volunteers

Volunteer. Doesn't the word sound so...Nobel? It brings to mind pictures of many hands make light work. Or helping hands heal.

Don't we all want volunteers? Who wouldn't like extra help in the kitchen, or with chores (especially on a farm)?

I don't think I have ever had a thought of volunteers being anything but helpful. Now I will say that there are times...not many...where I have to force volunteer-ism on my children. Really...who wants to go get the mail in the rain or trim a INTENSELY stinky buck's hooves?!

But here is a new thought. There are volunteers that we don't exactly want. For instance... This spring I planted 3 types of melons, tomato, basil, beans, beets, potatoes and sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash and zucchini in the garden and acorn and pumpkin squash in the compost pile.

What I have growing is slightly different. I do have tomato, beet, basil and the potatoes, beans and zucchini. What I also have is acorn squash, pumpkin and cucumbers in the garden. Who knows what is at the compost! I sure hope I get some spaghetti squash (although B won't care!). I purposely didn't plant cukes because last year we had hundreds of them. They were great for chickens and ducks but...how many can you eat?!

So I have volunteer cukes. I guess a few stray seeds made it from the birds to the compost pile somehow and voilà... Plants!  Instead of yummy melons on a hot day, I discovered that there were so many cucumbers that had to be picked...and eaten or given to the poultry. For some reason the goats don't like cukes...go figure. They'd eat a tin can but not organic produce?!!

Since I had 30+ cukes I decided that we should be wise and make pickles. I had 2 jars from 2013 and 7 jars from 2014, so I suppose I did need some more.

I put all the girls to work and we canned 18 quarts worth of dills.  They will be very pale, as the cukes were so large, but still crisp and delicious come winter with a cup of soup!

So...while most volunteers are good, these volunteers gave me lots of extra work. But, true to volunteer-ism, I did reap some benefit from them as well. And after we make a few salads, the rest of them can go to the birds. ;)

are you kidding?!

I have to say...animals are wierd.! I guess God was trying to make a point that animals were not created in the image of the Great Creator.

Don't we all know about dogs that love to eat chicken poo and if she can find kitty poo...well, that's even better! How gross. And if that weren't bad enough, the second time up seems even more appealing somehow. This is why Harriet should be outside only!!

Our one rabbit doe, who has been a good mom before, started acting weird. First, she is a full week over due.. .but fat, fat. She hasn't pulled a bit of fur to line the nest, yet yesterday afternoon she had a baby. Didn't care two hoots about him. This am he was still alive but mom decided he was better than her full food bowl. So he had a few chunks missing. I had to feed him to the cats. And funniest is that now she is going crazy pulling fur and making a nest and was having her litter last time I checked. Weird.

Or how about that baby goat? We were so excited to have a doeling this spring. We figured it was easiest to let mom do it natures way. She nursed them until we seperated them at 6-7 weeks. That was back 8 weeks ago. But every chance Baby Olive gets she runs over to mama to steal MY milk. That doesn't make me happy. I tried putting peppermint on the udder to discourage her. No avail.  Momma is so good that she'll let any critter suckle. I played mom and stood on the far side of mom and knocked Olive every time she nursed. Worked great . . . for a day. So now I have to resort to paying $45 to get an udder bag that looks like a straight jacket to make the nipples impossible to get at (I hope). The weirdest is that in researching I learned that even yearling does with their own babies will still nurse on mom...or they will suck on themselves. How weird!

I think I am glad that my kids can easily see that God indeed made us a cut above the animal world. I hope they use their knowledge to further the Truth of this hierarchy and God's plan of redemption for us humans.

old worries and new worries

First let me say that in thinking about reuses for things on the farm I've thought of another...the compost pile. The compost pile is used for so many things. We put about a foot of it over a 100+ square foot area of garden this spring. I have put it all around all of my berries as weed control and to keep them fertilized, moist and cool. The great thing about the compost pile is that it never seems to shrink (or is that a bad thing?! This spring the pile was 4 feet tall,8 feet long and 4 feet wide) and it provides for us...and the animals. This year with the rain it has also produced hundreds, no, millions, of roly-polys. Going by the chickens with an empty wheel barrow, save insects, I call to them and they gobble them up with great relish. I think even if I didn't want the eggs I would still have the birds for insect control...and warning of intruding creatures.

