Last night, we had some pretty dramatic thunderstorms. By morning we had gotten four inches of rain. Looks like we re getting a replay again tonight. So far, the bad stuff is still south of us. Several of the counties on the Oklahoma line are under tornado warning--- meaning that one has been spotted. Right now, we are under a sever thunderstorm warning as well as a tornado watch.
I had a very hard time sleeping last night for a variety of reasons and the storm didn't help. As a result, I was dragging pretty low all day. I even tried to take a nap but could not drop off to sleep.
There was some small hail last night and I am hoping that we dodge the bullet again tonight. Our wheat is looking magnificent and a strong hailstorm could just wipe it all out.
On a good note, the garden is looking great and I am thinking that I will be making strawberry jam by next weekend.
Since I am so tired and I still have kitchen duty to do--- I am going to cut this post short......
Shades of Ireland
Monday, April 30, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Executive Decisions
This morning, Noelle passed her test. I have not been faithfully milking her. The idea is to dry her off. She is still thin (probably normal for a Jersey but I like for them to carry more condition than this.....) While sitting there between the two big girls watching the milk flow through the tubes into the bucket, I made THE decision. Something about sitting there just induces deep thoughts...... I am pretty dang sure that Holly is bred and carrying a heifer. I like Noelle but I LOVE Holly! So, if I keep a replacement heifer it will be from Queen Holly. Good enough. I officially declare Noelle "dry". She is making very little milk and not enough to stress either one of us. As soon as we finished and hauled their milk bucket to the barn kitchen, I turned both of them loose into the cow pasture---- with the borrowed Angus bull. Holly is pregnant so she is just out there for unlimited grazing and will be waiting at the gate for me at milking time. Noelle is out there for unlimited grazing---- and romance!
I was planning to butcher those last four roosters that are haunting me and causing all kinds of trouble and extra work over at the barn. I decided to procrastinate for one more day. My kitchen needs some clean up and organization before I jump on that. I am going to butcher them and then cook them all in the pressure cooker. After that, I am going freeze and can the meat for future meals....... that is the plan anyway. To do all that, I need better working space and to find enough jars and freezer containers. Right now the counters are covered with cooling jars of crock pot marinara sauce, cheese draining and another batch making. I also bought a few groceries yesterday and somehow they did not all get put away. On top of all that, I delegated last night's kitchen duty and...... let's just say I still have work to do!
It is still morning....... we have gotten all the barn chores done and my milk customer came. I haven't made it out to the garden yet!
I was planning to butcher those last four roosters that are haunting me and causing all kinds of trouble and extra work over at the barn. I decided to procrastinate for one more day. My kitchen needs some clean up and organization before I jump on that. I am going to butcher them and then cook them all in the pressure cooker. After that, I am going freeze and can the meat for future meals....... that is the plan anyway. To do all that, I need better working space and to find enough jars and freezer containers. Right now the counters are covered with cooling jars of crock pot marinara sauce, cheese draining and another batch making. I also bought a few groceries yesterday and somehow they did not all get put away. On top of all that, I delegated last night's kitchen duty and...... let's just say I still have work to do!
It is still morning....... we have gotten all the barn chores done and my milk customer came. I haven't made it out to the garden yet!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
No Response
Apaprently the Russians are content to be a silent audience...... oh, well!
I thought this pretty pretty well summed up my day yesterday. Something was out of whack the whole day. This is our future herd sire ( the goat --- not my hubby) and he was determined to stay on the deck. I had no idea how many holes and gaps I had in the fence but I think that we have them all fixed or blocked now. He followed Neil back into the goat lot last night at chores and he hasn't been back to the house in almost 24 hours.
When I got up yesterday to do morning chores, Seth was gone. His bed was empty and I could not believe my good fortune.... maybe he was already doing chores??!!! No such luck. When I got to the barn, I noticed a saddle and a horse was missing along with Seth. They stayed gone until mid afternoon. He had been with the neighbor working cattle and somehow I did not get the memo.
I spent most of my day working in the garden. I have to sit down tonight and update my garden planning sheet before I forget what I planted and where I planted it...... nothing like mystery gardening!
Remember those Alpine strawberry seeds? They are a flop! I feel robbed! Out of ALL those seeds that I planted and have faithfully kept watered, I think there is a grand total of SEVEN very tiny plants that have emerged.
