Farm Life= Boring?

Ha!   So, you think living on a farm is boring, huh?   Ok, so I admit life here drifts along at a much slower pace than our lives did back in the hustle bustle of Tampa Bay.   Now, a traffic jam is more like 4 cars ahead of me at the stop light when I go to town to grocery shop instead of the never ending line of cars we experienced daily whenever we pulled out of our Florida driveway.

But if you think things are boring here let me tell you about our experience yesterday.   Sure, I can go for days just hanging out here with Joel and tending to the animals.   I can decide to sit and read a book or go for a walk to visit the cows and chickens....all the while enjoying the peace and quiet of the woods surrounding the farm.   No sirens or car horns to disrupt my thoughts here.    Thank goodness!

Now for some of you that would drive you crazy, but for me, I relish each and every peaceful moment.    But then something happens that makes us jump into action.   Things such as dogs getting loose.   Oh, no!   Yep.

It was almost dusk last night and Joel was making a last minute run with the Polaris.  He had loaded a heavy bag of chicken feed onto the back of the Polaris and was taking it to the chickens so they could have their evening meal.   That required him to open a gate leading to the back of the farm.  We've been diligently working to train the Pyrenees to "sit" and "stay" when we are working with the gates and Joel thought he had the dogs under control as he maneuvered the Polaris thru the gate leading to the chickens.   But before he could close the gate behind him, the inevitable occurred.

Shadow decided to test the waters and she snuck past Joel before he could close the gate.   All she wanted to do was check out the tree and look out over the bluff.   But then real chaos began.   Of all things, 2 white tailed deer popped out of the field adjacent to our farm and began running for cover and that was all it took.   Yes, Saber and Shadow took off like lightening, chasing the deer all over creation.

One of the unfortunate traits about Pyrenees is that they love to roam.   That's one of the big reasons we fenced in a good portion of the farm last summer.   We love these dogs and don't want any harm to come to them.   And now they were loose!    And running heaven knows where?   And the dark of night is starting to descend on the farm.   Our biggest concern was that they might roam into the road and get hit by a car or truck heading home for the evening.

Joel and I quickly hatched a plan and I ran inside the house to retrieve 2 flashlights, 2 leashes and some dog treats that the puppies simply can't resist.  Joel took the leashes and a flashlight and started off on the trail with the Polaris where he last saw the dogs running along the woodline.   I grabbed my car keys and went out our lane and onto the road down in the valley, slowly scanning the fields and woods and calling the dogs.

As I rounded the corner at the bottom of our valley, I spotted Saber, way up on top of the hill.  I started calling him and he came running down to great me.   I was so grateful he was heading my way and grabbed some treats to reward him as soon as he reached me.   While he was gobbling his treat I latched onto his collar and started looking up the hill for Shadow.   In the enveloping dark it was hard to see her but I could barely make her out....up on top of the same hill.

I started to call out to her, too, and she came running down the same path that Saber took to my car.  I didn't realize it at the time, but Joel was up on top of the hill calling to Shadow at the same time that I was.   Apparently the only reason I won out was because I had the treats....thank goodness we trained them to obey using treats since we first brought them home at 8 weeks old.

Now I'm trying to hold onto a 75 lb. dog that doesn't like to be "captured" and juggling treats with my free hand, calling Shadow and willing her to come to me.   Pyrenees are very aloof and do what they want to do, not necessarily what their masters want them to do.    I started calling for Joel at the top of the hill to please hurry and join me because I knew I'd need his help manhandling both dogs.

Eventually Shadow came right to me and I rewarded her with lots of praise and treats.   But now I was hanging onto two very large rambunctious puppies.   Hurry up, Joel!   When Joel met up with me he quickly leashed both dogs and then he had to lift them, one at a time, into the back of my Suburban.   For some reason the dogs simply will not jump into the back of my car!   Seriously?    I know they could do it if they wanted to, but they refuse.

Ok, at least now that it was dark, we had the dogs safely tucked away in the car.    Joel started driving the Polaris back up the road toward our farm in front of my car and I followed him with my flashing lights on so no one would barrel along and smash into us in the dark.   We were halfway up the hill to our house when I noticed smoke coming out of the Polaris.   A lot of smoke.   Seriously smoking now.   Uh-oh.

