Eliminating Wheat Update

Well, I haven't completely eliminated wheat as I still have small quantities once or twice a week. I must say though that I feel so much better. I still have pain and soreness, but most of that is due to the fact that I have been working physically very hard lately. My joints are not as stiff as they once were despite the workload. I have more energy and don't feel like I need to fall asleep every afternoon. I did take a nap yesterday for about an hour, but I had been splitting wood all morning (hubby is sick). And to top it off I have lost 5 lbs. That I can't believe as I have been at a stagnant weight for so long no matter what I did. I haven't missed wheat all that much although sometimes a hot butter yeast roll sounds so good. I think what has helped me do without the most is that I haven't completely denied myself and do indulge in one or two rolls a week. That way I don't feel deprived and therefore crave it just because I know I can't have it. I am exhausted at night, but them my days have been really busy and I still haven't recouped from the week of taking care of Shotgun with very little sleep. So, now that the holidays are done I can get my house back in order and decorations put away and move on to normal routines again. Anyway, the lack of wheat certainly is not hurting me and I certainly and feeling better. Blessings from the farm, Kat

2012 Reflections and 2013 Goals

Wow, another year is almost gone. Now that I am in the middle of my life it seems that time goes by so quickly and the years pass faster and faster. This especially applies to watching my children grow. My oldest is 14 and will be 15 in just a few months. It seems like just yesterday that we were coming home from the hospital. She was so tiny and I was so clueless. Well, I am not going to get all reminiscent about the children. This post is about life, the farm and the home. As you may have noticed this past year I have been on the warpath to downsize and simplify. Life is simply to short to work all the time and never have time to do things that you enjoy. Not that I don't enjoy taking care of the livestock or gardening and all that, I do. However, it can become too much like hard work all the time and that sucks the enjoyment right out of it. So, I have downsized the "stuff" in my house and I must say it is so much easier to clean. I still have some things to pack away and/or get rid of, but I have downsized a great deal. The livestock daily maintenance (feeding, cleaning etc.) is more or less on a routine now and only takes about an hour and a half a day. We are still working on the garden to get the most production with the least maintenance. I still have loads more mulch to get in the garden pathways to help control weeds. I will be doing this year's garden planning this coming week so as to have everything in place so that by the end of January I can start spring planting. I can't believe the garden year is going by so fast. We are expanding the garden this year to include more livestock feed so that will take some time this coming month preparing those areas. We still need to get a smokehouse built so that will be a priority in the coming months. All in all things went well in 2012. We had a good garden harvest, we added livestock with the pigs (hoping for spring babies!), we downsized where we could and finished a few projects here and there. I believe after all these years that I am finally getting the hang of this homesteading thing. So with all that being said, what are my goals for the coming year. My first goal is to expand the garden for more livestock feed. I am trying to decide now and will make my final decision as to what crops will most benefit our farm. I want to expand my composting efforts as I never seem to have enough compost no matter how much we seem to generate. I want to build a feed trough for the goats so that I can get rid of the buckets that they are always scattering everywhere. I want to build a mineral feeder for the goats for the same reason. I would like to expand the rabbits to a second colony but that is not really a priority right now. I want to completely re-fence the perimeter. I think that has been a goal for about 2 years now and hasn't completely gotten finished, but this year I think it will. I want all my firewood cut, split and stacked before next fall. It never fails that midwinter we run out of split firewood and I have to go out in the cold to split large rounds of wood. Nothing more miserable, however it does warm you up quick. I want to get that smokehouse built and another outdoor summer shower built. My first one was a little rustic (ok a lot rustic and not very private). And then finally I want to be able to do more sewing and painting. So those are my hard and fast goals for the coming year. All in all it has been a good year. How about you? How has your year been and what are you thinking and planning for the coming year? Blessings, Kat

