Locations

You can find Grama Sue's Rainbow Eggs at:

The Hy Vee on Agency in Burlington, IA


Markets:

Wednesday - Friday 9am to 1pm at the farm 1/2 mi east of the Nauvoo-Colusa Jr. High then 3/4 mile North on 1050.

Wednesday 3-7 pm at the Painted Corners on HWY 96 in Lomax, IL

Saturday:

7 - 11 am Keokuk Farmer's Market at the mall





Sunday, December 2, 2012

Retreat


Our pastured egg production has been a disaster this year. We started out the year with a very desirable problem. We had 6 stores and were having problems meeting the demand. We were producing about 70 dozen a week and thought we could easily move 200 dozen. That led to a huge mistake. In an effort to boost our winter production rate, we bought 1000 one year old chickens that were laying at a 90% rate in a chicken house. They went into a molt soon after we got them and stopped laying. We expected that, but we thought they would recover and give us the eggs we needed. They didn't. We had a lot of money tied up in them and couldn't afford to replace them when we realized that they were not going to do the job we had hoped.

We recently bought 300 baby chicks, but they won't be in production for another 6 months. That is, if we can get them to live through the winter. We weren't able to get them until November 1st and it's been a little to cold for them. I'm sure most of them will survive, but how many we will actually have come spring is anyone's guess. This pastured egg business isn't as easy as it looks folks!

For the last few weeks we have only been producing 12 to 20 dozen a week. Our older hens have slowed way down and I'm not sure if any of these chicken house hens are laying at all. So, for now we have decided we have to limit our sales to the closest stores.

Macomb and Quincy, thank you so much for your loyalty. Hopefully we will be able to return in the spring. We will try to keep supplying the Burlington Hy-Vee Store on Agency and Ducks in Nauvoo. 

Again we want to thank you all for your support! We believe we can do this because of you. Just need to retreat for the winter and rethink our strategy. 



God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Changes, Changes

Life has been pretty crazy around here the last few weeks. When I wrote that post saying good-bye to my garden, I thought I was just saying good-bye for the winter. While I was gone, my old farmer went to Heaven. So after the funeral, I spent several days moving out and trying to move plants from that garden home. There's no way I'd be able to keep up with it if I wasn't there 3 days a week. Then I got sick. Nothing serious, just normal caregiver burnout after a job is done and a cold shared by generous grandchildren :)

I'm starting to get my bearings. It's kinda strange not to have 48 hours of work that has to be done within the next 24. To bad it won't last. People call me wanting someone to help them all the time. I'm sure I'll be back to sleeping around soon!

In the mean time, I'm looking around my place and trying to decide how to expand the gardens here to accommodate all the stuff I was planning to do over there next year. Some people have told me it's so sad that I did all that work and now it's gone. But it's really OK. Working on the gardens at my old farmer's gave me something to do, it made him happy and most of all it gave me a chance to prove to Grampa Tom that I could do it! He has recognized that I have quite a bit of skill and talent when it comes to gardening and now my suggestions don't always sound like craziness to him :)

Next week, I'll start on my last year of assessing. Can't wait to get that job done. Then I can get on with my real life! Taking care of people and God's beautiful earth :)

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Welcome To Mikes Farm And Country Store!

Grampa Tom drove out to North Carolina to pick me up and meet our new little granddaughter. On our last day in Jacksonville, we decided to visit Mikes Farm. We took our son, his wife and the 3 grandkids. It was fun, but not quite what we were thinking it would be.

Mike's Farm is billed as the most visited non-military tourist attraction in the Jacksonville area. It was once a tabbaco farm. The place mat in the restaurant said that Mike and his wife took over the farm in the 80's. Of course tabbaco was a dying industry at that point, so they decided to start a Christmas tree farm. Today it still has Christmas trees, along with some farm animals that the kids can feed, a bakery and a huge restaurant where they serve a pretty good meal served family style.

The kids had fun (which is the important part), but us farmers were just a little amazed at the lack of poop :) We were hoping for more of an intimate farm experience. You know, the kind where you get to meet the farmer and really get some education about how farming works. There were lots of antique tractors and even a display garden depicting a typical homestead garden in the early 20th century, but there were no signs identifying plants or organized tours where you could ask questions. Perhaps we went at the wrong time of year. In any case Grampa, my son and I all  agreed that it was a very sanitized, citified farm experience. Better than nothing I guess! And I have known people from town who would be repulsed by anything more authentic.

