chickensense

You won’t believe this but my husband is riding our John Deere mower down the road.

Both our cars are broken, he walked to the nearest neighbors last night and this morning, and no one was home so he’s riding off to the little store down the street to get some buddies to help.

Here’s the photo I just snapped. He is not a happy camper.

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A hummingbird flew bang into the trowel I was carrying in the garden yesterday. I felt the thud and looked down and there was the bird at my feet. We hoped he was just knocked out so we put him in a basket of grass. Soon, however, it was obvious that he was dead. I’m so sorry little bird.

Later that afternoon I hung my birthday hummingbird feeder. I’ll be sure to watch carefully for hummingbird traffic from now on.

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Yesterday we began wondering if our 3 month old puppy was poisoned, or perhaps has Parvovirus. I started researching online today. The Internet articles said if it was Parvovirus the smell of the diarrhea would be so horrible and distinctive that we’d have no doubt. They were right! Wheeewwwiiieee!

Most of the Internet advice said that a pup has almost no chance if you don’t go to a vet, or at the very least get a vet to show you how to do under-the-skin injections of liquids to combat the dehydration, plus giving Pedialyte, Pepto-Bismal, and antibiotics for any secondary infections. Since my friend wiped out my bank account 3 days ago, however, a purchasing anything or going to a vet is out of the question. (If this puppy dies it will be partly the fault my thieving ex-friend! We have to take our share of the blame, though, for not getting her shots.)

She has been vomiting for 2 days, so we’ve been trying to keep her drinking, but today she seems so very much worse. She isn’t vomiting anymore, but just lying there weak and listless. She seems disoriented too.  We found a recipe for home-made Gatorade, for which we thankfully have all the ingredients on hand, to try to restore her electrolytes and fight her obvious dehydration that we know is so deadly. We’ve been giving her that with a turkey baster (squirting it between her lips and teeth on the sides of her mouth) every couple of hours since this afternoon. We hope and pray that she is no longer getting worse, but she has been so still and non-responsive this evening that a couple of times we thought she had died.

We are so scared. We have all fallen in love with Rosy more than any other pet we’ve had. Every one of us thinks she is the cutest dog in the world. She is so sweet and loving, and funny and so smart too.

update: 2:45am Rosy died. We were all with her at the end.

Update 5/27/09 8:00pm  We just buried Rosy under a shade tree near the house, with a small flower bed right next to her. Hubby told her that she’d always be with us.

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In February, we lost electricity for 4 days. God blessed us, however, in that it was the most gorgeous weather, in the mid- to upper-60s the whole time. We spent the days and evenings outside, a lot of the time sitting around a fire which we kept going all day for fun and cooking.

I decided to try cooking with a dutch oven for the first time. I’ve read a lot about it, even have an entire section on my web site for dutch ovens, but I couldn’t look anything up, of course. I used the cornbread recipe I posted in my last blog entry. Since I didn’t have a pot with legs I propped it up on some bricks and pushed the coals underneath. I then took some hot embers and placed them on top.

The hardest part of the baking was regulating the heat. I had no idea how long to let it bake. I was afraid the middle wouldn’t get cooked; instead the bottom ended up burnt but the rest of the loaf was perfect.

For lighting inside at night all we had were candles. I kept votive candles it in the bathroom until we all went to bed, to make it easier on everyone. I also used some bud vases as candle holders and cut the lid of a tub of butter to serve as protection from the dripping wax. It worked beautifully.

Even with the candles, it was too dark inside at night to do much of anything, so we stayed outside around the fire. I learned that I had to start the preparations for supper in the afternoon before it gets dark or it was too hard to see what I was doing. So we ate fairly early and went to bed, and got up, much earlier than we usually do.

Jesse, however, complained the entire time because he couldn’t play his video games or watch DVDs. Here we live on 4 acres in the most beautiful country-side, with woods all around, yet he was bored! I’d have given anything when I was his age to have all this to explore.

