Waste

It hit me like a ton of bricks today. When I veer from my healthy habits, my waste expands...no pun intended. I just happened to pay attention to the kitchen wastebasket when I threw away something after lunch. No, I am not going to air my dirty laundry, I am too ashamed of how I have been the last few days, but just the visible items told the story. IF, if I had been eating appropriately, lots of the fresh vegetables and fruits that I really do love and love the way they make me feel, I would have little to no trash in that can. My compost would be slightly bigger, but that all comes back to me. I have been eating and worse, feeding my family, quick, sugary, salty, chemical-laced things-not food by any stretch of the imagination, that I abhor!! How modern-American of me. What in the world? And then let's step on the scale...now we can talk about waist expansion!! And what about waste of money. Does your local grocery store have "meal deals" or "deal of a meal?" And what do those normally include? Our typical deal would be two frozen pizzas, a frozen "appetizer" such as wings or potato skins, ice cream or ice cream dessert and a 2-liter of cola...all for the price of $13.98! That is a savings of over $15! Come on, that is a good deal, right? Less than half-price! But what, pray-tell, could one get for $14. At another store boneless skinless chicken breasts are $1.98 per pound...I could get 7 pounds of chicken and stretch that into a good week's worth of meals! Or 7 pounds of hamburger for $1.99 at another store. Again, a week's worth of meaty meals. A box of pasta, buy one get one free, would be about about 28 boxes! Yes, that is a lot of pasta, but you see where I am going with this. And, no, these things aren't something that is super nutritional alone, but are FAR better than the one meal you can get. And the amount of fresh vegetables one could get with $14 would make such an improvement on a person's health and well-being before they were even finished!
I love food...real food...it makes in difference in how I feel, how I look, what I get accomplished and apparently, how much gas I waste hauling trash off!!

Another Snake in the Chicken House

Not entirely unexpected, a snake made a snack of a few chicks. It ate at least 5 and smashed 3. Nope, this one didn't make the cut. I guess I am the angry one on the block. Nobody was here to tell me that he should live. He got several shovel shots to his head. The first one pretty much missed and just made him angry. That was fun! That's okay, it still didn't match my anger! Probably got him with the next two blows, but for good measure added a couple of extra...made me feel better anyway. One for each baby in his stomach! We patched up the only place we think he possibly could have gotten in. I should have known since Penny's egg production has been poor recently. I bet I have an egg tomorrow! For safe measure, I did the whole mothball thing around perimeter. Oh how I hate poison, but for now, I need to take all precautions until my chickies are not such an easy target!

Time to Think Fall Garden

I spent some time in the abandoned garden this evening. I saw signs of bricks amongst the tall grass, the crab grass and the centipede grass. I untangled a few of the bricks and placed them by the fence for later use. I pulled up the dried corn stalks and leaned them against the fence. I am thinking that a wide fall-colored ribbon would look nice on a bundle or two of those in a month or so. I went to the pole beans and picked the dried pods and placed them in the sack to take in, shell and save for next spring planting. I walked past the tomato cages. They will be moved soon enough. The cucumber fence was covered with dead vines from lack of water. That fence will be moved to the shade house until next spring as well. The hoses need to be wound back up. I tried the soaker hoses and I am not so sure. They are so flimsy and one just broke in half. A new irrigation system will have to be considered. I supposed the soaker hoses will do fine in the fall/winter garden.

The seedlings in the greenhouse are growing nicely and so things need to be done soon. I will be removing the grass, adding two year old compost and fresh rabbit manure before tilling. I am not sure what size beds to make for the fall. I will more than likely have long rows so that I can use covered tunnels when the colder weather comes (although that seems so hard to imagine right now). Broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuces such as winter density and Rouge de Hiver, carrots, collards, spinach, various mustard greens, to name a few that I have already. I would still like to add chard, brussels sprouts, radishes and a few other greens to the mix. I also have garlic coming fairly soon to plant. I know just where to put it. It will be all around the rose bush at the entrance of the garden. I will also be using the greenhouse and the greenhouse beds, but I would like to see what else I can grow without heating. I need to learn to take advantage of this southern growing season-it is just so different from what I (and my mother) knew in Indiana.

I hope to have pictures of my "work in progress" and I hope to share my bounty (if there is one) with friends and neighbors; that's what it is really about, after all.

Just Another Day, I Suppose

Fencing is so important whether you are on a farm, hobby farm or just have a dog to keep in your yard. The kids and I had delivered my reports to town (over an hour away). On the way back, I called my husband and asked him to check on the baby chickens for me...nobody to look in on them for over 3 hours-how horrible. I pulled down the final 1/10 mile of the driveway to see my husband walking toward the car. I rolled down the window. "Everything okay?" I asked. He just shook his head. "What?" I asked panicky now. "Cherry's gone." I booked it to my parking place, and hopped out of the car full of groceries in the back seat, in my beaded flip-flops, and took off power walking to the garden, where I was hoping she might have gone since that is where I let her free range while I do work in the yard. Nope. I walked toward the animal yard-her fence. In the back, there was evidence of where she had climbed on the fence, probably trying to get to the branches of fresh leaves and bent it down enough to jump on over.

