Am I the only one who likes pulling weeds?

 I think I'm the only person I know who likes pulling weeds. I don't like the fact that there are weeds in my garden. I don't like being bent over or crouched down for eighty feet at a time. My back hurts and my knees creak when I stand up. I don't think there is a square inch out there that doesn't have something growing that shouldn't be there. But then there is that little sound the roots make as they let go is what does it for me. That little snap, and then the whole plant, root and all at there between your fingers. That's what I like about weeding. Pinching the little leaves in my fingers, or having to dig under the plant just a little bit, and then... SNAP. No more weed.Toss it in my little bucket, move forwards a little, and repeat. It just makes me happy. I can go out and pull for a while, go do something else, and back out there again, snick, snick, snick.

I have all kinds of stuff coming up in my garden. Stuffs that I put in as seeds are poking their little leaves out of the dirt to say hello. I'm amazed. After all the trouble I went to to start plants inside this year and last, and to have them all die, to see things starting to poke out that I put in the ground as seeds amazes me. I put in cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, cantaloupe, squashes, and strawberries as plants I got from the garden center. I also set out seeds of everything but the tomatoes, and added peas, carrots, radishes, and corn. There is little plants coming up where I set the seeds. This makes me do a little happy dance in my seat.

Little bitty corn plants coming up

I forgot I planted radishes and finally gave up on them and planted peppers. Well here come the radish

Onions

 Strawberries

  I added three blueberry bushes at the back of the garden

 Sugar snap peas

 View of the garden

So the calf is next door. Piggies still on the way, but now I have chickens. Six hens and a rooster. Andrea took the other three hens. I already have gotten eggs from them and they've only been here since Sunday. It's a friend of my neighbor that had them and he gave us a heck of a deal on them $5 each for last years babies. So they are just over a year old. The rooster had something funky going on with his legs and walks a little weird, but he was free so I don't care. We were told they are New Jersey Black Giants. They don't seem to be any bigger than the hens Andrea already has, but I read they don't finish growing out till around 18-24 months. They lay brown eggs. I've gotten a very pale almost white, some regular browns, and a brown with dark speckles. I'm very excited to go out every afternoon and find eggs that my own chickens have left for me. They are still living in the rabbit hutch. Scotty has to finish the outside nest boxes still on my chicken condo.

3000

That's the number of page views I hit today. I never expected to hit 1000. I just set this thing together as a place for my family to watch the house I was building as they all live in different states, and maybe a few pics of the kids and the horses. Only 10 followers, but I still can't get the fam damily to register and follow officially.

Bacon, the calf, had some nasty diarrhea but has gotten over that, and learned to drink from a bucket instead of a bottle. That makes Andrea very happy. The calves are separated into two pens now. They are both little boys and the urge to suckle is so strong still that they'll start on each others dangly bits. They are still side by side, and I think keeping them together just at first helped Bacon learn to drink from the bucket.

Went out and saw the piggies Monday evening. Pete's been great hanging onto them for us even though they are ready to go. He's even going to worm them for us this week, no extra charge. One is a bit bigger than the other, being three weeks older. Pete said he had a white and a red. The red is more a dark reddish brown with a white band over it's shoulders. The white he actually calls the rainbow pig. It's got a reddish blond head, blond over it's butt and blue spots randomly. Of course I forgot to take a camera with me, but this time next week, they should be here.

The garden hasn't all died, which amazes me.  I managed to kill off everything I had started in the kitchen. I forget the plant-lings outside over night and they froze. Two years in a row and I've killed off everything I had started. Last year really wasn't my fault, since I was so busy in the hospital trying not to die. So I cheated. I went to D and B and bought started plants. I have three different types of maters. Banana peppers, and jalapenos. I think I might have tome bells in there too, but I'll have to look. I have eggplants, I did put in a few eggplant seeds. Nothing up yet though. I have two types of cucumber, and a few seeds in. I have squash in butternut, and yellows. I have cauliflower, and broccoli, and in classic Jax fashion, I mixed up the 4pks as I put them in, and have them both mixed in the same row, and no way to tell which is which till they get bigger. I put in tiny onions back when I killed the kitchen starts. I didn't expect to see them come up. I also put in radish seeds. The onions are about four inches tall now. I forgot about the radishes and put the peppers in that same row. Imagine my surprise when three weeks later up come the radishes in between the peppers.

