I have some rooms to paint. ~gasp~ But it is winter Phelan! You have to open windows so you don't die from the fumes! And you have migraines, how on earth. . .
Well, we are not going to go out and buy the paint. Nope, winter project #2 is making your own natural paint. I have 3 different recipes that we can use.
#1
1 Quart skim milk (room temperature)
1 Once of hydrated lime by weight ( Do not use quick lime)
1 to 2 1/2 pounds of chalk may also be added as a filler.
Stir together milk and lime to form a smooth paste. Add color pigment of your choice and apply with bristle brush. Allow first coat to dry before applying another.
#2
One Gallon Skim Milk
Two Cups Builders Lime (Do NOT use Quick Lime)
One Quart Linseed Oil (the boiled type)
1/2 Cup of Salt
Dye (Color) add in as needed
Mix all ingredients together and strain through a cheesecloth. Use within a day or two.
#3
Powdered Skim Milk
Water
Food Coloring
Mix just enough powder and water to create the consistency of paint. Add food coloring of your choice or make it various herbs and vegetables. Strain through a cheesecloth.
I will be doing #3, because all I have to purchase is the powdered milk. I think I will be doing a sage green for the living room, it should go well with the mobile home fake wood panels.
Pictures to follow.
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Friday, January 02, 2009
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Happy New Year!
2008 was an interesting year on the Neophyte Homestead, to say the least. We have been through floods, livestock loses, almost a foreclosure, and learned some wonderful lessons, gained friends, got a horse, and learned to butcher something else. 2009 should be just as interesting.
Traditionally, our homesteading friends post their upcoming goals, you can see the tittles in the side bar, of the up coming year. Of course I do the same. It is a reminder of what needs to be done, and what our wants for a new year are.
For 2009 the Neophyte Homestead's goals are as follows;
Butcher a hog
Birthing goats
make rennet
Rabbits
Begin work on the farmstead
Acquire a milking shorthorn (supplemental income)
Make goat cheese
Expand my business (state law prohibits me to tell you what it is publicly, you have to email me)
Butcher geese
For 2009 we will have organically raised heritage transplants available for sale. We have already begun growing them, using the Phelan Box.
Teach a canning class
Have a homestead foods cookbook available
Survive the up coming recession. (it almost feels like many of us are preparing for war)
Those are some of the things you can look forward to here. Of course things will pop up, wonderful things, devastating things and of course the mundane. I do hope that many of you will join me in these adventures this year. I a hope that your New Year will be fulfilling!
Traditionally, our homesteading friends post their upcoming goals, you can see the tittles in the side bar, of the up coming year. Of course I do the same. It is a reminder of what needs to be done, and what our wants for a new year are.
For 2009 the Neophyte Homestead's goals are as follows;
Butcher a hog
Birthing goats
make rennet
Rabbits
Begin work on the farmstead
Acquire a milking shorthorn (supplemental income)
Make goat cheese
Expand my business (state law prohibits me to tell you what it is publicly, you have to email me)
Butcher geese
For 2009 we will have organically raised heritage transplants available for sale. We have already begun growing them, using the Phelan Box.
Teach a canning class
Have a homestead foods cookbook available
Survive the up coming recession. (it almost feels like many of us are preparing for war)
Those are some of the things you can look forward to here. Of course things will pop up, wonderful things, devastating things and of course the mundane. I do hope that many of you will join me in these adventures this year. I a hope that your New Year will be fulfilling!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
IMPORTANT!!!!! READ NOW!
Obama is taking input and NAIS has made it onto the board. They're asking all of us to write in and comment on both the official web site and their personal one (addresses below with directions). I am cut/pasting the email:
Change.Org - Voting Ends Today for this one!
The private website, www.change.org, will present the "Top 10 Ideasfor America" to the Obama Adminsitration on Inauguration Day. The first phase of the voting ends today, and the top 3 ideas in eachcategory will be selected for the second round of voting. "Stop NAIS"is currently in third place in Agriculture, and the voting is very close! A few votes may make the difference between the Stop NAIS message making it to the next round, or not!
