Wishing On A Farm

Trying to get back in the swing of things

2011-08-05T12:48:00.001-07:00

We have been so busy with work, I can't believe how long it's been! So much has happened as far as animal and garden happenings..... All the pigs are gone, I have two gardens now, I built a new chicken coop and run, got a rooster, just hatched some chicks from a broody hen. The garden is doing better than last year, weather has been better too....but my zucchinis have powdery mildew from late warm rain. The lower garden is hard clay, so I expect nothing. But the zucchini and tomatoes I planted is doing really good. I also planted a lot of beans, wheat, flax and lentils everywhere. They are cheap in the grocery store bulk bins, I feed a lot of the greens to the chickens and leave the roots and some of the tops to continue growing for future green manure.
I downloaded the blogger app so when I had time at work I could do some blogging, I still don't have a camera, that is next on the list, I just bought an HP touch tablet with scrap metal money from a demo, I like it a lot, I haven't got to use it much, I have been so busy.
I'll have to take pics with my phone of everything and post them.

My Camera is Dead

2010-08-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

Yes the nice one i just bought last June. We went to Sand Lake with our friends while Breanna and Cole were camping with friends, it is an off road beach where you ride quads, dirt bikes, sand rails and trucks. Well i took my camera to get pictures of the fun while riding in the sand rail, and sand got into the gears that opens the lens. We got it home, hubby took it all apart, sprayed it out with air and at the first step of putting it back together the post that the gear sits on broke! So now all i have is my cell phone for a camera, which as far as camera phones go is awesome, but still not my camera awesome. I feel like an idiot for not thinking that would happen. So i guess i'll leave you with some of the last pictures my camera took.

Dave and Adam riding to the beach

View from the top

The shoe tree with some bra and underwear thrown on too

Adam and Dave at the shoe tree

Adam riding on the beach

And this is what happens when you don't hold the wrench tight enough, it's fixed now :)

FRESH

2010-08-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

I had to share this with you also.

Truck Farm | A Wicked Delicate Film and Food Project

2010-08-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

This is the same two guys from King Corn, and they have now taken their old dodge truck from the movie and converted the bed into a garden! t's 40 square feet in New York. I think it is ingenious!

Here is the link to their website:Truck Farm

For me the link is not visible, but it is clickable? I dunno what's going on with it,just incase it is: www.truck-farm.com
And here is the intro movie i ran into that exlpains it and shows them building the "farm"

My poor Brussels Sprouts, sprout no longer

2010-08-10T19:38:00.001-07:00

Those little buggers from my previous post just kept coming and coming and so did some other GIANT caterpillar! I looked online to find what kind of butterfly it was that was laying all the eggs, everything pointed to a mottled brown one, well i am sorry internet but it's NOT, it's white just like i thought! I saw her lay her eggs with my very own eyes, and i couldn't keep up with her! I pulled all the lower leaves, left only a few top ones only to reveal that my little gorgeous sprouts were completely INFESTED! All of them had oodles of caterpillars in them, so i tore them up and fed them to my chickens.........take that caterpillars! That evil butterfly has been circling my garden in search of a cabbage plant everyday since, but i fixed her, and next year all of my cabbage family plants will have a net, a fenced cage something to keep that damn white butterfly that lays more eggs than the momma from Aliens off of them!!!

No 'Poo Update

2010-08-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today is the 1st week i have not used shampoo and conditioner, my hair is lovely! I always have a TON of frizzies on top of my head, i have very kinky dark hair mixed in with my blonde, it is awful............but not anymore!!! My hair has never been so straight, it is brushable right out of the shower, it has no odor, no perfume gunk, no dust covered greasy feeling. I am in love with my hair again. I found this herbal oil in the African American hair section(they have the best stuff for dry hair, and cheap too) it is called Africa's Best Ultimate Herbal Oil(it smells like baby oil which i'm not fond of) and i put it on my ends and braided it, left it in for a few hours and washed with baking soda and rinsed with the ACV and my hair was great. It was getting very dry the last few inches, didn't matter how much $$ i spent on it. Anyway think of an oil, it's in there: soybean, walnut seed, kiwi fruit extract, olive, castor, sesame, jojoba, carrot seed, sweet almond, Vitamin E, safflower, calendula extract, yarrow extract, cucumber extract,carrageenan extract, ginseng extract, sage extract, comfrey extract, aloe extract, and fragrance(baby oil stink) in an 8oz. bottle for under $3.00! It's also made in the USA which is a nice plus.

Here i am a couple weeks ago with my son (that is in desperate need of a hair cut!)and you can see how greasy my hair is on top with the frizzies, and how dry it is on the bottom, granted i should get a trim, but i don't want to!

Here is my hair today!

I do think i am going to use some neutral henna in my hair as a good conditioner once in a while.......if i can find it.

No shampoo, no conditioner challenge Day One

2010-08-02T08:09:00.000-07:00

I have had it with my hair! The products in the store make my head feel greasy, but the bottom quarter dry as hell! The next day the bottom 3/4 feels greasy with dirt dust in it. Conditioner makes my back break out(yuck!) So i am done! I am not buying that crap anymore, i have just had it.

I from now on will either make my own or use the no 'poo way, the latter is what i used this morning. Here is a link to the no 'poo way http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?p=935 I did put a cinnamon stick and vanilla extract in my ACV, and i just mixed the baking soda and water n a jelly jar. My hair is long.....it's to my bra strap in the back, it doesn't seem tangled like i thought it would be, it does have a touch of ACV smell, but i think that will go away when it dries. We'll see, i don't think it can be any worse than the store bought stuff with massive amounts of chemicals. Note that i do not color or perm or even use hair spray in my hair, i am a wash, condition, and brush when it's dry girl.

Trash to Treasure = Rabbit Hutch to Chicken Coop

2010-07-30T15:35:00.000-07:00

A friend gave me a rabbit hutch, it's in okay shape, the pictures i think make it look better than it is.....the rabbit hutch is getting converted into a chicken coop.

I made siding out of plywood footing boards

I installed a roost

I would like to paint it and paint a nice picture on the front

I still need to put the roofing on, cut the legs shorter, and make a door ramp, the chicks won't be here until the 10th-12th, and she is keeping three(i'm getting 20). So i have a week to scrounge up paint, all i have is marking paint and it is BRIGHT pink :)

Quail quail and more quail

2010-07-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

Two females escorting the brood

I did not keep the blackberries on our hill cut down this year as i usually do and now we have a quail community living here. The babies are so cute and fast, they run all over the place, they take dust baths in the dirt bike trails and they dash from one side of tall grass to the other. I have been able to watch the family grow from just one pair of quail, their four babies hatching and then the other pair came the next week with their babies for a total of nine babies.

A male checking me out on our deck

Two males watching above from a tree looking for predators

Two females and one male with a few of the babies

Meat Bird Page

2010-07-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

I have made a new page on my blog titled Meat Birds, i will be keeping all of my meat bird info on that page, from the time i picked them up(today) through their growth, their feed intake($), home butchering to freezer.....and of course to my plate!

Cabbage Looper invasion

2010-07-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

These darn things will not leave me alone! Everyday i squish them and any eggs i see on my brussels sprouts, each female lays 300-600 eggs! Neem oil is suppose to work well, but the smell of that stuff makes me gag(eviscerating a chicken is no problem, so that should give an idea of how strong Neem oil is) I thought it was a white moth, since i am always seeing them fly around the garden, but with some further digging i found it is a mottled brown moth. So i will keep squishing away......i am determined to have brussels sprouts, those little buggers aren't going to ruin it for me!

Meat chicks will be here tomorrow:)

2010-07-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

I ordered from a garden store that orders from a local hatchery 20 Cornish Cross, and am hoping to get 8 Delawares and 4 Black Austrolorps. My plan is to start small, that is why i only got 20, and if i think it is worth it and i like them, i will build another tractor that is bigger and raise in the spring and late summer. I have 2 chicken tractors right now that are 4'x8' each, so i plan on putting 10 cornish and 6 layers in each tractor, the Cornish will be butchered at 8-9 weeks and the layers will stay in the tractors to grow. I will use the deep bedding in the garden method, i have been using it with my current tractor that has 6 layers in it and it is working great,they seem to like it better than being moved to new grass even.
Now i have to figure out where their temporary home is! Both of my tractors are full right now, i am waiting on a friend to get his coop done to take 4, and i am giving the rest to a friend for a party, they are 3 years old, i butchered a 3 year old and she was so tough i don't want the others. I guess i'll keep them in the greenhouse, they won't need a light during the day, it is 90 in there pretty constantly, and i'll turn one on at night for them. I'll build a little brooder out of panels as usual, put hay on the bottom and TaDa... a brooder! I also found a great article on how to build a 10 gallon waterer......and i'm there, and i'll be taking you with me so you can build one too :) I may just make a page and dedicate it to the meat birds, in fact i will.
I want Delawares because they are cold hardy and have an above average amount of laying, and the Austrolorps because they are broody and i hope to hatch fertilized from them. So excited!

Tomatoes are happening

2010-07-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

They are running late compared to last year, but they are coming just the same. If you remember i planted some(from seed) i knew what they were, and then i also planted an heirloom rainbow blend, so i have a few that i have no idea what they are(like 12 or so). And here they are in all of their green glory.........

Plant sign courtesy of Bree :)

Now I've done it!

2010-07-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

My zucchini kept getting blossom end rot, then my peppers too, and i panicked and thought what will i do if my tomatoes do too???? So i made up 20 gallons of fertilizer(it's an organic Cal-Mag) and gave a bunch to my tomatoes and peppers and some to my zucchinis, then the next day i was in my tomato jungle and i almost died, the leaves were curling upwards!! So now i think i have over fertilized and they are going to die!!!(What have i done??!!!) I rush to the internet and search, and find link after link and they all say the same thing........over watering, they will be fine in a couple of days(relaxing sigh). I do not know when i would have came out of my deep depression from losing (killing) my tomatoes at my own hand, actually i do............next year when i ate my first home grown tomato, and i don't think my family would have made it either.

This is my bible

2010-07-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is the book i come back to for everything gardening, it has EVERYTHING in it. It has scientific junk, it has stories of real people and their gardens i just love this book. It is from 1961 but is the most useful book i own. I seriously suggest you get a copy! I was lucky enough to find one in the old barn.

Book modeled by my daughter :)

Big Score on Blueberries!

2010-07-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

Fred Meyer had blueberries on sale........... 5lb boxes for $7.88!!! AND they are LOCAL! 40 miles from my town. I picked up 4 boxes (i may go back tomorrow if i can afford it, so i can have frozen blueberries too) and i will be canning blueberry jam.............my favorite next to apple butter. I have to go to New Season's Market to get pectin, they sell Pomona's Pectin which is for no to low sugar jams and jellies. You can order it also from their website http://www.pomonapectin.com/ I do not like using a ton of sugar in jams, i don't really eat much sugar, so the amount regular or even low sugar pectin calls for is over-powering for me. My daughter Bree is going to help me make it, she has taken an interest and trust me i will soak it for all it's worth and hope she keeps it up and passes it on to her children. I will say i have not used this pectin before, i heard about from a blog i follow(don't remember which one)last year after i was done canning of course.
I will take lots of pictures and post my blueberry extravaganza...have a great weekend :)

Chicken Tractor Picture Update

2010-07-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of my chicken tractor

The girls

The nest box, and they have decided to make under the nest box a nest box too

I am not sure what i will use for winter housing, maybe a hoop house over the entire thing, sounds easy enough to me, keeps them out of the weather, and gives them extra heat too. They are on deep grass hay bedding, and i add horse manure compost and any scraps i have to compost or feed them, i give them pelleted layer grain 2x's a day on the ground to promote scratching. They seem happy. I had to put the long board between them and the compost pile.....one of the chickens was going crazy trying to find a way to get to it, so i blocked the view and she relaxed.

Looking back......and now i'm MAD!!

