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...

Nasty Mood

Yep, today is one of those nasty moods. It's mostly because of what happened yesterday and then waking up to 3 very noisy stock puppies. They are a handful, all the time. They can't help it, they're just puppies. The bowel movement thing is getting better and they're anxious to go out every morning so poop isn't my problem, not really anyway. They actually use the paper for the most part now.

Yesterday, I had to get a couple tires put on the dually. I'd run the pair of left rears to the cords and the inside dual has been flat for a couple of weeks now. There goes $350. So, I had the tires from the front put onto the back duals so the 2 new ones were on the front. My trusted tire guy comes to me and says " You need to come take a look at this". Of course, my heart sinks instantly. My right side ball joint is completely ate out and you can literally lift it out of socket, both inner tie rods are shot and the left side ball joint bushing is gone. Hmmm, I was thinking that the squeak I was hearing was the front shocks. Guess what happened when I pulled in the driveway with it. Yep, you got it, broken truck. This is the only vehicle I have to drive. I'm waiting on an estimate before I have it towed to the repair shop. Kind of glad hubster is already at work for the week. Guess he will just have to stay there until the truck is fixed. Good thing since we're gonna need the money. Of course he won't like it much since he doesn't really want to work anyway. So much for the new orchard and used farm equipment. The worst of this is my son's truck is broken too. He lost the tensioner pulley last week. The holder bolt broke on it. So, we got a new belt and a new tensioner pulley assembly but we can't get the hardened aluminum bolt out of the bracket. Have not found a bracket yet. He still needs to go to work every day. He likes his job and his paycheck tho and will find a way to get there no matter what.

So, I went to bed not really in a good mood. Then, in the middle of the night, Sissy peed the bed. Wake up at 6am to an overcast day and 3 stock puppies heeling me around the house and biting my toes. Open the door, out they go, time to feed Sissy. Now, the goat is fed, the puppies are back in the house and the obnoxious "hey, I'm awake, fed and I feel good" chase is on. The 4 of them will jump on and run across every piece of furniture I own, knock everything they possibly can down and bark for the next half hour. Yay rah! LOL I need a cup of coffee.......

Getting By

I know I've been quiet lately, I just don't have anything to say. It's just everyday life here drown in stress from outside influences. The farm is still the same, hanging on like it always does. All the crops have been harvested and preserved, the goats are closer to kidding every day and the cow and animals get milked and tended twice a day. I actually had to dump 2 gallons of milk this week, the fridge was full and I was out of containers to keep the milk in. The outside influences took up too much of my time to make cheese or butter with it.

This farm could be so much more than it is. It's difficult to sit here every day knowing it could be so much more and not being able to do anything about it. As each week passes, all one can do is say "well, maybe next week". It's frustrating when your efforts are drained to outside influences. Just simply sustaining, hanging on, isn't enough some days.

Here we are, fast approaching Christmas day and it will pass here quietly, with hardly a whimper. I hope everyone out there has a joyous day filled with love and sharing.

I found something I am very interested in and will be doing what I can to be a part of it. There's a "camp" not far from me I'm considering participating in. It's basically a self sustained community with individual cabins, a couple of ponds and ground to keep critters on. It's new and in the works. Christian preppers Campsite. I will be writing more on this in the coming days.

Bad Night

Wow, did I ever have a bad night. I have had trouble with some of my teeth since I got whacked in the face by the rooster and it seems like stress triggers flare ups of swelling and severe pain. So, I did not do any sleeping. Morning chores were a blur. Goober cow refused to let her milk down and I just managed to coax a quart of milk from a cow that normally gives a gallon a milking. She does this same thing to me about once a week. Tonite, her bag will be full to bursting and I will get all the milk. Daisy calf went over the pitiful field fence and was running around in the pouring rain so in the new barn she went, loose in the barn isle since I still havent managed to sell enough straw to get the stalls opened up. She's actually behaving rather well and leaving the hay alone. Of course, there's the land mines she leaves for me to not step in. The extra clean up work isn't a burden tho.

