Heard at the dinner table tonight ....

Mary asked "Hey Mom, is anybody in the world allergic to water?"

Book Review: Hit by a farm

I recently had a birthday, turned 47. I've noticed that a lot of people I've known for a long time seem to be getting old, everyone that is except for me. Hmmmm.

Mamaw and Papa sent me a book titled "Hit by a farm", written by Catherine Friend. I used to devour books in my younger days but rarely read books now. I continue to read a lot just not many books. My son John reads a ton of books now. So, back to the book review.

The book is written by a woman who is an author and loves to read. This woman is one half of a lesbian couple, her partner Melissa works for a soil conservation office and loves animals and the outdoors. Melissa inherits money from her family and announces that she wants to move to the country and start a farm. And so they do.

The author shares many of the trials and tribulations involved in moving to the country and living on a farm and there are many humorous events and adventures. I enjoyed the book very much and can also relate very well to being "Hit by a farm".

Thanks Mamaw and Papa!

One year with Morgan

Morgan arrived at our farm one year ago today. He's an excellent guy and has a beautiful gait. Morgan is also a fast sprinter. Spirit came to the farm in August 2008 as a colt and is now slightly bigger than Morgan. We call Morgan and Spirit "the boys", they are both doing well.

We did some fencing work last weekend. The horse pasture is now opened up completely; front pasture, back pasture, spring/pond lane, and connected to the barn. We give the boys a little sweet feed in the evening which they love. The boys have access to the barn 24/7 for shelter and hay but they don't go in there much. According to Debby the boys are "grass snobs", they much prefer to graze in the pasture.

The boys have been feeling very good lately, showing off with lot's of galloping, sprinting, and thundering hooves. It's amazing because sometimes they will do this at night in the dark. Horses must have very good vision. It's a little scary though to be outside in the dark doing chores (not in the pasture) and to hear the approaching sound of galloping horses.

What's also amazing is their balance and stopping ability. I often watch as the boys head towards a fence at breakneck speed on slippery ground and I just know that there is no way that they can possibly stop in time or not fall down and yet somehow they defy physics and never slip or go through the fence.

I recently setup a round pen in the horse pasture, Spirit thinks it's a chew toy.

Happy Winter!

Winter officially began yesterday, although the recent weather suggests that winter may have arrived early. The Smoky Mountains received a bunch of snow over the weekend, with 32" recorded on Mount LeConte. Our friends and family in Virginia also received a bunch of snow and will enjoy a white Christmas. Alas however, we received just a dusting of snow at the Rock Dove Farm.

Choose and cut

Yesterday we went to a local choose and cut Christmas Tree farm. We walked through the field and found a white pine tree that we liked. We cut the tree and carried it out of the field. It was cold but they had hot chocolate and a fire going for roasting marshmallows. The kids played with other children while we enjoyed hot chocolate and visited with grown ups while standing around the fire.

Cold!

It was 16 degrees here on Friday morning. Brrrr.

Snow picture, hike

Later in the day the snow started to melt. I went on a nice long hike on the property, just me and super Pup. This picture shows an old section of fence, with moss growing on it and a hemlock in the background.

Slippers

This is a picture I took of my slippers last weekend. They are nice and cozy. I got these slippers from Herman's sporting goods in Tysons Corner, Va. About 30 years ago.

Snow

We had a little snow last weekend, only about 2 or 3 inches. The chickens were afraid and did not want to venture out into the snow. The kids had a great time in the snow.

Nutcracker

Last week was very busy. Debby was still recovering from pneumonia but is doing much better. Mary had dance rehearsal practice for several hours every day for a week and then she was in five performances of the Nutcracker. I don't have any good pictures from the theater, however we will be getting a professional video. Mary really enjoys her dance class.

Buckets, Bikes, chores

John and Mary have been riding their bikes a lot lately. John takes care of the chickens and frequently will feed the horses. John figured out that he could take two buckets with sweet feed for the horses on his bike. Buckets are very useful on a farm.

Dance studio madness

Mary performed last week in the Arts in Motion production of the Nutcracker held at the Obrien theater at Roane State Community College. The man in the picture is an actor from the NCIS television show who stopped by a practice and talked to the performers.

Birthday party

I took Mary to her friend Lila's birthday party. The kids had a great time.

Junior Farmer

John and I cleaned up a pile of fence posts and started working on a fort.

Goodbye girls!

The Thews took their mares Nellie and Kia home in mid November. The mares had been sharing Morgan and Spirit's pasture since June. Morgan is watching as his pasture mates leave.