The whole 4-day experience was really, really wonderful, actually. No computers, no video games, no telephones. (Even the cell phones were dead after the 2nd day since we couldn’t charge them.) My son, Jesse, and I, along with our house guest, Lindsay, and her 1-year old, spent the days together talking, playing, gathering wood, and cooking over the fire. It was so nice…

I didn’t know it, but I had been pretty burned out on computers. Four days with no computer at all refreshed me so much! I felt as if I’d gone on a long, relaxing vacation. I can’t describe the peace I felt by the last day. I honestly did not want the power to ever come back on.

Now I want to return to the peace of those 4 days. I’ve even looked online for intentional communities where folks have chosen to live without electricity (besides the Amish), but probably they wouldn’t be found online–at least, I can’t find any. Perhaps you are thinking that I could just turn off our TV, our phones, and the computers? That might work for me, but even if I could do it, I’m sure I’d be all alone out there by the fire. A lot of the joy was that we all worked together to do what had to be done. I hope we’ll get another chance to enjoy something like this someday.

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One day you can be cruising along on top of the world and the next day disaster strikes. The other night something attacked our chickens and killed 2 hens; our wonderful rooster, Crazy Mike; and one of the baby chicks. Whatever it was also ate ALL of the eggs that were hatching and about to hatch. Then that morning my husband ran over and killed a hen who was sitting under his truck.

Jesse and I worked hard yesterday to repair the damage to one of the chicken coops to make sure nothing could get in again. We put all the remaining hens in the one coop, but we couldn’t find the mother hen and her 2 chicks anywhere. Now that it is light out I’m going to go see if they managed to survive the night unprotected, but I don’t have much hope.

Fortunately I took photos of the mother and babies yesterday so you can see how adorable they were. I can’t believe the attacker ate all the eggs just when they were starting to hatch! I was so excited about the new babies…

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I started late this evening making some dough to make pizza, when I found we were out of milk. I almost got mad but suddenly laughed, grabbed a lantern and a bowl and headed to the goat shed. It was 9:00 p.m. and the poor goats were already asleep but I really, really wanted to make the pizza so I woke Goldie up and quickly milked a cup of milk from her. I gave her a little grain, patted her my thanks, and let her go back to sleep.

Now the pizza crust is rising and soon there will be delicious home-made pizza cooking in the oven. I love being a farm girl!

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I can’t believe how productive I have been the last 2 weeks! After 6 months of feeling stressed and frazzled but never accomplishing anything, I am finally getting projects done.

The two largest tasks were getting my kitchen curtains for 3 large windows sewn and hung, and building a fence around my garden almost all by myself so that my veggies will be protected from the goats. These 2 things brought such relief and satisfaction that they’ve inspired me to move on to other things I’ve been wanting done.

I’ve finished the backing for my sunflower quilt; I started over 70 herb seeds under the grow lights on my kitchen counter; I moved my 2 routers, the cordless phone, plus the DSL router and wires from my bedroom to my sewing room (the continuously blinking lights bothered me at night); I’ve finished the top and backing for a new baby quilt I just started yesterday; I listed some items I’ve been wanting to sell on Craig’s List; and I finished a kitchen apron I started for myself months ago.

Now I’m excited to get finished with some of the other projects that have been bothering me the most:

• pack and mail the baby quilts for my granddaughters
• pack up and give away half the stuff that is cluttering my sewing room so much that I don’t feel comfortable in there
• clean out my walk-in closet that you almost can’t walk into because it has so much in it
• put up the wallpaper border I bought years ago for the living room
• make slip-covers for 2 easy chairs (I already have the fabric)
• get the sofa steam cleaned
• make the drapes for the living room (I have the fabric)
• replace the living room carpet with vinyl flooring
• and do something about the awful arrangement of the furniture just placed every which way in my living room. (There has got to be a way to arrange it to look better…)

The 1^st three will be relatively simple, but getting the last items done will be life-changing!

