HeatherLynnKy on the farm Ranting and hormone crazy tonight warning

[heatherlynnky]

I had one of those slam your head into a brick wall moments. My dad is watching the news and comes to the kitchen where I was making dinner. He brings up putting up the greenhouse for year round garden and maybe starting solar ( which I have been nagging on and no one would make any decisions). Anywho he says" if things keep up this way we are going to need to get more self sufficient, I guess its a good thing you were interested in this already" WHAT??? I have been saying this forever. I have my mom and my husband talked into it. I am like the we need to get self sufficient nag in this house and he just now decides this ? SIGH What did he think the meat heifer and dairy heifer were all about. Providing for ourselves. Or the dairy goats or the chickens? The plans for root cellars or my frantic canning or expanding the garden to almost a half acre?

On the bright side the greenhouse is going up next week lol. Oh and we might as well do what we wanted to put the wood furnace on solar back up. lol I love my dad but i swear I may lose my mind. I nag nag nag and he thinks he came up with a brilliant idea. I am not going to tell him different though because I am getting what I wanted. YAY solar panels. Just wait till I spring on him about trying to get our springs into a reliable water source. He is going to ignore me for at least a year on that one.

Other than that all is well. We survived another heat and she is only slightly more crazy than before. Blossom is getting SOO SOO big and playful. She is really filling out and doing well. Amazed that this was the calf I was told to give up on. She has a will power that will make her a great mom I think. Still no baby goats but hopefully soon. We all got sick again with a tummy bug so still no new door or warming box done but that will happen this weekend. Already told the hubby its on the top of the list. Sick or not the chores have got to get done.

 

[Denim Deb]

I can only do so much w/where we live. But I'm hoping that w/in a couple of years we can move and do more.

 

[heatherlynnky]

Its another hard day. I can't say its unusual anymore though. Every day I turn on the news anymore is a rough day. I woke up to a call that the nursing home we were going to visit had a horrible virus sweap through it and every resident was sick. We cancelled our visit of course but my heart was so heavy for the residents because I know some will not make it through a bad illness. Then I turned on the news and my heart was in my throat. The world is so messed up guys and all I can think is to stay up on this hill and hide. My husband says thats not the answer and I guess I know that but its tempting right now. I am thankful for the peace God gives me despite the fear i feel right now. I hope that peace grows, I have a feeling I will need all the peace I can get.

 

[heatherlynnky]

Ah, sorry I had to take a break. Apparently many many of my problems that I thought were totally unrelated are hormonal. I thought I was too young for all that but apparently not. Ah well, I feel tons better and survived the entire family ( 8 in one house) catching it. YAY A few things we managed to accomplish is treating our flu totally naturally and me dealing with the hormone issue naturally. We have totally converted to butcher store meat rather than the junk at the grocery that was causing me tummy issues. I am studying a book on foraging right now too and herbalism lol. Oh and trying to learn accupressure. No I don't start too many projects at once.

We also bought another gun for home defense and stocked up. With the economy going the way it is we have more theft out in our rural area than we ever had before. We live so far out that it takes at least 30 minutes to get an officer out here. That has my parents very very worried. I am not worried because I have my handy dandy shot gun but they are worried. Its hard having elderly parents. I am worried about current events but they are terrified. My mom already went through this in Austria and her mothers stories about invasions and Hitler and such. Well she is just in a total panic. You should see her breath a sigh of relief when my husband came home with a handgun and said he would teach everyone to use it. I actually am worried about leaving them alone to go on a little family trip. I hate to think of her being so worried. We talked about putting a gate and a sensor on our hill so they are not surprised by someone coming up the hill. Anything really to make them feel safe.

Our goat is working her way toward those babies finally. She has huge grape fruits for udders now and they are getting bigger each day. I think by the time spring really comes we shall have babies and the hope of raw goats milk. My husband has a to do list a mile long I swear but he has to get a few things ready for me for milking. Very excited;

The heifers are doing well. Lovely Blossom is no longer skin and bones. She is a beautiful leggy girl right now and playful. Growing like a weed and has already escaped her enclosure to get into the green grass once already. Again our future hope of raw milk and potentially meat babies from Blossom. Not sure how this how Angus and jersey mix thing will work out but thats the hope.

We have not yet build the solar panel for the wood furnace but it will be in place before next winter. I would like to see more solar up on this hill but its expensive. Everything is on a tight budget so I do what I can.

