Pork

A cool breezy start to Tuesday morning. We had a nice storm blow though last night which dumped some rain which was badly needed. Rachel was invited to a sleep over last Friday which we were getting ready to take her to before 6 when the clouds rolled in, the thunder and lightening started. I raced to get the clothes in off the line and not a minute too soon because the sky opened up and then we lost power. I had intended to make nachos for dinner but that was out of the question so Drew, Jeremiah and I headed to town to grab a bite. We got back just before 8 and later I found out exactly what happened but not knowing at the time, it looked like all hell broke loose. It's odd how storms can be so strong in one area and non-existent a few miles away. Not 5 miles north after dropped Rachel off there was barely a sprinkle, at our house though and further south, 70 MPH straight line winds snapped power poles along highway 50 which is what knocked out our power, took down a tree in the front yard smashing a metal trellis and plastering the south side of the house with debris.

The weather has been extremely hot and heat indexes are topping well over 100. We can't complain too much, the summer has been pretty mild thus far and will cool down again just in time for fair "week". We did not enter anything and are not taking the goats. We'll go just to have fun!

The kids start school next Wednesday. There is an open house next Tuesday night that I plan to attend and I will take them all in on Wednesday morning as we plan to carpool with someone who will be bringing them home. I'll get the low down on what traffic conditions are like and let Jeremiah know so he can better plan the morning and what time to leave so that he can get to work within plenty of time. Mornings aren't generally our forte so it may be harry for a while!

I've been feeling okay, not sleeping well so I try to get a nap in mid-day...or rather most days I HAVE to. I am looking forward to the cool down. We've spend a lot of time at the community pool and at a nearby private lake with a friend. Jeremiah works the concession for the football game this Friday, we have dinner plans with friends Sat. and we intend to take Jeremiah to a Mongolian Grill place in Wichita for his birthday on Sunday. Somewhere in that whole mess we have to fit in tiling at the rental house and hopefully a few other odds and ends.


I best go, I'll leave you with some piggy photos I took yesterday morning. They grew out a bit faster than I anticipated on the new hog feed and the next processing date wasn't until Sept 18. Mama Sow is due to farrow Aug. 31st and the whole process starts all over.

Auction bound

Where to begin, kinda hard when I don't even know where I left off last. Things are usually busy around here but it seems the past 4 weeks have been exponentially busy!

I'll work backwards. Yesterday we loaded up and went to an auction outside of town. I don't even recall the reason Jeremiah wanted to go, the auction bill always holds something that catches our eye. The weather was getting a little hot there for a while, well over 90's but we got some rain this week and it has cooled down to the 70's and 80's. Yesterday was a nice day to be outside. It never fails that we come home from auctions with things we need, things we don't need and things we never new we needed and sometimes you don't think you want or need something until the price is too good to pass up =)!

Anyone who knows us knows we LOVE auctions. Not only do we make money selling the stuff we buy, it gets us away from work for a day, its a good family day. The kids hate them but we try to bring stuff along to keep them occupied and we always meet great folks at these things and it becomes a gathering place of sorts for "regulars". 

Yesterday's booty consisted of a brand new breaker box and all new breakers, something Jeremiah paid $90 for but saved us $100 and we need one for both the shop and new milk barn and would have spent well over $200 buying it from Lowes.Then some heavy duty ratchet straps which we can never have too many of. We can always use good sturdy plastic tubs with lids around here for storage and it so happened a $4 box came filled with fabric. Who could pass up that deal? Another tub had a new Kitchaide hand-mixer and there is nothing wrong with mine, I've been using it since Jeremiah and I got married but for $2 you may as well upgrade and it came with a programmable new in the package thermostat, something we've been needing.

I bought an old desk, solid oak, for $10. It needs a little cleaning up but will make a really nice telephone stand and kid work area for the kitchen. They had a lot of nice pieces there, some went for well over $600.

Then came the implements. The owners had over 28 farm gates. Where on earth a person puts so many gates is beyond me or why they didn't go with the property but whatever, those things are pricey at the store and besides being a little faded, they were all in good condition and a lot heavier weight than what we can currently buy at the farm store. We walked away with 4 for $100, $25 a pieces which saved us $100 or more.

The owners also used high tensile wire for their fencing. In fact, early in the day I was talking to the owner asking when they put theirs in and how they liked it and they've been using it 20 years, it all still looks brand new and they LOVE it. Naturally, I had to ask as we put the same thing in 3 springs ago and we LOVE ours so I am glad to hear of someone else who loves theirs just as much. It just so happens that just like us, that had a few extra rolls that they stored in the barn they never used and the rolls that generally cost $100 a piece, we got for $6 (where we'll use it I don't know because each roll is 4,000 feet and we have 4 rolls left from out project as we plan/planned to do a little cross fencing but for $6, you just can't turn that down. Which brings me to my next point. We always try to buy something that we get at a good price and re-sell to pay for all or much of what we buy at these auctions. Cattle panel and hog panels, wood lathes, vehicles, garden tools, etc. We spend the day buying what we need, a few hours selling what we don't and slow but sure we build this place for free, basically.

We often wonder why people have estate and property auctions as sometime the things just go for so cheaply it hardly seems like the owners make anything. But sometimes it's just easier to have it all go at one time, they don't have to worry about it and everything is cleared off their farm in one day, literally! Sometime there have been deaths and the family members need to make it easy.

I will admit, yesterday was an expensive day, but money well spent on things we need/may need and it still saves us in the long run. We had just got to the auction when I noticed from afar a woodstove on the porch that had been pulled out of the house. Looking closer I nearly couldn't contain myself. It was a soapstone stove, something I had wanted from the beginning as they are #1, gorgeous, but #2 exponentially better at holding their heat and getting up at 4 in the morning to reload a stove that Jeremiah only loaded 6 hours prior gets old by the end of winter. This was was in beautiful shape. I never did think I'd walk out of that auction with it. You never can tell what kind of people are there and what they'll be bidding on. I always sort of hate to see a couple of familiar ladies there as they always drive the price of furniture and collectibles up because they have a consignment shop and will pay far more than I am willing to spend on any # of things but such is life.