The good news is that tomorrow, I will be picking the first strawberries of the season..... probably 4-6 berries but it is a start. I am closely watching those blueberries,too. I am thinking that I will get to eat a few before Saturday.
I took this picture of the lambs in ICU just before we moved them to outside pens. All of them have something wrong with them--- mostly a bad leg or foot. They have all improved dramatically. Basically, they have a 24 hour milk bar, full feed, hay and water. On top of that, they have a waitress that keeps the buffet well stocked. Now, they have a room with a view. How much better could life get for a gimpy lamb?
Today was blazing hot and I know that it hit the 90 degree mark. Tomorrow is not supposed to be quite that hot at about 85....... Chances of rain are increasing for the rest of the week and I am trying to figure out how to re-arrange my rain barrels. They are too low to the ground for me to get gravity to force the water all the way out to the garden. All this walking and carrying water back and forth is doing wonders for my figure but ..... I want EASY.
I had a doctor's appointment early this morning and got a good report. Blood pressure is down and I have lost a little weight ( emphasis on little.....) I go back in 3 months. Then we made a run into Walmart. That pretty much wipes out three hours of my day and I needed a nap when I got home. Half the day gone!
I had lost all track of my days and Neil told me that tomorrow is Thursday.......at first I didn't believe him.... LOL!!
I almost forgot to show you our newest bottle baby. The folks that we raised the last bunch of Boer kids for left me this one. Right now, he is camped in a small pen in the front yard under the shade tree. He is not any brighter than the last group but at least he is very cute..... he also has a hurt foot. That seems to be normal for the strays on this farm.....
I thought this pretty pretty well summed up my day yesterday. Something was out of whack the whole day. This is our future herd sire ( the goat --- not my hubby) and he was determined to stay on the deck. I had no idea how many holes and gaps I had in the fence but I think that we have them all fixed or blocked now. He followed Neil back into the goat lot last night at chores and he hasn't been back to the house in almost 24 hours.
When I got up yesterday to do morning chores, Seth was gone. His bed was empty and I could not believe my good fortune.... maybe he was already doing chores??!!! No such luck. When I got to the barn, I noticed a saddle and a horse was missing along with Seth. They stayed gone until mid afternoon. He had been with the neighbor working cattle and somehow I did not get the memo.
I spent most of my day working in the garden. I have to sit down tonight and update my garden planning sheet before I forget what I planted and where I planted it...... nothing like mystery gardening!
Remember those Alpine strawberry seeds? They are a flop! I feel robbed! Out of ALL those seeds that I planted and have faithfully kept watered, I think there is a grand total of SEVEN very tiny plants that have emerged.
The good news is that tomorrow, I will be picking the first strawberries of the season..... probably 4-6 berries but it is a start. I am closely watching those blueberries,too. I am thinking that I will get to eat a few before Saturday.
I took this picture of the lambs in ICU just before we moved them to outside pens. All of them have something wrong with them--- mostly a bad leg or foot. They have all improved dramatically. Basically, they have a 24 hour milk bar, full feed, hay and water. On top of that, they have a waitress that keeps the buffet well stocked. Now, they have a room with a view. How much better could life get for a gimpy lamb?
Today was blazing hot and I know that it hit the 90 degree mark. Tomorrow is not supposed to be quite that hot at about 85....... Chances of rain are increasing for the rest of the week and I am trying to figure out how to re-arrange my rain barrels. They are too low to the ground for me to get gravity to force the water all the way out to the garden. All this walking and carrying water back and forth is doing wonders for my figure but ..... I want EASY.
I had a doctor's appointment early this morning and got a good report. Blood pressure is down and I have lost a little weight ( emphasis on little.....) I go back in 3 months. Then we made a run into Walmart. That pretty much wipes out three hours of my day and I needed a nap when I got home. Half the day gone!
I had lost all track of my days and Neil told me that tomorrow is Thursday.......at first I didn't believe him.... LOL!!
I almost forgot to show you our newest bottle baby. The folks that we raised the last bunch of Boer kids for left me this one. Right now, he is camped in a small pen in the front yard under the shade tree. He is not any brighter than the last group but at least he is very cute..... he also has a hurt foot. That seems to be normal for the strays on this farm.....
