Amber Waves of Grain

The above are pictures of 3 different wheat fields that surround my homestead. My uncle paid a visit to Kansas in early spring, when everything was still green. He asked after the amber waves. My father requested that I take some pictures when the wheat finished turning.

I realize that I have been a downer lately, can you blame me with my recent injuries? Next week I will tell you about some of the joys of homesteading. But here is where I need your help. Come Monday, I might not be up for talking about too much. Unless you want to hear about the motorcycle trip this weekend, you might want to ask a question or request a topic that doesn't make my head hurt. {OK we are going to a rally and a wedding}

The homestead is in capable hands. And I will see you on Monday. Have a great weekend.

This may sting, a little.

I wanted to tell you something. I thought of it late last night. But this morning. . . I have no clue what it was. I am a little distracted today. About mid back, the muscle tissue is swollen up over my spine. I am not sure how I manage this injury. It's just a tad uncomfortable.

Since I have already mentioned that it seems like I am always hurting, I suppose it would be a good idea to tell you about illness and living on a working homestead.

There are days that I hurt so much, be it from an injury or a migraine, that I think I would like to be able to sleep in all day. Its not like the animals will starve if I don't feed them. They are all grazers, including the birds that eat bugs and grasses. Although my goats are a bunch of spoiled little kids, and they will let everyone know that I am late with their alfalfa pellets. They are also a bad influence on donkey {the sheep} he has gotten into the oh woe is me act with them. {did any one notice on the previous post, the picture with the fridge door shut? If you click on it and look at the fencing behind it, donkey is standing there, staring} But this is about taking responsibility, even if I hurt all over, living things are depending on me to care for them. I must do the at least the minimum work around here.

I have no one to take over for me when I fall ill. Those things must be planned out ahead of time, like when we leave the homestead for a weekend. If things are very bad, I can call on a neighbor to at least feed the animals, but they too have their own work and you never know how long it will take them to get to your place. The best thing is to do it yourself.

We have been lucky thus far. In the six years that we have lived here there have been no major injuries, but we also don't have the major machinery. My husband has been bit, through a pillow sheet, welding glove, then through his thumb nail by a feral cat, some minor cuts and bruises from farm labor, and has been nailed by the rooster a few times. All of his laid up in bed {or he should be in bed} injuries have come from outside of the home, work. I have re torn a tendon in my shoulder, been attacked by the rooster, cut many times by fencing, have fallen I don't know how many times, on ice, mud, or attempting to move things. I have grown use to tetanus shots. Only one child has yet been hurt to the point that and emergency room visit has been necessary, our oldest, and that happened on a friend's ranch.

I have seen injuries get pretty bad out in the fields. At my mother's farm, my grandpa Lucky ran over their dog, Hopeful, with a swather. He survived, minus a leg and his manhood. A 2 year old child was ran over and killed by a swather. A man lost his hand in a turbine, and continued to work the field while his grandson ran back to the house to call for help. A women lost her hand. Another woman was picked up by a tornado as she fed her cattle, and was set down alive in a neighbors field. It can be rather scary when you think of all the things that could happen.

But you can't dwell on the possibilities, or nothing will ever get done. If you are planning on homesteading, and from the feed back I have received thus far, suggests that some of you are, I am not trying to scare you. When you are planning, think about what frequent injuries or illness you do have. Those are your only predictable ones. Make sure you can work through them, or have projects that can wait on you. Homesteading is an adventure, but it is one that ought to have some planning involved. Some of my mistakes have occurred because of little prep time.

And when you get ill, or sustain an injury, sometimes you just have to suck it up and move on. Your homestead depends on you. OK, now that did sound a little preachy, I did not mean for it to sound that way. I just want you to be prepared to hurt, to bleed, to fall on the ground in the middle of a field and weep, it will happen more often then you would like to admit. Though I haven't seen my husband cry, yet. But there are days were I can see the frustration in his face and his manners. We get so tired.

A white trash pictorial (or an eclectic yard)

NO, no pictures of pregnant women in tube tops with open cans of natty lite.

First, I would like to clarify things about my husband. He prefers to work on old school bikes, but he does work on brand spankin' new ones. Here is a picture from yesterday, It is a 1989 H-D. I know a little blurry, but he wouldn't pose for it.

The dog run chicken coop that the goats have managed to drag things into and split apart the old dog house. I swear they are just like children.

The goat play ground which they have managed to take down, again.

Old tire for a tree guard

cattle fencing for the grapes

Motorcycle crate used as a wind block {it worked wonderfully last Wednesday when we had 40 mph sustained winds}

The fridge with the feed

It was getting dark out when I remembered that the Fool had asked for pictures. And it is raining now. Soon I will go out and take more photos for you viewing {giggling, distasteful gasps} pleasure.

I want to. . .

I have been online for a little while this morning, catching up on some blog reading. Looks like most of you are talking reduction or gardening. 'Tis that time of season.