We ended up getting the stove $350 for it but I knew it was worth well over $2,000. Turns out, the model sells new for $3500 and getting what I've wanted all along for a fraction was well worth the cost. Not to mention we'll sell "Old Thomas" for that and basically just swap out Thomas for what I've wanted, but could ill afford, all along. We paid a little more for Thomas 3 years ago but he's saved us far more than that in heating bills and we always try to pass the savings we get at auctions on to others.

Out with the machinery and farm stuff they had an upright air compressor. Jeremiah ended up buying that and then the chipper shredder. One of those things where it would be nice to have since we have all this crappy brush but not something we intended to go buy! But much like that rototiller we bought in El Paso -the one we ended up buying because it was cheaper than renting, used it, proceeded to rent it out to a few friends and then sold for more than we paid!- it was far too good a deal to pass up! It's got an electric start and gasoline motor and I don't know why a chipper shredder would have an on board air compressor but there it is. We spent $250 on a dumpster this past spring to clear out our front woods - of which we barely made a dent in- wishing all along we had a chipper shredder and here we are, 6 months later, $175 poorer but the owners of one that will save us thousands to keep the woods cleared. Can you guess what we'll be doing today? Playing with our new toy! To say that I am excited really is true! Whether we sell it or hold on to it is anyone's guess, trees will always break and there will always be brush around here. It's resale value is about $600-700.





So that was about the end of our auction buying. We generally don't bring a trailer with us as parking is usually at a premium and we don't go too far from home for thee things (within a 15 mile radius). We drove back home and picked up a few strong helping hands to help with the wood stove and the trailer yesterday afternoon. We had been at the auction about an hour when I got a call from our neighbor saying that their horse had died the night before and wanted to know if we knew anyone who had an excavator. As it turns out, a gal down the road who we know rented one for the weekend to dig some new water lines and wanted to know if we wanted to share the rental. We had planned to bring it here on Sunday to dig out a few stumps but it appeared that we may be digging a grave instead. As it turns out, we were able to get it all dug and the horse buried with the tractor. Never thought I'd be spending the evening burying a horse, but then, I don't imagine most do! With all of that yesterday though, I think we'll just play around with the chipper shredder today and call it a an early weekend!

So ends our auction escapade. Auctions are always the place we go to finds the things we need, the things we don't and the thing we didn't know we needed =). Happy Sunday.

Wordless Wednesday: Lap Turkey

Hello turkey bird

chillin'

feelin' sleepy

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Just Photos: Like Glass

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Puppies are growing so quickly. I've not advertised them per say, they are kind of adverting themselves. The single female has been reserved and another 1-2 are spoken for We've been so happy with Snow and King as guards and protectors and all around companions, these pups should be every bit as wonderful as they are! They have been an invaluable asset to our farm.

They eyes are fully open now at nearly 2 weeks old. 




Photos from around

Greenhouse is partially up...


 

Moved the chicks to the barn...

 

In other news, Jeremiah's blood sugar seems to be better under control. Our cardio work out for Sunday was cutting all of the wood for the greenhouse by hand. It was kind of a joke, but turned out to not be too bad.

We're awaiting winter storm "Q". They're calling for 10-18 inches of snow, we'll see. I'll be happy with anything. I spent much of yesterday getting the animals bedded down and bringing up wood. Nothing is worse than having to trudge out through snow to get wood! I probably should put more in the garage and I may this morning as the heavies snowfall is supposed to be overnight.

We filled the fuel tanks with gasoline in case we need the generator. Heavy ice is expected south of here but it's not so far away to not be prepared for an ice storm too. I'll fill up the bathtub today just in case and the de-icers will be plugged in at evening chores for the animals. Tonight's low is not supposed to be too bad, tomorrow and Friday however will be in the single digits, it's no fun breaking ice after temps that low. Lots of extra food for the goats and dogs but everyone should fair just fine. I may bring the chicks up though , I do worry about them in temps that low. The pups seem to be doing just fine. We'll see what the weather brings. We're desperate & anything that this point, no matter the inconvenience, will be welcomed.

Mostly photos

Snow had her pups on 2/6/13 5 altogether, 4 boys 1 girl.




 
 


 
 
We had more chicks arrive in the mail last weekend- Golden Laced, Silver Laced, and Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and a freebie Dominique.

I hope to get some regular meat bird chicks in a few months. The pan friers take entirely too long to grow out to eating size, not that we had many last year to butcher after the foxes, so I think we're going to go with the cornish cross that take about 6-8 weeks to reach butchering age or something like a Red Ranger broiler. Given that they take so little time however, I'll order them when the weather warms up and they can be in the shop in a brooder. Right now the brooder is shoved in the hallway bathtub and it's a real pain to shimmy out being wedged so snugly in there. Although, sometime this week they can probably go down to the basement to the back room where it's about 62-65 consistently. Right now they are pretty cheap to raise though being upstairs, all I have on them is a brooder lamp and a regular old 70 watt bulb. Moving them to the shop even with a 250 brooder bulb would probably not be enough to keep them warm right now with our temps and moving them downstairs may require a hotter bulb. May as well keep them upstairs where I know they are toasty, even if it means listening to peeping while ya pee! Any idea what they are saying? "Food, food, water, water, food, food, water, water." That's the extent of their vocabulary until they become old enough to lay and then it's "food, food, water, water, I just laid an egg!". The simple life, right?

The glass on the woodstove suffered a bit of a mishap last week and was broken. Ordering a new piece from a company in Wa. saved us about $160 as opposed to ordering it in town. With shipping it was still $80 and although it only took 5 days to get here, those 5 days had me sick and tired of that furnace!

