Another Year Done and Gone

I've been at an impasse all year. Nothing much to write about, The daily struggle just to survive here has kept my mind flooded with everything but writing. With all my time consumed with the tiny paycheck that doesn't cover the bills here let alone feed me, not much left for upbeat or positive writing. So, I've just kept quiet. Who wants to go read a blog that's always depressing, eh? LOL

It's not all depressing tho. I'm still here. Other than the electric bill, which is always behind, at least I'm floating about even from month to month. The pitiful job has kept just enough fuel in the tank to keep getting to work and cover the mortgage. Now if I could just get the darn coffee plants to stay alive! Over sensitive, pain in the ass plants those are! Why they are so difficult now, I'll never figure it out. I've grown them before, had a beautiful stand of producing coffee plants, got coffee harvested and now, I can't keep a plant alive for longer than 6 months. Well that won't do me any good! Takes 3 years to get coffee beans! ARG. It's got to be this horrible leaky window pile of junk I reside in. Just something I must deal with since there's nothing I can do about it at this point.

Actually, all things considered, I'm kind of a little proud of myself. $1035 in bills a month just to live here with $981 income, I'm still here. Not one farmers market and no advertising, I still managed to keep up more or less. I am of course, $380 behind now on the electric, LOL. I so wish I could have solar, at least some solar. I could use a couple pairs of britches that don't have holes in them too, LOL. At least I still have decent shoes. Even tho my garden wasn't near as diverse as I like, I still managed to grow and harvest/can up a decent amount of food to eat. Not near as nutritionally balanced as I'd like but still a good result for the effort.

So, here I am, once again, living proof that a person can produce enough food for themselves to survive. Heck, I don't have much choice since there obviously isn't any money for groceries, LOL Adapt and overcome. No whining, just dealing with it. Yes, I miss some things. Yes, I wish I had a few things I don't have. Can I do anything about it? Not right now so I just move on.

So 2014 is wrapping up. I consider it a success for the simple fact that I'm still here. Still have the farm and still plugging away. Big thanks in part to my own wonderful family. Without whom I would be homeless and walking! Not anywhere near what I'd like to have accomplished but still, I haven't gone backwards. Well, maybe a little backwards in the chicken department, stupid dog. Chick hatching didn't go as well as I wanted but there's plenty of time to keep trying. Count rabbits as dismal success too but they are always hit and miss here. Feeding me is one thing but I'd like them to at least do well enough to pay for the darn feed every month instead of the hit and miss. The kitchen did okay for me when I had time to actually work in it. I catered 2 anniversary parties this year and created some specialties for a few Thanksgiving parties. I have one order of pastries to finish for a Christmas party and the kitchen will be quiet until around Easter. Kind of wish I could afford to do more in there, maybe next year. Did not advertise at all because of time constraints, hard to dedicate myself to what I love when I have to go to a job I dislike to cover the bills. Never pass on the bird in the hand for a dream of success. I know it can do well but the time it would take to get it up to where it pays all the bills would just be too long of a stretch and with no cushion of savings, I can't risk it. So, the decision to keep it as a specialty thing just has to stand for now. It was worth the effort, it's not going anywhere and it has contributed positively.

Of course, the goats are always a highlight for the farm. Joyous creatures they are, full of personality and my own personal entertainment. Hard to be sad or depressed with goats running around. They are sensitive to mood and do everything they can to cheer you up at any given moment. Affectionate, loving creatures. Sometimes I wonder why it took me so long to find my way to goats. Truly diverse creatures, capable of getting themselves stuck in all kinds of situations and just as gifted at getting themselves out of the craziest places. I'm still trying to figure out how they got on the barn roof. Of course I could do without the tapdance on my truck hood! Nothing like getting in your truck to head to work and having to wiper goat poop off the windshield, LOL I am really looking forward to the herd of kids that are coming soon after the New Years. Delta always gifts me with a pair within the first couple of days of the new year, if not right on New Years day! Then, Fluffy should kid. Her hardships last year may come around to bite us but I am ready. The playpen is ready to go and the colostrum is waiting. Then, there's 2 first timers I will probably have to raise kids for and then, bringing up the rear of the kid pack will be Lil Sister. She is big as a house right now. I'd like to be sitting at 8 nannys with at least 3 being good and easy milkers. That's a few years off still.