We'd love to have a little restaurant where we could concentrate on dishes made from what we produce on the farm, a shop where people could buy produce and crafts that we produce, a small petting zoo and hands on educational activities for adults as well as kids, but we would want it to be a little more like a real farm and less like a mini zoo.

Welcome To Mikes Farm And Country Store!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Holly Goes Lightly: Mumpkins!

So gotta do this! Wonder if I can find any pumpkins when I get back home. Will have to check with McVeighs of Roger's Pumpkin farm! We picked all our pumpkins before the last market and gave the few that were left over to my daughter.

Holly Goes Lightly: Mumpkins!

God Bless You All! 

~Grama Sue

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Visit to the Jacksonville, NC Farmer's Market

Took my grandkids to the farmer's market today. It is always fun to check out farmer's markets away from home. It was their last market for the season. There wasn't a huge amount of vendors there, but there were lots of people! I'm sure all the vendors who showed up made some money today. I would have liked to talk more with the vendors, but I didn't want to keep them from waiting on customers :)

The parking lot they were set up in had a building with garage doors lining 2 sides where vendors could pull in and unload their trucks so they could set up. Inside was a walkway down the middle of the booths and a stage where a band was playing at the far end. There were also vendors outside under tents like we do at home.


They had a hayride for the kids.


And a reptile exhibit with lizards a giant tortoise, a tarantula and several snakes. My grandson got to pet this one.


One of the vendors had some really cool display cases (pun intended). I need to see if I can make myself something like this for my eggs. 


They also had a "cow" for the kids to milk. Great interactive place for kids! My grandson didn't want to go because he was to tired,  (He's been staying up late since his little sister was born the other day. So much excitement!) but he was sure glad I made him come. :)


Poor Grampa Tom! He's missing all the excitement.


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue




Thursday, November 1, 2012

Scooping Poop

So now I've done it all. I've dealt with chicken poop, horse poop, pig poop, sheep poop, rabbit poop, turkey and geese poop, baby poop and old people poop, even my own poop, but I've never scooped dog poop, until now.

My son has this crazy contraption that picks up the poop and puts it in a bag. He keeps his back yard clean that way. Takes a bit of finesse, but I think I kinda have the hang of it.



At the moment, I'm visiting my son who lives in the city. He has a large yard. He also has a new baby, a toddler and a 3 y/o. I'm taking care of baby poop and loving it!

I'd hate to live in the city, but if I had to, I'd want a yard like his. Give me 5 years and I'd have a food forest out there :) Can you say urban permaculture?

One of my favorite Bible verses is Proverbs ... I can't remember the numbers right now but the version I learned says: "An empty barn is easy to clean, but there is no profit in it." It's one I quote often with the explanation that anything worth doing is going to involve some shoveling and if you have a lot to shovel, either someone has neglected it for a long time, or there's a lot of profit in it!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Thank You!

This is why we do what we do! We have the best customers! Even though we haven't been able to supply enough eggs to our stores for many, many months, our customers are always asking about us and at the markets we get so many thank yous!


We received this yummy lemon dessert and a custom designed card at the last market in Nauvoo. This retired couple came every week for tomatoes. They were so cute! He would get out of the car and open her door. Then they would come pick out their tomatoes. The way they paid was just adorable! He would shell out the bills, and she would give us the change. So darling! Anyway, the card had their picture along with a picture they took of us and a picture of one of our heritage tomatoes. We were so blessed!

Thank You  and God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Bye Bye Garden

Dear Garden, 

I will miss you, but it is time for you to go to sleep. I'm off to the east coast to take care of a couple of sweet grandbabies while a third is being born. It's supposed to be cold while I am gone, so I doubt there will be much of you left when I get back.

Love, Grama Sue


For the last couple of weeks, I've been working really hard to get things somewhat buttoned up before I took off. 

The black berries have been pruned and trellised and the prunings have been replanted. Next year I should have a nice crop of black berries and the year after that, they should be coming out my ears :)

I planted 6 elderberry starts and a whole bunch of hazelnut prunings that a neighbor gave me. I also splurged and bought a couple of hibiscus bushes. I absolutely love the dramatic gigantic flowers these bushes put out. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out how to propagate them so I can have as many as I want and maybe even sell some.

