August Without A Blog

Even though my blog was closed this summer I continued to keep a journal of sorts. I had hoped to pull stories from the paragraphs decided last week to just catchup quick and go on with a daily post for the new blog. This post is long but deals with a whole month and it’s fun to look back to a short time ago. Here we go:

08/02/2022
The bathroom and pantry were cleaned good yesterday and we got rain showers off and on that day. Today we had a short grass wetting shower and now the sun is shining bright. Eddie got our stray calf back this morning and Russell Tucker hauled it in to the loading pen. We had breakfast and then went over to do some doctoring on the calf. He’s a big bull calf and blind in both eyes. We gave him what doses we had of Dry Cow in both eyes, 12 cc’s of LA-200 in both shoulders under the skin, gave him 5 cc’s of 8-way vaccine and ear tagged him. He was not a happy camper! We did not castrate him because he’s too big and it’s too hot to cut! I just hope he doesn’t spread it to the rest of the 16 herd. The bull with them has pinkeye in one eye but he’s too big and too far infected to give any treatment that would be beneficial.
With that done, Eddie has started mowing the big barn hayfield (really dead and thin) and my spring/fall cleaning moved to the master bedroom. I’ll be taking the large floor rug to the cleaners next week. The bedroom looks clean, smells clean, windows washed and as good as it’s going to get for this year. I may do some major rearranging in there before winter comes around.
Now I’m headed to the front porch to do a major cleanup. Sadie caught a big coon last night and had it all over the porch trying to show us that she was a great hunter. Blood is all over and the flys are trying to get in the house. I’ll move all the porch furniture to the yard and scrub with my rag mop and heavy dose of Pinesol floor cleaner to get rid of the smell and the flies. Sadie should really have a bath but not sure if I’m up to doing that today!!!
Now I’m going out to the greenhouse to gather up the herbs to replant in a small herb garden in the milkhouse flowerbed.

08/26/2022
The herbs are doing great and I’ll add some rosemary, parsley, and thyme next spring.
It’s been a busy month and have gotten over seven inches of rain which we needed. The hay is finally cut, rolled and stacked and we’re about 200 rolls short of a normal season. The rain has brought back the grass on pasture and hayfields which will help to supplement the hay for a couple months. We’re hoping there will be enough to keep the cattle fed until December.
We’ve had over 20 hummingbirds this summer and I’m filling the feeders daily up until this week and we think they are starting to migrate and so have the purple martins. Robins and starlings are taking their place.
My sitting hen hatched six babes and at first I thought there was only one little rooster but know now that there’s at least two maybe four. Time will tell!!! The hens are only giving me one or two eggs a day now and the pullets won’t start laying until November or December. The ducklings are full grown now and the drakes outnumbered the hens so we butchered three drakes yesterday and made jerky for Sadie. Daisy, my white pekin hen, passed away on Monday and I’m hoping the Rouen hens will start laying anytime now. I’m anxious to see how large their eggs are. We’ve rebuilt the duck run but Eddie decided this week that we need to surround the outer side of the run with heavier wire or coons will get them when the weather changes. I’ll get some heavy rabbit gauge wire in a couple weeks to keep them safe. They haven’t been to the pond since we butchered the drakes this week. I may have to walk them back down there. I thought the hens were the ones that led the group wherever they go. The last two days they’ve stayed at the chicken run drinking up their outdoor water.
We took a road trip to Charleston WV on Tuesday and had a great time together. Eddie needed new scopes for two of his guns and ammo. He bought me a new pair of hunting boots, heavy socks, a t-shirt and another package of broadheads. On the way home we stopped in Princeton, WV and had dinner of Matt Dillon ribeye steaks, they were tough but taste was outstanding. Put me in the mood to make some dinner rolls which I haven’t made for awhile. We have another road trip planned for September but he won’t tell me where we are going.
The greenhouse is cleared out except for the fruit and nut tree seeds I’ve planted. All of the empty pots have been cleaned and plant tags cleaned and repackaged. I’ve emptied most of my summer flower pots and planters, summer heat ravaged most everything. My rose garden has been cleaned out and my gardening journal updated as to what has been planted where for next spring plans. The garden has been emptied of the first corn and all the green bean plants. The beets are almost all gone, I canned nine pints of pickle beets. The tomatoes are coming in but most of the Mr. Stripey and German Pinks are rotting on the bottom unless picked green. Squash, cucumbers, zucchini, cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts are gone. I may pull a lot of weeds today and set out the last of the romaine lettuce and the very small broccoli for fall gardening. The San Marazano tomatoes are coming in and I’ll process them a little at a time and can and this winter make my pizza, spaghetti and tomato sauces and can them.
The deer herds are huge and got some big bucks to choose from in October if they hang around. We’ve also got a very generous crop of coons and a couple bear using behind the house. Acorns are starting to drop so my hunting prospects will be better if they’re gone before bow season comes in. The apple orchard and chestnut groves will make for great hunting sites.
I think today will be my book clearing out job since the grass is so wet and the sun is just coming on strong at 11:30. I have some friends lined up to take the books I haven’t read and some that Heather is getting rid of. I’ve not read very much this summer, too much to do. I restacked all of the very seasoned wood in the wood house and have three ranks stacked. We have enough space for five ranks of new firewood for 2023. We’ll get some of that cut this winter. Bill Songer has cut two loads of firewood in our downed wood forest and we’re hoping he’ll continue to take it out.
Heather and Joel are heading back from a Montana vacation today. They’ll overnight somewhere between here and Tennessee and come on in tomorrow. Shawn left for NJ last evening and got there at 10:00 p.m. He and Declan are sleeping in this morning while Jennie works. Shawn is going to watch Declan while she and her brother move her things from one storage facility to another. Eddie and I will be caring for Bucky while he is away.

