Saturday, January 29, 2011

Sunny Day

The sun was actually out from behind clouds today. Can I get a double YEA?!!!!! We haven't seen it around these parts of the country in a long while. It actually brought the temps up to 50 degrees! HEAT WAVE! It almost melted all of the snow. I even heard birds singing today. If you closed your eyes and pointed your face into the sun, you could almost get the whiff of spring in the air. Almost.

The sun and warmer temps did get me into thinking about the garden and such. I started looking through the seeds that I have and thinking about the ones I need. I do start some of my garden with seeds, but we have so many local green houses around here,(5 if you don't count Wal-mart and Lowes) and they sell open pollinated plants, it's hard not to pick up a lot of our starters from them. I can't wait! lol. That's one thing that is good about Hubby going to Ga in the winter. He will at least be here for garden season.  That's a job for two people. At least, the size of our garden, makes it a job for two people.

When I was down at the feed store today,(the one that didn't burn down.) I noticed how much grain has gone up. It's outrageous!!!! I'm thinking about growing our own corn for the chickens. Hubby's dad has a corn crib at his house where we can store it.  We have a local place around here that shells it and cracks it for us for a small price. I might give it a try. Any suggestions on what kind to grow?

On another topic, the coyotes are getting really bad around here. I hear them day and night. Howling and yipping at each other. I'm even going to start carrying a gun when I go out to feed the animals. Can't be to careful. I'm going to start thinning out the pack. hehehehe

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, rambler.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Goat Chops

This weekend was cold. I mean COLD! And on one of those cold nights, when the wind was still, I got up in the middle of the night to put wood in the stove. As I stood there waiting for the fire to catch up, I heard the most awful sound coming from outside. Coyotes!!!!

I looked out the door. Standing on our pond dam were two HUGE coyotes! Howling and yipping and making all kinds of sounds. Some people might say,"So?" Well, our pond dam is not more than 25 yards from our house! And with it being that close to the house, they were even closer to the goat pen. They were less then 5 yards from the goat pen! 

Since it was so still outside and the wind was not blowing at all, I left the goats' door, to their house, open.  That way they could move all night if they wanted.  And now, there were two big coyotes standing really close to them.

I opened the door and yelled. They didn't do anything. I went outside and waved my hands and yelled. They looked at me and still nothing. It was like I wasn't even there. You know that saying about them being more afraid of you....? Well, someone lied! They were not a bit afraid of me. After a few minutes of yelling and waving and jumping up and down, they finally just trotted off down over the hill. It was like they were saying, "Well okay, I guess we will move."

I saw the goats were watching them with a LOT of interest. I don't blame them. I was watching them with interest too.

So at 3:00 a.m. in the morning I went out and closed up the goats in their little goat house. No goat food for you coyotes!

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, coyote scarerer.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Pictures?

People have asked, and asked, and asked about the pictures I took of my big lips. Well, to tell the truth, I don't know how to get them from my phone to the computer. hehhehee. I haven't had regular pictures on here because Hubby has the camera down in Ga. But, He will be back this weekend for a visit. Yea!!!!!!!!!

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, clueless. ( That's my story and I'm stickin to it.)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Things That Just Happen

I got home from work yesterday. I was tired. I didn't want much to eat.(diet) So I decided to eat the fresh pineapple that I got from Kroger's for $1. Woo Hoo!!!! My mouth was watering as I cut into the nice juicy pineapple. I cut it like a watermelon so that I could just eat it off the rind. I took the pineapple(just half of it) to the couch and sat back to watch American Idol.

I was really getting into the show. But, half way though, I noticed that my lips were starting to sting. I looked down at the pineapple and noticed that there was blood on it. What!!!! I run to the bathroom. My lips were bleeding. The pineapple was making my lips bleed! Ouch!!!!! I stopped the bleeding and put Vaseline on them to stop the stinging. I then went back to  watch the show. Steven Tyler was on the show. Priorities!

A few minutes later my lips started to feel funny. Now what?  I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My lips had ballooned up to to twice the size they normally were!!!! Wow!!! My tongue wasn't swelling or my throat wasn't closing up, so I knew I wasn't allergic to the fruit. My lips just swelled because of the irritation from the pineapple.

So what would a person like me do? Use ice? Use more Vaseline? Put on some lip balm? Heck no! I put on lipstick, took some pictures on my phone, and sent the pictures to all of my friends.  Hey, people pay big money for this look. hehehee

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl Jolie

Sunday, January 16, 2011

What?!

