Warm Weather

It's pretty decent outside.  It's been much warmer, a ton of rain, a little flooding and everything is a muddy mess.  I finally got some seed started.  Just a dozen cherry tomatoes.  The big toms will get started tomorrow while I'm off work.  I'll probably make 3 or 4 batches of soap with all the goats milk I have in the fridge.

Baby goat is currently working on gifting me with a kid and Goober cow is still in her holding pattern.  Got a call last night while I was at work, Daisy cow had her calf.  I sold her a couple weeks ago to pay the past due on the LP bill.  I just owed way too much money and it's been hanging over me for more than a year.  I was never going to get it paid off with $30 a paycheck.  The late fee was more than that!  So, I did what I had to do and sold one of my herd.  Actually, sold 3 of my herd!  Daisy, her unborn calf and the bull.  Yep, I owed the LP company that much money!  Anyway, Daisy had a heifer calf.  No problems, both Momma and the calf are good last time I heard.  Hope to see some pictures soon.

I've finished 5 throw blankets so far this year, all 3x5 (mostly 40x65) and I've got a few bird houses in the works.  Extra things to offer on the market table along with the soap and the fruits and veges.  I also got a promotion at work and a small raise. 

On the downside- my new farm tenant is turning out to be a fruit loop.  Lots of big promises, no follow thru.  Story of my life tho, I always seem to find the winners.

Eh, time to head for the off farm job!

Another One Finished and WOOOOHOOOO!

Yep, another one finished.  Just got it done.  This pattern is called BonBon and it reminds me of gumballs in one of those old fashioned candy machines I remember from my youth.  It was actually kind of hard to finish considering all the excitement around here the last 2 days.  Of course, just in time for the weather to get nasty,  Little Miss Tinkerbell kidded for the first time.  She had twins!  It was a little touch and go there for a bit since she wasn't too sure what to do with them.  Nut, instinct did take over and she tended them like an old nanny would.  Now, the suckling thing was a whole story on it's own!  Of course, being a new Mom, she couldn't figure out what they were doing and every time they'd almost get a nipple, she'd turn in a circle around them.  So, Gramma to the rescue, a little kid colostrum to give them some strength and by the end of the day, they were sucking and she was okay with it.  Today, they're still alive, sucking and doing what all baby goats do, sleeping!  Pictures soon!

February Already

Whew, January flew by pretty quick.  There's just 3 days left on the blanket auction and the odds are most certainly still good with just 2 ladies entered in the raffle.  As always, $10 an entry with 3 entries for $20 via the paypal button.  This will be the last one of the season so get your entry in quick!

I'm chomping the bit pretty hard, excited to get seed started.  My patience is holding tho and I have resisted the urge to just start hundreds of plants immediately.  LOL, Scifi would be laughing at me now, teasing me about my lack of self control.  Of course, I would retaliate quick with pictures of all my baby bunnies!  Hehehehehe  She'd give me that rolled eyes, sarcastic reply thing and tell me to shaddup, LOL

The house chickens need to go outside!  Oh, they're sneaky and messy.  Thankfully, they stay right there near the food and water without travelling too far out onto the wood floor.  Never thought chickens were very smart but these seem to have trained easily.  I'm excited about getting them out and into the new coop as soon as the weather breaks.  Shouldn't be too much longer.  My new farm partner is pretty happy that they're barred rock chickens, he seems to favor those over other common farm chicken breeds.  I hate to tell him about all the Austrlorps I plan on getting in March, LOL  I'll just wait until he says "what are these?" and I just laugh about it.  Silly man, Austis are better layers, are better Mammas and make a better meal!  Hehehehehe

The farm is a muddy mess.  It's always like this right before spring tho.  The freeze/thaw and freeze again thing always turns the walkways and barnlot into a sloppy mess.  Soon it will warm up, dry up and I can get the gardens turned.  Always feels like a renewal when spring comes.  I guess, in a way, it really is a renewal.

Lil Sister seems to be getting a bit better every day now.  She's not quite up to snuff yet but past the danger zone.  Fluffy kidded while I was at work and her baby was dead when I found it.  Not sure what happened since I wasn't there.  So, 0 for 2 this year.  The spotted Nubian billy didn't put any spots on either of the 2 lost kids and he's already gone back to the man I got him from so I'm hoping Delta has a billy for me this time around.  She's not appearing to be close to kidding so I won't know what's what for a bit longer.  Oh, side note on Fluffy, her mastitis came back and I'm working on clearing that up now.  She's much easier to milk this time around than she was last spring.  Soon as she figured out I was relieving the pressure for her, she suddenly became okay with the whole "let's milk ya" thing.  She's even easy to medicate this time around.  Hmmm, maybe she just "grew up".

