Most have already seen it

OI have been thinking about my husband's birthday party lately. It's in March, but for some reason it has been rolling over in my head. His day is an all day event. Starts around noon with family and friends and children, potluck BBQ. Than when it gets dark, the kids go to sitters and we have a very loud and rowdy party. Guess I am just looking forward to some relax time.

So today's topic on WNDN is Kid's parties.

I'll Huff, and I'll Puff, and I'll Blow Your House Down!

And all together now,

NOT BY THE HAIRS OF MY CHINNY CHIN CHIN!

This is your one and only warning about Monday's post. We shall be discussing the art of pig butchering.

But first some fun stuff. PLEASE share with me your favorite pork recipes, everything from homemade sausage to pig tongue luffa. If you like it,and it doesn't have to be edible (soap, etc) write it down. Either here in comments or a post of your own, just make sure you've told me you got a post out there for me. Even your best curing recipes.

I do have a bunch of pork recipes, but with 200 lbs of pig soon to be sitting in my freezer, I don't want all the same ol stand by's.

Also I think I finally snapped yesterday and am now officially insane. My ladies are harmonizing their moos.

Wisconsin Death Trip

I'd like to hear more about your animals and how they earn their keep. Like your dogs? Do you have them working at herding or protecting livestock/people or what? And more about your horse: caring for, feeding, etc? Gemini

Well, Gemini, most my animals do very well at earning their own keep, chickens and cows do what chicken and cows do (anyone else have Cow and Chicken's theme song running through their heads now? Momma had a Chicken, momma had a Cow.)

The cats help with the field mice population.

Dogs and horses are different. With them you have to work hard on training.

We have 3 dogs. Our oldest is Link
He is a Collie and Husky mix. Once upon a time he was a city dog. I worked with the owner and he was going to take him to the pound because he was moving out of state. I offered to take him. Link is older than we were told, he's about 10 years old now. And he is our official grumpy old man. Link is a great alarm system. We weren't sure what to do with him when we first got him, he has been with us since we moved out here. It was Link that decided his role would be the one of something is in the driveway alarm. He isn't the greatest about running off other dogs however. He would rather play, unless it's a puppy. He hates puppies.

Buckets is a newer member of the family. She is about 3 years old and came to us via my big brother. She was an apartment dog, and looked like a tightly stuffed sausage when she arrived. She has lost about 30 lbs since she got here. Buckets is an American Stafford shire Bull Terrier, yes a member of the bully breeds (pit bull). This breed however prefers to knock you down and sit on you rather than biting. She is stubborn and suffers from a major case of OCD that takes the form of playing fetch. She will drag 20 lb sledge hammers over to you, wanting you to throw it for her. We are working on training with her. And are currently waiting for a leather harness that one of my husband's motorcycle clients is making for her. Buckets is a pulling dog. Bully breeds love to pull. When there is snow on the ground, my boys attach a lead to her and she will whip them around the yard on a sled. This summer, she will be pulling the wagon of garden veggies for us, I mean me. She tends to break the plastic buckles on regular dog harnesses, we are hopeful that the one that is being made for her will work out better. And we have not had a single chicken stolen since she arrived. She is also Small's body guard. They are together all the time, and he uses her as a body pillow, or rides her like a calf. Those two will be trouble, I just know it.

Sprocket is our puppy. A little ghetto dog that I thought wasn't going to make it. She is 6 months old, German Shepard and blue tick mix, and smart as a whip. She learned hand signals quickly. She is being trained to be my cow dog. The blue tick in her has her laying down to bark, while the German Shepard has her wanting to nip and chase. She learned not to do that around Sunny, as the horse kicked her straight between the eyes. She's fine, once the headache went away.

Now for that old horse of mine. Sunny is also a grumpy old man,

but something happened the other day, and he has decided to take a liking to me. This makes life together a whole lot easier. Sunny earns his keep by teaching me. He isn't a kids horse like, I was told. He is too stubborn and intent on running for a child to be on. But he seems to be the perfect horse for me to learn on. He already knows how things work, and has informed me in his horse way when I have done something wrong. I don't know all of Sunny's past, but he seems to have worked cattle before. Without him, I don't think we would have ever caught the neighbors escaped sheep. Caring for Sunny is simple. He gets grained twice a day, and has access to the same hay that the cows eat. He talks to me over the gate while I am milking and tries to get me to play tag with him when I am working in the field. We work together every day. A few easy work outs that the horse neighbor showed me, lunges and a little roundy round. Nothing too fancy as he was trained very well. He mainly needs reminders and a little extra affection due to the previous neglect he suffered.

ha! ok, so the title of today's post has nothing to do with the post it self. I am listening to some Static X. And I thought I would mess with you guys that have the blog reader list on your side bar. oh feeling ornery. And as usual, questions are always welcome.