Step 1: If you are not already signed up for the site, register at: https://www.change.org/admin/sign_up
Step 2: Go to http://www.change.org/ideas/view/stop_nais Be sure to click the box labeled "vote!" to the left of the Stop NAIS! Simply leaving a comment does not count as a vote.and also:
Change.Gov
The Obama Transition Team has set up a section calld "Open for Questions" on the official website. They have not specified the deadline for submitting or voting on questions, but said they willrespond to the top issues "in the new year."
Step 1: Go to http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions20081229/
Step 2: Type "animal identification" into the box next to "Search Questions" There are currently 8 questions that involve NAIS that can be found by searching those terms.
Step 3: Click on the checkmark by the question to vote "yes". If you are not already signed in, you will be asked to, with a link at the top of the box.
Please help us stop NAIS. Feel free to copy and past for your own blog. Thanks to Small Meadow Farms for the heads up.
Change.Org - Voting Ends Today for this one!
The private website, www.change.org, will present the "Top 10 Ideasfor America" to the Obama Adminsitration on Inauguration Day. The first phase of the voting ends today, and the top 3 ideas in eachcategory will be selected for the second round of voting. "Stop NAIS"is currently in third place in Agriculture, and the voting is very close! A few votes may make the difference between the Stop NAIS message making it to the next round, or not!
Step 1: If you are not already signed up for the site, register at: https://www.change.org/admin/sign_up
Step 2: Go to http://www.change.org/ideas/view/stop_nais Be sure to click the box labeled "vote!" to the left of the Stop NAIS! Simply leaving a comment does not count as a vote.and also:
Change.Gov
The Obama Transition Team has set up a section calld "Open for Questions" on the official website. They have not specified the deadline for submitting or voting on questions, but said they willrespond to the top issues "in the new year."
Step 1: Go to http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions20081229/
Step 2: Type "animal identification" into the box next to "Search Questions" There are currently 8 questions that involve NAIS that can be found by searching those terms.
Step 3: Click on the checkmark by the question to vote "yes". If you are not already signed in, you will be asked to, with a link at the top of the box.
Please help us stop NAIS. Feel free to copy and past for your own blog. Thanks to Small Meadow Farms for the heads up.
How To Butcher Your Meat Goat
We need to back track a bit with the story. Sunday I called my good neighbor to ask if he still planned on raising heritage turkeys this spring, we wanted to do a little dealing with him so that we could skip turkeys this year, and raise geese. With those plans made, he asked about our previous squatter, who is now out of jail. The squatter had called and said he planned on being out here on Monday, and Good Neighbor wanted him to butcher his 2 Boer kids for him. "we can do that."
Monday the good neighbor came over, it was decided that if the squatter wasn't here by 2, that we would go ahead and do it ourselves. The squatter didn't show, and a few minutes after 2pm, we heard a gun shot.
To kill your goat, separate him out from the rest of the animals, distracting him with a pan of food. While he eats, place your gun close to the back of his head, right below the horns. Goats skulls are hard, using a hammer or just hitting him, might knock him out, Good Neighbor used his .38.
Next throw the goat into the back of your truck and drive over to our house. Not sure why these things must occur on our property, and that we can't come to their property. It's not like every one already thinks were odd or something.
Now we need to hang the goat. We have a wood rack, without wood, that we flipped, reminds you of monkey bars, and hung one leg, tied with rope, on each side. Slit the goats throat to allow it to bleed out.
Then pose with the goat for a photo opt. This Boer kid is not a whether, and is 9 months old. I have read that it is normal for a goat to be butchered between the ages of 5 months to 9 months.
Once again I run into the problem of no one agreeing with how long to allow the animal to hang before doing everything else to it. We decided on twenty minutes.
Starting at the top of the upside down goat, you want to cut the skin, without cutting into the meat, around the genitalia, then down his chest. Of course this takes 2 men to do that part of it.
But do you know what only takes 1 person to do? Cutting around the anus of a goat, pulling it out and tying a bow around it. And do you know who gets to do that part? Correct, the girl!
Good neighbor couldn't breathe he was laughing so hard, and he took this photo,
Yes, that would be my finger inside of a goat butt. Hey, in my defense I was trying to keep hold of it as I cut the bottom (no pun!) side of it.
