Turning the Corner

Spring came around the corner and I turned the corner with my cold.  The weather is great and we bought a tiller to get more gardening going.

My little fruit orchard came in the mail, two apple trees, a plum, cherry, nectarine and pear.

Along the driveway is a spot I wanted to clear of little shrub flowering bushes and a couple of small cedars.  I figured it would be better to have it productive than just growing those plants.

 Rob helped with attaching the chains while I drove the tractor.  I tore up some ground but we're going to till it anyway.  I also tore up the driveway some but I just shoveled the gravel back.

 We got the trees yanked out, tomorrow we will brushhog the bushes and begin tilling up the ground.  I hope I can get the trees in tomorrow too but not sure how long it will take us to get everything cleared.

I plan on putting a small fence around the orchard to keep out deer, loose goats, etc.

I am very excited to get working outside on my projects again.  Being sick for a week really had me down in the dumps because the weather was so nice.  I want to do so much and being sick was just keeping me laid out watching tv.  I still need to take it a little easy cause if I get to breathing too hard the drainage makes me want to throw up.  But I know it will get better, I am on my way and spring is here.  The weather is warmer and I can get work done outside again.

Farm Harvest

Today one of the kids left to join his new goat herd.  I put Camo with the last kid so he wouldn't be totally alone.  I think I have him reserved as well, just waiting on the mail to confirm.

I am getting almost 2 quarts of milk from Miss a day.  What a bounty from that sweet, skinny goat.  I give her all the food she could want and have wormed her, she just has that "dairy body".

Eating her grain in the milking stand.  She is very well trained and hops right up on the stand, and she doesn't fuss while I milk her.

Mmmmmm fresh milk!

 I use a washable coffee strainer to make sure any hairs or whatnot are kept out the milk when I put it in the jars.

 Also consistently up to 6 to 7 eggs a day now.  When I feel better I might start sequestering the hens one at a time to find out who, if any, aren't laying.

The grass is already starting to look greener.  I will need to take the plow off the lawn tractor and get the mower deck back on it.  I just hope I remember how to do it.  Of course Dad is just a phone call away.
Love my parents.

I want to get some of the woods fenced in asap.  I want to have it available for the goats when the honeysuckle and other brush starts growing in.  I also need to get my mini-orchard plot ready.  I am so eager to get these things done, but I am down with a cold.  Sometimes it seems like all I can do is the basic chores around here, much less expand my production.  But I will!!

GUMPTION.

Warm morning

The sparse fog was fading in the morning sun, the birds the only sound as I stepped out for morning chores.  Then I started my coughing.  Rob has been sick for three to four days, and I have begun into the descent of the illness as well.

Mostly it is just drainage, coughing, he is sneezing, and his chest is congested.  And of course with the sickness comes weakness.  I hate feeling weak.  I want to go out and do things now that the weather has taken a turn towards spring, but I know if I do too much I will only make myself worse.  Rob doesn't like taking days off, even if he runs out of breath climbing the stairs.

So as much as it pained me I stayed in and napped after I took care of the critters.  Then I pulled some old plants out of a couple of the raised beds, and picked up some trash that had blown into the yard.  Feeling a little run-down again I took another rest, mostly watching old tv shows like Bonanza and The Rifleman.  We don't bother with cable or dish.

Then it was evening chores and I waited for Rob to get home to help with the baby goats.  We were supposed to do it over the weekend, but he was very sick then and I didn't want to push him.  His job was to hold the kids while I gave them the last of their vaccines shots, wormed them, and gave them their first hoof trimming.  All very traumatic for the babies.

Or course while doing this to the first one, the other goats got out because I hadn't bothered to tie up the bottom of the gate.  It only took a little grain to gather them all back up, but it was just an added nuisance on top of us both not feeling 100%.

But we got both of the babies tended to, and went to eat our dinner and go to bed.

On a side note, one of the kids is sold and should be picked up Monday.  I hope the other sells, otherwise I will probably just whether him and eventually put him up for meat.

