AS USUAL CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO SE IT LARGER…..USE YOUR BROWSER BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THE BLOG

gonna go more old school this morning…..using the blog rather than the aggravating Facebook.

TOoK a few shots around the farm this morning before everything perishes due to the lack of rain

Facebook has been so easy to use and so fast that I have fallen into the habit of posting stuff on it….but I realized that a lot of folks who read some of my stuff do not do much with facebook and frankly it has begun to piss me off more than z little…..I will get the same post showing up repeatedly and then folks that I have seen posts from will just disappear

while it is more cumbersome to load photos I decided that today i would try the old blog again.

my recent habit of carrying the old flip phone does not make it any easier

The smart phone is very nice and will do more stuff…..but I find it impossible to carry around the farm….it was too expensive to break or to lose. if it is in a shirt pocket it dives to the ground every time I bend over for something….

In a jeans pocket it will meet a sure end being carried next to a wrench and a pair of pliers or a hand pruner all of which is normally in my pockets…..

I tried one of those belt carriers and after losing the phone for the third time I pitched the carrier into the burn barrel

I have some cargo pants that have pockets on the legs and they work good but they are not nearly heavy enough to last a day on the farm.

I found a little clip on belt carrier that is secure and fits my old flip phone….so I just carry the flip phone most of the time now…..the photos below are taken with the flip phone….problem is it will synch via bluetooth with my tablet but not with the computer…..so I have to bluetooth to the tablet and then download to the computer…..

but I will figure and easier way to get that done.

just a brief update for those I have not communicated with much lately.

I retired in January…..three weeks later I had a heart attack. guess i should have kept working….the stress of full time riding and farming was just too great or maybe it was getting too much sleep.

anyhow two heart catheterization procedures and three heart stents later….the cardiologist sent me to a vascular surgeon because my right Carotid artery was also blocked……so they cut my throat and cleaned that out too….that procedure pretty well kicked my ass….

It took me several weeks to begin to get my strength back.

good news is I have lost at least thirty lbs and am back down below my fighting weight of 220 lbs….I was 210.8 yesterday morning.

Part of that is the new regimen of walking…..trying to do at least three miles every other day….My dog Apache usually goes with me. Also riding as much as I can. Hoping to maybe get in a ride tomorrow. Had to have my trailer inspected this morning……then forked out 3 tractor loader buckets of manure from one of the stalls in the horse stable

As mentioned above it is hot and dry here…..very little rain in April and May which are typically good rain months….we were wet all winter and then the rain just cut off. Very dry here now….we had good spring grass as pictured below…..but it is fading fast

the ph0to below is my mule Dixie and Peter Pinto grazing in a paddock I opened yesterday…..this paddock was over seeded with cereal rye, crimson clover and hairy vetch in the fall and got good growth this spring. they get small paddocks and are moved frequently

above is a shot of my red hot pokers…I have two plants which i stuck in the ground six or eight years ago….they are beautiful for about two weeks …..but the true beauty is they are pretty much maintenance free….all they do is grow with no inputs

below are several shots of a wildflower garden I planted last spring. It was pretty all summer until we had a killing frost. This year it has come back very strong…..I am not good enough with flowers to name them but I have enjoyed watching them……reds and blues and yellows and whites and others that have not yet begun to bloom…..It is just a small strip maybe ten feet by thirty feet and it is sandwiched between to other strips of cover crops

I have seen precious few honey bees this year and the bee keepers I know all say they had great loses this year

as I get the photography figured out, it is my intent to do a better job of keeping up with the blog