Confessions of a Momma Farmer

Step Right Up For A Fresh Cup Of "What The Hell Is That?"!

2012-01-25T09:00:00.001-06:00

I've turned over a new leaf in life! Well, I wouldn'texactly say "turned over" more like I've squished and wrung out...

To catch you up...

During the months that followed summer, I started thisreally strange routine. I was doing the same amount of nothingness day in andday out. My day would consist of; getting up early to get the kids off toschool, after that I would go on safari and graze my way through the fridge.Then I'd start watching TV for a few hours, and I then finished up my afternoonwith a nap until the kids came back home. When they got home, I did the"motherly thing" until the youngest went to bed at 7:30. 7:30 becamemy bedtime as well.

Day after day this went on. I didn't do it because of anyform of "depression", I did it purely out of "boredom". Ididn't know what else to do with myself, or my time. Summer was over, both kidswere in school,the weather was cold and dark, and all of my friends workedduring the day. It was just me, myself, and I every day and that got old veryquick. Eating and napping were a very satisfying way of killing large amountsof time.

November is when my new "lifestyle" really hadstarted to show. I don't own a people scale, (I could care less how much mybones, blood, and hair weigh!) but I knew something was a wry just by the waymy clothes were fitting on my body. Before I knew it I couldn't fit the clothesI had just wore during the peak of summer. I had sky rocketed up 2 pant sizesand 2 shirt sizes.

Along with my instant weight gain, I had absolutely noenergy to do anything at all. Even walking across the house became tiring forme. If I didn't do something, and do it quick, my health would perish.

In December, I kicked around the idea of taking someexercise classes at the local YMCA. This was tough for me because I had nevertaken an exercise class before, and didn't even know what to do in the class orhow to go about joining. I was comfortable doing farm work, and I couldn'timagine myself in a snobby suburbia Yoga class! In the end, I ended up selecting5 classes; Cycling, Aqua Yoga, Pilate's, (land) Yoga, and Tai-Chi. All were dueto start the week of January 9th.

While waiting for time to tick by, and my classes to start Istarted watching some documentaries on food and it's relation to the body. Iwatched the documentary "Fat, sick and nearly dead". Boy was that aneye opener! It really had me thinking of my own self and how I could apply mynewly learned knowledge.

For those not familiar with that documentary, it is about amiddle aged gentleman who was grossly overweight and had some minor healthissues going on. He learned that by feeding the body the nutrition it needed-by extracting it from plant matter (aka: Using a juicer) he was able tosignificantly reduce his weight, and cure his ailments.

Next came the documentary titled "Forks overknives". That documentary taught me the same principle in diet as thefirst. With those two under my belt I went on a mission to learn more aboutthis way of thinking. Both follow a whole foods, raw food, vegan type ofapproach.

I knew I wanted to take on this challenge. Even if Iwouldn't be on a 100% raw foods diet- "close" would be better thannothing at all! Now... I needed a juicer...

After many hours of reading product reviews, and watchinginformational videos I decided the juicer that would suit me best was calledthe Omega Vert HD juicer. Let's just say you have to be REALLY committed tothis because they sure don't just give these juicers away! $400.00 later*cough!*, juicer in hand...

It arrived one afternoon upon returning from a lunch outing(go figure, isn't that Murphy's Law? It comes after I just pigged out) But Iwas so eager to juice something!

My very first juice was apple juice. I was mortified with myfirst sip! What an unexpected texture! Did I mention I HATE pulp in orangejuice?? The juice was so full of pulp that I didn't know if I should chew it ordrink it. I chalked it up to having old apples, and that fresher apples wouldbe less pulpy.

My second juice was an apple / carrot mixture. I learnedright away that carrots have a very strong flavor and can easily over power thesweet taste of apple, but I got through it.

Even though it was fun to juice everything in sight I hadrealized that I needed a plan... Like a recipe book!

2 books on raw food/smoothies, and $60.00 on produce at thegrocery store later- I was on my way!

My first real green juice was called "PowerGreens" and consisted of: 2 apples, 3 stalks celery, 2 handfuls ofspinach, 1/2 fennel bulb, 3 romaine lettuce leaves, 2 kale leaves, 1" ofginger, and 1/2 a lemon.

Words do not describe how awful this looked, smelled, andtasted. Not to mention it was thick like V8 juice! It was SO bad it tookeverything I had not to throw up while drinking it! But I plugged my nose andchugged. Vowing not to do THAT again.

After that experience, I stepped back and made juice thatwas more fruit based with a minor amount of green plants. These were muchbetter tasting!

My biggest "thrill" has been taking a picture ofeach of my masterpieces and posting them to my facebook wall. Each one nastierlooking then the last! Blueberries,apples, banana, and spinach make a reallydisgusting looking drink! I've laughed at the multitude of "what the Hellis that?" comments I have received!

All in all, I'm not 100% veggie. I'm trying, but let's notforget that I do have freezer upon freezer of frozen meat that we have raisedhere on the farm. I've been trying to juice 2x's a day and eat one small meal.Not to mention, juicing is expensive! I've blown through more fruits/veggies in3 days than I have in an entire month. Being Winter doesn't help either. It'snot like I can walk outside and pick my meal.

On a positive note, I have noticed that in the twoweeks of starting exercise classes (3 on Monday, 2 on Wed., and 1 on Thurs.),and with the few days of juicing I have in, that my energy level and mood havegreatly improved! I have pep in my step! I haven't lost any weight (I don'tcount 1/2 a pound as a major loss)yet- but I am feeling fantastic about my newlifestyle and choices, and feel good about the path that I am heading down.

Hello Insecure nice to meet you! Bye-Bye Sanity...

2011-05-29T02:22:00.007-05:00

OK, outside of my quit smoking blog entry... I pretty much don't ever talk about anything on a very personal level. Most blog entries are trials and tribulations regarding my livestock.

But I have to write about this- because it is serious to me, and of course I have nobody else to talk to...And recognize this, I am a VERY opened minded person when it comes to relationships...Let's just say, most people do not share my open minded views (no, I'm not into weird swapping and all that jazz!)

SOOO.. here's the beginning:
It is a Saturday night. Earlier in the day, my girlfriend had asked me to go to a local bar with her. Even though it wasn't my bar of choice I decided to go to hang with my friend. My husband knew where and who I was going out with. He also said that he was going to go "find something to do" tonight.

We each got ready, and I left our house before him. It was almost 8:30 when I had left. I am not a big "going out" person and so we (girlfriend and I)went early, so that I didn't have to stay up till the crack of dawn!

after roughly half an hour after my arrival by my friend, I text my husband to see what his plans were for the night. He didn't tell me what/where/who his plans were with before I had left... He text back saying that he was going to go out to some campsite of his buddy's. No big deal... I then thought about it a little more and so I had asked him if he was coming back home tonight. Figuring camping, drinking with the guys, I wouldn't want him driving drunk. He didn't answer me. So I asked again (in not so many words) and he still continued to ignore my question.

Meanwhile, at the bar- I was having a good time. Chatting with my girlfriend... I had 2 beers and 2 shots at the time. Because of who I am, I was starting to get bored. I was also feeling kinda lonely, so I had started texting my husband. I would like it if he came out to where I was at, if he wanted. Because I had been drinking, and he had mentioned coming out by me, I asked him if he would give me a ride home, and I would leave my car there until morning. I'm not a big drinker- and I was already starting on Soda.

Another hour and a half had passed before he said he was on his way. No big deal, I thought perhaps he was having fun w/ his buddies. It's after midnight.
Here and there I kept texting him- funny things, not "naggy" things :)
And I noticed he wouldn't respond. When I finally asked whats up with that he said that he couldn't hear/feel his phone. No big deal...

Eventually he shows up at the bar... Here's the kicker.....

WITH SOME GAL. I was caught so off guard that I'm damn near speechless. I don't quite know what to say. I had been talking to him on and off most of the evening and never once did he mention being with her. Or bringing her.. But I do recognize this gal because I know that she's on his "Friends" list on Facebook, and that they message back and forth on there.

He introduces me to her, and proceeds to tell me that she is from North Carolina and that she is here for a funeral and that her car broke down - and so she CALLED HIM for help. I'm baffled. Why would my husband be the night in shining armor for his facebook "friend" from North Carolina??? Why wouldn't she call family?? Of course she's married, but a military wife, and he is always deployed. Oh look! Lonely housewife who has found refuge in my husband. How awesome is that??

So there they stand... I try to talk to the gal. I TRIED... But it was just making me REALLY uncomfortable. I just didn't know what to do- I'm clearly annoyed no matter how much I try to hide it. My girlfriend is looking at me clearly worried about my feelings- seeing that same scene that I am seeing before me.

I just didn't know what to do- No matter how much I wanted this to go away I can't turn around and talk to my girlfriend- that would be rude. But yet I couldn't act "sweet" on my husband, because that would make that gal feel uncomfortable. I didn't want to talk to her- just because I'm certain she can see the aggravation on my face.... So I did the only thing I felt I could calmly do:

In a rational, calm voice I said to him: Please take yourself, and her away from me. Please leave. You both are making me very uncomfortable. I will just take a taxi home. He of course insisted on telling me that nothing is going on (again, never mentioned he was w/ this gal...for hours...in any previous conversation. Not to mention, if the car REALLY did break down, and he was "helping her out" by giving her a ride to wherever she needed to go, why were they out for an evening on the town together??)

He told me that he would just give her his keys (aka: she take his vehicle) and he would stay with me and take mine. I'm by this time very frustrated- I've had one million bad scenarios rip through my head in less than 5 minutes- and I've instantly become super insecure (ok, I think I became super insecure the minute they walked in!- VERY UNLIKE ME) Anyway, I basically said "F" No! and thought why the hell would I want to continue this strangeness on day 2! So to get him and her to leave- I turned my back to them and entered my girlfriend's conversation until they had left a few seconds later.

I sat at the bar not quite sure what to do. Because my husband was coming to give me a ride, I had switched back to alcohol, and clearly not in a good position to drive myself home. So I sat there for a while longer. In the meantime my girlfriend kept asking me if I was OK. So I vented my frustration to her. Great, I've just become one of "those" types of people. I never tell my deepest feelings and suddenly, I'm in a bar- going off the deep end. Awesome. Bye-Bye Sanity...
(didn't cry though, THANK GOD! That would have been totally embarrassing!)

Again, I'm not a big "going out'er", or drinker. I wanted to go home but honestly- I didn't know how to call a cab! I felt so stupid... They all told me the number and what to say when they answered. Yeah me!! I did it!

While I was waiting for the cab to come (didn't know how I would know when they got there!) my girlfriend told me that it was OK to not be OK. I of course ignored that bit of info, and kept my chin held high, and tried not to let my eyes glass over from the tears that were just around the corner.

Sure, all of this may sound innocent- but there are too many things that just don't jive: Why did this strange facebook friend call him and not her family/friends? Are they better "friends" than I'm being led to believe? Why if he was rescuing her from her stranded vehicle, were they out together all night long? Why didn't he tell me he was with her? Why didn't he say he was coming out to me with "friend" in tow? How long have these two been "close" friends?? And why the hell don't I know about this??

My girlfriend made an excellent point. That if things were as innocent as they had seemed, he should have taken his "friend" home- and have come back to the bar to pick up his slightly intoxicated wife and take her home. But nope. He never came back. I did end up taking that cab home. I got home almost an hour after he had left the bar with her. He text me just as the cab pulled into our driveway to tell me that he was "Home now".

I paid the cab driver the $30.00 ($25.00 + $5.00 tip)that I owed him to take me home to B.F.E. Again, Awesome. I couldn't think of a better way to blow that money.

Here's the kicker... One of his cars are gone. So I called him, he answered in a very sleepy (like he had been sleeping for hours- not in the house for the past 5 minutes) voice (faker!!). I went inside and asked him where the car was (duh, like I couldn't figure out the answer??) He gave it to her to use. Again, super awesome.

Long story short- I have trust issues with my husband because has made bad choices regarding his "behavior" in the recent past. Just this last summer he was meeting a gal that he hooked up with through a singles dating line, in a park, all while telling me he was at work. I just happen to find out by looking at his text messages (THE VERY FIRST TIME I HAVE READ HIS PHONE TEXTS - lucky me)about hooking up again, and how they each had a good time. Of course he claimed that nothing happened.

Anyway, back to tonight: So I asked him the who/what/why of this gal, and as it turns out they text each other weekly. And that he was great friends with her his whole life (funny, we've been together 11 years and have never heard him mention her, and he hides texting her from me?)

All in all, my biggest issue has to do with being sneaky and deceitful: Not telling me about her in the past, his texting her continuously, his plan to get together with her tonight, not telling me he was spending his night out with her - when he first led me to believe he was going to a male buddy's cabin. I'm the type of person that believes if you don't have anything to hide (actions or feelings) you don't have anything to be hiding and to be sneaky about. Again, I'm open minded- it isn't the actions that alarm me- I wouldn't have issue of him having a woman friend, or texting a woman friend, or facebooking a woman friend- if it wasn't such a secret. I tell him anytime that i talk to a man, or text one, or i show him some of my funny conversations on FB. I'm not breaking any laws- and I'm not being sneaky and hiding anything- because there IS nothing to hide.

As my mind races, I wonder how this evening WOULD have went (again, my road to Hell is paved with the words "WOULD"a, "coulda" & "Shoulda") What if I didn't text him to convince him that I needed a ride home? Would he have ever told me about being with her all night? And remember, he never did answer my text about if he would be coming home tonight- Perhaps he was waiting to see how his night would go with her and then decide?

All in all, if he has never fessed up about his "best of friends" relationship with this gal, I whole heartily doubt he would have "done the right thing" during a night with her, without me. Remember... He never fessed up about the chick he was seeing behind my back before- only said he was "SO Sorry" when I caught him at it. I hate people that are only sorry about something when they have been CAUGHT!

And lastly, I'm going to swear here- Fucking Awesome! Now I get to deal with her having one of our cars... Yes, she has family here- she used to live her. Her kid was at a relatives while she was hanging with my husband. Lucky me.

Who the Hell am I?? Me in a 1000 words or less!

2011-05-27T12:54:00.004-05:00

********************UNDER CONSTRUCTION**************************

(HEE HEE!)
**SNARK!**

15 minutes of Momma Drama = 8lbs of Spirit Redemption

2011-05-25T12:50:00.002-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUKkKIMr3q8

This is the way goat kids should be born! Well, I would prefer a little less ""Momma Drama"" associated with it- but a live birth is WAY better than body recovery...

Because of the length, YouTube made me break up the video into a few segments. Above is the link for video #1.

And if you are REALLY pressed for time, skip video number 1, and go straight to #2-#4.

video #2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRqQhgSG8qc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

video #3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udL7dHn59l4&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

video #4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4scMgD8vuQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

A haunting decision... When to let go and walk away...

2011-05-24T08:18:00.007-05:00

First off, let me start off by saying a couple things...

I am grateful for all of the mindless documentary television that I used to watch.

I am grateful for having an interest in "off the wall" topics.

I am grateful for not being one to dive into situations blindly.

I am grateful for my nightly 2 am wake ups- where most of my deep thinking occurs.

I am grateful that for the most part, I always error on the side of caution.

Now, with that out of the way! Let's get down to business!

Through the "vine" we have been offered an old small two story grainery. It is still standing, and if we wanted it, it would be our responsibility to dismantle it. This is a beautiful historic building! It is not very large, I guessed it to be roughly 20'x30', and approx. 20' tall. It is sided with your classic rough barn board red siding, and has a (rusted) steel roof. The interior is constructed with hand hewn timbers, and has plank flooring both on the main floor and in the upper level. The condition of the building is solid. Definitely worth salvaging instead of having it bulldozed to the ground.

Old fashioned wood barns (regardless of size) are a incredible piece of our American history! It is becoming almost impossible to find a treasure in such good shape. If in doubt, just take a drive through the countryside- what do you see? Due to customization, cost effectiveness, and construction time, you see livestock being housed in new metal pole buildings. Rarely do you see an old wood barn in functional condition. More than often you see them falling down, condemned because of their condition, and rotting. Becoming more and more forgotten with each passing day.

This tiny tall barn would be perfect for us! In addition to breathing new life into the building- It could house our hay in the upper story, and we could add sheep and goat pens to the main floor.

It all sounds pretty "Dreamy" doesn't it?? Well... Here's the bad...

This building is currently bursting at every seam and is packed with "stuff". We are learning that we will be responsible for removing said "stuff" if we want the building. This "stuff" is of such diverse nature that I cannot even begin explaining the actual contents. I can say that said "stuff" pretty much has absolutely no street value- and it would even cost me to landfill it. Most "stuff" will be sorted and recycled (paper, wood, plastic, glass) and a portion of the "stuff" will be donated to Habitat for Humanity to become recycled building supplies.

Still sounds do-able right???

Well not so fast! With an abandoned barn packed with misc. "stuff" comes vermin.... And LOTS of them. The two times I have been in the barn I have not seen any- But I can smell that they are there. The signs are every where. Mouse nests, mouse droppings, the familiar smell of mouse urine (did you know that a mouse/rat has absolutely no bladder control and that they urinate continuously? A tid bit for you!)

And then that made me start to think about something I had learned once about mice and their droppings/nests/dust... and that brings me back to the title of this blog entry.....

Below this is the information. I don't expect you to actually read the entire article- but know that it is serious, and can actually be fatal.

And to think, my only major concern prior to this discovery was somebody falling to their death off the roof of this thing while tearing it apart.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hantavirus

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome [HAN-tuh-vi-rus PUL-mun-air-ee SIN-drome] (HPS) is a rare but serious, and often deadly, lung infection.

HPS is caused by a type of virus called a hantavirus. The hantavirus that causes HPS is carried by rodents found throughout North America.
People get HPS when they breathe in dust that is contaminated with saliva, urine, or droppings from infected rodents.
No anti-virus drug is effective against HPS, and there is no vaccine.
To prevent HPS, avoid contact with rodents, and avoid inhaling dust that might be contaminated with rodent urine, saliva, or droppings.

What is hantavirus pulmonary syndrome?

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a rare but serious, and often deadly, lung infection.

What is the infectious agent that causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome?

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is caused by the Sin Nombre virus. This virus is a type of hantavirus. Most hantaviruses attack the kidneys, but the Sin Nombre virus attacks the lungs. It infects the walls of the capillaries (tiny blood vessels in the lungs), making them leak and flooding the lungs with fluid.

Where is hantavirus pulmonary syndrome found?

Hantaviruses are found in rodents in different parts of the world. Each hantavirus has a preferred rodent host. The Sin Nombre virus is carried by the deer mouse, the cotton rat, and perhaps other rodents common throughout North America. These rodents live in semi-rural and rural areas and infest camps, old buildings, barns, and homes.

How do people get hantavirus pulmonary syndrome?

Wild rodents spread HPS to people. The Sin Nombre virus is passed in the saliva, urine, and droppings of infected rodents. The virus can live for a few days in contaminated dirt and dust. People are infected when they breathe in tiny particles of these materials in dust from places where rodents are living and active. People can also be infected by handling contaminated materials and then touching the mouth or nose.

