Holy Cows

It was very nearly a livestock disaster!

I heard a loud rumbling in the driveway and went out to see what was what. It was our neighbour Stuart in his half-ton. He'd found Scott in the yard (damn caraganas at this time of year block the view from the house so that I had no idea he was home; how can I get away with anything, this way?) and the two of them took off down the road. 

Hm, said I to myself. What's going on? A stroll to the end of the driveway gave me a glimpse of their two trucks, one parked near our yard and one near the other end of the grid. They must be chasing cattle, I thought; I'll stay away unless I'm called, because sometimes an unfamiliar person can spook the finicky beasts. 

Back on the step I could hear Scott calling them: KaBoss! KaBoss! Apparently a moose had knocked down the electric fence and the cattle had gone in search of greener pastures. 

Soon the little herd of about a dozen was in our back yard. They came right past Scott's garden, narrowly missing his green peppers and tomatoes. I know this because their tracks are still there, perilously close. 

I worried about my flowers in the front yard; they'd be a tasty treat difficult to pass up and easily destroyed by a stampede, however short and sweet, and that's when the Wrath of Kath would be felt around the Golden Grain Farm. 

Fortunately the cattle were soon steered through an opening in the fence and back where they belonged, without causing any damage. 

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Maggie Turner on Prefers Blogs to Facebook and Twitter": 

I harbour the same sentiments in regard to Facebook Kate. There are a few exceptions though. I belong to a group in Ontario that shares historic photographs of the area where my Granny and Grandpa lived their lives, I read every new post eventually, when I make one of my few visits to FaceBook. The other group I belong to and value is one that shares the history of Glasgow, and there I have found interesting posts that deal with Glasgow around 1820, when my ancestors boarded the boat headed for land grants in the Upper Canada wilderness. I like to know that seldom seen friends are still alive, although I admit I wish they wrote blogs, as all FaceBook does is allow me to know they are still alive. 

Exactly. 

Facebook is a good tool for many things ... if it is used with some thought.

Also, one of the biggest drawbacks of going from very active letter-writing to blogging is that now my friends don't write back. They read my blog and don't feel they have to answer a letter. I miss their letters! Oh, how I used to look forward to my trips to the post office!

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Lori on "Prefers Blogs to Facebook and Twitter": 

I think you are both "like" hilarious and "like" accurate! 

Apparently I was in a bitchy mood when I wrote that entry. Hee!

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Ralph Goff on "Prefers Blogs to Facebook and Twitter": 

Twitter does not do much for me. Or maybe I just don't follow the right people. I find facebook much more "happening" and way too much interesting stuff for me to look at. I generally skim over the extreme political and religious stuff. I hear a lot about the evils of facebook but for me it has been all good (so far). 

I have begun taking the time to "block" accounts that spread prejudice, hate and ignorance. A few of my friends still do it, alas, and I haven't had the heart to disconnect from them on FB. Just because they aren't deep thinkers or study-ers, doesn't mean I don't still love them! Just as I'm thankful those with more sense than I have still put up with me. People don't have to be perfect. 

For my previous job, I was requested to use FB in order to help reach a wider audience, and so that's what I did. That meant connecting with a lot of people on FB, both personally and professionally, and led to hundreds of "friends." I don't regret that, but I blame it for some of the crap that appears in my FB feed. 

It's no different from life in general, I suppose. There's always some garbage that comes our way, no matter how careful we are to avoid it.

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Wisewebwoman on "Pirate's Patch (Not Really, but Maybe I Should Hav...": 

Apologies I've been neglecting reading blogs. Time, she packed up, b'y. 

Lovely family pics. What was that item you mentioned a kind of bread?

Lefse is a Scandinavian dish made with potatoes that are boiled and put through a ricer, then mixed with oil and flour, rolled out thin, and fried on a grill. It's eaten cold (but is delicious fresh from the frying pan too), spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar, then rolled up. That's how my family eats it. Scott's dad once said "Your family is spoiled!" His family eats it with meat rolled up in it. Yuk!

