I'm hanging in there. I won't lie to you, it's been hard. My cat and dog are happy and healthy. It's been raining off and on the past couple of weeks and did I mention it's spring? So rain plus warmer weather equals mowing. So yesterday I went out to start up the ol John Deere and
...
nothing. Nada. Not even a click. Hmmm. Opened up the hood. Now I don't know much about mowers but I think I need a new battery and maybe just maybe those chewed on nutshell shouldn't be under the hood. Just a guess but I don't think they're supposed to be there. So my friend's husband is coming over to check the battery and maybe he'll be able to help me get all those nuts out. Crazy squirrel anyway lol. I'll have to take a picture of it.
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Friday, April 10, 2015
Friday, April 25, 2014
Cancer update
Hubby had a stomach tube placed last week and the feedings were going great but on Monday he complained in the afternoon of stomach pain and his leg being swollen so I took him to the ER. They admitted him and did lots of tests. He had a blood clot in his leg and one near his kidney. His stomach tube was OK although he was dehydrated because of the diarrhea (from the tube feedings). He had two units of blood transfusion on Wednesday and they kept him because of his low white count until today. He is now getting his chemo and after it is done he gets to go home YAY. I'm rather tired. Don't know why :)
I went home yesterday early and called my friend and she and her husband delivered some more wood to get us through some of the chilly nights. I don't want DH to get too cold. Bless our friends. They have really come through for us...
Last night I heard something strange outside. The cats make noise but this sounded different. I went out with my flashlight. I bring the chicken feeder up on the porch at night and here was a furry butt sticking up out of the middle. I told Mr. furry butt to get out of the feeder and here it was a raccoon. I guess he thought the jig was up cause he got down and jumped off the porch. I put the feeder in the house. No more free food for him...I don't need a raccoon around. I thought we had a possum. We had some tracks in the chicken yard and the feeder was dragged under the chicken coop so that's why I started putting the feeder on the porch. That worked for a while but Mr. furry butt is just a bit too smart for me LOL. And the cats didn't even do anything when he was there...nice...I have the worst guard cats in the world ;)
Well that's all for now,
Denise
I went home yesterday early and called my friend and she and her husband delivered some more wood to get us through some of the chilly nights. I don't want DH to get too cold. Bless our friends. They have really come through for us...
Last night I heard something strange outside. The cats make noise but this sounded different. I went out with my flashlight. I bring the chicken feeder up on the porch at night and here was a furry butt sticking up out of the middle. I told Mr. furry butt to get out of the feeder and here it was a raccoon. I guess he thought the jig was up cause he got down and jumped off the porch. I put the feeder in the house. No more free food for him...I don't need a raccoon around. I thought we had a possum. We had some tracks in the chicken yard and the feeder was dragged under the chicken coop so that's why I started putting the feeder on the porch. That worked for a while but Mr. furry butt is just a bit too smart for me LOL. And the cats didn't even do anything when he was there...nice...I have the worst guard cats in the world ;)
Well that's all for now,
Denise
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Little update
GARDEN/HOUSE:
We finally got rain. I could hear the plants and trees sighing, no actually I could, really. The seeds we planted while waiting for rain all came up so looks like we might be having some cukes and beans after all. DH has off this week and we are going to do some work around the house. We want to finish the floors in the living room and two small bedrooms. And we are going to tear out the carpeting in our bedroom and put down laminate in that room as well. We also have to do all the closet floors. Then DH is going to till the garden again and we are going to plant some more seeds for our fall garden. We have never planted a fall garden so this is all new to us. With the drought, there was one nice thing. Not very many bugs. But then there weren't very many plants either LOL.
I have been getting a lot of little peppers and tomatoes off the garden. I have been freezing them until I have enough to can up some sketti sauce. I found a recipe for hot sauce I want to try since the peppers that survived are all hot ones.
KITCHEN:
I actually canned some plum preserves the other day. DH saw them and decided to buy them. We brought them home, he tasted one and said they are sour and hard as a rock. Yep he was right they are sour and hard as rocks. After spending a couple of hours pitting and chopping them up, I told him do not EVER get these again. My fingers were sore until the next day. But and here's the thing, they made wonderful preserves. I had to taste test them before they were canned LOL. I put them in the slow cooker and let them go on high for about four hours. That softened them up. I still didn't use all of them either so I was thinking maybe I could put them with another fruit (blueberries or boysenberries since I have lots in the freezer) and make some jam. Has anyone done this before? I think they are Damson plums but I'm not sure.
I got some green peppers from the Amish last week and cut those up and put them in the freezer so I can make my grandma's pepper relish since we are on the last jar of that. When I make up a batch it usually lasts a couple of years. At this rate I won't have to make up any relish or jellies/jams/preserves for at least 2-3 years.