2010-07-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

I was just organizing my pics in Picasa, and decided to look at my 2009 garden pics, I AM SO MAD AT THIS YEAR!!! I am just starting to get tomatoes and last year i had a TON, my corn was as tall as i was, instead of ankle high. The only good thing about this year is my salad greens have not bolted, yay me! Here are some this year and last year pics.

This years corn (7/19) 1.5' maybe 2' tall

2009 (7/28) 5' tall

This years Tomatoes (7/19) a couple cherry sized tomatoes

2009 Tomato plant (7/28)

I also lost alot of strawberries thanks to the rain. I can only hope the summer drags on.

I changed my blog name

2010-07-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

I thought it was time for a more suitable title, the blog heading picture is that of our future homestead from the floathouse. I am hoping to go down there this weekend, i miss it so much, and the kids should get to swim, so they'll like it too. Johnny, the man we are buying the property from, he has become a grandfather figure to me, i just love him, anyway he went down there this week and called to say we have 2 calves!! So i cannot wait any longer, i am sure the horses feet can't either since i do their trimmings. Our vehicles have been breaking one right after the next, but our Chevy 5500 will be out of the shop tomorrow!

Chicken nugget recall

2010-07-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

Chicken nugget recall

And my kids wonder why i don't buy that crap!

2010-07-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

I need to make my lists and plans for the late summer, fall, and winter garden and animal doings. They seem to just keep piling up in my mind and it is driving me crazy! I am wanting to raise meat chickens next month, but i have to build a tractor first, the laying hen tractors i built are 4'x8',and i need to cull a whole tractors worth out, i'm not feeding them through the winter again, the one tractor doesn't give me enough eggs now in the summer. I am VERY disappointed in the Welsummer i got that was suppose to be a Maran. Since her eggs are totally different than the others i can see her production rate and it is dropping rapidly, so i will only be taking 4-5 hens through the winter, or cull them all and fill both my tractors with meat birds and laying hens.....the latter sounds like a good plan to me. I would have to do a deep bedding of hay since i do not have a pasture area.......one more thing on my list. It is possible that i can fence in a section where the tractors are now and not even use the tractors except for shelter for the birds and the food from the rain. But i did say next to the house, so i doubt that will happen because of smell, but i do have other places i could fence in that have assorted grasses that were about 4' tall when i cut them down. This fall i will need to figure out a pasture area for my meat birds for the spring, get it tilled up with the excavator and seeded before it gets too cold.
Right now i have the rabbits in the tractor where i think next years herb garden will go, i would love to have chickens in the garden in a tractor with the deep bedding method, i need the compost for next year, so many things not enough animals or tractors!! A good place would be where the tomatoes are now. I think my mind is spinning.

The weather has been so awful this year that i am just now starting to get tomatoes growing! Mid July, i should be up to my eyeballs in tomatoes, i am hoping i will get enough to can all i want to this year. I have that list too:
HOT Salsa
Mild Salsa
Chili Sauce
BBQ Sauce
Catsup
Whole Tomatoes
Spaghetti Sauce
I am growing everything i need for the salsa, i forgot to seed oregano, so i will have to buy that for the spaghetti sauce. Fruit seems to be dong a lot better this year, so i am hoping to get a lot of fruit canned as well.

I ran out if time and had to save this as a draft, so i had overnight to consider my crazy brain, and i have decided i will cull all of my hens, put my tractors where the tomatoes(when they are done in the fall) are and raise the meat chickens in them with deep bedding for compost. Then in the spring i will move them to where the tomatoes are going to go to get a good compost pile going there. I mapped out this year and next years garden so i could see what i was dealing with, and it really helped...i recommend being slightly crazy to get everything done :) I will also raise 6 or so laying pullets in with those meat birds so i will get eggs this winter, probably more than i would have gotten keeping the old gals. So that's my plan and i'm sticking to it!!!

Now i will leave you with pictures of the garden Cole, my 9 yea old son took of the garden.

My o my how the grapes have grown

Tomatoes in my homemade cages

Strawberries with garlic in the background

I LOVE this picture, even if they aren't ripe yet

Compost pile from the chicken tractors this spring along with weeds, pumpkins like it

Ground cherries, brussels sprouts, lettuce, beans, peas, beets

with seedlings of carrots, broccoli, more beets, and rutabagas

Butchered my first chicken

2010-07-03T07:32:00.000-07:00

My dispatching station that i made all by myself

I did it, i butchered my first chicken last night! Everything went well, it took longer to bleed out then i thought it would, but i eviscerated her with no problems. I chose to skin instead of pluck, we don't eat the skin anyway, after the chicken was fully cleaned i broke the chicken down into pieces, put it in a ziploc bag and into the fridge it went. I chose her by her comb color and she had 6 eggs developing, including the one she would lay today or tomorrow.

What i learned:

I need to use the smaller cone that i bought, but didn't use, because any smaller of a chicken and it would fall through if they struggle and she could back out.

My hens are FAT! I had to cut off alot of fat from her

I need to invest in a good and sharp hunting knife, i used a brand new box knife with a new blade, but i think it could still be sharper.

Most important lesson: I CAN DO IT! So looks like i will be raising some cornish cross soon :)

I also learned i really suck at making sawhorses.....notice the block of wood under one of the legs.

The Best how to butcher a chicken ever!

2010-06-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

Mother Nature is Confused!

2010-04-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

It's April 2nd and it is snowing! Living in the NW, it's unheard of, hopefully it reverts back to spring weather soon, i feel as though i may freeze from the cold,or drown from the rain. The weather is very off this year, we barely had a winter and last year we had a very hard winter. So glad i got the greenhouse done.

Darn those waskily wabbits!

2010-03-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

My rabbits decided to dig a lovely burrow and almost escaped! So i had to take them out, move the tractor, refill all their hard work, rake it flat, put fencing down,the tractor on top of the fencing to anchor it down and shavings on top of the fencing. So it is not just Angoras that dig but Palominos as well in case you needed to know :) I also got both of my chicken tractors done,except for the roofs,they have temporary roofs for now, the girls are not too excited to be in the tractors, but it was for their own good, since i had another dog vs. chicken episode and you can guess who won. Three of the stupid things somehow got into the dog's kennel (they LOVE their dog food)so two of them should be thanking their lucky stars that they made it to the tractor at all. I separated the chickens into the tractors.....one being the "Bossy" tractor, and the other the "Nice" tractor. I will get pictures hopefully this afternoon if it isn't still pouring down rain. My kids wanted to chase them all over and catch them, but i made them wait till it was dark to get them, it took about 5 minutes to put everyone in their new home, they said their way would have been more fun.....kids :)

To-Do List is getting smaller

2010-03-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

I am checking things off my to-do list left and right it seems, i got my greenhouse plastic attached, my daughter and i got the melon trellis up in the greenhouse with melons and cucumbers planted, and today i transplanted broccoli in the greenhouse and in the garden. I also transplanted all my tomatoes to 4" pots and put them in the greenhouse. Lets see, i also spaded my tomato rows for the last time(my back says for the last time indeed) I have had a very busy weekend! I just need some $$ to fall from the sky so i can build my chicken tractors.

Melon trellis in the greenhouse

Zucchini with broccoli planted between, when broccoli is done i will put melons in their place

My first strawberry flower of the season

Cole sneaking into the picture of my blueberries that are budding like crazy

Yes,more broccoli

Rabbit Tractor Done!

2010-03-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

I managed to accomplish getting my rabbit tractor done on Sunday although i do still need to attach the hinges and lock on the roof. The rabbits love the extra room and my garden bed will LOVE the added fertilizer. I even slapped together some A-frame huts for them. Here are some pictures below. I need to build 2 chicken tractors of the same design, only they will be 8' long instead of 5'.

Sowing Away

2010-03-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

Today i have sown:

Watermelon Sugar Baby

Brussels Sprouts

Basil

Chives

Garlic Chives

All in my mini heated greenhouse

I have moved almost all of my previously sown seeds to the lights, just waiting on a couple stragglers and the Jalapenos which are just cracking the surface.

In my Outdoor greenhouse i have sown Butter Crunch Lettuce and Romaine Lettuce, and i have started getting the trellis ready for the melons, i will finish that today.

I will also be sowing the following in an outside bed:

Carrots: Scarlet Nantes and a Rainbow Blend

Lettuce: Sweet Salad Mix and Parris Island Romaine

Cilantro

Dill: Mammoth

Onion: Spanish Utah

And 3 days ago i sowed some beets, peas and spinach in an outdoor bed. I am going to need to map out my garden so i don't lose track of where everything is and was,i will post that when i get it done.

I am also going to be starting a rabbit tractor today so my two does can have more room and fun while fertilizing my garden beds. Will post on that too! I am a busy girl when the sun is shining :)

I am also considering building a chicken tractor to rotate in my garden as well and putting bantam chickens in it since they don't eat as much but do great work.

I turned over my green manure yesterday, the work was tremendous i hope it was worth it. I will wait a week and turn it again and break it all up.

Enjoy your Sunday :)

2010 Garden Pre-Season update

2010-03-04T14:18:00.001-08:00

Thought i would post some pictures of garden before all the mayhem starts.

Blueberry bed with pea trellis, and in the foreground is an empty bed that i will be planting lots of goodies in

Nectarine tree getting ready to flower....PLEASE DON'T FREEZE!!!

Garlic i put in the ground in September that i got from the store...it sprouted so i planted it

Grapes..... ignore the 3 dump truck loads of retainer rocks :)

This is the green manure i planted in the fall, this is where my tomato and peppers will be going, i will be mowing it down this week and putting it on the corn bed as well, and turning it over to start decomposing

Strawberry bed completely full of strawberry plants, the far half are runners i planted in August, i am thinking of finding somewhere to plant more.......we LOVE strawberries

The empty bed, i just tilled under green manure, and now it is covered in rabbit pebbles

Blueberry bed

This is the corn bed,i have been composting on tt all fall and winter,and i just cleaned out the chicken coop and put it there too.

My greenhouse, ready to get busy! I planted romaine and butter crunch in the far end today,i still need to make my table, it was so warm in there today :)

The greenhouse is not completely finished, i need helpers to attach the plastic to the frame,right now it is clamped down, although it has made it through some good wind with no issues. Okay i am off to plant some peas, beets, and spinach!

I have sprouts!

2010-03-04T06:23:00.000-08:00

Everything but my tomatoes and watermelons have sprouted! My broccoli sprouted the fastest..... 24 hours! The heated greenhouse was a good investment at $32.00 i think. I wasn't expecting the seeds to germinate so quickly, i haven't got their light station up yet!

I got batteries yesterday so i will be taking pictures like crazy today i am sure :)

Getting Back to the Blog World

2010-03-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

This winter has been really hard on me for some reason, not sure if it's been all the rain, the lack of $$ or what, but it's time to snap the hell out of it i say!!!!

Yesterday i bought one of those Jiffy heated greenhouses since our home is wood heat only(and only heated when 45 or below outside and only at night), i knew seed germination without the heated mat was not going to happen. So to get my garden started i sowed the following:

Tomatoes:

Beefsteak, Sweet 100, and an Heirloom Rainbow Blend

Melon:

Cantaloupe Minnesota Midget

Watermelon Crimson Sweet

Honeydew

Pepper:

Jalapeno

Squash:

Dark Green Zucchini

Cucumber:

Poinsett 76

Broccoli:

Green Sprouting Calabrese

When they sprout i will transplant them into 4" pots and put them under lights(yet to be constructed) and i will continue to sprout other seeds. I will then harden them off in the greenhouse. I think i am going to grow the melons or at least some in the greenhouse since i got ZERO to ripen last year, my season is just not long enough.

Money has been very tight(that's an understatement) so i was unable to buy heirlooms from the catalog has i had hoped this year, i have just been picking up seed packets here and there as i could.