Monday, April 23, 2012
Russian Blog Interest???
Ok--- I am very curious. For the last few days, there have been more people from Russia reading this blog than Americans...... What in the world is going on? I would appreciate if some of you would leave a comment or two......
Sunday, April 22, 2012
One More Thing.....
We have gotten an amazing amount of things accomplished today with actually planning much of anything. I love days like this that just seem to flow......
It started out with us telling stories and remembering the morning that Adam was born. I had Adam at home and the older kids can remember what they were doing at the time...... Charlie and Salena were milking goats --- of course! Seth had gone to Sunday school with another family. They brought him home early so that he could meet his new brother. It is very hard to believe that it was eleven years ago!
The boys ( Neil and Seth) handled the barn chores and milking for me this morning while I got milk pasteurized and started a gallon of yogurt.
Then, Salena and I plotted and planned how we were going to get her to Yellowstone Park this summer and back home in the fall. The Internet is a wonderful tool for price checking and research!
Then Seth got most of the cows coaxed up into the lot so that the guys could wean a couple of calves. I let them handle all of the cow working so that I could spend some time in my garden.
Meanwhile, our weekend house guest slept until 10:00 am. She was really tired and it is pretty peaceful and quiet out here in the hinterlands. She slept like a rock and we just let her.
The kids did a little target practice with their guns. That was a new experience for Rachael but she did very well. Then they enjoyed a few rounds of skeet shooting before the girls had to head to school. Both of them had to work this evening so they had to get back before 5:00pm.
Adam and I went to a "plant swap" at a friend's house. We had never done this before but we had a ball and made out like bandits. We each dug up 3-5 plants from our garden and flowerbeds and took them to swap. Some of the ladies were very generous and brought buckets of daylillies, iris and other neat plants. We came home with many more than we took and Adam has promised to help me get them all planted tomorrow.
Neil and I went out and found a spot to plant two pecan trees that I could not resist buying earlier in the week. While we were planting, we talked about his Uncle Howard who continued to plant trees even after he was very old and knew that he would never live to see them produce a thing. We decided that when you plant a tree, you aren't planting it for " just you".......
Spent some more time in "my happy place" garden planting sweet potatoes and talking with Charlie.
It has been a nice Sunday........
It started out with us telling stories and remembering the morning that Adam was born. I had Adam at home and the older kids can remember what they were doing at the time...... Charlie and Salena were milking goats --- of course! Seth had gone to Sunday school with another family. They brought him home early so that he could meet his new brother. It is very hard to believe that it was eleven years ago!
The boys ( Neil and Seth) handled the barn chores and milking for me this morning while I got milk pasteurized and started a gallon of yogurt.
Then, Salena and I plotted and planned how we were going to get her to Yellowstone Park this summer and back home in the fall. The Internet is a wonderful tool for price checking and research!
Then Seth got most of the cows coaxed up into the lot so that the guys could wean a couple of calves. I let them handle all of the cow working so that I could spend some time in my garden.
Meanwhile, our weekend house guest slept until 10:00 am. She was really tired and it is pretty peaceful and quiet out here in the hinterlands. She slept like a rock and we just let her.
The kids did a little target practice with their guns. That was a new experience for Rachael but she did very well. Then they enjoyed a few rounds of skeet shooting before the girls had to head to school. Both of them had to work this evening so they had to get back before 5:00pm.
Adam and I went to a "plant swap" at a friend's house. We had never done this before but we had a ball and made out like bandits. We each dug up 3-5 plants from our garden and flowerbeds and took them to swap. Some of the ladies were very generous and brought buckets of daylillies, iris and other neat plants. We came home with many more than we took and Adam has promised to help me get them all planted tomorrow.
Neil and I went out and found a spot to plant two pecan trees that I could not resist buying earlier in the week. While we were planting, we talked about his Uncle Howard who continued to plant trees even after he was very old and knew that he would never live to see them produce a thing. We decided that when you plant a tree, you aren't planting it for " just you".......
Spent some more time in "my happy place" garden planting sweet potatoes and talking with Charlie.
It has been a nice Sunday........
Saturday, April 21, 2012
TIRED Mama!
It has been action packed this weekend--- and we still have Sunday to go!
