First Snow

Morning Everyone, 

Well, I have been saying it for many months now. When the first snow comes I am going to organize the kitchen pantry. Well, the day before yesterday it snowed here in W.V. So I got to work and cleaned it out and now it is almost empty compared to what it was before. Extra food stuff went downstairs for storage in cabinets. Before it looked like a rock slide. I could not find what I needed and therefore kept buying food. Oh what a mess, now cleaned up. 

I felt so good yesterday that I scrubbed all the floors in the house. Now nice and shiny and smelling good. Spot cleaning was a thing for a long time, but now it is nice and clean all over for a while. 

Yesterday was dog bath and clip day, also a day to do all the laundry and doggie beds and blankets, they have a bunch of stuff all now nice and clean. I think my diet is now starting to work, I have more energy and am able to do lots more, now today I am looking for things to do, and think I will head back downstairs and work on unpacking some more.  Bird cages are now clean also, everyone is happy but my body needs more exercise. 😅

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day and week.

Love and Prayers,

 Margo

Copper Head

Copper Head Snakes, 

Yes, ya just never know where you will run into one of them. 

Vince was headed out after dark to shut up the chickens, and on the path 

to the shed, there was this snake. If not for the corner porch light that 

come on he would have walked right into the thing. 

 

I have never seen one before, so took a pic and showed the neighbor down the street and he took one look and said "Copper Head", Poison stay away from them. 

     

Night Shot

Daylight

Watch your step even in your own backyard in West Virginia. 

Love and Prayers,

Margo

Cool Morning

Hello everyone, 

Wow! This morning we woke to a cool 53 degrees. I am loving it although had to get my jacket to go outside. 😇 The air feels like the start of "Fall" already. Not too soon for me though. This summer has been so hot and humid and rainy off and on so bad I could not get out and enjoy the summer at all. How I do miss the cool summers of Alaska. Perhaps mid-70s and if it got hot it would hit into the 80s which did not happen that much. 

We have not hit the triple digits this summer, but it seems to have been doing that all over the lower 48 this year. We hit into the high 90s this summer and the humidity is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Hard to breathe in that kind of weather for me with asthma. So mostly I stayed inside this year. I am also bothered pretty bad with swelling of hands and feet, and legs with humidity. So pretty much miserable all summer this year. 

Evey the puppies don't want to be out in the weather either, they want back in right away. So we all just live inside or do what we have to outside and then recover inside. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

About Ginger

Little Ginger.

Did I tell you all about what has happened to her? IF not will let ya know what we have found out. She is now being treated for over a month with meds. We almost lost her and she acted like nothing was wrong. She was eating and drinking and going to the bathroom just fine as always. We noticed she was covered over most of her body with huge deep bruising. We rushed her to the vet. to see what was going on. They did blood work, and she had NO platelets in her blood. She was bleeding to death slowly. They do not know why this happens, but they have had cases of it and they do not all end in a good way. They took her in the back and did an IV with some radiation meds in her ASAP, then sent me home with two meds to give her. It has been a week-by-week ordeal with her as to if she was going to live or not. Two weeks later, she had platelets back to normal, meanwhile, she was losing wt. like really fast. Ginger was always FAT, Nita and Larry over-fed her and Truffles with way too much "food love", so now with her health, as it is her wt. last time there was 7 lbs. 1 or 2 ozs. She use to be over 12 lbs. She is a walking bag of bones right now as she fights her way back to life. Her body the vet said is attacking itself and we go back again this Thursday to see how she is doing.

One good note to say when we go back, she is now showing some signs of life, barking, and showing interest around the house again. She is such a sweet loving, gentle baby, I so hate to see her like this, but we are hoping that she will show "no wt lost" this time around and perhaps maybe gain a little something. I have been giving her special treatment, feeding 3 times a day just for her, she is so weak, almost all of her muscle has been used up or eaten up, she is so weak, but I feel this time around after over a month a small sign of improvement.

Keep fingers crossed that this time around the vet. will say she is improving. She is also had different meds throughout all this, now on two Liq. meds. They seem to be helping. But the vet. said we will know when all the meds are stopped if she will be able to maintain or start slipping away.

This is a real tough time for us on top of all that has happened around her in our lives. The other two dogs are doing just fine.

