Fuzzball, the really cute siamese colored kitten from the cockeyed cat Charcoal had an accident last night. Polar Bear, my blue heeler (australian cattle dog) mangled the little thing a bit last night. PB grabbed the kitten in mid air as it leaped up onto my leg. Needless to say, I broke 3 fingers on my right hand during the rescue. PB is in the dog house for a while. As smart as she is, she should know better than to eat the kittens. Perhaps it's the dingo genetics. Her momma is a cat killing machine. The struggle to all live happy together continues....
The farm is starting to clean up nice, I've been clearing the weed stalks and generally cleaning up the messes that got made around the place by people that just don't know how to clean up after themselves. Soon it will be time to start planting some of the cool weather crops and within a couple weeks the beans and corn will be going in. There's still plenty of work to do on the main garden plus the new spot I need to work up and fertilize for the tobacco. Thankfully, the compost pile is as big as it always is with plenty of great soil for garden improvement.
I've got 2 gallons of fresh milk in the fridge and I think I will make a round of colby cheese today. Hopefully I'll get it finished better than the last round of cheddar came out ;) Daisy calf is cute as a bug. She molests me every milking and I have officially been licked from head to toe now. I have been trying to figure out how to video her without her slobbering up the camera. She really has some personality.
Lucky goat is getting better about his new digs every day. He is just coming up to the porch once or twice a day now, looking for attention. I have turned his momma out to run loose with him and they've made friends. He's learning to be a goat now.
The bunnies are starting to jump out of the box now and they are just as cute as they always are. I wish they would stay small and cute but if they did, what would I do with them?
No progress has been made in the fencing department or the goat pen department. Finances just are not improving. Not surprising tho, the cost of electric has gone up and the price of fuel has reached outer space. The fight continues.
I've contemplated writing my opinion of what's going on in the world here on the blog and actually started a post and revised it several times. When Bill Simmons, the stuffed shirt CEO of walmart (cough, gag) did his interview over at USAtoday, I gave up on the op-ed. It just read way too hostile. Does that man have 2 functioning brain cells? Where's he been hiding for the last couple of years? Some of us, out here in the real world, have suffered with rising costs, dealt with them and done things to protect ourselves from corporate market manipulations for quite a while now. Gardening, producing food for yourself, is the only protection you have from rising food costs. I won't even get into the chemicals, preservatives, etc in processed foods. Just plain, good old fashioned real food. I could go on and on about how poor our economy is but unless you see it for yourself, you're not going to believe me anyway. Growing your own food is economic survival, plain and simple. Even on a small scale, much smaller than what I do here, will help. Recapturing skills that have been forgotten such as cooking and baking will also help you survive the disaster our country is moving toward. Unless of course, you're happy paying $3.29 a lb for ground beef, $2.29 for 4 tiny green peppers and $4.99 for a softball sized watermelon. There's 2 hours worth of pay at a minimum wage job, not counting the fuel it cost you to get to that job...
So, today I'm off to make some cheese, talk to my seedlings and bake some bread. Pork loin on the grill this afternoon........
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I am going to offer an opinion on your dog, she has an issue with small things. We had a dog years ago that had the same problem, she would kill any small animal that she could catch or get out of its nest, box or hole. We never broke her from killing kittens, we could just prevent her from getting near them. We, unfortunately had to chain her outside the yard until the kittens were large enough for her to tolerate them, about 3 months of age.
ReplyDeleteI broke and ranted on my blog the other day...did me good to get it out, but it really served no purpose...what's going to happen will happen. We prepare the best we can and you are right, a garden is about the only way many will make ends meet.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anon, you could be right. But, it's just not small things she goes after (Lucky goat too). I think it could be a jealousy thing of some sort. Work in progress for the herding dog.
ReplyDeleteHey HP! I been sitting on my fingers quite a bit lately. The stupidity of the world around us is amazing. 10 years ago, our paychecks were good money and now they barely cover the bills.
Yeah things are tough. We're all doing good at getting by here. I don't think you'll ever break the dog. I agree with Anon; it seems to be a pattern and I've had dogs like that and we couldn't break them. We just had to keep everything apart.
ReplyDeleteMM,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the cat/ dog issue, we have it here as well, my dog simply tolerates Cortney's cat and believe me the cat flaunts it infront of my poor dog all the time*sigh*
Had to share, we FINALLY found two fresh nanny goats! We pick them and their three kids up tomorrow, so we'll have milk and all the lovely by-products again ASAP! YEAH!!!! The cow won't freshen until early next Spring, so these two will carry us through( or that's the plan anyway)*wink*
If it weren't for our garden, orchard and animals we'd be in quite a pickle. The ever rising prices are even beginning to pinch us pretty good( feed costs, gas,basic grocery items) and we're far, far better off than the majority. This year we did manage to sell 2 Full shares in our garden, this made enough $$ to cover our property taxes for 2011 and with Mike's away from the farm job and his cylinder repair work here at home, we're making ends meet and actually getting some small projects around the place done too.
Take care, hang in there, you and yours are in much better shape the the majority :o)
Blessings,
Kelle
I planted my onion slips today. Got the cabbage and some more lettuce and radishes out also. The big farmers are working our ground and getting it ready for the corn crop. Grass needed cutting so that got done this afternoon. I planted some onion slips last fall for green onions and the didn't get very big. I was suprised when they wintered over and made nice green onions for the spring! Think I will fry fish for lunch tomorrow. I am going to put some nets out next week after the river settles down a little. Take care of that old dog till my puppy comes out. FK
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