The State of the Homestead

I was going to post this today, even before being called out on it.

Yes, I realize that I have slowed a bit on the homestead updates. Not much has actually been happening.

The lack of canning posts are due to me not experimenting as of late. With most of my summer taken up with working on the farmstead, I kept with my traditional recipes, all of which you can find posted somewhere in these last 5 years of postings. We also lost a lot of veggies because of all the flooding this year. But pumpkin season is here, and I plan on playing with those. I love me some pumpkin. I have also been harvesting apples. So stay tuned for all that fun.

The cattle get to stay. We sold the goats, (still have Zombie) and are currently looking for a good home for our quarter Horse, Seminole Wind (Sam). We worked out a deal with a neighbor on hay. So will be fine with the cows from here on out. Undies gets butchered in a few months, next year Winston, the year after X. If we have multiple bulls in the same year, we will butcher younger than the almost 3 years of age. No profits this year, but next year looks promising right now.

Mama and Urth have been milking. Looks like the girls are all prego half by Winston, half by Undies. Hopefully Murrial will drop soon, she's who I really want to start milking again. Courage is still skittish, and I need to separate her from the group to be trained to the stanchion before she drops.

There is stress and depression running rampant here. Some of the stress has been relieved because of the farmstead being out. I have been hesitant on discussing it for various reasons. Especially since it is family. I do owe my mother an apology for being harsh, but I still stand by what I have said, just not the way I said it. SO here is the thing. we started planning the farmstead 2 years ago. The boys and I were to move out there and care give. Suddenly my mom and step dad decide that they will move out there. That's fine. I still planned on moving out there and doing what we agreed on. Then they decided no electricity and there was an argument over solar power actually being able to run an entire farm. ~sigh~ It got to the point that I decided that because of the lack of facilities and heat that I would not move out there on a permanent basis with my boys. I would move out there while milking. But the girls we moved out were on freshening, no reason for me to move out there. We worked hard all summer, chopping fire wood for my parents, putting up fencing, all with an understanding that we would be able to lease the back 47 acres from them in August. Even heard my stepfather talking with the man that holds the lease about it. He was fine with it. We also came to an agreement over a year ago that we would supply 1/2 a cow to my parents for winter hay. As the farmstead grows several acres of brome and alfalfa. This was husband and I's understanding. Someone left the gate open, and the cows got out. They learned where the alfalfa fields were. Back into the pen and things were fine until august. Now the tall grass is gone and the bull knows about the fields. Him and Urth keep jumping the fences, wanting to eat. Husband and I ask about the back 47. There is now confusion on the agreement. Then we ask about the hay and that is a flat out no. But. . . well we can't drive hay bales all the way out there at the moment, and the bull keeps getting out. I go up there day after day. The cost of gas per drive is the same amount we spend on hay, so this is just digging me into a hole. I don't have the money for this. I spend hours redoing the fencing and securing things. but he keeps finding a way out. Next thing I know I am getting several horrible texts from my mother. Saying that husband and I are a problem and that we keep changing plans so how are they to know what was really agreed upon. I got ticked, and told her that they were the ones being flaky, not us. ~sigh~ Well I thought just Undies was out, didn't know that all the cows were loose. So it took us a bit to get down there. We had to borrow a truck. Someone put the cows in another farmers field and we went and got them. Since nothing that was promised has come through Husband and I have decided not to venture further into the farmstead. We have spent over $1k since the beginning of all of it. And are done. We lost all of this years profit in it. And we would just take a bigger beating trying to move hay to a hay farm to feed our cattle.

Now you know why life seems a bit drab around here, and why I am not feeling up to posting about the homestead. The wedding is good timing for us however and we are joyous about it. That has helped me stay a bit happier about things.

Husband is still a bit put off about the whole thing. He worked so hard to help them get the farmstead up and going, and feels cheated. He is upset of the money spent, and we reaped 2 months rewards at a price that would have feed the cattle all year. Without having to make "arrangements" with a neighbor.

So this is why it seems like the life has been suck out of this blog. Don't do business deals with family and get everything in writing.

Once we have dealt with this massive regrouping, things will get back to more normal. Hopefully.

We are adding a run to the chicken condo, and trying to finish up the rabbit hutch. Will let you know all about that when it is finished, it is another one of our experiments, something I guarantee you haven't seen before.