Standin' in the shower thinkin'. . .

You are welcome for the ear worm.

AH HA!! I got it! I figured it out. If Congress passes this asinine FDA bill I have a back up plan. oh yes I do. I have to work out all the details of course, but it is something I can do, something that will have little overhead, so the cost to the customer will be low, and the FDA won't be able to stick their noses in it. hahahaha! I figured it out.

I am headed to the Farmstead this morning to get some work done.

I was answering a question for someone yesterday, I realized that I didn't tag everything correctly. I was looking up pickle recipes, and only one of them was tagged with pickles. hmmm. I need to be more careful with that.

There was something else I wanted to talk about, but for the life of me I can't remember. It was important, I know it was.

I have Howling Hills Seed exchange package. I will update that on Monday.

Never mind, the roads are flooded, I will be staying home today.

Are you kidding me?

Snow. More snow on the way this morning. Will it never stop?

I have furry yellow hogs sprouting in the closet. That is a type of tomato. Figured I would throw that in there, who knows what some of you were thinking they were.

I am at a do or die decision point in my life. I informed my husband that it was a midlife crisis, even if I am not considered midlife yet. He is not enthusiastic about my real midlife crisis when it decides to rear it's ugly head. I feel resentful towards the cows and my husband right now. It is pure selfishness and I think a little fear on my part. I can still get out of all of this, the homesteading for profit thing. I can sell my cattle and live a relatively easy life, now. But as soon as I move to the farmstead I feel I will have no more chooses.

I am not a shut-in, I am not anti-social. Sure I have said in the past that I don't like people that much, but I also don't like being alone so often. Once on the farmstead I will be more alone than ever. Because of the cows, I can't just take off for a weekend and join my husband on a motorcycle run. Because of the cows I have a curfew. Because of the cows, I have someone to talk to. They are good listeners.

I am resenting my husband because he will be back in a single life. He will be living alone the majority of the time. He won't have the children breathing and screaming down his neck all the time. He doesn't have to go home if he doesn't want to. He gets to go riding whenever, and see his friends willy nilly.

I told you it was selfish. But it is a part of me, and it hurts. I fear that I will end up losing everything. Look at the FDA that has been proposed. If I go to the farmtead, intent on starting or expanding my business and all this passes, what am I to do then? I won't be able to make any more to live. Sure I can continue to grow my own, but there are still things I need money for. I have very few "practical" skills for the working world. Plus the farm is so far out in the boonies, that there isn't a practical way to get a "real" job. I will have the staples to live, but not the means to be.

I am losing sleep over things that I need to decide. I am fearful of making the wrong decision. And I have no idea where to look to help me figure this out. I can do all the research I want, but there is no info out there to sway my mind one way or another. And all this talk seems pointless right now. No one can make my mind up for me. I am scared about this, if I choose wrong, then what?

I thought I knew what I wanted. I thought I knew what was right. But others create rules that make things seem impossible, and I don't have the money to conform to the potentially new rules. Nor can I afford to be fined. I guess it will be a wait and see. I will continue to get the farmstead ready, and see where this bill leads. If passed, I will stay on the Neophyte Homestead, and work just for my family, making no profits.

Why can't things be easier. What happened to just having a simple life? Things are no longer simple when others and major changes in life are in the forefront.

Festival of Lud

We love April Fools day around here. I thought about pranking you all, but the only things I could think of would send you up in arms, so not this year. Instead I will flame some cow manure on the neighbors porch, maybe put the boys hands in warm water while they sleep. . . oh you don't think I can do better than that? ~insert evil laughter here~

I will be sending my husband from Pilate to Herod.

It should be a pleasant day today, maybe I can get some work done and actually have something to talk about.

Until then,
Poisson d'Avril!

It already feels like a long day

The ground is slowly drying up here, but rain and snow is in our near future. I am hoping for a moist summer, but nothing like last year. Between the flooding and the cool temps, only got 350 lbs of produce. I lost all my sweet potatoes and peanuts, my melons and half my tomatoes. I need a typical Kansas summer please. If any of you can do that for me, I will be grateful.