My dad is, what we call around here, "The Almighty Hunter." And he IS! He can track, shoot, and prepare any kind of animal. His hunting has fed our family for as long as I can remember. We never had beef when we were growing up. We had deer, rabbit, and squirrel. (SQUIRREL!!!!!! Sorry, inside joke.Had to be done. If you have seen the movie UP you would understand. hehehehe.) My dad has even got to the point that he doesn't like gun hunting. Oh, he will gun hunt, but he says it's just too easy. lol. He bow hunts. He even bow hunts fish. Would that be called bow hunts or bow fishing?

Anyway, Dad has a bunch of land that he lives and hunts on. And one day, he was at the farthest point from his house, and from everybody else, when he sees something moving in the distance. He tries to see what it is. He keeps watching it, and watching it. It keeps getting closer and closer. He said he wondered if it was a dog. He hates when dogs chase deer. I do to. The dog will run a deer to death. Ok,ok, back to the mystery animal.

He's peering through the woods, and what does he see..........(wait for it.........) a GOAT! Yep, a brown and white goat. It was wondering through the woods just nibbling on honeysuckle vines. Now, where did that goat come from? There were no houses around for some distance.

Well, Dad didn't shoot it. I don't think there is a goat season in Ky. lol.  He did come back and check his game tracker. (A game tracker is a camera that is put up in the woods and it takes pictures. It is motion sensor activated.) He brought the game tracker back to the house to see if he seen any pictures of the goat on them. He did. Plus, he seen pictures of ANOTHER goat on there! What is really bad is, he had the game tracker set up kind of close to the house. And what is at the house? His young, tender, and tasty apple trees......

Anyone up for goat chops?

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, goat eater?

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Bird is The Word

There was a bird in my house. How it got in, I don't know. We just have plastic up and floor boards for a barrier between the upstairs of the house and the down stairs.I can hear everything that goes on upstairs. I started to hear it upstairs a couple days ago. Tweeting away. Just singing his little birdie lungs out. It must have been happy being in a much warmer place than outside in the wind.

Well, today I woke up and heard something in the plastic. Great, the bird somehow got in between the floor boards and the plastic. I kept my eye on it so that I could catch it in the plastic and just get it out. Simple as that. Ahhh......no. The little bugger found a hole in the plastic and was loose downstairs with me. It was setting on the top of the wall looking at me. Our walls don't go all the way to the ceiling because we have 9 foot ceilings and 8 foot walls. We are going to put in drop ceiling tiles. That way Hubby can have easy access to the water pipes.

Anyway, the little birdie was looking at me from the top of the wall. "Oh how cute," I thought. I went most of the day wondering how the little birdie could get out. It wasn't bothering me. Maybe I should put out some water and food for it. If it had been in the house for a few days, it wouldn't have had anything to eat or drink. I would go through the day and every once in a while the cute little birdie would flitter around from one wall to the other. Every once in a while, it would sit looking out the window. Such a sweet and cute little birdie.....

Then the birdie pooped on my bed and pillow. NOT CUTE!!!!!! BAD BIRDIE!!!!!! The little birdie went from a cute little birdie to a terrorist in about 3 seconds flat. The bird had to DIE!!!!!!! Okay maybe not die, but it did have to get out of my house. NOW!!!!

I chased that terrorist, I mean birdie, all around the house with a broom. I was not giving up. It hadn't had food or water for at least 3 days. I could ware it down.  So I walked. And, I walked. And, I walked. With broom in hand, I walked for about a half an hour. I was not giving up. The birdie went back and forth. From one room to the other. Me, with broom in hand, following it. I could see it was getting tired. I was winning. At one point I think it tried to dive bomb me. Nope, I was not going to give in.

Finally, I thought, even though it  might be negative 1000 outside, I had to open the door. So that's what I did. The terrorist, I mean little birdie, flew right out. But on it's way, it left me another little "present" on the floor as it went past me. Bye,bye birdie!!!!

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, birdie wrangler.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Thoughts

With Hubby being gone for 8 weeks for training, I find myself being bored. Not just "I don't have anything to do" bored. No, the "I have things to do but don't want to do them" bored. I could clean the house. I could do laundry. I could do the dishes. I could........ You get the idea. But, I don't want to do any of it.

