Horse Riding Lessons and Chickens

My oldest daughter has finished her first 8 weeks of English horse riding lessons.  It's a bit of a drive each week, but I have discovered a local area park in which I can sit and write.   Soon I will find my way to their local library for wireless Internet.  Who knows, maybe I'll actually get some work accomplished.  I made the mistake of bringing my younger girls on these weekly trips.  All they do is talk and talk and talk.  What was I thinking?! 

One of our hens recently experienced prolapse.  We built a separate pen for her immediately, to keep her away from the other hens.  From what I learned at www.MaryJanesFarm.org, the hens will pick on her and she will diminish.  She has now recovered, but is not laying eggs just yet.  She's perky and I even caught her chasing a fly in her pen.   There is always something to learn on our homestead.  I'm sure it will become more interesting when we add more animals.

Gardening and a Stray Cat Problem

I sipped my coffee on the front porch this morning, in hopes to get another glimpse of a deer.  No luck.  It was later than usual, about 8:00am.  I wanted to vacuum first and that caused me to get outside a bit later.

Even thought 3 kids helped me in garden, I still have a lot of work to do.  I need to hoe between the rows and pull some stubborn weeds.  I managed to re-plant beet seeds, and dropped some radish seeds in between the spinach.  Not much of the spinach came up either.  Most likely from the downpour of constant rain we had a few weeks ago.

We have a problem stray cat.  He keeps coming to the house every night, attacking our 9 month old kitten, which is the only outside male cat.  We've brought them inside each night to avoid any scrapples.  One screen in the house is practically torn to bits from the inside cats warning this stray to leave.  We've brought the barn cat food inside each night, but it won't stop coming.  I will have to figure a way to get rid of him, even if it means having the humane society trap it.  He's a pretty mean one.   This is why people absolutely need to have their barn cats trapped, neutered and spayed, and released.  If someone had neutered this stray, he probably wouldn't be coming around like he is. 

Morning Deer

I got up early to water my flower beds and to water the watermelon plants.  It was probably just before 7am when I looked out across the property.  A doe was standing in the bean field and munching away.  With the crops being rotated this year, I can see the deer more often.  Last year's corn fields gave them a way to hide.  This year I have a feeling we will see many more deer.

Wild Spearmint ~ What a Blessing!

I found wild spearmint growing along a ditch bank on the property. I'm very excited because I have not had spearmint in my herb garden for many years. It tends to take over everything, so now I can make tea again. This means I need to make another herb drying rack. Foraging is so fun!

Wild Growing Catnip

I located some wild growing catnip on the property. It was growing along the side of one of the barns. I brought some in to wash and dry, but Jasper and Tiger had located it and took off with it. It looks almost like spearmint.

If you don't like mice, don't move to the country

The house mousers have had a productive day today.  Tiger caught, not one, but two mice today.  The first one we gently pulled from his mouth and tossed outside to the barn mousers.  "Queen Sheba" of the barn cats, walked nonchalantly to the door, picked the mouse up in her mouth and then walked it over to our dog's "cooling pool" - plop!  In it went.  She tortured it for several minutes.

Then after the kids got home, Tiger caught the second mouse.  When the kids tried to take the mouse it evidently was still 100% alive, and barreled down the hallway.  Now you would think that after a few years of mice and getting used to hairy spiders and slithery snakes, we would not have acted the way we did.  My throat still hurts for screaming. Yup.  We all did the one-step dance and screamed as the very tiny mouse scampered around our feet.

Sha-bam!  Tiger caught it anyway and out the door it went.  Phew!

Just a few minutes ago our 8 year-old caught her first frog this season.  And if you have read my blog, you know how I feel about frogs!  They have me on tape.  I'm waiting to see if they will attempt to bring it inside.

Apple Pie, 10 Stitches, and Good Food

Here is the photo of the homemade apple pie I baked. I have always made Dutch Apple Pie, but this was delicious! The recipe came from AllRecipes on-line. Here is the link: Apple Pie by Grandma Ople. I added cinnamon to the apples before I put them in the crust, just as another person had recommended. Of course we topped it with vanilla ice cream. My son said, "oh we have to take a picture of that!"

I haven't posted since we baked the pie. I had a little accident with my head and flying firewood. It was plain stupidity on my part and I got myself too close to the wood pile, while unloading a truck load of wood. Ladies, if you are unloading wood, be sure to be more careful tan I was. Luckily, it did not knock me out too long (just a second or two). After my brother kept insisting I get it looked at, I went to the hospital.

