That Figures- sighs.............

It's raining.  Of course it is, I had things I wanted to get done.  Sold my billy goat this morning.  He'd produced 3 crops of kids for me and he's related to half the herd now so he needed to go to a new herd of girls.  I sold him private sale to someone who will breed with him.

He is a nice billy, makes nice babies and not aggressive.  Love those kiko crosses.

I'm just hanging out with the grandson today, looking at quilting patterns on pinterest………..

who's laughing now?

hehehehehehe, who's laughing now?  I'm a prepper/homesteader, always have been.  Just kind of worked out that way, lifestyle and all.  Everyone around me locally laughed and dismissed me as being everything from "paranoid" to "batshit crazy".  Nobody had time to listen to or learn anything from me.  Now, I'm getting the "how do you do this" thing and the "can you help me with this" thing.  Uhm, yah, I guess I could but I'm really kind of busy taking care of my farm and my own people.

It's never been hard to grow food, can food, be more than a little frugal and live a simple life without all the unnecessary extra things most people waste time and money on.  It's just always been how I am.  So, when everyone was running around frantic, looking to hoard all the tp and hand sanitizer, I got to just sit back and watch the show.  I waited a few days for the panic to settle and went out to pick up diapers for the newborn and some flour to make bread, etc.  Did I really need those things, no, not really but it made the daughter feel better.

Now, what worries me is the plant I work for shutting down for a couple weeks.  Looks like they're planning on shutting down this coming weekend and being down for at least 2 weeks.  That means I have to sign u for unemployment.  This should be pretty interesting because I have never done this before.  It figures, every time I get going good here with this farm and start taking the risks to improve, something happens to ruin it all.  Go figure.  Yes, it upsets me and worries me some but I'll get it figured out.  Always do.  Besides, I've got the solar back up and already have a good amount of seedlings going for the garden.  2 or 3 more weeks of crazy weather and the plants I can direct seed (beans, corn, etc) can get planted.  If it doesn't rain tomorrow, the garden should be firmed up
enough that I can walk thru it without sinking to my knees, LOL.  Potatoes, onions and garlic are sooooo ready to get planted.   I will just have to work extra hard to get back on track with my big dreams and plans I haven't paid for yet when this craze blows over.  Better be soon since I'm feeling a little impatient.

Thinking about building this little bugger to hold my daily harvest until I use it this summer.  

It's grandsons bedtime so off I go......

Still figuring it all out

Seems like a million years ago and a whole different lifetime from there to here.  Who am I anymore?  I don't know.  So much loss and hardship and I lived thru it all.  I don't feel the same anymore.  I'm meaner, that's for sure.  Came out of the tunnel more determined and more stubborn than ever before.  I've also found a part of me I thought I lost a long time ago.  Funny how the pain of loss changes you.  Nobody ever really gets it until they have to live thru it.  Definitely not what I had in mind 25 years ago, that's for sure.  Here I am tho, I didn't drown myself in the bottle or turn inward and give up.  It would have been pretty easy to do and even sounded like a good idea but somehow I got thru it without losing my way.

Eh, either way, I'm still doing the farming thing.  The goat herd is actually doing pretty good despite the 18 months of depression.  I'll need to replace the hay cutter sometime this spring since repairing the old one isn't really feasible.  I could fix it if the parts were readily available but they aren't so on to something else.

The first round of seedlings damped off on me, restarted some and those are doing pretty good.   I'm still trying to live in the crappy, shithole house trailer.  I have been saving my pennies tho and the fund for the cabin/tiny house is slowly growing.  The east side of the old barn saved me the trouble of knocking it down, it fell 2 storms ago and as soon as it dries up just a little bit I can get that part of it cleared and the spot cleaned up.

Oh!  I have 2 grandsons now.  My sons widow had the baby end of February and all 3 live here with me now.  So, yep, I had to pour a little perfume on the pig and do some minor remodeling and painting in the crappy trailer.  Only a small modification to the original tiny house plan will make them their own space here on the farm.

Going to open a farm market here late this spring for the wares Miss J and I are making and growing.  Quilting, soap making, garden produce, brick oven baked bread, wood crafts and Miss J has started to build an apothecary.  She's really become a whiz at whipping up the tinctures and salves.  Proud of her!  The whole farm kitchen thing didn't work quite as well as I had planned on it to do.  Didn't take into account the damage done by the asshole ex friend that did his best to ruin me.  That's okay tho, I taught someone else how to do what I was doing and they're doing great with it and will be part of the up and coming farm  market.

Could turn out to be the year I actually get to go full off grid.  I've accumulated enough pieces parts to go ahead and build the system.  I think after I get the orchard replaced and the garden planted, I'll go ahead and start on it.  I wasn't going to mess with it until I had the frame work done on the tiny house but I'm thinking it will be beneficial to the build of I go ahead and have it ready to use before I pour the footers.

So now I'm climbing uphill instead of wallowing in the mud at the bottom.  I wonder how the rest of this year is going to go...……..