First Sticking snow

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

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

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

The Argonaut squash pie before it hit the oven

Fresh out of the oven!

Had to make pizza today too, LOL

Too Quiet

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

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

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

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

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........