You need to use a piece of twine to tie the intestine. Of course the boys, I mean men, didn't hand me a piece of string, so I tied a bow.
We discovered that it takes a bit of time to skin a goat. Maybe that is why there is no notes on how long to bleed one out.
This is a project that should be started in the early morning and not in the late afternoon.
Once you get the skin down to the neck you can either cut the skin off there, or continue on, depending on what you want to do with the hide. We decided to stop at the neck.
Next you step back and stare at it, while the horror freak mentions that this reminds her of a scene from HellRaiser. . .
Then all the boys tell the girl that she needs to cut the umm...scrotum off the carcass. Said girl gives boys the evil eye, then using a pair of field dress scissors, to cut the scrotum off, while the boys make all kinds of crude comments about how the girl didn't even hesitate on doing that, and ouching at certain times. Flip the scrotum sac inside out and pop the testicles out. Throw some salt inside the empty sac, and you have a coin purse to remind those boys that you have a pair of field scissors and ain't afraid to use them. Next you remove the penis. This is the simplest thing to remove (no pun) start at the belly, snip underneath it, then cut all the way up. We discovered that this part doesn't come out with the innards, so snip it off. No photos because boys are wusses.
Remove the head.
Now you want to saw open the aitch bone. (H-bone)
As you can see here, this is like the pelvic bone. It is rather tough, saw is the best way to go. BE CAREFUL!!! You don't want to rupture anything inside, that would be yucky. At this point the goats belly is bloating up ~shiver~ If you hear a hissing noise, that means something has ruptured and it will stink once you open your goat. No worries however, this doesn't spoil the meat like it does with birds.
Carefully slit the meat from the aitch bone, between the ribs, down to his shoulder.
Here is the point where one of my customers arrives. The poor guy, every time he comes over he has a new story to tell the family. Lucky for us he is a hunter and has dressed out a deer before. If you have dressed out a deer, you can dress out a goat. He just happened to have a specialty knife in his truck. It was called a skinner, has a hook at the end of it. This helps with the splitting immensely. He also stayed and helped with the rest of the dressing out.
Once you have your goat open, gravity is suppose to take over and the innards fall out. HAHAHAHA! Those of you that read this blog know by now that things are never as simple here as they are in the books. There was no falling out.
The men grabbed the front legs and lifted the goat, still nothing.
Now, can you guess who the boys volunteered to reach inside of the goat Correct, me! No pictures of this maneuver. Reach inside the goat and start breaking the membrane, just like you do with your chickens. The stomach is pliable, so don't worry about breaking it, that is unless you need to use a knife. There was still some meat attached to the innards, so a knife was used for a brief moment. As you are breaking the membrane, feel around for the throat. Once you find that, pull, and pull hard. You might slip and fall, landing in goats blood, but hey, those jeans of yours could use a little more color.
Use a garden hose to rinse the inside and out thoroughly. Next hang the goat in a cool dry place.
We hung ours in the garage. You can age it for a few days as long as your temperatures are not going to be over 45F. Since we were expecting 50F the next day, ours only hung over night.
Here is your gratuitous Rocky Moment.
He's single ladies.
The next day, take your goat down and move it to your butchering table.
We placed our chicken chopping block under the legs, to prevent too much damage to the table. Chop the legs.
Good Neighbor wasn't wasting time, and used a 3lbs ax.
With all four legs removed, you can now cut off the meat, but in this, our first time, we decided to leave it whole and roast it in celebration this weekend. Wrap with newspaper and deli paper and of course paper tape.
Happy Birthday!
Luckily for us, not too many things went wrong, everything that did go wrong on that day was in yesterdays' post. How's that for a nice full day?
Ask, if you have any questions. I tried to be thorough here, but I can be a bit absent minded.
(hide: we will be keeping the hide for a hat, or so good neighbor has informed me that is what he wants. Once the hide is removed, clean off as much of the none skin junk as you can, use regular table salt to cover. You can never use enough salt. roll up the hide and place it out of the sun, for 7 days. We will get back to this on a later post)
Monday the good neighbor came over, it was decided that if the squatter wasn't here by 2, that we would go ahead and do it ourselves. The squatter didn't show, and a few minutes after 2pm, we heard a gun shot.
