More things I have noticed

I have noticed more changes now that I am home full time.  Although I have been intermediatelly fighting off whatever illness are attaching my already compromised immune system, I am enjoying figuring out new ways for our family to save.  Most of the savings start in the kitchen and garden.  We planted a lovely garden this year and most days are meatless, because I get protiens in other ways.  I picked about 10 lbs of tomatoes the other day and watched them sitting on the counter.  Well today I decided I needed a few things, spaghetti sauce, bbq sauce and ketchup.  Well the abundance of tomatoes could handle that.  So today I am making some spaghetti sauce.

So while looking into recipes I was making a shopping list for my pantry.  My old shopping list went a bit like this:
Oatmeal
Poptarts
Cereal
Eggs
Bread
Peanut butter
Jelly
and so on


My new list looks like this:
Molasses
Honey
Palm Oil
Cocoa powder
wheat flour
pastry flour
sea salt
kosher salt
petcin
vinager
grape seed oil
and so on


Funny how different it is when you cook from scratch and grow or raise the basics on your farm.

So in the next few weeks I have plans to make some items to freeze to test before the kids start school.
Homemade poptarts
breakfast sandwhiches
waffles
pancakes
homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwhichs (both peanutbutter and jelly will be homemade)
hotpocket type sandwhiches


Of course I will be canning soups and such.  My kids will have thermos' for their lunches and home made sandwhich breads.  I know this will save us alot cause the cost of school lunches is on the rise. 

The more items we can make at home the better.  Well Im off to conquer some goat milk soap making, wish me luck.

Chhhhhaaaa---chhhaaa---Changes

I have not even went back to see what I posted last on the blog as its been so long.  Regardless, I had went back to work for the past year.  Although I love my job and helping people, I have found that being around people tends to cause my auto immune disorder to flare up.  I have spent the past 3 months sick and/or fighting off some bacteria or virus.  So I spoke with my doctor who thought it would be in my best interest to step back from massage and regain control of the illness.  I do miss working daily but I have found things that I can do at home to keep me busy and possibly make some money.  With it being summer time the kids are home and not bringing home any extra germs, but I am still needing naps some days or at least rest.  The heat takes a toll on me too.  I have started two daily meds as well as eating cleaner and healthier.  All in all I seem to be regaining some control over it. 

Other happenings on the farm, we currently have ALOT of chickens all laying hens and 3 roosters.  Some chicks are in the brooder growing into some nice chickens.  Plus we have added ducks, 3 hens and 2 drakes.  A donkey and 7 goats (4 does and 3 bucks).  One of the bucks will be going to a new farm soon.  Another to the sale in the fall, if he makes it.  He is very young and the heat is getting to him.  Then we have Ginormous our Herd Sire, who is a beautiful Nubian.  I really lucked out on him and am very impressed with his personality.  He fit right in with our herd.  I do run our bucks with our does year round, although some people do not think that is a good idea, we are with our goats daily multiple times a day and it just doesnt make sense to seperate them.

I also put in a HUGE garden this year and have been reaping the benefits of it. 

We also have Talapia Blue fingerlings growing in  the "pond".  We will be offering fresh talapia to local restaraunts starting next spring.  I truelly can not wait.

Up in the city, not at the farm

Im in the city at my j-o-b.  Someday, I hope to work only 3 days a week and be on the farm the other  4 days.  Its a good goal.  I am fortunate that my hubby holds down the fort at the farm during the week.  I get to spend Sundays and Mondays hanging out with the animals.  Right now I am kinda happy to be at work cause it is a bit cooler than the old farm house. 

I know that the animals are doing well this morning.  The spoiled goats are getting ice water all day long, as well as the chickens.  We did decide that the horse needed a new home as she was not very conducive with the baby goats.  We were scared that with her spunkiness she would end up trampling a baby goat.  So we found her a new home and she is getting the attention she deserves. 

