april 29 2023

here we go---  the really biggie is to get that trail  in "A" basically between the  house and willowdale-- seen from the driveway...... cleaned up and ready so we can get around with golf carts and handicapped if necessary..  

 parts are all there.  -- but unfortunately so is willowdale--- that forest tries every spring to take over by head banging you as you drive the golf carts around.... we could use some help-- with that .. another fun one i the sand pile which needs to get into the white posts... and of course the donkeys in prep for the pack burrow race in october....." they" the pack burro association are coming with 8 of thier donkeys. but we need to get ours moving-- which should be entertaining for all visitors-  it is possible for some visitors to stay in theri cars or bus and watch whatever is happening.... i have a group who have offered to try with donks... we do not have a specific time yet. ... but whatever that is, should be pretty funny.

here's the current list..

	community service projects
single or group	https://www.crazyacresfarm.org/	text carlene 978 380 0023
may 1 2023		equipment
trail blazing	we have a 1/4 mile loop  which is passable but not easily  with a golf cart-  the forest does this every spring and needs to be cut back.. Then eventually a walking connection to willowdale trails.	clippers. Yellow building or behind door 29- chicken .. Goat coop
golf carts	need to be in a "ready state" every Friday. For transporting handicapped. .. Clean charged distilled water checked etc there are 4. - white 2 seat red 4 and 6. then a maintanence green. One.	they are around...shoudl be plugged in on fridays
dump trailer	recharge battery plug in  should have 6 yellow tiedowns	extensioncords    whitehoop tent
moving manure	either to compost or to trailer for brickends hamilton	smaller tractor-- ask carlene or bud for directions-- and maybe black dump trailer
white posts	are hollow and need sand filling	dump by hand buckets or use tractor ( after directios from bud or carlene-- sand is under yellow tarp by house
white fence	needs  spray  cleaning-- moldy---all 2000 feet of it.	hand pump sprayer in front o f the house. Chlorox should be there too.. Use one good glug per
donkey walking           3 sizes mini. Standard and mamouth	in prep for pack burro race in october they must learn to jog steadily -we have about 12 relatively untrained who need to be lead around our pond to start	google pack burro racing colorado --------must have carrots and sense of humor.

we will be moving blondie over to crazy acres from meridith for part of the pack burro race project.. donkeys typically don;t have a very curved underside-- she does.... and i worry she might need some individual care in case she is prego...

it starts here

 april 29 2023

i am writing a pasta progress report for the news..... he is making amazing steps forward..... however this week's training has been to start trying to get him to back up--- unfortunately  the "sit" is so firmly ingrated that  the backward movement   collapses to bum down.   this is a challenge.------ he has a better "follow me" than strict leash control-- we are working on that "who me? let me do it myself" typical leash response... his lick don't bite is much better this week so he could be loose at the hamilton senior center to work the crowd with his older mentor larkey.    pram riding is getting to be a failure due to the center of his gravity not always being centered.

*****

this is how the cookie crumbles  is his other lesson- in my situation i insist that each dog get their cookie and then stand there eating it without worrying about their neighbor-- or pasta picking up the crumbles---- unless they walk away- then itis whoever gets there first- the concept starts with my dinner plate.... they are not to try and eat off my plate--- now--- should i drop food on the floor- the first come rule applies.

 he has also found that a loud "NO" means he better stop moving forward because some object will land on his nose and startle him.

so far so good-- he is very pleasent- and improves the atmosphere around him. 

how's this for management of space and time

 APRIL 28 2023

i once worked a short time in a huge room tracking satelites which involved very little scrap paper..... however one day someone decided to move the scrap basket and you would have thought the world was coming  to an end- creative complaining was just awful. pulling teeth was easier than moving that trash can.

 

 so to even tackle my current problem-- which does--- in fact--- involve peeing in the manure pile-- or not doing so.is literally astronomical.....as we try and shift around about 75 people and animals with the least possible disruption...

let me make a few rules .  

this is a physical problem--how to best use the  various parts  of crazy acres- 11.65 acres and 12 buildings.

*****in no way is anyone to contact explore or bother them- because the sheer volume of people at our site will present too much trouble and they could easily stop the problem by shutting us off entirely. Just don’t -under no circumstances.   they have no solution  to offer  to the mess either....

 

you all have the email addresses of  most of the majors involved--- if you feel you must-- email them .. and me... and use the subject matter "  the move"  so if it gets too bad we can delete in bulk....and still run what we all. need to run.

