I Won't Do That Again

Since we are culling our goat herd pretty hard this year, we decided to try and sell of couple of the young bucklings to help pay for a new wood stove. I won't do that again. I feel awful. One of my whole things about what we do is that the animals I raise even for meat never understand fear. They are never mistreated, always given kind scratches and well to make it short pampered right up to the moment that their life ends. They never are afraid. Well, I really only wanted to sell a couple of the bucklings and keep one. I had someone call and ask about one. Then he called and wanted all three. I stupidly agreed. He came out this afternoon to pick up the boys. First he had cages in the back of his truck that were held together with a lick and a promise. I got the boys from the barn with a bit of a heavy heart. He snatched the first from me by a hind leg and dumped him upside down in one cage. Then repeated the process for the next boy. The third boy he almost broke his neck trying to shove him in the cage upside down by one leg while his horn was stuck in the rattle trap cage and couldn't physically go in. My boys were terrified. They cried. And I did nothing. I had the power at that point to stop the sale and take my boys back...and I didn't. Now I feel awful. I feel horrible. I feel like I let those babies down. I will never ever do that again. I know that he said that he would keep them and feed them up a little bigger before butchering them and I can only imagine the treatment that my babies are going to receive. I can only imagine the fear that they will experience. I want to call the man up and get my boys back. I wonder if he would even give them back. I can't believe I did this. I not only let those little goats down, but I let myself and what I believe down too. I really don't like myself very much right now and I am really worried about my boys. So many questions are running through my mind about their well being. I really didn't have to sell them, but dummy me thought it would be a good idea since we didn't really need the meat nor have room for everything in the freezer. I could have canned the meat. I could have just waited until I had room. I won't be selling any more bucklings!

Where Did the Heat Come From?

Oh my! It is the last week of September and we are hitting 90 today! It was so hot yesterday I almost thought about turning on the AC. We picked up two more pigs yesterday so now we are in the pig business. The sow is pregnant so we really are in the pig business. Today is going to be a busy day. I have to put up the last of the okra, dehydrate a whole bunch of cayenne peppers, put up more banana peppers, work on fence and weed some of the garden. I know I have said this before, but I find if I work on weeds in the garden each day then I keep them under control. We have a large section of the garden that we have not put into use and will be putting up the last part of the fence on one side and then we can turn the pigs in there to graze and till it. There are tons of weeds that we never seem to get rid of over there even with heavy mulch and a hoe so we figure the pigs will do a better job. Not to mention there is loads of free food over there for them. We want to move them around a good bit while the weather is still warm enough and then by the time winter really gets here then we can put them back where they are now so that they have nice warm houses to get in at night. They can winter there and then come spring we can start moving them around again. So far that is my plan and I think this will work. We will see. I think the pigs will really be a great contribution to the health of my soil and pastures. I hope I am not wrong. The horses are terrified of them and are convinced they are monsters just waiting to eat horse meat. We are starting to get the firewood ready for this winter. We have tons of it cut, now we just need to get it split. Next year's firewood is being cut as we work on the fence line which is a slow going process, but coming along nicely. A few more weeks and we might be done with that. Then we can start on another section that has always been a problem. The boon to working on the fence line has been that we have found tons of scrap metal, mostly iron. So we have scrapped it and made a little money to go back into the farm. It amazes me at how much the previous owner just threw out behind the barn and along the fence line, which eventually got buried over the years. There are some big pieces still that we have collected that we will need to cut so that we can haul it off. Right now they are just too long to haul off. We found a turning plow to pull behind the tractor but it is so seized up. Hubby is going to work on it to try and see if he can do something about that, but neither of us are hopeful. What a shame to have wasted such a useful tool by leaving it in the dirt and weather. Well I suppose I had better get to work. So much to do and there are only so many hours in the day. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Happenings and Goings On

