The Guardian and Trainie

The Guardian and Trainie
Nick and Babe

Monday, February 8, 2010

 After the truck slide.
The weekend was off to a great start.  I love life it has so many adventures to participate in.  I had a lot of studying to do this particular weekend.  Al decided that he would cut wood.  He said that he was going to start cutting up the downed wood, leave it where he cut it up and go to the next one.  This one stopped him in his tracks.  It has been raining and the ground was/is really wet!  He drove over to this particular spot and was in position to begin cutting but he decided that he would back the truck up just a little bit more.  Well the truck began to slide and there was not one thing Al was going to do about it.  Fortunately the truck turned while sliding and was facing forward when it slid into the vineyard fence.  The fence was bent over, two stakes pulled out of the ground and the only way to get Al out of the predicament he was in was to cut the fence and try to get down to the road without getting stuck in the mud.  Al called me on the cell phone and had me come out to help him.  The barbed wire was stuck on the top of the camper shell and he wanted me to cut the wire in order to be able to free the truck!  I could see that if I cut the wire the way it was it was going to fly and I wanted to be sure it was not going to hit me.  There was a lot of tension on that thing!  I said something to Al  so he decided to see if he couldn't back up the truck a bit.  Take the tension off of the wire and I would be able to cut the wire without any mishaps.  It worked and the truck was free!  Al got off the hill and onto the road without any problems.  Now we could focus on the fence.  The fence keeps the sheep out of the vineyard so we had to get it back up the best we could for right now.  We didn't have a "come along" here on the property or we would have fixed the fence properly right away.  Al will bring one up next weekend and then we can put the fence back the way it was.  I didn't get any photos of the truck in the fence and stuck on the barbed wire because I didn't remember to bring my camera!  I am really trying to get in the habit of bringing my camera everywhere I go.  You never know when there will be a photo opportunity and inevitably there is always a photo opportunity.  I did however get a few photos after the truck was gone and the fence was back up with the slid marks so we have some photo record.  Anyway this is how our weekend started.  What other adventures lie ahead?
 Al picking the oranges
We like to go for walks every morning with a cup of coffee and who knows where we will end up.  However this morning we knew we wanted to go pick oranges.  Our oranges aren't very sweet but they have a lot of vitamin C and we like to juice them with a couple of apples and some of the carrots we still have growing in the garden.  We picked about 16 oranges so that both of us would have juice to drink for the next week.  It is always fun walking around the property.  No matter what direction we go in there is always something different to see.  What with all of the storms there are new trees that have fallen and branches blow around, moss blown out of the trees and water everywhere.  We have been noticing lots of mushrooms sprouting up.  Neither one of us knows anything about edible mushrooms so we just look and take note of all the different types.  It is pretty cool to see how some of them grow in what is called a fairy circle.  Mother nature is quite amazing.  Makes me want to learn more, read more.  I took a microbiology class once but ended up dropping out.  I just couldn't get all that foreign information into my head.  Now I have a different attitude and approach to learning the stuff.  I just want to know I do not need to know and I do not need a grade either.  Woo, woo what a way to go.  Learn, just cause.  Humph, what a concept.  I think I like it.  Knowledge I love it.  I love to share it too!
My sweaty peeling oranges for our morning breakfast.  We consider ourselves very fortunate to be able to walk out our front door and go pick fruit to have for breakfast. We have three oranges trees and they all produce tons of oranges but when they get ripe is beyond me.  We just keep checking on them and eat as we go.  Maybe one of these days we will be able to know when they will be sweet.  It seems that when we first started picking them they were sweet in October.  This year they weren't even ready by then.  I do know that we have different crops from the same trees like maybe someone grafted different types of oranges on the same tree.
One of the babies on the property.  We have hundreds of lambs right now.  They will grow up here and then in June or July most of them will be sold off.  This year though some of them will stay on to replace some of the old yews.  It is so much fun watching the babies.  As they begin to grow they become more and more like human children.  They gather together in groups and create havoc. Not that human babies create havoc.  But here there is always a group of little rams in training.  They will charge one another butting heads and they sometimes pick the smaller ones knocking them over but they all just get right back up and go for more.  They run, jump and kick in mid air playing all day long in between suckling for nourishment and reassurance, then gathering together for a bit of a nap.  Most of the lambs will hang together while the mom's eat and eat and then eat some more. 
The Spring
Our next stop on the agenda was to check out the spring and see if we couldn't get the two new big storage tanks full of water.  We want to get them full and let them overflow into the pond so we can keep it full all summer if possible.   It is a goal of ours to have this pond for a swimming hole.  We will see.  While we were down at the spring we were cleaning leaves away from our overflow line and when we went to turn over one of the big cement blocks there was a giant toad.  Al picked it up and it was the coolest looking  creature!  I did not have my camera this time either.  But let me tell you this toad was huge.  The biggest one I have seen on the property yet.  I would say it was about 12" long and maybe the body was 6" across.  Al and I both kissed it.  Nothing happened so we must already be the prince and princess manifest.  
We came back the next day hoping to find the toad but it must have burrowed in somewhere because we couldn't find it. Oh well it is a lesson in making sure to bring my camera everywhere.  Well folks I must part here.  I have school work to get to.  Love you all.

3 comments:

  1. Wow....10 dayz, NO BLOG.... you must be a buzy bee.

    Why don't you post the comments people make about your blog?

    Have a GREAT day, Mel.
    dT

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, way too long in between.

    ReplyDelete