The cows. Hmmm. A flopping subject in my mind. The cows are great, love the cows but I need a ton of fencing to keep going with the cows. I may get 2 calves, I'm not really sure. Goober is no doubt pregnant. Daisy is hard to tell. That cow is spoiled and obnoxious. Maybe after a calf or 2 she'll settle down. If she makes it that long here. Daisy is my fence ripper. Impossible to keep penned, she destroys fence on purpose. Terrible pain in my ass. She's smart and incredibly hard headed. I'd like to fry her butt with a mean electric fence charger but it's just not in the budget. She does tie out well so summer time isn't so bad. But, ya just can't leave her tied out during the nasty winter weather. Too much ice, too much mud and no shelter. I have contemplated selling her and have tried a couple of times but gave up when every prospective buyer tries to bicker me down to giving her away. Nope, not that stupid nor that desperate. So, when the mood strikes me, I'll try again. That is, when I feel like being bothered and insulted, LOL The bull, again a big Hmmmmm. I guess his stay depends on how hard the calving is and what the calf or calves look like. A bull is a waste of time and feed here actually. A necessity if I want milk and calves tho since there isn't very many options to breed outside the farm. The milk is more important to me than the calf is when I look at the big picture. Yes, a calf could be a meat source but is time prohibitive. Takes a long time to grow a cow! I can't afford to buy a bull calf and wait 2 years for it to mature enough to breed or be big enough to butcher. Eh, now you see why it's a flopping subject, LOL

So, the plans for the future are being mulled along with all the other things I'm already doing every day. It's a never ending process for me. As this year winds down and a new year getting ready to start for the farm, lots to think about. Tons of little plans and ideas for improvement all depend on what I can afford and what I can possibly come up with. Lord help me if I ever figure out how to make money with my thoughts! LOL I'd be an unstoppable steam roller!

So, until then, Merry Christmas! Enjoy your holiday time with family and friends and don't forget the reason for the season!

Busy Day

 How's that redneck saying go?  You know you're a redneck of you've got 15 goats under the porch?  Yep, that's the new hang out.  It's been 98F here the last couple of days and the cool, damp soil under the porch is the "spot".

 Here's Furrball, headed out the front door for the daily adventure.  This one is the only kitten to survive the mystery virus.  He's still a little bit snotty but much better than he's been and actually gaining weight now.

I need to set up the tomato cage today.  The one row is getting pretty darn big in the wood chip mulch section.  I also need to pull the weeds in the next couple of rows, lay down cardboard and get wood chips laid down.  The Hopi tobacco is already flowering and didn't get but 18" tall.  This is the first time I've grown it so I don't know if it's the soil, the temperature (dang hot quick this year) or something else i did to make it bolt like a cauliflower in mid summer.

All week I've been piddling around the farm pouring sweat all week, half heartedly cleaning up stuff the goats have made messes of.  The barns (hay and straw bales they broke and scattered) the firewood piles (they climb on and knock all over) and set up a nice spot in the shade near the horse paddock for the preppers meet up this weekend.

I was pretty nervous about hosting it but it ended up being a pretty relaxing day. 14 people rsvp'd for it but only 8 showed up. Funny how the city folks didn't show. Everybody that did attend is already working in some way to grow or raise food.

It was 98F but a nice breeze blew all day and I had the meeting/relaxing/BBQ area set up in a shaded area just off the horse paddock. The puppies behaved and even Sissy goat was well behaved!

I dug around in the compost pile but nobody wanted to dig in it with me, LOL. I showed different stages of decomposition, we discussed whats good to put in the pile and alternatives for getting things such as meat scraps etc into the compost without ruining the natural flora.

We toured the small gardens here on the farm and discussed weeds, mulching, moisture retention. We never did get across to the big garden tho. it's okay, it was really hot and sweaty in the sun anyway.

We played with the grain grinder and discussed wheats, gluten, fiber content, best ways to mix different kinds of wheat for the beast bread results, how to actually get the best flour from the grinder, different grain mill options and models.

We looked at my canners, the ball blue book and discussed some canning techniques.

We had a good discussion on chickens. Not hard to do with so many running around the farm, LOL

We petted on the cow and discussed milking, milk handling and what to do with all the milk.