I am so glad i made my tomato rows last year and planted a green cover crop on the rows, i would have not been able to this spring, i am going to mow the cover crop today and put that in my corn bed that i have been composting on since September. I still have to buy the rebar mats to make the tomato cages out of, i will start buying one a week starting this friday.

I got the plastic on my greenhouse, but i still have to close the ends up which i am hoping to get done today.

Seeds still needed to buy:

Dill

Oregano

Corn

Chives

Brussels Sprouts

Potatoes(if affordable)

Plant wish list:

Raspberries x4

Blueberries x2

Kiwis x4

Apples x4

Plum x2

Cherry x1

Asparagus

Meyer Lemon x2

My camera batteries are dead(the only thing i hate about my camera is it is not rechargeable)Hopefully i'll run across some batteries around the house, or maybe just take pictures with my phone,it has a decent camera surprisingly.

Yes i am still alive!

2009-12-01T11:54:00.000-08:00

I have been taking a blog break. I have been working alot, plus the garden, canning, the animals and the boys now have wrestling whew i have just been too busy! But things are winding down for the winter. Work has shriveled up and is almost dry the garden is done, just needs some work before bed, the plastic STILL has to be put on the greenhouse(geeez). My pigs were being awful! I almost just took them to the butcher, they kept finding ways out of their pen. I had to lock them in the stock trailer until i got their pen done. It's done up real good and looks nice(as far as pens go) and is in a better spot for them, in the woodsy area with sun and shade and no mud for now anyway. My pullets are all hens now. I had one that laid this HUGE egg, i kept it in the fridge and noticed it had a crack so i cracked it open in the pig bucket to see if it was a double yolker since it was so big...........well it was actually a double egg! It had an egg inside that was complete, it had it's own shell, white and a yolk, plus the huge egg had it's own white and yolk! Wish i took a picture, but when not in blogging mode, pics are far and few.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, we had the usual stuff ham turkey stuffing on and on, just us no other family which i thought was nice since i do all the cooking. Our first ham from our pig(dinner) was the best, i held out until Thanksgiving. I have lots of sliced ham that i have eaten but none of the halves.

Just incase i don't make it till x-mas Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ;)

I've been canning!

2009-08-22T16:02:00.000-07:00

FINALLY! I have canned for the last 3 days, this is my first year canning, and i think i just love it!
We went and picked blackberries on Thursday, and i canned 12 12oz jars of blackberry jam, 4 pints of 25% less sugar, and 5 pints regular blackberry jam. I also made 2 blackberry cobblers and am going to make a syrup out of the rest that is left. We are going to go pick some more for the freezer.
I also canned up my tomatillas today, i made 12 pints of salsa with it, it is 8 year old approved :)
And i canned up 7 quarts of tomato salsa that is SOOOO HOT that i will have to wait for more tomatoes to ripen and make more to add to the salsa i already made and recan it! I followed a recipe loosely and she said 2.5 cups, i used what my garden had and it was maybe 1-1.5 cups. I guess her Jalapenos were SISSIES!

The garden is doing great, the corn is pollinating, the zucchinis are coming along, the tomatoes are full and just keep coming, the watermelons and cantaloupe are doing good this year. I picked all of the tomatillas and pulled the plants, i notice i have some volunteers by my fence, more salsa i guess! The pumpkins are sprawled everywhere, i just keep pointing them along so i have a path. They will be planted where the pigs were last year, them and the corn i think next year. Cole's sunflower is almost ready to harvest, he is so happy with himself :) My greenhouse beds are all doing good, it has been to hot to put the plastic on yet. My daughter got it all graveled in there so there will be no mud messes, and she helped me put a new gate up for the garden. I made sure it was just big enough for my dump truck to back in and dump compost. My late season 60 day corn is doing well, already flowering, pretty short too, maybe 3' tall.

I did have to pullet casualties, not sure what got hold of them, but i scared them off i know, one was half eaten, and the other had a puncture on her neck, thought she might make it, but it was too much for her. Her neck was still wet from whatever it was that bit her. And that's why i always buy too many! Something always seems to happen.

Pictures soon...promise

Almost forgot, i got dinner in, he should be home next week, i even got a freezer for $35! yes i said $35! :)

King Corn

2009-08-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

I just watched King Corn, it is a documentary on you guessed it......corn. I have put off watching this for a while, because i knew i would learn things i wasn't sure i wanted to know, and i was right! I watched the full version on Netflix instant play, but there is a cut down version on YouTube here
I will be making my kids watch this as well.

Nest Box Giveaway

2009-07-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

Life on a Southern Farm is giving away 2 of their nest boxes that they build. You can hurry and sign up for this HERE
They also sell their nest boxes online they are very nice, i would love to get 1 or 2 myself!

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Gonna be 102 today

2009-07-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

Miserable is what that is. In the Pacific NW it just doesn't get that hot, rarely over 95, and it is only cooling down to 70 at night, so sleep isn't that great either. My long time friend just moved back here last week from Carson City Nevada, and she is even complaining! O well, at least the pumpkins and melons are enjoying themselves. The pumpkin vines i think are growing about a foot a day! Last year with the straw bale gardening i only got 6 pumpkins from 6 plants, this year i will be getting at least 6 pumpkins per plant! Good thing i planted them all where i did, knowing they would take over if planted else where. I also planted my fall crops in the greenhouse on Friday and they sprouted right up on Monday even through this heat. The plastic is not on yet, we won't put that on until it begins to cool down, mid-late August. I planted carrots, butter crunch lettuce, Romaine lettuce, Mesclun gourmet mix, Grand Rapids lettuce, Early Wonder beets, and Broccoli. I also planted brussels sprouts out in a garden bed and they have sprouted. Also planted some Spaghetti winter squash to climb up the fence to feed to the pigs mainly. I have tons of tomatoes and tomatillos, just waiting for them to ripen, i have been picking peas daily, i pulled the lettuce i planted this spring and also my yellow zucchini........it just wasn't growing right. The zucchini was small, and they were rotting from the inside out, turning a dark yellowish orange, i have no idea what was wrong with it, good thing i only planted one. The Jalepenos are big, i am just waiting for them to turn red, and the yellow sweet peppers are almost ready, and the sweet red peppers are starting to turn as well. I also found a packet of 60 day corn so i made a small bed in the ground and sowed them they are coming up nicely, most are 4" tall already. I am waiting for my large bed of corn to flower, they should be anyday now. The peas and beans i planted in with them are growing great, i picked some peas this morning , i have also noticed that the corn has stayed nice and green, no yellowing at all, and i have not fertilized them one time, just the compost i mixed in the soil when i planted.

I have already begun thinking of next years garden, silly i know. I have decided to go mainly heirloom next year. I have started looking online at some great heirloom seed companies and have begun making my lists, then i will dwiddle that down, because i just can't grow everything! I have already decided i will grow my pumpkins down below where Suzie and Thor were, and possibly the corn as well. I will need more room next year. This is my first year, and i expected it to be so-so, and it has been great so far. But next year i expect it to be better, so i will need more room. I also plan on canning some this year, i haven't canned in 20 years, so i will not do much, just enough to learn and feel comfortable. But i expect myself to can A LOT next year. Luckily we are not garden dependant or we would surely starve through the winter! I will post pictures of the garden soon.
I have also listed the 2 last remaining gilts up for sale. I am only keeping Gabby. She is such a good girl, like a big snorty dog. I may AI her next year. Keep one out of the litter and raise for the freezer. Speaking of the freezer, hopefully i'll get Dinner to the slaughterhouse this or next weekend.

We went to the future homestead the 9th, 10th, and 11th and then went back again for 3 more days after making sure the animals were good(I don't trust people with my animals). It was a great stress reliever. Kids had a blast. There was another family there with 4 children, Adam was too old for them, so Cole was very popular with the 2 boys and Breanna made good use of her mommy skills with the 2 girls, one was 4 and the other was around 8. Breanna loves taking care of children(just not her brother lol) She will be a great mother........20 years from now!

Here are some pictures of my children having fun in the water

I love saying the person's name and getting the huh? shot

I had to BEG her to get a picture!

I love the laughter on Cole's face in this picture, they were really having fun!

A little of this, that with some bitching too

2009-06-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

First off, i would like to say i HATE satellite internet!(this is the bitching part, thought i'd get it done with first) I do not watch t.v., i watch movies and t.v. shows on Hulu and Netflix, well you are only allowed to use so much internet with satellite! Total crap, we pay what i consider to be a small fortune for this crap and i can't use all i want? But it's satellite or dial up, and i am not going there. Right not i am at 99% of my max, and the other day i exceeded, so what they do is slow down your connection, and they'll even take away your connection if you exceed often enough, calling it abuse. I call it bull@h&t!! Ok enough of that.

Robert went with a couple of friends down to Reedsport and took a small excavator across the river on our barge(which needs some fixing)and got the tractor unstuck, got the 6x6 across the river and put back in the garage, and all is good. Said all the animals were great!

I need to get my canning stuff and recipes in order, i am going to have ALOT of tomatillas and tomatoes. I have alot of small tomatoes with a lot of flowers too. My pumpkins have really shot up this week, they are loving the nice weather. My blueberries are finally listening! I have eaten 2(yes 2) with more showing sign of wanting to be eaten. I am actually still getting lettuce. I moved my lettuce planters under my tomatillas so they get a good amount of shade............pulled the broccoli though, it started to bolt. I also got all my irrigation done! I have been busy with that for the past couple days. My daughter wanted to earn some extra $$(for girly stuff) so i had her wheelbarrow drain rock in the isles between the beds, so much better!

My chicks are growing faster then the weeds! They are almost done feathering out, and i started letting them out yesterday, they are so funny to watch. I lock the hens out of the chicken yard when they go to free range so i can shut the gate and not worry about the hens being bullies.

Well i'm off, i gotta go buy some pig and chick feed.

Garden and Greenhouse

2009-06-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

Thought it was time for an update on my garden, everything seems to be doing well. My tomatillas are REALLY doing well, i have tiny tomatoes and lots of blooms, my yellow zucchinis seem small though? Maybe they don't like my soil(compost mainly), i have 13 volunteer pumpkins that sprouted from my feeding pumpkins to Suzie and her litter last fall. I dug up 10 and planted in a bed.....they'll take over i know, i'll just try and encourage growth away from the garden, i may trellis a few also. My watermelons are slowly coming along(we switched back to cool weather)I am so proud of my 3 for 1 deal, there were 3 plants in the pots and i picked the pot with the ones furthest from each other and i was able to get them separated easily :) Next year i'll grow from seed, in my greenhouse though.(more on the in a second) My strawberries are in love with their bed, they are growing so fast, i thinned some of the runners off, moved ones that were rooted in the soil, and i trimmed leaves that needed it.....after i called in the kids to clean out the strawberries(no complaints there). Corn, beans and peas are doing well, minus a few chicken casualties that got in (sneaky girls). Lets see.........the broccoli is still going at it, though i think it could have done better, i'll try a different variety this fall, still getting salads like crazy, i usually just eat it right there in the garden, i will plant more this fall in the greenhouse. The blueberries are taking forever no matter how much i beg them to ripen! I keep reasurring them that it's June, it's ok to ripen i say, they don't believe me though. I even have 3 volunteer tomatoes growing in with the corn, beans and peas, guess they were seeds that were in the straw bales from last year that i rottotilled in and planted in. Grapes are starting to take off, i had them in the nursery pots they came in until i found where to put them. I have round pen panels for their support, but i think i may switch to cattle panels, easier for them to grab and climb.

I have wanted a green house ever since i could remember, i told Robert how easy it was, showed him a picture so he'd believe me, and that's all it took! Now keep in mind i just wanted an 8x10 or maybe even a 10x10, but Robert had other ideas.............................It is 12x22! The wood frames we got for free from the last demo we did(i had to beg for those) the sliding glass door is from a different demo we did and the 6mm plastic is left over from an excavation job,so the grand total is $73.00. I will have a 4'x20' raised bed on the left side, a 3' walkway and a long running table made from pallets i have collected on the right, or just may a work table and pots on the ground.

