AlmostTime

Why is there a picture of a cows butt on the blog? hahahahaha It's almost time for a calf! Just look at the big ole bag full of milk! I am so excited, it's almost cheese making time again! I had my daughter snap a couple pictures while i was working on cleaning the stall. Can't have a dirty stall for the baby, nope, can't have that!

The farm chores were a little rough this morning, the storms that rolled all around us last night dumped a bunch more rain on us and everything is sloppy. The mud is pretty darn deep. Had to slop thru some of it to rescue my old roping horse, he's apparently caught a cold. So, he gets to hang out in the barn for a while, not that it's going to hurt his feelings, all that attention and feed 3 times a day. I can't complain about it, the animals have all been pretty healthy thru the rough winter.

I'm going to be canning more meat from the freezer today and baking some bread. maybe I'll have a calf this evening!

Sunday Special

There he is, the king of the couch back, Lucky the house goat! Lucky is more or less healing up from his encounter on the front porch with our unhappy stock dog, Polar Bear. He's learning to eat feed and I've been soaking alfalfa hay for him. What he doesn't eat during the day is happily munched by our old farm lady, Dusty (30 yr old quarterhorse) every evening. I'm beating the possum to the eggs now, I got 9 yesterday and 7 this morning. That possum is hiding under the pallets I stack my hay bales on and I just don't have the time, space and energy to move all that hay to find him under there. His days are numbered tho.

I had a blog comment asking if I had ever dehydrated cabbage. No, I haven't, but I did have a nice conversation just a couple weeks ago in the APN chat with someone that had done it and suggested I try it for myself. I will try a couple of dutch flat heads when I harvest this year. If anyone would like to join the chat, just put a chatname in where it says "guest" and click on connect. Or, just come in as guest. It's an irc chat and there's lots of good folks in there. I join the chat in the evenings, between 8 and 10 cst.

The seedlings are coming along, even the ones I had to restart (thanks Elvis). Pictures of seedlings soon...

Dreamy Days

Yep, these are dreaming days.

We spend all day dreaming of spring time.

As each day passes, we dream of our crops growing, chicks hatching, bunnies being born, baby goats playing in the tall grass, hay baling and gardens growing. Oh, we can't forget the most exciting thing for us this year, the coming calf! When the calf arrives, so does the fresh milk. Then we get to make and eat cheese!

So, as it pours rain and the temperature hovers around uncomfortable, we keep dreaming.

Now, if I can just keep Elvis from eating the tops off my seedlings and the goat from destroying my seedling table......

February Blues

It's been overcast and a bit rainy for the last 2 days and it's giving me the February blues. Cabin fever is more like it. I want to be outside, doing the things I love to be doing. So, to pacify myself, I pulled out what's left of the butter in the freezer and canned it up. Now I have some deer meat cooking on the stove and I will can that up for future use as well.

The turmoil in the world that is causing the price of oil to rise concerns me. I don't much like that the actions of others, so far away, affects me in any way. It does tho, it will continue to ripple outward until it consumes the whole world. All I can think of is how I can protect my family from what's happening around us. There's not much I can do by myself beyond providing a roof and a meal anymore. I could stomp my feet, shake my fist and be all worked up over politics and government but what will it accomplish? Not much. So, each day, as more seedlings sprout, bunnies get born and eggs get laid, I see survival and I'm glad. To me, that's winning in the only way that matters....