He stopped and I jumped out of the car, afraid the Polaris might be on fire.   Hmmmm.    It was dead. And I mean it wasn't going anywhere.   Crap.  Now what?   Joel and I just looked at each other and started laughing.   What the heck else is going to happen next?   Luckily, my very prepared husband opened the glove box of the Polaris and produced a nice sturdy, long yellow tow strap.   So I pulled the Suburban in front of the Polaris and we hooked up the strap to both vehicles and I jumped back in the car to pull him back to the farm.

We knew if we left the Polaris where it was it would surely cause an accident so we had to get it off the road and back onto our land.   Sure enough, it was easy pulling it and when we approached the gate at the end of our lane I jumped back out of the car, opened the gate, and drove us thru.   Then I jumped back out of the car, closed the gate and towed Joel to a coasting stop in our yard.    Meanwhile, the curious puppies watched Joel from the large back window of my car, fogging it up with their puppy breath.   Boy, were they ever happy to jump out of the car when we opened up the back of the Suburban.

And so, today we have a new lawn ornament sitting next to the lane.   Yup, don't know how long it will be until we figure out what broke down on the Polaris.   Oh, well, that's work for another day.   Needless to say, we both walked into the house with a sigh of relief that we were able to find the puppies so easily.  

Now was there anything boring about that story?   Nope, I didn't think so.    At least it certainly wasn't boring for Joel and I.   You just never know what is going to happen when you live on a farm.

Glad to be here,
Debbie

New Year, Fresh Start

Yes, I'm back.   Seems I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging which lapsed into pure laziness on my part.   The main reason I stopped posting here was the demise of my beloved Nikon camera.    Somehow the blog seems kinda blah without pictures to complete my story telling, so I lost my enthusiasm for telling you all about our adventures.  

But when our nephew, Tyler, visited us in October he showed me that the camera was still intact, it was just the lens that was a goner.   Luckily, he has a friend who is a fabulous photographer and they texted back and forth and Tyler's friend recommended a new lens to jazz up my camera.  Um, just one issue with all of that.    The lens was super expensive.   So, I waited and waited and debated if I should press "Add to cart" on Amazon......and right before Christmas I decided to gift myself a super-duper present.   Yes!    The lens!   After all it was my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one(and I even promised Joel it was an anniversary present for the next umpteen years for me as well).

And so I've been practicing with it over the holidays....doing shots inside and outdoors, too.   Trying different lighting and arranging items to get the focus right, and begging our farm animals to cooperate and stay still and "look at me!".   Ha!   I'll work on that some more.   And now, for your entertainment, here are a few pics of our recent activities.

 Jeremy brought us the loveliest present this year for Christmas.....himself and his girlfriend, Hannah.   They arrived in time for dinner on my birthday and stayed thru till Christmas morning.   We had a wonderful time getting acquainted with Hannah and we hope to see a lot more of them both real soon.

 Ok, I know it's half a month past the holidays, but I had to include at least a little bit of Christmas in this post.   Here's the island in our farmhouse kitchen, all decked out for some hot chocolate, coffee, or whatever pleases your tummy.

 And when I wandered out to the front pasture, look who was staring back at me.   Buttercup is on the left, Beefcake(who is soon going to be in our freezer) is on her right, and Baby Bell is in the background.   I love to walk around the farm and hear them moo-ing at me as I walk up to the fence to visit with them.   Pretty soon we hope to start the process of mating so we can have a calf next spring and milk for our family soon after that!   Woo-hoo!  I can hardly wait.

After I took down all the Christmas decorations, I decided to chalk up a little sign for the back porch. And darn, if it didn't work!   We got snow a couple of days later.

It was so pretty to walk outside and snap a few shots of our landscape layered in a light coating of fluffy snow.   And then the temps dropped into the single digits.   Brrrr.......

But these guys didn't seem to mind the cold or the snow one little bit.   Shadow is on the left and Saber is on the right.   She is about 70 lbs. now and he is well over 75 lbs.    They are growing so fast and will be 8 months old in 2 weeks.   They are supposed to reach their full stature by the time they are 18 months old.  Won't it be interesting to see how big they get at full maturity?  

Joel is crazy about these dogs and he spends a lot of time outside giving them love and bonding with them.   They follow us everywhere and we believe they will be really great guard dogs.   Every day they run out to the gates at the end of our lane(yes, we finished with all that fencing last Fall) and greet the mailman who affectionately gives them both a good scratch behind the ears.

Well, I hope by now you have forgiven me for staying away so long.   I have so much more to tell you and will try to fill you in on the farm "goings on".   For now, I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Back in the saddle again,
Debbie