Friday night, the family came to pick up the goat kids that I raised for them--- Thank goodness! They have three young children and stayed for quite while. It was fun to visit and Adam had a blast with their kids. They seemed to enjoy watching me milk Holly. They asked me if I would sell them one of those roosters that are still hanging out on Death Row..... I was delighted to give them one. All that I have left to butcher are 4 monstrously big guys..... I keep turning them out to free range but they all keep coming back. If they were hens, I am sure the owls and hawks would have carried them all off by now.
As soon as this family left, my milk customer came to pick up their weekly gallon of Holly milk. About the time they got out of the driveway good, Salena and her friend, Rachael, drove in.
This morning, Seth and Salena took Racheal for a short horseback ride. She did very well for a total greenhorn.
This afternoon, we had another houseful of children come for an early celebration of Adam's eleventh birthday. My friend, Brandi, and her hubby came with their three kids plus a nephew. They had fun on the trampoline, running races, shooting targets and eating lots of cake..... speaking of cake-- Adam made his own birthday cake and frosted it all by himself.
In between all this, I managed to get a little gardening done. Neil and Charlie even got some of my new rows tilled and ready for seeds.
By the time we got barn chores done as well as a bit of kitchen clean up duty, I am ready for bed.....
Friday night, the family came to pick up the goat kids that I raised for them--- Thank goodness! They have three young children and stayed for quite while. It was fun to visit and Adam had a blast with their kids. They seemed to enjoy watching me milk Holly. They asked me if I would sell them one of those roosters that are still hanging out on Death Row..... I was delighted to give them one. All that I have left to butcher are 4 monstrously big guys..... I keep turning them out to free range but they all keep coming back. If they were hens, I am sure the owls and hawks would have carried them all off by now.
As soon as this family left, my milk customer came to pick up their weekly gallon of Holly milk. About the time they got out of the driveway good, Salena and her friend, Rachael, drove in.
This morning, Seth and Salena took Racheal for a short horseback ride. She did very well for a total greenhorn.
This afternoon, we had another houseful of children come for an early celebration of Adam's eleventh birthday. My friend, Brandi, and her hubby came with their three kids plus a nephew. They had fun on the trampoline, running races, shooting targets and eating lots of cake..... speaking of cake-- Adam made his own birthday cake and frosted it all by himself.
In between all this, I managed to get a little gardening done. Neil and Charlie even got some of my new rows tilled and ready for seeds.
By the time we got barn chores done as well as a bit of kitchen clean up duty, I am ready for bed.....
Friday, April 20, 2012
Swimming Upstream....
http://frugallysustainable.com/2012/04/they-call-us-crazy-how-to-thrive-when-living-a-non-mainstream-lifestyle/
I read this post today and it resonated with me. There are a couple of points that don't fit in my situation but basically it describes me and my life pretty well.
It is not easy and I don't mean to whine but ........ dang! Sometimes, I wish that I could just blend in a bit more. My whole life, I just haven't done things the way that everybody else has or thought that I ought to. When I was younger, the rejection and ridicule stung quite a bit. It didn't cause me to change whatever it was that I was doing at the time but it did make me a bit quieter about it. Now that I am older and considered wiser ( HA!), I could care less. Honestly, I don't get much face-to-face flack anymore because I intimidate the stuffing out of most people. I am a very nice old gal but I just seem to give off those "don't mess with Mama" vibes.
While I have been very lonely at times, this way of life was a calling for me. It didn't make me treat people who choose NOT to live this way badly or disrespectfully. I find myself able to accept other people's choices.
Recently, I became aware of a situation. Apparently, there was a family that we barely knew that told wild tales about our family. They didn't just tell a few people, they spread this stuff far and wide. This was years ago and I had heard a few rumblings about it but I did not know the extent of it until very recently. Frankly, I could care less what that family thought of us and after all this time, the end results have proven to be in our favor. What really sting my heart is the people who believed that nonsense. People who knew us much better than the liars and I thought regarded us as friends----- and never said a word to us or in our defense.
Now years later, when most of my kids are grown and turning out as productive, well rounded citizens...... this stuff has surfaced. I guess the best revenge is living well.......after all.
Like it or not, I am exactly what I am....... and frankly, there are enough people that I respect and care about who seem to like me just the way I am....... and that is quite enough.
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