 

so what is the problem???

unfortunately ...#1 problem is  me.... i should not go thru another winter of ice- sliding both me and my car up and down the hill- that fact alone puts a time  limit on "the move" 

 

from there ...it becomes a rubric cube of water issues-- both income and outflow..... draining- from septic issues to icy hills to parking places, to noises, and smells,  to heat and air-conditioning,  to access to supplies with  trucks  coming and going....height of adjacent fencing.... internet access...    frequency of actionable facts...   such as peeing--- the manure pile may be  a most  solution. logical- especially for males-- except there is a camera there which unfortunately the dodge grain delivery man did not know about  until one of our camera people sent the photo to his boss. 

 

keeping also in mind... we all work for the IRS and they don't care who is closest to the  office trash can.

 

I am dead serious about not bothering  Charlie--- or his help.. they have enough to do..and have said so already.

And---- the cabin is out of the move as it is a place for my 2 children who have moved south, but both have jobs with companies here and are fun and a great help to me when they are here.. ...or  as used to happen – with the upstairs in the house......i can welcome cp friends flying in from Oregon for a few days of roving  rehabs or whatever  is happening. 

 

For me to need minimal help.... I’d like  to be able to back my car next to my room and lift the groceries into a special “purple house” chute .... like the mailbox one . get out and  go in my room, remove and deal with the groceries from the room side  ----in a divided effort because stamina is my big issue.. sounds perfect.  And amazon can be taught to deliver there too  I bet.--- the meat shack would become my overflow closet.

 

The parts are all here—with minimal  expense.....There are ideas which will astound the most level headed of you--- the considerations of “IF” and “BUT”  will amuse you for months....

 

Let me start off with...

 An elevator??  Of course---( yes we have one) ---If we move the fork lift to the front of the  laundry building it could easily be the elevator to the second floor- thru. the window---- for both me and my 4 or 5 dogs BUT that would involve diesel fumes unless we attach the rat eradication fume tubes which are hanging there now.

 

Cheers....

p.s one other MUST ---- that iron glenwood cooking stove goes with me - !!

 apr 27 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyER9K2ALTw

mo is back--- i hope you can watch the  video

i'm running for ha

 APRIL 26 2023

i was sorting out my collection of wrist watches (none rolex) and i remembered a day long ago when i had done the same --- and had attached a bunch of watches to my arm to get them somewhere......and got in trouble when a cop stopped us and i asked him "do you wanna buy a watch?"

i had a letter from tommy verifying that story---

A sample

Just  in case you think i make up these stories....

 

 to set the crazy acres  stage I was trying to refresh my memory and wrote to tommy neugent    --- who was ( and in my mind, still is   a 17 year old kid) who was  thrilled with race horses, worked in our barn, and i was terrified he would get too involved with the race "trackers" and not take advantage of the super brain he obviously had--  he is now  dr.nugent, who once  studied endorphins in kentucky.. to whom we gave the dane  "cuba"

 

I asked him… do I remember a horse in my basement??   His answer…..

-------

Cheers to you and very nice to hear from you:

 

Yes, the racehorse in your basement was "Gal Friday." She was a filly we all loved. Kind and pretty and very nice and comfortable to ride. I loved that filly. You gave me a picture of her as a foal for Xmas one year with her mother..1972?  

 

We took her out of the barn and put her in the warm basement because she had a fever and was sick and we were doing all we could to help her. The weather was severely cold and the vet suggested it. We didn't expect the rain, but despite the ankle deep water, she did just fine and recovered. 

 

I hope you will edit this so as to not incriminate any of us, but I have a lot of memories of Chestnut Street.  

I believe you and Lynn Cashman once somehow came home with a fire hydrant.  

 

I remember Janine giving Tinker an English muffin each morning before the school bus came.

 

I also recall being stopped with you by North Reading, MA Police for expired plates in 1972. The renewal stickers were clipped to the lamp in the kitchen.  I was 17 and you were teaching me how to drive a horse trailer. (You did a good job. I still remember and can drive anything). As I recall, you had 3 or 4 wrist watches on each arm, to be repaired, and a tv or two in the back seat in the middle of a crime wave involving horse trailers and tv's.  I forget who got us out of that.

 

When you mention the  pet pig, I want to remind you of how she came to be. I had a little green MGB sports car, of which I was very proud.  You gave me a big jar of penny's one day and sent me up Rt 128 to the hog farm and told me to ask the farmer if he would trade a piglet for their weight in pennies. He said yes and that little piglet sat on my lap all the way home and we became friends forever. She did become big, though. and was a hit in the circus the kids put on that summer .

