Heart of Texas Farms

The first half of October:

Andrew had a kid! Well, not him personally. A baby goat appeared one sunlit morning. It was a perfect day. Andrew was so happy to be a brand new papa. A few hours after the discovery Andrew was troubled that it was not standing on its own and appeared to have a bloody spot on its back. I told him not to bring it in the house, but as any concerned papa would do, he disobeyed orders and turned his bathroom into a makeshift hospital. We both tried everything humanly possible and eventually after three days the precious baby boy goat passed and is buried now outside Andrew's window. After close examination we determined it was bit by Pretty Boy (donkey #1). Pretty Boy needed to be moved or sold. Who would buy a cruel donkey? Until we figured out what to do with him we put a halter on him and tied him to a fence post. Andrew drove off to school to pick up his sister and planned to move Pretty Boy to another location. By the time he got back Pretty Boy had committed pesticide. He somehow wrapped the lead rope around his neck. Andrew moved the poor soul to a rocky location and we all expected the remains to be eaten by God's cleanup crew within a week. Even the vultures wanted nothing to do with Pretty Boy. A beautiful coat of many colors will only get you so far in life. Lucky for us our fence crew buried him.

Now the hunt began for another donkey. Andrew decided Jack A**'s had the unfortunate name for a reason. It was time to invest in a Jenny. Three days searching craigslist and knocking on local ranchers doors he finally found a Jenny north of Dallas. Andrew was not sleeping well. With the death of his first kid and spending 3 balmy nights in the van watching out for coyotes in an attempt to keep his goat herd safe he was starting to act a little loopy. Andrew insisted I stay by the goats the 4th night while he and his dad went to pick up the new donkey. This was the forth night battling mesquitos, humidity, and Pretty Boy was starting to smell across the field. After midnight they rolled in with a humble looking girl. It made me think of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on an unpretentious beast. The next morning I was told this was not the donkey they went to buy. The Jenny advertised apparently looked sickly, thus the $250 asking price. Andrew told the North Dallas lady his 3 nights of woe in the belly of the van. She had mercy on him and sold him the more expensive Jenny ($450) for $250.  The gloom has lifted and even the horse is back to her regal ways

The last half of October has been a productive month on the farm. My favorite earth mover, Don Holy, dug a pond near our front gate. Pork Chop did not bite Don's backside this time. Don did say he was wearing the same pants the dog put a hole in last time he dug a pond for us. No need to ruin another pair. This new pond will irrigate about 3-5 acres of blackberries.  We are having a fence installed that will circle our entire property, and we met with our new (to us) local NRCS agent, Clete, to discuss options for converting the row crops to pasture for bovines, bees and berries. 

Last week before lunch I asked Andrew to put the the auger on the tractor and put 8 holes near the blackberry field for the rosemaries. He argued he could just hand-dig the holes quicker than putting the auger on the tractor. I won, he put the auger on anyway; we had most the holes done during what should have been lunch. Regrettably we forgot to watch for the main water pipe to the house. A geyser spewed mightly into the air. It was 4 hours later before Andrew finished fixing the pipe (I still have 2 unplanted rosemaries). Guess he should have won that argument and hand-dug the holes. I went to check on the fence crew while Andrew mended the main line. They were having problems of their own. They had been unable to get anybody to answer the phone. Seems they bent the frame of their truck trying to access water for cement for the post holes. Bets were placed and Jose won. Yep, the farmer lady did in fact bust a water pipe, and yes, that had been her yelling. My mulcher, also Jose, was in the truck with me working a quote, so we picked up the other Jose. Remember the Bob Newhart show, Daryl and my other brother Daryl? I took the 2 Jose's to the house and introduced them to my husband, got the fence crew food and drinks since there would be no run to Taco Bell, and Jose and Jose filled the 50 gallon water barrel. Jose the mulcher got the job, and Jose and the fence crew worked late into the night. A few days later I got a call around 5pm that the fence crew hit an unmarked water line and I should call the water company. The water company was on the ball and quickly went to work. About 10pm I had a tense conversation with the water company that the water line had been drilled in 4 different spots. At midnight water was restored to the area homes. We knew there were 2 water lines in our field but the discovery of a third line was a surprise for all involved.