Farm update

John and Mary have been doing a lot of bike riding on the farm lately.
I moved some horse pasture fencing to add a little more area and to give Morgan and Spirit access to their favorite Cedar tree, they like to hang out underneath it when it rains. I took some polytape and T posts and built a round pen for the horses. Yesterday I looked outside and the horses were both lying down in the pasture enjoying a morning nap in the sunshine, while John and Mary were playing a game which involved riding their bikes around inside the round pen.
The chickens continue to provide a good number of eggs.
We have seen a lot of deer lately on the farm, grazing in the fields.
I bush hogged an area under the power lines that had not been cut in at least 3 years.
Mary has been very busy lately preparing for her upcoming Nutcracker dance recital.

Thanksgiving, Pneumonia

Debby is recovering from pneumonia. We initially thought she had come down with the flu but the doctor said it was a bad case of pneumonia. Debby is taking a strong antibiotic and getting a lot of rest.

With Debby not feeling well we stayed home for Thanksgiving, just our family. We broke with tradition and ordered a Thanksgiving dinner takeout from Cracker Barrel, it was really excellent! Turkey, ham, gravy, dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, carrots, biscuits, and a pumpkin struesel pie for dessert.

Cows in upper pasture

We rented out our upper 25 acre pasture to a local farmer. He was here last week checking/repairing the fence line, today he brought 21 beef cattle and put them in the pasture. No bulls, mostly heifers/cows and a few steers.

Fastest computer

The latest supercomputer ranking list is out and Oak Ridge National Lab's Jaguar computer is now the fastest computer in the world! Jaguar and most of the world's fastest computers run linux.
http://www.top500.org/

STAR party

We went to the party at STAR this evening and had a nice time. John is a volunteer at STAR and we have friends at STAR. They have a beautiful facility at STAR, I took some pictures of the shelters they have in the pastures because I need to build a horse shelter soon.
They had events in the arena, square dancing, games in the barn, bonfires and smores, dinner, hot chocolate, etc. Even an apple bobbing contest for horses!

Changed tractor engine oil

Last weekend I changed the tractor engine oil and filter with some help from John. The tractor now has 143 hours on it and has been running great. I've changed the oil twice before during the break-in period using recommended Kubota 10W-30 oil with API CI-4 plus service rating. Now I have switched over to Shell Rotella T synthetic 5W-40 engine oil with API CJ-4 service rating. My tractor takes 3 gallons of engine oil. It's relatively easy to change the oil on the tractor because there is a lot of clearance underneath (the oil can drain into a 5 gallon bucket) and the oil filter and filler are also easy to access. Our local convenience facility (trash dump) has a special container for used oil.

Good Puppy, good puppy!

We have way too many deer around our place so every once in a while we send Pup-Pup out to thin down the herd. OK, not really, but this morning he proudly trotted out of the woods and brought a fresh deer leg chew toy up to the house. He has done this a few times before. Don't try to take his chew toy from him if you value your hand!

Rodeo

On Saturday evening we went to see the Rough Stock Rodeo Finals at Roane State Community College near us in Harriman. Events included bucking bronco riding, calf roping, barrel racing, and bull riding. We saw a lot of people that we knew at the event and we had a good time. One attraction was called the Bandit, it involved two huge buffalo/bison, a truck and trailer, and a cowboy and his horse. The cowboy rode his horse up the back of the truck, then up on top of the trailer, then he stood up on top of the horses back. He then got back in the saddle, rode back down to ground level, and herded the two buffalo up the truck and on top of the trailer.

Country girl

Pics of our Tennessee girl next to the waterfall and creek near our mailbox and sitting on a fence.

Highway closed

Interstate 40 is a major highway that goes through TN. Recently a rock slide blocked I-40 near the TN-NC border. The highway is still closed and it is estimated to be closed for four more months. Really.

Horse watering

A while back we finished fencing some pasture and moved the horses to the new pasture while we let the front pasture recover. However we did not have a water source in the new pasture, so I ended up using the tractor to carry filled 70 gallon water troughs from our city water supply at the house out to the new pasture. Since our springs are flowing quite well I opened up and fenced in a lane which connects the new pasture to the spring water which flows into our wildlife pond. At first the horses went nuts, as they do every time they are given access to a new area, but they then settled down and enjoy their new territory and water supply. Best of all it's free, and we won't have to break up ice in the winter!

Droid anyone?

