Bee~ Journal of then...

[Farmfresh]

Yours is what would have been classified as an "improved farm" back in the day.

Man is your landlord one lucky ducky.


Looking forward to those pics!!

Orchard flowers smell so yummy! I have my "front yard orchard" trees and now that poor frozen lilac that I photographed on my journal is blooming as well. When it is warm the smell coming through the open windows is ... a wonderful blessing!

I can only imagine how nice a "real orchard" like yours surrounded with country air must smell. Heavenly!

(edited for spelling)

 

[Beekissed]

FF, my landlord is exactly the kind that I love.....he leaves us alone and he appreciates what we do around the place~AND he is lowering my rent by $25 each year we stay in the house! Have you ever heard of such a thing? I wonder when he will put a cap on that?

I simply LOVE lilac bushes and would love to have one by my front porch. I've never seen lilac bushes like the ones they have around here!! Most of them are the size of a small house and they tower above the roof lines!

God is so good, isn't He? Just imagine what it would be like if He didn't love variety? The changing of the seasons is one of the most exciting things on earth, IMO. I love each and every change.....especially here in these mountains!

No humidity in the summer, spectacular fall foliage and crisp mountain air, snow and ice storms but not deep, unrelenting snows, and spring is just magical!

 

[Beekissed]

Bought some brackets to mount on the truck bed today and got them mounted. They will hold the 2x4s of the racks we are building. They are probably not meant for this, but they retract into the bed and out of the way, so that was an added bonus.

The way we do things around here is we think of how it should look, find something that will help make it look or work in that manner and build it. Sometimes it works well but doesn't look so hot, sometimes it looks good but doesn't work so hot.....sometimes we get it just right and sometimes we need to jimmy it a little for it to function. Just that hillbilly way of doing things!

For instance, I used the scraps of two discarded pallets, that I scavenged out of the trash, to construct a simple little garden gate. It looks cute! I've learned one thing in all these years of making do.....if you slap a coat of white paint on it, it looks great!

The boys have most of the cellar house painted and it looks so clean and fresh in the sunlight! I love to make things look clean and neat!

Made some initial contacts with lawn services to see if they can dump their clippings and leaves at my place, which I will use for mulch until I don't need them anymore~then they will be covered well and used for bedding this winter.

Sprouts are still growing.....awaiting my tiller.....the garden fencing is going up steadily and surely.....the grass is growing green and soft.....we are waiting....and waiting....spring is on the cusp....soon it will tip over into full on working to plant for the harvest to come!

 

[lorihadams]

Hey Bee! Sounds like you've been really busy! Crossing my fingers on the cow....I would love a Jersey too! Hubby got all kinds of free lumber from work, crates that they were just throwing away, and he has agreed to build some more chicken coops!!! Don't you just love free stuff!!!

 

[Beekissed]

I do! And God has blessed me with just about everything I need every time I think of a new project! I think God must love gardeners and farmers.......

I am praying about the Jersey as well....an abundant food source all wrapped up in a sweet-natured, pretty lil' milk cow!

 

[Farmfresh]

What are your plans for all of that milk?

I got my first batch of fresh goats milk today! I have made a few batches of cheese years ago, when I last got fresh milk, so I am ready to try my hand at it again. Exciting!

 

[Beekissed]

What are your plans for all of that milk?

I got my first batch of fresh goats milk today! I have made a few batches of cheese years ago, when I last got fresh milk, so I am ready to try my hand at it again. Exciting!

Well, Farm, the cow actually comes with a couple of customers for the milk and I got word on a few more from a patient of mine today.....and I haven't even got the cow!

Went to look at her today, BTW, and the ol' gal is in saaaaaadddd shape! Well, all the cows on that farm were not coming out of winter well and hadn't really gained any from the new grass. Now, milk cows are a boney lot anyway, but this gal has every rib showing and looked like a dress rack!

On the pro side, she is very docile and sweet, has good conformation....what I could see of it through all the bones! I think this cow really needs me.....I know I can give her a better life than she is having right now. I just wish she wasn't calving so soon, so I could maybe build her up a little beforehand.

I will pen her and worm her right away, I would venture to say she hasn't been wormed regularly, if at all. This pen has some good, thick grass in it and, since she's already been out on spring grass, I'm going to let her eat it along with some good, high-protein feed. I normally wouldn't feed anything but grass, but this cow needs an instant boost! The hay she has been eating looked more like straw.....roughage but no nutrition.

I will take a before pic and, later~when I've fattened her up, I'll take an after. She will be getting some good ACV in her water, some Basic H de-wormer and conditioner, and a little sweet feed each day until she calves and for about 2 wks after. After that she will be a grass only cow....Salatin style!

The next pretty day, I'm going to scrub her down and gloss her up, trim her tail, clip the hair on her udder and just generally baby her up a bit.

They will take $100 less than their asking price and, if I had wanted to gouge, they probably would have taken less...but they have little girls and they are pretty poor, I think.

She is not a pretty red/fawn color like some Jerseys, but more of a buff with grulla points.

 

[Farmfresh]

How big is she .. and how old? What is she bred to?

Don't try to put the weight on too fast it can stress the cardiovascular system. We bought a starved horse years ago and everything turned out great with her, but I have a friend who's father has connections with the animal cruelty people that lost one of his. There were five horses rescued from a racing training stable that had gone bankrupt. Two horses were just thin, but three were really starved. The friend of mine carefully cared for them and they were beginning to look really good - then one nice day one of the three just dropped dead. He was playing a bit after being turned outside and simply dropped dead of a heart attack. He had evidently lost muscle around his heart when starved and when he was fed it actually stressed the organ even more. First time he felt playful - Wham!

With the calf you could use more protein, but with old or starved horses I heard that raising the fat content of feed (very slowly) is actually easier on them. We used corn oil and raw eggs on our starved mares oats. Starting with a 1/4 cup a day of the oil and one egg.

 

[Beekissed]

She is 8 yrs. old and is bred back to an Angus/Simmental bull. I will only be giving her a cup or two of sweet feed per day and she will have some good, thick grass and all the second-cutting hay she would want. The Basic-H is from soy proteins and is supposed to help condition animals as well, restoring gloss to coats and encouraging more feeding.

I will also be getting her some minerals(particularly some magnesium)...I doubt she's had any!

I'm going to have the vet test for TB before selling milk for consumption.

I hope she has this calf while I'm at home....it would be such a miracle to witness it so close and up front! I've seen them but always at some distance.

 

[Beekissed]

There are a pair of bluebirds checking out the house we made for them, right outside my home office window! I put the house right there so I could see my favorite birds living and nesting.....and it finally is happening!

They are trying to fight off a pair of cowbirds, so I'm guessing they already have a nest built and are trying to defend either eggs or hatchlings. They are the most beautiful of birds, IMO. I have another bird house out in the building that we built and I'm thinking of putting it up also.

I would love to plant food bearing shrubbery and trees along the entire border of this property before I'm through, to encourage the bird life. I've read the the decibel level of bird song makes crops grow better...actually makes plants develop larger rhizomes and causes the plants to take in more nutrients and water.

For the first time, since I've been here, we have red-winged black birds nesting across the road. They are noisy and beautiful....and I hope they help my garden grow!

Do any of you purposefully create bird habitat for this reason? For pest control, for crop growth or for the sheer delight of watching them?