I also have all those potatoes I got from the garden. I'm thinking of canning most of those up. I had canned some store bought potatoes in the fall and those were real handy to make some hashbrowns for breakfast. I also have a bunch of hamburger I want to can up too. I don't want to wait until we loose electricity and then say I should have canned it up.
CHICKENS:
The girls are doing fine. We had been giving them watermelon and had a fan on them during the heatwave. Maybe we were giving them a little too much watermelon cause they kind of got the squirts, poor things. We have two that we are going to have to clean their butts up. This is something that we always look forward to...next flock we get will be handled more cause chasing chickens is not a lot of fun.
CATS:
The cats are doing great except Roxy who seems to be feeling his age lately. Penny is loving the outdoors and in all that heat she wanted to go out but she wouldn't come in when you called. Crazy girl! And she crawls under the door to the chickens fenced in area and stays with them. I don't know maybe they have a girl get together :) Tikki has been his lazy self but has been jumping up on the bed after DH leaves in the morning so I can make a fuss over him.
QUILTING:
I worked on a small quilt and got most of the quilting done on it. I just have to bind it and it will be done. I also started quilting on another one and almost have that done except the binding. I knitted up a little pair of footies for me. I only had one little ball of yarn in this particular colorway and thought I would try to make a pair. I even had a little bit left over. The ball only had about 200 yards in it which isn't quite enough to make a decent pair of socks. I have a couple of more 200 yard balls in my stash so I think I will be making some more.
READING:
Right now I'm reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. It's not bad and really interesting that it was written before the Civil War. If you haven't read it, it's about slavery. Some parts kind of slow down the narrative but when you think that the author actually lived during this time and saw these things going on it really makes you think. I have a lot more to read after I get done with this one. I checked my Kindle and I have 7 pages of books on there. Each page is 10 books so that's 70 I have to read. Like I don't have other things that have to get done...
NEW PLACE:
We called around to see how much it would be to put in a water well. The two places we called it was going to be over $6000. Crazy. Of course, it was just a guesstimate because they really don't know how far down they have to drill but that price was the minimum. We have a couple more places to call. Hopefully we can find someone more reasonable. We have decided to get a little cabin. We looked at a few and really liked them. DH is saying now maybe we should have bought a piece of land with a house and well already on it. I could say I told him so but I won't ;) He thought it would be cheaper to get a piece of property and put a cabin on it...ummm NO. We went to Marvin's (a building supply store) today to look around. And we kept saying we need one of those and a few of those and....you get the picture. This cabin is just the shell. If we have extra windows we want to be put in they will put them in for $50 extra but we have to buy the windows. Marvin's has excellent prices but I told DH that we should check at Home Depot and Lowe's because they have returns and scratched and dented things that they put on sale. Now of course I know that windows and doors can't be too dented. You have to be able to open and close them but a few cosmetic scratches doesn't hurt the operation of them and I have seen some pretty good deals before in those stores. Oh and the well situation, we asked about whether they douse (you know when someone goes around with a stick or two metal rods and locates water) and the one driller just laughed. Hey if someone can find water and there is less ground to drill through I think we might try it. Jeez Louise we all aren't made of money. Anyway I remembered that one of my books in the Foxfire set had something about wells in it so I looked and yes in volume #4 there is all about dowsing and well digging. So DH and I decided that we will try to douse. We're not going to dig however. That can be dangerous. Wish us luck! I'll let you know what we find if anything.
Well I think I caught you up on everything for now. I hope to get some pics up soon.
Talk to ya later!
Denise
We finally got rain. I could hear the plants and trees sighing, no actually I could, really. The seeds we planted while waiting for rain all came up so looks like we might be having some cukes and beans after all. DH has off this week and we are going to do some work around the house. We want to finish the floors in the living room and two small bedrooms. And we are going to tear out the carpeting in our bedroom and put down laminate in that room as well. We also have to do all the closet floors. Then DH is going to till the garden again and we are going to plant some more seeds for our fall garden. We have never planted a fall garden so this is all new to us. With the drought, there was one nice thing. Not very many bugs. But then there weren't very many plants either LOL.
I have been getting a lot of little peppers and tomatoes off the garden. I have been freezing them until I have enough to can up some sketti sauce. I found a recipe for hot sauce I want to try since the peppers that survived are all hot ones.
KITCHEN:
I actually canned some plum preserves the other day. DH saw them and decided to buy them. We brought them home, he tasted one and said they are sour and hard as a rock. Yep he was right they are sour and hard as rocks. After spending a couple of hours pitting and chopping them up, I told him do not EVER get these again. My fingers were sore until the next day. But and here's the thing, they made wonderful preserves. I had to taste test them before they were canned LOL. I put them in the slow cooker and let them go on high for about four hours. That softened them up. I still didn't use all of them either so I was thinking maybe I could put them with another fruit (blueberries or boysenberries since I have lots in the freezer) and make some jam. Has anyone done this before? I think they are Damson plums but I'm not sure.
