I Wasn't Going To Say Anything But.........

I can't keep it in any longer!!!!!!

I'm going to be writing for a great new magazine coming out!!!!!  I'm not going to say the name of it just yet.  I REALLY don't want to jinx myself. lol!    Just in case something happens and it doesn't go through.  But as of right now, everything is going good and I'm going to be signing a contract for them soon.  I. Can't. Wait!!!!  This may not seem like that big of a deal to some, but I've been wanting to write in a magazine ever since high school.  This is a dream come true for me.

Now, I know there are people out there who write for magazines all the time, some have even written full blown books.  Maybe down the road I may, but right now, I'm just basking in the feeling of having my writings published.  I'm sooooo excited!!!

So, that was my big news.  I'll let you all know how things go as they progress along.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, author. (hehehe.  I just love saying that!)

Meet Little Hershey

This is little Hershey.

This was as close as I could get to the cattle for a while.  There are times where I can get real close, but I think they knew that I wanted them to come close.  So of course, they stayed far away for a while.  The black cattle are the ones I can get closer too.  They are newer to the bunch.  One is our breeder bull, the other is going to be relocating to our freezer real soon. He was born last year on the farm.  He's going to be one tasty beef.

Hershey was born around the 4th of July.

So, she's at the age where she's getting a little spunky and likes to kick up her heels.  She's going to be staying around here as a breeding cow.  Hopefully she will be a little easier to tame than her mommy.  Her brother was.  Now if I can just get her to come when I call.  The older cows have lived on the good grass around here for so long, they don't really like sweet feed.  It's hard to convince them to come and try some.  The younger ones will try it so I have been able to get closer to them.  We shall see if I can get them trained to come to my voice.  

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, keeper of the herd

This Means War!

Looks all nice and innocent huh?  That is, until they get in your garden and eat your tomatoes!!!!!  This means war!!!!

 We already have a fence up.  It's made with cattle panels so it's at least 4 1/2 feet tall.  Doesn't event slow them down.  So tonight, Hubby and I are getting some of our old electric fence posts and bringing them out about 5 feet from the panels. Then we are stringing up fishing line.  I've heard that this works.  The deer doesn't see the line and when they get ready to jump the fence, they walk into it and it scares them. Hopefully that will help.  We shall see.

 I'm also going to make us a scare crow.  Well, technically it's going to be a scare deer since we haven't had much problems with the local crows.  I'm going to put aluminum pie pans for the scare deer's hands.  The idea is the wind will blow them and they will scare the deer.  Everyday I'm going out and moving the it to a different spot.  That way, it will keep the deer on their toes/hooves.  I'm not going to have deer ruin our garden that will be our main source of food this coming year.  They have miles and miles of grass and trees to eat from.  They don't have to jump the fence just for MY tomatoes.

If the fishing line doesn't work, I think I'm going to put in a trip wire with bottle rockets attached.  One way or another, these deer aren't getting my tomatoes!!!!

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, deer roast anyone?

Good Things

Things have been going good here.  Things are, so far, looking up.  We changed doctors for Hubby.  I don't know about you, but I don't like a doctor that throws pills at you and says, "Take these and come back in 3 months.  If they worked, we know we diagnosed you right."  Uh.....no.  We don't "just" take pills to "see". Anyway, we found another doctor that believes in natural medicine along with modern day medicine.  She also specializes in stomach issues. She is a great find! We got to talking and she informed me that the food that we eat today has caused so many of the health problems that are out there today.  I would love to be able to sit and pick her brain for a few hours, but I'm sure that would be expensive. :0)

We have been trying to eat as much organic food as we can.  It's hard.  I will be the first to say that our diet wasn't the best.  Now we have to change our "tastes" of food.  I've been spending time going over the Internet looking for recipes and such.  Pintrest is a life saver.  With me working, it's also harder to find the time to make the good meals that we need.  I'm having a little problem trying to balance work, farm work, and house work.  I didn't realize how much there is!!!

The garden is starting to produce now.  Lots of cucumbers and peppers.  The cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen also.  The bigger tomatoes are starting to develop nicely.  Hubby put up the rabbit fence around the whole garden yesterday so I'll be able to go in and weed the garden now.  I know that doesn't make since, but I had to keep weeds in my beans to hide them from the rabbits.  If I weeded them, the rabbits thought I was uncovering the beans just for them.  Now that the fence is up, I'll try to make that garden look like it should.  Plus, I can plant more beans and other things for the fall.

I keep having good things to tell you all.  We had a new calf born!  We think it's a heifer.(girl)  She will be a keeper.  No freezer time for her.  With cattle prices being so high, having a heifer born on the farm was good news indeed.  She will, hopefully, give us many years of more calves.  I haven't been able to get too close to her for a picture just yet.  The three older cows that we have are wild.  They won't let us near her.  I promise though, I'll get a good picture and post it on here.  She is the color of a chocolate bar.  We called her Hershey.

Another good thing happening around here....The "dream thing" is coming true.  I wished I could tell you more, but I want it to be official before I can tell you all what it is.  This, keeping it a secret, is driving me CRAZY!!!!!!!!  It's hard for me to keep in good news! Oh well, it will be out soon. I hope.  :0)

Well,  I'm going to get off here and get back to work.  No time to relax around here anymore.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, good news teller and secret keeper.

It Has Begun...

