Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Thursday, April 29, 2010

Neighborly relations 101 and farm notes

Well folks. I may have outdone myself.

I yelled at the bad neighbor today, more specifically, the neighbor's dog. OK fine. In truth, I yelled at that guy too. It was so bad that The Big Man came barrelin' out of the house and the good neighbors (with the 4H kids) called to make sure we were OK. Yikes. Now I'm so embarrassed.

You guessed it. Their dog was loose. The guineas were screaming a new song so I headed in that direction and my hard workin' farm dogs took off growlin' and snarlin'...and there was that dog hangin' out by our fence. Not in their yard and thankfully not on our side.

So I kindly "yoo-hoo'd" over to the bad neighbor and would he please come and get his adorable dog?  OK I didn't really say that ....and about that time The Big Man came charging down the hill to find out what the hubbub was about. Then I asked the neighbor to please do a better job of keeping track of his dog. OK I didn't exactly say that either... and in my fit of rage and swearing I may have blistered some of the bark off the nearby trees and our dogs were cowering behind The Big Man and whispering that "Mommy is scary."

I'm not entirely sure this was the best way to establish or maintain diplomatic relations with the bad neighbors but I think they understand our position now. Where's that darn survey guy, we need to put up our permanent fence. Soon. Apparently its needed mostly to keep me IN.

Onward.

Farm Notes:
* Wow what a spectacular day! Last frost/freeze last nite (hopefully) and really it was just cold than freezing. No frost tonite.
* Turkey hen mania... its finally dark enough for us to pull the ol' switcheroo on the two hens trying to set the same nest. Sheesh! We're putting on the camo and paint and sneaking out. We'll have them changed around before the know what hits 'em. (Turkeys don't function well in the dark so that's when you make nesting changes.)
* Prep-ed the upper garden. About half the buckwheat didnt make it so I spent today hand tilling it in.
* Applied lime to future tomato bed beside asparagus and under straw killing off grass near path (sorry this is so boring folks, but it will help me remember what I did where)
* Planted stock beets, onions, and first bunch of beans in the ground. Used Burpee's innoculator for some of the beans - we'll just see if this works.
* Screamed at the neighbor like a crazy person. Thats just one of the ways you become famous in a small town. Say, did I ever tell you folks that story? Hum...I'll cue it up....

Tonite is little Ginger's longest nite ever. She is separated from Debbie and is in the stall alone. Ginger has been drinking ALL the milk and I can't get out there early enough to grab her before she has breakfast. For heavens sakes, little missy! How early do you eat!?!?.

For her part, Debbie is a goose. She won't eat the bagged food (16% Dairy Goat Power - I love saying that!) on the stand but acts like she is starved. And she eats just fine in the yard. She may just want to eat with Ginger. Just what I need, more animals with ridiculous feeding particulars.... Sheesh!

Here's hoping for nothing but gardening tomorrow!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I once had a little dog that would only eat food if he first stung it out all aver the house, but would eat holes into every blanket he could get ahold of. Yes, he would sneak bites of blanket, but wouldn't eat his food out of a dish. He is no longer living in this house.

Ohiofarmgirl said...

A-yep. I'm pretty unforgiving with the bad dog thing seein' as I have pretty good dogs. I don't think folks understand how much work it is go have a dog. Without jobs and a hierarchy dog just don't know what to do - that's when they get in trouble. We are trying to come up with a solution for those folks. Really they are just young and don't know any better. They probably watched when Oprah said that dogs are just "little people in fur coats" - which just is not true at all. Sheesh... oh well.

Hope you're having a great day Vicki!

Anonymous said...

There are only so many times you can bite your tongue and it rarely matters who is on the receiving end when things get let loose.

Don't feel so bad about letting the bad neighbor have it- you haven't shot his dog with a paintball gun yet, so bridges are still left to burn! (I warned that guy several times that if he didn't keep his bleeping dogs out of my bleeping yard I was going to solve the problem myself. And I reminded him that it's legal to shoot dogs that harass livestock in Tennessee- I just didn't specify that by livestock I meant my cats.... I mean, once a dog gets used to harassing cats it's just a short jump to harassing cattle, right? The cops thought it was really funny when I told them they'd know the dogs I was talking about by the hot pink paintball splatters all over their rears!) ;)

basicliving@backtobasicliving.com said...

You go girl! Irresponsible pet owners are at the top of the list of things that irk me.

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