Letting go

I started this post yesterday. It was originally titled Dread. I was selling my oldest baby goats and was a little anxious and unsure how I would feel handing my babies over to a complete stranger hence the title Dread so I decided not to post because it was a bunch of anxious mumbo jumbo anyway..........
Well, Kenny showed up at 6 as planned. I was pleased to find out he was a like minded person. He also has 20 acres of land which is amazing. 2 acres fenced for the goats. He rescued another goat from being eaten which is a plus. Anyways we talked FOREVER about homesteading goals, land, the town he lives in and then it came time to say goodbye. I told them both bye went in the house fought off tears, came back out and Kenny was still here. Finally I held Lady while the hubs grabs the babes and snotfest commenced. I was a blubbering bawling idiot! Poor Kenny said he was so sorry and felt terrible since I couldn't quit crying. Several times throughout the evening I would picture my little boyfriends (that's what I named the boy goat) face and the water works would happen. I don't know if me being a middle aged female has anything to do with my extreme attachment to my babies. I don't know if everyone that raises critters gets as attached to them as I do. I don't know why I mourn them leaving. The only thing I do know is today, I'm okay, I still miss their sweet faces but I got a gallon of milk from their ma so it's time to make some cheese :))))))

Hey Y'all

Some of my sweet blog buddies were concerned if I was okay, well I am :)))) I've been busy trying to stay afloat with all the rain/flooding we have had. I have been mucking wheel barrows of mud just to get my animals areas dry and sanitary and then it would rain AGAIN. I'm hoping we stay dry for awhile. Today I need to muck the barn. Last time I posted I had three goats well this year both my girls had twins! So I have SEVEN goats total right now. My oldest buckling is for sale and has recently become a maniac. If he doesn't sell soon I think I'm going to add goat to my diet :)) I love that little booger to death but he's gone NUTS!!!! I haven't saved any milk yet this year. With all the new additions and the rain it's been a three ring muddy circus. I'm hoping to get into a better routine once the babies are gone. 

I've found a bounty of wild plums at my in laws. I made jelly and saved some seeds. I hope to have my own little thicket here soon. I also found a bee tree on their place. I haven't had any luck trapping those bees yet. The first swarm was so huge my father in law said my box wouldn't have held it. I'm going to try a persuade them to let me put my hive on their property and bait it. Eventually it would be awesome to have my apiary at their place. Its a bee paradise and it's just a 45 minute drive

My chickens have destroyed my strawberry patch again. I got ZERO berries this year. My garden was a bust because of the rain. I have been cleaning it up and getting ready to plant a Fall garden. I hope it's bountiful. 

Here's my babies Lady had a boy and a girl April 21st And Darcy had two boys June 20th

Where to start??????

I have been such a bad blogger, I don't even know how I got new followers but WELCOME! With Fall/Winter here I might have more time to post :)))

Where to start. Well we had some bad over the Summer. Remember my "free range" bunnies that my pet bunny Ellie had. First off those little ones dug several holes under the fence to get out of the chicken pen so after two years of living free willy nilly with the chickens Miss Ellie went missing :/ She either got out (thanks to her kids) or something got in (thanks to her kids) and took her. I miss seeing her everyday :( Shortly after that one of her kids showed up paralyzed and then another one was paralyzed. We put them down since they weren't able to move and after much Googling I've come up with the conclusion that they had E. cuniculi. I really enjoyed seeing them running all over the yard, playing in the barn, sitting on the back porch, and circling my feet when it was time for food. I won't ever let another bun be on the ground and I am lucky my meat rabbits weren't affected by the disease.

My female goat Lady came to me one day limping. When the hubs came home we got her on the stand and he found a thumb tack in her hoof. I guess I had dropped one when I was putting up fly tape. That hole became infected and her limp got worse. I went to the feed store and bought Kopertox. We used it on her hoof everyday for about a week and she healed up. I was super stressed about that too but VERY thankful that she is okay :)

Bub my goat buck is triple stinky this year. I guess since I have 2 females he's got to try harder. I can smell him on my back porch, it's really foul :p

