Category: Around the Homestead

 

We lost our power again in the night.  So, off to work without a shower.  I love that feeling!  I went to open my car door and the door was frozen shut and my door handle popped off.  Ugh!  Just one of those mornings you wish you had stayed in bed.  On a brighter note, this is my last work day until December 26 so I’m excited about that.

Tomorrow I will ride into work with Randy to meet my cousin and head to the hospital to see my Grandma.  My cousin and I are going to hang out for the day then meet back up with Randy so he can take me home. 

I have decided to quit selling Avon for a multitude of reasons.  Like any big business they have their issues.  I quit buying their products a long time ago and intend to start making my own, so it’s just as well.  Hopefully I have some time over the break to whip up some soap and hopefully some lotion or shampoo.  I’m excited to give it a go and see what I can create.

The insurance adjuster was supposed to come out and look at our damaged roof from the ice storm this week, but we haven’t heard from him.  We were holding off cleaning until he came out, but may have to go ahead with some clean up if he doesn’t come before the holidays.  Randy has the week between Christmas and New Year’s off because his company closes down that week, so he will be a busy bee around our farm.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

Here are a few pictures from the fun ice storm/snow storm we went through last week. 

Here is part of our backyard a portion of the way through the storm.  This is post-ice/pre-snow.  Looks like fun doesn’t it.  Almost every new fence we put up needs restretched.  For those of you with wire goat fencing you will feel my pain : )

Sorry about the blinds in the picture, but they would fly away otherwise.  Our bird feeders were frozen closed, so I took the liberty of throwing a can of sunflower seeds in our driveway every morning for the cute little things.  A few of them, a female Cardinal inparticular, looks as if she could afford to miss a meal, but who am I to decide.

Last but not least is the wonderful fridge outside our backdoor.  I just knew we would wake up to a bunch of raccoon thieves at our backdoor, but they stayed away.

Seven days after losing power, two REALLY nice guys from South Dakota hooked our power back up for us.  Yea, they were great and went the extra mile for Randy and I and we appreciate them dearly for it.

My Grandma is still in the hospital and although she is in quite a bit of pain, they seem to have backed off any new complications.  She has pancreatitis that flares up once or twice a year, so she just needs to get it back under control.  We are really hoping for a speedy recovery so she can be home for Christmas.

I have to say I am a little bit of a grinch this year.  I’m hoping to get my Christmas decorations down this weekend (Yes, before Christmas).  We have so much on our plate right now I need to do it this weekend so when the snow/mud is gone I can focus on clean up efforts at our house and Grandma’s.  So, they will be boxed up (all but the tree) and stowed away for next year.  I’m excited to start a new year.  I just place my seed/plant order today (all Heirloom), and I am so excited.  I just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and for anyone who likes gardening, eating organic, or eating pasture/grass finished meat I highly recommend this book.  Loved it!  I’m such a nerd I even took notes as I read it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. 

 

The ice and snow didn’t miss us.  I think we got about 5-6 inches of snow on top of the 1/2-1 inch of ice from the first storm that blew through.  The trees fell in the ice storm and ripped down the majority of our new fencing for the sheep and took out a small part of our privacy fence.  So, we once again have a lot of work cut out for us this winter/spring/summer.  It’s always something it seems like.  Oh well, such is the life on the farm. 

We received a nice check from an aunt of our’s for Christmas, so Randy and I want to buy something together with the money.  I thought he would say something like, a tv, or upgrade our Dish Network, but he’s actually in-tune with what we are doing with our lives these days.  He wants to buy a couple of dairy goats.  I was kind of excited about the idea.  We wanted to get them right away, but good thing we didn’t because our fencing isn’t ready for it now.  So, in the spring we will not only increase and diversify our chicken flock, but we will also add dairy goats to our little farm. 

We are still undecided on the type of chickens we will get.  We will for sure increase the number of banties we have.  We love them!  They are great foragers, need very little food to supplement their diet, and give us plenty of eggs for our personal use (and usually some extras for Grandma and Mom & Dad).  We need to do a little more research to see if there are any dual-purpose breeds we can house with our banties without them destroying the little banties, want our new addition to be a heritage breed, and hope to find one who lays well in the winter as well the warmer months.

