Knit Your Bit

I made a scarf recently for a project called Knit Your Bit. It's sponsored by the World War II Museum in New Orleans. I had seen it advertised at a yarn expo and they were asking for donations. I thought this was a good cause, and I had some extra yarn, so I thought I'd make one. I chose a pattern from their website, but any scarf pattern would do.

I added a short note of thanks that I hope went along with the scarf to the veteran in need. A few weeks later I got a nice letter of thanks from the WWII Museum.

Cream Peas

I planted some cream peas the other day from some seeds that my cousin sent me, because she knows how much I love peas. I had been waiting until the ground temperature got above 70 degrees, the recommended temperature for planting peas. I also bought a couple of standing trellises ($15 at Lowe's) for the vines to climb as they grow. I put the seeds around the base of the trellis and used my finger to push them down a couple of inches into the soil. In just a couple of days the seeds had sprouted and began to grow.

I stopped the other day at a roadside stand and bought a pound of similar ones for $5. They had come from south Texas.

Three Cowboys

Some days around here are mundane and boring. And then other days, strange things happen - like finding rats and seeing strange things out the window.

When I looked out the window the other day, I saw two blue objects in our far field. I had to get out my binoculars to see that it was two men on horses, facing each other holding something down with ropes.

I had to go investigate. So I got in our Mule and drove down the county road where I could get a better look.

It turns out that the men were rounding up some stray cows from an adjacent field when one of the cows bolted and broke through the fence into our field. The two men on horses followed and managed to rope the cow (I really wish I had seen that!) and hold it on the ground until the third man with the truck and trailer were able to get to them.

It was quite educational for me to see the men get the unwilling cow up on the trailer. You could tell they had done it before. Lots of slow movements and pulling of ropes in strategic directions. After all, cows aren't trained and this particular one was rather aggressive and uncooperative. I think they started using a dog to herd the cow and then later had to use a cattle prod a few times.

Once they got the cow loaded on the trailer and secured, they loaded the two horses and were off to round up more strays. 

Even though they didn't ask or even tell us they needed to come on our property, they were friendly and obviously had good intentions. They were just getting their job done. They offered to come back and mend the broken fence. It's all give and take, because later our Mule wouldn't start and I got stranded out on the road. They came back around to check on me, and spent some time getting it started. 

 

Rat

I was just thinking the other day that the only two things I hadn't seen around the property were a rat and a skunk (we've smelled skunks). Well, tick one off that list.

On my walk out to feed the goats the other morning, I saw a dead rat along the path. It was a pretty healthy and fat looking rat so I was surprised but glad (!) to see that it was dead. No visible signs of injury. It was a little worrying because it was fairly close to the house. But in the afternoon when I went by it was gone, probably taken by one of the birds.

I threw down my glove for scale. I also rolled it over with my boot lest you think it was a cute little white rat.

Egg Shells

I read that you could recycle egg shells and feed them back to your chickens. So I tried that the other day. 

The important thing is that the eggs should not be recognizable as eggs. So I washed and air dried the eggs, then smashed them into small pieces. A month's worth of egg shells didn't look like much when I was finished. They were gone in a couple of days.

Egg shells contain calcium which the chickens need to produce an egg. I usually provide oyster shell for the chickens as well.