Worries

I wonder why people are more worried and afraid of things like raw milk, and farm fresh eggs than they are of losing themselves to the corporate rush of big city life. The things that are happening in our world today are a greater worry than things on the surface. Why is it that people dont notice they are drowning in the battle of time spent just working for money? Where have we gotten to? Does no one read Laura Ingalls Wilder anymore? These people, they had real fears. Yet they were happier than the average American. With the loss of a stay home mom, children, moms and dads are all in a rat race. Every day is the same, get up and hurry for school and work, come home exhausted and crash and stare at a TV screen that depicts someone elses life. What kind of life is this?

Our life isnt perfect, but it is fun, fulfilling, hardwork. My children know the value of a dollar because they work to earn it, they know what its like to raise your own food. Its not scary to lose a chicken, unlike in Laura's time when that meant you were out a pullet or cockeral until the next broody hen sat. We can order/buy a new one, or we can hatch our own. However, my children are pleased to save a chick from sickness, catch a problem before the chick dies. They are happy to work on cleaning their area, keeping them in good food and water. Why? Because its their eggs and meat. We all work together for this. Not because we cant buy them at the store, but because its real. This is real life, the rest of it, its just an illusion that people are stuck in.

There you have it, my blog philosoph-ising. Its not my normal blog post, but its 5:45 am and I have been up for over 2 hours alone, and thinking. My life is full and wonderful, not perfect, but real. I wish more people had this life. I wish the greater fears were of losing this way of life, than of a possible contaminated raw egg...

Mr Ducks

MR Ducks


M no ducks


SMR C M feet?

LIB MR Ducks.

I have wanted ducks since I can remember feeding them at the park as a toddler. My mom used to take us to feed ducks, we would throw them old bread. I loved them and loved the way they sounded. My mom can quack believably which made myself and siblings laugh. I know there isn't much of a need for ducks, but today at the feed store we saw them and were so pleased, the children pleaded for just 2 mama! I called Frank and he said sure, of course, because why would he tell me no??? The lady at the store asked, why do you want ducks? I said, um, because they quack? She said oh, well yes, they do quack. So we bought 4. You have to have 2 for friends, they cant share chick feed. They can eat chicken feed, but not chick starter because they eat so much more and its medicated and it will poison them. I had to get 4 just in case 1 dies because that leaves 3 and then what if 2 died and 1 would be alone? Good logic, I agree.

Awwww

I know, I know. No one needs 39 baby chicks. Who said anything about need? Actually, 15 of these are cornish cross and you butcher them in 6-8 wks. So we wont have those around at all. Oh and a rhode island red baby chick died about an hr ago, it didnt seem to travel well. So okay 38. We have right now, 2 guineas and 12 chickens I think in the barnyard and they lay eggs. We needed more layers, and butcher birds. And then some were on sale so you know? What you gonna do about it? Buy them...


The cat thinks he/she is ferral. We had his testicles removed when we found she indeed was a he and now he is a she again but I dont think she knows. When outdoors, she acts ferral and wont come near us!


Awww look... farmer Joe and farmer Jane! They are so cute in overalls... Tad is actually wearing work boots while Nathalie on the other hand, is wearing pink mary janes. Who said working in manure means you cannot be stylish?

The kids are feeding the goats apple peels from the composte heap here. Its good for them and they love it, though Nona my special goat is usually quite greedy.

We planted a lot of seeds, its still pretty cold here on and off but the seeds need to be in a couple of months before last frost. I have been saving yogurt cups for 1.5 years! We lined them with newspaper so we can just pull out the whole plant/dirt combo when it comes time to put them out.

That is one good looking man! Mmm mmm mmm... Okay sorry got sidetracked! Okay so we put hummus, peat moss, organic soil and fertilizer and then just regular soil in a big food grade 55 gal barrel and rolled it to mix, then mixed further in the wheelbarrel before putting it in pots and trays. The trays are fruit trays that you buy grapes, strawberries etc in.

