The Perfect Storm?

Wow, what a forecast for the year. Clothing prices going up due to "skyrocketing" cotton prices. Food going up due to freezes, droughts, floods, and other reasons for bad harvests. The middle east especially is in a tizzy and much of it due to rising food costs which for them are already well over 50% of their income. Is this going to be the year of the perfect storm that truly wakes up the sleeping sheep in America? Someone mentioned the other day in a forum that I read that collapse IS happening here just very slowly. One business closes today, one house is foreclosed on tomorrow, one more person loses a job, etc. etc. Are we headed in the same direction as Argentina where one buggy of food from poorly stocked grocery shelves costs over 1400 pesos and the average monthly income is 250 pesos? We have had it so easy here for so long, yet we are no longer the formidable empire that we once were. In fact we are quickly becoming the laughing stock of the world and what happens when that world will no longer support us? What will Americans do? Will we pull up our bootstraps and dig in to start over in a new direction? Or will we cry and whine in the streets that no one is coming to our rescue? As for me and mine we will pull up our bootstraps and I suspect that there are many more out there just like us. I don't write this post to send anyone into a panic or to even be depressing. What I am trying to point out is that many times we need to take a good hard look at ourselves and our lives to re-evaluate what we do now and what we can do in the future. The time to do that is when things are relatively comfortable. I know many times I have been told that because I think of these types of things that I have no faith in God and His provisions. I have all faith in God. I have faith that He has given me enough warning of what is to come, so that I can be prepared. God absolutely positively does provide everything we need, but there has to be a little bit of effort on our part as well. Like the old joke about the man on his roof after a big flood. A guy in a rowboat comes by and he refuses to get in, then as the waters continue to rise a guy in a canoe comes by and he refuses again. Then the waters are washing over the roof and a guy in a motorboat comes by and he refuses again. Each time he says "God will save me". Then he gets to heaven and asks God why He didn't save him as he had such strong faith. God's reply, "I sent 3 boats, what more did you want?" Indeed we all have to make a little effort and grab onto what God has provided, which are the signs that bad times are coming. We need to make the effort to prepare ourselves mentally, spiritually and physically. Seeing the signs that some tough times are coming makes me sit down and reflect on the skills that I have and the skills that I should have. What more can I do to live without some things that truly aren't needed? What effort is required of me to live with what God has provided? Take this time to ask this of yourselves. It is a good time to reflect on our lives. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Bio-Intensive Gardening

For the past two years we have tilled and amended the soil quite liberally in our permanent garden area. Each year we put about 8-10 inches of compost down over the whole thing. We have some pretty good soil now; something actually living rather than hardpan clay. For the past couple of years we grew in rows and had fairly decent yields. My goal, however, all along has been a more bio-intensive approach rather than the old method of plow and till. Now that my soil is alive with activity I want to keep it that way. Tilling disturbs the soil too much by disturbing the micro-organisms and releasing nutrients when they are exposed to air. Not to mention doing all of this is labor intensive. So, this year I get to put in my permanent beds. Yes, I said beds or wide rows if you want to call it that. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with row gardening. It worked for both my grandfathers and it worked for me. My issue is that I want to grow more in the same space and I want to cut down on the manual labor. Since I am the main one in the garden, I am the main laborer and frankly my body ain't what it used to be. So let me explain a bit about bio-intensive gardening (also called french intensive). Basically you are creating permanent beds or wide rows. There are walkways around the beds and they are never wider than you can work from the sides because once in place you don't want to walk on them because you don't want to compact the soil. Typically bio intensive requires the bed to be double dug to a depth of 24 inches. Because I still have some hardpan clay I am adapting the method a bit to suit my needs. Instead of double digging I am digging and using the lasagna method a bit. From everything I have seen compost is used but almost only as a sprinkling amendment in most bio-intensive gardens. I am using a lot more compost. So here is what I am doing in steps.

Step one: Decide where you want your bed and how big. It should only be about 3-4 feet wide so that you can be in the walkway and still reach the middle of the bed without stepping on it.

Step 2: Dig out about 6-8 inches of soil and place to the side.