We messed with the rabbits a bit and I tried to actually go ahead and butcher one but nobody wanted to do it. Guess they saw my whack and peel video, LOL

My friend/neighbor from up the road and fellow prepper/farmer (http://thunder5ranch.com) brought out a half hog he butchered for the meetup and cooked it on the spot. A couple early arrivals also got to join me for late breakfast, I cooked steak on the grill with a wood fire. You just cant describe the taste difference to someone who has never eaten a real piece of meat cooked with a little skill over an open fire. We cooked taters and corn on an open fire pit I threw together (all old cinder blocks we had laying around) and had a discussion about why cinder block explodes in fire and why these didn't crack etc.


Great discussion over the meal about life, economic collapse, inflation, recession, the middle east, our country in general.

Next one I do, I'll spend more time cleaning up the farm, LOL Mower broke down on me and other things I had to do this past week and I just didnt get to everything I wanted to clean up but hey, it's life, its a farm.

Sunday update middle of June

It's sunny and cool right now but I know it will get humid quickly. Yesterday was filled with garden work and light rain showers. Not even enough to do more than wet the surface dirt, it's still dry underneath. Looks like I'll be using more rain water cache. Lucky goat found a hole under the corral gates and wiped out the sweet corn. Looks like I will be replanting corn today (for the 3rd time now). At least he showed me the hole and I can find something to cut him off with. At least he didn't get in on any of my cornmeal corn. It is looking pretty good. I should get better ears than what I got last year, crammed in the car tires, LOL. Ah, I shouldn't complain, if I would have been better at watering those corns in the tires, they would have produced better. The top picture is peanut sprouts. I'm trying them beyond just an experiment this year, out in the big garden. I look forward to how they are going to do.

Woohoo! Well, it is a good thing kind of, I got impatient (big surprise, I know) and dug up a coffee bean to check it out. It had a root sprout on it! I should have a new round of coffee plants in the next week or so! I will be sure to post pictures as they sprout above the dirt.

Hubster had 4 big spasms yesterday and just one so far this morning. If this stays the same, we'll be headed back to the docs office tomorrow. A little progress I guess, he's not vomiting up blood anymore, at least not yesterday anyway.

Good news now... we have new chicks! They began hatching yesterday early and the Rhodey hen has 5, the Austie hen has 3 and the Wyandotte has 7. I am thrilled to see live chicks after having the fox run thru here and clean out several of my laying flock before I ended his feast. Combine the fox with that sneaky rat snake running hens off their nests and eating the eggs and I feel lucky to have any chicks at all.

Now a public thank you to everyone that so graciously stepped up and helped me these last couple of days. THANK YOU and GOD BLESS you. You have all given my the chance to fight my way thru this when there were no options left for me. I will not disappoint you, I will fight my way clear of this. Please don't give up the prayers, we most certainly still need them!

Middle of May Ramblings

It rained all weekend on me. But, the college kid graduated with 2 degrees Friday night and the camera batteries went dead on me. Great Mom, glad ya checked those lithium batteries, LOL.

It stopped raining early this morning so perhaps this afternoon I can get some of the chicken prison built. I have 8 banty fledglings waiting to be out in the sunshine so I really do need to get something done on it.

The horses are loose grazing around the farm with the cow. So far, even the thoroughbred is behaving better than the cow is. I'm running very low on hay now and the 4 days this week I could cut have overnight temperatures below my drying cut off. So, I need to make it until the middle of next week at least before I can cut anything. It's just too important to let it mold.

I'm pleased to announce the red potatoes are growing despite the chickens digging them up a half dozen times.

The barn swallows are back! They're busy gathering chicken and duck feathers for their nests. I really enjoy their antics and they are such beautiful birds.

Speaking of ducks, I have no hens left. Just 6 drakes, go figure. Guess my duckling days are over for a while. I haven't a clue what happened, they just disappeared.

All the seedlings are still alive despite the kittens beating the life half out of them every night. I'm hoping to get them out in the dirt by Thursday. This has got to be the longest I have even had to wait to get the gardens going. It makes me a bit nervous since it's my food source. I look at it as lost production. I just hope Mother nature gives it back to me on the end side of the growing season.

I've been medicating the sick kittens with the antibiotic filled cows milk. It creates a mess with the kittens digestion but their snotty eyes and runny noses are clearing up. I'll take a kitten mess if it makes them healthy again.