I am itching to get out to the farmstead. The closer summer gets, the more I feel nothing has been done. I have a question for all your herbalist out there, I did some info. I could do some research, but I would like to hear your opinions on the matter. Here's what I need:

Natural way to be rid of ticks, mosquitoes, fleas and spiders. Something that doesn't hurt bees. Chickens can't do everything. (for animals, and for land)

Rodent control. I have lavender and geese as well as cats. Anything else?

Fly (horse fly and heel fly) Camphor is expensive, is there something else I can use on the cows?

Thank you in advance. I have some thoughts on a few things, but what I need is on a much larger scale. The farmstead is over ran right now because no one has been there for a few years. I really don't like ticks.

I also wanted to know if anyone was attending their local tea party? I am thinking about attending the Wichita one. Maybe some of us can meet up.

I am having a little difficulty with this whole separation from my husband thing. We make jokes about it, But I haven't been apart from him for very long. The longest was the Myrtle Beach bike rally, and then the Sturgis rally. But this is longer in terms of months passing and only see him for 2 days a week. I am sure we will get use to it, but to be honest, I don't want to be. I just keep thinking that we will be able to keep him home before long, or maybe open a bike shop in the nearest town. In the summer that town gets 8,000 bikes through it, and there isn't a single wrench to help anyone.

Ok, no more depressing thoughts. Today should be warm, and the air dry. I need to go plant some more cool weather veggies. You shouldn't plant in the mud, but if I don't get them out soon, I might not get them out until late summer for a fall harvest.

Insert hysterical laughter here

My Wichita friends are giggling with glee. Their snow was melted off the roads and drives ways by sundown yesterday. We in the rural area of the county are not pleased. I was able to make it down one of our side streets yesterday, but not without the feeling of impending doom. The plows pushed the snow out of the way, but the banks loom over my car. And as the snow melted, the more the road disappeared under the water it left behind. Our main road is still closed because of the power poles. Who knows how long it will be until they get to them.

With the snow melting, we are now dealing with flooding here. Yesterday I was up to my knees in iceberg ridden water. Very cold. Snow encircling the new pond, but I dredged on, had to milk, and got rewarded with a hoof imprint on the back of my hand. We will be able to get out this morning, but this evening, I don't know. The weatherman is calling for rain.

I complain, but my friend The Fool, is under Mt. Redoubt.

My ankle is feeling better, thanks for asking. I am watching the waters flood my garden area. I think there will be some redoing of that. My peach blossom are gone.

But on the bright side of things, I will be able to plant more cool weather stuff this week, even in the rain. The part of the garden where they hail isn't underwater.

The goats are in the barn, since the pen is under water. I went out to milk, and the kids decided that they would help. Mama wasn't too thrilled with this two biting fools attacking her teats.

Sunday Special

My husband's boss called Friday night and told him that the shop would be closed on Saturday. Good thing it was, we are stuck here on the homestead.

We got 6" of snow. First we got 1" of snow, than about 2-3" of sleet on top of it. Then came the rest of the snow. We lost power Friday night/Saturday morning. Not sure how long power was out. I wondered through the dark house with just a small candle and turned the stove on, and made sure that the children had blankets covering them. I was asked if we kept warm in the mobile home. It does get chilly in here. The age of this house doesn't help, and it is not up to any code that means it is better for it to be here, than in Florida. We went to bed in complete darkness and the power came back on in the sunlight.

Our main road out is blocked due to power poles, not just lines, down in the road. Our two side roaads are impassable unless you have a large truck and four wheel drive. My husband tried to make it into ton yesterday, he informed me that it was possible, but a tad scary.
Here is a picture of the wind blown ice wrapped around one of our small ash trees. We had to climb over the gates to get to the livestock, the gates are frozen shut as well as have medium sized snow banks pushed up against them.