Jan
2009
First time ever… someone else will feed
January 18th, 2009 at 06:12 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the Farm, Day off, Family Cow, Horses, SheepMonday morning, bright and early (as in way before the sun rises), Bev, Cindy and I will be leaving for a day of “play” in Mesquite, NV.
We’re forced to allow Clyde, our neighbor, to feed our animals.
We’ve NEVER all been gone at a time when it was literally impossible to feed our animals. A couple years ago, we all left pretty early a couple of mornings (just before sunrise) to go to a Clinton Anderson Clinic, but then, it was summer and no frozen water buckets, or icy areas to cross.
So, Clyde will feed.
Cindy and I have carefully laid out the feed, measured the chicken mash, and left watering instructions. Clyde may keep all the eggs he finds. That could be none, one, or maybe even six or seven.
We’ll be playing away, and meeting with old Ohio neighbors by the time our chickens, sheep, cows and horses realize we’re not home… That’s unless they wake up at o’dark-thirty when we leave.
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Oct
2007
And then, it was time for a day off!
October 19th, 2007 at 04:00 pm by Shari Thomas in Day offMonday, we were up before sunrise (something we don’t normally do). While Cindy had to go to work at the neighbor’s farm, Bev, Mom and I were headed for a day of fun in Mesquite, NV.
Even though Bev was pretty sore from falling off Neche, she was still able to drive the Senior Citizen bus to St. George where we hooked up with the other seniors and boarded a comfy tour bus for the short ride to Mesquite.
Interestingly, as you go down I-15, it’s only about 10 miles to the border… of Arizona. Just after entering Arizona, you descend through the Virgin River Gorge… quite a marvel of shale cliffs and a narrow river bed. At times it seems the highway is nearly on top of the river bed.
Within another 25 or so miles, we cross into Nevada and the gambling mecca of Mesquite. This town’s claim to fame is that it’s the closest place to gamble when you live in Southern Utah.
After getting checked in at the Gold Card Services, we were off to seek the riches.
Considering it wasn’t yet 10AM, this was nearly a shock to my system. I’d visited Spirit Mountain in Oregon, but generally didn’t get there until late afternoon… somehow sitting at a video poker machine bright and early on Monday morning didn’t stir my juices.
I guess I had “that aura” and the machines new it… my money wasn’t going far.
Bev and Mom were having better luck, and Barb (Bev’s cousin) was “the big winner”. I caught up with her as she was hastily rounding up little buckets. She had hit a “900 nickel” jackpot and the machine was spitting nickels at her. And that was her SECOND JACKPOT!
Have you ever considered how many nickels that is? That’s over 22 ROLLS of nickels!
We gathered little buckets and big buckets, until finally she had filled four big buckets of nickels. Time to find a cashier and get some folding money. What a sight… both of us lugging these heavy little buckets from the far end of the casino, to the middle, where we found the cashier.
Total winnings… over 80 bucks. Now, I think she put about 30 bucks into the machine, but that’s still a nice little profit.
In the meantime, Mom had hit a little jackpot and cashed in, so she was playing on the casino’s money, too.
Oh… about that time, I finally looked at the coupon book we were given. Lo and behold… there was one for a free beer… Yeah, it was still early and I’d only recently found my first cup of coffee… but the possibility of a really cold, good beer set me on the hunt.
Oh barkeep! What’s that… you have Sam Adams on tap? I’d like one of those on this here coupon. Splat, phusuuoop! Geez… the keg is empty.
Ok, make a Coors Original, please.
Ah, the sweet taste of a good beer… one with all the alcohol still there. Yep, this one is a 5% by content as opposed to that watered down stuff you get in Utah… maximum 3.2% on ALL BEER.
Pretty soon now, we head for lunch… again a casino freebie. The buffet looks a lot better than it tastes. Nothing really wrong with the taste, it’s just that nothing is spectacular. I have a breaded pork chop that’s a bit dry. Bev has stuff green peppers and fried chicken. They’re ok, but nothing spectacular. Barb goes for the rainbow trout and announces it’s overcooked. Mom finds the liver and onions and is quite happy.
Deserts hit the spot… homestyle bread pudding with vanilla sauce, and frozen chocolate and vanilla yogurt with chocolate syrup.
We still have two or more hours to gamble. I’ve been hanging on to a few bucks, just in case I smell better to the machines. As luck would have it, Mom let’s me have here beer coupon… she doesn’t drink. Another Coors please.
I spend the afternoon wandering around, sipping my beer, and finding other seniors. Slowly we begin gathering at the front door for the return ride to St. George and home.
Shortly after 7:30 pm (over 12 hours since we first left home) we arrive home again. All in all, Mom’s ahead a little. Bev’s ahead a little… and I’m the big loser.