After Christmas Update

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas. We had a quiet day here at home with a day full of thunderstorms. Actually, it was nice. I have always liked the thought of cold winter weather in which I was forced to take some down time and enjoy quiet inside activities. Well, cold winter weather doesn't happen much in the south. So I settle for stormy winter weather that forces me to stay inside and seek those quiet winter activities. Did I do any of those such things yesterday...no not really, but I did enjoy the downtime and I did enjoy spending time with my girls. My hubby had to work last night and came home sick. So since it is blustery cold outside today after all the wind the farm chores are up to me. That includes getting more wood up for the fireplace. We have been going through a lot of wood this year, not necessarily because it has been so cold, but because we have been using that as our sole source of heat to keep heating cost down. This old house gets so damp and chilly and will stay that way without some heat going all the time even if it does warm up outside. This has really been a strange winter. One day we are in the high 60s, even 70s and the next in the 40s. Yesterday the high was in the low 70s and today the high is supposed to be 47. These dramatic drops are crazy. So anyway today is a wood cutting and hauling day. Anyway, my other plan for the day is to get the garden plans set down on paper for the spring. With planting more spring crops for livestock feed it is important that every inch is utilized properly. This will definitely put my knowledge of bio-dynamics to the test. The good news is that since we had those trees come down we have lots of material for huegulkulter beds that I have been working on. I will explain more about that in another post soon. They will hopefully add more space to the garden while helping with drought conditions which look like they will continue and be even worse this year. Even though we have had loads of rain this past week or so we still haven't had the amount of rain that we normally have during the fall and winter. The pond is way below normal level for this time of year. So the relaxation is over and it is back to work for me. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Growing Grains on a Small Scale

Years ago I read a copy of Gene Logsdon's "Small Scale Grain Raising". It is an excellent book, but at the time I really wasn't ready to jump into the world of raising substantial amounts of grain. I did, however, experiment with very small plots of different grains just so that I could get a feel for what it was like and what was required. Well, with the increase in feed prices and the fact that I can only downsize my herds so much it is now time to really think about raising feed for the livestock. So that is my goal this week, start planning out the grain patch and decide how to rotate it out to get the most out of the land that I have to use. It would be nice to be able to grow all that I need, but I will be happy if this first year I simply offset my feed cost by even just a little bit. So what are you planning for your garden this year? Blessings from the farm, Kat

Planning a Quiet Day

I am planning to have a quiet day today without much going on. I might do some sewing or other craft type projects to keep my mind busy. I am still terribly saddened over the loss of Shotgun. I had someone ask me yesterday why I have so many animals get sick and inform me that they never have that problem. Well, I run a farm and have always been surrounded by numerous animals. I have never had less than three dogs at a time. They typically have only had one at a time and those were typically small house dogs that rarely ever go outside. Currently I have 69 animals of different species on this farm. I would say the odds are that somebody will get sick. Anyway, I am having a hard time with the loss of Shotgun. While I have had lots of dogs and other animals over the years there are always those few that are really special and you develop a special bond with. When you lose them they take a part of you with them. Even though we only had him for a few short weeks he was special and we had a special bond. He seemed to know what I was saying and what I wanted. He took every step that I took, yes even to the bathroom. If I took a shower he was laying right there waiting for me to get out. When I went to milk he sat in the doorway of the feed room and watched me while I milked. So I am taking today to have a pity party for myself, to grieve and to be still and quiet. I will move on with life tomorrow, but today I am going to wallow in my sadness. We need that sometimes and sometimes we just need to let our emotions be what they are going to be. Life will go on and Shotgun was much loved while he was here and there will be another that wiggles its way into my heart at some point into the future, but for right now I need to heal. Blessings from the farm, Kat

Goodbye Shotgun

It is a sad morning for me this morning. We lost our little Shotgun last night. We have been battling what turned out to be F4 strain parvo. If you don't know about F4, let me tell you it is particularly nasty. I have dealt with and treated many parvo puppies over the years and never seen anything as awful as this strain. It tends to be vaccine resistant, meaning even vaccinated pups can contract this strain and if exposed usually do. It doesn't present with "normal" parvo symptoms to start with and just when you think you might be on the safe road to good health they relapse and are often worse the second go round than they were the first. Shotgun and I battled hard and my vet and I hit this disease with everything we could think of. He rallied Tuesday night and looked like he was going to be just fine. He was playing with the girls, barking at the other dogs and drinking his chicken broth like their was no tomorrow. Then round two hit about 3am Wednesday morning and it was a battle. He gave up about 10pm last night and started fighting us giving him his fluids and meds. He passed away 2 hours later. He went from a healthy robust rapidly growing little ball of fluff to emaciated and weak in just 5 days. He barely looked like our little Shotgun last night. I think I am the hardest hit with this as I have spent 24 hours a day for 5 days working to save his life. I miss this time as it was our special cuddle time before the children got up and then it was playtime. He usually could be found laying on my feet under the desk while I sat here and did my computer stuff in the early morning hours. It will be tough going out to feed this morning knowing that my little shadow won't be there to watch me. I am going to miss him, but at least his suffering has ended. Goodbye Shotgun, I hope you know how much you were loved.