Today is the release day for the Droid:
http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/#/home

My birthday is coming up, so if you are at a loss trying to decide on the right present, well the Droid would likely be well received :)

So, the Droid is a Motorola phone, offered by Verizon, using the Google Android Linux based operating system. Several of my co-workers/friends have iPhones, but I'm not an Apple person. I'll probably stick with my existing phone for a while but will likely go to a linux phone in the future.

Frosty morning

It was 29 degrees at home this morning, I had to scrape the ice off the windshield of my car. Sun came out and it was a beautiful day.

Egg production

The chickens are really laying a lot of beautiful large brown eggs. More than we can eat. Debby has begun selling some at $3.50 for 18 eggs (same price as our local farmer's market). The chickens free range in the pasture daily. John takes care of the chickens.
The eggs are different from those you buy in a store. Debby did a test, she scrambled up some store bought eggs and some of our farm fresh eggs. The farm fresh eggs have a much brighter richer color.

Fall colors at home

It's very good to be back home at the farm. Picture shows the view from the back of the house.

Trip to Japan

I just returned from a business trip to Japan where I attended the LLRF09 conference in Tsukuba. Japanese culture is very different from the US. Japanese love to eat raw seafood. Japanese people are very polite. All the toilets that I saw in Japan were electronic. I took a picture of a hand filed hotel room key, my brother Mark will appreciate this. Most vehicles are Toyota, Honda, Mazda etc. as one might expect. Bicycles are very popular in Japan. My colleagues and I had a good conference but were all glad to head back to the good old USA.

Spicy!

Debby grew a bunch of Jalapeno peppers in the garden this year and they did very well. Since we had so many Debby decided to make some Jalapeno jelly over the weekend. It turned out very well.

Upper pond, water fall

John and I went on a hike to the upper pond a few days ago. The upper pond is spring fed and is full and actually overflowing. What is interesting is that the upper pond is at the highest point on our farm and that very little surface water goes to the pond, once you get a little bit away from the pond in all directions the ground slopes away from the pond.

We also went to see the waterfall located in the hollow near the well house. There are openings that go back in the rock for several feet. We'll have to explore more in the future.

More critters

I was hiking with John the other day and saw a cute snail on top of some horse manure out in the pasture. This morning just outside the house I spotted a cute little spotted salamander in the grass.

Signs headed to Virginia

I was driving to work last week on I-40 west of Knoxville and I saw a truck hauling some highway signs. I snapped a picture when I realized these signs were headed to my old stomping ground in Northern VA.

Wild flowers

We still have some wildflowers in the garden.

Glowing bugs, nice evening, snakes

Tonight I was walking in the dark from the barn to the house and noticed several glowing bugs on the ground. Actually this was not the first time I've seen them, they have been around for some time. These bugs glow green like lightning bugs, but they are not flying.

We enjoyed a beautiful sky tonight, clear, cool, and full of stars.

Yesterday John announced that he and Joey saw some dead copperhead snakes near the pond and that I probably had run over them earlier with the tractor. We went to look today and sure enough there was a dead snake that I had accidentally run over with the tractor. We brought the snake remains to the house and will try to identify the species. Oh, by the way, if Nanny is reading this there are a ton of huge poisonous snakes running all over the place around here, you probably don't even want to think about coming for a visit :)

Flying V's

We were just eating dinner and John said there was a giant "V" formation of geese flying overhead. I've seen a lot of geese lately, it must be time to head South. I still think it's amazing how geese learned to work together and fly in formation to reduce aerodynamic drag.

John, Christopher

I have a son named John. My brother Greg has a son named Christopher. Greg and I (and our brother Mark also) have a cousin named John Christopher. Our cousin John passed away two days ago, he had ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's disease. He was just 44. The last time I saw my cousin was about 11 years ago at the funeral for his father, our Uncle Bobby. Uncle Bobby passed away from CJD, another very rare and terrible disease. The odds for this happening to father and son must be staggering.

We never can know God's will or when our time here on Earth will end. In looking for a silver lining I imagine that John's diagnosis gave him and his family time to plan, time to talk, time to laugh, time to cry, and time to love.

Our family extends our condolences to Aunt Pat, John's wife Heidi, and the entire Christopher family.

A few months ago I had a pure white homing pigeon hen "Dove" (named and claimed by John and Mary Piller) show up here at the farm, it was the first time this has happened and is the only pure white homing pigeon we have. Dove liked it here and decided to stay.

The Bible contains many references to doves which represent peace, love, and the Holy Spirit. Just before sunset on Wednesday Sept.30, the day of John Christopher's service, we did a white Dove release in honor of John Christopher.