Feeding deer

The deer just about cleaned out our garden on Wednesday night. Well, they didn't eat the wildflowers, most of the herbs, the zucchini, or the peppers. They did eat watermelons, tomatoes, and dill. We're going to have to fence in the garden.

Lot's of rain

We've had a whole lot of rain here in East TN lately. We had a drought here the last two years so the rain is quite welcome.

Bon Water Roma Dragon Bats

We had friends over Saturday for a cookout and Bon-fire. Debby converted our gas grill to charcoal, she bought angus beef, we had gourmet burgers which were very good. It's all about the food you know. We picked a beautiful Water-melon from Mary's garden, unfortunately it was not fully ripe. We did however make home made ice cream, both vanilla and chocolate, and roasted marshmallows.

Tonight we picked our first ripe Roma tomato from the garden. Just before sunset the Dragon flies were out in force as usual getting their evening fill of insects. At dusk we sat at the picnic table and watched as the Bats came out and darted to and fro gathering their evening meal. Tonight we think we counted six bats at one time darting about overheard. We want to find out where the bats live.

Friends

Here's Mary and Sarah. Sarah's grandmother was getting married last Saturday, Debby and the kids attended, I went to a pigeon club meeting.

World's Fair park field trip

Debby and the kids went on a field trip to the World's Fair park in Knoxville recently with a local home school group.

Free Rangin'

The chicks like to come up on the porch and check things out. My spotlight is charging up, it's fun to step outside at night and use the spotlight, never know what you'll see.

Spoiling Spirit

Kaitlyn T. and Abby F. grooming Spirit.

Chickies

Harvest

Here are a couple of zucchini plants picked today from Debby's garden. The first harvest was actually jalapeno peppers, we have a bunch of those. By the way that reminds me that Kaitlyn T. loves hot sauce on just about everything.

Herd dynamics, stallion?

We knew that when the Thew's horses arrived there would be a new group dynamic for the herd as the horses determined their new pecking order. We were however a little surprised at how things turned out. Read on for the rest of the story .....

In the first week since the Thew's mares arrived we had two breakouts from the pasture. In all the time we have had Morgan and Spirit there have been zero breakouts. Nobody was hurt or injured in the breakouts. (the electric fence has been working well, it's fairly easy to repair, the horses generally respect it, nobody gets hurt).

Then on Saturday morning I was outside with John and we observed Morgan mating with Nellie out in the field. More than once. Morgan is supposed to be fixed, a gelding, so we had not expected this behavior. Ah, farm life. Facts of life discussion with the kids.

So, in the next couple of days Kia also came into heat and Morgan was observed mating with both mares. Morgan was also observed keeping Spirit away from the mares.

So, we now know why we had the breakouts, Morgan chased Spirit away and he went through the fence.

Next, why was our gelding Morgan acting like this? We called the vet, searched online, talked to people... Meanwhile John and Mary are hoping for baby horses and of course already have names picked out.

Debby scheduled an appointment to have the vet come out to the farm today to give the horses their shots, give them a checkup, float their teeth, and to see what's up with Morgan. The vet determined that the horses are in very good health. The vet said that Morgan was not properly gelded, someone had done a poor job in the past and that she would need to operate on Morgan to correct the situation. Debby said that the vet did a wonderful job, and that she and the kids watched/assisted during the procedure.

Morgan woke up from his surgery and is doing fine but will have to remain in the barn for two days. The horses don't like to be separated, they are neighing to one another.

If we did not have the surgery performed Morgan would be considered a stallion and we would legally be required to keep him behind two six foot tall fences (and our insurance would probably go up). The vet said that Morgan's temperament should improve although he has really not been that bad. Spirit is such a friendly curious fun guy, it will be nice if Morgan becomes a little more friendly. Morgan is definitely a little aloof, shy, standoffish.

The vet said it is possible that the mares are pregnant, we will just have to wait and see. We need to have a follow-up with the vet in a month or two for a blood test for Morgan.

If you've been reading this blog for a while you might remember that I went to the emergency room on Christmas day 2008 after falling off of Morgan, now I can claim that I was riding a stallion!