There are so many things we ,who live as we do ,worry about. Some of these worries haven't changed much on the last hundred years. Other worries are relatively new.

For instance, for years there have been worries about the weather. Everyone knows that a farmer is never content with the weather. Well, there is a very good reason for that. Too much rain and the barns are sopping wet and you get multitudes of flies and danger of hoof rot. Too much rain and you can't cut your hay on time. Too much rain and your crops will mold. Too little rain and your crops and produce will not grow. Too little rain and hay won't grow enough to get a second or third cutting.

That is where we are at now. We are down to our last level of hay in the garage/ barn.  A lot of it is molding, and we are running very low. With all the rain that we have had, the farmer next door is not able to get to the field to cut new hay for us. Hopefully, the hay will hold out until we have fresh, green, fragrant hay stacked high in the barn. (Which, by the way, is no easy job. My carpel tunnel doesn't allow me to help much and the younger 3 are not strong enough. The oldest is gone and that leaves two...to drag and stack hopefully 200 bales. Help anyone?!)


Another  old worry still applicable to today is fox, coyote and the neighbor's dog. We have lost a few unlucky birds to all of these. Of course, it didn't use to be a problem to shoot any of them either! And most people had a decent outdoor dog that would protect their own property and livestock.  Too bad Harriet (aka Henrietta, Hudiet, Hudie, Tubman, Tubby or Harriet Tubman) isn't an outside dog. Too bad she isn't good with livestock. Good thing she is so sweet, or I might say she doesn't earn her keep-except chase rabbits out of my garden, trampling everything in the process!

A newer worry is the number of times you must change a flat tire and how many times it can be patched and wondering...will the air hold out till you get to a gas station? In the country when it rains it brings up every stray piece of metal and glass that were dropped or thrown on the road. Tractors drop big huge bolts and nails and somehow they always end up in YOUR tires. I think we have been in 4 times so far this year. Not bad, but at $20 a pop (no pun intended!) and the time to mess with bringing it in and changing it...boy! Someone should come up with country living tire insurance!

Another newer worry is when the washer just isn't working well. B took it apart the other day, sure that it was sludgy from the laundry soap I make. Instead he found sludge. Mud. Gunk from the well water at the bottom of the tub. Not sure if it's supposed to be that way, and while it is a pain I am still glad that I have a washer. I do at least a load a day to keep up with it all.  5 kids and a dog and farm life is hard on clothes. If the windows were new and didn't let in dust every time a vehicle tore down our road(the speed limit is 55 on gravel!) and if the dog didn't shed and leave piles of dust everywhere...maybe my rags would be white when I was done washing floors like a friend of mine's! Maybe our feet wouldn't have to be washed every night before bed. Maybe I wouldn't need a washer as much as I do!!

It IS a constant worry about weather and hay and crops and broken toilets (outhouse anyone?!) and pipes that are leaking and the frige that is on its last leg and running out of shaving cream (someone used the last and failed to put it on the list for last shopping trip. No way you can go to town just for THAT!)

In spite of all of that we would not live elsewhere...ok...maybe we would vacation in your basement for a week. And then we would all be stir-crazy, ready to go take on the world...one rabbit and one season at a time.

Phillipians 4:7-ff says: do not be anxious about anything. But in everything, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

We pray at meals, of course, but boy...when we have difficulties like stretching the hay or broken pipes and not enough money and too far to go to get parts tonight...you can be sure we are petitioning Him. The key, I am finding, is to present(give it over) the requests to God and then leave them there, knowing He is working them out in His way and timing. I am able to be thankful today because He is in control of the weather and the animals and even the pipes. It gives great peace to just rest in Him taking over...where I can do nothing anyway!

Following is pictures of our not-so-good country dog and pictures of conquering the world one rabbit at a time...for the freezer. It use to be that the thought of butchering madee I'll. Now it is so old hat that I cannot wait to dig in! Lol!

for the faint of heart

 Life on an acreage is not for the faint of heart! My aunt asked me the other day what I would do all day if I lived in a normal house and had no animals. I said, "it would be vacation!!"

 Of course I don't really do much around here. I have lots of helpers and if you looked at my garden you would realize that in comparison to real homesteaders or the old time farmers...I only play!