The doctor on duty convinced me that staples worked better than stitches, so I caved. "Fine, give me the staples, but can you please not shave too much of my hair?" I begged. I have to say the shot to numb it first didn't hurt anywhere near as bad as the thunk to the head. After a few staples, the doctor starts telling me, "uh, there's another cut and I think we are going to have to do stitches anyway." So out the staples went, and in went the stitches - 10 to be exact.

As I was laying on the gurney getting worked on and having friendly conversation I realized I was wearing my neon green socks. The photo doesn't do justice. If I had better lighting you'd see how awful they looked under those bright hospital lights (ugh!). To top it off, I was wearing a yellow shirt. I put the socks on because I was not going anywhere for the day (nothing matches with them). Or so I thought.

I guess the joke was on me! I had to figure that if the doctor saw them sticking out from my jeans, he was thinking "this woman is a case for sure."

My head hurts, but my arm hurts worse from the Tetanus shot I had to get. The kids keep asking me questions to make sure my brain is functioning correctly. This morning, I took the time to cut and chop and mix, to put beef stew into the crock pot. Just a few minutes ago I looked at it and wondered why it wasn't cooking. Once again, I failed to plug it in. Luckily it's early so it has time to cook, and luckily this is nothing abnormal. It's just another crazy day in the home.

The chickens are getting carrot peelings for a treat today. I read that they like peelings but not whole carrots. It's a great way to keep them fed organically and make good use of the scraps.

I have to say, that even though I was supposed to be resting, I made dinner the night of the accident. It came from The Cardiac Recovery Cookbook (how appropriate) and was Summer Vegetable Spaghetti. Now if you froze your garden tomatoes at the end of the season, this is the perfect recipe to add them too (and yellow squash. zucchini and green beans).

Summer Vegetable Spaghetti

I used a 15 oz. can of no-salt added tomato paste, double the vegetables, and did not add the extra salt. I also let the mixture simmer longer until the vegetables were softened. It was delicious. I also added parsley that I had dried from my herb garden and doubled the garlic. I made it as natural and low in sodium as possible. The Parmesan cheese adds enough salt to the dish.

Which brings me to my next synthesis paper for my English class. I'm working on a claim that is somehow related to the fact low cost foods, which many people are buying, are very high in sodium, and the dangers sodium has on the body. I'll have to figure it out and narrow it down.

One last note. Last night, my dear husband came home from work and handed me a pair of safety glasses and said, "Your hard helmet is on order." I had to laugh, but there was a serious tone to his voice about staying clear of accidents while I was healing (and to use safety measures more often). He got bonus points from me because the safety glasses were pink ribbon glasses. I'm sure I'll be wearing both on the next wood splitting day.

Stocking up for winter - Susan G. Komen for the Cure Journal

Winter is on the way and we are stocking up on fire wood. I am also taking inventory on working flashlights and batteries. And it doing so, I found that energizer has printable coupons on their Web site and if you are a supporter of Breast Cancer Research, you'll like the free journal you can mail in for. You just have to send 3 UPC's and the dated receipts.

For the link go to: Energizer Promotions (there is a separate icon for the coupons and one for the printable order form for the Susan G. Komen for the cure journal). Why not get a freebie and save money on something you need? There are expiration dates on the coupon and on the free journal, so be sure to order it soon. Last year they gave away really nice back pack bags.

Kittens, College and Chickens

That is sure a strange combination to write about today - kittens, college, and chickens. Despite our efforts to find homes for the last two kittens, we could not. They have already adapted to the barn life, and one has already learned to hunt mice. Although they are given fresh food and water twice a day, they still have the instinct to hunt. We have plenty of field mice too. They remain friendly and are often held. We'll have to start working on warm winter beds for them.

I survived writing the group's paper last Friday. We received a 90% grade on it, however not with much help. Apparently, group projects are still required in some classes and many of the students simply don't participate. Why? I have have no idea. Could it be that they aren't the ones paying for their tuition and they could care less if their grade is reduced? Either way, it was tough for me, considering I haven't been to college in years. I was thrilled to see the grade though. Although, I did miss my writer's group meeting due to working on the final touches before handing the paper in.