HPS is not spread from person to person. Cats and dogs do not spread the illness either, although they can bring infected rodents into contact with humans.

What are the signs and symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome?

The first symptoms are general and flu-like: fever (101oF-104oF), headache, stomach pain, pain in the joints and lower back, coughing, and sometimes nausea and vomiting. The main symptom is difficulty breathing as the lungs fill with fluid. This can quickly lead to an inability to breathe and, in severe cases, death from suffocation.

How soon after exposure do symptoms appear?

Symptoms can appear from 3 days to 6 weeks after infection, but usually within 2 weeks.

How is hantavirus pulmonary syndrome diagnosed?

Because the early symptoms are not specific and vary from person to person, HPS is hard to identify in its early stages. It is usually detected only when it affects the lungs and causes breathing problems.

Who is at risk for hantavirus pulmonary syndrome?

Unlike many illnesses that mainly strike people with weakened immune systems, HPS has hit mostly strong, healthy persons. Those who work, play, or live in closed spaces with active rodent infestation are at risk, although the chances of infection are low. The risk to campers, hikers, and tourists is very small.

People who should take special precautions against HPS are: 1) people who often handle or are exposed to rodents, such as wildlife biologists and exterminators, 2) people who clean or work in attics or crawl spaces where rodents might be living and active, and 3) people who clean or renovate buildings that might be actively infested with rodents.

What complications can result from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome?

Infected persons can develop untreatable respiratory failure. HPS is fatal to more than half of those who become infected.

What is the treatment for hantavirus pulmonary syndrome?

No virus-killing drug is effective against HPS. Although there has been some experimental use of the anti-virus drug, ribavirin, mechanical ventilation (use of a respirator) is the main treatment. Most patients need to be hospitalized in intensive care. The sooner an infected person gets medical treatment, the better the chance of recovery.

How common is hantavirus pulmonary syndrome?

HPS is a rare disease. It was first recognized in 1993 after the investigation of an outbreak of sudden fatal respiratory illness in the southwestern United States. Since then, no more than 100 cases of HPS have been identified in 20 states, mostly in the western part of the country.

Is hantavirus pulmonary syndrome a new or emerging infectious disease?

Yes. The Sin Nombre virus is a newly recognized virus, and HPS is a newly recognized disease. Scientists are working to learn more about it and to develop diagnostic tests and treatments.

How can hantavirus pulmonary syndrome be prevented?

The best way to prevent HPS is to avoid contact with rodents and to avoid inhaling dust that might be contaminated with rodent saliva, urine, or droppings.
Control mice inside. Keep the kitchen clean, and store food and trash in containers with tight lids. Carefully dispose of dead rodents trapped indoors or brought inside by pets. Rodent-proof the house by sealing cracks and clearing brush from around foundations.
Control mice outside. Eliminate possible nesting sites. Elevate hay, woodpiles, and garbage cans, and place them away from the house. Store animal food in closed containers.
Use safety precautions when cleaning indoor or outdoor areas that might be contaminated with rodent saliva, urine, or droppings. Do not stir up and breathe dust. Before cleaning, wet down potentially contaminated areas with a household disinfectant (such as bleach or alcohol). While cleaning, wear rubber gloves, and disinfect them after use. Dust masks that cover the nose and mouth can also help.
When participating in outside activities, stay clear of rodents and their burrows and nests. Keep campsites clean and food tightly sealed. Open up and air out outbuildings and rural or wilderness cabins before entering or cleaning. Remove garbage and trash before leaving.

Where can I find more information about hantavirus pulmonary syndrome?

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hanta/hantvrus.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hanta/hps/index.htm

"Karate Kid(ding)"

2011-05-17T10:28:00.002-05:00

Who would have ever thought that the two words; "Karate" & "Kidding" would go together?? No one! Because frankly, they don't!

Just a few days back I had to take the little one to his very first Karate tournament. He had been waiting all week long for that Saturday to come. It started out as a great day; getting ready, getting his uniform & belt on, and painting his toenails "black-belt black" (don't ask). At the same time, I was informed that one of our young boer doe's had lost her mucus plug. Great!! That means birthing is right around the corner- and we should have some new kids to boot! What a fabulous day this was going to be!!

Him and I got to the tournament at 9:30 in the morning. This was (what seemed to me like) a bigger tournament and it was held at a local high school. We hurried inside because we knew that the little kids (his forms class) were up immediately following the bigger kids. It ended up being quite a bit of "hurry up and wait"- but with this being both of our first times, I didn't quite know what to expect!

The huge gym was electric with excitement and activity! Parents flocked the stands on each side, youngsters practiced doing whatever it was they were there to do that day, and in the middle of it were all of the black-belt judges monitoring students in a multitude of rings around the floor. The entire gym hummed like a finely tuned machine.

As I sat in the bleachers amongst all of this organized chaos, watching the morning events unfold I realized exactly how completely out of sorts I was!

What the heck was I doing at a Karate tournament??? I know absolutely NOTHING about Karate- Except for of course, the time that I told my teenage daughter to go "Kung Fu Crazy" on Roy, my big 300lb sheep who was trying to bash her into the next century! But that ended with her shoe flying off, and me laughing so hard that I fell in the mud and the sheep I was holding fell on top of me! Funny Stuff!

Anyway, I am by no means a HICK. Sure, I raise livestock- But if you saw me out in the "real world" you would never ever know it unless I told you. But being at this tournament was a real jolter for me. I realized that just this Spring, my daughter and I went to a hog auction to buy a young pig for fair- and never once did I feel as "lost" as I did that morning at the high school. I worked that hog auction like I owned it!~ :)

I'm just starting to make a few friends at my boy's karate classes... "Just starting" to- that's actually a really sad statement given he has been going to Karate 2x's week for the past EIGHT months! Hey! I'm not unfriendly, I'm just SHY and pretty much keep to myself.

OK, I better get back on topic- His performance in the tournament went on without a hitch. He was fantastic (OK, maybe just in my eyes!) and he was super stoked to receive his first trophy!

After smiles and lots of congrats and photos, we went home...

Checked on the doe to see if she was in labor yet. She was doing quite a bit of straining without any real progress in delivery. I didn't want to interfere quite yet, and so I waited. After a short while she started to deliver "substance"- her bag of waters was starting to appear. This looks like a water balloon that protrudes further & further with each contraction and push. This is part of the natural delivery process. Because this water/bag was black in color, I used my gloved finger to gently touch it to see if it was a kid or just liquid. It was just liquid. Within moments her water broke.

Everything to this point was going as God had intended it to go, and I had decided to step aside and let nature do it's thing. She is a very young doe (just turning a year), and this is her first kidding. I decided to not get her more nervous than she already was with my presence.

After roughly 30 minutes, my daughter went out to see if her kid was born. By this time she should be licking it dry. She came back in to tell me she was straining (contractions/pushing) getting nowhere. Not great. Now I'm starting to have my "oh shit" moment. Waters are supposed to break, and feet / nose are to follow almost immediately.

Grabbed my gloves... Couldn't find my Obstetrical lube in a pinch- So I grabbed veg. oil. And off my daughter and I went. She held the doe while I went "fishing". There I was, hand buried past my wrist in the doe trying to figure out what is out of place that she isn't delivering. I felt a large mass. Now trying to figure out exactly what THAT mass is, is VERY tough! At first I thought butt, then I thought back, but then I realized it was a head. I had a head and it was facing up towards the spine- and I could not find the front feet. (Ideally, babies are to be born nose / front legs first (like diving) out of the mother looking toward the ground, not the sky.)

Now I had the baby, facing the wrong direction (sunny side up) a nose without feet. My thought process was to flip the baby over, find the front feet, bring them up by the nose and deliver. So after a contraction I pushed the baby back in further (to give me some room) and tried to carefully log roll it. I thought that went well, I now had the head facing the right direction (looking down not up). I searched frantically for the front feet. Another incident where time is not my friend. My mind is visualizing the baby looking like a seal sliding across the ice- nose forward, on it's belly, legs tucked back along its side. For the life of me I cannot find the front legs. And then I found one, it was above the head. Now my mental visual changed to a swimmers front crawl stroke. So I tried to lower the leg to where it needed to be.

All of this action feels like it is taking forever, when in reality only about 5 minutes have elapsed. Time, time, time... slipping, slipping, slipping... If I don't get this baby delivered it will die of asphyxiation. Got one leg, and one nose -need to quickly find the other leg. The doe gives one monster push and delivers the head.

Oh crap! Now I'm stuck, the head can't go back in, and without legs first the baby can't come out. I'm now worried too about the baby being choked to death with each contraction of the doe- but the more and more I look at the baby, and it's lack of movement, and the whiteness of it's tongue- I realize that it is non-viable.

So, I call the vet. He tells me that if I remove the head, I then should be able to push it back inside the doe and find the feet to deliver the body. I know that last sentence is tough to read, trust me- it was tough to hear! But again, the baby is dead- and there's no bringing it back. Time to save Momma... Because I was completely out of scalpels I asked my vet if he wouldn't mind stopping out. (Needless to say- I'm now fully stocked in scalpels again!)

With each contraction of the doe I hold my hand against the baby's protruding head. My gears shift from saving baby, to saving momma goat and I don't want her to push so hard something else bad happens, because contractions don't stop just because the head is out.

Vet arrives within a short time. I explain all the events leading up to that moment. He tells me that everything I had done was correct. Granted, he is a very nice vet- and who knows if that is truth, or if he was just trying to "poo-poo it" as to not make me feel any worse! I hold the doe while he gloves up, inserts up to his ARM (noticed I didn't say hand!) and goes for broke! He is fishing around inside of her like a mad man. Yanking and shoving....

The first thing he tells me is that she is carrying twins. FRICK!!!! For whatever reason I had it in my head that it was a single- small doe, first kidding = single in my mind. He said the leg I had belonged to the other kid. He told me the best way to tell that is to shake/tug the leg- if the head doesn't bob- that leg belongs to a different body. And yet another piece of common sense advise that comes from experience.

He struggled quite a bit trying to untangle the two to remove the first twin. The second twin also was non viable and super stuck- it took him quite a bit to remove it from the doe. After watching him reef and tug I knew that the manipulating I was doing earlier - was nowhere near as forceful as he had been doing. I wasn't being a total "girl" about my manipulating- I was just more cautious than he... And so I asked him about it.

When everything was said and done, on the ground were two nice size twin boer goat kids; one traditional (brown head / white body) doeling, and one black/white belly band buckling. Both perished.

Gave the doe some Oxytocin to increase contractions to help her expel the afterbirth, gave her Penicillin for infection, and Banamine for pain and inflammation.

What a day it had turned out to be. One minute I'm having an extreme high, watching my boy feel like he accomplished the world, only to have the next minute come on like a firestorm and challenge me in every sense of the word.

Even though I can remain collected and confident, yet honest in my abilities during a crisis (meaning YES, I *could* cut the head off- if I had the tool to do it)- I'm not completely heartless. I did have a good cry later that night while playing the "woulda, coulda, shoulda" game in my head. I know I'm my own worst critic. But I do feel that if I would have been faster, more aggressive all while knowing it was a multiple birth- I think things may have been different.

As for my doe? She looks like an absolute train wreck on the back end. She is completely softball sized swollen to the right of her vagina. She prefers to lay over walk right now. It took 2 days for her to clean out (that worried me too!). Her appetite has been increasing (good sign). She is still on pain meds and penicillin.

Another young doe is going to kid within the next week... I pray that I don't have to go "go for broke" on her.

Wacky Stuff!! A Video to aMUSE you!

2011-05-10T09:47:00.004-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDr3-6eqRcA

This video is from last year. My daughter and I were trying to come up with a creative way to exercise our 4H Club lambs. We try to get as much muscle on them as possible for the show. The lambs get exercised every other day. They do cardio (Like what you see here) to trim down, and resistance training to build muscle.

This video was mainly for fun! It was the only time we had tried it. Sorry that the video is pretty low quality... Oh! And you may want to turn down your volume at first, it's a little loud :)

Playing with my food :)

2011-05-09T17:20:00.003-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnvQuB_wAM8

I remember being young and having my parents always say to me; "Quit playing with your food!"

Now that I am older, I have taken that phrase to a whole new level!

What do you get when you take one "Geeky" Female, two dirty Steers and a video camera???

This video Silly! What did you THINK I was going to say! :)

I love this quote! :)

2011-03-30T09:23:00.001-05:00

"The game of life is not so much in holding a good hand, as playing a poor hand well." --HT Leslie

"Addiction"... It's my middle name

2011-03-17T16:06:00.003-05:00

One month ago today, I decided to take back control of my life. Control that I haven't had since I was 12 years old. One month ago today I quit smoking.

I had always hated smoking. I was a total Cigarette hypocrite stuck in an addicts body. I hated the way it made me look, I hated the way it made me smell, I hated the way people thought I was a "lessor" person in society because of the fact that I smoked. Whenever I went to a restaurant, I always sat in non-smoking. I couldn't stand hearing the people hack. Not to mention the constant smell of cigarettes.

Now don't get me wrong, I was a complete addict. I had a pack a day habit for way over 20 years. Everyday buying cigarettes. And if I was out?? Watch Out! Hell have no furry like a woman out of cigarettes!

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out my fate when the time comes. God will give me a big fat "I told you so".

As you had read, I started smoking when I was 12 years old. I had a girlfriend that smoked and she wanted me to smoke too. Yup, I gave into pure pressure. She was my age and smoked in front of her mom, her mom didn't care. Speaking of parents.... At that time both my parents smoked. They had first found out about my smoking when I was in 7th grade. When I got suspended from Jr. High (for a day) for being caught smoking in the bathroom. They were NOT happy. They were downright pissed off to put it bluntly! I'm surprised they didn't make me eat their ashtray right then and there. They urged me not to smoke. Told me how addictive it was. But did I listen??? Of course not. My second "offense" was when I got suspended (for another day) a week after the first suspension for smoking insight of the school. I spent a lot of time grounded for those two offenses.

I was 19 years old and visiting some relatives in Canada on Christmas, when my mother finally accepted the fact that I smoked. I was so embarrassed to do it front of her. I remember hiding behind the Christmas tree (it was fake) smoking out of sight from her.

Life went on and my nagging habit followed me where ever I went. The decisions I had made throughout my life, whether good decisions or bad- Smoking was my constant. Smoking helped reduce my stress, it helped me calm my nervousness, it helped kill boredom. And if I was mad, it even helped me hurt the people that loved me most. Sometimes I smoked only because I knew it bothered the people I was with. It was my silent way of telling them I didn't care about their opinions/feelings. I smoked when I was sad. I felt I deserved the hurt and deserved to die just that much sooner. I was self abusive, butchering myself with cigarettes... Not suicidal.

I had tried to quit smoking once when I was 17 years old. It lasted for a couple of weeks, until one night I got the shocking news that my parents were in a very serious car accident. My rampant emotions caused me to run right back to smoking again. Seriously quitting had not crossed my mind until just this past year. I had learned about a new product that came out called the Electronic Cigarette.

I thought for sure that would become my savior. It had the sensation of smoking, it gave you nicotine, and it didn't "burn" anything- eliminating the toxins that I inhaled with conventional smoking. These fancy new fangled things didn't come cheap- $100.00 later... Yeah, it didn't work. As badly as I wanted to convert- it just wasn't the same as lighting up the old fashioned way. I tried again to quit a few months ago, and I managed to make it a whopping 7 days before something "traumatic" in my life turned me right back to my trusty, always constant, cigarettes.

I had been thinking quite a bit about my life: past/present, my choices, and my addictions. I realize I am an addictive person. I get addicted to things easily. For instance, I like to crochet. Most people that like to crochet, make a thing or two and put it away. I will crochet everyday for months on end. I like to read. Most people will read a little here or a little there. I will read everything I can get my hands on and if I don't watch it, it will consume my life. I have been addicted to people. Always pining for my next "fix" of their attention. The good news is that I'm pretty self absorbed these days- so no worries there! All I can say is Thank Heaven's I don't like to drink!

After thinking about my life, and my habit- I decided that if I don't quit and quit for good. I will not see my daughter get married, or my son graduate from HS. A 20+ year pack a day habit doesn't come without a price. Not to mention from a vanity sense, I notice quite a few deep premature wrinkles I have on my face due to the poison I had been subjecting my body to. And call me self-centered, but I'm quite fond of my pretty face!

So.. one month ago, I got up in the morning- Smoked a cigarette... and said "enough was enough". And I have never looked back. It's strange to not smoke. It hasn't been easy, but yet it hasn't been hard either. It has its moments when it raises it's ugly head and beckons to me. But no matter how mad, sad, nervous, bored, happy, excited, frustrated, I may be at the time...
I refuse to give in.

The sick part is that neither of my two children have ever known me NOT to smoke. The four year old I can understand, but hearing the 16 year old say that- it really hits home. People ask me all the time now if I can smell / taste better? I can smell other people who smoke, I can smell smoke in houses people smoke in (as soon as I open the door!). As for taste- It's amazing all the crap I ate, that I now realize actually tastes like CRAP! I think to myself, why the Hell did I ever eat that?? -And like it??

I think my greatest wake up was when I realized I had lung capacity! I can take really deep breaths without coughing. I can hike up stairs without feeling short of breath!

With my new found freedom I had decided to do something positive with my time. I joined a gym. I'm very worried about the weight gain that is coming from quitting. I cannot afford to be any bigger! It has been proven that nicotine burns calories. And without it, and with my already lethargic state...

I figured the gym is one addiction that would actually be good for me!

Washing Pot

2011-03-09T14:05:00.002-06:00

OK, I have a new appreciation for BRAND NEW. I decided to be environmentally savvy this year, and I purchased 200 hundred (Yup, that's Two Hundred Damn Many!) 4" USED Nursery Pots. The plus side to this decision is that I saved TONS of money by buying used, and I get to keep two hundred pots out of a landfill. The downside is that I have to wash and bleach all of the old, used dirt out of them as to not spread disease to my newly born "plantlings".

Sounded like a great idea at the time... Now? Not so much. I breezed through the first 50 pots thinking "this is not so bad". Now I'm at pot 100. Yup, this job sucks. And to top it off I have to find space to put all of these damn pots to DRY. I am starting to feel like a 9 year old cup stacking champion!... Unstack, wash, air dry, re stack.

In between washing, I started transplanting a few of the tomato seedlings this morning. 5 down, 90 to go! (I better buy stock in potting soil for this job) I stopped at 5 because my indoor greenhouse is already packed to the gills with hundreds of seedlings, and my outdoor greenhouse (that I started building last fall) -STILL- isn't complete. All the glass work is done, but I have to finish enclosing it in a couple of spots, and get the wood stove installed. Ideally, I would love to heat it by pellet stove- But I already own a wood stove that's not being used.

My greenhouse is a fair size (16 feet long, 8 feet wide, 8 feet high) and should work out beautifully when done! I did the math to heat it with electricity- it would cost me $33.00 / day! INSANE!!

But you know, they do say that heating a greenhouse is like turning on the furnace in the dead of winter, and opening up all of your doors and windows. It doesn't help my case that my glazing is single pane glass either.

Oh well... Do what you can with what you have is what I always say!