The garlic has been planted for next year and I decided to try a little experiment with potatoes. This spring, I had a several volunteer potatoes from potatoes that I had apparently missed last year. I actually had a few potatoes to sell at the first market this year. It seems I'm always wanting to plant potatoes about a month before they have them in the stores, so I saved a few from this year and planted them deep in one of my mounds and then buried them under a ton of leaves. I will cover it early next year and see if I can get an early crop of potatoes.

I used leaves to super mulch my herbs and mums. If it doesn't get to cold this winter, they may winter over again. Just in case, I made sure I brought a little bit of each inside, 'Cept the mums ... I didn't get the mums. I really should try to get a pot of mums if it's not too cold when I get back. 

This year I finally found some calendula seed. Several years ago, a friend of mine cut her finger almost to the bone. She used a salve on it made with calendula flowers. In a week, it was almost healed. I've been trying to find the seed for a few years now. In August this year, I finally found some. I bought two packages. I planted one and kept the other for next year, just in case I didn't get any flowers before it frosted this year. Just a few weeks ago, they started blooming so I was able to get enough for an experimental batch. They are drying now. When I get back, that will be one of my projects. 

Other projects will be:
Cutting and canning my swiss chard
Pulling the tomato plants
Re-mounding my rows, adding compost and mulching
Figuring out what Christmas ornament I am going to make for gifts this year. 
Making and canning chili, spaghetti, jams, butters and other goodies out of the produce I froze this summer.
And assessing. Yuck. This will be my last year as the township assessor. Yeah! Next year I'll be able to focus lots of other fun stuff over the winter, like crafts, writing and promoting eggs :)

For the past several months, I've been working 7 days a week between my eldercare job, the markets and assessing. For right now, I'm gonna relax for a couple of weeks with my grandbabies. We will see if I can handle that. I''m not much good at sitting around. I'm sure we can find something to do ... :)

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Jerusalem Artichoke

My Jerusalem artichoke is blooming! I used to have a patch of these many years ago, but we tore them out to rearrange the garden and I never got around to finding a new place for them. This spring, my good friend Juanita gave me a whole bag of them. I planted them, but the deer dug most of them up. I had 2 that I must have planted to deep for the deer to detect because they came up after the longest time. I had forgotten that they bloom! I thought I probably had just been babying some stray wildflowers. Got on the internet and searched for images of  Jerusalem Artichoke and calmed my fears. Thank God and Al Gore for the internet!


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue


Monday, September 17, 2012

Thyroid Problems?

Yesterday, Grampa Tom told me he really needed to go buy some new clothes because his pants keep falling off.

A few weeks ago, our daughter gave him a bottle of Thyromin. Right away he had lots more energy and within a few days the puffiness in his face went away. He says it works just like the thyroid supplement the chiropractor gave him a few years ago.

I'm thrilled! I've been after him to go back to the chiropractor, but he's stubborn. I have my man back again!

If you are interested in trying this, please contact me. If you order through me or decide to join the company, I'll make a few bucks! Thanks!

http://www.youngliving.com/natural-health-supplements/Thyromin

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Sunday, September 16, 2012

30 Things To Do With Eggshells

Check out this post by Prairie Homestead!

I've used them 9 of these! They are:
1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 18, 23

Which ones have you tried?

http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2012/08/9-things-to-do-with-eggshells.html

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Food Saver! Thanks Mom!

My momma reads my blog! I just about cried when I saw this on my doorstep yesterday! Thanks Mom!



God Bless You All!
(and especially  my mom!)

~Grama Sue



Friday, September 7, 2012

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Butchering Chickens

Well, I took more than just a few pictures and it took me two days to load them! Warning, if you are squeamish, you might not want to read this post :)

Butchering chickens for me starts out with lots of cleaning. I'm not known for my house keeping skills, but when it comes to cooking for others or butchering meat, I'm really, really picky.


The kitchen needs to be spotless and the sinks and the counters are all bleached down.


The scalding pan is scrubbed and bleached.


And so is the freezer.


The garage gets hosed down.


And then I sharpen my knife. A sharp knife makes the job easier and safer. Believe it or not you are more likely to cut yourself with a dull knife than with a sharp one. The effort it takes to cut with a dull knife makes it easier for the knife to slip and hit your hands.


I fill the cooler half full with water, ice and a couple of cups of salt after scrubbing and bleaching it.