You can see my mother's recipe and also a photo of the lefse here: http://stubblejumperscafe.blogspot.ca/2015/12/lefse.html

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Sarah on "Prefers Blogs to Facebook and Twitter": 

Not a fan of Twitter. I like FB mostly because it lets me keep up with the far-flung friends/relatives in my life. 

The occasional wonderful re-connection is what keeps me checking Facebook. I know where you're coming from.
Twitter is another "activity" I was asked to use for my former job, where they needed us to learn how to make use of social media. Like FB, once in while there's something interesting on it, but most of the time, not.
I think I could quit both and not miss either one.

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Annette Erickson on "Prefers Blogs to Facebook and Twitter": 

Great post Kate! I use Facebook mostly on a "have to" basis as it's been the best form of advertising for my business in the area I live in. Who would have thought. For my personal use, I spend very little time there. Maybe 10 minutes tops and that's not even every day. Twitter, I am on because it was part of getting my book out there, or supposedly anyway but I have no idea how it works and can't seem to be bothered to learn it or find anyone to teach me how to go about it. 

Out here, some businesses use FB for their advertising because it's free. What they don't understand is that a posting on FB does not reach every person with whom they are "friends," because FB wants you to pay for that. For a fee, FB will make sure your posting gets to a certain number of people (still, not all your connections). Or should I say, it will send your post to your friends' FB feeds. Even that is no guarantee that your post will be seen! I miss a lot of my "friends' " postings simply because I don't read everything there is, every minute of the day. By the time I check my FB feed, a lot of things posted earlier are too far down the page for me to see them. 

FB ads are better than no ads, but they are not as effective as smart advertising in local newspapers, especially where I live. There are a lot of seniors here, and they have no interest in computers or the internet, but they love their Wadena News.

Glad to hear FB has been a good tool for you, though!

Prefers Blogs to Facebook and Twitter

They say that personal blogs are going out of style and that most people prefer to read and write on Facebook nowadays, or Twitter.
WHAT. EVER.
Facebook is boring as shit except for the odd person who is really witty, like my friends Laura and Maggie and Kathy, who are hilarious. The rest is just rehashed other-people's stuff, and bullshit propaganda that no one has factchecked but they insist on sharing it all over the place anyway as if it's been handed down from the heavens to prove some point.

Boring, I say.
Except for the odd person who actually posts about where they've been and what they've been doing and who they've seen and the funny things their little kids have said. I don't care if you can't stand the young Trudeau or are dumb enough to believe the provincial NDP government in Alberta is singlehandedly responsible for oil prices tanking or that Monsanto is the cat's meow and we should all drink the koolaid and blame everything on the Syrian refugees who are so much better off than our homeless people here in Canada. Pfft. As if.
You won't convince me of anything and your political beliefs are of no importance to me. Each to his own, I say. Heard it all before.

If I see one more updated profile photo of a homely person with 25 comments like "Beautiful lady!" beneath it, I just might puke. Honestly, people are so full of baloney.
Then there are all the selfies of the women who really are beautiful. But why the hell do we need to see a new photo every other week? Yes you're glamorous. Now get over yourself.

Give me someone's personal blog any day. A blog where someone tells me what they did today and what they were thinking about and what they hope to do tomorrow and next week. Someone who whines that they've stubbed their big toe. Someone who bitches about her husband once in a while. Someone who complains about the high cost of groceries. You know: real stuff. Real life. That's what I want to read about. When I want general news and information, I'll listen to the radio and I'll do my own research.

So that's why I'm bored with Facebook and Twitter. They're as bad as television that's full of repetitive commercials. Every once in a while I see something that gives me a good chuckle or a practical method of doing something, and even a decent recipe once in a blue moon. Unfortunately the worthwhile stuff is few and far between and a lot of time is wasted by scrollscrollscrolling. From now on I'm going to set my stove timer for 15 minutes so I don't waste too much time searching for value that doesn't exist on these social media sites, and find life has passed me right by! Well okay, maybe not life, but a good hour of my day, anyway, if I don't pay attention to the clock. I've got better things to do. Pretty much anything is better, actually.

