Cow Update

I thought I would give you an update on the cows.  The little ones are doing great. The reason is this big momma right here.  Just here recently Hubby and I were out looking at the cattle and trying to figure out our winter plans for them.  We noticed that this cow was nursing her baby PLUS Skinny Cow's baby. That's a great trait to have in cows.  I'm actually surprised that she's doing this.  Beef cattle aren't known to nurse other calves.  The down side of this is this cow is the wildest cow we have.  She will NOT let you come close to her.  And now, the babies don't want to come close to us either.

We have found out why Skinny Cow is not doing well.  We think she has broken her ankle.  It's swelled and she doesn't want to stand on it.  She HAS put a little weight on over the summer, but not enough to last her through the winter.  I hate to say it, but we will probably be taking her to the sale where she will end up being hamburger.  Sometimes it's not fun being a homesteader.....

On to better things.  Today is suppose to be the end of the hot weather.  We are suppose to be getting some rain tonight to bust up this heat.  I sure hope so!  We need some rain!  We are very close to the record for the least amount of rain at this time of year.  Our pastures should have a few more months of green grass on them before we have to feed hay for the winter, but unless we get some more rain, we are going to have to start feeding sooner. 

 Hay, this year, is going to be hard to find.  The rains that we had earlier in the summer kept the farmers out of their hay fields.  They didn't get a multiple cutting of hay.  That's not good.  I can see hay prices going up.  And if hay prices go up, cattle prices will go down this fall because farmers are selling off their stock so they won't have to feed them through the winter.  Come spring, when the grass starts to grow, cattle prices will skyrocket. There won't be as many cows out there to buy.  It could get interesting.  We are some of the lucky ones.  We have enough hay compared to the amount of cattle that we have. The only thing that will help out around here for other farmers, is hopefully there was good hay seasons other places near here.  Don't even get me started on the drought out west.....

Now for a change of subject...

There are some exciting things in the works for me (At least I think they are exciting).  I don't want to say exactly what right now.  I want to make sure everything comes together before I reveal what's going on.  I don't want to jinx it. lol

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, teaser. 

Happy Happy

Look what a lovely, lovely, lady gave me!!!  She read on one of my latest post about how my dogs broke my hummingbird feeder and I couldn't find any, so that sweet lady gave me her feeders!  She gave me two!  My hummingbirds are going to be sooooo happy.  Thank you Ina!!!

SFG

Welcome

The other day I was commenting on Facebook about having horses.  That comment led from having horses, to living on a farm.  You would have thought I was a rock star or something.  I didn't realize how many people want to live in the country on a farm.  Just in the last few months I've had people ask about coming to see and pet my animals.  People who wanted to help gather eggs and help with fencing.  We just have to tell them when we would want them to come down.

Now I'm not one of those people who feel comfortable asking people for help on the farm.  I feel that we live here and we should be the ones taking care of it.  Sure it gets hard sometimes.  I know that the fence is nearly nothing holding the cattle in.  In fact, we have some young ones, right now, that keep getting out.  Put that on the list of things to fix.  

I've tried to pay people locally to come and do some chores that need done.  No one is interested.  I mean, really, who wants to do REAL work. lol  Things like cleaning out fence rows or cleaning out rabbit poop under the cages and putting it on the garden.  It's hard to get anyone locally to do that.  But at the same time, I have people from the city who want to come and help on the farm just to see the animals.  This kind of puzzles me.  Then of course, this made me think.  

The things that I and the locals see all the time, is new and exciting to people that live in the city.  Locals here can go to THEIR backyards and clean out fence rows and mend fence.  That's nothing new to them.  But to people that don't live in the country, this is something that they don't get to do everyday.  They would feel, for a day or two, that they would be actually working on a farm.  I find this interesting. 

Anyway, I did offer the people that wanted to come and see the farm an open invitation.  I know them and it wouldn't be like having strangers in my house.  But, I just can't see myself making them do actual work here.  If we do happen to be doing something when they come, they are welcome to join in, but I don't want them to plan on coming just to work.  That feels weird to me.  I want people to come and visit, not come and work.  Unless I was paying them, of course.  I guess that's the kind of person I am.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, welcomer.  

Random Thoughts And Pictures

I haven't posted much on here for a while.  I guess I feel that I've nothing new to say.  I feed the animals in the morning, fix me breakfast, and start in on the constant chores of cleaning the house and doing laundry.  I let the dogs out, I let the dogs in.  It's a constant cycle.

I'm trying not to write too much about things that I'm thinking about doing.  That way when something doesn't pan out, it doesn't look like I'm just blowing smoke.  I've been known to say things that I'm "gonna" do.  LOL!!  

This little girl visits my humming bird feeder a million times a day.

