So, here we are with another day of the polar vortex. Honestly, I'm getting use to it.(gasp!) I've gotten the chores pretty well figured out, I know what to wear to keep me warm, and I know how much wood to bring into the house at night. I also believe my body had gotten use to the temps. It's now 56 degrees in the house and I'm setting here in lounge pants and short sleeves. If I start to get a little cold, I just put on a sweat shirt. No big deal. I actually got hot the other day. I looked at the thermometer and it said it was 67 degrees. Phew! Start shedding the layers! lol I think the animals are getting use to it also. The goats are venturing out to the hay hoop and actually not complaining to me when I go out. They look like big, giant, fur balls. They are funny looking.
Ok, change of subject!!!! LOL
The other day I was reading a blog (I can't remember which one. Sorry.). It was about the difference between book knowledge and physical knowledge. This has been a kind of a sore spot for me. I know so many people that act like they know things about farming and homesteading but they haven't actually done it. Just because you have read about how to do something doesn't mean you know how to do it. That's where "actually doing it" comes in. Now I'm not saying I know everything, my goodness no! In fact, I'm learning things everyday! But, it just gets to me when people try to tell me I'm doing things wrong when they are not actually doing the things themselves. Reading and doing are WAY different. Reading about things is a very good place to start. In fact, it's important that you look up how to do things. I do this myself. But, there still is a BIG difference in reading and doing. I don't even mind suggestions from people who have read how to do something. But, don't tell me I'm completely wrong, unless you have actually done it. Ok, my small rant is over. :0)
Now, after going on my little rant, I'm wanting to try different things that I've read about. For instance, Hubby had a runny nose and a very sore throat this weekend. I read about a home remedy for this. And guess what? It actually worked!!!!! So if you are wanting to try it, here is the recipe.
SORE THROAT TEA
a coffee cup of hot water
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons of honey
a dash of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of lemon juice. (I didn't have any lemon juice so I just left it out. It worked just as well.)
Mix together and enjoy!
Hubby couldn't believer how much better his throat felt. It didn't hurt again that whole night. In fact, it didn't hurt again! WOW! Now I really want to try a LOT more homemade remedies. I guess I'll have to read up on them. :0)
Do you have any home remedies that you like?
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, read abouter and doer.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Just Write
I haven't really had much to say these last few days, but I love to write. So, I'm just going to start writing and see what comes out. You guys may get scared. lol
Once again we are under the gun when it comes to winter weather. This time though, we have snow on top of it. I told Phelan that it's her fault the weather is so bad. I think she brought it with her from Kansas. We haven't had this kind of weather for over 20 years!!!! I don't know about you, but I'm already done with winter. I use to like winter, no sweating! Well, over the last two years, I've gotten to where I spend more time outside and I'm missing the warmer weather. And at this moment, I could overlook a small amount of sweating. Now don't get me wrong, I probably will be complaining about the heat this coming summer, but right now, I'm wanting some warmer weather.
On another subject, as I was watching the horses and cows from my window this morning, I realized that one of the cows were limping. Great. These cows are sooooo wild, the only way to get close to them is with a tranquilizer gun. It's too cold to tranquilize them right now so we are just going to have to watch her and see how she does. Maybe it's just a snow ball stuck up in her hoof. I hope that's all it is. I keep watching her every time I go by the window. Just something else I'm going to have to worry about in this weather.
I'm still checking out different things to do on the farm. I'm REALLY starting to fall in love with draft horses. Well, the idea of draft horses. I've never been around draft horses but they can't be any worse than the crazy racehorses that I use to work with. I've even joined a few groups on Facebook about draft horses hoping I can learn more about them. To be honest though, if I don't do something with my knee, I'm not going to be able to do anything physical.
I've been putting off going to the doctor about my knee. I keep telling myself if I would just lose weight it wouldn't hurt anymore. But, it's hard for me to do much because of the knee. And to compensate for the knee, I've been putting extra pressure on my opposite leg. Therefore making my hip hurt. Once again, the loss of my extra 300,00 lbs would probably help it. But, well, you know........
See what happens when my mind is left to ramble?