The walk out basement renovation is under way. Soon we will have a school room and 2 additional bedrooms on the farm so we can spread out a bit. I think the hope of us buying something elsewhere is dead for now. Even if the house in town sells now we need to stay on the farm. My parents health is not improving and it seems more and more they need us 24/7. So we are just settling in and we will deal with houses and such later. The farm itself will eventually be mine anyway so maybe we will just go ahead and build with cash another house next door to mom and dad. Or we will wait. Sell everything someday and move to Alaska lol. Who knows. The world is so crazy right now I don't dare make too many plans.

The garden plans are well under way also. We sat down and started making lists of what all we want. My list consisted of sauce tomatoes, carrots, beats, beans, zuccinni and yellow squash. Mom wants steak tomatoes, peppers, cotton ( don't ask), okra and lettuce. There might be some potatoes in there somewhere.

Ok well thats all that is going on here really. I am helping to get an American Heritage Girls group going and a local self sufficiency group meetup. Other than thats its the same grind toward self sufficiency. Little bits of progress and lots of plans.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It sounds like you're well on your way. It's so nice that you are there to help the oldsters!

 

[heatherlynnky]

They help us too. We all have to work together. Sometimes that might mean mom watching the kiddies while I do something heavier or with the animals but it all works out. I feel like we are banded together. I am glad though that we can offer them help with heavy work and with the farm and even with feeling more secure. Its not right that they have to feel so worried but that's how it is. I wish the world beyond our hill was just as peaceful.

 

[heatherlynnky]

You have got to love ice on a ramp honestly. Even in my work boots I went sliding. Woke the 4 year old up for his preschool and got him to school. Sat a half hour while he cried and begged to go back home with me. Its just a half day but it broke my heart. Usually he loves school and for whatever reason now he never wants to leave my side again. It was awful. The great debate is if I start homeschooling him inkindergarten or first grade. All the other kids learn at home but I do like to give them the chance to be social and go to regular school in the beginning. We shall see.

Doing some more winterizing today. Getting a bit more hay out for everyone, making a repair to a roof that was just damaged in a storm ( it has to happen in cold weather), and pinning down some plastic that came loose. Then its cutting wood again. we are running a bit shy again. Only have a couple cords left and this was crap wood so it burns quick. I cannot get anyone to listen about driving an hour to go pick up free crap wood but seriously its not worth it. Just let it finish rotting people. Anywho, husband worked all night and probably will do wood for a good portion of the day.

Homeschooling is going rough this morning. Computer won't load typing program and my daughter is struggling with flipping letters and numbers this morning. Only when she is feeling off or really tired and frustrated is this a huge problem. Apparently she is all three this morning because it is rough. Even just doing multiplication is a struggle right now. Dyslexia is the bane of both of our existances. She has to work so hard to learn everything, while my son breazes through. He can do complex algebra in his head while feeding calves and breaking ice I swear.

I may bury myself in seed catalogs later. I am dying for spring. Thinking of putting in a couple more elderberry in my lower field and trying to work out my herb beds. Still in the drawing process. As soon as possible I am going to kill off the grass where I want it and then start pulling up sod. ( black plastic held down works wonders) I may even put my meat chickens over the spot for a couple days before planting time. Free fertilizer lol.

Aw well, guess its time to go play in the freezing drizzle. Spring are you coming? I miss you!!

 

[Wannabefree]

UGH sorry you're having a rough day! I remember those homeschooling moments where it is just so frustrating for both of you....we usually just took a break at that point and baked cookies or did something stupid to relax. DD has ADD and we had those moments fairly often. If we didn't break, we fought, and when we fought, nothing got done, because both of us got too aggravated to move forward. I hope the kiddos give you a break today too!!! Some days just nothing seems to go right

 

[heatherlynnky]

She took a break, got a snack, did some ballet stretches and then was ready to jump back in thankfully. I am not sure how she would deal with a regular class and dealing with this. Even fighting through this she is staying at grade level on all subjects, so she is working through it.

Doing the wood is not going well. We need to cut more before the weekend but everything is covered in ice. We burned through way too much wood this year. Heating the greenhouse really eats up wood too. I think next year we will need like 14 cords of wood. yes it is insane but its heating a huge farm house and a huge greenhouse so.....well I can complain but we still gotta get that wood done.

 

[Wannabefree]

Glad she got back on it

That's a LOT of wood! If I was there I'd help ya