See that beautiful feeder?  Well, my dogs ate it.  Yep, they could barely reach it, and they chewed the bottom off of it.  I went to get another one, but the hummingbird feeders have been put away for the winter at the stores.  I feel so bad for all of the little birds that depended on my feeder.  I hope they can find another place to eat. I'm still looking for another one for them.  Maybe I'll get lucky.

While I was out taking pictures of the birds, I kept hearing this noise that sounded like it was coming from a small engine.  I just figures that a neighbor had something running.  Little did I know this would come over the horizon.

This is the field where we cut hay.  It's across the road from our house. 

Looks like our neighbor has a new toy!  Now THAT'S the kind of toy that I want!!!  How fun would that be!!! 

Just put that on the list of things I want to do. lol

The Ends

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl,  I'm still here.

Dreams And "Gonna's"

There comes a time in a persons life when they have to step back and look at reality.  I have found that my reality is warped. LOL!  I am a dreamer and a "gonna-er". I dream big dreams and I always tell myself, and other people, things that I'm "gonna do".  I looked back on some of my blog posts and read about all the things I'm "gonna" do.  Whether it's "gonna" post pictures of something, or start teaching homesteading classes here on the farm.  I have written about many different things that I'm "gonna" do.

By now, if you have followed this blog for any amount of time, you know I don't always do what I say I'm "gonna" do.  I didn't actually realize how many times I do this!!!!  It's not that I tell you something that I'm going to do and sit back and laugh and say to myself," No way am I going to do that."  No!  I honestly think I'm "gonna" do it! I either get involved in something else and figure you have all forgot about what I was "gonna" do, I forget, or I simply get overwhelmed with all the things that I say I'm "gonna" do, and give up all together.

What adds to my "gonna do"s, is my ability to dream big.  I mean BIG.  My mind is constantly thinking of the next big thing.  The problem with that is I usually haven't finished the thing I was "gonna" do before. I'm in a constant state of dreaming and "gonna doing".  Because of this, there are so many projects of mine that do not get done.  Chicken coop built, cleaning the house, butchering the rabbits on time, paint that painting, spin that wool, write that article

and the list goes on and on.  Finally, this past week, I told myself that enough is enough.  My brain is overloaded.  It's time to erase, start over, and down size my dreams and "gonna" list.

First on this list is the garden.  One year I was "gonna do" container gardening. Then I realized that if I had containers, Jack (our St. Bernard) will pee on every container that we have. He does this to any flower pot I have on the ground. lol.  We also have decent garden soil so why would I want to waste that.  Just about every Spring, we think we're going to have this huge garden and we are "gonna" have the whole pantry full of canned goods.  It starts out that way, the garden looks soooo nice when it's freshly tilled and the small plants are sticking up out of the ground.  Then the heat hits, or like this year, the rains hits.  Hubby, nor I, can (or wants to) get out into the garden and keep up with the, at that time, small weeds.  The weeds then take over the garden and we are overwhelmed once again by the enormous job it would be to go weed the "jungle."

This past week, we both had a good, honest talk about our garden.  We need to stop listening to people, that are trying to help, and start thinking about what we can REALLY do with the time we have to put into it.  So BOTH of us have decided to downsize our garden.  We don't really need 125 tomato plants.  With that many we get overwhelmed real easy.  We don't take care of them and they don't produce anything or worse,they rot or go to waste.  With a smaller amount of tomatoes (like 6-10 plants) we will have the "want to" to actually do something with them.  There won't be so many to overwhelm us.  By doing this, we will probably get a better yield of tomatoes anyway.  We are doing this with the whole garden.  Next year we aren't going to feel like there is just too much to do with it. I really think we will enjoy it so much better.

Now that Hubby and I had this talk, we are looking at things differently for our whole farm.  We need to eat this elephant one small bite at a time instead of all at once.  Believe it or not, a big farm isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Especially when you don't have anyone to help take care of it with you. I have actually envied people that have just a few acres. To keep us sane, instead of thinking big, we are thinking small.  Just doing one small project at a time.  Both of us will be happier and more willing to get projects done.  Instead of redoing the whole 55 acres of fence line, do a small amount at a time.  Sooner or later, all of the fence will be fixed and hopefully we won't have to mess with it for a while.

