Spring Gardening

Well, Coley asked how the garden was going so here it is.  Slow but sure!  I'm pretty paranoid about this unusually warm weather and the 10 day forecast is calling for 48F and 49F for 5 nights in a row.  I need 4 cattle panels I can't afford at the moment or I would have radish, carrots and lettuce going out in the dirt.  I have onions and garlic out already and it's a daily battle keeping the goatling off them.    

I put okra, brussel sprouts and zucchini out already with more seed sprouting in case I lose these to cold overnight temps.  The okra made it 3 days before Sissy had them chewed to pieces.  Her head fits thru the panels and the boxes are small enough she could reach.  Thankfully, the panels are keeping the chickens out and the other goats have not even looked at them.
 

The front garden spot looks great now that all the trash is picked up out of it and it's been turned over a few times.


All 5 of the new goatlings seem to be doing alright.  Now, if the puppies would just quit barking at them!

What Happened?

 Looks like  we have a few new editions to the farm while I was away today.  I  noticed a couple does were missing from the herd when I pulled in, a quick look around located Skeeter and Molly over in the front corner.

Skeeter is a first time Momma and after what happened to Noma, I was a little worried about her.  Looks like she's got a healthy kid.  Molly has how many kids?  Count the butts over there, yep, there's 4 kids!  

At first, I'd thought she might have stolen one from Skeeter but they're laying in pairs and she's licking on all 4 of them.  I guess Skeeter has broken my twins streak.  Oh well, just happy she's okay.

Surprise, LOL

Boy was that storm a nasty one. Skies Black as coal, clouds swirling, thunder rolling, pouring rain and nasty dime sized hail balls.

Meanwhile, the seedlings are growing nicely, waiting for warmer overnight temperatures. I'd be fine with putting them out but we've got a couple nights coming in the mid 40sF. If I had row covers, I'd put them out and be done with it. Alas, I don't have row covers, so in the house they stay!

I've finally got some action going with the hot pepper seeds. I've thrown away at least a dozen sets already, after 45 days and no sprouting, I finally gave in and acknowledged the fact that they weren't going to sprout. I gave up with the baggies and put them in the pellet trays and hoped for the best. 10 days and I've got 2 pellets sprouted with a bunch more showing some life. Why the trays are working better than the baggies this year, I don't know. I'm not complaining tho.

Planter boxes got built, filled and planted with garlic and onions. The strawberry box isn't showing any life yet and I don't have much hope for the transplants. I'm ready to go dig some up from my friends' garden. Maybe this week...

Lost on the Farm

Yep, it's been farm clean up week, been lost on the farm with all the unusually warm days. Now, it's raining but I did manage to get onions and garlic in the dirt. Now if I can just keep Lil Sister from sticking her head thru the fencing and pulling them all up for me!

Too Many Roos

Well, the whole "can't catch those dang roos" problem is getting solved, one roo at a time. I was flopped on the couch late last night (couldn't sleep again) watching one of my favorite John Wayne movies and got a brilliant idea from it. I made myself a catch noose for chickens. Sorry about the really cruddy cellphone pictures. I caught 4 of the oldest roos (all over 2 years old) and dispatched them. Poor hens can't even lay an egg without a half dozen roos jumping on them. It's been long over due for doing something with them. 20 roos and 18 hens just doesnt cut it.

The pups were well behaved and barked plenty. How about those honkin huge ears on ole Jake! He looks like a dingo, big ears and long legs, must have some throwback blood in there somewhere! Griz was in the process of biting jake, funny how his head got fuzzed out of the picture.

Imported Foods

Unless you live in the frozen tundra in the Arctic,
there's no reason why you can't grow food for yourself. Thousands upon thousands of early American settlers didn't homestead land out in the middle of nowhere and miracle themselves something to eat. They had to grow it, harvest it and preserve it for themselves to survive. Yes, it can be done. If it couldn't, you and I would not be here.