The heat index has been so high latelly that my chickens went on strike when it started.  I am hoping that they are just finding a nice shady spot to lay their eggs in.  We have not gotten eggs for about two weeks.  Hopefully this weekend, I can get post put in to give them a little enclosure outside the coop again.  I used the t-post for something else, isn't that the way it always goes.  Im trying to get hubby to build a three foot tall by twelve foot long enclosure, but he is worried the goats will try to stand on it.  So we are looking into other options.  Hope to figure that out this weekend as they do not need to be free ranging all day long, because of the egg loss.

Photos around the farm

Around the HOT farm

So we finally got around to naming our farm, no its not the HOT farm. Although the 109 degree temp today is what could cause us to name it HOT farm.  Anyway, we named our farm M&R Farm.  After much thought, we just used our intials.  They both stand for my first name and maiden name.  Plus my husbands first name and sir name.  So it works. 


Two of the mamas should be having babies anytime...based off my best estimates.  Also the way they are showing signs.  So hopefully babies will wait til the end of the month when it hopefully cools down.  But we are prepared if they are born tomorrow. 

The garden is growing, but I do not have the greenest thumb.  So far we have yellow squash, tomatoes, potatoes, some peppers and maybe carrots some day.

Tired of all the rain...its so wet

Its pretty wet around here these days.  Apparently Gran says that the water table is low here.  We need to figure out some remedies for the stall and goat house cause they are so wet inside.  The ground in them is gravel and then we put pine shavings on top.  Thinking of bringing in more gravel, which we need for the driveway too. Im also planning on opening up the stalls big side door tomorrow to dry it out a bit, if the weather cooperates.

On to better things, we are now getting 7-10 eggs a day from our 22 mature laying hens.  I have been told that production should be better.  So I am trying to figure out why they have slowed in production.  Going to clean out the coop on Monday once I send the ladies out for the morning.  This will help me see if we have any shells and also, might help with their laying.

The goats and horse are doing well also, just know that they would like a drier place to sleep.  So like I said we will work on drying out the stalls tomorrow and Monday also.

Long time no blog.

So my computer crashed awhile back and is still not running great.  I am able to get on the other computer now.

Our New Fire Pit

Walkway from front porch to the mailbox.

Anyways, we have been busy around here.  This past Sunday afternoon, my hubby and I went out and collected rocks, some flat and some larger ones.  We had been discussing having a fire pit in the side yard.  My kids love campfires and I thought this would be a great way to have one anytime we wanted.  So we got rocks for that purpose.  While we were getting those rocks a couple lightbulbs went off and we thought, we could use these large flat ones to line the walkway to the mail box from the front porch.  The original plan for that was just pea gravel and landscape timbers.  But the flat rocks look alot better. 

The other thing that has been going on is we got our first egg.  Although the egg was cracked, we did get an egg.  I am very happy because it has been 25 weeks and 4 days...yes I was counting.  I have some Giant chickens that are just about 8 weeks old that I am waiting for them also.  So this time I will know to wait just a bit longer than 22 weeks.  We also added white light to the coop.  Before I had just a heat lamp with a red light bulb in it.  So it was a bit darker.  So the chickens were not getting the daylight hours the needed to lay.  I am going to get a timer for the white light so that it will come on at 4am and shut off at 9pm.  That way we can maximize the daylight in the coop.

Our 1st official egg

Today I am making amish friendship bread.  I let my starter sit for a couple extra days, so I am hoping it still comes out.  Its in the over baking right now.  Smells lovely around the homestead today.

Garden in

So the seedlings I started didn't work out.  I waited til after first frost and my second cousin could come till the land.  Fortunatelly he had done it in the fall, so I was pretty quick and painless. 
Anyway this morning, I woke up with the sun and planted most of our veggies.  I have to get tomatoe starters later this week and put them in.  But so far we have potatoes, carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, radishes, squash, cucumbers, peas, beans, corn, watermelon, honeydew, strawberries and possibly pumpkins.  I will also plant three more rows of corn in a couple weeks, to keep the crop coming through the summer. 

I also was able to wash and groom the horse yesterday.  We finished the stall and goat house.  My sons cleaned up and have been helping with our front fence.  I hope to have it done sometime this week as our dogs need the excersize area. 

Awww Spring Finally

So now I am back from vacation and did a bit of work this past week.  I was finally able to get to the farm today and get more things done.

