Still in a slow motion fog. I believe that it is time to go low carb for a little while. I am not diabetic but I have been beating it back for the last 10 years. I have fallen off of the low carb wagon for most of the summer. I gained only 3 lbs back but I can tell I am about to really blow it.
Mean while, farm life still rolls along. Most of my does are bred! Just got a few stragglers and waiting to see who will need to be rebred. I am still a little suspicious of the 2 does that I hauled to visit the boer buck. He was just too unenthusiastic about the whole rendezvous for my liking. I am really pushing them hard to dry off. I am just plain TIRED of milking.
The milk cows continue to put out more milk than I would like, too. Everybody is down to once a day milking and I have begun to stretch out the time between milkings. Tomorrow will be the first day to try to skip milking the cows all together. Seth is not too keen on that idea. We will keep a close watch and check them regularly but Holly MUST dry off. I do not know how she can be as huge as she is and still milk on the short grain rations and pasture grazing. She is due to calve in December and really needs more than 60 days dry but I am afraid she isn't going to do that.
My fall chicks have arrived. Someday, I am going to find my camera so that I can show you pictures of them! I try to raise a set of chicks over the winter so that they are ready to lay in the spring. I somehow ended up with a couple of Speckled Sussex hens---- probably an impulse buy from the farm store --- and really like them. I decided to buy 25 straight run and use them for next year. I logged online and fired off my order. Meanwhile, Neil, wonderful hubby that he is, decided to surprise me with a set of Speckled Sussex chicks. He placed an order,too. His 25 arrived yesterday and mine will get here next week. I don't know whether to hope for more roosters to butcher or more hens to lay eggs...... either way it will be too much of a good thing!! LOL!!
My garden is not a thing of beauty anymore. About half of it has been plowed under and my tomatoes are a jungle mess. Tall, gangly and too heavy for their supports, they are sprawling all over the neighboring raised beds. Still getting a few tomatoes and okra. The sweet potato vines have totally run amuck and have spread over to meet the tomatoes. I try very hard not to think of all the snakes that are probably slithering around in those 4 raised beds. I have dug down to check on the sweet potatoes and they ones that I have found are as big as footballs. You are supposed to wait until the vines begin to yellow or cold weather is expected to dig them. I don't think that I can wait that long...... I am not sure what to do with mammoth sweet potatoes......
My plans are to venture over to the sheep dairy and haul home all the wheat straw bedding they have piled up. I am going to spread it out thickly over the open garden and try some "lasgna composting".
Before I can find the time to do any of that, I have to spend the next 2 weekends traveling. Seth has qualified in his shooting sports 4-H project to compete at the state matches. Next weekend is archery and muzzleloading in Topeka. The following weekend it will be shot gun in Wichita. He is a good shot and practicing alot. Some mornings it sounds like WWIII down here. By the time we get done with all of that, nearly half of October will be over and my mom is flying in for a visit.
In my spare time, I am wrapping soap and fine tuning the household budgets. The boys have taken down the TV antenna about 3 times now. It is an ordeal that takes at least 3 people and always gives me a headache. Still haven't figured out why we cannot get any reception. Football season is here and the withdrawel is painful.
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