The garden has started to produce!!!  Yay!!!!!  I'm getting hungry just looking at this picture.  No chemicals, just taste.  I can hear the pickles calling my name now.  Yummmmmmm.


The lily pads are putting on a show this year.  They are pretty, but they are also an aggravation. You can't fish without hooking one of them.  Plus, they are so heavily rooted in the pond, you usually end up breaking your line.  Not fun when you have a huge fish on your line.  One of these days we are going to have our pond redone and all of these lily pads will be taken out.  That will be on down the list of things to do.  I just thought I would though you a photo of them.  They are kind of pretty....

As you can tell, our grass is getting a little bit out of hand.  Our lawnmower broke and we haven't had the extra money to fix it.  I'm hoping this weekend we will.  Right now, Hubby has been Bush Hogging the grass with the tractor.It works.  Skeeter has been having an allergic reaction to the tall grass.  Her poor little muzzle will swell up and she starts scratching.  I've been giving her a small dose of Benadryl.  That's what the vet told me to do.  It's kind of funny watching her all drugged out for a couple hours.  She sleeps like a rock too.  Although, she was pretty good at that before the drugs. hehehehe.

Hubby and I have been trying hard to stay on our "organic" diet.  It's not the easiest thing to do.  I keep running out of recipes to make.  Plus, with us being on the go a lot, it's about impossible to just grab something on the run.   And I don't know about you, but I'm not going to spend over a dollar on an organic granola bar that truthfully isn't really all that organic.  It still has things in it that I don't like.  Hey, maybe I'll look up some granola bar recipes.  (smacks head with palm)

I'm also looking for someone who can sell me a herd share on some dairy cattle. This whole "can't sell raw milk" is really ridiculous in my opinion.  I could make butter, cheese, and of course drink the milk if only I could find someone that had some dairy cattle.  So far the only ones I can find are pretty far away.  Of course once I get a barn built, I'll be able to get my own cow, but that could be a few years down the road.  I don't have that much time to wait right now.  We "NEED" our dairy products.  hehe.

 And FYI, just because a food is in the "healthy food" section of the grocery story, doesn't mean it's healthy. I've had to really look at the ingredients of foods.  I've gotten to where if it doesn't have simple ingredients, I'm not going to buy it.  That's why I'm trying to make my own things.  It's actually kind of daunting.  I've got so many things that need to be done now that we are eating this way.  Working on the farm is not making it easier, but at least this way it's giving me a time limit in which I have to get things done.  I won't keep putting it off until "tomorrow".

And to finish out this rambling post, I could possibly have some exciting news to tell you.  I don't want to jinx it and tell everyone about it.  So for now I would really appreciate everyone sending prayers my way that this "thing" will work out.  If it does, it could be a dream come true for me.

So on that note,

Until next time,

Small Farm Girl, dreamer

A Little Bit Of Everything

Things have been going fairly slow here on the farm.  The heat has brought everything, pretty much, to a stand still.  This weekend is suppose to be nice so it looks like hay will be cut and rolled.  Don't plan for parties and such when hay season is upon you.  That's where the old saying, "Gotta make hay while the sun shines," comes from.  

Hubby has been feeling better.  He said that he doesn't get the pains in his stomach as much.  I keep forcing water on him to drink.  He actually says he is craving water now instead of forcing himself to drink it.  It makes it easier on him that way.  We are still going to doctors appointments every now and them.  I think they want to get as much from us as they can.  It's a good thing we have decent insurance.  For that, I'm thankful.

We have been trying to stay away from processed foods as much as we can.  It can get expensive since our garden hasn't really taken off yet. I did get some cucumbers and jalapeno peppers out of it the other day.  I wished I knew we were going to be going through this a head of time, I would have planted so much more.  Some big prepper I am. hehehe.

The rabbits seem to really like getting in the garden and eating the beans, so we have had to put up a smaller holed fence on the bottom of the existing fence that we already had up.  I'm hoping this fence keeps the "garden eaters" at bay.  Nothing more aggravating than something eating your garden, that you have worked hard on, for a few months.  Last night Jack was barking at four deer across the road.  I'm hoping he will keep them away.  He's usually a big chicken unless it's someone or another dog walking the road.  I wouldn't want to come up on him in the dark either. Think Cujo.  hehehe

Almost all of the chickens have graduated to the big house.  We only have 5 Americanas that are still too little to join the crowd.   They are still in the "in between" house.  It won't be long now.  And yes, before you ask, we are still working on the chicken coop.  The coop itself is just about done, the fence is not.  I'm not really worried.  Small Stuff.

The rabbits are getting bigger.  I figured I will be butchering some soon.  Possibly this weekend.  All depends on the hay.  This heat is really hard on them.  They can handle the cold so much better.  I put a floor tile in their cages so that they can lay on it.  The tile usually stays cool.  Plus they like to nibble on it to sharpen their teeth.  I just learned about that little trick this past winter.  We shall see how it works.

I did find a job.  I'm back to working in a salon again.  This one is a little different than the one I was in.  I really like it.  Everyone there is different.  No one is the same.  We also all get a long because of these differences.  It doesn't really seem like work being here with these people.  They also understand that I have  a farm and there may be times I can't come in.  That's a rare gem to find. I hoping that by me working I will be able to keep up with this blog.  In fact, I'm writing this at my desk at the salon.  It may just work out.  I can see the barn going up soon.....Hopefully.

I'll let you know.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, employed.