I got some green peppers from the Amish last week and cut those up and put them in the freezer so I can make my grandma's pepper relish since we are on the last jar of that. When I make up a batch it usually lasts a couple of years. At this rate I won't have to make up any relish or jellies/jams/preserves for at least 2-3 years.
I also have all those potatoes I got from the garden. I'm thinking of canning most of those up. I had canned some store bought potatoes in the fall and those were real handy to make some hashbrowns for breakfast. I also have a bunch of hamburger I want to can up too. I don't want to wait until we loose electricity and then say I should have canned it up.
CHICKENS:
The girls are doing fine. We had been giving them watermelon and had a fan on them during the heatwave. Maybe we were giving them a little too much watermelon cause they kind of got the squirts, poor things. We have two that we are going to have to clean their butts up. This is something that we always look forward to...next flock we get will be handled more cause chasing chickens is not a lot of fun.
CATS:
The cats are doing great except Roxy who seems to be feeling his age lately. Penny is loving the outdoors and in all that heat she wanted to go out but she wouldn't come in when you called. Crazy girl! And she crawls under the door to the chickens fenced in area and stays with them. I don't know maybe they have a girl get together :) Tikki has been his lazy self but has been jumping up on the bed after DH leaves in the morning so I can make a fuss over him.
QUILTING:
I worked on a small quilt and got most of the quilting done on it. I just have to bind it and it will be done. I also started quilting on another one and almost have that done except the binding. I knitted up a little pair of footies for me. I only had one little ball of yarn in this particular colorway and thought I would try to make a pair. I even had a little bit left over. The ball only had about 200 yards in it which isn't quite enough to make a decent pair of socks. I have a couple of more 200 yard balls in my stash so I think I will be making some more.
READING:
Right now I'm reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. It's not bad and really interesting that it was written before the Civil War. If you haven't read it, it's about slavery. Some parts kind of slow down the narrative but when you think that the author actually lived during this time and saw these things going on it really makes you think. I have a lot more to read after I get done with this one. I checked my Kindle and I have 7 pages of books on there. Each page is 10 books so that's 70 I have to read. Like I don't have other things that have to get done...
NEW PLACE:
We called around to see how much it would be to put in a water well. The two places we called it was going to be over $6000. Crazy. Of course, it was just a guesstimate because they really don't know how far down they have to drill but that price was the minimum. We have a couple more places to call. Hopefully we can find someone more reasonable. We have decided to get a little cabin. We looked at a few and really liked them. DH is saying now maybe we should have bought a piece of land with a house and well already on it. I could say I told him so but I won't ;) He thought it would be cheaper to get a piece of property and put a cabin on it...ummm NO. We went to Marvin's (a building supply store) today to look around. And we kept saying we need one of those and a few of those and....you get the picture. This cabin is just the shell. If we have extra windows we want to be put in they will put them in for $50 extra but we have to buy the windows. Marvin's has excellent prices but I told DH that we should check at Home Depot and Lowe's because they have returns and scratched and dented things that they put on sale. Now of course I know that windows and doors can't be too dented. You have to be able to open and close them but a few cosmetic scratches doesn't hurt the operation of them and I have seen some pretty good deals before in those stores. Oh and the well situation, we asked about whether they douse (you know when someone goes around with a stick or two metal rods and locates water) and the one driller just laughed. Hey if someone can find water and there is less ground to drill through I think we might try it. Jeez Louise we all aren't made of money. Anyway I remembered that one of my books in the Foxfire set had something about wells in it so I looked and yes in volume #4 there is all about dowsing and well digging. So DH and I decided that we will try to douse. We're not going to dig however. That can be dangerous. Wish us luck! I'll let you know what we find if anything.
Well I think I caught you up on everything for now. I hope to get some pics up soon.
Talk to ya later!
Denise
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Peepers
We heard the first peepers last night. Hope they dont get frost bitten cause it's supposed to freeze tonight. Crazy frogs were jumping all over the roads last night. Hubby was trying to miss them and actually did but you know the person behind us didnt try to avoid them.
Our blueberries have buds on them. Think we will have to kiss them goodbye with the frost coming tonight but hope not.
Has anyone started their seedlings yet?
Our blueberries have buds on them. Think we will have to kiss them goodbye with the frost coming tonight but hope not.
Has anyone started their seedlings yet?