Photo of a weaving by the late Katherine Hunter of Moab,  Utah. 

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Maggie Turner on "Tale of Two Gardens": 

Love the title of this post! I am with you Kate, on feeling both flower and food gardens are needed. If I had to chose, all things being equal, I would go with flowers and buy my vegetables from an organic farm. As it is, we too have two gardens, well, more accurately a patchwork of flowers and food plants. 

You can buy veggies at the farmers market or store, or be the lucky recipient of the generosity of those who have extra produce in their own gardens. Flowers are a different story and far more expensive to buy ... but I'll enjoy those new potatoes and fresh tomatoes Scott is growing. I won't, however, enjoy weeding, picking or digging them, or having to pick beans before they get tough and I have other things to do, or having to wash, trim, chop and freeze things within a certain time period. Flowers leave me free to choose what and when I'm gardening, and that's what I prefer. It's a lot less pressure.

Pirate's Patch (Not Really, but Maybe I Should Have One)

Have you ever had a blood vessel burst in your eye?
I put in an eleven-and-a-half-hour day at work on Friday, then went to pick up Emil and was asked
"What happened to your eye?"

Why, nothing -- as it happens.
But it's nice and red anyway.
Could it be simply from a long day of constant reading?

Or is it just one of those weird things that happens to people who are over 50, and there is no obvious reason for it and it's not too important? Having been by-and-large healthy my whole life, I tend to wonder what's up when any little out-of-the-ordinary thing occurs.

For instance, on Thursday night when getting ready for bed I noticed a lumpy purple bruise on my left thigh and wondered what the hell caused it. I don't remember whacking my leg that hard on anything, though there is a vague memory that I did hit it on something and then just carried on my merry way, as you do.

Oh well. The body's a wonderland, all right.

Dad came over for supper on Tuesday. (DW friends, note the Katherine-made potholders from Moab.)

And Scott's mom Pat came for supper too. Sorry this is a crappy pic of you, Pat.

I think I might dye those curtains a wine colour. Scarlet, that is. Not the white that I have been drinking because it has the least amount of sulphites in it.

Dad went to the farmers market in Wadena this morning for a visit with his aunt, who has a baking and produce table there (it is rushed as soon as customers are let in the door ). He picked up my order, one of Aunt Marj's apple pies, and stopped at the liquor board store for a bottle of wine since I didn't make it there yesterday, then came out to see Emil, who is here this weekend.

After lunch I walked him out to his car and he offered me a piece of the lefse he'd purchased from Marj. Now that's family feeling -- to share your lefse -- it's such a treat for us. I told him not to bother, that we'll take a drive over to the place he's housesitting till August, and he can give me a piece of it then. If it lasts that long. I'd better go tomorrow.

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Ralph Goff on "Tale of Two Gardens": 

All I have time for here is vegetables . Although I can appreciate the flowers in other people's gardens. And the wild ones of course. 

Vegetable gardens are time-consuming tyrants! Which is one reason why I don't really want to have one that is my responsibility. I'll help Scott some, but basically it's his baby.

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Teresa on "Tale of Two Gardens": 

Each year I plan on doing a garden, but never do. Last time we did the rabbits and the gophers quite enjoyed themselves. Nothing better then home grown veggies. Enjoy. 

Now that we don't have a dog outside, I imagine the deer and rabbits may decimate our gardens. It will break my wee heart'ie.

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Lorna on "Tale of Two Gardens": 

As I think I may have told you, I have a 7 inch pot of pansies. and I love vegetables, so I think you can count me in. 

Pansies are the best! And you can eat them, can't you? or is that just nasturtiums?

Tale of Two Gardens

There is my garden, which is mostly perennials and self-seeders, with a few herbs for cooking and making tea. It is meant mainly for beauty.

Oriental poppies; click to enlarge.

Then there is Scott's garden, which is all vegetables; purely practical.

Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and pumpkin are now in the ground.

