Here's To Not Catching Our Hair On Fire

From the title (I have caught my hair on fire! And I've been distracted by a chicken too!) I thought this would be a fun read.

It was not. I'm really not sure why I finished it. I would not spend that much time listening to a person in real life who could not go 6 sentences without a string of swear words. It's even less endearing in a book. Her stories of abuse, being drugged, drinking too much, flitting from job to job, and drug use were just not funny. Her life wasn't funny. Her book isn't funny. The author thinks her life is a riot.

This book is like sitting down with a person you vaguely know, only to get their entire torrid life story, all with the attitude that none of what happens to them is in their control. Life just happens, and all the scatterbrained inability to keep a job is from a medical diagnosis, NOT from the weed they smoke. Or all the times they get drunk. Getting arrested is great fun, an adventure! (Yes, she really says this - in great detail. She also thought getting drugged was a laugh fest too, since nothing bad happened while she was drugged.)

Her inability to make a list is just how her brain works, nothing can be done about it.. and yet the same person can write an entire book.

There were parts of this book I could honestly relate to. Many of the symptoms of her ADHD, or "how her brain works", were achingly familiar to me. But those tidbits were hidden in so much junk and disaster (not funny disaster - more like "grow up already" disaster) that I found myself trying to distance myself even from the parts I could relate to. It's her life, her story, and she has a right to tell it.. I just really wish I had not wasted my time reading it.

The Dirty Life

"In my experience, tranquil and simple are two things farming is not.  Nor is it lucrative, stable, safe, or easy. Sometimes the work is enough to make you weep.  But most days I wake up grateful that I found it - tripped over it, really - and that I'm married to someone who feels the same way."

This book had been on my to read list for awhile, but when Walden Effect chose it as the book club selection, I finally bought it and read it.

There is a lot about this book that makes me nuts.  The decision to put 18,000  (their entire savings) into a farm they didn't even own, nor have any guarantee they would be able to use beyond the first year, baffled me.   The constant surge of people giving them things, loaning them things, and in general helping them was so unreal, I couldn't imagine it.  We've always known our local farmers to be generous, but the amount of help they received was just mind boggling.  I was puzzled by all the friends that came to visit - where did they stay, in a house with no furniture?  I was also inspired by that too - we have so much drop in company around here, I should put them to work when they drop in... 

Then there were parts of the book that I just related to so much.  A few of my favorite quotes:

"A farm is a manipulative creature.  There is no such thing as finished.  Work comes in a stream and has no end.  There are only the things that must be done now and the things that can be done later.  The threat the farm has got on you, the one that keeps you running from can until can't is this: do it now, or some living thing will wilt or suffer or die.  It's blackmail really."


"Farmers toil.  Nature laughs.  Farmers weep. there's your history of agriculture in a nutshell."


"It's never the way you think it will be, Mark used to tell me.  Not as perfect as you hope or as scary as you fear."



"A man we know bought up a big piece of good land nearby, a second home, and once, at dinner, I heard him say, 'In my retirement I want to be a simple farmer.  I want..  tranquility.'  What you really want is a garden, I thought to myself.  A very, very small one."


It's a great book.  Parts of it drove me nuts, it was just so irrational!  (and yet they made it work!)  Parts of it made me cry, having experienced dead calves, and the death of my horse, too.  Parts of it made me laugh.  All of it made me feel lazy, I do not work anywhere near that hard on our farm, and I have to wonder what I could do if I worked just 1/4 as hard around here.


I was disappointed to see that I cannot loan this book out through Amazon.  :-(  I don't like paying full price for ebooks and then not being able to share them when I am done.

Hawk w/ his dinner

As I drove into our lane last week, we startled this hawk, who was carrying off his dinner:

Bartering For Adeline

So we get home from our morning run, and Dh's brother in law comes up the lane on the 4 wheeler.  "Some foreign guy dropped a calf off while you were gone."

LOL!  Welcome to my life.  Not a calf, a goat.

About a year ago some of you may remember that our greek friend stopped by, and in broken english, informed me "your husband teach me to drive tractor.  I bring you good goat."  Sure enough, he brought us a great goat - Horton, our current billy.

