Monday musings -- could be disturbing to some

Found in the garden.

A 1919 Lincoln wheat penny. Sorry for the quality of the pictures. It was completely blue when I found it outdoors, and I only cleaned it up enough to figure out what it was. The garden is where the old chicken coop used to be.

Middle boy is cleaning out the outbuilding. He wants to fix it up for a shop or something. Most of the hay that was in there (don't know why it was there) had to be tossed because of too much broken glass and other stuff. But some we were able to put out in the garden. I was raking it out, and found this in it.

Hubby of course was curious and started an internet search. He decided it most resembles the skull of a Collared Peccary.
Strange thing to find, as we have never seen them around here, to my knowledge.

It got up to almost 80 today!

Have a blessed week all. ♥

Curious

This morning when I was doing dishes, I had two half bottles of dish sop, so I decided I'd combine the two. That was eight hours ago.
This is what the bottle looks like right now.

It just doesn't seem right that the Dawn has not mixed with the Palmolive. At. All.

The other night, our son came into the room. We had been watching TV. He said, "You can't hear that kitten? Jessi is outside. She might be chasing it."

I never heard anything. It must have been in my tinnitus range. Hubby heard it though. Anyway, after a couple hours of calling and putting food out, and trying really hard, son managed to catch the kitten.
The day before son's birthday. I told youngest son that the kitten must be his birthday present. He's been wanting a cat to take the place of the one that has health problems, when it decides to travel the rainbow bridge.

Anyway, here is the newest family member.

Smudge. :-)

Had my first curious visit with the VA yesterday. We went in to contest a small bill that they sent after I fell in the parking lot and hurt my wrist.
The curious part was if I was a civilian employee, they would not have sent the bill; but because I was a veteran, I was expected to pay the fee for the medicine. We contested it for about an hour and they finally canceled the bill.

Weird.

Anyway, Thursday we are traveling a little over an hour to shop at the nearest military commissary. And maybe go fishing. Hope you all have a great day.

God bless. ♥

Question for those of you who have chickens

I get my eggs from someone with chickens a few miles from the house. This morning while fixing breakfast, I found this when I cracked one of the eggs.

Neither of these photos really shows the deepness of the reddish-pink of the egg white.

Not sure if the egg was safe to eat or not. I saved it to show the gentleman. He said he'd never seen anything like it, either. He insisted I take two eggs to replace the one; and said if I ever had problems with any of the eggs, to please let him know.

So, how about it? Any ideas? Anyone else seen anything like this?

Take care. ♥

No Halloween here

Just a post about carrots. I pulled some carrots yesterday. We grew them in a small 'tire pyramid' by the house. Just two tires with some store bought dirt and dirt from the old chicken coop area.
We had mixed results and I was hoping that perhaps those of you who have carrot knowledge may be able to answer a question.

The first carrots I pulled looked like this.

Now I did some research, and it seems that carrots like these are caused by some sort of nematode? Does this mean that the towers should be dismantled and the dirt used elsewhere? Can the dirt be safely used for flowers? I am thinking of filling it with marigolds or pansy's or both. I think marigolds are supposed to be good for getting rid of things like nematodes? All these carrots went into the compost, or should I pull them out and burn them?

The rest of the carrots I pulled, from the other side of the same area, looked like this.

Not sure why the one looked more like a parsnip, but as you can see, they are all more normal. We cleaned these up and had them for dinner. They were quite yummy!

Anyway, that is all I have today. IF you do Halloween, please be safe. Hope you all have a wonderful, blessed day. I am thinking of friends who have lost loved family members recently. You have my condolences.
*hugs* ♥

Has it really been two years?

Since we retired I mean. It really doesn't feel like it. But I just realized today that it has been.

This is not what you want to see when you look out the kitchen window while making breakfast.



When I first looked out the window, there were just a couple. I thought they were fighting over territory. When I looked out the window again, this is what I saw. I thought it was the smell of the bacon drawing them; but I made the video and showed hubby. He immediately got up to look and said they were swarming.

I immediately asked him if they were killer bees. :-|

But he said no, they were swarming, as in they thought they had found a new nesting place! We went through two cans of wasp spray real quick. It made a bit of a dent. After breakfast we went in town and got three more cans of spray. (We found another can of wasp spray buried under several cans of Stuff It.) The first two cans, I think, helped to break the... pheromone trail? that was telling the bees where the new hive would be.

Anyway, I can definitely recommend Black Flag Wasp spray, however it is named. When hubby took that out to spray the bees, he said it killed them immediately. (Yes, I know bees are necessary, but not when they have decided your house is to be their new hive!)

There is was a circular hole on the outside wall of the kitchen. Now this hole, I am pretty sure, has been there for decades. I'm sure it was there when we were here in 1994. I know it has been there since we started coming down in 2008. Anyway, it has now been sealed off with Stuff It. Spray in foam insulation.

I should mention that the noise you hear is actually the exhaust fan, not really the bees...

Hubby said the few bees remaining did not bother him when he was mowing. It will still be a few days before I am brave enough to use the utility room door to go out and hang laundry.

I think there was going to be more, but I've forgotten what it was, so. Oh! I know. Hubby gets his first back procedure next Thursday. They will shoot cortisone into his spine. It should, hopefully, keep him pain free for about three months and then he will have to have the procedure again.
There. I think that is all. Ha.

Take care all and God bless. ♥

P.S. I am having a terrible time trying to post the video. If you don't see it here, maybe I can get it to google +.

Thank God for Country Boys

And girls!

If only more people could think like this!

Found this in our out building. A gear of some sort?