So far, we planted three trees and a blueberry bush.  The trees are peach, apple and dwarf cherry.  I hope they do well.  We have a big storm coming through but I put them in two days ago, so I hope they stay rooted.  I didn't put any tree stakes in, so keeping my fingers crossed for that one. The blueberry bush is in the front of the house in the "flowerbed" area.  I will not be putting in a flower bed anytime soon.  I actually plan on getting some more berry bushes planted in that space, but for this year we are starting with one.  Hopefully it does well also.

Yesterday I was able to pick up some bedding for the stalls and the chicken coop.  I had planned to clean the coop out today but we were working on the stall.  We got the door finally cut out and put back in.  I love it.  I also love that Ryan is so very handy.  I don't know what we would do if he wasnt.  I am way to impatient and use way to many nails, screws, boards what ever to accomplish the same thing.  So he makes it functional and very nice looking.  I tell him that he should sell some of his projects but he said that is not why he does it.

I now have three pregnant does.  Yeah, very proud of my little nubian/boer cross buck.  I was worried that he would not breed until the fall and I would have to wait til next spring for my milk.  I still have one doe in milk, she has a 12 month old doeling, who thinks she still needs to nurse.  Fine by me but I really need to get back to milking to bring her milk back in full force til a month before she has her babies.  My mission for this week, is to get her on the milk stand daily, even if it is just to feed and check her out.

Finally, my chickens are now 5 months old plus the 1 month old chicks.  I should be getting some eggs soon I think, it has been about 20 weeks and they all seem to be doing quite well.  They free range during the day and then get layer pellets at night once they are back in their coop.  I am needing to get some gravel or something brought in due to mud issues we have going on.  Apparently the water table is very high here, so you dig a hole and its already wet.  Not sure how to figure out the drainage but I will soon.  But for now my goats, horse and chickens play in the mud....the kids too.

That is all for now. 

It is hard work

No one ever promised you a rose garden.  Some famous guy quoted that about the Marine Corps.  Anyway, its been tough this week working and trying to keep up on the farm chores.  Fortunatelly Ryan handles most of the stuff during the day.  We have one goat in milk that we are milking once a day.  I am trying to figure out how to keep that in the schedule.  Ryan doesn't know how to milk yet.  He will be getting a lesson tonight around 8pm, when I get home. 

I am leaving for a womens retreat tomorrow for the next 9 days.  Whew, it was tough for me to give up and go.  Yes, I did say give up.  I have to give up alot of control over things to go on this trip.  I have to give up a week of work.  I have to give up milking and spending time with the kids, to recharge myself.  It is odd in the past 8 yrs I have only went somewhere by myself once for about 9 days.  But that was to go see my mom, so I was still with family.  It will be tough to let go for 9 days and only focus on me.  I have to set a standard of how much texting and calling I will do when on this trip.  I am always connected.  It is hard not to be connected. 

So I will leave with this picture of our little barnyard this morning. 
I will be back posting after the 28th. 

Kansas Patriot Guard

I am not sure if I have ever written about this on here.  I spent 8 1/2 years in the Marine Corps.  My husband spent 10 years in the Marines.  My little sister, just started her 4 years of service this past summer.  My grandfather was a Veitnam Naval Veteran and I am not sure how far it goes back, but military service is in our blood. 

This morning, I road with my Step mom and aunt, little brother and sister to a funeral for a fallen Naval brother in arms.  The Kansas Patriot Guard was creating a flag line to protect the family from protesters of the funeral.  I will not post the name of the organization that was protesting as I do not want to give them the "honor" of advertisement of their group.  Regardless, I was given a flag on a large staff and asked to stand tall and proud along side 200 plus other people.  The respect for our fallen comrad was so wonderful, I was brought to tears on a few occassions.  I saw veterans, babies, families and fellow military members, line around the funeral home. 

I pray that our presence, even at this sad time in their lives,  brought some peace to the grieving family.

Time Change, Snow, and goats feet

I worked most of Saturday, so my weekends are Sunday and Monday now.  Of course there was the time change and then the weather decided it wanted to hang out with winter some more.  So I awoke at 5am, but it was really 6am.  So I got up and started on mount laundry.  After starting the laundry, I ran out and did morning chores.  While doing morning chores I noticed a few things, one being that for some reason the chicken coop door was loose and no longer staying completelly closed.  So I knew we needed to get the door fixed with a latch. 

