Hi-ho the Merry Oh, the farmer takes the blame!

I am a little frustrated with the attitudes of some people. Especially those that are representing other people.

Do you remember a few years back when farmers were being blamed for the obesity epidemic in the US? They were growing too much food. Now they are being blamed for high gas prices and food prices. Farmers are indeed having a good year. Why should that be a problem? Why should they apologize for making some money, when most years they don't. And I don't want to hear a thing about subsidies. If you get rid of them now, and a major drought hits before this years harvest, they will not be making any money at all.

And to the woman on Fox News this morning. The chickens you buy in the grocery store are not, Let me repeat ARE NOT laying hens. They are caponized roosters. The only hens that are butchered for sale are the ones that are no longer laying. So the price of eggs has nothing to do with the butchering of hens. The price of eggs has to do with the price of grain, grain prices are determined by fuel, and fuel cost are determined by OPEC.

Let's not rant at the farmers for choosing to grow corn for fuel. That was a demand of the people, and government. Farmers saw money, just like any business man. If your jewelry isn't selling as well as your purse, what product will you be making more of? It's not about greed, its about living in a world where money runs everything. Look to yourself before passing the blame onto farmers. The costs of things has a lot to do with the weakened US dollar, high demand overseas, and fuel costs.

Don't blame the farmers for your SUV.

A Depression Family

Last night we went into the city to go to my mother's house. My great aunt was in town for her sister's funeral. She is 92, and the last of 11 siblings.

I really enjoyed listening to her, her daughter, and to her niece's stories. It was different then what my grandmother use to talk about. My grandmother really didn't tell too many stories, the Alzheimer's had seen to that. My great aunt has it as well, but seems to be easily lead down that road of her past.

Paper dolls, she talked about playing with paper dolls up in the hay loft with one of her other sisters. Grandmother was too young to be allowed to play with them, and the two girls would all ways send her away. There was a game called clodding, some of you may know that one. But one day they were clodding (throwing dirt clods at the outhouse when someone was using it) when their grandmother came out of it. My grandmother thew a clod just as her grandmother's hand had reached out, grasping the outhouse door, and it busted up her finger pretty badly. I remember my grandmother teaching me how to make corn shuck dolls. My great aunt pulled out a photo of my great great grandmother and father. I told my husband that this is what we will look like in 40 years.

The meeting last night and the some of the things I have heard from the mouths of children from the Great Depression have me thinking. Next week I would like to start a series on the Great depression, and things that went on to survive. And then modernize it. Would this be something that you would be interested in discussing? I realize that the current hot issue is environmental, but in my life, the Great depression seems to be just looming over the homestead once again.

Ugh

I haven't had a migraine like that in years. It hit me suddenly yesterday. I was out watering the garden and BAM! I was suddenly blind in one eye, and the pain.

Nothing more got accomplished yesterday. My husband says the chicks are still alive.

Trying to get back into the swing of things

Being without Internet for 10 days makes a big difference in your life. You get use to not being able to tell everyone what is going on. I would think, I need to write about this, then I forget about what it was.

Yesterday I was feeding the bannies when the brooding hens started to go all Reagan on me ( ya know "The cow is mine" head spinning, slit pea soup vomit). That's when I heard the peeping. CHICKS! It sounded as though one might have fell behind the nesting boxes. My husband was at a KDOT class so I was on my own. I went back into the house and grabbed my gloves. But how on earth was I going to deal with 3 possessed hens and a couple of chicks? I hollered for my neighbor to come help me. He said he would, then mentioned that I had gloves on. He has never had to deal with bannies before. I said I did indeed have gloves on, hens can hurt you. We walked out to the coop. I pushed out all the non brooding hens. One chick had fallen and one of the black bannies was keeping it warm. I grabbed that hen, and yelled at my neighbor to watch the hen in the nesting box right next to my head. That's all I needed was her scratching out my eyes. I grabbed that chick and but it in the bottom nesting box. We then grabbed the second hen, and I handed her off to the neighbor. I moved the second chick and all the eggs to the lower box. Now they should be able to get to food and water. Hopefully these ones will make it.

With Uma pulled off of Mama for the day, we are now getting 2 quarts of milk in the evening. Still enough left over for Uma to nurse. Husband was concerned that she wouldn't be getting enough. I told him, Mama will make more. Plus Uma gets a frothy mouth within minutes of being back with Mama.

My grandmother died yesterday. I am ok, but my mother isn't. If you got a kind word for her. . . I was never real close to my grandmother, so that might be the main reason I am not extremely broken up. I am sad, I did love my grandmother, but really didn't know her. When she came out here to live, she was already showing signs of Alzheimer's. She was 86 years old. My brother's are coming home from Colorado, my uncle is coming in, and the last sibling of 11 will be here ( grandmother had 10 brothers and sisters) she is 92.

The bees will be here this weekend.

A Good Monday Morning to Ya All

Where to start. . .

We have been very busy this past week. The garden is half done, potato leaves are now making an appearance. I bought a plant at the farm store that turned out to have aphids, and now my box has to be washed out.

The banny rooster died. Not sure why. I went out in the afternoon to check on their water, then later that evening he was dead. Good neighbor said that's why he doesn't like them. They just seem to fall over dead. The hen is with the black bannies now.

Cauliflower, cabbage, peas, and spinach are all starting to emerge.

We have two half sized telephone poles sticking 8 feet in the air, in the corners of the back field. We should get the fencing up sometime this week, and allow the cows out. Our hay supplier is out, we have to get those girls out there soon. And still no baby. But Eddie isn't liking her udder touched now. Got kicked for the first time yesterday. Wasn't as painful as I thought it might be. Though I do have two big bruises, one on each thigh.

There is a fox taking the good neighbor's chicks in the middle of the day. Hopefully we can take care of the problem soon.

We have began separating Uma and Mama during the day. With food prices the way they are, and the fact Uma is eating more and more graze, we thought it would be ok. Besides I read about it in all those books, it shouldn't hurt anyone. It annoys Mama, but she is really happy to see us come milking time. We put them back together at night.

There is more, but I have to run off now and do some chores. Until tomorrow,