Sometimes I get so caught up

Some days I get so caught up in reading about other people out there in the bog-o-sphere that I run out of time to update about what's going on here. I get in a snippet and a picture here and there and just gloss over what's going on.

Life has slowed down on the homestead with the coming of winter. The garden in done producing and I'm looking towards what I'm going to do with it next year. What changes I want to make, what to plant and what not to do again. Placement changes and variety changes.

The kids are gone. The boy is back with his Mom. Teh Spawn has gone to live with her Dad. It's quiet around the house when Scott is gone to work. No one to do the chores for me. No more slave labor. You'd think with the kids gone there would be less mess. Dinners for Scott and I still have to be cooked. I still bake bread once every other week or so. The dishes still pile up. Laundry still has to be done and put away. It just takes a few days longer to get there. Two days ago it finally felt like they were gone. Most of the time it just feels like they are just in town... at school, at a friends... The atmosphere almost feels like they're going to walk in the door any time. They still have stuff and belongings in their rooms. I find bits and memories here and there. I think I just spent over an hour going through the SD card on my camera looking over pictures I've seen before when one kid or the other had  control of the camera. I found photos and vids I had missed seeing before. It makes me sad. It still feels like they are just going to come tromping through the door, loud and boisterous.

My surgery is done and over with again. Three in the space of a year. Bowel resection, removal of a cyst and my right ovary. This time it was a huge cyst and removal of my left ovary. I feel like putting in a zipper. This was the first planned one though. Waited two months for it so I could try and get through the busy summer shave down season at work. I'm back to work now. They were able to do this surgery laproscopically. Less down time. Less recovery time.

The hot flashes have started. They started in the first week after I was home. Scott shared his head cold with me. This week I've felt like I was either getting frostbite when the fever was coming on, or I was going to spontaneously combust from the hot  flashes and burn down the house. The cold is finally leaving my system and I don't feel like passing out on the couch as soon as I get home from work.

Irrigation season is over for the year. No more moving the horses from pasture to pasture to keep their feet dry. We were bringing them up onto the dry lot in the evenings and letting them out on the grass during the day. Ben gets fat just from the fart of a near by blade of grass, there was no need to leave them out full time. I went out the other day and opened the fence between the short pasture and the one out in front. The hose will stretch to the short pasture and I can water them there.

We had to sell Patches, Scott's mare. It made me so sad. The bills were pilling up, and it was looking seriously like we weren't going to be able to get out from under them in time to buy hay for all three of them. A guy from Vegas drove up and bought her. I guess his girlfriend had a horse that looked similar to Patches when she was younger, and just had to have her. More power to them. She was marked so beautifully, but she was not a good ride. I hated having to get rid of her though. She was Scott's first horse he owned. It killed me to put up the adds. I put it off every chance I could thinking there surely was a way to make it all work without selling her. I know it made Scott nuts that I kept saying I would do it, and then never followed through. I just kept hoping though.

Why her instead of one of the boys? Ben is pushing 23 or 24. There was no one in their right mind gonna pay money for an unregistered horse that old. I thought he was only 18 when I bought him three years ago, and the only reason I did was he was dirt cheap and I knew the kids could manhandle him into going where they wanted to. That and I couldn't make him spook no mater what I tried, how I hung half way out of the saddle, or what I rode him over. Apache was my other choice, but again... unregistered, been lame on and off for a while, and he's small. He carries me fine, but Scott won't ride him because he feels he's too big for the little guy. So Patches was the only choice. I knew with the pattern she had, someone would give me money for her.

Tasty Pig is back from Scarrows and in my freezer.

Tasty Pig

We've eaten the sausage, bacon, ham steaks, pork steaks, brats, and tonight I made bone in pork chops. She lived up to her name, and was mighty Tasty. I'm very happy with the way this tastes compared to what I can buy in the grocery store. Does she taste better because of all the hard work Scott and I put into the building, raising, and feeding we did? dunno, but the outcome is the same, and I'm pleased with that. 