I better stop rambling and get back to washing my pot......

My Own Stupid Humor...

2011-03-03T18:23:00.002-06:00

Sometimes I make myself laugh! (Yep, Cheap thrills!)

I just have to share my latest Facebook status update:

"""SO... (my funny for the day!) Today I joined the YMCA. And right after I joined, I went for lunch at McDonald's! I just find that to be funny! I don't know what inspired me to eat there-
I don't eat that crap- EVER! I got fat on my own accord- Not from McDonald's! LOL!"""

HAR!!!

Have a good day everyone! :)

When the "Aha!" Moment comes too late

2011-02-24T12:58:00.008-06:00

A year ago, our family had received a small herd (8) Boer Goats from some friends of ours. It consisted of: 3 mature does, 4 doelings and 1 baby buckling. The year went by pretty much without incident. A couple of the does even went to the local county fair! Everyone was eating and the young ones were growing by leaps and bounds, except for that buckling. He had always been what I called my "problem child". He was always sickly, always had a runny nose and gooky eyes, he had never been very thrifty, and never ate the greatest. Structurally, he was small framed and lacked muscling. He definitely wasn't growing up to look like the best buck on earth. But I really liked the lil bugger, and I watched over him constantly. I always made sure he was inside the shelter when it rained, or that he was up in the barn once winter set in. Like everyone else- He was always up to date on everything needed... When the unthinkable happened...

It was two weeks ago when we had noticed he was feeling "under the weather". He was sullen, lacked appetite, and he had thick nasal discharge(again). We took his temperature (it came back normal) and decided that something was up with him and started him on Penicillin. We would normally not give Penicillin to an animal that doesn't have a fever (sign of infection) but we figured in case his body did have a need, he would have it. I also gave him a dose of dewormer. Knowing how susceptible goats are to parasites, and with living in an enclosed pen in the barn- I figured it wouldn't hurt. Of course my thinking was that if he had a parasite overload that it could be what's making him dull. And I thought that with both the Pen. and the dewormer on board, that he should be back on track in no time.

A another day goes by, all without any real change. We see him nibble at a bit at his hay, but he wasn't really interested in the small amount of grain he gets. Yet another day goes by without any change. We are just stumped. I am on the computer non stop searching for answers. On the 4th day of all of this- I'm so stumped that I go outside and sit there and just watch him, trying like mad to figure out what on earth is wrong with him. He doesn't look like he's "dying", heck! most people prob. wouldn't even notice something was wrong to begin with!

And as I watch him, it hits me! (Like a 2x4 across the lookers!) And then I start to panic. Because I KNOW that I am too late. As I run into the house I'm cursing myself the entire time- WHY? WHY? WHY didn't I notice this days ago!

He isn't able to urinate!!!

I quickly ran inside the house and grabbed every veterinary resource I had that pertained to urinary blockage & urinary calculi. I was frantic, because I knew time was ticking and it was quickly ticking against me. I was already days too late. I was massively pissed at myself because I didn't catch this sooner, and to top it off I had no Banamine to administer for pain and inflammation (stupid me didn't get it refilled over the summer when I ran out).

I immediately put a call into the local farm vet. A system where you call the main office, state your claim: "I have a buck goat with a blocked urinary tract", and then hang up and wait for the on staff field vet to call back. Absolutely amazing that they are always insanely busy when you need them the most- Murphy's Law. An hour later when the call did come in, I was already versed on every detail of this obstruction. I had already known my options, and most importantly knew that this wasn't going to end good. We discussed surgery, which the vet explained the results after surgery are usually poor, and the animal dies anyway- so that option was out. We pretty much agreed that it is the end of the road for this poor boy. And so we said our Goodbye's and we disconnected.

Needless to say I didn't disconnect without getting my injectable Banamine prescription filled first! I work hard at not being naive when it comes to injury and illness of my animals, the vet's see this trait in me too so I do not have a problem getting the -by prescription only- drugs that I need for the farm. I just have to remember to pick them up!!! Grrrrrr.

Anyway, I was still in my mental panic. I had already talked to my husband about my findings and it was arranged that when he got home he would "do the deed" (something I don't do). In the meantime, I had five hours from then until kill time. I just couldn't sit back and do nothing. I knew at the time that it wasn't yet a complete block because his belly fur and sheath fur were wet. But it was blocked enough because his bladder would spasm and he would strain to urinate and nothing would come out. I immediately removed him from all feed and water. And put him in a place that I could see if he had urinated.

From endless hours of research, I had learned that as a last ditch effort you could try administering Ammonium Chloride orally. The claim is that the A.C will break up the urinary calculi. I also had learned that their are 4 major parts on a male goat (and sheep) that the calculi can get lodged and become blocked. I won't go into detail as to where along the urinary tract they are- or what you can try and do for the most common location.. but do know this- I did what it suggested. And I will leave that part at that.

Anyway, there I was.. On a desperate hunt for Ammonium Chloride. I called the vet's office: Nope, they don't carry it. I learned that you can use it as preventative for this condition and use it as a feed additive, and so I called our local feed mill: Nope, they didn't carry it. So I quickly got into the car to try my local farm store. Knowing darn well they don't carry weird things like that either. Yup, I was right, they didn't carry it either. I was really starting to get frustrated. I kept thinking of the name.. "Ammonium Chloride..." Gosh, that sounds like some kind of poison?? Sounds like something one would try to blow up a Federal Building with (of course I had learned later that it wasn't THAT that did that horrible job years ago). I searched the fertilizer isle, nothing. I searched the cleaning product isle- Nothing, even though I did manage to find lots of products with that chemical in it, but all were too caustic when it came to digestion! I left the store feeling defeated. All I could think about was that I was running out of time. And then it hit me... And I made the call. YES!! They have it!! Where did I call? A local specialty hobby store! Where you can buy model cars and planes and SCIENCE KITS! What on earth made me think of that store, one will never know!

Got the product, went home to figure out the dosage (Thank GOD I graduated Paramedic School years ago! Because drug dose calculations can be complicated!) Thank heavens that I once bought a high-end Swiss made digital food scale or measuring the dose would have been impossible! Years ago, I had big intentions on measuring the food I ate in order to lose weight (that never happened!). The scale was great because it could measure in pounds, ounces and GRAMS. I measured out the 10 grams of product I needed, and gave it to him asap.

With the Banamine on board, and the A.C. It gave me a thing called "Hope". I prayed that this would work. I had faith in the course of action, the Banamine would mask the pain, and relax the bladder from spasming. The Ammonium Chloride would have a chance to break down the mineral causing the blockage. The hope is to not rupture the bladder. Once rupture happens, they are A.D.D (all done dancing), the urine travels loose around the body cavity and as infection starts in- they die of septic shock.

I did give it past the designated "kill" time to take effect. I actually kept it up for another day and a half. He seemed stable, and wasn't in any pain. The medication took care of that.

This all ended when I checked on him a following morning and realized that his condition was not improving but actually worsening. I noticed that it had now become a total block (dry belly fur, dry bedding) and he was starting to get a "water belly" appearance. I knew I could not give him anymore oral medication. Even a measly 30cc's of water is too much water in an already full bladder. And even if the blockage did only dislodge and not break down, there were prob. 30 more waiting in line just to take it's place. It was time to say our Goodbye's and toss the cards on the table in defeat.

"Hope" is a funny thing. I think that is what really separates us humans from the animal gene pool. Animals use natural selection, we humans save things with "Hope". Even when we knew there wasn't anymore that could be done, you always want to give it just a few more minutes, "Hoping" that the dam would break and he would miraculously start to urinate while you were standing there staring at him.

When I did the Necropsy, I learned that no matter how long we stared at him, he wasn't ever going to start to urinate. He had already ruptured his bladder. I'm almost certain that with the volume of urine that I had found running rampant inside, that this had prob. occurred way before my futile attempt to clear the block had even began. I also learned that the bladder on a goat is roughly the size of my small female fist (or the size of a large lemon). That's a very useful piece of knowledge for the future. I checked 2 out of 4 locations on the urinary tract for calculi. One location had quite a few pieces of what looked almost like "sediment" sand, white in color. I did not check the other two because they were located high up in a position on the body that warranted me saying "what's the point".

You may find yourself thinking that I am "gross" or "twisted" because I do Necropsy's. I cannot begin to tell you how much knowledge I have gained by performing them. I do not get a "kick" out of doing these. It is used as a learning tool. I can do these things quickly and precisely because I have already studied the "map" of where I am looking to go prior to starting. I am weird in the sense that I do not let the other animals "watch" (I think it's cruel).

The big question for me in all of this has been "Why". Why did this happen? The claim is that if you have a urinary calculi situation it should be a wake-up call regarding your feeding program. It is said that the calculi build up is formed because your feeds calcium to phosphorus ratio is out of balance. It is also said to be caused by feeding a high grain diet. And lastly, it could come down to genetics. That genetically he had a smaller than average urinary tract. This condition is common mainly in male sheep/goats/cats due to the shape of their urinary tract. Females do not get this condition because of their much larger tract and the fact that its path is straighter.

Here's what is weird for me- We have never had this issue before (hence, why it didn't even cross my mind when it first started), and not much has changed in regards to our feeding program. I have been breeding and raising sheep here for the past 8 years, including lots of wethers on a high grain diet, and multiple rams- all without incident. And with the buckling, he had never been fed a lot of grain. He was mainly on a hay diet. Then it got me to start thinking what about our water? Our well water is off the charts on iron and hardness. Could this be the culprit? Then I started to think about genetics.. I know that this buck's daddy had died unexpectedly one winter (I didn't own him)- what did he die from?

Yes, this ordeal definitely was a wake-up call. It forced me to scrutinize my feeding program. It also has brought my knowledge base up on a condition that I never have had to deal with before. All with the hopes I can educate others and of course never have it happen here again.

Welcome 2011!

2011-02-24T12:20:00.002-06:00

Boy oh Boy! It sure has been awhile since I have posted anything on here. I really should try to get back into the swing of things and keep this up to date!
Lord knows it is never a dull moment around here- I could probably write for days with all of the "happenings" that occur!

So... Let me get started!

Here are the pictures of this year's club lamb

2009-07-20T16:37:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! Sorry I have not been on in FOREVER! We are fast approaching County Fair time again-

I'm posting a couple of pictures of this year's club lamb. I have some out of town friends that for SOME reason are not getting my picture emails-

His name is "Rock". When he braces, his rump is like stone! We are just THRILLED to actually have a competitive lamb for this year. It has only taken our family FIVE years of breeding to finally get our program figured out. Talk about a learning curve! ;) Wish us luck at the fair!

Come on over and get yourself a plate of "Cracker Head"!

2009-02-20T10:15:00.004-06:00

Anyone ever eat Goat??

Tonight will be a family first for us!

As you remember, last summer we raised a meat goat (aptly named "Cracker Head") for our own consumption...and that is what is on tonight's menu!

The funny thing is, I'm serving it to a relative, (OK... My poor mother!) without her permission or knowing. What a bad child I am!! I wanted to make it for Christmas dinner, but she specifically told me that if I made it, she wouldn't be coming. So as you can see, this is going to go over HUGE!

In reality, it shouldn't be that big of a deal... I kind of cheated anyway. I added a shoulder pork roast into the slow cooker with it. I did it because if we didn't like it, it would be nice to eat SOMETHING- plus, the shoulder roast on a goat is so small, it wasn't worth spending the day burning electricity to make it.

Being my first time preparing Goat, I wasn't quite sure what to do with it! I didn't make a curry. I basically just "winged" it. I am making it like a normal roast. I added fresh carrots, celery, onion, garlic cloves, salt/pepper, Worcestershire sauce, water, and potatoes. I put it with the pork roast and set the temp to 300* at 10 am. I hope to eat dinner around 5:30.

I will have to let you know how it turns out!!

You too can pay a high price to waste water!

2009-02-03T07:35:00.002-06:00

Because we live in the country, we are on a well system for our drinking water. Because I grew up in the city, I cannot STAND the taste of well water! Our lovely well is off the charts when it comes to Iron, Sulfur and Sediment. Initially, we used a bottled water service and would go through 3 five gallon jugs a month. For years we used this service. It was nice, but I hated the eyesore water cooler in my kitchen. So I convinced my Mr. to purchase a under the counter reverse osmosis filtration system. Not a cheap investment! The unit alone cost $150.00, and the filters are roughly $40.00, and depending upon how bad ones water is, depends on how often they need to be replaced.

For the first half a year the unit worked great! We could have on demand drinkable water without waiting for the water guy! Then, this lovely POS developed a constant "gurgle" coming from the spicket. This loud gurgle would get so annoying that I ended up putting a band-aide over it just to quiet it! But of course then I was stopping the vacuum that it needed in order to work. And then it wouldn't dispense water anymore. So were were forced to buy gallon jugs of water from the local store. What an ordeal!!!

I had been noticing that our holding tank was needing to be pumped non stop. Every 3 weeks I would have to call the septic company and pay $60.00 to have them come pump the tank. I was on red alert for water conservation! OK, more like I was the "Water Bitch" and would harp at anyone I thought was wasting too much water. My laundry would pile up because I was concerned about filling the holding tank, my own personal showers were limited, and I kept an eye on how much water I used for our dishes.

A year after having this filter, I was doing some shopping on the net for a whole house water filtration systems when I read an article about how much water those reverse osmosis filters waste. I learned that it constantly trickles clean water down my drain. Now this wouldn't be a big issue for a normal household, but our waste water goes into our small 2,000 gallon holding tank!

Sure enough, the more I read about this filter system- The more I learned where my issues were coming from.

So... (being my anal self) I decided to figure out exactly how much water this thing was chucking down the drain.

My Mr. and I pulled off the drain line and put it into a bucket and timed for 1 minute how much water came out. Here are the results:

In 1 minutes time, we collected 1 1/4 (1.25)cups of water.
That translates to:
75 cups of water per hour. (Or 4.69 Gallons per hour)
That's 112.56 gallons of water per day.
and 3,380 gallons of water in a 30 day month.

Can you believe those numbers?? Talk about UNREAL! No wonder I was having a such a problem with filling up my holding tank so fast! Needless to say, that thing is GOING! Back to bottled water we go!

Update:

2009-01-23T09:37:00.002-06:00

Remember my "Stupid is as Stupid...OK, I'm just plain stupid!" post??

Well, here's an update for you!
A month or two after I trimmed the bushes around my gas meter, I had received a post card in the mail from the utility company. It stated that they were going to be putting in a new meter that they can read remotely so they don't need to send out a "meter reader" anymore.

Go figure, just as I decide to be accommodating, now they won't be physically reading it any longer! And oh joy, I'm glad that that ugly meter is so visible now! ---NOT!!---

Story of my life :)

Odds and ends to catch you up!

2009-01-23T06:58:00.005-06:00

Let's see, where to start!

Of course this is my down time. It is the time after the county fair, after breeding season, but before lambing season kicks into full swing. It is my time of year to just sit back and be "normal". I haven't posted since before Christmas- So I will catch you up a bit!

Christmas:

Christmas this year was a blur. It came and went so fast I can't believe it came at all! This year, I put up our Christmas decorations right after Halloween. I know, you think that sounds a little crazy- Well, let me explain! You see, we had Halloween decorations up and once I took down the orange and purple lights, the "boy" was sad to not have any lights to turn on. So I dug out the FAKE tree and up everything went! Then everyday all you heard was "Mommy! Turn Christmas on!" Granted, I am the type of person that yanks down the decorations the day after Christmas. This year I was a little slow. It took me till 2 days after Christmas to take them down! lol.

But, all in all, aside from all the usual hustle and bustle, Christmas was great! Of course the boy is another year older and he really got into ripping open his presents this time around. You just have to watch him to make sure he doesn't get overly excited and start ripping open everyone else's presents too!

Let's see... What else is new? We finally finished out the last 3 of our hogs for the season. They went off to the butcher shop last Monday. It will be another week before we have to pick up the packaged meat. Thank Heavens they are finally gone! What a pain to raise hogs in the winter it is! Their waterer constantly froze up, and I felt bad for them during the sub zero nights thinking they are cold. Not to mention the drain on our pocket book! The 3 pigs ate almost a $100.00 a week in feed. But,...Um... Just the thought of fresh bacon makes my mouth water! In our family, the bacon is always the first to get used up! Then the hams, and so on, and so on.

Oh! I forgot to mention, the first of this year's lambs are here! Yep! Two nice sized ram lambs were born from our seasoned ewe "Brownie". Because she only has 1 workable teat I decided to bring them in the house (again.) and feed them. For the first couple of days, two times a day, I would go outside and hand milk the ewe. What a treat that was. (Yes, that's sarcasm.) She would see me coming and would desperately try to be any where I wasn't! Once I caught her, I would tie her up to the stall wall and milk away. This was a heck of a lot of work for 1 cup of raw milk. 1 cup wasn't enough to feed 2 lambs so I would still have to make an additional cup of formula and mix the 2 together. I think my hand milking experience lasted roughly 3 days. Then I basically said "to hell with this" (I think the ewe did too!) and that was that!

Now we are just waiting for the rest of the ewes to pop. Thank heaven's all of the other "ladies" can take care of their own young. My days of being thrilled to have lambs in the house are long gone! lol. It was interesting though to see the boy instantly know what newborn lambs were. If I think about it, he was a year and a half old last time around, and hasn't seen newborn lambs since. His favorite thing to do this year is to feed the baby lambs. He will have an absolute melt down if I feed them their bottles without him. Now if only I can get him to clean up after them! lol. Maybe next year... lol!

Hum.. what other major happenings have occurred around here?

Our back porch roof collapsed. Now that was excitement! The boy was napping, and I was sitting in the kitchen surfing the net. All of a sudden I heard a loud "Crack"! I looked out my glass patio doors just in time to see the entire roof of the porch come slamming down. Snow, boards, and roof material were every where! I couldn't open my patio door because it was blocked with over 2 feet of snow. I didn't have any shoes to put on (because they were all outside on the porch!) So I ran out the front door in my sock feet to inspect the damage.

I was really concerned because our outside cats are always on that porch. They sleep stacked like cord wood on this little tiny cat bed. It is not uncommon to find at least 7 cats piled together on this little bed. As I was looking for cat casualties I noticed that one of the main porch beams came crashing down right smack on that little bed, flattening it like paper. Luckily, over time the cats started to reappear. Every one of those cats heard the crack and took off like lightening before the cave in.

I'm just grateful that nothing was damaged or hurt. And I'm grateful that it didn't take out the glass patio doors or even the window on the house! The roof collapse was two fold, yes- I loved the porch for the shade it provided, a space to house the boy's toys in the summer and a place to get out of the rain. But man did I think that porch was UGLY! I'm GLAD it fell down! At least now I can build something with more "curb appeal" (funny! It isn't anywhere NEAR the street!) and of course more structurally sound!

A week after the porch roof collapse, our furnace decided to quit working. I noticed that it was blowing cool air instead of warm air. I called the Mr. at work, and he came home to deal with it. Long story short, as it turned out- It was the "upper limit switch" again. We just had a heating / cooling company out last winter to replace that switch. That little visit cost us $350.00! OUCH! Luckily, this year- my Mr. was smarter... and figured out that it was the same switch, called up his heating / cooling friend (not the company that came out the year before) and asked if he would be kind enough to order the switch for us. He ordered it, my Mr. picked it up, paid for it, and put it in. The cost of the switch?? THREE DOLLARS. And now, the furnace runs beautiful yet again! And to think, I didn't even get a kiss with the raping I received from that company the year before! I'm sure in the wrong business!