Nevertheless, I did get out to the garden and do a bit of weeding. I picked some of the spinach that was going to seed to give to the rabbits tomorrow morning. I also picked a mess of beets, of which I will give the greens to the rabbits and goats and use the beets as boiled beets and also will make some beet kvass.  (I go to the goat pen and pick the white clover that they won't eat--they prefer red. Who knew they can see in color?! I pick a big tote every am and supplement the meat rabbits diet. We have 15 needing butchering and they are eating me out of house and home!)

Nothing on a farm goes to waste! Even the seeds that the animals fail to eat come up in the garden. So far I have beautiful squash plants, of some kind! And several cucumber plant, which I did not plant. I thinned my strawberry plants the other day. I must have pulled about 100 plants out. I gave some to a lady that came for a kitten, offered some to another friend, transplant and about 45 plants and still have about 30 left.

Even a box and a feed bag get recycled in a million ways. Currently a box set out to burn is being used as a kitten house-playyard. It is so fun to sit and watch them bat and scratch and jump with each other! Even the mamas are getting into it!

 I just used a feed bag the other day,too, to put between two of the rabbit cages. The lid use to be flat and the divider fit perfectly. Bit the snow sat so heavy that we modified it to be at an angle. Fine except the pen of 4 rabbits each side would always have 7 on one side and no food and water. They hopped one way but never made it back. So I figured I'd put the one doe due any day(had 10 and lost 4) side by side with the ready-to-butcher babies because they wouldn't jump over there. Well, indeed they did. And I was afraid for the new tiny rabbits. So...I put the other expecting doe on the other side and moved the bigger babies. Fine. Except new mama jumped in with other doe and got all bloodied up! Twice. She, too, apparently forgot which way was home. Thus, a feed sack weighed down at the bottom with a brick and at the top on the lid with a brick. Boy, you'll never look at a disposable item again when you've lived in the country!!

Faint of heart my girls ain't... The two does got into it again...another emergency call to the vet for a house call (yes, they still make house calls). Our horned goat gored the other in the udder...again. Different spot. Much worse. This time it was not just milk running out of her bag, it was pouring blood. Of course I was alone outside and I had left the two together...so it was my fault. Anyway...I dragged her to the hose to try to wash her off and assess. There was no assessing except "don't panic!" I got her up to the garage and on the way stopped long enough to pick a wad of clean plantain leaves. I did consider, as I popped them in my mouth and started chewing, that we do have goats, kittens and free-range birds...but what's that to a bleeding goat?! So, I chewed and chewed and then crammed them into the gouge and applied pressure. To no avail. I felt like a surgeon asking for scalpel as I yelled,"more plantain leaves. How about gloves and cayenne..." The cayenne finally did the trick...as long as it was left alone. (Cayenne is a vasoconstictor, so it constricts the blood vessels, this slowing bleeding. I have used this on a puncture on my own hand. And,no, it doesn't burn or hurt...as long as its only on the injury. It does burn...like cayenne...on the rest of your skin! FYI!!) Finally the vet showed up and pulled the plantain and started the bleeding again. As it turns out, G held her tail up and out of the way while I held her collar and chest in place and M watched as he stitched her up. That was bad in its own right, but try milking bloody milk with clots that don't come down and out without some major force...THAT was a bit much for B an A. I ended up taking over for those with sensitive stomachs. I thought about offering curds and whey or strawberry milk for dinner...but decided against it in favor of compassion. However, like I said, nothing gets wasted...so the bottle babies drink koolaid milk just fine!!

When B was up at Mom's a few weeks ago he found some bows, without strings or arrows. A has been dying to buy one...B ordered strings and arrows and remade the 30+ year old bows. Boy has it been fun. They are going to have to start bow hunting for me this fall!!

Well, we would love company...but please don't come unless you have a stout composition and aren't scared off by a dead snake on the book shelf or a HUGE weird spider in a jar on the kitchen cupboard or a cricket house in the mudroom or a diapered goat jumping off your lap whole you sit on the couch enjoying a cup of...something that just spilled...or a diaper-less child pottying on the potty chair in the dining room. (Rule one of potty training before they can talk...make the potty chair assessable at all times!)