We worked on the brush fence on the back property line yesterday and cut some more trees for firewood (next year's). I got the electric fence fixed so it is now working again. You know...no matter what type of fence I have put in or up it all seems to take a great deal of maintenance. Growing up Grandaddy was always working on fence. He said it was because cows were hard on fences. I don't have cows....so what?...are the neighbor's cows having midnight fence destruction parties? Really each season we are working on fence somewhere somehow on this property and just as soon as we get good and done going through all of the fencing then there is a problem right back where we started. Oh well, the electric fence is fixed for now and the brush fence is steadily going up. The good news about the brush fence is that we are clearing alot of trees (mostly trash trees) along the back of the property. Previously because that area has always been so overgrown we haven't spent much time back there.....hence the fence getting worse and worse. But now that we are clearing that area we are finding tons of scrap metal. Yesterday's load brought 41 dollars. Pretty cool. Now we have money for.....dare I say .....more fence!! We go to pick up pigs today and then have some gardening to do. Some of the fall garden is coming along well and other parts of the garden need some replanting. I am ready for baby goats to be gone. They are cute when they are little, but then they get downright annoying. Girls are up for sale and the boys are destined for the freezer. I am so ready, it is hard to wait much longer. Hopefully I will get the girl's sold soon. I had several inquiries about them yesterday so we will see. Trying to get all the goat's bred this month so that I can pull blood all at one time. I also would like everyone to kid around the same time frame. At least all within the same couple of months, so that we can be done with kidding. Well, I suppose I had better get busy. Lots to do today. Blessings, Kat

Busy, Busy, Busy

Sometimes life on the farm is extra busy and sometimes it is just busy. However, life lately has been extra busy. We have been re-fencing the back of the property with our modified version of a hedge fence. It really is more a brush fence, but along similar thought lines as a hedge fence. So far, the part that is up is working and turning the goats. However, they just follow the line right now and go around. For some reason the goats have become terribly infatuated with my neighbors property and make a beeline for it everyday. Not fun chasing goats several times a day. This type of fencing takes a lot of time, but the good news is that we have a lot of resources and I really like the way that it looks. It is very rustic. Much more appealing than field fence.Well, the main reason would be money and the secondary reason is that we have an abundance of resources. We have a large number of trash trees that need to be cut down and removed. Why burn them when they can be used. I hate wasting resources. We also have pigs again and will be getting a few more this week. We have decided to start raising Asian Heritage Hogs since we have such a hard time finding feeder pigs. This year every ad I have called for feeders has already been sold and I have called some far away places looking for pigs. I decided it would just be better to have our own source of pork and lard. These pigs actually do quite well with minimal grain input so they should do well on our pasture. We have plans to rotate them through several areas of the farm. So that is where we are at the moment....furiously working on fencing and getting pigs in. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Saving Even More Money

This will probably be my last post in this series that is specific to saving money unless I become really inspired by an idea I haven't thought of. So here is a laundry list of this that may not save you big bucks but every little bit helps. 1. Cut out non grocery expenses. Replace things like paper towels with worn out t-shirts or towels. Same thing with paper napkins. Household cleaners can be as simple as vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. Those three (cheap) items will clean most everything in your house and last you a lot longer than expensive cleaners. Add a bottle of lemon oil for your wood furniture and you have a complete cleaning kit for less than 10.00 that will last months. 2. Utilities are growing. Our water bill this month went 20.00 for everybody our water company services. Our power bill has grown exponentially over the past year. The only thing that doesn't change is the phone/internet. I really don't know where more to cut and scrimp than we already do. Some things that we do. No dryer unless it is raining and we need clothes now (note, don't wait to catch up the laundry do it all along to avoid this). Lights, we are fanatics about not using anymore electric light than necessary. Turn off the AC/Heat and open the windows. Not only does this air out your house, but it keeps the utility bills down. You can regulate the temperature in your home pretty well by opening and closing windows at opportune times. re-use bath water to water plants or flush toilets. Turn off power strips and computer monitors. Turn off yard lights if you can. Ours can be turned on as needed and turned off as needed. If I need to go out at night the switch is handy to flip and I don't need it shining into the house every night. 3. Consolidate errands. If you don't have to go somewhere don't. Keeping your car parked in your driveway saves money. Better yet carpool or exchange errand runs with a neighbor or friend who lives close by. My mom and I try to ask any time we are going to town if there is anything the other needs. That way, it saves us money so that we aren't both going to town. I try to do that with a neighbor also, but don't always remember to call her. (Brain fog again). My oldest daughter has to be in town every monday and there are two other kids in our area that do to, so between the three moms we don't all have to drive into town every Monday. 4. Turn off the tv and the computer. I have to admit I am notorious for my computer being on all day, but part of that is for school purposes. I have a hard time getting my little one to turn off the tv when we are outside or doing something else, but between the oldest and I we tend to catch it often enough. She is learning. My mom's tv runs 24 hours a day and she leaves it on for the dogs when she isn't home...and she wonders at her power bill! 5. Turn off power strips and unplug what you aren't using at the moment. Our toaster has a light that stays on while it is plugged in, so does our iron. Those things are only plugged in when they are needed (I do a lot of ironing)and then unplugged when not being used. Same thing for all those little electronic lights on just about everything. If you only have one or two things this may not make a difference, but a houseful of little blue and red lights can pull a good bit of electricity. 6. Cook outside whenever possible. This keeps the heat out of your house in the summer which makes your AC run more. Those are probably my top tips that really are painless to implement. Of course there are many more things that you can do. We had a solar shower at one time that was used in the summer. It was not well made though and didn't last long. We have plans to build another one that will last this time. It was great in the spring and summer and cost us very little. The caveat was that the water went straight into a portion of the garden and so we never had to water that part of the garden. Anyway, take a look around and really think about how you can cut back on some things to save a little on your utility costs. I do have some older posts that go room by room for tips on saving money. Blessings, Kat