Now all of our seed pots are labled by numbers and letters in case some plants look alike. We have a lot of peppers and tomatoes planted, herbs, fruits and many other vegetables. Also we have some fruit trees and bushes and have more coming in.

Happy gardening!

Snow and babies

We have snow, and new babies but no snow babies. We are tired of winter, even me who prefers winter over any other season. Thursday was warm, sunny and 55, friday morning was the same. By friday at noon it was cool and cloudy and was 25 deg and snowing by 4 pm. It stuck... Tomorrow should thaw out, make it into mud but we get more next saturday! Joys of a wintery state.


To spice up life, we have new chickens! We have brown leghorns, barred rock, rhode island red and bantams. I love bantams, they are my favorite chickens. Nathalie chose 2 white bantams, and Tad chose 2 feather footed bantams.

We picked up this box at the dump, its quite large and its a great brooding box. A little more than an inch thick with a nice bottom. Someone threw it out and I was pleased to find a brooder box!

We have 3 heat lamps hanging here and a blanket to keep the heat in. Also Frank put a thermometer in there, its about 60 deg. They were in the laundry room in a plastic bin while we prepared the brooding box, but then we realized they smell REALLY BAD! So we set them up in the garage. 2 heat lamps are enough during the day but at night a 3rd will be nice. They have clean straw, fresh new straw for when we clean, nice waterer and feeder... These chickens are set up!

They will live here for a couple of wks, until all snow/frosty weather is past and then they will live outside in the roving coop with a heat lamp and little house. When they are older, they will be free range with the other chickens.

Coffee

"Why do I have to be woken up so early? I was asleep!" Tads first complaint of the day as he lays in his bed trying to ignore me waking him.

"Baby, its after 9 am, its not early."

"Yes but I was awake until daddy made coffee!" We have a coffee pot/grinder in one so if you are awake, you can hear someone making it.

"You were awake all night long and heard daddy make coffee at 5:30 in the morning?"

"Well, I was at least awake and heard the coffee!"

"That doesnt negate the fact that it is now after 9 am and you slept last night from 9:30 pm, all the way to coffee 5:30 am then asleep again until after 9. Its now time to get up."

"Awww man..."

New barn again

This is the new little barn that I blogged and deleted because the pictures were not straight. Sorry about that loss of patience on my part.


Our friends helped us put the building up, they helped us take it down! This was a free shed on someone else property, she let us have it if we would take it down. We changed the roof pitch, Eric drew this up and he and Frank cut it, which took a lot of patience, throwing things, on their part!


Jeffrey and I held the roof while it was attached, and cut 2x4 pcs. He held mostly and I cut mostly.


Nail guns and cordless drills are the best invention since sliced bread.

See? Pneumatic tools... And child labor, who invented that? I praise them wholeheartedly.

"Lillith, I am going to head butt you in just a minute." Nona says, she is taking out her frustration on her battle buddies bc she was locked into the field.

Now with the supports the roof stays up on its own, however it needs a great deal more work at this point.

"Hey Tad, run up to shop and get the other battery for the dewalt set."

Running for the shop, he didnt even have to be told to hurry!

Here I am back and I didnt kill myself in the messy shop! Still running...

Taking a break on the new swing, which Tad made.

I am not killing him, I swear! I am just seein' if his head WILL pop off!

How are we gonna get this OSB up on this steep roof? Why isnt mama helping at all? I mean she is just standing around with the camera around her neck.

Aww look at that! Its nearly roofed. Well okay fine its not, it needs tar paper and shingles. Which is now has, and I will photo that as soon as there is enough sun for me to go out. Its horrible and gray and cold today, again, We have had one sunny day in 9 days. And today is another gray one so oh well. We are spring cleaning this wk, the yard and house. And building stalls, and, and, and... have a good wk all!

Sunrise

The sun does the sweetest things

Why, only this morning as I stood at my door

I saw through the night and the stars

the peeking of purple, then so much more.

The clouds lined up to be infused with color,

purples and oranges, most brightly those pink.