It is my contention that beauty is perfectly practical, as pleasure is important, and that practicality is quite beautiful, because without it you're in big trouble, and vegetable plants give great satisfaction as you watch and help them grow and produce. And it's hard to top the flavour of a fresh garden tomato. Or a new potato. Mmm, beautiful! 

Flowers nourish the spirit, vegetables nourish the body. Two sides of the same coin?

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Maggie Turner on "We've Got Grouse-lings": 

Beautiful garden Kate! You inspire me to give growing Poppies a try! 

These orange ones are oriental poppies, which spread like weeds, more each year. They bloom early, and then I cut them back to about eight inches high in hopes they'll bloom a second time. The foliage gets brown and ugly later in the summer, so something needs to be planted in front of them to hide it. This year when they've finished blooming, I'll be pulling a lot of them out completely because they are encroaching upon my rose bushes (I blame them for the roses not doing particularly well) and I hope this will give the roses a leg up. But the poppies will come back just as thick next year, and in the same places. I don't think you can fail, growing poppies!

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We've Got Grouse-lings

Pulling into the driveway this evening, I saw a ruffed grouse standing on the gravel. I slowed down, pressed the button to put my window down, and turned on the camera that was hanging by a strap on my wrist. Prepared, donchaknow. But still, by the time I got the thing aimed and focused, she had disappeared into the trees.

What I did see, however, were several tiny little fluffballs making their way into the trees after her. 

A ha! The lonely grouse got himself a sweetheart after all!

I came into the house, all smiles.

Poor old Scottie was lounging on the couch, sniffling, after a night spent largely awake because Ducky Doodle was afraid of the lengthy thunderstorm we got and wouldn't leave Scott alone. Me, I just lay abed, thrilled at the wondrousness of the noise, before sleeping like a baby. Guess I should've gotten up and told them both to quit being so silly. 

First bloomage. Standing at the kitchen sink isn't so bad when you've got flowers to look at.

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Maggie Turner on "Catching Up": 

Love your dog-gone dish Kate! Congratulations to Everett on his new room mate, cats are cool. Enjoy your ant-i-social activities! I'm on a roll... or not. :) 

I'll make a point of enjoying the summertime guests and trips. Usually you can't drag me out of my little piece of paradise -- after all, it took me so long to get here -- but I realize that people are more important than places and so I must rouse myself.

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Lorna on "Catching Up": 

I read and thought I commented on your monthly letter, but it's entirely possible that I forgot one of the essential parts of posting. I never miss your posts, but sometimes have only a reaction, not an add-on. 

I'm the same. There isn't always something worth saying, whether an entry is moving or not.  

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Teresa on "Catching Up": 

Eating from the dog's bowl "priceless". Do like you new dish. Nice you got to cuddle the latest addition to the family. Enjoy the nice weather. 

The dish is a bit of a treat ... nice and heavy ... thanks to the dog (or its owner, I guess) that pushed me into buying it, I have a new toy. Funny how much pleasure I can take from using a new plate! As for the nice weather, Tuesday night there was a wild thunderstorm here that, unfortunately for Scott, scared Ducky Doodle, who kept him up half the night. Me, I just enjoyed that rolling thunder.

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Secret Agent Woman on "Catching Up": 

That's a big garden. Baby's are magical, aren't they? 

He's got as much space as he wants and more, that's for sure, but in the end didn't plant a very large garden.

Babies ... there isn't anything more adorable. When they're content, that is. 

Catching Up

Clearly, the weather has been fine and nobody is indoors.
Not only have I fallen down on my daily blogging because of it, but not one person responded to my newsletter mailout -- did anyone even receive it? I can't help but wonder.
However, I blame it on the weather and people's good sense. We've all got spring fever and are out and around, where we should be.

The farmer boys have finished seeding.
Scott and I went for a drive around the countryside, which is nice and green where the tent caterpillars haven't eaten:

See? Not flat.