We're still growing fodder for the goats, pigs and chickens down in the basement. We're still not growing as much as I'd like to. I'm at about 2 trays total a day, I'd like to be up to 6 but it's working very well so far and I am pleased with the results. We're not on an automatic watering system as of yet so I haul water down everyday. It doesn't require too much, about 3 gallons 2 times a day. The valve is there to install a hose from the pressure tank, we just haven't gotten to it yet and with the sump down there, I just dump the water straight to that though eventually once I find a tub that fits well in the shelving until, Jeremiah will just plumb a pipe from the tub to the sump.

Jeremiah's been gone 3 weekends in a row, last weekend being the first full weekend he was here. He's been trying to come up with ways for the students to raise money for Skills so if they go to Nationals again this year, they would have to come up with little to no money. Being winter and all (is that what this is?), we figured firewood may be a worthy sale and being as how we have LOTS of wood that would just go to waste if left to sit and rot, we had 3 students come over last weekend to help split and stack. Our wood pile was looking rather pathetic really, which isn't entirely a bad thing. It allowed us to use up the wood that would not have been "FIFO" (first in, first out) because we stack from back to front. We should stack side to side but anyway, the log splitter worked really well and we got about 2 truck loads split and stacked and enough rounds of hedge pulled out of the woods to give them at least 1.5 good size truck loads full, it just needs to be split. It's well seasoned as it is and ready to burn and that hedge, if you're not aware, burns LONG and HOT! It's our favorite for night time fires and there's always really nice coals in the morning.

All of this seems very redundant and boring to us, day to day living, you know?

I mentioned around Thanksgiving we installed an invisible fence for the dogs since their desire to wander had become increasingly irritating and we'd had enough and the choice was find a solution (not that we hadn't been trying) or re-home them. That fence has worked wonders and we've not had an escapee since they day we hooked it up and had the settings set correctly. Don't tell King, but he doesn't even wear a collar, we never did end up getting a second. Snow wears the one full time but I am fairly sure I could take it off of her or unplug the unit and both of them would still be where they are supposed to be in the morning. Though, I am not going to chance it for one, or teach them them to test it, though Snow won't go far now at least for a couple months with her new pups.

With the dogs staying put, there was no need for the back yard fence to remain and Lord knows those panels are expensive enough so we went ahead and took the panels down in the back yard. There was a locust tree that has been dying and needed to come out so last weekend Jeremiah felled that with the panels gone so it wouldn't hit it. I think there were 7 full panels that came off the fence and a few shorter pieces. With spring around the corner, I want to get a green house up to get some seeds started. I've seen several ideas using cattle panels bent into a hoop shape and covered in thick plastic. It was the intent last year to get one underway and we bought the plastic but it never came to fruition, this year however, I am bound and determined to get it done and next weekend is the date! The front and back will be plywood and it'll be sort of framed up with lumber. It's a little hard to explain but I'll take photos as we go along. It need not be elaborate but it needs to be something! Every season puts us a little bit farther ahead.

I fully do not expect to have a summer of average rain fall again and running the sprinkler non-stop so the plants won't die just isn't working. We have several blue plastic food grade barrels, one of them with a spigot already on it. My plan is, since the main garden sits on a hill, is to put the barrel in the highest corner and run drip irrigation lines from it to the rows. Filling the bucket with the hose is easy and it may need to be done once a day, maybe less? Jeremiah put in that water spigot in for me last summer near the garden & pig pen and it's made life so much easier! Little steps =).

I occasionally let the pigs out to graze in the orchard and they have done a good job rooting up a bunch of bermuda for me. We had picked another location for the garden originally but the bermuda was to thick and too much of a hassle to try to get up so we moved it to the hill. However, if I can keep the chickens off of the place the pigs have tilled up once I plant, I'd like to put in row crops of corn and other tasty treats for a "pig and goat" garden. I planted some oats last fall but I don't think we got enough rain for them to germinate before the turkeys came through but I'll try again in about a month or two here and see if we can't harvest a little hay. It's more of an experiment than anything.

We've had 4 goat kids born so far. One of the buck kids went to his new home at a week old as a bottle baby. Iris fell ill during her last 2 weeks of pregnancy. How's she's still here, I don't know but I swear that goat is determined to get as close to dying as possible and rebound. She drives me nuts, truly. She's not making a lot of milk and to feed a buck kid who would probably end up in the freezer when I don't have another goat in milk and the freezer supply quickly dwindling, it was better to send him off early.  And a nice family from near the Ok. border was going to use him as a home milking herd breeder so it was win win. The little girl is a sweet thing and has nowhere near the CBB (Crappy Bottle Baby) personality that the full time CBB's have. I am sure that has a lot to do with the fact she may still get some milk from Iris and she's left full time with her, or maybe it's just her. Who knows. She was sick at about a week old. I am still not entirely sure what from but this weather we've been having reeks havoc with everyone in regard to respiratory issues! The cold again hot again, single digit nights above freezing nights just throws everyone off. I had wool and cotton goat coats but ended up tweaking my pattern a bit and changing fabrics and came up with these dandies...

That's Dawn's doe kid, by the way. I call her Roxie. She's full of it but super sweet, very outgoing. I think we're going to keep her. She has spots, they are dark right now but they will lighten and Dawn has such a nice udder, I am glad we kept her. Andy is the kid's sire and it's a bit of a line breeding on the kids but I think they turned out really nice and Andy has thrown so few doe kids so far that I'd really like to keep what he does throw to see how they turn out. His kids are always really growthy and mostly spotted. His doe kid from FD last year grew out so well we bred her to freshen as a yearling. We'll see what the udder looks like on that one! His buck kids put real nice meat on quickly and I've debated selling him as he can be such a pain in my rear in rut but he is herd king and when all the bucks run together, I can understand he wants the others to know who's boss. For now, I think we'll keep him around.