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Food Democracy Now - Stop Traceability for Livestock Program
Dear Friend,
Once again the Obama administration is proposing burdensome regulations that will disproportionally harm family farmers while factory farmers get an intentional break. If you thought NAIS (the National Animal Identification System) was dead, think again! Right now the Obama administration is attempting to sneak a scaled-down version of a new "Traceability for Livestock" program onto farms across the U.S. through a new backdoor proposed USDA regulation.
Just like last time, the group ID is alive for factory farms, saving them lots of money, while family farmers and those who raise a few animals, like backyard chickens, will face the expense and burden of individually tagging their animals if they cross state lines.
The USDA's proposed new "traceability" rule will act like a driver's license for your backyard chicken or an ID card for a cow in Western Iowa crossing the border into Eastern Nebraska. If Obama gets away with it, this new Animal Identification rule will act like a tax on every livestock animal that crosses state lines - something that happens THOUSANDS a times a day in the United States!
Click on the link below to protect our farms and our right to own animals by submitting your comments today! DEADLINE for comments is COB Friday, December 9.
We need them to hear your voice today. Please spread the word.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/stop_new_animal_ID/?referring_akid=.316027.i2JQ5M&source=taf
Once again the Obama administration is proposing burdensome regulations that will disproportionally harm family farmers while factory farmers get an intentional break. If you thought NAIS (the National Animal Identification System) was dead, think again! Right now the Obama administration is attempting to sneak a scaled-down version of a new "Traceability for Livestock" program onto farms across the U.S. through a new backdoor proposed USDA regulation.
Just like last time, the group ID is alive for factory farms, saving them lots of money, while family farmers and those who raise a few animals, like backyard chickens, will face the expense and burden of individually tagging their animals if they cross state lines.
The USDA's proposed new "traceability" rule will act like a driver's license for your backyard chicken or an ID card for a cow in Western Iowa crossing the border into Eastern Nebraska. If Obama gets away with it, this new Animal Identification rule will act like a tax on every livestock animal that crosses state lines - something that happens THOUSANDS a times a day in the United States!
Click on the link below to protect our farms and our right to own animals by submitting your comments today! DEADLINE for comments is COB Friday, December 9.
We need them to hear your voice today. Please spread the word.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/stop_new_animal_ID/?referring_akid=.316027.i2JQ5M&source=taf
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Canning
I canned a lot over the weekend. I canned some peach preserves, peach pie filling, and some apple butter. I still have some peaches which I plan on turning into spiced peach jam and some more apples left as well which I plan on making applesauce out of.
Apple butter and peach preserves. I'm using my new labeler to make labels for each jar. It is great, wish I would have gotten it a long time ago.
Sideways pic of my new pressure canner. Couldnt figure out how to turn it sorry!
The mess of pickles I made a while ago.
My lavender jelly made with MY lavender, I'm so proud of myself using my lavender and actually making jelly not sauce...Yeah Me!
Salsa - homemade - yum!
Dont know whether you can see him or not but this is a little itty bitty frog that was on our screen door one night.
There he is!
and there he is again! He was only about an inch long. Hope he made it through the hot weather cause I havent seen him since these pics.
Apple butter and peach preserves. I'm using my new labeler to make labels for each jar. It is great, wish I would have gotten it a long time ago.
Sideways pic of my new pressure canner. Couldnt figure out how to turn it sorry!
The mess of pickles I made a while ago.
My lavender jelly made with MY lavender, I'm so proud of myself using my lavender and actually making jelly not sauce...Yeah Me!
Salsa - homemade - yum!
Dont know whether you can see him or not but this is a little itty bitty frog that was on our screen door one night.
There he is!
and there he is again! He was only about an inch long. Hope he made it through the hot weather cause I havent seen him since these pics.And I think I'm all caught up now on my pics! I will have to make some more of the things I have completed knitting.
Talk to ya later!
Denise
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Baby Geese!
This is our chicken coop and run. Isnt it cute? I wanted red with white trim but my hubby doesnt like red so much so we got the grey instead. Marriage is all about compromise isnt it?
My clothesline. It was so windy that day that I went back out in 15 minutes and everything was dry.
Have more pics coming up!
Denise
4 Maz Funny Chicken Farm and Dairy
This is the back of my husband and Mark (owner of farm) along with Casa. My husband helped milk her when they went away for a few days. He loved every minute of it. We get our milk and eggs from them. They only pasturize the milk at the lowest temperature. I have no problems drinking the milk. It even has cream on the top...yum. They also have goats and sheep and make soaps as well.
These are the chickens we grew for them. They are smaller than our chickens from the same batch but one of them laid a little bitty egg two days ago. I had a talk with our girls. They need to catch up!
Another pic of Feta.
This is Feta. She's sweet.
This is the female peacock. Her mate died so she is in with the chickens. She's too old to lay any eggs. All say "awwww".
The above pic is of some of their chickens along with a peacock in the back.
Will have more pics coming up!
Denise
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