We all agree on one thing… don’t need to go to Mesquite again for another year.
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Oct
2007
Welcome to my new home…
October 16th, 2007 at 01:03 pm by Shari Thomas in About this SiteFor all you intrepid readers of Shari’s Gone Country… welcome!
I’m still putting the finishing touches here, such as hooking up the photo gallery, and creating truly workable tags, but I’ve moved all the old posts from Blogger. I’m sorry about not moving the comments, but was unable to totally control all the variables.
If I find a way to move the comments and maintain all the integrity (IP addresses, dates, usernames, etc) I will do so in the future, as I’m not readily deleting that blog, simply redirecting it here.
Watch for posts regarding our activities this past week… it’s been another wild ride!
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Oct
2007
All About Me
October 11th, 2007 at 08:25 pm by Shari Thomas in UncategorizedOver the next few weeks, I’ll be posting an autobiography.
Why? Well, because I believe you’ll find my story inspiring… and hopefully, you’ll discover no matter what you’ve done in life, there’s always more to be done.
I’ve got it pretty much written (had it posted on the domain in past years) but need to polish it a bit… that translates to take out some of the “sales talk” from a past life. I’m sure you won’t mind a bit if that stuff has gone missing.
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Oct
2007
One more “to do” project DONE!
October 11th, 2007 at 12:45 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the Farm, Chickens, Horses, SheepYeah, I know… it’s been nearly a week since I last posted.
Here’s why… another one of those simple, “dig a trench, lay a water line, cover it up” and you’re done projects.
First, to bring you up to date… we didn’t get any snow over the weekend, but it was pretty cold on Saturday. We pretty much “hid out” inside that day. I guess you could say we kind of took most of the day off, with both football and baseball games on the TV.
Sunday was more of the “get ready for winter” stuff, and that included work on the compost pile. Bev and I spent about three hours cleaning the horse pen and stalls so we’d have hot, fresh manure to add to the compost pile. When the wind came up, we declared ourselves done for the day.
Monday, I hand cut cucumbers, onions, tomatillos, green tomatos and sweet red peppers so we could can “sweet relish”. Got enough for nearly 8 quarts. Yes, we can our relish by the quart since we use it so much. We managed to get the first 4 quarts done before running out of spices… and even though we’d already run to the corner store… 17 miles one way, we were content to make do with alternate spices for the next 4 quarts.
Tuesday, we spent the day getting ready for our neighbor, Ray to bring his big backhoe over for the “trench project”. The first issue we always have here, is where do all these old irrigation lines go, and what happens if we cut one? Do we have a geyser?
Bev and I cleaned the big hole we’d excavated last spring. This is the one next to the chicken coop, where the first frost-free hydrant will go. In the process, we found a one-inch galvanized line (about 36 inches deep) heading somewhat north from below the nipple for the frost free. Where the hell does it go? What does it feed? We know it’s a “charged line”.
We tried several times to locate the line, even having Ray do a couple of “pot holes”, but were unable to locate it. Oh well… we’ll just have to keep an eye on any wet spots, or if we here the well pump running at odd times.
By dark Tuesday, we’d managed to dig about 25 feet of the trench. I has to be 36 inches deep to be below the frost line here. It was particularly difficult as the chicken run limited access with the backhoe… no room for the stabilizers.
Add to that we just knew there were two lines about 6 or 8 inches below the surface that we had be locate, cut and cap. Again, no idea if they were hot, or charged… or even where they came from or went. Cindy and I had both encountered them when we were trenching in the chicken run… just 8 inches from where this really deep trench was going.
We probed, we tickled the dirt with the backhoe to no avail… Those lines weren’t to be found
Yesterday, we really settled in to all the hard work. This trench is 60 feet long, 36 inches deep, and better than a foot wide… dug in very sandy soil. The real “hard pan” is at about 30 inches, so that meant the backhoe really had to chew hard, and since Ray couldn’t get a direct (inline) shot at the trench, it often meant he was chewing from the broadside.
That meant the trench walls would semi-collapse with each “chew” to go deeper… Enter the “three-man”… well one man, one fat woman, and one young boy… shovel crew. I gotta’ tell you… I really didn’t know I could do all that! I shoveled in that trench for about 5 hours, until finally we had it deep enough, and could move to the next step.
By then, Bev had come home from work… just in time to miss the shovel detail. That’s ok… her job was to help Ray with the plumbing… cut all the PVC, and configure all the valves and angles.
We needed hay to insulate the lines. The worst hay was in the horse barn, so off we go with the backhoe. Now, I had two choices… walk to the horse barn in the 30 mph wind with all the dust swirling from the backhoe, or jump up on it, and ride on the fender. This old lady actually got on the backhoe and rode… both directions! No small feat when you consider all the “lead in my butt”.
