Self Sustained Living

Happy New Year

2012-01-23T09:21:00.002-06:00

It's the Chinese new year and this is the Year of the Dragon.

Lots of tradition and superstition go along with the coming of each new year. To celebrate properly and ensure prosperity in the new year, traditional foods must be prepared for the celebration. So, if you choose to celebrate the coming of the Dragon, be sure to whip up some of these fine dishes! I see a few I'm going to make ;)

WOOHOO! Happy Goat Day!

2012-01-22T14:56:00.004-06:00

I've got 2 more sets of twins, born late last night and then early this morning. All are healthy. I guess I better get after building the goat milking stand.

Here's a closer picture of the new cheese press. it's just 2 layers of 1" pine with the top piece with holes cut in it to help the dowel rods be more stable. The rods are screwed in from underneath and glued in the holes as well. I coated it all, top and bottom with the edges too, with that poly acrylic sealer. So far so good. It's simple but functional. It really doesnt need to be fancy at all, just as long as it holds the weight and stays level for the press time. This one does so it's all good.

Missed The Bullet

2012-01-21T08:25:00.005-06:00

There was a nasty storm that rolled across Illinois yesterday and I was right on the bottom edge of it. All we got was a little bit of rain mixed in with some sleet briefly. This morning, the water isn't frozen so we missed all the nasty for sure. Muddy, yes but ice? Nope! Dolly goat was kind of kiddy last night. She's a stand offish goat and she was following me and she was standing in places she normally avoids. Her milk bag is huge too. I can't remember ever seeing her bag that big before and she's given me twins before.

I'll be doing all the last minute floor scrubbing soon, the cheese class starts at 11 this morning. The milk is already on the stove, heating up for the culture. I whipped together a new cheese press yesterday. It's not exactly what I had in mind but it's close. 1" pine doesnt take the hole drill as well as I was hoping it would. It will work tho and that's all I'm worried about at the moment.

Last night, I took a neighbor of mine to town so she could get prescriptions filled and pick up some groceries. Of course, just like the majority of people in this area, she wanted to go to Walmart. OMG, you all know how much I HATE wally world! But, being to good neighbor I am, I put up with it. After a few minutes of her filling up her cart with that nasty, pre prepared frozen food, I had to walk away. I couldn't take it anymore. So, I wandered over to where wally world normally has the seasonal stuff and it was full of cheap chinese crap on clearance. It depressed me as I wandered thru the isles where I was expecting gardening stuff. WOOHOOO, paydirt! on the back end of each isle was a hanging box of garden seed! It was all Burpee seed so the majority of it was hybrid but I did pick up some bunching onion seed, some fennel (which I have never planted before) and replaced some seed that I had crop failure with last year (melons). I was feeling pretty darn good now since I satisfied that urge to have new garden seed and I picked up one of those candles that smells like wild roses too ;) As it burns, it makes the house smell like the wild roses I dug up from the roadside and planted out front of the house a couple years ago. The goats munched them last year, I hope they come back from it. I met back up with my neighbor and tried not to look at all the crap food she had stuffed in that cart and just reminded myself of how much I love being a homesteader!

Sissy goat slept all night, (thank you Sissy goat) and this morning, she's bouncing around, drank half a bottle, peed on the floor and left me a pile on the towel. She's warming herself in the space heater. She turns from side to side so she can warm up evenly, LOL. What a little dandy she is! I'm sure she's going to be a distraction come cheese making class time, LOL. Just too cute!

Baby Goat Update

2012-01-19T10:56:00.003-06:00

Little Sister is hanging in there and seems to be improving every day. Wish I could have gotten a picture of them all this morning, the kittens were all snuggled up with Sis and Shadow cat was laying on top of all of them. Sis is up to around 3 oz of milk a couple times a day and she's got plenty of energy in between. She's almost got her sea legs for the wood floor and is only occasionally looking like Bambi on the frozen pond ;)

Havent managed to get much done around the farm this week, the weather has been a bit nutty and Little Sister is taking up some time. I am planning on trying to get a new cheese press built (new design) and some shelves for storage and a table I can sew on.

I've got a cheese class to teach on Saturday, so far 2 students with possibly a 3rd. Lots of floor scrubbing to do before then!

Total Bummer

2012-01-16T08:33:00.003-06:00

Jelly Bean and Little Sister last night, both looking good. Thought maybe the weaker JB would do okay since he was trying to stand and seemed to be getting stronger. Guess not since he passed on sometime in the night. Little Sister is full of herself this morning and has been bouncing around since 5am! During breakfast time, I noticed Yoda cat had made himself at home on a kitchen chair. I'd say he's pretty comfortable!

Not too much planned for around the farm this week but the usual farm living and maybe some new cheese experiments. Can't never tell what I might think up and create around here....

Well Crap

2012-01-14T17:21:00.004-06:00

Actually, double crap. Today started out that way. I woke up late to get the cheese started for the class I was teaching today. I switched what I intended to teach and made due. Then, my son came in from milking for me and said the cow has a cut on a teat bad enough it will give us problems milking. Then, just as my students were arriving, hubster and son came to tell me Noma goat was in labor. 2 1/2 hours later, a prolapsed Noma is dead and we have twins delivered via c-section. The creamy colored kid was pulled out first, she's doing great. The second is a bit weak but is holding on. From the looks of it all, the kids are premature. This is not what I had planned for kidding season this year. Not a good start overall for the year even.

The cheese class went great tho!

Nasty surprise

2012-01-12T08:04:00.002-06:00

Not on my top 10 favorite list, waking up to cold, muddy and spitting snow. Last night I milked the cow in a t-shirt and this morning the floor is cold enough to warrant fuzzy socks. I can't help but wonder what's on old Mother Natures mind when she throws crazy weather like this at us.

Yesterday was the second cheese class. I had 3 students for this one and I'm really enjoying the reactions when the milk turns into real cheese. One student had been trying to make cheese with a pretty good book of recipes and had not found success with it. It brought back memories of me trying to make cheese by following those recipes I have and all those nasty wheels of cheese even the dog wouldn't eat. As we went thru the process of cooking the curds down, i could see the "light" come on and I knew that student would never see failure again. I'm finding it to be a very rewarding experience and I'm really looking forward to the next 2 classes I have scheduled. Not sure how I'm going to get thru it all physically tho, it really wipes me out. The interesting thing about it all is the conversation during the class. There's more people than I thought out there worried about commercial foods, our economy, what's happening in our country and what our future holds. I think that some folks in our country are circling back toward the old ways, a Renaissance of sorts. Not necessarily a bad thing in my mind.

Well, I better get to the farm chores, I might have baby goats out there and I need to make a lasagna with all this store bought milk ricotta cheese I have sitting in the fridge.....

Dang Deer and Happy

2012-01-10T12:04:00.003-06:00

Happy happy joy joy! Visions of Stimpy cat from the cartoon dancing around, LOL The power company guys are really coming thru with the wood chips for my "back to eden" garden plan. I'm excited because I know this will work out great here and really improve my gardens. Just not having to sit there and watch the weeds grow like crazy every time it rains because it's too muddy to go out in it and weed is going to make me very happy.

So much for my pretty truck! I big fat doe and her 2 buddies ran out in front of me Sunday night. I stomped the brakes and moved over as far as I could without getting in the ditch and got her head with the dually flare. Spun her around and she flat sided the wheel well. Oh well, it's better than staying in the path I was driving, hitting the 2nd in line with the front end and having the third one smack the side of the truck. This is the 5th deer I've whacked since November 1st. 19 years I went without hitting a deer and now all this. Go figure! The real kicker was she fell down, flopped around, got back up and ran off!

No baby goats yet. I guess they're all waiting for the nasty weather to get here. Why can't they kid when it's nice instead of when it's freezing cold? Kid watch continues....

Just Plain Crazy

2012-01-07T13:24:00.002-06:00

I just went outside and herded up some wayward goats in a t-shirt. This is what it looked like last year at this time. Brutal cold, snow, ice, just plain unpleasant. Today it's sunny and comfortable outside in a t-shirt. We've had weird winters like this before and I'm not really complaining, I just know the other shoe will drop before long and I will miss this really nice weather!

Not too awful much has been going on around the farm. Just the same old stuff that happens in the winter months. Lots of cooking, animal tending and piddling around.

Of course, the seed catalogs are coming in now and I find myself day dreaming of spring. As the month of January drags by, I will be chomping at the bit to get seeds started in the hopes that we won't have a repeat of last years' spring. Ah, but don't be fooled by my dreaming, i already have a couple plants going strong in the kitchen, waiting for warmer weather! The blackberries Coley sent me are primed, in some good compost and waiting for the spring weather to get here. The raspberries my neighbor gave me are right next to them, waiting just as patiently. The cherry tomatoes are on the floor, in a bucket, trying to be patient, flowering anyway, LOL.

I'm even thinking about planting a new raised bed with some market veges, hybrids from Gurneys or Johnnys Seeds. While I'm not fond of hybrids for myself (can't seed save etc) I'm not against F1 hybrids for market uniformity and big harvest. I'll have to decide quick tho since seed starting time is just a few weeks away. If the weather stays like it is, I'll have that raised bed done in no time!

Good Attitude

2012-01-02T21:46:00.004-06:00

Where did the nice weather go? right out the window! LOL Just a couple days ago it was a balmy 65F and today, it's not topped 35F with a nasty wind blowing all day. I feel like Mother Nature has a cruel sense of humor sometimes, LOL

Speaking of sense of humor, I still have mine. It's taken a beating the last couple of years and I wonder sometimes if I've lost it but nope, it's still here! Life sometimes isn't even close to as nice or easy as I would like it to be but I can't ever bring myself to quit or give up so I'm just stuck with it. Some day, it's got to get better. You blog readers and your comments really help me to keep going and keep a smile. Thanks ya'll.

I got this neat little box from a blog reader, it had something in it called "eggies". The idea is to use these "eggies" to hard boil eggs out of the shell. anybody who has ever taken fresh eggs and made hard boiled eggs knows what a total pain in the butt it is to get the shells off them. So, I read the directions and gave it a whirl. Simple as it can be, just assemble the eggie holders, put your raw egg in, close it up and put it in the water. They float around in the boiling water and cook. When they're done, they just pop right out. Instant, no peel hard boiled eggs. I diced and boiled a potato, added a chopped onion, a little home made mayo and had lunch.

Thank you Larry! A wonderful gift and a way cool new "toy" to play with!

Reflection Time

2012-01-01T11:44:00.015-06:00

It's been a pretty difficult year, 2011. I'm pretty happy to see it be done and over with. There's plenty to look back to and reflect on. I started last year with the coal mine holiday party and that nasty food that gave me the 3 day migraine headache. But, the morning after that party is when we got Lucky goat!

January of 2011 was bitter sweet, with Lucky coming into our lives, the deep financial hole we suffered in, the crappy weather(plenty of snow and cold) and plenty of good food.

February came along with more snow and cold, kittens, seed starting, Polar Bear attacking Lucky goat, more financial troubles and canning experiments.

March came in "like a lion" with more nasty weather, the arrival of Daisy calf, lots of seed sprouting, the dehydrating experiments, plenty of good food, more financial troubles and the "super moon".

April was a rough month for the farm. Polar Bear killed all of the kittens, attacked Lucky goat a few times, the cold weather, the pouring rain, the seedlings all over the kitchen, the storm blowing part of the old barn roof off, the start of the flooding and my old girl Dusty dying on me.

May started with the box of dead stevia plants that arrived from Maryland via Alaska (good job USPS!) The garden tilled but the weather not allowing it to be planted, the daughter graduating college tons of baby bunnies and that sneaky rat snake sucking eggs!

Then came June and the beginning of the really rough living. Hubsters illness, the constant breakdowns of the haying equipment, the garden planted and growing, the surprise 7" of rain that drown the potato crop and of course, more financial problems that haven't gone away but instead, gotten worse.

July rolled in on me like a mack truck. Spud arrived, more equipment breakdowns, more financial troubles that really hammered us, more hubsters illness, weeds growing like crazy in the garden, horrible heat and humidity and my stressed out-got too hot episode.

August came with lots of canning work, dehydrating, the truck wreck, the goats wiping out a large chunk of the garden, the goat-napping, Steve arrived here to learn about farming, the lightning that ruined the tree, more equipment failures, more financial troubles and more snakes!

September rolled in with me realizing inviting Steve was a huge mistake. Lucky goats silly antics with the corn stalks, more doctors appointments, more financial troubles, the pitiful peanut harvest, the truck problems, and lots of good food.

October started slow with me trying to shape Steve into something useful(didn't work out at all (he was asked to leave) finding out Steve was even more messed up and more false than originally thought, lots of good food, getting some straw sold from a craigslist ad, the goat auction, Coley sent me blackberry clipping, the huge argonaut squash, tons of veges to can up and dehydrate, the farm expo and making new friends and lots of cheese making.

November started out with a severe emotional event. My neighbor had that horrible wreck, the oven element fried, plenty of cheese making, some cold and sloppy, muddy weather and a horrible start to deer season.

December came and went almost like slow motion. The weather wasn't really nice, the mud was constant. At least the critters were all healthy. had some tooth and gum problems, some surprise financial troubles, some nice snow and lots of good food.

So, in review, the high spots of the year were the critters and the produce with the low side being equipment failures compounded by constant financial troubles, hubsters 6 month illness and inviting Steve to help around the farm. Now, let's look forward to this new year being so much better.

Happy New year!

Use the Nice Weather

2011-12-29T15:28:00.002-06:00

I should have taken some before and after pictures but I didn't think about it. I had around 80 bales of straw put up in an open sided section of the old, half falling down barn here. I should have known when the bad weather started coming in, I'd be sorry I didn't have some sort of gate built to keep the goats out of it. Instead of going into their designated area, they climbed all up in that stack of straw and little by little, broke about every bale in there, messed on a bunch they didn't break and generally made a mess of it in the past 10 days. So, today, I got a wild hair and attacked it for clean up. Hubster jumped on the tractor and helped out a bunch and saved me a couple hours of digging, scooping and wheel barrowing messed up, broken and wet straw bales.

One clean up project down, around 100 more to go!

How'd that happen?

2011-12-28T08:47:00.003-06:00

I know I looked a the weather radar before I went to bed. How did pouring rain end up looking like this? hahahaha That sneaky storm found some snow as it came across Mo in the early morning hours. This sure was pretty while it was falling. By noon, it was all gone. Morning chores found all the chickens still in the barn, LOL. Guess they've forgotten it's just snow.

I really like it when it snows, everything looks so clean and the whole world seems peaceful. Of course, I have to read the news and ruin it all.

The depravity of humans makes me almost ashamed to be human. Almost. I know that I am above these sick, depraved individuals. The behaviors exhibited over a stupid pair of shoes, the mob behavior over "rumors" of celebrities, the sick and cruel things people do to the helpless. Then, there's the behaviors of our own government. Not even taking into consideration the behaviors of major corporations in this country.

