(DF) MIDNIGHT STROLL? Well, sort of (part 2)

Leaving the small town convenience store, and turning toward home, there was still hope of assistance.  The highway bypasses the town, but I still had to walk over a mile to be outside the jurisdiction of their law enforcement.  Many people call that stretch of highway a speed trap, and maybe it is, but whatever the case, I seldom drive that stretch without seeing at least one police car.  Not this time!!!!

That's right, in the time it took to walk the mile and a half to the edge of their jurisdiction, not one member of the local police force passed me.  On the other hand, within that mile and a half and the two miles to follow, three different ambulances passed me, apparently making transport runs (no lights or sirens).  I had hoped the local police would make their rounds and at least make a call for me.  Then I had hoped that at least one of the ambulance drivers would radio law enforcement to let them know there was a late night walker and an abandoned vehicle.  It seems that neither scenario was in the offing.

Not to be brought down by such trivial matters, I continued to walk.  A beautiful star filled night should not be wasted, and a meteor shower is always a rare treat.  My quiet walk and star gazing was only interrupted by the passing of cars, always accelerating and seldom moving to the other lane (this part of my walk was on a large divided highway).  A few miles down the road, I passed another convenience store that is the highlight of a small community at a major intersection.  There was no need stopping, since I already knew that they close at 10 pm, so I continued walking.

Another three miles and I reached the shortcut which connects the highway I was on with the next highway north.  The shortcut is actually a very highly traveled paved county road.  Narrow and only two lane, I would have to be careful of two way traffic, but at least for the moment, most of the cars were going my direction.  Were they more likely to stop than on the big highway?  IT SEEMS NOT!

By the time, I had reached the shortcut, I was beginning to get tired.  There had not been much rest for a few days, and the hour was truly getting late.  An old leg injury which had left a misalignment in my left ankle joint was beginning to ache a bit as well.  The fact that I had not walked more than a mile at any one time in quite a few years did not help much either.  Oh, but those beautiful stars, meteors and warm, gentle breeze.  Such a truly beautiful night for a stroll.  Slowly but steadily, I continued walking, stepping into the road ditch each time a car approached (this is a narrow road and the cars were not slowing down or changing lanes).

About four miles further along the shortcut, I could look to the east and see the morning star rising, telling me it would be daylight soon.  It would be a while yet, but it was coming.  With the approach of morning, I knew that the traffic would soon change.  The majority of cars would be coming to meet me instead of going my direction.  At this point, I was also approaching the bottom of about a two mile long hill.  Not really all that steep, but steadily up hill.  Fortunately, with the particular ankle problem I have, up slope is easier than down slope.  My hope was to reach the top of the hill before the direction of traffic changed, and I would worry about the steep slope down the other side when I got there.

With the morning star high in the sky, but still no daylight, I reached the top of the grade.  For the first time since leaving my Jeep behind, I stopped for a very short rest.  By this time, the pain in my left foot and ankle was significant, though not unbearable.  Traffic had changed to a good mix of directions and with only about ten miles to go, I prepared to start down the other side of the hill.  Yes, I was still enjoying the stars, and the meteor shower had intensified as dawn approached.  Absolutely gorgeous!

Thank you for reading, and please stay tuned for part 3.  There will be lots of excitement, frustration and lessons learned.

(DF) MIDNIGHT STROLL? Well, sort of (part 1)

As most of you know, Anna and I have been working frantically to get her moved and combine our farms.  Though it seems that everything is trying to prevent that move, we keep pushing on, day after day, and are making some progress.   This past Sunday (18 Oct), we decided that a little time away from the move was well overdue. We spent the evening relaxing a bit and enjoying time together.  Before leaving, I mentioned how nice it would be to have a nice midnight stroll and look at the stars.  Of course, we couldn't, because we both had animals to care for at our respective farms.

