Monday, January 27, 2014

Brrrrrrr

It's freaking cold AGAIN!!!! Yesterday was a Spring teaser. The temps were in the mid 60's. I worked outside all day in a t-shirt and jeans and broke a sweat. Today when I woke up it was 16* with a wind chill around 0*.
Still waiting on my rabbit to kindle (day 31). She hasn't pulled fur yet. Now I'm hoping she waits until Wednesday when it warms up a bit.
The hubs decided to take his own stitches out :/ His appointment is tomorrow and they were going to do it. I guess he's feeling rebellious. I'm glad it's cold so he won't have the desire to go outside. He was on his leg too much this weekend and it got really swollen.
Turkeys are now living with the Uncle. My little one actually played outside yesterday. I guess Tom really scared the crap out of her. I didn't have to watch my back while doing chores or while walking through the yard. It was nice for a change, but I miss seeing them in the yard.
I sold 6 dozen eggs this weekend. My hens are on a roll and I'm getting almost a dozen a day. The other day I got 18!!!! My goal is to make $30/week with farm goodies, so this is a start.
Yesterday I spent time with my goat Lady. It was funny to watch her do all the things I thought were labor related (I was a maniac last year lol). She's already laying around groaning like she's miserable. Poor girl has three months left. She's getting pretty big. I hope she has a doe this time :)
Friday and Saturday we had no kids at home. Yesterday the walking disasters were all here. So cleaning and laundry is on the agenda.
Have a great day ya'll ☺

Friday, January 24, 2014

Still here just not here, lol!

I'm still alive, I just haven't had time to be on Blogger for awhile. I am so behind on reading everyone's blogs, I need to get caught up on what ya'll are doing!
The weather here is absolutely freezing again. I'm done with Winter! My hands are dry, my face is dry, and I'm constantly cold. I spend too much time outside in this weather trying to keep the critters watered. Today when I woke up it was 3*, and of course I have a rabbit due to kindle. I won't breed my rabbits in the Winter EVER again! The stress of keeping the hutches warm and toasty is too much. So far she hasn't pulled fur. I prayed all night that she would wait at least until this afternoon or tomorrow, which is supposed to be much warmer. I hope she waits until then, but if she doesn't I have a heat lamp directly over the nest and it feels pretty warm. She's a first time mommy so I hope she doesn't scatter them :/ We will see, and I will let you know how it all turns out.

The hubs gets his stitches out Tuesday. He has been staying off his leg so it doesn't swell up too much, but when he is up he's trying to walk on it more. I hope he gets back to (some what) normal soon, he's getting stir crazy.

My Tom turkey has gone NUTS! He flogged me two mornings ago, today I have a giant bruise on my thigh. I was shocked! We get along really good. I talk to him all the time and he follows me everywhere. They must be about to mate or something and he's just lost his mind :/ My little one is petrified of him, so they got to go. The hubs uncle who took our wild pig wants them. He loves animals, he never eats any of his critters, so they will have a good home.

I don't think I told ya'll but I got a female guinea pig. Her name is Veeta. Our boys name is Cheese (silly kids). Well she's pregnant! I saw the baby moving in her stomach yesterday so today the hubs and I built a second level to the guinea pig palace so we can move Cheese to his bachelor pad when the pups get here! I'm thinking she was knocked up when we got her. Cheese is a baby and I haven't seen any hanky panky between those two. We will know for sure if she has the babies before the end of Febuary. I can't wait! These two piggies are a hoot to watch, I can only image newborn pigs :)

Nothing else really going on except trying to get my house cleaned and organized before Spring.

Enjoy the weekend ya'll! Hopefully it warms up for all of us!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

♥ you guys

Thank you all for the prayers and well wishes. I appreciate it so much. The hubs had his first appointment with the bone and joint doctor yesterday. He said everything is looking good. He is going to see him again in a week and then probably take the stitches out the following week. He guesses he will be off work for at least a month. Oh, the precious moments we will have LOL!!!
This weekend I'm going to send a couple roosters to freezer camp, by MYSELF. I normally let him do that deed but he can't and it has to be done since they are driving me and the hens crazy. Who knows by the end of this month I may have to man up and do more of his duties. If you drive by and see me changing the oil in my car. I've taken it to the extreme lol!!!
Thanks again guys, Love ya'll!!!!

Sunday, January 12, 2014

We had an accident :(

Day one of having the new land and we had an accident. The hubs had to work Saturday and when he came home he was going to shoot his guns. I was going to shoot with him since all the girls were going to be gone. Well plans changed when grandpa showed up with a chainsaw. They went to work clearing vines and limbs. We are trying to get a path cleared to put up a fence and they have been clearing our land for four years so this isn't anything new. Anyways I was feeding the chickens when the hubs hobble runs by saying "my leg my leg". I put everything down and by the time I got to the porch he had looked at it and decided we needed to go. He had cut his leg with the chainsaw so deep it nicked his bone. I got him to the ER in good time and they took their sweet time working on him. Six hours later he was all stitched up inside and out and we were able to go home. I set my alarm for every four hours to wake him up to take pain meds. So far the pain is tolerable and he's sleeping ALOT.
I tend to analyze everything to find what lessons are to be learned or the reasons things happen but I've been so worried for my husband that I haven't thought much about it. Soon I will be worried about other things. He's not going to be able to work for a while. He's not going to be able to drive. He's not going to be able to help me around here. We are kind of on hold until he heals. I realized today how much I need him. How quick he is to do little things for me when I ask. How nice it is just to have him running around in the yard or able to run an errand. I need him everyday and now he needs me. Hopefully I will be a good nurse and he will heal quickly ♥

