I'm not complaining, merely chatting

I have never had second degree burns before, so this was a nice change. Once it heals, it is amazingly like having super glue stuck to your skin, or at least that's how your nerves start working in your fingertips after such an episode. Oh, you want the story do you? It does involve a bit of sailor blushing from my part. But let's just say I had a disagreement with some brush burning, a hollowed out metal pipe and condensation. Yet another one of my incidents. Maybe some day I'll get it right.

We are finally seeing rain here. Over the winter we managed to get enough rain, little snow, but enough rain to go from extreme drought to severe drought conditions. Yesterday it managed to rain all day, granting us over an inch of the wet stuff. Cool, wonderful, glorious, large white rain fell from the darkened skies and we still had to move a bale out to the fields for the cattle. I discovered that my face is like the incredible hulk, though husband says it's my second chin. But in the heavy rain we managed to get that bale rolled off the trailor into the back of the truck, with nary an accident. My face can lift 400 lbs by itself. Of course everything was flooding.

Husband has been working on the zombie moat, as the children and I have taken up calling it. Some of you remember my chatting about how we get everyone's flood waters on our land.




I know, the picture is a bit dark. But that's about an acre of land waist high under water. Husband and his new best friend the box blade, have been digging the zombie moat, and it seems to be working



We already caught two zombies in it, a medium sized and a small one. ( pic is of the same general area in both photos)

I digress, turns out all the displacement of the missing soil causes the barn area to flood now. We still have a lot of work to do, figuring out how to displace all that water.

Speaking of cattle, we spent the summer feeding the cows a supplement to keep them from going off their feed in the extreme heat, then kept them on it through the winter to help with the warmth as the bales we had been finding were below par, until we found the milo. Now they are all spoiled brats and feel they are entitled to a treat every freakin time they see me. Urth and all the calves are really bad about it. So I have to retrain everyone. Treats are only for milking! Until they understand that, the neighbors are going to have to put up with the demanding mooing that can be heard 3 states over.

A Tractor and a Winner

The winner of the April Fool's Day give-a-way is. . . .

esp!!!

(email me with your mailing address please)

Husband got a new toy, a 1951 Ford 9n

It reminds me of a dune buggy.

Anyone want to calm me down? With this, my yard will never be the same.

Once the tractor stopped, and turned off, Winston finally got up enough nerve to confront it.

And Survival Times has me listed as #1 on their top 100. Cool

Manic Monday

We were having an issue with the tractor Sunday. Turns out that there was something in the gas tank besides gas, and it was clogging everything up. My husband did some modifications to it, and now is running like a beauty. Tractor pictures here.

The author of Melissa's Ramblings came out yesterday. I showed her around a bit and she handed over two roosters. Yes, that is the admittance to see my homestead. They were some hefty birds. After she left, my husband and I took a look at them. They are some gorgeous specimens. We granted the two a stay of execution. We have hens of the same breeds, these guys should make some good looking babies.

Remember I said yesterday that I was going out to pay some bills? Well, I started the car, put it into reverse and nothing happened. I wasn't moving. The transmission is on a permanent slip. We just had paid to get it rebuilt a little over a year ago! We had to pay bills, we took the bike. It wasn't so bad on the way into the city, unfortunately we live North of the city and had to ride straight into the wind on the way home, the temperature dropping rapidly and we had to cross a river. My eyes were watering, tears freezing mid cheek. Yep, that was the most painful bike ride I have ever been on.

Goat hide update: it has been so cold that it isn't drying like it should. I have just been reapplying salt. I will let you know when more happens. One thing about the cold, as it keeps the skin from rotting (of course if it was warmer it would dry before rotting). I was hoping to do some more things to it yesterday, but only ended up salting it again. Brush off the old, and add the new.

Other than thaat, what to tell ya.

Good Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Above is Urth's Umbra. She's getting big!


Now to finally introduce you to the newest member of our Dexter Family. . .

Unexpected Delight

We call him Undies for short


Everybody Thank Cassandra for my Christmas present! Thank you! I love the ornaments as well.

Get a Clue

I will start posting later and later as the days progress. I will be doing more morning chores, like gardening, in the cooler temps of the morning. I will post, but in the afternoon, when the heat of the day drives me indoors.

I got to drive the tractor! I was actually able to take it away from my husband. We were beginning to think he was glues to the metal seat. We or ummm, I, cultivated the ditch that runs through our property. This is were all our water loving melons are being planted. One problem with this though. Because of where the cattle fence is, where the garden is, and where this cultivated ditch is, we can not get to the orchard. This is when we decide to put one of those bridge boards to use. We dragged it to the ditch using a lead. It took two of us, and we still struggled with it a bit.

Now we have access.

Of course while we were working,

the boys decided to brave the cows, and take a dip in the trough.

Later that day, I sent my boys to gather some fire wood. I wanted to practice my open flame cooking skills.

I made a simple dish of ham, noodle, cheese and spinach casserole.

I brought the water to a boil for the noodles,

heated the ham, melted the butter and cheese with a little milk

and allowed it to "bake" for a few minutes before serving it up.

The boys loved it, and it had a smoky flavor that can't be beat.

So, why am I practicing my open flame cooking skills? This is your clue to Monday's announcement.

Windy Day!