Then I'm ready.



The night before Grampa Tom went out and caught the chickens we will butcher. There are several reasons why we do this. 1. They are easier to catch at night when they are roosting. 2. It is less stressful on the birds. (The few times we have just caught a bird and then butchered it, there have been liquids in places where there shouldn't have been liquids. I'm told this is because of the stress of being chased. 3. An overnight fast for the birds makes for much less poop and a much more sanitary process. 4. This gives the livers a chance to rest. Birds that have eaten recently will have a pale liver. A red liver has more nutrients in it.


Grampa Tom fills the scalding pan. He aims for 145 degrees. To hot and the birds will cook. To cool and the feathers won't come off. He immerses the bird 4 or 5 times and then proceeds to pluck.

I don't have any pictures of the actual kill because I was once a city girl and so far I've managed to keep one part of that city girl persona in tact. No killing for me! I've insisted that I was made to give life, not take it. I wait until the heads of whatever we are butchering to be gone before I go out. I don't want their eyes looking at me saying "What did you do this to me for?' 

According to my kids, who have always helped with this, Grampa Tom steps on the bird's head and yanks it off very quickly. Then the bird runs around with it's head cut off for about a minute. They always think this is a hilarious sight. Sick kids ... Yes, you've heard the saying ... it's actually happens.

Before I start each chicken, I say a little prayer thanking God for the chicken and asking His help to butcher it so that I butcher the chicken, not my fingers. I sliced my fingers to the bone a couple of times before I learned to do this. I also thank God throughout the process as He answers my prayer :) 

Sometimes, my brothers and sisters in Christ are confused because I rarely say "grace" before a meal. I am thankful for my food, I just pray as I'm growing it, shopping for it, putting it into my pantry, processing it and cooking it. It's a little bit different, but it works for me.


Once the bird is plucked, I remove the feet. Right where the leg bends, there is a joint. To find the right place, I bend the leg backwards and put my knife in the place where the joint comes together. Then I slowly work the knife into the joint, cut the cartilage and remove the foot.


The next step is to remove the pin feathers. I start out by giving the chicken a good rub down with a stiff brush. Most of them will come out this way.


There are  always a few stubborn ones that I have to use a my fingernail and or a pair of tweezers to get out. Some are just beginning to form. You can work all day and not get them all out. On a white feathered bird you don't even notice them, but I've decided  that with a dark feathered bird I just have to put up with them, unappetizing it is. This may be the reason people started breading and frying chicken in the first place :)


Next, I locate the food and the wind pipe on the neck.



I pull them out and make a couple of cuts at the base of the neck so I can locate the crop.


I loosen the connective tissue surrounding the crop with my finger, pull it away from the carcass and then cut it away just under the crop. Once this is done you can cut off the neck if you want.


Now it's time for the other end. On top of the tail there is an oil gland. I'm told this part is no good for eating, so you want to make your first cut just above this gland.


Carefully cut through the back bone. If you cut to far, you will go through the vent, which will make the whole process more poopy. Most of the time, if the chicken hasn't had any food all night, I can gut without any manure getting on the meat, but if you accidentally cut the vent, it will definitely happen. I keep a bottle of bleach water next to the sink. If this does happen, I  immediately douse it with bleach water and then run lots of fresh cold water over it. In the big processing plants, they throw the carcass into a big sanitizing bath  where it has time to soak up all that sanitizer. YUCK! 


Once the back bone is cut, carefully make cuts on both sides of the tail.


And then around the front. There will be some belly fat. Don't cut this. It will pull out with the rest of the innards.


If there isn't enough room to get your hand inside the bird (which is rare with roosters) you can cut along the outside of the rib cage on each side of the bird. I do this by putting my knife inside the bird and cutting out so that I don't cut the innards accidentally.

Then comes the really gross part. You have to run your hands all around the inside of the bird to free the innards from the connective tissue that holds it to the ribs. Then slowly pull them out of the body.


This is what you will pull out. The heart in the upper left hand corner often comes out detached, but if not it will be located near the liver (the dark mass) the other giblet part you may want to save out of the innards is the gizzard. It is the hard round yellow thingy in the middle of the picture. The yellow is the fat that surrounds the stomach muscle (which is the gizzard).


This is what a your chicken looks like after it's been gutted.  Look familiar?



