ugh

sick. . .

Need soup.

No Winter Project Today

It got nice and warm yesterday, 9F. The city got to enjoy a heat wave of 14F. I managed not to do a thing but curl up under the blankets and look through some catalogs. This year there will be a huge order placed for chickens. Not only are we wanting to replace some that we have lost (it hasn't been a good year for chickens) but good neighbor needs to replace the birds that a fox and he thinks a coyote got to. The horse neighbor is ordering, the people across the way are ordering and now, my husband's boss will be ordering. Everyone keeps asking when we will be placing our order, for some reason they all trust me more than themselves to order chicks. ah, but it does save on shipping.

My husband's boss. . . wait let me explain how this works at the shop. It is a family business. My husband is the only full time employee, the parts guy is not related to the owners, but is part time only. The shop is owned by the wife, ran by the husband and the daughter works there while her kids are at school. The husband and wife (my husband's boss) are beginning to think more like we do. I bet my husband is slightly at fault for that. They feel more and more that they should be growing their own. They feel like things will be getting worse and want to be able to feed their family easily. Although I hear that some places are going back to the grocery stores running tabs or credit to their customers. They are thinking about a milk cow, and I am trying to lean them toward Blessed Nation Ranch and her Dexters.

I am seeing an increase in blog traffic here and more phone calls and casual chats turning toward information on homesteading. It is a wonderful thing, but I do worry about the animals that end up with some of these folks. I worry about neglect, and I worry about what happens to these animals when things get better. But there isn't much I can do about it. I am pushing small livestock for most people, and them purchasing or bartering others with large livestock for milk and meat. Owning a cow is a lot of responsibility. I don't feel that some of these people will be willing to milk in -7F temperatures, Then what happens when the cow dries because of this neglect. I have a feeling I will be getting more and more calls about training, butchering, and why won't she give me milk!?!

But I guess there isn't a reason for me to worry over something that hasn't happened yet. Some of these people are too busy buying horses they can't ride yet, that they don't know how to train, and don't seem to be actively searching for help with that problem. All my animals earn their feed, if they didn't, I couldn't keep them. Well, the calves don't, yet. We will have a traded bull here in a few months, so it will be another year before the young ladies will earn their keep. But they already know the drill. Uma, the oldest calf, tries to out maneuver her mother to get into the stanchion.

Tomorrow on WNDN I am to write about food. Once again I am going to throw it to you. What would you like to see me write about? (that reminds me, I have some articles to get to my editor)

I'm ccccold

It's so cold it hurts. Yes, this will be a gritchy post. I haven't done much besides just trying to stay warm. I have drank more coffee than any sane person should.

Our space heaters stopped working yesterday. ugh! And I am not that great at fixing things, breaking I am brilliant at. Fixing. . .not so much. Had to wait until 8pm for my husband to get home and fix them. The boys and I were bundled up, but for some reason kids don't feel the cold as much as us old folks do.

There is snow on the ground this morning, making me leery about venturing out. The space heaters are working, but they only make it warm enough so that you don't see your breath.

Husband brought home and electric burner. He uses it at work (motorcycle tool) I was able to heat up some water and do dishes. I tried using the microwave. It took an hour to heat then fill the sink, and only about 15 minutes for it to get cold. My husband and I have talked, we made some plans so that this won't happen again next year. We will build a furnace room off of the house, and place a wood burner in it. That way we only have to use propane for water and cooking, and heat the house with the wood burner. But that doesn't help us right now. I paid on the bill, not a whole bunch, but enough that I am hoping that when they get the check I can call them and get a little more propane. This is going to put us in massive debt.

One bright spot, my husband's boss allowed him to borrow their car. We just don't have the riding gear for motorcycling in 5F weather. 20F, yes, 10F no. Even at 20F, the 40 minute ride to work starts hurting. Takes my husband about an hour to warm up again.

Who wants to take bets on what happens around here next? I've got five on the house burning down.

Large's Anime Stills

Here are some pics of his bedroom.













The last one is life sized.

He is getting better at his art work. It is a wonderful thing to watch. And yes, we do allow him to draw on his walls. We are freaks. He will be taking computer art next year, but wants to hand draw his films, but he knows he will need to know both.

An 11 Year Old Speaks Out

I don't like raising so early in the morning. I throw fits, yell at my mother, make her life harder than it already is. I really don't mean to be a brat, well, maybe I do, but I just don't like this lifestyle. Why should I have to pick up poop, or milk a cow? Milking s stupid, you can just go to the store and buy it already out of a cow. My mother says it is better for us to know where our milk and other food comes from.

My friends make fun of me. They say nasty things about me and the cows. They don't like that we kill our birds and goats. Why should we when we can go to the store and buy the meat without knowing the animal or seeing it killed. It bothers them that we kill things here. One boy got onto my mom about killing animals. She asked him what he had in his fridge. He shrugged. Mom asked if he had chicken nuggets, he said yes. Mom asked if he had meat on his pizza, he said yes. Mom asked if he had hamburger in his fridge, he said yes. Mom said that we did too, but that we knew where it came from, and that it was healthier that way. My friend said he could see it being healthier, but it was still wrong to kill animals. My mom smiled at him, and said, if that was true, than it would be wrong for you to have meat in your fridge. He decided he wanted to play a game.