Speaking of cows milk, I've got 6 more days of dumping milk before i can safely keep it to use. This round of antibiotics better clear up the infection. The poor cows butt looks like a pin cushion!

How about that baby bunnie? That thing is 3 weeks old and is one of an original litter of 14. One by one that lousy Californian doe threw the kits out and let them die. She just kept this one, obnoxiously fat one. He is so fat, he can't hold himself up on his legs. I think he will be in the soup pot pretty quickly followed by his Momma. She's not a really good doe anyway.

Well, off to do an animal head count.......

Still Got Sun

Another bright, sunny day, too bad it's not so warm. Since I couldn't do any planting yesterday (way too muddy) I picked thru the scrap pile and devised myself a simple little goat feeder in an attempt to keep the goats from wasting so much hay. Next one I build, I will make a little more space between the feeder and the hay rack but this one is doing what I needed it to do. I finished it up late afternoon, cleaned the goat stall, put it in there just in time to do evening chores. Worked out pretty good.

This morning was nice, chores went off easy. I like it when chores go off easy! I grilled up some pieces of steak I've had marinading in the fridge and the boy scrambled this mornings eggs. Yum, now I need a nap! LOL

The main garden spot is a slop hole. Mid shin deep in mud. I did get a couple tires planted tho, did a bit of mowing since it looks like a jungle out there. I planted some red potatoes, another tire with rutgers tomatoes, one with bell peppers and another with the zuccs. While I was prepping my tires, Lucky goat ate my strawberry plants! Hmmm, that will put him on the BBQ list if he's not careful...

The goat shed and pen are still on hold, there's not much in the savings envelope. That's not surprising tho, it's not like anybody else has any money laying around. At least I'm not the lone ranger.

The flooding down here is going to put a serious hurt on the farming. Hundreds of thousands of acres are under water. The wheat that was growing is flooded and there will not be a planting of corn in some places and possibly no beans either. I can't even begin to speculate what the loss will do to the commodities market let alone the availability of the lost crops in our food chain. While I have the luxury of simply mudding my corn and beans in and feeding myself, large scale farms that make a living on the market do not have that option. For those who don't know, the levee at Cairo Illinois was blown open night before last to save the town at the expense of 130,000 acres of farm land down stream. Plus the 100,000 acres (at least) in southern Illinois already flooded. It's not just a little standing water, it's a couple feet worth of water. The Big Muddy river rose 7' over night on Saturday. There are areas down here that I have never seen water standing in before and they have a few feet of water covering them. It is heart breaking to see. So, say a prayer for a quick dry out down here, we need it!

how the garden grows...

Look at how the container garden is growing! Tangerine says the pepper flowers smell good! The cucumbers have tons of tiny fruits all over the place and are flowering like mad. The Earth Tones Dent corn has all sprouted in their tires and are growing nicely. Too bad the beautiful, delicate pink flowers got washed out in the picture taking, the potatoes are all decked out. Even the pumpkins have flowers all over them.


On the farm front... Alltel wireless has decided that the roaming fees to the closest tower to me are too expensive so they have canceled my contract and will terminate my internet connection on the 10th of June. There are not may options I can afford available in this very rural area and the land line option is even out. So, after June 10th, I'm not too sure what I'm going to do. I could go with verizon wireless, but they have a 5GB a month cap and I can use that up in just a few days. I just can not get a break.


I did make the first step in establishing a "trading post" here tho. I reached out and made my first trade. I traded one of the many roosters I have running around here that has not found his way into a cook pot for something I could use, I traded him for some sugar. It's a start. I'm also working on trading a couple rabbits for some home made wine. I'm not a drinker so I figure i can either trade the wine with someone else or cook with it. Either way, it works for me ;)

Not much else is happening around here. I should have cut some hay yesterday but did not have the fuel money to get after it so we're just going to have to wait for the next round of rain to go thru ( every day next week) and see how the budget looks next week.....

pacing a hole in the Floor

I've got 2 shelves worth of seedlings waiting for me to get screens built to protect them from the ducks, chickens and cats. I'm also needing a few things I don't have to finish the 2 separate arbors for the cherry tomatoes. The multi colored sweet peppers still aren't big enough to go out yet. I did set a bowl of kidney beans out and the ducks proceeded to step all over them. Hopefully they will live thru it. I have 2 more bowls of kidneys not quite ready to go out to finish out the 2 rows I want to plant. The scrap chicken wire is working beautifully on the tater tires. The taters are sprouting up above the soil in all 4 tires. I'm pretty pleased with the whole thing at this point. I just can't see how growing them in tires is not going to be so much easier than traditional in ground planting. I like it so much, I may never go back to conventional potato rows again.