The irrigation water is still turned up all the way open at the head gate, so we're flooding everything everywhere. Andrea and Dave are flooding both the ponds, and up over the road. I've made a pond in the short pasture that instead of just seeping out onto the driveway, has gone all the way over into the dry lot. I've flooded through the trees till I don't know where to put all the water. I've never seen that much water in the back pasture at Rebecca's. And Sue's pond behind us is flooding my garden. I finally start getting something to grow, and the back of the garden is under water. Thankfully I didn't put anything in the last four rows in the back yet. I had to get out there today in the DRIVING wind that is endless in Idaho, and wheelbarrow dirt to make a small berm to keep my plants from flooding.

Saturday afternoon, after working an amazing amount of hours, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to work Patches after I got home. I think I was so tired I wasn't thinking clearly. The only good thing that came out of it, is I got her feet trimmed, and remembered to worm her.

I never did get going on the worm composting. I have the box all set up, and all the goodies rotting away in it, outside on the back porch. Alas, I never did order the worms. There is still hope though.

What's new at Everstuff Ranch?

Summer shave down season is here, so work has been crazy busy. I went from grooming like 4-6 dogs on a good day, and maybe 6-8 on Saturdays, to 6-8 a day and 10-12 on Saturdays. Add that to all the stuffs that need to be done around the house, and make for me being a tired unit. We got a Jersey, bull calf from the dairy down the road. It's over at the neighbors. She'll raise up the two calves, and I'll raise up the two pigs. We got the nod from Pete that they are ready to go, just need to finish the pen.

 I went out Sunday and put in the temporary poles and fence out in the pasture. We're going to try giving the horses a smaller area to eat at a time, and make them eat it all down before moving on to the next place. Had to walk the whole fence line to figure out why we were getting a drop in power. Of course after walking the whole perimeter, I find the wire touching a tee post where there is a missing bracket. Didn't find it when I first started walking in knee high grass. 

Today was start the garden day after work. I got in ll the plants what were already plants, and got them all watered in nice. Three different tomatoes, two peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers, melons, strawberries, eggplants. Tomorrow will be everything that has o start from seed. Pees, carrots, more cucumber, radish, lettuce.

This is Bacon, the calf. The pig with be named Tasty. Then I'll have Tasty Bacon, and Eggs with the chickens.

This is where the nest boxes with go for the chickens

Building the shelter end of the piggy pen

Got the rabbit hutch moved to the back of the house. Now it needs a good cleaning out and some rabbits. 

 Some random photos

Jess watching Scotty solder some wires onto clips, trying to fix the solar charger. It's dead btw.

Mike over next door

Andrea bought a horse trailer. We let her use Engine 9 and we get to use the trailer. Winning!

Mike with Lance working on Will's 4wheeler

 Ponies in the grass

Bastard cat is nosey

Will came over a few weeks ago and had Scott help him weld a bracket back on for the shock on his truck

Agenda for today

Day off from the job that pays me, and here's what I have planned for today. Dig 80 ft long rows in my garden that's 40 ft wide. Start a few seeds. Maybe trim feet on the horses. Make laundry soap. Build fence out back to replace the crap I can't believe the horses haven't up and walked over yet. Get the irrigation pipe replaced out in the pasture. Weed and clean the yard. Finish the next boxes for the chicken coop.Start clearing out dead trees out back. Actually this is all stuff Scott is doing and I try and help minus the laundry soap.

Winter break is coming to an end. Time to get my outta shape butt back to work

Most of the winter I sat on my butt. I waited eagerly for my Star Wars game to come out. I shared the computer with Scott and played on his nights at work. My horses thought they were never going to have to work again. I think I've taken Patches out just once this spring. Jess has ridden Ben into town a bunch of times. All that came to a screeching halt starting this week. Holey woefully out of shape I am. Panting and wheezing after just a little work. Shoulders and arms burning from digging a few little holes. No pictures of me since I was the one manning the camera, but i was in proper hillbilly gear. Teeshirt, shorts, boot socks, and of course cowboy boots. I was stylin.