It chaps my butt a bit to think my own government would consider me a domestic terrorist for not being dependent on it. It does make a little sense tho, if I am a free thinker and not waiting for a hand out, I am not easy to control. But, as I see it, the government has a couple of fixes for that. Not even counting our government allowing DOW to petition to use 2,4D, an active ingredient in Agent orange, right here on farm land we as Americans will be eating from. Of course, it's to kill the super weeds that have been created by Monsantos Round up. Real nice. This is on top of the poison already being grown in the form of GMO crops. Oh, and don't forget the GMO mosquitoes about to be released down in Florida. Can you say human guinea pig?

Every aspect of life is pretty much controlled and dictated. This is something I am simply not comfortable with. Not at all. So, here it is, the big New Years resolution..... (drum roll, LOL) I vow to actively work (harder than I have before) to be out from under the corporate control of America. Off the system, not consuming a single thing produced by corporate America. No electric smart meters, no municipal water, no cheap crap made in china. I would also like to work more on helping others to become more self reliant. We'll see how it goes...

Whew, another day down

2011-12-26T18:34:00.004-06:00

One more day done with this crappy, horrible year. I'll be glad to see this one gone. Just not a good year over all.

Aw, this year did have some good parts to it, just not in a row and not enough to out weigh the rough parts.

On a good note for today, Goober cow gave me 5 quarts of milk this morning! A whole half gallon more than she normally does. I think hanging the hay bag is working out much better that throwing the hay down for her. She wastes too much that way. With the bag, she's eating all the hay instead of pushing it around, laying on it and crapping on it. It's too much work to make the hay for her to just waste it like that.

All the goats look good and I'm thinking all the does are pregnant. The 2 older girls should give me twins, Delta will be a single, Skeeter will be a single and I'm not sure about the no name nanny. So, with a little luck, in the next few weeks, I should have 7 goat kids to play with. Lucky goat will like it too, he's been hanging around with Daisy calf since I hauled Spud to the auction.

I have not made any progress in the fencing, the goat shed and enclosure, the chicken house or the goat milking stand. The "maybe next week" thing is part of the bad I hope to leave behind with the coming of the new year.

I had to have some comfort food this evening. Just in the mood for pizza. I've been working up batches of whole milk mozzarella every chance I get. It's an easy cheese to do with lots of sitting time so it allows me to get other things done while it's being made. Some days I just need to be able to walk away from the kitchen to get things done. So, mozzarella it is. Then, I end up with 4 or 5lbs of cheese in the fridge. Of course, the result is a big pizza or 2 with real cheese on it! You just can not buy a pizza that tastes like these do. home made crust (no cardboard) real tomato sauce, home dried herbs, all the yummies you can stuff on it. smothered in home made cheese. Home made pizza should be a food group!

Getting By

2011-12-22T09:08:00.003-06:00

I know I've been quiet lately, I just don't have anything to say. It's just everyday life here drown in stress from outside influences. The farm is still the same, hanging on like it always does. All the crops have been harvested and preserved, the goats are closer to kidding every day and the cow and animals get milked and tended twice a day. I actually had to dump 2 gallons of milk this week, the fridge was full and I was out of containers to keep the milk in. The outside influences took up too much of my time to make cheese or butter with it.

This farm could be so much more than it is. It's difficult to sit here every day knowing it could be so much more and not being able to do anything about it. As each week passes, all one can do is say "well, maybe next week". It's frustrating when your efforts are drained to outside influences. Just simply sustaining, hanging on, isn't enough some days.

Here we are, fast approaching Christmas day and it will pass here quietly, with hardly a whimper. I hope everyone out there has a joyous day filled with love and sharing.

I found something I am very interested in and will be doing what I can to be a part of it. There's a "camp" not far from me I'm considering participating in. It's basically a self sustained community with individual cabins, a couple of ponds and ground to keep critters on. It's new and in the works. Christian preppers Campsite. I will be writing more on this in the coming days.

Bad Night

2011-12-15T11:01:00.005-06:00

Wow, did I ever have a bad night. I have had trouble with some of my teeth since I got whacked in the face by the rooster and it seems like stress triggers flare ups of swelling and severe pain. So, I did not do any sleeping. Morning chores were a blur. Goober cow refused to let her milk down and I just managed to coax a quart of milk from a cow that normally gives a gallon a milking. She does this same thing to me about once a week. Tonite, her bag will be full to bursting and I will get all the milk. Daisy calf went over the pitiful field fence and was running around in the pouring rain so in the new barn she went, loose in the barn isle since I still havent managed to sell enough straw to get the stalls opened up. She's actually behaving rather well and leaving the hay alone. Of course, there's the land mines she leaves for me to not step in. The extra clean up work isn't a burden tho.

My stress is not coming from the farm or the holidays but the source affects both for me which is why it's so stressful. It's something I'm not in a position to eliminate which only causes even more stress. Which, in turn, makes it harder for me to keep a happy farm. ARG, sometimes there's just no way to get out from under the rock because it just leaves you in the hard place.

The urge to do anything around here just isn't there lately. The constant mud and slop doesn't help the attitude/mood much either. I feel kind of burned out. I miss the sunshine!

I had to teach a wayward dog a hard lesson this morning. Whos dog it is, I havent a clue. I've not seen this dog before and he ripped up a few of my rabbit cages(pretty much beyond repair too), killed 9 rabbits and turned another 5 loose. I have yet to catch any of the loose rabbits and if I don't get them caught in the next day or so, the coyotes will kill them so I might as well write it off as a loss of 14. That's a good amount of meat I just lost from one ignorant dog owners neglect. In just a couple of minutes, that dog wiped out 3 months worth of work raising rabbits and around $150 in property damage. Just add it to the list of what I can't fix around here.

Yep, the bad night has turned into a bad day...

Time Flys

2011-12-11T12:12:00.003-06:00

It really didn't seem like it but this week really did slip by me rather quick. That sad part is, I didn't really manage to get much accomplished. The whole week was an exercise in mudhole navigation with ice breaking 101 for the last 3 days. Every night has been below freezing with a warm up in the 40s during the day. Lucky goat has taken to laying in the tractor bucket in the sunshine when he isn't trashing the straw pile in the old barn. I started out the week with 7 baby bunnies but only 3 are left now. The doe drags them out of the box with her and they freeze. I really need to build a new rabbit hutch. This old one is starting to rot and I've got it held together with hay string in several spots. I have salvaged everything I could from the old chicken house that got smashed when the tree fell on it. Plenty of wood still usable but I still need to get some wire. Maybe next week.

Roast is what's for supper this weekend with taters and veges I canned from the garden. Of course, it's not a meal without home made bread smothered in apple butter or blackberry jam.

A Monday Funny

2011-12-05T15:03:00.002-06:00

An old German Shepard starts chasing rabbits and before long, discovers that he's lost. Wandering about, he notices a panther headed in his direction with the intention of having lunch.

The old German Shepard thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in deep shit now!"

Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the panther is about to leap, the old German Shepard exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious panther! I wonder if there are any more around here?"

Hearing this, the young panther halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees.

"Whew! that was close! That old German Shepard nearly had me!"

Meanwhile, a squirrel who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the panther. So, off he goes.

The squirrel soon catches up with the panther, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the panther.

The young panther is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, squirrel, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!"

Now, the old German Shepard sees the panther coming with the squirrel on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?," but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to the attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they got close enough to hear, the old German Shepard says...

"Where is that squirrel? I sent him off an hour ago to find me another panther!"

Moral of this story...

Don't mess with the old dogs. Age and skill with always overcome youth and treachery. Bullshit and brilliance only come with age and experience.

My friend Bill sent this to me today, I laughed so hard, I cried. Thanks Bill!

ARG, raining again!

2011-12-04T10:36:00.002-06:00

All we got was 3 days of partly sunny and the ground was just starting to firm up. Now, it's raining again! Well, it is that time of year I guess. Doesn't make me like it anymore tho.

I have been working on a couple things around here, I'm about done with the little chicken house I will be putting my banty chickens in. I hate it's raining on it, again, without it being painted. But, none can only do what they can do. Maybe I can get it finished next week.

The Goober cow kicked me during milking last night. She raked my hip with her hoof, it hurts. I wont be running any marathons anytime soon.

Something I read this morning I thought was kind of, hmmm, mixed feelings on it I guess. Parents can rent toys. I remember when my kids were little and they'd beg and throw fits for the latest toy the saw on TV (damn that cartoon network). Sometimes I could afford to indulge them, sometimes not. Both my kids are grown now with a closet full of those toys they just can't bring themselves to throw away, even if they're broken. I also remember several toys they "just had to have" that they soon discarded, never to play with again. I see being able to "rent" a toy kind of neat in case you child decides they really don't like the toy but I also see it as a way to continue the trend of over indulging our children and a continuance of our consumerism mindset. Renting movies or checking books out from the library is not the same as renting a toy. What do you all think about it?

First Sticking snow

2011-11-29T08:52:00.002-06:00

This is what I saw first thing this morning. After 5 days of rain, here it is, snowing. Yay rah. It's nice, I like snow, it makes everything look fresh and clean. I'm just not thrilled about it coming on top of the sloppy, muddy mess I've already got out there. It won't look pretty out around the barns for long.

Yoda cat decided that Polar Bears dog bed is a great place to nap. Good thing PB wasn't around, LOL.

The pinched nerve in my shoulder is still balled up in full force. Wish I had somebody around here to rub it out for me.

Cold, Wet and sloppy Mud

2011-11-28T14:07:00.002-06:00

Yep, that's what life is like around here. Thanksgiving around here was just another day in a whole week worth of life. I didn't go all out and cook/bake up a storm, just baked a ham for lunch while the bird was in the oven. By the time the bird was done, everybody was stuffed on taters, ham and bread. That figures. We had the bird for lunch on Saturday.

Some new things around the farm, 2 litters of baby rabbits and a goofy hen has hatched out 9 chicks just in time for the crappy weather. She seems to be doing okay with them and with nowhere to put a brooder at the moment, they are better off sticking with her.

I've got a new roof leak, a new water leak too. There is just no winning for me this year.

Other than that, it's just farm living as usual with a side of sloppy mud thrown in!

More Quiet Days

2011-11-19T13:10:00.002-06:00

Well, it's shotgun season with this being opening weekend. Nope, I did not get a deer. The day before season opened, the CRP land around my farm got mowed for the year. Gee thanks jerk. There's been at least 20 deer in my back pasture every day this past week until that guy mowed. Not one single deer since! To put it frankly, piss me off! Eh, there's more deer seasons still to come but it irks me not to have at least one down on opening day. That's my winter red meat supply.

All this week it's been cold overnight and windy during the day. All I've done around here is farm chores and work on those huge argonaut squash. I have several more to do something with and the small chest freezer is full of pies. I'm working on canning some up for storage.

I got just a little straw sold this week and moved a bunch around so I can get the barn stalls opened up for the critters. The bad weather is coming and I hate to leave them sitting out in it when they could be in a dry barn. Still more to move, just not sure where I'm going to put it.

The house tomato plants need transplanted into bigger containers, I should get that done sometimes this weekend.

I've got italian bread rising and cheddar cheese on the stove. I need to figure out how to keep the boy from eating all the cheese as quick as I can get it made. he's been on a real cheese kick the last couple of weeks. Oh well, growing boys need their calcium!

todays yummies

2011-11-12T17:58:00.003-06:00

The Argonaut squash pie before it hit the oven

Fresh out of the oven!

Had to make pizza today too, LOL

Too Quiet

2011-11-12T11:19:00.003-06:00

Yep, I've been too quiet. Plenty of things to think about around here lately. First thing this week was the stove element, I burned another one in pieces so I had to cash in some aluminum to get another. Going a couple of days without fresh baked bread is a hard thing for me to do. Not to mention the ruined batch of bread dough because I didn't notice the element was burned in two. Takes too long to get the wood fired smoker/grill up to temperature so I fed the dough to the chickens. they liked it.

Next, I learned to make home made yogurt. The cream from the milk rose to the top during the incubation period and made this nice, thick cream cheese kind of layer on top of the yogurt. I skimmed it off and plan to bake something sweet with it. I am currently thawing out some strawberries and blackberries to add to the yogurt. Just something new to do with all the milk I've got from day to day. I also made some mozzarella and ricotta to go with the left over spagetti sauce I made last weekend for another dish of lasagna.

So, some oven use is in the works for today plus a round of caraway cheddar cheese on the stove top. Lots to keep me busy today.....

Help My Brother Out

2011-11-07T19:42:00.004-06:00

My Brother Tim has always held a special place in my heart and his lifes work has always fascinated me. You see, my brother is an NHRA funny car mechanic. My brother and his race team are currently in the running for the NHRA Full Throttle Hard Working Crew award. Would you all help me show my love and support by voting for my brothers team?

Funny car - Jeff Arend crew (my brother is the fellow laying on the ground under the race car in the video)

Top Fuel -Chris Karamisenes crew

Motorcycle - Hector Arana Jr crew

Thanks for helping me give love to my brother!

Happy Cheese Day 11-6

2011-11-06T10:25:00.004-06:00

Yup, I made some cheese last night! Just a plain old wheel of cheddar cheese, it's what we're fond of eating here. I was going to whip up another home made pizza with the mozzarella I made Friday night but the element for the oven is burned up. At least this one lasted 14 months, 3 months longer than the last one lasted. Things just aren't made of good quality anymore. It's times like this that I get a little nasty tempered thinking about still not having my brick oven and cooking grill built. That whole thing is a rant for another day tho. I had a whole Argonaut squash all foiled up and ready to bake for a couple of pies and no oven. The chickens got a treat since it won't make it cut until Monday when I will have to go to town and try to get an element. I WILL build my gazebo with my brick oven, cooking hole, fireplace and firepit in the middle. I already have my design mocked up and the spot on the property picked out. LOL, I'll never be in the house again, LOL.

Have you all heard about the 20 earthquakes since yesterday over in Oklahoma? Do you think it might be connected to the plume event from the 1st? I say yes it is and the pucker effect is strong here. The old barn will NOT stand thru a 5.3 earthquake. Between the dericho and the earthquake we had here a couple of years ago, the doublewide is already off center, the brick skirting is already cracked, this thing might fall apart. Like it would really break my heart, LOL.

The calf has quieted down a little bit. Geez, there's nothing worse than a couple of cows mooing constantly for 3 or 4 days. I know my closest neighbor is not liking me too much right now, LOL. I know it's got to be as bad as a barking dog but there's nothing I can do about it. It has to be done and whacking them with a newspaper isn't going to help. Goober cow has leveled off at a hair less than a gallon every milking so I'll have plenty of milk to play with for a while. I still haven't located a bull small enough to breed her to. I'm kind of running out of time too. Something I should have considered when I bought her. I can't breed a jersey cow to a big breed bull and not have calving problems. Jersey cows are not very common in this area.

Well, I had planned on baking some bread and a couple pies this weekend. Guess another pot of deer meat chili is on the menu. I really need to get all the old deer cooked up anyway, almost time for a couple of fresh kills. Can't have the old mixed in with the new. Guess I better get to it....

Misty Morning

2011-11-05T09:50:00.004-05:00

It's 10am here and it's still foggy enough to not see the barn from the house. I had a rough night and slept hard, waking up feeling more tired than when I went to bed! I whipped up a ball of mozzarella cheese last night, finishing up around 1am this morning so ending up late for chores this morning was a "given". Day 2 for Daisy calf being locked up in the barn again and she's mooing up a storm, again. That calf just flat refuses to be weaned! Daisy disappointed me a little bit, last nights milking gave me a gallon and a quart and this morning I just ended up with 3/4 of a gallon. Bad cow.