Finally got around to smoking the trout we caught earlier in the year. It was dinner along with some of the corn put away from this year's garden. I liked it so much I took some to work for lunch the next day. I never got time to sit down and eat it, so it became dinner two nights in a row. If I hadn't made pork chops for Scott and eaten shortly after he left, it would have been dinner again. 

Smoked Trout

Scott's been talking for a while about painting one of the walls in the living room as an accent wall. We (meaning he did it) finally got around to getting it done. It's a nice sagey green. It goes with the couches and the blanket I crocheted last year.  I really really like it. 

The new color on the east wall

It's also that time of year to start heating with the wood stove. It was getting just cold enough to turn on the heater at night, but with my hot flashes I kept it off. Scott would come home to me sound asleep, the window in the bedroom open, the ceiling fan on high, and it only being 65 degrees in the house.  :)  So he got down to cutting some wood. This year I learned my lesson though. Teh Spawn was so good helping split wood last year. We split it, and split those pieces into smaller pieces. Really we had glorified kindling when we were done with it. Good thing we didn't do the whole lot. just a good portion of it. I didn't know it was going to burn so fast that small. This year, if there is any chance I can cram it into the opening of the stove, it doesn't get split, just stacked whole.

Gir and the cut logs

There is just something about the feel of the heat a wood stove puts off. It's a totally different feeling than walking into a house with the heat set at 70, or even 72. I do have to crank the heat up till it's 76 in the front half of the house to warm the bedrooms. We still need to attach a blower to the back of the stove. One of the projects still in the works. 

Yay Fire

The only time you will see Fudge let a Bastard lay next to him.

Ashley taking advantage of the heat on the other side. See the pretty green wall? Don't mind the remnants of the mess from paining

Tasty has an appt at Scarrow Meats. Jalapeno Poppers. Squash bake.

Scott called yesterday and set up for Tasty to go to Scarrow Meats Tuesday next weeks. She doesn't seem to be getting any bigger, and is still just munching us out of house and home. Wilbur will stay another week or two. At least until Andrea decides to take him to her place, or start buying feed for him. Now I just have to find a freezer to put her in when she comes home.

The garden is winding down. We got a little bit of frost the other day. All the tops of the plants wilted and turned black. All of a sudden I can see everything that's hiding under there. Most of what you see is weeds. I was so good pulling weeds the beginning of the season. Not so much lately.

All the corn is done. The 20 or so ears that were still out there got ate by a skunk. I saw corn stalks being pushed down here and there. I thought it was the dog chasing after a feral cat. I've seen her tear ass off into the trees chasing it before. I heard something thrashing in the corn the other night, Ashley was still on the porch with me so I knew it wasn't her. Grabbed the big flashlight thinking I was going to scare off a cat, or maybe the coyote we saw earlier that night. OH NO! SKUNK!! Ash came with me, and I shoed her back to the porch and hightailed it myself. No way I was gonna go in there after a skunk. I thought about going in the house for the 22 and taking care of it, but it was after 11 at night, and all I needed was crazy Mrs. Shirk behind me calling the sheriff out. Besides, I'm still all high on painkillers from the surgery last Mon. Ne reason on this planet for me to be handling a gun. But I did see the skunk lean against a corn stalk till it broke over. The next morning I went out to salvage what was left, and he'd gotten them all.

Earlier this week I went out and picked all the jalapeno peppers that finally grew. Those plants got frosted the beginning of the season and I almost gave up on them. I think I missed one pepper and it's out there the prettiest red color. I made poppers out of the ones I brought in.

Jalapeno Pepper Poppers

• Half a sleeve of crackers, crushed. I used Club, it was in my cabinet
• One pkg cream cheese, softened
• half cup shredded cheese. I used Colby Jack because it's what I had in the fridge
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• Enough peppers to use all the filling.

