Easing into things

Well here it is, mother nature has eased us into Fall. We had our first mild frost and the trees are turning quick now. Combine that with the last 3 days of steady drizzle and it's a mess here. I hate that the leaves are dropping so fast, no good pictures. The Shawnee Forest is so beautiful when the trees start turning. it's the wake up call for being winter prepared here. I always try to do a little bit of preparing ahead for the coming winter while I'm going thru the summer, every chance I get for some firewood and such to go ahead and take the time to get it. I hate it getting cold and all of the sudden I need to spend all my time gathering up firewood. That's really all that's left to do around here now aside from the normal daily stuff. What's funny about it is I don't have any more free time now than during planting or harvest! Go figure!

The heifer calf is now a resident of the farm. My neighbor gave up on her and was going to put her down so I brought her home. Like he and I discussed, the worst that will happen is that I feed my coyotes instead of his. I'm just not ready to give up on her yet. She's not a baby calf, she's a 5 month old heifer. We still have no clue what's got her down, even the vet has nothing which of course makes me feel a little less stupid. After all, he went to school and doesn't know any more than I do! LOL She's been here now for 4 days and I've managed to get her gums pinked back up and she's now eating 4lbs of grain in a sitting which is a serious improvement over her not touching the grain at all last week. She's up to 10 gallons of water a day and she's working her legs as she's spinning herself in circles. I know she's getting stronger because she's bracing herself and not allowing me to roll her over. Typical beef cow attitude, LOL. I'm thinking any day now she'll just get up.

ARG, it's 2 days past due date on 2 of my rabbits and no kits! I've had this problem before with them, so I'm not worried about it, just annoyed. Nothing like feeding them with no results. Weather has some to do with it, and sometimes it's the chickens bothering them or the cats. It will work out, I just hate the lost time which makes less on the dinner plate.

I'm having a heck of a time finding an element for the oven. I guess manufacturers just make throw away products anymore. I am a little disgusted tho, it's a Frigidaire for goodness sake, you'd think it would hold up better than that, it's not a year old yet! I guess normal people just don't bake as much as I do. This is one time I'm sure sorry I didn't get a project done. I'd not be in this fix if I would have got the brick oven built. The old adage of "life is what happens when you're making other plans" comes to mind. Some things just can't be salvaged or scrounged. Hard to get fire brick and mortar. The project itself isn't the hard part especially with the great plans from the fornobravo site. With such simple, easy to understand directions, anyone should have a brick oven built in a weekend. Those darn supplies tho! LOL



I'll have some pictures for the next post...