I am hung over, no not from drinking, from working. My shoulder aches and my hand is swollen twice its normal size. This brings me back to, why am I doing this? In a time where I could purchase a wattle fence online, or have someone else can their hard earn veggies for me, or move into the city where I could walk, instead of driving into work, and have all modern conveniences at my finger tips, I still work for just about everything I have, in a more difficult way. And time and time again, I end up suffering for it, physically. Even my husband isn't as modern as most. Yes he does build and repair motorcycles for a living, but the bikes he builds are rather old school, and done by hand. No fuel injections, spoked wheels laced by hand, he puts a lot of love and craftsmanship into these bikes. Even my project bike is a Harley Davidson Flathead from 1949.

Maybe that in its self answered the question. We love doing it. We know the consequences for what we do. We will be physically older then we should be because of all the labor. If you would have informed me back in the day that I would actually enjoy this lifestyle, I would have laughed at you.

It's wonderful to hear some of you tell me that you romanticize about homesteading. But to tell you the truth, most days I really won't recommend it. I know, blasphemy. Yet, none the less, it is true. You wake up far too early and go to sleep far too late. You live off of little sleep and too much work. Every time you turn around there is yet another demand on your time and attention. It does get frustrating. Since Saturday I have been working almost none stop, with all the big projects that I am attempting to conclude. I want a break...no I need a break. I want to sleep in on the weekends like normal people do, or go see a movie, or even waste an entire day by just lounging around reading a book. I want to stop hurting on a daily basis, unfortunately I do not have the time to allow an injury to fully heal before working. Hence the shoulder pain.

I don't want to call the doctor and say, My husband was attacked by the rooster, and we think it is infected. They tend to have me repeat what I just said, not believing it. {Sunday he was blindsided by our standard rooster, got him in the shin, he now has two puncture wounds there from the spurs}

I would like to be able to make a play date with real life friends. I have very few, and none of them are willing to drive out here. The only time off I do get tends to be scheduled motorcycle events, rallies, poker runs and the like. I do love being on the back of a bike, but even that can get physically tiring.

Yet I still do this. I still wake up early to see the sunrise out of the corner of my eye as I care for animals and garden. I take 2 hours to cook a meal that will be eaten in 10 minutes. I still brush out goats, or dress out birds. I still spend hours caring for new vegetables. I still work to bring home sticks, twigs and small trees for fencing, or windmill stands, or cattle fencing.

I still do all the things that I complain about, moan and groan over for several simple reason, I am satisfied with the results, I love the outcome, and when I sleep, I sleep well.

The weekend in review

It was a very long weekend. Unfortunately my husband worked Saturday, so the physical labor he likes for me to endure didn't begin until that evening.

Early Saturday morning, I loaded up my boys and we headed off to the Farmers Market. Over the years, I have sampled beef from all the vendors. Beef vendors tend to stay the same there. {as in the same family farms selling their wares} There is one farm that I have fallen in love with. Greener Pastures, their steaks are melt in your mouth yummy. They are a little more pricey then some of their competitors, on Saturday one of the men was try to sell fillet to a female customer, she said "not for the price." My reply was, I think they are worth it, no matter their prices. And the man thanked me. Does that get me a discount?

New bakers are added all the time, I still can't tell you my favorite, as I think I am my own favorite. Conceded much? I still like to buy baked goods at the market. This week a bought a loaf of wheat and a loaf of spelt from Solomon bread. Their is no animal fats, or by products in the bread. It wasn't bad at all. The cookies did have milk and eggs in them, my children loved them.

I stopped at the booth of the Little Red Hen Bakery for some stone ground wheat flour. Alas they were out {that will teach me to get there late} He did give us a slice of bread to try. Very good.

I bought a large package of cinnamon rolls from Marie's baked Goods {it was 8 am and we were hungry} It was a little more store bought tasting then home style, but passable when you are hungry.

I bought mechanics soap from Natures Blend Soaps. My husband was happy with the results of it. They have a few other soaps I am willing to try out as well.

I bought some Blackberry syrup from another vendor, unfortunately they did not have any cards out.

I also bought a shopping bag from Nancy's Nice Knits. She was in a little side area with only a couple of vendors. Not many people were headed through that way. It's a lovely hand knitted bag in military greens and browns. There was also another vendor in that area that had organic game bird meat. I plan on hitting him up the next time through.

And yes, I do recommend the above vendors to you.

That evening we went out to my husband's grandmother's rundown farm. It became neglected after her husband died. We are slowly reclaiming some of the items that are left there. This weekend it was the windmill stand. The head had come down years ago in a storm. But we had met a man and his son at the farm auction that has a couple of them that they are willing to sell us at a reasonable price.

Yesterday, my oldest son and myself went to one of my step-father's properties and loaded up my truck with limbs and twigs. These items will be used to make a fence with. I have to go back today for another truck load.

So much work, so many projects need to be completed, and I already feel it in my shoulders.

an odd weekend entry

Tornado!

That would have been me screaming as I jumped out of my bed last night. The house shaking and the deafening noise of a gigantic vacuum cleaner passing over us. Or was it a freight train?

I ran through the house, trying to peer out into the night. Wind tore at the trees, the garage door ripped open. Oh God oh God oh God was my mantra. Where is it...it's moving on, southward. I listened carefully as the sound moved away.

I switched the tv on to the local station. The radar appeared, but no sound emerged, then the station went black. I switched to the next one, tennis? Then the next, another black station. Back to the first, there was now sound as well as visual.

Thunder? That was only thunder and wind?

Be still my heart, and back to sleep.