We have been eating more rabbit. Our neighbor smoked one for us and we had bbq sliders. I cooked one and shredded the meat for rabbit tacos. That was pretty good too. My next meal will be rabbit chili. I make a white chili with chicken and I'm going to substitute rabbit. I can't wait to try it. I might not tell the kids and see if they notice a difference, lol! My fur tanning is going better. I can't say it's perfect yet, but I did get a compliment from my dad, so it's a little better and I'm ready to make my fur purse! With the price of meat at the store and the unknowns of that meat. I'm very thankful and grateful for my rabbits :))))

The hubs traded a truck for a fifth wheel. I talked him into not selling it so we can have it for an emergency. It was a hunting trailer and I'm in the process of cleaning it up a bit. I'm going to keep it masculine for resale but cleaner so if it needs to be home during a power outage it will be cozy :) I will post pics of my progress soon. So far I've only painted the ceiling. There is a reason humans don't look up all the time. It hurts!!!!!!

The last few weeks most of us (me included) have been sick with some weird gastrointestinal/respiratory virus. It has hung around for weeks. We are all just now starting to feel better. With all the crazy sickness out in the world, getting sick is scary.

Reading this makes me wonder what I actually do everyday besides stress and worry. It doesn't sound like I'm very busy but I am. Tonight I'm going to my first ever bee club meeting. I need to reconnect with my friends so I will be able to get bee's this Spring.

Enjoy the day ya'll, it's raining buckets here!

On the Fritz!!!!

My computer is on the fritz and as usual I really don't have time to mess with it :/ So I have been reading blogs when I have the patience but haven't been commenting because my patience usually runs out, lol!!!

The little one started school last week. I'm still not used to the alarm, it's loud. I prefer waking up on my own. On the bright side I only have 172 more days of screeching :/ My older daughters start school tomorrow. Both will be in High School and one will graduate. Where did the time go??? My birthday is also coming up (Friday) and I turn the big 40...................Where did my youth go??? I still feel like a kid and forty always seemed so OLD!

Our weather this year was so WEIRD! It was strangely Fall like for a few weeks but it seems Summer finally found us. This is also the first year that I haven't wanted a storm cellar (we had zero tornados) but a ton of earthquakes :/  The bugs, oh man the bugs this year are unreal! Flies have taken over my barnyard, it's a constant battle to keep everything as clean as possible but they still find something that interests them. This is the first year we have had aphids in the garden and also those damn blister beetles. They are working on my tomato plants again as I type :/

Our peach harvest this year wasn't as great as last year but I did make nine pints of yummy jam :)



My pet bunny that ran around the chicken yard went missing about a week ago. She was two years old and the first bunny ever born here, I miss her :(


My chickens have hatched out babies again :/ So far there is only one. I wasn't even sure the eggs were fertile, well they were lol! Chicken count=who knows!!!

Bub my goat buck is stinkin' up to high heaven. We were going to trim his hooves on Friday but got lazy and he went into rut the next day. Lesson learned there, lol!


I found an amazing deal at the feed store. Seed packs were 10 for a $1!!! I got 40 packs of seed for $4 some are heirloom. One pack retailed for $4, so I was pleased with this find!!!!!
My last visit to the grocery store renewed my desire to grow as much of our food as possible. Meat is outrageous and the quality of everything is poor!

Tomorrow I'm gardening all day, the little one has decided to ride the bus home from school which gives me the whole day to get things done. I hope she likes riding the bus. This might be the year I actually get my crap together!!!!

CRAP!!!!!

I found the missing blister beetles.......
They have moved on to my big garden and are doing work on my tomatoes! It only took them two days to demolish the volunteer tomato plant in the cantaloupe patch. I squirted a couple with wasp spray, not sure if it killed them. I despise pesticides and have worked really hard not to use them but I'm not losing my tomato's to these guys. So this evening, against my own gardening rules, the bugs will die. I hate this, but I really love my tomato's :(

Bug Update

Since I was a wee bit skittish of getting blisters on my hands. I had a great plan to grab the top of the plant with tongs, quickly snip the bottom of the plant with scissors, fling it on the ground and the stomp the daylights out of the bugs with my boots. So boots on, tongs and scissors in hand I walk over to the plant.........
I wouldn't call it a plant anymore, it's all stems no leaves and no bugs. They ate their fill last night and moved on. Hopefully not to the cantaloupe plant............
In other news. I'm obsessed with getting my rabbit furs done right. I had two that I did a little different, they didn't stink like crap and turned out pretty good. Then I had four more that I did my old way, well they stunk like crap and the fur slipped again, total waste of time. So today I watched this skinny Cajun fellow on YouTube do about twenty different furs. They turned out pretty good, so in a couple weeks when we butcher buns again, I'm trying it his way. I hope it works out because I'm obsessed with figuring this out!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anybody know what kinda bug this is??????? +UPDATE

