Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Sunshine in November

The sun is out, its shinning wonderfully. Its lying, its cold out there.
The sky is bright blue with very few clouds, (that's because the wind blows them away).
All the animals are cuddled up to what ever they can find that holds heat. Yes its cold out there. 22  with wind is cold, I don't care how beautiful the sun looks.

We have been hard at work today, 7 qts of sausage canned, 5 qts of hamburger and so fat 7 qts of nice white lard. There will be more lard coming, I did 12 qts the other day. Stuff makes awesome donuts and nice pie crust.
 So thankful the snow hasn't arrived yet and the water line to the barn is still thawed. My day is coming when I awake to inches of snow and a froze line. Which really stinks because we bought a backhoe to do a lot of work and it really hasn't earned its keep yet.

Sold all my rabbits and ducks the other day, at least cutting back for the winter months. With hauling water it makes it quite a chore to keeping bottles thawed and  ponds open.

I do still have my wonderful goats and now 22 piglets under 5mos old, I did cut back to a few dozen chickens and will start fresh in the spring with more layer and put these older one in the pot..
Looking out the window at everyone I can see the horses standing tall watching over all the animals.

Hoping to get back to sewing this week. Also dug out the yarn and knitting needles, its that time of the year. I cant work with yarn while its hot out,, makes my hands sweat.

I suppose the canners have been turned off and now the jars are cooling down, I should go make meat balls for supper and get some bread rising.

I hope you have an awesome day.

God Bless

Donna
The Simple Farm Girl

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Middle of November-- ever have one of those days------

The middle of November finds us with no snow. Can you hear my heart jumping for joy. Two years ago in October we were blessed with a blizzard that dumped 2 feet in one storm and melted in a week or so and we had very little the rest of the winter season. Today is  raining drizzly day, not much work will be done out side.
Still trying to batten down the hatches so to speak for winter. It has been a beautiful week a few days were up in the 50's.
Yesterday I sold all my rabbits and ducks. Not that I want to but I guess I am getting tired of doing all the chores myself while others just sit and watch or complain about having to pick up a little of the slack. I have an offer on my goats, but am so torn about selling all of them a few of them or none of them.  Confused and heart broken to think I always give in and give up on my dreams and animals I want. Sometimes I wonder why I try so hard to  make a working farm work.  People that live here are mainly concerned with just the horses who do nothing,, very expensive pasture pets.. Don't get me wrong I think the world of the horses but ya know,, they eat hay and grain year round and they don't earn one penny ,, at least not in the past 4 years. My goats have at least have made money this year. Selling the babies then selling  2/3 of my herd brought in more money than the horses have  since we have had them in 7 years.  I know I sound like I am venting but I cant be the only farmer  around that goes thru this. Some one else must be able to relate. Now we have 22 piglets 3 months old and 5 mos old,, . They cost way more money than they will ever bring in. Big idea,, raise them thru the winter and sell then in the spring.. Great Idea,, but I don't see it happening the way  some think it is going to,, cause aint no one  going to step out and help with chores and help feed, clean and water them all winter but me. Attitude abound today terribly,, so no outside work will be finished at all. I guess I should not be surprised, I don't think one project has really ever been totally finished that  others have started around here. Guess I am getting fed up with the work load, stress load and the anger that other bring with them. Not sure how people can go to bed mad, and wake up angry all the time.
So in my mind I have been mulling over some big changes and I am sure some will have their 2 cents to add, but no manual ambition to go with it.
 I am going to cut back  to just the animals I need to feed my family with, raise just the chickens I need to provide eggs for my family, chickens 4 pigs, I can buy a side of beef every year. Everything else from now on will be gardens for food.  I need to change  how things work around here,cost fo grain is going thru the roof, money is becoming very tight, property taxes have gone up again, my income hasn't. So I am going to start living as they did on little house on the prairie raising what they needed to eat, sold what  was extra,,garden and  put up what I can.
Does any one else have any of these issues,, cant be just me.
I suppose its time for me to go set up the sewing machine and start working on one of the quilts I need to finish for another family who ordered it.

I hope you have a blessed Sunday and sorry for the venting,, sometimes just getting it out of my head makes things a bit easier.

God Bless

The Simple Farm Girl
Donna