I want to go outside and not freeze. I want to start planting seeds. I want to go fishing in our pond. (Which is just outside our door now.) I want to sit in a chair and feel the sun on my neck. This winter is driving me CRAZY!!!!!!!It's cold inside our house. I'm tired of getting wood in for the stove. I want to open up the windows and hear peepers. I want SPRING! I know, I know, don't wish your life away. I'm not. I'm just wishing the cold weather away! hehehe

Now on another note, I found out today that one of my good friend's father died today. I called to console her and to say all the things friends are suppose to say. Well, I came away with a new look at life. She was raised the complete opposite of me. But, the spirit that she has is wonderful! She will try anything! No fear! She said that she didn't want to get older and have a long list of "should haves."  She wanted to move from Arizona. She did. She moved to Alaska! Talk about a big move. She went from the desert to the tundra. lol! I have always been the "careful" one. I always looked before I leaped. Then I looked again. Not her. She bought her house that she lives in now, off of the Internet. Sight unseen! Now some people might think of that as unwise. It might be. The point is she didn't talk about it. She did it! Oh, to have that kind of spunk.

So a big question is, has there ever been anything that you wanted to do but didn't have the guts to do it?

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, guts wanter.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Cleaning The Goat House

I went out this weekend to clean out the goat house/dog house. The goats were kind of surprised to see me out there with a pitch fork.(That's our old house in the background. That is how far our new house is from our old house. The goats are right next to the new house.)

"Your going to clean out our house?"


As you can see, I had plenty of help. That is my pitchfork that she is standing on.


Tipper had to check things out.

And again.


And again.



She wanted to get a close up.

Mudd wanted to see too.


Finally I got it cleaned out. Once it was clean, the girls decided to fight over who got to sleep in it first.



So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, goat house cleaner outer.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The Beginning, Again

Well, yesterday was the beginning of living a more homesteady life. I didn't start it Sunday because, well, we went out to eat with friends TWICE! YIKES!!!  Anyway, I started yesterday. I made breakfast from the eggs from out chickens.  Good start! hehehe  Then for dinner I made meatloaf from our own cattle, frozen corn from our garden two years ago, and blackberry crisp from the blackberries that we picked last year off of our land.

 As we were eating it dawned on me. This food tastes better than anything that we could have gotten from a restaurant! Hubby said so too! Why would we want to go out to eat and spend $20 or more, when we can eat our own food for pennies? Hubby even took leftovers with him to work. Now we're talkin! hehehehe

Another thing I done was turn the tv off and do more things around the house. It's amazing what you can do when your eyes are not glued to the tv. Today I plan on cleaning out the goat barn/doghouse. I'll try to get some pictures of the little cuties. I have to get as many pics on here as I can. Hubby says he's going to take the camera with him to Atlanta when he leaves for his training.

He will be gone for 8 weeks. The weather man(the guesser) is saying that we are going to have the coldest and snowiest winters on record. Of course! I'm going to be freezing my butt off up here in the Tundra and Hubby will be all nice and warm in Georgia. Although, Georgia had their first white Christmas in 120 years! Ironic huh?

Well, this post has rambled enough.
So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, rambler.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Changes

This time of year people start making new years resolutions. I don't really want to say I'm making a "resolutions," but I have been thinking about what I would like to do this year. What path will I be going down? Where will I be (figuratively) this time next year? And I quot Aerosmith," If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." Makes since, huh?

Then I got to thinking about the people I read about in my homesteading magazines. They all talk about getting out into the country. Raise some animals, grow a garden, "live" off the land. If only they could get some land! Well, me and Hubby HAVE land. We grow a garden, and we raise animals. But, I want to do more.I want to USE our land more.  I want to get to where most of our food comes from our farm. Milk from goats, meat from cattle,chickens,and fish from our pond, and all the veggies we can stuff our faces with from our garden. I would like to eat out less, go to the grocery store less, and just stay home more. I enjoy my home! So why do I always feel like I have to be going somewhere, eating out, or have to have the newest gadget?

Well, I've had enough. Enough, I say! No more eating out every time we have to go into town. No more going and getting the latest gadget. No more running to the grocery store every other day. It's time I live the life that I want to live. The life that has line dried clothes, and homemade breads, and free range chickens in it's future. The life that I love! Time to get off my butt and not make excuses on why the chicken pen is not cleaned out or why I haven't made dinner, so we can go out to eat. I don't like fast food anyway. Why do I feel like I have to have it?  I don't want the mainstream lifestyle. So once again," If I always do what I've always done, I'll always get what I've always got."  Time for me to make that change.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, ch,ch,ch, changin....hehehehe