The "Your Not a Doctor" Look

My mom's health has been progressively getting worse over the past several years. This is outside of her spinal disease which we knew would get worse. We started with heart failure 4 years ago. In the hospital every year since then at least once a year. She has congestive heart failure more than likely (doctors agree with me on this)due to the heavy pain meds she is on because of her spinal disease. She has been on them for about 15 years. When she had her heart bypass surgery 3 years ago they put her on a cholesterol medicine, despite the fact that she has never had a cholesterol issue. They also put her on a blood pressure medicine for high blood pressure despite the fact that my mother has always run low to normal blood pressure. Seems these are standard issue for any heart issue whether you truly need them or not. So a couple of years ago I mentioned to mom all of the side affects associated with especially the cholesterol med since she was complaining of pain in her legs and inability to sleep because of it. She wouldn't listen since the "doctor knows what he's doing". Then mom is sleepy all the time, she will literally sleep all day and sometimes is so hard to wake up that she can't even eat a meal without falling asleep. When I check her blood pressure it is low, real low. When I mention that she should stop taking her BP meds I get "the doctor knows what he is doing". So this last time we were in the hospital, just a few weeks ago, during all the ER tests to see what was going on they found she had a calcified pancreas and that her blood sugar was 236. Heart enzymes were slightly elevated but according to the ER doctor more likely to be the stress of being in so much Abdominal pain and nausea than anything else. So then the hospitalist, yes that's right you don't see your doctor anymore if you go to the hospital, says that the pancreas is a non issue. Anyway, long story short....I could never get anyone to address the pancreas and high blood sugar. I tried to get Mom to listen to me but I always got,"the doctor knows what they are talking about". Now, I go to Mom's doctor appointments with her because 1. because of her inability to stay awake she can't drive anymore and 2. because of her inability to get her brain out of a fog she can't remember anymore. So yesterday we are sitting in her cardiologist's office and he comes in and says blah blah blah her EKG is great and it looks like her heart is doing just fine. Well....duh...it wasn't her heart, it was her pancreas. So I address this issue and he agrees that it might be a good idea to have her checked for diabetes or at least hypoglycaemia. Thank you...somebody finally listened to me after 2 years of trying to get a doctor to have those tests run. Then I approach the question of taking her off the cholesterol medicine and the side effects she is having, not to mention the myoclonic seizures that she is starting to have (that is a whole nuther story). He looked at me when I said "She has never had a history of high cholesterol and couldn't we at least try it until her next blood tests to see where she stands without it?" He said, "Well she has cholesterol and she needs it because she can't have that. She can't come off of it". At which point I started to explain to him that everyone needs cholesterol and Mom's heart issue was not blocked arteries or veins it was congestive heart failure (his diagnosis). I explained about the seizures she is now having (gee cholesterol is needed to maintain the myelin sheath of the nerves in the brain), the pain in her legs, the fact that cholesterol is need to maintain heart muscle health (important for someone who has congestive heart failure) and on and on. I explained that if you reduced the cholesterol too far all that happened was to trigger the liver to produce more, thus stressing the liver and having high LDL cholesterol( the kind you don't want). That is when it happened...the "Your not a doctor" look and his eyes glazed over as he emphatically stated that she was not to stop her cholesterol medicine that she needed it and would die without it. And then he rushed out of the room. So then Mom looks at me and says "See, I need it". Really?....Really?! Just because he is going by the playbook and hasn't actually done his own research means that he knows best. All of these pills that doctor after doctor keep poking in her are killing her faster and taking away the quality of her life (she can't even enjoy her grandchildren)than any disease could. I would rather die living a full life at age 58 than live in the bed sound asleep not being able to even stay awake for meals and having seizures all day long until I was 70. I was angry needless to say. I really don't like being dismissed because I don't have a set of letters behind my name because let me tell you those letters mean nothing to me if all you can do is follow a standard playbook of protocol to follow that someone else has told you to follow. If you can't make your own decisions based on the patient at hand and do your own research, then to me those letters are nothing. My background is biology, my dad was a chemist and I deal all day long with medical issues, health and nutritional issues of different species of mammals and aviary. Don't give ME the look. Ok rant over and my whole point is that if you let it modern day medicine will kill you quicker than anything and while they are doing they will make your life miserable. Blessings, Kat

