Chicken's , Fishing and a cup of coffee

I sold all my bee keeping supplies Saturday, I had posted the ad on Craigslist last Monday and was contacted by the gentleman that taught me how to keep bee's. I hated to sell them but have not had enough time to take care of them properly. At some point in the future I will keep bee's again.

Kenny Ray and I drove to Germantown to pick up another 60 chickens and 3 turkey's. I have been lucky this spring has I have had no chicks die on me yet , knock on wood.I have 40 chickens scheduled to butcher the 3rd of June, and another 50 that are ready to moved out of the brooder and onto pasture. Yesterday I went and burrowed a cup of coffee from my Aunt Carmie she is 87 years old, I believe. I love to visit and talk about the old days as I always learn something about my family history. I took her some parts of a book that I have started about all the stories that I have been told threw the years and everything that I remember. She is going to read and fill in anything that I may have remembered wrong.

Tari went with Kenny Ray and me down to the farm yesterday afternoon, we had to get the mail and mow the grass. My mother and sisters are going down next weekend for a week to decorate my Dad's grave and relax for a few days. I took down some fishing poles and tackle and left for the kids to use. I mowed around the pond while Kenny Ray and Tari fished, Tari hooked a catfish I believe and it snapped her line into, the fish took bobber and all. For the next hour or so

we watched for the bobber as it would appear and disappear always moving and wandering was at the other end as we never did see what kind of fish it was. They caught several fish a couple of bass and some nice bluegill and one big catfish that Kenny Ray caught. I have started eating out of my garden this week I have some lettuce and radishes the other night as well as some green onions. I think I will have Tari fix some soup beans this week with some wilted lettuce and corn bread. Well it's time for another cup of coffee and the sun is coming up it is time to get another day started and thank God for another day on this side of the grass.

Blackberry winter and blessing's

Friday we got 50 Freedom Ranger chicks in the mail. This is my first time raising this breed of meat chicken but so far they seem to have more personality than the broilers. They are no afraid of us and that is a big plus as I am always afraid that the broilers will smother each other are break a leg when they pile up on each other. Kenny Ray and I mowed grass most of the day yesterday for the chickens yesterday on the ground in New Carlisle where we raise the chickens and then drove down to the farm to mow the grass around the cabin it was starting to look like a widow woman lived there again. Kenny Ray and went for a walk trying to pick a place for his tree house project as well stopping to feed the fish in the pond. On the way down to the farm we stopped to get something to eat in Xenia and ran into a young man that I hired when he was 18 and just out of high school. I say young man but he is 31 and has a family now. That was one of the things I always enjoyed was helping young men get a start in life.

As of this morning no chicken or turkey death's and that is a good thing with the range in temps we have had the past couple weeks. They are putting on weight nicely.

I had to cover Tomatoes again last night as the weathermen where calling for a possible frost.

With the passing of Blackberry winter this weekend. I am going to get the rest of the garden in. The old folks always told me to expect a cold spell when the Blackberry's are in bloom and it always seems to happen, even Dad believed in Blackberry winter. The weather is funny the weathermen where calling for heavy rains this past week here. My house in the city we did not get a quarter of inch of rain. My farm is about and hour's drive and they got a good 2 inches of rain and my pond came up a good 4 inches and is at the brink over going over the spillway. I used to worry the pond would never hold water and now I worry that it will run over and wash out the dam. I am truly blessed and like the pond my cup run'th over. Not with money just simple pleasure of life.

If you love something set it free

Kenny Ray came to me this evening and said "Dad I think I would like to go to college" and maybe learn to be an architect. I said son if that's what you think you want to do dad will help you do what ever you want. I then told him to look up on the Internet for information on it, and that I took a year of drafting in high school and have some of the drawing tools here in the house somewhere that he could have. I also gave him a set of blueprints that I have for a house to look at. I then told him that if he wanted to design him a small house that we would build it down on the farm. He then asked me "what about a tree house" can we build that. I said ok as long as you draw it all out and you keep the frame work in a 16 x 16 floor plan. He asked how he was to do that.

so I showed him a video on you tube about a man that lives in a 14 x 14 solar powered cabin, and it showed his water and waste systems, He was impressed but thought the house was a little rough in finish work, but the man built it for $2000.00 dollars. We continued to talk and he drew some rough sketches for me. While he was drawing and talking , I started thinking I was losing my best friend and my dream. I have written of my dream of him and his family living on the farm with Tari and me. The two of us working the land. But I love my son and I want him to be happy even if it means letting him go to chase the false industrial dream of possession's. As a parent it is my responsibility to be able to provide him the tools to succeed in life even if it means

an end to my dream. He has the right to follow his, just as my mother aloud me to follow mine. I always think of that saying " if you love something set it free, if it comes back it is yours if not it never was. So I will have my sister start prepping him with a more college directed curriculum.

I know he is only 12 but I feel it best for him to be ready for college if he decides to go than to decide at 18 to go and not be ready at least he might be eligible for a scholarship or grant and not have to start borrowing money from an industrial system that it's intent is to keep him in a never ending cycle of debt.

A date with my wife

Went down to the farm this past Saturday with my bride. Kenny Ray away with Boy scouts this weekend it is the 100th year of scouts and they had a council camp out. We took my mother out to the opening ceremony as Kenny Ray was voted into Order of the Arrow . A special honor as you have to be voted in by your fellow scouts. After the ceremony took my mom back home as she has not been feeling well. Tari decide to ride down to the farm and spend the day just the two of us. We got down To Bainbridge about 12:30 and had dinner at the Timbers. After dinner

stopped and got 2 weeks of mail from the post office, we then stopped by the cemetery and visited Dad for a few minutes. At the cabin we sat on the couch and read" the Taddler" the Wolfe County news my home town newspaper. When a knock at the door startled us, when I got to the door it was Uncle Ken . We talked about 20 minutes when Tari's cell phone rang which was strange as it hardly ever works at the farm. It was Kenny Ray it seems the Boy scouts were canceling the last night of the camp out as they were expecting severe weather that night and early morning. He said they needed me back about 8 pm to haul the trailer back. Tari was nervous about getting back on time, I assured her we had plenty of time and asked her if she wanted to walk back and

check on my apple tree's that I planted a few weeks ago and feed the fish. My Dad feed the fish every morning after the water warmed up and now they only get fed when I get down. It just takes a couple of minutes for the fun to start after you throw some of the floating fish food in the water. The bluegills start first and the commotion brings the big channel cat's up to feed . They hold their mouths open and suck several pieces at a time and the slap their tail's on the water. We spent about half an hour feeding the fish and Tari kept telling me she wanted a fishing pole.

As we walked back to the cabin listening to the frogs croak and watched the blue birds settle on the fence between the bird house and us. The smell of the honeysuckle and rain filled the air. It was a much needed day for the 2 of us as I can not remember the last time we just held hands and talked and laughed. It seems that I all ways have some chore that has to be done.