Carolyn the bug guru answered this on FB! It's a blister beetle. Those of you that have them don't squish them they will give you blisters. According to Carolyn they demolish tomato plants quickly. When I googled blister beetles it says they eat bee's and grasshoppers too. They are covering this plant. I would say there is one per leaf so I am going to attempt to murder the whole lot of them in the morning :)

Cantaloupe is ready!

 

A raccoon had a nice treat last night :/ I'm leaving this one in hopes they will finish this meal and not start on another one. The leaves on this plant are hideous. We had aphids for the first time ever and I did nothing to kill them except wipe the leaves with my hand, spray them with water, and let the ladybugs do there thing. I'm surprised we even have a harvest.



Got my first ever Maran eggs yesterday!!!! The one on the right looks weird but I love it! My Maran hatch was dreadful and I ended up with what seemed like all roosters. I knew I had at least one hen, well I guess I have two. YEAH ME!!!!!

Summer

Since I haven't posted in a month some of my sweet blog friends have wondered where I've been. Well, I've been busy, just like many of my fellow homesteaders. There is never enough time in the day and to add to my normal crazy, the family and I have taken day trips almost every weekend in July. The first trip wasn't really a trip but a family gathering for the fourth. We stayed out late, so I prayed the chickens would be safe when we got back and they were. The next trip was floating down the Illinois river. That was fun and we got there early enough we were back home by 6. I was totally sunburnt after that one :/ One weekend we took some rabbit and veggies to a friends house. He slow cooked the rabbit on the Hasty Bake and grilled up the veggies. Best meal EVER. We stayed there really late. I worried about the chickens all the way home and they were fine. Our latest outing was The Center of the Universe Festival. It's an all weekend music fest. My older girls were going and we happened upon some cheap tickets so we were there with them. I'm glad we went since there was some creepy people and we were only a phone call away if they needed us. The music was meh, UNTIL, I sat next to a fella sitting on a curb playing a washboard. We talked for awhile, he said his band played bluegrass and they were just killing time before their gig at a bar down the road. Best part of the night! I sat on that curb getting my hee haw on and by the time the kids were done watching their show, the band was packing up to head to the bar. So once again we stayed out late and I worried about the chickens all the way home and they were fine :)
School starts in about 11 days. Summer went by too fast. I can honestly say I didn't get everything I wanted to do done, not even close. I did sew myself a dress. It's not perfect but I love it! I'm also working on a crocheted purse. I'm pretty sure I've been working on it for six months but it's almost done :) I want to make some harvest aprons for me and my friend but before that I need to hem skirts, finish my bee suit, and make a lady a nap mat for her kid. It never ends......

If you guys are still harvesting jalapenos, you have to try this recipe, it's yummy!

Cowboy Candy

• 3 pounds fresh, firm, jalapenos washed
• 2 cups cider vinegar
• 6 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 12 tsp celery seed
• 3 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp ground cayenne pepper

Remove the stems from the peppers. Slice them into uniform 1/8-1/4 inch rounds. Set aside
In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed, garlic, and cayenne to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Add the pepper slices and simmer for exactly 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the peppers, loading into clean jars to within 1/4 inch of rim. Turn the heat up under the pot and bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 6 minutes. use a ladle to pour the boiling syrup into the jars over the jalapeno slices. Insert a chopstick to the bottom of the jar two or three times to release any trapped pockets of air. Wipe the rims of the jars and put the lids on. Process for 10 minutes for half pints or 15 minutes for pints in boiling water. Allow to mellow for a month before eating

*I think the trick is to cook down the peppers. The last time I made these mine didn't cook down so when I put them in the jar it was full. Once they came out of the boiling water bath it was all juice and very little peppers. Just make sure your peppers are cooked down so your jar stays full :)))

The reason I didn't post the last two days of June is because.......

