Indian Summer maybe?

The days have been amazing lately, makes me think we've got a little bit of Indian Summer going on here. It's wierd to run around the farm in a t-shirt in November and all the trees are bare.

Yesterday turned into a pretty nice and easy day for me since I had nothing really planned. On the way home from the library I stopped at the gas station and picked up a couple gallons of whole milk. I used it to make up some ricotta cheese. it's about the only kind of cheese store bought milk is good for since being homogenized ruins it. I hit my food storage and whipped up some home made lasagna. I used my handy dandy Joy of Cooking book for the french bread recipe, whipped some of that up for garlic bread. I like the recipe a bunch since it doesn't call for sourdough, you just scald your milk and go. Fresh garlic pressed with the hand press for the bread and we had us a fine supper. LOL I am still tasting the garlic with my coffee this morning. Maybe I went a little overboard with it but it's just so darn good!

Moo cow is a real dandy, I think she's been trying to get up in the middle of the night. This morning she was turned back around and headed back toward the barn and on her other hip. That's good for me since now I don't have to strain myself trying to get her pushed over but now the hip I wanted to doctor this morning is down. She'll shift herslef again I hope and I'll get it doctored then. She's full of spunk and she's bright eyed, glad I didn't give up on her. She may get up yet!

Polar Bear is in the dog house(literally), she woke me up at 4:30 this morning to go out and when I let her back in, she peed the floor! Wouldn't have been so bad if it was on the tile but she peed the carpet, again. She's smarter than that, just being a turd I think. So, she's been outside all morning chasing the cats.

This warm weather has me thinking I might try and start a few more plants for the kitchen garden. Maybe a couple more pepper plants and a cucumber or 2 more. The tobacco plant I grew in the ice cream bucket is finally coming to seed. I hand pollinated all the flowers and almost every one has a seed pod. Should give me plenty of fresh seed for spring planting. Hubby is already eyeballing the leaves and I haven't even mentioned cutting it yet. he must be running low on his tobacco stash. He smokes too much anyway.

The coffee plants I started this past spring are looking pretty good. I'm thinking of seperating them into their own little pots. I've got my pop bottle pots all cleaned and sanitized, I just need to get a bucket of composted dirt in the house to warm up. It should be good to go after 3 days in the house, don't want to shock the roots with cold dirt. All 9 plants are doing pretty good, I look forward to their first flowering.

I'm also thinking hard about tearing out the kitchen cabinets and counter over in the corner of my kitchen. That space seems to be a catch all for every piece of junk the hubby and the son can get their hands on. I'm thinking about building a walk in pantry in that space. It will eliminate a clutter spot and be much more useful as a meaningfull storage spot. If I do it, I'll take pictures. I am seriously considering it.

I need to go check on my neighbor with Cancer today, he just had a chemo treatment yesterday and he might not be feeling too good. I'll stop in and see if he needs anything done around his farm. Until tomorrow.............

Momentarily Freaked Out

LOL, this morning started with a jolt to the system. like I do every morning while my coffee is brewing, I stare out the window into my barn lot and look at my critters. There's a critter missing! Hardly one you could miss, she's been laying in the middle of the barn doorway for the past 2 weeks but where is she???? She's gone, not in the barn doorway. So, with a hundred different thoughts running thru my head, I find my shoes and head out there in my pj's. She's either got up or crawled about 15' out of the barn and over by the pen I have that dump dog in. I don't know why she would do that, there isn't even a nibble of grass over there, but she did. Just couldn't see her from my viewing window! Now, of course, every critter out there knows I'm out there and the morning chorus begins. Goats bleating, horses nickering, chickens and ducks cackling, the dog barking....... "sigh" so I went ahead and did the morning chores in my pj's.
I finally got a cup of coffee tho it was around 25 minutes later than I intended. That's life!

I have no plans at all for around the farm today but I'm sure I'll find something to do and share it with you all in the morning.

Rabbit Day

I got woke up early this morning by a call from a neighbor asking for a little help. Worked out good, gave me a reason to pick up the home made rabbit hutch he'd given me a couple weeks ago. Hated to make a trip up the back roads for just a rabbit hutch. It's a decently sized, home made hutch with a kindle box built in so I put one of my bigger does in it for now. I know the picture isn't so great but it's the best of the 3 I took with the cell phone. I am so looking forward to the laptop being fixed! We're looking good on having the laptop going very soon so I can be back online at home instead of having to drive to the library. I hate being in town and it takes so much time I could be doing something else with.

Hey Gen, the hog is done! It was one a neighbor fed out, I just traded him out of it so I didn't have to feed the escape artist myself! LOL The hog is officially sausage. I ended up with around 150lbs. We should be good for the winter now. No wild hogs here in southern Illinois unless they are escaped farm hogs.

Not much else going on but grinding feed and baking bread today.

Sunshine days

Wow, it's so nice to see the sun shining. A beautiful full moon for Halloween and also last night with the clear skies and bright stars. Still sloppy but the nice days are making it tolerable.

I am in the process of butching a hog today. It's hanging right now, gutless and skinless. I'm looking forward to stuffed chops and sausage. I've been out of sausage for a couple months now.
I already have my meat grinder set out on the counter and I've gone thru all the parts, made sure they are clean and properly oiled for smooth operation. I use a hand operated grinder, it's efficient, operates smoothly and does a great job for just a small amount of effort.

I don't get fancy on my hog butchering. I keep the hams, the loins, prep myself a couple of roasts and the rest gets made into sausage. It's what we eat the most of so it makes complete sense and I've never been much of a chop eater anyway. I'll have it all cut,wrapped and ground up by this evening.

I've been digging potatoes from that disaster patch of the hubby's... I'm not any more disappointed than I thought I would be. Hahahaha, hubby is NOT allowed to plant taters for me anymore! Not all his fault tho, the crazy amount of rain we had did not help at all. We'll not be eating taters much this winter but I think we will live thru it.

Not much new with the cow, she's still laying in the barn doorway. We are considering slinging her up to the rafters. She's made several good efforts to get up the last few days, has even rolled herself over a couple of times. She amuses herself by turning in circles to suit her mood. Every time I check on her, she's facing a different direction. I think we need to make her use her legs. It's a work in progress.....

I made a divine tomato/meat sauce last night. I'm going to use it on some pizzas for supper tonight. it's been a while since I made any pizzas and my son asked if we could whip a couple up.

Well, off to finish the farm chores.......