We had our first snow of the year on Thursday afternoon. The ground is still warm here so the 20 minutes or so of flurries just gave us all a "fright" and a nasty foreboding of what's to come, soon. I still did the old family tradition of stopping to dance in the snow. Can't pass that up!

I'm already a little bit bored with no garden to tend. The weather during the day has been beautiful and makes me wish it was more like this back in July and August.

Oh well, I guess the nice weather means I need to bake more. I have a few new things for the daily menu I've been meaning to try, LOL.

Day Interupted

2011-11-02T14:32:00.003-05:00

Well, I really thought today was just going to be more of the samey same as I sat down to read the news at the computer late this morning. I just got a cup of coffee and there was a huge boom, sounded like a bomb went off. Yep, there was a wreck right near the end of my driveway. One of my neighbors! We were on the scene right away and I sent the boy home to get some towels which we used to keep our neighbor warm and help reduce shock, he got banged up pretty badly. All I could do was hold his hand and keep him talking. It seemed like forever for the EMTs to get there but they did a great job and the ambulance got there a little after them. Took a long time to clear the road tho, lots of backed up traffic to disturb the normal peacefulness of this country farm.

yesterday seemed like a weird day. The critters were all worked up. The horses who are normally pretty quiet and calm did a bunch of bucking and running around. The goats were pretty restless as well. they spent most of the day running on and off the front porch which they don't normally do. The cows also moo'd all day and I thought it had something to do with me keeping the calf from sucking all the milk. Turns out, there were a bunch of plumes on the new Madrid fault line yesterday. Science has proved that animals know when the earth shifts and seismic activity is coming. Wonder if this means we may have a little shaker coming soon? Maybe, who knows for sure. It's not an exact science, not yet anyway. Well, that sucks tho, I don't want an earthquake, even a little one! Today, the critters are all laying around sleeping, even the horses.

Well, I better get back to scrubbing the floors, plenty of cleaning up to do around here........

Another Quiet Week

2011-10-28T05:44:00.002-05:00

It's been just another quiet week here on the farm. Just the simple, aimless ramblings typical of rural life. I've been working on out smarting Daisy calf, something one would think an easy task considering she's just a cow. yah, right. A baby cow with nothing but time on her hooves to figure out how to get into her Mommas pen to suck milk. Anybody who says "stupid cow" is simply frustrated because they've been outsmarted. I did manage to get a half gallon of milk last night, Goober cow did not let all her milk down in anticipation of me being outsmarted again. So, it looks like my newly found success with the Jersey cow milk will have to wait for a Saturday or Sunday batch of cheese.

Speaking of success, the wheel of caraway cheddar came out great. All I did was reduce the cook temperature by a couple of degrees and the result was a moister wheel of cheese instead of the rock hard, dry cheese I was producing. I'm thinking it has something to do with how rich the milk is.

So, this week I started a jar to capture some wild yeast so I could take pictures of it. It didn't work out so well. It happens tho. Wild yeast is all around us in the air. I have found it to be a weather and time of year challenge here. Sometimes it works out great and sometimes not. I also find I have more success if I have been baking bread all week. The yeast I capture is readily available from what I've been baking. So, basically, here's how you capture wild yeast. You need a decently sized bowl (not metal) or a large jar ( I use a glass, 1/2 gallon canning jar) and mix 1 1/2 cups of warm water ( I let my water sit for a day to release the chlorine) and mix it with 2 cups of flour. You'll need to cover this mix with a cloth of some kind to keep the no see-ums out of it ( I use butter muslin and a canning jar ring). You will also need fresh air. This does not work if all the windows are closed up, the yeast is outside. The mix needs to sit 3 or 4 days and if you have bubbles on the surface, you captured yeast! If not, dump it and try again.

I have a few old wives tale tricks I use to attract wild yeast but I can't be sure they actually do anything at all so I have omitted those for now. Once I verify they actually do something for the yeast and not just my own mind, I'll add them in. I will also add instructions on how to make those old fashioned live yeast cakes I remember my Mother and Grandmother using when I was young in the next post....

The Expo and farm stuff

2011-10-22T14:07:00.004-05:00

I took a drive this morning down to the annual sustainable living expo and walked around, looked, talked to a few people and I promised a nice lady I would post here on the blog about making rennet from thistle and how to make your own yeast for baking bread.

Right now, I need to take my son to town for parts for his truck so hang in there, I'll be back to write up a storm soon!

Whew! What a long day! I made my son happy as a clam, he hasn't quit smiling yet.Here's why... I've got a purple flare side Ford pickup truck. i got it from my Dad a few years ago. The "Barney mobile" (my fellow coal miners dubbed her that) is like getting a hug from Dad every time I get in it. Well, as the kids have grown, my college daughter drove it back and forth to school. Wow, was she hard on ole Barney. Barney sprung a leak in the gear box seal which eventually burned up the power steering pump which locked up and threw the belt. More like mangled the belt. So, Barney has been sitting here waiting for the money to repair her. Then, my son decided he wanted to fix her up and use her to go back and forth to a job which he hadn't found yet. He piddled on her and every now and then I'd give him a suggestion(can't have Mom do it, oh no) and with a few temper tantrums and some tool throwing, he finally got her ready to go. So, today I took him into town for his last 2 parts. The belt and a replacement battery since he burned up the other listening to the radio while he was working on her. I did have to help him with the belt, he just didn't get it on right. he turned the key, she fired right up! Power steering works and sh'e back to purring like the kitten she is. Boy, is he happy! Maybe since he spent all that time on her fixing her up, he won't be inclined to tear her up. Time will tell....

Okay, on to the Sustainable Living Expo. Overall, it was actually full of great information. The problem is, there wasn't anything there for ME to learn concerning sustainable living. I did gain some knowledge about the Emerald Ash borer I did not know, plus I got a good lesson on what it does, what to look for, where it is in the state, etc. I enjoyed the bushcraft fire starting demo, even tho I have already mastered that art. I got into a conversation about the thistle sitting on the table they were using as a fire starter. Thistle, if you collect it before it gets to the 'downy" stage can be used to make rennet for cheese making.

Here's how you do it-

Harvest your thistle flower as the pod begins to turn brown but before it makes the 'down" if it is downy, it is too mature to create rennet. Allow your thistle flowers to dry completely. Then, using a mortar and pestle, crush and grind your thistle flowers into a fine powder. Once you have your powder, add some warm water to the powder and allow to soak around 15 minutes or so. The water mix will turn a dark brown. I use a fine muslin to strain any plant solids out of the water mix. The dark brown water is your thistle rennet.

Now, I can't give you exact measurements on the amount of thistle powder or the water, I just kind of eyeball it. I normally crush 4 or 5 thistle and add probably around a 1/4 cup of water.

Thistle rennet also gives your cheese a pleasant twang you don't taste in store bought cheeses.

Now, I need to go find my notes on the wild yeast capturing and the home made yeast. So, stay tuned...........

More late Season Veges

2011-10-18T08:27:00.002-05:00

The neighbor came by with more late season peppers and we picked the last of the tomatoes from the vines. We're supposed to have a hard frost tonight that is going to finish off the plants. The butcher block is full of veges and I have 2 more 5 gallon buckets waiting to be processed. I put a round of peppers in the dehydrator last night before milking time along with a wheel of caraway cheddar into the press. I have been working with the milk quite a bit since the cheese seems to be finishing out much drier than what I expected it to. I am leaning toward thinking it is due to the large amount of cream on the jersey milk. So, this batch of cheddar got a slightly reduced cook temperature in the hopes it would make a more moist end result. We'll just have to wait and see how it goes...

It's an unpleasant 40F with rain this morning. I really need to get some straw moved around so I can get Goober back in the barn. I don't like being cold and wet and she doesn't either. The goats finally decided it was time to sleep in the barn and Daisy calf make herself a bed in the old barn where some of the straw bales are.

Since it is just so yucky outside today, I'm thinking I will get some sauce simmering on the stove and whip out some soap. I am waiting a bit tho since we're waiting for a call from the doctors office. Looks like hubster will finally get some attention for his deteriorating gall bladder. Modern medicine is infuriating to say the least.

Oh, in case you haven't seen it on the news, the peanut crop for this year is a disaster. Prices for products made with peanuts are slated to triple in price very soon if not already. I stopped in at the local Kroegers yesterday just for a look-see while hubster was in the doctors office and a 40 oz jar of Jiff was $9.39 with the same size peter Pan being $8.79. I also checked in at Aldis, the same size jar there was $3.59. If you like peanut butter, you better go get some now. Enough to last for a while at least.

Play Time is Over

2011-10-16T11:33:00.008-05:00

Well, my mini vacation is over. One of these days I will blog about why I was on mini vacation but not today, LOL. Last night, I chopped up some late season sweet peppers and got them dehydrating for soups, sauces and stews this winter. Plus, I picked some late season beans and tomatoes. I'm going to can up the beans and make a sauce from the tomatoes for some of my favorite food this week (Italian food!) to go with that riccotta cheese I just made.

I put my fat foot in the picture with the argonaut squash to give a better idea of the size of these things. I ordered the seeds this past spring from Gurneys for my neighbor who graciously brought me these 2 monsters. I'm going to cook them up and can them for making pies over the winter. I wont bother trying to save seed tho, supposedly the seed doesn't germinate too well (according to the amish guy who suggested my neighbor grow them).

I've got lots of work to catch up on around here and plenty of cooking, canning and other projects for the farmstead. I also pulled the frozen milk out to make a batch of soap.

Lookie what came in the mail for me! A wonderful lady named Coley sent me a box of blackberries! How cool is that? Thank you Coley!

Well, I'm off to do some cooking, more soon!

Common Sense or Lack of

2011-10-15T11:07:00.004-05:00

This past week has been a real trial in patience. I guess I'm getting old because the younger generation is just, hmm, how can one put it, oblivious maybe? Inept? Uneducated? Completely lacking in common sense?

Okay, here's a good example- Family lost in corn maze- I heard the 911 call on the radio this morning, there is NO reason I can think of that anyone could ever be "lost" in a corn maze. That is of course, unless there is some invisible force field keeping them from just walking thru the stalks of corn toward the lights they could see over the top of the corn. I would have never in my wildest dreams ever thought there were humans out there so stupid they couldn't just figure out all they had to do was walk thru the corn stalks to get out. 25' from the edge of the field, they could see lights and hear cars going by. Darwin award winners for sure.

This is our world now. we have created it to be this way. We have raised our children with the television, cartoons and video games. Our children are incapable of thinking for themselves. What this produces is a young adult with no life skills and not even enough common sense to know when to bathe let alone the ability to take care of themselves. These "children" (young adults) repeat things they hear on the radio and see on the TV and internet like those things are the gospel and have no comprehension of real life. They are simply walking puppets with no original thought and are unable to do anything without being told what and how to do it. We have FAILED. We have failed ourselves, our children, our society and our world by not instilling normal basic common sense into the next generation.

This week has had it's fair share of mishaps to go along with the general aggravations that exist here on the farm now. Hubster made another visit to the hospital for his gall bladder and we are currently awaiting the appointment for the discussion about removal or more meds. I vote for removal already! On top of that, I'm waiting for tires to come in for the truck. I'm running on a patched tire on the duals with it's partner tire going flat every couple of hours and the tread is already hanging by a thread with the wires showing. So, I'm holding my breath until Wednesday and I will have to use the money I had set aside to finish the chicken coop to pay for a tire. The other one will have to wait a couple weeks for me to cover the cost. Just something that has to be dealt with, it's just life. It's what happens when you're making other plans!

Lucky goat is enjoying the cooler temperatures and is romping thru the weeds in search of those delicious treats. He doesn't mind the burs much since he knows he can always wipe them off on Mommy's pant legs while he's begging for his daily cookie! Yoda doesn't much care, it's just too comfy on that blanket awaiting it's turn in the wash machine...

Playing With Seedlings

2011-10-09T12:00:00.005-05:00

I've been working on trying to show one of my neighbors how to start seeds for their garden and the difference between just the peat pellet and good compost. Both these seedlings sprouted at the same time. The difference is the big one was put into the compost soil, peat pellet and all, right after it sprouted and the other was just left to grow on it's own. These seedlings are 2 weeks old, both large red cherry tomatoes. Both are growing on the same shelf in the window, right next to each other. I didn't even sift the compost, I just scooped some into the container.

These tomatoes will be my indoor plants for this winter.

There's nothing particularly special about the compost, it's just horse manure, hay, straw, a little sawdust, some rabbit, goat, chicken and a little cow manure in there too. Mostly horse manure tho. I don't turn the pile over, it's just occasionally heaped up with the latest additions which tend to end up spread out around the main pile.

The secret to strong plants and a successful garden is the soil. The more organic material you can get, the better. Plants need nutrients to thrive. Water alone will not do the trick. Commercial potting soils have a limited amount of nutrient available in them and it quickly runs out. Adding a good organic compost to your garden will ensure that your plants achieve maximum potential.

Good Week

2011-10-08T08:43:00.002-05:00

It's been a good week but busy just the same. I managed to get to the goat auction with Blackie and Spud. They both sold for what I considered a decent price and I managed to NOT buy anything. Kind of hard to buy when you're broke, LOL. One of these days tho, I'm going to have a small flock of hair sheep. Hair sheep are just too cool. My son threatened to make me walk home while i was playing with a couple late lambs. He said to me "No Mom, you are NOT getting sheep!" LOL

So, the goat money combined with a little money from selling straw off craigslist and I finally have all our over due bills paid! Woohoo! Progress!

I'm getting closer to making good cheese. Daisy calf decided she didn't like being weaned and knocked a loose section of the barn wall out to get to Goober and I didn't get any milk for a couple of days. This mornings milk wasn't much to speak of so I think Daisy will find herself back in the pole barn stall all by herself where she can wake the dead mooing for another week. I can't wait for the moon sign, I have cheese to make!

I still haven't made that batch of soap. I know, shame on me.......

Saturday Recap

2011-10-02T10:49:00.004-05:00

A quiet Saturday with a little farm clean up, still plenty to do around here. I got a visit from my college girl! It's nice to get a chance to visit with her, she's starting to grow up now. A full time job plus school and a part time assisting coach job is wearing her out. I told her "welcome to my world!"

So, since we had such a nice visit, supper ended up being one of her favorite "Moms cooking" meals. I whipped up some pizza. The mozzarella cheese I made earlier this week melted beautifully. The only problem was, I used it all! So, now I need to make some more. good thing I have 4 gallons of milk in the fridge!

I'm still planning on making a batch of soap. I have just one bar of soap left in the cabinet so I really do need to get a batch made. with the 30 day "curing time", I'll be running out of soap just in time for the new batch to be ready. Guess I better get to it, eh?

September Wrap Up

2011-10-01T12:01:00.003-05:00

I've been piddling around the farm all week, working on shaping our new farm helper into a country boy. A few small projects and normal life as usual here. Yoda the tomcat is making sure my sack of cornmeal corn doesn't run away on me!

