Pickens Auction Hay Contest

I could have been selfish and not shared this. But we need to help each other out as best we can.

Go to the face book page >>> Pickens Auction and fill out the form for a chance to win. Their home page is here>>> Pickens Auctions 

Uma has been sold.

First I would like to welcome to the neophyte readers. 10 new guests decided to join us last week. Welcome! And those of you that have been coerced over by Kymber, no worries, I got your back.

The man that had bought Donkey and the other lamb, had expressed interest in purchasing one of my cows. However he didn't have a trailer. And because of the farm deal falling through, we neglected to purchase one ourselves. We have no reason to move them off property. So he had to pass, or so I thought. He showed up late afternoon yesterday with a trailer.

No warning, so Uma (the only butchering one I have up for sale) was not separated from the herd. Needless to say this showing up without warning didn't make me very happy. Luckily for him, he didn't attempt to haggle with me at that moment. Earlier in the week he had asked if I was willing to drop the price, I told him No. I could get more money from the meat, and besides she is already cheaper than papered animals. (even though she is papered)

So the attempt was on to get Uma loaded up in their trailer.

First off there was a language barrier with his younger helper. Usually this isn't much of a problem because they tend to allow me to do all the work. As I am unable to tell them exactly how we need to do something, and they tend not to want to get in the way. Sorry every one, I do not know Spanish, Greek or Arabic. Maybe I should learn a few phrases like Stop , and, let me do it! Might make things easier. But this young un was ambitious, and ended tripping me up, literally. And because they were confused on which cow it was, they ended up roping Urth. And she is so passive she had allowed it. Luckily Husband was able to step in a stop that. Urth has the personality that I want to keep bred into my milking staff. Uma doesn't. She is mean and will not allow the others to eat. She learned it by watching her mother.

Husband was able to wrestle Uma to the ground, and was disappointed in me for not getting it on film. I told him we could do it again with one of the bulls, make it look all dramatic and dangerous to show all his motorcycle clients.  He wasn't going for it.

We lead and dragged her as far as we could get her. Then I had to use the cattle prod. I hate using it, but it is the most humane thing available to move a stubborn cow.  The voltage is lower than the stun guns used in self defense. A lot lower. I know because I have been shocked by both, and prefer the buzz and surprise of the cattle prod.  The cattle prod will get me moving, the stun gun, well stuns me and makes me want to fall to the ground in a fetal position crying. So I used it on Uma. It moved her, but not onto the platform of the trailer.

Now I really don't have to tell you this story. I realize there are many out there that think this is cruel. But here is the cruel part of the story. The man that was purchasing Uma, told me to move away, then he proceeded to hit her with a board!  I almost shocked him in the neck with the cattle prod. I yelled stop at him. And told him that this was better, the prod. Safer and not painful only shocking (surprising). We got her in, and I gave her a big scoop of cookies to calm her.

He paid full price for her. The younger helper asked me a few questions in very broken English. Luckily I have dealt with it enough that I could get the gist of what he was asking. He was interested in the cattle prod, as he has never seen one before. I take it that it is customary for them to hit their cattle with boards.  And then they were off.

Later that night I felt dreadful. Guess I had second thoughts about selling her to whom I had sold her to. Now it is really hard sometimes to write about ones fears without coming off as a bigot. But allow us to call it media and documentary induced paranoia, as most my thoughts came from scenes I have seen on the tv, add to the fact that I watched him beat her with a board, and viola! bad thoughts of tortured animals.

I could only hope that they killed her quickly.

We felt that here, OK (earthquake)

We just had an earthquake!

First one I have ever felt.

at 1053 pm (Saturday evening) central time Sparks, Ok had a 5.2 earthquake, and we felt it all the way up here north of Wichita, Kansas. ( they just updated it to a 5.6)

I hope you all are ok.

It lasted for 53secs here. Hopefully this was the main shock, and not a foreshock. I would hate to think they will be getting stronger.

Perils of 'steadin'

This is embarrassing. It happened last week, and I still have yet to tell you about it.  Which is surprising as I tell you just about everything. I have told you about being electrocuted by water, pickle jar attempted murder, dead turkey attacks, and various other "only to you" painful situations.

I have a hair line fracture in my right foot. Yet that isn't as painful as the tissue damage. But I should start at the beginning of my day.