I began the 40 mile drive before midnight, already tired from not sleeping much the past couple of  nights.  Staying awake was not much of a concern with the windows down and the radio playing.  The Jeep was running beautifully and I would be home in less than an hour.  I did not, and I repeat DID NOT get home in under an hour.

About ten miles into the drive, the Jeep engine started pulling down then died.  I was thinking probably nothing serious (it had been a wonderful night to that point).  A quick look under the hood revealed a badly blown head gasket, and I mean BADLY blown.

My first thought was to pick up the cell and call for help.  There were several people who would gladly come pick me up.  NOT SO FAST!!!  My cell phone had fried a couple of days before and wasn't replaced yet.  Since calling for help was out of the question, I waited for a little while with the Jeep, flashers flashing, in hopes that someone would stop.   No such luck!

By this point, it was just a bit after midnight, and I didn't want to stay there all night.  About a mile down the road from where I was stranded, is a little town with a convenience store beside the highway.  I have never seen that store closed, day or night, though I have passed it many times.  I knew they would not have a pay phone (the semi official word being that there are no more payphones in this state), but maybe they would let me use the store phone to call.  So my beautiful star filled midnight stroll began.

With the sky so filled with stars, and a warm gentle breeze, the mile passed quickly.  The only thing unpleasant about the stroll was the passing cars which would obviously accelerate as soon as I came into the driver's view.  STRANGE!!!!!  Now, imagine my disappointment when I found the convenience store closed.  This left me with choices.  I could walk back to the Jeep and wait, walk back to Anna's place, or start walking toward my place (about 30 miles away).  The first two options include the word "back", and I have never been good at going backward.

Knowing that I was about 30 miles from home, and that I have not walked that far in quite a few years, I started walking.  Yes, I started the 30 mile walk.

While there is much more to the story, I don't want this post is getting too long.  Please stay tuned for part 2 which will be posted in the next couple of days.  Thank You for reading.

UNAUTHORIZED ADS!

Sneezy

 Hello, Everyone!

This post is two fold... we need a bit of your help, and we want to also make you aware of a probable type of new scam.

We have been noticing an ad in the top left of our blog lately. From our end, it is a Reasor's ad (local grocery store). WE DID NOT PUT THAT AD THERE!!!! We do not have any ads in that position. In fact, although we have been looking for the right ones to place on our blog, we currently do not have any ads of any kind on this blog.

If any of you see an ad in that position on our blog (top left, under the g+ button), or any place on our blog right now, PLEASE let us know. We do not appreciate someone else profiting off of our work!  We are trying to track down where this is coming from. So far, it has been traced down to a website at  openapmedia.com, but when I go to it, nothing comes up on my end. I am hoping that means that they have been caught and taken down!

Oh, yes, underneath the ad, it also says, "Crime Watch Ad". Again, if you see any of these ads on our blog, please let us know! We also suggest that you, our fellow bloggers and website owners keep an eye on your ads to see if you are also being targeted.

We consider this a theft, stealing. . . . .  making a profit off of someone else's work. It should hold jail time just like any other theft. Some days, I wish I could push a magic little button that would remove me from everything electronic in my life! Biggest problem with that is, that is where most of the business has gone to, now.  Electronics were supposed to make life easier, but in my opinion, they have just created far more stress, problems, and work.  All the more reason we are working hard towards living more simply and more off grid.

Okay, back to my packing and stuff. Today, I am heading outside in the beautiful, sunny, breezy, and just right temps, to build another big cage to move some more chickens in. We had quarantined our Fall order of chicks at Anna's Farm and they are almost ready to be moved on over to Dave's Farm with the rest of the chickens. Have a FANTASTIC DAY, Everyone! ! !  And thank you for reading our blog!

UPDATE: I found what it is. This stinks!  Crime Watch Ads It is a virus in your browser.

(DF) SALVAGING THE GARDEN

Back in early spring, I tilled up the garden added compost and tilled again.  It looked great!  I then planted potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, peas and green beans, all in their appropriate time.  Other wonderful veggies were to be planted very soon, as the early root crops began to grow. 