I got lucky with craigslist for once. I posted an ad to sell some of the straw I baled this summer and sold a few bales right away. It allowed me to pick up 100' worth of fence and another goat feeder. A little measuring and cutting on some scrap wood laying around (I never throw that stuff away, I might need it!) and now all the girls can eat at once without pushing and shoving. Polar bear did a little supervising, making sure we actually intended to feed somebody with the new contraption.

Since I spent a day outside supervising the farm work and making sure it all got done the way I wanted it to be (just did it myself, LOL) I ended up with 4 gallons of milk in the fridge. So, a big batch of farmers cheddar got made. I like the farmers cheddar because it's a relatively quick cheese to make. One I don't have to constantly stand over to ensure a good outcome. It's just got a 12 hour press time so it's a good, moist fresh cheese for eating. I'm slowly getting back into the cheese making groove and it won't be long before I get back to having good wheels from every batch. Making great cheese really is an art form and you get a little rusty when you don't make it all the time.

I still have that milk in the freezer for a batch of soap. I might find the time to get a batch whipped out before the end of the weekend. I've been asked to make pizza first tho, LOL. So, maybe soap tomorrow!

Cheese Day and Rain

2011-09-26T11:42:00.004-05:00

A whooping 5" of rain in 3 days, yay rah. A little thunder from time to time, a good time to just nap and relax. Oh no, what do I do? Do I flop on the couch? Of course not! I made me some cheese and pastries, LOL. Of course, I got some net cruising time in too, I like looking at pictures of other peoples gardens. I might get some ideas to try!

So, a big ball of mozzarella got made. I had forgotten how hot the water to process it needs to be. My fingers are still tingling a little bit, LOL. The stirred curd cheddar smells great and is drying. I also made a wheel of farmers cheddar, half the press time and a moister, softer cheddar type cheese. While the curd was cooking down, I used a couple of the apples I got from the farmer up the blacktop and made an apple tart. Pie crust with butter, cheese, an egg and a tbsp of flour for the filling and those yummy apples on top. Some of the butter leaked out of the crust and now I have a mess in the oven to clean. Oh well, it was worth it!

Today I'm thinking about some rabbit and dumplings with french bread.......

Happy milk day

2011-09-24T17:28:00.002-05:00

Yep, the calf is weaned! Well, more or less she is, LOL. Daisy calf is still a little bit upset with me but Goober cow is milking nicely. 5 gallons of milk in the fridge and one batch of mozzarella cheese done with a batch of cheddar on the stove. I am one happy farmer!

Quiet Week

2011-09-19T14:48:00.003-05:00

It's been a bit of a quiet week with me feeling a bit under the weather. I did work a small bit on the chicken house, I'm one piece of plywood short of having it all covered and then the paint and attaching the run to it and it will have chickens in it. It poured rain all night into this morning so it's gonna be a while before i get back out there.

I'm afraid i'm losing another tooth from the chicken smashing in the face thing. I havent felt much like eating so the boys have all been on their own for supper. You know Momma doesnt feel good if she won't cook!

I'm into week number 2 waiting on hubster to get the tractor tire off. Done waiting, the boys did it for me this morning. Now all I need is for the tire man to be on duty so I can get it fixed!

Maybe in a day or 2 this tooth will just fall out and i can get back to being myself....

Just Too Funny

2011-09-13T18:49:00.003-05:00

I know, shame on me for laughing at my Lucky goat. I even teased him just a little by calling his name. He called back and was trying to find me. I couldn't take it, I had to pull the bag off for him. He was happy to see me and didn't care that I laughed! He just can't help being a curious goat since he's never seen a feed sack before...

Really??

2011-09-13T13:50:00.004-05:00

Come on now, really? Did this just happen? yep, I just can NOT win this year. Had to run to town for gear oil to put in the truck differential (hubs said it was full even tho I KNOW one of the seals is leaking) and on the way back, as we passed the county jail facility, I spotted an American flag laying on the ground. of course, that instantly chapped my ass so I had to turn around and go pick it up, prepared to walk all up and down somebody for their blatant disrespect etc. Turns out, it's a closed down office for the federal housing (welfare). So, here I am with this flag that has apparently been cut off the pole and thrown on the ground. The city police were glad to take my complaint and promised to follow the flag rules with my perfectly folded flag ( officer was impressed, LOL). So, I jump back in the truck and am at the city limits when I can hear something funny from the truck and the battery light comes on. I already have a sneaking suspicion of what's wrong so I put the hammer down headed for home. Diesels are hard to turn and have no brakes to speak of without that belt. I made it home tho, safe and sound. Now I need a new belt. ARG, I just can't have a good day....

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

2011-09-11T15:58:00.003-05:00

Yep, It's another installment of Lessons learned the hard way.... last year I tried peanuts for the first time. I just planted a couple of nuts in a car tire. A sort of raised bed experiment thing. It worked well and with the pictures from around the internet I'd looked at, I decided to go ahead and plant some in the big garden. Here comes the lesson learned... peanuts don't like hard, compact soil and they despise clay. 8 plants and that's all I got. The roots grew down to the clay and quit. I really thought they were doing good, the tops all looked great! Guess I need to build some garden boxes for the peanuts! LOL At least I have a good crop of seed nuts for next years planting!

Side note, small disaster today.... I've been looking for a mystery water leak that showed up on the water bill this month. couldn't figure out where it was and I had resigned myself to crawling under the trailer in the sloppy mess and cutting the plastic that holds the floor insulation off to locate it when I found it from inside the house. The wash machine has finally flew apart. I don't know why I never heard it leaking until today but there it is, leaking from underneath it and the water was just seeping down thru the wall in the corner behind the washer. I turned the water spigot off and it quit leaking. Yep, something inside the washer is broken. It's 11 years old and has been repaired a half dozen times already, Sears just doesn't make em like they used to. I just can not catch a break this year.

Dismal Day

2011-09-09T18:40:00.004-05:00

The last few days have just been "ho-hum" days, piddling around the farm. I finally got a little bit of cash to pick up a couple pieces of plywood for the chicken coop and it starts to rain. It's one of those all day misting rains, no real precipitation but wet enough to ruin your outside plans.

There's been a few emotional drains happen this week. hubster ended up back in the ER and that young ER doc figured out his digestive problem in about 5 minutes. which of course, makes me madder than a wet hen. 7 weeks of no paycheck, 100 different tests, the 3 doc appts a week, the 2 procedures and $17,000.00 to a specialist (harvard grad) who apparently missed the week they taught the gall bladder and gall stones.

The next emotional blow was hearing about a couple old friends of mine having a motorcycle crash. Father/daughter pair and both were seriously injured. It took me a little driving to make a visit to another old friend to find out what happened and the daughter is going to eventually be okay but my friend is in very critical condition and it's not looking good.

I am getting some support from my loving and caring goat pal, Lucky. He ensures my good spirits by amusing me every chance he gets. I've been giving him horse cookies and he really gets excited over them. When I run out, he has to make sure I'm not holding out on him by chewing the hoodie pocket just to make sure it's really empty! Johnboy is in full rut and no one is safe from his unbelievable stink. Billy goats can get really rank. You can smell him all over the farm. The worst part of it he's spoiled and you can't hardly get away from him outside and he begs for attention. Am I ever glad I snipped and clipped Lucky goat!

I watched part of the republican debate the other night. Geez, we've got some real winners in the race, don't we? There is no way on this green earth that I could ever support Rick Perry or Michelle Bachmann. My "weasel meter" is just pegged every time either one opens their mouth.

I've turned my thoughts toward next years crops already. Since this year was so dismal, I'm working out some things to possibly prevent a repeat of this years disasters. We'll just have to wait and see how those ideas turn out. I still haven't learned how to grow patience, LOL.

I think today is a good day to just flop on the couch with a good book......

Waiting on Rain

2011-09-04T13:32:00.006-05:00

There's my Sia, letting me know he still loves me.

Since I've had some serious trauma to my life and big plans in the past few days, I've been thinking about where the farm is now, where it was, the things that have happened to us the last couple of years, how I've dealt with different things, what my attitude used to be like and what my attitude is now. Wow, lots to ponder, eh?

There's a few things I don't have to think on very hard to remember exactly when they changed. Some other things tho, those seem to have changed more subtly over a period of time.

So, with that in mind, I'm already working on another brilliant (or stupid) plan to supplement our winter food supply. Since Mother Nature showed us her more cruel side this year, I will see a winter menu that is lacking some of the items I have become accustomed to having. I will have to adapt and overcome and wipe the cobwebs off my creative side. Since we have taken some serious blows to our already pitiful financial situation, I didn't even come close to building the greenhouse, killing my big plan to have a 3 season harvest(again, LOL). I refuse to admit defeat and have worked up a plan to once again do some indoor growing. I can't just have buckets of plants laying around when the cold weather comes (lousy windows and serious drafts) so once the plants get to that point, I will create an indoor greenhouse from simple materials that would never withstand life outdoors but will work out just fine inside. Now all I need is for the seeds to germinate!

Okay, Where's The Rainbow??

2011-09-03T11:13:00.002-05:00

ROFL! Lucky the Unicorn goat!

That's a corn stalk stuck in his collar, apparently he's been rolling around in the pile....

Goat-napping update

2011-08-31T08:17:00.004-05:00

Today we are on the lookout for a crappy white, early 90s ford stepside truck with a red camper top on it, 2 young looking guys with dark hair. No plate number, it was too far away and they took off too fast after they dumped the goats out on the side road, about a half mile from the farm. I got all my goats but one back! My neighbor spotted them and quickly informed me my goats were on the side of the road and headed my way. From the intel I have gathered, Monday night and Tuesday night were the ramadan feast and goat is the menu. A nice man I spoke to from Paducah, Ky (big goat buyer and seller) informed me he loses Boers from his operation every year at this time and I should expect my goats to show up at auction quickly because they're milk goats. So, I canvased every single auction barn within 150 miles yesterday with descriptions and pictures of the goats(yes, I have tons of pictures of my goats) plus the local sale papers, rural farm stores etc. Apparently, the guys that stole my goats can't tell the difference between milk goats and meat goats. The goat I didn't get back was a pygmie cross doe. Lucky was not harmed. We think the truck is local and the sheriffs dept is looking into it. We need to find that truck. We'll find it, half the countryside will know about it by nightfall today.

I feel sick. I'm relieved but I'm angry too. I'm happy I got my Lucky back but I'm still very angry. I nurture and love my herd of goats, gentle them down, work with them, feed them, tend to their needs, play with them every day and all it did was make it easy for some jerk with a feed bucket to walk right up, shake the bucket and steal them from me in broad daylight. My side gate now has a chain and lock on it. It will make it a hassle for me and anyone with bolt cutters will still get thru it but maybe it will slow the next guys that think my goats will make an easy meal down just a little...

I been Robbed

2011-08-29T20:29:00.006-05:00

Seriously. Today, somehow, my entire goat herd has been stolen, including Lucky goat. Sometime between 5pm and 7pm. Nobody here heard a sound, we were around the farm all day, front door was open, dog laying on the porch and all the goats are missing. No where to be found. The goats were laying on the burn pile at 5pm when the boys lit it on fire and when we went out to milk the cow and feed, the goats were gone. Not one single time in the 2 years I have had these goats have they ever been more than 150 yards from the barn. Lucky has never been not on the porch come dusk. Tonight, the barn lot is quiet and empty. 9 goats, all gone.

Lookie lookie!

2011-08-24T15:29:00.004-05:00

Of course I'm excited, I like snakes! I found this little beauty in the barn, same spot I found that awesome rate snake a couple months ago. I am thinking this is some sort of corn snake (rat snake) but I am waiting on the snake man to reply with a proper identification. of course, I had to catch it and play with it for a while and of course, bring it in the house so I can take a couple pictures! This one is super docile, it's a keeper!

Life at a Standstill

2011-08-24T09:06:00.004-05:00

Well, I was kind of hoping I'd have something good to talk about by now but we're still just hanging on around here. One day at a time. While the heat of the day has lessened, the humidity level is still making life a sweaty, uncomfortable experience. Goober cow has done her job well, she ate down all the grass and stomped the weeds in the garden. Now I'm just waiting on the neighbor to get around to turning it all over. I'm going to move the critter pens elsewhere on the farm and plant more of a fall garden in the rich, manure filled soils. The wait just kills me but all my equipment is broken so I don't have a choice.

Oh, we, the boy, the young man that is staying here now to help me and myself, we got Spud gentled down some and got a band on his family pride. It was actually harder than I expected it to be but I got the deed done. Much less traumatic than how Lucky goat got to be neutered. Poor Spud, at least he didn't have to find out the hard way that it's better to be born a girl than a boy on the farm.

The easter egg hunt continues. I know those darn chickens are laying eggs. it sure would be nice if I could find them from day to day! One day soon tho, I will have enough money left over to buy a roll or 2 of wire and some sheet tin roofing and we won't have to hunt for eggs again.

The lawn tractor is still not running but we spent a day on the back roads picking up cans so we could pick up some stuff that will clean out all the gunk from the biodiesel. Hopefully, it will help with the problem. I have never been less of a supporter of biodiesel than I am right now. It is complete garbage and a waste of a good food crop! The orange goo that grows in it from the soybean oil absolutely causes me mountains of problems not to mention the poor fuel mileage. What a waste of good soybeans!

I've been doing a bit of seed saving these past few days. I have sacks of tobacco seed drying on the fireplace along with okra, sweet pepper, hot pepper, tomato and corn meal corn. I dehydrated another 2 quarts worth of sweet pepper to cook with. I so enjoy the flavor sweet pepper gives to about anything.

I found an interesting article on Drudge Report last night, it's about Illinois unemployment. It seems that our wonderful governor (I didnt vote for him, actually despise the man) had this brilliant idea of raising state revenues by increasing the income tax rate. Well, it's working out really well (yah right). Not only did Gov. Quinn anger several large businesses/corporations in Illinois, a few of them even packed up and left the state. others have actively reduced their work forces bringing the unemployment rate for the state up above 9% with a total of 89,000 jobs lost since January. The link wouldn't open this morning for me to review and highlight it, maybe it will work later today. I can say for sure that the opportunity for a decent wage in southern Illinois is just about non existent. Gas stations, walmart and fast food is about the only opportunity for employment unless you are a CNA, LPN or RN. Even then, you won't find a decent living wage. The local electric conglomerate is seeking to raise it's rates, again, and the cost of fuel is obnoxiously high as well. Don't forget about the consistently rising cost of commercially produced foods. Even at a rise of 2 or 3 cents a week, it still hits you. The urge to grow more food is very strong now.

So, now I'm off to dream about fixing things around the farm and increasing productivity.....

Insult to Injury

2011-08-18T17:26:00.003-05:00

Mother Nature just won't give me a break this year. Not only does she whoop on my garden with her inhuman heat and humidity, she's got to whip up nasty little storm cells out of nowhere and knock the crud out of my shade trees. This pitiful little farm is starting to look pretty darn rough!

Stupidity at its Finest

2011-08-17T12:36:00.003-05:00

I know it's not surprising that a member of our federal government would do or say something stupid but this man, Tom Vilsack, is a complete moron. Who is Tom Vilsack you ask? Well, Tom is the secretary of Agriculture for the good ole' US of A. That's right, Tom Vilsack is working hard to strengthen the American agricultural economy, to revitalize rural communities, to protect and conserve our natural resources, and to provide a safe, sufficient and nutritious food supply for the American people. Because USDA's work affects every American everyday, we are proud to be the 'Every Way, Every Day' USDA. That's right, he's the jackass in charge of the USDA.