Adam attaching the pipe to the beam, with help from Dad

3 of my tomato plants

Tomatoes, Tomatillas, and peppers

Yellow Zucchini, do they get big like regular Zucchini?

Volunteer pumpkins with soon to be irrigation(courtesy of left overs from jobs)

Blueberries that just won't listen!

My new and i think improved(though empty) compost container

Heavily harvested Broccoli

Nothing to do with the garden, but damn cute....Gabby grown up

Corm, Peas, and Beans, notice the ravaged area in the front, they were lucky i felt more like steak that night!

Strawberries all trimmed and tidy(that'll last a day or two)

Baby Tomato

How does he always jump in the picture?

Reedsport visit

2009-06-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

We went to Reedsport where we have 66 acres, this weekend, and i actually remembered my camera! We went there to check on the cows and horses, and to fix the tractor(some idiot left the gas cap off all winter....gas tank full of water) and to get 6x6 out of the woods(the same idiot ran it out of gas!) So here goes the trip........... we fix the tractor in about 10 minutes if that, then take the tractor around the property to check on the animals. We are down 2 cows and up a new heifer. I found one of the cows, she seemed to have died a while ago, there was nothing left of her but bare bones and a pile of hair, and i couldn't find the other one. Now if it was one cow, i could understand, but two cows? Makes me think something is hunting on our land. All of our goats disappeared, but cows? That is one of the downers. On a good note i have my first heifer born on our farm! She is adorable of course, 1/2 Angus 1/2 Jersey. So after all that we go and get the 6x6, took a while and a total pain in the rear.....someone took the air cleaner off and guess what.....carb was full of water and so was the gas tank......i am seeing a pattern here(don't hire idiots to be caretakers!) Everything is good(aside from cows). We make it out of the woods, hook up the brush hog to the tractor, Robert takes Adam to show him where to mow, and he got stuck in a revine where the river comes in further but can't tell because of the tall grass.

Cinnamon and Beast

View from upstairs in the barn looking right as far as i could without falling out the door

Looking straight ahead, all the blackberries are where my future garden will be

Looking left as far as i could without falling out, you can see the float house in the far back that's on the other side of the river

Taken from deck of float house looking at the barn(over the berries and weeds of course)

I was going to take pictures from the road but the trees are too full and i couldn't see through them. This property is all riverfront and accessible only by boat. It's amazing how much everything has grown, everything was mowed last summer.

New chicks and garden update

2009-06-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

Strawberry bed

Broccoli hating the heat

Little tiny lemon cucumbers

Tomatillas are flowering

I finally found a feed store that had chicks! It was by total accident even. I got 11. I got some Buff Orpingtons, some Golden Sex Links, a Cuckoo Moran, and what looks to be Barred Rock.
Here are some pics.........

See the one in the middle rear of the pic, that is the odd man(better be a pullet though) out.

Cuckoo Moran obviously has issues!

I have been busy in the garden as well. I am trying to do everything, all from scratch, it is not easy let me tell you. Today i made my compost bin(pallets) i pruned my peach and nectarine trees(damaged by freezing after budding) I laid out my greenhouse, just have to get the pipes and get it together. let's see, i cleaned up the chicken area, confined the mess in the garden, i put my strawberry runners in tiny pots with soil so they will root in there and i can cut them off and replant in the permanent strawberry bed, i looked at the weed eater :)
I know i did more, my back says i did, but i can't think of it.

I think summer is here?

2009-06-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

It has been so hot lately, we went straight from 40 to 85! no spring in there anywhere. My broccoli is pissed!
I got a new camera! The demo we did had a lot of metal that i got to take to the recyclers, and so i splurged and bought a Canon, it's not the best, but it is good for me. So i will leave you with pictures of my garden that is slow but sure(and a mess) and pictures of my remodeled chicken coop, i still have to finish the hutch doors for egg access.

My first landscaping job

2009-06-03T15:02:00.001-07:00

My husband offered me to do a landscaping job to one of our builders that we do foundations for, here are the before and after photos, the before pics are taken after 6 hours of weeding! Also, because of the area and all the rules, i had to put in 9 trees YES NINE on that tiny lot. Deciduous trees had to be 2" caliper 6" from root ball, and evergreens had to be 7' tall, not including the leader! $$$$, thank goodness not my $$$$! I made them prepay for all the plant material, bark, soil, and sod and sprinkler system :) $3,000.00 and i used every dime! O' and i forgot to mention i had exactly a week to get it done!!

Off With Her Head

2009-05-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, i had to put my chicken out of her misery today. She was doing great, then yesterday she laid down in the corner and i never saw her get back up, i gave her water, she didn't care, so i knew what i had to do. I actually felt better after the deed was done, i knew for sure she was not suffering any more. I did have to explain to Cole(8) why i had to do what i did, he was okay with it once i explained the whole suffering a long slow death thing and help me bury her, i would have fed her to the pigs, but i smelled infection starting and i did not want to make them sick. i felt kinda dumb burying her, i don't think of the chickens as pets, but as food, but i didn't know what else to do with her.

On another note.................
We got two 4'x20' boxes built over the weekend and one filled with dirt/compost. I planted 4 tomatoes, 4 broccoli(on the other end of course), and kinda put potted veggies where i think they may go. I have come to realize that we eat alot of veggies that need to be trellised. What a pain! It is suppose to start to rain again tonight, rain tomorrow then be okay on Wednesday. I am hoping i can get another box filled and get my corn started by this weekend.

The chicks still haven't arrived! I am getting very impatient!!!

Stupid Chicken and Damn Dogs

2009-05-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon i got home i see chicken feathers on the ground..........anyone that has chickens knows what that means! My oldest son, put the dogs in their kennel after my youngest son got the eggs, well my youngest didn't shut the gate all the way, and the oldest didn't notice. Now i have a hot wire running across the chicken's gate so the dogs don't go in there, BUT my stupid chicken came out..............into the dog's kennel. So as you can imagine my 3 YES 3 Rottweilers just tore her apart. The oldest Rott is 1.5 years, middle is 6 months, and youngest is 3 months. What a ball they must have had, best chew toy in town as far as they were concerned!! So i just figure that she is dead in the kennel somewhere and start searching, but nope some how she got away, and i found her in the coop. She has bald spots, there was no blood anywhere, BUT this is gross i mean gross so i am warning you! They ripped at her throat. When she drinks water..........it runs out her neck. I have no idea how she is still alive, i thought for sure she would die, it has been 5 days now, and she is still alive. I have her in a sick bay of course, she is drinking water like crazy, i have no idea how much she is even getting, she is eating, i am feeding her eggs, it's all i can think of that is liquid and good for you. She has even layed 2 eggs. I was going to take the axe to her, but my husband said to wait, maybe she would heal, she isn't getting infected, she is acting like a normal chicken. I am pretty much confused at this point. I'll just keep waiting i guess.
The dogs have since been 86'ed from the kennel, and it is going to be the garden area once again.
I got 20 yards of 1 year old horse poo/sawdust/hay compost on Sunday, it is gorgeous! and i got some topsoil today that i will mix together and fill my boxes with, hopefully this weekend, it is going to be nice!
I got my chicken coop remodeled FINALLY! and i even put in a brooding area so i can get some chicks. They were suppose to come yesterday(feed store) but still haven't arrived. I can't wait to have little fuzz balls again ;)

2009-04-30T20:52:00.000-07:00

I have sold 3 puppies so far, they have all went to wonderful homes! I was worried about that part, they were my babies after all. One went to a great family that wants to learn to show with him and they named him Chase because he likes to chase their kids around, she said Chase and the kids are attached at the hip :) The female now named Sugar, went to a great family as well, their Shitzu(spelling on that one lol) died not too long ago from old age and their older lab was feeling old without a buddy....o yeah and they have 7 children, 4 are adopted and 1 is a foster child, so i think she went to a great loving family :) and the 3rd one, not named yet(just bought yesterday) went to a nice family that already had a male pug and wanted to get him a buddy :) All of the families have contacted me after they got home and said how wonderful their puppy is and how in love they are.......makes me so happy! Now i just have to get the other 2 their own families!!

I am on a camera quest....what camera do you use or maybe recommend? I need to get a better camera, i try to take pictures at sporting events and they are terrible, far away not too good, sunsets could be better, the list goes on. I found a good camera today i think, it was a Cannon something or other, it was at the pawn shop for $122.00, it looked like a nice one, you can get different lenses for it, it's digital, i had Robert wave his hand in front of it while i took a picture and it was perfectly clear. I told the guy i'd think about it, since i still have a lot of gardening things to buy.

Speaking of gardening.........I went to a local nursery the other day which had very nice starts and i bought 15 for $30, i couldn't imagine how much it would have been at the Home Depot, we stopped there first and i said hell no, and we left. I am extremely mad at how much soil is!!!! For decent soil it is going to cost $230 for 10 yards, and for good soil $320! and that price is me picking it up in my dump truck. How i HATE clay soil!@!! For the 3 boxes i will have it is 3 yards each. People it is JUST dirt ;) NOT gold!!! or wait didn't i just take a bunch of gold to the dump? Damn it IS gold!!! I decided not to bring that stuff home because it had so much rock in it, i thought it would be more trouble than it's worth, now my wallet is kicking my ass!

Today i went to a nursery that had semi dwarf fruit trees for $15.00, i have been trying to get there, but either had no time, no money or both! Tomorrow is the last day of the sale, so i made damn sure i got my ass there today!! I picked up 2 peaches, 1 nectarine, 1 Rainer cherry and a 3-way combo to pollinate the Rainer, i also got 5 blueberries. O plus i got a beautiful Chinese Wisteria...all together it was $190.00. All the trees are great looking, and large, 4 of the blueberries are 5 years old and the other i got for pollination is 7 years old. A real nice 6 acre nursery ran by husband, wife and daughter. I can't seem to upload pictures right now? I brought them home and potted all the trees immediately, i'll get the blueberries repotted when i can, until i get my orchard area figured out everything is potted.
Enjoy your weekend! It's rain for me again.

Crazy Spring Weather

2009-04-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was to say the least LAZY. I sat around and didn't do much of anything, but can you blame me with this weather??

Storm Progression(i was just trying to get a good flag pic!)

1 minute later..... Hail.......

1 more minute later........More Hail.............

1 minute later....... still lots of hail( O my poor tomatoes!)

3 minutes later...... the sun is coming...........can you see it way in the back?

20 minutes later................nothing ever happened............

Gabby was relieved she made it through(fancy hut huh?)

And here is today...............BEAUTIFUL!!

It rained off and on all day yesterday, with sun in between, just a typical NW Oregon spring day! I LOVE living with a view of the weather that is coming, it gives me a heads up when the rain is on it's way if i am outside working, you can literally see the rain moving towards you across the fields below.

I couldn't get a really good picture of the flag, so i leave you with the flag and my American made 1968 Pontiac Firebird. Have a great spring weekend!

Container Garden Started

2009-04-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

I broke down yesterday at The Home Depot (a.k.a HELL on a beautiful Sunday) and bought some potting soil and a few tomato transplants.....i just couldn't hold out any longer! I already have a ton of nursery pots of all sizes, so i ended up with a Sweet 100's, Early Girl, Golden Jubilee, Bush Goliath, and a Roma. The puney thing with the rabbit hutch wire around it is Cole's sunflower he brought home from school that he planted. It looks better today, i was afraid it was going to break so i put the wire around it, today it is standing straight and happy. I didn't get any tomato cages though, i have some fencing i think i will use instead of spending $5 for EACH cage(rip offs).

