[eskielover]

Things have been going slower than I thought they would in getting my home ready to move into. I postponed going back to California until August 2 & then I have to because of Dr appointments & needed prescriptions......but until then, I am continuing to continually be amazed by my Kentucky home.

Tonight, I let my doggie (Leo) out for his nightly potty walk. This usually involves just letting him out the front door & having to stand there, watching him while he won't go farther than where the front porch lights go. He is usually afraid to go into the shadows. Tonight, I let him out a bit early so there was a bit of evening light left for him. He decided to wander off across the driveway to the other side of the house. I was watching him & all of a sudden, he started poking his nose at something in the grass. Then he started doing the hunting thing where they jump at something & then jump back & I heard a squeeling sound. I ran over to see what he was so interested in & to make sure that whatever it was, wasn't dangerous. At first, I thought it might be a frog, since I am close to a stream & hear the frogs all around the house. As I got closer, it looked like maybe a mouse, but it wasn't running fast enough for that. As I got closer, I noticed that it was a mole. They are the cutest little things I have ever seen. The poor thing was trying hard to get away from Leo & I was trying my hardest to get him away from the mole before he killed it. The mole was scurring between the other property & mine, so I had a hard time getting Leo away from it.

I read a bit about moles on the internet & they are actually good critters to have since they eat the bad bugs in the yard. I realize now that all the little burrows I have been noticing are from the moles. I guess according to what I read, they don't come to the surfice often & usually only by mistake. We had a hard rain today, maybe one of his tunnels got rained out.

It seems like with every new day, comes a new interesting, exciting experiences. I am enjoying this life so much, I can't imagine even going back to California for even a month.

I have been getting prices on moving companies & oh my!!!!! I am wondering it it isn't just better to sell most of my furniture & but all new here.....It doesn't seem like it would cost me much more than moving it all here.

I was chatting with a friend here, looking back at some of the things we have gone through in our lives. The main thing I realized was that about 12 years ago when I was trying my darndest to end my life, I never would have ever imagined then that I could have ever ended up in a beautiful place like the farm I now own here in Kentucky, in a place that in my mind has to be more beautiful than I could ever imagine heaven to be. If I had been successful in my attempts at that time, I never would have had the chance to experience the beauty & peacefulness I have now. I would have cheated myself out of a wonderful life. The things we don't see at the time, don't mean that the best part of life isn't ahead of us if we will just wait for it.

I have been listening to the radio since May 15, since I don't have a TV & there is one song that gets to me everytime. I don't know who it is by or the exact title, but it is about God's unanswered prayers......& that the best things that happen to us sometimes come through our unanswered prayers.......that really hits home for me.

[January]

The singer is Garth Brooks and it's titled "Unanswered Prayers". Be sure your dog doesn't discover a skunk! All kinds of bad things happen then!

I'm so glad you are happy. Kentucky is beautiful.

Hugs,

Jan

[eskielover]

Have to laugh about the skunk.....when I first saw him checking something out, that was my first thought.....NO>>>>NOT A SKUNK!!!!!!!.....I don't have any tomato juice to wash him in. I have smelled skunks around, so that was definitely my first thought too.

Luckily it was just a little mole.....but guess they can bite from what I read about them even though it isn't likely unless they are protecting themselves. When Leo was attacking the little guy, he sure let out a squeel. I have heard that squeel before but never knew it was from a mole.....now I have another sound to add to my recognition guide.

[SeptemberMorn]

Debbie, I never thought I'd "see" you this happy and this peaceful! It's amazing! I'm so happy for you. Post some pics of your property, would you?



EDIT: PS I don't think moles are any friendlier to flowerbeds or veggie beds than our own California gophers. I've just done battle with a family of them in my rose bed. I won!!

[eskielover]

I was doing a bit of reading about the moles.....they are actually ok little critters. They don't eat the roots or any plants like the gophers do. Their burrougs are just under the ground & the dirt can mess up pastures because it makes the grass dirty for the horses to eat, but they don't do any bad damage. They eat the worms & the larva & the bad insects that hurt the garden. It sounds like they get the bad wrap for things that gophers & mice & other rodents do, but they are actually like the bats.....eat the bad insects for the garden. Sometimes their burroughs will disturb the root systems or plants, but they don't actually eat the roots like the gophers do.

I remember my encounter with the ground squirells in Canyon Country (my first house). We had huge weeds with roots the size of giant carrots. I was in the backyard weeding & pulled on the top of one of those huge weeds. It came flying out of the ground & I went flying across the yard with in in my hands. The root was eaten off to just about one inch below the ground. That was also the house where I tried my hand at a garden & the first nice zuchinni I was watching disappeared in the blink of an eye one day when I wasn't watching.

Here I guess we have raccoon problems. My friend is trying to grow corn & is battling the raccoons....who are definitely smarter than the traps he has set out for them. The deer are also a problem around here with gardens. My deer are happy down in my woods.....but it is also the best land for growing my garden in next year......will probably grow most of my food for the critters......but they need to eat too.

Just went through some of my pics, so will try to post some tonight.
Debbie

[EJ711]

Hi Eskielover,

Congratulations on your new farm!