To kill your goat, separate him out from the rest of the animals, distracting him with a pan of food. While he eats, place your gun close to the back of his head, right below the horns. Goats skulls are hard, using a hammer or just hitting him, might knock him out, Good Neighbor used his .38.
Next throw the goat into the back of your truck and drive over to our house. Not sure why these things must occur on our property, and that we can't come to their property. It's not like every one already thinks were odd or something.
Now we need to hang the goat. We have a wood rack, without wood, that we flipped, reminds you of monkey bars, and hung one leg, tied with rope, on each side. Slit the goats throat to allow it to bleed out.
Then pose with the goat for a photo opt. This Boer kid is not a whether, and is 9 months old. I have read that it is normal for a goat to be butchered between the ages of 5 months to 9 months.
Once again I run into the problem of no one agreeing with how long to allow the animal to hang before doing everything else to it. We decided on twenty minutes.
Starting at the top of the upside down goat, you want to cut the skin, without cutting into the meat, around the genitalia, then down his chest. Of course this takes 2 men to do that part of it.
But do you know what only takes 1 person to do? Cutting around the anus of a goat, pulling it out and tying a bow around it. And do you know who gets to do that part? Correct, the girl!
Good neighbor couldn't breathe he was laughing so hard, and he took this photo,
Yes, that would be my finger inside of a goat butt. Hey, in my defense I was trying to keep hold of it as I cut the bottom (no pun!) side of it.
You need to use a piece of twine to tie the intestine. Of course the boys, I mean men, didn't hand me a piece of string, so I tied a bow.
We discovered that it takes a bit of time to skin a goat. Maybe that is why there is no notes on how long to bleed one out.
This is a project that should be started in the early morning and not in the late afternoon.
Once you get the skin down to the neck you can either cut the skin off there, or continue on, depending on what you want to do with the hide. We decided to stop at the neck.
Next you step back and stare at it, while the horror freak mentions that this reminds her of a scene from HellRaiser. . .
Then all the boys tell the girl that she needs to cut the umm...scrotum off the carcass. Said girl gives boys the evil eye, then using a pair of field dress scissors, to cut the scrotum off, while the boys make all kinds of crude comments about how the girl didn't even hesitate on doing that, and ouching at certain times. Flip the scrotum sac inside out and pop the testicles out. Throw some salt inside the empty sac, and you have a coin purse to remind those boys that you have a pair of field scissors and ain't afraid to use them. Next you remove the penis. This is the simplest thing to remove (no pun) start at the belly, snip underneath it, then cut all the way up. We discovered that this part doesn't come out with the innards, so snip it off. No photos because boys are wusses.
Remove the head.
Now you want to saw open the aitch bone. (H-bone)
As you can see here, this is like the pelvic bone. It is rather tough, saw is the best way to go. BE CAREFUL!!! You don't want to rupture anything inside, that would be yucky. At this point the goats belly is bloating up ~shiver~ If you hear a hissing noise, that means something has ruptured and it will stink once you open your goat. No worries however, this doesn't spoil the meat like it does with birds.
Carefully slit the meat from the aitch bone, between the ribs, down to his shoulder.
Here is the point where one of my customers arrives. The poor guy, every time he comes over he has a new story to tell the family. Lucky for us he is a hunter and has dressed out a deer before. If you have dressed out a deer, you can dress out a goat. He just happened to have a specialty knife in his truck. It was called a skinner, has a hook at the end of it. This helps with the splitting immensely. He also stayed and helped with the rest of the dressing out.
Once you have your goat open, gravity is suppose to take over and the innards fall out. HAHAHAHA! Those of you that read this blog know by now that things are never as simple here as they are in the books. There was no falling out.
The men grabbed the front legs and lifted the goat, still nothing.
Now, can you guess who the boys volunteered to reach inside of the goat Correct, me! No pictures of this maneuver. Reach inside the goat and start breaking the membrane, just like you do with your chickens. The stomach is pliable, so don't worry about breaking it, that is unless you need to use a knife. There was still some meat attached to the innards, so a knife was used for a brief moment. As you are breaking the membrane, feel around for the throat. Once you find that, pull, and pull hard. You might slip and fall, landing in goats blood, but hey, those jeans of yours could use a little more color.