So, now I've got one milking.  Not quite as good as Sis but decent enough.  Goats milk soap making will be on the agenda very soon!

Now I'm off to go get something constructive done on my only day off this week.......

Another week in the books

BRRRRR, it's cold, still. Winter comes no matter what and I just deal with it when it gets here. So far this go-round, I'd been kind of spoiled since it's been cold but not the skin biting, freeze the stock tanks solid twice a day kind of cold like it is right now. The last 6 days have been miserable with a few more still to come before the warm up to mid 30sF. Of course, I'm on pins and needles, waiting for the house water lines to freeze and burst, again. So far, so good tho since the most vulnerable ones never got replaced for lack of insulation. Just wasn't in the budget last year. Water lines are cheap enough but those rolls of insulation, just never managed to get those covered. Eh, it's all good, I'm still alive. Just one of those adapt and overcome things.

Just one day left on the Macaw blanket raffle!  Just 3 people in the raffle so the odds are still excellent!

Speaking of still alive, baby lionhead bunnies were born on the 8^th. Another one that's so far so good. First time Momma and they're still alive. So far anyway.  I can hardly wait to play with them!

Oh, LOL, have a giggle with me...... last Thursday early afternoon, had to run over to a company store in another town that I occasionally work at. I needed to drop a couple things off there. After my visit, I stopped at the local McDonald's for a coffee and an internet connection. While I was sitting there, an older man just sat down at my table and introduced himself. Nice enough fellow until he insisted on “hitting” on me. Yep, I got propositioned! Well, I got instantly creeped out but as is my nature, stayed polite thru it and he hands me this business card with his name and number on it. Under his name it says “hen house proprietor”. WTH does that mean? Way too creepy for me! Yah, I'm gonna call ya, hold your breath! ROFL Not.. The world is full of strangely bizarre people.

Another batch of the pumpkin scrub soap is in the soap mold. I'm really liking it. It's got a pleasant smell to it without any added oils and it leaves my skin feeling soft and clean. A good addition to the line up I think. Next I will make a coffee soap. Supposed to be great for removing odors such as onion, garlic and gasoline. I'm going to make some and find out.

No baby goats yet. Probably not a bad thing since the weather is so nasty right now. Besides, I've got other things to worry about at the moment. Yep, the certified letter just came with the overdue tax bill in it. I knew it was coming, I couldn't pay it when it was due and I can't pay it now. Just not enough paycheck.

ARG, I'm currently suffering from another tooth problem. This time it's the other side, last molar on the top. It just fell apart. Now, it almost feels like another tooth is trying to push up into that spot. It's swelled and painful. Obviously some infection is in there too as the lymph node under my jaw is sore. Yah rah. Well, at least I got to sleep a couple nights.

I've got 3 new couch throws going all at once. A camo, a bublegum and a monet. 3 colors of yarn I had sitting here with nothing to do, LOL Left overs from the Christmas order I stitched up. I am really liking the bubblegum one, it reminds me of the colors in the old penny gumball machines. Should have at least one of them done early next week. Oh, I found more of that grape fizz colored yarn! I can't afford to buy it yet but I'm going to get some as soon as I can. I really favor that color scheme and was deeply disappointed on not finding any of it after the first blanket.

I've been working it thru my head, trying to figure out how to get the lean-to built. The design and construction isn't my problem. The supplies are. Same old tune, plenty of time, not enough green stuff. Some things you just can't scrap and salvage. I can't get going with the expansion of the rabbits or quail until I get that done and it depresses me. I have a cool design for quail runs that will make it easy to tend them and grow them. If I change the dimensions a little, it will most likely work for my smaller rabbits as well. Now all I have to do is protect them from the weather.

ARG, LOL, the 2 house hens are really a hen and a roo. Hahahaha, guess I wasn't paying attention very well. As I was feeding this morning, the roo hopped up in my hand. As I petted him, I realized he wasn't a lady chicken! Hahahahahaha duh, glad I'm so observant! Eh, he's still pet quality with his temperament and gentle behavior. I've also concluded that it wasn't the barred rock roo that fertilized his egg. His Daddy was that crazy cross bred roo that half looks like a rhode island red. Beautiful barred rock feathering all over his body and green tail feathers coming in, LOL Poor chicken.

Eh, must be the cold and dreary that's making me find amusement is such silly things. The rut of winter can easily get a body down if other distractions aren't found. I guess it's just my way of entertaining myself until it's time to dig, till and plant!