Scott brought some shipping crates home from work last year. This year he put a coat of oil based primer, and two coats of latex on one of them. It's going to be the bottom of my chicken condo. The old dog house we had, he gave the same treatment, and it's going on top. Now he just has to build some outside access nesting boxes, and set it together. He scored some wood from work, and has all the stuffs to make them for me. I'm very excited for chickens this year, and Scotty's building me a great chicken condo.

Mon after work he drove us to Uncle Mikes to borrow the tractor again. He was out there Mon night in  the dark making my garden look like a garden again. Last year Jim came over from the dairy and rototilled everything up. This year Scotty did it all for me. He even widened the garden area. We're sitting at 75ftX40ft now. I hope I can get enough plants growing to fill it all in. I've got three types of tomatoes, four different peppers, broccoli, eggplants, and a couple types of flowers, all started in the kitchen like I did last year.

He also re tilled the round pen. Those fat ponies are gonna have to put some work into it now.

I spent a good part of the early afternoon learning to drive the tractor. We had the arena rack on the back, and I drug and drug that sucker over the pastures, breaking up horse turds and ripping out old grass that didn't burn.Boy those things don't have any shocks. Scotty wanted to show my how to find a higher gear than second so I could go a little faster. No thank you. I thought I was gonna bounce my spleen out through my ears as it was. I didn't need a higher gear. Going down the field wasn't too bad, but crossing over all those corrugates..... Rattled what brains I had left, loose. I did Andrea's pastures next door too. 

Dave is gonna grow alfalfa out back, so he has the horses penned up while he sprays to kill the back, and for weeds in front. Scott and I went out first thing yesterday morning and loaded the hay he hasn't fed yet this year, and moved it over into our yard so it was easier for us to throw it over while the horses are penned. We also took out the sagging, falling down, crappy assed, barbwire fencing in the corner that wasn't holding anything up anymore, but the weeds. Three new poles in the ground, and a temp hot wire fence till Dave builds a good fence between the properties. I thought I was gonna die trying to help Scotty dig those holes. The first foot or so isn't bad cause you can still use the shovel. Once that stupid post hole, clam shell digger comes out, bleh. I couldn't force it down hard enough to get into the dirt, the bottoms can't close all the way, and I ended up dropping more dirt back into the hole than I got out of it. And man I was out of breath. I need to get my fat ass on a treadmill.

What's blooming already in my yard?

Some random pics I found on my camera...

The wind blew the ice up on the pond as it froze.

Making laundry soap

Laundry soap and alfalfa

Today I made laundry soap. The directions and recipe are from Mooberry Farms. Mooberry Farms Laundry Soap It was simple and easy to do. I've done three loads of laundry so far. It smells nice, set thick. So far the clothes look clean. I'm very happy with this. I took pictures, but Scotty's computer blew a fuse, and the little old laptop won't read the stick in my camera.

Last year's garden was off to a great start. The neighbor came over and disced, and tilled. Scott got my furrow in. And then I ended up in the hospital twice. All the little started plants I had died. I was in no condition to work the seeds in that needed direct sow, or take care of things once they started growing. The weeds loved it though. They took over like gangbusters. And the ALFALFA is the bane of my excistence. Where the garden is was just pasture way back when before the house went in. There was a mix of mostly grass and a little alfalfa. Do you know what happens when you cut up a root from an alfalfa plant? Each peice grows a new plant. Do you have any idea how far down or how big around these roots are? They are like carrots that go two feet into the ground. So when my nice neighbor came over last year to disc everything, he chopped up the roots of the few plants in the pasture. Now it's everywhere. I was out fro two hours today with Scotty's claw head hammer working on weeds and alfalfa. Two hours, and I got through two rows. Now in my defense these rows are 75 ft long, and the garden is 35 ft wide. Two rows out of like 12.... This is gonna take me a while.

No pics, but the birds think spring is on the way

Driving to work yesterday morning I saw my first Red-winged Blackbird of the year. Made the left to go out to the highway and there he was sitting on a fencepost, chest all puffed up, and warbling to the world. This put a smile on my face most of the morning. Taking the road between Gooding and Wendle, I looked out into a cornfield full of black cows and noticed an extra bright white clump on the ground. The clump was stuck to a darker clump. Turns out out it was a Bald Eagle sitting on the ground, and as I drove by I saw it's mate hanging out a few feet way. They were being harassed by crows and it made me wonder what they had down on the ground. This morning driving Teh Spawn to church, black birds were everywhere. I was excited to have seen one, and today they are all over.

