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9 08, 2019

Space

By |2019-08-03T15:19:16-05:00August 9th, 2019|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

After the recent hatching was complete, we have 6 chicks and 2 ducks. We have kept them all in a tub in what was Rachel’s room and is now Brian’s project room.  They seem quite content most of the time.

The ducklings are really messy and like to play in the water. Based on the actions of our grown ducks out back I can safely assume they will not outgrow this trait.  I recently put them in a wire cage outside in the shade while I cleaned their tub.  They seemed to enjoy the grass.  We hope to move them outside to a small pen in the chicken yard this weekend.I was thinking about all this morning. They started out in an incubator and then moved into a slightly larger brooder tub. As they grow, the tub becomes crowded. Then it will be time for them to go into a small pen and finally be incorporated into the big chicken yard.  I was pondering whether or not the little chicks are ready to be in such a big chicken yard.

I was reminded of our children. They started in the house and as they grew it became crowded.  Then they moved on to various locations.  One is still in town but in a different house, one is in a town about an hour away, and the oldest is married, in a town 3 hours away and traveling all over the country.

I sometimes ponder whether or not they are ready to be out in the big world.  I do enjoy the added space in the house.

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5 08, 2019

THE Chair

By |2019-08-04T14:15:16-05:00August 5th, 2019|A Writer's Life, Writer's Life|2 Comments

This little chair came to live with us in May 1990 after my mother-in-law passed away. We’d given it to her when she started having trouble sleeping in a bed.

She loved the small size because it fit her small sized body and shape. And, the lever made it easy to recline.

We enjoy it for all the same reasons.

After my husband retired, the chair became his chair. He’s not tall, 5’ 9” so the size worked perfect.

We’ve now had the chair nearly thirty years. With each relocation, the chief determinant for a new home was “where will THE chair fit?”

The main living area had to be sized so that the chair aligned with the television for all baseball and football game viewing. Usually placement was easy.

With our move from Texas to Colorado, the house had only one location for the television and the chair. It came off the truck, the movers set it in place, and there it stayed until we returned to Texas.

Our new Texas house was a different story. The new living room had four windows, a fireplace banked by built-in bookcases, and our piano that needed an inside wall. Positioning THE chair across from the television meant blocking the opening into the dining room.

Not a serious problem, but I felt sure there was another solution.

That’s when my interior designer cousin came to help.

Studying the unique room, she nodded her head toward THE chair and innocently asked, “Can we move that?”

The answer, of course, as long as the tv sits across from it.

She laughed. “I see.”

It took a bit, but together we finally figured out another arrangement for the remaining furniture, so the room didn’t look like an overcrowded showroom.

And, I’m sure you’ve guessed, THE chair remained exactly where it was.

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2 08, 2019

Time on Her Own

By |2019-08-01T10:27:25-05:00August 2nd, 2019|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

One of the Buff Orpington hens started losing feathers on her back thanks to an overzealous rooster. One morning I discovered her in a nest box with a gash on her back.

Having watched Rachel many times, I donned gloves and treated the hen with Blu-Kote – a germ-killing fungicidal wound dressing. True to its name, it is a dark blue liquid that stains whatever it touches, hence the gloves.  I thought I was being smart.  The hen, however, shook her head in disagreement and flung blue everywhere.

At least the wound was covered.

A few days later, she wandered into an empty run, and I closed the gate and got her food and water.  The isolation did wonders for her and before long her feathers all grew back.  She even started laying eggs again!She got out of her pen and I figured she was ready to be with the others.  However, a few days later I found her back in the nest box with missing feathers.  I returned her to the isolation pen.  She was not quite ready to join society.

As summer comes to an end and the start of school/work looms ever near, I can say I may have to agree with her.  I’m not quite ready…

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1 08, 2019

LUCKY ME

By |2019-08-01T11:06:01-05:00August 1st, 2019|Guest blogger|3 Comments

A Blog by Guest Blogger – Jody Gilmore Payne

I’m from a long line of readers and storytellers. I can’t remember a time my parents and grandparents didn’t have an open book nearby. I realize now the value of the legacy and thank them for the memories.

~I have ignored Papa’s frowning and eloped with a Browning.

~I have fought beside Travis in the Alamo.

~I have discussed cabbages and kings with a walrus.

~I have crossed a vast desert with an Englishman in Arab robes.

~I have dined with a fat king and wept for his queen.

~I have grown older and wiser on Washington Square.

~I have excavated a site for antiquities of ancient cultures and dug a despot from a hole in the same ground.

~I have journeyed through a wardrobe into a land of eternal winter.

~I have advised presidents and a man who would be king.

~I have been horrified to watch Othello give his trust to Iago.

~I have permitted murderers to go free on the Oriental Express.

~I have disagreed with a Medici when he claimed the end justifies the means and then listened with horror as our leaders now quote him.

~I have learned about relativity from a genius and taught him how to tie his shoes.

~I have knit my way through the French Revolution and sought justice for my people.

~My beauty was celebrated, but I was cast aside when I couldn’t give a French dictator a child.

~I have sailed the seven seas on a schooner and navigated across a continent on a sea of grass.