This year the same man was buying a lot of hay from us.  He bought it to resell, and the man he was selling to was not always prompt in paying him, which stressed him out, because that made it difficult for him to pay us.  I told him to stop bringing me cash, and to just bring me goats instead.

So today, he delivered payment for some hay.  I've been wanting another LaMancha, the only one I have is very, very old.  I know she doesn't have many years left.  I also have a thing for spots.  Dan cringes anytime there is a spotted goat at an auction, because he knows I will want it.  So a spotted LaMancha (crossed with Nubian) ?  Oh yes, the perfect goat!

Unfortunately she still needs a bottle, but I am bottle feeding two calves right now anyway, so what is one more bottle?  :-)  She's super friendly!

http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/

Farm work Monday - Castrating, Worming, CD&T

Getting ready

Dan read recently that if you castrate either on day 1, or 3 months, it is less stressful for the steers.  This one is about 3 and a half months, and he does not seem stressed at all.

CD&T for the 3 month old goats

Daisy, supervising

Puzzle Junkie Challenge

PUZZLE JUNKIE CHALLENGE

To Qualify - 

1 Found Puzzle Caches in at least three (3) States and list the three states in your find log.

2. Have found at least 50 Mystery caches and post/publish that cache list(a minimum of 50) on this challenge page.

Our Puzzle Junkie Bookmark List - http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=6f3b628f-c4c3-456c-aefa-5d6118ce4e03

Pennsylvania 

Some of our favorites in PA are:

The Legend of the 7 Gi's - I think this was our first ever night cache.  http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCWNV4_the-legend-of-the-seven-g-i-s

This one was our first experience with geoart, or waypoint art - http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC16DCJ_picture-this-waypoint-art

This Geo Addiction Series was one of my favorite series of caches of all time - I'm sorry to see it is archived.  http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC12B39_geo-addiction-1-fairyland-u-s-a

Our kids were homeschooled, so caches like this one using the fibonacci code became school work - http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC11P6M_maths-missing-minutes

Maryland

We've found 2 mystery caches in Maryland  - Our favorite to solve being the Einstein Logic Puzzle (although this was not our favorite to find!) http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCM91A_hey-youre-as-smart-as-einstein

West Virginia

We have 4 Mystery Cache finds in West Virginia.  Our favorite was http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4ZTVD_geo-art-night?guid=518b5af1-6d84-4159-9ac1-efdef21a77bd

  New York

We found 4 Mystery Caches in New York State while there for the Alleghany Geobash 

Brown Genealogy Photobook at Shutterfly

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

Painting Plastic Chairs

I miss Krylon spray paint.  We can't get it around here anymore.  :-(  But Lowes carries a Valspar "bonds with plastic" spray paint, that did work well enough.  These chairs are OLD.  I think at least 15 years old?  There is a 3rd chair I painted, I think I sat on it here at the farm when the twins were babies.  They are almost 19 now.  So they are sturdy for plastic chairs, and were worth painting.  It took me about a can and a half to paint all 3 chairs.

There are not many color choices at our lowes though.  Brown was not my first choice, I was hoping for more of a bright lime green, but brown works.

a close up of the before

a close up of the after

2011 Photos, All in one album

I've never done my photos by year, I prefer to do them by theme.  I'm soooo far behind in scrapbooking, and so tired of not having my photos in albums, I decided to give this a try.  One album, digitally "scrapbooked" (I kept the embellishments really light on this one, I just wanted it DONE!) and printed and bound in one album.  And it will be so much thinner than my normal scrapbooks.

I think I am going to like this.

My dilema now is how to do books like this by theme, when I do not feel like the theme has ended.  Still, if I do the albums in volumes, it will still be so much thinner, easier, and cheaper than the way I have been doing it..  We can have "Christmas 1991-2000", followed by "Christmas 2001-2011", etc.

This album cost me right around $55, with the free shipping code.  It would have cost me a lot more if I scrapbooked it traditionally.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create a gorgeous, high quality wedding photo album at Shutterfly.com.