The flag picture to the right is of mine, the wind was not cooperating the way i was hoping, it will do for now until it does, i was just sitting here in my chair on the computer and looked out the window and that is what i saw(minus all the stuff at ground level) now, i looked up Patriot Day online, and on Wikipedia there are 2 definitions:

Patriots' Day (sometimes incorrectly spelled Patriot's Day or Patriots Day) is a civic holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. It is observed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts^[1] and state of Maine^[2] (once part of Massachusetts), and is a public school observance day in Wisconsin^[3]. Observances and re-enactments of these first battles of the American Revolution occur annually at Lexington Green in Lexington, Massachusetts, (around 6am) and The Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts (around 9am). In the morning, a mounted reenactor with State Police escort retraces Paul Revere's ride, calling out warnings the whole way.

and then of course this one which is the only one i even knew of:

In the United States, Patriot Day occurs on September 11 of each year, designated in memory of the nearly three thousand who died in the September 11, 2001, attacks. Most Americans refer to the day as "Nine-Eleven (9/11)," "September 11th," or some variation thereof.

I am no history buff by any means, but i did get very good grades in school AND i home schooled my children on the American Revolutionary War, so why don't i remember the original Patriots' Day? I would have remembered, i am a VERY patriotic person, my husband says sometimes i am too patriotic and i snap there is NO such thing! I come from a long line of service men, and i to planned to join The Marines when i was in high school, but i became pregnant and here i am now. Maybe the "original" Patriots' Day is something taught regionally? I fly my flag to honor everyone past, present and future that has and will serve to keep this country America.

Here is something i will leave this post with:

"We stand here on the only island of freedom that is left in the whole world. There is no place left to flee to... no place to escape to. We defend freedom here or it is gone. There is no place for us to run, only to make a stand. And if we fail,I think we face telling our children, and our children's children,what it was we found more precious than freedom. Because I am sure someday -- if we fail in this --there will be a generation that will ask."
--Ronald Reagan

My Garage Sale Scores

2009-04-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

We went to the "Largest Garage Sale in Portland" yesterday, It was BIG, a giant flea market. There was sooooooooooo many things i wanted to buy, but i held tough. So here are my buys:

Cute little candle holder thing(if someone could explain what the heck the dish is for on top, much appreciated!)$2.50

Cowboy boot salt&pepper shakers $3.00(i payed too much i know, but they are so cute)

And the best score: A Lodge cast iron corn on the cob corn bread mold $2.50! They had them at other tables for $10 and up!!

I have A LOT of cast iron things, you know you are a cast iron junkie when you walk up to a table that has ooodles of cast iron with your daughter and she says "mom you have everything here" ;)

My Baby is 8

2009-04-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

I thought i could finally write that without crying! I cannot believe how fast time disappears! Children are the best judge of how much time has past. I use what grade my kids were in when thinking of an event, then i know when it happened, they are growing like weeds. Cole is now 8, Breanna turned 13 on Jan.31, and Adam will be 15 on May 18th! I now feel extremely old........i think i'll go get a rocking chair, build a porch and start crocheting my grandbabies baby blankets now ;)
BTW............i told Cole i would make him a cake, but he wanted that little carrot cake from the store?! Have a great weekend!

Square Foot Gardening Videos

2009-04-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

I found this on YouTube this morning when i was looking for square foot garden stuff. I thought i would pass it along. She posted 26 videos of her last years garden from start to finish. She did a great job showing her garden, showing you what worked what didn't, how she delt with pests and is just a really nice look into her 1st year of SFG.
My husband 86'ed my free formed raised beds and wants me to use boxes, which is fine by me i would rather use boxes, it just is more work and more $$. But he said he would build all my boxes, and he was able to get some 20' 2"x12" that were left over from a job, so how could i argue with that?
Anyway here is Donna's SFG

2009-04-16T18:03:00.001-07:00

Taking Gold to the Dump

2009-04-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

That is how i felt anyway! We just started a new excavating job yesterday and you should see this dirt, it is almost black! Just beautiful dirt. We hauled off 50 dump truck loads between yesterday and today(500 yards)and paid $24.00 a load($1,200.00) for the dirt dump fees. Every time i dumped i just sighed, i couldn't believe i had to haul it to the dirt dump instead of a garden. There are still about 70 loads to go. I will be bringing a couple home for myself, i wish i could take more! There were also 2 large trees about 40' tall or so each, i am hoping no one will claim them(the builder or the home owner)i will have my H load up my dump truck with that too, firewood for next year, fingers and toes are crossed!

My Garden Plan

2009-04-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

April-May 2009

Fence in garden

Dig walkways for raised beds

Till in compost, cover w/shredded newspaper & straw

Rest 2 weeks

Cover walkways with newspaper and cedar shavings

Till under w/sand, cover w/shredded newspaper & straw

Rest 2 weeks

Till under

Rest 1 week

June-July 2009

Sow early summer green manure crop

Hoop house built

August-September 2009

Cut crop - compost it

Till under with shredded newspaper and & sand if needed

Rest 1 week

Retill

Rest 1 week

Sow in a fall/winter green manure crop

January-February 2010

Draw up final garden plans(i them draw all the time)

Order/buy seeds

Start seeds in hoop house

March-April 2010

Cut crop - compost it

Till under w/compost - only beds that are to be planted

Rest 1 week

Retill

Rest 1-2 weeks depending on weather

Buy dwarf apple trees and blueberry bushes

May-June 2010

Start planting and hope for the best!

Now i know my plans never work out when i put them on a time-line, but if i want good soil it is a must this time!

Sunday fun day yeah right!

2009-04-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

Sunday is usually our fun day, but there was too much work that needed to be done. YES!!!! the kids said!!(you know i am kidding) We spent the day building a new hog shed out of our concrete forms. We made it 6'x7', all three fit in with room for one more. Of course soon there will only be two soon, and that is why i made it that size, for two full grown hogs. I redid all their fencing, their area is about half the size now, but with only two they'll be fine, i can make it bigger if i need to, but dirt is dirt no matter how much there is of it. I was even smart(i hope) this time and put their water barrel on top of a form as well, hopefully that will help with the mess they make, i also fenced them from the trees. It looks a lot better down there now. I dismantled the old shed, i had my son Adam(he was extremely happy he got to run the machine PLUS he didn't have to do any manual labor) pull back the berm with t he excavator and push all that dirt up to the tree line......they rooted a hole that is 3' deep and is about 5' long and 4' wide! along with some other holes and just to level the place out a bit. Take a look for yourself! It is a lot bigger than it looks in the picture, the picture is taken from my house at the deck door

BEFORE
( just to refresh your memory)

The new Garden/Orchard/Pig/Kid Area

TAAADAAAAA!

Thank goodness we have excavators!! What really really really i mean really sucks, is that's where the garden is going! See all that new dirt on the left pushed up the bank that was once a straight cliff? Yeah well that's where all the dirt went that my hogs spent a year on! That's right all my fertilized dirt went there!! I could have killed my DH(not so darling in this topic) i was not home when this took place. There isn't much left where the nursery was, so i will be starting with SUBSOIL! But i have put into my head that i will not start anything other than a cover crop this year.....i will have to green manure the hell out of it. I am going to do a spring/early summer planting(i know how things go that's why i put early summer)cut and till that in, and then reseed with a fall. I will add composted manure each time as well. I am going to have him use the machine to build my raised beds, he can dig the walkways for me so i don't have to shovel it. I also found a lumber mill that will sell me 14 yards of cedar shavings for $70.00, best deal i can find and he's only about 3 minutes away so it is easy trucking for me. I will use that in the walkways as well as the chicken's yard and the dog kennel(aka my old garden)I will of course need another load for all the walk ways. So i get stuck container gardening this year....a few tomatoes and melons, sniff sniff............O my goodness! Light bulb!! I will grow tomatoes and melons and corn where Gabby is(aka the other half of my old garden). i have to get her moved down below when the other two hogs go to freezer camp anyway and the dogs have plenty of room for now. I will have to buy transplants for anything i buy other than corn i'm sure, better than store bought, i'll just have a super tiny garden this year, that will make me happy!! Happy Spring!!

Pug Pups CAUTION cuteness overload ahead!!

2009-04-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

Here are my Pug puppies, they turned 6weeks on Tuesday........................enjoy!!

I am too cheap(i like resourceful better)to buy a $60-$70 exercise pen, so i made one with the leftover rabbit hutch flooring i had, folded it in half and wire tied the ends where they met. Works great!

Gardener's Supply Kitchen Garden Planner | Grow Your Own Vegetables

2009-04-03T11:43:00.001-07:00

Gardener's Supply Kitchen Garden Planner | Grow Your Own Vegetables

Now i normally would NEVER endorse anything, but i was looking for garden layouts(i have no imagination and i have to start a whole new giant garden) and i ran into this site. It is loosely based on square foot gardening. For a beginner without a lot of space or someone starting a raised bed garden it is a great tool. They have pre-made gardens that you can edit, or you can make your own design and they have a lot of gardening information as well.
Just thought i would share this, it is a gardening supply company with online catalog......but the tool is free!

Posted using ShareThis

Just a quick update

2009-03-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy...up to my nose in pug puppy poop, they are getting so big! Piggy has no choice to feed them now, they attack her....she deserves it ;)
I sold one of my gilts(Oreo) and i also sold Suzie and Thor as a pair to a nice family. I practically gave them all away, but they needed to go. I will keep 2 gilts(Gabby and Awnry) and Dinner and Star are going to the butcher when i can find a freezer i can afford. I search Craigslist daily, everything is either too small, or too expensive or sold.
I got a new laptop, my old one has seen better days. I gave it to my husband.....no more sharing!! Of course now our wireless router took a crap on us the day after i got the laptop! so we are having to share the internet with only one broadband cord!! I just can't win.
AHHHH Spring Break........kids are home all week! Poor Breanna is sick, Cole was sick all last week......whose next? I should start a betting pool?! As long as it isn't me...i have to work whether i am sick or not next week!
Well the dogs are getting my garden. I know, i know, i want to cry. But i will have a bigger one, much bigger where the pigs were.......just going to take longer and more work....always more work. If you look at the pictures of where the pigs are you will notice there is no road to it, no way for me to truck in compost like i was going to do(i found a great dairy that has aged cow manure mixed with straw and they have a loader and are more than happy to give me as many dump truck loads as i want) now i don't know how to get it down there except wheel barrow it.....yuck!
Katie my hen got taken out by an owl a couple weeks ago in broad daylight!!. The owl ripped her throat out right in my driveway and was eating her, i had to throw rocks at him and chase him away, poor girl, she was the only one i named too :( It was not a happy homecoming. He was a big owl, i haven't look up owls yet to see what kind it was, he was brown and big and it was in the afternoon....i thought owls only came out at night?????

I have been keeping up on everyone else's blog, but my own of course, i was doing so good too, i'll get back into it, with all the dogs, kids, and work(omg yes work)i have had little time.

It is so nice to see things growing again! Weather isn't that great but just the sign of life makes me feel better.

Tired......but all is well

2009-02-18T17:01:00.000-08:00

I now remember why i had a tubal ligation! I am so beat with these puppies. But they are so cute that makes it worth it. Piggy has not gotten anymore motherly it's really irritating. Here are some pictures i took today

They were sunbathing on my bed, that's why the pics are so bright(that and a better camera would help).

I FINALLY managed to make my first granny square that is a square today! I just taught myself to crochet last month, and i had to search high and low on YouTube to find a video that showed everything. Alot of them show the stitches real slow, but when you do 500 of those it would be nice if they would show the other things slow as well.....like the corners! Good thing i am as stubborn as i am ;)

It is a square honest!

I should have a vehicle tomorrow! We went ahead and got my other truck we parked to save $$ going. It needed new tires($1,300) the power steering pump replaced($100.00)and new tags($50.00). I also have to put mud flaps on it since i took them off for my dump truck, but i already have those, and it will need the windshield replaced eventually. It doesn't get as good gas mileage as the Ranger, it gets about 11 mpg, but i can't afford to buy another truck when i can just get my other one going again. I miss that truck anyway DH said we should sell it and i started crying(pms?) he was taken aback, didn't know i could get so attached to an inanimate object!!