The weather is beautiful this afternoon, and I even have the windows in the house open for the fresh air. It's still long sleeve tee shirt weather outside, but no jacket.  The sun is shining, the wind has died down. /happydance is all I have to say.

Still waiting on spring

The tulips think it should be spring. I looked down Monday and realized I had new green stuff in my flower garden, among all the dead brown stuff I hadn't pulled out from last year. I bought a lot of bulbs last year from Walmart that were on clearance. Ones that had flowered and the flowers were gone, or that had flowers sprung upon before they got tall. I stuck them in the dirt and forgot about them. Looks like they are starting to do their thing. Of course we had a snow storm blow through this morning. Couldn't see a darn thing past 100 ft in front of you. Last about two hours. Dumped three inches of snow (the forecast was for light snow, not accumulating more than half and inch). By mid afternoon it had all melted away.

Scott has decided wood carving sounds like a good hobby. I'm all for it. It makes a mess of shaving on the floor, but they sweep up so easily. He got a set of carving thingies when he was in Boise a few weekends ago, a box of wood chunks, and has been going to town with it. I even tried it a little bit.

Meanwhile I sat on the couch and worked on the hat I've been doing forever, and never seem to get finished.

Jeff made an amazing contribution to the little homestead this weekend. I was just out of the shower, upstairs checking on Facebook, and I hear Jess talking to someone downstairs. I figured Scott must be up, so I bounced down the stairs, and it was Jeff. He'd been to Poccatello, and brought back a welder he'd had in storage for Scott.

Scott used to make a living as a welder, so now we can build anything he need here. Very exciting stuff.

I fell off the wagon, vanity was my downfall

Here's the No Poo update from the last week. *Spoiler* At the end, I did fall off the wagon...

Day 4: Didn't get the apple cider vinegar yet. Today was a day off for me, so I took nice long bath. Relaxed and read my Kindle. I just rinsed out my hair and added a little bit of conditioner, diluted, to the ends of my hair. I really expected it to be a greasy mess. I've read that folks have that problem as their scalp naturalizes out. I also get a lank, string, greasy mess if I go more than a day without shampooing. Even if I shampoo the night before, by mid morning, it's starting to get ucky. I actually don't look like I've been a week without a shower. that's how I feel I look if I don't wash it every day. I didn't do the baking soda today.

Day 5: Baking soda again today. I diluted it a lot, and didn't use a paste. My head itches. It feels like a grodey mess when it's wet. Surprisingly, my fingers don't feel all greasy after running them through my hair as I'm "washing" it. I did a little conditioner to the ends again so I could brush it. The static was horrible after it dried. It took a ling time to dry. I don't get that cool, soft, fluffy feeling as it's almost dry and still almost damp. It almost feels like there is a powder coating it. People who have used ear powder in dogs, or quick stop will know what I'm talking about. It feels like that in my hair. I'll be stopping at Wally World on the way home for apple cider vinegar, and 10 mule team borax.

Day 6: Just a light soda/water rinse today. Hot water as I could stand it under the shower. The itching is going away. I've always had a flaky greasy scalp when I don't wash every day. The first inch or so of hair off my scalp feels almost normal. It doesn't feel like some sort of rough powder is coating it. It's not staticky. It sticks to it's self though when I wind it up in a bun.


I have really long hair. Down past the waist band of my jeans. As I joke though, it's only all five strands of it that long. It's also thin. My hair tend to lay lank, and flat to my head by the end of the day. No body, no lift at the roots. I have to keep it wound up in a bun most of the time. I really don't know why I don't cut it short. At work it's up, or it'll get in the way of the scissors, fall into the bath while I'm washing dogs. Outside the wind blows it all over my face and I hate that. Working in the yard it tangles in everything, is in my face. At night it becomes this giant tangle that like to try and choke me in my sleep. When I drive it's pinning my head in place as I lean back on it. So pretty much all the time, I have to keep it up out of my way. I don't know why I don't cut it. when I ride I leave it long down my back. When I go out with Scott I leave it long and fight with it till we get home and I put it up. Leaving it down right now is not an option. It's ugly.


