Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

For the first time in a week I spent the entire day at work. Wow! I feel great! As much as I shy away from pharmaceuticals - these things called antibiotics are a miracle drug, lol. I think the last time I took any was aboutt 15 years ago, and it was for dental work. Go figger...

I had to pick up feed today so I didn't get a chance to get over to the nursery to pick up more peach trees. I may try at lunch tomorrow.

Ohhhhh, pooh, tomorrow is boss's day. I think we're planning on taking the boss to lunch and I need to remember to pick up a card on my way in tomorrow. So maybe I'll go shop for trees on Wednesday.

The pigs are growing. They do NOT like pig pellets. They get fermented grain which is a mixture of chopped corn, a dry mix that has more corn, barley, oats and an alfalfa pellet, goat milk, kefir, boiled eggs, a glug of ACV and whatever kitchen scraps I have on hand. I have been mixing some pellets in with their ff in the mornings, but I don't think I'll buy any more since they love, love, love their fermented mix so much.

The Barred Hollands are really starting to crank out the eggs. I think I got 6 from their pen today and 5 yesterday. They've still got a ways to go though, cuz there's prolly close to 20 pullets in there. Eventually....

Almost time to take another magic pill. If I take them before bed, they don't make me nauseous, or maybe I just sleep through it, lol.

Headed that way now...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

My life is totally boring M -F. Okay, okay - it's boring on the weekends too, but at least I have something to write about! I did manage to make it over to the nursery yesterday and pick up another peach tree. I also grabbed two things called 'sugar apples' and got to the check-out with them when they informed me those weren't 'regular' apples. What? How unlike regular apples, I ask? They're lumpy and full of seeds was the best I could understand.... So, I put them back and when I got back to the office I looked 'em up.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/sugar_apple.html#Cropping and Yield

Food Uses

The ripe sugar apple is usually broken open and the flesh segments enjoyed while the hard seeds are separated in the mouth and spat out. It is so luscious that it is well worth the trouble. In Malaya, the flesh is pressed through a sieve to eliminate the seeds and is then added to ice cream or blended with milk to make a cool beverage. It is never cooked.

Now I kinda wished I had gotten one or two - just for grins!

 

[Wannabefree]

Those look pretty cool FEM! I'd go back and get at least one

 

[Dawn419]

Eggs? Eggs? I should know that word but can't picture it in my mind...

My girls are going through a serious molt right now and I'm getting nothing. They deserve the break though, especially since they laid continuously trough the oppressive heat we had from spring through the summer. It had to be the kefir, that I gave them daily, that kept them laying through that mess.

That sugar apple is just too cool!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It is a cool tree, in't it. Haven't decided if I'll go back and get one or not....

My older chickens are molting too, but I've got spring pullets that are just coming into lay, so I'm still getting anywhere from 8 - 15 eggs a day - AND - yesterday I found a broody hen on about a dozen eggs. Sitting up against a fence, right out in the open and I've missed her for gosh knows how long. However, I may have scared her off her nest by placing a wedge of plywood up against the fence where she's sitting to try and get the ungrateful wench some protetion from the elements.

Oh, oh, oh!! Guess what I did? I made CLABBER! I know I shouldn't get so excited cuz actually the clabber made itself. For whatever reason I forgot to put a jar of milk in the fridge the other day. That reminded me that a couple weeks ago (when my dad was ill) he mentioned that he'd love to have some clabber and that he hadn't had any since he was a kid. Soooo, I promised him that I'd learn to make it.

Instructions: leave raw milk out of the fridge - it clabbers. Voila! I'm so excited you'd think I'd invented this stuff myelf, lol.

Anyway - I'll be taking some to my dad and leaving him some frozen milk so he can keep a steady supply for himself.

I feed kefir to the pigs, but never thought about giving any to the chickens. I've got one very old ameracauna hen, (like 8 or 9 years old) who laid all summer - but now she looks like a worn out dish rag.... She could probably benefit from a boost of kefir or clabber or something before she just goes away in a 'poof' of feathers.

Guess I'll go outside and see if that broody went back to her nest - and if not - decide if I'm gonna feed the eggs to the pigs or put 'em in the incubator. Argh - these life and death decisions give me a headache.

 

[Denim Deb]

I know someone who moved a broody hen since she had all the other chickens still laying their eggs in w/her. The hen deserted the nest and when I checked it for her, the eggs were stone cold. If they hadn't been, I would have tried to incubate them since 3 of them were my eggs.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone has the beautiful weather that we're having today. Supposed to be gorgemous alllll day long....with heat and humidity coming back tomorrow. That's okay, I can take 89 being described as "heat" over the 100+ days we had a month ago.

Pigs are fed, Red is milked. Kefir started for today as well as clabber. I've got three trees to plant, and may go back to the nursery and look for a couple oaks. I'd love to have some free feed in the form of acorns in a few years.

DH and I have been contemplating making an investment in some rental property. We've scrimped and scraped for years, paid off debt and saved up an amount of money that should suffice for a down payment on a small house. We have an appt to look at one this morning, but I'm not totally convinced yet. We're going to look at the house (which is a short sale and in kind of rough condition). After we see it and make our assessment we'll meet with our tax guy next week and learn about all the new tax laws coming in. I'll admit that I'm afraid to turn loose of our cash as a down payment, but I've always heard that you've gotta spend money to make money. The IRA's and 401k's sure aren't making any money, so real estate might be the way to go. Scary stuff though....

We've got to call a fence company to come and install two drive through gates in the fence and repair what we took down for the septic system. We've kinda been dragging our feet on that one - should have had it taken care of at least a couple weeks ago.

The broody hen officially abandoned her nest - my bad for disturbing her I guess. Not too disappointing though because I have plenty of chickens right now and I wanted to open that area up to the pigs anyway. Couldn't do that while she was nesting or they would've just eaten the eggs.

Needa get busy....

 

[Denim Deb]

Just be very careful getting rental property. It can be a real pain in the tosh and you can lose money rather than make money.

Edited cuz hubby's bugging me and I can't spell when he is!

 

[pinkfox]

sounds like a good day ahead.
i do like the idea of investing in a rental but like you im always worried about "spending"
go with your gut

 

[frustratedearthmother]

We looked at the house... It's a mid size, (a little over 1500 sq ft) on an acre of land. Horses are allowed and there's a barn in the back of the property, but none of the proper fencing that you would need to have animals housed in the barn. The bones of the house look good but it's many years outdated. It's got sparkly popcorn texture on the ceilings, lol. It's brick on all 4 sides, but needs some trim replaced. All in all, it was in better shape than I really expected. However; having said that, there is still considerable cosmetic work that should be done eventually. The agent is supposed to send us the seller's disclosure. Also, there was a contract on the house earlier, but because the process was taking so long the buyers backed out - I asked the agent to see if those folks had an inspection done - maybe we could glean some info from that.

Lots of things to consider. Turning loose of my cash is a big one - and because I've been a landlord before I still remember some of the issues that can crop up - especially in the middle of the night, or a holiday, lol. So, still way up in the air with this, but glad we looked...