Must make dinner..........................

Puppies are here!

2009-02-17T19:54:00.000-08:00

Piggy and her new brood

One of the boys

I had my create post open for a while, typing about other stuff when Piggy had her contraction, so i scrolled up and typed that and then one started to make his entrance. She had 4 boys and 1 girl, all healthy! BUT she has no mothering instinct at all!! I have to have them potty, make her feed them, i did everything when they were born(cleaned them up, cut cord etc.) I am dumbfounded! I have never seen this before. So you can imagine i am not getting any sleep for the next month or so!! yay me!

The Animal To-Do List

2009-02-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

I have made my animal to-do list, you can see it in the side bar. I am not looking forward to it. It all needs to be done though. Three yes 3 new shelters need to be built. Two will be 10'x10' and the nursery shelter will probably be 8'x8'. They are easy to build the way we do it, but it is hard work getting the materials to where they need to go. We have TONS of concrete panels that are to be burned, but i will go through them and get what i need for the shelters, recycling what i have. These things are heavy! They are made from a special faced plywood meant for concrete, they are 3/4" thick, 1 square foot of the board weighs 2.2 pounds........1 4'x8' panel weighs 70lbs! We cut the 4'x8' panel in half to make a 2'x8', then that goes onto a 2"x4" frame, so the panels get pretty dang heavy past 6' for me. Adam, my DS, can actually carry a 12' panel!!! We will carry them all to where they need to go, after we run a hot wire around the area off so we don't have any oinky helpers, then it's just stack and nail two for each side and back, and for a 10' shed it's five for the roof. Then we will put tar paper on the top and put roofing shingles on it or maybe metal roofing, we have a whole roof here we got for free(the owner didn't like red, he wanted green instead on his brand new 3600 sq.ft. log cabin....spoiled!), and i will start collecting 2"x6" from construction sites to nail on the outside horizontally as siding, 2x6 make nice siding. I have one of these we threw up in the garden for farrowing in November and it held tough under a 2' snow load! So they turn out to be a pretty tough hog shed. I will need to build more than two, since i have three gilts, one sow and a boar, but for now two will do plus the nursery for three total.

As for the chicken coop remodel............. I will be putting the nest boxes on the outside, they are taking up too much room, that should be easy. i will also be adding on the rabbit hutch i built to have meat rabbits in(but have been since denied by DH)so i will put it to good use. I will put their food and water in there, add removable sides, put doors in for easy food and water access. Then i will remove the roosts i have and put in stepped roosts. It will make for alot more room, and a cleaner coop. I haven't decided if i want to get more chicks this spring or not, i'm not sure where i would brood them at, and then the whole introduction to the other flock, i dunno if i want to go through that, at the same time mine have been laying since August i believe nonstop. I would like to get more variety though. I'm sure i'll think of something ;)

Here is the rabbit hutch i built all by myself!

It's 3' wide and 6' long, it came out pretty good considering i have never built anything in my life! I was going to finish it with trim, but now you'll never be able to see it since that will be the side attached to the coop.

I also sit here and wait for Piggy to have her puppies. She started at 10pm last night with the 12-24 hour signs, so here i sit on my bed while she lays in her portable crib(that i got for free from the landfill that looked brand new) next to me, getting up every once in a while to scratch at her "nest". She is so giant, she looks like she swallowed a football poor thing i remember looking like i swallowed a basketball. I will post pictures and videos whenever they get here.....she just had her first real contraction!!! Real as........a puppy just started coming out as i typed!!!!!

Here is Piggy at 8 weeks when we got her

I have joined a frugal forum and i am going to also keep track of my coupon savings, grocery savings and other things on here as well(i come here more often) in the sidebar. I encourage all of you to do the same along with your harvest tracker.

I knew my luck would run out

2009-02-11T06:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was not a good day! The septic holding tank in the trailer was full, so i pull the handle, handle moves as it should but NOTHING happened!! The thing the handle is attached to on the inside broke or came off, so now we have no toilet! Then........yeah that's not all, i go to take my son to wrestling practice last night.............transmission went out on it!! This is going to make things tough. The Ranger was our gas saver vehicle, $30 for 250 miles. Our work truck is just that, it is a 17,000lb truck, gets 8-9 miles to the diesel gallon. I have another truck, but it it about the same gas mileage, gas gauge doesn't work, only has 2 seat belts in it, we use it to take our garbage into the landfill once a year. It's $2500 for the tranny to be rebuilt. And i don't know about the toilet issue, that's a bad one.

On another note:
The haul to Tillamook went fine, it was snowing pretty good, but i have studded tires on the Ranger so i just went slow.

Just a note

2009-02-09T08:24:00.000-08:00

I am organizing my brain to write a few How-to's that i think will help people get started, or just some tips and tricks for those already started in a few areas(pigs, chickens, yogurt). If there are any topics you would like me to give my do's and don'ts on (success and failures) drop me an email or leave a comment.

Good Luck or Karma maybe??

2009-02-09T07:32:00.000-08:00

Mr. Meaty is on the far left....notice how much larger he is than the gilts

Yesterday, my ds and i made the loading shute for Mr.Meaty(it would have made front page of the Hillbilly Gazette)and we practiced locking him in the truck a couple times so we would be ready. Took of the 2 lines of hot wire, had a bucket of grain, they were all at the line, not crossing it, undecided if it was really gone or not, but the bright orange Home Depot bucket they have become so familiar with was very tempting. I stuck it right in Mr. Meaty's face, he came a little forward, then back, we did this maybe 4 times. I decided grain was not good enough and luckily i had bread in my truck. He saw the bread bag, and came a little forward, i did the old Hansel and Gretel bread crumb trick with a pile in the back of the truck.............no problem. He was in, the door was shut and locked. This took all of maybe 5 minutes. I instructed the kids it could take all day, and to be very quiet, whisper even. I NEVER have things happen that easy to me, that's probably why i started building at 2:00 and completely done loading and in the house washing up at 3:00! Yes, i said 3:00......so now i figure he'll ruin my truck, since he'll be in there so long.... bust my back door or something, but he was as calm as could be even after i moved the truck up to the drive way. I put more bread in for him(the front window is broke on the canopy so you can get bread in there. Covered the rear canopy door windows with panels so he would think they were solid(he could barely turn around in there so i wasn't too worried about that)and off we went into the house. Now let me point somethings out to you.............

1. Mr.Meaty was born and raised here, he has only been off the farm once, to get my castration lesson when he was 3 weeks old.

2. I have 4 other hogs that could have made this process HELL, but not one crossed the removed hot line.

3. Our loading shute we made was very pathetic, but he never even looked at it, just went straight in the truck.

4. This was the first hog to be loaded for processing off my farm.

5. This is a 99' Ford Ranger truck with a canopy.....it is not that big at all, he has room to lay down, he has to really work at it to turn around though, he does have a foot or so of room length wise, and he went in with no problem, i did put cardboard down and then straw over that, and straw leading into the truck to cover the small ramp that he had to step on.

6. I also strapped the back doors just in case, i don't trust the door lock with a determined hog.

I am eager to see how much he weighs, he was always shy when it came to measuring for weight. I am guessing 300-325lbs. I was suppose to leave at 7am this morning, but school ended up being delayed 2 hours for ice, and we are on snow route so we have no bus! So Mr.Meaty has to sit in there a while longer. I will leave here at 10 minutes to 10am, drop the kids off and drive the 1-1 1/2 hours to Tillamook. Unfortunately there aren't that many processors that slaughter as well, and the one closest to me isn't very good(one person i know got back 100lbs of meat from his 4pt elk!)the other is an hour drive and they are more expensive...the Tillamook processor is .36 alb and the other is .62 alb! They do not make your hams or your bacon though. So i will be learning to brine and smoke soon for my own hams and smoke my own bacon, when i take Dinner into the processor(Mr. Meaty is my dad's hog). If you look in the picture above, Dinner is 3rd from the left(or the right) He still has catching up to do. I think Gabby could pass him up. I might just have to get what i can out of him, no bacon that's for sure, i will be keeping one from a summer litter for processing this fall.

I would also like to mention i got my first shame on you for what i do. I always talk to the guy at the gas station while my truck is filling up, he asked me what i was doing this weekend and i told him, he covered his mouth and did the big omg sound. Asked how i could do, i said just as easy as you can buy it in the store. He tried to convince me that what i did was wrong and that when he bought it in the store it is right. I ran through my speech i have said a million times in my head....... I'll just run through the highlights

1. The meat in the package at the store was still a hog at one time.

2. What does it matter if i do it or if someone else does it......pig is still going into my freezer(mine will be better though)

3. Mine get to live a real life, they get to run around, play and breath fresh air...where as the meat you buy in the store was in a prison cell with 4-5 other pigs, could barely move, never saw the sun, air quality was beyond disgusting, was probably beat to get it to go where needed, and that is what you promote when you buy your pork.

Some people are just in denial i guess.

Just a little parent pride.....

2009-02-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, my youngest Cole had a wrestling meet, it was districts...now anyone knowing anything about sports knows districts are a big deal. Well my son got 2nd place! BUT i was most proud of him when he lost.........he did not cry, he was angry, but he behaved like a winner. Now let me just say, my son has never lost before, he was also beginning to be cocky, and say things like "I'll never lose, i'm too good", and i would tell him his day will come, there is always someone better than you out there. Most kids cry and throw a fit when they lose at these meets, so i was VERY proud of him for that. He did grow up in a martial art home until age 5, and there is no fit throwing allowed, so i think that stuck with him.

Breanna had her 13th Birthday Saturday as well(yeah she was really happy about the meet) amazing how time passes. We went to a local thrift store and she got a bunch of stuff for $16.00(brand new pair of shoes even) Here is a link to her Happy Birthday song video.

I found a new file storage place. I was not having good luck with photobucket, flickr, YouTube, Google video, did i leave any out? I got photobucket to download one video, google downloads no problem but the quality is not good, but zShare seems great. It uploads fast, and the quality is the same as you uploaded. It even has a progress bar with % uploaded, so you aren't just hoping it is working, i have left YouTube running it's upload all night and it acted like it was, but it wasn't? Maybe i'm not meant to have videos on the net?

Spring is on the way!

2009-02-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

The sun has been shining for days, the birds have been singing away, it was daylight past 5:30 and i got my seed catalogs! I cannot wait for the trees to start blooming, picking up apples, gardening all that rewarding work. I am worried about drought this year though, we have hardly had any rain, hopefully we don't get it all in the spring.

Here is Chloe

How cute is she? She has fit in really well, and i think she has learned to go outside, no accidents for a few days now, and when i let her out she goes immediately. The man we got her from called my DH yesterday and said he gave us the wrong dog, that it was his other dog that was getting out of the dog kennel and she was just following him. I was petrified when he told me this and asked if he wanted her back and DH said he didn't say he did, which is good, cause he isn't getting her back she is our dog now.

Well Piggy is due in about 11 days, she is so big but she still plays like crazy sometimes i have to make her stop, i am afraid she will get hurt. Can't wait for those little Pugs to come!!

Sam & Roxxie

Look how much Sam has grown! I thought this was a cute pic, both the Rotti girls looking at something. She is a butt! She slept through the night for the first time last night!! I feel like i have a baby again! She learned very fast that if she whines at night, she goes out to her potty kennel(pallets tied together with shavings on the ground) and no playing, no food, no nothing. I hate potty training, i can't wait till everyone is!

I started couponing again. I got so busy with work that i gave it up. I was looking at some of my old receipts, man i was getting good! Some said i saved 78% and over $100.00. I sure hope Safeway does their Rally Race again, i saved so much $$ and got so much food last year it was crazy...like 25 bags of full size Lay's chips for $7.00, 25 boxes of cereal for $4.00. I wish i had more coupons though, it's hard restarting. I went to the newspaper drop last weekend and grabbed 4 grocery bags(is that legal? i hope so!) for my compost, and went through for coupons and scored!

