Deadline; 3 weeks

We have 3 weeks to get the first pen up and fully functioning. At that time we will be moving 1/2 our herd out to the farmstead.

I realize that 3 weeks seems to be plenty of time. But we are not talking weeks, but days. We can only work on the farmstead 2x a week. Meaning that we only have 6 days to have the pen ready for cattle.

The 3 weeks is how much hay we have left. They currently go through 1 bale a week. With half the herd grazing on overgrown pasture, this will reduce our payout here on the homestead.

And now the worrying about all this actually working starts setting in.

Subject change. (so I don't harp)

I have been thinking about the blogathon (already) for this year. I usually do Farm aid. I like them, I really do, otherwise I wouldn't have raised money for them the past 4 years. However after watching what our friend Brian has gone through I am thinking about blogging for either the Rescue Riders, Bikers for Bikers or Downed Bikers Association. What do you think? It is a hard decision.

For those of you that don't know, Blogathon is a yearly event where hundreds of bloggers raise money for their charity, blogging for 24 hours straight posting every 30 minutes.

Could I test some poison on your children?

Now this is just wonderful. I feel so much safer now that Islam Siddiqui was able to bypass the Senate confirmation vote, and placed into the office of chief agricultural negotiator in the office of the U.S. trade representative.

Yet another reason you should really try to grow your own food, not be fooled by the organic labels, and buy from local growers where you can see what they are doing to your food.

This is the man that helped create the organics standards. you know the poop food, 5% non natural ingredients, and all that jazz. So many people did not want this man in an office. But of course, we are only people, and that seems not to matter much.

Siddiqui is a former pesticide lobbyist and is currently vice president of science and regulatory affairs at CropLife America, a biotech and pesticide trade group .

CropLife America, formerly known as the National Agricultural Chemicals Association, lobbies to weaken the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, claiming that pesticides are not pollutants because of their intended beneficial effect and that pesticides positively impact endangered species. The group has lobbied to allow pesticides to be tested on children and to allow the continued use of persistent organic pollutants and ozone-depleting chemicals. It also launched a petition asking Michelle Obama to use pesticides in the organic White House garden and fought county initiatives in California banning genetically modified foods.

Read more here on OCA

No Rest for the Wicked (Easter)

You use different muscles to work a farmstead than you do a homestead.

530 am, Easter Sunday. I woke, made coffee, then stood in the middle of the living room and screamed

BUNNY'S BEEN HERE!

Small was the first one up. Easter Bunny brought them little Coleman headlamps.

I made an apple strudel while husband packed the car. And we were off to the farmstead. Once there, eggs were hidden with the utmost care.




And they were off!



My morning was spent on firewood.

No bubble bursting this morning please. I did this all by myself.



Husband did some tilling, then climbed the windmill.





Large followed.




Then it was lunch time, picnic style of course. Then back to work. Clearing trees and putting up fence posts. And let's not forget the massive amount of hemlock I worked on getting out.



Before posts


After posts


We put 9 of these bad boys in. Had to drag them behind us with chains they were so heavy.

Small is still on the fence about all this


Too sore to type, to tired to think.

Dreams

Last night I had an odd dream.

Homesteaders were declared a Militia group. And they came for us.

Robbyn (over at The Back Forty) defended herself with a giant plastic Easter Egg

Bob in Athens was eating a pint of ketchup oh and Bob, your code name is now Ernie.

Forget attack dogs, our cattle were on the prowl.

There was more of you, I remember Skippymom, and cpcable, and Stephanie from 100 acre wood.

What did I put in the cherry pie last night?

A Homesteading Neophyte Buys the Farm (stead)

I have been thinking about the end of A Homesteading Neophyte.

Yes, it is coming to an end, soon I will be on 120 acres, that my friends is a Farmstead. The Farmsteading Neophyte, naw. It doesn't have the same ring to it. But I don't plan on changing my name, nor creating another blog for the adventure. This is an electronic diary, it doesn't run out of room like a paper one does.