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, rambler
Once again we are under the gun when it comes to winter weather. This time though, we have snow on top of it. I told Phelan that it's her fault the weather is so bad. I think she brought it with her from Kansas. We haven't had this kind of weather for over 20 years!!!! I don't know about you, but I'm already done with winter. I use to like winter, no sweating! Well, over the last two years, I've gotten to where I spend more time outside and I'm missing the warmer weather. And at this moment, I could overlook a small amount of sweating. Now don't get me wrong, I probably will be complaining about the heat this coming summer, but right now, I'm wanting some warmer weather.
On another subject, as I was watching the horses and cows from my window this morning, I realized that one of the cows were limping. Great. These cows are sooooo wild, the only way to get close to them is with a tranquilizer gun. It's too cold to tranquilize them right now so we are just going to have to watch her and see how she does. Maybe it's just a snow ball stuck up in her hoof. I hope that's all it is. I keep watching her every time I go by the window. Just something else I'm going to have to worry about in this weather.
I'm still checking out different things to do on the farm. I'm REALLY starting to fall in love with draft horses. Well, the idea of draft horses. I've never been around draft horses but they can't be any worse than the crazy racehorses that I use to work with. I've even joined a few groups on Facebook about draft horses hoping I can learn more about them. To be honest though, if I don't do something with my knee, I'm not going to be able to do anything physical.
I've been putting off going to the doctor about my knee. I keep telling myself if I would just lose weight it wouldn't hurt anymore. But, it's hard for me to do much because of the knee. And to compensate for the knee, I've been putting extra pressure on my opposite leg. Therefore making my hip hurt. Once again, the loss of my extra 300,00 lbs would probably help it. But, well, you know........
See what happens when my mind is left to ramble?
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, rambler
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Water Woes
"Get county water,"they said. "It will be better." they said. WRONG!
I'm sure you have heard about the water situation in West Virginia by now. How a chemical leak shut down water for hundreds of thousands of people. I don't live in West Virginia, but I live close enough that that is all that was on the news. They still have a banner crawling across the bottom of the t.v. telling people not to use the water in certain areas. People went crazy buying up every available water in all the stores. Fire departments in some towns that weren't under the restrictions, opened their water hydrants so people could bring containers to get clean water. The water ban is slowly being discontinued in parts of that affected area.
One of the many things that scare me about public water is the possibility of contamination. These people didn't know that their water was bad until they got a call from the water company. There were a few people that were actually admitted to the hospital because of their water. I'm sure that the water company didn't send their customers bad water on purpose, but it still happened. You just have to be realistic about things. If you think about it, that's scary.
If you have been following my blog for a little while, you will remember that we went to county water when our well went bad. I wasn't real happy about it, but it's nice to not to worry about water that turns everything red. Anyway, the county water that we went to has been having it's problems lately also. The county water has been having so many leaks and line breaks that we have been on a boil water order for almost a week. We also have no water pressure. Hubby has to take a cup into the shower so that he can fill it with the small stream of water coming out of the shower head and dump it on his head. It's actually comical. But not enough water pressure to run the washer, isn't real fun. I know, I could do it by hand, but then what would I have to complain about. :0)
Hubby and I were talking about the water situation last night. I think we are going to find us a water cooler that we can use for drinking and cooking water. That's the most important thing about water usage anyway. When we need drinking water we will go to Hubby's dad's house and get water from their well that they have had for years. It's the best spring fed well that we know of. The water taste great. When it comes to dishes and washing clothes we can use the county water. It should work for that. Unless we don't have pressure, then we will just have to dip the water from our old cistern that is up by our old house. We are blessed. At least we do have water that we can use. We have our pond and we have the old cistern. Not something that we would want to drink from, but it can still be used for flushing the toilet and such.
The next time you turn on your faucet and water comes out, be happy. You have it good.
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, water lover
P.s. We finally got our water pressure back today. Yay!!!!!
I'm sure you have heard about the water situation in West Virginia by now. How a chemical leak shut down water for hundreds of thousands of people. I don't live in West Virginia, but I live close enough that that is all that was on the news. They still have a banner crawling across the bottom of the t.v. telling people not to use the water in certain areas. People went crazy buying up every available water in all the stores. Fire departments in some towns that weren't under the restrictions, opened their water hydrants so people could bring containers to get clean water. The water ban is slowly being discontinued in parts of that affected area.
