If you have to blame something, you could always blame me.

I will be honest, not much actually brings me to tears, emotional tears. There is this one commercial however that gets me. It is about buying Passover Meals for Jews overseas. Maybe because the Rabbi talking gets all choked up. . . I don't know, but it really bothers me, and makes me tear up. There is a website that asks Christians to Unite for Israel. My personal feeling about this is that I really don't care what faith you are, Americans love Israel. We always have. I grew up in an antsiest/agnostic household, and was still taught to love Israel as I love my own Country, and the Country of my family origins.

On to homesteading things,

Nada. I got nothing for you. We had a hard frost last night, so I am mourning the passing of my apples and peaches and all the young seedlings that were coming in. Today I have to go out and replant everything. Except potatoes. They should be fine. I worry that if things go bad again this year, I will need to find a different life. oh woe is me! ha!

Murrial is a bit more tolerant of me. She is a week away from her due date. I have to speed this tolerance up a bit. Problem I am having is that my husband still hasn't replaced the gate that Sunny broke, and I am having a hard time keeping those greedy Dexter's away from Murrial, and the treats.

The goat kids are doing well. They are just as demanding and bossy as their mother. Nurture or Nature? They have decided to attempt to trip me as I walk with the feed bucket. I figure that they think they can get me to drop the bucket. And it doesn't seem to matter that they have feed, they want whatever I plan on giving to someone else. Betty has figured out that she can seriously confuse the Dexters by jumping into their treat bucket in the milk stanchion. The ladies are surprisingly gentle with the babies, and try to nudge them out of the way. Unfortunately Donkey seems to become a punching bag for the girls, good thing he isn't sheared yet. I will be grateful when the ground dries up and the sheep and goats can go back into their pen. Poor Donkey, he so wants Sammy to love him. (Donkey is the name of our sheep). Sunny and him were always together. Sammy wants nothing to do with him.

The chickens are laying again, but I am not finding their most recent nests. Free range is annoying, they will have to go back into the pen.

We were given another freezer. Which I am grateful for. I need to get it into the house. Once Murrial starts milking, I will need that space. We also have another refrigerator waiting at a friends house for us. That will go into the garage to store milk and soft cheeses and butter. Maybe some yogurt and ice cream in the freezer part of it.

See, Nada. I got nothin' to tell ya.

If a cow laughed really hard.... would milk come out of her nose?

Howling Hill Seed Swap

Alrescate asks wait we were exchanging, I wasn't ignoring you, just waiting for this post.

This is the second year I have been part of this. There were only a few of us last year. This year, wow! There are all kinds of goodies in this ratty envelope.

People sign up, give their mailing address to Howling Hill. She prints it up, stuffs a few seed in the package and mails it to the first person. That person takes some seeds and adds some new ones. The only rule, no GMO's.

I took a pinch of a few things, deciding against taking an entire package of something.

I took pinches of

yellow grape tomato
Seminole pumpkin mix
Numez Big Jim Chili peppers
Black Krim Tomatoes
winged Beans
Amish paste tomato
Mortgage lifter tomato
King of the north Pepper
Marigolds
Market More cucumbers

I put in:

Peanuts
Culinary Sage
California Black eyed cow peas
Amish Pie Squash
Japanese white popcorn
Sunberry
dent corn
red clover
Kidney beans
pinto beans


I will get this off in the mail sometime today.

There is an article here, for those of you that were asking about early spring planting (what you should plant).

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!