Weird Days

It seems like days are running together and those same days go from freezing cold in the morning to down right hot in the mid day. My second round of taters have failed miserably. The tubers rotted in the soil. I'm thinking it has something to do with the weird weather and the soil being too warm in the day, cold overnight. In the spring, the soil stays cooler as the tubers sprout up and grow. It makes sense to me but I have no real proof of it. Just what my mind has created to rationalize my crop failure.

Well, there he is, the leather bag filled with bones I've been tending to. The daily feeding of the correct amount has improved him greatly and put him on schedule for butchering in a timely manner. It has also helped for moving him to another pen so I could get calves separated this past weekend. Worked out pretty good right up until i whacked the feller who bought the calves in the head with a gate. Purely an accident but I still felt badly for it. Calves in the shoot backed up on me, had me caught in the gate I was holding to keep them in there, the feller came back to us, poked the calves, they ran forward relieved the pressure and as the gate came off my leg, he got whacked. How he managed to have his head down low enough for the gate to whack him, I'm not sure. It just happened too fast. I still feel badly tho.

My son is on my naughty list. he has been cheating his way thru morning chores on me and not feeding the ducks and chickens properly. I keep trying to explain to him that I don't grow all that corn, spend all that time picking and shucking it then grinding it for him to not feed the ducks and chickens! As a result of his poor chore work, I went 3 days this week without eggs for my breakfast. The chickens are now back to laying but have not gotten back to full production. I am not pleased with that boy right now. he's plenty old enough to know better, right foot left butt cheek........

I have finalized the milk cow deal and paid the man a down payment of the $200 I had put aside for the cow fund. I still owe him quite a bit but he is just fine with milking her until I get her paid off. I hope to have her home before the end of November and get some cheese made. There's going to be some headed out in the mail and you all know who you are on the receiving end... I'm really looking forward to it and to sharing the joy with others. Plus, one more thing that I can provide for myself and not have to buy! One more small step along the self sustained journey.

I just finished reading 2 books, Lucifers Hammer and the Last Centurion. I found both to be pretty interesting. Each time I come across something that is written down that reflects my opinions on the state of the world, I feel pretty good about it. It's nice to know others are out there that feel as I do. sometimes I feel like the lone ranger in a desperate fight of futility against an invisible monster. Silly, I know, but I do feel like that sometimes.

I still have not touched the garden spot or the back corn patch. it has been too windy to till for the wheat. There isn't any real rain forcast for our area and to till it and plant it is a waste of time with 30mph winds every day and no rain. Wheat will not germinate in popcorn fart dry dirt. Hmmm, I wonder if I will get it planted at all. I am not hurting for wheat and will not run out before next seasons crop but it will deplete my pile from normal use. hmmm

Another Long Week

EW! I just had the ickiest, hairiest spider in the park crawling on my arm. I had to smoosh him, too gross to let him live.

It's been another long week of chasing cows 3 days in a row, moving round bales of hay, mowing down dead grass and weeds, picking up junk. All for someone else. We're headed into our 4th week without a paycheck so I'm not really complaining about working, it is paying for the fuel for hubby to get to his first paycheck. It's just that so much needs done on my own farm. They boy is not doing all he should be from day to day and I am just plain tired of telling him. He knows better and still he is doing such a terrible job. good thing he's my son and not someone that works for me, they would be so fired!

I spent 5 hours today cleaning my kitchen and laundry room. No one else living here can seem to clean up after themselves. They've all wiped out everything I cooked last week for them and left me the mess to clean up. I have not cooked one single thing this weekend.

I brought my tractor home from the neighbors farm tho. I need to turn my corn patch and get wheat planted! the regular garden spot needs turned and compost added to it for the winter.

There's a sugar maple in the yard that has given up the ghost. That beautiful tree was damaged during our dericho and it hung on like a trooper this year but the storm we had Tuesday did her in. 2 more of the main branches have been damaged and broken off. With one huge limb falling came the honey bee hive and the birds are snapping up disgruntled honey bees left and right. I have no way to protect them, they are wild bees and I just can not risk being stung. I hate to see them killed. I will have to wait for them to finish moving their hive before i can clean up the mess in the yard. The whole tree will need removed, I may wait until spring to cut the trunk off.
That makes 3 of my main sources of shade around the farm wiped out this year.

Here's a bit of humor tho, I'll bet this fellow was beside himself! Local resident flushes up young squirrel.
I am so ready to get back to my fall farm schedule. There's still a couple weeks worth of helping the neighbor get her business taken care of before I will be able to take care of my own things. I just can not walk away from a neighbor that needs good, dependable help. It is going to make things tough on me for a little while but that's okay, I can take it. Now, if I can just whip my family into better shape, i'll be all set!

Rough Week

It was a darn rough week. Today hardly feels like the start of a new week, i'm still trying to recover from the one I just finished! Here I am, sitting in the dinky jeep, all cramped up typing and is there ever a storm rolling in on us. It hasn't rained in so long here, everything is dead. I hate to see it rain like mad for just a couple minutes. That will not help us at all.

As you can see, the kittens haven't a care in the world! Me, I spent the weekend picking my feed corn by hand. I have roughly 70 bushels of corn to shuck now. Not too bad from just a half acre of hand planted corn with no pesticides. The deer were a little bit rough on it but not as bad as i expected. With the dry weather we've had, the corn is low moisture and I havent seen any mold at all yet.

More from around the farm soon.......

BRRR and ouch

Aw, Cojack loves me. That darn kitten is not happy unless she's laying on me. She sleeps with me even. Oh well, I guess that's what i get for feeding them, LOL.

Downright cold last night, we got our first frost of the season. Looks like the tomatoes are done for now.

A few nights ago, I had a fire going out on the porch and popped some popcorn. I have a hull stuck in my gums, next to a molar and it is now infected. I can't seem to get it pried out and boy, is it uncomfortable! I'm on my third day of salt water rinse, it seems to be helping. Wish I could get to that hull. Hopefully it will push out before too much longer.

I'm still bush hogging for the neighbor and fixing that darn thing every day. Wow, I never thought I would hate a piece of farm equipment as much as I hate that bush hog!

Being gone from the farm for most of the day is really starting to affect my eating habits. Guess I need to roll out of bed a couple hours earlier to get my bread baked. I guess I can survive until the job is done on just 3 or 4 hours of sleep, LOL.