Iris' doe kid, we call her Mischief, is on the mend, though has suffered a bit of a setback growth-wise but she'll catch up, I'm sure. She gets 3 bottles a day right now and is almost 4 weeks old. She's not as jumpety as the others but I did pump her full of stuff to save her, most of which was immune support. She'll probably be like her mama, determined not to die no matter the circumstances!

I have had people calling from Mo. and Ok. and Kansas of course for milkers and I just don't know that I can fill the requests this year for everyone asking. Most of the does have not even kidded yet but we did, or I feel we did anyway, such a herd cut last summer and fall when hay was still high that what we've got is a lot of what I'd like to keep! Though, I do have a few does in mind so we'll see.

Other than that, Jeremiah is finishing up writing all of his test questions for the state revamp that he volunteered for. He has one more meeting to attend, probably in Denver again. His students did pretty well in Mo. those 2 weekends he was gone for that. I don't think he's attending the Tulsa competition this year. The only student who wants to go is being taken by his parents and really, Jeremiah needs time off from traveling.

We've had some major issues with his blood sugar being entirely too high the past 3 weeks.  I was unaware he was not taking his evening medication while we were gone to Ca. as he was afraid of his blood sugar dropping while driving. For a while his BS was in the 400 range and normal for him is about 120. He saw the dr. a couple weeks ago and had to take his BS 5 times a day for about 10 days. Toward the end I could recite word for word what he'd say about his "poor fingers" each time he got his meter out. It's slowly dropping and we're slowly getting it back under control, it takes a while for the medication to do its work but the dr. still wasn't pleased it wasn't coming down fast enough so she put him on something in addition to his regular but that was just a couple of days ago and we've not picked it up and just the past 2 BS readings have been almost "normal" for him (and he had low BS at work the other day when all he ate for lunch was a salad and skipped his soup) so I'm almost reluctant to have him take the new medication seeing as how it just looks like his body needed more time than "usual" to readjust (and just because that run on sentence wasn't long enough, I thought I'd add in that it was a very long winded sentence, wasn't it?). Who knows though, it has literally been like ALL over the place and there's been no rhyme nor reason.

I am sure the stress and constant go go go we've been experiencing the past 2 months has not helped matters. We really need to get things under control. We've been fortunate enough that he is not insulin dependent and I'd like to keep it that way, for as long as possible anyway.

It has made us more aware of the ever constant battle that is diabetes...and health, for that matter. We've been fortunate that he is not worse. Our biggest issue is not crappy food, it's portion control! People who don't love food scare me. All kidding aside, we're determined to get more cardio activity because despite the grunt work we do around here, the cardio is what we need. So, here's to getting our heart rates up and keeping them up for it to do any good...unfortunately, the military was not kind to Jeremiah's knees and shins so we'll have to figure out something for him as even walking is kind of high impact. As for me, walking my happy butt around the pastures is sufficient! It's getting out and doing it...same song and dance, I know. Jeremiah wants to know why I bother to clean stalls by hand when we've got the tractor...I figure it's at least a work out...it's just not exactly the kind I need. But with warmer weather on the horizon (not that it hasn't been on again off again warm), I'll make it happen...somehow.

Well, I guess this turned in to more than just a photo post. Like I said, all pretty mundane to us. We've talked about putting up a new milk barn. The school's building construction will build us a custom shed if we come up with the materials first. I don't know if that will get done this school year as we really don't have a spot for it yet.The lean tos are still in good condition but do need some work and since the southern lean-to does not have access to any of the pastures, I think we'll disassemble it and put the milk barn there.

The assessors just came by here recently and with our nice hike in taxes (due to a stupid school bond), our taxes went up. I think we'll just keep the same footprint and call it a day so as not to see our taxes jump any higher! There is already electricity run to that shelter, no water but that's easy enough! It's nice for the bucks in the winter to be able to run a de-icer for their water but those things get expensive running them all the time and the past 2 winters have not really been bad enough to need them much anyway. Anyway, it's not a big deal to run electricity and water to the northern shelter (which is accessible from the western pasture), it's just a matter of doing it. However, that lean-to needs more work than the southern one and I'd like to cut the pen down some anyway so we may as well sort of reconfigure it and maybe, finally, finish out the 3rd pen we started when we put up the high tensile fencing and either turn that into additional buck area or make it pig area.

I like the pigs a lot I just don't know that we'll keep them here for breeding. Granted, finding them at a decent price was not entirely easy but keeping them is not entirely cheap either with the drought! I'd like to see if maybe we can try to pasture them over the spring and summer in the back corner of the woods and see how that goes. The fencing is electric and they have been trained to it. It would require fencing off two sides to form a grid square but that's easy enough by just running some t-posts or fiberglass poles and aluminum wire. They take so little care and there would be plenty to eat out there. Trucking water would be required but that's not a big deal every couple of days with a big enough tank and the glorified lawn tractor. Or heck, 2 buckets morning and evening and I get a good work out! It just takes time, not something we always have a lot of but I am sure we can make something work!

I started talking about the garden and our plans this year but didn't finish my train of thought. The drip irrigation lines will be run to the individual rows and each row will be covered with straw, hopefully that will cut down on water waste and time by avoiding having to go out there and change the sprinkler location every couple of hours. We were loosing a lot of potential growing room too with where the sprinkler wasn't hitting and watering plain dirt is a waste. Live and learn what works! I should not have to do a bit of tilling thanks to the pigs! They have tilled that entire garden right into the corner...saves me from having to run the 'tiller and ya can't beat that. It would be nice to move the pigs and use their pen for growing corn, but it's not something that has to be done right away, if at all this year.

Well, I suppose it's time to get going. The kids have a birthday party to go to and then it's back home to work around here. We may get some rain later today...no snow since New Years though we did get a real nice thunder storm a couple days ago...didn't drop a whole lot of rain but any is better than none. It was really foggy yesterday morning and below freezing so all the moisture froze on the trees. Even when I went in to town about noon it was still very cold and all the trees looked like they were coated in glass. Kinda pretty.