Sick Puppy

Well, it has been a long night here with a sick puppy. Shotgun has been very sick and I have been up with him most of the night. He seems a little better this morning, but is still lethargic. What happened you say? Well, I don't think he was de-wormed at his previous home. When we got him I meant to de-worm him right away but didn't have de-wormer safe for such a young pup. Then I went a little while with forgetting to pick up what I needed when I went to get feed. So it was a couple of weeks and then we de-wormed him. We are now dealing with the issue of toxic worm die off. When an animal is heavily infested with parasites and then they are de-wormed if the worms die off in massive amounts they cause toxins to be excreted into the bloodstream of the animal. Essentially, the dying parasites poison your animal. They can also cause intestinal blockages after they die. Day before yesterday after his second dose of de-wormer, Shotgun was really sleepy most of the day. I just thought he was tired but watched him anyway. Yesterday morning he wouldn't eat. I watched him some more, made sure he wasn't dehydrated and got a little concerned. No fever, no loose stools and no vomiting. I thought he just had an upset stomach. Well after several hours, he wasn't drinking either and his stools had gotten soft. Not runny but soft. So I drenched him with some pedialyte and called my vet. We talked and agreed to keep him home for a bit, keep drenching with the pedialyte and watch him. Well again a couple hours later and we had a really loose stool that was loaded with....you guessed it...roundworms. Some very large roundworms. Called vet and told him and we decided it was toxins because of the worm die off. Since Shotgun was not completely out of it we agreed on treatment at home. My vet and I do this a lot. Actually at home is better because I can monitor the situation 24/7 whereas my vet who is all by himself can't. So, we are keeping him hydrated and we have given him an antibiotic to fight off septicemia (from the worm toxins). I prepared a tea for him yesterday to alternate with the pedialyte. In it I put chamomile, peppermint, lemon balm, catnip, golden seal, feverfew, and echinacea. This concoction will sooth his tummy, support his immune system and support his liver to remove the toxins from his bloodstream. Since the loose stools have stopped, I am going to give him a Diatomaceous earth enema to help flush out anymore worms that might be in his intestines. Blockage from the dead worms is now a big concern. He felt chipper enough this morning to pounce on the cats and give them a bit of a chase in the yard so I think we are doing ok, but we aren't out of the woods yet. Since he hasn't eaten anything in 24 hours I started him on some homemade venison broth to get some protein in him. He has drunk some on his own but not much so we are still drenching. I am so thankful that I had everything I needed to treat him because with puppies time is of the essence. They dehydrate quickly and dehydration will kill them fast. An hour round trip to town could have cost me precious time in treating him and his condition. I am so thankful that I try to stay prepared for anything that might happen even if it means that because of all the critters here on the farm my medical supplies are pretty extensive. Please keep Shotgun in your thoughts today, he is still a sick little puppy. Blessings, Kat

More on Modern Wheat

Here is some general information about Modern day wheat that I have come across in my research. There is much more than I can say here and a good place to start is "The Wheat Belly" book by Dr. Davis. However, here are some things that persuaded me that we really need to back off wheat. 1.Modern day wheat is not only less nutritious but produces phytic acid which bonds to the minerals that you consume making them unavailable to your body. (Broadbalk Winter Wheat Experiment) 2.Wheat contains excorphins which bind to our opioid receptors in our brain, much the same way that cocaine, heroine, tobacco and alcohol do. So it is addictive and eating it leaves you wanting more. 3. Along the same lines of eating wheat leaves you with wanting more wheat is the fact that wheat is a carb and turns into sugar which promotes highs and lows in insulin release. When you get on a cycle of insulin spikes then when you are low you crave more sugar...ie carbs. and 4. Grains which are carbs are inflammatories. They promote an inflammatory response which can lead to digestive issues along with general joint pain and fibro pain. The inflammatory response is not specific as to what is attacked, everything is attacked thus causing the inflammation and pain in joints and muscles. These are the main reasons that caused me to decide to eliminate wheat and see how I felt. I know that the other day when I pigged out on wheat I felt awful. Yesterday was a no wheat day and I didn't crash after lunch and had energy the whole day. Also no upset stomach or digestive issues. I plan to keep this up for awhile and see how my pain does. Hopefully, I will see some relief. Just that simple little bit would be enough to make me swear off wheat forever. Blessings, Kat

