We have several new critters here on C R Farm this summer.

The mama hen has hatched 4 new little biddies.

This spring we added 4 new Khaki Campbell ducks and 2 Red Bourbon Turkeys to our collection. And a pair of Rouen ducks were added just yesterday.

The flock of sheep is growing, with a new lamb expected any day now.

Plus there are some new flowers in the garden beds. And despite the extremely cool nights I've gotten some veggies started in my new raised beds.

I'm working on some pictures to share soon.

Feeling Old?

Having troubles getting up in the mornings?

Need a little help?





We spent most of Sunday morning getting Kristy back on her feet. It was no easy task, even with the tractor. You have no idea how heavy a horse is until you try to support one in an upright postion. Just the head alone is a chore to lift. Oh my sore muscles! Once upright again, she was as good as new! Within minutes of being released she was grazing and then back at the barn waiting for her morning feed.

We're not sure why she sometimes have troubles getting up - besides being old, 39 years now. If only she could talk! She is probably developing some arthritis in her spine, and if she lays down too long, or in a tight spot it is difficult for her to get up.

Luckily we have only had to use the tractor one other time - about 2 years ago. Usually, we can help her up when needed with just a little support on the lead line.

mamakane, I'm a city girl. Tell me, do horses generally lie down to sleep? Or lie down for other reasons? I remember being told when I was a kid that horses never lie down. But they told us a lot of lies in school!

Kristy obviously did lie down. Is this normal for horses?

P.S. I can believe that a horse is heavy!!!

Awesome scene MK!! I guess most folks do not keep non-working horses around too long, never mind nurse them through the very senior years. But then, all MK's animals live in the lap of love, luxury and tender care - which is how MamaKane earned her name
I am wondering if Kristy still herds the sheep on her better days?
Hi Mr. MK!

Had a peek at your new garden pages today - you have some lovely new flower gems this year MK. I admire your patience and ability to grow perennials from seed! That is so challenging, but the best way to bagging such thrilling out-of-the-ordinary treasures.
Am looking forward to seeing your new creatures and veggie beds soon too. oxoxox

To our new visitors -
Mama Kane joins us from her country garden and animal-loving CR Farm
in West Virginia. She honors us forum followers with glorious pics of her pet creatures and awesome scenery. I grabbed this winter pic from one of her earlier postings because it is so beautiful to see such an idealistic farm set within the mountains.

I could do with one of those to get me on my feet these days MK. Thank you for showing that pic again Maggie, better than any Christmas card.

Susan, Yes it is quite natural for horses to lay down. In the past, when all horses had work to do, many were kept in stand up stalls - stalls just big enough to "park" the horse in with his head tied at the front over the feed. This way they were handy to start work early in the morning, instead of going out to bring them in from pasture. Of course they slept on their feet in those circumstances Kristy has always been lucky and had lots of room, both in the stall and in the field.

So horses won't fall down when they sleep on their feet, their knees "lock".

Nowadays, when most horses are turned out to pasture inbetween uses, it's not uncommon to drive down the road on a sunny spring day and see most all the horses stretched out flat on their sides "sunning".

Kristy's favorite winter pastime is to make "snow angles" in the fresh snow.

A horse laying down and getting up repeatedly, is a sign of a very serious condition in horses called "colic" or horse stomache ache. There are usually other symptoms also. It is important to keep them on their feet and moving then. Maybe this is why you were told healthy horses do not lay down.

Yes Maggie, Kristy still stays with the sheep and keeps an eye on them. Just the other day, there were firecrackers in the distance. Kristy wasn't bothered, but all the sheep were gathered around her seeking reassurance.



I didn't think anyone was looking at my web pages until I announced new pictures. Right now they are just getting started - lots of blanks yet. I put the pages on in these early stages because I'm using a new file system to keep the pages organized and wanted to make sure they would publish from this setup.

I looked to see if I had a picture of the house in the spring time, but couldn't find one. I take most of my pictures (except those of flowers) in the winter. Guess that's because I'm not spending my time in the gardens when the snow covers the ground. I'll have to try to get a summer picture for the new web pages.

picture above was taken in early May. The grass was just starting to green up for grazing, and the early trees just starting to leaf.

Don't the sheep always look good with a full coat of wool, and I love the glimpses of your mountains MK.

mamakane, Many thanks for your info about horses. I have seen cattle in Eastern Washington resting in the shade - of billboards! I never happened to drive by a spot where horses were not working. I'm happy that some horses have a chance to enjoy the sun.

I enjoy reading Dick Francis' novels - especially those involving horse racing. He's mentioned colic, and the importance of keeping a horse moving.