Hope all is well for everyone. Have a great weekend.

Random...ness

If you would have asked me 2 weeks ago if I thought I'd be sitting in the living room thankful to have a fire, the answer would have most certainly been 'no'. Good thing you didn't ask me, I would have had to open mouth & insert foot.

It's probably in the 60's out but darnit, it's overcast, and drip drop rainy and it just feels cold. So, by the fireside I sit...warm...and cozy.

So much going on...I had lunch with Drew today. I went to school specifically to have lunch. The children get to eat lunch at school once a week, any more and they would hate me. My lunches are better and it's not everyday they get to gross their ham and cheese eatin' friends out (while teaching them about REAL food) when they open their thermos and have warm red beans and rice, or tomato soup or things like that. What kid (other than a select few) would dare admit they like tomato soup, after all. Speaking of red beans and rice, it's been a long time since I've made it. I'll have a recipe up one of these days for it if in the event you feel like making it too.

Our layer chicks arrived yesterday...25 of them. I sold 2. I don't need 25 layers! I don't need 23 either but I figure we'll loose some. They are silver laced wyandottes and let me tell ya, they are cuter than the average chick for sure! See?

Course, the model doesn't hurt either. Wouldn't you want to take a chick home is a kid like this was trying to pawn it off on your like a girl scout cookie? Yeah, me too! Come to think of it, forget the chick, I'll take the boy.

Right now the chicks are living in a large water trough in the shop basking in 250 Watts of heat lamp with water and food at their disposal. The butcher roos moved out to the chicken tractor in the barnyard and we've yet to loose one, which is a good thing...loosing one means not eating...kidding. 

We're up to 8 baby goats- 4 boys 4 girls. We had 5 girls but one left us last week. Such is life on the farm. We've still got over half the does yet to kid with one holding out for God only knows what reason. Their photos can be seen on the farm site (www.marmaladehollow.wordpress.com) if you're so inclined.

Rachel reads up a storm, in case you didn't know. She reads every night before bed. I suppose we should take a hint, but watching TV is more mind numbing and who doesn't need to be numbed before slipping off into slumber? I'd drink, but TV's cheaper. Anyway, back to Rachel, she made it to the '100 point' club 2 weeks ago and today received recognition and her t-shirt. She's actually up to 108 points. I told her if she made it to 115 points before the end of the year we'd go out for a steak dinner. Books vary in their worth by how hard they are and each book has a test to take which turns into points depending on how many questions were answered right. At her last parent/teacher conference, I believe her teacher said she was reading at a 6th grade level. It blows my mind she can pronounce words like 'victorian' and not bat an eye or have to sound it out.She just flies through books and it's fun to have her read outloud as most time she will even

Life is...going.

The kids' Sunday school teacher mentioned to her husband, who mentioned to Jeremiah, that our kids our kids are so well behaved. What the heck does that say??? It tells me parents need to lock their children in the closet more often. Kidding. It means we are doing a terrific job and not only are we doing a terrific job of raising well behaved children, more importantly we're raising good people. All parents should be like us <gafaw>. Lots of people say it so it's not like she's nuts or something. Our kids really are great, and while I am bias, it has little to do with the fact that they are great people and yes, thankyouveryuch, I do take great pride in this because it's the hardest (yet most rewarding) most important job we have! Everything else takes a back seat to our two great kids.

On to other news. We've gotten a lot of rain the few weeks. Yesterday morning I was in the barn doing chores and it just POURED. It's such a nice sound. The thunder was pretty cool too. Jeremiah and I watched a really cool lightening storm one evening around 9 PM off to the east. The storm just skirted us so it was amazing to watch the sky light up over and over while we stood in the front yard in our jammies and it was pleasantly warm too! It reminded me of our living room in El Paso. The window faced north towards New Mexico (which was literally a stone's throw away). We'd lay on the couch and watch the storm come up and over the mountains that cut West El Paso from East El Paso. The lightening would crack across the valley and light up the sky, cool stuff. I love thunder storms. They are really neat here too.

Well, I guess that's all for now. It's Easter weekend. I mentioned to Jeremiah that if the turkeys didn't shut up and stop waking me up at the crack of dawn on my days to sleep in, we'd be eating them for Easter. I think they heard me because they've shut up! We're having steak, and potatoes and a host of other yummy things for dinner. We did an egg hunt at church last Saturday. I can't imagine they are egg hunted out so I suppose we may hide some eggs too! Tomorrow (Friday) unless this doe decides to kid, we're going to try to go on a drive. You now, it's amazing, despite the drought last summer, the wildflowers sure are prolific this year! I should get out and mow the barn yard because they are nearly as tall as the goat's backs. But it looks so picturesque to see them walking through back high wildflowers.

I have mowed the 'yard yard' 2 times in the past week and a half. Last year I think I got lucky to mow the yard yard twice the whole of spring and summer!

Pig in a Poke Shelter & Chicken Stew Coop

Just photos of the new shelters we're erecting. We started on the coop flooring and then went to the pig shelter. They are built on skids so can be moved. The chicken coop will pretty much be at a permanent location, the pig shelter will be moved every now and again.

The pig shelter is 6'x6'. I don't expect to be housing at 400 lb. pigs. I expect they'll be taken off before then. I plan to start them out in the garden so they can till it up for me and save me the work of getting out and pushing the rototiller around.

Side walls are up and roof rafters are going on. Due to the fact that this shelter does not have a front, the rafters are as they are for added strength so the shelter does not twist when being moved. 

front of the pig shelter

The chicken coop is 7'x8'.

Snow

Snow? In March??? While it's entirely possible (though not likely given the weather we've been having (read: GLORIOUS!) I am not talking about weather but about our new LGD (livestock guardian dog), Snow.

Snow came as a re-home. We've been fortunate enough to receive two fabulous LGD's as re-homes that are working out fabulous here.