Four Horses

We are friends with the Thew family, they live close by in Harriman, they home-school and attend our church. The Thew's have two horses, both mares, named Kia (brown) and Nellie (brown and white, one blue eye and one brown eye). They were running short of pasture at their place so we offered to keep their horses for a while as we have plenty of good pasture. They decided to take us up on our offer and brought the horses up about 10 days ago. Buzz Thew is renovating his pasture and hopes to make some hay on a field in Midtown. The Thew's come up just about every evening to take care of their horses. Here are a few pictures.

Makeovers

Girls apparently love makeovers. And changing their outfits. So there was a lot of that stuff going on with Kaitlyn, Mary, and Abby. Debby took Kaitlyn to the mall as a birthday celebration (Kaitlyn's birthday was coming up soon) and she had a makeover. I got a makeover as well.... well, a haircut.

Fourth of July

We celebrated the 4th at home on the farm, the kids had their cousins, we played games, did fireworks, had a bonfire, communicated with some coyotes.

Soccer action

While the cousins were visiting we played a few games of soccer

Salad girl

Kaitlyn and Abby love to eat salad, Abby especially. I told her that I had a salad bar outside for the horses (pasture) and I'd fix her a little something. Yummm!

More drive thru safari pics

Drive thru safari park

After Debby picked up John and Mary in Vienna they spent a couple of days visiting with Debby's family in Northern Virginia. Debby arranged to bring her nieces Kaitlyn and Abby back to Tennessee for a visit. On the drive to TN they stopped at the drive thru safari park which is near Natural Bridge, VA.

So, a couple of years ago we went to the drive thru safari park and had a great time. Debby was driving and Mary was in her lap. I was sitting in the front passenger seat. John was in the back seat. The car was stopped and we were feeding an animal on the right side of the car. Then Mary screamed! A camel had sneaked up on us from the left, spied a bucket of feed sitting on the console in the middle of the front seat, stuck his head in the front left window right over Mary, and started eating food from the bucket. Don't think we'll ever forget that.

Also a couple of years ago the zebra was a tough customer, too smart, he stole our feed buckets. This year apparently the zebra was a friendly fellow. Also remember when a buffalo stuck his huge head in the window of the car, Mary did not like that one bit!

End of Camp 2009

The kids attended a one week camp at the Indian Creek Yacht and Country Club, John had a tennis camp while Mary did golf, tennis, and swimming. Thanks Mamaw and Papa! After camp was finished Mamaw and Papa brought the kids with them to Vienna and Debby met them there to pick up the kids. Look at all those smiling faces :)

John's Strawberries

These are some strawberries from John's garden.

Happy Campers

Here's a picture of the kids with Mamaw and Papa when I left them for camp. John is kind of like "please Dad hurry up and go, I want to get in the water" while Mary is a little homesick, this was her first time away from her Mommy for several days.

Piano time

Every time the kids visit White Stone they love to play the piano.

Kayaking with Mamaw and Papa

Mamaw and Papa have a couple of really nice kayaks in White Stone. While I was there I went out with John in the cove and I took Mary with me. But John really did some good kayaking with Mamaw and Papa. John and Papa kayaked all the way out to Grog Island and back.

On the dock at White Stone

The kids really enjoyed spending a week with Mamaw and Papa in White Stone and attending camp. John caught fish, crabs, minnows, oysters, ..... The smiles tell the story.
John found some oysters and hoped to find a pearl. Mamaw and Papa ate the oysters raw. Papa and John inserted a piece of sand in an oyster which they are keeping in a floating cage, hoping to grow a pearl. John also caught a fish while kayaking in the cove.

Mamaw's socks

Mamaw has been knitting some colorful socks!

Virginia mountain overlook

Last month I drove to White Stone, Virginia for a visit and to drop off the kids with Mamaw and Papa for a week. On the way we stopped at the Afton mountain overlook on I-64.

Junior pizza makers

Gotta start 'em off right. Mary recently made her first pizza from scratch. John got fancy with a stuffed crust version.