I'm a little disappointed, it's been 30 days and I do not have a single gourd seed sprouted. Apparently, gourd seeds do not like peat pellets. I've always just scattered the seed in the fall but now that I have ducks and chickens, I have to do something different. I restarted some today using the old tried and true paper towel in the ziploc bag method.

Since viewing that History channel film I talked about the other day, hubby has decided I need more garden. He ran up the road and got a subsoiler from a friend of ours and subsoiled the entire horse paddock. Where am I gonna put the horses now? Ah, it's a good idea and I'll probably move the fencing panels over a bit and use a 40x100 strip down the backside and plant extra sweet corn there. It will double the amount of corn I normally plant and leave my old corn patch open for more pumpkins and melons. A good thing I hope!

Off to get more little chores done......

Seed Sprouting

There's tons of ideas and even more ways to sprout seeds out there. Fancy little seed pots and plastic green house trays etc. All work as far as I know but I frequently don't have the money to buy all those things. So, how do I get my seeds sprouted? Here's what i do, it's simple and it's cheap and it's things I use around here every day. I use ziploc sandwich bags and peat pellets. I use the cheap, generic ones and buy up all the peat pellets i can find on clearance at the end of every season and just store them for use later. I just soak the pellets in warm water, put them in the bags, add the seeds, close them up and set my baggies up on a table next to my south facing windows and wait. No special lights, no special heating pads, just the table and sunlight. That is, if we get sunlight. Even on overcast days, the seeds are still "cooking". The bags work like little greenhouses. When the seeds sprout, i open up the bags. The baggies work to hold water without making a mess as the seedlings continue to grow. It also keeps them grouped nicely and positively identified, no wondering what's planted where.

Unless we have some seriously unpleasant cold weather, the seeds sprout every time with this method. For the cost of one box type seed starter green house, I can start 5 times the seeds with the baggie method and have every seed sprout.

All Jitters

Here's my favorite gardening tool out of everything I have laying around. this is what helps me grow such great fruits and veges and how I grow so much food. It's a multi meter and it checks moisture, pH and lighting for me. I use it at least 4 times a week thru the growing season and it's how I know my window plants are properly hydrated and have enough sunlight.

I picked this little gadget up probably 10 years ago in the end of season basket at Chinamart(walmart). It was marked down from $9 and some change to $3. I remember it because I really thought it was a heck of a buy at the time. I still do!

But why is this so important? Well, for plants like blueberries you have to have some way of knowing if your soil is right. blueberries love acid soil and can be stunted or killed quick without the proper pH level. Another example is the differences between horse manure compost and cow manure compost. Horse is around 8.6 and cow is very close to neutral(7). So, for most garden plants out there, you would need to do something to your soil to drop the pH level from that 8.6 down to around 6.7 or so to get a good harvest. Didn't know that? That's okay, I had to learn the hard way about all this stuff.

I grow lots of plants in containers and buckets. How else would I figure out if they are too dry or too wet? Well, I could stick my fingers in the soil all the time to see and that's not very accurate for a good root reading (plus it often disturbs the plant) or I could just stick this little bugger in there. The meter isn't very intrusive to the plant or it's root system, I don't get dirt under my fingernails and I get a good and accurate reading of what the plants' roots are feeling like. That allows me to better handle the over watering and the under watering. Some plants just don't like their feet wet and others prefer to be a little dry.

This is one of my many little secrets to growing all those awesome looking fruits and veges. A very handy little tool! I'm having a really hard time not starting seedlings. I know it's too early but that darn Seed Savers catalog has me all jittered!

Job update- no word yet. We have several friends out there keeping their ears open for us and got 3 calls this morning telling us all upper management was in a meeting at shift change today....

