Surprise!

Well, on Jan 6 of this year we purchased a guinea pig for our daughter as a gift. 1 week ago we noticed that the cavy, as they are often called, was getting rather large in the abdomen, and on Monday she seemed extremely bloated. So bloated in fact that she couldn't even stand on her hind legs!. Now this is the only cavy for miles. So I was pretty sure this couldn't be a pregnancy. So the only other thing was some sort of gastro-intestinal problem. So we drove all the way into town to see a vet. The vet looked at her and immediately thought she was pregnant. We explained that she hasn't had any contact with any of her species for 2 months! So he brought in the ultra sound machine and sure enough there were tiny little hearts beating! The vet guessed that there were two babies. So we went back home quite surprised, needless to say! Well, we had to go back into town to pick up another animal and when we returned home, the cavy, "Chai", had had THREE babies!

how dear are the deer

Living in the city animals were always cute, something beautiful. Whenever we saw anything besides a grackle or a squirrel, we were always amazed and made a point of looking a the creature. Two years later... Deer still have a cute nature but are mostly a nuisance and make eating unadulterated food very inexpensive. Just this morning, my daughter put some seed in the bird feeder (we have many different kinds of birds) but the deer smelled the food from at least a quarter mile away. The funny part is that our dog didn't even notice.
Another thing I've learned: deer have no scent and are experts at being silent (okay maybe not the young ones).

compost

I took the baby out in the garden with me. He's usually a big help. You know, mixing the dirt and handing it to me and such. Well, I guess apple cores next to the compost pile don't look so bad... Glad to say I saw what was going to happen before it did! He was back to helping me rearrange where I was planting the seeds again in no time flat!

Still, he seemed very drawn to the rotting food all morning... Just imagine what he'll be like with growing food!

Gardening

Boy! Is Spring just around the corner or what? It's been so beautiful that all I've been thinking about is my gardening boxes (www.squarefootgardening.com) and how much food I hope to get out of them this year! So easy!

This is only my 2nd year gardening ever! But I'm planning on having a bit of everything!

IntheBeginning

I used to live in a very nice suburb of San Antonio, which is one of the largest cities in the US, but 2 years ago, my husband and I decided to purchase some land out in the hill country. Now this isn't like Fredricksburg or Kerrville or something. This property which we now call home is 36 miles from the nearest grocery store, 20 miles to the nearest gas station, and just completely beautiful!

At first we were constantly making trips to the big city (San Antonio), and then when those died down, we were making lots of trips to the nearest towns. But considering that there's not a whole lot to do there, and one of the reasons we moved was so we could spend more time at home, those stopped too.

Last year, I started gardening for the first time in my life, started to prepare to acquire some chickens (I don't have any currently), and heated my home with a wood burning stove!

Wildlife

One of the many things that I love about living out in the middle of nowhere is the wildlife. Daily without leaving my house or my porch I see different kinds of deer, critters, and birds. This last summer a fallow deer came right up to our fence, just stood there and stared at us. I had never seen this kind of deer before. It's not very common, but it's not exotic either.