Day 7: No work today. Just a leisurely start to my morning. Coffee... Computer... Shower later, just a light soda/water rinse to my hair. I just wish I could get a brush through it easier. The first inch or so is ok, and the last two inches with the light conditioner through them are ok. It's just the giant snarled mess in the middle. As fast as I brush it all out, as soon as I move, or a puff of air crosses it, it's all tangled again. Those of you with Barbies, or My Little Ponies as kids will understand this reference. Remember when you brushed their hair so much it made this frizzy nasty mess at the end, and no brush would ever go through it again? Well that's how my hair feels. Ugh.


Day 8: I fell off the No Poo wagon. Vanity was my downfall. Today was Valentines day. Every day I fought with my hair saying to myself, it's only been so many days, I promised to give it two weeks.... Every day I swore this was the last day. Then I'd get out of the shower, let my hair air dry, and twist it in a bun as soon as I got ready to leave for work. I came home today, and realized I had to go out in PUBLIC looking like gak. At work I don't care. Bun, wisps sticking out all over are the norm. It's VALENTINES DAY and I'm trying to look nice fore my hubby. I don't want to wear my hair in a bun looking like I forgot to brush it before I twisted it up. I want to leave ti down, all the way down my back. So I caved. I stuck my head under the spigot in the tub, and used commercial shampoo and conditioner. I even blow dried it. I haven't used a blow drier on my hair in years. *GASP* I had lift though. I had a little bit of body to my hair. I had the light fluffy want to run my fingers through my hair feeling back. It was shiny. I prolly won't get back on the wagon. I don't have what it takes to wait for the natural oils to work all the way through the length of hair I have. Maybe one day if I ever cut it. I will use the soda/water combo occasionally to strip the build up out of my hair.

Such a slacker

I've gotten caught up in my game. The Star Wars game. It doesn't consume every waking moment of my day, but I find myself less going through other blogs, or updating this one. Last Wed I did Patches and Apache's feet. Patches actually have decent, almost normal looking hooves now, instead of the under slung, flared out messes she had when were got her two years ago. I've been trying to to the barefoot trim on her, and do it myself. The results are really good. I wheeled 15 wheelbarrow loads full of wood from the wood stack next to the driveway, into the garage, and filled two shelves so I don't have to tromp outside, fight with a tarp and/or wind, rain, snow, dogs, cats etc, just to get a few logs for the fire.

I'm working in wool for the very first time. Scott and I went to Michaels and I did the unthinkable. I payed way too much for mass produced wool. I know I could have gotten it off the net, and prolly from someone over on the Homesteading Today forums, but I was there, and I "Had to have it NOW." Scott picked out the color. Brown and white twist. He requested a hat. This stuff is not as easy to work with as the acrylic. It's not twisted as tight, so I end up snagging with my crochet hook. It's smaller diameter. I'm using a tiny hook compared to what I'm using on the blankets. I get discouraged easily because I don't see me making as much progress as the blankets from the smaller hook. I'll keep at it though. It doesn't stop me from wanting to do eight more projects in wool. I'm also working on the blanket for my nephew. I'll have to get pics.

The "No Poo" experiment

I read a little about not using shampoo being healthier for you hair. Here is some info I found quickly on the internet. http://www.naturemoms.com/no-shampoo-alternative.html.
And here is my experiment so far...


So I've been reading about not using shampoo and using baking soda instead, on the majik interwebs... I thought I'd give it a try. I didn't read up on it, I just read that a few gals were doing it, and loved the results.

Day one: I hate it. I think I did something wrong. My hair feels awful as I rinsed it out. I thought for sure it was going to be this nasty greasy mess when it dried. I didn't read how much baking soda to water, if they added anything, rinsed with anything. I just know that my hair feels gross. It feels like I'd been swimming in sea water, or a public pool with way too many chemicals, let my hair dry while on a jet ski, and didn't rinse or brush it out. I couldn't get a brush through it. I also decided to try this the very first day of the work week. I just manhandled it enough to get it into a bun and ignore the bumps sticking out.

 Day two: Today I used the baking soda like a paste. I added about two tablespoonfuls of baking soda, and dribbled just enough water to make a paste. I scrubbed this into the front and sides of my scalp at the hair line, then dribbled the rest out of the cup and worked it into my hair. I feel like my hair is still coated in baking soda after it dries. Then brush will not go through smoothly, it wants to snarl and tangle. This can't be right.

