With the warm weather comes the flowers. I couldn't reist buying some pansys, to put in a pot by the front door. I desperatly needed a spot of green with bright colors. I have daffidills, and tuplips breaking the ground. The fruit trees are ready to bloom, and of course there will be a cold snap that will kill the fruit.
The birds are really at it. Doves, sparrows, quail, roadrunners, flycatchers, and others singing to find themselves a mate. The past two nights the coyotes have been singing as well. They are howling, and crying and doing their mating songs at about any time of the day or night. I saw one the other morning while I was feeding the horses. It walked by my yard, looked at me, ignorned me and went on its way.

May I appoligize to all my readers. There is just to much going on in my life right now. I will try to catch up on blog. I have had some medical problems. It's hell when the body starts going but the mind still thinks you are only about - well a lot younger than this wore out body.
Anyway it is way way to warm here at the Tumbleweed Crossing. Supposed to get up to 70 degrees here today, and it feels like it. And it's only the 27th of Feburary. What is it going to be like this summer? I don't mind the warmth, and the wind did seem to stop blowing for a bit. But the fact of no rain or snow this winter is scarey. Very Scarey. There have already been several small bruch fires around the state.
May I ask that everyone pray, or do a rain dance for the areas of the US that need moisture and for those that don't I will wish that the rain comes our way, and you get a chance to dry out.

Wild Horse Roundup (Sort of)

I was so proud of my self and my husband,Lee, on Saturday. We rescued two wild horses by rounding them up. Well - Sort Of. At about noon I got a call from our neighbor who said her stepson had called her saying two of their horses had escaped the confines of their way to small pen and were running loose though the Tumbleweed Crossing neighborhood. Could We Help? Now the stepson is a big, strapping, young man about 25 or so, but he seems to be a bit intimidated by the equines he was chasing. Of course said equines are 2 year old colts that haven't had the most adequate training. And since they found their selves with way to much freedom, that minimal training had been left behind in their pen.
Of course we agreed to help. What kind of neighbors would we have been if we had said no? And besides - next time it might be my knot-headed ponies that were terrorizing the countryside.
After several minutes of not seeing either the young man or the wayward horses, Lee and I each grabbed a halter, jumped into different trucks and headed out to see what we could find, each of us going different directions.
I found a horse first. I hadn't gone more that a few hundred yards when a black horse, with three white stocking ran down the road near me. It then continued back in the direction of both our place and the neighbors where he had run away from. Good! I drove slowly until I could park near my place, got out, and tried to get near the terrified animal. NO WAY! An idiot in a pickup truck raced by him as if he didn't even see the black horse standing in the road. Could the driver have been that blind? If so why was he driving? And especially at that speed; way over the limit?
But then the wild horse spotted my horses and went right to the fence to see them. The gate to my driveway was open. By moving behind the horse I slowly working him down the road until he was right by the gate, and, thankfully went right in so that he could visit with all those nice horses that he could see. He was still really spooked and wasn't going to let me near him. No problem. I really didn't want to have to halter a frightened horse. So I opened the gate to our small field and let him find his way into it.
One horse caught. Where was the other one and Lee?
Lee pulled back into our place, as did the Sheriff, who was trying to help find the horses, too. Seeing that I had one, they went on over to another neighbors, about a quarter of a mile away, where the Sheriff said the other one had been spotted. I waited around for a few minutes to make sure the black horse was going to be all right. It wasn't long before I saw Lee coming back leading the other wild horse, a roan, while the neighbors stepson followed. We put the roan in with his black friend to await the return of the owners.
Later Lee told me that the roan had jumped a short fence then was cornered by the stepson and a couple of other people that lived in the area, but they were all afraid to try to put a halter on him and lead him out. Lee said that by that time the horse was so tired that he was able to walk right up and slip the halter on. The horse didn't want to lead back but was to exhausted to put up to much of a fight.
Hopefully the two run-away, teenage horses have had their only and last fling at trying to become true wild horses.

Spring?

Today it is about 60 degrees outside at the Tumbleweed Crossing. That is a bit warm for this time of year. Although it is just about what I like tempature wise. Not to cold and not to hot. Apareratly all the critters agree with me. Both of my mares, Star and Nita, are in heat. Both have PMS.
And all the birds are starting to nest. I keep telling the sparrows that they can not nest in the barn or in their favorite spot over my front door. It just doesn't work. At least not for me.
The newest resident of the Tumbleweed Crossing is a pair of roadrunners. They have been making strange noises. (At least to me they are strange. I asume to a roadrunner they arn't.) Plus they act as if they are trying to find the perfect nesting site. As they nest on the ground I hope they find a place that will be protected from all the stray dogs and coyotes we have here.

