Daily observations of my simple life.

Life Can Be Beautiful:

Despite the great shadow the developer is casting on Mohave County, life today is beautiful.

My dear Cheriki got out of her corral this week and I got the thrill of my life when I walked across the pasture and my dog and my horse were following me. That's a wish from the time I was a very young girl. Cheriki is letting me hold her halter while I brush her coat. Even though she sometimes likes to kick up her heels she is always gentle around me.

Friday, I received my chick order through the mail. I went up to the back door of the post office and was greeted by a man carrying a box peeping loudly. They are now all at home in my spare bathroom tub. First I put down a rug, then cardboard boxes, then bedding (grass hay) I put up two heat lamps and under them I placed my crockpot ceramic jar wrapped with a wash  cloth. It has warmed up nicely and the chicks love to cuddle up next to it. They have fresh water and food and they are busily eating and lazily sleeping all the time. I got 12 silkies, 6 arracana pullets, 6 mixed brown egg laying pullets, and 6 red jungle chickens. Pullets are baby girl chicks. The red jungle chickens are the oldest breed known and I have never seen them before. The chicks look like little owls with puffs under their eyes and they are a wonderful mahogany color. What a nice variety. The silkies are straight run which means I could get roosters or hens in the mix. The rest are pullets except one red jungle chicken rooster. I should have lots of egg layers and lots of setters. I want to sell eggs at the farmers market. Green and brown eggs!  Arracana's lay green and blue eggs.

Last evening the little girl down the block came over and we watched the chicks for awhile and then we went out for my evening walk with my dog. We walked far back and found the most beautiful field full of orange poppies. Golden fields of poppies, such a treat.

The day before my neighbor and I went to the mountains to look at 40 acres I had found. It was a gorgeous drive and we walked the property. Just as we were leaving we noticed the 4 sale sign was no longer there. After we had decided, "When can we close?"  When I got home I called and asked if it was sold and I was told it had been taken off the market as they had decided to hold on to it. All I could do was give her my phone number and address in case they changed their minds. sigh. This is what happens when developers come in, people are hanging on to get big profits from the growth. No more cheap land. I was a little concerned about buying with my neighbor anyway. We are congenial but things go wrong and then--------friendships get spoiled due to misunderstandings.

My apricot tree that I planted last year has baby apricots on it. I'm so excited. I wonder if any of my other fruit trees will fruit this year. I have apricots, apples, plums, cherries, pears, figs, pistachios, pecans and pommegranites plus fruiting cactus. Farming is so fun. Some of my desert trees aren't doing so well, may be too much rain this year.

My trip to California was wonderful, I traveled half way and spent the night in my motorhome at a rest area. So many flowers now. Took some nice scenic routes , then spent the night at my sons, visited with the grands and then next day visited my 93 year old dad. I headed on home from there after stopping at Trader Joes to stock up. I went out from Santa Maria, ( Michael Jacksons trial place) out old 166. It was gorgeous. I love that route. Spent another night at a rest area and then on home by Sunday afternoon. It's been a busy week pulling , mowing, cutting weeds and getting organized. I have been taking large baskets of green cuttings to all the animals, which I'm sure they are most grateful for. 

 Monday I woke to no phone, so no computer and of course I had no tv. So the phone guy came out and informed me the road grader had cut the phone lines, and the tv guy came out and re- attached my cut dish lines. By afternoon I was all set up again, phone and tv and anxiously waiting for the chicks. I finally called and they said it would be more like Friday when they arrived so I just relaxed and tended to weeds.

So life is beautiful.

Posted by: cactusandquail at 16:23 | link | comments (5)

Comments:

#1  20 March 2005 - 17:48

 

You make me aware of the fact that I spend too much time cooped up indoors, and I waste too much energy on things that aren't important. You remind me that life is what you make it.

Your post, as always, is like a breath of fresh air. Thank you.

InMyLife

#2  20 March 2005 - 18:59

 

Yes, so great to hear about the chicks and the big western landscape. I took the dog for a long walk on the beach. It was nice to smell the air again.

Leigh

#3  22 March 2005 - 08:00

 

umm, the beach, do you walk barefoot in the water? I didn't have time to go to the beach this trip to California but maybe next trip. Love the water sloshing up on my barefeet or running from a wave coming in a bit too high.

cactusandquail

#4  22 March 2005 - 12:16

 

I walk barefoot in the water in the summer. Even then, the water temperature is frigid in Maine. Once a summer we get a heat wave and then we actually swim, or sometimes there are warm currents, and it isn't painful to swim. I walk on the beach with the dog almost everyday, except in the snow, cold, cold winter. Lily is a hound (part Rhodesian Ridgeback) who doesn't swim like the water loving labs, but when it is really hot, will wade in, just like an old lady. She never leaves terra firma though. My beach is a town beach. Private, rough, part of my daily landscape.

Leigh

#5  23 March 2005 - 14:22

 

Here's hoping you'll soon be over run with eggs. We get about a dozen a day or more here and when the egg customers go on vacation we eat a lot of omeletes. But I wouldn't have it any other way: Clucky, Henny Penny, Fanny Feather Bottom, Pecky, Shoo and the other biddies make life that much more interesting.

ChefNeal

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