Around the Homestead

A Weekend Update…

Gretchen

Friday was spent doing the normal chores around the house.  I did get all our bushes and trees mulched.  I also made potato salad (first time) that turned out really well and a strawberry-rhubarb pie (Randy’s favorite) that turned out not-so-well.  Randy was a good sport, thanked me, complemented me, and ate the whole thing.

Randy came home early to go to the doctor.  Still not sure what is wrong with him, so I am going to try to get him in with our Kinesiologist today if at all possible.  He was bitten by a tick right before he traveled to Ohio for classes and hasn’t felt well since. 

Randy worked on putting the engine together for his pickup Saturday morning while I did laundry and some work in the garden.  We sheared at Dad’s and finished up the few who were missed due to rain.  A friend of Randy’s also brought over his nine sheep to shear.

We have decided to make a conscious effort to make our Sundays a day of “rest.”  We will hopefully use this day for relaxation, fun, or at least some of our easier projects.  However, we spent the early part of this Sunday morning rolling barbed-wire balls into the back of the pickup and picking up old wooden hedge posts all around the pasture to take to the dump.  It was not exactly easy or fun or relaxing, but it is done and the pasture looks so much nicer now.  Randy continued working on his engine while I finished up laundry.  I also hilled and mulched our potato plants in hopes we will get a good crop of potatoes this year. 

Sunday afternoon we got cleaned up and headed to town.  We met at our friend’s, Josh and Angie’s, house to meet Angie’s mom, Nancy, so she could notarize the last of our adoption papers.  Her and her husband drove up on their Harley.  She is too cute, and we so appreciated her meeting us and helping us complete our paper work. 

We attended two graduation parties and saw lots of friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.  We had a great time, stayed too late, and had to hurry through chores before getting to bed.  Today I am sleepy and ready for an early night. 

Dinner is baked spaghetti I pulled out of the freezer this morning.  It is one I already made up and is ready to bake.  I also pulled a baggie of homemade mozzarella to sprinkle on top of it.  No garlic bread though.  We at an entire loaf of bread this weekend, and I only made one.  So it will be a bread-less week until I can make more again on Friday.

Hope everyone is having a nice Monday!

Books, Video, & Music

I am reading a great book or two…

Gretchen

Mitten Strings for God:  Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry By Katrina Kenison

This is a great book for any mother or mother-to-be.  She writes beautifully about slowing down and simplifying your life and your family’s life.

I’m also reading a few devotions a night from:

The Simple Life:  Devotional thoughts from Amish Country by Wanda E. Brunstetter

It is also a great book about with scripture and short stories relating to Amish life.

The DVDs, Fireproof and Amazing Grace, I had requested at the library have finally come in.  Hopefully we will get a chance to watch these over the weekend.

I also picked up and have been reading a lot of articles about asthma.  Right now I am skimming through:

Easy Breathing:  Natural Treatments for Asthma, Colds, Flu, Coughs, Allergies, Sinusitis By David Hoffman

I’m in hopes we can get Randy is top-notch shape with his asthma before we travel to Nepal (one of the worst countries for air-quality in the world).  It’s never to early to start building up your immune system. 

I have a stack of books to start after I have finished up these and will let you know what and how they are as I go.

Around the Homestead

A Week of Vacation…

Gretchen

We had a wonderful week with Randy’s Dad and Step mom, Brenda.  They are so helpful when they visit.  Grandma’s pasture behind our house that we use for our sheep is now fenced in thanks to Randy and Roger.  We have it divided down the middle to provide for rotational grazing.  The girls couldn’t be happier to have fresh grass to graze.  They have been on the ram’s little pasture and the rams are on hay and will stay there another three weeks for the cycle of worms to end (rotational grazing) before they can go back out on their pasture.  Poor guys are not happy with the situation.  Brenda gave them plenty of weeds she had pulled out of the flowerbeds to eat, and Roger raked our Bermuda in the backyard after Randy mowed and tossed it over for them.  The rams let the Bermuda dry for a day and then pigged out on it.