Jeremiah and I have both mentioned to each other that after a year, King needs a companion and helper. He has been bored on days/nights when there's nothing to do so we talked about getting another. We were prepared to buy a puppy since adults are few and far between but there was an ad on Craigslist on Monday afternoon and by Monday evening she was at her new home. Bad circumstances with horrible neighbors forced her to leave or have her life cut short.

She's a Great Pyrenees, one of the better known LGD breeds. She looks somewhat like King, bigger bone structure, if you can believe that, slightly narrower face and affectionate (and slobbery) as all get out! But, a great addition!

LOVES THE KIDS!

Already hard at work surveying.

Life with kids

As I am sure you may already know, Rachel has broken her leg. I am sure as time passes this will become less of an issue and more of a plain old inconvenience. For now though, it's an issue. I am sure as time passes Rachel will become more and more adept at using her crutches to get around and I will feel more comfortable letting her but just like it's hard to let a child do things on their own so that they can learn to be independent, sometimes it's just quicker to do it yourself. I fight this urge because she has to learn how to do things herself as she is. I have no idea exactly how long this may take to heal but the latter end of it seems so very far away! When I bounce back to reality it doesn't seem very far at all so I'll hold on to that thought. The dr. said 3-4 weeks, we're planning on 6+. We'll see.

I have to call tomorrow (Tuesday) to make an appointment with the orthopedist on Wednesday. I am hoping a hinged brace can be found (if a small enough one is made for her), otherwise a cast may be necessary. Right now it's covered in gauze, then 2 cast like popsicle stick splints were applied (one on the front of her leg, one on the back molded to the contour of her bent leg once the splints were moistened and dry), then it was wrapped in an ace bandage.

Because it happened over the weekend, a 'real' cast could not be applied. She may not need a real cast either, it all depends on how well she is able to keep her weight off of it. Granted, it's only been 2 days (at the time of writing this) so it still hurts to much to put any weight on it but the more weight she can keep off, the less of a chance for a cast. And not that one would be all that bad, it would definitely have it's pros but it would definitely have it's cons too. The break is on the tibia, just below the 'heart' (as I think of it0 portion of the top of the bone, where the joint it? She probably shouldn't have use of her knee and the hinged brace would probably be stationary anyway but it just would, I feel, make life easier. Maybe I am wrong though.


She was given Tylenol with Codine for a painkiller but yesterday (Sunday) she woke up at 9 AM looking like death and feeling just as bad after taking a whole pill at 4 AM. She had a tangerine and a banana to eat and that didn't stay down at all. We've concluded that she can have half a pill at night with dinner on a full stomach just before bed which should keep her all night and we'll go with Mortin during the day. The Motrin does not last as long (4 hours) and she has to have it on schedule otherwise the pain is too much but this schedule should work and I hope that within a few days she won't need pain killers at all.

 

In the meantime, I doubt I'll be able to keep enough books around. She read Heidi in one day, off and on.
I am also scrambling to figure out what to do about clothing and dresses seem to be a good compromise. She has so few knit dresses that are easy to put on that I am ordering fabrics and hope to get some made this week and to get a few more knee high socks to keep her 'good leg' warm. Fortunately, the weather has been pretty nice and if it keeps up, a knee high sock may be all that's in order. If not, I'll have to buy some stretch pants and cut off the bandaged leg up to her thigh as pretty much no pants will go over. I could also make some PJ style pants and that may work.

On a more farm-y productive note, Jeremiah and I got into the shop yesterday (Sunday) and you wouldn't believe the transformation in there! We hauled off a huge load of stuff to the Goodwill. I know we sold off and/or donated a lot before we left Ca. and I still can't believe the amount of stuff we hauled out here and then I couldn't believe the amount of stuff we're really NOT going to use and hauled it to donate. Ugh, why all the stuff??? I have yet to to bring in all my deco items though I really should. I should stop saying things like, "One day we're going to remodel." Well yeah, one day we will remodel but in the mean time, I should just go ahead and paint everything anyway instead of waiting for the day we bust out walls, etc. I may never see my deco stuff at that rate!

We are working on taxes too- income, farm and business.Fun stuff! So, in between catering to Rachel, cleaning the shop and life in general, it's busy, as usual.

A year's progress

August 1. We're coming close to marking a year's worth of life in Kansas, in this house. How it has flown! Just yesterday I could have sworn I was taking photos of Jeremiah on the tractor cutting the brush down in the pastures readying it for the goats. Just yesterday I could have sworn I was sending the children off the bus for school. Just yesterday I could have sworn I was making Halloween costumes, baking pie for Thanksgiving and decorating the Christmas tree, passing out Valentine's pencils at school, making sure the kids were wearing green on March 17th, attending preschool graduation and looking forward to summer vacation, finally, and warm weather.

And now here we are, nearing the end of summer vacation sweating and wishing for this horrid heat and drought to end and wondering what on earth this winter could possibly have in store for us. I almost feel jipped, though those cold stormy winter nights will have us wishing for 110 degrees once again.

There is still lots to do before winter. We haven't gathered a stick of firewood, although what we have accomplished has been great! Both basement rooms are, for the most part, complete. Both rooms are lacking baseboards and molding but the back storage room is now a lovely sewing room, cozy and quaint. The front room is now the family room but in the near future we'd like to take out the staircase and reconfigure it so access to the basement is from the living room and not the door laden hallway. The concrete floor is painted, I did that last summer when we moved in but after a cold winter, we've decided that concrete is not the way to go. We bought laminate flooring that we did install in the sewing room and once we have redone the staircase, we'll lay the flooring there.

Both of the kid's bedrooms have been painted and one of these days I'll get around to making curtains. My living room is finally less cluttered and it makes for a wonderful respite away from the noise of the TV and children for the adults. We had company for the past week and a half and boy was it nice to be able to retire and talk at a normal level. Jeremiah scraped the ceiling about 2 weeks ago but I ran out of time so the paint was put on hold. The work on the house seems slow in ways but I do believe we've made great strides.