I love looking at your farm house sooo much MK,,, more picies,,, YES please!! Sorry if I posted your url too soon. Holler at us when you update please, and you too Susan.

Sus, I have learned so much about farm life and animal tending from Caro and MK this last year. Innit great!?! City kids go to the zoo to find fauna and we city gardeners get to visit ther spreads Your sheep pic takes me miles away MK. Cool misty morn with dew on the grass and only nature's sounds,, aaaaah

Well Maggie, you got me moving! I put a few pictures of the chicks and ducks on the web pages. After my husband looked at the pages, he said "but there are only 2 pictures of the ducks and chicks". Guess I might need to make the links more clear, so be sure to click anything that is underlined to follow the link.

Susan are the horses actually working there - pulling carts or being ridden, etc.? It's so unusal to see a horse doing anything other than standing in a field these days. I thought it was so neat to see them at work when we were near Amish country - 4 to 6 of them pulling the plow in the field. It was awesome to see that many horses abreast of each other turn a corner.

mamakane, A guy I knew when I was in college was the son of a farmer in Western Washington. His dad used horses instead of mechanical equipment on their farm. It was a matter of principle. I've seen people riding horses out on the range - that was probably in Idaho or Wyoming, rather than Eastern Washington. There is an area of Eastern Washington called "Horse Heaven Hills," but I can't remember ever seeing a horse there - just cattle.

The first lamb has arrived!


just starting her 3rd morning.

The lilies are beginning to bloom. This morning while out strolling along the border, I liked the dappled sunshine playing on this asian lily.

A darling lamb...and a beautiful lily.

There just aren't a lot of baby lambs in my neighborhood MK ;-) Where else would I get to see one if it weren't for yours Thank YOU

Dabbled sun on blooms is magical, isn't it! It happens in this garden more under the low evening sun than in the mornings, prob because of the beds' aspects. I was noticing last week how the iridescence of day lilies glitters even more in such lighting. The lime green pregnant buds next to that tangerine Asian are as stunning as the blooms. You captured it beautifully.

Oh, look at that lamb! I've just got to get some of those.

What a beautiful pic of the lily. You are such a fantastic photographer, MK.

Flowers are so much easier to photograph than the MOVING lambs!

The dayliles are starting to bloom.



Didn't you send me a daylily Maggie? It is going to bloom this year - if I have the right plant in mind, it has multiplied into a nice clump with several stalks of buds.

MK do you get problems with the Hemerocallis gall midge? (Contarinia quinquenotata)
This year was the first time my plants have been infected with them. The flowers buds go all squat and don't open, if you break them open they are slimy inside and have lots of tiny maggots eating away, yuck. My books say the only remedy is not to grow plants that flowers early in the season as that is when the fly lays it's eggs. Apparently the best control is to pick of infected buds so the maggonts cannot grow and pupate in the soil ready to start over the following year!

Yuck, Nicola. I'm no daylily specialist, but I've never heard of that one. Maggie, why don't you call Peggy H. and ask her about it?

However, I am wondering if the little nasties overwinter in the soil, perhaps beneficial nematodes would help? Well, that's my best guess.

And, MK, Terry is gonna love your daylily pic with all the varying textures of green surrounding the daylilies. Beautiful shot.

Let's hope he's had enough sun to come home soon Caro. Cous Mon said it was pouring today on the coast - maybe that will send him packing and back to puter use. Wonder if his ears are burning from this, if not from the sun. It's dangerous to be gone too long from these pages Ter

I had to dig up some really old mail MK, to see what I sent. Note says there was a peach with yellow eye day lily and a some tiger lily bulblets. Love your pic of those ox eyes with the tawnys !

Never heard of the midge prob here Nicola, but lots a folks have trouble with thrips on DLs in early spring. Let's hope the gall midge can't tolerate our hot temps!

You all scare me, here I thought all I had to worry about with the dayliles were the deer eating them. So far no bugs here - well not on the dayliles.

This year a few of my lilies out front look a little beat up when they open. Now I'll have to go look inside the buds - I'm cringing just thinking of the possiblity of the yuck I might find.

Ray snapped a picture of me feeding the deer this evening. You can see that they are very used to me, and expect their sweet treat. I hope by feeding them they stay out of my lilies and other garden goodies.



It's not the best of picture, but at 9:15 it was getting pretty dark and we didn't want to use a flash for fear I would be trampled by deer on their exit. (picture has been lightened)

As I sit here at 3+ am I have heard the box trap go off outside. Looks like we have caught a raccoon - sure hope that ends the raids on the coop. We've had a fox, a possum, possibly a ferret, and now the raccoon - all this week. The egg count is definitely down.