My Grandma is in the hospital again.  She was having some trouble with her heart, and she has pancreatitis.  Her pancreatitis flares up about once or twice a year and puts her in the hospital, but her heart is a new concern.  So, hopefully she gets out of there before Christmas or that will be terrible for her.  I think we will all probably spend Christmas (or at least rotate shifts) in the hospital with her if that is the case.  We just hope that isn’t the case.

Hope everyone has a good evening!

 

Deer season has arrived here in Kansas.  My parents have always been against the idea of leasing ground out to out-of-state hunters, getting big money for hunting, etc, etc.  In fact, my dad never allowed ANYONE to hunt grandma’s ground (except one older man who hunted there when my grandpa was alive), and grandma has always respected his wishes.  My cousins from California began to show an interest in hunting, so Dad allowed them to come out and hunt.  Well, then other cousins wanted to hunt and cousin’s spouses wanted to hunt and it kind of snowballed from there.  So, Dad decided if he was going to go to the trouble (and expense) of tents, blinds, vests, and all the fun hunting stuff he might as well make a little off of it.  So, he has started buying out-of-state licenses (it’s a raffle, so there are not guarantees you will get the number you apply for or any for that matter.  Because these hunters pay top dollar for their license and a chance to hunt in Kansas all hunting is now prohibited in an effort to not scare the deer away before the paying customers arrive. 

Although the hunters that come in are absolutely fantastic people, hunting season is a dreaded time for us.  Lots of illegal hunting goes on.  My parent’s neighbors hunt dad/grandma’s ground illegally.  They even had the nerve to confront the hunters dad had in and then call mom to make sure it was okay.  Our hunters said he was in camouflage and on Dad’s property.  Hmm, why would he be traipsing across our property, in camo, during the prime hunting time of the day?  Interesting.  We have seen people spotlighting from their trucks on our way to work.  Dad said our neighbor and a friend of his stand on his own property (they own 3-5 acres, not exactly prime hunting ground) looking out onto dad and grandma’s ground and lay their guns down whenever they see dad drive by.  Hello, they are in camo sitting on the boundary of their property.  I love it!

Mom had a big dinner last night since the hunters who are here are friends of the family.  They are from Texas and absolutely wonderful guys.  We could listen to them talk for hours with their Texas accents.  Today is their last day here, so we are really hoping one of them (or both of them) get what they are looking for.  I think one of the guys is coming back later in the season, but it would still be nice.  Dad’s neighbor took the liberty of telling them there isn’t any bucks on the piece of ground they’re hunting.  How would he know, he isn’t allowed on the ground, nice of him to volunteer that information, but the hunters told Dad they saw some smaller ones and there are rub marks all over the trees from the bucks.  Basically the neighbor was trying to get them off the ground, so he could get back to his trespassing.

As I said before hunting seasons is splendid.  The littering is one of my favorites.  Could there be a filthier thing to do?  To come out to the beautiful countryside and throw out your city trash, soda cans, beer boxes, and McDonald’s bags.  I have a huge, and I feel well deserved stereotype for people who litter.  I’ll keep it to myself though. : )

Randy and I saw two very small does (just lost their spots a week or two ago, small) on our way to mom and dad’s for dinner last night.  They were confused and alone and couldn’t get over the fence to safety and looked so scared.  It was so sad.  I have a special place in my heart for animals.  They just don’t have room to live anymore.

 

This is what a usual day “off” is like for me:

5:00 am

• Wake Up with Randy (Monday he got up at 2:00am to go into work and yes I was up and at ’em with him.)
• Make coffee, breakfast, pack his lunch, and see him out the door

5:30 am

• Breakfast for the dogs
• If I make/allow myself I do yoga or just some relaxation time before beginning my day.
• Begin kitchen duties:  this includes baking bread, making cheese, etc.

On Monday this included cleaning and freezing pumpkins, making pumpkin bread, yogurt, ww bread, and toothpaste.