Friday, January 10, 2014

The homestead has grown ☺

We just got the deed for two acres that connects to our property. It's rough and we have a lot of work to do but now we won't worry about anyone buying it and living too close and my goats will have a proper pasture soon :)
Total acres 4.44!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Time to pop open the champagne!!!

Getting organized :/

I have had a hard time getting my s#^! together lately, so since the first of the month/year, I have made myself a short (very short) list of things that needed to be done that day. I'm the queen of I'll do it tomorrow and also a dreamer of all things I want to do. Things like laundry, dishes, caring for the animals, taking kids to school, cooking supper and taking a shower are not included in my list. They have to be done everyday. An example of an extra chore: The other day my only goal was to cut both my dogs hair and give them a bath. DONE! Today was strip my bed and put away my laundry. DONE! This sounds silly but I'm normally so overwhelmed with everything I have to do, need to do, and want to do that I would just sit down in the evening with a glass of wine and say I will do it tomorrow. Not anymore, I'm tackling small things everyday and hopefully by Spring I will have it a little more together, so my outside time won't affect my house :)
I've also added yoga to my daily life. So far my neck feels like its one wrong move away from being out of whack but really I feel soooo much better. I'd been feeling like I needed a chiropractor for awhile but not anymore. I'm stretching those muscles out and it feels really good, even though I am a bit sore ;) Now to just stick with it :)

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Bunnies

Hope all my blog friends had a great Christmas. I have been super busy trying to keep my animals warm and alive in this cold weather. My Fall garden didn't make it this year. The chickens have demolished the greens in the raised beds. I'm hoping my garlic and onions survive their wrath. They have ate the tops off everything. My cauliflower died after the first couple freezes. My broccoli survived the snow and then died the first night it got down to 22* The only thing I have left is my brussel sprouts. I planted them early enough to have harvested by now but my soil is still not that great so I think it hinders their growth. After the ice storm I cut down my asparagus ferns and saved some seeds from them. I am also attempting to grow persimmons from seed and two new grape vines from cuttings. I'm hoping the grape vines work :)
Hubs didn't have much luck hunting. I had grown fond of mamma deer and her twins and of course they were the only ones he had in his sights at the beginning of the season and because he loves me he didn't kill them ♥ I'm afraid someone else killed them since I haven't seen them in a couple of months, so next year, if it's brown it's down. We did hunt one evening after a snow storm, it was so bright outside we could see perfectly and we got a fox. The hubs has tanned it's hide and a deer hide his friend brought him. I plan on keeping the pelts off our meat rabbits when we start to butcher them too.
The ice storm caused a lot of trees to fall. One landed on my daughters car. $5000 in damage :/ The hubs has been burning the downed trees this week since we had another snow. He had quite the bonfire going and the yard is looking less messy.
Two days after Christmas I went out to feed the animals and my doe Baby Ruth was pulling fur. I shuffled all the buns around and got her settled in just in time for her to birth my first litter of meat rabbits :) They are so cute, I'm already having a hard time thinking about eating them. One of the babies had crawled to the corner of the nest box and was cold when I found it I brought it in and warmed it up and took it back to mamma. They are both doing great now. After that birth we finally got the rabbit hutch situation fixed. We spent all that weekend adding two more hutches. We put floor mats, rugs, feed sacks, and a heat lamp for the babies to protect them from this cold snap. During the coldest day. I was on my third trip out to thaw rabbit waters and found that my other doe Watchamacallit had eight babies. They were scattered and frozen to death. It was soo sad. I tried to warm them up and hoped for a miracle but we lost them all. The cold was too much for tiny wet babies. The only way I could have saved them was to have been out there the second they were born. The hubs is wanting to install light sockets in each hutch for cold weather. I'm thinking we don't have babies in the heart of Winter, who knew it would be this cold :/ We are expecting one more litter in two weeks from Jelly. She is huge! I can't wait to see how many she has.
My chicken situation is out of control!!!! My babies have grown up and there is way too many roosters. They aren't big enough to butcher yet but they are annoying. I'm going to put some of my chickens up for sale. I have 44 and they eat too much. My Tom turkey has also taken a liking to me and follows me everywhere and then proceeds to hump the air, it's weird. I'm hoping him and Tilley figure out the birds and the bees soon.
My little one got a guinea pig for Christmas. His name is Cheese. I never had a guinea pig before. They are fun to watch and the noises they make are adorable. We've had Cheese since he was 25 days old, he is soo cute but he has started to bite. I'm hoping it's like a puppy and he will grow out of it.
There has been so much going on, I hope to post more often this year. Have a great day ya'll!