The Wall Street Journal (which I find to be a waste most days) actually had an article I wanted to read in it. Imported Food Outbreaks. This article talks about the rise in occurrences of food borne illness such as salmonella, typhoid and e coli. Our government keeps making up new laws which restrict the freedoms of American citizens while still importing and NOT properly inspecting food from other countries which makes us sick and even kills our citizens. Yes, we line up at walmart to buy this crap too.

Why do we keep doing this? Why are we importing food when this country is perfectly capable of producing plenty enough food to feed it's own people?

A Stooge Slap

Yep, a stooge slap is needed for one Dr Daniel Gervich of Des Moines Iowa. This idiot says feeding your baby raw milk is "child endangerment" and you should be criminally punished! WTF doc, what about breast feeding? Should we all buy a pump and boil breast milk now? Or is it simply okay to feed THAT kind of raw milk but not raw milk from your own cow or goat? How much did the dairy industry pay you for that idiotic statement?

Goat proofing Strawberries

With such nice weather and a good belly full of anger from what I read this morning, I got busy with the strawberry box. Since I can't keep berries with goats around, I have to come up with a box and a shield of some sort to keep wayward goats out of them. I got the box built and filled and Lil Sister had to inspect it. At least she didn't pee in it for me.


The puppies are trying hard to herd the goats but the only one that pays any attention to them is Lucky goat. That fat goat is going to have a heart attack if he keeps running from those puppies!

Now I know why my tractor key keeps finding it's way to the ground. The goatlings think the tractor is a jungle gym!

Our Future?

Really, is this our future? Being labeled as a terrorist and thrown in jail, treated like a gitmo detainee because we want to eat healthy food? Oh, wait, gitmo detainees get treated better than this! God forbid we share that healthy food. What's next, public hangings for passing carrots around? I have been following the raw food (raw milk) fight in the communist state of California for a while now and what has recently happened to James Stewart and Sharon Palmer should have every American citizen up in arms, disgusted to the point of vomiting and down right pissed as hell. The actions of the LA County DA is nothing short of Stalin, Marx or Hitler. Since when is this behavior acceptable and mind you, this is all over something the County created! Read the whole story via the links on the page, there's tons to this tangled web of lies and deceit. These people aren't serial killers or war criminals. they operate a CSA and promote healthy food.

I eat real, healthy food I grow right here. I butcher my own critters that I raised right here being fed healthy diets without antibiotics or steroids and I drink RAW MILK! According to the USDA, that makes me a terrorist. So be it, I will not eat the government approved poison they are pushing. I got 2 words for the USDA and one starts with F and the other starts with Y and I have a whole herd of middle fingers to go with them. HOW DARE THEM even think they have any right to tell me what I can and can't eat? WTF?

What is it going to take for the sheep in this country to put the bottle of soda and frozen pizza down, step away from the TV and wake up to what's happening in this country? If the USDA endorses drinking a glass of sulphuric acid for breakfast, are you actually going to do it? The USDA says it's safe and healthy, so why wouldn't you? You're an obedient slave to the government, right?

Once again, I am in complete amazement when I think of how we managed to make it this far as humans eating all that lousy and dangerous food that we grew for ourselves. Damn those Victory gardens, millions died from them and they should rightly be OUTLAWED. Don't even think about planting that sweet pepper plant in your front yard instead of a landscaping bush! Drop that peach! Don't even think about eating a blackberry that hasn't been boiled and then drown in high fructose corn syrup! 50 lashes for not consuming your daily allowance of cardboard in your cornflakes!

ARG, now I'm so mad I can't even finish eating breakfast. Guess the puppies get my healthy, home grown breakfast instead.....