Jeremiah has installed quite a few new doors throughout the house. The previous owners really REALLY liked dark wood and flat cream walls. To be perfectly honest with you, I hate it! We are replacing all the doors in the house with 6 panel "off the shelf" doors. The dark wood doors took paint fine but after seeing what the hallway could look like with new doors, we decided against any more door priming and painting! Boy do the new doors really make it look completely different!

Jeremiah wanted to do some demo over Thanksgiving, mainly the kitchen, but we're excited about company coming to visit and demolition of the kitchen is now on hold. I'd love to rip the bathrooms apart, but all in due time.

We put up a pool a couple of weeks ago just so the kids would have more to do than sitting inside. It's heck when the inside is all there is because it's so hot out! While the cousins were here, we had all 5 kids remove the bricks from along side the outside perimeter of the shop. They were allowing water to flow underneath the sill and eventually it would have rotted it out. Jeremiah needs to get up on the roof of the shop with someone (who, I don't know because I am deathly afraid of heights and so was his brother who was just here). There are opaque center panels that allow light to shine in but they were installed incorrectly and the roof is leaking. They need to be removed, cleaned of the silicone caulking and reinstalled correctly then re-rivited. I am hoping the offer of a good free meal will get someone over here to help out.

We're finished with the fencing, did I tell you? When we arrived home from Ca. we finished up the 770' west stretch and, minus a gate in the NW corner where we own a 30' easement to Willison Rd., we're done! Even managed to get some cross fencing up for the buck's pasture. Although, it won't do a bit of good because there isn't crap a scrap out there to eat! It's all dead. Maybe next year they'll get to use it!

I am planning for November breeding of the goats for April babies. I learned my lesson and will NOT be kidding anywhere near February or March if I can at all help it! There are a few goats who will go off to auction in a couple of weeks. The price of beef is falling because of the lack of summer grass to feed them and the certain lack of hay available this winter. It's more cost effective for us to buy half a cow to stick in the deep freeze right now. 

Can I tell you how many loads of hay we've gone and gotten? Do let me tell you. Load 1 and 2 consisted of large round bales of alfalfa and grass hay. Three of them are in the barn, 3 of them are outside. The round bales, if set correctly, normally shed water and snow pretty well. There is an outside layer of about an inch that is usually no good but it protects the inner hay quite well. There is also a netting they use to keep it all tight (baling netting) that also helps shed moisture. Load 3 of 100 bales of grass hay went to the neighbors. We bucked all that by hand. Load 4 of 100 bales of grass hay was delivered on our way back down from picking it up to some people east by about half an hour, we bucked that by hand too. Load 5 and 6 consisted of 100 bales of the finest alfalfa Kansas has to offer-every bit of that went into our barn- and 120 bales of grass hay of which 58 went into our barn, 60 was delivered right down the road and 2 went to someone using it just for their county fair heifer and steer project.

I still do not feel we have enough stored as of right now. The last thing I want is to get the goats through and run out at the last minute. If I am hoarding, so be it. We have plans to make another trip up for hay at the end of the week, all of which is being delivered down the road to the same person who bought half of the last load of grass hay. I have 280 bales on hold with the grass hay grower and 100 bales of alfalfa on hold with the alfalfa grower of his 4th cutting this year. I am to call him back towards the end of August. Of those 280 bales of grass hay alone, 140 bales are spoken by the guy down the road and then the rest are mine.

With, let's see...140 grass hay, 200 alfalfa, 58 bales of grass hay already in the barn and 6 round bales, I'd say we're probably good!

 This may all sound pretty boring I suppose, but it's our life. We look forward to kidding next year, though many of the does will be bred to Andy, our spotted buck, as the economy is still bad and spots sell. He's nothing to scoff at for sure but now that I have the breeding stock I want, I can focus on building up the herd and that will mean cuts next year. I can only hope we get the rain necessary to keep the pasture green and growing! That seems like such a long way off and to be perfectly honest, after this horrible summer we've had, looking ahead to another winter is not really something that brings warm fuzzies to mind! Another year older and Another year wiser though and it should be a bit easier on us!

 Jeremiah has gone back to work. He was supposed to be in Kansas City this week for the annual teacher's conference but was able to forgo that to take another class putting him one step closer to a pay raise and his Masters. I too have thought about going back to school now that the kids will be in school full time but I think I will ride out the Fall semester and perhaps apply in the Spring. Business is going great guns and with as busy as we've been this summer, I'd really like to get better organized before taking on one more thing.

We've put off Jeremiah taking the classes for his CWI (Certified Welding Inspectors license). Someday...just not today. That seems to be the motto these days. We'll get there. We're forever reminding ourselves that Rome wasn't built in a day.

At any rate, I suppose I've gone on long enough. All I ever seem to have time for anymore is updates. I have photos of the 4H show over the weekend that I promise to post. 4H was another stressful venture that I think we'll have a better understanding of this coming year!

July Hollow Update

We've hit the ground running since returning from vacation. Yes, the dog was happy to see us. The goats we hauled back with us from Ca. made it fine and are settling in. Ann took no time at all to establish herself as herd queen and is quite happy to eat anything green, herbaceous and delicious. Iris, on the other hand, is more picky but sweet just the same.

We're in a major drought this year. Hay prices have gone sky high and we're hauling in hay from 100 miles away, 2 1/2 ton at a time. We'll need to make a few more trips north to bring enough down for the next year. It's not just that prices are sky high within the few surrounding counties, there won't be enough to go around either. Most hay fields aren't artificially irrigated, in case you were wondering, so whatever grows off of what falls from the sky is it. Fortunately for us, it's cheaper up north AND more abundant, so providing we've got the time to go up, we should be just fine.