7:30 am (Sun-up)

• Outside Chores
• Cats:  let them out of the pool house, turn off their heater, food & water
• Chickens:  let them out, turn off their heat lamp, food & water
• Sheep:  turn off their lights, let out of sheds (we keep them locked inside during lambing season), break ice on water, look them over well to check for illness or signs of labor, check salt & mineral

8:30 am

• Back Inside:  once the sun is up and temperature is above freezing I can start laundry (sometimes our pipes freeze in this area of the house).  I always use my clothesline to dry my clothes whenever possible.  If weather doesn’t not permit me to use my clothesline, I hang up all shirts and only dry what I cannot hang on a hanger.

10:00 am

• Frisbee with Ash (Australian Cattledog) and playing chase with Koal (a rescued mutt), he’s not into Frisbee or fetch.  I have to put the cats back in the pool house before this can take place.  Koal has a cat fetish and not a good one.  We just play until Ash takes her Frisbee to the backdoor to let me know she is tuckered out and ready to quit.

11:00 am

• Lunch:  leftovers or egg sandwich (love my little Banties)

11:30 am

• Back to Work:  menu planning, prepare the week’s dinners in advance, tea time (RRL, Cinnamon, Chai, etc.), fill bird feeders (4) with sunflower seeds, spend time with my cats outside (all my animals need some individual attention), hang up laundry, fold, and put away

2:00 pm

• Start preparing dinner

3:00 pm

• Another round of Frisbee and chase to wear down the dogs before Randy gets home.  Ash is a yipper (any of you who have Blue/Red Heelers can probably feel my pain), and if she has energy she makes sure we know about it.

3:30 pm

• Evening Chores: 
  • Grain sheep and water sheep
  • Check chicken’s feed and water, collect eggs, turn on their heat lamp, and lock them up for the night
  • Feed and water the cats, lock them in the pool house, and turn on their heater

 

4:30 pm

• Finish up dinner and have it ready when Randy gets home.

5:00 pm

• Feed the dogs.  They eat near us while we eat dinner because Ash (aka Alpha) tends to steal Koal’s food if we don’t keep an eye on her.
• Eat dinner and spend the rest of the evening relaxing and paying attention to each other and our two dogs.

 

That is a typical day “off” for me.  Sometimes I am ready to go back to work, so I can sit at my desk/computer and rest, haha.  I love being home, but it does get lonely without another being that walks upright there with me, someone who can talk back in a language I can understand.

Have a great day and a great weekend.

It is 19 degrees this morning.  Randy and I leave the house between 4:00am-5:00am so it is still dark outside.  This morning I could see the city I worked in 45 miles away, and he could see his 50 miles away.  The air is so crisp and clear (and Kansas is so flat) you can actually see the lights and even some buildings.  Crazy!

We had a coyote come very near our sheep lot in broad daylight Saturday.  Koal started barking when he saw him out the sliding glass door, then Ash chimed in (but I’m not entirely sure she knew why she was barking).  I ran outside to holler at it and to get Randy to check the sheep.  Then I yelled for Hank, our llama, he had his head buried in the hay bale and turned around to look at me with a mouth full like, “hello, I’m eating here what do you want.”  Good guard llama!  I’m sure if there was a threat he would have do something other than eat, but apparently the coyote was outside of his jurisdiction this time. haha

 

This is the end of the week for me.  Yea!  We are hoping to have one or two guys trucking in hay for us on Saturday.  We don’t really use massive amounts of hay to constitute “trucking hay in,” but my Dad goes through it with all of his (500+/-) sheep.  I will feel a lot better with the assurance of our hay setting behind our house safe and sound and knowing we have enough feed to get our little woolies through the winter.  We have a protein tub out for them right now, but have to pull it and rotate it around from pen to pen because a couple of the girl literally live with their head buried in it.  One of our yearling ewes actually rubbed her little chin raw from eating it.  So the little oinkers are having their protein tub rationed.  They have free choice hay (and we were surprised at the quality of the bale once it was opened up, so it’s not like they are starving.  They just have the winter blues and eat out of boredom like I do : )

 

Again I will have a couple of posts today, so sit tight!  Have a great day!