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Raccoons and Chickens

Category: Chickens | Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 5:30 pm

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Well it took a few months, but I finally lost one of the chickens to a predator. My dad went to let them out yesterday and found a dead hen inside the pen and there was blood and feathers everywhere. After a little investigating I found where the culprit got in. It climbed up to the second level of the pen and pushed up on the tin roof. Unfortunately, I failed to put enough screws so there was enough room for something to squeeze in. Based on the mess it left behind and the fact that climbing was involved I'm fairly certain it was a raccoon.

When I got home from work I fixed the roof, boarded up some other areas that had larger gaps and cleaned the pen. It was a chore getting the chickens to go back in last night, but we finally managed. I don't blame them for being scared to go back in.

I checked this morning and all seems well. Hopefully I won't have to worry about any more raccoons.

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Fall Garden Results

Category: Gardening | Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:32 am

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The cucumbers have gone crazy and are producing like mad. In fact, I've had to start giving them away.

The squash gave me one good mess and then kind of stopped producing. The zucchini did the same thing. Both ended up with vine borers.

The pole beans came down with a bad infestation of leaf rollers. I thought I had taken care of them at one point, but I was wrong. Right now I have some beans that I can pick, but the plants are almost leafless.

The mustard greens came up good, but they also got some kind of bug that has eaten holes all in the leaves. I'm not sure if they are going to be salvageable or not. My collard greens never really got started. I think I had some old seed.

The lettuce seems to be holding it's own. No bugs and the plants are looking pretty good.

I had three sunflowers come up. Again, I think I had old seed. They are blooming right now and have given some much needed color to the garden.

The okra plants look great, but the okra itself is kind of stunted. Not sure what's going on there.

The amaranth that came up on its own didn't look as good as the amaranth that I had in the Spring, but I still like having it in the garden. It got some kind of bug too, but still managed to produce.

So, from what I can gather the main difference between the Spring garden and the Fall garden is the bugs. I've always heard that they are worse later in the season and in my case it was true. That's okay though because I've really enjoyed having a second garden this year. I'm sure that I will do it again.

Last edited: Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:51 am

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Farm-ly Feud

Category: Life As I Know It | Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:42 am

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So, my wife, my youngest son and I went to a pumpkin festival on Saturday. My daughter, her husband and the baby met us there. My daughter always wants to get involved in something fun. They had something called Farm-ly Feud going on. It's the same thing as the game show Family Feud... just a lot more low tech.

Anyway, we signed up to participate. The family we went against was nice. In fact, before it started the mom was hooping and hollering like she was having a good ole time. But things changed when we ended up winning. After the game I walked over and shook hands with them. I went to shake the mom's hand and she said something that I can't write here and stormed off. I can tell you that it included a four letter expletive that begins with the letter "f".

You know, the game was all for fun and it wasn't like we beat them out of some great prize. Why in the world would someone get so upset over something so silly?

I didn't let her stupidity ruin our day. We got our picture taken and collected our high dollar prize... an empty, cloth bag with the name of the farm printed on it. Eat your heart out Miss Potty Mouth.

Last edited: Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:56 am

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Selling The Ranger

Category: Life As I Know It | Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:50 pm

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Yesterday I made the decision to sell my 2001 Ford Ranger. It's not running, but I'm fairly certain it's got a bad fuel pump. In addition, the water pump also needs to be replaced. I could do all that, but I really don't want to, especially since replacing the fuel pump requires dropping the gas tank. So, about 6:00 last night I posted it on Craig's List for fifteen hundred dollars. I couldn't believe the response. By 10:00 I finally had to shut my phone off. Originally I was willing to go down to one thousand dollars, but the very first person who texted me kind of ticked me off. I know that everyone wants something for nothing and I posted it knowing that people were going to try and haggle on the price, but to try and get the price down before asking about the truck itself? Uh… no. Let me explain.

Here is the first text that I received: You still have Ranger

My response: Yes.

His response: You take 800

Now, I am somewhat anal when it comes to structuring sentences and I really have a problem with the text speak that our culture has developed. I ignored the grammar in his first text, "You still have Ranger", but I couldn't ignore the second one. There wasn't a dollar sign in front of the number or even a question mark at the end of the… do I dare call it a sentence? To make it worse there was no asking about the mileage or what size engine was in the truck. No questions about the tires or the last time that it ran. Only, "You take 800". From my perspective this text was saying "You will take 800!"

So, in response to his insulting offer and pathetic grammar I sent my own grammatically incorrect text: I take 1500

After that he asked a couple of questions about the truck. I answered all of them and then once again he came back with: You take 800

Same insulting offer, same bad grammar. My wife had been following the text conversation with me. At this point she said, "Give me that phone!"

Before I could even utter a protest she had texted back: You on crack?

His response: You are

My wife's response: No, but I should be… LOL

His response: God bless...750… LOL

So, I took the phone out of my wife's hands and deleted the conversation…. LOL (honestly, I have a problem using LOL and have never used it in any text, but it seems to fit right in here).

Then I got the first phone call. He had a thick Spanish accent and I had difficulty following his conversation. He finally got to the price and asked, "What the lowest, lowest price you willing to sell?"