Congratulations to the State of Illinios!

State feels the heat, drops ID requirement for livestock exhibitors -- for now
by Brian Boyer
Apr 15, 2008

Feeling pressure from farmers groups and the Illinois legislature, the state Department of Agriculture will not enforce a new rule requiring livestock exhibitors, including youth showing animals in 4-H fairs, to register with the state. Continues>>>>

but . . .

USDA IMPLEMENTS KEY STRATEGY FROM NATIONAL ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM BUSINESS PLAN


WASHINGTON, April 15, 2008--The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today announced that it has implemented a key strategy from its Business Plan to Advance Animal Disease Traceability by providing National Animal Identification System (NAIS) compliant "840" radio frequency (RF) eartags to animal health officials for use in the bovine tuberculosis (TB) control program.

Continues>>>


The first snake of the season was caught yesterday.

My husband did the cultivating in our field and the good neighbors.

But because of the 49mph winds, he got something in his eye and it scratched up his lens and inner/upper eye lid. He was not feeling to well. The neighbor across the way is a nurse. So I called her and my husband went over there for her to look at it. She had some antibiotics and an eye patch. Did him up right, and he feels a lot better today.

Because of the winds it was hard to get too much done, so that short, but tiresome list I gave you yesterday was not fully completed. But I did promise pictures.

This is my real quickly banny box.

Feel free to compliment me.

Here are the Colombians. (yes Columbine was a sleepy typo)

Today I use the tiller. Please wish me luck and that I don't lose a limb.

Beneath the Planet of the Tractors

We didn't get to the cultivator yesterday. My husband took the center buster over to our good neighbors field to help him out a bit. Today is my husband's last day of semi-retirement, he starts his new job tomorrow, lots will need to be done. We have a long list of must do this now chores, only so that our weekends won't be jam packed. We have plans to hit up some motorcycle rallies this year, and we can't have all this homesteading stuff get in the way. (this is where I would wink)

Shear goats and sheep
put up new fencing
build banny boxes
cultivate garden
plant some of the garden

That is on today's list. I did build a quick banny box yesterday. My good neighbor has some columbine bannies he didn't want. They were his grandpa's. But they don't do well in the winter, grandpa was not wanting to deal with them, though loved them, and now good neighbor doesn't have the time for them. So I took them. The are a gorgeous pair of birds. Remind me to get some photos for you all.

Have you seen Beneath the Planet of the Apes? I love those movies, but the one scene when the apes are entering the forbidden zone and there are all those dead apes hanging like scarecrows, it is that scene that I remembered after we covered our fruit trees. The flowers survived!

Hard Freeze Center Buster

Last night we ran around, placing black trash bags over all our fruit trees that have already began to flower. We even hoped the fence and covered our good neighbor's trees as well. Looking out this morning, I can see the frost covering everything. I hope we were able to save them. Similar thing happened last year, and we lost all our peaches.

The tractor is now being used. We went down to our local farm store and purchased a center buster and a cultivator. And it was no sales tax day! We saved $27US on that. The center buster was put into use yesterday, today the cultivator, and tonight planting. The lowest that the temperature will get the rest of the week is in the 40's. So it won't be until next week when I need to worry about another hard freeze.

Soon, however, we will be worrying about hail and tornadoes.

What's in a name?

When one thinks about getting parts for a tractor, and one isn't an expert on finding said parts, one would think of the first place that comes in mind. We needed a tube for our new to us tractor. So we headed into Wichita, as the tractor salvage close to us had no such thing. The first place we went to did not carry such large tubes. One would think that a Company with the words, Supply and Tractor in the name would carry such things. But no.

We headed off to Tractor Row. This is a street in Wichita that has every (except for Ford) tractor company and independent companies on it. We walked into the first store on the street, and immediately saw that this was a "Lawn" tractor store. But we asked any way, and were informed that there was a little building just a block off of tractor row that carried only wheels, rims and tires. Of course, we headed off that way. We told the men what we were looking for, and as the young man headed off into the back, my husband and the older man talked about the tractor. He was impressed that it was running in less then a day after sitting for so long. And was surprised that only one of the wheels had damage. He told us to take good care of those front tires, as they were "gems". They don't make them anymore. He said that they were the best ones for turning.

He also said that 85% of these old tractors were still in use.

I didn't think I mentioned that when we pulled the tire and tube off the tractor that the tube was filled with anti-freeze, not air. This was done to add weight to the tractor, and so it wouldn't freeze in the winter. We have wheel weights, something that was picked up for no apparent reason at the time, so there should be a need for us to do the same.

yeah, that would be a tractor

A 1940 Ford 9N to be exact.

Friday night, the neighbor and my husband headed south to my brother-in-laws rental farm (that would be a farm he is renting, not a large place to rent things) My husband said the despite the rotten rim,

it rolled right up onto the trailer. I know it is hard to tell, but the picture above is of the rotten rim. It is nasty looking in person. So does the seat.

This tractor has been sitting in an open field for at least 24 years. My husband and the neighbor from across the way were quick to get it running.

The mason jar is original.

Did I mention it had a hand crack starter?

My husband had it running, started for the first time in 24 years, by the evening. Now to find a new rim, a manifold, clean out the gas tank, buy some arms, and we are good to go.

Total price so far? $50