Features from the July/August 2016 issue
The Story of Jasmine, a rescued greyhound
by T Stokes
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Police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog. The dog had been locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished, and had quite clearly been abused.
In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a female greyhound, to the Nuneaton Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, which is run by a man named Geoff Grewcock, and known as a haven for animals abandoned, orphaned, or otherwise in need.
Geoff and the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims ... to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust. It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved. They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home.
The Joys and Perils of Country Life
Summertime ... and the livin' is easy ... oh really?
by Ann Ulrich Miller
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Now that we’ve been living at “Sunny Brook” for two months, Doug and I are really getting to experience country life. For myself, it is a replay as I once lived on a mesa with an awesome mountain view outside Paonia, Colo. There we had mules, chickens, geese and turkeys, cats and a herding dog. I had a job at two newspapers and I don’t know how I got everything done, except that I was younger then. We are supposedly retired here in Cedaredge; at least neither of us has an “outside” job, although I must confess we are outside a lot.
Once most of the boxes were unpacked and things more or less put away inside the house, we turned our attention to the outside. O… M… G !!!
Our property is 2.01 acres, but it might as well be 20 ... or 40. There is mowing to do, along with weed-eating, weed-pulling and weed-ignoring tasks that never end. I just had to have a garden, and the one in place is sizeable, about 40 ft. by 50 ft., and well nourished with composted soil and plenty of sun. The eleven 4-foot-tall tomato plants we transported with us from Bayfield waited until Memorial Day to be put in the ground.
At that point, it looked as though they would surely die. Their scrawny, sedentary stalks were used to being pampered inside the house, where I fed them rain water that I collected. The shift to new ground soil and the blaring rays of the sun put the scare into most of them, and one or two died within the first couple of days. The rest are struggling, but maybe half of them will survive to produce the much anticipated fruit.
Gardens, as most of you know, are time-consuming and labor intensive, especially in 100-degree heat and intense sun and wind. I put in other vegetables in the days following.
The property comes with a well for irrigating purposes, but unfortunately, the 2-inch pipes that would supply that water are busted and need to be replaced before we can take advantage of the “free” water.
Irrigation days have been a learning experience for us. We’ve had five irrigation periods since the end of May, and basically they water the north and south pastures over a 24-hour period, which requires constant supervision, re-direction, problem-solving (as in leaky pipes or clogged gates) and certainly my least favorite challenge … snakes!
There is an especially long garter snake that hangs around the garden fence whom I’ve named Reggie. I still scream every time I see him … I just can’t help it … but I’m trying to be better about not reacting so fearfully to a creature that keeps the varmints down.
In mid-June I ordered baby chicks, which were shipped in from Iowa. I now have fifteen baby hens plus a rooster in the brooder and we are looking forward to the day they give us farm fresh eggs.
A dog is in our future, but it’s hard to tell when, as sometimes we feel overwhelmed with all the work there is to do, and the repairs we did not foresee.
On the other hand, the joys include living in this great place, outside a small, friendly town, with neighbors who are outgoing and brought over brownies and banana bread when they introduced themselves, a view of the Grand Mesa, living only eight miles from one of my sons, and feeling more at home here with each passing day.
The cherry trees are ripe and I’ve been picking and baking pies, but mostly giving fruit away. We’ll have peaches this year and apples, raspberries and plenty of produce for canning and freezing, a pastime I used to enjoy, and will again. There is something satisfying and upbeat about growing your own food and preserving it for later use.
I’ve also been meaning to get out my solar oven and start cooking with it. You’d be amazed what you can do with the Sun’s energy. We’re tired at the end of the day, it’s true, but it’s good to be home and there are many adventures ahead.
Get my latest novel, The Ground Hog Mystery, out this month, from Earth Star Publications ($12.95 postpaid), P.O. Box 1213, Cedaredge CO 81413. You can read a free sample chapter soon at my Web site, AnnUlrichMiller.com.