You never fail to amaze me MK! That is awesome.

Would you believe, the very night we took the picture feeding the deer, they raided the sunflowers in my yard. Now I thought we had an understanding "I feed you out here, you stay out of the garden". Guess the sunflowers were too tempting.

Did you know that deer also love daylilies, from bloom to root? At least they haven't added mine to their menu - yet. Keep your fingers crossed for me.


Maggie's lily growing in my gardens

Awesome pic of you with the deer. I can feed my cows that way, but we rarely even see deer, much less have them visit the feeding area. That lily sure is pretty. Was that a night-time shot as well?

So sad about the sun flowers MK. I remember them in a scene of your garden from last year that was so ideal. Let's hope that pretty spiney Eryngium keeps them off the lily.

The day lily came from a local grower about ten years ago. If I am not mistaken, it is the 'Chic Pink'. Metal name stakes are so long lasting, but sometimes I think they should be set in concrete for marking long-lived perennials!

Maggie was correct MK I love the Daylily pics, mine are still only in bud, about a week off flowering I would guess. The flash has really brought out the pink one. Funny how some flowers respond to it and others don't.

mamakane, That's a great picture! But I'm thinking that the deer now look at your place as a source of yummy foodstuffs.

Have you read The Yearling? I got the impression that humans and deer just can't communicate.

Yes we've read and watched the movie. It's one of Ray's old time favorites. The deer have been behaving - might have something to do with all the row covers I place over the string beans at night. Looks like the ghosts are out and about.

About having yummy stuff to eat here - right now the tiny green apples are falling. How they can chew those rock hard things are beyond me, but they love them. Hopefully the orchard will keep them busy through fall.

Then your 'ghosts' truly are garden-guardians, MK ;)
I wouldn't mind some deer coming to clean up my falling rock-hard bitter crab apples next month, which brings to mind a play on the yogurt joke --
'How can you tell when a crab apple is ripe?!'

Where has the summer gone? Fall is just around the corner here in the mountains. I haven't been on the forums much - I don't know what I do with my time, but there is never enough. But I think of you all often.

We have 3 new lambs this week. I'll try to get you city folks some pictures - these are all white lambs.

This summer someone posted a picture of the Allium that looked like a fire cracker. I can't find the post or the name of this variety anywhere. Now that I'm thinking of improvements for my gardens next year, I'd like to find some of these. Can anyone help with the name?

I just went to your summer pages MK. What neat new plants you have this year! And those baby chicks - pangggg . Loved those ugly duckling turkeys So sweet how the ducks and turkeys have become a family unit!
here's the link guys, CR Farm
Looking forward to seeing those new lambees here oxo and to your autumn scenes, please xoxo
(Oh, and I pulled Nicola's alliums up from the English Gardening thread for ya.)

We've put 2 wagon loads of hay in the loft. This should last us the winter. The sheep put their stamp of approval on it:


Our newest lambs at 1 1/2 weeks old.

We woke up to 29* Thursday the 14th with heavy frost. This frost wasn't forcasted so I was unprepared in the garden. Although the frost was heavy in the fields it didn't do much damage to the plants. Probably because it melted before the direct sun touched the plants.


I'm prepared now - these are the best of my tomatoes under the tents of row cover.

We'll have lots of color in the trees soon. Here's the first:



Thinking of my e-mail friends often, and sending Prayers for Peace and Safety for all. Cheryl

You two moved two loads of that hay!?! I'll remember that every time I need to turn my compost - which doesn't seem such a big deal now.
Your tomatoes look just like a little greenhouse! Thank you for that wonderful visit to your place MK. Init great - I get to enjoy the farm without doing any of the work

Don't you just love hauling hay? And tossin' those bales? Such fun.

Do you ever wrap your green tomatoes to delay ripening? I used to do that when we lived up North. I learned that after the first year of Northern veggie gardening, when we went all summer without a single tomato, and the plants were loaded with the green fruit and a freeze was forecast. I picked all of them and put them on newspapers on the living room floor. A few days later, they all got ripe at once, and I conned my mother-in-law into spending the weekend helping me can every possible thing you can make with tomatoes. Not the kind of mistake one should make more than once. Ah-hem.

Love those little lambs. They are still on the wish list. Looking forward to more fall foliage pictures, since we have no leaves this year, it won't be very colorful. In fact,.....it won't look any different.

Autumn is comming early this year, my Acers are already showing colour. Those sheep look so well fed MK, they could probably survive the winter without food.

