PamsPride's Journal-Free Kindle Downloads!

[PamsPride]

Busy girl!

Nice job of the food storage, I wish I were more focused...just not a priority right now.

How nice that you are so close to the Amish, and what a great deal on the chicken processing!

Do your BJG lay light brown eggs? or are the deeper brown? I have one odd girl who is laying a nice rich brown colored egg and two that are laying light brown/beige.

Light brown. If you scroll down through the pots on my blog you can see pictures of my eggs....March I think has some pictures.

I wish we lived a little closer to the Amish...like within walking distance. They are about a 15-20 minute drive from us.

I am not the least bit focused. I am just doing stuff as it comes along right now.

It is full blown allergy season for me now and I am miserable!

 

[keljonma]

I would love to hear how your chickie-doo classes went.

That is sure a lot of JBGs you have! I am hoping we can find a place where we can have chickens again. I miss having a flock, and my JBG was my favorite. I love that breed.

Andover kids have school starting this week. I heard a mom in the grocery saying she was sending her baby to kindergarten this year. I think she sounded pretty happy about having some quiet time at home.

 

[PamsPride]

I MADE MY FIRST BATCH OF HOMEMADE BUTTER!!!!!
It looks so rich and creamy!! As soon as I find my camera I will take a picture. This milk was so thick it turned into butter quickly! I want to use the leftover milk to make some buttermilk buscuits for dinner!
I also got 4 dozen more eggs but, I will probably only put 3 dozen in the 'bator.

 

[PamsPride]

I went to the Chickie-Doo meeting last night. It was 'interesting'. I am not totally sure I will continue to keep going. There was two ladies there that I was really fascinated with. Lynne, one of the ladies, has a 5 acre working farm!! 3 types of goats...meat, fiber, and milk. Sells the fiber and makes goats milk soap to sell. She has a small shop on her farm. She said she sent the fibers out to NJ and had them made into blankets and sells the blankets in her shop. The shop is supposed to be in her laundry room. She sells whole roaster chickens (processed meat chickens) for $20 EACH!! Dude! I would love to get that price! She has meat rabbits, several different kinds of geese, chickens, horses, ect. ect! I want to go to her farm in the worst way! She made it very clear that her farm was a business and not a hobby...she pays taxes and everything! This is her job! She sounds like she has the type of set up that I dream about doing on 5 acres!
Chantell (pronounced Shawn-tell) was another lady I enjoyed! VERY knowledgable! She has a PhD in ecology/biology...something like that! Has done TONS of research on all of that. She has a hobby farm....a few turkeys, over 150 chickens, can't remember what all else.
The I am not sure I will go back part...a STRICT NO children allowed policy...not even the baby. With nursing it is just hard to leave her for several hours at a time. I HATE getting that agitated phone call that ALWAYS comes from my DH to get home NOW because he has had enough of her crying. While they talked a LOT about chickens it was clear that one of the ladies in charge wants it to be a Ladies Night Out. 5 or the 10 women brought a bottle of wine!! I get out enough...and it is a lot less stress for me to go out if I can take the baby with me. I thought they were going to talk about other things...according to the flyer...like SS, canning, harvesting, ect. they really didn't. I have BYC if I have chicken questions. I am not interested in having 20 different chickens like most of these ladies have. I have just my one breed (until my laying chickens hatch). Also the one lady in charge wants to charge $5 so they can put an add in the paper for more people to attend. I personally think 10 people is enough because you are expected to take turns hosting it in your own home! Plus with word of mouth the group will naturally grow. And for some of the ladies in the group money is no object and they want to have field trips...like overnighters and such...things I just will not be allowed participate in because of the strict no children policy. Most of the ladies have children that are grown and are just at different stages in life than I am. I never felt out of place last night, I really did have a great time and learned a lot! Perhaps as the baby gets older and I can leave her at home the meeting would be more enjoyable for me personally. I think I will try a couple more meetings and if it is clearly just a Ladies Night Out and they do not talk about other productive things....like SS, canning, ect...I will probably not continue to go.

 

[Javamama]

Hmm, the group sounds like it could be fun if it were a little more flexible. I really love to have something like that here, where whole families could come.

 

[TanksHill]

Sounds like an excuse for a bunch of ladies to get out of the house to me. Perhaps you could pursue relationships with just the two that interest you. Asking to see their hobby farms and such. Then it would be on your own time schedule with baby and all. Does the night time meeting have an agenda or schedule that might reveal different topics of discussion?

JMO,

 

[keljonma]

Can you pump and have dh feed the baby from a bottle? I used to do that when the kids were infants and had commitments that kept me away at feeding time. I could see if the group is going to seriously address issues, children could be considered a distraction.

Sounds like the two women you found interesting were good people to get to know better.

I agree with Tanks, a group like this needs an agenda for each meeting so participants know what topics will be covered. Sorry it was a disappointment.

 

[PamsPride]

Funny you should say that TanksHill! I called Lynne this afternoon and my mom, baby, and I are going to her house next Friday for a tour! Which is a good thing too because when I called her she had ALL the same complaints I had and then some! She said she would not be going again.
I think the leader is looking for a social night. I am looking to learn new skills. I feel like I get enough socialization already.

I have tried pumping before and my milk will not let down and the baby will not take a bottle even if it is my milk.

I think it is going to take them several meetings before they get an agenda set...which is a total waste of the next three or four months if you ask me. Several of the ladies are very talkative. Lynne was one of the ladies I thought that had the most to contribute and if she is not going to go it is definetly going to be a social hour.

DH can only last about 15 minutes with the baby fussing and he is done. I think it is mostly because he is so tired. He gets up at 4AM so by 6 he is winding down. By 7 or 8 he is pretty much to tired to do much of anything. So he can't handle her fussing at all.

If they would just do what the flyer said they were I think it would be an excellent group!

 

[keljonma]

Funny you should say that TanksHill! I called Lynne this afternoon and my mom, baby, and I are going to her house next Friday for a tour! Which is a good thing too because when I called her she had ALL the same complaints I had and then some! She said she would not be going again.
I think the leader is looking for a social night. I am looking to learn new skills. I feel like I get enough socialization already.

....

I think it is going to take them several meetings before they get an agenda set...which is a total waste of the next three or four months if you ask me. Several of the ladies are very talkative. Lynne was one of the ladies I thought that had the most to contribute and if she is not going to go it is definetly going to be a social hour.

...

If they would just do what the flyer said they were I think it would be an excellent group!

Well, Pam, it certainly sounds like you are on the right track meeting Lynne at her place. I think any new group can have the bugs to work out, but to not try to set up an agenda for the following meetings makes no sense, imo. So sad -- here was a missed opportunity for some real fellowship, teaching/mentoring/learning, and community spirit.

Please keep us posted on how the meeting with Lynne goes.

 

[PamsPride]

I got 14 quarts of thick tomato sauce canned yesterday. 9 quarts last week (not as thick.)
Today I am working on applesauce. So far I have 10 gallons made into sauce with a little bit more to go. When I get home from our Labor Day picnic at my MIL's I am going to stay up late tonight and can it!
I also got over 100 pounds of potatoes out of two of my rows in my garden. I have not figured out what I am going to do with them yet. DH wants me to dehydrate them. I am thinking more french fries! We still have 4 more rows of potatoes in the garden! Some of them are the size of the baby's head! LOL!

I got another boutique outfit made for the girls. This is a watermelon one.