Attitude

I may suck at being a faithful blogger as of lately, but some day life may simmer down and I’ll do better. Right now it’s all about prioritizing.  Regardless this is good little saying I came across today.  I found it while cleaning out my friend’s house a couple years back.  I also wanted to share a few pictures from a recent trip to Florida.

Attitude….The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.  It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, church, or home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past.  We cannot change that people will act a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

I am convinced that life is our attitude.  I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.  And so it is with you, we are in charge of our attitudes.

—Charles Swindoll

 

Not one, not two, but three.....day 9 of 30

“Tell your kids I have a gift for them.”  is never a good thing in my neighborhood.

So I have this cat named Sparky.  He thinks he lives at my neighbors, Biker Stacy’s house.  So apparently while visiting BS he decided to kill a mother chipmunk and injure 2 out of 3 of her babies.  Her biological cat then saved the baby chipmunks bringing them back to the house.

Can you guess who’s house they are at now?  Can you guess who will become their caretaker after the newness wears off?  Contemplating payback….

 

Loving Your Beef

I'll admit it. The cows are my FAVORITE animal here on our small farm. They do however have rankest breath of all...maybe because their at nose level ;)

I love almost everything about them including their sand paper tongues, warm fuzzy cheeks, moist nose & mouth, and the curls on top their heads.

Sir Loin is the first large livestock I ever handled & owned. I have enjoyed working with him, learning how to deal with such a large animal. He has taught me many lessons as I have taught him a few. I will miss him more than any chicken, rabbit, duck, or pig we've ever owned. Someday I'll have me have a dairy cow! One that I can bond with and tend throughout the years.

The Furry & The Feathered

Our newest addition Basil or Bullet, depends who your asking.

Above is Louie and one of his gals. All together we have 3 Khaki Cambells. They spend 3/4 of the year at the pond and winters in the barn. The only nice thing about keeping them cooped up is their delicious eggs which I LOVE to bake with!

I adore our Muscovies although at the moment we have too darn many of them. We will keep three hens & a drake through the winter. They forage so much food for themselves, they are pleasant to watch as the free roam throughout the barnyard. On a few occassions I've see people pulled watching them and not long ago a lady stopped and was taking pictures. They are SUPER Mommas. Remember that post I did about the hen that hatched out 26 ducklings.

Their eggs are great for baking with too. We ate one of the Muscovies this summer. I thought it tasted similar to roastbeef, tasting nothing like any duck I've had in the past.

H1 & N1 out to pasture. They have are surrounded by electric fencing that is about 4-6 inches up from the ground and have yet to escape. By the beginning of January they will be replaced with 2 more piglets. Only one of these is ours and the other we are raising for a friend. We like to keep at least two of every animal here on our small farm.

Sir Loin is to the left and we are raising T-bone for another friend. He is actual going to be given to our old neighbors as a token of appreciation for saving for our childrens college funds since they were born.

In addition to the animals shown above we have 2 other cats, 2 dogs, and a dozen laying hens, and a mean rooster named Bob.

In the barn

I have not talked much about the animals this winter. The theme of my blog has wandered off onto the food topic. Imagine that! What can I say, I love to cook and it is so nice to have the time to do so. However, with Spring creeping upon us the laziness of winter will soon be just a blur. Throughout the winter we kept a couple dozen Rhode Island red hens, the mean rooster "Bob". I have told a few tales about him on face book but don't think I've ever shared them here. Basically he has it out for me! Has anyone ever been taken out by spurs? I never would have guessed how painful they were until experiencing it first hand. If my boy didn't get an incubator for Christmas I assure you he would have been sizzling in my crock pot. Now I am forced to carry a weapon (ski pole/rake) with me at ALL times when they are free ranging or whenever I go into the coop for feedings. Weapon or not I have learned never to take my eyes off him. Not sure what I ever did to deserve this?

Sorry about the tangent.....where was I? 2 dozen RR hens, 1 nasty rooster, 3 Khaki Campbell's, several Muscovies which we had intentions of eating but their just too sweet. They do serve their purpose here because I really do love cooking with duck eggs! A few free ranging rabbits in the barn. We were suppose to eat them too but Maine Man hates killing them. I must admit they are tasty. We also have 2 pigs, one is ours and the other we are raising for a friend.

Soon to come.......COWS!!! HOW EXCITING? I've been dreaming about this for a couple years but this year I am sure it is going to happen. Not sure what we will get.....I want Dexters and MM wants Highland Cattle. It may be neither....we will soon see.

Simplify!

They'll eat just about anything including my laces.

Finally a follow up note to my previous post the good, bad, & the ugly.

My rant about being overwhelmed with all the work of the farm, especially the animals. This summer I came to the realization that raising animals is a lot of work and can be rather costly to feed and maintain. Most days we literally worked from dusk till dawn and beyond. I often found myself dreaming of the cool winter nights kicking back shortly after dinner..... Not......there was always SO much to do! We just had too much and we were not optimally set up.