 

Ginger Rose

 

UPDATE:  Ginger keeps losing wt. She now is just over 4lbs. She has stopped eating and drinking, nothing we try will she eat. She really looks like she is going to die any time, more vet trips and we decided to let her go, she was so so so sick and she was not going to get any better. She is now at rest and with Nita and Larry. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Needle Out of Finger

 NEEDLES

 

Well, it took a while, but the VA when I saw my Dr. did not want to mess with my finger other than to X-ray it and showed a good long chunk of the needle still in my finger. I nearly wanted to puke. Just the thought of what was going to happen to remove it. The VA did send me to the hospital here in W.V. called W.V.U. hospital. Anyways, they took more x-rays and then stuck long needles in my finger at the knuckle to numb the whole finger. Then another Dr. come in and cut the finger open and prided the meat apart while he hunted for the needle, he did find it and removed it from my finger. No stitches just left it open to drain. It is like the worst deep cut the likes of which I have ever had in my life. It does hurt and the index finger gets bumped or knocked into something all the time. 

But at least 3 to 4 weeks after I stuck it in my finger, it now is out. They did tell me that I did a real good job of sticking the needle in my finger. It was close to the tendon and the bone, so the VA farmed me out to the civilians to get it done. The Doctor even took a picture of the needle, it will be added to my VA medical records. 

It is now better enough for me to get caught up on all the typing I had to do. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Watch what you are sewing!

Hello all, 

Just wanted to share what happened to me the other day. 

Well now, this is no fun.

Was patching my patches on my old pair of shorts for yard work, could never let anyone see me in them. LOL

Then when I was looking at something else, my sewing machine reached out and stuck the darn needle in my finger and I remember thinking, "Ouch" and I jerked my hand back, snapped the needle and I heard it hit the floor. I turned around by now to see what all was going on and saw my DNA all over what I was doing, so now I had to wash the shorts after patching them before I could even put them on and get out in the yard and work.

Now, this is a day to remember stitchers, NEVER look away when sewing as the monster machine is hungry for your fingers.

And mine is plenty sore today, just reminding myself to NEVER AGAIN LOOK AWAY WHILE SEWING!

Ya know in all the many years of sewing I have never done this before. I am gonna blame it on old age and stiff fingers that don't know what they are doing. 🤣

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Yellow Salamander

Hello everyone, 

Today while I was cleaning out my little pond on the back side of the house. I found a yellow salamander hiding. I grabbed him and placed him in a safe place with water until I got done cleaning the pond, then I placed him back by the pond with all the very wet leaves and moss so it can go back to the pond if it wants. 

I have the little brown ones all over the yard under leaf litter and rocks here and there, just everywhere, but this is the only yellow one I have seen. 

Now two years ago, while removing a plant near the pond I found an orange salamander. Did not take a pic did not even think of it back then. But that thing was beautiful. 

Yellow Salamander

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Black snake

Hello everyone, 

Found him outside yesterday evening, it was SO hot out that day. 

Do not know if this was poison or not, not going to find out, so many black snakes out there. It looks like one I saw online, and they say he is not. But I do not know for sure. 

This one was at the bird bath, drinking from a rock my dad made out of sandstone. He was just getting a drink of water and he had a fat belly, sure hope he got the pesky chipmunk that has been digging up everything I plant out back. 

Black Snake 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Another Turtle

Turtles, Turtles, Turtles

On the 25 of May, I found another turtle in our driveway headed up the hill. We stopped and I placed him up the hill out of danger and so he went on up the rest of the hill. That was a surprise as I just never thought I would see another one around here. He was lucky not to have been hit crossing the road. So I did my good deed for the day and saved a second turtle. 

Here is his picture. 

This is not the same turtle that we found last year in the month May 2021, he is different in his coloring and a little larger. 

Happy Trails little friend.

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

DOVE egg

On my birthday I found a dove egg laying on the ground next to the rock my dad carved out to make a birdbath. Was nothing I could see wrong with it, I put it back but don't think she will come back, probably was her 1st egg. 

If this was the little dove I saw earlier this year, I am thinking it is the baby of the two adults I have seen around here this spring. Earlier I noticed a bunch of feathers next to the chicken fence where I have seen the two doves sunning themselves. So I am thinking that the "mama" dove got eaten by a hawk, daddy, and the baby dove escaped.  So will keep watching to see what happens with them. I heard them calling to each other the other day, and they are sticking together. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

More CHICKENS

I have now recovered the chickens that I gave my friend down the road because she decided not to keep chickens now for a while as she is working and her new job leaves her no time. 

So now I have 12 chickens and 2 guineas for all the colored fresh eggs you could ever want. I now have a sign down at the mailbox that states we have eggs and the neighbor down the street took 10 dozen and 6 (1 1/2) dozen cartons of eggs to her church today, she will help me sell them and get people started to know where they can come to get eggs. She also is texting all she knows to let them know where we are located. 