We unloaded the hay, but this year we bought it instead of putting it up ourselves. Which means I didn't have to stack the hay on the wagon in the first place. It's just soooooooo much fun working with hay isn't it Carolyn.

For those that have not had to heft several hundred 40+ pound bales of hay, many of them to heights over your head. . . besides the weight lifting excercise add in the hay chaf that falls into your clothes, shoes and socks, and itches like crazy.

But it does feel good to see a winter supply of food, and a barnful of fresh hay does smell wonderful.

Terry, the sheep are already bawling for food in the mornings - a winter routine. Summertime they only get grass. They're putting on good wool coats now so look fat and sassy.

We have had a very dry summer this year, I don't know if we'll have much fall color - or it might be very short lived. I've been watering the livestock from the well for the past month.

Since I can lots of tomatoes for use in winter cooking, I don't mind the tomatoes ripening all at once. I plant a few bushes earlier than the rest, along with varieties ripening at different times, so we have had fresh tomatoes for a couple of months now. I'll save some green ones too for eating as they ripen. I'll have to try wrapping them.

We have new baby chicks. Mama hen sat on a large nest of eggs and now has 7 baby chicks. She really looks big when she fluffs up and all 7 hide under her.

We had some much needed rain yesterday - but it felt so cold. I think it stayed in the 40's all day. Hubby Ray had snow at his work - 6 miles from here, but higher elevation.

Thought it was time to bring in the last of the tomatoes. Looks like I'll be doing some canning as they ripen. After 3 years of very few tomatoes, my cupboard was bare.


the new raised beds worked well Now if I can just get them planted a little bit earlier next year.

I'm not surprised to see the size of that harvest MK, after seeing the size of your tomato trees! Aren't they beautiful!! It's making my mouth water for fried green tomatoes - do you guys like um that way? (not exactly 'low fat' food, huh, but oh so gooooood)
I noticed the faucet - is that a screened in porch? I can't get enough of your farm house

Maggie, no it's not a screened in porch. But it is framed in as part of the house - much better here in our temps. And it gives me an extra room with good sun exposure, used mostly as my plant and potting room. It was probably closed in some time after the house was built, but I think the water facet was added after the porch was closed in since it has a length of copper pipe exposed on the wall.

We have an old chest freezer that came with the house on this porch. I think the porch must have been closed in around the freezer since I can't figure any way to get it out of the door.

Want more of my old farm house. . .
image{bathroom}
This is my current project. There was old tileboard around the room attached with this awful brown glue. Since I don't want to put tileboard back up at the same height, I scraped all this off. What a job! Next I get to scrape the wood ceiling which has peeling paint. If I survive all this, I'll post a finished picture - someday.

One of our dogs was just diagnosed with diabeties. So alot of my time right now is monitoring her until we get her blood levels right again. But she is responding well

opps! did something wrong

Oh don’t ever remove that linoleum on the porch room floor - it is just as it should be! The freezer story – so funny :-0
What are you going to do to the shower walls? I won’t be surprised to learn that you can install ceramic tiles as well ;-)

I'm with Maggie on that linoleum. My gosh! I haven't seen that pretty linoleum for years.

The tomatoes are gorgeous. Did you get them all canned? I never can the ones I will use for stewed tomatoes. Just freeze them since they will turn to mush anyway upon defrosting.

Hope you are making progress with the pup's blood levels.

I didn't know dogs could come down with diabetes and am impressed they can diagnose it - esp without the patient not being able to verbalize the symptoms. But then, this patient is in MK's care

Love the chicks and the tomatoes MK. The chicks look enormous compared to my tiny quail ones and the tomatoes are not exactly lacking in size. I shall have to try the "fried green tomatoes", seen the film but never eaten them. We do fry the red ones though, great with bangers, black pudding, fied bread and bacon....all low colestrol stuff. Must stop I'm making myself hungry.

They are cooked different from fried red brekkers tomatoes, Terry. Traditional ways to cook green ones is to either coat round slices with flour, salt and pepper and fry up in small amout of grease in a skillet, or the slices are dipped in a batter and deep-fried like fish and chips. They are very acidic, reminding me of vinegar-doused chippies :-)

I think Christine does courgettes in a similar fashion. I'll try to persuade her to do the tomatoes.

Terry, I know you have birds - are you raising quail? And just what are bangers and courgettes? I've heard of them before, but never really knew what they were.

Maggie and Carolyn, I love the linolium on the porch too. But it is awfully cracked, I'm afraid it won't last many more years.

