Last weekend

At least for awhile.

Because of the season change my weekends are a little busy. So I will not be around on the weekends. I will pick up the Make it from scratch carnival come slow season. Sorry Stephanie, I was enjoying it.

Today's list of chores;
Fix field fencing
erect dog run
heat up goat pen
garden planting
household chores

That's just what needs to be done today, I have another list for tomorrow.

If you need something to read, check out my blogroll on the sidebar. So many interesting people over there.

See you all on Monday.

Putting new found talents to use

As I was saying yesterday, I have lost a number of hens, more than I had though yesterday. Lat night I confined them in the coop, the roosters were not happy about being separated from their loved ones, but they will get over it.

3 ducks, 2 geese, 3 roosters and 6 laying hens are all I have left. Luckily I do have one hen that is sitting on 5 eggs and I am brooding 13 chicks in my bathtub.

I was concerned about the amount of roosters I may have in the bathtub, so last night I applied my newly learned sexing technique. I have 2 roosters, well two that I am positive of. This means that my husband gets to put to use the caponizing kit I bought him.

I also felt the need to put a myth to a test. Something that a woman in a grocery store told me about as we looked over tomatoes and talked ducks.

Hold the pullet by the feet, upside down, if the chicken bend forward, beak toward hand, it is a rooster, if it bends backwards or not at all it's a hen.

With this batch of chicks it seems to be true. I will not say that it works every time, so don't go into the farm store to hold chicks upside down, the clerks nor the chicks will be pleased. Plus I don't want any of you running to me and blaming me for all your roosters.

untitled

Thank you for all your comments about the teasing. I will not be pulling him out to home school right now. But I have looked into co-op schooling. Can't find one here. I know that he will be fine through this, I had just hoped that he wouldn't go through the teasing. Right now I am glad he dosn't have the attitude his father did at that age, I would be scared for the other children. He has decided to play with the other country kids and ignore the ones that have been teasing him.

I have one horrific migraine going on right now, and shouldn't be looking at a computer screen. I am several hours behind on chores. I am frustrated and ready to throw it all in. All 4 of our turkeys are dead or gone. 6 hens went missing while we went to Texas, including both my banny hens, and no feathers to be found. Same thing happened last year at this time. Today is the first day all week that it hasn't rained, and I hurt to much to work in the garden.

I am crawling back into bed, maybe it will all be better in a few hours and I can get some things done.

A little of this

I wish to clarify my selfishness, there is nothing wrong with being green. I take good care of my parcel of land. It’s the fad that I find troublesome. If you wish to lead a greener life, I applaud you. Please remember that there isn’t an easy out.

I was asked about why I needed a donkey and did she need one? I have talked in the past about getting a llama for guard duty, donkeys are protective in the same way, except they are better with children and cuter. And yes, everyone needs a donkey.

The last thing on my mind this morning is my oldest son. He came home yesterday gritching. I asked him to do one of his chores and he ran off to his room crying, yelling that he had a bad day and all he wanted to do was lay around watching tv. I followed him and sat on his bed, asking what had happened. Between deep breaths and sobs, he told me that no one wanted to play with him at school, and that he was chased off with the taunting of “you stink.” He was told he smelled like a zoo. And because he lived on a farm he couldn't play with them. Then the kids followed him around the yard, taunting him about being a farm boy.

What do I say to that?

I squeezed his leg. I remember how the country kids were treated in my school. The thought of that happening brought tears, I knew it was worse than he admitted to. Calmly I told him that he had it better than the town children. He would have the teachings of both worlds when he grew up, and have more options, and easier transitions than those children. They were jealous that you have the animals that you do. Their parents don’t even let most of them get dirty. I told him he doesn’t smell, but we will take the precaution to shower well in the mornings and run clothes through the dryer. He sniffled and nodded.

Here I had been worried about the teasing that would come from living in a mobile home. I forgot that the country kids came with a stigma.

I wish there was more I could do to help him. I am hopeful he will come out of this with only a few tears and no physical scars.

Any ideas about how to soften the teasing?

Also, if anyone is interested in purchasing a small homestead in Kansas, let me know.

I am selfish

Emme yesterday asked what green meant to us. I answered that when I hear the word green that I picture my mother in the 1960, and not myself out in the fields. Yes, I also said that the word was a fad, a buzz word, yet somewhere in my statement I wasn't as clear as I could be about what I thought the word meant.

To be green, is to be a frog in a swamp. At least I sing a song by a certain frog when I hear the word.

In the past green meant someone that was consciously purchasing and watching their footprints. Not just vegans, or mud hut people. Green always felt like a generic term, and now has became oh so more. Now it means that you can shop anywhere and find that one must have "green" item. Be it labeled natural, evo friendly or what ever term you are looking for that would qualify it in your mind that it is "green". psst the Jones just bought a solar powered hot tub, we have to have a bigger one now.

With all the hubbub about politicians and actors going "green" the general public has begun to lose sight about what this movement is really suppose to be about. Fixing and saving.