Speaking of wasting money! Here's another one for you!

In the fall, we decided to send my older daughter's horse out for a month of training. The cost for the month of board/feed/training at that facility cost $650.00. In order to get her (the horse) ready, she needed to have her teeth floated ($100.00), have a coggins drawn (a test to make sure she is negative for infectious equine anemia- $80.00). All things were in order, we were $830.00 invested, and off the horse went! After the 1st week, the horse came up "lame". She was gimping on her back leg. Interesting... She has never been lame a day in her life all the while she was here. So, she was on rest for the upcoming week. That week passed, and the trainer and I decided it was best to bring the horse home to "recover", and that we would bring her back for the rest of her training in a month. Took the mare home, and as soon as we let her out of the trailer she ran and frolicked in the field with the other horses. Barely a lameness to be noted. And from then after- no lameness at all. In the meantime, the trainer suggested we have a chiropractic exam and adjustment done on the horse. So, I call the vet., set up an appointment had him come out, did the adjustment - and paid him his $130.00. Horse still not lame.

So a month goes by, and the horse goes back to the trainers for another two weeks. After the first few days I get a call from the trainer- horse is lame again. Pick horse up, bring horse home. That was our first experience in taking a horse to a trainer. Am I doubting the trainer? Not really. I know she means well and doesn't want to see the horse injured perm. Its just the "luck" of it all. We had invested $960.00 into this "training" and never got an ounce of "training" out of the deal.

Now, there the horse sits... We aren't sure what to do now. We really like the horse, and didn't want to send it a packing, but why have another useless horse around here? We'll see what this summer brings for her.

The craptastic part of it all, we are (were?) considering bringing our Clyde to this trainer to be broke out this upcoming year. Now he was going to spend 2 months ($650.00/month) there! I'm worried that he will suddenly turn up "lame" and have to come back home- money wasted. So I'm on the fence about all of this... What an experience... *sigh*

Other than that, it has been the same old same old. The house has been its usual money pit. Competing with the animals to see which could possibly cost us more money. I'm still staying home raising the boy and holding down the fort. Just waiting for more lambs. I'm hoping we will have around 10 this year. I'm eager for lamb in our freezer! We STILL have a meat goat to butcher and put in the freezer, and I just bought a goose from a friend. I started the other day to pluck it (in my kitchen- big mistake! feathers all over!!) The boy was concerned that he was "hurt" and I kindly told him that he was "Dead" What a good mother I am huh?? lol.

Can we say future therapy for him?? lol.

I better get back to "life"- the boy has been waiting impatiently for me to finish this- and of course destroying everything in his path! Don't mind the spelling/grammer errors! I am trying to type and watch the boy all at the same time :)

It's time to PAY IT FORWARD....

2008-12-05T10:56:00.003-06:00

Yesterday started off as any other normal day around here... Wake up early, get the toddler some breakfast, make sure the teenager is getting ready for school, feed the dog, make sure everyone is dressed and out the door for our 40 minute drive to and from school and then back home again.

Later that morning, I was baking some Christmas cookies for our family and friends while Pierce was taking his morning nap when the dog started barking. The dog barking is nothing new during his nap time (which really makes me frustrated!) I must have the house quieter and he can hear more which in turn makes him bark more. I was so mad at the dog for waking up Pierce that I put his bark collar on him. He didn't bark after that - because he just "knows" what that collar does.. (evil grin)

The rest of the day went on as usual and Pierce helped me finish baking the cookies. It was so cute! He even knew what the rolling pin was for!

Later that afternoon we went to go drop off a plate of cookies at my parent's house and go pick up the teen. I couldn't carry Pierce because I had my hands full with the cookies- so I did my best to keep him out of the snow. When I rounded the corner of the back porch I noticed a large laundry basket of "stuff" and a large plastic bag of "stuff" sitting in front of my front door. My first thought was that my next door neighbor was doing some winter cleaning and dropped off some items she didn't need. But I noticed a card on top of the basket... I grabbed the card and kept going to the car.

On our way to Grandma's house I opened the card. It was a lovely Christmas card with a manger scene on the front. The inside had a nice stock printed message wishing us a Merry Christmas. But the card was blank. The envelope was not addressed to us, nor was the card written in what so ever. I was really scratching my head wondering where these things came from?

When we got back home, I carried the bounty into the house. Inside the laundry basket was all kinds of household items!:
1 mid size bottle of Tide Laundry soap,
1 bottle of Ajax laundry soap,
1 bottle of Joy brand dish soap,
1 bottle of Palmolive dish soap,
1 bottle of Ajax dish soap,
1 box of kitchen trash bags,
1 box of garbage bags,
1 box of sandwich bags,
1 box of Renolds Wrap Aluminum foil,
3 box's of "soap buddies" (bar soap covered in cloth for kids)
1 box of 500 Q tips
4 toothbrushes
1 tube of Crest Pro Health toothpaste
1 tube of Colgaite toothpaste
2 boxes of Kotex Light Day pads
1 box of Maxi Pads
1 bottle of Suave Shampoo
1 bottle of Suave Conditioner
1 bottle of Aussie Shampoo
1 bottle of Aussie Conditioner
1 8pk of AA batteries
1 Glade Flameless "wisp" scented candle (this thing is SO cool!)
3 boxes of Kleenex Brand Kleenex's
3 rolls of Bounty Paper towel
2 pks of Cottonelle bath tissue
And a Veggie Tales Christmas Movie DVD
And of course the laundry basket it all came in!

All night long I thought about where these items came from. I even called my neighbor (who notices everything :) and asked her if she saw a vehicle in my driveway. She said she saw a dark colored vehicle, either black / drk blue. But she saw my car in the driveway so she figured I had company and didn't give it another thought. That was the time the dog barked. So, the dog heard those packages being left on my doorstep, but I didn't. I sure do feel bad for yelling at the dog for doing his job! :(

I asked her if she knew where all of these things came from and she didn't know. She did mention how a lot of people like to "pay it forward" this time of year... She even talked about how we sold eggs all summer long to people and that who knows, it could have come from someone that direction. Then we thought perhaps the Jehovah's Witnesses. I met a couple of really nice older woman earlier in the year (*****TANGENT TIME: Speaking of people that go door to door promoting either products or beliefs... I *never* have been or would be rude to them. I know how hard it is to do sales, and outside sales is even harder! I always hear them out, and explain to them that is not for me- so note to all of you: Be Nice to them!*** end tangent) But I didn't think it was their religious groups because there wasn't any God information.

So... all in all, none of us have any clue where all these items came from. I have never been on the receiving end of a Charitable gift before. It really gives me mixed emotions. On the fore front, I am grateful to whomever did this for me and my family. But I really wish I knew who to Thank. But on the flip side, I wonder why this was done for us? My mother in law said that somewhere along the line we touched someone and that "someone" wanted to do something nice for us in return.

I had to really eat my big piece of humble pie over all of this. My natural instinct was to think that society sees us as a "charity" case, and I was embarrassed. But I served myself up a big slice when I realized that in less than 24 hours later, the movie has already been watched, the Glade is scenting my living room, the batteries have already been used for the TV remote control and the flashlight, the bar soap was used by the toddler for his bath time in the tub, and I had already replaced my old toothbrush with the new one, not to mention the load of laundry I have already done with the new detergent.

Our family is extremely grateful for this gift. And we Thank whomever had done this from the bottom of our heart. It is now our time to "Pay it forward" and we look forward to sending Christmas joy to another family.

God Bless you this Holiday Season

The Fish That Sunk Me

2008-11-13T14:43:00.002-06:00

Hello faithful readers!
Things to this point have been kind of quiet- Hence, the lack of posts! But, no fear- I have a story for you!

"The fish that didn't get away"

One of the local lakes by us was drained this summer. There was an invasive weed problem that they are trying to get under control. Their thinking was to remove the fish (it was quite a productive fishing lake), drain the lake, let it freeze, refill it, restock it.

My husband and I have been watching this lake disappear all summer long. Even with the majority of the lake drained and with only a few remaining "pot holes" we still continued to fish it. The lake bottom is nothing but boot sucking mud. You can only get so close to the water before you sink to your knees in the thick oozing mud. So, we would stand on a misc piece of wood: log, or plywood left by other fisherman to try and get as close as we could to the water's edge and launch our bait 20+ feet to the water.

You wouldn't believe the fish that were still in there! We started out by catching blue gills hand over fist. Every cast produced a fish. We didn't keep any (too small to bother with) but it sure was a fun time! Then I switched baits and tried using a spoon bait. On my second cast I landed a (roughly) 30" Northern Pike! This particular lake didn't have a size restriction so that bad boy was fair game! What a leaper he was! It was an impressive fight! I kept reeling, and reeling....Until... (isn't it ALWAYS something???) it ran out of water and reached the edge of the mucky lake bottom. There it sat, beached, 20ft away from me... There wasn't anything I could do- The mud was to deep, thick, squishy, GROSS! I tried to drag it carefully on the line through the mud but it didn't drag, it only buried itself. Then, "tink!" The lure came flying out of its mouth and back at me. There sat my precious fish, right on the water's edge... There I helplessly sat and watched it. And then it made one good "flop" and back to freedom in the water it went. I could have cried!!!! I jumped up and down on my little 12" square piece of wood saying all kinds of choice words to my husband.

My impressive fish inspired him to try fishing for something bigger than we were used to catching. After around 15 minutes of nothing, we decided to take a chance and try the other end of the lake. No small feat because we had to walk as far away from the sucking mud as we could so we didn't get stuck.

On our journey, I of course walked too close and got stuck. I was soo stuck I had to take my knee high rubber boot off, balance carefully and try to pull the boot out. It wasn't working. My husband had to come dig it out for me!

Within 5 minutes of fishing at our final destination my husband landed an enormous large mouth bass! I was so happy for him!! It was great to watch until.... The same thing happened: reel in fish, fish ran out of "lake", stuck in mud, 20ft away. This time, I thought I was seasoned enough to help him- I tried to help him pull the line carefully and drag it through the mud back to us. No luck! This time the line broke! There sat his prize fish... only difference being now it had his prize lure hanging out of its mouth!

I looked at him, he looked at me... and I said: "I can get that for you?", "but, you OWE me"....

I took off my boots (why bother, they would have came off anyway!), emptied out my pockets, took off my sweatshirt... and off I went.

The mud was beyond words. I instantly sunk almost two feet into it. Because of sinking so deep I couldn't go anywhere, so I crawled on my hands and knees towards the water's edge to the fish. Praying that it wouldn't flop itself to freedom in the meantime. I was like a bulldozer shoving mud away from me just so I could move an inch closer. The mud stunk like nasty fish, it had bits of lake weeds and dead snails and clams in it.

Luckily, I reached the fish (which now too was black as night covered in mud!) I grabbed it and tossed it back to my husband. Then I started my journey back through the mud to safety.

When I made it to "dryer" land (still mud, just not sinking mud) My husband wanted to take his prize and quit fishing. I told him NO!!! I *technically* just started fishing in this spot, and I would like to keep trying! He just shook his head and started his journey back to the truck with his fish.

There I stood, my clothes covered in mud up to my chest, mud up to my elbows, I'm standing in the mud in my socks (remember- I took off my shoes) fishing away... I kept getting my reel clogged with the mud from on my hands.

I didn't catch anything... (go figure)

So I grabbed my boots, (it didn't pay to put them back on with me being so dirty) and walked back to the truck. The entire time I was worried that I would step on a shell or glass or a rock and cut my foot open then needing some kind of antibiotics. I made it back without further incident.

My husband was talking to some lake "looki-loos" when I arrived. I got a round of applause from them for my bravery! I was sooo embarrassed!!

Because I was so covered in mud, I couldn't ride IN the truck. I had to ride in the bed of the truck all the way home. My husband was so amused, he made a call and stopped by his parent's house so his dad could get a good laugh at me- and see the fish of course!

The fish was a 20" female large mouth bass that weighed over 4lbs. It was the largest fish (of that species) my husband had ever caught. And it was the largest fish (um... the ONLY fish) I have ever mud crawled for!

Yo Momma is NO Picasso!

2008-09-07T20:09:00.006-05:00

Aright everyone! Enough Doom & Gloom for a few days!

Here is my latest creation...

I have been working on repainting my toddler's room. You will soon start to learn that I repaint the rooms in my house A LOT. I swear each room has been painted at least twice in the seven years that I have lived here.

Here's a little more on my OCD paint addiction. Did I mention I don't use your traditional painting tools??? Most people use power painters, paint sticks, large brushes or rollers. Um,... Gosh, now I'm really going to sound strange.... I have painted entire rooms of my house; living room, kitchen, hallways, master bedrooms, laundry room, 3 bedrooms...(and don't forget-TWICE!!), with a two inch foam brush. Yep, one of those dinky little .25 cent jobbers from Walmart. Black foam, wood handle... Mainly used for cutting in around windows and molding. If you don't know what I'm talking about- You clearly need to do some repainting around your own home! lol.
BUT- The good news is that I have graduated from that 2" foam brush to a 2" bristle brush!

Why do I use such a ridiculously small brush to paint such large areas you ask??? I honestly don't know the answer. The only thing I can come up (are the tiny voices in my head telling me to use that brush!- Na, I don't hear voices... I'm not nuts you know! *snark*) is that with all of the molding in each room it was easier to use the little brushes instead of the big rollers- because I didn't have to clean up as much when I got paint where I shouldn't have gotten paint. So I think instead of constantly switching brushes, it just kind of stuck with me. And I find with the very textured walls, it was easier to stipple the paint into the grooves.

All in all, you have NO IDEA how long it takes me to paint a room. But, clearly after so much wall space and practice, I can really motor along with my little brush! Heck!! I bet I'm even better than the Karate Kid ("Daniel son, show me paint the fence!") LOL!

The one thing I absolutely hate about painting is the clean up. I cannot STAND washing brushes- Hence: cheap brushes = instant trash = no clean up! Yeah!!!

The first time I had painted this room I had painted it a color called "Indian Moccasin" That of course was during "L.I.P" (life before Pierce) lol. It was an alright color to look at for awhile, but over time the more I stared at it, the more it became peach colored in my eyes! Especially after you put a BOY in the room.

This time around I decided to paint it a really dark colonial blue/grey. It is an awesome color! Just love it!

Then I decided to get more creative... This is something I had never attempted before. Sure, I took quite a few art classes in High School, but I flunked out of painting and drawing class!

I hand painted some whimsical fish on the wall. With a wall color that dark it just screamed "water" to me. Below are some of the fish I have done. I first drew them on the wall by hand in pencil, and then mixed up some fun colors to bring them to life! Pierce knows that the first fish on top is referred to as "Daddy's fish", then below that one is "Pierce's" fish, then comes "Mamma's fish" and lastly is "sister's fish". So they all have this feminine touch- But Hey!, He's only TWO- and doesn't seem to really care :)

Next came his name train!

I am not finished yet, but I figured I would give you a sneak peak! My idea behind this was to have a different sea animal haul each letter and be tethered to the letter in front of it. I am thinking of putting a giant snail in between the letters "P" & "I", another fish between the letters "I" & "E", of course you see the sea horse in between the "E" and "R", I am thinking about putting a lobster in between the letters "R" & "C".. then you see the fish between letters "C" & "E". In case you were wondering what those round pink dots are by the letters- They are snails in the making! And of course those red "things" that look like flowers- are my not very artistic star fish (some still need their yellow spots added).

This wall has been kind of a labor of love. And no, I'm not painting it with a two inch brush! lol. I'm using teeny tiny art brushes for this! lol. It's amazing what kind of colors you can make from a few tubes of cheap primary colored craft paint.

As you can tell, I'm definitely not the next Pablo Picasso! Some of my lines aren't the straightest, some of my shadowing doesn't make sense, and my sea horse could have been centered better (I will prob. add a school of little fish behind him so it doesn't look so out of whack). But it has been fun- and the boy just loves his train, and that's all that really matters! ...Ugh.... Until he turns 5, and then wants something that will be WAY out of my league to paint!

Is "Pee Knuckle" really a word?

2008-09-03T23:08:00.008-05:00

"The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out...

The worms play pee knuckle on your snout...

They eat you up and spit you out..."

Last week I had to strap on my "manhood" again and do something I would have rather not. It has taken me well over a week to write this, because only now has the heartache subsided enough to write about it.

2 years ago a misplaced adult male cat wandered onto our farm. I found him one dark night eating the cat food out of the dish on my back porch. He was a beautiful cat! Long dark striped fur, white belly up to his chin, and 4 white paws, and huge- He must have weighed over 12lbs. As with every new cat that just shows up, I went outside to see if he was friendly. If I can pet them I cop a quick feel (sick- yes, I know) to see if he is carrying a man purse. I prefer to have males around than females. Less kittens that way!

Anyway, ever since that day he never left my porch. I named him "Socks". Yes, I know- How original. He was so friendly. Heck he even tolerated standard toddler abuse. Toddler abuse gives new meaning to "heavy petting"! Nice kitty- *mash, mash*. Because he was so friendly I had always wondered where he came from. His fur was in great shape, he was in good weight... He had to be someones house cat. (??)

Socks loved being by us. If we sat outside, he was always at our side. He would always outstretch a paw to get your attention. It was not uncommon to see him in our house sleeping on the back of the couch!

Life went on, and Socks seemed to always be part of it. Except for one time earlier this spring when he suddenly disappeared. I was so worried because he never had left before. Weeks went by and still no Socks. I searched the roadside ditches almost daily, each time coming up empty. I watched the food dish waiting for him to return... no sign of him. I pretty much wrote him off as dead. My husband (who doesn't like cats much to begin with) told me to quit worrying, he came from somewhere and perhaps he just went back home.

Just when I had given up all hope, he returned! He was the same old happy to see you Socks. I told him how much he had me worried (yep- I'm the crazy cat lady) and how happy I was that he had returned. I always wondered where his adventure had taken him...

Again, life went on...

About 4 weeks ago Socks started getting a cold. Not uncommon around here with the cats. It seems that they get some kind of "cold" once a year. I find it usually when the major seasons start to change, and the nights are more damp and cold from dew. I just kept my eye on him waiting for it to run its course- like I have seen it do in other cats. Socks started to get more and more congested. I could hear him in the grass coughing. I get so frustrated because unlike other forms of livestock, cats are really tricky to treat. Either my medications don't break down into small enough doses for cats, or it is poisonous to them and could kill them instead of cure them.

He continued to get worse and worse. I was really starting to worry. So I jumped on the Internet to see if there was ANYTHING I could do for him. I ended up giving him an injection of Penicillin. And I waited another day... No improvement. So I gave him another dose. And I waited... He was still so sick. By this time his robust body shrunk down to nothing but fur and bones. His fur lacked its usual luster, and he was still so congested.