He has been out preparing the space for his vegetable garden. You are seeing less than half of the total area behind our house that he will seed to grass, leaving a regular gardening spot:

On Sunday, Everett and I drove to the animal shelter in Humboldt and brought home a lovely four-year-old kitty for him to love. I haven't got a photo of the two of them yet but I will. What I do have is a picture of the heavy plate I purchased for 50 cents at a garage sale in Watson on the way back. It will be going to the office with me tomorrow:

Yesterday I worked here at my desk for an hour and then jaunted off to Margo. It was my turn to see that newborn baby! Little Everley Grace. As some of you know, Grace is my mother's name, and I was very pleased and deeply touched to see the wee girlie given this name.

She slept like an angel the whole time I was there having tea with her mother and grandmother (my sister Karen). Then Michelle took pity on me and brought the hungry little girl out, so I got to hold her and give her a bottle. What a darling. A hungry darling. Her older sister is struggling a little with the change in family dynamics, but that seems pretty common. Her mom and dad are giving her as much attention as they can.

Everley has been fed, but seems to want more;  with her mom Michelle.

While the baby was getting a diaper change, I was in the bathroom taking a photo of the stained glass that Karen made:

Which reminds me, I still haven't purchased the wire I need to hang the stained glass she made for me.

 It's a grey, coolish day, although the forecast was for 30F heat. We've put a beef roast into the oven and Dad's coming over for supper. I've warned him that there is less than half of one of those big bottles of white wine left, but we have rye, vodka and scotch.

Aunt Reta phoned last night from Phoenix. She and Uncle Carl are coming out in July for the mini-reunion. And Cathy R and I have made a plan for a short road trip to the Edmonton area the following weekend, when I'm on holidays from the newspaper.

Life is good.

And now, it's out I go to dig some more flowers into their pots. and curse at the ants that are already living in them. I guess they'll be cursing right back at me for the great disturbance I'm about to cause.

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Ralph Goff on "Dog Germs": 

Those tent caterpillars are the worst I've ever seen. Big bushes in the hundred acre woods are leafless looking like fall or early spring. They were literally raining down on me the other day. Good thing I had a wide brimmed hat. Then they were crawling up the legs of my coveralls. Between them and the wood ticks I almost forget about the mosquitos. 

My only comfort is that they say the leafless plants will come back. 

It's the ticks, though, that are making me wonder if I might go live somewhere else for a couple months of the year. 

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Lori on "Dog Germs": 

Yuck! I'm with you on the "dog germs". About 'coons: This week I coiled chicken wire around the perimeter of the deck to stop them from going there. Apparently they don't like the smell of ammonia (neither do I), so I have rags soaked in ammonia strategically placed where they climb up. Raccoons are a big problem here and they are well adapted to urban life. Our "food" is top notch. A CBC doc about them basically said we need to learn to learn to live together...accommodate. :) 

We have to try to do that in the country too, although when they get to be a problem, it is not always easy or humane to put a stop to shenanigans. You may have a pack of coyotes attack and kill a newborn calf; you can't accommodate, alas, but have to decimate their numbers. You may have raccoons tear the shingles off your house or kill your barn cats; costly damage can't continue and you need your barn cats to control rodents; I don't know if raccoons help with that, although they are meat-eaters so maybe. I don't think they eat the cats! But I don't know.  Right now the property owners who farm are having their land flood due to beavers, so there is a war on -- a cull -- where the government is paying $35 for a beaver carcass, and people are shooting them. It's said that won't solve the problem but they're doing it anyway. It seems terribly unfair to the beaver and to the natural ecosystem, yet one can see the farmers' frustration too. One of our reporters at the newspaper has just done a good article on different ways of controlling the problem, but what works in one place doesn't always work in another. I'm sure there is a balance that can be found, but we are still a long way from implementing it for the good of both human and wildlife.

There are some natural behaviours in animals that are really hard to put up with. Like when we had cats and they'd catch the birds around the yard. I hate that. 

You will have to let me know how well the ammonia-soaked rags work!

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Lorna on "Dog Germs": 

Cat and dog germs! I'm totally shivered. 

As for the table, we don't allow technology, but we do allow books and magazines, which both can be read on an e-reader, so the wedge is in. 