I then place the carcass in my icy salt water for 8 to 24 hours. The cooling tenderizes the meat, so does the salt. The salt also helps to remove excess blood from the carcass and provides a little bit of protection from bacterial contamination. If you are salt sensitive you can leave it out, but I think it makes a better chicken.



You have to be careful when cutting out the liver. The picture I took turned out all blurry, but at the base of the liver is a bile duct. It is a short little green oval. Move the liver around until you see it, then cut the liver away, leaving a little bit of the liver attached just to make sure you don't nick it. I'm told if you do, the bile fluid will make any meat it touches very bitter. I have nicked it on occasion. I throw out anything that got the fluid on it and then wash the knife well before going on. 


To process the gizzard, pull the fat off and then make a cut down one side. Try not to go to far. The objective is to keep the stomach lining intact, pulling the stomach muscle away from it.


Peal the gizzard away from the stomach lining.


And hopefully you will wind up with the stomach lining intact (in my hand in this picture) and the gizzard.


But most of the time, the lining rips. Not really a problem. I just dump the contents into my throw away pan and pull the lining away. Then I rinse the gizzard well before putting it in my chill water.


About every 4 or 5 chickens, I take my gut garbage out for my dogs and cats. They love it. If you don't have critters you can throw them to, they make excellent compost too. Just make sure they are well buried in the pile because they will stink if you don't.


This is what my cooler looks like with 17 birds in it. I like to put the giblets in a separate pan, but you don't have to. I keep the feet. You can make gelatin out of them, but I usually wind up using them for dog treats later. 


When I am ready to pack the birds, I arrange them in the sink so they can drain for a bit first.


I also drain the giblets in colanders. Personally, I hate giblets, but my husband likes the hearts and livers. My 
favorite father-in-law loves gizzards so I separate them just so they will be easy to pack.


I like to double wrap my birds. I believe in recycling. If we were packing these for someone else, I'd use cling wrap for the inner layer, but since this time we were butchering for us, empty bread wrappers are good enough.


I use freezer wrap for the second layer. The instructions say to put the meat down on the shiny side of the paper. Thank God for written instructions. I always forget which side. I fold over the creases and tape them with masking tape. Grampa Tom keeps threatening to buy one of those fancy vacuum bagger contraptions so we could just stick them in a bag and not have to do all this. Someday ...


Then I flip it over and write the contents and the date on the other side. Once I've marked it. In the freezer it goes! 

So now you know. We used to sell to private customers, but we are pretty confused about the law now. It may be illegal for us to sell our chickens with our butchering set up. Apparently, we need thousands of dollars worth of buildings and equipment to satisfy the government.  

But you know what? I'd put my chickens up in a lab test against those big guys anytime, and I'd win. I've read the regulations on federally inspected poultry. The last time I looked into it, they were proposing lowering the "acceptable" rate of fecal contamination from somewhere over 50% to in the 25% range. The only thing these government regulations do is make it difficult to impossible for you to get good meat unless you process it yourself.  

If you are interested in buying live birds to butcher yourself, let me know. The next time we have them ready, I'll contact you.

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Friday, August 31, 2012

Rainy Day Plans

FINALLY! Yesterday I finished my assessing job for 2012. One more year to go, then I can get on with my real life :) But, for the time being I get about a 3 month break. I'm hoping to have the time to write a little here every day, but I don't know. Grampa Tom will be helping a neighbor in the fields as soon as we dry out from Isaac. Welcome to the Midwest Isaac!

We need rain, but not nearly as badly as those to the south or east of us. We've done  a lot of watering regardless! During the really hot part of the summer, it didn't matter how much we watered, stuff was just having a hard time growing. the last couple of weeks have been much better. Just hope the markets hang in there for a while yet.

Grampa Tom says he's going to let me sleep in tomorrow because of the rain. I get to spend the morning sharpening knives and cleaning out the freezer so that we can butcher somewhere around 25 chickens tomorrow afternoon. We bought 75 Welsummer chicks last spring. The  cockerels  are big enough to butcher right now. We have to get them done now or they will be way to big by the time we get to them after harvest. We will keep a few cockerels and all of pullets for breeding purposes. These chickens lay a beautiful chocolate colored egg.

Maybe I'll take a few pictures and post them tomorrow.

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Monday, August 13, 2012

Cleo - Chloe?