I vote for selling your old furniture and buying new!

God's unanswered prayers sounds beautiful. I haven't heard that one yet.

Hugs,

EJ

[seeker1950]

Here in WV, one cat lined up dead moles, belly up, all the way down the sidwalk!
I actually like moles, but have had one dog who loved to eat them like candy!
I look forward to hearing more of your wildlife tales!
Patty

[Gemstone]

I don't think we have moles here, but we have ground hogs. Lots of them, and they are so big and chubby!

Luckily they don't put there holes in my yard. We have a big hill and they mostly stay down there. We had a baby come in our yard recently though, and my dog tried to make friends with it. He gave it one of his toys. He is a strange dog. The poor little thing was just terrified.

Your farm sounds lovely. I'll look for pictures!

[eskielover]

I just went through my photos on the photo card of my digital camera & put in some of the photos of my farm under eskielover in the photo area. The first is a photo of my house with my July 4 decorations. I still have to finish the front porch.....have to paint the railing & change the wooden lattice work to the vinyl (which I have sitting in my garage waiting for my to cut it to the right size). I spent the other day pressure washing the wood.....it was so grungy & green. Now the wood is just like new after pressure washing it. That is a rather fun job. I also bought some pretty wooden scroll work to put on either side of the spindle posts......that is going to be a pretty addition too. I am changing all the grey to a green colour. I picked out the historical green for the area which is "copper verde". The shutters on the upstairs windows are missing in the photo because I have them down in the garage & in the process of putting on 4 coats of the green paint. I wish I could have found the right colour green without painting, but they don't come close....even with the distance between the roof & the porch.

All the windows & the wood around the windows are rotten, so they have to be replaced....a huge job, but I found a carpenter who does excellent work. I am using the white vinyl clad, double hung windows, so I won't have so much maintainance & I can clean inside & outside from inside the house. I think the white will give the house a much nicer appearance than the gray. I also need to get better rain gutters than the ones they have, & while looking at the gutters, we noticed that they were a light gray colour instead of a white. Painting them will only make more work in the long run, so I might as well get new ones while work is being done on that part of the house anyway. They are also going to put metal covering around all the wood on the eves, so there won't be any maintainance on that either. I never realized how much the humidity causes wood to rot....coming from the California desert, that wasn't even something I ever thought about....now I am learning a whole new set of thinking.

The photo of the pool, I am very proud of.....it took alot of frustration transforming it from a green, gookie, bug infested pond to what it is now.....wish I had taken a before photo of that. I got into it the other day & finished cleaning the last few tiny green spots off the bottom. I also threw in photos of the driveway to my barn area being graded.....actually, my neighbor was grading his driveway for his new home & I tagged onto his project because it was exactly where I needed my driveway. We split the cost of that & also the costs for getting our electrical back onto our property. That couldn't have worked out better if I had planned it.....it is amazing how everything is coming together in ways I had never imagined. My wooded area was all overgrown since no one ever went down there much, so I had one man come & run his bush hog all over the area......my it is even more park like than it first looked like. There is more useable land than what it looked like when I purchased it too, so everything is even better than what I initially thought I had bought.

I have even more photos, but ran out of space.....I will have to delete some of the other photos & put more in as time goes by. The transformation is amazing. I like natural wood, so decided to take out the old painted doors & put in natural wood ones that I am going to stain. When it came to installing the doors to the dining room, we noticed that they didn't actually fit so I decided to make them into archways & put the doors into a couple of the upstairs doorways that they fit into. I have a beautiful semi circle window in my dressing area, so I had them make the entrance into an arch there also. It is all coming together in time. It sure is a lot of fun putting my own touches into this house.

Hope you enjoy the photos,
Debbie

[seeker1950]

I just looked at your pictures, and love the farmhouse! Beautiful location!
Also love the Eskies!
Patty

[(JD)]

Well... if there are skunks around, you need to keep big cans of tomato juice on hand... bathe any animal that has skunk on them in it, it cleans them up pretty nicely. I hope this never happens!

[eskielover]

update on my wildlife encounters>>>>>>

Just last night, I was out by the pool, & had my doggie on a short leash to try & slow his wanderings down...wasn't too successful I guess. I noticed he had been away for awhile, so started calling for him......there he came running up to the pool decking with something that looked like a huge dead branch or something. He put is down on the deck & I went over to look at it......eeeeeewwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was an very old dead raccoon with not much left since I am sure the turkey vultures had already cleaned most of it.

It took me a few seconds to realize what it was, & all I could do was scold him & tell him "bad, bad, bad, bad doggie" "bad, bad Leo". He was so proud of his find, but I had to get it picked up before he grabbed it & ran away with it. The only place I could find to put it safely was a garbage bag, but I am not happy about having that around my house until the trash pick up comes next friday.

I know I am going to put him on a long leash & tye it up this time.......can't handle those kind of presents. It is amazing how proud they are of things like that.....but that was just too much to handle for me.

One thing I found was that in the past, I would have had my husband handle that, being alone, I have to figure out how to handle everything that comes up & do something about it to the best of my ability.....I am getting much better at not depending on anyone else to take care of anything.....& it does feel good.

Notes from Kentycky,
Debbie