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Stop the Ride!: Mopping the Old Fashioned Way
I found this neat blog when searching for a better way to mop my floors. I’m sitting here with wet feet and a wet, still-dirty floor and it’s made me so mad! I’ve used my Hoover FloorMate, and a sponge mop but the floor is still dirty! Everyone is constantly dragging in dirt, grass, feathers, hay, chicken and goat poop, you name it. There’s got to be a better way to stay ahead of this dirt.

For now I’ll dig out some rags and my garden kneeling pad and see if I can do a better job..

(By the way, I just threw the FloorMate off the back porch! It made a satisfying crunch.)

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What a great day! They’ve been predicting snow and sure enough around 1pm it began to really come down. We were outside making sure the goats had plenty of hay, feed, and warm bedding. They high-tailed it into the barn the instant the first flakes began to fall. We spent a little time tucking feed sacks into the larger cracks in the corners, but it soon got too cold so we started a fire in the fire barrel we use to burn paper. It was snowing too hard though and we just couldn’t get it to burn well. The temperature has been dropping all day and I finally gave up and came in, but Jesse stayed out another hour throwing snowballs at ninjas, making snow angels, and trying for a snow man.

While he was outside I started preparing the venison steaks some friends gave to us. The venison roast I tried a few days ago using a recipe from the You Cook It! cookbook was delicious but had waaaayyy to much pepper. I’m trying another recipe from that cookbook today, but I cut back on the quantities of the spices. It is cooking now and smells delicious!

Foil Venison Steak
(From You Cook It! by Kevin Michalowski)

1 venison steak
1 medium potato, sliced (not more than 1/4-inch thick)
1/4 cup carrots, chopped (not more than 1/4-inch thick)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon margarine
1 tablespoon water

Pull out enough tin foil to wrap all the ingredients into a single unit. Put the steak in the center of the foil with the margarine in the center of the steak. Arrange the potato slices on top of the steak and put the carrots around the edges. Sprinkle on the spices and the garlic. Curl up the edges of the tin foil and add the water. Wrap tightly and bake at 425 degrees for 35 minutes for a medium-steak and tender potatoes. This cooking method helps keep the meat moist, but you can overdo it.
(I just sprinkled a little salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder over the steaks, margarine, potatoes, and carrots; then I poured on the water.)

When Jesse came in finally he was freezing of course so I made some hot cocoa for us and topped it with some very stale marshmallows I found in the cupboard. I use the recipe from the Hershey’s Cocoa Powder container, and it is scrumptious! We could never go back to instant cocoa in cans or envelopes.

Hershey’s Hot Cocoa
Top of Stove - 6 servings

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
Dash salt
1/3 cup hot water
4 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix sugar, cocoa and salt in a saucepan; stir in water. Cook and stir over medium heat until the water boils; boil and stir 2 minutes. Stir in milk and heat, but DO NOT BOIL the milk mixture. Remove from heat; add vanilla.

(I just dump it all together in the pan and stir with a wisk until it is as hot as I want.)

I was going to start making some fresh rolls and southern cornbread to go with the venison, but I got distracted watching the snow falling. It is so beautiful I just had to stop and share it with all of you. Now the venison is done but the rolls aren’t even ready to start rising yet! Hrmph. I’ll have to skip the rolls and just go with the cornbread since it can be done in 20 minutes. It’s all right–I just won’t mention the rolls…

By the way, the venison steaks came out fantastic! Even Jesse ate all his! I made sweet and and un-sweet cornbread so everyone was happy. The rolls are still rising so I’ll bake them later and save them for tomorrow.

What a perfect day this has been!

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While Jesse was at school today, I visited a great feed mill near Red Banks, MS. Hendrix Feed Mill (formerly Hawks Feed), on South Red Banks Road, consists of several buildings full of every kind of feed and bedding. When I first entered the small office I felt pretty lost, but Karen Hurdle was right there to help me figure out just what I needed. Being the first time I’ve gone to a feed mill I had no idea what to expect. It is different from a regular store, you have to pretty much know what you want– no browsing the shelves around there! Giving up the browsing was well worth it though: the prices were far, FAR better than the feed stores in Collierville, Tn. Hay bales were nearly half the cost, and the sweet feed and laying mash were also much less expensive. The goats really loved the hay too!

