interesting and boring all together

I have a big sugar maple in the side yard. It's huge. Back when we had that inland hurricane, a large side branch had been knocked off it. The tree was apparently not too healthy to start with but you'd have never known, all the branches had leaves on them and it looked good. The truth of it is, the branches are mostly hollowed and every time we get a good storm, another gets knocked out of it. Well, we had another big storm and the tree is about done for. I will need to cut it down sooner or later. I hate to, but there's not much left of it. The branch now laying in the yard has not been cleaned up yet. It's full of bees. I mentioned this before, the bees were getting wiped out by the birds. Well, some made it thru the feeding frenzy and they are still active in the tree branch. I have decided to learn about bees and honey. I didn't come up with this brilliant plan on my own, one of my regular read magazines has a whole beehive article in it. I thought it was Mother Earth News but I just checked the latest issue online and it's not in it. Maybe it was Hobby Farms or Grit. I found this article online over at Living off Grid and it has the top bar beehive as well. This is what I plan to do about the bees before they swarm in the spring. Now, what am I going to do with that huge branch laying in the yard? Oh, I haven't a clue at the moment.

Life here at the farm has been pretty boring the last few weeks. I am spending all my time around here cleaning up after others that live here. I have to say, it's gotten old darn quick. it's hard enough that I do everything around here all by myself anyway but having to play maid to others on top of everything else just pisses me off. Nobody ever misses supper but they sure can't seem to find the dish rag. Everybody loves the cats but nobody can clean up after them. Cats are NOT clean animals. No use putting them out, somebody just lets them back in when I'm not around. ARG is the only polite thing I can think of to say about it right now.

So, instead of catering to others this weekend, I have spent all my time going thru my pantry, looking at my stock of herbs and such. Working out in my mind and on a list, what I need to be concentrating on in the herb garden next season. I have also looked at things I can't grow that I still need to purchase or trade for. Since there isn't a good set-up for trade here yet, I guess the salt, sugar, noodles and various other odd stuff will have to be purchased. I hate that. I hate having to buy anything at all. The whole commercial thing just chaps me.

Here's something depressing. I just owe $200 on the cow and was hoping to have her home this coming weekend. I had a side job set up that would have given me what I needed. It fell thru. On top of that, I turned my front burner on the stove on this morning, the element has apparently burned out. Guess I used it too much. The stove isn't 3 years old yet. This is the same stove the oven element burned out of in just 8 months. It's a Frigidaire glass top. I haven't a clue how to even get to the elements to repair it. I will need to repair it, it's my cheese making element, the one that fits my cheese making pot perfect. Guess I just need to say ARG and move on with it.

You know it's a bad week when even baking bread doesn't cheer me up. This week it felt like a chore, a boring, time consuming, unrewarding chore. Wow, I need a vacation...........

A crop for Self Sustained Living

Potatoes, glorious potatoes! We're obviously potato eaters, roughly 10lbs a week here. The cost of purchasing a 10lb bag of potatoes every week adds up to roughly $15 a month here. Doesn't seem like a bunch of money but that's $180 a year I don't have to spend if I grow my own. There's tons of simple and easy ways to plant potatoes and you don't need a bunch of room to grow them. Car tires make great potato growers. I grow German Butterballs and Irish Finns, they both have wonderful flavor and keep well in cold storage. Not to mention I know for sure the potatoes I'm eating haven't been sprayed with some chemical or picked and stored in some unsanitary way. I also despise buying a bag of potatoes that have been frozen during shipping, yuck! A big concern for me, I'm not fond of e coli or any other of the various contaminants commercial food seems to carry. Call me a stickler over that if ya want to, I'm just picky! ;)

We've suffered thru some serious rain these past 3 weeks, 4 days it hasn't rained in all that time. Hard to get things to grow when they're drowned and not getting sunshine. The ground is very spongy here and I am thrilled to see that the potatoes haven't rotted altho I did suffer a small section that appears to be a low spot where I've apparently lost the hills.

It looks like I need to get going and finish the chicken pen, those dang hens are scratching my hills down! They can't help it tho, the soil is fresh out of the compost pile and teaming with yummies. The chicks in the house are doing well and they're close to being moved outside and I need somewhere to put them where the cats and misc wildlife can't make them lunch. So, it looks like chicken house work for this weekend even if it's raining. I hate working in the mud...

Canned butter adventure

I'd give credit if I could remember who it was that wrote the post with this idea and a link to Green Apple Orchards blog for the directions on how to do this neat little project. Hermit just canned himself a batch so I felt a little left out ;). Just a 1lb batch of home made brown swiss cow butter in half pint jars for my pantry. I was distracted during the process by hubby who took my kitchen over for a while and the butter cooled down too much to shake/mix so I had to put it in the oven at 170 for a few minutes to fix it. Seals stayed good thru it, I re-shook the jars until cooled properly, all seems as it should be. I'm counting this as a success!

Christmas Ponderings

I'm just messing around today, trying to get out of cooking because there's a pile of dishes needing washed first. I was on eBay looking for a deal or 2 on canning jar lids, none to be found, and under related searches was "survival foods" so I clicked on it. 101 items listed, some were priced reasonable, some not. MRE's, canned chicken, peanut butter, etc. Interesting....

Anyway, my thoughts of the day were about canning jar lids. I've got plenty of jars, most of them full of what my garden produces to feed us. But it struck me that the lids are a one time use item. So, of course, that nagging little voice in my head tells me I need to check my lid stock. Turns out, I've only got about a year and a half of lids! For me, that just will not do. I can't help but feel that the troubles this country is headed for will last longer than a year and a half. So, now I am on the hunt for more canning lids. Easy enough to find but this will still drive me crazy until remedied.

LOL, no rest for the wicked I guess...


Christmas wishes for everyone and thanks to a few more...

Hermit, Degringolade, Pearls, Scout, Bullseye, Scavenger, Chris W, Green Apple Orchard,Survivalist News, Urban Survivalist, Mayberry, Shy Wolf, Ozark Momma, Bison Survival, Andy and Mel, Jeff and Farmergeek...
Thanks for joining me, helping me, entertaining me and teaching me...

Merry Christmas and God bless