I hope we get a lot of people because, at this rate, we get 12 eggs a day if all are laying. I think the guineas are male, no eggs from them as of yet as far as I know. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Hummers

We have HUMMERS now, they showed up yesterday. I was standing on the upper deck dogging the black wasp which are all over when the sun shines and it gets quite hot on the upper deck with no roof overhead to help cut the sun. While standing on the upper deck, I was bussed by a hummer, who then got in my face as though to say "where is my food". He scared me as I had been waving off the bees just a few seconds ago and out of nowhere here comes the "hummer". 🤣

So now I have put up their food in all their spots that they seem to come back to each year. I had already made their food about one week ago, I just thought it was about time to start seeing them. 

So I was ready kinda.

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

EGGS - EGGS WE have eggs for sale

Morning everyone, 

Eggs, Oh my goodness. I am getting 8 eggs a day now. As soon as I can get to my workshop and to my scroll saw I will be making a large sign that says we have farm fresh eggs for sale now. Come and get them to those who live nearby and need some. We have plenty of them. 

My lovely chickens are not shy about laying even in the wintertime and the size of them are huge, even for new layers. Some of them so far are "double yolks", some of the eggs are so huge I really thought it might be a triple yolk, but was only double. 

My chickens get fresh water and all the food they want plus I also give them a small amount of scratch grain in the afternoon. At noon I also during the winter I also give them greens (collard, spinach, kale) depending on what I find at the store. Mixed all together with some of the following at different times, cantaloupe, watermelon, oranges, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs + shells, old bread, old crackers, apples, grapes seedless, lettuce, cabbage. Just to name a few. 

Needless to say, my chickens get a well-balanced diet, they stay happy and healthy. No sick chickens on my end of the world. I also keep their "covered pen area" cleaned out and kept fresh and dry, and their shed where they sleep and lay eggs, is kept clean and dry, we use cedar shavings on the floor and I use cat litter on a shelf just under where they roost scooped each morning and it is clean and dry also. The shed has two windows and a vent on the back, so fresh air is always going through the coop. 

Oh my at the fresh eggs, there is nothing like them for taste. The color when cracked open is perfect, such as dark yellow yolks, and the whites are not runny nor cloudy. 

We have now even covered the huge chicken yard with bird netting to keep the overhead predators at bay. We dug down around the covered smaller pen area and around the shed and attached rabbit wire underground to stop the digging of animals like coyotes or foxes. They are safe from raccoons, possums, skunks. So if we left for the day and night we can allow them to be in the covered pen area and they come and go to the shed as they want and we do not have to worry. 

Using the overhead heater we got for them when the outside temps dip really low, I know they loved that, we only have the two gunnies and one or two chickens with large cones which could freeze if not protected, we have had NO problems and the temps dipped as low as single digits during this last winter many nights and this was their first winter.  

And to say the least, our chickens are pets and we love them and I get to pet them each day, they follow me around like a little puppy in the yard. I LOVE it.

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Sad day for everyone

On February 15, 2022, at about 10:06 pm, we were notified that Larry has passed away at Rose Wood Manor. Needless to say today, we are upset, I was not expecting this to happen so soon, one week ago we went to see Larry. He was not doing very well at that time, but we were not expecting him to pass so fast. Larry is at peace now and with his wife, Nita in Heaven and I feel and know he is ok now. 

He will be missed by the family and friends he has made. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

NEW Brinsea egg incubator

Morning, 

Yep! I got an incubator because I want to hatch some quail and chicken eggs. 

I changed my mind on the rooster from the neighbor but did give her 4 of my chickens. 

I wish now I had only given two. 

Will add pic when I get some eggs to hatch. This will be fun. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Frosty's Club - Up and Running

Morning to all, 

Our new group is up and running now. Membership is due by the 8th of each month. I am enjoying this new club, always room to expand as time goes by. 

Videos are to becoming and I hope they will be interesting. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

NEW EGGS and Happy New Year

Morning, 

It has been in the single digits for a bit, now today is it 31, so we are having a heatwave. That is what my chickens are thinking. They do not like the deep snow we got mostly all gone now. They do like it warmer, the heater in their shed is working just fine for them if they get too cold, they come in and sit awhile. We did get our deep snow a few days ago, about 10 inches of the cold wet stuff. Then a day or so later, it rained. Most of the snow is gone now. 

                             Out our front door                               Upper deck-about 10 inches

Yesterday I gathered 3 eggs instead of just one. So I have two new egg layers. I am happy, one egg is a large dark brown, the other small one was laid in the sandy box, the same color as Luck lays, it did freeze and I just boiled it up with a couple of others and fed it back to chicks. 

I take them their greens, boiled eggs, eggshells, and grapes during this cold cold weather. I also give them grain and treats. The ground is so frozen right now, they stand on one foot for a while then switch to the other. 

Lucky (white with black trim) and now Speckles (light tan and white spots) follow me around the yard, Lucky is the last survivor of the very first 6 chicks I bought. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo