A Simple Prairie Life

Dad got a good report at the doctor on Monday. He also got his yucky ol’ cast off, and is now in a walking boot and feeling like a new man. He still can’t put any pressure on it, but to be able to take the cast on and off is great.

He had another ewe have a single (a little boy). She was a yearling Dorper and not 100% sure about the whole baby thing. She’ll come around. We put her in a pen with the two sets of Katahdin triplets. We are running short on pens and still debating on the bottle lamb issue. We’ll get it figured out (just like everything else, we just wing it).~Smile

It’s supposed to storm really bad this evening, tonight, and tomorrow. It makes me a nervous wreck with so many animals outside. They are even calling for hail and tornadoes. Let’s hope the weatherman is wrong! I actually feel almost rested for the first time in weeks. We didn’t get to bed any earlier last night, but I think my body is just adjusting to running on less sleep. Not the healthiest thing, but once dd is back on his feet I will be back to getting a full night’s sleep.

Mom made a great dinner for us last night. She has been making us dinner a lot for helping them out. We had corned beef, potatotes, cabbage, corn, and pineapple. It was really good!

Have a great Wednesday!

Dad’s surgery went well.  He needed 2 pins and 1 plate to fix his broken ankle.  He had to stay the night again, so I’m sure he is anxious to get out of the hospital today.  I checked out some books at the library and bought him a crossword puzzle book to occupy his time. 

Mom was home early yesterday to help with chores.  It was a much better evening with her helping out at their house.  I made Tuna Casserole while Randy finished up our chores.  I stocked up on corned beef and cabbage for mom and I since it was on sale for St. Patrick’s Day.

I got my potatoes cut and curing for the garden.  They are supposed to set a week once they are cut, but they are going to get about 4 days.  I missed planting my peas “in the light of the moon” like the Farmer’s Almanac says, but my root crop will get planted in the “dark of the moon” as it advises. 

Besides getting our garden going, another goal for the weekend is to get a permanent area fenced for the chickens.  The girls laid 7 eggs Monday and 7 more on Tuesday.  There are feathers everywhere, so we are preparing for an even greater decline in their production shortly. 

Took pictures, but my rechargeable batteries went dead before I could download them.  The batteries are charging, so I promise to have some soon.

Have a great Wednesday!

Over the weekend my dad was working on the roof at my mom’s store in town.  The ladder shifted as he was coming down causing him to fall and break his ankle.  He is scheduled to have sugery today and will be out of commission for at least 4 weeks, possibly longer.

In the meantime my db, dh, dm, and myself are left in charge of the farm.  He has approximately 300 sheep on his farm most of which are preparing to lamb, need sheared, wormed, vaccinated, etc.  Not to mention the 60 acres left to set posts and fence in and wheat, barley, and milo harvest all coming up.

The four of us are all extremely exhausted from the weekend.  We had to go to the co-op with the gravity cart for bulk corn, the guys went for a load of alfalfa, dh and I drove an hour away to get a pickup, db built 15-20 feeders for the sheep, dh and I put up electric fencing and hung two gates, and along with dd’s place kept up with our chickens, sheep, llama, cats, and dogs.  Whew!

It’s going to be a long spring!

My brother leaves tomorrow for firefighting class, so we will be on our own through the weekend.  Randy and I hope to get an area fenced for our chickens since they keep getting out of the makeshift one we threw up Saturday afternoon.  We also hope to get a few things planted in the garden. 

We are also a rooster down as they have been starting to fight and we had to downsize.  A hen may have gotten involved as well as one was bleeding last night when I did chores.  We are getting a block for them to peck on and hopefully butchering two more roosters this weekend.

Wish us luck!

I was on my home from work yesterday when I got a call from my dh who said he had been trying to dig fence post in our sheep lot (we are re-doing all the fencing in our lots and around the back of our chicken coop) and hit a water line. So, between him and my dd they think they have it fixed. Time will tell if it holds, but so far it looks like it’s going to.

I was on my own for getting corn at Grandma’s for the sheep. It’s in a type of grain cart and takes some effort to get it out of there. However, I came home with a full barrell despite my dh’s doubts.

We let the chickens out on the garden last night. They were in heaven! Hope it cuts down on our grasshopper population. We got six eggs last night, but there were feathers everywhere so I’m not sure how long the girls will keep it up. I’m not looking forward to being without eggs again.

Last night’s dinner was leftovers since we didn’t have water until 7:00 pm. Tonight I hope to make a Taco Soup recipe I found on Crystal Miller’s website along with her cornbread recipe. I always have good luck with her recipes, and they always taste great!