I have a new flower bed, the garden is underway, our twin bed from the baby’s room is tucked away in a closet until it is needed later on, and our dog house is painted.  Everything looks so green and pretty around our home.

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Flowerbed in the Making

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Grass Clippings to rake and feed to the rams and chickens

I am still waiting on my heirloom seeds and tomatoes from Abundant Acres.  I think I asked they be delivered the second week in May (this week), but I ordered them so long ago I truly can’t remember.  In the meantime I have gotten some plants from Mom’s store (14 of them so far).  The potatoes are up and the onions are growing like crazy.  The spinach and lettuce in the flowerbed next to the house finally came up and the marigolds in the garden are out of control.  Gardening is good!

Dad is supposed to start up again on our roof/re-modeling job we started last fall.  Weather permitting he hopes to start today and have it closed in before the rain hits again Friday night.  Cross your fingers.  I should have taken a “before” shot.  Oh well, maybe I can rummage one up from my archives.

Our chickens are laying about 16-17 eggs on average a day (18 last night).  We are up to our ears in eggs.  I have an 18-pack “aging” in the fridge as we speak in hopes when I boil them they will peel easy so I can make egg salad.  **Fresh eggs don’t peel well at all.  Makes you wonder how old those store-bought eggs are when the shell practically falls off of them in one piece.

Randy is home after being gone since Sunday.  Thankfully his trip was a safe one and his flight home was uneventful although it was questionable at times.  He is off today and taking care of things (after he gets caught up on his sleep).  I had no morning chores at 3:45 and will hopefully not have evening chores or dinner to cook tonight.  Yea for me!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Herbs, Nutrition

Swine Flu Scare…

Gretchen

In the past I haven’t been one to worry about sicknesses going around (West Nile, Avian Flu, etc.).  However, Randy and I are really worn down from a long list of activity on our farm and Mom and Dad’s.  Plus we have company, Randy’s Dad and Stepmom, visiting next week.  So we are taking some extra precautions to help get our systems built back up so we are ready to enjoy our company and prevent sickness in our home.

 

I just placed and order with Vitacost for:

CoQ10 (daily)

Vitamin C (daily at first, then as needed)

Echinacea (as needed)

Kyolic Formula 103 Aged Garlic Extract (initially it will be taken daily)

          Ingredients:  Vitamin C (Ester-C)

          Aged Garlic Extract Powder (bulb)

Premium Mushroom Complex Shiitake, Maitake, Poria Cocos, Reishi, and Agaricus

          Astragalus Extract (root)

          Oregano Extract (leaf)

          Olive Leaf Extract (Oleuropin 18%)

 

I placed this order after reading this article.  I know the title refers to Avian Flu, but it is still the recommended steps to take for Swine Flu or any flu for that matter.

 

I’ve also been reading up on ways to get the vitamins our body needs from herbs instead of synthetics.  The 1918 Spanish flu epidemic cases tackled by modern medicine had a 30 percent mortality rate while those treated by homeopathy had a 1.05 percent mortality rate.  “Homeopathy was 98% successful in treating the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918” (and the modern flu today).

 

I can’t say I won’t take Tamiflu along with the masses if I were to get sick, but I would like to know I tried to get myself as strong as possible if this thing continues to spread across the nation and the world.

 

I am already taking Calcium and Magnesium per my Kinesiologist’s orders.  Randy and I have also added Cod Liver Oil to our routine again.  This should cover our Vitamin A, D, EPA, DHA, and Vitamin E.  We eat real butter to ensure the CLO is utilized in our body, but you can also add gold butter oil for good measure.  This is an added expense I personally couldn’t cough up the money for and decide to invest in other supplements while adding good quality butter to our diet instead.

 

Another great addition to your diet would be coconut oil.  We use this (virgin unrefined, 1 gallon)in our smoothies, cooking, and even on our hands as a lotion when they get really dry or cut up.  It has great antiviral (influenza) and antibacterial properties amongst a long list of other benefical qualities.