Use a garden hose to rinse the inside and out thoroughly. Next hang the goat in a cool dry place.
We hung ours in the garage. You can age it for a few days as long as your temperatures are not going to be over 45F. Since we were expecting 50F the next day, ours only hung over night.
Here is your gratuitous Rocky Moment.
He's single ladies.
The next day, take your goat down and move it to your butchering table.
We placed our chicken chopping block under the legs, to prevent too much damage to the table. Chop the legs.
Good Neighbor wasn't wasting time, and used a 3lbs ax.
With all four legs removed, you can now cut off the meat, but in this, our first time, we decided to leave it whole and roast it in celebration this weekend. Wrap with newspaper and deli paper and of course paper tape.
Happy Birthday!
Luckily for us, not too many things went wrong, everything that did go wrong on that day was in yesterdays' post. How's that for a nice full day?
Ask, if you have any questions. I tried to be thorough here, but I can be a bit absent minded.
(hide: we will be keeping the hide for a hat, or so good neighbor has informed me that is what he wants. Once the hide is removed, clean off as much of the none skin junk as you can, use regular table salt to cover. You can never use enough salt. roll up the hide and place it out of the sun, for 7 days. We will get back to this on a later post)
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Cowgirl BABY!
It was an action filled day yesterday here on the Neophyte Homestead. So much happened that I will be making two separate posts to talk about all of it.
Good neighbor arrived mid afternoon to go with my husband to pick up a bale of green wheat, and promptly got stuck in the mud. We got him out, but decided to wait on the wheat, they worried that the truck would get stuck out in the farmers field. We chatted for a bit, and decided on a project to do together. This will be the topic of tomorrows post. After Good Neighbor left, my husband and I walk over to the neighbor across the ways house. You know the one that was for sale, then not for sale, then for rent and now. . . now they are leasing the land for sheep, and will be renting the front acreage and house soon, maybe. I digress, the husband had told us that we could have the wood rack and the cinder blocks. We carried the wood rack home then went back for the cinder blocks. As we were leaving the wife showed up to feed her chickens. We talked while the biological mother of the wife's adopted son went to check on the birds. She came back to inform us that one of the meat birds was covered in blood. We went back to look.
The bird had a chunk of her wing missing. The woman put gloves on, she was freaked out by the blood and didn't want to touch it. I went in and grabbed the injured bird without gloves. We looked over her, and I said that she should be fine. The bleeding had stopped. As it was a meat bird and they planned on eating it soon, I suggested going ahead with the butchering. If it got ill, they couldn't eat it, and if they gave it antibiotics, they would have to wait longer to butcher it. They decided to go ahead and butcher. The woman and I brought the bird over to my home, where we had everything needed to do the job. The woman wants to learn how to do all of this anyway, so it was a good learning experience for her. We got to the hanging part of the event.
The wife's kids and my boys were all playing at the house across the way. Suddenly I looked up as 3 sheep came booking out of the pen. One of our 4 year olds had left the gate open. I hollered trying to get the wife and the woman's attention. The woman came running. Are you serious? She really thought that running after them, she would catch them. All she did was get them more spooked and running faster. I asked the wife if she had a bucket of feed, all they had was some hay. Grrrr...I grabbed some feed, and told her to walk up slowly and shake the bucket. The sheep were not use to this, and with the woman running. . .well, I decided it was time to put some of my herding practice into use.
I went and brought Sunny (horse) from the field, and saddled him up. Good neighbor was there and showed me a better way of saddling than what I had been taught. I am so glad to have him around. I digress. I mounted and rode off to find the sheep. Sunny can go where their truck can't, and with the wife being in her 60's and not in the greatest of shape, having a horse to help with the round up made things much easier. I found them down the road, they had the sheep up in the front yard of the horse neighbor's.