The negative effects of wheat

A few weeks ago I had been reading a thread on Homesteading Today about wheat. I learned a lot and decided to do a trial run without wheat. Over the past several weeks we have eaten very little wheat and I have eaten practically none. I actually was feeling pretty good. I didn't have that terrible crash in the afternoon, I wasn't stiff with sore joints and muscles (outside of overuse of my left arm while tanning a hide)and in general I felt pretty good. Well yesterday I fixed a big pot of chili and my favorite thing to eat with chili is bread and butter. I even made goat butter for the occasion. I figured one meal with wheat wouldn't be so bad. Well, guess what? A huge difference those couple of pieces of bread made. Thirty minutes after eating I was asleep and slept hard for 3 solid hours. Then I felt awful when I woke up, like I had a hangover (yes I remember what those feel like). My whole body was stiff and sore and still is this morning. I can hardly move. And the worst was...well this is embarrassing...the gas. Let's just say it is awful and leave it at that. And it wasn't just me that was affected. My husband got a headache(he ate crackers) and my little one(ate bread with butter) was bouncing off the walls. She spent the whole afternoon getting in trouble. The oldest who only ate the chili and nothing else was unaffected. You see what I discovered from that thread is that all modern wheat grown in the US is short stemmed wheat that was introduced in the 1960s. Because of its nature of growth the gliadin is concentrated and doesn't break down causing an allergic reaction. This isn't the same as Celiac's or gluten intolerance. Although the symptoms are similar and both can be an issue, not just one or the other. There are heirloom variety seeds available for long stem (therefore longer growing season) varieties of wheat availabe. They are very expensive, typically 25 seeds for about 7.00. However, I love bread and I can't foresee giving up wheat altogether. I love my bread with my chili and on occasion absolutely love biscuits and gravy. So I have decided to buy some of these seeds and working on building a seed supple from my 25 seeds. It might take me a few years to do that and I can keep wheat intake to a minimum during that time. I don't relish the idea. I have grown a small patch of wheat, threshed, cleaned and ground it. It is hard work and not something I wanted to do on a regular basis, but I guess now it will become part of the farm routine. My body simply can't tolerate modern day wheat and I wonder how long I will take to recuperate for yesterday's bread and butter consumption. I still haven't gotten around to starting a sourdough culture and I really need to do that. I believe that Weston Price says that the fermentation helps to break down not only the gluten but the gliadin as well. So we will see. I will try to do that soon and let you know how it turns out. Blessings, Kat

Training Shotgun

Well we have had little Shotgun for about 3 weeks or so now. He is coming along nicely and is an extraordinarily smart dog. He definitely shows the rottweiler "thinking" ability. He didn't get off so good a start in life with his former home. Being in an apartment, I don't think he got outside much. This means that he was "taught" to use the bathroom in the house. So we are having housebreaking issues with him. He is still young, 9 weeks now, so I am not all that stressed about it. We are just persistent and he will catch on. I also don't think that he was handled much at all by humans before coming to us. He did a lot of fear growling and snapping in uncomfortable situations. He has gotten much better at that as 1. He has grown used to us and developed trust and 2. We force uncomfortable situations and correct the undesirable behavior. He is a tough pup to work with at times because of this. Dakota has helped tremendously in teaching him things he should have been taught by his mother and litter mates. Because he was removed so young from that situation he never learned those things. He is also learning his basic commands and is getting a good handle on "no mouth" with playing and learning to sit on command. With all this being said we are raising him to be a working dog and he is showing tendencies to want to work. He does feed chores everyday with us. When we get to a particular livestock area he has a spot where he sits and watches. The other day the pigs got out and I opened the gate to go and herd then back it. He was taking every step that I took and as I started to herd them he was taking it all in. I got three in the gate and then went to get the 4th who didn't want to cooperate very well. As we got close to the gate she started to turn and run the other way. At that point shotgun jumped ahead of me and nipped her to move her through the gate. I took my walking stick and placed it in front of him and told him that would do. Now this is the important part...he sat down. There is a huge difference in the prey drive of a high prey drive dog and a high prey drive herding dog. The prey drive must be able to be used at willed and turned on and turned off. Him sitting down means that he is able to control his prey drive according to my wishes. This is a good thing. We had another incident with a chicken. As a chicken was crossing in front of his path you could visually see the prey drive switch click on. As he started toward the chicken I stepped in front and told him no. He started to go around me and I again stepped in front and told him no. He broke his focus on the chicken and turned back in the direction that we had been heading to start with. It may not be much and I have no idea what I am doing in trying to train a dog to herd, but I think for a 9 week old puppy these two things are a very good sign. I don't expect him to become a trial dog, but it would be nice to send him after wayward animals and have him bring them back to me while I stand at the gate instead of having to walk the pastures and woods myself. It would save me a lot of stress and anxiety. The only work we have done with the goats is to sit among them in the barn with me keeping a close eye out for his safety. I want him to be confident among them and not be frightened by them. It is important if he is to herd them that his confidence not be broken by the livestock that he is to herd. All in all he is doing well for being so young. We still have some issues but I have confidence that we will have those things worked out soon. Have a great day!