 I looked up the No Poo method briefly, when I got home from work today. Prolly would have been better if I did this before I started. Lots of people have the problem I'm going through. Straw feeling hair, not smooth... I'm stripping out all the shampoo residue that makes the hair "feel" smooth, but is really wrecking my hair. The baking soda method will eventually let the natural oils in my scalp even out, and my hair will be nice... In theory anyhow.

I had to take another shower when I got home today. I shaved an Australian Shepherd today, and it's hair made me feel like I was covered in fiberglass. And so I baking soda-ed my head again. I read where some people were using a light bit of olive oil on the ends of their hair. Well I have canola oil...

 Day three: More research on the baking soda last night. It shouldn't be a paste. Too much will irritate my scalp. I shouldn't be doing it ever day. Just rise my hair with water as I'm in the shower. So of course I had to wash my hair again this morning because of the canola oil I put in it last night. Can you say dried out, gooey sticky mess. I also didn't get a smaller container to put the mixture in, so I have paste in a cup still. Rinsing with Apple cider vinegar will help seal the cuticle of the hair and make it healthier and feel better. I need to get that. I did cheat this morning and rubbed a very small amount of regular shampoo into my hair before the paste, and a tiny bit of regular conditioner into just the ends of my hair. I didn't leave it wrapped up in a towel as it dried. We'll see.

Sunday mornings are my favorite

http://www.marestare.com/

I'm addicted to Mare Stare. Every night I load up my computer, go to this site, hit the message boards and read up on all the pregnant mares. I open up to 12 windows with webcams right in their stalls and watch with a hawk eye for every twitch, every lifted tail, and every kick to the belly. Is this it? Is she ready? I join the other wackies like me in the chat room, and we gossip about life and, "Oh man, Mai just layed down, did you see Fanny glare at here belly?" And every now and then I get to feel like I'm right there in the stall with the mare and the owners while she delivers her foal. We all wait with our breath held for the owner to hold up the, "It's a filly", or the "It's a colt," sign. And then we all cheer when that little one takes it's first wobbly attempt at standing. I'm hopelessly addicted.

Sunday morning are my favorite day of the week. Especially Sunday morning when Scotty has worked the night before. He gets home between 7:30 and 8:00 am. I see his headlight shine over the bedroom window. Hear his truck door shut, and bless his heart, his boots clumping up and down the hall as he comes in the house, and pulls on his Carharts so I don't have to go outside and feed, and water the horses. Out he thumps to throw hay to our horses, and to Dave's out back. The water trough the horse share gets filled, the hose unhooked and thrown over a tree limb to be drained so it doesn't freeze, and I'm still in my warm bed dozing on and off till chores are done.

I don't have to get up for work. Teh Spawn doesn't have to be up early anywhere. And I have a wonderful husband who does the morning chores so I can laze around. He comes in and builds the fire back up in the wood stove or splits kindling to start a new one if I let it go out over night. The cats are fed, the dogs and cats have water. He's taken care of the bunnies I have waiting to get butchered today. Then I can get up at my leisure to putter around. We works again tonight, so he's gone to bed for the day.

The house is quiet. The dogs have gone out and established they aren't scared of the neighbors dogs by barking furiously through the field fence before coming back to the porch, peeing on everything the can find on the way. Teh Spawn is still asleep in her bed, hopefully for another hour or so before she want the computer from me. I have a nice big cup of coffee as I view trough everyone's blogs I follow, and compose any thoughts I have for mine. Sunday mornings are perfect.

My blanket is finally finished. I'll have to get a pic of it all done, but Teh Spawn promptly appropriated it for her bed before I had a chance to even cut the loose ends of string from it. My Mom and sisters did see it from Arizona and Arkansas from the blog. I now have two orders for more.  :)  Heather wants one for her son Mark. He's little still, so I don't have make it quite as big. Amye wants one for her bed. Our Mommom used to make them for us kids, and for the first few grand kids before she passed away. I still have the one she made for Teh Spawn, complete with a cigaret burn and all. So I guess the job is mine now. I already have a color scheme in mind for Mark's blanket. I have some cream, a changing blue/brown/tan/cream, and a light grey fleck left over from various odds and ends I played with last year. For Amye I told her to pick some colors and send me some yarn. I now have to remember how many rolls it took me though to do mine. If need be she can send me the colors she wants to get me started and I can go from there.

