Friday, November 29, 2013

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Dogs

I don't know why I get so attached to animals I treat them like they are my own damn kids and love them as such. I hurt when they hurt and will stay up all night with them when they are sick. They give so much but ask for so little and are by your side no matter how much you chew their butts out for doing something destructive, they love you.
 Back in 1992 we got this dog for the daughter. The daughter was getting at the age where boys looked better than the dog so me and ole "Smoke" that's what we called him because his coat looked "smoky" me and ole smoke hung around together at night and became real close. He would set in my lap all night long and I got to love that ole dog, we where pards.
 Ole Smoke was getting a little age on him and was such a great dog we decided to find him a mate and find him a mate we did. I drove all the way to Dime Box,TX to get Kattie the love of his life. They hit it off real well and Kattie wasn't quite a year old when ole smoke nailed her and she was pregnant in a very short time, we thought that she was to young to have pups and really didn't think she could get pregnant but she did so in a little while we had pups out the ass around here chewing up brand new shoes, furniture and towels god I can't take all these damn dogs tearing the house all up. So we are gonna sell all but one of these pups and get back to a little normal.
 You have 9 pups and 2 people trying to pick just one cute puppy guess what it ain't gonna happen I wanted this black boy dog and she wanted this black female dog. Guess what, we kept both of them and so the journey of the 4 dog household began.
 Ole Smoke passed way at the age of 16 from a heart attack and it felt like part of me died with him. He was family and for the longest time when I walked into the house it felt so empty I loved that ole dog.
  We called the male pup Bear and the female Little Bit because she was the runt of the litter
Ole Bear dog was around 10 years old when he got cancer and had to be put down.That was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. We took him in because he looked constipated he wasn't in any pain he was running and having a good time that morning just being his old self. The news was that he was ate up with cancer and had this big knot blocking his intestines and he couldn't go to the bathroom anymore so it had to be done we had to put him down. We left the vet in a state of shock we just lost our ole Bear dog.  He was a great dog he loved everyone and at times he just needed to be assured he was loved and would climb up in your lap and take a nap with you. He was the guard dog of the back yard and look out squirrels he loved chasing them.
 Little Bit was the runt of the litter and turn out to be the love of my life, me and that dog went and did everything together. I didn't really have to teacher her anything it was like when she started to do something bad and I got on to her that was the end of that she wouldn't do again. I would go out in my wood shop and look over at the table I had setting outside and she would be on it guarding the place and god help anyone that came walking up. She would give them hell she never bit anyone but she would give them a good barking until I told her enough. She loved riding in the truck and just loved life in general.  She was her own little self. She didn't liked to be held or petted that much she just wanted to hang around you and listen to what you had to say and see what was going on. She wouldn't let anyone touch her but if we were setting outside she would lay between us and listen to what was going on she liked to be around people but not interact with them.The day after I came home from the hospital after having a heart attack she feel over with a heart attack  around the age of 11. My little girl died and went to doggy heaven.
Now we have Kattie, poor ole girl is 17 years old now and is going into congestive heart failure and will not be with us much longer. She has missed Smoke,Bear,and Lil Bit since they died as much as we have and her and I have a special bond now. I sat up with her last night till around 1:00 and the wife took over guard duty. I'm setting here with heavy heart knowing that in a very short time my family of dogs that have been in our lives for all these years will come to an end.This is the first time I have talked about these dogs since they have passed it just hurt to much to talk about them and it still does. 
Did I tell you I love my ole dogs and I will miss every one of them for a long time to come?



Lil Bit setting on her table





 Smoke at 15 years old



 Ole Bear



I have to find a picture of Kattie.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Hydroponics

I haven't quit on my hydroponic plants, in fact my pepper plant has more peppers on it than any pepper plant I've ever grown and another thing I've noticed is the peppers seem hotter grown by the hydroponic system than in the garden. This plant was grown from some seeds I had laying around so I just threw them in some dirt to see if they would germinate and grow. My best guess is they are Peter Peppers but something happened to the peter part of them, its like they havn't been circumcised yet. I put this plant in the hydroponic bucket in the middle of Sept.when it was about 10 inches tall and when it started getting as big as I wanted it in the hydroponic system I added blooming fertilizer to it to make it start blooming and it went crazy with blooms. 






                               This plant is loaded with peppers and still is getting blooms.


 
 This is my light setup I threw together. I've had these lights setting out in the garage for a few months thinking I would build a frame for the lights but hell no I waited till the night that its going to freeze to
throw something together to hook the lights up with. It ain't fancy but it will work until I can figure out where my plants will live for the winter and then make a plan on the light set up. I'll probably go with an 8 bulb T5 system instead of this setup.