Step 3: Lay down a thick layer of newspaper, then barn cleanings, then some organic matter, then soil removed, then compost,then organic matter, the another good layer of compost. For organic matter you can use just about anything like leaves, barn cleanings from rabbits or goats, etc. Basically you are creating a compost pile in place. For the barn cleanings please don't use chicken manure as it gets way too hot. I use the cleanings from thunder's stall after the chickens have gone through in the morning and scratched everything up and then I only apply a very thin layer.Horse and cow manure get pretty hot also so be careful with those. Being on the bottom it will have aged pretty well by the time the plant roots get there, but in the meantime the bed will be warmer than the surrounding ground which is a plus.

Step 4: Plant or wait to plant, depending on what you want to plant. I am planting cool season crops so I am already planting. When I plant my seeds, I then sprinkle more compost over the top after I have scattered them over the entire bed. If I were planting plants then I would place them in the bed in a hexagonal pattern instead of rows (you can grow more in a smaller space)and mulch around them.

Step 5: Mulch the walkways.

Step 6: Maintain by weeding and watering.

There are several advantages to gardening or farming this way. First it is less damaging to the soil and healthy soil means fewer pest and disease problems. Second, because you ignore all spacing "rules" you grow more in less space and tend to have fewer weeds. Third, the beds tend to hold moisture better especially when the walkways are mulched. You can also plant in relays and in tandom. For instance cabbage is slow growing so you can plant cabbage and radishes together since radishes grow much faster, therefore you are doubling your harvest from one bed/row. This is a better way to utilize vertical space for growing things like cucumbers, melons and squash which will also free up space allowing room for more crops. After each harvest I will add another layer of organic matter and then another layer of compost, then plant again (relay planting). Each year on out I will only have to loosen the soil in the bed add some organic matter and compost and then plant. No more tilling and plowing, which is great news to my aging back. The great thing about this is that you can have one bed or many and you can grow a lot in one bed. I have one bed that is about 3ft x 6 ft and it is now growing mache, spinach, romaine, arugula, carrots and radishes. Not bad for a small space. While my first few years in this particular space has been all about growing good soil and getting rid of the hardpan clay, this year is all about growing a great vegetable garden. We will see how it goes. Happy gardening, Kat

Do What You Can Where You Are

I had a wonderful day yesterday. First it was beautiful weather. Second I had a group of wonderful women and children from our homeschool group come out to the farm for a fun educational work type day. They all had loads of questions which was awesome. It was so nice to be with other folks who want to learn about taking care of themselves and doing something for themselves. Sometimes, I will admit I feel like an island all alone in my thoughts and beliefs surrounded by people who think I am a little on the nutty side. These women showed me that I am certainly not alone. Thanks ladies, you have no idea how much you gave me yesterday. Anyway, one of the big questions of the day was about space and getting started and how to start with something. My advice to anyone who wants to do something is to start small and start with what you can do. If you don't have a big yard grow something in containers, same thing if you are in a rental. We had one mom who will be moving soon, so one thing she can start doing is researching local farms where she is going that she can buy from. She can also start studying planting guides for the area that she is moving to. In other words, my advice to everyone yesterday was to start what they can, where they are. Whatever it is start doing it. It doesn't matter whether it is growing a few tomatoes in pots or a small salad garden with just a few things or researching what you want to do when you get where you are going for a full scale small farm. Everybody has to start somewhere and each small step, no matter how trivial it may seem, is a small step towards independence and knowledge. My second piece of advice is to do whatever works for you. Each farm and each family is different, circumstances change and life changes. What works for Joe farmer down the road may not work for you. For instance....My mom and I were talking the other day about the garden. I have managed to get a good tilth and topsoil built in my garden area by plowing and tilling in tons (yes tons) of compost. Now, I no longer want to disturb that so I am moving into a more french intensive type of gardening plan which will be permanent. My mom was a little distressed because my grandfather had always plowed and tilled each and every year. Plowing and tilling is labor intensive. I am the main laborer around here. I am getting older. I need an easier way of doing things. In other words, there are many ways to do the same thing and accomplish the same goal so find what fits you and your family. Take all the knowledge and experience from others that you can get, file it away in your knowledge bank, and use what fits. Do What YOU Can Where YOU Are. That includes where you physically are living and where you are in your life. When our children are little they require more time, which means less time for other things. When they get older we have more time for other things because they need us less for their physical needs. You don't have to do things just like somebody else does. You can do whatever works for you and your family. Whatever you do, do something. Blessings to all and many thanks to all the ladies and kids that were here yesterday. I had a wonderful time sharing with you all and look forward to doing so again in the future. Kat