Mr. Vilsack is on video saying that the federal food stamp program is an economic stimulus. Tom says "Well, obviously, it's putting people to work. Which is why we're going to have some interesting things in the course of the forum this morning. Later this morning, we're going have a press conference with Secretary Mavis and Secretary Chu to announce something that's never happened in this country -- something that we think is exciting in terms of job growth. I should point out, when you talk about the SNAP program or the food stamp program, you have to recognize that it's also an economic stimulus. Every dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity. If people are able to buy a little more in the grocery store, someone has to stock it, package it, shelve it, process it, ship it. All of those are jobs. It's the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times."

Okay Tom, whatever you've been smoking, you need to quit it, RIGHT NOW. You should be ashamed of yourself for being so completely idiotic. As a matter of fact, I think you need to be punished for your stupidity. How about you spend 1 month working for minimum wage either stocking those grocery shelves or working in the factory that produces those grocery store products. Also, you should immediately return your government paycheck because you are entirely too stupid to deserve it.

Welcome to the new world folks, this is how our politicians view the rest of America. Don't worry tho, there's going to be plenty of minimum wage jobs available that the government is going to create for each and every one of us so we can all sign up for food stamps in our poverty and further stimulate our economy with them!

Quiet Days

2011-08-15T13:26:00.005-05:00

It's been quiet here while we're just trying to hang on. Every piece of equipment I own is broken with no money to fix any of it, so not much is getting accomplished. I have gradually been trying to wean daisy calf but she is proving to be smarter than the average cow. Her latest trick is jumping the field fence that surrounds the property perimeter next to the garden where Goober cow has been penned up for the last few days. I did manage to get a gallon of milk before Daisy figured out how to get back to Momma. This morning, there she was, right there in the pen with that "who, me?" look on her face and Goobers milk bag was empty.

I've been salvaging what I can from the goat chewed tobacco plants and the bag full of seed pods is from just one plant. All the corn meal corn is now harvested and I'm working on getting it dried the rest of the way so I can store it for use later. I've got a 5 gallon bucket full of hot peppers for the dehydrator too. The free roaming chickens are eating all the tomatoes on me and the easter egg hunt is ongoing. I know they are laying eggs somewhere, I just can't find them. The farm is just a mess and this year is a complete failure on the self sustained side. But, that's life. Even the best of us gets knocked down a notch every now and then...

Solar Flares and Meteor Showers

2011-08-09T23:47:00.004-05:00

I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to science and the earth. I like to know what's happening in our universe and I get some really great info and see pictures of the most amazing stuff over at the Space Weather site. It's a sight I check out just about every day. With all the stresses and distractions around here, I had forgotten all about the Perseid Meteor Shower. Thanks Space Weather for reminding me!

This site is great for knowing all about what the sun is doing and the activity coming from the sun that can affect our world in devastating ways. I just wish I could see all those awesome auroras instead of having to enjoy them thru pictures. The latest class X solar flare is a little disturbing....

Farm Life Early August

2011-08-07T18:13:00.004-05:00

I had to harvest the cornmeal corn today way ahead of schedule. I'm still working out how to finish drying it without having the problem continue that caused my early harvest.

Here's the problem... since the hubster got sick and put a serious dent in our finances, some of our farm projects, things that needed done to keep the farm productive and in good order, didn't get done. One of those projects was the goat enclosure, another was the chicken coop. Between the goats and the chickens, the garden is taking a huge hit. That hit will affect our food supply for the next year.

There's just some problems that ingenuity, creativity and imagination can't fix.

Salmonella Burgers and a Wreck

2011-08-04T18:22:00.005-05:00

Whoops, poor fellow missed the one ditch only to lose the tandems in another. This is just off the end of my driveway, at the side road. It's the most excitement we've seen around here in months!

As you all know by now, I don't watch commercial broadcast television. So, I get all my news from around the internet and the local paper. One of the news feeds I like is Fox news. Today, there is a very nice to read article on the truth about how and why salmonella gets in ground turkey. Thank you Dr Seiegel, I love it when the truth gets written in main stream media!

TEOWAWKI- New World Order

2011-08-03T16:29:00.002-05:00

Here you go folks, this is what your America really looks like. This is what your government is up to- Raw Food Raid. Your tax dollars at work protecting all of us from the most dangerous thing on the planet. Raw milk.

On the heels of the biggest rip off of the American people in history (obamas debt hike charade) this move by our government is a clear declaration of war against freedom.

This is our country now. A country where you will be arrested for growing your own food, eating that food and sharing it. Don't even think about putting those evil vegetable plants in your front yard either. A country where you are arrested for feeding the homeless. A country where you can not have a lemonaide stand or give your neighbors home made bread or jelly.

Are you comfortable being controlled? Do you like having every aspect of your life dictated to you by your government? Get used to it because this is just the beginning. This will continue and get worse. Once the USDA uses the Dept of Transportation vie executive order to finish off the rest of the small farmers across the country by requiring them to be permitted as commercial drivers, eliminating anyone who does not have a commercial drivers license from operating farm equipment, requiring additional commercial permits and licenses for transporting their livestock and crops and a $750,000.00 liability insurance policy, our entire food supply will be under corporate/government control. Welcome to Agenda 21!

Todays Goings Ons

2011-08-01T19:12:00.003-05:00

As I was contemplating earlier, it's hot here. Reaallly humid to go with it. I had to sit in the fan for a while after my brief outdoor adventure and set myself up a cutting board on a couple of buckets so I wouldnt have to be away from the fan while I cut up sweet peppers and tomatoes. I got everything prepared and ready to go before I walked away from the fan. My chopped sweet peppers are looking pretty good in the dehydrator and the sauce is simmering down nicely. All food I grew right here on the farm. Add in a little deer meat in the sauce and it will be ready to go.

Dripping Wet in 30 Seconds

2011-08-01T13:32:00.002-05:00

That's what it took today, 30 seconds. A box came to me in the mail yesterday. A thoughtful blog reader sent me a sack of goat wormer. Thank you very much! So, after I scrubbed the kitchen from breakfast, I ventured out to worm the goats. They aren't too far away as they've all found a cool spot under the porch. Everyone but Spud the scaredycat got some wormer. While I was out there, I noticed the cow had tangled herself up (she's tied to a tree in the shade, 50' rope because she goes right for the hole in the fence every time she's loose) around a couple trees so I headed over to get rubbed on with the nubby horns and get her untangled so she can go where she wants to. That accomplished, I headed over to the weed infested and mostly scorched garden and picked a dozen Rutgers tomatoes to make a sauce for supper. Tie the gate to keep the goats out and back to the house dripping wet. I'll have to sit in front of the fan for a bit to cool off. Just that little bit of movement is enough to completely sap your energy in this horrible heat and humidity.

I haven't been doing much of anything these past few days. My energy level is zero. I've stopped the blood pressure medicine, it was making me woozie. I have been checking my bp several times a day and I am not suffering from high blood pressure. My heart has not pounded weird once since I've been home. But of course, it's the practicing medicine thing and not just a combination of heat, humidity and extreme stress. I just need another cup of coffee! LOL

I plan on making another trip to the disaster of a garden later this evening, the seed pods on the bug eaten tobacco plants need collected, the meal corn needs checked on, the kidney beans need picked, hot peppers should be good to be picked and I know I have some carrots out there still.......

Interesting Week

2011-07-27T11:17:00.002-05:00

As you all know, it's been kind of rough around here for quite a while. It all came to a head for me yesterday as I got to spend several hours not doing so well. Apparently, the stress and the extreme heat combined to give me a hypertensive episode and it caused my heart to beat abnormally for a while. Today, I feel like I have been run over by a train.

The fight to keep the garden going is over. The fight to keep the hay equipment going is over. The fight to keep the lawn mower going is over.

Maybe next year will be better.......

Is It Hot Enough For Ya?

2011-07-20T12:33:00.005-05:00

It is too hot for me! This is the worst part of the year, I despise being wet and sticky all day. Here in southern Illinois, it's the joys of the "air that you wear". The thermometer said 128F in the barn yesterday. That's almost hot enough to cook the eggs in the nests!

Thank you to the wonderful blog reader that gave us another day of fuel to get back and forth to work. God Bless you sir.

Since the job won't let the hubs stay in his crappy camper(they know he's still ill), I'm subjected to driving him back and forth to work. It's taking up 5 hours of my day, the 5 best hours(coolest times of the daylight) so I'm not making much progress in the garden or around the farm. This weather is supposed to hang on until Saturday. yay rah! The garden will be a jungle of grass and pig weed by then. At least the plants are shaded some and not burning up!

Oh, I read something yesterday that got me thinking and at the same time, made me mad. Modern Poverty includes AC and xbox. Geez, you know, I never considered us to be impoverished before, now I'm kind of insulted. Video games, air conditioning, big screen tvs, cable television and fancy, expensive cell phones. Hmmm, we don't have any of those things. Does that mean we're poor? We can't afford any of those things. Maybe I should quit trying so hard to take care of myself and sign up for welfare so I can have air conditioning! I'd like that right now, LOL.

I've been discussing a small equipment problem with "net pals" over at the APN chatroom. A couple weeks ago, I picked up a chunk of wood in the square baler and it broke one of the cutting knives. It turns out, it also bent the bale chamber inward essentially making the baler junk. Well, to us, that is unacceptable since we need it and have no way of replacing it. Now comes the rabbit out of the hat. Hubs, the boy and I spent a couple hours working over the problem, trying a few different things to fix it. Hubs brilliant mind, a cutting torch and some extreme adjustments on the bale plunger and it works. He basically counter sank the stationary knife into the chamber wall and adjusted the plunger to run right down the chamber rail. It will never break a knife again. But, if I ever pick up another chunk of tree, it will probably, destroy the baler. Now all we need to do is come up with some imaginative way to fix that $800 pick up rake track on the haybine.... we're working it out.

Skeeter goat is enjoying the freedom that the hot weather has given the goat herd. Since it's soooo hot out and it would be animal cruelty to keep them in such a hot barn, the goats have free range around the farm. No, the weeds aren't that high here, she's laying down and munching, LOL. I wanted to get a picture of Spud laying in the tractor rim but he was gone by the time I got back with the camera. Maybe next time he does it.....

Farm Update Photos

2011-07-14T18:33:00.005-05:00

There's little Spud...

Part of the herd getting a lick on the salt block....

The corn meal corn. There really is 5 rows of beans in all that pig weed and grass. Can you see the tobacco to the right of the corn?

Mid July Farm Update

2011-07-14T11:27:00.003-05:00

We got a little rain to cool us off. 112F with 85% humidity was horrible. Thankfully, it was just a couple days and we lived thru it with no air conditioning. The creek swimming hole is a life saver ;)

Thank you to the 2 blog readers that have helped us with fuel money this week. God Bless you both!

The garden is full of pig weed and bermuda grass. I pulled some out last night but it will take me the rest of the week to get it all cleared out. The corn meal corn looks really awesome and I'll take a pic or 2 to post. The tobacco this year is being attacked by some tiny bug I've not seen on it before and I intend to spray them with the hot pepper spray this evening. I'm hoping it works since I refuse to use chemicals here. Even with the bugs, the plants still look good and are flowering like crazy. A good harvest of seed for my next crop! I've lost 3 rows of kidney beans from all the rain, the plants just wilted and died. What's left is covered in bean pods tho. I had a few horn worms munching on the tomatoes but I pulled the grass from around them and the chickens picked the worms for me. Good chickens! Today I will be finding my garlic and onions amongst the pig weed and grass, hopefully they are okay from all the rain. Oh, the peanut plants have the prettiest orange flowers on them! The replanted sweet corn is growing okay, it looks nitrogen deficient tho. It's from all the rain.

We finally got the deposit slip for the long term disability. 2 weeks at $170. Wow, now we can retire, LOL. Hubster insisted on a return to work slip so we don't lose our farm with that 30 day default clause. I don't know how he's going to tolerate it in so much pain and discomfort. We will make the July payment on the last day before default and just deal with it. Not like we don't have plenty of experience with trying to catch back up to even ;) So, all we need to do is make it the next 15 days. Pray for good results from all the tests this week and an easy fix to his illness.

Tuesday, before the rain came in, I tried to make myself a little fuel money by custom baling a small piece for a fellow up the road. I didn't get 10' and picked up a piece of tree, snapped the sheer pin. It was horribly hot so I folded up and headed home to fix it in the shade. Not 100 yards down the road, I blew a tire! A baler tire, not a tractor tire. What a mess just the same. The blow out bent the rim on me. So, some pounding on the rim and some grinding on it to get the road tar ooze (it was so hot, the road was all sticky and oozy) and gravel off of it, a $3 inner tube and now all I have to do is empty the chamber, get the piece of wood out, pull the knives off, file the knicks off them, put them back and I'll hopefully be good to go.

Little Spud is doing good. I turned all the goats loose so they could graze and find a shady spot during the heat of the day. Keeping them in the barn when it's this hot is animal cruelty. Just too hot for them in there. Pictures of Spud soon too...

Quiet Sunday

2011-07-10T10:26:00.009-05:00

Little Spud is growing like a weed and is following the herd out of the barn now. The last couple of mornings have given me a giggle or 2 with his tiny goat antics. By the time chores are done, he's wiped out and ready for a nap.

Flopping a gate across the front of the barn has kept his safe from curious horses and has been pretty good protecting my straw bales from those same nosey horses. Can't sell any this fall if they're all broken and stomped on.

Garden update- the tobacco is covered with japanese beetles and budding out, about ready to start flowering. The corn meal corn is 8' tall and most stalks have 2 ears on them. I saw a couple that had 3 ears pushing silks in there too. The beans are covered in pods and the tomatoes are covered with little green fruits. The cucumbers are rotting before growing to a decent size, too much rain. The hot peppers are still working on setting fruit and the sweet peppers have not yet recovered from Lucky goats buffet. The sweet corn Lucky munched on is up and looking decent. A side dress of rabbit poo for the nitrogen might be in order if it even quits raining long enough for me to walk around in there...

We're starting week 7 of the hubsters mystery illness. We'll be going the next 3 weeks without a paycheck. A whole week full of tests scheduled as well. Soon we will be done tho, we will run out of fuel in the truck by Wednesday and the co-pay for the doc visits will wipe out the rest of what we have. Not too sure what we'll do or even what we can do at this point. The stress is killing my guts now :( Even if we refuse his treatment and force a release for work, we will still go 3 weeks without a paycheck and he will still be ill. Not sure at this point how we'd even get him to work. I spend quite a bit of time wondering what we've done to be punished so. It gives me a headache.

Here's the broken baler knife. A replacement is only $75 but it might as well be a million dollars. Geez, this is just too much...

Food Freedom??

2011-07-08T10:46:00.002-05:00

This has got to be the most stupid thing I have ever seen. The city of Oak Park, MI is prosecuting this woman because she planted raised beds in her front yard full of vegetables. Someone in her neighborhood turned her in to the city. How sad is that? You don't think every aspect of our society and our country has gone seriously off track? This is government in action folks.