~I have followed an ideal and founded the best government known to man.

~I have hiked the Inca Trail to watch the sunrise over Machu Picchu.

~I have drawn lines in the Nazca desert so long ago no one will remember their origin.

~I have built great pyramids in the Valley of the Kings and left a Sphinx to guard them.

~I have descended a mountain carrying stones etched with the sacred words of God.

~I have slain a giant with five smooth stones and changed history.

~I have set giant stones in a circle to explain the miracle of the heavens.

~I have caught words as they slid from the pooka’s mouth and meditated on power.

~I have listened to the caged bird sing and soared above the Grand Tetons with the proudest of all birds, the American eagle.

~I have been betrayed by a man and his church and worn an A on my breast.

~I have roamed the dark forest with werewolves and fled from vampires.

~I have thrilled to my first kiss many times.

~I have crossed the Delaware with brave men to follow the most virtuous of leaders.

~I have fought a war with my brothers and watched Atlanta burn.

~I have composed ballads with a poet and dreamed of returning to Mandalay.

~I have partaken of a moveable feast and baked blackbirds in a pie.

~I have watched in horror as barns burned through the night in Mississippi and found peace at dawn on Walden’s Pond.

~I have flown through space and walked on the moon.

~I have ridden a thoroughbred in the Derby and cried for the fate of a warhorse.

~I have bowed before a lowly donkey carrying a virgin with an unborn God.

Lucky me, I can read.

Jody Gilmore Payne is an author, a blogger, a horsewoman, an animal lover, and now a transplanted Texan …

I’ve always believed in the inescapable order of fate, but I can’t think of one good reason I wasn’t born right here in Texas. Oh the time I wasted wandering around looking for home!

Well, I’m here now and embrace it with open heart and welcoming arms.   

If my writing takes on a decidedly southern cadence, it’s understandable. I write about what I see and what I believe to be good and true.

You can visit Jody on Facebook or her website or her blog

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31 07, 2019

Being Still Quote – E’yen A. Gardner

By |2019-07-30T07:14:55-05:00July 31st, 2019|#wordlesswednesday, Wednesday Words of Wisdom, Weekly Quote|1 Comment

About the Graphic

The image is a photo by Edie Melson used with special thanks for offering her beautifully paired memes for all to share.

The photo and the quote from E’yen A. Gardner are a perfect match.  Staring into slow rippling water whether a pond or creek or lake or ocean can relax our minds and body and give a sense of peace.

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29 07, 2019

Our Nighttime Guest

By |2019-07-28T16:13:40-05:00July 29th, 2019|A Writer's Life|2 Comments

We have a nighttime thief around our house. We rarely see the culprit. We do see the evidence.

It’s not the first time said nocturnal guest has stripped my potted plants.

The pots originally sat on the front porch, too easily accessible. The nibbles at first were small. A few leaves here and there disappeared unnoticed. Then one day all the leaves were gone.

I hastily moved the plants around to the fenced back porch. Secure, I thought though I knew deer can leap a fence flatfooted in a heartbeat. I counted on the human scents discouraging them.

I nursed the plants back to full foliage with Miracle Grow and loving thoughts. This summer they were looking lovely. The ivy full of new leaves.

I potted red impatients to add color for our Fourth of July cookout. The plants bloomed profusely.

Then the impatient blooms started to disappear. The ivy flourished until yesterday when I discovered the nibbled-down-to-the-dirt pot. No sign of the foliage.

Not only had our nighttime guest consumed the ivy and impatients, he or she had nearly destroyed the Christmas cactus I bought our first Christmas back in Texas.

As you can see by the new growth, the cactus is trying to recover.

My butterfly plants at the back of the yard suffered the same fate. They’d bloomed profusely drawing beautiful monarchs. Then one morning they were all gone. Leafless bare stems waved in the breeze.

I sprinkled anti-deer pellets in that flowerbed. It helped a bit, but the poor plants barely recovered only to be destroyed again in this latest attack.

Our neighbors warned us that having plants with the deer population we have was impossible. Now I believe them.

I’ve given up. The deer have won.

I’m not going to subject my poor plants to the torture. I’m sticking to the plants that seem to survive these nighttime attacks. The deer ignore the Four O’clock, the Texas Star Hibiscus, Citronella, Rosemary, Lemon Grass,  Geraniums and Zinnias.

It makes me sad that I must give up the flowing ivy and cheerful impatients I love, but I’ve accepted defeat. I’ll enjoy the blooms in the yards of those who don’t have hungry nighttime guests.

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26 07, 2019

Lost and Found

By |2019-07-23T08:04:43-05:00July 26th, 2019|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|1 Comment

A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

One of the chicks I brought home from school disappeared last week. I looked everywhere and didn’t find nary a feather.  I was concerned mostly because I was afraid the kids at school would ask about the chicks and I would have to confess to losing one.

The other morning Max was very intently looking at the pen where the chicks had been staying with the rooster.  He started growling and I figured there must be something there.

I hesitantly entered the coop fearful that I would encounter a snake.  I saw a bunch of white feathers under the coop and realized they were attached to a bird.

