January Blues

Another month in the books. Just a couple short weeks away from the official seed starting date. LOL, I already blew it, I started potatoes in a tote in the kitchen. Eh, couldn't help it really, several of the small potatoes I harvested from last years crop had pushed sprouts in the bottom of the bucket I had them stored in. So, a shovel, a couple of buckets and the tote got filled with compost from the pile. Taters got covered up and now I have beautiful green in the kitchen. A pleasant reprieve from the dull grey and brown outside those windows. The peat pellets are calling to me and it's hard to resist the urge to get 100 seeds started, LOL. Scifi would be laughing at me right now, teasing me for my lack of self control.

The Lionhead kits are growing. I'm glad I brought them in the house. A little more work for me but worth it. Keeping the 2 in the house has given me new ideas for rabbit hutches and how to keep rabbits better than I have been. 18 years of keeping them the same way has worked to a point. Keeping them inside where I see them constantly, see how they behave and such, has given me new insight on how to better care for them. I hope to be able to start building for those ideas before too much longer.

Now that spring is on me, I'm ever so antsy about no internet connection at the house. It's hard to share things on the fly and write what I'm thinking or doing at any given moment when I don't have that net connection to share it with. “Sigh” Sometimes the simple, self sustainable lifestyle is hard to take. All those things I have to give up just to get by. I so need a better paying job. While I'm glad I have a job, the amount of time I spend working that job compared to the amount on my paycheck is constant source of displeasure for me. Sometimes, subsistence living just plain sucks. Part of it I guess, I just do what I have to do and get on with it.

Update on Lil Sister..... Sis was pretty sick. Pregnancy Toxemia was the final diagnosis. A beautiful little brown and white kid ended up being lost out of it, a vet bill I couldn't afford and Sis is kind of getting a little better. The worst part of it is, no milk. That part of it hurts the worst. No milk. My best milker and no milk. Yep, I'm upset about it, the whole thing, all the way around it.

I've got a camo throw blanket finished. Well, almost finished, LOL The ends need tucked still but for all intents and purposes, it's finished. So, the camo is the next raffle throw for the blog. It's a 3x5 couch throw and it will go the same as always. $10 an entry, 3 entries for $20. The raffle will go until the 7^th so it can ship to the winner in time for Valentines Day. I've got 3 more in the works, in various stages of completion.

The chickens have quit laying. I think they have anyway. I can't find any eggs. Not sure what's up with that since I should have 15 a day. Not one single egg to be found out there. It's not that cold here so I'm at a loss as to why. It could be a moult but the birds all look good and I'm not seeing any feathers laying about. I've stopped letting the egg sucking dog out before I do chores so I know he's not getting them on me. Could it be a coon or a possum? I don't know at this point. The investigation continues......

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!

Something New

I know you all can't see it but it's raining.  Not very hard, just a drizzle but still moisture.  This will probably make it horrible humid once the sun comes back out and it's not enough to even knock the dust down.  Still, very refreshing and I joined the critters to stand in it with my eyes closed.  Cloud cover, damp skin and a nice, light breeze is a nice combination!

So, our meet up yesterday was very nice!  Even with the extreme heat, folks truly interested in being more self reliant braved mother natures worst to join us.  The Thunder 5 is farther along than I am with a working solar power system and much more in depth animal production.  One of the highlights there is the wood mill. A log got milled and turned into a picnic table that was then given away to a participant of the meet  up.  There was also an entertaining and informative tutorial on making and canning pickles. I especially enjoyed that because I make lousy pickles!  I got to be the Chef for the day.  I had forgotten how much I hate charcoal cooking, LOL  Even tho I fried the heck out of the pork shoulder roasts first thing, a quick, occasional spray with the hose gave me a wonderful, juicy end result on the ham.  I also managed to not burn the hamburgers, LOL  

Now, the Thunder 5 and the Double M (me) will be working on building up a southern Illinois homesteaders alliance.  Built with and around locally grown foods using real homesteading techniques (old fashioned, no chemicals, no feedlot/confinement etc).  We will be working to bring as many small farms and homesteads together to provide the clean and healthy foods everyone needs as well as encouraging and promoting a more self sustaining and self reliant lifestyle.

Woohooo!  It's sprinkling more rain!

Under the Wire

I did good tonight.  I sold Yogi to some nice folks from a couple towns over who came to see him and liked him.  One critter down, a dozen goats to go.  Now all I need is $150 to cover the mortgage.  Not bad for being dead broke on Sunday.

The rain did some good for the gardens and pulling the pigweed was a breeze today.  I got all 12 rows of the cornmeal corn weeded. I'll have some zucchini, cucumbers and a couple kinds of hot peppers for the farmers market on Saturday.  I'm also a bit excited, all the sunchokes look like they've sprouted thru now.

My head still isn't quite where I want it to be but it's coming around.  One step at a time I guess.