His worst day came on the day we started constructing our pig shelter. He was laying flat out in the grass by the gate to the steers pasture, and every time we opened the gate- He was so weak he wouldn't get out of the way for the gate. I didn't want the gate to hit him so I picked him up and moved him out of the way. He had lost so much weight. I bet he was down to 6lbs or less. He was so weak he could hardly move out of his flat position. When I looked into his eyes I knew just how bad things had become. His third eyelid was halfway across his eyes- A sign I have seen before on a cat before it dies. He smelled so bad. He didn't smell like urine or feces, it was more like a pungent sour smell. When I laid him down on the grass my daughter was kneeling beside me. She too noticed his "smell". I lifted up his tail to see if he was soiled and to see if that was where the smell was coming from.

What we saw was horrifying. We saw millions of white small (smaller than white rice) maggots around his anus area. Because of the long fur on his tail, we never saw them before. The only thing I could think of was that he was so sick, he wasn't pottying right and perhaps getting it all over his back end- Thus attracting flies. My daughter thought it was gross, and went off to do other things. My husband was "too busy" to muster up any advice other than to kill him because who knows what he has and he can make everything else sick.

I ran to the house to grab some rubber gloves, some paper towel, and some warm water to wash his bum. I had also mixed up some sheep milk replacer to try to give him with an oral syringe to get some fluids into him. I sat down on the grass next to him and opened his mouth to give him some fluids. He barely could swallow. After a few cc's worth of fluid I looked at him closer. Those worms were crawling around in his nasal cavity and all around inside his mouth. I started to cry to myself because I knew I had been too late and there was nothing that I could do for him. There Socks and I were, all alone sitting in the grass. Neither daughter nor husband could bother to take time out of their precious day to lend a hand.

So I talked to him and stroked his head. He looked up at me with his glassed over eyes and started to pur. I told him what a grand cat he was and how much he was loved. I told him how sorry I was, and how I should have fixed him.

Then I quietly stood up.

Through my tears I walked back to the house, went to my bedroom and got my gun. Through my tears I loaded it. Through my tears I pulled the trigger. Through my tears I buried him in the special part of my yard reserved just for grand souls like his.

"Stupid is as Stupid"... OK, some days I'm just plain Stupid!

2008-09-03T12:58:00.007-05:00

The other day I received a letter from our local utility company. I opened it while I was walking back to the house from the mailbox. It stated that I had some form of "brush" by my meter and my meter reader could not read it. It also asked if I would remove said "brush".

As I continued to read the letter I stopped at my meter to look at it closer. Granted, I see it everyday- It's on the front of my house right next to the sidewalk up to the door. What a gosh awful place to put such an ugly monstrosity I must add! And because it is SO ugly I decided to grow pretty petunias in front of it this year.

So I stopped, looked at the letter, looked at the meter... And all I kept thinking was what kind of MORON couldn't read THIS meter? Sure, because of the decorative fencing I have up to keep the toddler out of my flower bed, you MAY have to bend forward a bit- But it is still clearly visible!

The more I looked at the meter, the more disgruntled I became. I was SO mad that I went inside the house and grabbed my camera. I took a few pictures of it insisting that I was going to write them a "lovely" letter back with photos - telling them politely to go get bent.

Here are my meter photos:

See? Nothing that I felt warranted a letter from them- Grr!!! Was I mad!

All day long I was stewing... By the time my husband came home, I was REALLY frustrated about it. I didn't want to get rid of my flowers, I tried so hard to hide that ugly area without covering that dumb meter- And yet they were complaining about it! Grrr!!!

So my husband took my letter and read it...

And says...

"They are not talking about THIS meter, they are talking about the GAS meter"

My response: "We *have* another meter?"

He rolled his eyes as he led me to the backside of the house and showed me where the meter in question is located. And this is what I saw:

OMGosh!!!! I was so embarrassed! Talk about eating Crow! Because of the direction my house is situated on our property- When you pull in my driveway, you don't see the "front" of my house- you see the end side of it. The front of our house faces our pasture, and the far end of our house is considered the "back yard". So the back of my house is a very desolate area that hardly ever gets visited. Hence, why I didn't know about this meter. I couldn't believe how worked up I got when clearly they were in the right and I was in the wrong! Now I started to feel bad. I couldn't even SEE the meter, I couldn't imagine having to try and crawl in there to actually read it!

Now I was in a pickle... That huge "bush" you see is a Hydrangea bush. It blooms beautiful huge white pom-pom flowers in the late spring. It has become a tradition to pull off the flowers and have an early summer "snowball" fight. The kids and I have a blast running all over the yard trying to hit each other with them. So I didn't want to cut it down.

So I gave it a "trim"- OK, more like a total hack job!

Oh look!! I *do* have a meter! Guess I won't be hearing from them again...

Itching to be Organic

2008-09-02T14:14:00.003-05:00

Our 3 new little piggys are really starting to settle in! These 3 pigs were purchased from an Organic farm, they were born in June and currently weigh 40lbs a piece.

But on a side note, we have *finally* built a pig pen! Before, all of our pigs were housed in various pens & stalls inside our barn. But because of the heat, flies, and a pigs natural tendency to root- Having them in the barn became a real pain, real fast.

So... We built them what I have termed "The Shitty Shack". All of our other small out buildings were made really nice!... The chickens have an upscale condo complete with roof shingles, a larger than life vent, plus a window! The sheep have an enormously long beautiful shelter and the steer's shelter is so nice I bet that the steers down the road are envious! But hey, times are tougher now (Thank You Crap Economy!) and like everything else, building materials have become more expensive- AND I can be pretty frugal when I have to be :)

And so the "Shitty Shack" was made. OMG is this thing a hodge podge! The walls are constructed from pallets stood on end, and the roof is some weird piece of framed metal we had lying around the farm. It's a beauty let me tell you! (can you taste that?? That's the taste of sarcasm!)

I was so unsure if this whole hodge podge of materials would fit together correctly that I actually made a to scale model of it prior to construction. I sat at the table like a 5 year old with my scissors, tape and old shoe box. Plus of course I had to plea my case to my husband, so I needed a visual! I have to add that my model of it looks a lot nicer than the final product! (better materials with the shoe box! lol)

So hubby wasn't at all thrilled about my idea of the "S.S" to say the least, he even brought up how much of an eyesore it will be in our yard. That made me laugh! Like huh??? We suddenly became pretentious?? Because the cow shit, dog shit, horse shit, pig shit, flies, weeds, toys, a zillion vehicles and trailers, and chickens... Don't ALREADY make our place look like a dump?? *scoff!* That's OK though, I politely reminded him that *I* didn't have to look at it outside my back door- It resides on the other side of our pine tree line that runs between our property and the next door neighbors! They have to look at it!! Ooh oh! I better make sure my name doesn't come up on that rotten neighbor website! lol!

Anyway, let me get back on track...

Ok, where was I? Oh Yeah!! The 3 little pigs... The 2 men we purchased them from were "good people". I found myself chatting up a storm with them, really enjoying our conversation. We shared in quite a few philosophies about raising meat. They are strictly Organic, where I still consider myself to be more "natural" when it comes to market animals, hoping someday to become true organic.

This is where my loyalty to being Organic falls short. When these 3 little pigs came home, I had noticed that they were scratching their bodies like mad. I didn't do anything about it right away, perhaps I was over thinking it and they only had an itch. Time went on, and they still itched. More time, and still more dang itching! So I caved, I dosed them with some Ivomectin in order to kill whatever parasite (mites / lice) are bothering them. The nice thing is that product will kill two birds with one stone! It takes care of the internal parasites too.

So what's my point in all of this you ask?? My point to all of this is that it is a struggle to raise a market animal from start to finish being strictly organic. Take these pigs for instance... I'm SURE they are loaded with internal parasites from not being de-wormed (ever), and they came to me with some form of external blood sucking parasite. And if I didn't give them that product they would have continued to be driven insane by itching their hides off- Plus, my rate of gain for them wouldn't be that great (meaning it would take me longer to get them to butcher weight) because of gut worms. So all in all it sucks. I can't seem to become truly "Organic" all while maintaining a healthy farm. Some day I will get there- As soon as I figure out how to keep animals parasite free!

New Life!- In the BATHROOM??

2008-08-19T07:00:00.005-05:00

Life on a farm always seems to come full circle. One minute we are suffering from the loss of a beloved animal, the next minute we are enjoying the sights and sounds of new life!

We have 4 new sets of eyes looking at us around the farm. 3 sets outside in the barn in the form of new pigs (which I will talk about some other time), the other set looking at us from in our bathroom. Yes, I did say BATHROOM. lol!

About a month ago my daughter received an early birthday present, (Super early given her b-day isn't until December!!) an egg incubator. From a parental standpoint, I have been putting off the idea of spending almost a hundred dollars on a STYROFOAM box. (but, I'm wishing that I came up with this overpriced box idea, that's quite the money making racket they have going!)

Anyway, since that day we have been diligently collecting our show chicken's eggs, dating them, writing the breed on them, and we have been putting them in the incubator.

That incubator is a real fickle thing! We have to constantly monitor the temperature to help it maintain a constant 99.5*. Why can't it just be 99.*? or an even 100*? What's with the .5*? ?? It wouldn't be as tough if it was digital, but it's not. It has a little old fashioned thermometer inside the box and a little stick poking out of the top of the box that you can turn to the left or to the right to increase or decrease the temperature. It would be so much easier if it was digital!

All the eggs have been cooking along just fine. I have been candling them periodically and marking which ones are fertilized and growing nicely. So far, I only had one that was considered a "yolker" (non developer- not fertilized). I have a couple I'm on the fence about. I see a large blood ring around the inside of those eggs. But this blood ring doesn't look like any of the blood rings I have seen on the Internet. So we will just have to wait and see.

Our bathroom has become a "scientific" chicken rearing facility. Complete with incubator, automatic egg turner, and separate brooding box. It gives going potty a whole new meaning! And to think some people just have boring magazines or newspapers for their enjoyment! Heck, we can sit on the throne and watch the miracle of life! It's hard not to feel self conscious though when you have baby chicks looking up at you while your sitting on the crapper, making a deposit. The cool part though, it really helps with toddler potty training! I cannot count how many times I have heard "see chicks??" "potty!!" this morning! Hey! Now there's a market for me... All I have to do is convince every mother that she needs to hatch out eggs next to her toilet. Maybe I could make an infomercial! (checks idea to back of mind for further use... LOL)

I cannot believe how everyone has been involved in this process- Even my animal hating husband spent this past evening outside in the garage building a brooding box. Our brooding box is a 24"x24" plywood box w/ an 18"x 24" plexi glass hinged lid. This box also has a light bulb "poking" through the back to provide heat for the chicks. It's a beautiful contraption! But, it is more fickle than the dang incubator! Talk about a new learning curve! So far our hatch rate isn't that impressive. Technically, you are supposed to leave the eggs in the incubator until they hatch and are dry... Then move them to the brooding box. Sure, in a perfect world that sounds pretty simple right?? Well, if we leave them in the incubator- Yes, they hatch... Then manage to get their floppy little heads stuck in the automatic egg turner. So, we moved some of the eggs that had "pip" holes (the first hole a baby chick pecks into it's shell) into the brooder- that way they can hatch and not get jammed up in the machine. But- Even with a thermometer in the brooder it's hard to figure out where to put the eggs in the box. Next to the light is way to close (fried 2) and too far away from the light they get too cold in their shell and die. On a side note, it kind of makes you appreciate buying day old chicks- way less work involved!

OK, folks- Gotta run, I'm loosing my thought train because I have to quit writing every few minutes to get the boy out of the bathroom. I think I'm going to make a run this morning for one of those safety devices that go over a door knob so a toddler cannot open the door!

"It's Always Something..." Part 1 million and 6

2008-08-04T18:37:00.005-05:00

*sigh*
Here we go again...

Back to my famous quote "It's always something"...

Let's see??? How to start this one??? My daughter, the absolute CHICKEN FANATIC! Loves her chickens to death. She makes fancy set-ups for her "special" chickens, she hand picks them "special salad" (aka: grass, clover, apple pieces, garden crops, etc...) and hand feeds them to those "special" birds.

Those birds consisted of (notice the PAST TENSE here) 2 call ducks: 1 snowy (looks like a miniature Mallard), 1 white one, 1 Cochin pullet (a type of young female show chicken), 1 Mille Fluer (another fancy rare chicken), 2 Black Rosecombs- male/female, and my hubby's turkey pullet (young female). Not to mention the 4 youngin's that were given to us from a family that hatched out some of our eggs.

Everyone was doing wonderfully fine- Until.....

My daughter got up early Sunday morning to find darn near the entire lot of them DEAD. She was mortified. Long story short... A Raccoon ripped open the wire on the chicken run and had its way with them. 6 dead, two severely wounded. Luckily, she had the Mille Fluer and the turkey already up in the barn in cages. But the rest of them were not so lucky...

I feel so sad for her. It was just the day before when she took pictures of them for her 4H record book, and now the next day... Taking pictures of their dead bodies for her record book.

As a conversational segway, MAN 4H / Farming is a Hard Life Lesson for kids!! It is unreal what these kids learn about life and death. Granted, with all the things that happen around here, she is pretty used to it. But just the thought of it- here one day, gone the next.. Whether it would be an animal raised for market, or her pet chickens- The kids sure do learn how to "get over it" fast.

Anywho,
Back to the chickens....
The two survivors: her white call duck, and the black rosecomb pullet both have suffered severe bites on the head and neck. My daughter naturally started tending to the wounds. At first I didn't give it much thought when it hit me... What about RABIES?? Now, I do consider myself a somewhat intelligent person- But I was CLUELESS when it came to the transmission of rabies. (??)

So, on the informational super highway I went. I wanted to know what percentage of Raccoons were carriers. Back in the day (1970's) it was around 50% of animals studied. In the early 2000's it had dropped to around 30% of animals studied. And I learned that there has only been 1 case of a "human" recovery from Raccoon Rabies- it was in 2004, a girl from Wisconsin.

Then I started to get a little nervous... Young girl trying to be helpful by treating her chickens wounds... Yikes! Then the paranoid mother kicked in! What if she gets the Raccoon's saliva from the chicken's wound into her bloodstream via a cut on her hands, or even an opening though a hangnail. (??)

So I caved and called an "Expert" (term used loosely) the WI D.N.R. I wanted to know if I should cull these birds instead of treating them due to a possible risk. Very valid question I thought. But the "expert" thought my call was rather humorous because it was a "Chicken" we were talking about. Sure, from a non parent stand point- The thought of a "rabid" chicken is kind of funny. Just envisioning it foaming at the beak while having a neurological breakdown all while trying to EAT a person... Yep! That could be funny. But this IS my own kid I was concerned about. I would hate to have a whoops! I guess we were wrong incident.

The only information he gave to me was that the incubation period for Rabies is 2 months (duh- He must have read the same website I did) and said *he* would just let it ride and see how it goes, stating the risk should be pretty slim to none.

So now we have chickens in isolation. I swear, as much weird stuff that happens here- We could open our own 1-800 # and answer questions regarding death / disease of animals! lol.

This is my second night of playing "Annie! Get you're gun!". I stayed up til midnight last night watching.... waiting.... Man I love to shoot things if it is justified! Hell! After watching all this unfold I would rather give this coon a nice slow painful death by blunt spoon than by quick bullet. I even have a live trap set in the chicken run (now empty of course) baited with my hubby's nasty smelling catfish bait. Sure, I'm certain he will be PIST when he learns I have sacrificed his pride and joy stink bait for the greater of mankind, but he'll survive!

Serves him right for making me strap on my big set of balls again. lol.

The Fair is over!! But here is a re-cap!

2008-08-04T16:28:00.003-05:00

Hard to believe it has already come and gone!
Here are this year's highlights:

Swine:
Our gilt "pink" remained in great health so she was able to go to the fair (because the fair is a one way market- Charlotte didn't go to the fair, she is still at home). She weighed in at a whoppin 305lbs! She looked nice! All clean and shaven, had great length to her...
She placed a 3rd in the market animal class. Not too shabby given we have never raised a hog as a show animal before. And we raised her as natural as possible- didn't have her all "paylean'd" out. (a hog muscle growth hormone) You should see some of the pigs at the show! They have muscles where I didn't even know pigs HAD muscles!

My daughter also did a showmanship class with her. She placed 3rd. I was so proud of her, she tried so hard to keep her swine under control. Pink always did have a natural tendency to run so I was kind of worried about how she would act in the show ring. But my daughter did her best to keep her in the Judge's eye and out of the corners!

At the market sale, a company purchased her gilt for $2.10lb.

Sheep:
This year we took 3 sheep to the fair (OK, really 5 - two of them were market lambs we had raised for other 4h kids) My daughter showed a yearling ewe in a colored fleece (black wool) class and took a 1st place. She also showed one of our mature ewes in a breeding stock class. This ewe did have some age on her, she is around 7 years old! The judge liked her, but placed her as a third because the judge wanted to see more muscling on her. No problem! We only brought her for the fun of it. We just pulled her off the pasture, cleaned her up and brought her to the show.
As for her market lamb, it placed a 4th. The judge wanted more length of body to him. Oh well, that's nothing we could have "fixed"- unless we stretched him on a RACK of course! lol. kiddin.

The other two market lambs that were born here- one placed 2nd, and the other a 4th.

BUT- the best news with the market lamb was the night of the market animal sale! The business that bought our lamb last year, was desperately asking people who knew us as to if we were having another lamb in the sale. And if we fed him the same way we did last year. Come to find out, they just LOVED the taste of the meat last year (it was the first time ever they had bought any form of "lamb") and wanted to purchase another one from us this year! Long story short, they got into a bidding war with another company over my daughter's lamb and it sold for $2.70lb (he weighed in at 125lbs). And to top it off, they ended up purchasing another one of our lambs - one of our farm born ones shown by another girl from our club. I did talk to them afterwards explaining to them that what we raise is more of a production type lamb (meant for eating) over looking all muscle bound (good for placing well in the show ring) lamb. I explained how my daughter's lamb will have a larger leg of lamb than the other, and the other lamb will have a larger loin. They are thrilled to be having our lambs again for their freezer!

Chickens/Bantams:

My daughter rocked it with her chickens this year! She took 7 birds (I think??) to the fair. Each bird received a 1st place. Just for fun, I have her enter the egg judging class (I do it each year) I I (through her :) ) entered 6 colored eggs to be judged. They too took a 1st place!

As for showmanship, she didn't take the trophy this year like she had for the 2 past years. She made a crucial mistake. She took a Japanese bantam up to the table for the one on one w/ the judge. And long behold, the judge wanted to know specifics about this breed, and she didn't know it! So she took a 2nd place this year. I felt bad for her- she has all kinds of rarer breeds that she knows inside and out and here she takes the one bird ripped from our pasture- and doesn't know squat about it! ugh! But on the other hand, I keep telling her to study for showmanship (it's all question / answer with the judge) and she basically gives me the one finger wave (so to speak) and tells me about how she won the top honors 2 years in a row w/out studying. So when she placed second, I was glad to see her humbled back down to reality!

Dairy Goats:
This was our 2nd year bringing "Rosie" our Alpine yearling doe (non milker-never been bred). She placed a second place 1st (if you can follow that one!) in her dairy class.