Comedy or Reality

All right. I have to admit after it was all over with and I had time to think about it, the idea of killing the smoke alarm with the mop while on top of the step ladder did seem like an act out of Three's Company or one of the other popular sit-coms that have been on TV. But in reality it was a very serious situation. The noise was driving me crazy as it was driving my dogs and cats crazy. I was 'home alone', and it was between 4 and 5 AM. Not a time you want to wake up nearby friends or relatives.
I was able to take care of the problem. But what if I hadn't been able to? Would I and my pets have been subjected to that horrific sound until a decent time to call for help? I considered going outside. It's January, and cold outside. What about leaving for a while? Yes, I considered that, and I could have taken the dogs. But not the cats. They are indoor cats so it wouldn't have done to just throw them out. To my way of thinking if my pets couldn't get away from the noise, neither could I. So I stayed and solved the problem. I now have a new smoke alarm at a 7 foot height that I can reach easily from a short step stool.
Then I got to considering the situation from different directions. What if I had been handicapped? Maybe in a wheelchair, or on cruches, or blind? The only thing a handicapped or elderly person could do was disturb someone so early in the morning.
Which makes me wonder why the state housing code makes it mandatory that builders put the smoke alarm so high up in a room with high ceiling's I can reach the ones in my bedrooms that only have a 7 foot ceiling. And don't tell me it is high to catch the smoke when there is actually a fire. If there is a real fire the smoke should pass by the alarm at 7 feet before it reaches the one at 12 feet.
I am sure it can be just as dangerous for someone to be fighting with an alarm that is just 'chirping' (as it is called) the battery warning, as it could be in a fire. I could have fallen from the ladder. As it was I sprained my knee slightly.
So, please, consider moving the smoke alarm or any thing that might be similar to a more realistic place in yours or a loved ones home. I would hate to hear about some dying because the smoke alarm low battery warning was being obnoxious.

How to Kill a Smoke Alarm with a Mop

There is nothing like getting woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning by the obnoxious cry of a smoke alarm that is telling you it's battery is low and needs to be changed. And your ALL ALONE exept for the dogs and cats. That is what happened to me yesterday morning. Or rather I was woke up with 3 dogs bouncing on the bed saying there was something wrong and then I hear the horrible, deafeningly loud squeal of the low battery notification. I heard it and heard it and heard it. I heard it about every thirty seconds. While I was wondering what to do about it the dogs were jumping all over me and howling, and the cats were running around the house and meowing. I understood that they were asking me to stop that horrendous noise. And I wanted to. Desperately. But how? That alarm was about 12 feet up on the wall in the living room. I have what are called catherderal ceilings the builder and his workers had followed state rules putting the smoke alarm about 10 inches from the top of the ceiling. That meant it was way, way out of my reach.
OK - we have two ladders. But I am terrified of heights. I never climb ladders. In desperation I drug and manhandled (woman handled) the extention ladder into the living room, but was unable to raise it to lean against the wall. Dropping it on the floor I went back out to drag in the step ladder, not knowing if it would be tall enough. I set it up as close to the place under the smoke alarm as I could but couldn't come closer than about 5 feet from the dang thing standing on the top step, a step I couldn't even believe I was on. So back down the latter and out to the garage to find something that I could use to knock the thing off the wall with. The mop! - the sponge mop - as it had the metal bar that kept the sponge in place which I figured would help pry it off. Back up the latter. Stand on the top step and beat the smoke alarm. Finally - finally it came off but to my dismay I then saw, and remembered, that the *&&()+@# thing was wired into the house electical system. The battery is only a back up in case the electic fails. And I still can't reach it! I use the mop some more to pull it down and finally it snaps off the wires, and falls to the floor. Back down the latter I go, snatch it up and jerk the battery out of it. Peace At Last.
Now, completely exhausted, sweet dripping off me, mad as hell, and pissed, I suddenly find my self shaking with the cold that is coming in the open front door, and crying my eyes out. It is now 5 o'clock am. There is only one thing to do. Crawl back in bed. Hug the dogs and cats to me to get warm and wait for sunrise.

Did the groundhog see his shadow?

Insulting Letter

I received an insulting, disgusting, and infurating letter today from a land developer in Arizona. They were offering to buy my property. But they were only wanting to pay $4000.00. Now mind you we paid almost $200,000 for our land, and house and that was three years ago. Since then we have fenced it, and added a hay barn, horse shelters and pens and a small shed for wood and tools.
On top of this insult when I tryed to call them they refused to talk to me.
I am still upset and mad about their letter and offer.