Getting back to hot weather here. Was nice to have a break. A little rain would be nice, too.
Hope you all have a wonderful, safe weekend! ♥

That's an old tree.

Remember this post here? Well, I went out to where we have the wood stored that we cut from that branch. I tried to count the rings.
I am sure I did not do it right, but the rings I did count?
Sixty-three. Sixty-three!
That branch was older than me!
I can only imagine how old the tree itself is.

On another note, when hubby was out doing whatever he was doing yesterday, he found something interesting.

Ignore all the stuff from fixing the gas line.. What I want you to see is that round thing. Looks like a stone donut.
Or it could be concrete or cement. (Don't ask me what the difference is, I just figure there must be one because hubby made a deal about it, haha. )

Still. No idea why or what it was used for. Just something curious.

Hope everyone is doing well, and that you all have a wonderful, blessed Holiday Season. ♥

So hubby told me today

That one of the kids that came to the reunion had problems in the bathroom because he didn't know how to use a bar of soap.
You read that right.
He didn't know how to use a bar of soap. He's ten.

His mother told us he only uses soap in a squirt bottle, implying that we were remiss by not having any.

Hah!

He should know how to use a bar of soap as far as I'm concerned.

Hubby thinks there is a deer in the neighborhood.

Any of you seen anything like this before?



This is one of the pecan trees we planted a couple years ago. We are hoping it will survive. The damage is pretty bad.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

A new intruder

to identify.



Hope you all have a wonderful, blessed, safe weekend. ♥

So it was only $75....

Thanks for your comments, everyone.

We did call a plumber, and he came out. They were here about an hour or so. And do you know what we found?
We have two septic tanks.

It gets stranger.

The reason hubby's sewer snake came back dry the first time? It was going to the second septic tank that they found in the middle of the back yard.

The reason the sewer snake couldn't get through the blockage? It was capped off!

Remember the leaks I mentioned? Well, apparently the Rid-X would do its thing, and because the pipe was blocked off, the only place left for the liquids to go was out the leaks.
Just think about that for a while.

Apparently whoever did the 'plumbing' work (I use that term loosely) capped the lines off in two places with some sort of rubber and hose clamps.
The cleanout plug under the house, where one of the smaller 'caps' was done, had basically rotted through. If hubby hadn't noticed the smell and gone under to find the problem, well, I don't like to think about it. We're hosting a reunion in about 6 and a half weeks.
That's why hubby put off surgery.

Anyway, the plumber said the second tank - which is about a foot underground, is probably fine to use - he told us a simple way to check it; but without knowing why one bathroom was cut off from that tank, hubby is not willing to use it.

The plumber wondered why the tank was so far out in the yard, until we explained to him that the out building used to be part of the house, too.

Anyway, apparently at one time, both bathrooms were connected to this second tank; while the utility room and kitchen went to the tank closest to the house.

Seventy-five dollars was worth finding out this information, because the pipe going to this septic tank was ceramic. We would never have found it if not for the knowledge of the plumber in tracking down curious problems.

So now hubby will draw out a blueprint, buy PVC pipes, and join the first bathroom to the sewer line for the utility room.
It means taking the new toilet off, buying a new collar for it, and taking out as much of the old cast iron sewer pipe as he can get out.

Things were going to well, but it could have been a LOT worse, so we thank God for small blessings, and for cast iron pipe to go to the recycle. :-)

Hope everyone is doing well. ♥

What we found today

While clearing a tree from the 'pig pen'.
There's tons of junk out in that area. We've taken several thousand pounds to the recycle.
But these are unusual keepers.





Cast iron sash weights.

Two 8 pound and one 6 pound weight.

Not sure why the pictures are upside down. I flipped them, but they're still upside down. Curious, isn't it?

Have a blessed week! ♥

Pictures from around the farm.

BIL and hubby found this while cleaning out the old pig pen.

We have no idea what it is.

Found one of these little things blooming in the front yard.

I think it's a wild violet.

I also found these by the Magnolia tree.

I think they are snow drops, but I don't know for sure.

And, I found this in the pasture.

I thought it looked like Broccoli, but hubby thought it might be Poke weed?

One of my brothers, and his wife, are coming in tomorrow to help us with some stuff so I may not be online much. Hope you all have a wonderful week.
God bless! ♥

Well, Murphy takes no weekends off.

I think some of you may know what this means without my telling you. And no, it has not rained for 4 or 5 days now.

Suffice it to say that this is an area near the pump house where several lines meet.
So, hubby dug it up with his tractor. He's got a new furrow making thing of some sort. I am so eloquent, aren't I?

Anyway, while digging the trench for the new line, we found some interesting things.

More red bricks. What makes these bricks different? They were cemented together, or whatever they called it then. Three layers deep. Hubby did not know of anything there, so they may have been there before the 'cow bowl' was installed. He doesn't know if his dad put the 'cow bowl' there for their dairy or not.

As for 'trench treasures'...

I did the finding as I was trying to help get the brick pieces and rocks out of the bottom of the trench.
I thought this was some sort of double ended something; but as we cleaned it up, hubby recognized it as something that was probably associated with his satellite dish installation work when we were here in 1994.

Then there was this.

The hook obviously is supposed to go in the little... detent of the ring, but it can't because of rust. At first I thought it might be a stirrup from a saddle. Then I thought possibly something to tie a horse to, because it was by the side entrance to the house.
But then I thought maybe something as simple as a swinging ring from a swingset. Who knows? ;o)

I also found this hand made spike nail thing.

And lastly, I found this.

Hopefully we get the water line finished tomorrow.

You all take care and have a wonderful week! ♥