One of the many things that scare me about public water is the possibility of contamination. These people didn't know that their water was bad until they got a call from the water company. There were a few people that were actually admitted to the hospital because of their water. I'm sure that the water company didn't send their customers bad water on purpose, but it still happened. You just have to be realistic about things. If you think about it, that's scary.
If you have been following my blog for a little while, you will remember that we went to county water when our well went bad. I wasn't real happy about it, but it's nice to not to worry about water that turns everything red. Anyway, the county water that we went to has been having it's problems lately also. The county water has been having so many leaks and line breaks that we have been on a boil water order for almost a week. We also have no water pressure. Hubby has to take a cup into the shower so that he can fill it with the small stream of water coming out of the shower head and dump it on his head. It's actually comical. But not enough water pressure to run the washer, isn't real fun. I know, I could do it by hand, but then what would I have to complain about. :0)
Hubby and I were talking about the water situation last night. I think we are going to find us a water cooler that we can use for drinking and cooking water. That's the most important thing about water usage anyway. When we need drinking water we will go to Hubby's dad's house and get water from their well that they have had for years. It's the best spring fed well that we know of. The water taste great. When it comes to dishes and washing clothes we can use the county water. It should work for that. Unless we don't have pressure, then we will just have to dip the water from our old cistern that is up by our old house. We are blessed. At least we do have water that we can use. We have our pond and we have the old cistern. Not something that we would want to drink from, but it can still be used for flushing the toilet and such.
The next time you turn on your faucet and water comes out, be happy. You have it good.
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, water lover
P.s. We finally got our water pressure back today. Yay!!!!!
Saturday, January 11, 2014
My Farm Journey Continues
I'm still on my journey to figure out what kind of animals I'm wanting on our farm. So yesterday, I went to visit a friend who has Gypsy Vanner Horses. (This is not a picture of her horse. It's a picture I took off the net. I couldn't get a good picture of her horses because of the weather and it just being dreary.)
I am not planning on buying these horses anytime soon. The reason is that they are EXPENSIVE!!!!!! My friend's horses, that she sells, start at $5000 and they go up from there. And I mean way up! These horses have many great things about them. They're smaller in size than most draft type horses, they have very gentle personalities, and they are pretty. But, I can't see myself paying that much for these horses just so I can put them on my farm. I can just imagine how pretty all that hair would be covered in mud and burrs. lol.
So as of right now, I'll stick with the horses that we have already here. They aren't exactly what I want, but they will work for now.
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, exploring the possibilities......NEXT!
I am not planning on buying these horses anytime soon. The reason is that they are EXPENSIVE!!!!!! My friend's horses, that she sells, start at $5000 and they go up from there. And I mean way up! These horses have many great things about them. They're smaller in size than most draft type horses, they have very gentle personalities, and they are pretty. But, I can't see myself paying that much for these horses just so I can put them on my farm. I can just imagine how pretty all that hair would be covered in mud and burrs. lol.
So as of right now, I'll stick with the horses that we have already here. They aren't exactly what I want, but they will work for now.
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, exploring the possibilities......NEXT!
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
The Big Chill
I haven't been on here for a while. We have been hunkered down trying to keep warm. Like everyone else, we were hit by a VERY cold air mass. It hasn't been this cold since I have moved here. Record lows were met and broken all over the place. I'm sure a lot of you have felt it too. With our house not being done, it was COLD in here.
As a lot of you know, Hubby and I live in the walk-in basement of our unfinished house. The top part of our house is not done. And when I say not done, I mean no insulation in the roof. When the wind blows, it sucks all of our warm air right out the top of our house. We have plastic up on the basement ceiling. It helps, some. One night it got down to 45 degrees in here. Brrrrrr! But it's funny how our bodies get use to the temps. We spent most of our days trying to get some kind of heat in the house. It usually stayed around 50-55 degrees. When it got up to 60, we were comfortable. I'm glad, that this year, we are focused on getting the upstairs livable. These cold days won't be so bad then. I hope.