 8 bulb T5 system

http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mRChGbFGC3wQ4dU7l1H-VoQ.jpg


One thing I like about this 5 gallon bucket set up is the ease of taking indoors in the really cold weather unhook two hoses and take the bucket in and then bring the pump in and hook the two hoses up plug it in and your good to go.

 See that pitiful looking plant in the black bucket That is a tomato plant that has been through hell and back a couple of times. I had 2 big tomato plants in my 18 gallon totes and this limb broke off when I was messing with the damn plant showing it to someone so I stick it in this five gallon hydroponic bucket. This tomato plant started growing and looking great. Then we had some high winds come through blowing like hell, I looked out side and this dang plant was laying out in the yard naked as a jay bird and I think to myself that ain't right so I go put and have a look at it and its broke smooth off at the base. I go and get the roots and stub of this plant out of the 5 gallon bucket it was in and replant it. When you replant these plants they look like hell for about a week until their root system starts kicking in and then they start growing and looking great again,that is what happened to this one, it started looking good again and our first really cold front came through and the weather guys tell me its not going to freeze that night so I just let stay outside. We had a flight to do the next morning so I'm out the door at around 5:30 that morning and what the hell is that on my wind shield, I believe that's a real nice thick coat of ice, them lying bastards I get home and the tips of that poor ole tomato plant are brown, they got frost bitten and looks pretty bad. Just for the heck of it I'm leaving it the bucket and see what happens.



Wednesday, November 20, 2013

I'm still kicking

I came back from Terlingua earlier than I wanted to I came down with something and didn't do hardly anything out there but feel bad. I didn't even see the Shelby Mustangs. I worked around the place some and felt so bad I just came home and stayed sick most of Oct. The Doc thanks its allergy's cause I get it every year around this time
 I did kill me a Rattler in my drive out there scared the hell out of me. I know some of you folks likes snakes but I can't stand Rattle snakes they scare the hell out of me I almost picked one up when I was little and have hated them ever since. I was pulling into the drive and he was just laying there looking at me. I back up and and went around to the other drive and go up to the place I get my gun and head back down the road and dang it he wasn't there I thought I had lost him and started looking off to the side of the road and there he was about 10 feet off the road just stretched out there. I take one step off the road and he jerked around coiled up and ready to strike in a blink of an eye I take aim and blow his dang head right off damn that gave me the hebbie jebbies. If you ever killed one of these you know they wiggle around for a long time even without a head. I just leave him there and was gonna come back in a little while when he quit moving and cut the rattles off. I go off and do some work and come back in about an hour and the damn thing was gone. Something wanted him more than I did.



I can always count on my ole friend porky coming bye. I can be doing something around the place and look up and ole porky is giving me the old I'm hungry look. I don't know why he is so friendly but we have hung around together for a few years now and I feel sorry for him, he is getting old and the others won't let him eat when they are around. I can tell him apart from the others because he is lighter than they are. I guess he is getting gray hair.




So I put some corn out around the feeder and set back and wait for all his kinfolk to stop bye for some supper.





Everything was green and grown up. It looked like I haven't been out there in years. I had to break out the weed eater and cut weeds for 2 days. That might be where my allergy's got stirred up. This is looking out my front door before I cut it I don't know why I didn't take an after pic of it. I like it cut real close to the ground around the house so I don't step on a dang snake.








I get home and really don't feel like doing much so I kick back for a few days and start to feel better.  I figure I would down load the pictures I took out there and about half way through down loading them this damn little window pops up and tells me I'm out of disk space, I said dad gum it and said to heck with it. I sure didn't feel like installing another hard drive at the time so I just let it set for awhile. 
  We had a lot of balloon rides for the month of Oct. and had one wedding in the basket which led me in another direction I had no idea I would head.The minister that was going to marry the couple couldn't make it and they asked me if I could marry them I have never been asked that question before so it kind of set a light bulb off in this ole fried brain of mine, maybe I can do this. I tell them let me see what I can do and I would get back with them. I get on line and look around for awhile and all of a sudden by God I'm an Ordained Minister and I can marry you right now. 
 Well hell they found someone before I could get back to them with the news that I can marry them so I'm setting here waiting to do my first marriage. 
If you see some guy walking around with a lighting rod don't worry its just me I don't need no dang lighting bolt coming out of the sky and striking me until I get the hang of this Ordained Minister title.

We took the Scott Felder balloon out to the F1 races Sunday and did some advertising while the cars buzzed around the track






and that just about catches me up.