Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[FarmerJamie]

Spending quality time with the kiddo's IS accomplishing much....

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You are so right FJ! We've accomplished making some new memories, for sure! I love, love, love these kiddos! My DD will be here with in an hour or so and we get to have another slumber party tonight...OMG - don't know if my body can handle another all nighter - but it's time well worth spending. She lives too far away and I gotta figger a way to get her moved back down here. And, on that note both of these grandchildren have announced that when they grow up they are moving next door to me! Woohoo!

Got my friend outside working for me... he saves me so much time and effort. It's worth every penny and in fact I'm thinking of giving him a raise. I called him my 'high school helper" the other day, but he's actually in his first year of college - he'd kill me if he knew I said "high school" lol! I'm thinking of giving him a raise.... ten bucks an hour was good for high school pay, but I'm thinking of giving him $12.... haven't committed yet though.... Whatchall think? He busts his b.u.t.t. out there in the heat and/or cold, does everything I ask, and some things that I don't even have to ask - without complaint and always asks for more. I think someone who works that hard is worth an extra couple bucks an hour.

WoW - the chickens have taking this spring weather to heart and today we got 34 eggs... 34.... I will be sending some home with C for sure. He told me their dog killed their last chicken today so I guess they'll be needin' some.

Guess I better get back to it!

 

[Denim Deb]

For $12/hour, I'd work for ya if I was close enough!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Come on down - I know you're a hard worker for sure! Since I was a little short of cash - I only gave him $11 dollars per hour. But - he pretty much mulched the entire garden for me. There were only a few places that I didn't have ready to be mulched, but now I can knock those out pretty easily. And....it's supposed to rain today so I'm so glad that's done. Without a lot of heavy mulch between the rows it's a nightmiare to walk through when wet.

Today's plan is to 'piddle' around doing odd chores here and there. I want to take a Meyer Lemon tree out of a pot and put it into the ground. I want to use that pot and another one to plant 2 stevia plants that I picked up the other day. I'd like to find some mint to plant in the pots with the stevia. I think it would look great and I find so many uses for mint. The freezes got the mint I had out on the north side of the house so this will be planted in the front of the house which faces south.

Butchered a half-dozen quail yesterday for DD to take home. It was the kiddos first time seeing that process and other than a few minor reactions - all went well. They were very interested in the 'guts'! Where's the heart? What does the gizzard do. Ewwwww, there's where the poop comes out! Before each be-heading they thanked the bird for giving up it's life for them to eat... I thought it was important to reinforce that all life is precious and not to be taken lightly. It was really a good opportunity to delve into a little talk about the circle of life and the importance of being able to provide for yourself. They ate it up! My little future farmers made me proud!

I've decided that I have too many quail breeders. No reason to be feeding any more than I have to. I think I'm gonna cut down to about about 5 or 6 breeder pens in stead of 11 that I have now. The hens are such good layers that I can have enough eggs to set a new batch in just a few days. I've been hatching out about 40 at a time and raising those up for butcheirng - but even though they are so easy to butcher 40 is too many. So, cutting the numbers in half I think will work best for me. Time to start steamlining this operation.

Back at it...gonna try to get a little more done before the rain sets in.

 

[SSDreamin]

Only in my wildest dreams do I have a kid willing to work outside all day and ask for more work when he's done!! Kids around here refuse to work for any amount of money - it's too dirty and nasty, and sounds kinda like child abuse Even DS#2 balks at some things. I have to try to make it fun (ever tried to make clearing the pasture of horse poo fun?!) for him to show any interest.
Sounds like your grandkids are learning alot! So much better than thinking everything just comes from the grocery store!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I really got lucky when I found these guys. Their parents should be given 'parents of the century" award. They've got 5 sons and all who are old enough to work - are always willing and happy and oh so respectful. Everything is "yes ma'am - is there anything else I can do for you"? I'm gonna miss 'em when they all grow up and move away someday.

I really didn't do much yesterday. Since my helper had done so much the day before I kinda just sat back and enjoyed my day. I did manage to get the lemon tree moved, DH planted the Stevia plants and other than that and regular feeding chores that's about all that happened. I didn't even need to cook because of all the nice left-overs from all the cooking I did when the kiddos were here.

Speaking of cooking - I'm on a mission to clean out freezers. I've got 26 meaties that will need a new place to 'winter' in just about a month. Oh, oh, oh! I got a plucker! I'm so excited about that. It's not the super expensive tub type, but a tabletop model. You just hold the carcass over it and move it around to get the bird plucked. I'm anxious to try it...maybe do a few of the extra roos just for practice before I get to the meaties...

Started to think that maybe one of the does I thought didn't take - did. Her bag looks like it's starting to fill in just a little. Honestly not really excited about that because she is the one that I just can't seem to get any weight on. I wormed her the other day with cydectin because nothing else is working on her - then she gets bottle jaw. Same thing happened last time I wormed her. I've been giving her red cell and a while back some iron injections. Probably need to do that again. Her eyelids were actually looking pinker for awhile. She will probably need to find a new home after I decide whether she's actually bred or not.....

Other than that - nothing else exciting on the farm right now.

 

[hqueen13]

I'd work for 12.00 too! Around here barn help goes for 10/hr and S posts me 8/hr to work on the farm, and that is a raise over the 7/hr from last year. He also gives me food when I want or need it and sells me the butchered chickens at cost.
Good help is hard to find though!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Yes - I've had cruddy help before and I'd rather pay these guys enough to stick around! Now that it's getting into growing weather I'll appreciate their help with yard work too. I'm just gonna bite the bullet and consider it money well spent.

Came home a bit early today becaue I have an injured goat. Red - my most 'favoritist' goat on the whole place as a really nasty cut on her foot. I saw her limping Sunday and gave her a quick look and saw a cut on her heel. I accused her of being a big ol' baby limping so badly on a fairly simple cut - BUT - Monday she was limping worse. I got her pulled up and put her on the milk stand and soaked her foot in warm soapy water to get it clean enough to see what's going on. Oh my - the cut extends down the heel and all the way across the bottom of her hoof. I couldn't see it until it was clean...No wonder she's having such a hard time! I put her in a clean stall and came home early today to work on her. I soaked the foot again and (cringe) took a brush and scrubbed out the laceration...ugh. I packed it with some Neosporin and then soaked a cotton ball in iodine and pressed onto it.... took some vet wrap and wrapped it up. After all that, I covered the bottom of her hoof with duct tape to hopefully keep everything in place. Bless her heart - she either on her knees or laying down.

After that I pulled Lil Bit up too. She is having the hardest time this year. I wormed her a few months ago because her membranes were pale, pale, pale - she got bottle jaw afterwards. I started giving her some Red Cell and a couple iron shots and she bounced right back. Couple days ago I checked her eyelids again - and again - she's pale. Wormed her again - bottle jaw again... GEEZE! I'll have to get some more red cell tomorrow - but she'll get an iron shot in the morning. I just didn't have time to do it tonight after working on Red for nearly an hour.

It's time to worm the babies too - and OMG - one of 'em has runny poop. What is going on here?????? Geeze louise! I'll start them on some cocci treatment and go ahead and get 'em wormed and then nobody else better pull any illness stuff on me - I'm just about over it, lol!

 

[Denim Deb]

What you did w/Red is about how I do a horse's hoof-only I also use a diaper. It can be very difficult to soak a horse's hoof, then get it all wrapped by yourself but I've done it and lived to tell about it!

 

[hqueen13]

Haha Deb, friends of mine has a horse that received the nickname Prince, when his foot accessed really bad, it took 3 of us to get his for soaked for 20 minutes!
Hope the little goat feels better soon!