Beaver Update

Well, the beaver was negative for rabies. Good thing. Thunder is doing just fine and the bite has just about healed. No infection and no lameness. He is a tough old man. The state lab said that there is a disease that beavers can get which gives similar signs (odd behavior)and that is probably what was wrong with the beaver, but it definitely was not rabies. So everybody here is in good shape. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Some hints of Spring

Oh the weather outside is delightful! Highs near 70 yesterday and supposed to be that way all week. I had to take the row covers off of my cabbages and other cole crops. i love this kind of weather and it always makes life seem more bearable when you know that spring is just around the corner. Of course, February and usually the beginning of March can be really tricky like that. Lovely, beautiful weather and then right back in the throes of old man winter. Let's just hope that the trees don't start putting out blooms only to have them frozen off again. I remember my grandfather's pear tree and the aggravation that the tree and the weather caused him. Apparently, each year this pear tree was tricked by February's little hints of spring to come. Each year at the first sign of nice weather it would load itself with beautiful blossoms. And then each year it would lose those blossoms to those end of February freezes that we get every single year. My grandfather tried talking to the tree, but it really didn't seem to do much good. The tree was always so excited at the prospect of spring the it just couldn't seem to help itself. Grandaddy never got a single pear off of that tree even though he babied and petted it and begged for it to wait just a little longer. Sometimes I feel like that pear tree. It is so hard to be patient and wait just a little longer for true spring to get here. I remember one of my first garden failures was thinking that I could go ahead and plant my warm season crops. I did and they died. So I truly have to force myself to wait. Fortunately, I learned about cool weather crops and now I can get my hands dirty and have plants that love this weather. I also have plenty of garden work to do to get ready for everything else. The cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and lettuces are coming up nicely under their little row covers. The wattle fence around their section of the garden is doing a good job of keeping the ducks out of that area, so far so good. Since that was my first attempt at wattle fence building is isn't very pretty and I keep having to make adjustments but that is what this life is all about, learning to do something better or different. Sewing has been put on hold for a bit while we get the garden in order. I try to do a little sewing at night, but don't seem to get very far. I am truly exhausted in the evenings. The girl's are too as they are spending a good amount of time outside also. The little one was so exhausted last night that she fell asleep while I drew her bath water. After her bath and supper she spent a little time cuddling and talking with me and then didn't put up much fuss when I tucked her into bed. She "worked" very hard yesterday as we burned off some yard trash and worked on the wattle fence. I am really praying for a good garden this year. There is something about a summer evening sitting in my garden chair looking at the beautiful plants. It makes all the hard work worth it. The baby bunnies are beginning to pop out of the nest and nibbling at mama's food. They are truly adorable little critters and it is a good thing to see them out of the nest. The hens are really ramping up egg production and we are getting about a dozen a day now, provided we can get them before the cats do. That usually means going out to collect the eggs very often during the day. We have one chick from out hatch so far. It hatched out a couple days early. We had another egg hatch, but it fell in the water and drowned. Unfortunately, that is one of the hazards of having a homemade incubator. The other eggs were due to hatch yesterday, but they didn't. I am really hoping they will. They all looked viable the last time that I candled them, but you never know anything can happen. I am hoping that my Australorps will think about going broody soon. They did last year and it was a nightmare as hens started fighting over the nest. Even the reds decided to not be outdone by the australorps and wanted to be broody too. The result was broken eggs, too many eggs etc. etc. We got one little chick and the chicken killer cat eventually got that one. Chicken killer cat is now gone of course so maybe this year will be better if we can catch a broody quickly before there are too many eggs and she is competing with the other hens. I don't want too many of them going broody, but I would like to have one or two hatch out some chicks. Anyway, I am rambling. I hope you all are having a great week and some lovely weather for a change. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Homemade Soap Update