My stress is not coming from the farm or the holidays but the source affects both for me which is why it's so stressful. It's something I'm not in a position to eliminate which only causes even more stress. Which, in turn, makes it harder for me to keep a happy farm. ARG, sometimes there's just no way to get out from under the rock because it just leaves you in the hard place.

The urge to do anything around here just isn't there lately. The constant mud and slop doesn't help the attitude/mood much either. I feel kind of burned out. I miss the sunshine!

I had to teach a wayward dog a hard lesson this morning. Whos dog it is, I havent a clue. I've not seen this dog before and he ripped up a few of my rabbit cages(pretty much beyond repair too), killed 9 rabbits and turned another 5 loose. I have yet to catch any of the loose rabbits and if I don't get them caught in the next day or so, the coyotes will kill them so I might as well write it off as a loss of 14. That's a good amount of meat I just lost from one ignorant dog owners neglect. In just a couple of minutes, that dog wiped out 3 months worth of work raising rabbits and around $150 in property damage. Just add it to the list of what I can't fix around here.

Yep, the bad night has turned into a bad day...

ARG! Bad Day

Today was horrible in so many ways. First, Hubster was diagnosed with Diverticulitis from the scope yesterday and can't get an appointment to be released until July 7th. Yay rah. Next, I found my last banty hen dead in the barn isle. I guess she zigged when she should have zagged and a goat stepped on her. The next thing was a flat tire on the tractor. While working on that, we discovered that our tool box was missing out of the back of the truck. Apparently, someone stole it from the truck bed at the hospital. Real nice. Guess sick people make good targets. our fault for not removing it I guess. Now I have no tools at all. Borrowed a couple tools from the neighbor, got the tire fixed up, headed to the hay field, hooked up to the cutter and broke a pick up rake bar on the 3rd pass. I have no idea what happened. I have no clue how I am going to finish the first cut now. It's what I would feed my animals thru the winter. I had to just come home because I do not have any money to buy the parts and can't cut with it like it is. So, home I went and then I got out to the garden to do some weeding. There, I found the calf, standing in the middle of the garden. Goober cow must have rubbed on the fence hard enough to knock the end post loose in the soggy ground and Daisy calf squeezed out around it, right into the garden. She stomped several tobacco plants and half a row of beans. So, I headed in the house for a cup of coffee and something to munch on. That was a lousy idea. Second bite of bread and I lost that front tooth the rooster knocked loose.

This has NOT been a good day. I need a good cry.

If It Ain't One Thing...

It's another. Nothing is ever easy here. It just never goes as planned, ever. For every aspect of good here, all my hard work, I am always punished with something bad. Anyone who thinks being self sustained, growing all your own food is easy or fun is definitely mistaken.

Between the sick milk cow(again), the temporarily psychotic herd dog( bad dog, again), the suddenly insane rabbits, the daily easter egg hunt and mother nature throwing curve balls (Sundays storm blew part of the old barn roof off), things just keep rolling up into a ball.

Just for once, I would love to have things here be just simple and go the way they are supposed to. Sometimes I wonder how our unbelievably tough and resilient ancestors managed to not go completely insane.

I almost hate to even say that my seedlings are doing well for fear of waking up tomorrow to a table full of dead plants. At least I still have seeds germinating. A few items I've planted this year have taken longer than normal to sprout (cold weather, overcast days) and some have popped right up like I always expect them to do. Some are on the table doing so well, I will need to transplant them into bigger containers before the garden soil has warmed up enough and some aren't growing as quickly as they should be.

How about a good day for tomorrow??

Waiting on some weather

The fortune teller (local meteorologist) is calling for some cold weather and possible snow showers headed for the farm. Yay rah, I'm just thrilled. I despise overcast days. The lack of sunshine really works on my pleasant disposition (or lack thereof, LOL) Lucky the goat is keeping me laughing tho, does this look comfortable to you??? He wiped out in front of the fireplace for about an hour like this. I had to check him to make sure he was still breathing, I thought he had fallen down and killed himself!