I think this talk has helped us tremendously. I didn't realize how stressed we were thinking of all the stuff we were "gonna" do.  As we do the small things, we will gradually add more.  It's always easier to start small and get bigger. I'm sure there are some of you out there in Blog Land that could take over and have a nice BIG producing farm, but for us, starting over and going small (at first) will be a blessing.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, ex-gonna-er

The Promised Calf Pictures

I've been promising calf pictures now for the last two weeks.  The little red one on the right is out of the skinny cow.  This little girl has made it this long so I went and gave her a name.  Her name is Penny.  She is the exact color of a penny. You can't tell it in this picture because 1) It was getting dark when I took this picture, and 2) I took it with my cell phone.  I have other pictures of the little black calf.  Which, by the way, is also a heifer. ( A young cow.) The bigger one in the middle is a bull.  He will probably be in the freezer come next spring.

Here is a better picture of our newest little girl.  She is a nice chocolate brown.  We haven't named her yet.  I usually wait for the names to hit me.   This momma here, hasn't had very many babies.  She will be going to the sale barn soon. If you can't pull your own weight around here, ya gotta go.  Well, we have given her YEARS now and this is her first calf.  I believe she is almost 7 or 8 years old.  She's outta here!  Plus this is the main wild cow.  The other cows have tamed down a bit over the last year.  Not this one.  She's almost to the point of hurting someone and we won't put up with that.

Around the farm we have just about given up on the garden.  I will be getting a little bit here and there, but nothing to do much of anything with.  A VERY bad year for it.  We have decided that we are going to scale down our garden for next year.  When spring comes around we always go over board with the size of the garden.  We always think bigger is better. I'm not giving up on gardening.  I'm just making a garden the size of which I KNOW I can take care of. If the garden was all that we had to do, that would be fine.  But, we have just been overwhelmed with the weather and the farm this year.  We are really doing a lot more than we usually do.  We also want to do things right and not with a "That will do." attitude.  With my back and knees and Hubby working 10 hrs shifts, it's hard to run a 55 acre farm.  We are doing it slowly, but we are getting there. 

Hubby and Country Girl have been cutting hay this last week.  We have 3 more fields to cut yet.  We're hoping for some good rains to help the fields grow some more for a later cutting.  We shall see if that'll happen.  Hay's going to be hard to find around these parts.  Most farmers didn't get to get in the fields early spring because of the rain.  Therefore, they didn't get to cut their fields as many times as usual.  Gonna be an interesting winter.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, farmer. 

Fed UP.

Is it just me or are the days REALLY flying by?  I feel like I just can't get anything done.  For one, we can't get into the garden.  I've got zucchini in there the size of my leg.  I guess I'll be making a lot of zucchini bread.  That's ok, I like to freeze it and give it as gifts. The tomatoes are getting the blight.  The bottom leaves are brown and yucky.  Of course, they have had so much rain on them, I would be more surprised if they DIDN'T have it. I'm hoping to get some tomatoes out of it.  I would really like to get some tomato juice canned.  I HATE buying tomato juice from the grocery store.  It just doesn't taste the same.  Actually, most things that you buy at the store doesn't taste the same as what it does from the garden. I have no idea how anything else is doing in the garden.  I can't see from the outside of the garden fence.  Although I did notice that there were deer tracks in there.  AAAAAAUUUUUGGGHHHHH.

I don't know if I have told you or not, but I had cancelled all of my future physical therapy appointments.  I was maxing out on flexibility and strength.  I guess that's what ya get for living on a farm.  But I wasn't seeing any differences, and I wasn't going to keep spending $35 twice a week. (They were wanting me to come 3 times a week.  Uh, no.)

I did finally get in with my back doctor.  He came in, (on time!) and said before I can do anything for you, we need to get an MRI done on your back.  Thank you for your co-pay, and left.  Well, it didn't happen EXACTLY like that, but it might as well have.  Why didn't they inform me that I needed an MRI before I came and seen him?  Anyway, he gave me a number to call the next day to set up my MRI.  Well, I called it 2 days later and the lady setting up the appointment said the doctor hadn't sent down a request for the MRI.  Seriously???  Can't people just do their job?  I say this because my primary doctor that I have to see twice a year for my blood pressure meds messes the meds up EVERY SINGLE TIME.  I have to go back and tell him that he has given me the wrong amount of pills.  One time he even sent my meds to the wrong pharmacy!!!  I would change doctors, but he actually acts like he listens to what's wrong with you.  I've had other doctors just blow off symptoms and they ended up being something.  He also listens when I tell him what's wrong with ME.  Most doctors think they know more about their patience bodies than they do.  Anyway, I'm fed up with doctors in general.

Soooooooo,  I've got a plan.  (You saw this coming didn't you?)  My plan is to be off my meds by the next fouth of July.  I'll lose the weight to where I don't need blood pressure pills and I'm going to really look into finding something natural that I can grow that will help with the inflammation in my knees and back.  With the way the medical field is getting, I'm wanting to stay away from it as much as I can.

Well, this has been long enough. Especially since my computer deleted this post twice.

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, Fed up with the medical field.