Anna Pearl's Attic

The First Zucchini Seed

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Pearl's Attic) — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:28:00 +0000

In Wyoming, just about all we can grow is Zucchini!

We planted the first of the zucchini in the greenhouse today. Remember that we live at 6200 feet so we still have three weeks until we can take them outside. They may even be nights where we have to place a heater in the greenhouse.

The herbs are all planted and we will start selling them as soon as they can produce enough to share. I plan on sharing half of the herb harvest and dry the rest. They come in handy in the winter months when food starts tasting bland. They always give a nice favor when they are homegrown and dried fresh.

The gardens give me renewed strength and are always good for having something great to look forward to.

Our New Glamper - April Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Pearl's Attic) — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:03:00 +0000

Before the Exterior Paint Job

After the Exterior Paint Job

Working....Working...Working

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Pearl's Attic) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:41:00 +0000

When you are a computer person, you often spend long hours at the keyboard. You may be working on a term paper or finishing up the next big deal at work. It may be that you are addicted to Pinterest or are always looking on Tophatter for that next great deal. Sometimes, you may get so absorbed that you fall asleep on your keyboard with your hand on the mouse.

This happened recently to Shelbee Taylor. While browsing for the best place to buy treats, she zonked out and drooled a little on her keyboard. See photo below.......

Such a dedicated Chi"Wawa"

Loading Hay

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Pearl's Attic) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:16:00 +0000

The ewes are waiting patiently as handsome rancher's son prepares to feed them alfalfa hay.

Why Deer Are Hunted With Riffles

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Pearl's Attic) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 19:12:00 +0000

Not sure who wrote this, but had to share it.

Why we shoot deer in the wild (A letter from someone who wants to remain
anonymous, who farms, writes well and actually tried this...)

I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed
it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first
step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they
congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me
when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at
the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away),
it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over
its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.
I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope.
The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They
were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up--
3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end
of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared
at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a
good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it
was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step
towards it, it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope,
and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that,
while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope
it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for
pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in
that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity.
A deer-- no Chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled.
There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it
jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it
occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an
idea as I had originally imagined. The only upside is that they do not
have as much stamina as many other animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to
jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a
few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood
flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my
taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature
off the end of that rope.

I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its
neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time,
there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I
hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was
mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I
had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against
various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still
think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I
shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in.
I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to
get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap
I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back
in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a
deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when ..... I reached
up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now,
when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they
just bite you and slide off to then let go. A deer bites you and shakes
its head--almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to
freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My
method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several
minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than
a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it.
While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached
up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right
up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level,
and their hooves are surprisingly sharp... I learned a long time ago
that, when an animal -like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves
and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a
loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will
usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such
trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a
different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run.

The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a
horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit
you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses
after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because
the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and
knocked me down. Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not
immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has
passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on
you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering
your head.

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away.

So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle
with a scope......to sort of even the odds!!

All these events are true so help me God...An Educated Farmer

Bird on a Fence

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Pearl's Attic) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:14:00 +0000

To See The World

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Pearl's Attic) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:25:00 +0000

To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.

William Blake

Temporary Fix

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Pearl's Attic) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:37:00 +0000

The Problem - Rock fell off the wall. We plan to replace the wood stove wall with tile. However, we are not quite ready to tackle the project. I was sitting about 3 feet away from this wall when this rock decided to descend. Although it did not break the rock, it did send me into a rather girlish scream. I jumped out of my comfy loveseat and said a few words that I'm sure my mama would not have been proud of. Fortunately, Handy Hubby was there to rescue me.

He applied some wood adhesive that he had stored in the Handy Hubby Hideout (The Garage)

Here is Handy Hubby's Handsome Hands replacing the rock in it's former housing. It has stayed up there for a month now. The repair is not exactly beautiful, but will serve the purpose until we can tackle the whole project.

Deer Damage

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Pearl's Attic) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:15:00 +0000

We recently sustained damage to our hay stores from some mule deer that live in the area. After complaining to the Game Warden about the loss of revenue the damage will cause us, we learned why it is important to keep deer out of your stack yard. Turns out, not only the cows and our pocket books are being affected by our hay "buffet".

According to a article called "Supplemental Feeding, Just Say No, on the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Mule Deer Working Group website, alfalfa is not good for mule deer. In the article Len Carpenter, Southwestern Field Representative with the Wildlife Management Institute, was quoted,

"When mule deer feed across a large landscape, the microbes in their bodies adjust as their food sources gradually change. If a mule deer suddenly switches its diet from woody plants to high quality alfalfa hay, the microbes in its body do not have time to adjust, and it starves to death with a full stomach. Many a hay-fed mule deer has suffered this fate."

The Game Warden suggested that we use orange snow fencing to block the deer from entering the stack yard. We have complied. We have also applied for reimbursement funds that the State of Wyoming supplies for agricultural producers who are affected by wildlife. The funds are limited and are distributed on a first come first serve basis.

Fore more information, visit Supplemental Feeding, Just Say NO!

Swimming with Another Mother

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Pearl's Attic) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:54:00 +0000

During my recent trip to Central Florida, I had the privilege of swimming with the Manatee in the Crystal River. They are magnificent, fascinating animals.

While in the water, I was approached by a female with her calf. She presented her back to me and I was allowed to pet her with one hand. She put her face to mine and turned her head to look at me with her cloudy blue eye. What happened next was amazing. These mammals are visited daily by many humans. The people are there for the "experience" of swimming with wild animals. We are in their world and they allowed us to be there. They are more than capable of removing us from their presence in a blink of their eye.

The manatee cow, after perusing me and somehow satisfying herself that I was an acceptable human being, rolled over and presented her belly to me. According to the boat captain, this is not as common as one would think with the incredible amount of visitation on these animals.

As I was rubbing the stomach of the cow, I noticed her calf approach her and begin to nurse. It was at that moment that I realized that my purpose for being there at that time was not for the swimming "experience" that a human craves.

My reason for being in that lovely crystal clear spring with its stunning assualt to the senses and its outstanding residents was simply an opportunity for one mother to reach out to another mother and draw energy from each other. She was in her child-rearing years, while I am in the empty nest stage of motherhood.

She taught me that no matter what stage of life you are in, there is always another mother to nurture you. Always someone else who feels your pain, knows your struggles, and most of all share your joy.

Please visit www.manatees.net to learn more about the Floridian Manatees.