Quick update

 We're so, so busy here!

Garf's busy with his new job. Busy, as in he's gone for 5 days a week instead of 3 or 4. Good for paycheck, crappy for us. But considering our washer just crapped out the other day, I can't really complain. We need the paycheck.

I should mention that the washer crapped out the day we butchered chickens. *sigh* 

We did 8 one day, 26 the next, and there's still a handful left, maybe 9 or so. I didn't even know we had that many. I guess I lost count after we'd sold some last fall, in two separate batches. Besides, it's awfully hard to count that many heads unless you want to do it with a flashlight after dark. I didn't. At least we've got enough chicken in the freezer for the year, or close to it. I dehydrated the feet for the doggies. They don't go far with six dogs...

But now that we've got down to a manageable number of birds, it's time to move them to a smaller space and tidy things up. And I need to prepare spaces for quails and rabbits next spring.

Cucumber beetles are eating my plants. Some diatomaceous earth should take care of that problem.

I've finally spouted some tomato plants. Gosh, they take forever when starting from seed. 

I've got the start on a heated garden bed that will help extend my season, and get my seeds started early next year. (Can't start seeds in the house because we have asshole cats)

I don't know if the pumpkins will survive my frisbee throwing skills. I almost decapitated one the other night. Last night, I watched in horror as the frisbee started a left turn and landed BEHIND the trellis and the dog gleefully went after it. 

I forgot to plant my dill and chamomile. 😒

I plucked a newly ripe strawberry from one of the plants - shh, don't tell anyone. 

The grape vine has rewarded our pruning attempts by growing two bunches already. 

My garden is being taken over by ivy very quickly. It's growing from out of the forest beside us. I'm so tired of trying to destroy this crap. We'll be hunting for the root ball next time Garf comes home. I was thinking that next year I'll be planting in buckets all over... but why wait? I might as well just transplant the whole damn thing now and see if we can save some plants.

Peas and beans are thriving. They always do. Even I can't kill those.

I am SO TIRED!

Well, this sure is a blog filled with steamy spanking stuff, ain't it?

Real life sucks sometimes.

I did it!

 I butchered my very first, all-by-myself chicken this morning. From start to finish, plucked and all. Sadly, my knives hadn't been sharpened so there was a little mishap while gutting (No, I didn't cut any fingers off) and the poor chicken was basically sacrificed so I could have a chicken anatomy lesson. But I do have two chicken feet in the oven dehydrating for two lucky pups to chew on tomorrow.

I'm quite proud of myself. I did it. 

Next on the list, other than butchering 35 or so more birds, is to clean out the shed, turn it into a coop, move some birds around, knock down a coop, and set up some nicely raised gardening beds. No more bending for me. I'm too old and the last two kids will be on their way soon. My son is about to turn 19 in 10 days, he just passed his written for his driver's test. Time to get him some practice and then he'll be ready. He's late getting to it, but better late than never. The older three kids never bothered at all and none of them drive. But anyway... the point of this is that I'm not going to have help around here much longer. If I can't do it myself, I need to figure out how to change it so I can. 

I'm like the little engine that could today... but with a headache. But it's ok. I butchered a chicken all by myself!

A Visitor

Spiders are our friends... Right??

I'm not normally bothered by spiders. Well, I have one in a box right now and I can hear his feet scrabbling from 3 feet away. I am bothered.

I was sitting here, minding my own business, checking out a few YouTube videos and this dude just appeared on my desk beside me. I am SO bothered by him/her. 

Hopefully, Garf will be home to remove my new friend safely to the outdoors. I swear it's the size of a newborn kitten. 

Ok... Maybe a mouse. 

Rain = Break

 It's not raining... yet. But that's okay because I stayed in bed a bit later this morning and still have to get out and feed the critters. But we are expecting some rain and I could use the break.

Everything is done. Everything is finally planted. Every bit of the property has been mowed, some bits twice. The very last of the garbage and weird junky things are packed up and ready for tomorrow morning. I got some weeding done in the gardens. We finally sorted through a pile of cedar slabs that we got last year and cut up the useless stuff and have a nice little pile of slabs I can use to keep the dogs out of my gardens.

My outdoor jobs have been reduced to feeding, watering and weeding. 

Next job, if I can find the get up and go, is to go through the freezer and can whatever I can to make room for chickens. 

It's hot.

I don't want to be awake.

My body doesn't want to move.

I'm going to enjoy my coffee. The critters can wait. 

Another long day

 Was it ever hot yesterday! I was really dragging my feet when it came to moving about and getting anything done. But we did get moving and we did get some stuff done. Not the rest of the planting like I had planned. I just didn't have it in me. So we continued to clean up garbage. And then I suddenly decided I wanted a fenced area around the fire so when we decide to cook and eat out we can enjoy it and not be constantly watching and calling for dogs. With 6 of them, that's a lot of checking up. But also, I can now go sit down outside on a nice day, read a book, and not have to wonder if the dogs are in the compost or the coop, or have run out into the highway. I lost one of my dogs like that last year and don't want to repeat that.

Now, keep in mind that we are broke people. We paid this house off in 5 years, there's been periods of time between jobs, vehicles needed to be replaced, and just bad luck, and yes, a few stupid decisions. All that adds up to a pretty depleted bank account at times. So we do what we do with free stuff (junk). It doesn't always come out the prettiest of looks, but around here the motto is "Functional, not pretty."

