Are we prepared?

My t.v. hasn't been on in three days so I don't sit around watching anything even the news. If we decide to watch t.v. we do, but it's a show we all want to watch and it will take up maybe an hour or two some weekend night. I do spend time on the internet. I feel you can get the cliff notes of any worthwhile happenings and if it does interest you research it further. So to my point. I don't understand economics very well. I do just fine with my household finances but the government spending, wall street, all that is just over my head. I do know we as a country are in and have been in a financial crisis. I do know as a consumer prices for EVERYTHING have gone through the roof while my husbands pay is still the same. I do know that my cellphone bill went up $15/month and when I call the provider they told me to contact my state representative. This really ticked me off. I didn't sign a contract with my state representative for X amount of dollars only to be raised three months in. TAXES went up. For what I don't know. What I do know is I am in a contract for another 18 months and I will downgrade all services to a reasonable monthly amount and when the contract is done to hell with my cell phone and the damn taxes! Okay done ranting! I came across an article yesterday about total grid failure. I know this isn't new but sometimes it takes reading something again to get me thinking about my preparedness. The hubs has reassured me that we are better off than a lot of people. I see that, but there is soo much more we can do. So I dusted off the book that I had won from a blog contest. Just In Case How to be Self Sufficient When the Unexpected Happens by Kathy Harrison and I'm starting it today. Chapter One~ Organize.
This one will take awhile :/

Oh yeah! My MIL informed me that THIS was on the news this morning. HMMMMM

My life this week in pictures

My first ever batch of mozzarella. It was good not really any flavor but the tomatoes and the basil from the garden gave it a little something ☺

My pumpkins are starting to come on! I have several of these little Cinderella pumpkins and a pie pumpkin. I've got a lot of blossoms. I'm going to fertilize this patch to make sure I have jack o' lanterns for Halloween!

My cherry tomatoes are overwhelming! Enough said!!!

My mother in law brought me three barn stars today!!! I'm so in love with them! I've been wanting some since I painted the barn but since I never leave my house and refuse to pay retail for most things I haven't found any. Luckily MIL is a yard saler and remembered that this girl was wanting some barn stars ☺

I harvested all my cantaloupe to make room for my Fall garden and had more than we could eat so, I've started a batch of cantaloupe wine............. I will let you know if it's good :/

Have I ever mentioned my LOVE of compost! We have the worst soil here it's all rock and clay so I add my compost to my gardens whenever I can. Right now it's going in the strawberry patch that I'm trying to de-weed and put to bed before Winter. Homegrown dirt makes me happy, happy, happy!

 

Have a great week ya'll☺

 

 

 

3 more

Babies are hatching!

I'm soo happy! I think this first baby is a giant Cochin. I will take a picture with my Giant Cochin rooster just so you can see how huge he is! Anyways, this hatch isn't like my others, there's new breeds in this one, and this mamma is excited ☺

Little white Silkie

Remember my little white Silkie chick I got in Febuary well he's all grown up now. This is Boots ☺

 

 

Homestead News

I'm just getting over my first ever case of Salmonella poisoning. It's been a painful week but I'm finally on the mend, just not 100%. In the midst of being sick I planned and hosted my daughters 8th birthday party. I was worried I didn't invite enough people or have everything together but I did and it was a great party!

I'm still milking Miss Lady twice a day. I was getting a full gallon every day but now I get about 3/4 gallon. My neighbor purchases a gallon/week which is great since we have so much. I would like to just give it to her but she insists on paying me. I've made my second batch of chevre. Everyone in the house loves it, my new favorite seasoning on it is French onion, it tastes like dip, yummy. The rest of the family likes garlic and dill.
I plan on breeding my girl again either in November or December. We usually have a pretty good snow storm in March so I don't want her to kid until April at the earliest. I hope she has a girl this time ☺

My garden was doing fantastic but we haven't had a good rain in awhile and now it's a dried up dreary mess. I'm still harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and cantaloupe. This weekend I harvested the last of the green beans. I am late putting in my fall garden but I think it's a good thing. The heat we have had would've killed anything I planted. I'm going to plant it this week.


this was one of my gardens in all it's glory

 I finally got meat rabbits!!!! One buck Peanut Butter and three does. I am excited about this project. The lady I got my buck from has workshops on how to butcher rabbits, she even tans the hides. I plan on attending her next one.

Peanut Butter


 

I've got turkeys now!!! Meet Tom and Tilley. They came from Rocky Oak Homestead, we did a little critter swappin' the other weekend. That's where I also got two of my female meat rabbits ☺ I really like Tom the best for some reason he is friendlier than Tilley. I need to learn how to clip wings, they are flying over fences and having their way with my gardens. Mrs. Puff my black Silkie is broody. I gave her some eggs to sit on, they should hatch this weekend. I'm so excited, I ♥ baby chicks! I sold five more chickens last week. My chicken count is 33 as of today ;)

Tom and Tilley

I totaled up how much I have spent so far this year on feed and hay. Whew! It's a lot! It's time to get serious about making some money off these animals and making them self sufficient. I figure if I could make $100/month. That would be enough to take care of the feed bill. Now I just need to figure out what to sell to make this money.