I'm not the best negotiator, but I know that I'm not going to throw out my lowest price right at the beginning of the negotiations, especially since the person asking me has never even looked at the truck. So, I answered him with a version of the same question he had just asked me, "What is the highest, highest price you willing to pay?"

This kind of threw him off and the phone was silent for a few seconds. After my words finally sunk into his brain he said, "Ummm, one thousand dollars."

That was the amount that I was willing to take, but at that split second I changed my mind and decided that I wanted at least twelve hundred dollars. So, I went high, "I'll take thirteen hundred."

His answer was, "You call me when you ready to sell at one thousand."

That remark helped me decide to never, ever call him back… even if I didn't get another interested party. But there were plenty more people interested and it sold at 8:00 this morning for twelve hundred dollars, less than one day after posting it on Craig's List.

I had a few other interesting phone calls and texts. One guy wanted to have it shipped to Canada and pay me with PayPal. Definitely a scam. Another phone call was a recording that wanted me to give all of my personal information and they would buy it sight unseen. No thank you. Nearly everyone asked me my "bottom dollar" and most of them didn't even read the description in the listing. I made it very clear that it wasn't running, but at least three different people asked me if it was running. Hello? If it was running I wouldn't be selling it for fifteen hundred dollars.

All in all it was an entertaining exercise. I don't think I want to do it again anytime soon though.


Last edited: Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:36 pm

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My Grandson

Category: Life As I Know It | Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 9:43 am

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Okay... I just have to brag a little and share a picture of my six month old grandson. This is our first and only grandchild (for now). My wife was there for the birth back in March and she stayed with them for about a month. They live nearly five hours away so we don't get to see them as much as we'd like.


( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )





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Another Fall Garden Update

Category: Gardening | Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 9:32 pm

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We've been getting squash and cucumbers for over a week now and everything else is looking good. I did have a small problem with leaf rollers on the pole beans, but after a "smashing" party I think I have it under control.

I have mulched the entire garden. I normally don't mulch the walkways, but we got three truckloads of mulch from a local tree trimming place so I had an overabundance. The best thing... It was free.

I don't know why I never tried a Fall garden before.


Fall Squash ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )


Fall Zucchini ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )


Fall Sunflower ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )


Fall pole beans with vincas in the background ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )


Fall Cucumbers ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )


Mustards and collards under cages to protect them from the chickens. Amaranth. ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )


Last edited: Thu Oct 02, 2014 10:33 am

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Fall Garden Update

Category: Gardening | Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 9:38 am

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The squash and cucumbers are looking great and have started producing. The okra, rattlesnake beans and zucchini are also looking really good.

True to form, my tomato seedlings started out wonderfully and then just stalled. For the life of me I don't understand why I have so much trouble with tomatoes. I'll keep trying though. I refuse to give up.

I started some lettuce, but I must have had bad seed because only a couple came up. I tried again over the weekend with new seed.

I put some mustard and collard green seeds in the ground yesterday (yes, I do live in the South). The trick will be keeping the chickens off of them.


Summer squash in Fall ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )


Fall cukes ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )





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9/11 Firefighter Remembered

Category: Life As I Know It | Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 11:21 am

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My son posted this picture on Facebook yesterday. He is currently in Fire College and the instructors gave each person the name of a fire fighter who lost his life on 9/11 and told them to carry it around all day in remembrance. No doubt they took time to remember all who lost their lives on that day, but I think this simple gesture was extremely touching.


9/11 Firefighter Remembered ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )





Last edited: Fri Sep 12, 2014 11:23 am

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Marigold Steal?

Category: Gardening | Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 1:48 pm

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So... yesterday Lowe's had all their clearance plants marked way down. The cashier told us that the small potted plants were 5 cents each. I wanted some of the marigolds so I bought all eight that were there. I have plenty of marigold seeds and normally grow my own, but the deal was too good to pass up.

Anyway, we got a couple other things and when I got to the car and looked at the receipt they had charged me 15 cents for the marigolds! What!! I overpaid! What's sad is that I actually thought about going back in to get it straightened out.

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Work Plant

Category: Life As I Know It | Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 1:51 pm

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This picture is of the plant that I have on my desk. Last year we had an intern working with us who bought this plant when it was very small. She was out for a few days and I noticed it was dry so I watered it. She was grateful and when she left for bigger and better things she gave me the plant. I repotted it and fertilized it and it's doing well. Does anyone know what it is?

A little explanation of something odd in the picture might be in order. I work in the electrical engineering department of a fire truck factory. We're on the second floor overlooking the production floor. The character wearing the Hawaiian shirt by the window is a dummy that was used by the design guys to get a life-sized representation of a fireman. He is no longer used and doesn't have arms beyond the elbows or legs below the knees. We set him up at our window as a joke to keep an eye on production. He's stayed there a month or two now.

Anyway... Help with the plant would be appreciated.


Plant at work ( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )


( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )


( photo / image / picture from eclecticgarden's Garden )





Last edited: Fri Aug 29, 2014 4:38 pm

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