June 29, 2007
On the night of the biggest full moon of the year it was our 1 year anniversary on the farm and it was as crazy as usual. Woody went to the neighbors in the afternoon and I had to go get him. The trucks battery was dead and a part broke while trying to replace it, so we had to drive to Watertown to get the part Asa needed to fix it. While driving to Watertown we received a call from Grandma who was home with the girls alone. She called to tell us the two neighbor dogs came for a visit and what should she do with them. She didn't have any car seats in her van and there was two dogs with no collars or leashes. We told her to put them in the blue car with the girls and take them next door and put them in the back yard. She no sooner got the girls buckled in and the dogs were out again and following her back to our house. She then took them back over and put them in their garage. We were both nervous they would eat something they shouldn't so Grandma brought them back to the house and tried to put them in Woody's Kennel. However they wouldn't go in the kennel. Grandma then used Woody's collar and tied them outside to the porch with the orange tie down straps. When we got home Asa fixed the truck but puked because it was almost 10pm and he swallowed a few bugs which made him gag. After he fixed the truck we took the neighbors dogs back and Asa insisted they would be fine in their garage. Once back at home we were talking in the kitchen and heard a funny noise. At first we thought it was Salem the kitten stuck outside. I stated I bet Sparkles is having her kittens. We all went out to see and sure enough she had 3 kittens on the porch and one was sprawled out crying. I found a towel with holes and put her and the kittens in a tub so she wasn't giving birth on the yucky wood of the porch. We woke up Quinlyn and tried to wake up Addisson but she just rolled over and went back to sleep. Quinlyn loved looking at the babies. By 10:30 she was delivering another kitten. She had two tabbies and I couldn't really tell what the other one looked like. It was another exciting adventure at the farm. It never fails, anytime Asa and I go anywhere together alone and leave Grandma alone with one child or both something always seems to happen.
Friday, June 29, 2007
June 29, 2007
On this date one year ago we began our adventure at our current residence. We arrived at the farm at about 5pm. We were so overwhelmed by the conditions of the house we opted to sleep in the car. So tonight we are going to celebrate our Anniversary by sleeping in the car. Grandma and I decided one Asa and the kids fall a sleep we are going to sneak back to the house and sleep in our beds. Leaving him in the car with two kids and a dog. LOL.
Looking back at the past year has been a year of learning. Especially recently with the goats.
To be continued.........
Mr. Raccoon is at it again, last night he was up on the porch just after Asa and Sarah took of for the drive in. Just before they left Asa B set the live catch trap, turned around and Sparkles the cat got caught in it. So he set her free, reset the trap, and headed to the car and bang, Salem the kitten got caught in it before Asa and Sarah were out of the drive way. Cheryl did not know how to open it so she just let it sit there with the kitten in it, no harm done. When the raccoon showed up it was trying to get the kitten from the rattling and the kitten crying, so she chased the raccoon off the porch and brought the cage into the kitchen. Though we hopped otherwise, the raccoon came back and this time Cheryl sic’ ed Woody the dog on it. Woody ran off into the yard area barking and howling, but we have no indication that he caught the raccoon. So, for now Mr. Raccoon is still free and a still being a pain. He had opened up the birdseed, the turkey seed, and most of the other containers on the porch creating quite a mess. What a pain raccoons are.
Love to all,
--Asa Reed Jr.
Pancakes anyone? Well the girls and I make breakfast a lot of times and they know how to make them by now, Addisson can almost receipt the scratch receipt, not bad for a 4 year old. So they know that you can make them a lot of ways, their favorite being blueberries by a large margin. Well this weekend, they had a small supply of gummy bears, gummy worms, and gummy lobsters thanks to Grandpap Reed. (Grandma Taylor had supplied them both with little plastic tweezers to pick up their gummy bears, there is a little light in the tweezers, so when you squeeze the gummy bears they light up and the shine, even when you put them into your mouth, the girls loved these tweezers.) So they took the next step and wanted to try t he gummy bears in pancakes. Not a good idea. We tried on gummy worm and one gummy lobster in the pancakes and they melted completely and then fried on our griddle and what a mess Grandpap had to clean up!