Well, it has been a little over 2 months since our family first started making and using our own homemade soap. As you recall our first soap was a goat milk soap made with olive oil, lard and peanut oil. The bars dried beautifully and I have to say that I love this soap and will never return to store bought soap. The bars last a long time even with frequent use. We have been using the small bars that we molded in the muffin tins and each bar has lasted about a month in the shower. The lather is gorgeous and it rinses off well. We have soft water and I always felt like I never got store bought soap off my skin. I don't think I did because I had irritation issues from store bought soap, especially in my nether regions. I know too much information, but you know I am trying to give a full and accurate report. I am happy to report that I have absolutely no irritation issues with my homemade soap and I feel like it washes off completely. Now the best part ever....My soap leaves my skin so moisturized and soft. It is amazing that even if I forget to put lotion (homemade also) on after a shower my legs don't get that scaly look of dry winter skin. My elbows don't get dry and scaly either. I probably will make one more batch of bath soap and then we will have enough to last us throughout the year. I might put oatmeal in that one (getting brave here). The thing is that I already probably have enough at the rate we are going to last through the year and my cost for making all that soap was pennies compared to store bought soap. I estimate that I spent about the same amount making a year's supply as I did buying a month's supply before. So definitely a savings. Then you have to consider that I gifted about a dozen bars of it for Christmas, so I figure an even bigger savings there. I even used some of it on one of our dogs who has serious skin allergies and it seems to have eased her itching. I think that is why I am considering adding the oatmeal to the next batch mainly for her. So for those of you considering making your own I would highly suggest jumping in there and doing so. I really can't think of any drawbacks to soap making other than it could become addictive and it does require a little time and effort. But just think I spent about 3 hours making a year's supply of soap. Really not that much time investment if you ask me. Blessings and happy soapmaking. Kat

Here is the link to the soap recipe post from December: My first soap
For the laundry soap I just used 48 oz. of waste fat no rhyme or reason just what I had and water instead of milk, but essentially the same hot process recipe. Blessings

How To Render Fat from Meat Trimmings

I started making soap not too long ago (December), so I started saving my waste fat to make more soap. I recently pulled out all those trimmings from the freezer so that I could render them. Rendering is the process of separating the fat oils from the meat and gristle. So I thought I would share the process if anyone is interested in rendering their own fat for candles, soap, lotions, etc. etc.

Step 1: Cut or chop the trimmings into little bits. A food processor helps with this or you can even use your blender. If using the blender only work with very small portions as it really overworks the motor. The smaller the pieces the easier the fat separates out in cooking.

Step 2: Put your chopped up trimmings in a pot that is big enough so that the trimmings only take up half the pot.

Step 3: Place about 2-3 inches of water in the pot.

Step 4: Bring the trimmings to a low rolling boil and keep them there for about 30-45 minutes. Keep the boil low enough so that the fat is cooked out but nothing tries to scorch or stick to the pan.

Step 5: Line a strainer with cheesecloth and pour the boiled trimmings though into a mold. I used a couple loaf pans for a mold. Let the fat cool, then place in the refrigerator overnight. The fat will rise to the top and harden somewhat. Now if you have any leftover liquid it will settle on the bottom. You can either choose to skim off the fat at this point or do what I did with the second loaf pan. I put it in the freezer, then when frozen i removed the whole loaf and simple cut the non fat (mine was gelatin) off of the fat layer. The fat layer will be solid white.

Step 6: Store your fat in the freezer for future use or use immediately.

Now the brown meaty bits that you have left after rendering is called suet. I feed it to the chickens. Dogs, cats, pigs love it too. I suppose you could make a suet type cake with peanut butter or such to hold it together and put it out for the wild birds. I just put mine in a large container in the fridge and each day add a good couple spoonfuls to the chicken bucket. They love it and it is a great source of protein and calories. The gelatin that I cut off the fat after molding was fed to the dogs. I used about half of the fat to make some laundry soap. Because the fat was tallow (beef fat) and lard (pig fat) mostly with just a smattering of other waste fat the soap turned out pretty crumbly. Of course, I might have done something wrong in the processing. However, even though it crumbled into little bits it definitely is soapy, and little crumbly bits are great for laundry since I don't have to grate the bars now. Anyway, I washed my first load of laundry yesterday with my new soap and it turned out just fine. So, don't waste those fat trimmings. They are a valuable resource for the home. Blessings, Kat

