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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Wow! It has been awhile!....Update, update, read all about it!

Well, I sure am sorry folks. I have really been on a roller coaster ride for the past month and I think someone finally found the brake handle, as it appears to be slowing down a bit. This will be a long post so please bear with me. I suppose I should start at the beginning, although going backwards could be a bit fun!

In the beginning....
My aunt has a rental property and her tenants moved out after 3 years of occupancy. When my aunt inspected the home it was beyond filthy. The girl that lived there had two children and now we know why they were always sick. The mice and roaches had made the place a home more than anyone, then their visitors were mold and bacteria. Even the dishes in the cabinets had mold on them and some of the pots had indistinguishable moldy food still in them. I even got a terrible rash from ripping out all the carpets. So my aunt gave me the task of getting this place ready to rent and I had one month to do it in. Wow, talk about a deadline. Oh, I forgot (see I cannot stick to a perfectly chronological timeline). Just before this happened my husband came limping in one Thursday evening from the church softball game. I took one look at his ankle and off to the emergency room we went. Several hours later (2 am)we found out that he had torn the ligaments in his ankle. For the past month he has been in a cast or brace of some sort and just finished physical therapy yesterday. Looks like things are healing well and he is back to do little chores around the farm (YIPPEEEE!)So I have been working on my aunt's trailer, taking care of all the farm work, and taking care of all the housework. Needless to say there were a lot of things that got way behind. The weeds in the goat pasture were as tall as I am and even the goats (5 foot exactly)would not venture out in that jungle. That is ok though because I needed them to mow the yard which was getting close to being up in the windows (ok, a little exaggeration but not much). They were very happy to do the job. The garden became out of control during this time with weeds. Most of it was about done anyway, but now I am behind on my fall planting because of trying to get rid of the weeds that took over. The okra and peppers are still going strong though and I will leave them as long as they will produce. My corn was a bust. Just as it was getting ready to harvest I was working on my aunt's trailer and my husband was laid up in a cast. I harvested what I could that had not been taken over with silk worms (nasty critters). So I do have some corn to feed this winter, but not nearly as much as I would need. I did manage to harvest the stalks for winter feed and got them dried and put in the barn before they completely burned up. The squirrels devastated what little of my watermelon and tomatoes I had. I lost quite a few of my tomato plants to verticillium wilt, but had several that were producing. The squirrels thoroughly enjoyed them. The sunflowers did great and we are still cleaning and drying seeds for the winter. I hope that my fall garden does much better than my summer garden. If I can manage to get them all in. Well, about the time that I was just about finished with the rental for my aunt a friend called. Her husband had cut several oak trees and wanted to know if we wanted the wood. so the next several days I spent hauling truckloads of wood. Now, I am just about finished getting the fall garden planted. It has been rough because the weeds had overtaken it and compost needed to be added. However, things seem to be doing well and with the grace of the Lord above will yield a good harvest. Our goat also delivered her kid, a nice little buckling and we are getting over a quart of milk with him still nursing and only milking once a day. I have been making yogurt and also made butter for the first time. It is wonderful and I feel so blessed to have this animal providing such delicious nutrition for our family. I guess that is about the update for the past month. I am sorry to have been awol and I will try not to let it happen again. More posts to come soon and in a more regular rhythm than this last month. God bless you all.