At the Livestock Auction This Afternoon

The sale seems to run later and later every week.  It is almost 3:30 now, and there is still a pen and a half of sheep before they will get to the goats.

Lots of changes here in the last year.  The computer system is a great upgrade.  We used to have to wait for the paper slips to travel up to the office before we could pay for what we bought.  Now we can walk up immediately, pay, and leave.

They used to sell the sheep after the goats and poultry, now they sell between the calves and goats.  I don't know what prompted the change, but it used to be you would only see a few sheep here. Often none at all.  This spring there are full pens of sheep, every week.  Sometimes there appear to be as many sheep here as there are calves.  There is one pen of really adorable yearlings, with long pretty fur. Another pen has 8 older sheep that do not look healthy at all.  :-(

There is a lot more poultry here ever& week too.  We brought in a crate of sex link hens, and a duck, today- cleaning out some of my excess poultry.  I prefer the "prettier" breeds, so the plain sex links are being sold to make more room for them.  Last year my hens hatched out some really pretty babies, I can't keep everything, and I want to keep these.  The duck I like, but he is male and tries to mate with my hens- he's hard on them, ripping feathers from their necks, so he is being sold.  He was dropped off at my house with some hens last year, I don't think he knows he is a duck.

There are several crates of meat chickens here, they look like they have come out of a commercial barn. Not full grown, but well started. A few boxes of rabbits, and at least two boxes with a hen and babies. One box has 8 week old barred rock chicks. I'd take them home, but with my luck they would all be roosters.

There are only 6 goats here today.  A boer nanny & 2 babies thatis thin and wormy looking, but obviously friendly and a good mom.  I wasn't looking for a boer goaat, but as I watch her, I just like her.  She has a good temperment.  Another boer, looks like a 4H or show goat.  Aloof. A little overfed.  A black dwarf baby, and a large, gorgreous, all black boer.  For looks, I was watching her.  I don't have an all black goat, she'd be a nice addition.  But she is not very friendly, and is a little aggressive towards the others.  I'm going to watch, but I wont pay too much for her.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Absolute insanity with the goat prices today. Kids sold for $110. Nannies went for $160 and up. I have no idea what that was about, prices are normally about half to 3/4 of that. So no new goats for me today! I bought a grey hen and her 9 peeps for $5. I didn't need them, but I have a weakness for grey hens, and for babies.

Dewart Livestock Auction

It's packed here today.  We brought in a rooster and three geese to sell- got $7 each for the geese and $4 for the rooster.  Much better than i expected. 

Two beautiful alpacas went for $110 each.  Guineas brought $9 each today. 

Dewart livestock auction is held every monday, starting outdoors with eggs, corn , hay, and a very small produce sale.  Calves start about 1:00pm, usually getting to goats and sheep around 2:30, followed by poultry, pigs, then the larger steers and cows.

Talking to Much & Meddling In The Affairs Of Others

From our BSF notes this week (last notes for our study of Acts)

"Peter states that when we are reproached for the name of Christ or falsely accused, we are to rejoice (1 Peter 4:12-16).  However, we are to be careful that the charges are not because we talk to much, or meddle in the affairs of others."

I've been watching so much strife on facebook lately, and this has me thinking about the division between standing up for what you believe, and meddling in the affairs of others.  Social media makes meddling so much easier today- every status begs for a response, that is the purpose of posting, right?

But maybe not.  Just because someone declares their beliefs in their status does not mean we need to respond at all.  We can disagree without words, but simply by how we live our own lives.  Unconcerned by the choices of those with whom we have no power to change, we are freed from so much strife. 

1 Peter 4:12-16 NIV:
"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. "

My 2012 Garden Plan

Most of this is already in..  but I have not yet transplanted the peas.  They were grown in the field, but did not do well at all.  There are enough plants out there to move to this garden, but they will not be ready before the sweet corn goes in that field..  so I'll transplant them to here.  And still have room in front for something else, I think.

This is not to scale - each section but the one on the right is the length of a railroad tie.  The last one, on the right, is a short section.