Splitting Tree Trunks

Well, I know it can be done. I have seen folks do it. I fully understand how to do it. But one thing is....it looks a whole lot easier than it is. What am I talking about? Splitting tree trunks. You know those split rail fences that folks like so much. Well those at one time were a whole tree trunk which was split lengthwise down the middle. Well I had cut down some small pines and was going to use them in my wattle fence. Even though they were small, they were still bigger than what I wanted. So, I decided to split them. Now, this was the first time I have ever tried to split anything other than firewood but I figure it is a good skill to know how to do. I grabbed my trusty hatchet, gave it a whirl on the stone and then grabbed my little hand sledge and wedge. Off I went into the garden yesterday afternoon to split those trees, after all pine is soft can't be too hard right? Wrong. The first split actually pretty nicely and really isn't all that hard in terms of effort (remember these are pines, not oak). The going is slow because you want the wood to split slowly so that it doesn't break. Let the tools gently pulled the wood apart along the grain. The key is to have a trunk with a straight grain...no pecan or sweet gum. However, I quickly found out that this is truly an art form. While the first split rather well, the next one didn't go so well. I started splitting in the middle of the trunk and somehow, someway I wound up blowing out the side. So then half the trunk was split and the other half was still whole. I tried starting the split again and it just didn't work. So I shaved down the rest of the trunk and now have loads of pine shavings on the ground. I tried again and again blew out the side. Again I shaved down the whole side of the trunk. It was at that point that I had better call it a day and start again fresh today. I just need to figure out how to keep my wedge straight and why is is wiggling its way crooked?. Maybe my arm was getting tired from all the hammering with the small sledge? I don't know, but I will really have to examine my methods today and try to figure what I am doing wrong. Why is it old timers made it look so easy and why can't I make it look so easy? Oh well, I won't give up and whatever I manage to get I will work with. Maybe in a few years of doing this I will be able to make it seem easy enough. Well, gotta get the barn chores done so I can go hack up some tree trunks. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Beaver Situation

Well, Sunday certainly was an interesting day around here. It started out normal enough. I got up drank my coffee, read the news, took my shower, got my clothes out for church, woke up the children and headed out to feed and milk. Everything out there appeared normal also, until I got to the second doe to be milked. From where she is on the milk stand I can see into Thunder's (horse) stall. So I am happily milking away enjoying my quiet time and the sounds of happy critters munching away when I see a dark shape in the back corner of Thunder's stall. It was a big dark shape and very difficult to tell what it was. For a split second I thought the neighbor's dog had gotten into the barn and in the stall with Thunder (very dangerous thing to do) and was really badly hurt. However, one of the chickens solved the mystery as she popped through the wall between the stalls and began to make her way happily around Thunder's feet (yes he tolerates the chickens) to scratch through his bedding. As the chicken scurried toward the big dark shape it growled and lunged at her. It was then that I knew what it was....a beaver. A really big beaver. For a moment I was shocked, so much so that I stopped milking and just sat and stared. What was a beaver doing in my barn so far from any lake or pond or stream or anything else. Our pond is swimming pool size, wide open, no trees, and fenced in. Not beaver habitat. My neighbors to the side and back of me (2 brothers) have about 4 very large lakes and several smaller lakes/ponds. I figured the beaver came from there. But here is the question. This beaver had to travel up the hill, through the woods, all the way around my goat fence, double back toward my house (and my LGD) to go into the front of my barn right next to the house with the cars parked in front. Why? This is not normal behavior for a beaver. So I got my husband and we pulled all the animals out of the barn and put them out back in the pasture. Thunder was not happy that he did not get to finish his breakfast. My husband and I left the barn to give it a chance to go away, put all the dogs in the house and got the gun. The beaver was right where we left it, it had no interest in leaving. Something was not right with this beaver. Beavers tend to avoid humans at all cost, at least that has been my experience. As a wildlife painter I spent many hours in the woods trying to get photos of beavers only to get the splash of their tail as they disappeared from sight. Even though I have never heard of a case of rabies in beavers this was my thought. So my husband shot the beaver leaving the head intact. We then with gloves double bagged the beaver, put it in a cooler on ice and checked the critters. Well, it had bitten Thunder so it definitely needed to be tested. By this time going to church is out the window because I need to know what to do with this beaver. So I call the state wildlife office (no answer, it is Sunday after all), the critter man (doesn't know what to do with it), my vet (no answer probably in church with the phone off), sheriff's department (don't know what to do with it) and on and on it went as I called every agency I could think of to call to see where I needed to take this beaver. Finally, my vet called me back. So yesterday morning I went and picked up a rabies booster for the horse, decapitated the beaver and took the head to the state lab in the city to be tested. I should know the results today. What a shame, that was some of the most beautiful meat I had ever seen not to mention the gorgeous pelt. And the fat, just think of the soap I could make from that beautiful 1/2" layer of fat just under the skin. So that has been my past couple of days, dealing with a wayward and possibly very sick beaver. I hope the animal tests negative, but at the same time I hate the thought that I killed an animal that perhaps just got very turned around and very scared when it found itself in a bad spot. However, with such odd behavior and its unwillingness to get out of my barn I really had no choice. I will never have any answers as to why this beaver wound up in my barn. I am just wondering if one of my neighbors hasn't destroyed a lodge and displaced a family. Cruel thing to do this time of year, even in a mild southern winter. This is the time of year that babies are getting ready to be born and mama wouldn't have time to build another lodge before hand. If people are going to live in wild places with wild things, then I wish they would at least learn the cycle of those things with which they live. I understand beavers can cause problems and need to be moved out, but if you destroy the lodge at least do it when they have time to rebuild before having babies and even then maybe it would be better to trap and eat the beavers before destroying the lodge. My grandfather never agreed with wasting any life that God created. He didn't believe in killing for the sake of killing and putting a pregnant beaver out of home in winter is killing for the sake of killing in my book. Of course, I am just jumping to conclusions on that one. It just as easily could be a sick or lost juvenile that mama put out to make room for the new little ones. Anyways it was a beautiful critter and I finally got up close and personal with a beaver that I had for so many years tried to capture on film. Blessings from the farm, Kat