As for showmanship, my daughter did better than last year and pulled off a blue ribbon. She placed second last year.

Meat Goats:
This was our very first attempt with a Boer goat. We only decided to do the project to help promote it with our county. It was our county's first year for the meat class. The goat, "Cracker head" (yes, he was a bastard of a little goat!) placed super well! He took a second place blue ribbon. He was a big contender for Grand Champion, but didn't get it. Our friends / family would have gotten a big kick out of it- if he did win Grand, because everyone KNOWS how much of a "challenge" he is! lol. He is all muscled out, um... not because of a great exercise program set by us, it is because he is IMPOSSIBLE to catch and can run like the dickens! 5 people in an enclosed paddock couldn't catch this little bugger!

Anyway,
My daughter scratched the showmanship portion of the show. The goat was just tooooooooooo much to handle. And sometimes the judge will make the kids switch goats to see how they handle another goat other than their own- Well, we would have been FINE but the poor kid that got Cracker Head would have been screwed. Plus chasing that little bastard all over the fair grounds after that poor kid let him go, would not have been cool. I could see it now... some little kid in a stroller seeing a baby goat come flying past: "mommy! look at the goat!" and then "BLAM!!!" as I shot it dead in front of them because the two hour chase around the fair was grating at my nerves! LOL!

Other projects my daughter did:

A saddle pad she had sewn took a 1st place and an Award of Merit (higher than a 1st place)! It was show cased in the glass case for all to see.

She also sewed a helmet bag for her riding helmet, that took a 1st place blue.

And lastly, she made 2 posters. One horse poster and one swine poster- each took a 2nd place.

We had a blast all week at the fair! This was our first year that we reserved a campsite and stayed there. We had showing everyday from Thursday through Sunday. It was a very heavy load, but well worth it! Can't wait for next year!!!!

I think I cut my finger nail too short (??)

2008-07-17T15:53:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was quite the exciting day...

I was helping my daughter cut out some fabric for a helmet bag she is making as a fair project. I was using my quilting cutting wheel (it looks like a pizza cutter, but smaller and sharp as hell!) and mat to cut a single layer of cotton.

Cutter in my left hand, holding the wheel guide down with my right hand... When the cutter up and decided cutting fabric wasn't good enough for it any longer- It jumped the guide and ran over the outside tip of my right hand pointer finger (um, yes- it hurts like a bitch to type).

I looked down and thought "this is going to be bad". Na.. It wasn't too bad. But I did manage to cut it clear off! I grabbed some paper towel so I didn't bleed all over my floor. I must have been lightning quick because my daughter didn't even know what happened. Or it could be the fact I didn't make any kind of big deal out of it- so it didn't draw her attention.

But my sick minded teenage daughter did enjoy looking at the remaining part of my finger caught in the cutting wheel! I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! :) Given that when I got back from the ER I had to pry it out of the cutter! I could see my finger print and everything! It was kinda cool!

Anyway back to the story, called the husband at work- He knows it's always something BAD if I am calling him off his machine at work~ I asked him if he would drive me in because I couldn't hold the pressure and drive a stick at the same time! Or else I would have just drove myself :)

My husband teased me about how I will probably be spending hundreds of $$ just for a Band Aid. And sure enough... He was correct!!! But I did learn something new- If you cut it completely off, there isn't anything to stitch! :)

Enjoy the gross photos... See... It's not THAT bad.

But I guess my career as a hand model is over :)

Some days I just want to say: "I give"

2008-07-14T11:14:00.002-05:00

There are some days I just want to toss in the towel. I often ponder where my drive comes from. What truly keeps me going? Is it my passion for learning? My passion for animals? Is it because I'm finally living my dream?

I wonder why I don't give up. Just about everyone I meet wonders how I do it. Even though I don't work outside the home anymore, I do have my hands full with an always on the go 2 year old, a demanding (expected) teenage girl, and the mid size zoo I seem to run here.

My motto around here seems to be "it's always something".

If it is not for my pride and joy of a horse injuring itself on fence that I should have taken down years ago. (now there is a learning curve)

Or the other horse escaping non stop (3 times now in the past week).

Or the Clydesdale's fat ass wrecking the chain link fencing we just bought and put up.

Or the winged rats (AKA: DAMN CHICKENS!) that keep ruining my landscaping on a daily basis.

Or how bout the 2 month old kitten that took a leak on my new couch (at which I happened to sit in).

Or the pig that developed a infectious illness a week before the fair (which is actually transmittable to humans too).

Or my best cat that got run over by a car (all because I was mad at it for peeing in the house so I tossed it outside).

Or my daughter's best show chickens that suddenly kick off overnight without reason.

Or finally purchasing my first ram lamb for my breeding program. Only to learn that it was never weaned off the ewe and didn't know how to eat solid foods. Only to have starve to death and die - no matter what I tried.

Or it's brother that was just as nice looking that became my daughter's market lamb- Wishing every day that we didn't "whack the nuts off it" making it non breed able.

Or like yesterday, I look out the back door only to see one of my ewes wearing its water bucket around its neck. (just another thing that I have to stop what I am doing to go deal with)

Or the ever rising cost of feed that prevents me from my own personal luxuries so my animals can eat.

All in all, like I said... It's always something. Kind of like if I didn't have BAD luck, I wouldn't have ANY luck at all!

Yes, there are MANY days I just want to say "THE HELL WITH THIS!" thinking I could be on a vacation (um, what's that???) or living the easy life in the city- where my only focus would be yard work and housework...

But I just keep plugging along. Enjoying the small thrills when I have them.

Like a beautiful sunset (man!!! we get great sunsets here!).

Or a hummingbird on my feeder.

Or the horses running and playing at dusk, rearing in the air, and listening to their running hooves that sound like thunder on the earth.

Or having sheep that run up to you instead of run away from you.

Or hearing my boy say "pig" or "farm" or "cows" and know what each one is.

Or catching Monarch Caterpillars to hatch out into butterflies for my children.

Or teaching my little one what a toad is, and laughing when he yelled "MONSTER!!!" and ran the other way!

Or watching the wild turkeys graze in my pasture.

Or seeing the deer that cross almost daily.

Or seeing an animal recover from an illness because you used your skill to treat it.

Or hearing the first cry of a newborn lamb on a cold January night. Knowing because of your planning, that lamb was created. And because of your watchful eye, that new life was born without incident.

And lastly, sharing all of my experiences with my family and friends (even if they don't understand WHY I do it).

Those are the things that keep me going. Those instances are what make life feel the fullest.

I better stop rambling... It's time to go outside and inject the pig with more Penicillin....

"It's always something".

When things turn very serious...

2008-07-14T07:57:00.005-05:00

So there I was, plodding along in life... No major happenings. Our family was getting ready for our county fair that will take place in less than 2 weeks. Life is good. Until this...

3 days ago while doing our normal routine of letting the two pigs out into our paddock so that they can stretch their legs and enjoy the fresh air, I noticed a bruise the size of a golf ball on Good Charlotte's back. I felt so bad for her. I figured for SURE the other more dominant pig had been too rough on our meek little Good Charlotte (Good Charlotte is the pig I am "riding" in the other post). I thought for sure it was a pig bite. I thought that it had happened during feeding time. After we put them away, we decided to keep our eye on her.

A couple hours later when I went to check on her in the stall. I had noticed another bruise on her back. This one was smaller in size, roughly the size of a nickel. I couldn't believe that the other pig was "attacking" her! I immediately took Good Charlotte out and isolated her into her own pen.

Life went on, I figured that will just be how it has to be. One pig in the big stall, the other in the small pen.

The next day came, and early in the morning we decided to let the pigs out separately for their time outdoors. While Good Charlotte was outside we noticed that she was not her bright upbeat self. I told my husband she looks "depressed". As we were checking her over we noticed that she had more bruises. At that time I counted around 5. We were dumb-founded! Where were they coming from?? Are they from flys? Is it from internal parasites? Given that swine are pretty new to us. I know that they oink, are big, grow fast and eat just about anything- Other than that, I don't know a great deal about illness / diseases.

Even though I have a few books on raising pigs, none of them seem to have any information on what we are experiencing. Her symptoms are listlessness and raised large lumps on the skin that have purple centers with a red ring around the purple center. And she gone off her feed. She won't eat or drink. To test that theory, I tried giving her a piece of bread and a pancake- neither of which she would eat.

I was frantic for a resolution. What on earth could be wrong with her? Whatever this is- it came on like a fire storm, healthy happy pig to next to dead the next. If I don't find an answer to this, she surely will die.

I spent the entire day surfing the information highway (aka: internet!) looking for my answer. I finally found it, and this is what it is....

Erysipelas in pigs
DR Webster, Animal & Plant Health Service, DPI&F Queenslandand M J Moore, Pig & Poultry Production Institute, South Australia

Erysipelas is a common pig disease sometimes called diamond skin disease. Affected pigs often have a fever, sudden deaths may occur and sows may abort, skin may redden and suffering from arthritis or heart disease may develop. Although the bacteria responsible are widespread, outbreaks of generalised illness are relatively rare. It is more likely to surface as chronic lameness or joint condemnations at slaughter, and protective vaccination is strongly recommended.

The disease
The disease is caused by Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae (formerly E insidiosa) a bacteria which is commonly present in an estimated 30-50% of tonsils in healthy pigs. Rodents and birds can introduce and maintain the organism within a piggery, and it can survive temporarily in soil, bedding and water. The bacterium is spread through faeces, saliva and nasal secretions.
Erysipelas can be an acute (rapidly developing), subacute (with mild and sometimes unnoticed symptoms) or chronic (slowly developing and long lasting) disease, and usually causes illness in pigs between 3 months and 3 years of age. Infected pigs may suffer from one or more of the five forms of the disease below.

Acute-Fever
An acute form which may affect pigs of all ages. In older pigs sporadic cases can occur but with younger animals whole litters may be affected. Pigs may be fevered and ill for several days with temperatures exceeding 40°C. They may be reluctant to stand or walk, and if forced to do so, may squeal and move with a stiff, stilted gait, and will soon lie down again. They are often depressed but remain alert, and may partly or completely lose interest in their feed.
Death can occur at any stage of the illness and will often occur in untreated pigs within 24-48 hours of onset. Young pigs generally die earlier than others. Prompt treatment with an appropriate antibiotic will speed recovery and reduce the likelihood of later complications.
Pregnant sows may abort when affected by the fever rather than from a specific action of the bacteria on the uterus, placenta or unborn piglets (by comparison Leptospirosis does attack the pregnant uterus).

Acute-Skin form
An acute form of the disease which may occur in fevered pigs, or as a mild form of the disease which only damages skin. Some affected pigs have red, diamond-shaped swellings appearing on the skin within 24-48 hours. The diamonds may be 100 mm or more across and can be felt by touch. Many photographs of these swellings have been published, but only a very small proportion of cases show such dramatic lesions, with most affected pigs more likely to develop welt-like red skin blotches, especially on the ears. On casual inspection, cases could be missed as the swellings are not always distinct.
If the skin lesions are light-pink to light purplish-red, they will usually slough off and disappear within 4-7 days unless they become infected. However, dark purplish-red lesions usually precede death.

Subacute
Subacute disease does not produce as much illness as acute disease, but may still lead to chronic disease. The pigs are less likely to suffer fever or skin lesions, and appetite may be unaffected. Signs may be so mild that they are unnoticed.

Chronic -Arthritis
A chronic form of the disease caused by infection localising in the joint. The signs of arthritis in affected pigs range from nil to very severe. Stiffness, swelling or heating of joints may become noticeable as early as three weeks after infection.
Severely affected pigs are reluctant or unable to move, and may not feed. Such pigs should be moved from concrete or slatted floors onto dirt or straw, and should be kept in a small group or alone where they are more likely to feed. Injections of an antibiotic or an anti-inflammatory agent may help recovery, but for pigs that are not especially valuable breeders, there is no practical treatment for chronic arthritis. As carcasses or parts of apparently recovered animals are frequently condemned it is better to send affected animals to slaughter early. This also avoids further injury or wasting. Severely affected pigs may have to be killed on the property. Erysipelas is not the only cause of arthritis in pigs; similar advice applies to all lamenesses. Some pigs with arthritis die of pneumonia because they are unable to stand and bacteria attack their lungs.

Arthritis is an important reason for condemnation of pigs in Australia. While the overall level of arthritis condemnation is low, individual properties may have large numbers of condemnations. In 1998, of over 71,000 pigs observed by state pig health monitoring services, 1.9% were totally or partially (one or more legs) condemned because of arthritis.
Chronic-Heart disease

This is another chronic form of the disease caused by infection on the valves of the heart. Affected pigs lose weight, become distressed after exercise or moving, and may die suddenly from heart failure. This may follow weeks or months after the fever form of the disease, but it is not always preceded by noticeable fever. This form of the disease is quite rare.

Diagnosis
Diagnosis is based on the symptoms observed, post-mortem findings and laboratory isolation of the causative organisms from blood or organs of dead pigs. Many other diseases can be confused with the various forms of erysipelas and diagnosis is not always easy. Tests on blood samples taken from a pig at the time of illness and again a few weeks later may help diagnosis.

Typical clinical symptoms may include:

A history of a few sudden deaths without evidence of illness.
Sick pigs with joint stiffness and temperatures above 40°C.
Diamond shaped skin lesions or red blotching of skin.
Pigs are alert but reluctant to stand or move.
Death or recovery within a few days of onset.
Constipation and dry, firm feces.
Abortion of pregnancies
Rapid response to penicillin.

----------------------------------------------------

As soon as I figured out what was wrong with her I immediately put her on Penicillin. I am hoping that by my ignorance (immediately isolating her from the other pig- thinking it was a pig bite) that this will not spread to the other gilt. We are currently practicing a high level of bio-security. We watch where we walk, as to not track anything on our shoes. We also limit who is allowed to touch Good Charlotte. And of course never feed /h20 Charlotte before the other pig- to not contaminate.

So far the other pig is healthy and happy- Let's keep our fingers crossed. The financial loss we would incur would be devastating. Not only would we lose both pigs, and all the money we have invested in them would be lost. But the market pig would not be sold at the sale- which would we would lose hundreds of dollars.

Now don't think I'm all about the almighty dollar... If the other hog shows any signs of this condition- It will not be going to the fair. I have learned that almost 50% of pigs carry this condition and just aren't symptomatic.

Overnight, Good Charlotte seems to be responding well to her high dose of Pen. She was looking brighter, drinking water, grunting, and she ate a little bit. Only time will tell I guess...

I have enclosed 2 pictures- The first picture is the typical "sitting dog" stance pigs take with this illness. The second picture is of one of her spots. You can see the typical "diamond" pattern. A tell tale sign of this illness.

Here we go again! The numbers game... Cost of raising livestock as food.

2008-07-10T11:21:00.002-05:00

Hello Gang!
I just thought I would give you an update as to what it really costs to raise your own food.. (no particular reason other than it is interesting!)

Let's start with the Beef!

In less than 1 year, Stew has eaten:
50 lbs of Milk Replacer (formula)
450 lbs of Calf Starter (pelleted feed)
1630 lbs of Cracked Corn
That is a total of 2130 lbs of feed stuff!

If we guess Stew to weigh roughly 550 lbs., that means it took 3.87 lbs of feed to create 1 pound of steer.
To date, the total investment for this 9 month old steer is $657.70. That translates to $1.20 lb (live weight) Or $657.70.

(His total cost does not include the cost of hay (he eats $1.25 / day in hay), bedding, water, electricity, time, tax, butchering/wrapping, etc.)

Now let's talk about swine...

These two glorious "Gilts" (girl pigs) have eaten a total of 1825 lbs of feed.

The total cost of raising these two pigs is: $503.44 (or $251.72 for each pig) This too does not reflect the cost of hay (yes they eat hay :), bedding material, water, electricity, time, household food, tax, butchering/wrapping/smoking, etc...

Let's guess that these two piggies have a combined weight of 500lbs. That means it took 3.65 lbs of feed to make one pound of oink. And they cost roughly $1.00 / lb (live weight)

Let's cross our fingers on our market swine! According to the 2007 Outagamie Co. Livestock Sale report, the average price paid out to the kids per swine was $3.13/pound- Making the average price per animal $851.06. $529. being the lowest priced swine from last year. And $1411.00 being the highest priced swine. 101 swine were sold at the sale last year.

We chose the swine project this year to help us recover ($$) from the expense of raising show lambs / goats.

The lambs are still doing wonderful! Here is the breakdown on them:

Of the 3 lambs heading to show, 1 currently weighs 124lbs, one weighs 122lbs, and one weighs 117lbs!

These 3 lambs have eaten 1250lbs of grain stuff. That's over 1/2 a ton!!!!

It took 3.72lbs of grain stuff to create 1lb of lamb.
These 3 lambs cost $1.92 per pound (live weight)
Just an "FYI" these figures were calculated prior to the lamb's last weigh in. (in case you were wondering why the math doesn't jive!)

Have a great day!

The 1 A.M Knock...

2008-07-10T07:54:00.002-05:00

There I was... Sleeping. Lol! OK Let's try this again.

It was the middle of the night. I was hard asleep on the couch, when I heard a faint sounding knock on my front door. The dog started barking- I mean BARKING like he was ready for blood. Which is kind of humorous because during the day he has been wearing his anti bark collar. And because I don't think he would know what to do with a stranger other than lick them to death. But it was sounding quite impressive! It was one moment in time that I was absolutely grateful he wasn't wearing that no bark collar!

Waking up in the pitch black of night, living out in the stix, husband not home...baby sleeping... I didn't answer the door. I was hoping that whomever was knocking in the middle of the night would just go away! I have lived in this house for almost 8 years- and have NEVER had anyone come calling this time of the night (well, technically- "Morning", given that it was after midnight!)

So I left it... Only to hear "knock, knock" "BARK!" "BARK!" "growl..."

This time I figured I better deal with whatever it is on the other side of the exterior wall that was repeatedly wanting my attention. I crept through the black living room and tried to find the peep hole on my door (That little tiny speck of a hole is hard to find in the dark!). I finally found it! And long behold what do I see?!?!?...

An officer from the Sheriff's department!

I was actually relieved! Even though I had no idea WHY the deputy was here, I figured it was a WAY better option than the idea my mind came up with all on its own! That one wasn't pretty!

And so I answered the door. Here I was, hiding behind the steel entry door, one hand on the dog's collar, the other trying to open the storm door to greet him.

The officer asked me if I owned a black horse, and proceeded to tell me that it was "out" (aka: loose)

I told him to just give me a minute and I will meet him outside. So I closed the door, came in got dressed - UM, YES- DRESSED. Now that I look back on things, I was SO groggy (sleeping pills don't allow for middle of the night clear thinking) that I completely forgot I wasn't wearing PANTS / UNDERWEAR!!! As I look back on things, I thought that when I answered the door I had on my "night gown"! Oh the horror he must have witnessed!!! I bet that I burned a not so pretty image in his head! And to think I was scared to answer the door- If he would have known ahead of time what he was about to see- HE would have been scared to knock! lol!