We've got visiting friends with us. Because we've pulled all the posts and fence line from the west side of the property we've got the neighbor's two paint horses here. We could easily have the lines back up in a day but ran out of time Wednesday evening to get the lines up. We weren't around Friday and so today may be the day. It's either all or nothing as I would hate to get one or two up to have the horses get caught in them. To be perfectly honest, putting up the fence line is the quick and easy part! Taking it all down and cleaning the fence line beforehand is what takes the time! The goats haven't minded the horses and visa versa but I did lock the goats in the "main pen" so I could be sure they weren't visiting the neighbor's. I don't mind if the horses are over here but I don't need the goats getting into mischief over there.

It's been so hot which only adds to the misery of having no rain too. I try to get out as soon as the sun's up but getting back on Central time has been difficult. It also stays light out here until nearly 10 o'clock and working in the evenings is nice and cool. Jeremiah's a night owl anyway. I am not, but have been working well into the dark to maximize the time we can work.

Other than that, the kids are fine. We're preparing for the county fair in which Rachel has a few entries. I suppose I also need to think about getting the paperwork in for the state fair as well.  Jeremiah goes back to work in a few weeks. His classroom and shop are being painted right now so he's back to square one (as in, the same place he was last year with his shop in total disarray). The summer sure is flying by!

Hollow Update

We've been busy and will be busier yet to come.

I ordered tarps (used billboard tarps actually) to install on the front from of both shelters and the barn. The main idea is to keep the snow from blowing in but they should also help keep it a bit warmer as well. The tarps don't come with grommets so I am going to attempt laying them out in the back yard tomorrow and installing grommets with a kit we bought from Lowes. I'll let you know how that goes :o). As always, there are options in how to do so and I wrack my braining trying to decide which is the best way and worry it won't be done right. In some cases that's not such a big deal, you can fix it. In other cases, like a 10'x22' or a 12'x36' foot tarp, placing the grommets in the wrong location can kind of a big deal. It's supposed to pour tomorrow and I'd like to get 2 of these up. We bought some pretty expensive (for here) alfalfa rounds (1 ton each) and I'd prefer if it as not ruined thankyouverymuch. All the hay is barn (or south shelter), but if the wind kicked up, there's potential for ruin.

Second on the agenda: I've been worried about coyotes for a few weeks now. They sound numerous out there! While I think the neighbors (supper annoying yappity) dog(s) have possibly done a good job letting the coyotes know there are dogs around, long term the coyotes will figure out that baby goats may be an easy meal. Not only that, but with the hills and the trees, I cannot see the the entire property from the house, not to mention the fact the southern portion is about half as wide as the northern portion and so it juts behind the neighbors property a pretty fair bit and I cannot see much beyond the barn in a north-easterly direction from the kitchen window. The new fencing is supposed to just as good of a job at keeping things in that you want in as it is at keeping things out that you want out, but there still be cattle panel fencing around the pen area which is accessible to anything. Have I kept you in suspense for long enough as to our plan? Or did I not make it sound like there was a surprise?

Since we moved here I've been looking into an LGD (livestock guardian dog). I've researched donkeys (I don't want a donkey!) and llamas (after knowing what those were to like after living next door to 2 for  years I think I'd be better off sticking a stuffed owl out there to keep coyotes away). I've been set on an LGD for ages now. These aren't Collies or any of the herding type of animals. There are actual breeds who do best living amongst their herd (breeds such as Pyrenees, Akbash, Anatolian, etc.). I need eyes and ears for my night watch and after seeing what the dogs can and will do, I'm set. Too many nights Jeremiah or myself (or both) have run out with the gun when the coyotes seem to be upon us. I know their howls can sound close even if they are far off but I want to know the flock is safe.

I don't want a puppy. I wouldn't know how to train a puppy. I want an adult who has been proven safe around children. and knows his/her job.  These are LARGE dogs who take their guarding seriously. I'd prefer my human children not be run off. I kinda like them. And since I can't won't re-home my children :o), finding an LGD that I know the dog will be good with has been utmost priority. I've not had any success until just last night a message went out on my goat group about an Akbash who needs a new home. He's 2. I don't know if he's fixed although someday I wouldn't mind breeding so if he was "whole" I'd leave him and possibly look into getting a female some day. Apparently at his current home he's taken a liking to visiting the meat locker 1/2 mile away and stealing goodies. With whatever fencing they have, they cannot keep him in. In our case, this shouldn't be a problem come the end of the month with the high tensile going in.

He's a very big dog and the owner sent photos of "King" with young children hanging all over him. As a general rule, you do not want to make pets out of these dogs. Their job is to guard the herd (or flock), and the herd (or flock) is their family. Often times they will even go as far as barking at humans that don't know (including people who live there who don't see them often). But apparently this dog likes being around people and so I am lead to believe he knows friend and foe very well. We will go meet him on Saturday. I don't think they eat very much for their large size. They aren't extremely hyper dogs and don't expend a lot of energy needing to run and so therefore don't need as much food as a dog proportional to their size who moved a lot. They lay about a lot watching the herd, moving with them, from what I've told. Getting the goats to accept him may be a challenge as they are wary of a friendly cat that likes to visit me but with the new babies coming, now is the best time to get them accustomed to a dog being in their midst.

we'll be picking up some laying hens within the next couple of months. Jo has some Rhode Island Reds that we'll take home. I'd also like to get some Barred Rocks as both of these are dual purpose birds that are good for meat and eggs. I'd like to get a roving coop built, a trailer type that we can move about into the different pastures for rotational grazing purposes. It keeps the pasture healthier and the chickens healthier too, or so I've read. You're probably wondering why we don't just build a stationary coop and my answer is that we cannot put them exactly where we want them. And granted, you can open the door and they can go where the want but if the coop is in a pasture and there's enough to eat (approx. 3 days after the goats have left that pasture) they're more apt to stay somewhat near. If that doesn't work, we've still got the coop and can just park it in a centralized location near the barn.

Time to get going on chores.