R.I.P. Lucky

Well, yesterday afternoon our 2 year old pet rabbit "Lucky" died unexpectedly. We are all sad.

Le Tour de ..... White Stone

I don't watch much TV these days or sports. However, I do like to keep up with the Tour de France. I used to enjoy watching the Tour when Lance Armstrong was competing, then after winning his 7th tour he retired, the next couple of years there were doping scandals in the Tour, I didn't watch or follow much at all.

Now, Lance has come out of retirement and is riding again for Johan Bruyneel, this time for team Astana. Astana has a great team and is expected to win the tour. One new twist is that it's not yet known who the Astana team leader will be, Lance Armstrong or Alberto Contador. So I'm following the Tour again this year and enjoying it, we have DirecTV at home, the Versus channel (603) has excellent coverage.

I was on the phone with Mamaw and Papa (who were in White Stone) over the weekend and we talked a little about the Tour. Papa sent me a picture of Mamaw riding her exercise bike while watching the Tour de France on TV. Go Mamaw!

Drive-in theatre, for sale

Debby took Kaitlyn, John, Abby, and Mary to our local drive-in theatre Friday evening and they had a great time. The first movie was Ice Age 3. There was a second movie called the Proposal but they did not stay for it. They took the Suburban and backed it into a spot. John and Kaitlyn decided to watch the movie from the roof of the truck. Mary and Abby watched from the back of the truck. Debby watched from a lawn chair right behind the truck. The evening was cool, blankets were required.

This drive in theatre was in the news lately because it is up for sale. You get 7 acres in a good location, 400 parking spaces, all equipment, for $350k.

New world record (work stuff)

I just got home from work at about 11 pm on Saturday July 11. We had a special high intensity beam development shift. We tuned up the SNS accelerator and accumulator ring and for the first time anywhere in the world we produced, accumulated, stored, and extracted a beam intensity of 1.5e14 protons per pulse. This is the full SNS design beam intensity.

Tractor maintenance

There's a good bit of maintenance to do on a tractor. Fortunately the maintenance on a tractor is fairly easy to perform. In this picture I'm doing a cooling system service (draining, flushing, filling 50/50 with antifreeze/water mix). Tractor shown with 10' pull behind rotary cutter, I use it to cut grass but it can cut bushes, small trees, etc.

Smiling cousin fun

Debby drove up to Northern Virginia to pickup the kids from Mamaw and Papa following their summer camp week. They also visited a few days with Debby's family. Debby brought her nieces Abby and Kaitlyn back to Tennessee along with John and Mary for a week or so. The cousins are having a great time together.

Drive thru blackberries

The blackberries are here. We have millions of wild blackberries growing on the farm. Picture shows some blackberries growing next to the driveway. Pick yourself a nice juicy ripe blackberry and pop it into your mouth. Yum!

Predators, chicken tractor

While the kids were at camp in White Stone, VA we had some kind of predator attack and we lost two chickens, and a couple of pigeons were injured (might have lost some as well). We actually were missing three chickens for a day, however the next day Pup-pup found one of them trapped under a plastic pan, amazingly the chicken was OK.
I decided to build a chicken tractor, this is a little portable enclosed chicken pen. The idea is that the chickens will free range when we are there with them, but otherwise they will be in their chicken tractor or their coop. So far so good.

Debby, chick, Pup-pup, deer

Here Debby is holding a chick, Pup-pup is sitting next to her, a deer can be seen in the background.

Pasture work, fence removal

While the kids were at camp, Debby helped me remove a row of wooden fence posts that were in the wrong place (they were there when we bought the farm). These posts were 8 feet long, 5 - 8" in diameter, there were about 25 that we needed to remove. This is not an easy job, first you must get the posts out of the ground, then you need to fill the holes, finally you need to do something with the posts. We used the tractor bucket to carry topsoil used to fill the holes, we also used the tractor bucket to push on the posts and loosen them so we could pull them out. A couple of times I used the bucket edge on the post and was able to lift them right out using the bucket. Morgan and Spirit are checking things out.