Happy New Year!

Yep, it's that time again.  The end of the year and the start of another.  I spent it working the off farm job and then soap making until 2am, LOL.  No sense in wasting time, eh?  Since I'm not a drinker, I didn't bother even thinking about going out and being silly, all my friends stay home too and didn't plan any type of celebration so quiet time was the order of the night.

I have soap curing on every flat surface available in the house, LOL

Monday, I finished a Macaw couch throw.  This one is 38"x61"  (3'x5') and it turned out pretty nice.  I like the colors.

This one I will raffle off here on the blog as well.  Same as always, $10 an entry or $20 for 3 chances.
We'll keep this one open until the 15th.  This blanket is longer than what I normally crochet, I think I like this size better as it works great for laying on the couch instead of just a lap throw for the lazyboy   ;-)

The next one I'll do will be another camo pattern.  

So, it's 2015 now and I'm already thinking about seed starting!  Oh yah, I know, it's still several weeks away but I can't help but dream of it anyway.  The darn garden porn is already showing up in the mailbox!  Gonna be hard to wait on the seed starting this time around, the weather has been mild and I am itching for spring!

Hmmmm, we'll just have to see how long I make it before planting something, hehehehehehe........

December Rains

Ick, it's raining again.  Mudhole on the farm!  Lost another batch of rabbits kits last night.  The weather behaving like a yo-yo is hard on the does and newborn kits.  So, I have managed to not get any live bunny kits at all.  None that lived more than a week anyway.  "Sigh"  depressing.

So far, since August, I've manged to get a couple blankets finished.  I am currently working on an order for 4 youth blankets.  I have 2 done and the third half done with one more to be finished before the 15th.  I'm sweating bullets a bit, it's going to be a close finish!  Each one takes 53 hours from start to finish.

So now, there is 5 days left in the blanket raffle.  So far, there's 5 people in the Camo blanket raffle and just 2 in the rainbow blanket raffle.  Still good odds so get your entry in quick!

Not much going on around the farm lately.  I am currently working on a new soap recipe.  One with coconut oil in it.  The hope is to make the soap more bubbly, the way most people expect soap to be.  I know, I'm veering from the old fashioned style to cater to the whims of the commercial products mindset but hey, who knows, it might make a good soap!  It's been in the mold for 2 days now, was too soft to remove yesterday.  I'm going to try to get it out tonite after work.  I've got my fingers crossed!

Almost Fall

So, here we are, another summer done gone by and what have I managed to accomplish? Well hmmm, tangible growth, something that can be seen or felt physically, not too much. The fences are still tore up, the pos trailer I live in is patched somewhat but still a dump, the garden is a mess and the chicken/rabbit hut still isn't finished.

So what is it I have managed to do this whole year? I'm still here. I finally broke even in August. I've managed to feed myself, even if it hasn't been optimal, I havent starved. The small herd of goats I have left are healthy, both the cows are bred and I managed to keep half the chickens alive. Rabbits did well for me this summer and I didn't lose any. So, now I can keep moving forward into the winter and dream of what I might be able to get done next year.

People ask me all the time why I keep going, why I do what I do even when it's difficult or what they consider impossible. This is what I tell them- As you get older, you find that life begins to wear you down. Everything that happens around you and to you- it all rolls up to be against you to steal away your energy, erode your dreams, to make you question things you wouldn't have given a second thought to when you were young and full of hope and dreams. Then, you have a choice. You can either give in and quit or you can fight it and keep going. You do it no matter what because if you quit, you're defeated and life doesn't have any real purpose left to it. There is no success in just existing with no purpose. Some kind of answer, eh?  Most of the time I get the deer in the headlight look in response.  I just laugh.  Seriously, what else did they expect me to say?

So, I've got a few crochet throws finished and ready to go.  In a few weeks, I will put one up for auction on the blog.

  a youth size and an infant size Macaw throw- a 24x28($20) and a 30x42($30) with shipping.

 a grape fizz throw, 38x50 ($42) with shipping

 pink camo throw, 40x56 ($48) with shipping

 a Monet throw, 63x63 ($75) with shipping

 I'm also working on a couple hoodie scarves and some infant, youth and adult hats.

The ragweed is in full bloom around the place and the seasonal allergies are hard to handle.  The weed pulling and fall clean up is in full swing around here as is the garden work for the fall crops.

In between, there's some electrical work to be done in the pos trailer.  I've lost 3 outlets so far.  It just keeps piling up on me (sigh).  Hate pouring good money in a dump that should be burned down and hauled off.  Oh well........