I've been kind of half, sort of, cleaning and grinding up deer meat today. I just do not feel like doing much. I'm kind of tired and just plain sick of chasing the bills so the enthusiasm is low today. Sitting here at the computer, I can see the stack of bills sitting on the desk out of the corner of my eye. Which, of course, makes me think about how much more behind they'd all be if I had to buy food too. Then I think about whacking my son for drinking all the fresh milk on me ( I'm out of fresh butter and he drank all the dang milk!) but I have to quit that right away or everybody in the house would get whacked, even the dog.

So, what did I do instead? Yep, I got to reading over at Alex Jones' site and next thing you know, I'm watching youtube videos from Gov. Jesse Venturas television program. Now I'm mad all over again so I guess I better get back to working on that deer meat...

Did I mention....

I know I didn't tell you all about this nightmare... Tuesday morning it was -8F here. Nasty cold it was. So cold, my dually would not start. I ran the battery down lighting the glow plugs so it had to be charged up. Once the battery got warmed up, several hits on the glow plug and the dually fired to life. After the chores were finished, I intended on cleaning my new milking machine so I started some water on the stove( still working on replacing the hot water tank). I noticed we had low water pressure and immediately set out to find out why. Turns out, the water line under the tub had froze and cracked. Yay rah! Okay, for those of you that don't know, I live in a double wide trailer. It was here when I bought this land. I hate it but it's what I have to live in. Typical of mobile homes, the under side of the trailer has plastic stapled to the flooring and it's what holds the insulation in. If you cut it the insulation falls out. Long story on how I know about that, has to do with a lost pet snake........ Anyway, the drain on the bath tub has been broken for a while and it had been flooding the floor so we quit using it until I could fix it. Apparently, when this double wide was manufactured, the tub was installed before the inside walls were because you can not remove the one piece tub/shower enclosure thru the doorway. needless to say, I had to pull it out to fix the spraying water so it got destroyed. No big loss, it had to be removed to fix the floor and the rotten drain connection anyway. There goes my entire afternoon. Anyway, it's removed now the water line repaired and most of the rotten particle board has been removed. Now it's ready for me to repair come spring time.

I made my first wheel of colby cheese with the jersey milk. It's still working on drying a rind so I don't know how it tastes yet. Of course, I'm anxious to cut into it! We're making Christmas cookies today. Well, I am anyway, LOL. Everybody else will be ready to eat them...

Lots to talk about-updated

Oh my, has the past few days been a roller coaster ride...... Okay, let's start at the beginning which was a week ago Sunday night...The ventilation fan for the coal mine hubby works in goes down, it's broke, needs parts, gonna be a couple days. A couple days turns into 4 and he goes back to work Thursday night for his regular Friday shift. Sunday morning we get a call, his cousin and good friend (my friend too) has passed away from a heart attack. Sunday night comes around, he goes to work and they call him aside and fire him. Something about a single piece of paper he did not even know he was supposed to fill out over his underground injury a month ago. So, he comes home jobless. Monday we spend all day passing out resumes, filing his unemployment claim and talking about how we are going to cover our mortgage ( haven't paid it this month yet, property taxes wiped us out). Tuesday morning a call comes in, we take a drive and hubby has a new job he will start Sunday night. The Tuesday evening wake and the Wednesday morning funeral were pretty hard on both of us. Meanwhile, we have 3 tiny kittens pooping all over the house, all 3 are sick, the daughter had a blowout on our purple truck as well. No spare of course and the tread peeled off and ripped part of the fender well off the truck too. At least she made it to work, going the last half block on the flat. The goats keep escaping and some do-gooder driving by had the consideration to call the state police and complain my goats were too close to the road for them. needless to say, the police officer was very polite and asked if we'd try to keep them from grazing by the end of the drive and left right away. Funny thing is, he didn't have anything to say about the 30 year old sway backed horse that's been wandering all over the farm for the past 4 months.