So... Long story short- Someone saw my BLACK horse running around in the BLACK of night and called the Sheriff's department. I was very grateful that she didn't play "whack a car" on our road out front. I don't think my homeowners insurance man would have liked that! Plus it would have left an awful mess on my road that the town has been painstakingly prepping for resurfacing.

I go outside, see the horse standing in my backyard wanting nothing more than to be back with her "lover" my Clydesdale. I rip off my freshly put on sweatshirt (yes, I have clothes on underneath!- I wasn't about to shock the poor officer again!) wrap it around the horses neck and lead her back to the paddock. We call that maneuver a "Redneck Lead Rope". lol.

THAT'S when I looked down and realized I WASN'T wearing Jammie's under my freshly put on sweatshirt and shorts- That it was just a t-shirt (and a short one at that!) I was silently mortified! Hoping that I really DID stay behind the door when I opened it!

Who would have THUNK it!?

2008-07-08T20:04:00.008-05:00

Did you know Pigs absolutely LOVE water??? I swear, watching those two pigs play in a $10.00 pool filled with water- Is just PRICELESS!
Enjoy the pics!! :)

Because Fuel Prices have Ski Rocketed...

2008-07-06T10:16:00.003-05:00

So now that the cost of gas is $4.00 / gallon, I have found that I do not drive to as many places as I had used to. In order to not go stir crazy from being housebound, we have started to create our own entertainment around here!

Here's my new ride! LOL! It must be pretty fuel efficient and environmentally friendly- Given that it DOES run on corn~! LOL! I wonder how she does in traffic? Or how long it would take me to go to the mall? LOL! I don't quite know where to put the blinkers though... Or how to register it with the DMV!

And one little p.s- No, I am not REALLY sitting on it... It only looks that way :) No pigs were injured in this photo -= LOL!~

the EGG RANT

2008-05-22T14:11:00.003-05:00

Today I am going to blow off some steam...

My daughter has been selling her chicken's eggs. She sells them for $2.50/dozen. I have been advertising for her on "Craig's list". It was a nice little ad, complete with this picture (see insert) of the eggs. The money helps her 4H Poultry project, and helps the chickens "earn" their keep.

Overall, I have met some wonderful people! Many repeat customers, and have even made some new friends!

But how do I say this..?? There is always one bad turd in a pile... Every once in awhile I receive an email from someone replying to the egg ad asking if I would lower the price. They ALWAYS say: "I can buy eggs all day long for $1.00 / dozen." Or the latest: "I can drive half an hour away to buy eggs from the Amish for a buck". (needless to say, gas is almost $4.00/gal- the money saved per dozen is spent TWO FOLD in gas consumption!)

Every time I kindly reply to them that if I had sold them the eggs for cheap, that it would not be fair to our customers who currently pay the asking price. I always end my email with "I'm sorry we could not be of service to you, have a nice day". Because I tell you what, if *I* was paying top dollar for eggs, and *I* found out that the person I was buying them from sold those same eggs for a fraction of the cost to someone else- *I* would be SO pissed, I would never buy eggs from them again.

And each time I always get a nasty email back (they are sore now because I won't give them away) about how we are "ripping people off".

How are we ripping anyone off?? Do we only put 6 in a dozen carton? Do we have the market cornered on egg sales? Are we the ONLY people that sell eggs? Do I make them purchase our eggs?

Yes, people are free to buy eggs wherever they would like. When they buy from us, they are buying "an experience". If people have children, I always welcome their entire family here and show them every animal we have. City children have pet: Sheep, Goats, Chickens, Steer, Pigs, and Horses... I always take them to help me collect the eggs, I also teach them how to feed the horse's treats and even show and let them pet the kittens.

On the flip side, the parents always have a zillion questions about animals and animal husbandry. I don't mind the questions. It is nice to have someone actually interested in what we do.

So back to the MEAN PEOPLE SUCK part- My recent email from some jerk (the same one claiming to buy Amish eggs from Marion for a buck) quoted WC Fields famous saying of "There is a sucker born every minute" and then wrote "and you have found a few of them".

SO I replied- "Again, I am sorry we could not help you" and then I wrote "Thank You for your opinion, you know what they say about opinions, and ended my email with Get a life".

And instead of this loser moving on with their life they wrote back yet again saying "No smart ass, what do they say about opinions? Why don't you just charge $5.00/dozen? Price Gouger!!!!!!"

Now I'm not thrilled to say the least So I ended this stupid email battle with-

It's wonderful to know that a child's egg sales, "rocks your world" that much. Sure nice to see people like you waste so much energy on such important issues. Global warming... Na...., high fuel prices.... Na....., rising cost of everyday living...... Na..... the 2008 campaign race.... Na....., the earthquake that killed an entire Asian community.... Na.....

BUT DAMN!!!! A YOUNG PERSON SELL EGGS FOR A WHOPPING .75 MORE THAN THE STORE- BUT FOR LESS MONEY THAN THOSE LOVELY BROWN ORGANIC EGGS IN THE STORE-

THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!!!

Like I said... Get a life. End of story.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I cannot believe the nerve of some people. Why are people like this? I know myself I would never scoff at some one's for sale ad. If I wanted something for cheaper than they were asking, I would make them an offer, if they declined I would leave it at that and move on with my life.

Now to top it off (this was BEFORE this email banter back / forth- with this jerk) Someone is so scorned by our little egg ad that every time I post it on Craig's list they flag it and have it deleted on me. It sure is frustrating that people have nothing better to do than ruin other people's days.

The numbers game again....

2008-05-07T10:35:00.003-05:00

Today we are going to talk more about the cost of raising animals for food.

If you recall, we have been raising a Holstein steer calf since last Oct. He is coming along quite nicely. To date he weighs roughly 400lbs. (just an eyeball guess of course!)

So far, he has eaten 1200 pounds of cracked corn! So that means for every 3 pounds of feed fed, he gains 1 lb. It's not an exact "science" of course- because I am only guessing on his exact weight.

To date, he has cost us $563.38. That includes, purchase price, feed, hay, and other misc. costs.

To give you an idea of price per pound... Let's just say we brought him to the butcher shop today- and his weight really was 400lbs (no, you REALLY wouldn't cash out at such a small weight! This is just hypothetically speaking!) The cost for the kill / cutting / wrapping / cooling would be roughly $300.00. And lets say his hanging weight was only 275 lbs. (hanging weight is minus the head, hide, insides, and feet.) Now lets say his box weight was 200lbs (box weight is what you get back to put into your freezer, it is minus large bones & trimmings). So lets take our costs $563.38 plus $300.00 = $863.38. Now divide that into the meat you actually get (200lbs) that means this steer would cost $4.31 per pound. Now that's everything- steaks, roasts, hamburger etc...

It's amazing how much "waste" is on a steer. Our last steer weighed 1500 lbs (live weight) and by the time everything was said and done, we had a little over 400 lbs in the freezer.

Next lets talk about the pigs: We have 2 female (no castrating! Yah!!!) feeder pigs right now. One is to be sold at the county fair, the other is for our own personal consumption.

We got both of them on March 2nd of this year. So far they have eaten 825 lbs of feed. Their total expense to date is $280.15. They each weigh roughly 125lbs. So that means that it has taken 3.3 lbs of feed to make 1 pound of pig. Sure, that is pretty close to the steers rate of gain... BUT- It only takes 5 months to raise a hog to slaughter weight (where a steer is almost 2 years) and your hanging weight and box weight are a lot closer. For instance, our last hog's live weight was roughly 350lbs, his hanging weight was 291 lbs and his box weight was 275 lbs. Much more bang for your buck with a pig.

Then there are the lambs...

We currently have 3 lambs this year. Those 3 lambs were born in Jan. All three are going to be sold at the county fair. So far, the lambs weigh 234lbs (together- exact weight) and they have eaten 350lbs of feed. The lambs are doing great! It has taken about a pound and a half of feed to produce 1 pound of lamb.

So all in all what does this tell us?? It tells us raising our own food is not cheap! Unfortunately, with every animal you will always have a "waste" factor. It is proven that pound for pound it is much wiser to raise hogs / lamb for food over steers. Sure, we could put the steer on a better feed than just straight corn to make him grow at a faster rate. But with that special feed comes more cost. Speaking of cost... With the rising cost of fuel, and corn the cost of raising your own food has gone up significantly. For instance, cracked corn last year cost $6.50 / 100lbs. Today it costs $11.00 per the same 100lbs. Pig food used to be $13.00 /100lbs. Today it costs $19.00 for that same 100lbs. Lamb food (show food) used to cost $12.98 / 50lbs. Today it costs $13.25 for the same 50lbs.

We won't even TOUCH the subject of horses... lol! They ate 10 tons (that's 20 THOUSAND POUNDS folks!) of hay this past fall / winter / spring!- And we don't eat them!!! They just stand outside looking pretty! :)

*sigh* perhaps I should become a vegan. At least gardening is cheaper! :)

Have a great day!
MF

BIG Rabbit, SMALL fence

2008-02-21T15:18:00.008-06:00

Big Rabbits at full speed and small holed fences don't mix. It is almost like an oil and vinegar combination.

Two weekends ago, I was running around outside to prepare the animals for the upcoming snow storm. I was checking water tanks, filling sheep mineral tubs, graining the steer inside his shelter. Basically battening down the hatches for the upcoming storm of the century (it was going to be a dousy!)

While I was filing the sheep mineral feeder my mother had arrived to spend the day with us. While we were petting the sheep I happened to glance over at the steers pasture. On the far side of his pasture I saw something on the fence. I asked my mother "what on earth is that?" All I could see was something brown. As I strained trying to make out what it was I saw it move! So I left the sheep pasture, to go investigate. As I got closer I was able to see what it was- It was a yard bunny (wild rabbit) that had some how got into the steer's pasture (prob. through the spaces in the gate) and tried to get out through the perimeter fencing. In a perfect world that doesn't sound like a big deal right? Except the perimeter fencing is welded wire fence with 2"x 4" square holes. AKA: Sheep/Goat fencing. And he wasn't exactly fitting.

Ok, that's putting it mildly. He was stuck and knocking on death's door was more like it! He was SO tangled in the fence- his head and his front legs managed to get through, but his back half and back legs were not having it and were wrapped tight around the fence. The bunny was in bad shape. It had skinned its back clean down to the "meat", and his back legs were frozen stiff. I tried to free him from his prison but couldn't. I told my mom to go get me a knife, I was just going to do the humane thing and end his suffering. While my mom was gone I managed to free the bunny. Poor thing, the front half worked but not the back half. I stood waiting inside the steers pen waiting for my mother to return. I had to climb over the fence to get out (thanks to all of this years snow!) and didn't want to put the rabbit down on the ground. I wanted to play pass the bunny.

So as I sat waiting, petting and talking to it I looked down at my side and said: "Stew! Don't LICK the rabbit!" Here's the steer licking away at it like it was rabbit covered candy! Ugh! What ELSE could happen??

So here comes mom.... the only knife she could find was some dull dinner knife (steak knife) from my kitchen silverware drawer! That "butter knife" was going to be about as usefull on a rabbit's throat as are tits on a bull. Great, if I start sawing away with this knife all the poor rabbit is going to do is scream in pain. And I sure don't want that! So now what do I do...

I tossed around all kinds of ideas in my head: I could shoot it- Na... that would take too long to find the pellet gun or 22cal. I could leave it for the cats, they could eat it- Na... that would be cruel too. I could toss it under a tree and let nature take its course- Na... that would be a long slow death. I could throw it in my freezer and let it "go to sleep" (my common route of humanely killing small animals) na... what would hubby say, and it was covered with fleas.

So... I had to make a decision. Bleeding hearts- stop reading RIGHT HERE.

I decided to drown it in a bucket. Nothing like petting and cooing a cute fuzzy bunny one minute, and in the next minute holding it by his back legs in a pail of water until it stopped thrashing.

All while my mother stood there and watched me do it. Telling me how I should have *tried* to save it. Unfortunately, I have been "saving" wounded animals for so long, that you start to know what's savable and what is not. And let's just say this rabbit drew the short straw. There was no hope for it.

Ok, I'm starting to notice a trend... and once again- Where was the big strong strapping husband to do this dirty NON GIRLY work?? Not home...Working. Go figure. Murphy's law. Things always happen on my watch~ :)

Why do I blog about poor little innocent fuzzy bunnies being snuffed by cruel ole me? Because it is part of my life as a woman on a hobby farm. That's why! Enjoy your city view!

Yippeeee!!!! ... Uh oh...

2008-02-21T14:38:00.004-06:00

Today I'm going to talk about the "Momma" part of my life-

My youngest, almost 2 year old son has started to really dislike wearing diapers. Every time I turn my back I hear the ever famous "RIP" of the Velcro, only to find him running nude butt around the living room.

So today when he did this I said to him: "Why don't you go into your bedroom and bring out your potty chair and put it in the living room. So when you have to go pee you can pee in the potty. So off he went to his room... While this was going on, I was enjoying a well deserved break from my housewife / motherly duties- watching the DIY Network.

I actually was so engrossed in learning how to plumb a bathroom that I forgot about him for a few minutes. When I came back to mommy reality I could hear him in his bedroom so I decided I better go and check to see what he was up to... I rounded the corner to see him standing in front of his potty saying "wet", "wet". I looked in it and long behold there it was!!! A potty's worth of pee! I was so THRILLED! Sure, he tinkled all OVER the potty, in the potty and sprinkled around the floor too- BUT it was IN the potty!!!

I was so ecstatic! I praised him in the most joyful sickening sounding parent voice "What a Good Boy you are, you went PEE in the POTTY" (I felt like a master praising a well mannered dog).

My entire being was gleaming with parenting pride- I called everyone I knew to share my good news. Heck, I was even tempted to call the husband at work (but decided not to go THAT far! :)

After I washed out his potty I brought it out into the living room. Knowing how much the boy is a water hound, it shouldn't be long before he has to pee again. Roughly half an hour later, he grabbed his (insert word) yelling "pee-pee!, pee-pee!" Over to the potty we both went!

Raising a girl prior to him I was a tad confused on the stand up / sit down policy, so I figured we would try it standing, and I will aim.

There we stood.... and stood.... and stood.... nothing. He closed the lid and said "all done".

2 minutes later he hopped up onto the couch, 5 seconds after that he was steaming like the Alaskan pipeline- ONTO my COUCH!

Of course I didn't scold him, I just thought how DUMB could I have been! lol! Like I didn't *think* that was going to happen??

Oh wait! I get even more stupid... I decided to give him just one more try without his diaper on. 10 minutes later he pee'd all over my kitchen floor while sitting in his high chair- I was impressed, he didn't get any in his lap- He got good range with that one! He could have won the gold medal for distance.

Thank heavens he missed the dog.

Now his diaper is held on with duct tape... :)

Liquid in... Liquid out....

2008-01-18T17:19:00.000-06:00

Ugh! The only downfall with having bottle fed lambs is that they have runny poo. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if they weren't in the house!!! I rotate their indoor housing between an older style playpen (they are bigger than the newer pack-n-play models), and my laundry room. My laundry room floor is linoleum. Linoleum and hooves don't mix! If you have ever seen Bambi on ice, you will understand... To solve my problem and prevent broken lamb parts I lay down black rubber mats for traction. And to make clean up easier I cover the mats with bed sheets. I use the play pen to give them a different venue (hey! I would get bored looking at the same old walls & washer and dryer every day!) lol. No just kidding! I put them in the playpen when I have to clean the laundry room floor and wash their bedding.

Anyway, back to the poo...(sorry, no pictures LOL) I have modern artists for sheep! They love to paint butt murals all over the front of the washing machine, the dryer, the walls, and not to mention- THEMSELVES! Good grief!

Today was wash the lambs day. I had about enough when I looked at the one and it looked as if someone shot him in the butt with a case of yellow paint balls. And no thanks to that one- he backed into his brother and made him look like a bumble bee! Needless to say, Picasso butt received some "scour guard" for his overly loose poop.

Washing baby sheep can be a challenge in itself. (not to mention I have a toddler too!) So I stuck the boy in the high chair with his favorite snack/TV show. I then grabbed a "liquid lamb" and off to the tub we went! I have to mat the bottom of the tub or I can expect brand new dance moves out of them (it's that Bambi on ice thing again.).

How to make your soap go a long way- Pour it on a lamb! Oh my! Putting soap on a woolly lamb is like putting laundry soap in a hot tub with the jets on! The saying "A little goes a long way" is an understatement when it comes to washing sheep. And when you are done washing them, you dust about 4 dry bath sized towels per 6lb lamb. Where the hell they seem to store all that water is beyond me. And why don't sheep shrink when you wash them?? Wool sweaters do! :)

The first two lambs are here!

2008-01-18T16:44:00.000-06:00

Here are my first 2 lambs of the season!

Both are ram lambs out of my registered black ewe "Brownie". They are currently being raised in the house (which I knew ahead of time they would be) Brownie has a blockage in one of her teats which does not allow the milk to come out. Most shepherds would cull (kill) a ewe like that, but I really like her and she gives me nice lambs. For three years I have been doing it this way with her.

As soon as the lambs are born they are taken from her and brought into the house. The lambs are dried off with towels and started on milk re placer with colostrum. I also tend to the ewe to make sure all is hunky dory with her (and give her snacks for a job well done!). Then starts the process of drying her up and medicating her if need be.

Bottle feeding lambs can be very demanding. During their first few days of life they get a smidgen of formula in a bottle every couple hours. As they get older, the amount increases and the frequency decreases.

After a week they are started on solid food (grass hay) as well as bottles, and when they have that task mastered they get started on a grain concentrate (in addition to formula). These lambs will be on milk re placer for roughly 8wks. In that time they will be castrated, have their tails banded with an elastrator band (rubber band that cuts off the circulation to the tail to remove it), they will have their ears tagged for identification, and have their first round of vaccinations.

(OH BOY! I BET PETA WILL *LOVE* READING THIS!)

Oh well, these animals are food- Not pets!

These pics were taken right after their birth, hence the dangling umbilical cords and misc. straw pieces stuck on them :)

January Swimming Anyone???

2008-01-18T16:15:00.000-06:00

Here's my view from my living room window last week. The flooding you see is my horse pasture. Believe it or not there is a steel I beam bridge covered in double oak planks that is over the creek under all that water! At the deepest point the water is roughly 4ft deep. I'm used to this field flooding in the early Spring, but NOT in January! By early summer the pasture and creek bed are bone dry.

The nice thing is, it really doesn't matter how much the field floods out. Our barn, and house are up on a hill (as you can see when you look at the flooding: where you see grass then nothing is where it drops off). So unless we get a Tsunami and over 10 ft of water- it doesn't harm anything but the field.

I was going to be a "smarty pants" and put on my chest waders walk out there and post a huge sign that says "NO Swimming" just for giggles.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2007-12-21T16:19:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! This is going to be a very busy (pre) Holiday weekend for me- The colt goes to his new home, I have ewe's I need to get in the barn to start preparing for lambing, and I have Christmas shopping to still do!

Madison (crazy sheep) lol. Is my first one due to deliver, she is due Jan. 9th. So stay tuned!

Blessings,
Momma Farmer

Christmas is for the Birds!...