Freshen Home Decor the Cheap and Easy Way

So as many of you know I have been de-cluttering the house and trying to freshen things up. My house has become a very stale environment as far as being pleasing to the eye. For most of my life I have leaned toward earthy tones...sage greens, blues and browns(lots of dark antique furniture). I am bored and my house is boring. I have decided I seriously need color in my life. Even my throw pillows in the den were greens and browns. Notice I said were. Well let me tell you what I did. First I raided my collection of fabric and found three prints with some wonderful reds and yellows. I took some bed pillows that were old and we had already changed out ( I was going to make seat cushion for the porch chairs with these, but didn't). I cut the pillows to throw pillow size and made slip covers from the fabric. Why did I make slip covers instead of permanent covers? So I can change them out to suit my mood of course! In an hour I had made from scratch three large throw pillows with covers and made two more covers for smaller pillows. I have several more covers cut out but ran out of time to stitch them. Wow! What a difference a little splash of color makes. Now, I know what I am going to do with those old quilts that can no longer be used as quilts. I am going to make more slip covers so that I can change out some more. This should keep some variety in my life. I have a painting that I started 6 years ago. It really never got past the sketch on canvas stage and I am kind of glad. While I am going to keep the hard elements the same I am changing up the style so to speak and can't wait to get started on it. First to finish de-cluttering the house. Really it takes a while to do this. I really didn't realize how much I had accumulated over the years, it is an astonishing amount. I am working on the studio also so that it doesn't become just storage and unuseable for anything else, but I only devote about 30 minutes to doing so out there when I am out there. However, it is nice to finally have a place to do the things that make me tick. Know what I mean? I still don't know if I will make curtains or not...would love to have some...curtains usually make our allergies pretty bad because of the dust that they collect unless I wash them regularly and then well you have to iron them afterwards and that is time consuming. Been there done that and not sure if I want to go back although they do make a room look more finished than bare windows. I will post a tutorial on how to make the pillow slip covers so that anyone interested can see how I made them. Have a great day! Kat

Tragedy Befalls a fellow blogger

Jenny Lamb from The Last Frontier blog has recently suffered the tragic loss of her husband leaving her a widow with two small children. She is a homesteader in Alaska and has moved back to the family homestead to try and go it alone. Patrice at Rural Revolution has set up an account without Jenny's knowledge to try and raise some donations to help her out. Please pray for this family and if you feel led to help out financially then please go to Rural Revolution where Patrice has posted the specifics of the donation account. Our prayers are with Jenny and her sons during this tragic time in their lives. We have faith that while it might be difficult and often times hard to bear Christ will never leave them and His grace will give them the strength to carry on and endure. Blessings, Kat