Some boys told me that I was lieing about having bee hives. They said we where too poor to own them. He was stupid, saying that bees cost $75 a bee.

A lot of people think I am lying about what we have and what we do. It isn't until they come to our house and see that they sort of believe me. It hurts to be called a liar all the time. Now I try not to talk about it. Mom says that it is ok not to tell people. That not everyone thinks they way her and dad does. I don't think I think the same way they do. I want to play video games, and watch more tv. I want electronics for Christmas, not these old fashion toys. Mom says that there is a reason we do the things we do. For a while I would brag at school that we were green, the teachers that talked about being green would smile at me, but would disagree. My mom also disagrees, she says we are salt, that we are selfish.

Lately some of those mean kids mom's have been coming over to buy things from my mother. I still don't say anything to those kids about how we live or that I see their mom's. When I get to move out, I am moving to Japan. I am learning to speak Japanese. I want to be an anime artist, and my mom says that is wonderful. Her and dad get me books on drawing and speaking Japanese. They told me that if I keep my grades up that they will see about signing me up for the foreign exchange program. I really want to go.

But for now I have to homestead. With my family. I like having the animals, I don't like the work, or the looks I get from people. I'd rather go to the mall and eat at McDonald's. But their food makes me sick. I was told it was because I wasn't use to eating that kind of stuff, but it is soooo good.

I don't like smelling like the animals all the time. I don't like not having stuff that I want. But I do like it when some of my friends come over and we get to lay outside at night, looking at the stars. You can see them better here. I like it when my friends want to help me with my chores, even if my mom says I don't have to do them that day because I have company. We will do them, and my friends make them funner.

Some things are good here, a lot of things are bad. When I grow up, I want a horse, some chickens and a small cow. But I am going to hire someone to clean up all that poop.

Manic Monday

We were having an issue with the tractor Sunday. Turns out that there was something in the gas tank besides gas, and it was clogging everything up. My husband did some modifications to it, and now is running like a beauty. Tractor pictures here.

The author of Melissa's Ramblings came out yesterday. I showed her around a bit and she handed over two roosters. Yes, that is the admittance to see my homestead. They were some hefty birds. After she left, my husband and I took a look at them. They are some gorgeous specimens. We granted the two a stay of execution. We have hens of the same breeds, these guys should make some good looking babies.

Remember I said yesterday that I was going out to pay some bills? Well, I started the car, put it into reverse and nothing happened. I wasn't moving. The transmission is on a permanent slip. We just had paid to get it rebuilt a little over a year ago! We had to pay bills, we took the bike. It wasn't so bad on the way into the city, unfortunately we live North of the city and had to ride straight into the wind on the way home, the temperature dropping rapidly and we had to cross a river. My eyes were watering, tears freezing mid cheek. Yep, that was the most painful bike ride I have ever been on.

Goat hide update: it has been so cold that it isn't drying like it should. I have just been reapplying salt. I will let you know when more happens. One thing about the cold, as it keeps the skin from rotting (of course if it was warmer it would dry before rotting). I was hoping to do some more things to it yesterday, but only ended up salting it again. Brush off the old, and add the new.

Other than thaat, what to tell ya.

Flakey Twister

Saturday was suppose to have been my now 5 year old's birthday party. We were flaked on.



Small and I made snowflakes and hung them all over the house, decorating for the party. He loved it, and is surprisingly good at it.

Only his grandmother and two older cousins showed up, no one else, not even the aunt that was making his cake.

On top of that, there wasn't any snow, odd for this time of year. Without snow meant that the projects I planned would have to wait. We can do them on a snow day when all three of them stay home from school.

Large (my 11 year old) had two friends come over. They kept small very happy. They ran around like idiots out in the field, then came inside to play some Twister.



Wrong hand Small!

He had a great time, which is all that really matters.

I have been revisiting some old culinary skills of mine this weekend. It is been awhile since I used an electric dutch oven to bake in, or boil water in a microwave. See, we are out of propane. Have been for a few days. Can't afford to get a refill, when we still owe $650 on not even a half tank. I remember when it would cost us under $500 to fill it. We have been heating the house at night with electric heaters. Those are going to cost us. I will pay on some of the propane bill today, but not all of it, I do have other bills to pay as well.

Funny, a year ago my husband was laid off, we were doing so well, the best we had ever done. We had a comfortable income, we had little debt, nothing we couldn't afford. And now. . . well it is interesting to watch our life spiraling. But it is part of life. I could crawl into a corner and die, giving up. But that just wouldn't be me. Income tax return will be filed for soon, this will get us out of debt, as long as the IRS doesn't send us an I.O.U. We should have enough left over to do some things that will bring in more money for us. We figured out what we can do, that we will have mortgage paid for every 3 weeks, without us putting out too much money, only at the beginning, and tax return will be spent for the start-up costs.

Let us hope that we are on the right track.