The Best Laid Plans

Wow, what nasty weather. So my day has started just a little differently than normal. Usually about right now I would getting ready to head out to the barn and milk and feed. We are having a good downpour of sleet at the moment and I have no interest in going out in it. Apparently the critters are interested in getting up and moving around much either. I have been up since 4 am and not a single crow from either rooster. Normally, the goats start moving around the barn about daylight and then start calling me shortly after. I looked out the sliding glass door and could just see a pile of goats huddled in their stall in the little barn. They are showing no interest in getting up. Normally, the horses are near the fence on the other side of the house. I looked out the windows and not a sign of horses anywhere, they too are huddled in the barn. So, my day is starting off a little different than it normally would. I have already done most of my household chores for the day. I even have some extras as I got wholesale cuts of Boston butts, beef knuckles and rib eyes on sale yesterday. So I have all that meat to cut and put up (the rib eyes are whole ribeyes). I will can the beef knuckles, and one of the butts. And since I will be getting out all my canning stuff, I might as well take one of the turkeys out of the freezer to can also. That is something that I have been putting off. I have also got some cheddar on the stove already cheddaring. As so as I have that in the mold, I suppose I will head outside to face the nastiness. This sleet is supposed to clear out by this afternoon so maybe I can get to finish the electric fence around the goat pasture. I am almost done with it and would really like to get it on before they start tearing up the woven wire fence again. Between the goats climbing on it and the neighbor shoving trees through and down on it, it has taken a real beating. I cut more posts, my husband and I set them and then painstakingly took the whole fence down and straightened it. That is not something I wish to repeat. All the insulators are up, now we just have to run the wire, set the grounds, and hook it up. I am hoping that I can get out there to get that done today as I really need to get back in the garden. I am already running behind schedule there. I should already have the beets planted along with the sweet peas and I have more wattle fence to finish. Well, I guess I can't complain about the weather too much down here. You folks up in the north and midwest have really been having it rough. We are at 32 degrees this morning, but you folks are in the negatives. Too cold for me and by the looks of it too cold for my goats too! Well, off to turn the cheddar and pull out the canner and jars. Blessings for the day, Kat