Reflections on Saving Time on the Farm

Time has become something that is very precious to me. I don't know if turning 40 or 41 had anything to do with that or not. It might have been that I always felt like I had no time for the things in life that I really enjoy. Don't get me wrong I love our life and the things that I do, but there are leisure activities that I enjoy also. Things that are mine and only mine, things that make me...well me. Those things get pushed to the side in the busy life of trying to homeschool, keep the house, and do the farming. With this life it is very easy to get caught up in being only part of yourself, the part that enjoys hard work and challenges that come along with farming. So this past year has really been about getting that other part of me back at least to some extent. No, I still won't have the time to immerse myself in a painting to the point where I live eat and breathe the painting until it is finished. I once ate nothing but chicken and rice soup for a week while working on a painting. Those were the days before children. However, a couple of hours a week shouldn't be too much to ask. So, this past year I have set out to make my life easier so that I can manage to carve out those few extra moments to be the other side of me. Here are a few of the things that have helped and some things that I am still working on and hope to have finished by the first of the year. I will separate them out by category. Garden 1. Mulch is my very best friend. I mulch heavily and anytime I have a few extra moments it doesn't take long to rake up a couple wheelbarrow loads of mulch and dump them in the garden pathways. I now keep the garden heavily mulched and the weed issue well isn't. 2. Biodynamics-deep beds, heavily composted are invaluable at saving me time. Why? Because I don't have to worry about water and I don't have to worry about weeds because the plants are so close together that the weeds that do get in there are stunted and not much of an issue. Things grow even if I neglect the garden. 3.Stop trying to grow everything. I used to grow corn which was a huge waste of my time and resources simply because we don't use much, don't eat much and it requires a lot of care. Corn needs loads of water down here in the south. It would take me an hour just to water the corn. We eat so little that it is much more worth my time and money to go to the farmer's market and buy it from some other poor sap...cough..farmer... 50.00 has enough corn in our freezer to last us from harvest to harvest and saves me hours of watering, weeding, and harvesting. 4. Take some time off...for folks up north you have no choice but to take winter off unless you are utilizing a greenhouse. I take the summer off with very little in the garden. Tomatoes and okra are about the only things going in the garden by July. Down here in the deep south it is just too hot. Livestock- 1. Build a routine..having a routine means that livestock chores are not that hard. I can do the morning milking, feeding and barn cleanup in an hour in the morning. Since I am fresh in the morning and have more energy than the evening, I do more during that time. I don't hay twice a day, I put out all the days hay in the morning. They nibble all day on it. Nightime feeding takes me about 20 minutes. 2. Put things where you need them. We now have 3 barns...the goat barn, the horse/rabbit barn and the pig "barn" (more of an area really). Chickens are right next to the goats. We keep goat stuff in the goat barn, horse and rabbit stuff in the horse barn and since the pigs are in between we keep that in the goat barn and start there...see routine. I can't tell you how much walking and toting this saves. 3. Keep number manageable and down to what you need, not what you fall in love with. This can be a hard one. Previously, I would never butcher a doe or get rid of one of my girls. However, as the herd grew in size I realized that I really didn't need that many girls and those that weren't producing or producing well needed to go. I still have a couple that might be going soon. I don't want to milk 7 goats every morning. 3 is good, 4 is manageable. Home- 1. De-clutter. Clutter is time consuming because you have to spend two hours moving the clutter so that you can spend 1 hour cleaning. I can no longer deal with stuff. I have spent the better part of the year having major cleanouts and getting rid of stuff. Have a place for everything, if you don't have a cabinet, or drawer home for something then hang it on the wall and if you can't do that then do you really need it? or do you really need what is in the cabinet that it could go in? 2. Develop routines to keep it down to a manageable level. Every morning I wipe down the bathrooms. It takes me 15 minutes tops in my morning routine and my bathroom is always clean. Each evening after my little one's bath the tub gets scrubbed down and rinsed while she is putting on her pj's. Take about 5 minutes. Make the bed as soon as the last person is out of it. It takes 5 minutes and makes a room look so much tidier. Fold and immediately put away all laundry as soon as it is done. Takes just a few minutes and then you aren't looking at that stack of laundry all day that keeps building as it comes off the line or out of the dryer. 3. Keep things where you need them. I don't keep all cleaning supplies in the same spot. I keep them where I use them. Saves time going to get them. 4. Swiffer is your friend. Those dusters are the best home cleaning expense that I spend money on. It takes time to polish furniture, but it takes minutes with a swiffer duster to dust the entire house from top to bottom. Dust is a no no here with our allergies and living in the country unfortunately means lots of dust. The floor dusters are great too in that they take minutes to sweep and dust all the floors. 5. Something I am working on is packing up my glass, heirlooms and collectibles. I have been the family heirloom keeper all my adult life. I have 3 sets of china. Really who needs 3!? So, I am doing what my great grandmother did. First, I am taking certain heirlooms and packing them in boxes for the girls. They will get these boxes when they get their own homes. Second, I am packing things up that will be rotated through the year. I am thinking of 3 rotations, maybe 4 with the seasons. My great-grandmother did this twice a year. She packed up half of her beloved collectibles and put them in a storage room that they had. Then halfway through the year the boys had to bring those boxes out and she rotated what she had packed with what was out. The stuff packed was then put on display and the other was packed away for the next 6 months. Makes cleaning much easier, freshens the house decor, and you enjoy these things much more. So now, that I have gotten rid of things not needed or wanted I am packing and downsizing the rest. Tools- 1. Keep them organized and have a tool place. Moving all the tools except barn clean-up things into one area has helped save me so much time. We are notorious about leaving tools somewhere. My grandfather would be ashamed, he taught me better than that. My husband is worse than I am. Having an organized tools spot means that you want to put the tool back where it belongs and where it can be found. I used to spend forever hunting for the tool I needed to do the job. 2. Keep a small tool box in the house for small things. This saves me time in that I don't have to go outside to get a screwdriver, or a hammer or etc. I have a small toolbox in the house for small little repairs or odds and ends. 3. Keep tools clean and ready to use. Nothing is more aggravating than going to get a tool and it needs a blade changed or whatever. Then you have to stop what you are doing, take care of the tool and you have wasted time getting the job done. When you finish using a tool clean it maintain it and put it back ready to grab and go the next time you need it. When wood splitting day is over the axe head is sharpened and ready to pick up and use then next time wood is split. You get the picture. 4. Keep extra parts on hand. I can't tell you how much time we have wasted over the years by not doing this. Say your in the middle of weed eating and the string runs out. You go to the tool room and there is no more string. So then you get in your car go to town 30 minutes away, get more string 15minutes in store (if you don't get distracted looking at something else, drive the 30 minutes back home and finish the weedeating. See you wasted an hour and 15 minutes minimum and in that time the weedeating could have been done. When I buy replacements, I buy two so that I have what I need and when I use one up I replace it. This saves so much time and wasted energy, plus helps during those times when you are broke and don't have the money to spend on weedeater string or extra staples for the staple gun. So those are my best time saving tips. I am actually beginning to see the point where I might be able to get to do some sewing or some painting or even just sit down and read a book. Amazing, I might get to be me again! Blessings, Kat

