Blogging has always been a hard task for me once the nice
weather hits. So I have been choosing to
do it only as I feel like it (that may be as often once a week or once a
month).
I never enjoyed sports as a child. I did high school track one year, but wasn’t
all that thrilled with it. I’m not lazy
or inactive, but I prefer a long hike in the woods to running hurdles!! However I have found that participating in the
many sports here on the farm is pretty fun!
Here are the sports I’ve played here at Cornerstone Acres:
Wrestling – although my
partner generally isn’t in my exact weight class I’ve found that wrestling with
a 125# Great Pyrenees to get his nails clipped is definitely a work out.
Football –This is generally a larger team sport, but
Greg and I played this game the other day, using REAL pigskin. Trying to catch little football size piglets
so they can be moved from one pen to another would certainly have been a good
spectator sport. We were both laughing
so hard trying to catch those little devils and then trying to keep the ones we
had already caught from escaping the container we put them in!!
Track – Okay I didn’t like this much in school and I’m not
sure I like it now any better. Most
things on a farm are pretty slow pace.
Busy? Yes. Fast? No. But from time to time when a baby goat screams
bloody murder and I don’t know what the situation is, I tend to go a-runnin’!! Usually there are 10 things in the way
between me and the baby – hurdles!! Of
course once I get there, the baby is just missing his or her mom.
Karate – We had moved our sow, Abra, into a barn stall to
farrow. The stall floor was comprised of
cement covered by REAL 2x8 oak boards (thick heavy buggers). I say WAS, because Abra felt that rooting
under the boards and pulling up about half of them was a good idea. It was near to impossible to re-lay these
boards as they should be so I decided that tearing them up would be my best bet. I pulled up about three and hauled them out
to the trailer to be scrapped. However
once I pulled up the fourth one I saw two HUGE spiders go running up the board! Dropped the board, arms and legs flailing……you
know – karate style. I still had about
20 boards to move…..oh, it was a nightmare.
I must have crushed a dozen or more of them (sorry spider lovers).
Tennis – Here we have more bug related sports. Rose Chafers are back again in force this
year. I had heard they were on a three
year cycle – but somebody didn’t tell the Rose Chafers that. These little bugs have decimated my comfrey
and many of my iris blooms. Since my
garden is actually weeded this year, they seem to be staying away from the
beans. Well these horrid flying buggers
almost choke the air at times. You’ll
see any number of people in the yard swinging at them so they don’t land on
them. Just put a racket in their hands and watch the match begin. OH, that reminds me - I have one of those electric bug zappers shaped like a tennis racket!! Yuck!!
Speaking of weeding gardens, I have to admit that this year
weeding has been a much easier chore than any of my previous years in
gardening. I think there is a good
reason (or two) for this. Firstly, the
vegetable garden was so nicely prepared by the pigs that the weeds haven’t been
as bad in there. Secondly, even though
the pigs haven’t been in the herb, corn or asparagus gardens – they help me
keep it weeded by motivation alone. It
is nice to accomplish two things with one task.
I weed my gardens and feed the pigs!! They absolutely love the weeds and
grasses I throw to them each day. Even
the chickens are getting lots of weeds this year since they are stuck in the
chicken run until our newly planted grass is well established.
Well, unfortunately today is a work day…..I must go get
ready. Have I told y’all lately that I
really prefer working at home? **sigh**
Until next time.....