So, it's been a pretty wild and stressful few days. The dishes need done, the floors need mopped, the laundry needs washed and I need some time to reflex and cry over the loss of my friend.

Meanwhile, life continues to go by............

Hmmmm-small rant

ARG! If I read one more BS news story about how our country is bouncing back from recession, I'm going to just vomit all over the computer! Well, maybe not, the keyboard is already hanging on by a thread but you know what I mean. I see more and more people paying for their goods with the welfare program link card and the people using my local church food pantry have doubled. The same paycheck that used to allow us to pay our bills and save a little bit each week for farm equipment and things we would like to have to improve our self sustaining situation no longer covers even our simple bills. Things such as mortgage(we still owe on our farm), the electric bill which should be lower without a stove and a hot water tank but it instead keeps going up, the property taxes on the farm that used to be worth 4 times what it is now(funny, the tax bill hasn't decreased) and our biggest expense - fuel to get to work. It's very depressing to go week to week and have nothing left. What's even more depressing is thinking about how much we would NOT have to buy food. Thank God I grow so much here. Now, I know everyone around me has all these same bills. So, how is it they can go to McDonalds a couple times a week, buy new vehicles, clothes and all the latest hot cell phones? Is everyone around me living on credit cards?

How can this country come up out of recession and the job market come back when the jobs are continually outsourced to other countries? What happened to our industrial base? It's gone, that's what happened to it. Most of what we consume now is produced and imported from another country. This is not sustainable and this very thing has brought several great empires thru history to their knees.

What do we do about this? On a large scale, there isn't anything we can do about it. On an individual basis we can stop buying imported goods and start doing more for ourselves. Grow food, raise our own meat, use wind, solar or water to power our homes, what ever we can use. Our government is NOT going to fix this, they can't even see the forest for the trees. They are too busy blaming everyone else around them for what is wrong here when they should be blaming themselves. Our government keeps thinking they can cure all our problems by throwing money at them. What happens when there's no more money(worthless paper) to throw? It is obvious that we have not learned from history so we are certainly doomed to repeat it.

I don't like being the working poor but it seems I don't have much choice in the matter anymore. So, I will continue to do the best I can with what I have and expand my garden spot in the spring. Perhaps I can trade some of what I grow to help ease the tightening noose I feel around my neck. At least I'll be eating well!

Whew, I feel a little better now. What do you think about that killer kitten? hardly big enough to fit in the palm of my hand but she sure whipped that wood shrew!

Radish Harvest and another bad day

Today I pulled a couple of radish from my ammo box planter on the porch. This is my second harvest out of the box and I will probably plant at least one more round. Soon I will be able to add cucumbers, green peppers and tomatoes to the radish.

Well, on the way home from work this morning, hubby got hit by a rock that came off the tires of a passing coal truck. Now we have a broken windshield. If it pours when it rains, we're having a hurricane here!

We Just Can Not Win

April Fools, yep, that's it. sometimes it really sucks being a Murphy. We lost a u joint on the jeep this morning. 10 miles from home and no tools. there goes a days worth of fuel to get it home and another days worth of fuel getting parts. We simply can not win.

It was at least a pleasant day with a dry wind blowing all day. Just 44% humidity today, I've watered the seedlings twice now.

I forgot about sharing this one... I've got chives up! I had run out of window space so I filled a gallon ice cream container up with soil and sprinkled some chives seed in it. I'd been misting the soil every day and now I have little green shoots showing. So, since that worked out so well, I have another container right next to it with parsley, one with oregano and another with thyme. Hopefully those will sprout right up too. While I was handing hubby tools, I noticed I have some garlic coming up in the front garden spot. That's kind of funny tho, I thought I pulled them all last fall! Guess I missed a couple....