There will be a problem with updates. I will be lucky to do so once a week. Without electricity there is no computer. What I would like to do it get my camper on solar power. Looks like you can power an RV for around $3,000. However I don't have that much at one go, and I don't need a big RV lit up. Just a small 1970's camper. I will have to look around some more. Maybe find a company that would like me to test out their equipment. hint hint to all those PR companies that visit this blog.

Husband did a lot of work at the homestead. He cleared so much dead wood and brush. With it gone the animal areas look much larger.

Not changing the subject here, it is part of the farmstead thing; I asked the neighbor across the way if she would sell her fiber lambs to me. She said no, that she wanted to hold onto them for awhile. This confuses me as she sells of lambs for butchering. She will have to sell them off because she doesn't have the room for them. Sometimes it feels like she does somethings just to spite m. I don't know why she would, and I'm not entirely sure why I feel that way.

So, if any one in Kansas or Northern OK or even Western MO has fiber sheep for sale, would you mind contacting me. I have been having problems finding ones that are currently or soon to be on sale, online.

We have a beautiful area set aside for sheep. See sometimes I get these romantic notions in my head, and have learned that it is best to set up things in advance. Doesn't matter if I have a line on the item or not. Eventually I find it.

Mama looks like she is about to pop any day now. Which I wasn't expecting a calf this soon. Mama will stay here on the homestead. Mama, Uma and Winnona, and Undies will stay. While Murial and courage, Eddie and Winston, and Urth will be moved to the farmstead. This is only until the lease is up for the 47 acres. Then everyone will be moved out. But the ones going to the farmstead first are my milkers. The Kerries have the better of the attitudes when it comes to milking while Murial's main purpose or function for the homestead has been milk. The other girls have some nasty attitudes when it comes to it all. So beef breeding it will be.

The plan is to sell meats and other things as well as fiber and skins. A CSA is in the works as well. I look forward to that. The sooner everything is up and going, the sooner we are making a profit the soon husband can retire and be with us again.

This is still the biggest thing I fret about this adventure. I am going to miss husband with all my being. Even if it will be filled with physical labor, so much to do out there, the nights will be difficult. I told husband he will have to soak a shirt in solvent and used bike oil just so I can sleep at night. Yes, that would be husband's smell. And I know that many would be turned off by this. But after smelling it for 14 years, it's a smell I cherish. When he went 3 month unemployed, he lost that smell. I didn't like it.

I guess this would be rambling, huh? Bu it is part of the process. The fears and joys of what is to come. And it is coming so fast. Even though in a way it is late, since I was suppose to be out there last year. But some things stood in the way. Things I haven't talked about here because of certain people that read this blog. But let us not dwell on that.

There was some other things I thought about talking about, but they have nothing to do with this subject. So I think that's all I have to say on the subject right now. Maybe. . . but you guys are pretty good about bringing up things, so I will turn it over to you.

April Fool's from Rep Hank Johnson!

It is an April Fool's prank, isn't it?

For those of you that can't watch it, he is worried that with 8,000 troops and their family members move to Guam, it might capsize.

Thanks to Humble Wife for this

I tore his Nipples

Whoa Phelan, TMI! (and for my porn link-ins APRIL FOOL'S!)


We have these heavy duty rubber nursing nipples for Zombie. They have managed to be torn, and will no longer work.

Last night, I managed to destroy two of them. And couldn't find the rest of them. I live with a house full of boys ya know. Farm store was closed, baby bottles wouldn't work, Zombies teeth have cut me open, and those silicone nipples wouldn't last a single feeding. What's a nipple-less surrogate goat mom to do?

Ask husband.

There is something slightly unsettling about a white trash genius.

His solution was a spark plug boot (no worries, it is very clean)

It is pretty much a spill spout, however the rubber makes Zombie more comfortable with it. With a little practice on my part, I was able to feed him without spilling it all over him, and myself.

He actually seems to like it more than the nipples.