My computer has been hijacked by children. The girls got back from my sisters and have been LAZY watching movies/tv series on their devices and on my computer!!!!! I got rid of Netflix for the Summer so they wouldn't do this. I guess they have another source, grrrr!
My weekend without the children was uneventful for the most part. I guess I went on a vacation myself and became a slug.
The little bunny that hurt it's back is still alive. I wash it's hind end every day make sure it has water to drink and take it to the yard to nibble on grass. Friday I noticed it's sibling was falling down and it's legs weren't working that well. I researched poisonous plants for bunnies and found that I have several in my garden. I think they are either poisoned or they hurt their backs coming out of the chicken pen. The fencing is 2" x 4" rectangles. These bunnies were born in the pen but after a few weeks started venturing outside of it into the yard. The two that are hurt, stayed close to mamma but they played in the yard and my garden most of the day. One of the buns stays out back by the barn and rarely comes into the pen. It seems to be doing fine. Baby chicks are always on the other side of the pen free ranging until they get to big to fit through the slots. I loved watching the bunnies run all over the yard, even if they did eat up most of my green beans. I really don't know what happened to the little guy, but it's very sad to see it now :(
Saturday I made stir fry with vegetables from the garden. Did you know you can stir fry cucumbers? They are pretty good and taste like pickles!
I need to make some cowboy candy, weed the garden, sell some bunnies, clean cages, clean my pool, muck the barn, the list could go on and on so I need to get to work and get this published before the kids get up and take over the computer again!!!

 

Well....

that didn't take long! This morning when I let the chickens out somebody was crowing! It's my kind-a ugly grey and orange olive egger hen. So much for waiting on her green eggs. I'm actually glad she's a boy. Mrs. Winnie, my only easter egger is one of my original hens and she is getting old. I hatched out two of her babies this Spring both were female both have orange legs instead of greeny grey so I'm guessing they will lay brown eggs. So now that Mr. hen is a boy I could actually get some real easter eggers out of Mrs. Winnie! Since he just now found his crow, it might be awhile before he figures out his man bits. I'm just happy to have a rooster again!

My not very good looking boy! That one tail feather had me wondering if she was a he for a few weeks now :)

A very young Mrs. Winnie! Love that girl
 

Happy/Sad Day

Today my little brother got to go home from the hospital. He had viral meningitis which he got from his kids daycare. He had a horrible headache, couldn't stand lights, and was completely miserable for about a week. We aren't very close, (because of something stupid that happened about seven years ago) but I love him and want him to be healthy and happy, so I'm glad he's better. I also have several broody hens sitting on eggs and today found a baby chick in a nest that three of the crazy broads were sitting in :/ I'm pretty sure my chicken total will double over the next few weeks. Don't get Cochin's unless you want babies. Lots and lots of babies they love to sit on eggs. Even the half breeds!

The baby chick is the happy part of my day. The sad part is one of my free range baby bunnies has apparently hurt it's back and is now dragging it's back legs. This makes me cry (again) just to type it :'( I held the little cutie and bawled my eyes out tonight. I can tell it's not going to live much longer. I'm not sure what happened to it but it's very sad :( Mrs. Ellie it's mamma is the best mamma bunny ever and she is so loving to the little thing.

On the garden front, I'm throwing in the towel on the squash. The bugs win yet again this year! I have spent hours hand picking the nasty little turds off the plants and they are still destroying it. I think aphids have gotten out of control on my cantaloupe plants. The lady bugs are all over it but the underside of the leaves are full of bugs. I really don't like using chemicals on my garden so this is going to take some research and lots of work to save them :/

This weekend my kids are headed to the panhandle to visit my sister, swim, and ride horses. They leave in the morning so I need to get them packed up. It will be a nice break but I will worry and miss them while they are gone. I need to finish up their laundry and guess what! I haven't done a ding dong dish today. Yeah, I hate dishes that bad, lol!!!!!!

I hate my job!

