smell until the fosterling picked up the smells of her nest and kits. Couldn't find anything smelly until I thought of that awful cologne. I snatched it up and went back out.

Usually Specs is glad to see me. After the first short burst of spray on her back she flinched, and her nose twitched. Thinking she  might need more smell, I gave her another three bursts: between her ears, on her forehead, and on the area just above the nose. Whew! She began wildly scrubbing her face with her paws. I added another spritz or the top of her nest box. If she smelled the other doe on the foster baby it was a goner.

It's possible I might have used a bit too much cologne. I was feeling a little queasy from the smell, and I wasn't even wearing it. Poor Specs! She scrubbed her face  intermittently for hours.

White fosterling with new litter-3days old

It worked, though. She's been nursing the foster kit, who is fat and squirmy along with the rest of Spec's litter. Going to get some Mentholatum for the vet box next time we go to town. I'll put the cologne back under the sink. You never know ....

                     
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Sorry for the lapse in posts. Stayed with Maggie during the first round of the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) so I could administer small group testing at the school without driving back and forth most of the week. Thanks for the hospitality, Maggie! The truck engine is being rebuilt. Why do we need to have the engine boiled? It's always something, isn't it?

Spring with Bear-Dog



Go walkies, Mom?



Bear is the organic early warning system around the HomePlace. He's the most stubborn dog we've ever had; I think there's some Blue Heeler in there, certainly some Rottweiler. However, he redeems himself daily; nothing goes on without his notice, and subsequent warning.

He's an enthusiastic companion whether gardening or walking. Just look at him grin! His stubby tail wags so hard, his entire butt shakes side to side.

With him, I'm secure against skunks, strangers, and trains. Trains??? Bear hates the trains that rumble along a mile away. He barks until the train sound wanes in the distance. As far as I know, he's never seen a train, but his past is a mystery. We adopted him from a shelter, who got him from another shelter as a pup. 



Bear takes time to smell the flowers



I can excuse his irrational behavior about trains though. He saved me from a skunk last fall by growling and staring. I also excuse him when he steals and chews my garden gloves, or helps me dig. The Tree Killers hired by the electric company don't stand a chance of sneaking around unnoticed, trimming the fruit trees in the right of way. 

I am such a softy for critters  to begin with, regardless of their uses. Sometimes despite their behavior.

Slowly strutting temptation for Bear



He has a running feud with Antonio Banty-Deras. Antonio taunts him by clucking and screeching, then running. Bear gives chase and gets yelled at for chasing that brazen rooster. Bear ducks in false embarrassment, and waits until nobody's looking to stalk Antonio. Antonio explodes in shrieks and tears off around the feeding area, Bear's in pursuit, and in trouble again! I know Antonio is laughing at Bear. Frankly, I'm laughing, too. He just can't resist the lure of Antonio's ruckus.

Bear's the best present I ever got Art, at least in my opinion.

Muscovy Ducks Legal Again

Fish and Wildlife had an idea one fine day. Make ownership of Muscovy ducks illegal. Starting tomorrow, they are once again legal to own. What on earth happened?


Yep, they're one ugly duck!

 Muscovy ducks compete effectively for resources, and tend to overwhelm other species. If they mate with any other breeds of ducks, the offspring are sterile, like mules. While they are not native to the US, they have migrated up from central America and South America, which technically puts them under the control of the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. Not so good for the ducks, or the farmers who raise them.

You'll see them in parks, by the water, but swimming is not necessary to their well being. Basically F&W targeted them for extermination, allowing people to shoot them on sight. Farmers who raised them needed to get rid of them.Thankfully no more problems with keeping them starting Thursday.

Why keep Muscovies? Economically they're a good meat producer, and less fatty than regular ducks. A drake Muscovy can weigh in at 14# or more. Once they reach maximum weight, they usually can't fly away. We trim wings anyway. Females weigh amazingly less, about seven pounds, but can set three clutches of eggs a year.

Babies are cute, though.

Females, however, can and do fly. In the wild, they nest in trees. They need to be confined for their own safety and that of their ducklings.

Muscovies don't require a pool, though they love them. The ducklings can actually drown if in water too long (no oils in their feathers). Your duck pen will be far less messy and aromatic without a pool. Just a deep bucket to let them clear their nostrils regularly is needed.

They are efficient foragers. One of our females saw us discover a nest of pinkie mice in an open shed. She sped up to the nest and gobbled down the entire litter, and looked for more. Bugs disappear, and small snakes, mice, and reptiles, too.

 They're interesting ( males hiss; females coo) and thrifty to keep. Muscovies are a dream to process, because they lack the heavy oils in other duck feathers. Plucking is so much faster and easier.

Lastly, they have the most personality of any duck breed. When I left early from work one of our girls would open a bleary eye at me, glare with raised crest, then subside back to sleep. I felt obligated to aplogise for my intrusion on the way to the car.

I understand the responsibility involved in keeping Muscovies from escaping. We've kept ours confined to protect them from predators, actually. 

I deplore those folks who get them as cute Easter babies, and let them go at the park when they discover Darling Duckling becomes large and sometimes agressive. Call a local farmer instead.

I was happy to participate in the online petition program to reinstate Muscovies as a legally kept bird. F&W was surprised how many folks keep them as meat birds. Have a place you can keep ducks? Get some Muscovies and celebrate the modification (repeal) of a regulation passed by folks with only part of their information lined up. Thanks to  F&W for listening to farmers and folks and recinding the section of the regulation that had kept an excellent meat producer off our tables.

Ugly to look at, personality plus, and tasty on the table; Muscovy ducks are another source of meat in troubled times.