Ok, hay in the trench, water line laid, time to backfill. Once again, we’ve got the same issue… The backhoe can only get “so close” and is unable to really compact the fill. I’ll be raking, and watering for weeks.
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Oct
2007
It’s October, and we’re expecting SNOW!
October 5th, 2007 at 12:44 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the Farm, WeatherHere it is, the first Friday in October, and we have a 50% chance of snow tonight. Needless to say, we’ve been putting things away, cleaning up the garden area, and adding both manure and mulch to protect the soil.
Yesterday brought high winds and a dust storm. I was out in it, feeding and watering the animals. You could chew the air, it was so gritty. We’ve had a little wind damage, which we’ll repair this evening shortly before dark. The wind is forecasted to lay down a bit, and that will make it easier to put plywood panels back in place on the stable.
Tomorrow, we have to head down to the Beryl Community Center and sign up for our “care and share” boxes tomorrow. Because we’re considered “low income”, we get a couple of monthly food “drops”. Between them and the meals from the Enterprise Senior Center, we’re able to keep the food bill to a reasonable level.
Cindy will be out of work in about three weeks, so we really have to wrap up all the projects (at least the ones that cost money). That includes get the farm truck here, purchase one more frost-free hydrant and get both the chicken and sheep hydrants installed, and get the tin for at least the stable, if not the chicken coop.
After that, we’ll be limited to simply paying the existing bills and barely keeping our heads above water over the winter. At least Bev will be working all winter and she has gained some extra hours as well as a raise.
Time to return to work on “The Four Country Gals“, the book/blog I’m writing about how we all got together, and then got to where we are.
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Oct
2007
I’ve been working, not just playing!
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:43 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the Farm, Chickens, Horses, Sheep, WeatherOk, I know… it’s been way too long since I brought you up to date about things here at “The Four Country Gals”‘ little spread. I really do spend a fair amount of time “out and about” with the animals, and my roommates.
With excellent weather this past weekend, we worked to get as much protection up for the horses as possible. Oh, we also spent time in training with both Dakota and Dusty.
I’m working with Dakota, who really believes she’s a “pocket pony”. While I love her to death, I’m really working to get her out of my personal “hoola hoop” space. It’s gonna take a while, since she’s a real lover. Together, we’re working on “back” as well as “yield your hindquarters” correctly. That means pick up your inside hind foot and cross it over in front of your other hind foot.
Cindy spent some real quality time with Dusty, and lo and behold… She actually got on him.
All by herself, she saddled him, prepared him for weight with the “jump, jump, jump” and lay across his back. He was such a perfect gentleman, she took time out to get Bev and the camera… just in case.
Here’s the proof! She’s up in the saddle. Looks like she really belongs there, too.
Oh, the chickens… well, they’re laying up a storm, to the point that Mom has asked me to post ads for her… Farm Fresh Brown Eggs For Sale as low as $1.75/doz. We’re getting anywhere from 8 to 10 eggs a day… more than any of us should eat.
Our sheep are still getting fatter. Sure wish I could tell if they’re really pregnant or just getting fat. I’m giving them until October 20 before I turn Algernon (our ram) loose with the ewes. If they aren’t preggie now… they will be all winter!
Yesterday afternoon we had our first “disaster” of sorts. The greenhouse blew apart. We had been aware (to the point of filing a claim against the warranty) that we had wind/sun damage to the greenhouse cover.
Earlier this week, we received a replacement cover, which we’ve not yet installed, as we were busy with the horses, and also waiting for the right time… gotta have little to no wind to install the cover.
Anyhow, yesterday we had a huge windstorm with gusts somewhere around 50. The greenhouse was up when I gathered eggs at 2:30pm and it was down when I went to feed at 4:45pm.
When Bev and Cindy got home, we at least stabilized what we could and laid down both end covers to prevent further damage. I feebly suggested we should maybe move things in case it rained. With a 40% chance of rain, my idea was ignored… not the smartest thing to do.
In about 2 hours, we had a series of hellacious thunderstorms roll through the valley. Lightening took out our new DSL connection for over 3 hours. We got close to a quarter inch of rain… see, I told you so!
Mom checked things over this afternoon and was very relieved to have only lost one small box of “plant food”. Everything else that got wet was ok, so there’s no dog house visits for any of us today.
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Oct
2007
Yes! Small Town Living has published my article
October 1st, 2007 at 12:41 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the Farm, Horses, UncategorizedOver the weekend, Small Town Living, an online magazine dedicated to promoting a simpler life and small town America released their latest issue.
“Oh give me a home…” can be found on page 21 of this fantastic bi-monthly magazine.