I sauntered up with Sunny, penning the sheep between me, the house and a hot fence. The woman charged in, thinking she could quickly slip a lead around one of the sheep's necks. Her action caused Sunny to startle, and the sheep got past us. I rushed out, to get them out of the road and back onto some property. The corner neighbor saw all the action and informed us that she had an empty pen the we could try to get the sheep into. I circled the sheep with Sunny, then kept us between the sheep and the road, and walked toward the corner neighbor's.
Unfortunately there were too many obstacles for Sunny and I. The sheep slipped away, and Sunny and I ran around the lagoon toward the second road. FENCE SUNNY FENCE! Corner neighbor had chain link fencing laying on the ground. It was obscured until we were on top of it. Sunny managed to maneuver it with out getting hurt.
Sunny loved this. He was more then happy to chase down the sheep, he was actually responding better in this situation than he had on normal rides, he can be stubborn. We had to go back and forth around the backside of the lagoon 3 times, before the other's allowed the sheep to get past them. Sunny and I ran down the road, full throttle. We changed our approach with the sheep and ran them down, they were getting tired. Sunny and I chased them straight back into the neighbor across the way's yard, penning them until someone could come up and open the gate. I don't know why it was closed. While we waited, the sheep spooked into the garage, and one of the wife's kids closed them in.
Sunny and I were thanked. Sunny got some lovin's from the women folk and I was rewarded by being allowed to keep the chicken we had begun to butcher. I brushed Sunny out and rewarded him with his treat. Suddenly I hear a pre-teen girl, well 3 pre-teen girls start giggling screaming. That is the best way to describe what they were doing. Turns out that while we were chasing sheep, our calf, Urth's Umbra, had popped through a weak spot in the fence and was roaming with the horse neighbor's horses. Urth was simpler to get back, we shook a bucket of feed at her, and she came running back.
The neighbor across the way came over to retrieve her 4 year old. As we waited for him to get his shoes and coat, we stood at my gate and talked a bit. She said she was ready to borrow the good neighbor's rifle and shoot those sheep. I laughed, that was something the good neighbor had suggested before I took off on Sunny. The 4 year old made it out to the gate, and then across the road when I saw our new neighbor (the ones that treat their horses badly) running across the field straight at us, screaming. What? Suddenly hooves hitting the road got louder. Horses! We yelled at the 4 year old to run! RUN BOY! RUN TO THE TRUCK! Three horses, who were spooked out by the owners own dogs, came running down the road. ( this is the same dogs that bite at our horses when we ride past) The wife looked at me, and I told her not to worry, horses are easier than sheep. Just as I said that, the horses had turned around and ran straight home. See?
It was a day full of escapees. And I was tired.
Here is your WARNING. I don't want to hear that I didn't give you any warning. Tomorrows post will be about butchering and dressing out a meat goat. This was what we were doing before all the above happened. One of the things that brings in a lot of new readers, is that do post about this part of the homesteading life. New readers, you have been warned, tomorrow the discussion will be graphic and there will be pictures. Skip tomorrows post if you don't want to see or hear this talk, and I will see you back here on Thursday.
Good neighbor arrived mid afternoon to go with my husband to pick up a bale of green wheat, and promptly got stuck in the mud. We got him out, but decided to wait on the wheat, they worried that the truck would get stuck out in the farmers field. We chatted for a bit, and decided on a project to do together. This will be the topic of tomorrows post. After Good Neighbor left, my husband and I walk over to the neighbor across the ways house. You know the one that was for sale, then not for sale, then for rent and now. . . now they are leasing the land for sheep, and will be renting the front acreage and house soon, maybe. I digress, the husband had told us that we could have the wood rack and the cinder blocks. We carried the wood rack home then went back for the cinder blocks. As we were leaving the wife showed up to feed her chickens. We talked while the biological mother of the wife's adopted son went to check on the birds. She came back to inform us that one of the meat birds was covered in blood. We went back to look.
The bird had a chunk of her wing missing. The woman put gloves on, she was freaked out by the blood and didn't want to touch it. I went in and grabbed the injured bird without gloves. We looked over her, and I said that she should be fine. The bleeding had stopped. As it was a meat bird and they planned on eating it soon, I suggested going ahead with the butchering. If it got ill, they couldn't eat it, and if they gave it antibiotics, they would have to wait longer to butcher it. They decided to go ahead and butcher. The woman and I brought the bird over to my home, where we had everything needed to do the job. The woman wants to learn how to do all of this anyway, so it was a good learning experience for her. We got to the hanging part of the event.