Vacuum Sealers

I am the proud new owner of a FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer for food storage. While in Boise over the weekend we were admiring my Father-in-laws unit he just got from Costco. There was a $20 off deal at the register. Scotty was talking to him about how we were wanting one, and had been researching different brands and models. So off to Costco we went. We'd let our card expire last year, but Grampa has one. We picked up the unit, and a box of rolled create your own bags, with a set of pre-cut ones. The best part, my amazing Father-in-Law paid for it when we got to the register. We had just enough money to get it from the extra money from Scott working Xmas day. Grampa put it all on his card though and told us not to worry about it. How stinkin great is that.

I promptly went to Winco Mon after work and grabbed some meats on sale. Hamburger in 1.5 pound packages that were so many $ off, to be used to froze that day, a large package of chiccken breasts that got divided into three breasts each, a three pack of pork roasts. The sealer was easy to use. Worked just great.

I also got a use or freeze $'s off tri tip roast that I made into beef stew lastnight.

2 lbs cubed beef

Half a can of diced tomatoes with onion and garlic

1/2 c flour and 3 tbs

2 tsp seasoned salt

2 tsp black pepper

5 med potatos

5 lrg carrots

2 minced cloves of garlic

2-1/2 cups chicken stock
2 dashes papricka
1/2 med onion diced
4 tbsp oil

Heat half the oil in a pan on med high. Sift 1/2 cup flour and seasoned salt together. Dredge the beef in flour and brown in pan in lots. Add more oil as the beef and flour soak it up. Toss the beef in the crockpot as it browns. Add remaining ingredints minus the 3 tbs flour to the crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours. After 6 hours mix the 3 tbs of flour and enough water to disolve it. Set the crockpot to high and add the flour/water mixture. This will thicken your stew. After 15 mins, you're done.

Don't forget to add the onion and carrot ends to the ziplock baggie in your freezer for stock later. The carrot and potatoe peeling go into the worm box. My left overs I set in plastic containers in the freezer. This afternoon I'll fill the sink with hot water, set the containers in for about 5 mins to loosen the contents, then vcuum seal them. I freeze them in protions small enough to send with Scott for work lunches.

I also got busy on making things for breakfasts so I don't keep stopping at Maverick every morning and spending a fortune every morning on coffee and breakfast sandwiches. I got giant croisants, cooked a bunch of eggs and put together sandwiches with ham and cheese for me. Scott got breakfast burritoes with diced potatoes, sausage, scrambled eggs, and cheese.

Horses got wormed Mon. I brought home two rabbitts from a co-worker. They are two bucks, 15 weeks old. I figure I should see if I can slaughter, process, and cook them into something edible before I get a bunch of rabbitts to raise. And they were free. Can't beat that with a stick.

I'm working on a blanket. My first crocheted blanket. It's my first big project ever. It's from the yarn Scott's mom sent home to me. It's almost done. I had to make it beig enough to fit Scott. First it started as a rug. Just a rug to put in front of the fireplace. I already have a hand woven rug there from Peru. And then I realized the one I have is natural fiber, and does't burn. The yarn I have is acrylic and will melt and go up like dry grass. So It decided it wanted to be a throw blanket. I was getting somewhere on it finally and Scott really liked it. He liked the colors and remarked how nice it would look on the bed. Our Queen sized bed. And how he's 6ft plus. So off we went with round and round and round crochetting. It may now lay over the sides like a queen sized comforter, but it wil cover the whole top of the bed when finished. I have one more row of double crochets around three and a half sides, and I'm DONE!

And just because I love this little pot. I keep water in it as a stemer to add some humidity to the house in the winter.

I promise pictures tomorrow

My game finally came today!!!  SQUEE!! /happydance. I was out in the front yard tearing into the vaccuume. I sucked up so many danged pine needles from the xmas tree. I literally sweept up the carpet after I took everything off and set it out side. I got two Heaping dustpans completly, can't get anything more in, Full of needles before I went after it with the sucker. And... ever since then, the vaccuume doesn't want to suck very hard. I knew it needed cleaning out at any rate, but that requires going outside and tearing it all appart. I got the hoses all off, got all the needles, and small twigs out that were stuck inside. Teh Spawn likes to just run over the carpet in ftont of the wood stove without sweeping up all the peices of bark first, and they get lodged in the hoses. The pre filters and the filters were filled with super fine dust. Everything got a thorough cleaning.