I did worry about the animals. It wouldn't have been as bad, but the temps dropped more than 70 degrees in 24 hours. That's a big drop. Then on top of that, we had wind chills around -40. Those poor animals. Their bodies can't get use to those types of temp changes. I can tell you, it wasn't fun feeding and watering them either.
The rabbits, I made sure to give them a little extra feed, gave them water in a rubber water dishes, and them basically stuffed their cages full of hay. That way, they could burrow their way into the hay and and make their own shelter from the wind. They LOVED this! They could be warm and eat hay until their little bellies were full.
The goats, we gave extra straw in their goat hut. Plus, we wrapped tarps around it so that wind couldn't just blow through it. Then we made sure they had hay inside the huts so they only had to come out to get something to drink. And, they only done that when I came out and chipped out the ice and refilled their water tub. They did fine. The milk goats weren't very happy but, they never are. lol
The chickens were fine. I just kept them in their coop. I made sure their water wasn't frozen over. They could peck into the ice and get down to the water. The chicken poop, that was surrounding the tub, kept the water from freezing solid. If I ever had any doubt about chicken poop giving off heat, I don't now.
The cows and horses? Well, there really wasn't much I could do for them. They had the shed side of the barn that they could get in away from the wind. They had a running spring down in the holler that they could drink from and they had two hay hoops that were full. They seemed to be okay.
I thought about getting some pictures of the animals and the ice on their whiskers, but I just wanted to get in out of the wind. Plus, I think my camera would have fogged up. That's okay, I don't think I wanted to stay out any extra time. My nose was freezing up. :0)
The good news is that this weekend is suppose to be back up into the 50's. Hopefully we won't get that kind of cold weather for another 20 years. I've had my fill of it. Did you do anything extra for your animals during this cold weather?
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, frozen
As a lot of you know, Hubby and I live in the walk-in basement of our unfinished house. The top part of our house is not done. And when I say not done, I mean no insulation in the roof. When the wind blows, it sucks all of our warm air right out the top of our house. We have plastic up on the basement ceiling. It helps, some. One night it got down to 45 degrees in here. Brrrrrr! But it's funny how our bodies get use to the temps. We spent most of our days trying to get some kind of heat in the house. It usually stayed around 50-55 degrees. When it got up to 60, we were comfortable. I'm glad, that this year, we are focused on getting the upstairs livable. These cold days won't be so bad then. I hope.
I did worry about the animals. It wouldn't have been as bad, but the temps dropped more than 70 degrees in 24 hours. That's a big drop. Then on top of that, we had wind chills around -40. Those poor animals. Their bodies can't get use to those types of temp changes. I can tell you, it wasn't fun feeding and watering them either.
The rabbits, I made sure to give them a little extra feed, gave them water in a rubber water dishes, and them basically stuffed their cages full of hay. That way, they could burrow their way into the hay and and make their own shelter from the wind. They LOVED this! They could be warm and eat hay until their little bellies were full.
The goats, we gave extra straw in their goat hut. Plus, we wrapped tarps around it so that wind couldn't just blow through it. Then we made sure they had hay inside the huts so they only had to come out to get something to drink. And, they only done that when I came out and chipped out the ice and refilled their water tub. They did fine. The milk goats weren't very happy but, they never are. lol
The chickens were fine. I just kept them in their coop. I made sure their water wasn't frozen over. They could peck into the ice and get down to the water. The chicken poop, that was surrounding the tub, kept the water from freezing solid. If I ever had any doubt about chicken poop giving off heat, I don't now.
The cows and horses? Well, there really wasn't much I could do for them. They had the shed side of the barn that they could get in away from the wind. They had a running spring down in the holler that they could drink from and they had two hay hoops that were full. They seemed to be okay.
I thought about getting some pictures of the animals and the ice on their whiskers, but I just wanted to get in out of the wind. Plus, I think my camera would have fogged up. That's okay, I don't think I wanted to stay out any extra time. My nose was freezing up. :0)
The good news is that this weekend is suppose to be back up into the 50's. Hopefully we won't get that kind of cold weather for another 20 years. I've had my fill of it. Did you do anything extra for your animals during this cold weather?
So until next time,
Small Farm Girl, frozen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)