Well Monday was not the day!

2009-01-30T08:26:00.000-08:00

I woke up Saturday morning to snow and ice, and there is no way i'm driving over the mountain in that for a pig, especially when i can see the mountain i have to drive over and it is all white. So i called my dad and he rescheduled to the 9th of February. Hopefully the weather works out for me.

I got yet another dog...........holy crap i know. A friend of ours called and said he was going to shoot her if we didn't so off we went! She is a Chocolate Lab that was starved for attention and would run off and get into trouble. Chloe only knows the sit command, she is NOT housebroken, but is the sweetest dog ever. I'll get her picture up asap.

I do need to report on my chickens since i haven't in a while.......i am getting 5 eggs a day out of 7 hens. Not bad i think. Gabby(the gilt i kept out of the litter in the garden, she talks ALOT) begs me everyday for eggs, it is so funny. She just squeals up a storm. I will have to video tape it and post a link to it.

All i was able to sell were my weaner pigs. No one was really interested in the gilts, bred sow or my boar. O well, i'll breed the gilts, sell their babies this summer and try to sell them again. I have been instructed (DH) to clean up my pig area. I have to build a new hog shelter, fine by me anyways it looks awful. I also have to fence off the top hill and the berm. They are digging the hill down and our septic box is there somewhere, it would really suck it if they ruined that!

Ok well i have to get the kids going, Breanna has to clean for her 13th birthday party tomorrow, and Adam and i have to get straw from a farmer at 10am, and Cole well i dunno, i'll figure out something!

Monday is the day............

2009-01-22T19:53:00.000-08:00

So Sunday i have to build a loading shute and ramp to load up Mr.Meaty in the back of my Ranger to go off to the processor. I have not firgured out how i am only going to get him, i am thinking the stock trailer would be easier to load into, but i don't want to drive that thing all the way to Tillamook for one hog. To make things even better...the county redug the ditch this summer and dug out the lower driveway so i will not be able to back up all the way to the gate, so i will have to build a shute out of concrete panels i guess. Maybe put the ramp over the ditch, we'll see. If worse comes to worse i'll hog tie him and drag him to the truck. I figure sleeping in the back of the truck with a bed of straw and some slop and water he'll calm down. I'll write all the "fun" details when it's over.
I sold 7 of my weaner pigs. I have one gilt left, i just couldn't sell her, she is too nice looking to have her eaten. I am not having any luck selling my other pigs, so looks like i'll be keeping them and selling piglets this summer. Just have to get the pig area fixed up, get them off the hillsides and get them replanted. I also have to rebuild the large shed and fix the nursery shed. I figure i'll put them all on the large shed side and let the other side grow a bit this spring. I'll get it all worked out.

Incase you noticed....

2009-01-19T22:13:00.000-08:00

Yes that is a wrestling mat(orange and white)on my floor! It is 10' wide by 25' long. It keeps the cold air from downstairs out and the kids wrestle on it(boys are in wrestling). Yes that is plastic on the walls, not drywall, haven't got that far yet. Yes that is a 2"x6" floor...no flooring yet. Yes, that is the trailer we lived in for a year and then we decided to hell with plumbing, flooring, and drywall, lets move in! It's an adventure, no one seems to mind, they(kids, Robert and I) know we have it better than a lot of people in these times. We have been very lucky last year and this year to keep getting work when so many have lost their jobs and homes...we did have to give up a home last year, it was a hard decision, but it was better than losing both places, and we know it was the right decision.

Sold 6 Weaners Today!

2009-01-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

Down to 2 weaner pigs in the garden. I had to lower my price to $50 each for the winter, but hey i got $150 for 3, and i got a cord of wood for 3 more, so i am happy! Just hope to get rid of the rest asap.
It has been so nice this week, it was over 60 degrees yesterday and today, sun is setting around 5:30.......spring is on it's way!!!
We went to the Home Depot the other day, and they had 5 kitchen cabinets sitting on a flat cart with a FREE sign on it...o yeah i got em! They are only temporary until we do our kitchen of course.

O Man!!

2009-01-12T13:25:00.000-08:00

I think he likes it!?

Adam's new gas powered R/C Truck

Breanna with her new Camera/Digital Camcorder

Bandit(our new pug), Sama ntha(our new Rottweiler), and Piggy....which is due Feb 12th!

BEFORE

Here is a picture on Christmas, it was just starting to melt(2')

AFTER ...........WHAT A MESS!!

Suzie's new piggies born on time!

Suzie relaxing while she can!

Well we got 2' of snow the week before Christmas and pretty much trapped us at home, and then it all melted, and well you can see the before and after picture above.....between the snow, the rain and the pigs our land is ruined. So i have put them all up for sale, i will miss them :( but i just can't take it anymore and it is getting hard to get affordable feed. I am not having good luck selling them either, the weaners have been for sale for a month or so and no takers.

!!WE HAVE HEAT!!

We got a woodstove installed in our house and the walls insulated YAY! Good thing we had the woodstove, we had no electricity from 10am Christmas Eve- 8pm December 26th! Yeah that's right no electricity on Christmas!! We have not drywalled, we put 6ml plastic over to help keep more heat in and keep the insulation particles from floating in the air. Plumbing is yet to come.

I had Suzie farrow in the garden so they could fertilize and till for me, it is very muddy in alot of places there with all the snow and rain though. I will have to sope the garden so the water runs down the hill. I will continue to get 2-3 weaners in the winter and throw them in the garden to do alot of the work for me and then they will be done by April if born in October. I am hoping to get Berkshires. I will divide the garden into 3rds one at a time using hog panels and 1 hot wire. A portable shed with a removable roof to cut the weight down when moved. I will throw corn down and cover with straw, and continue rotating over and over again, then i'll let the chickens in when they are gone to spread and turn, buildup the raised beds and plant. That's the plan anyway.
I will really try to keep up on this blog too.

Fall is here

2008-11-05T09:16:00.000-08:00

Well summer is over and fall has arrived. I hate fall nothing but rain and gray skies.

Well Susie is due Nov. 19th, but she'll probably farrow on the 16th, she's always early. I am going to move her to the garden, it's done now, and everything is gone, except some corn i was storing on the stalks. Adam and i are going to build her a temporary shelter out of concrete panels, we have plenty. It's easy too. Otherwise i'd have to build a real shelter in the pig area and fence it off and so on, and i just don't feel like it, besides i want to see those cute little babies every chance i get! I need to take pictures of everything and post them! I changed a couple things, i sold one of the gilts with my little boar(Sebastian) to some people in town, she was too small compared to the other gilts. My gilts are running about 190lbs now, and Susie weighed 760lbs!(fat ass!) She is in her 3rd trimester though! My dad's feeder(Mr. Meaty) is closer to 210...he wouldn't stand still to measure his girth. and my runt(dinner) well it took him almost a month to heal, he got infected and i had to give him antibiotics, so i got stuck with him, and he is probably 30 lbs under at least what the others are, i'll have to measure him soon and find out, so i can figure out when to set up a butcher. I did manage to find free pig food though. It's from t.v. gleaners, it's like a food bank type place. I get bread, produce, whatever is left over that will spoil or they don't have room for to store. More and more people have been going, so i am not getting as much as when i first started, but i like going there, and i make the kids help out the people that need it. Heather(the lady that runs the gleaners) is GREAT, she even lets me go through and get food for our family, which helps out alot these days. We have also been picking up apples every saturday or sunday and feeding those, and last week after halloween we picked up about 2500 lbs or so of pumpkins. So i haven't been using too much grain at all. :) I also buy animal racks at franz bakery if i need to, they are about 330-360 loaves of bread for $15.00, and a loaf of bread(usually loaves are 1lb) is 1lb of grain, so it works well too, alot cheaper than grain, but it's hard for me to get, working 6 days a week, and they aren't always available so then i have to buy the damn grain, and it's $12.50 for 50lbs, so it's a big difference. and 50 lbs is 2 days worth of food! and soon Susie will be eating 12lbs a day, not 4 so that's gonna raise the feed up even higher, plus weaning. I'm going to build new shelters with this litters money i think. A few 10'x12' huts, that are seperate, so each pig has a farrowing area to herself.

Well now the garden, O the garden....well it sucked to say the least. I got 6 pumpkins out of 6 plants, not too good. I did end up with i think 5 tomato plants and they produced really well once the weather cooperated. The corn that i did get was great, my soil was not good enough, or i would have got more...instead most ended up being compost for next years garden. I already put down straw, that the chickens have spread for me and they even keep turning it for me :) i also threw all my vines and stuff on the ground, and cardboard. I am hoping those little piggies that are coming till the soil for me so i don't have as hard a time next year. I am also putting in a little hoop greenhouse. Like a 10'x10' i will grow my carrots, lettuce, broccoli and hopefully a tomato in there, the tomato might have to be in the house though.

Speaking of the house...we got our bedroom all insulated and closed off and bought a new mattress(trucking for cash for a neighbor), thank god!! We put up some more and all the exterior walls are done...the rafters and the floor are all that are left...at least until we build more interior walls anyway. Hopefully the kids will be sleeping in the house soon. They'll really like that. I can not wait to be totally living in there...soon. We are going to plumb next month hopefully and finish the wiring, so soon we will have sinks and a freaken toilet in there!!! And a kitchen....a big one!

It's been a while!

2008-07-29T10:12:00.000-07:00

Well my pigs are all doing good! Weaned, got them castrated...ohhh that was fun! Two got sold yesterday, 2 are going to a neighbor, i am raising one for my parents, i am raising one for my freezer, and i am keeping the 4 gilts to breed. So i still have 2 left to sell, since i bought a boar, and he wasn't that big, not compared to my pigs, so he is getting cut and sold..should be fun since he is 50-55 lbs! He is really looking nice now, but i bought a boar that is a year old the other day and he is servicing Susie right now...so more piggies in 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days!!! I'll see if she comes into estrus again in 21 days though. Check out the feeder Adam built for them.
Susie stepped on the runts foot and hurt it pretty good...2 days before i separated them, he was getting worse so i had to confine him in our large dog crate, i peroxide it 2 times a day and he is doing much better now. Hopefully he'll be outside with the others next week.

Thor the Boar

Got rid of the rabbits..they are Roxie's favorite toys, she killed 2 of them, gave away the other 2. I am going to fence in the rabbit area inside the garden, and raise meat rabbits i think.

We will miss you Bullet

My dog Bullet died :( He was such a good dog. He was 9, and he was feeling it. Now he is in dog heaven, where i am sure there are lots of hydrants for him to whiz on, beef stew, and hot bitches(he wasn't fixed).

Pumpkins

Well i will NEVER do a straw bale garden again!! Almost everything died dammit! Pumpkins are doing awesome though, some of the beans okay, but other than that nothing is thriving. So i will rototill all of that straw into the dirt,and compost a bunch too. I got my corn going, it is growing fast.

Scrat the squirrel is doing great. He is a little butthead, but is fat and happy! I will get some pics soon. I need to build him a new cage...he needs a bigger one.

Can't wait till school starts!!!I was taking a picture of our apple tree when look who jumped up into the pic. What a ham!!

OH almost forgot!! I passed my class B CDL yesterday!!! HELL YEAH!!

Okay well, just thought i would update while i had a minute, More soon!!

Oh wait, we went down to check on the cows, and crap they look like beef cows!!!! I'll get pics next time, we are going to bring Drifter back here, the neighbor wants us to put animals in his field to keep the grass down, works for me.