Four Years Ago

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day about what all we do here on the farm. She tried to have a little flock of layers about a year ago and gave up when the hawks got them all. So her little chicken coop that she built herself stands empty. She made the statement that she always makes when we talk, "I could never do everything that you do." I hear this statement a lot when people find out what all I do. I fully understand where they are coming from. But most don't realize that I didn't start off doing "all" that I do now. In fact, if someone had told me a little over 4 years ago that I would be milking goats, grinding my own wheat and baking my own bread, along with the various other things that I do around here I would have said they must be out of their mind. I could barely keep up with the housework and homeschooling. Then I had a feeling and that feeling grew and grew that I needed to do more. In fact those feelings came in the form of dreams that haunted me each and every night for more than 6 months. The funny thing about those dreams is that they were very specific about what I needed to do. In those dreams I envisioned cooking more from scratch than I did at the time, growing and putting away a large garden, raising livestock. While I have always loved farm life and wanted to have a farm, it wasn't something that I envisioned for myself. Many days I struggled just to get the laundry and the cooking done. Having chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia sometimes made just getting out of bed a struggle. It still does. Pain has been my middle name since I was 8. But I can only say that because of the specific nature of those dreams that they were a calling from God. God wanted me to do this and after all those nights and all those months I simply could not deny it. I didn't see how we would do it. My husband worked a lot just trying to make ends meet. Even on his days off he often took side jobs which meant he could barely get the yard mowed much less anything else. Our fences were (some still are) in poor shape and often barely kept the horses in. The pastures were poor and the barns were pitiful. We had no good place for the garden as all of the soil had long ago been overly processed with chemicals, and in some places badly eroded. I had already tried 2 flocks of chickens and that turned out miserably when both flocks were wiped out by the neighbor's pit bulls despite the fencing that I struggled to put up. I had also tried rabbits and lost them to heat stroke despite frozen water bottles. I did not see how I could do what He was calling me to do. But I finally broke down and decided that if God wanted me to do this then He would make it possible. Where I was weak He would make me strong. I followed the path of the dreams. The instructions from God. Whenever I needed to know how to do something the answers were right there even though many times I didn't know what I was looking for. He was opening the doors and leading the way. I just had to follow and learn. However, I am not going to say that things were easy. They weren't. My first garden here was 5 ft.x10ft. Just enough to attempt to grow a few tomatoes and cucumbers. I called it my salad garden. It failed miserably. I planted the lettuce too late and as spring turned into summer within a week it died rapidly. The tomatoes burned up later in the summer as I harvested a measly two of them off 3 plants. The cucumbers grew and grew and then were attacked by cucumber beetles. The next year I amended the soil and tried again. That year I couldn't keep the pony out of the garden. My daughter accidentally left the gate open and once he got a taste he wiped it clean. He even broke through the fence to get in. I built a chicken coop, newer and stronger out of recycled wood. I bought a few hens. 1 drowned in the horse water trough, another was killed by a possum that dug under the coop. I think we only have 2 of the original 5 left. One and on it went, each time we added something or tried something it brought new problems and I was still working out the old problems. But I was learning and despite the issues and setbacks each season brought more knowledge. I gleaned the knowledge that I had gained from my grandparents as it started to come back after many years of being shoved to the back of my mind. Now 4 years later I am content with what God has allowed us to do. We are still learning and each year we learn more and address new and different issues. God has always provided the means for us to do this and to follow this path. When we thought there was no money he either showed us how to do it free or cheap and when we couldn't do that somehow the money was available. The more we did for ourselves the less it cost us in living expenses. Our grocery bill now for 4 is cheaper than what it used to be for 2 due to the knowledge and skills that we have obtained over the past 4 years. During those 4 years, I felt such an urgency to learn and do more. I no longer feel that urgency because I know that now finally we are in a good place. Whatever we learn and do from here on out is a "bonus", but the urgency is gone. We have a well stocked pantry, we have several food sources, we have skills that we never dreamed of having. We look at our land and our life in a much different light than we did 4 years ago. I still have pain and I still struggle with bone deep fatigue, but God gives me the strength and the fortitude to keep going. Because I followed His plan and guidance we eat better which has eased the pain. So yeah, I can understand my friend's statement. I made the same one myself years ago. But because I had faith that God knew me better than I knew myself I am in a whole different place. I have a peace in my life that I never knew before. So sometimes, we have to take that leap of faith that God will give us the strength and courage to do what we must do to follow the path that He wants us to follow. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Mushrooms on Toast

I have been pigging out lately on one of my favorite meals....mushrooms on toast. It is traditionally a British food, but thanks to Gordon Ramsey this southern gal is hooked. So here is how I make it.

I take 3 large fresh mushrooms and slice them. I then saute them in a little bit of butter with minced garlic. You can use as little garlic or as much as you like. Just a hint of salt. Saute them until done and then place them on two pieces of toast. Then poach two eggs (I do mine soft poached and still runny). Place the eggs on top of the mushrooms and enjoy. This is oh so yummy and since we eat a large mid day dinner it makes a nice light supper. It is rich though because of the butter. Enjoy! Blessings from the farm, Kat