The wife's kids and my boys were all playing at the house across the way. Suddenly I looked up as 3 sheep came booking out of the pen. One of our 4 year olds had left the gate open. I hollered trying to get the wife and the woman's attention. The woman came running. Are you serious? She really thought that running after them, she would catch them. All she did was get them more spooked and running faster. I asked the wife if she had a bucket of feed, all they had was some hay. Grrrr...I grabbed some feed, and told her to walk up slowly and shake the bucket. The sheep were not use to this, and with the woman running. . .well, I decided it was time to put some of my herding practice into use.
I went and brought Sunny (horse) from the field, and saddled him up. Good neighbor was there and showed me a better way of saddling than what I had been taught. I am so glad to have him around. I digress. I mounted and rode off to find the sheep. Sunny can go where their truck can't, and with the wife being in her 60's and not in the greatest of shape, having a horse to help with the round up made things much easier. I found them down the road, they had the sheep up in the front yard of the horse neighbor's.
I sauntered up with Sunny, penning the sheep between me, the house and a hot fence. The woman charged in, thinking she could quickly slip a lead around one of the sheep's necks. Her action caused Sunny to startle, and the sheep got past us. I rushed out, to get them out of the road and back onto some property. The corner neighbor saw all the action and informed us that she had an empty pen the we could try to get the sheep into. I circled the sheep with Sunny, then kept us between the sheep and the road, and walked toward the corner neighbor's.
Unfortunately there were too many obstacles for Sunny and I. The sheep slipped away, and Sunny and I ran around the lagoon toward the second road. FENCE SUNNY FENCE! Corner neighbor had chain link fencing laying on the ground. It was obscured until we were on top of it. Sunny managed to maneuver it with out getting hurt.
Sunny loved this. He was more then happy to chase down the sheep, he was actually responding better in this situation than he had on normal rides, he can be stubborn. We had to go back and forth around the backside of the lagoon 3 times, before the other's allowed the sheep to get past them. Sunny and I ran down the road, full throttle. We changed our approach with the sheep and ran them down, they were getting tired. Sunny and I chased them straight back into the neighbor across the way's yard, penning them until someone could come up and open the gate. I don't know why it was closed. While we waited, the sheep spooked into the garage, and one of the wife's kids closed them in.
Sunny and I were thanked. Sunny got some lovin's from the women folk and I was rewarded by being allowed to keep the chicken we had begun to butcher. I brushed Sunny out and rewarded him with his treat. Suddenly I hear a pre-teen girl, well 3 pre-teen girls start giggling screaming. That is the best way to describe what they were doing. Turns out that while we were chasing sheep, our calf, Urth's Umbra, had popped through a weak spot in the fence and was roaming with the horse neighbor's horses. Urth was simpler to get back, we shook a bucket of feed at her, and she came running back.
The neighbor across the way came over to retrieve her 4 year old. As we waited for him to get his shoes and coat, we stood at my gate and talked a bit. She said she was ready to borrow the good neighbor's rifle and shoot those sheep. I laughed, that was something the good neighbor had suggested before I took off on Sunny. The 4 year old made it out to the gate, and then across the road when I saw our new neighbor (the ones that treat their horses badly) running across the field straight at us, screaming. What? Suddenly hooves hitting the road got louder. Horses! We yelled at the 4 year old to run! RUN BOY! RUN TO THE TRUCK! Three horses, who were spooked out by the owners own dogs, came running down the road. ( this is the same dogs that bite at our horses when we ride past) The wife looked at me, and I told her not to worry, horses are easier than sheep. Just as I said that, the horses had turned around and ran straight home. See?
It was a day full of escapees. And I was tired.
Here is your WARNING. I don't want to hear that I didn't give you any warning. Tomorrows post will be about butchering and dressing out a meat goat. This was what we were doing before all the above happened. One of the things that brings in a lot of new readers, is that do post about this part of the homesteading life. New readers, you have been warned, tomorrow the discussion will be graphic and there will be pictures. Skip tomorrows post if you don't want to see or hear this talk, and I will see you back here on Thursday.
