Pour Passer le Temps...

Eric the Bold is back from finishing an eight week farrier course in Missouri. Here he is putting shoes on Tono while the cows wait for their turn. Tono has had sore feet due to bruising, so he was quite happy to oblige Eric and we are very happy to have Eric back and in action. After the 6.6 inches of rain fell it seemed like more little flowers burst forth in bloom. I love looking at all the flowers, but am especially amazed at the intricacies in some of the tiny ones like these. And the grass is growing.

I keep noticing this spring how closely some of colors look like fall.

The new grape leaves almost glow in the late afternoon sun.

I didn't really even notice the fuchsia in the this little orange beauty until I looked at the photo. It reminds me to look more closely at things instead of walking by.

Baby cherries against a cloudy sky. I spent two days this week shoveling manure out of the barn for the garden. This is the first spring that I have held off on planting our summer plants. Usually in April I jump the gun and plant, only to later have to replant after a frost. I'm learning. ....Unfortunately not how to correctly drive steel t-posts. We do our fencing with real swords around here.... Actually, there was another post in the ground close to where I was placing the new one and I didn't think how I was going to drive my elbow into its ragged top while I threw all my weight and energy into the driver. Ouch. That hurt. For any of you who know fences, hearing that we have two t-posts within a foot of each other will tell you what kind of shape our fence is in. Of course, the snake I stumbled upon on the far side of the fence probably helps keep the animals in. It sure made me move pretty fast. It was a big one. Eric here.... shh, it's a surprise-

Fencing. There's a word that makes grown men sigh. Over the centuries man has tried to make improvements such as the t -post driver instead of having your dumb friend hold the post while you (unless you're the friend) swing at it with a large rock on a stick. Then the pneumatic hammer came along and if you could already bench press a small tree these things are great! Just pick up a 120 lb. tube of power repeatedly, and let it do the work. Unfortunately the north coast is too steep of country for such wonderful tools. Usually we just pay rent to some gophers and squirrels and place the post in a portion of their hole. If not things get more difficult, at least for me. My mother however is very talented at the art of fencing, in fact she can apparently drive two posts at once! It's called the atomic t drop (t for Tammie, it's not just executed on t- posts), simultaneous use of a driver on one post and her calcified elbow to drive another. Here she is basking in all her wonderfulness at the end of the day. Happy mother's day mom!!!
Happy Mother's Day, all you mothers out there,
and if you would like to take a journey in a rickshaw with some young friends of mine, click here!