These rose and grew before my eyes.

Just as I felt so grateful for beauty,

There rose the sun, a fire in the sky

He rose ever so slowly then suddenly was there.

Now I wonder on such a cold morning,

Why would he rise,

If only for I?

-Jo

Conversations

Tad and Nathalie were sharing a grapefruit at the table, the sugar canister was between them with the lid open which is on a hinge. Tad leaned over to see what Nathalie had in her cup and ran his head into the sugar canister.

"Hey buddy, I wouldnt ever join a wrestling team."

"Why shouldnt he?" Nathalie inquires.

"Honey, he was just taken out by a sugar bowl, what do you think?"

"It was a very aggressive sugar dish mama." Reported Tad. Hmm I dont know about this...

BB

In my last post, I mentioned BB. He is a goat, that monster meant to eat the ears off of or at least taste them. BB stands for butcher boy, yes I know that is tasteless but I live in the country, on a little mini farm so there is that. We bought him from a friend who breeds boer goats. BB has a percentage of nubian, but is mostly boer. He is a meat goat and is two months old. We will fill a portion of our freezer with him, as well as with Lilliths kids (large brown nubian goat of ours). Just letting you all know who BB was.

In case anyone feels horror, really this isnt different than people who raise chickens for their freezers. Yes, we do that also. We are also buying a couple of cows to raise and have butchered. For an animal as large as a cow (aprox 1800 lbs at butcher time), we need someone else to do the job. For smaller meat animals, it makes more sense to do this ourselves. In attempting to homestead, we have to find ways to be self sufficient or we dont really have any point in this. If you still think I am terrible, I have a good friend who once named a goat Bob, for Kabob. So she at least, will be on my side in this...

My dawg

So I wrote a post on barn raising, and showed some nice photos. These photos were uploaded to photobucket and then I used the links to post them to my blog. Problem? It cut off the right of the photo. Now it could have been just my computer, but I was aggravated. I emailed my friend Amanda, who is quite good with computers and web pages. So, without giving her any time to respond I deleted the post in anger. She of course came on to help me, solved all of my blog problems in moments but my post is gone. Several people read it and found it amusing, but I cant really get it back. There you have it.

Onto other things, my dog is naughty. I have been training her to be less naughty, dont jump on people until they desire your death, dont kill chickens and dont tear up the goats ears. So during the day, Monster (dog) has to be on a chain, at night she sleeps in her kennel in goat barn. Today, it is raining. It was sprinkling this morning and I thought I should make her a little Monster hooch so she will have a place to be without going into her kennel. Photos following.

No mama seriously, take me off of this chain because look! I cannot run well see??? Help! I dont like my new house!


Oh allright you at least did a decent job on my house mama. Can I get off the chain please? See me smile?

Aww man mama, you dont love me. I have been so GOOD off the chain today! I chased only ONE chicken and only tried to eat BBs ears off once, okay fine twice but he was asking for it!

See? The chicken is not dead. Let me off this chain. I will be good while you are watching.

Okay so the dog said some other choice words, I wont share them here. I did make her new house in the South barn front room so was able to let her run free while I worked. She ran free this morning for 2 hrs while I did chores, cleaned up and played with her. She did very well, this is her first time not on a lead. She has been on a lead, in a kennel or separate barn room from the goats/chickens or on a chain for several months while I work with her. Today she did so well, I was proud but she did try two times to eat BBs ears up while I was busy. I know she is just playing but still.

I built the little dog house (monster hooch) out of scrap plyboard, 2x2 and 2x4 pieces leftover from our barn building. It needs a little trim, paint and something more on the roof and I think we will make a front so she has a doorway rather than an open front. She doesnt want to use it, instead she gets rained on. I think she is holding it against me that I put her back on a chain after she was so GOOD!

This last photo is just because, how many of you have wind like this? That was 3 days ago. Today, it literally blew me over. I actually fell sideways. It wasnt pretty...

Farm Photos