The high cost of Meat

So we all know that meat is probably the biggest grocery expense. With rising grain costs eventually that meat is going to get costlier and well let's just say it...grocery store meat is not all that great. How does one go about reducing that cost for the family? Think there is no way that someone living in town or in an apartment much less could do that? Well guess again. You might not be able to provide everything, but you can at least cut the cost by supplementing. Here are my suggestions. 1. Fish Catfish and tilapia can be raised in barrels or large trash cans with very little up front cost. The last time I purchased fingerlings (tilapia) I paid about 14.00 for a hundred. Now remember that you don't have to eat all that you raise and you can overwinter breeders and then won't have to purchase fingerlings but the one time. So that 14.00 (probably a little more by now) stretched over several years of production is a minimal cost. I won't explain the set-up other than to say that a couple of 50 gallon barrels will fit in a small space such as an apartment balcony and will provide lots of fresh meat. There are lots of videos on youtube about raising fish in a barrel if you are interested in the rest of the set-up. Which like I say is relatively cheap considering the amount of meat to be had. We are getting ready to set-up our old hot tub which we don't use and figure the cost to set it up will be at max 50.00. Butchering is not that messy that it can't be done in the kitchen. 2. Rabbits Rabbits are not considered livestock and therefore there typically are no restrictions placed on them in cities. They are small and quiet and a trio can happily live in an apartment. Their feed can be supplemented with wild weeds and greens that are picked from clean (non sprayed) areas. So feed input can be minimal with a little effort. One can raise them in a colony setting or in cages. The set-up will cost some money especially for cages, but there are many times when used cages can be found pretty cheaply. Rabbits can also be litter box trained and so can adapt to colony living even in an apartment. When I was growing up we had a house rabbit that was litter box trained and Cocoa spent more time outside of her cage than in her cage. The only problem with rabbits inside is chewing. So steps would need to be taken to protect walls and door trim and of course electrical cords. Butchering again is not that messy that it can't be done in the kitchen. And you don't need any loud firearms to dispatch. 3 rabbits can provide a lot of supplemental meat for a family. 3. Birds While I certainly would not recommend chickens in an apartment, most cities will allow laying hens in a backyard. So if you have a backyard that is fenced a small coop and a few laying hens will provide a good amount of eggs. The closest city to us allows 4 laying hens. 4 eggs a day for 7 days is 2 1/3 dozen a week. Chickens require very little store bought feed if any. Allow the chickens to free range the yard and then feed them kitchen/table scraps when you have them and they will be happy and healthy. Our chickens get no store bought feed and are very happy and healthy. You can also raise bugs for them if you are so inclined and there is loads of information on the net for doing so. Another poultry idea that could be done in an apartment with a little extra effort are quail. They are small relatively quiet birds a little larger than a cockatiel. If I remember correctly the ratio can be one male to 4 females. A couple of large parrot cages would be plenty and fit in the corner of the living room or bedroom if need be. I have never raised quail so you would need to do more research on articles written by people who have. However, I would definitely considered quail if I lived in town where traditional livestock might be a no no. 4. Potbellied Pigs Potbellied pigs are typically considered pets. However, they were livestock long before they were pets and if not overfed like the pets tend to be then they stay pretty lean. They are small and pair would fit in a nice sized backyard. However, they do root so if allowed complete freedom of the backyard will decimate it. It is doable though and if their area is kept clean then there is no more smell than you would have with a couple of large dogs. 5.Nigerian Dwarf Goats or Pygmy Goats This can be iffy. Some cities might consider these small goats pets, some might not. Check first. They are small, don't eat much and two would easily fit in a small backyard. Nigerian Dwarfs will provide milk along with meat (offspring) and pygmy were bred for meat production so they can be chunky little guys. The only drawback is that a firearm is required to dispatch and most cities have ordinances against that. One could get creative and if the goats are used to riding in the van/car then they could be taken elsewhere to be dispatched and then brought home to butcher and wrap. So there you have it, livestock that can be had pretty much anywhere. Now of course if you have land in the country then your options are almost limitless. Each of these options will be able to supplement your meat supply at little cost. Note***If you regard pot belly pigs as pets that is great. Some of us see them as small livestock which is what they are and what they were before Americans decided having pigs as pets was a great fad. Don't flame me. Many of us have to feed our families. If you have the money to purchase and keep glorified pets great for you, but leave the rest of us alone. Blessings, Kat