And what a gorgeous day it was for the drive to Red Banks! It rained and snowed a bit yesterday, and froze overnight, but by this afternoon it was so sunny and warm.

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Ha! I think I did it. After 15 years, I have arrived! I’m speaking “country.”

As my son ran out to hop in the truck with Hubby to go get our escaped goats, these exact words came out of my mouth, “Go tell Daddy they’re livin’ in the woods–he’s goin’ ta need ta get some sweet feed tuh draw ‘em out.”

Am I a farm girl or what???? AND, I was making a batch of blueberry muffins when I said it, with bread baking in the oven even!

Woohoooo!

(For you city folk, sweet feed is a type of feed for goats and horses that is coated in molasses, hence it is sweet; the animals really like it.)

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I’m so glad I got moving early today. It is only 2pm and I already have the meat loaves in the oven for supper and the freezer, corn bread baking, and potatoes peeled and boiling for mashed potatoes.

I’ve been thinking… I’m still way too dependent on the grocery stores. I’ve been reading in the survival blog and Organic Homestead and Gardening Yahoo group about all the things people do for self-sufficiency–it’s amazing. One family doesn’t buy meat at all but hunt their own deer, elk, rabbits, and wild turkeys.

I am almost self-sufficient in eggs and milk. (I trade eggs with my friend for her cow’s milk.) By spring we will have produced enough eggs to pay for all the chicken startup expenses, from there on it’s all gain.

I have actually cut grocery costs down to about $300/month for our family of 3, and I’ve done it even with food prices sky-rocketing! When I was working outside the home, I spent easily twice that much for groceries. The savings are due to not buying convenience, prepared, and processed foods. Instead I buy the most basic ingredients: margarine, flour and corn meal, oatmeal, sugar (brown, white and powdered), honey, vanilla, baking powder, and spices, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, walnuts, dried rice, dried beans, oil, tuna, fresh and frozen veggies and fruit. I do still buy pasta, ketchup, mustard, jelly, and mayonnaise just because I haven’t gotten around to making my own yet, but we do make our own syrup, yogurt, cookies, and ice cream.

It is amazing how much less expensive the basic ingredients are. I can buy cart full of the basics, enough to last months, and only be up to $40, but then I get just one weeks worth of meat and it more than doubles!

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Watching the chickens…

And later, watching the bonfire…

Good night.

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I learned how to milk a goat! Here’s a photo of David helping to get the goat ready to milk.

Her kid was just 2 days old, but her udders were so full he couldn’t nurse so the owner was milking her a bit. She taught Jesse and I how to do it. It is totally easy!

We got to hold the kid too. He was so light and bony, I didn’t expect that. Guess I’m used to fat dogs and fluffy cats. I took photos of Jesse holding him but somehow they got lost in the camera. Some photos were there but the goat ones weren’t. weird.

This was at a friend’s farm not too far from here on Labor Day. We’re going to get a couple of goats from them as soon as I can get a little shed built. Now that the weather has cooled, Jesse and I are can start cutting down thin saplings to make the poles for this new goat shed.

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So you’ll never guess what I’ve been doing this afternoon (I had to start early so they’d be done by supper time): I cooked black-eyed peas with ham hocks. I had a heckuva time finding ham hocks the other day! No one knew what they were. I finally asked the meat dept lady and she knew. They are pigs ankles! Bony and weird looking, too.

Southern Style Blackeye Peas

-= Ingredients =-
2 cups Blackeye peas ; (16 oz package)
1 cup Uncooked rice
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
1 small Ham hock
8 cups Cold water
Salt to taste

-= Instructions =-
Place ham hock in water; bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add peas to ham, continue simmering 1 1/2 hours, add rice and simmer 45 minutes or until rice and peas are done and liquid is almost absorbed. Remove meat from bone/ Serve peas and rice on hot platter, place ham on top.

