u/Lyrical_Echo

With the growing season coming to an end in zone 8b, I’m making plans to move everyone into the greenhouse for the winter - and I come around the house to find these stinkers have decided to take off! I usually take cuttings to root then pot up overwinter until it’s warm enough to move them outside. These three have been dragging their feet all summer…until now. I guess I’m changing my plans from prop to dig up and pot, but that just means they’ll be that much further ahead come spring. Last fall I actually did take cuttings from these plants, which died back to stumps over the winter, then surprised me with tiny green leaves. Two years ago I walked into the greenhouse to find four buds that opened into glorious yellow bells! Lovely surprise in the dead of winter!

This picture was in my “Your memories from today” email today. Dad took this picture September 19, 2021 of his beloved plumerias that he grew from cuttings he mostly got during his and Mom’s vacations in Hawaii. Every spring he’d move them from the shop where they overwintered to prepared beds in yard where they’d spend the season growing and blooming before he’d dig them up in the fall and move them back to the shop to protect them from the winter’s cold temperatures. He’d water, prune, and graft them, and had a few plants with up to three grafted varieties on them. This was his retirement project, and it kept him busy, but he loved it. It kept him going.

This was the last season he had with them as he died the following February. It doesn’t make me sad because I know how much he loved pottering about with them, how much joy he got from them, and how proud he was of his success with them. If anything, it’s a testament of his hard-work and dedication.

Part of why I enjoy this sub so much is every time I see people’s post of their plumerias, I think of Dad and it makes me smile. They’re beautiful plants, and I know how much y’all enjoy them and how proud you are of them because Dad did, too.

God bless you all, and take a big sniff for me of those gorgeous blooms!

This post is purely driven by curiosity with regard to terms used in different regions and/or countries. There are no right or wrong answers. This is just about sharing information and experiences.

During an unexpected break (RAIN!! And temp drop from 90° to 82°!) while working on a new enclosure for our PPID mare, my husband and I were discussing the different terms used for livestock enclosures. I grew up around our own livestock and those belonging to clients of my large and small veterinarian father, but my husband grew up in town with the occasional household cat.

Growing up in Arkansa, a “corral” was where we held livestock (mostly cattle) while working them or sorting them out for movement to other pastures, and there generally was a head gate with a narrow lane leading to it. A “pasture” was a larger area for grazing that might or might not have a pond a shelter (generally not in our case). A “stall” was an enclosed pen in a barn that might or might not open out into an outside enclosure that we called a “paddock”. We had “barns” (four-walled structures, with or without interior stalls) or “sheds” (two or three-walled structures) for hay storage, while some of Dad’s clients had “stables” for their horses. Some had “arenas”, large fenced (usually wood boards or metal pipes, some square/rectangular and some round) enclosures with dirt or a sand/dirt mix ground with no grass where they trained or practiced with the horses. Some had “round pens”, circular enclosures with high board walls with no gaps, some with roofs and some without, for training horses without visual distractions.

For a few years my husband and I lived in Tennessee and stabled our two mares at a place owned by a couple originally from California. They called the enclosures in the stable for the horses “corrals”. They had a large fenced enclosure not connected to the stable (about 30 feet away from it) where boarders rode and practiced, which they referred to as the “paddock”. Several feet from that was an unfinished circular roofed structure with open sides that was supposed to be their “round pen”, but the planned board walls were never finished. In that situation, our terms matched!

Interestingly, I looked up the term “corral”, one definition of which mentioned putting wagons in a circle to protect settlers and livestock from an Indian attack. I don’t think I’ve had to do that in quite some time. 🤣

What terms do you use for various structures and enclosures, and where are you located? Are your terms based on use or size, or determined by which animals are involved?

Looking forward to an interesting and informative discussion!

Picture of a curious Ramona for tax.

We have three Toulouse geese that came with our property which we purchased in August 2019. Originally there were more, but it’s been just these three now for about three years. The previous owner told us when we saw him five years ago they must be 20-25 years old. Two of them stayed paired off, while the third one stays close but the pair keep him at a distance.

A couple of days ago I started finding loose feathers in the pasture but didn’t think much about it because I know there molt periodically, but today I noticed one of the pair looked like this. I have no idea if he’s having a health issue, if he’s been attacked, or if this is normal and I just haven’t noticed it in the past.