♥♥11 PIGGIES!!!!!♥♥

2008-06-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

Went to feed Susie yesterday morning and there they were all 11 of them, her biggest litter yet. They are so damn cute. There is a female that is awesome looking, she is a blue butt, and she is the tallest and she is loooooooooong.....very nice breeder

2008-06-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy busy.
Susie is ready to pop..she is due on the 9th. I have 6 piglets sold...we'll see when they are ready though.
It seems when i am not wanting animals......that is when i get them the most! We were removing a pile of concrete from someone's property and found a squirrel(the only living one anyway) We named him Scrat after the one in Ice age, since he is such a survivor.

He is sleeping in this picture awwwwww

He is doing great NOW. I read online to give him puppy replacement formula everyone said so except one person....well i followed the majority and he almost died. Thank god i read this website http://www.hal-pc.org/%7Ejbsum/squirrel.html#Begin they had listed convulsions and death, well he was having convulsions often and he was getting worse, as soon as i took him off they were gone!! He is now eating scalded milk, walnuts, and baby food. THANK YOU Clarissa Summers, Scrat says thanks too!!!

O and i cannot forget my boar i am getting. I am getting him from pure pork in Sandy, he'll be ready at the end of the month.Isn't he sweet....like honey ham!!!

Can you spot the 2 damn ROOSTERS??!!
Chicks are huge!! 3 turned out to be roosters!!!!!! Damn i was pissed, i got rid of one, and i'll keep the other 2 for now(fried chicken) I kept the one pictured below and the one closest in the picture above. Can't wait for eggs...neither can the pigs i am sure.

The garden is doing good. Ecept for the mushrooms! OMG there are a zillion of them in the straw! I got my strawberries planted and the corn bed is underway.......I want a rototiller for my birthday!!!!! This hand digging stuff sucks! Here are a few pics i took last week. Everything is coming ok, i am not convinced yet on this straw bale method yet, but the weather has been crazy, sunny and 105 one day then raining and 40 the next couple days, make up your mind lady! Between the weather and the birds i may go insane.

Lettuce

Pumpkins

Oregon Sugar Peas

Soy Beans(for chickens)

I will have to take some pictures of Susie before she farrows, O i just cannot wait! I will take a zillion when they are here too.

OMG so much crap!!!

2008-04-14T07:13:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since i last posted.....and of course i have gotten more animals!! I got Roxie, a sweet 5mo. old Rottie. She is a doll, and a spoiled one at that!

I went and got 2 rabbits from one person, and 2 more from another that came with a hutch that needs remodeling and an addition(all the rabbits/cages/hutches were free CL yay). pics later.

Cole's 7th birthday was the 8th OMFG how time flies.....my BABY is 7!!!

Here is an updated pic of Amber...she is looking good! I took this pic a week ago, now you cannot even see her ribs YAY!!

Here is a pic of my 2 Jersey bulls, they are growing so FAST!!

And here are my chicks, on their first day out!!

Here is a pic of my garden late March, yes late March!
Okay tons of chores to do!!

Saturday was sooooo BUSY!!

2008-03-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

The March 22nd was quite a day! We went and picked up our 400+lb bred sow, and my Jersey cow Amber! I got Susie(sow) out of her pen today so she could just free range down below, but be put up at night. Amber is doing GREAT, she really took to those calves, she wouldn't leave their fence, so we put her in there, and she let them nurse off her, so we supplement their feedings with a 3 pints in the morning and 2 pints at night, and i will lower it until they get no bottle, i just want to make sure she has enough milk to support them. She has put on weight pretty good since she has been here too. I took some pics of her on her 1st or 2nd day, i will post her progression. Laura, the lady we got her from, got her in October as a rescue, and she was almost dead from starvation, or just terrible food, while she had a calf on her side. I can't even imagine what she looked like before......poor thing, it's amazing how sweet she is after that.

Here are the 2 pics i took of her, you can see she is quite under weight, a body score of 2, and she is on extremely high quality grass hay and grain. I have her on a 16%(beef sweet) and a 14%(all breed) to mix in and i give her ALOT. I make sure she has hay at all times(she doesn't like alfalfa) and feed the grain twice a day. She has made good progress, and her milk is coming good, and her teets are great.

Here is Susie the Sow

OK gotta make lunch!!

My 2 new additions!

2008-03-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i went and picked up 2 day old Jersey bull calves. It was a surprise i wasn't expecting yesterday, but when the phone rings, you gotta go get em'. Look how cute they are!
I made them a quick little calf hut using our forms, it only took 5 of them, and i put erosion control platic on the top so it wouldn't leak through any holes or the crack of the 2 put together. Works great, free and easy.

Looks like i will be getting Amber, my Jersey cow on saturday. I am hoping her milk will freshen and she can feed these calves, it would be better for them. If not then i will just take her to Reedsport and the calves can stay here until late August early September. By then Jersey my older Jersey bull will be old enough to breed and Amber will be in prime condition.
Robert and Jason are taking last years calves down to the farm in Reedsport in the morning. One by one in the boat they go, i get to stay here, since i have so many babies to tend to(not including the human children).

Can you spot the Jersey?

There are my babies, well not so baby anymore they are 6 months old, except the Jersey he is 7 months old......you can see him hiding in the back. The far left one is 1/4 Jersey 3/4 Holstein, and the others are Holstein..the far right one is going to be our bull, he is very nice looking. I did not dehorn them when they were younger, like an idiot, won't make that mistake again, i am going to band them i think, i looked today, but i couldn't find a divot to put the band into at the base so i dunno, i'll have to research that one some more i guess, or maybe i grabbed a freak cow that doesn't have one who knows.

They found the calves, soooo cute. If you haven't noticed yet...they are in my garden on the far end where my carrot/ onion or strawberry bed is going.

I found a sow i would like to get, i just can't afford her right now. She is 2 1/2 years old Yorkshire bred to a Hampshire, due in June. Hopefully they will still have her next week, i could get her then. I'd like to keep her and a daughter, get a boar and breed them. Sell the babies and have pork in the freezer, i dunno, more research on that is needed, i haven't done too much yet. I know i want a pig just to eat our waste and for pork so we'll see.

There are 10 of my chicks, the other 2 were camera shy, they sure are growing fast! The Dingheiser wants to buy my eggs when they start laying, and has offered to separate their food for my pig(if i get one that is). Jason went there this morning talking to the owner about me and all of my madness.

Ok enough for now!

I got me a Jersey Cow!!

2008-03-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

I went and put a doen payment on Amber my new 5 year old Jersey cow. Can you freaken' believe it?! Not only did i find a damn cow i could afford but i can make payments on her too! Holy crap! She is a skinny, they didn't have good enough hay for her while she had a calf on her side, but the calf is real nice looken', just took everything from the cow,they got good hay now and grain, no pasture. She'll be good to go this fall, for her fall breeding to our Jersey bull. She'll be into great weight by then. I am hoping to have her paid off in 2 weeks, it'll be tight. I put $120 down(all the cash i had on me) and i have $580 to go. I'll just have to use our stock piles to make it, should be no problem, i can easily get by on $60 a week for human food...it's the animals that get us! I'll post a pic of her as soon as i get her.

I got the chicks out of the plastic tub and into the actual coop today. Adam and i nailed up double-ply erosion plastic and on the floor, it still needs either newspaper(we have tons from all my couponing)or straw as insulation, it was just a quick fix before they started pecking each other form lack of space. It does need another heat lamp in there though....i'll get one tomorrow, they need a bigger waterer too, they drink it all in one day so it needs to be filled 2x's a day. I'll have to make one. I'll take more pictures of them too, they are growing so fast!

I still haven't got that straw out of the trailer i picked up from Accent's subdivision yet. God what i nightmare that was! Tomorrow i guess, i'll have to make new bales out of most of it.

Today Diesel was $4.09! The lowest i saw was $3.85 with a P.U.C card in Linnton, i might have to drive there just to fill my back tank!Regular gas is $3.48, i can't afford to drive anymore, wish i had a wagon my horse could pull e to the store ;)

Well enough for now

Another day in Oregon.......Rain

2008-03-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

Today was a crappy rainy and windy day, picture above is from yesterday. I got nothing done, but at least i didn't have to water my bales. I did manage to get to Home Depot and get 2 gates and my fertilizer. I'll get the fertilizer on tomorrow, i have some other bales to pick up that are already pretty composted, i am hoping they won't fall apart on me, figured i'd tie some baling wire around them before i moved them. I also hope to get my raised beds laid out and built tomorrow ready for soil.

I have a compost pile that i started, it has kitchen scraps(mostly coffee grounds and egg shells) cow pie shavings, shitty clay dirt i have been so blessed with, leftover alfalfa from the goats, and now chicken poop newspaper. For punishment my kids have to bring up so many wheel barrows of cow pie shavings...it is great for me, but they haven't had to do it in a while, darn it they learned too quickly with this one! They dump the wheel barrows in front of the pile, and i layer it as i need to. When it gets so high, i will lift the wire off and move over to the right and refill with the same compost, that way it gets air and i will add some water here and there. To the right on the ground is alfalfa the goats left and it got sun bleached(sun? huh?)and i picked up and moved there, they do still go over there and pick through it, and they poo in the pile at the same time, nice :)

I am still trying to get the hang of this blog thing, i look at other peoples and i like their layouts but i can't get mine to do it, i'm gettin' old. Also i try to proof read as best i can, my damn M is not doing to well. So if it doesn't make sense, add an M!

Here is my garden place

2008-03-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

Here I spent countless hours researching square foot gardening, bought 2 of his books, had my garden completely laid out on paper and then comes Robert!(my husband) He heard from this old timer about straw bale gardening and he said it was the best blah blah blah well..................
I have 7 rows right now, i might have to add more. I bought 30 bales of wheat straw from a local farmer for $3.50 a bale,( i found some for $1.70 but he never returned my call, figures) i started watering them yesterday. I will do it 2 times a day. I cannot for the life of me find ammonium nitrate! Since it is a main component in bomb making it's not too easy to come by. So i will set out and find the highest nitrogen fertilizer at the Home Depot i can find to start decomposing the top of the bale. I started my seeds on Sunday(4 days ago) and all is good. I started tomatoes( a bunch of varieties and sizes and colors) a lot of different melons, sweet and hot peppers, tomatillas, celery, broccoli, spinach, 2 kinds of romaine lettuce, brussel sprouts, ground cherries(new to me) spanish and walla walla onions(to be put in a bed not a bale) I have carrots and corn that i will direct sow into a raised bed. I think that is it. I am going to have my raised beds as square foot garden beds, and i am going to plant in the bales pretty much the same way. I figured i would try it, it was easier to start, and less expensive as well...i have to buy 1/4 of the dirt i would have maybe even less than that. Hey i'm lazy and if someone says here is a way to do it easier and cheaper then hell i'm there!

My garden area is pretty big.....95x35 it does taper down a bit by the chicken coop. I still have to cross fence and gate the chicken coop, and add a gate to the garden fence. Not sure how much space that takes from my garden, but i still have plenty of room.

I am going to have a 10'x6'(i think) strawberry bed at the end closest to the house, plus the 4'x4' onion and carrot bed. I will put the corn closer to the chicken coop where the garden gate will go, it will be 10' wide but i haven't decided how long yet.

Here are my goats in the garden area, they had run of the yard but the dark one(johnny cash) jumped on my 68' Firebird, so to the only pen i had they went. I haven't figured out what to do with them yet, i just put them in there during the day, and they use the stock trailer for sleeping in at night. Unfortunately the electric fence has no effect on them or i'd put them down with the cows(pics later). So hell if i know.

Here is a picture of my 12 chicks, all pullets. I still have some work on the coop to do still, nest boxes, roosts and a window, i bought some plexy glass to put in. I am also going to insulate it with straw and scrap plywood i pick up on jobsites, and it needs a couple new shakes on the roof, it doesn't leak yet, but it might soon. We got the shed from a job we had, they didn't want it on the property anymore so we got it for $100 off their bill. Nice huh?!

We live in our 3o something foot trailer(33?) while we build this damn house. it is taking a while, but o well. I'll post pictures of the house as it is now another day.Here is a picture of our view from the unfinished deck.