Chick Babysitter

2011-07-07T20:38:00.002-05:00

Silly Lucky goat, he's got to make sure those chicks are eating properly!

Being Bad Sick

2011-07-07T17:29:00.006-05:00

I've been known to go off on a pretty good rant over the phrase "practicing medicine" and I am most certainly due for another one. If you all have been following this blog for the last 5 weeks, you probably already know about my hubsters illness. Last week was his intestinal scope, the cure all, fix all diagnostic test. Yah right. Let's review, shall we? Memorial weekend it was called appendicitis . A week later it was changed to ulcerative colitis. He got antibiotics, steroids and an anti spasm medication. No change. 3 weeks later comes the scope and it becomes diverticulitis (no new meds tho). Another week goes by, the follow up appointment to the scope and all the sudden it's now gall bladder problems! That's kind of funny, he doesn't have any of the symptoms of gall bladder problems at all. 5 weeks now with this same problem, it has not gotten any better at all. It doesn't matter if he eats or not, still the same. Even with the colon clean, he was still having spasms. We're on our 2nd week of short term disability checks and they are 1/3 of his normal paycheck. So, now add stress on top of his illness. The doctors are no closer to knowing what's wrong with him now than they were 5 weeks ago and he's not improved even a tiny bit. (this is the spot where I stomp around the front room and curse like a sailor) So, now he's back at the doctors today, getting stuck with needles for more blood tests to check for something he doesn't have.

If he ever gets over this, I'll bet he's gonna want to eat more of what my son and I eat and quit eating all that processed food crap and soda he insists on consuming....

Add the hubster to your prayer list, we need him to get better!

Organic Gardening and Freedom

2011-07-06T10:53:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I wrote a post expressing my opinion on a couple different things. One was the gullibility and stupidity of people combined with our continued loss of freedoms and another was what I consider to be a restriction of freedom via Arizonas ideas for "controlling" farmers markets.

Via the comments section, I learned of a nasty practice in another state of the county tax assessors office sending someone out to photograph the INSIDE of your home along with the inside of your garage, outbuildings etc. All in the name of "fair tax". Of course, you can refuse to allow them into your home but you will be punished with being taxed at the highest rate for the county. So, allow them to invade your privacy or be unreasonably taxed.

Anonymous commented with what appeared to me as suggesting that we, as a country, have no reason to be upset since we're all living in a fantasy of "English oppression". Now, most of us intelligent people know that history is always slanted to the opinion of the writer and 235 years ago, the people living on this continent considered the "English rule" to be oppressive. Like it or not, there would be no United States of America without the Revolutionary War (yes, one side was the English!) The US Constitution isn't an outdated piece of paper, it's what our country was founded upon! Deal with it! There's also this really cool thing called the Bill of Rights. Some of us are pretty fond of it. Again, deal with it. When elected members of our government trample on those rights, that's called OPPRESSION. Define oppression-noun- the exercise of authority in a burdensome, cruel or unjust manner. Now, I won't bother to go thru a list of just the latest dirty deeds because unless you are one of those people that thinks we need MORE government control (of course in the name of safety, those terrorists are dangerous!) you already know exactly what I'm talking about.

Whew, I need a cup of home grown coffee now. Next is the control of our food from the dirt to the grocery store. My blog pal PP, whom I have high regard for, has spoken up on the subject of Arizonas farmers market paperwork. PP, I can see your point with rude people and they should most certainly have more manners and if they choose to continue to be ignorant, the sponsor of the farmers market should do something about it. As for the produce being trucked in from elsewhere, do you really think government(USDA) control is the answer to that?

I've been growing my own food for years. I do it because I don't like what the government considers to be acceptable and safe. I don't use chemicals or grow GMO crops. I don't have to provide a "crop plan" or allow a government official from the USDA to map and photograph my farm to prove I don't or to tell me I am growing my food correctly. Define organic-adj-of, relating to, derived from, or characteristic of living plants and animals; of or relating to animal or plant constituents or products having a carbon basis. So, I consider the USDA controlling the word "organic" in the same light as Monsanto cornering the market on commercial seed and polluting the world with it(GMO SEED). The USDA says that I can't call my organically grown foods "organic" because they haven't approved it? Ah, but it's all in the name of safer food, isn't it? We all know how much smarter the government is that we are. What would we do without the government telling us what is safe to eat? How ever did our species manage to get this far??? Thank goodness the USDA is here to save me from all that dangerous food out there. I wouldn't want to be healthy and happy from eating a tomato that was grown in my neighbors yard instead of the one treated with chemicals and trucked 500 miles to Walmart.

Now, I know full well that we as a society have been pretty successfully conditioned to believe that the government is the cure all for every problem we have. That help comes with a price, nothing is free. Someone has to pay for it all. So, it all comes down to a single choice, do you want to be controlled or do you want to be free?

What is Wrong Here?

2011-07-05T10:30:00.003-05:00

On the 235th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from oppression and tyranny at the hands of England, I am truly saddened by where our beloved America is headed. The amount of idiots running around that have no tangible grasp on why we have a big nation wide party on July 4th of every year astounds me. These same people willingly accept things such as this- Elite are not even trying to hide how much they hate the US Constitution anymore and Media attacks America on Independence Day.

I am reminded every day that I am not free. I think free, I feel free but I am not free. My land is not paid for and I am still connected to the grid. Even when my land does get paid for, I will still be required to pay an annual duty to the government in the form of property taxes. Meanwhile, the government continues it's attack on all of us with it's control freak agenda.

Did you know that the USDA owns the word "organic"? In the state of Arizona, in order to sell your garden produce at the farmers market, you must submit an application with directions to your garden/home, a crop plan and submit to an inspection of your land. Political control freaks take over farmers market. Check out the 5 minute video for yourself. ( fixed this link, my bad)

So, have we reached the level of oppression that caused our forefathers to declare war yet? Have we been slapped down enough, unreasonably taxed enough, enslaved enough?

My rebellion is in my fight for self sufficiency. My refusal to suck on the government tit. My refusal to sign up for government handouts. My refusal to eat and drink the poison our government supports, protects above individual citizens and uses our tax dollars to control us with. Our own choices have brought our country to it's knees. We voted those thieving, greedy bastards into office and we keep re-electing them! We keep on buying products made by companies such as Monsanto. WE keep them in business! We continue to export billions of American dollars to china in exchange for cheap crap we don't need. If we are incapable of changing ourselves, we deserve what we get.

Long Day on the Farm

2011-07-01T22:24:00.004-05:00

Is that just not the cutest thing? This was my morning surprise. Lucky goats Momma, being the escape artist she is, apparently got herself rebred pretty quick after she abandoned Lucky goat. Being half pygmy, she gave me this cute little tri colored billy this morning. No bigger than a nerf football, he's nursing and she is tending him like she should. No summer bottle baby for me!

Well, we hauled the haybine home today after trying to get it to work without the pick up reel on it. The darn thing just laid the hay down and cut half of it so back to the drawing board. I was hoping it would work like a sickle mower but that was just wishful thinking. Looks like we're just smoked for now, the part I need is out of our reach.

Daisy calf is eating more hay every day and I got a whole gallon of milk today! Boy, what a change from the no milk at all last week thing. The horses and goats all got turned out to graze today, the yard firmed up enough for them. Goober cow is just stuck in her pen until I can finish the side fence. I just don;'t have time to chase her all over the country side. The garden is still a little bit soggy but I did pull some weeds today. Looks like all but 2 of the stomped tobacco plants will recover. Pictures when I get it cleaned up a little more.

ARG! Bad Day

2011-06-30T20:38:00.004-05:00

Today was horrible in so many ways. First, Hubster was diagnosed with Diverticulitis from the scope yesterday and can't get an appointment to be released until July 7th. Yay rah. Next, I found my last banty hen dead in the barn isle. I guess she zigged when she should have zagged and a goat stepped on her. The next thing was a flat tire on the tractor. While working on that, we discovered that our tool box was missing out of the back of the truck. Apparently, someone stole it from the truck bed at the hospital. Real nice. Guess sick people make good targets. our fault for not removing it I guess. Now I have no tools at all. Borrowed a couple tools from the neighbor, got the tire fixed up, headed to the hay field, hooked up to the cutter and broke a pick up rake bar on the 3rd pass. I have no idea what happened. I have no clue how I am going to finish the first cut now. It's what I would feed my animals thru the winter. I had to just come home because I do not have any money to buy the parts and can't cut with it like it is. So, home I went and then I got out to the garden to do some weeding. There, I found the calf, standing in the middle of the garden. Goober cow must have rubbed on the fence hard enough to knock the end post loose in the soggy ground and Daisy calf squeezed out around it, right into the garden. She stomped several tobacco plants and half a row of beans. So, I headed in the house for a cup of coffee and something to munch on. That was a lousy idea. Second bite of bread and I lost that front tooth the rooster knocked loose.

This has NOT been a good day. I need a good cry.

Soggy Tuesday Garden

2011-06-28T17:24:00.003-05:00

Some serious slop out in the garden today and it has me worried. The 5" of rain and then the 2.7" that fell 18 hours later has done some major damage. The potato tires are done for. 2 days of slop and the tops are dying from rotted stalks. The kidney beans are looking drown as well with yellowing leaves and flowers falling off. The tobacco out in the sun looks wilted but the plants already shaded are perking back up today. I was surprised to see them wilted again after they looked so good last night. Of course the tomatoes and cucumber are loving all the water. It's much too sloppy out there to check on the garlic which may die from the slop as well.

What lives out there lives and what doesn't will get replanted for a short crop. Sometimes gardening just doesn't go the way you want it to ;) All part of it tho.

Soggy Monday

2011-06-27T14:48:00.005-05:00

It stormed yesterday with another round coming in at 4am and then again at noon. We're standing in water, again. 5" Sunday and another 1.3" today in the rain gauge. I won't be getting much done today around the farm. It's sunny now and I slopped out to take a couple pictures of the exploding growth in the garden but it all looks drown and kind of wilty so I passed on it. On my way back, a male Cardinal was chirping away in what's left of my red potatoes (thanks so much Lucky goat). I've loved Cardinals for as long as I can remember and they were my Grandmothers favorite bird as well. Wish I could share this beauty with her.

Tomorrow is the pre-op for the hubsters medical procedure and then Wednesday is hopefully the day we find out exactly what is wrong with his insides. The mortgage and the tax bill don't care that he's ill so we're getting a bit anxious to heal him up. Plus, he's driving me crazy here, laying on the couch 24/7 ;) So, the next couple of days won't be good for anything getting done around the farm. Between the medical stuff and all the water, I'm a wreck.

Not Going our way, Again

2011-06-23T09:43:00.001-05:00

You ever wonder why it's called "practicing medicine"? Spending 7 hours in a ER did have one small benefit, we got a scope appt for the hubster, much quicker than we originally anticipated. Still, 5 weeks into this, he's still in the exact same shape. Short term disability finally kicked in. One third of his regular pay. That's life I guess. Could be worse, we could be like last time and go without any kind of money coming in at all. It's just very frustrating and I know you all can relate. Sharing the disappointment helps me be less upset about it.

We dodged the vicious storms, both of them! For once, Mother nature treated us good. We did get a little bit of rain and the garden is just obnoxious. I'll have plenty of weeding work as soon as it firms up enough for me to walk out there. A bit mushy right now ;) I know there's cucumbers out there waiting for me to pick them and I LOVE cucumbers!

All the little chicks are doing good, I still have every one that hatched. I guess Gremlin was the chick killer and now that she's gone, I've still got chicks. Hate that I had to find out because of her getting run over. Life is hard on cats living next to a main rural route.

A quick 2 minute video of Daisy calf on the loose, investigating a dirt pile from the horse paddock.

Monday Ponderings

2011-06-20T18:01:00.004-05:00

This morning, I had an email asking me to put a link on my blog to an editorial about frugal living. The title of it was 10 famous penny pinches that teach frugality. Frankly, the article was pitiful and offended me from a self sufficient and frugal viewpoint. Going to Bloomingdales on double reward days, buying food from the Cheesecake Factory and stockpiling hotel soap is frugal? WHAT???

I learned several years ago that I would never enjoy the easy life. The luxuries so many people take for granted like running hot water, cable tv, telephones, air conditioning, new clothes or vacations weren't something I was going to get no matter how hard I worked. Yes, it upset me, but I learned to deal with it and go on with life. My family decided I needed hot water so they helped out with that. The rest of it, the only thing I really miss is the air conditioning. It really gets miserable in the summer here. I choose to go without because having it would create a debt (electric bill) that I could not pay for.

Once again our farm is suffering from the low side of life. There isn't anyone to blame, we didn't get lazy and quit working. We didn't develop an alcohol or drug problem. One can not predict or prevent a physical illness. Through all the bad times, we've come perilously close to losing our home. More than once in the past few years due to physical illness. As anyone who has been down and out knows, once you're down, it takes a long time to get back to breaking even and even longer to get up over it. We never got that chance this time. So, I reached out for help and some great people stepped up to help us. For that I am very grateful. For me, it's not even close to over, the bad news on the health front just keeps rolling in.

The other day I wrote about the words “self sufficient”. Needing no outside help in satisfying one's basic needs, esp. with regard to the production of food. Emotionally and intellectually independent. Let's look at this definition a little bit. Needing no outside help in satisfying one's basic needs, especially with regard to food. That's right, this farm is self sufficient in regards to food. I do that for us. I also do that for my farm animals. The animals that help to feed me. Emotionally and intellectually independent. It is my opinion that I qualify with this as well. I do not choose to follow along blindly. If I did, I would be eating store bought food and collecting a welfare check for my disability. Emotionally independent, for the most part I am. I don't think asking for prayers qualifies as emotionally needy.

All the work I do around this farm in my efforts to feed us is all being done with, old, used equipment. Nothing came to me new. I make it work. That's part of my job. For the things I can't do around here, I barter with neighbors and other farmers close by to get what I need done. Most of the time, it doesn't come cheap and I end up giving more than I get. Sometimes, it's just how it works. I just deal with it.

The hours I spend tending the gardens and the animals is a labor of love. You can not do this-feed yourself- and hate what you're doing. It just doesn't work. The people out in the world that think they can just throw some seeds in some dirt and feed themselves are in for a huge surprise if and when they ever really have to grow something to eat for themselves. The hours of labor and the gallons of sweat during harvest time are something your average office worker can't even begin to imagine or relate to. Not to mention the feeling you get when you get covered with anything from the business end of an angry cow, or the bruises on the back of your legs from that baby goat who was just dying for his bottle and you took too long.

If you really want to be frugal, try your hand at baking some bread or making your own soap instead of buying it from a store. Nurture a tomato plant in a 5 gallon bucket and make your own salsa once in a while. Better yet, go to your fuse box and turn off the main breaker for a weekend and learn to live in a more simple fashion.

Around the Farm 6-18-11

2011-06-18T19:30:00.004-05:00

It was my intention tonight to take a couple pictures of the muddy garden but I got distracted and all I finished up evening chores with is a few pictures of the critters, a couple skeeter bites and some mud that got slung on me when Rowdy stole feed from the cow while I was milking.