Closer to Spring and No Joy

Well this week has been kind of busy. It seems that way anyway. Tuesday morning I had to drive and pick up hubster from work. Apparently he had a problem and the company decided he needed some cool off time so he didn't work all week. Wednesday, I went to IGOLD. 3 hours on a bus to get there, and hour and a half of listening to a presentation where it seemed like everybody was trying to sell me something, the march to the capital building where of course, all the politicians hid from us(big surprise since they don't really give a shit what 'the people' want anyway), an hour and a half wait for the 3 hour bus ride home. While I was gone, speaking up for Illinois gun owners rights, no one at the farm even bothered to do anything that actually needed done. Cutting up and burning dead trees, while it needs done, is not more important than washing to puppy pee off the floor or making sure the baby goat isn't wiping out my entire garden. So, the house was full of nasty and the goat ate half my seedlings. Not a time for the 'happy happy joy joy". Thursday was my birthday(yay rah, big whoop) and my daughter came by to make my day since she knew nobody else in my life here would bother. I spent the rest of the day scrubbing floors and on a fruitless hunt for a leather fanny pack (long story and purses suck).

So, now I need to basically start over with the seedlings. I lost a months worth of work while I was gone. My entire tomato crop got eaten by a baby goat. This upsets me greatly since even with the zipploc bag method, I am having serious difficulty getting seeds to germinate this year. Very disconcerting. It's very difficult to be self sufficient, grow all the food here and do everything else nobody else here seems to give a rip about, all by myself. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother anymore. Trying to find a farm helper is also proving to be about impossible. Why is it that people think they can have a 9-5 job or have their own farm and still take care of everything I need help with here? If that were possible, don't ya'll think I'd be working some minimum wage, nowhere 9-5 job myself? ARG, I'm really beginning to wonder why I'm still doing this. Sometimes I think about how nice it would be to just not give a rip anymore, buy cable TV and eat cheetos on the couch every day after some meaningless 9-5 job, lost in some idiotic show, become an alcoholic and just be oblivious to what's going on in the world. Quit growing my own food and just buy frozen pizza full of chemicals and preservatives and be done with it. Seems to work for the rest of the world.

Oh, the horses found a weak spot in the fence I can't afford to repair and were standing in the middle of the road about a 1/4 mile out. Of course, when they saw me coming, they ran for home and then made me chase them around the barn lot for a 1/2 hour before they let themselves be caught. There was help here but the help decided they needed a nap more than they needed to help me corral livestock.

So, today, I am not in a happy place and all I see is more work ahead of me that will get done only if I do it, all by myself. I need a vacation. Yah, like that will happen...

Hanging Out

Not too much has been going on farm wise around here. Just kind of hanging out, waiting for seeds to grow, wading thru the mud, feeding critters and such. The evil storm that whacked Indiana rolled thru here and dumped heavy rain, high winds and quarter sized hail as it was building up to take away life 100 miles away.

On top of all the nasty weather we're seeing across the midwest, underground, in the coal mine is particularly dangerous right now. The quickly changing barometric pressures and temperatures cause serious safety issues for coal miners. Roof falls happen without notice and are deadly. So, when you flip your light switch, remember that there's a coal miner somewhere underground, dodging falling rock to bring that electricity to you.

I went to a preppers meet up on Saturday. I really enjoyed the conversation with like minded people. One of the things we discussed was tornado preparedness. How to better protect yourself and your preps when something like a tornado can easily throw all of it, and you, all across the country side. I think I will be working on getting the blocks together for the root cellar and completing that project soon. The urgency to do something about being completely wiped out by something I can not prevent is pretty strong at the moment. Being prepared won't count much if a tornado comes along and levels the whole area.

ARG, I'm up waaay too early today. The puppies were barking. I should have looked out the front window before turning them out the front door, the horses have found a weak spot in their fence and were standing in the front yard. Horses being out isn't really too big of a deal since there's no gardens planted out there but the puppies are herding dogs and their instinct to herd is actually pretty strong. So, now there's hoof prints (more like hoof craters) all over the front yard. While the old roping horse doesn't even notice those tiny bags of bark, the 2 ex race horses think it means "go" with a race to the finish line. At least the pups listen, kind of, and quit when told to. They were pretty proud of themselves tho, LOL. Maybe after a half pot of coffee I'll go catch them up at feeding time. They know where they get fed and never miss a meal. Glad is wasn't the cows loose or I'd still be slopping thru the mud trying to catch them...