It's all reading and writing, isn't it!

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Dog Germs

There is a very serious tent caterpillar infestation in these parts. We drove up to Kelvington last night for beer and a burger and were surprised to see the many large swaths of poplar trees that are leafless. 

They haven't seemed too bad around our yard, but when I was pulling quack grass out of a perennial flower bed today, several of the worms were on the leaves of one of the rose bushes. Damn! And here's the amazing part: I picked them off with my BARE FINGERS. 

It's as if someone else has taken over my body. 

Why, a few years ago I actually began to catch moths with my bare hands, and put them outside. I could never have done that before.

I still can't crush an insect (other than a mosquito) by touching it directly; smashed bodies give me the heebie-jeebies. I flung the tent caterpillars into the grass and came into the house for gloves and a plastic bag to dispose of them. Still I don't like to do this, because it seems cruel. Better to kill them quickly so they don't suffer, but I can't make myself do it. 

Quirks, eh. Irrational, but there they are. 

Recently I discovered that our office dog has been drinking water (probably for the past five months) out of the flattish bowl that I always use for lunch when I'm at work. There is now no chance that I will ever eat from that bowl again, even if it's been washed with hot water and soap, then bleached/sterilized. I know it's silly. I've probably eaten off the same dishes as a dog has, many times in my life, not knowing it. It's not going to hurt me. Nevertheless, I've seen where dogs put their noses and the kinds of filthy things they'll eat, like cat turds. I'll be taking my own plate and bowl to the office and keeping them in my desk where no one is likely to feed or water a dog or cat from them. 

What can I say? (Shrug.) Some things put me off, and sharing dishes with dogs and cats is one of those things. I wouldn't eat or drink from my pets' dishes, and I don't want them to eat off mine. It's just one of those quirks that I don't feel guilty about, but accept and respect myself enough to heed. Others may think and do as they wish, and I'll do the same for me.

We had an overnight guest on Tuesday, and this was the scene on Wednesday morning.

I've seen a lot of this in recent years. You've got company, and in the morning everyone sits around the kitchen table with their phone or laptop. It's the new way, I guess. Doc is touring/playing across the country and his laptop is his office, so he's got things to check out when he gets the chance. Scott's got a little iPhone love going on and was looking up some particular music to share with Doc. 

That's my iPhone laying unused near Scott's glasses. He's got progressive lenses that he can't use for reading. 

I was where I can often be found: at the sink, doing dishes. 

Doc and I had been able to visit in the kitchen for several hours the previous afternoon, a rare opportunity for some one-to-one conversation (the best kind), and in the evening Bev came out and we sat and drank wine for a couple hours, and Scott came off the field and joined us at dark. 

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Teresa on Ducks and Deer": 

The circle of life! Happy June. 

Ha! I didn't make that connection! Good one.

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Lori on "Ducks and Deer": 

I love hearing about your animal kingdom there. Just curious...do you have raccoons? If not, would you like some? We have two babies visiting us under our deck. 

Oh my! What are you going to do? 

There are raccoons around but since we've had an outside dog till just recently, we didn't see them. Now that we're without a yard protector, I expect we'll get a glimpse of them once in a while. I think there was a litter in our unused chicken coop last summer. I went in to get my bicycle where Scott had stored it over the winter, and heard some telltale chattering on the other side of the wall that warned me quite quickly away. 

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Ducks and Deer

Vee haff ducklings!

Click to enlarge. 

In other news ... there is no other news.

Unless you want to see the mule deer laying in the ditch not far from our driveway, no doubt struck and killed by a vehicle. Nah, I didn't think you'd want to see it.

It lay there two days before the flies found it, and after dark that night there was a coyote chorus from that direction. They must have been feasting, for the next morning when I drove past on my way to work, all that was left were the head and the rib cage.

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Lorna on "Comings and Goings": 

It continues to amaze me that my life in retirement is so full. Of stuff. Not planned. 

Most retired people say there's no such thing as an empty day.  I believe them. 

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