While reading through my comments on the above post mentioned there was one that really caught my eye. It was from Trapper Creek. It was then I had an ah ha moment.

She wrote, "A big thing for us here is minimizing the daily chores and making some weekly, like having a big enough feeder and water setup that the pigs only need to be serviced once a week. Same with our laying flock. Things like that made a huge difference in my attitude :)"

That is the key! Get optimally set up! Make life easier! So that is the plan. We are downsizing on animals for the winter. We sold the goats, 1 flock of laying hens, and the meat rabbits will soon meet their maker. One last batch of broilers before winter. Thankfully they are only a short term commitment, 6-8 weeks, I can handle that. My plan for next summer is 2 pigs (1 for ourselves and one for a friend, same with the cows), 2 cows, layers, broilers, and a few ducks for the pond. That's it!

It is thorough our journey that we have come to realize our purpose here on the farm....raising animals for food not hobby.

Farm Lesson of the Summer "Work smarter Not harder!"

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

Who needs a Topsy Turvy? This brilliant idea came from Unusual Unusual Farm Chick's blog. She has lots of good ideas! The basket is from the dollar store. I bought it a couple years back and it was just stashed away in the hay loft.

On the top we planted some morning glories. Flower Girl also made a post about this a couple days back over at her blog. She has posted more than usual this summer thanks to her buddy Morgs. Morgs also has a blog, check it out. Flower Girl also recently posted some pictures of the fish birthday cakes that I made back in the spring. The idea came from Family Fun.

Ok, enough with the good. Now onto the bad & the ugly. Recently I have been overwhelmed with the tasks around the farm, mostly the animals. It is time to cut back! After much contemplation I have decided to sell the goats. My intention when I first bought goats was for milking. I have since come to the realization that adding another chore morning & night would send me over the edge. It is MUCH cheaper & easier to buy from my local farmer then to keep goats. I do not have to be responsible for watering and feeding day in and day out, no injections to give or hooves to be trimmed. Same goes for cows. I dream about having cows grazing in the back field but in reality it is just not in the cards right now. My garden needs more of my attention and we have a greenhouse that needs to be assembled. Oh yeah and we have LOTS of wood that needs to be hauled off the back forty, split & piled. At this point if I want raw organic milk it again easier to go support my local farmer for $4/gallon. As far as meat goes it would in our best interest if I put a little more time and effort into deer hunting. It is good, lean, meat that we do not have to tend day in and day out. Until this past year I have always taken for granted the deer meat in the freezer. You always miss something when you don't have a lot of it. From here on out I will cherish every morsel!

I am not quiting farming, just cutting back. Learning from our experiences and our mistakes. God knows I have made plenty of those, that is a topic all on it's own! After my pullets are all laying I hope to sell of last years hens, the turkeys are soon to meet their maker followed by those egg laying ducks (khaki campbells) Maine Man had to have. If the pigs ever have their piglets, we swear they are pregnant! They will be off to freezer camp as well. Maine Man is a little hesitant about that after bonding with "Pumpkin & Ham" over the last year but I volunteered to be the trigger man. Can you believe that? That is how badly I want to simplify & minimize before winter. 2 years ago even I would have said "NO way" but I must say this farming stuff has hardened me. I am jaded, kind of like working in the ER.

If it don't produce (eggs/meat) I am all set. Never use to be like this. This whole farming bit was never even intentional, it just happened.

My plan is to go through the winter with 24 layers, 2-4 muscovies, and a few rabbits. That's it!

Sorry for the rant but d@#! I feel better now! A bit hormonal ehh? The planned post to was suppose to be about thriftiness. Ha, Ha, Add PMS & ADD and this is what you get.

It's the simple things.....

100 Muscovy Ducklings.....we will keep a bunch and sell the rest. They are said to be good Mommas and good at reproducing. Oh yes and I hear they are good eats. I have eaten wild duck before and I did not like. We will see!

Turkeys are getting big. We raised 4 last year and we have 5 now. I wonder if the plucker MM built will be able to handle them? In the next couple weeks I will put together the pictures of that and have Maine Man do a post on how he constructed the plucker. Thanks for the book Angie, it was a great reference for John. It came out nicely!

Over the weekend I heard a meowing under the barn and out came this friendly, starving kitty. His name is Grislo thanks to the purple tag. It also had an out of state phone number listed. Called the number, no answer, voice mail in another language. I'm thinking this is a joke, someone dropped him off. Sure enough the owner calls back. He's from 2 towns over and has been missing for a month. As Leah said "back to his righteous owner." Don't ya love happy endings?