Yes Maggie, I have installed ceramic tile - we built a house in MD from the ground up. I did everything from mixing cement while hubby laid bricks to dry wall work, making window and door sills to the finishing trim. But for this bathroom I want to keep the feeling of an older bathroom. When the house was built 50 years ago they had an outhouse with the indoor plumbing added later. I don't think I'll go that authentic though I'm just placing a splash board 18" high of the smooth tile board around the tub and sink. And a curtain around the sink vs a wood cabinet.


this week's fall colors - this morning was 17*

No wonder you seemed undaunted by the bathroom project. I had no idea you are so talented in the building/remodeling area. Its difficult to believe it is already so cold on your mountain. We are having cooler weather than we have for the past several years, but nothing like 17*. Brrr! I bet a lot of those lovely leaves will fall today after that low temp. The sheep look pretty happy in the cooler temperatures, but of course, they have those nice warm coats. Beautiful pictures...as always! You should make another screen saver for this year's photos.

Oh yes please ,, too !

Bangers, as Carolyn now knows, and her husband Neal to his cost, are sausages. Courgettes are just baby marrows and they really are great sliced and fried. 17ºF already MK and it's not even Christmas . Exact opposite here, a very warm October we are having. Carolyn could do with your temperature to kill the hoppers. What a wonderful place to live MK, worth braving the cold for just the sight of those autumnal colours.

MK, bangers look like link sausage, but they taste like liverwurst.

Terry, maybe I haven't had enough coffee yet, but what are marrows?

I'll leave the marrow thing for Terry to deal with :-)
Terry - remember when Eng sausage tasted good, in the old days? What the heck happened?!? I still get some from Canada that is made the way it used to be in Eng. It tastes and looks like Eng sausage used to - not the liverwurst stuff. No one in my family likes it but me. Bangers and mash ,ummmm. They love the proper bacon, but we can't get over here since the quarantine.

I just got back from a visit to MD to see my Mom, and then popped up to NJ to see my Dad. It's been a busy week.

Mom is a gardener.

Mom has sent plants home with me! And all sorts of cuttings off of her shrubs to grow this winter. Next spring I'll have to take a truck to her place

Dad had been diagnosed with throat cancer and given 3 weeks to live - that was June 2000.


The trip was beautiful weather and tree color! But the leaves are all brown here and most trees are bare after the wind we have had. It doesn't stay 17* this time of year. Last night was 31* and today is cool and cloudy with the low 50's. We usually have snow by the end of October, but so far none is forecast.

Childhood food memories - Maryland stuffed ham. It's made with a corned ham which is hard to find in other parts of the country. You cut slits in it and stuff it with a mixture of preboiled kale, cabbage and onion. Then wrap in cheesecloth and simmer. Yummmmmm! We always had this at Christmas. Think Mom could mail me some?

Oh so nice to know more of your family Mk.
And you are so lucky to have them.
We want updates on those shrub cuttings!

That ham dish makes my mouth water - never heard of it before.
Our eldest had a pang for a childhood meal on her latest visit with us. I had to recall how to make meatloaf! (and mash potatoes w brown gravy)
Funny thing is, everyone else had apparantly missed it as much as she. Say what you will about healthier foods - but comfort foods are bound to be emotionally healthy

So would I be correct in thinking that your dad ignored the doctors advice and is still around MK?
A Marrow Carolyn, is, what I believe you refer to as, a squash. Correct me if I'm wrong Maggie.
I too am drooling at the taste of that corned ham and Maggie's meatloaf, and it's only 9.00am..

Thanks for the definition, Terry. I will add that to my "new words" list.

And, just think everyone, if you were eating our farm produced ham and beef, it would not only taste good, but be good for you!

MK, I think we might need the recipe for that stuffed, corned ham.

Everyone else has prob already seen this way before me ;-), but here is Caro's health food store
Caro's Crownhill site

Now this food thing is getting out of hand, I am really being tempted to visit and that's not good, because I never go anywhere...

Give it up, Terry. Just go get your passport.

I'll believe it when I see it!
Hey, the rates are never going to be lower than they are now

Hello
Maggie i.m from UK .stumbled on to your site
wonderful can.t praise it enough everything
about it is special will have it in my favotites REGARDS NORAMCCABE

Lovely to hear from you Nora, thank you, especially since we had to close down the guest book due to horrible scammers loading it up with disgusting links.

From where do you hail? and do you garden in Ft Worth now?

maggie@maggiesgarden.com

Nora was interested in our discussion, above, about horses laying down to sleep because she had come across this endearing scene of mammas watching over their napping babies. Thank you Nora for sharing this - all the way from Lancs England.