A Productive Day

Today is the day we decided we were finally going to tackle some of the trees that are laying on the ground from our inland hurricane. We have at least 30 trees of varying sizes knocked down in our fence lines. We spent 7 hours with the chainsaw and have just 3/4 of one bigun cut up. I did a little log splitting with the good old 8lb maul while I was working on grinding some feed. Split some, grind some. I wasn't finished with the feed before it got dark so I spent some time reading the latest edition of Mother Earth News. I love this magazine as it always has something in it I can use in my sustainable farming adventure. This months issue(Dec/Jan) is a dandy and has recipes for no-knead healthy breads, a nice write up about solar panels, one about a DIY pole barn, another article on heirloom fruits and vegetables and here's the best article this issue....... drum roll please........ Grow $700 of food in 100sq feet! You do know how small of a space that is, right? The author used a 5x20 spot and, well, get yourself a copy of the new issue and read it, it's great!

Feeding the Backyard Chickens

I had a question asked by a blogger pal so this evening I intend to do what I can to answer it for her. Thank you Deborah for asking.......

Tonite I'm going to share what I do to feed my chickens without having to fork out $12 for a 50lb bag of commercial chicken feed. Chickens are notorious for eating just about anything they can peck so table scraps are always on the menu. they will also eat about anything you try to plant in your garden if you don't keep them out. Chickens are particularly fond of beets, kale, potatoes, sunflowers, wheat, oats and all types of grass seed. Cracked corn is something they dive on but it lacks protein so I supplement cracked corn with ground soybeans, sunflowers, wheat, some barley, milo and oats. To keep my egg shells nice and solid, I wash every egg shell I crack, dry them and crush them up for the feed mix. I give my chickens all types of squash I grow here. They love the fruit and the seeds and devour pumpkins in a heartbeat. chickens will pluck your almost ripe tomatoes right off the vines. they aren't real fond of sweet pepper but eat your cucumbers every chance they get.

I have also heard it said that you can even feed chickens meat scraps but I do not. I also do not feed my chickens cooked egg.

I have heard that milk and cheese/butter byproducts are good feed supplements but have never set whey, milk of cheese out for them. I may try soaking their grains in it when the goat starts giving me milk.

I have also noticed that chickens like alfalfa and clover, they occasionally steal it from the rabbits and very often get right in the hay pile with the goats and sheep.

The hottest spot for hungry chickens around here in the manure pile. As it decomposes and turns into my growing compost, it is always full of worms, dung beetles and other various insects. Japanese beetles are a favorite for chickens as well. I shake them out of the peach trees and scoop them into buckets with a bit of water in the bottom(keeps the beetles from flying out) and I dump the water filled beetles in the feed pan and get back because a whole avalanche of chickens will appear to scarf them up.

So, anything you grow and harvest for yourself will make decent chicken feed for your backyard flock. don't forget the calcium and you'll have quality eggs and chicken meat without having to spend a dime on feed.

Tired out

No clever thoughts today, I'm too wore out. Taking on a whole new set of farm chores in addition to my own has just plum beat me down. Guess I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I have officially decided that I like cows much better when they are somebody elses and I can go home when I'm tired out! hahahaha

I should be cutting hay but I can't seem to drag myself out to the tractor.

I cut the Farmhouse Cheddar today and I've decided I really like it. Not quite as much as the regular cheddar but it is mighty tasty. I think I will add it to the regular schedule of cheese making.

I got all the monthly bills paid yesterday and there's no money left. I really hate that. I still haven't managed to finish the chicken house or get any blocks for the root cellar. Good thing I'm so dang frugal or we might be a bit uncomfortable! Still, it's hard to go out and feed those chickens every day and look at that half finished chicken house when all I need is a lousy $50 in supplies.

Oh, I almost forgot... the garden is acting like it's mid October. Plants are slowing way down and starting to die back. Even the beans are dying back on me with half filled pods. It's kind of weird. The tomatoes and peppers are still doing well and I'm pleased with that, been dehydrating the peppers and setting the tomatoes up to be canning into sauce about every other day now. Al least we'll have plenty of sauce for chili, stews and italian dishes. All good winter meals for a hungry family.

Side Effects of Gardening

I borrowed the picture from nationalgeographic.com To help with my story on the side effects of gardening. Just too funny to pass up. Stoned Wallabies make crop circles........