 

**I am not a medical professional, and everyone’s body is different.  You should research and/or seek the help of a professional when adding supplements to your daily life (especially if other medical conditions exist).  This is just what we are implementing in our home to try to strengthen our immune systems and get some energy back.

 

Hope everyone is staying healthy and enjoying the spring weather. 

Animals, Around the Homestead

Fire, Fencing, Working Lambs, and Shearing…

Gretchen

I spent Friday catching up on some cooking and cleaning.  Our laundry was out of control, so I tackled that also.

 

It was also bath time for a couple of our cute little bottle lambs.  Their mama has zero milk and even though they get bottles and have a bucket whenever they are hungry, they still proceed to snitch (steal milk from other mamas via the back of the ewe) so their faces are dirty and nasty from using the rear entrance to the milk supply.  So I took a bucket of warm, soapy water out to them and went to work.

 

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 Before

 

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After

They look better and they have to feel better. 

 

I secretly had every intention of curling up for a nap Friday afternoon.  One little guy took my place.

 

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What I wouldn’t give to be a dog (at our house) somedays.

 

We surprised my uncle for his 60th birthday with a little family get together.  He was surprised and enjoyed himself with food, fun, and of course cake.

 

Friday afternoon while we were getting ready for the surprise party a fire had kicked back up in this good ol’ Kansas wind at mom and dad’s.  They had burned some old hay piles from winter on Tuesday and the wind on Friday was enough to get the fire going again.  It blew through 3 corners of their (fairly new) fencing and burned a whole round bale of hay. 

 

Saturday morning Craig, Randy, and I headed to their house to replace corner posts.  While the guys worked on the corner post I was in charge of removing the copper wire attached to a telephone pole.  It will be cut into posts to use on some of the other damaged corners.

 

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This is what the posts are supposed to look like.

 

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This is what you get after a fire blows throug them.

 

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Here is what it looks like when they are burned entirely to the ground.  This is the corner the guys rebuilt.

 

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My project, the telephone pole. 

 

You can see the copper wire running the length of it.  Luckily the rams (20 or so) and the donkey had made their great escape through the downed fence so I could work in peace without worry about one of the slamming into me.

 

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Here’s a closeup of the copper wire that needed to be removed.

 

I did get to feed this cute little thing a bottle and let him tag along behind me everywhere I went. 

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He’s an Icelandic ram lamb and just as cute as he can be.

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 And such a good little helper.

 

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While we were doing that Dad moved all his sheep home from Grandma’s where they had spent the last part of winter.  I helped him de-worm and get set up to work lambs.  We de-wormed 70-80 ewes (I’m guessing) and once mom got home from work we ate lunch and headed back out to work just over 100 lambs.

 

Saturday night Randy and I had a retirement party to go to.  So, we went home, did our chores, showered, and headed to Wichita.  We could have easily crawled into bed for the night, but did have a nice time visiting with some new people.

 

Sunday morning started early with chores, and corralling all of our sheep for shearing.  At 7:30am the shearers showed up, and we were going.

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 All the girls ready and waiting.

 

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We had to pull the lambs out one by one out of the shute.

 

After our sheep were sheared we headed to mom and dad’s.  We sheared until 2:30 (about 200 sheep) when the rain finally hit.  We probably only had 60 sheep (1 hour’s worth) left to shear, but they will have to come back another day to finish it up.  It poured as we picked up and got all the sheep back where they belonged.  We had a quick bite to eat there then headed home to do our chores and shower. 

 

By 6:00 we were tucked in bed while the thunder and lightning boomed and flashed outside.  Our “lovely” blue heeler, Ash, spins in circles and barks when it thunders.  No idea why, but she did this all throughout the night.  So even though we got to bed in time to get plenty of sleep we were awake off and on all night by her barking.

 

Animals obviously rule our world!  Have a great day!

Animals

Pool Time…For Some…

Gretchen

The dogs were screaming for their swimming pool last night, so after a couple rounds of ball Randy got out their pool, cleaned it, and filled it up with nice, cool water.

 

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Our blue heeler, Ash, loves her pool.  She was in it before a drop of water hit it.

 

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Everyone was happy!