 

Cuba was my best friend for a long time

 

Over and Out....Tommy Nugent

-------

there are sooooo many stories  ---- truth is better than fiction...  that set up with the watches was just so perfect i could not resist--- i would probably not do that now--- too many shootings...

many on the fringe of legality.. and how maybe over $600 is not a  gift?? needed to be reported to someone somehow--- i was reminded of the big tipi we had .. closer to the barn... before cameras- it was set up for livng/office whatever--- and a veteran arrived in it one day-- his family wanted him hospitalized and he needed a place to hide.it was that tipi or the street----so who was i. to object???    he also needed walk around money- so i gave him what was in my pocket---i realized later it was over $600--- i never meant to be that generous. 

i have a couple veteran stories--- one ptsd problem who felt so much better after spending 2 weeks here building the white chicken coop--- or the vet -- with a wife in NH and a girlfriend in MA he had more than ptsd problems---another vet needed his pay check split between 2 women with his children from texas to kentucky.

 and then there was scott aubin- arrived in my living room- just tried to commit suicide and the knot didn't hold

he was frustrated not even that worked....he needed a dog--- he also need to unload the warrent for his arrest

and a couple othre problems-- he eventually tells the story in his book "KNOT TODAY". AND HE WORKS FOR ?NY state suicide provention program... 

CIRCUS PRACTICE- THAT IS ME WITH PIGTAIL

  trying to get the horse -- tacky- to move forward so gwen can slide up onto his back and force the kid in the back off his rump

 april 25 2023

Carrying judy on the back bumper is not an option... as some of you suggested. i bought a  2 bike carryier for $34--- a  bunch of metal and straps which should hold up the pram--- the empty pram just can't weigh more than 2 bikes?????  fedex has it -- to be delivered between 12 and 4:30 today... and used tomorrow.... 

we need to get that pram rolling before pasta gets too big... he is nearly that now... but we can struggle... he loves to ride.... and it does make even the most severe looking face grin....... if pasta gets much heavier-- which is happenig by the minute....  i may have to resort to a chicken--- meridith has chickens----i bet with proper photograph intro i could talk them into " rent a hen"  til we get some of our own...  elizabeth is on that case...

problem being if she orders baby chicks-- which i have so often done for commercials--- it is the 90 degrees for the first few week that is the problem.. heat lamp helps... but to start......

which reminds me--- there does exist a photo of my husband in his shorts- shaving in our bathroom with 100 baby chickens around his ankles........i had no other solution for 'warm enough'.. and it was not the kind of job here failure to  produce the tiny chicks was an option...  we may come to. a bit of that again ... if eliz orders too soon--- they might have to spend a week in my bathtub... totally possible--- God bless chlorox.

the rest of that story with the 100 chickens sometimes it was for a "display" where we let kids hold a chick with the parent right there.  i told you  my main source of help was janine's bu friends at $100 a day they would do anything... except..... chicken watching was the least favorite of the chores....  the SPCA got wind of my chicken display and appeared one day when we got home from boston...  --- they wanted to see the order form for 100 chicks and wanted to count them ...  so i left them in  a stall counting little yellow fluffy runabouts--- it was probably another bu student with a job with the spca. but she finally came to me and said very pathetically  "i keep getting 102"... ( the hatchery usually sends a few more than 100 because they don't all make it--- thankfully ours did) 

 april 24 2023

Just when you think it can't get more ridiculous it does.... way back during cov pandemic I was reassured by the stability of America's systems when my supply of freeze dried worms was replenished by truck in my local feed store.. and I went on to wonder who and how they raised freeze dried worms . and I still don't know much about it but I did see in my daily perusal of the repurposed web  that someone was offering pallets of hundreds of cloth grain bags... with the comment that they had gotten picked up by the worm growers somehow used in the process of growing worms.. when you buy a bag of freeze dried worms which I've done many Times Now there's an awful lot of worms in the bag so I think I'm gonna put that on one of my lists of interesting  places to go to along with the FedEx distribution center.

then yesterday I found. there is someone looking to buy artificial whale poop.. just when you think you've heard it all.... apparently it has something to do with whale poop sinking to the bottom and doing something with reducing carbon in the atmosphere.. that's a long stretch from the bottom of the ocean to wherever all this carbon is the atmosphere but it was a serious program and artificial whale poop has something to do with it.. I don't know whether the manufacturer of artificial whale poop would be as interesting to watch as the production of freeze dried worms so I won't put that on my To Do List quite yet.

 

I thank you for all your contributions of names for Judy and I. We haven't decided on an official yet except we have a lot of words we can now use when we write about ourselves in like the newspaper and things----words that I hadn't thought of--  dames with Danes  got a lot of votes --- Geezers roadshow--got only one but it was funny..

Lot of creativity in 125 emails.. I had a good time reading them.

 

with regard to our roadshow--we have a gig tomorrow. and Wednesday.. and I really would like to use the British pram..   and carry pasta in it because it really is funny and unexpected along with extremely handy because you put a roll of paper towels and a lot of other things in the pram along with the dog..  Pasta is not getting any smaller

so I'm not sure whether next week he's even going to fit... but that pram is lovely as the prop that could carry a variety of things besides a puppy—like a chicken—or bunny.