It was one of our pleasant days last week. I had Uma, Mamma, and X separated from the rest of the herd. Pastor Mike paid extra money to fatten X up on corn feed.  It was early morning, even the few range chickens that have began roosting on the back steps were still sleeping. I hefted up the 50lbs bag of corn over my shoulder and headed out the back door. I shooed the chickens away and started down the steps.

Maybe it was the chicken poop, maybe I just miss stepped, however it began, I am well aware of how it ended. On my face in the mulch scattered about the ground.

I somersaulted on the same step apparently numerous times.  I hear you askin, But Phelan how would you know this if you were busy spinning? I will tell you my friend, because I have a hole in the front side of my ankle, a hole higher up on my shin, and yet another in the palm of my hand. I had discovered that there was a head of a nail sticking up on the third step.

The feed went flying and I managed to chase after it. Doing a magnificent slide into base, apparently attempting to catch the feed bag. Oh it was all a blur. I laid there for a moment, until Large asked if I was ok. Why oh why did he have to ask. I heard his voice and tears immediately sprang to my eyes. I told him to get Husband who was in the front of the house working on the special project of his (the one that is looking like an above ground bunker) Of course they took their sweet time.

I went to get up, still crying mind you. And discovered that my ankle at that moment wasn't going to hold my weight, and I crash back to the ground. More out of the surprise of the pain, then the pain itself. As Husband and Large took time to discuss how they were going to approach coming out back to see if I needed any help, I managed to stand back up and and feel out the foot. And after a few moments I was able to walk, with a limp, and picked up the feed bag. Of course I was livid by the time Husband decided it was safe enough to come to my aid. ggrrrr. . . This is one moment that emotional distress seems to out weight the physical hurt. And it's not like my lips can get any bigger to look all pouty, I always look pouty, but I think I managed to pull it off, then get the eff off look.

Alas, this is not when I broke my foot. This was just the start of the most wonderful day of my life. (Yes, I am listening to System of a Down)

My ankle felt better and the scabs formed as the day moved forward. Lots of work to do. Husband had me climbing the above ground bunker jungle gym, my shoulders screaming because of past injuries and a cold front was pushing down on us. There were a few precarious times that afternoon. Times that one was forced to ask if I was ok. I had suddenly reverted to the clumsy tween, just growing into the size of her feet.

I managed to make it to dark without a visit to the ER. I was thankful that my elephantine day was now over. I could make a safe dinner, cuddle up to watch a movie with Husband, and drift into a peaceful non maladroit sleep.

Dinner was not elegant.

I managed to drop a cast iron griddle on my foot.

First a quick dance, next sailors blushed, then my brain said to go into the bathroom to wash the enormous amount of blood that was gearing up to spew from my foot.

From what I could glean as I limped with curse words on my lips and tears in my eyes, no one knew what happened. Only that I was dancing violently, and screaming some death metal lyrics. As if I had a moment from a Broadway musical and broke out into song during a mundane moment in life. Oh but this was not the case. I think I heard Husband asking after me. But my brain screamed cold water, so he was pushed back in my hearing.

I turned the cold water on, my foot quickly under it. No blood. Now this was surprising after the fact. I didn't care at the moment, but thinking back one would suspect blood when a heavy cast iron griddle falls onto your foot. Something should have been cut open.  All I saw was a purple foot, already swollen.

And here my friends comes where Husband is a jerk, and threats of divorce are issued.

Husband made me sit down, and he placed my foot in his lap and put a bag of ice on it. I so preferred the swelling to the ice. It took three refills of ice and a couple hours before the swelling went down. Husband did his doctoring and determined that there was a hairline fracture. He informed me that wasn't what was causing all the pain. It was the severe soft tissue damage that was the culprit. He told me that a break is preferable to the tissue damage. It doesn't hurt as long. And I will agree with that. When I broke my arm, it only hurt for a day, but this has been hurting for a week.

The next day, it did feel a bit better, but I limped until the foot turned a nasty black color. Now it only hurts if a turn it wrong, or when I put my boots on. I have been wearing house slipper to do my chores.

Unripe Tomato Spice Cake (Kid Approved)

I told you I was working on a dessert. Allow me to insert, I so rock!, at this point in the post. Thank you.

To be honest I was very hesitant to even taste this. I mean unripe, green tomatoes in a cake! And I am so much the texture girl. I refuse to eat things prepared a certain way because of the texture. Tomatoes are one such food item. And that would be why Husband calls me spoiled. However, I closed my eyes and, this cake turned out just wonderfully.

