In July 2002 after the Mr. and I had both retired from the work force, we moved from Simi Valley to Bear Valley Springs to "test the waters", so to speak and see if we really wanted to live in a rural environment. We did. So, in 2004 we expanded our rural-ness and bought a house situated on one acre which included a chicken house WITH chickens and a goat named Effie. The animals were a great source of entertainment to us (most of the time), and the grandkids loved to come to "the farm" and help with the chores. I remember Grandson Cody at about age four, introducing himself to the chickens: "Hi, I'm Cody"...
Soon, the animal antics inspired me to write stories for the grandkids; I called them the "GRANNY AND" stories and I will occasionally post some of them... I hope you enjoy.
GRANNY AND THE NANNY (GOAT)
A story for my grandkids
You kids all know that here on the ranch we have 10 chickens and an old goat (two if you count Papa Ray). The chickens go in and out of their house through a little opening with a door that slides up and down to open and close it. At night we must close them in so the varmints won’t come and eat them up… (varmints already did that to 4 of my hens and our beautiful Blackjack the rooster). And then in the morning we must go and open the door so they can run out and scratch and eat worms and other interesting things. And of course, each opening and closing requires that someone go tromping all the way across the barnyard, through rain, snow, mud and other unpleasant things underfoot…
So, one day I was thinking how nice it would be if we had a remote control to open and close that chicken door from the back yard (close to the house)… and I figured out just how we could do it with some rope and a few eyebolts and pulleys. So on Saturday, Papa Ray and I set to work and with Uncle Steven’s help, got everything into place and got the rope all threaded through the holes with the end of it attached to the shed right out in the back yard. And the little door slid up and down just like magic.
Well, about that time, Effie the Nanny Goat saw that rope waving in the breeze. You probably know that Effie just loves to eat… and also loves to scratch her head on just about anything… fences, bungee cords, people’s legs & butts… and ROPE!! Before we could say SCAT… there was Effie up on a rock and gnawing & scratching away like we had put that rope up there just for her!!
So we (well anyway me) had another bright idea. We would put a post in the middle of the barnyard and run the rope through an eyebolt at the top of the post, and that would put it high up out of Effie’s reach. So today, Uncle Steve dug a nice hole for the post got that all set into place. Once again we threaded the rope in all the right eyebolts and pulleys… and then watched as Effie (the goat from H---L) reared up, put her front feet on the post and proceeded to gnaw and scratch her head on the rope. Several times she got so enthusiastic about the scratching she got the rope around her neck and almost choked herself… and I almost let her!!
Well, back to the drawing board, as they say. Steve and Emilie have a really good idea to make an electric chicken door opener and I’m pretty sure we can do it. It will require a small electric motor such as you would get with a Gilbert Erector Set (which are no longer in production, but can be found on E-bay for mere hundreds of dollars)… So that will be our next big project… and if that doesn’t work, we will take care of Effie and you are all invited to the BBQ.
So that’s what’s happening on the ranch… Love, Gram December 19, 2004
Soon, the animal antics inspired me to write stories for the grandkids; I called them the "GRANNY AND" stories and I will occasionally post some of them... I hope you enjoy.
GRANNY AND THE NANNY (GOAT)
A story for my grandkids
You kids all know that here on the ranch we have 10 chickens and an old goat (two if you count Papa Ray). The chickens go in and out of their house through a little opening with a door that slides up and down to open and close it. At night we must close them in so the varmints won’t come and eat them up… (varmints already did that to 4 of my hens and our beautiful Blackjack the rooster). And then in the morning we must go and open the door so they can run out and scratch and eat worms and other interesting things. And of course, each opening and closing requires that someone go tromping all the way across the barnyard, through rain, snow, mud and other unpleasant things underfoot…
So, one day I was thinking how nice it would be if we had a remote control to open and close that chicken door from the back yard (close to the house)… and I figured out just how we could do it with some rope and a few eyebolts and pulleys. So on Saturday, Papa Ray and I set to work and with Uncle Steven’s help, got everything into place and got the rope all threaded through the holes with the end of it attached to the shed right out in the back yard. And the little door slid up and down just like magic.
Well, about that time, Effie the Nanny Goat saw that rope waving in the breeze. You probably know that Effie just loves to eat… and also loves to scratch her head on just about anything… fences, bungee cords, people’s legs & butts… and ROPE!! Before we could say SCAT… there was Effie up on a rock and gnawing & scratching away like we had put that rope up there just for her!!
So we (well anyway me) had another bright idea. We would put a post in the middle of the barnyard and run the rope through an eyebolt at the top of the post, and that would put it high up out of Effie’s reach. So today, Uncle Steve dug a nice hole for the post got that all set into place. Once again we threaded the rope in all the right eyebolts and pulleys… and then watched as Effie (the goat from H---L) reared up, put her front feet on the post and proceeded to gnaw and scratch her head on the rope. Several times she got so enthusiastic about the scratching she got the rope around her neck and almost choked herself… and I almost let her!!
Well, back to the drawing board, as they say. Steve and Emilie have a really good idea to make an electric chicken door opener and I’m pretty sure we can do it. It will require a small electric motor such as you would get with a Gilbert Erector Set (which are no longer in production, but can be found on E-bay for mere hundreds of dollars)… So that will be our next big project… and if that doesn’t work, we will take care of Effie and you are all invited to the BBQ.
So that’s what’s happening on the ranch… Love, Gram December 19, 2004
Curious Effie
