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.

Stormy Spring Days

A dandy of a storm rolled in late last night. Some lightning, thunder, wind and a bunch more rain. All day today has been mist to light rain. Sloppy, sloppy, muddy mess here. Even so, the beefsteak tomatoes are growing and just 4 peat pellets didn't sprout a plant.

My little one eyed orange buddy is back to babysitting. I'm really going to hate putting him outside if he ever gets any better. He's still sneezing himself about half to death. At least he's eating a little more.

Not too much else is going on around the farm. We're all just holding our breath, waiting for something good to happen...

Farm Work, more babies

We've got new kittens in the house. Purely by accident, Sticky cat, one of last years kittens, pestered to come in by patting the window. I let her in because she's one of my favorites. Normally, it's the "get something to eat" and right back outside.
This time it was get something to eat and sneak off and have kittens. The orange cat is not one of the kittens or the momma cat. He is Shadows last kitten, in the house because he's got some vicious cold that has his eyes swelled up. He decided he would help out and crawled right up to Sticky cat and has been babysitting the kittens ever since.


The cucumber sprouts are about ready to be transplanted into something bigger than a ziploc bag. They are starting to shoot roots out of the peat pellets. After I get a round of caraway cheddar set in the press, I will work on transplanting them today.

I've been working on cleaning up the winter mess around the farm. I spent most of the day yesterday working on it and only managed to get 10 wheelbarrows of firewood moved and half of the chips and bark cleaned up. I did get a bunch of the junk and garbage stuff laying around out there burned tho. It's amazing to me how some people just can not throw things away.

The barn is still standing. It hasn't moved again, yet. I've been measuring it every morning. It's really going to make a mess when it goes. Plus, I hate to lose the storage it gave me. Nothing I can do about it tho.