Sunday Stills- Black & White With A Twist

This weeks theme at Sunday Stills was to look back at past topics, choose two, then convert the pictures to black and white. This was a great challenge for me because there were SO many possibilities. Here are a couple pictures I thought were priceless. Neither are my children, just one of the dogs belongs to us. Regardless these two girls are my friends kids (2 different ones) and they are both VERY photogenic. For themes I choose: action (above), portraits? (below), and pets for the last one.

This little girl is a spit fire! She played in the hose then made mud angels in the garden. My mother would have flipped had she been here. Our parenting styles are VERY different. A chilly day last week the kids asked to go in the pool and I said "go for it." My mother scowled at me and said "what?". I said, "they won't be in long, watch." Within seconds there stood two dripping, happy, popsicles.

I learned early on that it is best to pick and choose your battles.

Are they going to get hurt? No, then GO FOR IT!

Don't you love that look on her face? I often warn friends to send there kids over in play clothes because they are sure to get dirty. They NEVER let me down! This was a warm sunny day and she and Leah went upstairs in search for bathing suits. Down they came dressed in gymnastic leotards. A while later I realized she had put it on upside down. We all had a good laugh and then they headed up to change for the zillionth time.

My brother's Chesapeake Bay Retriever playing tug-of-war with our little boxer.

On a final thought, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all!

Sunday Stills ~Animals~

I have been a bit delinquent posting my Sunday Stills but this weeks topic was way too easy for me to let it slide. I did not take out my camera over the weekend but my archives are full on animal pictures. I can't imagine why!

Rona has officially been named the black sheep on the farm. Maple the goat bucks her, Bob the rooster is always looking to put the spurs to her, and Smokey the cats does not let her pass by without a swipe and a hiss. Thankfully she is loved by the kids and she has worked our way into our hearts as well.

Lots of chicks peeping around here.

The last two pictures are from our Sunday Stills Challenge
two weeks ago and the theme was lines.


The kids and my boys buddy at my brothers.

Simple Pleasures

Nothing makes me happier than taking a peak out at the kids and seeing this!
We are lucky they get along 90% of the time.

And they truly enjoy each others company.
They are best friends!

We are fortunate to have been blessed with these little munchkins!

We have lots of greens sprouting and are waiting to hear back about the greenhouse we are interested in buying. Today we went on a field trip to check it out. After things are more definite I will post some of pictures that I took today.
The chickens have been free ranging and will do so until we start to plant the garden. Then they will be confined to their outdoor pens until fall. They are WAY to destructive in the gardens. We learned that quickly last year. We have some new additions here. In the last couple weeks we purchased 28 layers (RR reds), 40 meat birds (Cornish x rocks) and today we borrowed a boar to breed our 2 sows and we bought a barrow (castrated male pig). Tomorrow we will be getting several turkeys and Maine Man has Muscovy ducks in the near future.
WELCOME to the FUNNY FARM.
We've had LOTS of company since the weather has warmed, usually daily. MM often jokes that people think we are a side show. (I am sure our neighbors think that!) Actually we have had lots of positive feedback and people have showed much interest in our lifestyle.

It has been a great experience for us and the kids!

P.S Did I mention I want cows too?

Sunny Sunday

It was a beautiful weekend here on the farm and everyone agreed as evidence by the following photos.All the animals had the oppurtunity to get out of the barn on both days. The goats came out on leashes and they were groomed and hooves were trimmed.The chickens free ranged. It will not be long before they are in their chicken tractors. When the gardens goes in there will be no more free ranging until fall. Otherwise they will DEVASTATE the gardens.Only in Maine could you where the outfit above and below in the SAME day!This is not a normal occurrence. At least when I am around. MM is a little more laid back. I have PTSD from working in the Emergency Room too many years. When I came home from running a quick errand this is what I found. I was ok with Luke driving..........but when I saw Leah I was frightened. The kid has NO FEAR. She is a WILD child. Everyone has one, well she is mine! Yesterday we went to a sliding party at some friends just down the road. They have an AWESOME hill just outback of there house. I had barely said hello to my friend and there goes Leah flying down the VERY steep hill on a saucer hooting and hollering. People were looking around like, who's kid is that? She is SO me when I was 16 but she is ONLY 6! Yikes...I think we are going to be in for it!
Another thing about her is she will only learn when SHE is ready. Just today she learned to ride a 2 wheel bike by the assistance of her big brother and his buddy. They made treats for her and bribed her than they.....

Scored her abilities. Hey....What are you boys doing on my Momobile?

Later this afternoon. We tapped our 2 maple trees for a first time.

Maine Man drilled the holes.


Luke hammered the spickets in.And sap started running immediately. The kids were ecstatic!Leah hung the jugs. We planned to hang buckets but I saw over at Sugar Creek that they used gallon jugs. I thought that was mighty clever so we borrowed their idea.
Thanks SC!Within minutes we had this. We have 4 gallon jugs out.
Just before bed the kids conned me into going and checking how much we had one last time.

Then we finished the night making sugar cookies. They were they some yummy!