I'm so happy we started raising chickens for eggs. We were blessed with another double yolk the other day. Each child has learned how to care for them, so it makes it easy when work needs completed. The chickens are getting a bit brave and wandering a bit further each day. We have acres full of grasshoppers that they fight over. They are not caged during the day, and have free roaming access throughout the yard. I do have to be careful in case "foxy loxy" returns to our "farm".

Kittens

Here is a photo of one of the five kittens we still have. I can't believe no one is calling to take one. It's been 2 weeks since we put posters out and an ad in the paper. Isn't he cute?

Wind damage to one of the barns

We are having very strong winds today. This is what the wind did to one of the barns today.

Farmgirl Sisterhood ~ This sounds like so much fun!

I think I have convinced my 15 year old daughter to help me start a chapter with Farmgirl Sisterhood. There aren't any chapters within an hour drive from us. She would be a farmerette in training. This looks like so much fun, and we have done some of the subjects under the merit badges already. We don't have cows, horses, or goats (yet), but we could still start and work our way through it.

Road Runner and a Double Yolk

We were truly blessed yesterday with a double yolk egg from one of our chickens (Road Runner). I actually took a picture of it, but my son, in a hurry with a photo project for class, deleted it from the camera - Grrrr! I never knew raising chickens could be such a blessing to our home.

Chickens and more eggs!

I'm thrilled with raising chickens for eggs! We are now getting 4 eggs a day. Two more chickens have started laying eggs.

I was tickled to see our hummingbird again yesterday. He's brown bellied and has visited us often. Each time we've moved, we've been blessed with at least one hummingbird. And I don't feed it special food. I've attracted them with my flowers and that's it. He/she loves the flowers. It's better for the birds too.

Another beautiful sunrise today

We were blessed with another beautiful sunrise this Sunday. I'm so glad I took the time to watch it.

It's about time to check on the chickens and see if more are laying eggs. Yesterday I bought a metal basket for the kids to bring the eggs inside with. They laughed when I showed them the basket, and said we should call our house "The House on the Prairie". We may not be on the prairie, but it feels wonderful to be in the country.

Yesterday we had a stray dog visit us. Actually there were two, but one ran off. The one that stayed was limping and very friendly. He appeared to be neglected. His tag was a year old, which didn't even match the dog it was on. His nails were way too long, he was missing hair in spots, his eyes were glossy, and his teeth didn't look right. I'm sure whoever was out hunting just let them roam free. He took a nap in one of the bars, but left later. We tried putting him in a tie-out, but he just kept getting loose from it. He smelled horrible also. Poor dog. Why do people get pets and then just tie them outside and ignore them?

We still have the five kittens. We haven't found a home for any of them yet. We did however get the other barn cat spayed before she had even more kittens. They would be great mousers for someone too.

I was woken up this morning by Tiger pouncing on me. He brought his play mouse up to the bed and was darting around with it. Soon, Jasper was there too.

A few days ago, I had chenille stems sitting on the kitchen counter for a craft project. The next thing I knew, both kittens has stolen them and have been playing with them ever since. We also discovered they love drinking straws. We can't store them on a low shelf anymore. One look and we could see tiny teeth marks in the tops of them - ha ha ha!

Our first dozen chicken eggs

Here is the first full dozen of eggs two chickens are now laying. It feels pretty good to raise our own chickens, and save money on the eggs. Not only that, but we are eating healthier and together it blesses the family.

Kittens and Toilet Paper

CRASH!

I went to investigate the noise I just heard. It came from the bathroom, and sounded like the shower curtain rod hit the floor. Kittens!

There on the floor was the shower curtain and rod. Yep. It was both kittens. And sitting on the cabinet next to the wall mounted toilet paper rod, was Jasper with the end of the toilet paper in his mouth!

I don't know why he has an obsession with the toilet paper, but it's not a cheap one. He stole a roll last week and took it to the hallway to devour. Yuck.

Later I checked on the chickens and we now have two laying eggs. I'm pretty excited about that. It will surely save us money on the groceries.

Sunset on September 5, 2009

Chickens

Here is our chicken named "Road Runner". She's not the biggest, but the fastest. She's also the first to start laying eggs. They are all locked up nice a tight to keep "Foxy Loxy" away. We also put all the kittens into a dog cage for the night. They are safe too.

Fox in the Field

Here is a photo my son took today. A fox was right in front of the house, walking through this plowed wheat field. He's not very big either. This is the first fox we have seen around here. It's dove hunting season here, so he/she must be out hunting too. This was very neat to see today.