2007-12-21T09:50:00.000-06:00

Raising a hog is a great way to put food in your freezer... But I have come across one small problem. What on EARTH do I do with 69lbs of fat!?? Most people cannot even comprehend what 69lbs of fat looks like! To put it in perspective lets just say I could sculpt a beautiful black Labrador retriever out of it and put it in my front lawn as a decoration!

SO this year I am trying something new... I'm rendering Lard. Of course I had no clue on how to actually do this so I had to turn to my trusty Internet for answers. Oh the wonders of lard... I never knew it had so many fun uses! Candles, baking, frying, hand cream, soap... etc. But I wanted it for one thing- Winter bird food!! Did you know that when you purchase "suet" it is made from bovine fat, and the term "lard" is specifically from swine? Maybe I'm just a little behind on my terminology, but I never knew that! I had always referred to the greasy stuff you hang on your feeder in the winter as "Bird Suet".

Here is how rendering lard works:

First, I had to cut up the fat into small 1" pieces...Which is no small feat, it is frozen solid and slippery!

Next I added those pieces to my crock pot and added 1 1/2 cups of water...

My first perspective on making lard was WAY off base! I thought you heat it up, it all melts like butter, and within minutes you were good to go! Yeah right... Those fat hunks contain all of this weird "fibrous" material (kind of like if I whacked off my left thigh and tossed it in a pot to cook- It has substance).

Rendering lard takes FOREVER! It takes over 8 hours to make lard. Once it starts to slowly thaw and cook down it starts to look like and have the consistency of rubber fish! (Picture taken after 4 hours of cooking- It sure isn't getting anywhere fast!)

After 8 hours- You can see it is starting to really break down now! (OK, with the help of my fork stirring it! lol)

I'm sure you are *supposed* to cook it down further, but my patience grows thin and I can't wait any longer!!!! I then strained it through a cloth & metal strainer into a glass bowl...

The material that's left in the strainer makes for a high fat / protein meal for my outdoor barn cats!

Here's a picture of the liquefied product:

And after I refrigerate it overnight...

Next, I scraped it into a larger bowl and added- Bird seed, peanut butter, and oatmeal (instant- Apple flavor!)

Stir-

Then I took bailing twine from my hay bales and made string loops to hold the mixture...

Next, I put on rubber gloves to ball up the mixture. I found that using my bare hands just doesn't work. Lard has such a low melting point, I cannot ball it up with my bare hands, it just turns into a gloppy gooey mess! The gloves make it so the heat of my hands doesn't interfere as much. Besides, who wants that greasy crap all over your hands!? lol!

I don't have a picture of me actually "making" the balls- but I'm sure you can figure it out! :) There was NO Way I was going to get my good Canon D20 all covered in lard!

Here is your final result- I then place them in the freezer to harden. (I would just put them on my covered porch to harden, but I'm thinking my cats would eat them!)

And here is the finished product in action! Talk about a *lot* of work for an item you can purchase this time of year for roughly around a buck a piece. But hey, what else would I do with all of that fat?! Each ball lasts roughly 3 weeks.

Merry Christmas Everyone! :)

Momma Farmer

"Madison" - Our Sheep on Crack!

2007-12-13T17:30:00.001-06:00

We received Madison from a loving family just this past summer. She is an older ewe around 5 years old. The reason the family was re homing her was because Madison had always lived with her momma, and her momma was getting quite up there in age (around 12+yrs old) and the owners were worried her momma would not last another winter. Because Madison's past owner did not have any other sheep, she was worried what would happen to Madison once her momma was gone. So, I offered to give her a home. The owner told me that Madison had never been breed. I figured I would give it a try, and see if she could fit with the program. If not, she still always had a home here.

On a beautiful summer day we took the horse trailer and drove 2 hours down south to go meet and pick up Madison. Her owner had told us that she was a "hair" sheep and that she shed her hair naturally, and prob. didn't need shearing. That was cool with me! One less sheep to shear!! Yipppeeee!

We got there, met the family, took a tour of their farm, and met Madison - Great people by the way! Madison was a little "wilder" than we were accustomed to but we didn't think much about it because all of our sheep are handled to the nines, so they are like dogs. Unlike most people's flocks. Let me say, having tame sheep really makes herdsmanship MUCH easier.

So we loaded Madison in the back of the trailer and closed the door. While we were saying our goodbye's to the owners, Madison starting to BAAAA. (Really loud) No biggy, we were used to that- Try going out to eat while out of town with a sheep in the trailer and have the darn thing BAAAAA the whole time your in the restaurant eating!

While we were standing there chatting, Madison decided to jump up into the manger of the trailer! That one threw me for a mental loop! I had *never* seen a sheep launch itself into the hay manger 4ft up! So there sat the sheep, BAAAA-ing away inside the trailer, standing in the hay manger- all you saw was legs when you looked in the window!

Our ride home was interesting. I was worried that the darn sheep would fall out of the hay manger and come crashing down on the floor of the trailer while we were flying down the highway! I spent my whole ride home in the truck looking out the side mirror- trying to see in the trailer windows to see if she was up there again. And of course, she was... I swear she rode the entire trip home up there!

We finally get home. She's still BAAAA-ing away. (At least my non-farmy next door neighbors are used to us and our quirks!) I ran in the house to get the wormer and vaccines ready. Whenever any new sheep come here- they get vaccinated, wormed, and hooves trimmed. I had our 1 yr old baby in his stroller so we could get Madison out of the trailer. To keep the baby occupied I bent down to give him some toys. While doing that I heard this HUGE crash and saw a flash of sheep out of the corner of my eye!

It was my husband's doing (Isn't that always the case! lol)... He decided not to wait for me, and opened the emergency escape door on the trailer just to peek in and check on her. Well she was like a bull in a china shop!! As soon as that door creeped open, she rushed my husband and came flying out the door! Almost knocking him to the ground! No small feet given my husband's 6ft 2", and 250lbs!

So there was our new sheep... Running wild around our front yard! Great, now what do we do?? I tried grain... I laid the pan down figuring she would go for it. Yeah right, that didn't work!
This cracked out sheep wasn't having anything to do with ANYTHING I tried. She ran around and around our barn. Every time we came within 2 ft of her she shot off like someone stuck a lit rocket in her butt. Around and around she went, we went one way, she went another... This went on for almost half an hour! LUCKILY, it was dinner time on the farm and my existing flock of sheep heard our "not so kind" words and started Baaa-ing. Madison heard the other sheep and ran down to the pasture fence to be with them. That's when we were finally able to catch her!

To this day she is still a pain to catch. She is afraid of the world, it's not her fault- It's her breed. Every time we have to do hooves, and worm our flock we spend half an hour chasing her around the pasture. And every time we wonder when we are going to use catch chutes, or dogs to help us...

And you thought sheep were innocent "Lambs of God"!

2007-12-13T16:24:00.000-06:00

Every year we rent a ram for breeding from a local farm. We rent a ram instead of having our own to eliminate inbreeding. Sure, we could get one years use out of our own ram, (as long as we don't breed it back to it's momma!) but that would be all. Or he would be breeding back to his offspring. Funny, I would imagine inbreed lambs taste no different than non inbreed lambs... lol! I guess my conscious just keeps me from doing it.

Anyway, (I do have a point... somewhere...)

The ram we rented was named "Mr. Nibbles" - no, we didn't name him! We picked him up from his owner's farm and he was in our care for the duration of three breeding cycles (ewe's ovulate every 17 days)- roughly 3 months. He was a really nice ram!... BUT... For some strange unforeseen reason Mr. Nibbles hated our sheep shelter! I don't mean had a little dislike for it and wouldn't use it, I mean downright was at WAR with it! He would ram his head into the shelter as hard as he could! It wasn't the fairest of fights, the sheep shelter never fought back!

He did two things that year...

First, he gave me beautiful lambs! A huge single lamb out of Pebbles (which was my daughter's market lamb for 4H) and a black ram lamb and a black ewe lamb (Elizabeth) from Brownie.

Second he gave me a new sheep shelter! Because the one he destroyed...

um... he destroyed!! :)

Sheep, Sheep! Everywhere a Sheep!

2007-12-13T15:48:00.000-06:00

Our main project on our farm is breeding and raising sheep. We have been breeding sheep for 3 years. Our flock consists of a registered Natural Colored (aka:Black) mature Rambrulet ewe (named "Brownie")., 3 of her offspring: 1 black yearling ewe ("Elizabeth"), and two black 3yr old wethers ("Roy & Oliver!").

There's also "Pebbles" a mature Hampshire ewe, and new the three newbies' we just added last year: "Daisy" our Suffolk 2 yr old ewe, "Iris" a mature Hampshire ewe, and last but not least- "Madison" a Barbados (hair sheep), cross... hum, how can I explain Madison??
If you have ever wondered what a SHEEP ON CRACK acts like??? Come on over! That's Madison!!!

Oh the sheep stories I could tell! You just wait! You will soon learn that all the crazy stuff happens to us!

We raise sheep for meat. They are breed at the end of summer and lambing for us starts in Jan. So they are at market weight by the time my daughter shows them at the county fair in July.

Horses,... The OTHER white meat!

2007-12-12T13:52:00.000-06:00

Na... we don't eat our horses! Made you think though huh?!

Currently we have 4 horses:

My 6 year old 16hh APHA Paint gelding named "Ice" (Iceman Zippeth)

My daughter's 6 year old 14hh grade black breeding stock paint mare named "Jewel".

My husband's 6 year old 18hh bay roan Clydesdale gelding named "Rick"

And our newest addition, Jewel's baby- a (now) 6 month old black grade colt named "Leggs". Who is now waiting to be delivered to his new home! And no, we didn't breed her- she came to us that way. (Below is his baby pic, he was only 1 day old!)

The horses are nice "pets" to have. Expensive... but nice. There is nothing more breath-taking than watching a big Clydesdale do a high stepping trot across a fresh snow covered field. It almost makes every dollar you cork into them worth it.

Don't get me wrong I love all of my horses dearly but unless you own horses and keep them on your own farm you don't realize how much they strain your time, and your wallet. Funny, up until I started raising livestock as food I thought horses were the next best thing to gold. Now I just scratch my head as they sit here day in and day out, year after year without "real" purpose (other than the occasional ride) soaking up the finances.

______________________________________________

I remember when I first got into horses years ago. I bought my first horse when I was 27, and spent a whopping $350. on him. He was a 2 1/2 year old grade gelding I named "Dudley" aka: Duddy. That horse was the love of my life! Before I had this farm I used to board him at a local barn for $210.00/month. (I wish it was that cheap to have them at home! I don't know how those places do it!) It was only for about 3 months until we bought this place when he came home. I sure did miss having an indoor arena!

Duddy didn't come to me without problems. He had a club foot on one back foot, and DJD (Degenerative Joint Disease) in his other hind leg. I was aware of his condition prior to buying him through the vet's pre-purchase exam. The vet said he was sound enough for the light riding that I did. (I'm a two speed kind of gal- walk & stop!- I ride maybe 5 times a year) Over the years his conditioned worsened. I did everything I could for him. I had numerous x-rays done on his legs, he was on joint supplements, pain killers..etc. In the pasture he would lay down for hours on end. Everyday I would go out into the pasture to check on him. One of the commands he knew was "Duddy Get up!". It was hard watching him rock onto his rump with his front legs outstretched holding up his weight trying to stand up. As the years past, winters were the hardest- he would continuously go lame.

In the last few years I had him I stopped riding him. He and I resorted to going for walks together down the road. He was like my big over sized dog! It was so peaceful walking him on a quiet country road listening to the sound of his hooves on the pavement and feeling the sun on my face. I always kept him groomed like the finest show horse around and his bay coat just gleamed in the summer sun.

I knew we had come to our end in the winter of 2006. Duddy's legs had become so painful that I couldn't pick his feet anymore. He couldn't even lift a front foot- because it put too much weight on his failing back legs. Every time we had his feet trimmed it was a 3 person job. One to do the trimming, and two to hold up his hind end. No small feet given he was a 1100lb 16hh horse. He never protested though, he knew we were only trying to help. But that was when I knew it was time. I have always said when his quality of life goes downhill and living becomes no fun anymore it's time to go. So I called the vet. and scheduled the euthanasia.

What the Hell is a "Show Chicken"?

2007-12-12T10:04:00.001-06:00

Did you know people have chickens that they keep neat and tidy and "special" just for showing?? Yepper,... and we fall into the category of those people! My older daughter (13yrs old) loves chickens. She has cages and cages of "special" show chickens. She has three chickens that are purebred: A male and a female Black Rose Comb, and one male Buff Catalina. And countless other chosen mixed breeds that she keeps in special confinement just for the summer county fair. These show chickens get bathed, clipped, polished and handled all the time. Whatever happened to just tossing them some seed and letting them eat bugs?! lol.

Wait until I show you a picture of the new chicken house we built for our "normal" chickens- I swear they live better than me! ;)

I am finding that I like chickens less and less. I'm starting to feel they are nothing but pocket book drainers. They eat like it's going out of style, poop on everything, the roosters crow constantly, and you can't eat them if they are running wild (they are WAY too tough). And to top it off, the special show chickens need more electricity than the other farm chickens during the winter. They need heat lamps on their cages to keep their combs & waddles from freezing and falling off. Now she wants to get into chicken breeding... ugh. more chickens.

*sigh* It's amazing what we do for our kids.

Welcome to the Farm!

2007-12-12T09:42:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my place! This is where I will talk about my various trials, tribulations and joys of hobby farming.

I moved from the "City" (with a whopping population of 90,000 people) roughly 7 years ago to a small 7 acre hobby farm just 10 minutes outside of town. Talk about having your cake and eating it too! I can have all the critters I want and still go shopping at the local Gap!

I hope you feel welcome here, and Thank You for stopping!

I would have never thought I would miss a PIG!

2007-12-12T09:03:00.000-06:00

In the past, I have never really been a pig lover. Because I grew up in the city I had never even really SEEN a live pig until I moved here. Even then I had only seen them at the county fair.

This past summer I was up for a new adventure and decided to try raising a pig. This (was) "Swine" - pretty original huh?! lol. He came to me as a 40lb feeder pig from a livestock auction in southern Wisconsin. He was an affordable investment ($12.00). And he wouldn't take long to get to butcher size, I figured he would be gone around deer hunting season.

At that time I knew absolutely nothing about pigs! The first thing I did was ran down to my local Tractor Supply company and purchased a book on raising swine. I read the book cover to cover and learned a great deal on how to care for him. Other than castrating him, he was pretty much low maint.

Castrating him???? Say WHAT!? *I* had to do this?? Yikes! Can't I just use a rubber band to get them off?? um.., that would be a big NOPE. I had to cut "them" off. Did I mention I'm a WOMAN? lol. Some things in life I feel are best left to men!

My first learning curve- How to lop off a pig's manhood. Note to self- NEVER chicken out till the damn thing gets over 100lbs and you have to use 4 people and ropes to hold him down! Yep, I was too scarred to do the job. I was afraid that I would do something drastically wrong. So I kept putting it off. When the time came, I used Lidocaine to numb the "area" and gave the pig a sedative (which didn't seem to help much!- You can't imagine how much strength and squeal a pig has! When your coming at him with a knife!) So there I was... scalpel in hand... I made my first incision, exposed the first testicle, did the deed and proceeded with the second testicle. All while shaking like a leaf! After everything was said and done I was pretty damn proud of myself! I couldn't believe *I* had actually done it! I am woman hear me roar!!!! Or at least keep your testicles away from me! LOL!

Anyway, Swine turned out to be an awesome project. He ate all of the leftovers that were in the fridge. And all the fallen apples and pears off the tree, in addition to his normal feed. I was amazed at all he would eat. I even found a place for random chicken eggs I would find - Yep, Swine ate them with a smile! And there's nothing like listening to your pig snore when your doing a barn check at night. Talk about crack you up! The thing snored so loud when he slept you could hear him outside the barn!

Swine ate, and ate, and ate... He knew exactly when it was feeding time - he would start to do the "I'm hungry" grunt. He also loved water! We learned right away that pigs need a special water er (kind of like a gerbil water er- a long bottle with a special nipple on the end) Because he was notorious for flipping over his water bucket and playing in the water.

On the day he was brought into butcher we tried to guess how much he weighed (above photo was from the day he was sent off) I guessed 220lbs, my husband guessed 260lbs. My husband was supposed to take the trailer through the weigh scale but he forgot (ugh!) I can tell you though that his hanging weight was 291lbs! Hanging weight is his carcass weight minus skin, head, guts, feet. So his live weight was prob. around 350lbs! Oh my gosh!!! WOW!

He gave us a great yield- His box weight (the amount you eat) was 275.5 lbs. So there was only 15.5lbs of scrap (bones, etc.) Not bad if I do say. He gave us: 42lbs of ham, 31lbs of bacon (side pork), 23.5lbs of ground pork, 41.5lbs of pork chops, 22.5lbs of pork steaks, 17.5lbs of roasts, 8.0lbs of spare ribs, 5.0lbs of country style ribs, 12.5lbs of hocks and 69lbs of fat.

Processing cost $158.04 (Kill & Cool & Cut & Wrap hog) We then took our whole hams and side pork into a different butcher shop for smoking and curing, cutting & wrapping. That cost us an additional $93.00. It would have been cheaper to have it all done at one place, but the place that did the hams couldn't get us in until the end of Jan.! But the hams/bacon we could bring in anytime.

Now that Swine is gone, my fridge is being over run by leftovers. I sure miss having him clean up around here! But come spring, we will do it all again... Is it a bad thing when all I want for Christmas is 2 bottles of Lidocaine for castrating??? LOL!

Raising your own Beef...Is it cheaper than buying?

2007-12-12T08:09:00.000-06:00

Here is our latest project! Meet "Stew 2" a (now) 2 month old Holstein calf. This photo was taken when he was a week old back in Oct. This is our second go around at raising our own beef. (of course STEW 1 was the first! lol!) How we do it to keep the cost down is that we go in three ways with a single steer- we split all of the expenses (purchase price, feed, etc.) between our family, my parents, and my husband's parents. Then we split the meat after processing. It makes it more affordable for everyone that way.

In order to determine if raising beef is more economical than purchasing I keep a notebook of all expenses. So far, I'm going to say it's by FAR cheaper to purchase it prepacked in your local grocery store than to raise it yourself! lol. But... and that's a big BUT- The quality is incomparable! Your backyard beef is a heck of a lot better than some old ground up cow you find in the cold section of your local store.

To give you an idea of what this little adventure is costing- I will give you the run down!

We bought Stew 2 when the market was high (unfortunately) and we paid $148.40 for this bull calf from a local livestock auction on Oct. 1, 2007. He weighed 106lbs. Then we had to purchase a 50 lb bag of milk re placer, and a new calf bottle and nipple to the tune of $76.85. Then came the calf starter (grain), at 2 months of age he eats roughly 50lbs a week- we have purchased five 50lb bags for him, each bag costs $10.49. And of course he had to be "banded" to become a steer. We had to purchase another bag of emasculator bands- $2.50, and a Tetanus shot- $5.00. Don't forget the hay! So far he has eaten roughly 1 small bale- $2.50. There you go! You do the math! Were talking around a $300.00 investment so far! Yikes!