While I was sitting out in the dead grass I saw a UPS truck slow down out at the end of the road. Excitement!! And then no. The turned into the enighbors drive. Excitement again as they backed out and turned around. Then no as it looked like they were stopping at Roger's across the street. Then THEY CAME DOWN MY DRIVEWAY!! Yay. They had my game. It's the collectors edition with all the goodies. The statue is already unpacked and sitting on my dresser with the rest of the Star Wars sillyness I already have. I was able to load into the game relatively easy since I'd already done whe down load previously, and had just a minor patch from the other day. Rick had saved my name for me, so he logged in, deleted the toon with the name Rhaige, and I got to play with the character creation page. There is never enough options for me. But she looks ok. I got into the guild in game. Everyone was excited to finally see me. I played here and there for a bit through the night, and I think I'm lv 5 when I logged out.

I started my worm bin today. I've been reading about vermicomposting for a while now. I have lots of paper products like used old phone books, junk mail. We make at least a pot of coffee a day, and I can use all the grounds and filters. And Leaves, do I have leaves out under the trees. We had an old plastic box that the kids were using in their forts. I just need to find the lid. So I put a carboard down in the bottom, added my leaves, a few chunks of horse poo, shreded paper, coffee grounds that I've been saving, the top to the jack o lantern from the compost pile, and a old orange that was going flat in the fridge. Leave it set damp for a week, and then add the worms. Only I don't have worms, nor have I ordered them. Red wrigglers are what they sell for bair right? We're gonna try a few. If not, I will order a pound of worms with my next check. My flower bed is going to love me. DH protested, loudly about having worms in his kitchen. He's worried about the smell. So the bin is in the laundry room, and if it become a problem, I'll move it out to the garage.

I spent the rest of the day looking at goats for sale online, and working on my blanket. I AM going to finish it. It will be the first big project I finish. I did scraves and hats lastyear. I started about a billion granny squares, and promptly lost where I left the bag before I got to put them together.

The great goat debate

I want a goat. Actually I want like two or three goats. Goats do better if they have friends. We had goats when I was a kid. Toggenburgs. They were big goats. My Aunt raised pygmys when we lived in Arizona. The pros and cons that just keep running through my mind though. I don't mind sending bucklings to freezer camp. I just have to make sure I can cook them so my family will eat them.  I really want dairy goats. The minis need less feed and produce more milk per pound of food. But I want a Big goat. Nubians. But do I want to be tied to the house every day she's being milked? I can separate the kids at night and milk only in the mornings, but it's Every day without fail. I have to be here, have to be awake the same time every morning. Before I go to work, good weather or bad. Can I find a friend that is willing to come over, milk, and turn every one out together, then separate at night?  When we were kids, I'm pretty sure we just threw the goats hay, and whatever grass they ate from the yard. Now I'm looking at grains, and free choice minerals for a milking goat. Pens, and fencing, and shelter, and a milking stand, and ..... But I really like the idea of having goats. I have scenes and scenarios running through my head, and have feelings attached to the pictures, and I don't even have a goat yet. I would put them out under the stand of trees. Add another strand of hot fence to what is already out there along the short pasture. Have to run three strands across the front next to the round pen, reinforce over by Rebecca's property. And Scott want to put the pig pen over there. The goats could browse to their hearts content on the grasses, and trees growing there. Eat down all the new starts of cottonwoods I go out and haul up by the roots every year. Take over a corner of Scots garage for my milking stand. But then I have to be committed to sweeping out the goat berries every day. If they get out they will decimate the garden I have planned for the new year. I don't want to have a buck on my property so I will have to find one that belongs to a disease free herd that I can borrow on a moments notice. Goats are noisy. They like to talk to you, to each other, to the birds flying over heard. They are so entertaining to watch though. Especially the kids, jumping and butting, and bouncing around sideways. I already have horses I'm tied to the property with. I can always have the neighbor zip over, throw some hay in the winter, or just make sure the water tanks are full in the summer. I can still go away over night, or even up to a week I've had Andrea keep an eye on them for me.Goats I think are going to take a little more attention. This isn't even close to the thoughts I chase around inside my head about the chickens though.  :)