Sooo... After we'd gathered another pile of garbage ready for garbage day next week, and Garf had extended my garden hoses another 15 feet or so, and found a nice spot to hang them so all four hoses could reach where they need to... I said, "How about a fence? Do we have enough pallets?" Garf grabbed the kids and off they went to bring home some more. I now have an enclosed area. Maybe not so pretty, but it's functional. The dogs stayed put. My crazy girl can jump that no problem, but as long as we're both on the same side she'll stay. The smaller doggies are stuck.

Burning up the wood scraps from five years of building, tearing down, building again.

The very last piece of wood. It's finally down. Yesterday morning there was a pile of junk pallets and other assorted goodies. That little chunk of wood is the last one. 

We've got rain coming the next couple of days. We got a great deal on bananas the other day at 47 cents a pound. Garf bought 40 pounds. I told the kids to eat what they could before they were too ripe and now it's time to make banana bread. 

I haven't gotten pictures yet of the ducklings, chicks, cats, pear tree, cherry tree, or grape vine. Maybe when the rain goes away. I just don't normally have my phone with me outside when we're working and taking pictures is a special trip which I don't often have the energy for. 

Well, that's one cat lol. She's about 10 years old and an amazing weasel killer. She was a feral kitty once upon a time and then she became a reluctant pet. She doesn't spend as much time outdoors as she used to. I don't know who's going to keep the mice and weasel population down when she retires. We got two boys as well, but one is scared of his own shadow and won't even look outside. The other is a straight up indiscriminate bird killer. I'm not his biggest fans. He's killed blue jays and humming birds for no other reason than he's a cat and that's what he does. The girl pictured has only ever brought mice and weasels. She knows what her job is. 

Pictures!

Last year's birthday present - Impossibly smart, stubborn, insane... She climbs trees if her frisbee gets stuck. She washes the frisbee in the kiddie pool if it gets muddy. She sits on the deep freezer staring longingly at the frisbee which is WAY UP on the top shelf, near the ceiling so she can't reach it. She's crazy about chickens (not in a good way). The husky in her makes her very vocal, so often, when I tell her she needs to wait to go outside, she very definitely yells NO! She can jump a six foot fence. She picks up anything I drop and gives it back. She steals things off the kitchen counter and brings them to me because she thinks she's being a good girl. She owns all the toys. The other dogs are sometimes allowed to play with them, but NEVER the frisbee. She understands that "One more throw" means only one more and then it's time to wash the frisbee and go inside. She does not understand "Don't eat the chicken feed you crazy bitch!" Yesterday, she noticed a moose walking by the garden and did not chase it. She growled. And growled. And growled some more. And when it was safely into the woods again, she barked. Loudly. At first growl, I thought it was a damn bear. We don't often get to see  moose and it's more often to be a bear in the yard. So she didn't chase the moose, but God help any innocent bunnies that hop by... She's after them soon as they're spotted. She peels tiles off the floor in my office... as you can see from the pic below.

The Christmas pup. She's not impressed that I woke her up for a picture. She looks like a Golden Retriever, but she's nowhere near the size of one. She's lazy, clumsy, not too bright, and I love her to death.  

Goat family. 2 sisters and their baby boys. The two boys belong to only one mama as the other one lost her baby, but I guess they didn't want to share the milk so one adopted the other mama.

See how tall the asparagus is? There's 8 of them in this bed. 

The chickens didn't get ALL the strawberries. Some of them survived and are looking pretty good.

Two of the ducks. The white one is a female and the duck not pictured here is sitting on a nest. I believe they're taking turns on it.

Little Silkie hen.

Original Mama Hen that hatched 7 chicks last year and is a talented escape artist.

 

One of Mama's chicks from last year. This is the lady that hatched 5 this year, lost one and all of her remaining eggs disappeared. 

The lady's rooster man.

Beep Beep! As you can see, she's missing a few (a lot) of feathers on her back. She was getting picked on in the bigger coop, moved in with the goats, but I didn't like her wandering the property unattended, so we moved her to a new coop with the broody bunch pictured above.

Dead tree in the foreground... I HATE ivy! This was a beautiful tree 5 years ago. See the blue tarp on the ground by the garden? That's covering ivy. I've had to plant in tires and there'll be pots and bags being added as I finish up the planted.

Yesterday was busy!! We finished planting in the garden pictured above. I mowed about half the property but then the wheel fell off the mower. We tilled another small garden bed on the other side of property. Put up the fence around the garden to keep the dogs out. Picked up a ton of garbage laying around. As you can see from the last pic, there's still a lot of junk bits and pieces of wood and other assorted things waiting for me. 

Planting is almost done. We've got green and yellow beans, peas, beets, onions, broccoli, broccolini, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, cucamelons, honeydew melons, eggplant, zucchini, butternut squash, pumpkins, and ground cherries planted. I think the only thing left is potatoes and then some pots of extra tomatoes and cucumbers. Maybe some extra peas as well because the whole plant is good to feed the critters and I've got no shortage of peas, AND they cheap!

Gotta finish mowing, till for potatoes, move garbage wood to the pit for burning...  

I'm tired.

Even quicker than the last quickie

 I must say, I do enjoy an early morning text informing me of where my lips should be - Apparently, it had nothing to do with my cup of coffee.