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 very firm medium sized unripe tomatoes, diced
confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Butter a loaf pan.

Whisk together flour, spices, and salt. Set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar.

Beat in 1 egg at a time, mix in vanilla.

Stir together the baking soda and warm water, stir into the sugar mixture.

Fully incorporate the diced tomatoes.

Gently fold the flour mixture in with the sugar/butter batter. Blend well. Batter should have a whipped look and feel. Do not over mix. The batter will be thick.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake 1 hour 10 minutes - 1 hour 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool in pan on its side for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar. Serve warm. (the cake seems to become sweeter as it cools. I might cut the sugar back by 1/2 a cup)

Small and Medium just tried a small slice. I'm not an idiot, I didn't tell them what was in it other than "it's a spice cake."  They devoured it. 

It is now, officially Kid Approved!

Much too early to stress about Christmas

Good thing I'm not stressed about it. But the conversation about Christmas keeps creeping up.

Many of you know that for the past 5 years we have a no electronics Christmas. The boys try every year to get around this clause. This year Large is asking for solar powered robotics. Hmmmm. . . we will see on that.

The no electronics Christmas goes over well every year however. Small has really never known it any other way, Medium does grumble a bit, but that is his personality, he grumbles about everything. Large is a bit pickier and we have to get more creative every year so he is not too disappointed that he doesn't get the same things as his friends. High school is rough. Husband has decided to purchase a vintage dirt bike for him. It's older than me, no electronic start on it. This will be fun.

I digress, 2 years after we started the no electronics Christmas, the grandparents embraced it. It seemed to relieve the stress involved with purchasing that perfect gift for the grandkids. Suddenly grandparents were on the floor with the kids showing them how to play with these toys that they had as kids. I was getting phone calls full of laughter and "you'll never guess what I just found!" and "I had one when I was 6!"  Grandparents were no longer out of the loop, no longer trying to keep up with what the kids thought was cool. Now it was about sharing what they knew. And because our boys had never seen these toys, they were thrilled with the magic (science, depending on age) behind them.

Husband was talking with someone about an old erector set that he had found. It's non motorized, only cranks and gears. Husband mentioned the no electronics rule. The friend thought that was a wonderful idea, and is now implementing it into his household.

Part of the no electronics Christmas is about money. Yes I will admit to it. They can get costly, and most the time they are poorly made, at least what you can rationally afford can be. Then it"s about the ages of the child. My teen doesn't have a cell phone, Medium doesn't need his own laptop, and Small, he doesn't need video games. Any electronics they want, they ask after for their birthdays. I don't completely neglect the electronic items. But Christmas. . . they don't exist. At Christmas we spend the entire day together, with only cheerful yelling and laughter as we figure out medieval puzzles, learn to ride something new, and build as a family.  Only Large runs off to be alone, but rather than playing the newest game, he is reading his new book. (that and he is now an angst ridden teenager).

So why am I talking about Christmas now? Because I am now working on some homemade toys and presents, and soon I will be sharing them with you. So, it's on my mind. (don't take this as a lecture. This is just what happens in my household)

Feeling bad, but it had to be

A couple pulled in my driveway last night, just as we were getting ready to head off trick or treating. They were looking for goats, or even sheep that were for sale. Actually they wouldn't get out of the truck until I put Buckets away.

Honestly, it isn't the first time I have had visitors refuse to leave their vehicle when she's around. They mistake her for a pit bull and get upset.  I have come outside to see two grown men standing on their truck while she sat barking and wagging her tail with a log in her mouth.


I called Good Neighbor to see if he still had any of his goats. But he had already taken them to auction. I hated to do it. It nagged at me a bit. However as things stand, sacrifices have to be made. I sold them Donkey and the runt ram that was going to be butchered. I made enough to purchase 1 large round bale.

Xanadu is up for sale. She is 1 year old, full blooded Long legged Kerry. Sire and Dam registered through the Dexter Association, but she is not registered.  Dam Polled, Sire horned.

For Sale, Yogi, 10 month old full blooded Long legged Kerry bull. Dam registered with the Dexter Association, Sire was not (Sire's parents were). Dam horned, Sire polled. 

email me if interested. (email in profile) I will have a couple calves for sale in the spring when weened. Located in Central Kansas