Today has been a great and BUSY day!! We just got back from Clarksville. We went to the movies there to watch "Journey to the Center of the Earth". It was 3D, and we ALL loved it, but even *I* got dizzy a few times during it... Of course, our local theater didn't have anything that I'd let the kids watch, so that's why we went south!!
GUESS WHAT?!?! I actually went BACK to WOG!! In case you didn't read my previous post(s), that stands for Women of God strength training. It is every Monday and Friday, and after Monday, I thought I was going to DIE!! This time was SOOOO much better! She told us that this coming Monday she is going to start us on the machines, so I am a little "skeered"!!
Today I mowed for many, many hours!! I mowed every WEEK during the summer, but now that I am back in school, I just can't get myself motivated to commit to doing it on my regular schedule, because there are 400 other things I need to be doing. Well, I PAID for putting it off! I was SOOOO nasty from all of the things that flew in the air from it being so dry, and the grass/weeds being so high. Several years ago, I dug up some tiger lilies from the old house that were my grandmothers, (she's been deceased 12 years next month) and I replanted them around our propane tank. Well, they have now spread, and are HUGE! They haven't bloomed for over a month now, so I thought it was time to go ahead and take them down. Well, if you have these flowers, you know that the stems of them dry out while standing there and get rock hard. I didn't think anything about it until I started cutting down the foliage. As I did, it would hit the tank and start pummeling me. I thought I was just going to have to duck for cover, as it started hitting me like stray bullets. Dumb me never THOUGHT about mowing in the opposite direction of the tank, or pulling those bullets OUT of the plant before I ran them over!!
OK, I have SUCH a funny mowing story that this made me remember while I was ducking and dodging today. I'll share and then go to bed!!
This has been probably 6 years ago or so, but is a true story! I feel certain if someone had been filming me, we would have won the grand prize on America's Funniest Home Videos!! I was mowing and the kids were in the back on the trampolene. For whatever reason, I decided that I was going to mow the yard diagonally. Now, keep in mind, that NOONE, except for the deer and the antelope, would EVER see the directionality of my yard, but I figured, "If people in town do it because it looks better, then I will too!" So, I am mowing the yard, and at one turn, I notice that there is a rather large deer in the field beside our house. Now, to get to this field, you had to through an old fence row, and then a row of trees. Obviously, the dogs spotted it around the same time, and took off in that direction. At that moment, I was so happy to be living in the country, no one to bother us, the dogs to have a place to run, you get the idea...The dogs that went were Moe (our dog that died in July, and Rocky). Now Moe was a dog that was the "Alpha" dog on the farm. No one would mess with him, he was scared of no animal, and just a great, majestic looking dog. Rocky was a pure bred boxer. Shane got him out of a puppy mill/meth lab that was being run out of a local hotel room. When he made the bust, there were 10 puppies and 1 momma and male dog in the small hotel bathroom (and I assure you, it wasn't the Hilton). I LOVED Rocky from the moment we saw him (we got on the list to adopt as soon as they got to the pound, and had first dibs), but I am pretty sure, with the intelligence that he showed us, that his mom may have also been his sister... SOOOOO, the dogs are gone, I'm happy to be in the country, my kids are playing safely in the back yard (I zipped the guard up around the tramp so they couldn't fall off), and all is well. (Now remember, that I am going diagonally, and I am in the middle part of the yard by now, so I am staying in the same direction for a while). I see Rocky coming back from the field, and he is in a DEAD RUN.. I look around, and shortly behind him, I see the DEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT? Rocky runs around the front of the house, and around the garage. When the deer hit the pavement of our driveway, he slipped, regained his footing and took off. I was sure that the deer would get to the back, get frightened by the kids jumping on the tramp, and take off toward the goat pen, which is the field behind our house. NOOOOOOOO!! I am still on the same line I was on (remember, long and diagonal) and Rocky is rounding the other side of the house, with the deer on his heels! Rocky keeps looking back and keeps running. He runs around the house again, and then I guess in his little pea brain head, gets an idea. We have a large wrap around front porch, and he jumps up on it and cuts back across it. Be darned if that deer didn't do the same!!! I am not believing this, and just WISHING someone else would see it, so that they'd believe it when I told it. Around this time, Rocky sees ME. I guess he thinks that I can do something for him. You can almost SEE him get the thought, and he takes off running toward the mower!! I am screaming at him to go away, and waving my arms, and I guess he just starts thinking I am screaming "Run to Mamma" because he just runs faster. In my head, I am thinking that deer KILL people when they hit their cars, and I am not packing my gun, so unless he just lays down in front of the mower for me to mow him down, I have nothing to help either of us with... SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..... *I* whip the mower around (it is one of those open ones, where you turn it with the handles, and it has a zero turn radius, which just means you can turn it pretty fast and accurately, and I head off in the opposite direction). Now picture this... I am on my mower going as fast as it will go, followed by a mentally challenged dog, followed by a big honkin' deer. I am screaming things, and none of them are nice. At this point, I was as scared as I can ever remember being, and I am wondering what I am going to do when I run out of yard and have to turn. THEN>>>> it happens. Moe gets back from the field, he sees the odd wagon train, he starts running toward us, the deer sees him, and darts off. (This is just one of the examples of the things that Moe did that made us/me love him so) I honestly gave him credit that day for saving both Rocky's and my life. So, as you can see, mowing is truly an adventure at my house, and I learned that you just never know what will happen here in the country. Someday I will share the copperhead in the house story!!
For now, I must go and brush my teeth and read my Sunday School lesson, even though I'm in youth!! have a GREAT night, and thanks for sharing a day in the life of the chicken farmer's wife! love and blessings to all!! Jerri