Also, we’ve talked about getting a companion for the solitary goose I call Charlie. Sometimes we have a pair of Canadas who come and stay for a few days and he hangs with them and even “helped” them raise their three goslings last year. Would it be a good idea to get him friend, and if so, what do we get? Another Toulouse, a male or female, and how do we introduce them to each other?

Thank you!

EDIT: thank you for the replies letting me know this is normal molting. I’ve just never noticed it on any of them before, and the other two geese look their usual selves. Perhaps they’re just running a little behind on the process.

Got this horse as a two-year old eight years ago to be a companion to my Paint after her pasture mate of six years colicked and died. Our neighbors who bought hay from us noticed we were “short a horse” and asked if we’d like another one. Duh! Two days later we over for a look at her - the horse with no name, uncertain age, who wasn’t working out for them because she was too slow. (Turns out it was a personality conflict.) I asked what he wanted for her and he asked for two round bales. Stunned, I agreed. They brought her over for an introduction to my Paint mare, and they hit it off. We named her Ramona. The girls had almost a year together before I had to put my mare down because of kidney issues.

When we moved states, I found an Arab-mix rescue in need of a home, so we bought her in because…horses are like potato chips. You can’t have just one!

In October of last year, she started having an eye issue, and eventually other issues were revealed - she’d foundered and was diagnosed with PPID and IR.

Her life - and mine - has changed considerably since then. No more free grazing in a wide-open pasture. She’s confined to a dry lot, only allowed a beet pulp and hay pellet mix that’s “seasoned” with Prascend and Equioxx and a supplement, and low carb hay. She’s been fitted with special boots to ease the pain in her front hooves, and has to be trimmed monthly to keep them fitting properly. Her friend comes into the lot every night so they can munch hay together.

When I saw she’s the literal reason I get out of bed every morning, it’s to give her her feed, meds, and hay, and to thoroughly clean the lot before I feed myself, shower, and get to work. In the evening the process is repeated.

It’s not easy. The weather makes things difficult. We had several days of 18° temps this past winter with snow and ice. Now we’re seeing high humidity (60% and above) and days of 80° temps. It rains, the wind blows, and sometimes I’m tired from everything else I do. My back hurts a lot, and toting 50 lb bags of feed and bales of hay don’t help it.

But when I look at her and see how much better she looks, or when she comes to me while I’m in the lot picking up 15 piles of manure, and looks me in the eye, puts her head on my shoulder, and softly sighs or nuzzles my ear…I know I‘ll keep doing whatever she needs, no matter the weather or how tired I am.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pineapple/s/6oaLgnxbKY

Last week I posted about a very disappointing pineapple purchase from Walmart through online shopping. I was going to skip pineapples for a while, hoping their supply source would change, but apparently I forgot to remove the one I’d already added to my list for this week (I add items throughout the week as we use the last/empty a package). When I picked up my order last night, the young man loading my items into the back of my vehicle asked if I wanted to put the pineapple into the insulated bag where I was placing my refrigerator and freezer items. I told him, “No, but thank you for asking,” but took the bag from him so I could set it on in a more protected spot. I took a quick look at it and was pleased to see no brown or dried leaves, and no obvious bruising (we’ll see what cutting reveals).

I think this one will work! 😊😊😊

TL/DR Rant: For those of you who have had negative experiences with online shopping, or who say order pickers purposely pick bad items (out of date, bad condition, etc), that’s not always the case. The ground beef and chicken tenderloins in my order have “Use by” dates of 5/8, so whoever picked this order did not pick the shortest date. It’s in the best interest of the stores to have their employees pick the best items available and not send out old and/or damaged items. If that happens consistently with your orders, I’d be reporting that to management and consider changing stores. Yes, I’m sure there are disgruntled employees who may stoop to such tactics - as evidenced by the conversation on my last post with the store shopper who says they all hate us and think we’re lazy for using the online shopping service - but if that kind of behavior affects the company’s profits, I doubt management would allow that kind of behavior to continue. For those store shoppers who feel that way about us for using the service and hate their job GO FIND ANOTHER JOB.

Based on how the leaves looked when I pulled this out of the bag after picking up my grocery order I probably wouldn’t be rooting this one. Obviously won’t be eating it, either.

I sooooooooo can’t wait until one of my own produce fruit.