The humidity is thick enough to cut tonight. Soaking wet while milking isn't the highlight of my day ;) But, the quart of fresh milk is worth the effort. I need to figure out how to pen the calf off the cow during the day so I can get a little more milk. The current outdoor pen doesn't give me much in the options department for it.

It's now 5 days of intermittent rain and brief storms. I am ready for it to go away so I can get the rest of that hay cut. The sooner the better or I won't have a good second cut later this year.

My hubster had 5 nasty spasms today. Keep the prayers coming...

Sweet Rain

2011-06-17T20:57:00.005-05:00

Early afternoon brought a dandy of a little squall. Lightning too close for comfort and enough rain to fill the bottom of the wheel barrow. The garden is loving it! When it was all over, the goats were happy to come back out of the barn. They high tailed it inside as the storm was coming in, they didn't want any of it. The horses and goats were getting along nicely today, that's what I like to see!

Lucky goat is still splitting his time between the herd and me, I had to put a piece of scrap fencing in the window to keep him from jumping in the house to find me. If he wouldn't chew on everything and anything, I wouldn't mind him visiting but alas, he's a goat ;)

Hubster had a minor setback with a bout of vomiting up blood. I was kind of hoping he was getting better. Back to the doctor, again, and another appointment for Wednesday :( Looks like we're still needing prayers and lots of them.

No hay sales yet but people don't want to buy and haul it in the rain. Maybe this coming week when the rain quits...

Commercial Dough Enhancers and Raw Milk

2011-06-16T14:19:00.004-05:00

Oh yes, once again I'm up to no good, LOL. I've been reading again over at Alex Jones' infowars and these 2 articles caught my attention.

The first one is about a common ingredient in commercial breads. Alex linked to the original article from natural news. It turned my stomach even knowing I don't eat commercial breads. Just the thought that I used to eat it made me want to upchuck. L-cysteine, a common commercial dough enhancer, is made from human hair? Wait a minute, now it's even worse... human hair from China???? Say it isn't so! The article goes on to say that this additive is also obtained from other sources which include chicken feathers, duck feathers, cow horns and petroleum byproducts.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032718_L-cysteine_commercial_bread.html#ixzz1PT841FRI

Now, I am seriously against commercial foods for plenty of reasons. Now I have one more!

Lew Rockwell.com has a great article concerning the raw milk battle and echos my thoughts on why our government is so insistent on "controlling" raw milk and keeping it almost impossible for the average person to enjoy milk in it's true and healthy form. The original link also came from Alex Jones' infowars. I drink raw milk. I like raw milk. Goat or cow, it's all good to me. I would not drink milk at all if all I had to choose from was commercially packaged milk. Frankly, I find store bought milk to be disgusting and the mere thought of drinking milk that if full of bovine growth hormone and puss from the mastitis is promotes is enough to make me hurl. I know instantly, before I even draw the first squirt of milk from my cow or goat if the milk isn't right. My animals get hand milked, I know what the udder looks like, feels like, I know all the dirt is washed off of it, there's no nasties on the udder and no floaties in the milk when I am finished. So, just the thought of some government worker telling me my raw milk is less safe than the crap sold in stores rub me the wrong way. How dare he or she assume they know more about my animals than I do? How dare he or she assume they can tell me what I can produce and consume for myself on my own farm? I've got 2 words for them and they aren't "thank you".

Anyway, I liked both the articles and wanted to share even tho the one made me want to hurl ;)

Goat Day on the Farm

2011-06-16T12:08:00.004-05:00

It's kind of overcast today, looks like it might rain again on us. Not that I'm complaining about some rain. The last few days have been seasonably nice, in the mid 80s with moderate humidity. As soon as this front goes by tho, high 90s will be back. Just in time for me to finish cutting the hay in the one field and get started on the next one.

The goats have been free roaming the farm since I do not have a goat pen built yet. I can't keep them cooped up in the barn with no sun light or grazing time. So far, they've been behaving rather well.

I need to work on the garden today while it's not so hot. It's starting to produce for me, tomatoes, peppers both coming on and several cucumbers almost ready to pick and eat. Right now, there is a young doe laying next to it. She's not sleeping, the coyotes got after her while she was trying to fawn. I don't have any piece of equipment running that will fit in between the fencing and the garden to haul her out of there, she's too big for me to drag out. Not sure what I'm going to do about her. She is starting to stink so I will have to do something about it. Yuk.

Potatoes in Tires

2011-06-13T19:02:00.004-05:00

With the 50% chance of rain today and tomorrow, I can't be cutting any hay. So, I used the time to work in the garden and do some clean up around the place. it's amazing how quickly it gets out of hand around here. I scooped some dirt in the tractor bucket and dumped it in the front yard to make it handy for me to hill the potatoes up. I let them get way too tall so it took me a while to get them hilled up to where they needed to be. A 5 gallon bucket of water to finish it up and there they are, ready to grow me more tubers. With the promise of at least the 70 lbs I harvested last year, I'm excited about this crop. I will be sure to water it more than I did last year! It still amazes me that in the space of a car tire, I can harvest that much food. Such a simple method, just cut the sidewalls off, lay the seed potatoes right on the ground, cover with a little dirt, water and wait. Hill them up as needed and add tires as they grow. Harvest is the opposite, I removed one tire at a time and pulled my potatoes out of the dirt as I knocked it off the tire stack. If you have a hard time growing potatoes in the ground like I do, this is the perfect method for you!

The truck is back in action and ready to take the hubster to the doctor in the morning. He's only had 3 really nasty spasms today and just a few more small ones. I hope he's on the healing up side of this. We'll have to see what the doctor says about when he can be scoped. Keep us in your prayers...

Becoming Self Sufficient

2011-06-13T10:02:00.003-05:00

Learning to live self sustained and becoming self sufficient isn't as easy as it sounds. It's not really that difficult either, once you change your mindset for it. The biggest hurdle is in the way that we think. Some of the common responses I hear to the self sustaining ideal is; 1- I don't have any land. 2- I can't live without (insert your particular item here). It can prove to be very difficult to get over our notions of what we absolutely have to have to live. We are most certainly not used to going without or not getting what we want "right now".

Now, let's discuss what "self sufficient" really means. Self Sufficient-adj.-Needing no outside help in satisfying one's basic needs, esp. with regard to the production of food. Emotionally and intellectually independent.

One's basic needs, what are one's basic needs? I think of this as the fundamentals of life. 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food and you die. We all have to drink and eat, we have no choice on that. Our choice comes in when we get to choose what we drink and what we eat. We can choose to not consume food and drink filled with chemicals, artificial flavors, steroids, antibiotics or lab created sweeteners. We can choose to not consume the genetically modified monstrosities being pushed on us by companies such as Monsanto and Dow. Choosing to not consume these fake foods is the easy part. Getting your hands on real food can prove to be a daunting task.

For me, the outlets for real food are almost non existent. The seasonal farmers markets are full of fruits and vegetables trucked in from other areas and priced much too high. The high prices are a particular annoyance for me because I grow my own food here and I know that it does not cost more money to grow non GMO fruits and vegetables than commercially produced foods. So, why the huge price increase? Plus, all you have is some strangers word that they didn't douse those fruits and vegetables in some chemical pesticide or chemical fertilizer. So, what can we do then? Grow it for ourselves.

There are only a couple real living situations I consider to actually be difficult if not impossible without some serious help when it comes to growing any amount of food for yourself. Those would be living in an apartment and living with an HOA. Neither of these 2 situations give you much option or flexibility for growing yourself some food without creating an indoor growing area. Every other situation can be successfully navigated with container growing, raised beds or conventional, in ground gardens. While gardening in any form has a steep learning curve for people that have never tried to grow anything before, it won't take very long to learn and with a little effort, you will be growing food successfully in no time.

Making the conscious choice to become more self sufficient is just the beginning. Once you get going, you'll be amazed at the things you will choose to eliminate and learn to live without!

Sunday update middle of June

2011-06-12T09:59:00.004-05:00

It's sunny and cool right now but I know it will get humid quickly. Yesterday was filled with garden work and light rain showers. Not even enough to do more than wet the surface dirt, it's still dry underneath. Looks like I'll be using more rain water cache. Lucky goat found a hole under the corral gates and wiped out the sweet corn. Looks like I will be replanting corn today (for the 3rd time now). At least he showed me the hole and I can find something to cut him off with. At least he didn't get in on any of my cornmeal corn. It is looking pretty good. I should get better ears than what I got last year, crammed in the car tires, LOL. Ah, I shouldn't complain, if I would have been better at watering those corns in the tires, they would have produced better. The top picture is peanut sprouts. I'm trying them beyond just an experiment this year, out in the big garden. I look forward to how they are going to do.

Woohoo! Well, it is a good thing kind of, I got impatient (big surprise, I know) and dug up a coffee bean to check it out. It had a root sprout on it! I should have a new round of coffee plants in the next week or so! I will be sure to post pictures as they sprout above the dirt.

Hubster had 4 big spasms yesterday and just one so far this morning. If this stays the same, we'll be headed back to the docs office tomorrow. A little progress I guess, he's not vomiting up blood anymore, at least not yesterday anyway.

Good news now... we have new chicks! They began hatching yesterday early and the Rhodey hen has 5, the Austie hen has 3 and the Wyandotte has 7. I am thrilled to see live chicks after having the fox run thru here and clean out several of my laying flock before I ended his feast. Combine the fox with that sneaky rat snake running hens off their nests and eating the eggs and I feel lucky to have any chicks at all.

Now a public thank you to everyone that so graciously stepped up and helped me these last couple of days. THANK YOU and GOD BLESS you. You have all given my the chance to fight my way thru this when there were no options left for me. I will not disappoint you, I will fight my way clear of this. Please don't give up the prayers, we most certainly still need them!

Thursday Night Garden

2011-06-09T20:21:00.004-05:00

ARG, this is what happens when life gets in the way. That green mess is some of my kidney beans. Getting a hoe after that will make you sweaty, LOL.

The tobacco is finally coming around and looking like it's supposed to. I wasn't too sure when I transplanted it. I think it will make a nice crop. I lost a few of the smaller seedlings and a couple I thought were goners came on to surprise me. Plants fascinate me.

Here's more Lucky the goat antics. My broken lawn mower makes a great step ladder for eating the sugar maples!

Hubster had 2 huge spasms today. The feeling of total helplessness makes a person want to just cry. I know my attempts to comfort him are about useless but there isn't anything else I can do. Please help me with a prayer or 2.

Relief and Sweltering Heat

2011-06-08T19:50:00.002-05:00

I thought I'd share a Lucky goat picture today. Last week, the nubby on the drivers side that holds the tailgate rusted through and I can't put the tailgate up. Not a big deal, just annoying. Now that the tailgate is always down, Lucky goat has a whole new area to play in. He jumps up in the truck bed, then up on the roof and down to the hood so he can try to get inside the truck and chew on anything he can find. He ate 2 fingers out of my hay gloves the other day. Bad goat! He is too smart for his own good!

I walked to the hay field this morning, got the tractor and raked. I had 2 rows left and a cloud rolled over and sprinkled a couple dozen rain drops on me and left. Just enough to fire me up over it. Had me a little freaked out since I checked the weather this morning and no rain. But, all is well, the sun is back out and blazing. I somehow managed to get myself bit by some sort of spider. It's in a rather sensitive spot, I haven't a clue how he managed to get there to bite me. It itches! Oh well, I did something right tho, I got smart for the trip home. I drove the tractor!

I called a race horse trainer friend of mine today trying to sell a little hay to the guys in his barn. He said he would get back to me the middle of next week. I also have a couple round bales spoken for, the 1st of July to be sold.

The taters need hilled up badly and the garden needs hoed. I hope to get it done in the morning before I head back to the hay field for baling.

The hubster had a miserable day while I was gone. I wish I could do something to ease his pain and make it go away. Please keep him on the prayer list, he needs it badly.

I can't begin to express my gratitude for the kindness I have been shown in the past 24 hours. Thank you all so very much. May God shine his love on each of you.

Late night problem fixing

2011-06-07T22:51:00.006-05:00

Okay, one big problem is handled. A friend has taken care of my battery problem( God Bless your great big heart) so now, if the hubs needs to go to the doc or the ER, I can get him there and he can get to work when he's released. Everything else can just wait. If I can't pay the bills, tough. I'm going to walk to the hay field to finish my obligation there until the batteries come in and the horse will pack them home for me so I can fix the truck. So, now we need prayers to heal the hubster up quick.

I got a bit of a giggle while working on the laundry this evening. Our last kitten just had to be in the middle of it but got tired out and fell asleep! He slid down and was hanging by claws. I woke him up and he crawled up into the laundry for a more comfy nap spot. What a nut!

I had to miss the goat auction so they get to keep running around and munching the weeds for me until a buyer comes around or another auction gets scheduled. In a couple of weeks I can hang the rabbit sign back out too. There's always the free wi-fi at the park in town and I could get lucky and find a buyer for a little hay to help me out of another round of poor luck. I noticed there's a few beer cans on the back road, I will pick them up on the walk to the hay field tomorrow...

Tuesday Farm update

2011-06-07T13:45:00.004-05:00

Well, we're about pounded down as far as we can go. We don't have a vehicle now. The dual batteries took a dive on us this morning. We don't have another vehicle and we don't have enough money left to replace them. Hubsters doctor appointment is at 3pm, we haven't found him a ride yet.

Looks like we're just smoked. So much for the goat auction tonite and I can't find another hay buyer for the small amount I have left. This sucks. Even if he was healthy enough to go back to work, now we can't even get him there. Looks like we're done. We gave it a good fight tho.

Afernoon addition- hubsters Mom took him to the doctor, another 2 weeks off work and more medications. No help with the truck batteries so no goats to the auction. Guess I'm walking to the hay field tomorrow.....

Monday Farm update

2011-06-06T21:05:00.004-05:00

Pic of a nest of turkey eggs I spotted while working on my hay cutting obligation. The hen kept flying off and coming back. I did what I could to get done near her nest and even cut around it to not disturb the eggs. I had to sell 50 bales out of the field to a race horse man to cover my tractor fuel for the week. Not sure what I'll do to cover my string, I could sell a couple of my milk goats at an auction tomorrow. Might be what I'll have to do. But, I'll have to quit the hay field early to make the auction. Can't fulfill my obligation without buying 2 spools of string. Rock and a hard place again.

Hubster is still cramped up bad and passing blood. It's not looking good. He goes back to the doctor tomorrow. I'm pretty worried, I don't know what to do for him. Looks like he'll be off work for a while. He can't work in this shape.

The garden needs to be hoed, the weeds are growing quickly. I have to be in the hay field again to finish the cut. Maybe tomorrow night I can tend to it. At least in the evening it will be cooler.

It's just life on the farm I guess......

Quick Farm Update

2011-06-04T09:10:00.002-05:00

Took hubs to the doctor yesterday, the doc has put him on a couple of meds to reduce the inflammation which should reduce his pain. He will be off work for another week (yay rah) which will put us in a serious bind. My mind is racing with a million different scenarios, as usual.

I managed to get thru the really thick hay yesterday without clogging the haybine up. I changed all my equipment settings and slowed way down. the drawback to that is, it will take longer to cut and therefor use way more fuel which I can't pay for. Great. It always seems like I am between a rock and a hard place. Just for a while, I'd love for things to go right for me. Oh well, crying about it won't fix it so I guess I'll just build a bridge and get over it ;)

The cow is still in the pen, LOL. Every morning I've been holding my breath in anticipation of finding the pen empty. Just the thought of having to track her down thru the country side is enough to make me not sleep well. So far so good tho, she's still there so far!