Our new puppy! Cleo - Chloe? My granddaughter named her, but kept calling her both names. I like the sound of  Chloe better, but Cleo means the Father's Glory. I'm confused. Never let a 5 y/o name a dog. I'm actually in favor of Rainbow for a white dog, but that's been vetoed by everyone. :(


My daughter just happened to be looking for a Great Pyrenees when Molly died and ran across a great deal on purebred, unpapered pups. We had her pick one up for us when she went to pick up hers. Gave us an awesome excuse to take a day off in the middle of market season to go see her new house and visit with her family! We hadn't seen them since the middle of June. Now if we could just manage to see the East Coast branch!

Cleo - Chloe did very well on the ride home. She got rather anxious when we drove into a heavy storm, but as soon as it subsided, she settled down. We didn't get home until 9:30 and since it was raining, we decided she'd have to come in for the night. 

Lady (our other Great Pyrenees) was so excited to see her! She was following us around and even wanted to come inside with her. No way! Cleo-Chloe will be an outside dog very soon. I'm not having a houseful of gigantic dogs in this little trailer. Blue on the other hand isn't terribly impressed. He'll just have to get used to her!

Cleo-Chloe thinks the dog in the mirror is a playmate. It is funny, but has to be discouraged. A sliding mirror door is just to fragile to wrestle doggy style with. 

We will see how she does tomorrow with the chickens. 

I've been wanting to have a side-kick type of dog for quite a while. Since Cleo-Chloe rides so well, I think she will be come my personal companion. 


God Bless You All!

Love, Grama Sue




Monday, August 6, 2012

Stevia Cuttings

Yesterday my stevia plants were getting pretty big, so I decided to harvest some. While I was at it, I decided to take some cuttings.



I've done this before, but it didn't work as well as I wanted. I did go from one plant to 4, but I was hoping for more.  I found this video on youtube.com so I decided to try it. I'll let you know what happens!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAhgB9ZaCBw

So far, I've kept all my stevia in pots. Since I had so few, I wanted to bring them all in come fall so I didn't bother to plant them in the ground. I did set some other pots beside them and managed to create a couple more plants by taking long branches and burying them into them. I'm hoping to get at least 5 more plants from this so I took the plunge and put one plant in the ground. It will probably grow much better there.


I need to grow a ton of this stuff! I tried making pickled beets with it a couple of weeks ago. I gave up pickled beets years ago because of all the sugar. Pickled beets with stevia are awesome! 

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Crystal Mushroom

The other day on Facebook, there was this cool picture of crystal mushrooms for the garden. This weekend I had the opportunity to hit a couple of yard sales and TA-DA!


Here is my version of the crystal mushroom. I don't think I'm going to put it in the garden though. To pretty to expose it to the elements like that. 

I took a couple of plastic wine glasses put one upside down on a cap from the old gas stove, ( I just couldn't bear to throw them away. Knew they would come in handy for something.)  filled it with Christmas tree mylar and glued it down. Then I put a little bit of beading along the edge to hide the glue. Next, I glued another wine glass to the bottom of the upside down glass and glued that glass to the upside down plastic crystal bowl. I didn't like the glue showing, so I painted the top red and sprinkled some glitter on it. Pretty huh?

I've got enough to make one more. Maybe I'll take them to the fall market in Burlington or to a craft show sometime. Think I could get $5 out of it?

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue




Friday, August 3, 2012

Molly

For those of you that don't know, our grand old lady Molly has passed away. When she came to us 3 years ago, she was 7. She lived to be 10. A very old age for this breed of dog. Molly was  incredibly sweet. She loved kids and hated coyotes and coons with a passion.


She has not been in good shape for several months now, but that soft hearted Grampa Tom couldn't bear to put her down. We have a place under the house where the dogs go to get out of the weather. For about a week before she died, we would hear her in there, but we didn't see her. 

The night before she died, she came out to see us one last time. She looked awful. Grampa and I tried to doctor her, but there really wasn't anything anyone could have done for her. Grampa was going to take her to the vet in a couple of days if she didn't improve. I told him I didn't think there was anything the vet could do for her either, but he just couldn't bear the thought of putting her down.

The next morning, we found her between my car and the gardens. Grampa had to wait until I moved the car to be able to get her out to bury her. I had several things I needed to put in it and every time I walked by her I could not help but thank her for not dying under the house! She was always to thoughtful!

Rest in peace Molly ... We will miss you.

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue