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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

Friday, March 18, 2011

March Update #2

Hello all! Praying that all my readers are doing well. Know that I miss blogging everyday. I seem to come up with some great ideas for posts these days and by the time I get a chance to write it out or get to my mom's computer I have forgotten. Life has been a little rough lately for our family. It seems like there is never an end to our car problems these days. The truck for the farm was scheduled to go in to be repaired Wednesday. And I believe I blogged about the aggravations with the saturn and the broken serpentine belt that turned into a "blown engine" after it went to the mechanic. If I didn't that is a whole nuther story. Anyway, so we have been down to one car while waiting for the truck to go in. Well, Monday going to work my husband hit a deer in our only running car. The car is fixable, but because of its age we did not have comprehensive insurance on it (ins. would have totalled it out) so it is on us to fix it. Needless to say the truck won't be going in this month and possibly even next month. And we are having to drive a rental car. Hopefully our car will be fixed soon, the body shop had to order parts. The main damage was to the hood and he can't find one used. Only damage to the engine compartment was the radiator...no big deal. I really need my truck, but it will just have to wait. With the car issues over the past 3 months and then the computer thing, it really makes a girl just want to climb into bed and stay there for awhile. But there are goats to milk, garden to get in and a million other things to do. Fortunately we are well stocked for the next several weeks on feed and farm supplies and we are good in the house for a good long time. I just hope we will get our car back soon. Ok, that is the bad news. Now that we have that behind us lets get on to the good news. This is the first year that I have actually been on time getting the garden in....Yippeee! And it is looking good too. Cool weather crops are coming along nicely and we will see how the warm ones start doing when they come up. We have been planting loads of peas this year as that will save on grain this winter and alfalfa this winter also. Milk production is up in the one doe I still have in milk because of all the nice green she has to eat these days. Feed bill has starting dropping for the summer and it looks like my first doe to kid this season is developing a really nice little udder. Bunnies are coming along nicely and we are expecting our third litter within the next week. We should get about 5 more litters before the full heat of summer is on us and then everybody gets a break until fall. Spring is when we try to get most of the rabbit breeding done. We get a few litters in the fall, but not as many as spring. The girls are really busy during springtime. chickens are laying well and Dakota our pyrenees has been doing a great job of running off a coyote the past several nights. They are getting brave. Don't know why as they have a whole deer on the side of the road about a mile from our house, they can have at it. So other than car and computer issues things are going well. We have decided to have some homesteading type classes at the farm this spring and summer and are praying that those go well also and we have a good turnout. We will have a couple of gardening type classes and then a classes on raising rabbits for meat and then we haven't decided on the others yet. Hope things are looking bright for everyone else's future and that my friends up north are getting a few signs that spring is on its way. Trust me it is coming and doesn't look like it is gonna be here too long before summer settles in. Busy, busy busy! I will be at mom's through the weekend so will try to get some really get posts to tide everyone over for the week. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

March Farm Update

Well, it has been an interesting time lately. Things are going strong in the garden, at least the digging is. I am actually on schedule and don't feel rushed. The salad greens are just about ready to harvest and I thinned out the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. My peas are coming up, but don't seem to be coming up strong. I don't know, we will see. This is actually the first year that I got them in on time, so whatever I get will be a blessing. The weather has been bringing in some nasty storms, but at least those storms have brought the temps back into the normal range. Before the first storm we were pushing 80 degrees....in February. Definitely not normal. Now we are sticking in the 50s/60s range. Much more normal for this time of year. I have most of the other beds done and will be planting sunflowers within the next week or so. The pastures are doing well this year. We will be adding some bahia in some places and adding some cowpeas for variety. I am looking for some lespedeza, but am unable to find anything less than 50lb bags and I simply don't need that much. I am also planting sunflowers in the pastures this year. We had another litter of bunnies this past week and they are finally doing good. The mother was a first timer and had them spread all over the place. She waited until the day after she had them to pull any fur. Meanwhile I had to build a nest and use some dryer lint to line it with. I used the fur once she pulled it. Then she didn't realize that she needed to feed the little critters. So I have been having to hold her so that the kits can nurse. She now seems to have the hang of it and the 5 surviving kits (we lost two that were really really small) look fat and happy. I really think this is just a case of first time mom confusion. Her mother was an awesome mom, but did the same kind of thing the first time she kindled. From then on out though she was a great mother. Goats are getting closer to kidding and several of the girls are looking rather pudgy. We have all feet trimmed and cleaned the winter crud out of the barn. Now the rain is making it a soaking mess. Oh, well...what can you do. Well that is about it for now. I will update as I can and hopefully have more interesting posts in the future. As I said earlier, for some reason we can't access google at home on our computer. It really is strange and seems to have all the techies stumped for the moment. Blessings and happy spring, Kat

Weather Update

Well, things have been quite busy around the farm and the weather has not always been cooperative. In fact today we had some really nasty storms. Last week we had some really nasty storms. In fact they were really nasty. I went to my feed supplier who also happens to be my neighbor around the corner and I was shocked. Oak trees that lined the driveway were twisted and ripped in two, all the shingles on the house were gone, and the worst was when I got behind the house. The grain elevator had been twisted like a twist tie and dropped on one of the grain silos. It was a mess. A very costly mess. As you probably have figured out by now this is a family business on the family farm. They raise cattle, hay and some of their grain. What they don't raise they buy most of from other farmers in the area and the state. Very little is shipped in in the way of feed. They do a lot of business we farmer's in this area fully believe in supporting each other. If we don't support each other, then how can we expect others to do so. It was tough seeing this family hit so hard. They do have insurance and things will eventually get back to normal. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. It's like I told Dwight when I saw him that day....thank the good Lord that nobody was hurt. Things can always be replaced and rebuilt. Even the house was mostly spared, except for the roofing shingles as a huge oak tree was slammed to the ground not two feet from the side of the house. Anyway, like I said...things can always be replaced so thank God for all your little blessings. Kat

Computer Problems

I apologize for not blogging lately, but I am having some interesting computer issues. It appears as if I am blocked from using anything powered by google. No mail, no blog, no youtube and no google search engine use. I can use other search engines and have no problems. So I apologize if anyone thinks that I am ignoring them. I am not. I just have to find the time to spend at my mom's checking mail and updating. Bear with me while we try to get this sorted out. So far no one can figure out the problem and all anti-virus and malware comes back clean. It is a strange issue. Blessings, Kat