Exhaustion and Disgust....in a good way!

Hunting season in now in full force and I have two wonderful families and hunters that bring me their extras. So in the past 2 weeks we have put 3 deer in the freezer. One family brings them already gutted and having been hung in a cooler. The other just calls when he shoots one. I got one of the second the other night at 5:45. I really have no place with light to do this kind of dirty work so I moved an old table under the yard light. Hubby was at work and oldest daughter was at a friend's house. Just me, the 5 year old and a very large dead buck on the table. All my neighbor wanted for his bullet was the horns. What a wrestling match I had with that deer. It took me much longer to skin and gut than usual and I was already tired by the time I hauled the cooler into the house to further process the meat. I am so thankful for the meat though, it was all worth it. I am worn out and exhausted. We need three more to safely get us through to next year's season. Four would be better. Last year we put four in the freezer and ran out at the end of July. It was really hard not having that meat until October. Now to the disgusting part...no guts are not disgusting, they are what they are. I have decide that this is the winter that I will learn to tan hides and make buckskin. So armed with Carla Emory's instruction I set my first hide in water to sit....for days. It depends on how many days it will take for the hair on the hide to slip. It took my first hide 5 and let me tell you a hide that has been sitting in water for 5 days will make you gag! I am really not sure I am cut out for this. After a few minutes of fleshing out and de-hairing said hide that has been soaking all you can smell everywhere is rot and decay. However, I did it...I put on my big girl boots and fleshed that hide. You can brain tan the hide afterwards, but I chose to use fels naptha soap since I don't often have the brain (remember many of my deer come headless). I also am not sure if I am ready to squish brain paste between my hands just yet. The fleshing was enough gross to hold me for awhile. So the hide was thoroughly worked in a soft soap paste with fels naptha (also helped with the smell all around me and on me). Now it will soak in that paste for a couple of days. After that it will be stretched and worked and I should have buckskin. It isn't the prettiest of hides and I must say that if I am going to do this I should take more time to get a prettier shaped hide off the animal. However, it is a hide...my very first and we will see how it turns out. I should be able to make something from it. With my luck though whatever I make will probably rot. Oh well, like everything it is a learning process and who knows I might just get good at this and be able to bring in a little extra money. Always looking for ways that the farm can earn some money. Maybe I could trade them to a leather worker as long as I get a couple pairs of gloves made from them, then they can have all the hides. Well that is a long way away at this point. Hide number two is now soaking and I hope it doesn't take as long to soak. So after processing a deer and working a hide for the past two days, I am exhausted and my body is killing me. I think I will take it kind of easy today and do domestic womanly things. Blessings from the farm, Kat