I also made southern cornbread which is made with no sugar or honey. David hates cornbread that has any kind of sweetener. Jesse and I like it with a bit of sugar though, so I make both kinds. Now I’m going to make biscuits. This will only be the 2nd time I’ve made biscuits. I’ve always avoided anything that had to be kneaded, but now that I’ve done it once I’ve found it’s not so bad at all. Plus I made bread in the bread machine, and we had pancakes for brunch.

Aunt Jemima Southern Cornbread

-= Ingredients =-
1 cup Cornmeal
1 cup All purpose flour
2 tablespoon Sugar ; (2 to 4 tablespoons)
4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Milk
1 Egg
1/4 cup Vegetable oil

-= Instructions =-
Preheat oven to 425.
In a large bowl, combine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
Add milk, egg, and oil. Beat until fairly smooth, about 1 minute.
Bake in a greased or sprayed 8-inch square baking pan for 20 to 23 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

We’ve been raising 2 chicks, Rhode Island Reds. One died last week because it got hold of some old, moldy feed in an old cage outside. We just finished setting up a pen outside for the other. This will be her first night outside. She looks very happy eating bugs in the grass. Now that the weather is finally getting warm we’re ordering 25 chicks from a hatchery. I’m going to go into egg production big time. Eventually I hope to learn to butcher chickens, or get someone to do it for us. I am getting afraid to eat chicken from the store.

The weather is gorgeous here. I just got in from the garden. All four of my rose bushes are blooming like crazy. 2 of them are soooo fragrant! I have a 3 year old peach tree but we had a really late frost and lost the peaches. Too bad, this year would we probably would have gotten our first peaches to eat. I have a nice strawberry patch that is a few years old but the berries aren’t ready yet. These are ever-bearing so they really get going in June. Plus I have 2 blueberry bushes that are 4 years old. We should have a nice crop this year. I have to cover them with netting so that the birds don’t get all the berries.

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I think I may have done too much. I ache already and my first day is not over yet! Plus I ate too much cake. Good thing that I hiked with Jesse for over an hour, that used up some calories.

I transferred my recipes from my 8 year old recipe program to the new BigOven software I got for $9.95. I really like it! I’ve been drooling my way through cookbooks. I have a fridge full of meat, and I need to figure out what to cook first.

Today we had oven-fried chicken with homemade biscuits, peas, and gravy from scratch. Plus angel food cake for dessert. Yay me! David loved his supper so that made me feel good. Even Jesse said, “Now this is supper, Mom!” Poor guys. They have been so used to fast food and frozen dinners.

I ache all over, but I feel so happy!

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March 19, 2007 - I have just left my job and am homeschooling Jesse. Hopefully I will be able to work from home very part time, using remote access, but I am waiting to hear from my boss.

Wrestling with this decision has really stressed me out. The decision is made now, so I just need to keep my eyes on Jesus. Whether I’ve chosen right or wrong, He’ll be there, thank God (literally).

Today is the first day of the rest of my new life.

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Ugh! My computer died a couple of weeks ago. The motherboard needs replacing. It’ll just have to wait its turn behind washing machine repairs, car tags, property taxes, broken toilets, critical dental work, etc., etc. It is pretty low on the priority list since it doesn’t cost me too much money NOT to have it. That’s how I prioritze these days. I ask myself, “Will this cost a lot more money later if I don’t pay it now?”

The only thing more inconvenient and annoying than a broken PC is a broken washing machine. Sunday afternoons at the laundry mat are a total nightmare! It costs about $5 to do our laundry, so money-wise it’s not very high up in the priorities, but the stress and aggravation are about to drive me crazy. I made my hubby help me last Sunday. That sure got him to move that washing machine up a few slots on the priority list!

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From the Merriam-Webster Online Thesaurus

Entry Word: priority
Function: noun
Text: the right to one’s attention before other things considered less important.
Synonyms: precedence, right-of-way
Related Words: preference; urgency; ascendancy, preeminence, primacy, supremacy; transcendence; order, progression, sequence, succession

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