My favorite day is one with Dale.
She loves the chickens, and she loves to gather the eggs. She does try to be gentle with them, but she is only 2 and 1/2, so they didn't all make it in the house.
She would have sat with one on her lap all morning, but the chicken had other ideas and flew down.
DH is officially having a late life crisis.
Ha!!!
Not really, but he is enjoying being retired, and finally took to heart the advice I have been giving him for years.
Life is short.
His Mustang GT finally arrived from sunny Florida. He's been waiting for weeks.
He's a happy
I am busy weaving a semi custom baby wrap, on the Circles warp, in reds and browns.
The news about Miss Puss is that she is NOT hyperthyroid, she is diabetic.
She is on insulin twice a day, which did not make me happy. Even though I have given thousands of injections in my 30 year nursing career, I wasn't thrilled about the prospect of giving them to her. But I want her to be ok, so I sucked it up, and I think we have it down now.
She is still horrible and mean to Roy and Sydney and Jinksie, but she is glued to me every chance he gets.
And she is uncharacteristically sweet and lovable.
DH threatened to eat the whole thing. ( recipe here )
For two years, my neighbor has kept it looking amazing, mowing and trimming once a week. But let me tell you, it is expensive. Not that he doesn't deserve every penny he charges, because he does.
But it hurts to spend the money, week after week.
Now I know what that phrase really means......."fixed income".
So I've been doing a little google work, and exploring the idea of letting the lawn go WILD.
I know, it sounds criminal, decadent, far out.
But think about it.....we spend hours and hours or a lot of money to keep our lawns manicured and the grass less than 2" long.
WHY?
My side yard is a dog yard. I know Roy would not care one bit if we let it grow.
The front yard is on the road, so we don't go out there and sit either.
If I sit outside anywhere, it will probably be in the chicken yard, where I have conversations with the "girls", and they keep their grass DOWN by themselves.
So why? honestly, why? we pollute the air, create a very sterile environment, and prevent the natural progression of things.......grass growing.
So I broached it to DH, who honestly received it better than I thought he would. It took him a few minutes to realize that I was serious, then another couple of minutes to process "letting the lawn go wild", but then, I saw the light go on.
Why are earth are we throwing money away that could be used to take us to Maine on vacation?
Really.
So it's on.........Crazy as a Loom, with its new wild look. The more I think about it, the more I LOVE it.
Thanks Alice, for the encouragement. :)
21 comments:
My Type A Husband would have a coronary!... however, I think if it isn't going to bother YOU, why ever not!...
Do share pics, won't you please :-) And it looks like you've made another chicken lover out of Dale!
Goats. You could fence off that lawn and get a couple of goats, (two is the minimum, because they like company) and let the goats take care of it. Or let it go wild, but I enjoy my goat furbabies and they are very good at keeping the grass down.
Ah, little Dale. She looks like a natural. She will have such wonderful memories of times with her grandmother and her chickens. :) I like the idea of letting the grass go but I would add wildflower seeds to it. Why not? Lots of colour.
As someone who doesn't have any lawn, just crappy soil and the whatever weed works up here, I envy the green but not the mowing, so go for it. Oh and goats are browsers and prefer brush, shrubs that sort of thing. Now sheep would like that as they ARE grazers. And yes, by all means try adding some wildflower seeds. High Country Garden has some awesome mixes and I think they have a seed division in the northeast.
Enjoy that growing like a weed Dale. Wow 2.5 where ever did the time go Hillary?
Your granddaughter is absolutely beautiful, but you knew that.
My sympathy on having to give shots to the cat. Badland's Blackie was diabetic until he died of liver cancer, and now HopeCat is diabetic and gets insulin twice a day. The things we do for the love of pets!
If it's not against any ordinance in your area, i think letting your lawn go wild is a fabulous idea. It kills me that we have to keep our lawns here because of city/parish ordinance, and it costs a lot and isn't really good at all for the environment.
Sheep! They mow AND fertilize AND provide you with fiber. Win win win. :) But, wild is good too. Somebody should figure out how much time, energy, and pollution go into the American lawn every year. I'm sure it's a ridiculous amount. Probably enough to support a small country.
I think that you have a beautiful yard. Mine is more the wild look. Most of my 12 acres are left natural and wild. I like natural.
Love the idea of a wild lawn. Is there a farmer in the area who would like to Hay the area. Twice a year they come and cut - and get the hay. Just another option.
Your such a sweetheart Hilary, as they say "To boldly go where no man/woman has gone before" it's all an adventure 😉
Dale is adorable and the same age as my grandson ---moments with them are such blessings. We are in a stage where everything in nature is exciting even the rocks! buckets and buckets of them!! HaHa
I have wild and beautiful too, however, I am more careful with my open fields because they can be susceptible to fire. A remedy is to have local farmers cut it twice or even allow them to lime the fields to give back what is taken to nurture the earth. My goats were not fussy about the quality of the hay but horses definitely were. My goats roamed free,knew their own home and lived 21 plus years.
Even cash crops can be wildly beautiful --just think -- Girls in the corn!
I really like the idea of letting that lawn grow. It's time for a change! And the chicken wrangler is still young enough to learn the ropes. :-)
a wild lawn is a lovely idea ... scatter some wild flowers seeds and let it go ....
So much good stuff in one post! Dale is not a baby anymore, is she? She is becoming a little person with her own delights. And your husband, a new car? Well, life seems quite good in your home. Let the wild grasses grow and enjoy each day.
Hooray for wild! I had my front yard dug up and replaced by mulch last year. Then shrubs were planted and some perennials with water directed to each plant and no more. They did put down barrier cloth but still the weeds are coming up. They are easier to pull though and I did not have any leaves to rake...just let them lay. I like it! Here in Utah we have limited water and it makes me feel good not to be using potable water on a lawn.
Good evening, Hillary. I think that all children love chickens! LOL It is amazing to them that you can just walk outside and get something to eat. It is wonderful that she will have these beautiful memories of the girls and time spent with Mimi.
I say go for it!! Definitely throw in some flower seeds and live on the edge. LOL And the goats aren't too bad of an idea, either. They eat lots of stuff and they're cute, too. LOL
That will become a beautiful meadow, at which you will gaze and say, "Why did I wait so long?"
I don't know what restrictions there are there, but in Wisconsin my girlfriend rented out a large plot to a farmer who plowed and put in grasses for feeding livestock. Looks wild sometimes and sometimes neatly mowed, and you make money doing nothing!
A few years back I had a male cat, also diagnosed as diabetic. Two shots/day. I hate needles, can't watch myself get an injection, but learned that day how to give Monkey his needed insulin, which gave me three more years with him before his body wore out. I miss him so much. As for the yard, toss some wildflower seeds in there, too, for a flowering prairie look (lupines, etc.). Good for the bees, gardens, and more.
we did that with a big back yard, you can get wild flower seed mixes for your climate at your local greenhouse or garden store, you just throw it out and enjoy lots of wonderful flowers all summer. Great for little person flower picking to fill vases in the house. Still remember doing that with my Gran. Cute chickens too!
There's lots of places to get prairie grass seed, or just a good pasture blend grass seed. the people with land next to ours, haven't built a house yet, they brush-hog it once a year, which might work for you. (maybe twice a year to keep the brambles at bay). The highway folks might have something to say about what you do with the 5 feet closest to the road, but...
I think it is a great idea if you can get away with it, community-wise. What about snakes. I guess the chickens would keep them at bag. I say go for it.
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