Tho a pup would be my first choice.

 

it is also difficult to carry in my forerunner with four Danes and Judy I'm not sure we even could-- we could try.. I used to own one of those funny things that would slide into the trailer hitch and was actually just a platform about 18 inches wide----- it used to stay right inside the garage because it's not something you need all the time.. but like a lot of things it got moved or something any rate I don't know where it is.. so my chore of the day is to try and figure out how to carry that pram on the back bumper somehow..

 

Oh what do the simple folk do?

this is a nurse at a rehab center. with siz and bentley

april 23 2023

thankfully. lachey returned what looks like a washcloth-- i do not know where he got it.. we try and be soooo careful.

the only other excitement of the day was a rescue mission involving 4 mini goats....not what i w ould have chosen but they needed rescuing quickly-- and we do have the empty chicken coop.... not empty now....

we got well over 100 suggestions for the name of our traveleing road show...-- i have sent a bunch to judy for her perusal .

and the boxes pile up----i will hold them all til monday 4pm mail call..

our new 25 year old volvo is here--- running nicely-- we were sooo excited and lined up the 3 keys on the dash-- shut the door... and found out it has some auto locking device--- so now it is AAA to unlock the doors and try again.

there is not alot of substitution for cream for your coffee..... i have been out for daysnow-- and gone thruthe whipped cream. (not too bad) and all the way to almond milk- ( awful) -- so i bit the bullet and went to the supermarket-- left the 4 dogs in the car-- so i did not have any identifying marks about me.... and 2 different  people came up tp me and said they had read the daily doggie.  and by the time i got back to my car pasta had collected quite a crowd- and someone knew his name...  wow ! 

as for my 3 beautifully trained dogs........... we are having a hesitation in coming when called...  lachey the worst... so i need to charge the collar and give it a go...  so far i have only used vibration--- but lachey...... you are going to need more than that....

stay tuned. 

 april 22 2023 

Dig in your toes--keep your eye on the goal---- shoulder to the wheel, - then try and get anything done in that position.  really.... ---ok..  give everything the old  30 days and a B12 shot.  i can remember.... my husband saying "time and nature will cure that   but i have to do something."  and the Tuesday ladies--- 3 elderly women ---- i think the B12 shot was $2 --- that was back when an office visit was not  billed because she gave us a coffee can of home made baked beans many saturday nights.

i have to admit...... it would never occur to me to write a thank you note to someone 3000 miles away for spending a few  minutes taking a dog into a patients room..... when the don't even know the patient !!   shame on me for not writing all those people i should have thanked in my 85 years.   its payback time.

it only takes a few minutes-- sure.... what escapes the news is background info.... like......

i have had a comb for my hair for a longtime....and i do think it doesn't take too. long to whip a comb thru and get tidyed up... however....because of this lovely puppy who has already spread such cheer, i now have a comb with only 2 teeth-- and they are right next to each other...  please---- i hate to bring up the topic  of my toothless hair comb- because i don't want 1500 people to  go out and buy me one with teeth...i don't know  how to mold this group into one lump for the purchase of  one hair comb.

i got into trouble the day i wished for a bird house-- i have a picture of me on the golf cart with 59 packages of bird houses-- and such lovely bird houses--- they are still all over the crazy acres.. 

so back to my conversation about tromping the countryside  with  judy and the danes.... we need a name-  we are not  from. ERN,SDP,or CA... we are us.....and need our own name-- come on all you folk--- you must be able to come up with something -- reason being at the moment-  we have been nominated for community service award--and "CARLENE AND JUDY FROM IPSWICH". just has no swing to it....  we need a classy name.

please--- you have my email. animalep@aol.com..... just a couple words.... to give us some "class". we like class !!

 april 21 2023

one more day poking the bear..... a wonderful bit of news... the car that Polly donated to ERN actually runs !! i stopped by country motors-- and he was thrilled to report he got it running.....i knew he was my best shot--- a heck of a mechanic of the old world-- not just a parts replacer. i know for a fact... there is a brain surgeon who's arrival in the OR was dependent on the "mechanic " at country motors.... why is that not more readily noticed by the general public?????  we almost got there during covid. when people noticed the guy on his hands and knees putting the soup on the shelves..  i am a mike rowe believer big time-- that is not a political statement but a survival one. the---- for want of a nail the battle  was lost. .....deal. with mark's help the serial number on myy chair was located on the very bottom underneath.....--- which means i can apply for a new remote----and get a number for being in line for the next available clerk---- we should never have allowed "your call is important to us." can you imagine someone actually aanswering the phone--- a person !! seems to me-- with tech being able to tell me there is a traffic jam one mile in my way.. they should. be able to solve the phone bit. there is always a "they"--

can our current genius types still do this???