Deep Universe Thoughts

Or at least something like that.

I watched a documentary called,  A Will for the Woods.
Basically it followed a man who was dying of cancer and his wish for a natural burial.  A wooden coffin with no preservatives, a simple linen wrap and no preservative chemicals in the body.

It got me thinking about my own beliefs how the world and all in it are connected.  Just like the ocean may separate a droplet from itself but when it rejoins it is fully incorporated back into the ocean.

Perhaps we shouldn't permanently separate ourselves from the earth.  It may be better to let our bodies go back to soil, and in that sense our spirit continues on with it.

Like the drop of ocean, our soul separated from the great community of spirit of the earth and when we die it rejoins.  Perhaps a part of that spirit is reborn at some point, giving credence to the rebirth theory.  Perhaps some people still have a touch of that communion with the spirit world, in many forms of prayer or psychic abilities.  Not much of that is something I really believe in but it is a theory kicking around in my head.

Basically it goes back to my belief in a type of "Force" (see: Star Wars 4-6).  Not so much a separate energy from us, but something that is in everything and in everyone.  (note to self, learn how to spell separate so that spell check leaves me alone.)

I can't say that I have a firm belief in anything, but I like to think that each person will receive the after life they believe in.  (Although I do hope that evil people get something less desired.)  I like to think of mother nature as something I can plead and complain to; begging for warmer weather, and thanking for the life of an animal about to be dispatched for food.

A Will for the Woods got me thinking on this, but it comes into play more today since I will be butchering the last turkey.  I had come to start calling him Tom, but I think he is lonely and he is 40 pounds of good meat.

Friendship ain't magic

Friendship takes work.

It requires more than just the occasional "like" on facebook, or playing games online.  It takes more than occasionally seeing each other.

It takes more than chatting at a gathering of a mutual acquaintance.  The sporadic text messages won't keep it alive, or even a hand-written note.

It takes having fun together, the same likes, occasional arguments and being truthful.  It takes helping each other out, even if it means just listening to complaints.

I suck at these things.  I don't keep in "real" contact with people.  And most of the time I am ok with this, it is how I am, and most people who know me accept it.

But there are times when I wonder why I don't have more friends I can just call up to chat.  When I look at my life and find it very empty of the "group of girlfriends" or "the gang of bar hopping friends".  But I don't drink, I don't like crowds, I don't like shopping, and I find people in general irritants at best.  Call me cat-like in that sense.

But when I do get lonely for a friend, a girl friend that I can associate with I have limited options.  In fact, just one.  I am grateful for her, but I wonder if have more, even just one or two more, wouldn't be better for me.

And at the same time, that takes work.  And weeding out the flakes.  And actually going out into the world and looking for someone also wanting another friend.  And understands my intense dislike of children.

It isn't that Rob isn't available or I couldn't call my mom.  Just, someone different.

Maybe this is why I gravitate towards animals so much.  They are available all the time for me.  I care for them, and when I need them I can cuddle with them.  Hold a paw, tell them my fears, and not worry about judgement.

Course I am on my period and my hormones are playing hell with my emotions.

Spring Training

Morning Chores

Rob left me with a wheel barrel of split wood for the fire.  We decided it was better for him to be up in St. Louis for the night at his parents because he needed to be in at work the next morning and it was snowing.  I was snugged in for the night and he made it to his parents just fine.  He called me in the morning to let me know he got to work safely.

I checked the amount of snow we got overnight.

Just enough to cover the 3 inch mark.  Nothing unheard of, but a descent amount for Missouri.

First order of business, sweep the steps so I don't slip on them and crack open anything that isn't supposed to be cracked open.

Water and feed the goats. They didn't even bother to get up like they usually do.  Just looked at me, wondering why I would be dumb enough to be wandering around in this weather.

Checked on the chickens and took care of their needs.  At least they had the decency to be active like proper farm animals.

Tom the turkey followed me around after picking at his breakfast. He settled in for the show of watching me split wood.

 Chop chop.

 Wood Got!