So I came in and had breakfast. 

After breakfast, I went out and fixed the door latch. Got the baby chicks set up in the big coop with some chicken wire to keep the big chickens out of their area.  Next, I worked on the  milk stand for the goats.  The head gate was not holding the goats properlly. So I went to Fias Co Farm website and adjusted my milkstand just a bit.  The headgate now matches theirs.  Although I still need to tweek it with the feed bucket.  Not sure but for some reason mine sits way to low and it makes milking difficult.  I am thinking of attaching it to the barn wall and just setting up that way.  Not sure.  Always a learning experience here on the homestead.

After I finished the stand, I started trying to figure out what is going on with JarJar one of my milking does, who I thought had dried up.  The other day I noticed her 1 yr old doeling was still trying to nurse. All the more reason to bottle raise your babies.  She also had some redness in her utter when she climbed up on the fence. I put her up on the stand to see what was all going on.  She had some flaking on the udder and was engorged.  I milked her out and cleaned the udder really well.  I have done research on mastist, but she does have a fever or hot udder.  So we will be continue to monitor. I looked at her hooves also.  I trimmed the hooves of two of the goats.

Then starts the rain. I went inside and created dinner.  Woke up to snow this morning...um where is Spring.

Daytime Job and Farm work

Yesterday I started my new job.  My commute to work is 50 minutes one way.  Fortunatelly I do not have to be at work til 10am and am headed home no later than 6pm.  Obviously, being on the farm, I have to do chores.  So we are working on a system to get the chores done in a timely manner, so I do not feel as though all I do is work and come home to work.

Ryan did great yesterday making sure things with the kids went well.  I did make it home by 5pm yesterday as it was the first day of work.  Once it gets busy though I know I will be later in the evening.  I am fine with doing the morning set of chores.  I get up with the kids at 6am anyway and don't leave for work til 8:30 or 9:00.  So I have time to feed and check water.  Overall the morning chores minus milking take about 30 minutes to complete and that is so I can spend some time with the animals. 

We are currently down to 4 goats, 1 horse, 22 chickens and 15 chicks, plus 3 dogs.  The snow is gone right now and the horse and goats have a big round bale they are working on.  So they get feed in the evening and water is checked morning and evening.  The chickens get fresh water morning and evening, plus grain.  The dogs all get fed morning and evening, plus fresh water.  Right now it isn't much.

I am also spritzing my plant seedlings twice a day.  Some have already popped up through the soil.  I hope they will fair well.  So far its marigolds, broccoli, califlower, and corn coming through. I plan on Sunday to plant the peas and corn in the garden, if it dries out enough for my cousin to come work the ground.  I would like them in the ground before I go on vacation next weekend.

After the spring really sets in the work load on the farm will increase to garden working, possibly milking, egg collecting and general clean up.  Summer time will require extra watering during the day, the goats are picky about dirty water so we have a small trough that if need be we will drain out and refill with fresh water.  The warmer weather also brings into account new projects.  We need to lay floor in my boys' room and paint.  Then we will move the boys into one room together.  My daughters room needs painted and we will move her to the front part of the house.  After that we have a college exchange student coming to live with us in the fall, so her room will also need to be painted.  She has lived with us before and is like family.  We will also be putting in the window a/c's this summer again as I think we faired pretty well with them last year.  We did buy a new thermostat for the house and that may help the regular a/c run better, but we will have to test it on a hot spring day.   Otherwise we will stick with the window a/c's one more summer and then with work will be able to get the new central air unit next fall.

So lots of things going on but hopefully we will get in the groove with all of it soon.  Off to day two of the new job.

Harder than I thought...

So today was the day for our nigerian dwarf goat to go to freezer camp.  Our help arrived an hour late so that put us way behind schedule.  I want to post that there will be no pictures posted of the process.  I can put a link of how we did it on here but I did not want to take pictures.  Link will be at the bottom.