I can't tell you how many peppers to use, because mine were all different sizes out of the garden. More if they were all small, less of they were as big as the ones I got from the store for the salsa? I sliced them in half and it filled a whole baking sheet. Not a lot of help, I know. Anywho...

• Preheat oven to 375
• Mix the softened cream cheese with all the cheeses, paprika, and garlic powder. 
• I cut the top off the pepper and sliced in half. It was too much bother to core out the center. WEAR GLOVES. 
• Fill the peppers with the cheese mixture and place on a baking sheet, cheese side up. Sprinkle with the crushed crackers. 
• Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins until the cheese starts to melt and the crackers darken slightly. 

I didn't eat any of these. I don't like spicy foods, and I don't like the taste of jalapeno even if they weren't hot. I was told by everyone who had them, that I can make them over and over again, anytime They want them. lol. I know they weren't the traditional breaded and fried, but they were a big hit.  No pics. They all got eaten before I had a chance to grab the camera, but here's a shot of the empty pan :)

I made a different version of the Southern Baked Squash. My friend Lacy came over and she can't have gluten, but I wanted to do squash bake again. So we went with cheese. 

Cheesy Squash Bake

• 3 yellow squash and three zucchini, cubed. Mine here getting pretty large in the garden. You might want to use 4 or 5 smaller. 
• Half a pkg cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 3 eggs
• Half a sleeve of crushed crackers. I used Club, they were in my cabinet
• 1 cup shredded cheese. I used the Colby Jack I had in the fridge
• 
  
• 
  
• Boil the cubed squash 15 mins or until tender. 
• Preheat oven to 375
• Spray inside of a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray
• drain squash, and mash until it had the constancy of mashed potatoes
• Add eggs, butter and cheeses and blend well. 
• Smooth mixture into the backing dish and cover with crackers. I left one third of uncovered for my friend
• Bake in the oven uncovered about 45-50 mins, or until the crackers start to darken, and the squash mixture is bubbly. 

Cute baby cows in the pasture next door to us

We picked the first of the five watermelon that grew this year. We had Charleston Greys. Big watermelon. Scott had to carry it in for me since it's over the limit of what the doc says I can carry. It's a very tasty watermelon. I think we could have left it out there one more week. The white rind was very thick. Most of the seeds were dark brown, but not black yet. Still very sweet though. I'm still waiting on the cantlelope to be ready to eat. 

What kind of mess did I make? and the laziest pigs ever.

So I've been processing tomatoes. I grilled a batch, and last night I put two roasting pans full of tomatoes in the over till they were bubbling in their own juices. I did this twice. I peeled off the skins, and de-seeded. I ended up with a whole mess of tomatoe pulp  and 7 quarts of tomato juice. I tried canning the quarts tonight. Stuck them all in my big old giant pot. Took forever to to come to a boil. The whole time rocking and making horrible noises. I let it finally come to a boil, boiled for 20 mins, took off the lid, and turned off the stove. I have a lot of floaty junk in the water, and when I pulled out the jars, this is the mess I had. One jar looks like I thought they should all turn out. All the jars seemed to have sealed fine, they are all sunk in the middle. I should add this was my first practice run for the salsa and spaghetti sauce I want to make from all the tomato pulp. What is this mess, and what did I do wrong is the question for the Homesteading Today forums.

I get a kick out of watching my piggies eat. How lazy can it get?

Fluffy pancake chickens and pigs misters

I have six chickens and one rooster. They were pretty sorry looking when they got here. The rooster had been amorous and pulled out some of the hen's feathers. They were picking at each other and pulling out more. On top of all that they were moulting, so they were pretty ugly. The saddest looking one was a little hen I started calling the Traveling Chicken. She was always off somewhere away from the rest. See her over there behind the house. Now she's out back with Dave's horses. Five minutes later, and she's watching me weed the garden. The other girls and the rooster pretty much just hang out together. First they were over out back by the rabbit hutch they lived in before the Chicken Condo was done. Then they mostly stayed out by the Condo, or out back in the shade under the hutch. This crazy little hen was everywhere.