So, now what?

Muddy Monday

First thing this morning there were horses standing in the barn lot. We're about to lose the old barn. It has shifted over to the west and is leaning enough that I spent a couple hours moving hay and straw out of it. I blocked off the hole created in the corner from the new lean so the horses will stay put. I still have more straw to go but my stiff back won't let me get it right now. Maybe after a bit of a break I can get back to it.

Here's the new Momma and her pygmy baby, at least the baby's butt anyway. A little pushing and shoving when the 2 nanny's got together, I think they're pals now and getting along.

Should have baby bunnies in about a week! I'm looking forward to that, I love bunnies.

All the seedlings are looking good and my round of sweet pepper seeds are sprouting, finally. I'm going to get another grow shelf built for the kitchen windows and get some beans started sometime this week.

Total Chaos-graphic photo

Well, this whole day ended up something I hadn't planned on. Before I even had my first cup of coffee it was already getting to be a dandy day.
One of the cows we've been keeping an eye on found it's way into the pond and had gotten stuck in the mud sometime overnight. It took half the day to get him pulled out but we finally got him. The poor little feller just wasn't doing so good. We gave him a few more hours with no signs of improvement and put him down. So, now we have cow on the menu. So much for getting Copper the sheep butchered this weekend!

So, by the time we got him put down, loaded up and home, it's almost dark. Then, get him jockeyed around and hung up and I sent my son in the house to retrieve my camera. He got tangled up in our tomcat, fell down and broke the camera wide open. I sent him back in to mess with it, thinking it was pretty much destroyed and by the time we got the little feller gutted, in the dark by the way, here he comes with a working camera. Now the cow is hanging to cool overnight and we'll work more on him tomorrow.

What a day! I still managed to get all cleaned up and cook some fried chicken, stuffing with mashed potatoes, gravy and corn for supper. Thankfully I already had some bread. whew, I need a nap!

Everythings Foggy

I'ts really foggy today. The air is warmer than the ground with our mini heat wave. Never fear, it's supposed to snow in a couple days. Todays weather does a good job to reflect the mood in our house as we're still waiting on the call to go to work. We haven't heard from any of the guys we know working out there so we haven't a clue what's going on or how much longer we have to wait now. Kind of a let down from this past weekend when everybody was calling all excited. Wish we at least knew what was going on.

Thought you all would like to see what's going on around the farm.

Everything here is gloomy looking with the mud and grey of winter. The driveway is a swamp along with the yard and barn lot. Everywhere you walk, you squish. I hate this time fo year. It's been kind of tough for me to resist the urge to get seeds started, LOL, I know, I keep saying that, but it really is hard. Seed starting is like a new beginning for me every spring and I am so very ready for a new beginning.

As you can see, I haven't butchered Copper the sheep yet. He's doomed tho, we're planning to butcher him in the next couple of days. I will shear him after I hang him up and save the wool to use learning how to spin fibers.

Old Johnyboy looks pretty comfy laying there, doesn't he? Molly is looking pretty good as well, I'm hoping the kid she's growing will be big and healthy.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Praise the Lord, looks like we'll have something in the next few days! Hubby talked to the contractor guy who thinks he can place him somewhere temporary by next week and a guy from the mine hubby wants to go to just called the house and said the whole mine is buzzing about him coming to work there very soon. Whew, I knew the Lord was listening! I've been thinking all morning on how I was going to get all it all done if I had to find work away from the farm.

So, here's what I've been up to while all the excitement was going on around here with hubby. I got the Colby cheese going and it's in the press right now. While I was working on the cheese, i whipped up some biscuits for sandwiches during the day. I've got some pan fried pork sausage left over from breakfast and my son likes to munch on it thru the day. So, he can have a snack while he's doing his schoolwork.

Now, what kind of trouble can I get into for tomorrow????