So our help came over with a 22 rifle.  We captured the goat and brought her into the back of the barn.  Ryan said his peace to her and then he left.  He is the softy here on the homestead and that is okay, I don't mind my sensitive cowboy.  After Ryan left my help and I got the goat into position and that was that. 

Ryan came back in and we used a tpost to hang the goat.  Then Ryan skinned the goat, which took a bit longer than I expected too.  After that we figured out how to get the guts out to put it nicely.  Then we began the butchering process. 

I applaude good butchers cause I have no clue how they get the good cuts they do.  We ended up with alot of roast type meat, stew meat and meat I will later grind up...once I get a grinder. Regardless, we have meat.  It will taste good however it is cooked and it will feed my family. 

The size of the goat we had, would diffinatelly not have been worth the $75 set price to butcher the goat.  I think we would really have to rethink the process if we ever choose to do it again.  That said....Im not very good at killing my own food.  I know also that it took an emotional toll on Ryan as well.  We are new to all this but a deer is very different than an animal you have had on your property for months.  We shall see how we fair with chickens.

For anyone who wants a detail and graphic description on how to butcher a goat here is a  link (GRAPHIC WARNING)

Home Butchering LINK

Free Range Chickens, baking bread and homemade stew

Today is beautiful 50 degrees.  It started early this morning with frost.  Sundays are the days I get the paper and donuts for the kids.  This was a tradition my dad did when I was growing up and I try hard to do it for our kids.  I only get the paper for the coupons and I know there are alot of free ways to get coupons.  I clip those online too.  But this is a little treat for the kids, so we try to do it.

After we went to the store to get the donuts and paper, my hubby and I came home to hang with the kids.  I then decided to put some stew meat in the crockpot with veggies and will either make mashed potatoes or put them in soon.  Haven't decided yet...although the kids like mashed potatoes.

After that, I hung out on the web a bit.  Then I decided homemade bread would be outstanding with the beef stew.  So I researched an easy recipe online and started it up in the bread maker.  I used to make our bread for the week every Sunday.  So I am thinking I will start this again also.

After all that, the weather was just too nice to be inside.  So I left the bread machine and crockpot to do their work.  I went outside and decided it was time to see if the chickens would free range without getting into trouble. So I let them out for an hour and it seemed to work out nicely.  So I took down the makeshift chicken yard and let them go.  Now they are foraging bugs for protien and I know in a couple weeks once they start laying my eggs will be tasty.

Our total acreage that is now fenced in is 3.85 acres.  I have 5 goats, 1 horse, 23 chickens, 3 dogs and 15 new chicks on our little farm. 

Bread just beeped, so I am off.  Have a blessed day.

Freebies

Tomatoe Seeds FREE HERE 

Free Vegetable Garden Guide from BURPEE

Free Beekeeping Guide BEES



Seedlings

I have a brown thumb, I admit it.  Yet I still want to have veggies. I recieved my first seed cataloge and that tended to start the whole ball rolling.  I picked a bunch of veggies with Ryan.  The only thing he didn't like was beets. I plan on pickling some of the beets and feeding some to the Goats.  I am growing some of the stuff just for the animals. 

Anyway, I got 360 spaces to start seeds.  I am also going to use some old canning jars in the garden over the seedlings to keep them safe from deer and rabbit til they are well rooted.  I have some two liter bottles also I can uses if I don't recycle them for chicken waters.  I haven't decided on that.  Hopefully I will start seeing seedlings in about 10 days.  

I plan on taking a picture every three days.  Right now its just dirt. So nothing interesting to report or show on them just yet.

and on this farm....

Its been a busy week around here on the farm.  We put up 1800 feet of fencing, installed three gates, deep cleaned the stalls, recieved 15 more chickens (chicks) and have been nursing the livestock guardian dog back to health. 