The girls and Grandpap in the midst of the real work spend a couple of hours in the hay barn putting together the swing set. Since the work was going way too slow for a 4 and 2 year old, they asked if I would hold the two person swing while they tried it out. Whoa!!! Grandpap can hardly lift the swing let alone hold it with my two favorite granddaughters on it. So, I told them no. Addisson then asked it I could temporarly put it up like I had put the single swings up? This was a lot more doable, so we took a couple of minutes and a couple of pieces of rope and hung it from the rafters. The girls loved it and spent their free t ime, when they were not helping mark, drill holes, and screwing screws for the next couple of hours riding the swing. And this was not a casual swinging time, they put a lot of gusto into this. Little Quinlyn had to literally stand on her feet most of the time to keep up with Addisson and they both were flying, shaking the rafters of the whole hay barn. Well, but the time we quite, Grandpap was in trouble again. Addisson had sore arms and Quinlyn actually had blisters on her little hands!!!! Today, Sarah has identified blisters on Addissonæ¯ hands also, Grandpap clearly worked these little farm girls too hard.
That night we all went down to the pond for a hotdog roast. What is a picnoc without a little fishing at the pond, Asa B and the girls caught a couple of cat fish immediately and the girls helped me clean the fish and put them on the grill, so besides the hot dogs we had 3 nice catfish for dinner. Quite a nice day, gentle wind and temperatures in the 60s it was nice.
Love to all,
--Asa Reed Jr.
June 19, 2007
This weekend was exciting, well at least very busy at the Reed Ranch.
On the way up t the ranch I saw a pilated woodpecker flying across Interstate 81 near the Sandy Creek exit, just south of Watertown, NY. Asa B had said he say one flying along the road down there earlier in the summer. This is the first time I have ever seen this woodpecker, very large and distinctive.
Cheryl was already there when I arrived, she had brought her mother up after the trip to the Sood’s place in Wisconsin. And then Aunt Midge decided to stop over, all the way from Vermont, to visit the family and Grandma Kistler, so all the beds were filled, Grandma Kistler slept with Cheryl as she needed a real bed, she has a lot of troubles getting up and down nowadays. I ended up on the couch or the lazy boy depending on the night, Aunt Midge took our upstairs study for her bedroom. So even in the ramshackle condition it is, the house is a happy house and lots of company comes our way.
Every trip to the Ranch I try to get a load of trash to the dump. This time it was another section of old fence that we had pulled out and cleaned up. Well as I got it rolled up and into the pickup along with the 7 or 8 garbage cans of trash and parts of the old chimney that we were getting rid of, I thought I will have to be careful that no one runs into those fence posts the way they were sticking out. As I walked around the truck to look at it Quinlyn followed me and Bang! She ran right into the old fence posts I had sticking out of the back end of the pickup. BANG! Poor Quinlyn had another ding on her little forehead. Then she started to cry and Grandpap felt as bad as she did. Grandpap is going to have to be a lot more careful when the little ones are following him around.
Before I left to drive back Sunday afternoon, I told Asa B that we had to have some fun stuff for everyone as well as the work or it was not worth all the work. So Asa B swam the width of the pond, trying it out for a swimming hole. He said he kicked bottom a lot, thus it might only be 2-3 feet deep in spots at that place location and somewhat muddy, over by the rocks it was about 5 feet deep or so. Also he hit a lot of things that moved in the water; there are a lot of big things living in the pond! The bullheads (catfish) he would not mind, but the snapping turtles are another matter!! And what else was there rubbing shoulders with my favorite son? So he might be reluc tant to try swimming again for awhile. We might want to clean it up a bit, by trapping some of the larger turtles and making sure there is no junk hidden under the water.
Of course there seems to be something to fix all the time. Besides the whole house of course. So early last week the dryer broke down, it was getting very old, but still I would rather have it continue to run. So Asa B tried to get it to run, and then when I got home on Friday I tried to fix the dryer, not even close, it gave no signs of life after I fiddled with it a while and I did not have that much time, so Asa B got us a new one, good and big, six cubic feet, on sale at Lowes and it is in and drying the clothes. Yea, Asa!!
Love to all,
--Asa Reed Jr.