Monday, December 29, 2008
4 Day Catch Up
A few years back, I decided that I was tired of running around for Christmas. I informed both families that my family would go no where on Christmas day. Instead we were going to hang out at home. We finally got to enjoy the day with our sons.
Wednesday we went over the river and through the woods (literally) to Mima's house, my mother. I got me some city boots! My mom made me promise not to step in manure with them on. Now I can smell like a normal person when I leave here, I am the only one on the homestead without a pair of muck boots. The boys had a grand time, we ate, had dessert, talked and headed home.
Thursday we had our friend Hooter out for Christmas Day. (some of you remember the story of our friend) He seems depressed.
I am sure the holiday's aren't the best thing for him. But he played with the kids and my husband. They made play dough racers, and raced them down a store bought race track. It was definitely a boy day. We ate the honey ham that was gifted to us, talked, had a little Irish Cream with dessert.
Friday was my husband's parents day. And once again I am reminded why I don't hang out with any of his siblings on a regular basis. It was my turn to be the female in the family that everyone was mad at. Not sure why, but this is what has been happening for the last 12 years. 1 woman, not the mother she doesn't seem to play the game, and not the oldest sister because she's the leader, is chosen to be the one everyone is suppose to ignore for however long the oldest deems it necessary for the woman to learn her lesson. Good thing I am hard headed, I ain't learnt nutin'. Other than that it was a fine day. I got me a metal slinky! We also brought home some local raised and butchered pork as a gift from my husband's parents.
Saturday doesn't count in this catch up, because I was here (this is where I stick my tongue out at you)
Sunday. . . oh Sunday. Our banny rooster got caught out in the pond. Our puppy pulled him out. I think more for the novelty of eating him rather than saving him. We brought him in to warm him up. The puppy had done a bit of damage. After a few hours the roo died. We chopped his head clean off ( after he died) Sunday I dressed out the banny rooster. He is in my crock pot right now waiting to be canned up. Banny meat is wonderful for canning. We also measured and prepared to rebuild the hog panel gate that the horse stood on. Horses are the most destructive livestock I have ever had to deal with.
So there was our Christmas week.
You guys make out like bandits?
Wednesday we went over the river and through the woods (literally) to Mima's house, my mother. I got me some city boots! My mom made me promise not to step in manure with them on. Now I can smell like a normal person when I leave here, I am the only one on the homestead without a pair of muck boots. The boys had a grand time, we ate, had dessert, talked and headed home.
Thursday we had our friend Hooter out for Christmas Day. (some of you remember the story of our friend) He seems depressed.
I am sure the holiday's aren't the best thing for him. But he played with the kids and my husband. They made play dough racers, and raced them down a store bought race track. It was definitely a boy day. We ate the honey ham that was gifted to us, talked, had a little Irish Cream with dessert.Friday was my husband's parents day. And once again I am reminded why I don't hang out with any of his siblings on a regular basis. It was my turn to be the female in the family that everyone was mad at. Not sure why, but this is what has been happening for the last 12 years. 1 woman, not the mother she doesn't seem to play the game, and not the oldest sister because she's the leader, is chosen to be the one everyone is suppose to ignore for however long the oldest deems it necessary for the woman to learn her lesson. Good thing I am hard headed, I ain't learnt nutin'. Other than that it was a fine day. I got me a metal slinky! We also brought home some local raised and butchered pork as a gift from my husband's parents.
Saturday doesn't count in this catch up, because I was here (this is where I stick my tongue out at you)
Sunday. . . oh Sunday. Our banny rooster got caught out in the pond. Our puppy pulled him out. I think more for the novelty of eating him rather than saving him. We brought him in to warm him up. The puppy had done a bit of damage. After a few hours the roo died. We chopped his head clean off ( after he died) Sunday I dressed out the banny rooster. He is in my crock pot right now waiting to be canned up. Banny meat is wonderful for canning. We also measured and prepared to rebuild the hog panel gate that the horse stood on. Horses are the most destructive livestock I have ever had to deal with.
So there was our Christmas week.
You guys make out like bandits?
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