First we worked on the fence.  What I was hoping would only take a day or two took four.  Im ambitious when it comes to things I think we can do.  As I said the other day we set corner post on Saturday.  Got the truck stuck and had it pulled out on Sunday morning.  Sunday it rained all afternoon, so we rested.  Which I believe Sunday is a day of rest regardless, so that is what we did.  Monday we started bright and early.  Stretched fence.  Learned that we did need tension wire, went to get that and some sticks to twist it.  We bought 9 gage wire and that stuff is tough.  Stretched four corners and had to go buy some more wire.  We worked til dark and I was tired and hungry.  So we came in with two corners left.  I know I am  loosing a day in there somewhere, but we finished up on Wednesday afternoon, after a couple trips back and forth to the farm store. 

The southwest corner of our fence.  My son is out with our livestock guardian. We also have to move our clothes line pole but I wanted the fence inline with the stalls which are directly north of this corner.

We then let the animals out, they were quite impressed with the new surroundings.  Our horse especially, ran a bit and kicked up her heals.  Our smallest goat hasn't been with the herd much so he is needing to learn his place is with them and not us.  Hopefully he outgrows the "pet" phase.  He is our only billy, so I need him to be social with the ladies.

I deep cleaned the stalls yesterday and left it open all night to dry out, I hope.  I am currently waiting for the sun to come up so I can go out to check out how everyone did last night in there new surroundings.  Hopefully all faired well and no one found any weak spots in the fence.

We also got 15 new chickens that are supposed to be larger chickens than my last group.  Our neighbor ordered too many and offered us to buy some.  We got them at a great price so I brought them home yesterday.  They are three weeks old, so still in our brooder.  The temps are supposed to drop down again tomorrow, so I will have to see how they survive.  I think the neighbor might have been keeping them a bit warm because they are slow to feather out.  The picture below is what they are supposed to look like grown up.  We only got pullets (females), they are brown egg layers as well as meat chickens.  I like dual purpose animals.  Our chicks are not as small as the ones in pictures and have feathered out.  I plan on getting some more pictures around the farm today. 



Our livestock guardian has some hot spots on her legs that have gotten pretty bad.  We got her free and she seemed fine until the next day.  She had ear mites and fleas pretty bad.  So we started treating for the mites, which are still an issue.  Now with the hotspots I have her on an antibiotic and still working on her ears.  We are also giving her meds for the fleas.  Apparently the neighbor said the flea population is horrible around here.  Which we knew last year with our inside dog. 

Fencing

Yes we are still discussing fence around here, at least for a few more days.  Who would have thought.  We bought our stuff on Wednesday to put the post in.  Well Thursday, it stormed horribly and even gave us more of the white stuff.  Yuck.  So the ground was really wet.  Friday, I had class in the city for work.  So I drove up there and it was still pretty nasty weather and cold.  We also had a friend that was going to come dig the post holes with a tractor, that was unable to make it.  So I checked the forecast and it looked as though Saturday would be a good day to get the post in and cemented.  I ran to the store to buy a manual post hole digger and handle for the pick ax thingy. So, came home and started in on the post.  Was happy for the rain cause the ground was soft. We put in 36 wood corner and gate post. After we put those in we hadn't had enough for the day, so we put in 120 tpost.  Now, its a waiting game til the cement cures.  Hopefully by tomorrow after noon, Ryan will feel that it is set enough to put in the cross beams to the corner post and then we can stretch the fence and run electric fence.   If not we plan on going out to my great cousins and borrow his Kubota, to move some junk piles that I am pretty sure the goats don't need to get into. 

We did have a bit of excitement yesterday while putting in the tpost.  There was a soft spot in the pasture and Ryan was driving the truck around with the trailor.  We got stuck.   He went and found someone to help pull us out.  That guy got stuck too.  So tried to pull it out with another persons smaller vehicle that didn't work, so they went and got someone else to help.  Got the helper pulled out but our truck sat til this morning.  We had a friend come over with a tractor to pull us out.  We then got out in about 2 seconds.

Ryan and I are both feeling muscles from the work on the fence yesterday, but I still want to get tons done.  Not sure what I can do, but I am sure to find something.  Until then, I put a pot roast in the oven, did some laundry, and of course blogged.

Nesting Box Giveaway

Nesting Box Giveaway Farmman is giving away a two hole nesting box.  Click the link to enter to win. 

I would love to get a few of these for our chickens, although I have built our nesting boxes.  Hopefully our chickens will start laying soon.