Super Tight Budget Pantry Stocking

So you want to put some food by and think you can't because you're already struggling to buy just enough now to get you from week to week? Well, guess what...you can put food by and have a well stocked pantry that will see you through whatever disaster life throws your way. In this post, I will share some ways that I have put extra up over the years and truly it has been pretty painless. And while it takes time to do it this way rather than going out and spending a fortune to do it all at once, it can still be done and the end results the same. So here goes: 1. Change your eating habits. If you eat meat everyday of the week have a veggie night. If you eat a lot of processed foods then scour the internet for scratch cooking recipes and use them. An easy meatless night supper is a baked potato and large salad. Processed foods first of all are terrible junk. My daughter calls them fake food. For the cost of a loaf of bread I can buy a bag of flour and with a few other ingredients have several loaves of bread, biscuits, and desserts. 2. This is a continuation of number one. Learn to cook from very basic ingredients, called scratch cooking. Basic ingredients are always much cheaper and you get more for your money. Typically, those boxes of pre-cooked microwaveable rice are one meal. With a bag of regular rice you can get several meals and spend less. Same thing with beans. Canned beans are one meal (if you have a small family) while a bag of beans is several meals and will cost about 1/2 what the canned beans do. 3. Shop discount grocers. Typically, these are called bent and dent stores. If a grocer gets in a case of goods and the case is damaged then they won't accept the case. That case goes to the discount grocer who buys it at a rock bottom price. Therefore the mark-up is less. Most times there is nothing wrong with most of the items in the case, they are even dented. But the retail grocer won't take the time to find out. Now, safety issue...dented cans are not recommended to buy however dented boxes are not an issue since it is the bag inside the box that holds the seal. Nothing a discount grocer sells is out of date or expired. They aren't allowed by law to do that with the exception of some meats. Some meats reaching their sell by date in a retail grocery can be pulled from the shelf, flash frozen, and sold as a frozen good in a discount grocery. Typically this applies only to meats that come from the packers in it's own package. The meats that are on the styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic must be discarded because air can get in those plastic wraps. 4. Shop farmer's markets for produce. Buying produce at the farmer's market will save a whole lot more money than buying produce at the grocery store. An even better deal is go to a "pick your own farm" and pick all that you can use and put up and then bring it home and can or freeze it yourself. I can't tell you how much I have saved over the years by picking my own. 5. Eat seasonally. This goes along with #4. Eat produce fresh when it is in season locally and put it up when it is in season to eat later when it isn't. Oranges bought in the summer are shipped (costs more). Oranges in season cost less and can be put up in a variety of ways for later. We eat so many oranges during the winter that we are completely sick of them by the time season is over. We don't eat many during the rest of the year so it is easy to put up a few for later. 6. Learn to can and freeze extra. This goes along with #5. Canning will save you money in the long run even though it does cost a bit to get started. If nothing else water bath can jams, jelles, pickles and tomatoes. You can do that in any old stock pot. 7. Glean free stuff. There are quite a few people who have much more than they can eat in their yards or who don't use what they have hardly at all. For instance, our church has a crab apple tree. Nobody picks those crab apples. When asked the church was more than happy to let someone have them. While crab apples aren't that great by themselves they make great jelly, which is an expensive buy at the grocery. Just two things. Please ask if you might glean from someone's tree/vines/garden and be respectful and don't take everything. Someone asked my mom this year if she could have some pears. Mom said yes. I went out to get pears (two loaded trees) and both trees were stripped bare. No pears for me this year. I have never had this problem with folks in my garden, but I know others who have besides mom. 8. Shop at restaurant supply stores and buy in bulk. Many bulk items are cheaper, especially staple goods. I can buy a 25 lb. bag of sugar for less per pound than buy a 4 lb. bag of sugar. Sugar keeps forever. 9. Shop sales and use them to your advantage. If you go to the grocery to get corn and canned corn is on sale for 59 cents a can, but you only typically buy two cans at time take advantage and stock up. By doing this then you don't have to buy items until they are on sale again, which they will be. When I run out of our homemade cheese then I stock up when cheese is on sale and freeze it. Then I can wait until it goes on sale again to stock up again. I never pay full price for cheese. Anyway, since I am sick that is about all my poor little head can think of for now. Tomorrow I will post some other things that will save you money in the long run. Blessings, Kat