Just so you know I’m not the only one published… you can learn how to grow winter squash… with enough to share with your neighbors. There’s also some awesome recipes for Acorn Squash.
Got bats in your belfry? You don’t? Maybe you should. There’s a whole article on the value of having some “local bats”.
If you’ve got the hankering to carve pumpkins, you’ll find tips and ideas for creating that special face as well as ways to stay safe.
Oh, and if you love the Appalachian Trail… then you really want to grab this issue.
So, what is “Oh give me a home…” all about? I’d tell ya… but then you might get lazy and not click on the link to Small Town Living.
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Sep
2007
With the Seniors to Bryce Canyon
September 28th, 2007 at 12:36 pm by Shari Thomas in Exploring UtahYesterday was a long day. I went with the Senior Citizens from the Enterprise Senior Center to Bryce Canyon National Park.
It was about 170 miles each way and took nearly three hours to get there.
We had lunch at Ruby’s Inn a delightful destination resort. They’ve been open since before Bryce Canyon was declared a National Park.
All told, there were seven of us including Bev (my roommate) and myself. She drove us to all the major “points” so we could get out and explore the sites. You can see the “untitled” pictures here.
Having left the house shortly after sunrise (before 8AM) we didn’t arrive home again until shortly before sunset (7:30 PM).
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Sep
2007
Water rights… stop the abuse of power
September 27th, 2007 at 12:35 pm by Shari Thomas in About Beryl, Water RightsThis post is a personal opinion by a resident of Escalante Valley. It is also posted in conjuction with Bloggers’ Unite, and effort to bring world-wide attention to abuse of all kinds.
I’ve done a little research on this issue of suddenly needing to restrict the use of water in Escalante Valley, Utah.
In the state of Utah, water is public property, and to use it personally, you must purchase “water rights”. Typically, they are sold by the acre-foot (325.8 thousand gallons). You purchase that right for a lifetime, to use annually.
Over the years, the State Water Engineer has established water usage “duties” as well as the formulas determining how much water it takes to do certain activities, like irrigation. The duty for irrigation water in this valley is four acre-feet of water per acre of crop, no matter the crop, or the irrigation method.
In our valley, the most prevalent crop is alfalfa. Corn and potatoes comprise less than 20% of total crop production. Also, of all the water used, less than 10% of the water rights are dedicated to domestic or culinary use.
The State Water Engineer has been tasked with the requirement to establish Ground Water Management Plans for various regions in Utah. The Beryl-Escalante Aquifer has been singled out as an example of “water mining”. That is the unique situation where far more water appears to be removed annually that is re-charged by natural runoff.
Here’s what I find interesting.
Water users, including the large irrigation users do not meter their water. Home users don’t meter their water. So just exactly how do you really know how much is being used?
The State Water Engineer bases his figures on how many “water rights” have been sold and recorded with the state. It shows there are approximately 83,000 acre-feet of water rights issued in the Beryl-Escalante Valley Basin.
Best “guesstimates” are an annual re-charge rate of some 33,000 acre feet.
Unfortunately, there is no credit for conservation of water. The State Water Engineer’s office makes no distinction for the difference of using a “corn gun” vs using drip irrigation, or even calculation the savings generated by simply lowering the sprinkler heads on the large pivot wheels.
Their water usage tables are way out of whack when it comes to how much water is used for watering farm animals. We water three horses, nine sheep, and just under two dozen chickens. We control the water we use by always putting the water into measured containers.
Our horses rarely drink more than 15 gallons per horse per day, and yet the calculations say we are using 75 gallons per day.
Our entire herd of sheep rarely drink more than 20 gallons per day and yet, the State Water Engineer declares the sheep drink 45 gallons per day.
Our chickens rarely collectively consume more than 4 gallons of water per day, and yet the forumlas say our chickens consume nearly 18 gallons per day.
So, if we use about half or so of what we’re allowed, what happens when that figure is multiplied across the valley population?
The large water users have formed a group called the Escalante Valley Water Users Association. They have come up with a plan that is unprecedented in Utah history. In addition to actively working to conserve water usage, they are willing to participate 50/50 with the state to repurchase and retire up to 20% of the existing water rights.
That is a much more palatable solution than the one proposed by the State Water Engineer. His solution is to cut off water rights for anyone who’s rights are dated more recently than 1941. That solution would take away virtually all the domestic water rights. With no domestic rights, homes become unfit for occupancy and millions of dollars worth of property become worthless overnight.
The State Water Engineer has been routinely rejecting any plan offered by the Escalante Valley Water Users Association. I personally believe that after the meeting this last Monday night, at which almost all the local legislators pledged their whole-hearted support… things may change.
If in fact, the State Water Engineer is being short-sighted and heavy-handed to the point of abusing the valley… things could get very exciting.
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