08/28/2022
Daisy, my Pekin duck, passed this week and we butchered three Rouen drakes. I made jerky for Sadie from their breasts. I’ve been using deer and bear roasts since last fall for her jerky which she loves. No seasonings, just dehydrated meat.
Shawn has gone to visit Declan this weekend and Heather and Joel just returned from a 10-day trip to Montana for their 27th anniversary this month. Heather was very glad to be home but enjoyed “most” of their trip.
Declan will start first grade in September and Victoria has been back to school teaching and working on a leadership degree for future work in education. She is teaching 5th grade again this year.
We’re seeing lots of bucks for upcoming bow season and Eddie is making sure I have all the supplies to have another good year of hunting.
I did spring cleaning in the guest room yesterday and it looks fantastic. We took the loveseat in that room to Shawn’s for his library and it gone has really opened up the guest room. We never watch TV in it but my “office” is taking up one corner.
Bill Songer came by to get his third load of firewood on Saturday and helped Eddie repair the back door to the guest room. We still need to jack-up that end of the house because the door is on tilt and won’t close completely. Bill got one load last week and two this week. He keeps wanting to cut a load for us but Eddie told him we would cut it during the winter for 2023.
Bobby Rose, best friend of my Dad, passed away last Sunday, 21st, and was laid to rest yesterday, 27th, in Paint Bank. He was a wonderful man and reminded me so much of my Dad. They grew up together, went in the service together and came home to raise families.
Tomorrow I go to court in Craig to be appointed to represent Dean’s trust from the sale of her house. It was supposed to take a month to complete (March) and here it is the end of August. Junior still hasn’t completed two years of Mom’s estate making it hard to know how much will be left in the trust. Heather is going with me to make sure I understand what needs to be done as the trustee.
I planted three romaine lettuce yesterday and three broccoli plants. Fall is just around the corner and time to be completing gardening 2022. I have San Marazano tomatoes to process tomorrow or Tuesday and the final batch of pickle beets. We still need to dig the potatoes before fall rains come in!!!

08/29/2021
We finally completed the “tear down” of the hay wagons and they were pulled to the back fence line out of sight. He may at some time replace the timbers on them and make them serviceable but lumber is too expensive to do it now. The old timber was sawed up for firewood and stacked in the woodhouse and we cleaned up all around the equipment shed. We do have some more work to do inside that shed to underpin it to keep varmints out from under it.

08/31/2022
Busy all morning, picking more grapes to add to yesterday’s batch. I washed them and then picked them off their stems one by one. After cleaning them really well, I put them in a large stainless-steel pot with about 8 cups of water, mashed them with a potato masher until soupy and boiled them for 20 minutes. Then I let them set for about two hours until cool enough to squeeze all the juice out and let the remainder set in a strainer until hardly any juice was left in the grape hulls. I fed that to the chickens which they loved. I let the juice set over night
After picking the grapes we tried to separate our last bull from his herd so that we can put him back with the other bulls. We decided to let the cows, calves and the bull graze the barn lot to calm them down and will separate on Thursday.
Heather worked on a form to change the name on Dean’s federal ID account which she spelled incorrectly. She brought it over to me to sign and send to the IRS to correct. This may take some time because that government office is grossly behind in all correspondence and taxes. If we don’t get a corrected form by the end of September, we need to resend it again and we’re keeping copies of the correspondence. I need to contact the Commissioner of Accounts for Craig/Botetourt County next week and let him know the judge has approved me as trustee for the trust and let him know that the first accounting and inventory for the trust will be completed as soon as my brother completes the 2019-20 and 2020-21 estate accounting has been completed and I’ve received a check from him for the sale of Mom’s house for Dean’s trust. This should have been completed in a timelier and correct fashion, but I wasn’t the one completing it or dealing with her estate. I was only in charge of her youngest son and my brother, Eddie Dean Bradley.
I found out something very interesting about my maternal great grandparents this past week. I’ve never known their names or anything about my grandfather Bernard Stewart Dickson, no one ever talked about him or his family as I was growing up. I’m working on collecting the information and will share it as I pull it together. This will be a fun project for the winter months along with the quilting projects I want and need to complete before the end of the year.

Enough for now, more to come.