Saturday Recap

A quiet Saturday with a little farm clean up, still plenty to do around here. I got a visit from my college girl! It's nice to get a chance to visit with her, she's starting to grow up now. A full time job plus school and a part time assisting coach job is wearing her out. I told her "welcome to my world!"

So, since we had such a nice visit, supper ended up being one of her favorite "Moms cooking" meals. I whipped up some pizza. The mozzarella cheese I made earlier this week melted beautifully. The only problem was, I used it all! So, now I need to make some more. good thing I have 4 gallons of milk in the fridge!

I'm still planning on making a batch of soap. I have just one bar of soap left in the cabinet so I really do need to get a batch made. with the 30 day "curing time", I'll be running out of soap just in time for the new batch to be ready. Guess I better get to it, eh?

September Wrap Up

I've been piddling around the farm all week, working on shaping our new farm helper into a country boy. A few small projects and normal life as usual here. Yoda the tomcat is making sure my sack of cornmeal corn doesn't run away on me!

I got lucky with craigslist for once. I posted an ad to sell some of the straw I baled this summer and sold a few bales right away. It allowed me to pick up 100' worth of fence and another goat feeder. A little measuring and cutting on some scrap wood laying around (I never throw that stuff away, I might need it!) and now all the girls can eat at once without pushing and shoving. Polar bear did a little supervising, making sure we actually intended to feed somebody with the new contraption.

Since I spent a day outside supervising the farm work and making sure it all got done the way I wanted it to be (just did it myself, LOL) I ended up with 4 gallons of milk in the fridge. So, a big batch of farmers cheddar got made. I like the farmers cheddar because it's a relatively quick cheese to make. One I don't have to constantly stand over to ensure a good outcome. It's just got a 12 hour press time so it's a good, moist fresh cheese for eating. I'm slowly getting back into the cheese making groove and it won't be long before I get back to having good wheels from every batch. Making great cheese really is an art form and you get a little rusty when you don't make it all the time.

I still have that milk in the freezer for a batch of soap. I might find the time to get a batch whipped out before the end of the weekend. I've been asked to make pizza first tho, LOL. So, maybe soap tomorrow!

TEOWAWKI- New World Order

Here you go folks, this is what your America really looks like. This is what your government is up to- Raw Food Raid. Your tax dollars at work protecting all of us from the most dangerous thing on the planet. Raw milk.

On the heels of the biggest rip off of the American people in history (obamas debt hike charade) this move by our government is a clear declaration of war against freedom.

This is our country now. A country where you will be arrested for growing your own food, eating that food and sharing it. Don't even think about putting those evil vegetable plants in your front yard either. A country where you are arrested for feeding the homeless. A country where you can not have a lemonaide stand or give your neighbors home made bread or jelly.

Are you comfortable being controlled? Do you like having every aspect of your life dictated to you by your government? Get used to it because this is just the beginning. This will continue and get worse. Once the USDA uses the Dept of Transportation vie executive order to finish off the rest of the small farmers across the country by requiring them to be permitted as commercial drivers, eliminating anyone who does not have a commercial drivers license from operating farm equipment, requiring additional commercial permits and licenses for transporting their livestock and crops and a $750,000.00 liability insurance policy, our entire food supply will be under corporate/government control. Welcome to Agenda 21!

Rough Starts

When I get woke up before daylight, I know it's going to be a rough day. Never is it good news, not once. so, once again I have to move way before I'm ready and put on one of several "hats". Today was the road side mechanic hat. That crappy hyundai (throw away car) is not what I would have chosen for the daughter to drive (damn boyfriend of hers). Anyhoo, I got it home and she's off to school in my dually. How is it I'm still the one she calls when something goes wrong? What happened to the adult thing? Oh well...

Daisy calf christened me this morning during milking. Yep, I got pee'd on, again. Better than getting kicked on the fly-by I guess, LOL.

The bunnies are all out of the box in both pens now and the third doe is happy with her box and should kindle on Friday.

The chickens graced me with 18 eggs this morning. What a difference a little sunshine makes!

Oh, yesterdays mail brought me a nice surprise. I won a really sweet duffle bag from over at the EconomicalSurvivalinfo blog. It's a great blog with lots of interesting info, gear and stuff on it and a section of free prepper E-books. Yes, I am "into" the whole prepper thing, not because of bullets and bandaides but because it is a self reliance based ideal and it goes with the homesteading, self sustaining, self sufficiency thing. It just makes sense more and more with how the world and our own government is behaving to at least start to think more toward self reliance. Anyhoo, check out kottonm's site, it's nice.

We've (us down here in southern Illinois) still got a night or 2 of unfavorably cold for plants weather still to come for this week. I am very ready for the warm nights to start staying around so I can get my kitchen back! LOL This happens every spring so you'd think I'd just suck it up and get over it, LOL. I complain but I love it, every single messy second of it!

Enough time has passed for the latest round of medications to pass out of the cow and I saved the first round of milk this morning. I hope to be sharing some cheese making on the blog very soon...