After some malfunctions with the haybine(adjustments and belt breaking), I got the last of my first cut of hay down. I have some things to do today off farm but I should have it raked by this evening. It's pretty thick so I may have to rake it again before I bale in tomorrow.

The gardens here are doing well other than needing a bit of weeding. The tomato plants in the mineral tub are needing watered twice a day now and are covered with tomatoes. Even the corn is looking better.

Getting it done

Even when you don't want to! That's all part of the every day thing you deal with when you live off your own little piece of land. Things just have to be done, even when you just don't feel like it. The heat index here has been 105+ for the past 5 days. Humidity is making it even worse. You can stand in the shade and pour sweat.

The past 4 days have been miserable, we put up 1100 bales of hay. I'm trying to talk myself into getting moving this morning. That 20 acres won't cut itself! I'm still working on the fist cut of hay here, the constant rains we had all May and the first 2 weeks of June didn't help me out.

Looks like the Banty chicks think the waterer is a roost! The tiny little fellers are flying around the brooder tank now, they look like hummingbirds flitting around in there. Still too small to put outside where they will become lunch for 4 legged critters. I'm happy with the hatch rates this spring, even the non broody hens have helped me out. The turkey eggs didn't hatch tho, that's disappointing.

The garden is plugging along, the stunted corn shot up when it quit raining. I might get good sized ears out of the first crop yet! The 2nd and 3d plantings both look good tho so no worries. I've not even looked at the wheat patch yet so hang in there if you're waiting on that. I need to finish the hay fields first, then I'll get to that wheat, it's not going anywhere.

Oh, I almost forgot, it's almost blackberry time!!!! That's right, I've got wild blackberries and lots of em! Pictures of course and we'll be making some jam with them and maybe some home made blackberry ice cream if I can find a good recipe....

Harvest start for self sustained living

Well folks, it's about time to go get the wheat. Have a couple more days of rain in the forecast then some dry weather. Looks like I can "pick" my wheat Saturday or Sunday. I will share pictures and a description of how I do it.

Normally my first garden harvest is cucumbers but I lost all my plants during our inland hurricane. They got ripped off the trellis. Not to worry tho, I have a whole line of cucs coming up and a few already flowering all in a row close to last years crop spot. I guess I missed one or 2 and the seed scattered when I cleaned the trellis. That's a good thing for this crazy year!

Looks like I've lost hubbys potato patch. I checked it this morning and every single plant has gone to flower. I picked the flowers off but that won't help. So much for the potato crop this year. I'll be there isn't 20lbs of tater in those hills. Well, now I know not to trust hubby with the tater hills!

I picked my first zuchinni last night. A nice, 8" long zucc. Will make a nice batch fried. The bell peppers are flowered now, I lost one to the goats but the others should produce enough on their own. Tomatoes are flowered with tiny tomato buds on them. I will also be harvesting my first round of broccoli in the next day or 2.

I checked the corn patch this morning and the 4 new rows have popped up along with the beans, sunflowers and peas. Still waiting on the cantalopes, they should be up in another day or so. Going to get another 4 or 5 rows or corn planted along with the kidneys and the rest of the melons today and tomorrow.

Rain and More Rain

It has rained all week here, sometimes just a light drizzle and then the downpours. 1/2" in the gauge this morning, Wednesday had 3/4". The constant overcast is a bit depressing, so many unfinished projects here that the mud and rain are putting on hold. I spent some time in the front garden this morning pulling grass and weeds. I had to give up when my fingers got so water logged I couldn't grip the stuff to pull it out. Didn't hardly put a dent in it! I'm almost afraid to go out back and look at the corn patch. Forecast is calling for rain every single day next week too. I don't know when I'm going to get the beans in! Maybe I'll have to mud them in! I'd really prefer to cultivate the ground so the weeds are at least knocked down a little but that may not be an option.

Crazy weather we're having......

Happy Days-Self Sustained Living Style

It's been a busy few days for the son and I around the farm. We've been scraping the bottom of the hay loft for a couple days sweating out the first cut of hay. We just did 2 of our small patches to check the equipment out and make sure it's all in working order before getting into a big field. We got it all done and the boy cussed me a bit for baling them so heavy. Half way thru the job it got overcast and smelled like rain so I cranked it down a little bit. It didn't rain so I got the "told ya so" along with the dirty look. LOL

I took today off and drove up to visit some new friends and had a very nice time. Thanks Clovis and Sardog for inviting me. I'm so glad you liked the cheese, I got a bunch better at it, eh? LOL Practice makes perfect!