All was well and things were growing nicely, including weeds and grass (as always).  The rows had been tilled and weeded once, and almost ready for the next round, as new rows were laid off to be planted.  Sounds great and productive, doesn't it?  But not so fast!!!

This is about the time it started raining.  It rained, and rained, and rained yet more.  Soon, my lovely garden was standing in water, and remained so for some time.  During this time of standing in water, grass and weeds grew quite well.  By the time the soil was dry enough to walk across, grass was chest high and the green beans were ready to pick (actually, many had gone past their prime and rotted).

Between the rain, work, taking care of animals, trying to get Anna moved and dealing with some health issues (both mine and Anna's), there just wasn't time or energy to get the weeds out and start over.  All that was harvested was a small mess of peas and a couple of mediocre pickings of green beans.

!Now, fast forward to autumn !

A couple of weeks ago, with thoughts of removing the grass and weeds from the garden, I waded through the tangled mess a bit just to see if it would be better to cut it all down first or just wait until it died and burn it.  To my surprise, I found potato plants rising up among the tall grass,  Very nice potato plants, in fact.  With that in mind, I vowed to wait until I had a chance to dig a bit, hoping that there were actually potatoes on the other end of those plants.

Yesterday, 17 October, I took a little time to dig.  YES there are potatoes on the other end.  It is not a record crop of record size potatoes, but there are potatoes.  Now I have my work cut out for me.  It will be difficult working among the grass, or cutting the grass first (that decision is yet to be made), but it will certainly be worth the effort.
.

Now there is the question of carrots and such.  They will be a bit harder to locate but I must look.   It would be so nice to have homegrown carrots and potatoes from our garden in the stew.  Wish me luck, and if your garden was also taken over, you might want to check before you till.

(AF) Moving Update - Are You Still Moving?!?!

You're still moving?!?

People keep asking, "Are you STILL moving?" and the answer to that question is
YES! We are still diligently working on moving me to Dave's!

Moving an entire farm we knew would be difficult, but it is taking far longer than even we anticipated, we have both been sick several times and had to take some healing time out (although we didn't take as much as we should have), and our arthritic bodies are REALLY wearing out and loudly protesting all the extra stress, strain and lifting. Sometimes we have to just stop for a few days and let our bodies catch back up. But we are getting there, little by little, and beginning to make some great progress.

We have been EXTREMELY blessed with several extensions of moving time! ! ! I can't even begin to express how grateful we have been for this! These time extensions have saved us many, MANY years of work to replace what we already have that could be moved. We will just keep on plugging along, pushing our bodies to and beyond their limits to get it all moved, then we can let them rest and heal over the Winter.

We have no idea, now how much more time we have to move. It could be tomorrow, or it could be a month or two from now. We just don't know and have not been able to find out this time. When we try to find out, we just keep getting referred from one person to the next, and back again. My last time extension request was for until the end of October. I am still not sure we are going to make it by then, but on our end, we have to! We desperately need to have everything, me and the critters all over at Dave's Farm by the end of October so that we can have some time to really get the critters settled in properly before it gets too cold. That has been too hard to do with him there, me here, and running back and forth packing, loading and hauling loads, building new pens, etc.

Little by little, Anna's Farm is making its way over to Dave's Farm and before we know it, we will finally, officially be Two Farms One!  We just need for our bodies and finances to hold up long enough. Somehow, we need a mega burst of energy and finances. I had a couple of extra, unexpected sales a month or so ago, along with an unexpected, one day, high pay job that came with the most perfect timing. God is good, takes care of our needs, and it will be there, pleasantly surprising us again, when we are most desperate.

And to all of those that have donated gas funds, WE THANK YOU! ! ! ! You have overwhelmed our hearts with your kindness and may many blessings come your way!

Thank you for reading and stay tuned. Coming up, a post about an unexpected afternoon with no power at all. Have a fantastic day!