Lack of...Something

Like most the country, it's been down right cold here. The picture is kind of pathetic but I was trying to show how little snow we got here. Not even enough to cover the field stubble. It flurried constantly for 3 days with no accumulations but the first night. The overcast and bitter cold days are pretty depressing. Gee, just what I need, right? Today, it's sunny and the reflection off the pitiful amount of snow we have is blinding. It's a glorious 7 degrees. Even with me going out and checking for eggs every 2 hours, I'm still finding frozen ones. the chickens have almost quit laying completely and i don't blame them. Way too cold! I've also kept them caught up in the barn where they can burrow in the hay if they choose to so they aren't getting their normal dose of sunlight. It's light in there during the day(skylights) but just not the same as being out in the sunlight. I can't have them with frozen feet. Just 2 more days of below freezing temps and then we're right back up to the 40s. That's a relief for me, it's awful cold over in the storage house right now. Had to let the power company shut the electric off so no heater anymore. The monthly customer charge was more than the power we used every month but we just don't have the money. Thankfully there's no water lines to freeze or I'd be in sorry shape.

It's hard to think about spring and starting seeds when it's so cold out but the time to get going is really just a few weeks away. I have resisted the urge to spread all my seed bags out on the kitchen table. If I get them out, I'll want to start some and I know it will be an exercise in futility with it being so cold and drafty in here. I'm struggling with the self control. Getting the seeds started is like a fresh start for me. Planting is always so full of hope and expectation, dreams of the harvest to come.

I found a good source of quality milk to start making cheese again. Of course, it's going to cost me so I'll have to wait for the hubby to become employed. It's looking like sometime this coming week. I've heard that so many times, I'm not making plans just yet. I'll have to pay the mortgage first thing since we're so close to defaulting before I go buy any milk to make cheese. I'm also trying to figure out what's left to go to the resale shop for fuel money. I'm about out of things to sell. To top it all off, I've developed a bad tooth over the past few days. I would imagine it's due to stress. the tooth has pushed up almost half way out, it's very loose and is preventing me from eating even with topical pain reliever. It'r right in front on the bottom and it's out far enough, it's pushing on the roof of my mouth. In a couple of days if it keeps going like it has, i should be able to pull it myself. Boy is that going to hurt. I don't have much choice tho, sooner or later, I'm going to have to eat. It's hard cooking and baking every day and not being able to eat the results. Well, at least the family has plenty to eat!

I think about this whole very bad year as a growing experience. I think about our acestors who lived like this all the time, struggling to pay their debts to the bank, desperately trying to keep enough food on the table to feed their families, all the hard work to keep their livestock alive thru the winter. I know by the grace of God, we'll make it thru this. So, if you have a spare moment, say a little prayer for us please.

Sunny Sunday- good day or bad?

Well last nights milking went south quick. 2 of the ladies refused to come up so I ended up chasing them for an hour in the dark thru some nasty tore up pasture. I never did get them up, I'm sure they were nice and swelled this morning. Boy was I glad to get home last night!

Today, hubby has spent all morning working on the haybine. It's ugly. He finally managed to get the head of the sickle out, bolt is bent, bearing is destroyed... yay rah.

I spent 45 minutes this morning fighting with the computer. I got into yahoo mail and the computer locked up. Wouldn't even restart. So, I had to walk away from it for a while.

I planted something new this season, some mini bell pepper seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. The camera just can't capture the color of these tiny peppers. They about glow they are so brightly colored. They taste just like normal bell peppers but they are the size of a quarter. That is the harvest from just one plant. I halved them and put them in the dehydrator. Will be nice to cook with this winter.

I've got more cheese in the press, it's a beautiful 70 degrees here, thought I'd take advantage of that. I've got some listed on the sidebar I will ship for donations again. I could really use the help here and I know you all will love the cheese. Like last time, I will ship it in vac seal bags Priority Mail. If you want some cheese but not via paypal, email me at mmpaints@yahoo.com and I will give you an address to send a check to.