 Now I've been saying that I'm only getting like 2-3 eggs a day because the girls are all still growing their feathers back. Turns out I was wrong. I thought I'd actually lost the Traveling Chicken. She usually came running when I threw out feed in the morning, or took out crusts of bread, or weeds from the garden. No Traveling Chicken. Did she wander far enough out that she got lost? Did she go to far from somewhere she could get under cover and turn into a hawk's lunch? Did the cyotes I can sometimes hear off in the distance turn her into a midnight snack?

Then Ashley, the beagle mix found her. Right out back is a Russian Olive tree. Some of the branches hang towards the ground. There are a couple of big rocks scattered around the base. Here's Ashley snuffling and she starts barking in the low branches. So off I go to see what she's found. I found the Traveling Chicken. I thought for sure she was dead. She was flattened to the ground in a little hollow like a feathered chicken pancake. Her eyes were opened, but I just knew she was a goner. But then I poked her and she Growled at me. What the Crap?! Now she's even flatter, puffed out more and refuses to move.

I've seen this before. The neighbore has a chicken thats gone broody. I had to take care of the critters while they went camping and this fluffy broody kept stealing the eggs the other chickens were laying and wanted to hatch them. She had the same fluffy pancake thing going on. Sure enough, I carefully lift Traveler's butt and she has a whole mess of eggs under her. I was tickled to death. She must have ten or twelve eggs under her. I debated picking her up and moving her and her brood into the condo, but obviously she didn't want to be in there or she would have her clutch, and any other eggs the other girls laid. Then I thought about moving her into the rabbit hutch. I know shes not going to go far from those eggs for the next 23 days. Scotty said she wanted to be right where she's at, so why not leave her? He got her a pan of scrathc and cracked corn, and it's right where she can reach out her neck and eat. Ashley I was a little worried about harrassing her, but she runs over every time we go outside to make sure the momma is still where she belongs. The cats aren't bothering her, and I'm counting the days till be have little fluffy yellow chicks. Or black fluffies. I guess I should look up and she what the chicks should look like.
                       

Speaking of chickens, I saw the funniest damned thing the other day. I like to go out with my Knidle, sit under the tree by the Condo, and watch the girls scratch, hunt bugs, and eat weeds. Ashley is the biggest mouse and vole hunting dog that ever lived. She gets more of those buggers than the cats do. So two days ago, I'm sitting out there reading and here comes the dog with a vole hanging out of her mouth. She likes to bring them to me so I can she what she got, then eats them. Well she drops this dead vole, and one of the girls caught sight of it. Quicker than Ash can blink that hen ran in snatched the vole up and ran off. The other girls saw her trying to peck something on the ground and ran over to steal her tastey morsel. It was too big for the first girl to swallow whole so she kept snatching it back up and running off with a five other hens in a line behind her. Everytime they lost intrest she dopeed it and started pecking at it which started the got the other girls intest again and started them chasing after her with the vole in her beak. I sat and laughed and laughed.

Scotty has been talking to other people he knows at work, and friends about the piggies. Around three pounds a day is what they should gain he was told, but when it's really really hot out, we can expect them to not want to eat as much and slow down a little on the growth. He got recomendations to make a cold water mash with their feed. He saw on the website for the hardware store a five nozzle, inexpensive misting sytem. So now the pigs have a mister system to help beat the heat of the day.

We spent all day yesterday fishing. Started at Ritter Island in the morning. Hit Niagra springs till it got hot. Tried Billingsly creek, but it was a moss and weed infested little irrigation ditch, so back to Niagra. I caught my first big trout in Idaho. I got two more small ones. The boy got a few, and so did Scott. We ended up with seven trout we brought home. Gutted them when he caught them, and I whacked off thier heads when we got home and vaccume sealed them into the freezer. Scotty wants to try out his smoker with the fishes. I'm excited to try it.

