FarmerDenise's journal - full on harvest time = busy, busy, busy

[TanksHill]

FD with that many herbs you could probably sell at a local market. Have you ever tried?

g

 

[FarmerDenise]

I looked in our local farmer's market, but there is a lot of politics and it is expensive.

I considered checking out some of the others, but just don't seem to have time left after all the farm work etc.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey FD!

just popping by to say hi

 

[FarmerDenise]

I've been busy with the usual winter farm chores. Trying to do laundry on days of no rain, weeding garden patches and under the electric fence, processing harvested crops (which are spread around the house), feeding and caring for the critters.

In between those times, dinner still has to be made, cookies baked, house cleaned and decorated.

We still don't have a tree. We figured if we found one for say $10 we'd get it, otherwise we'll make do.

I also offered to host DD's babyshower. Like I don't have enough to do. She has been sick with a cold and still miserable with nausea and migraines. So here I am looking up how to host a modern day baby shower. She is not into games. And very fussy about her food. Most foods make her sick. I have a design picked out for the invitations, now I just need to finish them off.

In the meantime, one of our good ameraucana hens managed to injure an eye and it got badly infected. Fortunately SO spotted it and I have been able to treat her. She was so much better today, that I took her outside for a little bit today. Her friends came running up and asked what's been going on with her and I guess she told them all about being locked in the bathroom, but feeling safe and that sometimes she gets to sit on mommy's lap and snugle and listen to the tv. She was happy to run around the filed a bit, walked alongside the rooster for a while and nibbled on some greens. I brought her back inside before it got too cold, she is now resting comfortably on top of the toilet.

Looks like Flower might be looking for a boy toy. She was crying a lot today with her tail and tush stuck up for all to look at. Of course the only one out there were the chickens, who could care less. SO thought something was wrong with her. I said: "yes, she is horny"

I really need to get those girls a buck for christmas

Guess I better go on CL and see what is out there.

Ok, I promised the crew I'd make another batch of cookies tonight. DSS's GF went to the Colonel to get some ready made chicken, so I would be free to make more cookies, I just need one more glass of wine....

 

[BarredBuff]

Sounds like you've been busy!! Nice to hear from you!!

 

[Denim Deb]

Ah yes, men w/the horny females. Many years ago, when my daughter first got her cat, I hadn't made an appointment for her to get spayed yet. So, she and I are watching a TV show in the bedroom. My hubby comes to the door and says, I need to talk to you. I said, OK, when there's a commercial. A couple of minutes later, he comes back to the door and says, I need to talk to you NOW!!! I couldn't figure out what was so important, but got up and went to talk to him. He says, the cat's in heat. I said, I know that. Why didn't you just say so? His reply? I didn't want to say anything in front of C. I didn't know how much she knows. She was 13 at the time. :/

 

[lalaland]

Denim Deb,thats kind of hilarious!

Farmer Denise, it is so funny to hear you talk about harvesting when I am staring out the window at a frozen snow covered field. I don't envy you, though, harvest is such a busy time.

hope you find a little time to sit and relax.

 

[FarmerDenise]

DenimDeb, that is funny.

It is nice living in a temperate climate in many ways. We hardly ever get snow, it rarely freezes and we can grow stuff year round.
This means we get to plant, take care of and harvest year round also. We don't have to be so intense getting things done in a three month growing season. Some things won't even grow in summer, we have to plant them in the fall or winter. We can grow stuff most of you cannot.
We rarely get to have the excuse to hole up in the house by a cozy fire and figure out ways to entertain ourselves or to catch up on projects we didn't get to in the summer months. Those time only occur when we have long periods of rain. At those times we have to concern ourselves with flooding and keeping things dry and our animals warm. During our winter rain storms we get power outages and people empty stores. People here freak out, if the power is out for more than 15 minutes.

The sun is out, it is supposed to be in the upper 50's today and I better get out there and take care of the critters. Our chickens started laying again. We got a monster egg the other day. I went around to see which hen was walking funny...poor thing.
We were on our last dozen of eggs, when we found an egg in the nest on SO's birthday.

Dallas, the hen with the injured eye, is doing much better. I am so glad I had eye antibiotic ointment and oral antibiotic in the house. We had it for our cat, who threatened to shred our hands, if we gave it to him. So at least it went to good use.
I don't like using antibiotic, but this hen obviously needed it. She had nasty thick, yellow puss oozing out of her good eye, her nostrils and her beak. Within 24 hours of giving her the antibiotic, the puss turned white. Today only her injured eye has some clear liquid oozing out. I plan on letting her out later, when it warms up a bit.

Ok, off to work I go. So much to do, so little time.

 

[BarredBuff]

Im glad she is doing better!!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I took Dallas outside twice today. Each time she got into a fight. Afterwards she hid. So I took her back inside each time. She did seem to enjoy being outside with her buddies. But then, when someone picked on her, she would go off on her own. I think she lost her injured eye. The lid is still really swollen and when I got a chance to look inside today, it looked really hollow. I am sooo glad I had the antibiotics on hand. I am sure I would have lost her.

Blossom seemed a bit off today. I don't know if it is because I gave her a new grain mix that she happened to wolf down or due to it being that time of the month. After I gave the goats some fermented (in sour dough starter) grains, both girls got really happy and ran around their pasture. Only Blossom was interested in the grain. Flower didn't have any. Then I decided to pull some of the weeds on the inside of their electric fence. Blossom got so excited, she jumped up on me as I was bending down. I had to knock her off. Then both of them thought they'd help by standing right where I wanted to pull out the weeds I ended up pulling the weeds from in between their legs.
I gave those weeds to the neighbor, Mr B for his chickens. He told me he has been using the greens for his rabbits too and he hasn't bought any pellets for them. I told him our rabbit also gets most of his feed in fresh greens. We both feed hay and some grains as well. So I have started to make sure I put some nice greens for his rabbits in there as well.

I raked the leaves from around the hen house and put them in the hen house floor. I also put some in the nest boxes, since the leaves were nice and dry.

Then I went into the front yard and gathered enough dried leaves to fill a feed bag. I will save this to either feed the goats or use as bedding.

I dug up a basket of carrots with the assistance of the chickens. Most of the carrots were small. SO likes to go heavy on the seeds and doesn't like it when I thin them either. So I now have a basket of baby carrots to clean. I love carrots fresh from the garden.

I have two events to attend this weekend and both are potluck. I will bring carrots to at least one of the events. I can always bring a jar of pickles to the other event. I have found that people love having a big dish of pickels. Sometimes I make jello with fruit added. But I don't have any jello at the moment. I suppose I could also bring blackberries. We have loads in the freezer. I'll decide in a day or two.

Now I need to think up of what to make for dinner. I really want a good homecooked meal. We have been taking shortcuts the last few days. I also hope to make more cookies today. I hope to get enough made to give as gifts and for us to have plenty.

I managed to get one load of laundry hung up. The second load is in the washing machine. I better get it out and at least put it on the back porch, so it won't get smelly. Tomorrow is supposed to be another day of no rain.

It is 5 o'clock. I am tired and my back hurts. I wish I cold just sit down and watch tv and work on some sort of needle work project....
Well, I better get my butt up and in gear, have another glass of wine and get something done.

Here goes a siren past the house. Couldn't tell what it was though. It usually is either a robbery at the corner store or for the senior place nearby. I really wish I lived in the country, waaayyy in the country.