Lost Blogs?

Third times' a charm, right? I've lost two blog posts this week. One here, today, and one on my other blog, amothersheartinwords. And the darndest part is, one can cut, and try to paste, but alas, there is no such thing.

I'm convinced. There is a place where lost Blogs hang out with lost socks. And Eddie's favorite toys. And my gardening gloves.

That's all for now. I fear the more I write, the more chance I will encounter the Twilight Zone-likeness of a most peculiar phenomenon known around here as lost blogdom.

Wildlife at Hope Farms

Most days the only "Wildlife" we see here at Hope Farms consists of a nearly-three-year old boy racing around, four goats getting loose and wreaking havoc in the garden and of course, our ten chickens who feel the need to annihilate my Nasturtium plants. Don't forget the territorial hummingbirds, the bluebird making a nest in a little terra-cotta birdhouse, and a tree-frog that made it's debut by somehow getting up on TOP of the window sill. But! Some days are more exciting than others. Here's why;

King Snake, or Eastern King snake, or Chain Snake. Whatever you want to call him (or her!) is fine by me. Scary is a good term to use in my book. It slithered out from the back of the garage wall, seemingly from no-where and just....blended in with the grass. Mr. Fix-it caught it with a leaf rake and managed to get it to slither into a feed bag and we kept it in a barrel for about an hour while deliberating on whether to let it go, or sell it. Yes, I said sell it. Apparently, they are in high demand as they are noted for their immunity to pit-venom, which would emcompass Copperheads or Rattlesnakes. So, they get bit by the above-mentioned reptiles, then sqeeze them to death and then ingest them. In addition, they are valuable for eradicating mice and rodents, therefore, we decided to keep him (her?) and let it go. It slithered off into the corn field as though it had had a nice nap in the feed bag and was never bothered by the interruption of it's original destination. (My garden?) (EEEKKK!!)

It was a good chance to get Eddie to see what a real, live snake looked and acted like without the danger of a bite, or ultimately, a visit to the hospital (which I will touch on in another post). Now he goes around shouting "Snake, Snake!!" at every twig, branch or long leaf on the ground. I suppose it's time to introduce the story of "Cry Wolf" to him.

The 'other' wildlife we encounter around Hope Farms are a wee bit less stressful.

For some reason, I had this locked away in a pile of "drafts" - so, I released its wild-self.

Hope you enjoyed!

Poison Ivy and other fun things.

Snort. Just typing the words "Poison Ivy" makes me itch. Or it could be that I've got a fairly good case of it going on as we speak. Or, as I write and you read. Whichever you'd rather. Nowadays it seems rare for people to drop by, write a letter, or pick up the phone. E-mail, instant messaging, and texting seem to be the preferred method. But out here, in farmhouse country, people drop by a lot. It has taken me nearly a year to become accustomed to it. I sorta like it now, as it motivates me to keep my house a wee-bit cleaner than I normally would. I said a wee-bit. Not a great deal. There is a slight (huge) difference. A friend once told me;

"If you're coming to see my house, make an appointment. If you're coming
to see me, stop by anytime."

I LOVE that. My other favorite is;

"Excuse the mess, we live here."

So a lot has been going on around here, and Hope has been spotted springing up everywhere. Along with the garden. High on the list of exciting things is; I HAVE A DIGITAL CAMERA. (yes, I spent some of the government stimulus money on a camera MADE IN CHINA, and (*gasp*) from Wal-Mart.com no less. Shame on me. So let's get on with the show, shall we?



We have started to paint the house. Out of want, yes, and more specifically, out of need. We estimate this house to have been painted last sometime in the mid-to-late eighties. With lead paint. And, with it peeling, flaking, and chipping off, it is a hazard.

Now a Before pic; (yes, I often do things backwards...get used to it.)


This was taken last July (2007) p.s. the flowering vine on the porch is called "Mandevilla" and right behind Peonies and Hydrangeas, they are my favorite.

With the over-abundance of white houses in this region of the country, we wanted something earthy, that would blend in with our tree-filled surroundings.



Here's another;


I'm loving this. Possibly more than Ed, who is doing the brunt of the work, or ALL of it. I just feed him, bring him sweet-tea, and keep Eddie from putting his hands in the wet paint, which could possibly be the hardest of all.





So, on to the next thing hovering fleetingly in my field mouse brain, is the garden, which is coming along nicely. I had really good intentions of gardening organically, but after finding 18,000 potoato beetles in the potato patch, we bought some powdery stuff that kills them. The chickens won't even eat them.





Here is a pic of the garden (where, of all places, I saw a gardener snake last week...go figure.)
Theres more of this, but I won't bore you with the details. So far Eddie has managed to pick half of the almost-ready-to-pick Sugar Snap Peas, and eaten them. I have my eye on an "8-ball" zucchini that's nearly ripe and we've pretty much exhausted the asparagus patch, seeing how that it's now reaching temperatures into the nineties, the asparagus just don't produce much. That, and that's where the gardener snake headed, so I've been pretty leery of diving in there.

What else.


Yeah, here we go again. Fieldmouseitis. It will occur to me later what I was going to write about and when it's too hot outside to putz around, I'll come back in and post about it. I'm off to examine all the Hope blossoms.