Vicki Lane's Blog, page 516

I Can't Stop Taking Pictures of Leaves . . .

k

Appalachian Ingenuity

As I've mentioned before, when the cow plague struck, we moved the Jersey Girls and the calves, Xena and Clover, out of their quarters to keep them safe. Xena and Clover were given a spot in an old chicken house and Justin threw up a fence to give them a little pasture.

Of course, like most youngsters, Xena and Clover had to test their bounds and quickly broke out. So Justin responded in time-honored fashion -- making do with what was on hand -- ancient bedsprings, a battered metal gate, a wooden pallet...
I love the funky look but suspect it won't be around much longer. Before long the little girls will be testing this too.

The Jersey girls have been given the run of the area around our house. What remains of my garden has been fenced off and they're really enjoying mowing our yard.

The downside here is that we have to have an electrified gap across our road. Stop the car, get out, open gap, get back in car, drive through, stop the car, get out, close the gap... It gets old fast -- but this is temporary --- we'll put everyone back where they were before in a few weeks.
It's like old times though -- way back, before we owned the lower place, there were two or three gaps to deal with.  A good reason not to go out much!
 
And at this time of year, getting out of the car always allows another opportunity for a picture!

Blogging Elsewhere. . . .

[image error] Please pop over to Meanderings and Muses where I'm talking about why I'll never again end a book with a cliffhanger.

Willa Update

[image error] The new addition to the pack is doing great. Maggie doesn't love her but she puts up with the puppy.
Willa is intensely interested in food -- hers, the other dogs', and ours.  She's had her first puppy shots and she's learning to put up with being rudely sniffed by Ali Ali.


Willa decided the first night that she should sleep on our bed. . .  
She seems to be housebroken and whines to go out when it's necessary. We keep her on a leash as she's not yet trained to come to our call.
"An interesting concept," she says, "but first I need to follow this rabbit smell and what's that under this bush..."
[image error]

Leaf Peeping

[image error]

The Other Side of Yesterday

Back last Sunday I posted a series of pictures under the title "Yesterday" and many of you commented on what a beautiful day it must have been. Well, weather wise, it was. But it was actually a pretty bad day and the picture of the buzzard soaring overhead has a darker side,
What happened was that a neighbor's recently acquired heifer escaped and got in with our herd. She wasn't there long -- less than a day -- but evidently she introduced some really awful respiratory disease. By the time we got medical advice (no large animal vets in our area,), one cow had died, and by the time we could get the appropriate meds, three more were gone. It was like the plague. John loaded the first one on the truck and took her to the landfill. But when there were three more to deal with, he rented a small track hoe to dig a very big hole. And we rounded up the survivors and John shot them full of the appropriate antibiotics.  [image error] He was ably assisted by Justin who's a real calf wrangler...

The head gate works well to hold the cows still but not so well for the little calfies. [image error] The ladies in our rental house came out to help -- Nancy assisted with filling the hypodermics and Suzy worked the gate. [image error]  When it was all done, we shared a celebratory bottle of bubbly --  and kept our fingers crossed that the meds and vaccine would do the trick. We were unlucky with this outbreak but lucky to have caught it before it went further ... and lucky to have helpful friends. And Justin made plans to make use of that rented track hoe, doing all sorts of long dreamed of or postponed projects.
That was Saturday and the cattle all seem to have responded well to treatment. (The milk cows and Xena and Clover were not in the infected group and they have been moved to other barns to keep them safe. They've also been vaccinated.)
I didn't tell you about this in last Sunday's post-- such a downer. But as I read all the comments, I realized I needed to show the other side of what is usually a pretty idyllic life. 

Thursday Miscellany

[image error]



[image error]

Meet Willa

As I mentioned, we have a new dog. She looks a good bit like a mini-Maggie ...
And her long body makes me think of William... [image error]
 He disavows any knowledge of her, however... This is how it happened: On Monday morning a neighbor on the other side of the mountain called to ask if we were missing a little brown dog. Since all our crew were accounted for, I told him no and said I would call some other neighbors and ask. I did but nobody was missing a dog and I dismissed it from my mind as Somebody Else's Problem.
Then Monday evening as I was fixing dinner I got a call from another neighbor -- Willa, on our side of the mountain and just down the road. Was I missing a little brown dog? When I told her I wasn't, she said that she would take it in to a no-kill animal shelter the next day but could I possibly keep the dog overnight as her dogs weren't behaving nicely with the orphan.

With a feeling of inevitability, I climbed in the jeep and went to get the little brown dog. As soon as Willa put her in my arms, I realized that, after all, I had been missing this pup. 
And when I got her home and showed her to John and asked if we could possibly . . . he, too, bowed to the inevitable.
I named her Willa because it's a pretty name and because folks around here often name their animals for the person they got them from. Miss Susie Hutchins for instance, is named for my friend Sue. 
I think she'll be a nice addition to the pack.

It's Here!!!!

[image error] No, that's not me nor is it my camel. Nor did I take the picture. I saw it, unattributed, on Facebook and grabbed it because it makes me smile. 
But it does seem the perfect image to announce that (drumroll)  Under the Skin is out today!!!
I'll be celebrating with a launch party this evening at 6:30 at Fountainhead Books in Hendersonville, NC. You're invited and I really hope to see some of you who live in the area.

This is my sixth novel. Signs in the Blood, the first, came out in 2005 and I'm still kind of amazed at having completed another one.

Over in the sidebar are the other Under the Skin events I'll be doing this month and next. Coming soon, to a bookstore or library near some of you!

Things are a little frazzled around here -- as of 6 last night, we adopted another dog. More about her soon.We will return to commercial and Blatant Self Promotion free blogging tomorrow. I promise.

No Matter How You Roll . . .

On vintage tires... [image error] Soaring high . . .
Trotting . . . Ambling . . . Swimming . . .
Crawling . . .  Stepping out sharp . . . Alone . . . [image error] Or with a friend . . .I hope you'll be one of the folks who buys or orders my new book tomorrow . . .
And many, many thanks to all of you who've pre-ordered!!!