So the trek began walking in the wooded land behind where she could feast on lots of bramble. Looked like a possible trail back down toward the driveway. Sarah was coming towards me. She asked if I wanted to switch my flip flops with beads and heels for her boots. Yes, please. Even though sockless I took off walking down the driveway, up the old driveway near the outhouse. The neighbor's dog was barking oddly up by the highway. I walked quickly, catching and passing Bruce.

A mile later I see the dog, no sign of a goat in that yard, but it was barking towards the woods across the driveway. I stopped and listened past the barking. Yep. In the distance there was Cherry's cry. I ran past the freshly dug pond and through more woods until I came to a neighbor's house, unfamiliar who it was. There were cars there, but nobody out and about...except Cherry standing there crying looking lost but not a scratch on her. Thank you, Lord.

As I approached, I began thinking, how am I going to get her home. No rope leash of any sort. I certainly couldn't carry her. So when I got to her I gave her a big hug. So, I started walking away, like we do in the yard, clicking like one would for a horse ( I do that often). She came running my way. No problem. She followed me back to the driveway where we saw Bruce heading our way. Realizing we were pretty much okay, no harm, no foul, reality set in. The clouds were dark and the wind had picked up greatly and my sockless feet were not in my broken down boots, but Sarah's boots and the skin was rubbing of my heels. Well, a half-mile to go and boom...sky opens up and down comes the rain that we have needed badly. I had to smile as I started to jog the rest of the way home with Cherry tripping under my feet the whole way.

And of course half way there I realized I left the window down in my car. I knew the kids would not think to check it because I NEVER do that. Seriously, until it is paid for the windows stay up going down the dirt driveway...Crumb-monkey!!

I led Cherry into the chicken coop- the always faithful fence. She would have to share Henny Penny's side since the baby chicks are in the other coop. Got Cherry situated for the evening. I rolled up the window on the car, went in and got out of the soaking clothes and boots. Once those boots were off, ouch!! Nice hole in my heel (like my feet were bad enough being dry and cracking! ick!). Well, I don't have to wonder about what I need to do tomorrow. Goat fence repaired-priority one! Yep, just another day. *sigh*

Chicks Finally Arrived

I was starting to get worried. I usually get the call from the postoffice around 7 a.m. the day the hatchery says they will start shipping for that week. They made it and look really good. They are loud, eating, drinking and of course pooping on the paper on top of the straw in the brooder. And, they are colorful--not boring at least I knew what kind they were. On of my friends who is what I would call an expert regarding chickens, mentioned it might take weeks to months before I figured out what kinds I have. I will chock it up to another lesson in patience. Of course, I have already made some highlighted question marks in my chicken hatchery magazine that shows what the chicks look like, as well as the adults. Slow learner. However, I have learned that these little critters are going to stay behind locked doors for a while. We have a good size brooder in a larger coop with screen access to air of course. So they will have plenty of room once they can hop over the brooder side into the coop until I feel comfortable letting them out. I am also hoping no snakes find their way into that side. But I will do everything in my power to protect this flock! Aren't they cute?

The Beauty of Homesteading

No, I am not referring to the nature or the symbiosis of homesteading. I am referring to the physical beauty of homesteading. No, not the landscape or the animals.


The actual homesteader's superficial beauty or vanity. The beautifully manicured hands and artistically placed make-up and hair.

Okay, I think you know by now my sarcasm, right.

I think its time to go shopping...after a bath!!! (and yes, I am wuss, when I am working with the bags of soil, I use a mask so I don't blow black out of my nose for days...I guess there is some vanity after all)

Two Flew the Coop (or hive)

I am so sad. We had not one, but two hives, abscond! We worked so hard on our Hive #1. We bought a new queen, she left, died or was ousted because we ended up having a laying worker (all drones)! We emptied every bee out of the hive and then set them in front of the hive to re-enter, less the laying worker, (supposedly the colony won't let her back in) and put in good brood from another strong hive with eggs and nurse bees. That was hard work, wearing beekeeping clothing and veils and gloves in the 100 degree June weather. But we did it. Shortly after they had made themselves a new queen. Success! With the continued heat and no rain and no pollen or nectar of any amount, they got into their honey stores. I guess when the queen saw how low that supply was, she decided to move her colony somewhere else. I could have prevented that if I had started feeding them earlier than August. Oh, I could kick myself! The new hive (AKA the Pond Hive) did the same thing. We must not have gotten food to them in time. 50% of our stock gone. That's a lot of money and a lot of (next year's) honey down the drain...

Ok, Lord, I am ready to see progress. I think you have shown me all the down side. Goats, rabbits, chickens, bees, garden...So, I am ready to see the flip side now. Amen.