I promise to start adding pictures soon. Maybe over the weekend I can get some taken.

I worked through lunch and got home a half hour early last night. We were supposed to take three more roosters to the neighbors for butchering, but when we arrived with our roosters our neighbor wasn’t home from work yet (he had to work late). So, we are supposed to bring them back tonight. When we got home I fed the sheep their corn, plugged in the baby monitor, and flipped the light on in their shed. Then, dh and I worked for a little bit on dd’s lawn mower (the pull behind for the tractor). Then decided to put up some fencing on the garden and try letting the 3 roosters we had caught to be butchered out to see how they faired. The little guys immediately started pecking and scavenging, so I think we are on to something. I the pen doesn’t have a top on it, so they will only be allowed out on during the daylight when we are home to supervise. At least we were productive and made good use of our time last night. We will let all the chickens out in the garden in the evenings and by the weekend I will have a nice area ready for planting. The chickens will be moved to a new spot in the garden to prepare it for the next weekend. This will hopefully cut down on our bug problem in our garden in the summer months as they eat the larvae and prevent new pests from hatching. The fertilizer is nice too.

We then played frisbee for a little while in the backyard with Ash and Koal before heading inside for dinner, clean up, and some relaxation. I read (Nourishing Traditions) in the living room with Koal tucked away at my feet while Randy and Ash watched tv in the family room. Our different ways of relaxing!

Yesterday evening we took two of our roosters down to our neighbors house where a friend of their’s butchered two of our Bantam roosters for us. We let him keep the meat in exchange for dd getting a lesson in butchering. Still not sure we are up for butchering ourselves, but at least we have an idea how if we need to. He told us to bring the others down this evening and he would butcher them for us and let us take home the meat.

We also took our neighbors nine eggs we had just collected. They are good to share with us, so we try to repay the favor when we can.

We got our dogs to take their heartworm medicine which isn’t always easy. Ash isn’t fond of the heartworm pills and/or Frontline and runs if we go to the cabinet they are stored in, here’s the package open, or smells it. She’s nuts! Friday is supposed to be their bath day, so we’ll see how that goes. Ash is usually pretty good, and Koal behaved last time so hopefully it goes as smoothly this time around. Koal’s yearly shots are Friday so it might put him over the edge to have a bath on the same day. LOL!

It’s supposed to be 68 degrees today, but cooling off into the 50s tomorrow. So we’ll enjoy today while it lasts!

We had a productive weeekend!

Friday was my Kitchen Day.  I made sauerkraut, baked bread, made green tomato bread, carrot cake cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting, and homemade pizza.  I also manage to vaccum my house and do five loads of laundry.  How two people have so much laundry I will never know.  In the evening we met mom and dad in town at Mom’s store and her, Dad, Randy, and I all loaded up and went to the Garden Show in Wichita.  They had a band there playing all Beatles music, so it was fun to listen to.  Afterwards we went to Willie C’s for a quick bite to eat before heading home. 

Sunday we didn’t make it to church.  My dh was supposed to meet up with one of our neighbors and make two trips hauling round bales from a town about an hour away from us for our sheep and my dd’s sheep.  However, he had to postpone so we ended up calling my cousin who took his semi and got all the bales in one load.  Whew!  We now have feed for awhile.  Common spring!  While we were waiting we got a large area of weeds pulled near the garden and ready to plant flowers around our bird bath, sawed the legs off of our two feeders so our baby ewes can get into them (they are too big for the creep feeder, but weren’t big enough to reach in the regular feeders), got one of our three-wheelers put back together, and got my db dirt bike running again.  The dirt bike alone was a chore.  I was on the 3-wheeler pulling Randy on the dirt bike as he tried to get it started.  When he finally got it going we were nearly 1/2 mile from the house.  He took off and left me to kick start the 3-wheeler.  To make a long story short, I ended up walking home and taking him back for the 3-wheeler.  I just don’t have enough “umpf” to get them going.  After he left to get hay with my cousin, I washed the bedding and played with Ash and Koal in the backyard.  I also went through my Avon order so I would be ready to place it on Monday.  Sunday evening when we went to do chores we noticed our roosters fighting.  We will need to get the smaller ones picked out and butchered this coming weekend.  My neighbor (a butcher) has offered to help show my husband how to do it.  So, next time we might be on our own. LOL

By Sunday evening we were exhausted and not ready to start another week back at work.  However, we made it to work without too much negativity!  Had trouble sleeping, so I need to get my lavender sachet back in my pillow.  It nevers seems to make it back in there after I wash the bedding.~smile

Have a great week!