I am not "green" by any definition. I am selfish. Whatever "green" you may see on these pages is a byproduct of my main goal. As I told Emme, I refer to myself as salt. So if you have come to my blog in search of how to greenify your life, in an easy way, it would be best if you moved on.

I am not a vegan, I raise and butcher my own meat. I have plans to use animals of burden. I tear up the land to plant my crops. I have made statements that consumerism is a good thing, but did qualify it by saying that you needed to make knowledgeable purchases.

I am selfish. I seed save. I am looking into grey water and solar power. I want to live off the grid, for more reasons than the electric companies have it in for the environment.

I drive a big truck. I have tried hauling hay and feed, animals and farm equipment in the hatch back of a small car. It doesn't work.

I started my garden out of selfishness, to feed us when we were down on our luck. The garden grew larger, and I discovered my true selfishness, I enjoyed it and it was all mine.

We do many thing by hand, we are determined to know that we can do these things, and that if something should ever happen, we can survive just a tad longer than some of the others. I want to prove to myself that I am not lazy, or soft. I work the land, mindful of it, because we need the soil to stay healthy year after year. I care for my animals, for I need then to stay healthy year after year. I care for my family for the same reason.

I am not green, I only appear that way to the outside world. I keep my immediate environment healthy because I am selfish.

Soon this green fad will fade, just like the recycling craze of the 1980's. Along with it, all the small lessons that the posers learned. If you buy into the fad, you gain relatively little. It will take a person's mind set to change. But as long as the Jones' have the better "green" items, I don't think that change will come. Yes, some good will come out of it. But this popular "green" is too easy, it's still about coveting and belonging.

Think salt of the Earth rather than greener pastures. Or am I being selfish?

HA! I just heard a commercial {watching the weather, tornadoes moving this way} "soandso, going greener for you." ha! No they aren't they are going greener so you'll buy more from them.

Farm Auction

Saturday we drove an hour out into the middle of nowwhere to attend a farm auction. Our goal was a windmill, a plow and a cast iron claw foot tub.

We arrived a little late, we didn't have time to look around before the auction got underway. The men wondered off into the machinery, while we women went into the barn for the furniture and other household goods. Sounds a little old fashion, but that's how it turned out.

I wasn't after the furniture, but did end up with a 1960's green foot stool with storage. I was only a dollar. I had my eye on one thing in that barn, and I would get it. But before we get to that, I also bought 2 boxes of 1960's board games, for a dollar. 2 boxes of fabrics and 2 boxes of crocheting material.

The auctioneers took a break, because they had begun the bidding on the tractors and cars. My sister-in-law approached me and told me that there was hard wood flooring in the barn. She had already told my husband {her brother} and he told her to tell me since I was the one working in that area. I thanked her for the heads up.

Back into the barn. I was going to bid on the canning jars, but m sister-in-law started, so I bowed out of it. I waited quietly until they got to the flooring. I won the bid at $22.50, turns out I was bidding against my brother-in-law without knowing. Ah, well, I wanted that flooring.

I got 7 bee hives for $9,

and a donkey cart for $5.

I didn't bid again until we got to the books. My bookcrossing friends will know how this story ends. I couldn't tell you how many books were there, or how many boxes. I informed my husband that I was going to be a good girl and only get 3 boxes. And I did, for $3 a box. Then my sister-in-law took two. Then no one wanted to bid. I took the remaining boxes, all, for $1. We moved onto the next table full of boxes of books. I didn't bid, I was trying to be good. One man bid and got 3 boxes, then once again no one bid. The auctioneer saw it in my eyes, he had too. He leaned over to me and said, "I will give you all the books and the small bookshelf and the wooden shop table for $1." I looked away, thinking and trying not to jump up and down screaming I LOVE YOU!. Instead I nodded, "one dollar." SOLD! I now have a couple thousand more books.

I told my father-in-law what I did, he shook his head and said that his son wouldn't be happy. But I got the shop table! And a man asked if he could go through my boxes and look for old bibles, I told him he could, but there wasn't a bible in the lot. He did give me $2 for an old encyclopedia.

I also got some milk filters and milking gear, and a few misc items.

I also got the cast iron bathtub, for $9!

and a garden planter for $5 {it still works}

My husband bought the plow

Yes, it is a horse pulled plow

The windmills went for almost $500 a piece, so we didn't win them.

He wasn't mad about the books because I had won my bids, low, on the items he wanted, or was glad I found. He bought 13 bridge boards, and 6 wood planks that were 30 feet long.

We spent a total of $300. Not bad for how much we got. Everything we bought will be used.

Sunday we had to retrieved the lumber. My husband and I did it alone. The bridge boards weighed 250 pounds a piece, and the planks were behind bid piles of someone's lumber inside of a shed. We had to lift and finagle them out, all 7 of them. We were down to 4 when someone came over and helped. It went a lot faster. Still after 3 hours, my arms are now dead weight.

The red gates on top of the lumber are stock racks.

I'll tell you what we are going to do with all that lumber later. It's very cool. . .um I mean hot.