Economics in a Predicament

Well, the fed adopted the new QE3 so they can buy up some more bad debt to the tune of...get this...40 million dollars a month. And...get this....for as long as it takes to stabilize the real estate market. Class...can you say deflation. That is what is happening with the dollar and if you don't think it is then go to the grocery store and buy 5 items in two months go back and buy those same items...bet you will pay more. And historically what happens when a countries currency is deflated to the point of no return...hyperinflation. During the Weimar republic of 1930s Germany it was more economical to use your German marks for heating your home than to try and buy a loaf of bread with them. It took too much effort to carry the thousands of marks to buy that loaf of bread. Food riots are already happening in Spain. Are you prepared? If you are dependent on a weekly trip to the grocery store because your shelves at home are bare then I would say not. I have been writing for a few years now on rising costs and economic woes. I have heard many times from folks that they don't want to consider themselves preppers. I don't really consider myself a prepper either, but I do like to be prepared for whatever life throws my way. I remember a time when I wasn't prepared and I remember looking at my bare cabinets and wondering how I was going to come up with some money to buy food. At that time it was whatever food I could afford to buy the most of and there were quite a few times that I skipped meals so that our food would last longer. I was scared and I didn't ever want to be that scared again. My grandparents weathered the Great Depression with little worry about how they were going to eat. Why? Because they were prepared for whatever life threw at them. They had always grown a large garden and put up everything they could. They were lucky that they had a farm and livestock, but even now small livestock (chickens, rabbits) can be kept in town. Some people even keep goats in town. But outside the livestock, I remember the jars and jars of food that they put up each year. I shelled peas till my fingers were raw as a child. I didn't understand it then because my parents were the "go to the grocery store and buy only a week's worth of groceries" type people. But, at that time in my life when I looked at those bare shelves and saw only a couple cans of soup and a box of cereal, I understood. My grandparents weren't preppers or survivalists or whatever label you want to use that you don't want to be....they were smart. You never know what life may throw at you and with the economic signs life might be getting ready to throw starvation and struggle at you. The writing is on the wall that the whole global economic system is in trouble and if that isn't enough then the drought hitting the US and Europe should be. Food cost is skyrocketing. That is personal experience. I know how much I paid a year ago for the groceries that I typically buy and I know how much I paid last week for those same things. The cost was at least double if not more on many things. Germany was to vote Wednesday on whether they would bail out more European nations, the Euro is collapsing. If they vote yes then there will be skyrocketing inflation across Europe and deflation of the Euro. If they vote no then there could be bank "holidays", which essentially means that you don't have access to your money because it is gone. Why does it matter what happens in Europe? Well, because our banks are tied with their banks and if their banks start to crumble then ours will too eventually. It's all that great global economy stuff remember. So essentially the economy worldwide is in a predicament, and what does our country do? Make it worse by devaluing our currency! I might not be a prepper/survivalist or whatever one doesn't want to call themselves, but I can assure you that I do not intend to ever look at bare shelves again and wonder how I am going to put food on them. I will post later about recommendations for stocking those shelves whether you are on a tight budget or not. Blessings, Kat