I carefully lifted the coop, thinking the bird was surely dead.  I was wrong.  The poor chick wiggled out from under the coop and stumbled over to the water.

I was pleasantly surprised.  I kept an eye on it and made sure there was plenty of water and food.  It seems to be none the worse for the experience.

I’m glad Max was insistent.  He gets credit for saving a chicken.  He only needs to rescue 6 more to replace all the chickens Bella has caught over the years.

And now I can honestly report that all the chicks are doing well.

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25 07, 2019

Have Needle Will Travel

By |2019-07-22T15:01:39-05:00July 25th, 2019|Guest blogger|1 Comment

A Blog by Guest Blogger Carolyn Wedel

 I’ve dabbled in the needle arts since the ninth grade.  No, I’ll not reveal how long that’s been …only my doctor and I know that secret.

I’ve broaden my horizons recently in my quest to be more creative with my embroidery skills and purchased a Brother Persona PRS100 embroidery machine.  It’s a 68-pound beauty and it took my husband & I together with a dolly to man handle that baby upstairs.

My brother was my first customer on this shining star, and I embroidered 14 aprons for his son, who owns a restaurant in Missouri.

This new machine balked a few times (learning curve), so phone calls to the dealer and a bit of screaming on my part, as I watched the screen tell me “check the top tension or the bobbin tension, before finally getting that tension properly balanced.

Sewing buffs, you know what I mean. What’s up with that!  Which one do I adjust!

Well I looked in the book again and decided the bottom bobbin was my first go to in correcting and balancing the tension. What you need is a balance of top thread showing and only about a third of the top thread showing on the bottom of the garment. My personal tension, on the other hand, was all the way to a 10 on the Richter scale!

Finally, the dealer told me never to touch the bobbin tension (even though it is clearly described in the book). Now they tell me! They regret the book gives you that option.

I purchased a new bobbin to finish my project & learned (vowed) to never touch the bobbin thread case again. I will only turn the top three tension indicators knobs to appropriately make adjustments.

Since there are four tensions adjustments (three on top and one on bottom) for the machine, I learned a few days ago what steps to go by in adjusting these tension knobs.

Whew! What an education.  The top tension, I was told to adjust, made all the difference in the world. Yea! Success.

I’m like a dog with a bone, I just don’t give it up until the lady sings. Such a learning experience and it’s not over yet.  However, I am not as intimidated any longer with this new piece of equipment, which tried to buffalo me.  No-siree, I’m in control and she purrs like a kitten … wonderful!

For now, I have been pulled away from my loving embroidery passion to help my husband with our last phase of house renovations, which has bordered on a nightmare. We are upgrading our existing home and running into so many areas that are not squared. My husband says studs are not on 16” centers, plus leaky toilets. We have pledged to do whatever we can to make our home look square and pretty.

We’ll be content to say this will be the last upgrade and have a blind eye to any imperfections. lol. I really am excited with a mental image of the results, so it will be worth the efforts.

I did squeeze in a small embroidery job and sewed our initial W on a table runner in gold metallic, which had existing gold thread in the material, and it turned out awesome. Sewing with metallic thread is extremely tricky, but my new machine took it in stride.Happy trails to you.

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22 07, 2019

Doggie Love

By |2019-07-21T20:37:50-05:00July 22nd, 2019|A Writer's Life|6 Comments

Finnegan loves me. How do I know?

I actually considered his actions of leaning on me, staring at me, and dropping his head into my lap when least expected to be very annoying.

After reading “5 Signs of Deep Affection You Won’t Want to Ignore” in my August issue of Your Dog, newsletter of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, I changed my opinion.

In case you have a loving dog like our Finn, I thought I’d share what I learned.

~Leaning

This is a clear signal your dog feels special about you.

Our Finn will sit on our feet leaning his head back to be petted. He weighs ninety pounds which gets heavy after a while and we must use the enough command. He trots off to sit in front of the nearest fan content with whatever petting he gets.

Knowing he’s really letting me see how special I am to him, I might let him sit on my feet a bit longer next time.

~Eye contact or staring

Doggy direct eye contact is normally used for threats or aggression. But, if your dog makes direct eye contact with you like our Finn does, he’s acknowledging what a cherished connection you share.

Staring releases oxytocin, the bonding hormone that new mothers experience when they first hold their newborns, into a dog’s brain. Looking back into their eyes releases the same hormone to your brain.

I often catch Finn staring. Now I know he’s not challenging me, I’ll smile back.

~Dropping his head in our laps

Veterinarians call this docking. Not clipping the tail, but more like a space capsule reconnecting to the mother ship.  Finn’s saying “I need warmth; I need closeness.”

While we’re watching television, Finn will jump on the couch and plop his head in my lap. I accuse him of deliberately aggravating his Maltese brother who always occupies my lap when I sit and doesn’t like to share. I pet Finn for a bit and he jumps down content to let Buster have my lap.

It’s good to know Finn’s not being obnoxious when he leans, stares or docks. He’s saying “I love you.”

So is your dog.

From now on, I’ll return the sentiment with soft strokes and loving words. I know I feel bad when I say I love you and I don’t hear the words returned.

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