We seem to have dodged the rain so tomorrow will be bean planting day. I'll need to clean off the hay string that seemed to find it's way onto the tiller so I can roll the soil over for easier planting.
6 rows, 100' long will be the order of the day. That will give us enough red kidney beans to last a year. I'll probably get the melons put out as well. Tomatoes are also starting to take off after being about drown to death, I'll post pics when they flower out. I still haven't knocked all the grass out of the onion/garlic patch, I'm still miffed about it too, LOL.

I still haven't finished the chicken coop, actually haven't touched it in 2 weeks. Another half done project to add to the list. If my back doesn't peter out on me I think I'll dig a post hole or 2 for the enclosure. We need to worm a few animals and dehorn some calves too but I need to work it in somehow. The chicks are getting big enough to jump out of their cubby inside the coop and I don't want them to be lunch for the barn cats.

Oh! I almost forgot! We saw our first cougar! The dog was acting like the big scaredy cat he is, whining and such so I figured coyotes were too close. Went out and saw the big son of a gun with the night vision in the CRP about 200 yrds out munching a deer. Scary! I thought they were just urban legend/rumor. Guess not! Hope he doesn't run out of deer.

Just another day on the little bitty farm...

Are you kidding me?

I was just reading this story from yahoo news... it says 1 in 10 Americans getting food stamps. The title of the article is Food Stamp list swells to record 32.2 million... How depressing is that? I have a chip on my shoulder when it comes to welfare, I could rant for hours. Here in rural southern Illinois, I see the program abused and I see lazy ignorant people reaping the benefits of others' hard work. I also see the government not doing anything about the abuse, they turn a blind eye to it here. I'll quit this subject now or I'll go off on a 2 hour rant.

Here's something else I read today I'd like to share with you today. It's also from yahoo news, it's about how Wall Street could be indicating a bottom to the recession. It's called New Signs Emerge That Recession may be Near Bottom. I read the article and it seemed to me that the author contradicted himself all thru it. If the wealthy spend some money but the jobless rate keeps going up, how is that a bottom to the recession???? If those of us that qualify as "working poor" (anybody making less than $40,000.00 a year) can't buy food without foodstamps, how is this a sign of things getting better? I just don't get this at all. 10% of the workforce in this country is collecting unemployment. There's no count of the people that have exhausted their benefits and are still out of work.

My family is working poor. We work hard for what we've got and I do my very best to make sure we eat well without the aid of the government. With the help of my son, I provide our food with blood sweat and tears. I am disabled as well. We do not collect any type of government aid. If I can do this, anybody can do this.

We've got a storm headed our way, due to run over the top of us any time now. My back is so stiff and sore, I can hardly breathe. I look forward to it passing us by so I can get back to business as usual. I'm milking cows for my neighbor for the next couple of days, they're out on a calf buying trip. I love the calves, if it's not pouring rain, I'll get a pic or 2 for you all to see.


Stay safe and get growing something!

More spring fever

It's time to think spring here. Some of the plants I normally grow each year require up to 60 days for germination. For instance, I need to grow at least 20 coffee plants to cover my yearly coffee drinking habit. The beans need soaked overnite and then up to 60 days to germinate depending on temperature, moisture etc. I like the plastic ziplock bag method in combination with an old terrarium heater. My windows leak thanks to a couple of nasty ice storms and I've had trouble with the seedlings dying from drafts. So I'm hoping the heater will help.

Along with the coffee, I've got some peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, cardamom and various herbs started. I'm ready for spring to get here!


Keep preppin!

Getting ready for spring

Okay, we had snow yesterday here, it was melted by late afternoon. Today is cold and sunny. I couldn't take it, I started 120 Yellow of Parma onion seeds. Parma is an excellent keeper in cold storage and has a light sweet but oniony flavor. I'd show you a picture of them but my daughter isn't home from her weekend away with my camera.

We're roughly 6 weeks from our last estimated frost date here so seeds will be started about every day here for plants I intend on transplanting. Corn and beans etc will be direct planted.

Now is a good time to get those container plants going too. They'll be strong enough to go out and get producing by the last frost.

Garden days are coming quick!