Mrs. Jones, how does your garden grow?

The calves are off the replacer milk, and very happy each day to see their grain and hay. Our calf doesn't have horn starting yet, but Andrea's guy has little nubbies poking through. Trimmed feet on Patches and Ben last week, but I still have to do Apache.

Chigs and Pickens

...As Scott calls them. Everyone is in their little houses now. Scotty got my chicken condo, the pig auto water, and the feeder done. I still have to paint daisys and peace signs on the condo, but I'll wait for Teh Spawn to get back from Arizona. The garden is still growing carpets of weeds. I went out like an idiot today in a sports bra and shorts to do my morning weeding. I thought I'd work on getting rid of the hillbilly farmer tan I have going on. My arms and face are nice and tan. My cheeks all rosey. And..... it all stops and my shirt sleeves. So out I went a weeding. I spent two hours out there bent over on my hands and knees pulling fistfulls of weeds. I do that all the time. Unfortunatly I didn't think of all that untanned white skin across my back and shoulders. All that white skin that is now a bright cherry red. And Tender. Moron... /sigh. Of course I can't really reach it either to put lotion on it, and Scott works tonight. I didn't even realize I'd done it till later this afternoon when I came in to shower all the dirt and mud off my shins and knees. I got this flash of red from the mirrow out of the corner of my eye, and thought, "Good googly moogly, thats going to hurt like a bitch later." Yeah, I was right. The worst part is that I have a brand new can of spray on sunscreen sitting right there on the counter.

So onto the pic spam. I love taking pics of the goings on around here.

The chicken condo started with this...

and this

Starting to put the kennel together while...

Putting the last coat of paint on the nest boxes and the outside of the box

We were going to have the condo inside the fence, but it cut down on so much space we decided to take the chain link off the back pannel and replace it with chicken wire we could cut a whole through for the condo doors.

Our first egg.... if I could just figure out how to make the chicken stop eating thier own eggs before I can...

Gratuitous piggie pic

I haz a Piggies!!!!!

Scott took a picture of me being all hillbilly and weeding my garden.

I've given up on pulling every weed one at a time since then. They've become a carpet that's everywhere. I've taken to reaching down into the dirt and grabbing a handfull of weed and soil and just churning everything up. Scotty bought me a Garden Weasle. It's not so great at digging up the weeds between the rows. It does get some of them out, and it sure makes the soil alot looser so I can dig in with my hands and get the weeds out though.



I got to go play cowgirl last week with my friend Andrea and Honey Jo. Honey's dad was moving some cows down the valley, and up over the mountians to a smaller high valley on the other side. Let me tell you, those cows were not happy about being pushed up the hill. The were lined out and moving along as long as they thought they were moving to the next ranch down the velley. Soon as we turned them up the fenceline it was a fight the whole way. The side of the mountian was rather steep. Steep enough that I prolly wouldn't have chosen to go up it if I'd just been out for a trail ride. Good thing 'Ole Benjamin Butthead has worked cows before. Dad Cisco and Andrea got a bunch of those critters moving up towards the top and me and HJ were trying to keep pushing from the bottom. I ended up pointing Ben right through the middle of them and whooping and hollaring drove right up the middle. Managed to push some of them up, then circled back down and did it again.

Here's the view from the top looking back the way we came. The view was worth the trip alone.

Scotty almost has my chicken condo done. It's turning out just the way I was hoping when he was decribing how he wanted to build it. This is a view through the top into one of the nest boxes. He made the lid with hinges on the outside so I can just lift the lid and grab my eggs and go.

Scotty and the boy working in the garage on the chicken condo

And now we move onto finishing the pig pen, because yesterday I picked up the piggiez!!!! Scott and the boy worked hard all day getting it ready for the pigs.

Here's Scotty trying to herd them out of the trailer. They were not happy about coming out. It was getting late in the evening after we unloaded them so I promise more pics later today.