Somebody (hubs or the boy) left the back door of the storage shed open and all my banty chicks are gone. I can't find them anywhere so I guess the chicken coop I can't finish for lack of funds isn't a top priority anymore. Well, maybe I can have my banty chicks next year.

I still have 3 big hens brooding, the eggs should start hatching sometime later this week. Maybe I can have the coop built in time to protect the growing chicks. I doubt it but there's always hope...

2011-06-02T16:33:00.003-05:00

I know it's kind of hard to see, but that is the back side of my New Holland haybine, all wadded up with grass! it took 4 hours of cutting, tugging, cramming and shoving to get it unclogged. When I screw something up, I do it big time! I already had 3 small fields laid down so I skipped cutting in this field and finished the others out. I still have some clean up in one field that I will do here in an hour or so before I head back to the really thick stuff. Lesson learned I hope and i will be really paranoid for the rest of the cut. I am sunburned beyond recognition at this point and my forehead is already peeling with my ears to follow quickly. Same thing that happens every first cut of hay.

We've had a bit of a health disaster here this week, the hubster spent 2 nights in the hospital with what started out as a supposed appendix problem and turned into non specific gastro-intestinal inflammation. Go figure. He's lost a week of pay now and still has to go see another doctor tomorrow. So much for fixing fence and finishing the chicken coop. We'll be hard pressed to pay the mortgage now. Geez I hate this. We just can't catch a break ever.

Well, since I can't finish the fence that would keep the cow from roaming all over the country side, I shortened up the horse paddock and used the panels to make a small cow pen next to the garden. At least she will have some grass for a few days while I try to figure something else out.

I had 2 rabbits kindle on Monday and they killed all their kits. Both these does are good does, neither have ever done this before. Not sure why they were upset, maybe the weather or something to do with that big rat snake.

The garden is looking pretty decent and now that it's warmed up (downright hot now) it should take off quickly.

Off to finish the hay field.....

Nest Surprise

2011-05-30T11:41:00.005-05:00

How's this for a nice how do ya do? Looks like the boy has a new pet! This egg stealing snake got discovered in mid sneak and made a pretty good escape effort but alas, caught in the end. Could this be what is running my hens off their nests? Maybe one a little bit bigger...

UPDATE- not a king snake. This beauty is a Rat Snake!

Killer Veges?

2011-05-29T11:51:00.003-05:00

Killer Cucumber' Bug From Spain Hits Britain

When are people going to wake up and learn where e coli comes from? E. coli, short for Escherichia coli, is a type of bacteria commonly found in the intestines of animals and humans. So, in order for it to get in or on your your meat and vegetables, they have to be contaminated with it. In other words, covered in crap! Or, handled by a person who can't wash their hands after they crap.

Water sources can also be contaminated via raw sewage or animal waste being dumped into the water source. Nice huh?

So, in short, if you'd like to avoid picking up some nasty bug that will really ruin your day, know where your food comes from! Buy local produce from someone that knows how to grow it and if you can, butcher for yourself!

Wore out and Sore

2011-05-28T14:48:00.004-05:00

The wore out and sore came from my brilliant idea to check out the Herrin Festa Italiana. Every year, Memorial weekend, there's this big,seriously hyped street carnival on steroids. In all the years I've lived
here, I have never attended. This year, my son wanted to see a couple of the rock bands scheduled to appear. So, instead of driving him up there, dropping him off and driving back late at night to pick him up,
I had the brilliant idea that hubster and I would enjoy the festival during the concert. Silly me for thinking that it was actually some sort of "Italian" festival. The great Italian food was a line of carnival stands with the same food you find at any street carnival only double the prices. The great italian heritage booths were just cheap carny junk. After 40 minutes of trying to walk thru masses of poorly behaved people, we just headed out of it and found a nice little bikers bar with a 3 man blues band playing. The music was nice and the bar was not crowded so we had the chance to enjoy ourselves. We won't be doing the Herrin Festa ever again. Not our kind of thing.

My lonely drakes swimming in the root cellar pond. Shadow and Charcoal enjoyed a little shade for their nap as well.

I'm trying something new to the garden this year. I had decent luck last year growing peanuts in a tire as an experiment. This year I'm trying a row of them in the main garden. They haven't sprouted yet, pictures if/when they do.

Hubster went fishing with his Dad this morning and came home a little while ago. He flopped on the couch and since he didn't say anything about it, after about an hour, I asked him about the fishing. Guess what's been leaking all over the front floorboard of my truck for the last hour?

Waiting for the Break

2011-05-27T15:15:00.002-05:00

Today was a damage assessment day for the garden. Some weed control as well. While I was out there working diligently, Lucky was behind me eating the tops off my peppers and beans! Lucky killed 5 pepper plants and a dozen or so beans. He has figured out how to get around the fence and is now tied up on a long rope in the barn lot. I need the goat pen finished.

The cornmeal corn is up, the kidney beans are up (hey Scifi, did I say Friday? LOL)

So far, the worst of the nasty storms has missed the farm but there's another headed this way that might get us. I'm ready for a break in the weather so I can get hay cut! I'm down to 8 days of hay left and I am really uncomfortable with cutting it so close. No rain last year and the drowning we'd endured so far this year makes for some jangled nerves.

Ah, to be a kitten living in our farmhouse! This one is looking much better, still has a bit of the eye ick and runny nose but is finally starting to gain some weight. She's making herself at home all over the furniture...

Keeping and eye on the sky

2011-05-26T07:53:00.004-05:00

We've been ducking the severe storms for the last couple of days. Lots of wind, some heavy rains and plenty of lightning. We have fared much better than others tho and we should all say a prayer for the people in Joplin, Sedalia and the other cities that have been wiped out by tornadoes since Sunday.

In between the rains, 100' of fence got put up and the tractor helped to clear off some of the downed trees in the way. Still 350' to go but the money isn't there. At $1.34 a foot, I'm quite a bit short of finishing. The cow can not be turned out until it's done since she can't seem to stay put like the goats and horses do.

Speaking of the cow, the third round of antibiotics did not work. Now we have another quarter acting up. There's no swelling in it but the milk is curdling in the fridge over night. It seems I will need to wean the calf with the moon sign and get rid of the cow. It appears that nice Amish man sold me his problem.

Most of the garden is in, hanging on thru the rough weather. Looks like I lost 5 tobacco plants and 4 Roma tomatoes. Everything else appears to be fighting thru it all. The cornmeal corn is up and the kidney beans should be up by the weekend. The sweet corn is going well in the one patch and just planted in the other. The taters will need hilled in the next day or so.

Off to do morning chores.....

Same old Thang

2011-05-21T13:43:00.002-05:00

No cool pictures today, been too dirty to play with the camera. Had a bit of aggravation Thursday while turning the half muddy garden over. The pull cord assembly on the 3 year old tiller broke. It's a Sears so forget about a service department or repair. Ordered the part via the phone from the warehouse in Kentucky, they told me there's just one pull cord assembly in the US, it's in Memphis. Of course, according to them, that part almost never breaks, almost. Well, hello, mine is broke! Middle of this coming week for the part to arrive via the mail, I'm not holding my breath. Hubster came home yesterday and made it work for me, tilled up the last of what I needed and the garden is more or less planted. Sweet corn, meal corn, pumpkins, 2 types of squash, 3 types of hot pepper, sweet peppers, carrots, radish, cucumber, 2 types of tomato, tobacco, onions, garlic and my kidney beans. A sprinkle of rain yesterday wasn't enough to suit me so I watered this morning for seed germination. Everything is still kind of looking transplant shocked but it will all come around and get growing soon. This coming week I will be working on the front garden spot for the other tomatoes, more onions and garlic and a few specialty items I'm working on.

Guest Post- Benefits of "Greener" Self Sufficiency

2011-05-18T09:27:00.003-05:00

This guest post is presented here by Ryan Halston. Ryan is a recent graduate of the University of Central Florida, with a Bachelors in English. Welcome Ryan and thank you!

The Benefits of “Greener” Self Sufficiency

Going green and beginning on the path to self sustenance can seem like an incredibly intimidating project. However even with just a few subtle changes and no need to rebuild your home, or drop completely off of the power grid, one can see the wealth of benefits that can come along with a self sufficient lifestyle. Growing your own fruits and vegetables in a garden and changing the type of light bulbs you use to inspecting and ensuring that your home is properly insulated are just a few in a multitude of ways anyone can start on the path to self sufficiency.

At first glance it would seem that changing out the light bulbs in your home would be the easiest of the examples I listed, and that speculation isn’t too far off. Replacing incandescent lighting with more energy efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) or LED lighting is a great way to reducing your energy dependence. Energy efficient lighting can save you around $110 per year, and almost never need replacement, not to mention save a ton of carbon dioxide. Just make sure to be careful of the mercury content in fluorescent lighting if you do decide to change them over.

Another incredibly easy way to improve self sufficiency is to start your own garden and compost. Not only can this process help in the reduction of food miles, it helps reduce the dependency of having to buy your fruits and vegetables, as well as providing you with the freshest and most affordable product possible. You control every part of the product from the seed to the actual produce, and this process can save you some money cutting out the middle-man as well. Before beginning gardening however, make sure to have soil tests performed to minimize the possibility of lead contaminated soils.

One of the biggest sources of power grid dependency is heating and cooling, thus making insulation one of the most important changes that you can make in both going greener and becoming more self sufficient, and for multiple reasons. Many utility companies will inspect your home’s insulation for free along with the regular services they offer, and it is wise to do this to insure energy is being maximized and being used efficiently. A house that is properly cam save you thousands on power expenses, but more importantly can inform you if your house has been insulated with asbestos, a deadly toxin used throughout the 1970’s. Asbestos still exists in many older homes and has been known to link to diseases like leukemia, asbestosis, and mesothelioma. These diseases are incredibly fatal and can be directly link to asbestos exposure, so at the sake of both your health and your wallet, this is one of the most benefits of engaging in green and self sufficient living.

Though met with more recent criticism, the benefits of a self sufficient, green lifestyle are apparent, and even something like these three small steps can set you off in the right direction. Without much work you can start living in a nice clean house, breathing healthy air, living off of your own greens, and keep a lot more of that green in your wallet as well.

Middle of May Ramblings

2011-05-16T10:30:00.004-05:00

It rained all weekend on me. But, the college kid graduated with 2 degrees Friday night and the camera batteries went dead on me. Great Mom, glad ya checked those lithium batteries, LOL.

It stopped raining early this morning so perhaps this afternoon I can get some of the chicken prison built. I have 8 banty fledglings waiting to be out in the sunshine so I really do need to get something done on it.

The horses are loose grazing around the farm with the cow. So far, even the thoroughbred is behaving better than the cow is. I'm running very low on hay now and the 4 days this week I could cut have overnight temperatures below my drying cut off. So, I need to make it until the middle of next week at least before I can cut anything. It's just too important to let it mold.

I'm pleased to announce the red potatoes are growing despite the chickens digging them up a half dozen times.

The barn swallows are back! They're busy gathering chicken and duck feathers for their nests. I really enjoy their antics and they are such beautiful birds.

Speaking of ducks, I have no hens left. Just 6 drakes, go figure. Guess my duckling days are over for a while. I haven't a clue what happened, they just disappeared.

All the seedlings are still alive despite the kittens beating the life half out of them every night. I'm hoping to get them out in the dirt by Thursday. This has got to be the longest I have even had to wait to get the gardens going. It makes me a bit nervous since it's my food source. I look at it as lost production. I just hope Mother nature gives it back to me on the end side of the growing season.

I've been medicating the sick kittens with the antibiotic filled cows milk. It creates a mess with the kittens digestion but their snotty eyes and runny noses are clearing up. I'll take a kitten mess if it makes them healthy again.

Speaking of cows milk, I've got 6 more days of dumping milk before i can safely keep it to use. This round of antibiotics better clear up the infection. The poor cows butt looks like a pin cushion!

How about that baby bunnie? That thing is 3 weeks old and is one of an original litter of 14. One by one that lousy Californian doe threw the kits out and let them die. She just kept this one, obnoxiously fat one. He is so fat, he can't hold himself up on his legs. I think he will be in the soup pot pretty quickly followed by his Momma. She's not a really good doe anyway.

Well, off to do an animal head count.......

May-Git-R-Done

2011-05-12T13:19:00.000-05:00

12 days gone in May already and I still don't have anything planted. Well, I did have some things planted but the garden killers ruined it all. They don't know it yet but their prison is coming. I've looked at 100's of pictures of chicken houses, chicken tractors, coops, runs, you name it and I've got an idea in my head of what I'm going to build. I even know, finally, where I'm going to put it! Now that's a big step, LOL.

The boy put the tiller together for me this morning. We're using clevis pins to replace the sheer pins it seems you can only get online thru Sears. Hmmm, why can't they order them? Not willing to wait 10 business days for 2 sheer pins to come in the mail (remember the priority mail box with the stevia?) I improvised. It worked, I have the garden tilled. I've been kind of half waiting for the neighbor to make the rounds with the big tiller but I'm done waiting. I made the first pass thru the more muddy than I'd like it to be garden and it's drying nicely. Another pass this afternoon and stuff is getting planted! This crazy spring has me a bit riled up since I don't have any future food in the making yet. I can hardly stand the thought of not having something to eat so when it's all growing, I'll be able to relax...

Oh my Aching Back

2011-05-10T22:24:00.002-05:00

I've been pretty busy around here. Working on cleaning up all the tree branches and push mowing where it's still swampy from all the rain. I built a fence/gate across the driveway today to keep Daisy calf in. The cattle dog ran her out into the road yesterday. We can't be having that! Popped a sheer pin on the tiller trying to work up the mud so it would dry out quicker.

I've collected several different ideas for a chicken house design, I'm going to build one this weekend to keep the chickens penned up for a while. They are destroying everything I plant this year and I just can't tolerate that.

It's supposed to rain all weekend, I hope I can get some time in between the rain drops to get the chicken house assembled....

Farm Life in a wet May

2011-05-05T16:18:00.003-05:00

What a nice day it's been. Still a bit breezy and colder than I'd like it to be but still a nice day. Goober got some grazing time today. I left the lead on her, wasn't sure I'd be able to catch her easy but it turns out, she comes right to me and follows me around. Well, after the run around, buck, kick and act stupid phase anyway.

Had to spend around 20 minutes catching a wayward bunnie too. My old rabbit hutch is about done for. The tiny escapee gave us a run for our money but I won in the end and the squirmy bunnie is back with the pack. Those tiny little buggers can move pretty quick and they're hard to hold on to without squishing them. They're palm size now and growing quick.

Got the culture collected from Goober this morning and dropped off at the vet. Maybe if we figure out exactly which bacteria she has, we can eliminate it for good and I can quit using that cow as a pin cushion.

I saw a couple tractors up and down the road today. Maybe my fellow farmers are going to try to mud some corn in on a few of the higher ground fields. I might try to turn some ground over tomorrow to help it dry out quicker. We'll see......