Answering those burning questions.

The following questions come from April. The answers come from Phelan.

Who do you order your chickens from? Several places. I buy some local, private farm (co-ops). I buy from McMurray Hatchery, Ridgeway, and Sand Hill preservation.

What do you think is the best meat bird? I haven't had them all, so can not say for certain. You can eat all of them, including bannies which are great when canned. I know, very little meat, but you can it and have the perfect amount for sandwiches. But out of all our butchered birds, the one with the most meat was white rocks. I look for adult cockerel weight, anything over 7 lbs is good, and white feathers seem to be easier to pluck.

Are you going to sell any of your cattle? Of the current Dexters I have, no plans to sell right now. If you are looking, there is a woman that has a very good looking Dexter for sale in southern Kansas.

I've read that you can breed a Dexter with a larger beef breed and get a nice sized beef steer, what do you think? NO! Don't breed your female Dexters with any large breed. Dexter Calves are only 35-45 lbs at birth, while larger breeds weight in closer to if not more than 100 lbs. This could spell disaster for your cow. Now if you want to use a dexter bull to breed a large beef cow, than that's fine. No issues there, the calves will be smaller, creating an easier birthing process for the beef breed.

Is this enough questions?Please blogs lots and lots about the cow, how to care for them, how much it costs, how much room they need, what you feed them, where to buy/sell them, etc.....

I have been writing a series over on WNDN.

Phelan can moo, can you?

Training and Milking your cow

Calf at side milking

I will be writing more on the series.


I'm hoping we can afford some fencing this spring. We are definitely going to build a chicken tractor and raise meat birds, but I want to know what you say about all that too.Oh, and I have fed a coyote many a nice chicken dinner this fall. Dang it. Stated with 16 and now down to 8. With fencing, make sure you look at several places for pricing. We saved a bunch by heading to a store that charges more for other items we buy, but were less on fencing. as for a chicken tractor, I have the stuff to build one, just haven't got to it yet. I am sure a number of my readers can point you to posts about there tractors (hint hint).

As usual, your questions are always welcomed.

Can't help but think about money

There are some things that you hear about, that concerns spending a whole lot of money, that just makes you out right sad. And today, is just another one of those, that makes me think.

$150 million dollars.

I started thinking about that monetary amount late last night. And then began thinking about what I could do with all that money.

I would pay off all my readers mortgages, that's a given. Then we would all have "disposable" income and be able to help get this economy going (were my eyes rolling like a teenagers?)

But what I would love to be able to do, is buy a large chunk of land, and rent out the Neophyte homestead to someone that needs it. And on that large chunk of land would love to open a school of sorts. Some thing that would teach and help families and individuals learn the basics, literally from the ground up. Everything from building a home to milking various animals, to gardening and butchering, to marketing and selling. The one thing I have learned over the years is that doing new things is always simpler if there is someone there to show you, and help you along.

But it seems a little silly when you write it down.

Your turn, what would you do with the $150 million?

I did see your questions on previous posts, and will be working on them over the week.

Don't take the simple things for granted.

By now many of you have figured out that this blog is about simple living, and that not a single thing I do could qualify as simple. My masthead use to say "This is a beginner's tale of mistakes". and boy oh boy do I make them.

I like to think that I don't take things for granted, that was until yesterday. I know you are wondering what changed yesterday.

I took a hot shower.

For most of us, this is a simple thing we do on a daily basis. I took many showers as I seem to be up to my elbows in poop, udders, feed, and boys. A shower was a way to relax, escape, and not smell so nasty. But two weeks without propane has shown me that I can stink, and offend people and I really don't care.

We went to the city last night and showered at my mother's. From youngest to oldest, and it was true bliss. Because their was so many of us showering, I didn't linger, but I made sure to scrub very well. Even my husband, the last to get in, remarked that this was the best thing in the world. And it was, for us adults, my boys could care less.

So the next time you are doing something simple, take a moment to enjoy it. Don't think of it as a mundane way of living, but as a journey of sensory stimulation.