Today is going to be spent hauling the daughter around looking for supplies for her graphic arts class. I love driving 150 miles to find 2 or 3 things. Of course, Walmart does not have a single thing on the list. Not that I enjoy being subjected to Walmart but they've wiped out every other shopping venue for miles. So, I must travel 75 miles one way to try to find this stuff. Another yay rah. Guess I'm gonna be a couple hundred dollars overdrawn again this pay period.

Oh, I forgot..... since I am officially relieved of milking duty(neighbors came home late last night) I slept in til 9 this morning! Now for a real yay rah! LOL

Off to the 3 hour drive.....

More rainy days- self sustained living

It's raining here on the hay field I've been sweating in for the last 3 days. It belongs to a neighbor of mine who asked for help and in turn for helping, I got IMO taken advantage of. So, my back is pretty sore and I'm kind of cranky.

I've been thinking about all the bills that haven't gotten paid this month and it's bothering me quite a bit. I have right now, over $1000.00 in bills that need paid and not a dime to my name. Zip, zero, nadda. We've been more than 30 days waiting on workmans comp. Isn't that just crazy? Every day when the mail comes and there's no check, WC gets called and they tell us they mailed it, blah blah blah. Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was when you end up like this with absolutely no money, you could very well find yourself with nothing to eat. Now, if you've been tending your garden like you're supposed to and tending that small flock of chickens, you've got food. Throw in a little flour, salt, sugar, yeast and water and you have bread to go with your eggs and veges. If you're really lucky and have access to an animal that gives milk, you are really eating well.

Having a small spot all your own that you make self sustaining is hard work but when times like what's happening to us come your way, you've got one major important part of your life covered. You can eat. You can also eat every meal and not skimp because you don't have.

Back in the field again

Once again, the farm takes priority over the stupidity of my government. With thoughts of the cap and trade still burning in my mind, I met up with my farming partner for hay baling. 98 degrees in the shade with 68% humidity, what an awful day. We borrowed a round baler since all we have is square balers and proceeded to have 2 hours worth of trouble with it. The baler sat out uncovered all winter and of course, everything was rusted up on it. String feed problems and pick-up rake problems confounded us for a while. A little bit of cursing, a little bit of adjustment and a whole lot of grease and we ended up with 18 bales from the one field and 10 in the next field before we had the next major disaster with the baler. A belt flipped on it and dusk hit us before we got it straightened back out. Done for the day then. Haven't been out to the field yet today so I don't have a final count.

I plan on attending a local Tea Party scheduled in my area on Independence Day. I think it's a worthwhile endeavor and I hope everyone across the country attends one too.

I am disappointed in my back garden. I have suffered a catastrophic loss back there. My second planting of corn looks great but the first planting is a total loss with ears less than half the normal size and the third planting not come up at all. Also the 2 rows of kidney beans, 80' long has 19 plants above ground. Those plants will make just about enough to replant next years crop. Thankfully the second planting is looking good and is progressing like normal. At least I'll have enough corn for winter. In the 15 years I've been doing this, I have never, ever had a single year with results this bad! Thankfully my white beans, peas, tomatoes, and peppers are all doing well. I will be working out how to recover from this quickly in alternative food crops that can still be planted and harvested this year to make up for the loss. Thankfully, last years harvest was much better than this year and we may be able to change a few eating habits and make it thru the winter just fine without having to buy commercial food. Ew, that's a horrible thought, having to buy commercially produced food! I need to put some feelers out and see what I can trade for.

I let a neighbor combine the wheat ring for me as he was headed from one field to the next and he pumped me a few sacks full. Saved me several hours in the scorching heat. So I'll be doing the wheat thing for the blog with last years wheat I'm still yet to process. When the heat breaks, I'll start on it. Never fear tho, the only thing missing will be the actual stripping of the wheat from the field.

Well, I'm needing to get the bread baked...