Bee~ Journal of then...

[Farmfresh]

Congratulations!

Our world needs LOTS more bee keepers!

 

[lorihadams]

Bee, you certainly have a way with words, honey! Your sister sounds like the kind of girl I would like to meet! I get a kick out of people that really "LOVE" their animals! I can't believe she slept in the pen...

Congrats on the bees, btw!

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks all! I can't wait to see how it goes.

 

[Beekissed]

Well, got a new broody! A nice, big and fluffy Aussie gal. This is the first time any of my Aussie's went broody, so this should be interesting.

Mama hen and chicks are still doing great and the chicks are now huge, especially the grey one. Getting ready to join them in with the rest of the flock soon, I think. Especially since I have this new broody.

My other broody, Nancy, is doing very well and is very devoted to her clutch and still has 9 eggs cooking. I think I'll load this Aussie up with 12 eggs and see if she can handle it. She's a pretty large gal, though this will be her first brood.

I just love the thought of regenerating my flock with hen power...the all natural way! I'm hoping to get a few roos to kill for winter out of some of these broods. More meat in the jar and freezer for the Squirrel Challenge....

I think I will be using the compost bin for taters this year, as this isn't an item that will sell well at my roadside market and I won't need as much for personal use when the boys are gone.

This will free up more space in the garden to grow some mangels and winter squash for the livestock. Also more space for pumpkins, which will sell well at the roadside and for flowers, also a big seller and good bee food.

I will be buying a farm ledger this week and start tallying up expenditures and profits. Its important to me to actually see the amounts in black and white and to see how each item~crop, animal is making or losing profit. I know my place is small, but I would like to treat it like a mini-farm and see how much investment vs. income is feasible here.

 

[Beekissed]

Oh....BTW....Happy Easter if I don't get to be on here this weekend.

Happy Easter to everyone! The greatest gift ever given, was given for me.....for us....for everyone. I am humbled and overjoyed each time I contemplate the enormity of it. I cry for joy at least once a day(but usually more often) when I look around at the life I've been given!

I will tell you this, folks. Something I've discovered over the years.....giving thanks and rejoicing in God's love in the good times makes it a whole lot easier to do so in the bad times.

God Bless you all! I'm hoping, along with filling our freezers, cellars, pantries and barns, that we are filling ourselves with the light of the Lord. It is so much more important than all of those things....

I will tell you something I heard today from a little old lady who just found out a week ago that she has pancreatic cancer and was told there is nothing they can do. She requested to go home to die. When I found out where she lived, I didn't have to wonder why. I drove way, way, way up on a mountain over a very narrow road that twisted and turned alongside a mountain brook with various beautiful waterfalls. Past all the shacks and ancient trailers, tumbled down barns and cabins. Past a few old cemeteries that are neatly kept.

Finally....I topped out on top of a mountain in the sunlight, amidst green pastures to find a little ol' house that reeked of cat urine from 10 yards away. It was an old, scruffy dwelling that had been hobbled up and added to over the years....nothing pleasing to look upon...until you turned around.

I could see for miles!! The purple hue of the Blue Ridge mountains reflected onto the blue-bottomed clouds that are a familiar site here and the fields were so green it hurt my eyes. I knew right away why she wanted to go home to spend her last days!

When I left this home, I asked this lady if she needed anything. She replied~from her hospital bed~ that she had food and a place to sleep, what more could she want?

I had to leave before I started crying. What more could we want, indeed.

Praise God!

 

[justusnak]

Wow BEe, what a wonderfull experience you had, with the lady on the mountain. Indeed you were touched...by the hand of God.
I thank him each and every day, for this little piece of land he has given me to care for. Its not a palace, or a grand farm...but to me, its more than I could ever have expected to be a part of. I know, we are blessed.
Wishing you and yours a Blessed Easter!

 

[Farmfresh]

The ledger is a GREAT idea.

I do mine on Excel on the computer. People think I am obsessed by keeping track of all the costs and gains from my "urban homestead", but it is very satisfying to watch it pay. I have a paper graph set up to record eggs I gather each day and another chart to record items I can or dehydrate. I even weigh and record all meat and other that goes to the freezer. At the store I buy it buy the pound, so that is how I track it.

Happy Easter to you all as well.

"Because He lives ... I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives ... all fear is gone.

Because in His hands, He holds the future ...
Life is worth the living,

Just because He Lives!"

 

[Beekissed]

I've got Gene Logsdon's book ~All Flesh is Grass today!!!

My birthday present to myself, bought cheaply on Amazon.com and will probably pay for itself ten times over and again.

Its raining out.....and the book beckons.....

See you guys later!

 

[Mackay]

This is the first time I've visited your journal. Looks like you live in a great place...a little wild and wooly maybe...Blue Ridge Mountains...eh? I've walked some of the Blue Ridge Trail in my younger days... I didn't read every post... 111 pages it a bit much for a Saturday morning, so I never did figure what state you were in...but I saw that you all deer hunt. I would be real interested in leaning a couple favorite recipes. My husband bought a rifle this spring and intends to go this fall, he hasn't hunted in 30 years! and I said great, I love deer and Elk, and acted like I knew just what to do with it and I don't!

Do you plan to continue to visit that little old lady on the mountain again? If you have the nerve for it she may like regular visits. I am a hospice nurse and I've seen that lots of times folks at the end of life like having a NEW friend. Sometimes they can talk easier with a new person than one who has been around a long time. It can be an enriching experience for both of you...if she is not on hospice already you might suggest it. It can be very helpful to her and her family for just keeping the basics of cleanliness and order and pain relief in the last days...i'm such a nosey do gooder biddy, I'd be up there every day....but its not for everyone...and I can certainly understand if you have not the will for it.

 

[Beekissed]

Mackay, I am a hospice nurse also! That is why I was visiting the little lady. So, chances are, I will be visiting her weekly or bi-weekly for awhile. Not long, I would say....


I'm in the eastern panhandle of WV and my people have been dyed-in- the- wool bowhunters for about 50 years now~my dad has the first recorded bowkill in the state. We have processed literally hundreds of deer, my mom and I. We've pretty well got it down to a science of no wasted motion or time, and of cleanliness in the butchering so that the meat is of premium taste.

We don't get very fancy with recipes here but you can use deer in any recipe you would use beef. We stick to basics like frying the tenderloin, making jerky, canning it and grinding to burger. I no longer fool with different cuts of meat and such....its just less time consuming and more space-saving to me to freeze tenderloin, grind the rest to burger or cut it up for canning, and, if we have harvested many deer, I will dry some for jerky. The boys eat it so fast I can't keep any, so I won't make it for them often.

We emphasize a quick and accurate kill and I won't let the boys hunt if they haven't practiced and proven their accuracy that year. My youngest hasn't hunted in a couple of years due to this type of laziness! I supervise or do most of the gutting, skinning and processing because the boys will slop it up if I'm not looking....I can't bear meat that hasn't been taken care of properly, neither could my mother. She is very tiny but all those grown men will drive a deer full of guts straight over to her, to dress and process....I know, I know.... sometimes I can't believe it either!