I have nothing exciting to post besides my job sucks! I LOVE being able to stay home and garden, play with animals, sew, crochet, all that fun stuff BUT the house cleaning, laundry and dishes are for the birds! I literally spent FIVE hours cleaning my kitchen today! You would think in five hours the oven would be cleaned, the floors mopped, cabinets cleaned out, and all the crusty gunk from behind the appliances gone. Nope it took five hours just to get caught up on all the stuff I haven't done lately. I'm lucky to have the hubs. He's adjusted to our new way of life, which is pretty much a dirty house and he hasn't fired me, yet ;)

Well that's my boring post for the day. How many days are left? I will try to liven it up before I take my July hiatus from blogging so I can get my whole house clean :))))

Silence of the Yard

This is the first time in years that I didn't wake up to a roosters crow................I'm not sure how I feel about this :/

The chicken pen is calm (too calm). The hens will have time to regrow their missing feathers and won't look like a flock of mangy mutts. I have two hens that have dirty behinds probably from being oversexed :/ they are getting baths today. Those roosters would really piss me off with their aggressive lovin' so my anger issues are gone while visiting the chickens but the silence, good grief it's quiet. This will take some getting used to. It doesn't feel like a farm without rooster noises. Hopefully the baby roosters find their voice soon and end this silence of the yard...........

Chiggers, mosquitos, and flies oh my!!!!!

I rebated my swarm traps yesterday and got chiggers around my ankles. My whole body is ate up with mosquito bites and the flies. Good grief the flies! Why didn't I put these sticky strips up weeks ago!!!!!

One day after hanging this up :/

Worked in the garden tonight and watched one of my free range baby bunnies eat tons of green bean buds, ugghhhh, not cute!

We butchered three roosters this weekend and tonight our neighbors buddy (funny fellow) came and got the other five. So in the morning my girls/hens will have a much needed break! I'm super happy about this! Some of my hens are missing tons of feathers on their backs and it looks like it hurts. I hope they heal up before the baby roo's grow up to be little buttheads.

I haven't been able to see blogs on my computer. It took a major dump last night and kinda crashed, so my lack of commenting isn't intentional. I just can't see your posts. Sorry :(

My beehive

Got my beehive painted today. I still need a bottom board and a top for it so I'm planning on visiting my beekeeping buddy this week :)

Rabbit hides part deux

Yesterday I finally got the hides washed. Hung them on a clothesline outside since they still kinda smelled funny. Today I started working them. I am covered in fur, some of them have bald spots but I'm so in love with these furs, bald spots and all, they are beautiful. I'm also very proud of myself for getting through the whole process without barfing :)



Hanging on the line. Two of my compost bins in the background. Yes I have more than two. There is a lot of oopy around here lol! Notice the rabbits feet. Hubby wanted to save them. I'm sure I will end up making them into keychains or something gross, lol! Fun fact only the left hind foot is lucky :)

three done three to go see the bald spots in the black one :/

soft and purty :)

Bullfrog

My neighbor has a giant bullfrog in his pond. It sounds like a bull. I guess that's how they got their name :)))))
Have a great weekend ya'll!

Stupid goat

My baby goat Darcy used to snuggle in my lap when I would milk her mamma. Now the little $!#%head likes to play ram the lady with the milk bucket. I no more walk in and the head butting starts. I usually try to wrestle her down with my leg but now I just milk with one hand and put a choke hold on her with the other. Yesterday she got the best of me and rammed my knee cap. It hurt all day. I'm thinking she's going to be tied up while I'm milking Mrs. Lady. She won't like it, but I'm sick of my legs being black and blue. Glad the little turd doesn't have horns :/

Not sure about morning glories.......

but I am sure that the Wonderberry is a pain in the butt! LAST YEAR I had four plants in the big garden. The baby chickens that were able to get through the chicken wire enjoyed their fair share of the berries. They were very tedious to pick, the berries were also so small and chock full of seeds they weren't that good. Yesterday I pulled weeds from my herb garden (which is a few feet from the big garden) and noticed a Wonderberry plant amongst the lemon balm. It had blooms and berries all over it. Then in my big garden I realize they are EVERYWHERE. I guess I've been so obsessed with killing squash bugs I haven't really looked around. I have several quarts of berries frozen from last years harvest. My plan was to make wine with them. The nutty flavor of the berry would probably make a fine red wine. I need to get it made so maybe next Summer I will be glad they are popping up everywhere :)

The Wonderberry plant nestled amongst my green beans. Something is eating the leaves on all the plants in the garden but it's still producing like crazy :/