Still Working on the Book

Well, I am still working on our book. I know, I know...I have been working on it forever. However, I keep getting distracted. I did decide though to write some small e-books that are topic specific. I have two of those finished and outline done for two more. That is my goal this year finish the four e-books. Mainly for those I have chosen homesteading topics that can be used for anyone living in the country or in town. The book will be more reflections of our journey and things that we have learned along the way. Anyway, this is an interesting project that I have taken on and I just wish I had the discipline to sit down everyday and work on it. However, my big problem is that daily life gets the best of me and then there isn't much energy left for thinking. Oh well, I will eventually get it done. Hopefully, someone will find it interesting enough to actually read it. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Rising Cost of Living

Well, I went to the grocery store yesterday and the cost of living is definitely on the rise. I went to the bent and dent grocery store and the deals were still pretty good. Although, I remember not so long ago that I used to get a can of beans there for about 50 cents. Yesterday, a can of beans was 89 cents. Doesn't seem like much when you are talking about cents, but remember those cents add up to dollars real fast. I still have found that one of the best ways to hedge against rising food cost is to keep your pantry well stocked. That way you don't have to buy anything that isn't on sale. However, I think that it is getting harder and harder to do for many people. Feed cost for the critters is rising at a dramatic rate with the drought in most of the country. I am trying to make sure that I am as stocked as I can afford to be in that area. Since I can't afford to stock all that I need for a long period of time at once for all the animals here then what I do for psychological feel good is that I get enough stocked for one set of critters. So today I will be getting in enough feed to get the rabbits through the next several months and then a few more bales of hay and the rabbits will be set for most of the winter with greens from the garden. Then I will move on to the chickens and get feed in for them. They don't each much store bought feed but sometimes in the winter there just isn't enough forage and bugs for them so I supplement their free range. Two bags of feed will definitely last them. Then we will move on to stocking for the goats. By the time winter comes we will be somewhat ok to get through it. These days it seems that it gets harder and harder to get enough hay and such put up to get us through the whole winter for everyone. But at least I do feel a little better knowing when I have one group taken care of. Down here in the deep south we have hay available all year, but the cost does go up in the winter which is why I want as much laid in now as possible. Also, with the drought in the midwest many of our hay farmers will start shipping out hay to other states that are hard hit. I don't blame them as they can make more money doing so, but I don't want to be left in a pickle this winter with no hay. So we do the best we can with what we have. I will be planting extras in the winter garden to supplement with so that will help and we do always have some browse for the goats during the winter. I know that all of these rising costs are hitting so many families so hard. I read a news report the other day that 3 times as many Americans are getting on food stamps as are getting jobs. Laying extra by when we can is our way of ensuring taking care of our family's needs. I hope more people are thinking that way. It is the way that our ancestors thought on a regular basis and it is just a recent (relative to history) concept of living in the now without thinking about taking care of the future. I start planting the winter garden today and I pray that this will be the best one yet. Frankly because the last couple of winter gardens have been pretty poor. So we will see. I am also debating whether or not to plant grains again this year. I have done so in the past just as an experiment, but I think I would like to to a larger scale this year. So anyway those are some things that we are doing to combat the rise of the cost of living. What are you doing to ensure your family's continued survival? Blessings, Kat

Is there a choice? No, really there isn't.

Lately, I have heard many people falling for the dog and pony show of the republican party and truly thinking that they have a choice between presidential candidates. Truly they still think that there is a huge and vast difference between the two parties. And really in the past you could see that the two parties did at least try to portray a difference. But this election is a joke. Romney has agreed with Obama and Obama with Romney so many times it is unreal. There really is no difference. Don't believe me? Watch this and then tell me what you think.