Shots On The Farm

The girls went out with their cameras' and took a few shots around the homestead.  I thought I'd share them with y'all.  The ducks are a recent addition and quite fun to have around.

The IRS Got Caught

All I can say on this one is that it has been a LONG time coming.

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A Great, Productive Day On The Homestead

I was fortunate to get several tasks completed on the homestead today.  I was able to get half the day off from work as part of my holiday (us little people that work in retail had to work on the holiday), so I came home early and went (you guessed it) right to work.

My gorgeous wife had a couple of things for me to do right away, so I set in on those first.  I needed to repair one side of our chicken coop from when our bull got out one night and used it as his scratching post.  He tore off almost one whole side of it.  That didn't take too terribly long as I had the material I needed on hand.  I didn't even have to cut anything-BONUS!

The other thing she wanted me to do is to air up the tires on her garden cart.  That didn't take but a couple of minutes.  I then got Polly out of the barn (Polly is our DR Power wagon) and air up her tires.  I loaded her up with firewood I had cut from a tree that fell during a storm (the same tree the destroyed the fence mentioned in another post and let the bull out to wreck the chicken coop-see how this all ties together?)  With Polly loaded I set in to splitting the wood and wound up splitting a half a cord before I ran out of gas for the splitter.

All said and done, I had a pretty productive day on the homestead.  It sure is a nice feeling having some things out of the way and knowing that the firewood situation for this season is all but taken care of.  So, what's going on at your place?

Memorial Day

A Country Life

I love being outside on a sunny day.   I love the look of split firewood nicely stacked.  I love seeing my wife out working the garden.  I love cooking on the grill.  I love sitting outside with my knife and a piece of wood in my hands.  I love watching the chickens scratch in the yard.  I love seeing the cows lying in the field chewing their cud.  I love the smell of fresh cut grass.  I love fresh strawberries from our garden.  I love not being able to see my neighbor's house.  I love living down a long dirt road.  I love a long walk to the mailbox.  I love working hard all day and sitting back in the evening to view the completed work.  I love the feel of the shower after that long hard day.

I'm just reflecting here.  You can't have all of this in a city, not to mention being under the watchful eye of big brother.  What does living in the country do for you?

What Kind Of Fence Is The Best?

A couple of weeks ago when we had some nasty weather we had a large tree get knocked over.  It lifted up my electric fence which was attached to the tree and pulled a few T-posts out of the ground.  I have been working on the sudden influx of firewood, clearing it out. 

I am writing this as a way to, sort of, explain another of the many benefits to electric fence.  I didn't take pictures so I will try to explain the best I can.  The tree fell and tangled the three strands of wire around the root ball.  The tension it caused made a couple of posts shoot out of the ground, landing a few feet away from where they were.  That means there was a lot of added tension.  However, the wire did not break.  It was stretched about to it's limits and in other places was laying flat on the ground, but it didn't break.  I had to cut it just to get it unstuck from the root ball, but was easily repaired in a few minutes with splicers and a wrench.

I cut the tree out of the fence line, had a friend come over with a tractor and pull the jumbo trunk out of the way and repaired the fence.  The fence repair took about an hour-having to re-establish the fence line and drive the T-posts, splice the wire back together and re-attach it to the posts, then crank out the slack on the daisy wheels. 

Most of the tree is still waiting for me to cut it up, but the fence was fixed in short order and the bull placed back in his pasture (yes, I had a nice shock when I went out to feed him the next day and stared him in the eyes by the barn an hour before daylight., WAY out of where he was supposed to be!  It seems he had been out most of the night.)

In the end, I love electric fence.  It is incredibly versatile, easy to install, can be adapted for pasture rotation very easily, has much more "give" when something falls on it, and is easily repaired when something does happen.  Not to mention you can build electric fence for a fraction of the cost of traditional barbed wire or woven wire.  Yup, going electric was one shinning moment of good decision in my homesteading life.

Babies!

We have a new batch of young'uns at the homestead.  Our two daughter's business venture-rabbits.  These bunnies will be available for sale in a few weeks.  Aren't they adorable?

Ice, Snow, And A Blown Motor

As I have said, I have ignored this blog for quite some time, so it has been hard to get back into things.  But we have had quite an eventful couple of weeks. 

Last week we had a major snow, ice and sleet storm roll through.  I say "major" knowing that for some of you out there 8 inches of snow is not a big deal, but where we live it is.  I work in a grocery store and it was almost painful watching all the people storm the store with the look of a bewildered daze, a cross between a deer in the headlights and a zombie.  That aside, we made it through, only to get another round this past Friday-only less severe.  However, the masses went from the deer/zombie look to a sheer chicken little demeanor-"The sky is falling, the sky is falling...".

This last round only left about an inch of snow, then moved on to bless other communities.  So, yesterday, I get my oldest daughter and head out to cut a bit of firewood, which we accomplished quite well.  We hauled to the wood shed where the log splitter is located and the fun began.  My daughter watched her daddy turn beat red, sweating like it was June trying to start the @#$@##$ thing.  I had never had that much trouble starting it-ever.

I fought and fought, determined to get it running, which I finally did.  By that time my daughter had that look on her face.  You know the one, squinty eyes, a half smirk with a questioning gaze, "really?".  We split most of what we had cut when I figured out why I had such a time starting it-no oil.  Yup, threw the piston strait out the side of the block.  Our day ended there, with my daughter happy that the work was over and she could go build a snowman and her father hiding his face in shame for not checking the oil level because he was in too big a hurry (hey, the wind was blowing and it was COLD). 

Lesson learned.  And the lesson will kepp on teaching for a while as I am back to splitting wood with a maul.  Life on the homestead.

Why Do We Need High Capacity Magazines?

I had an interesting conversation today with a young coworker of mine.  I am blessed that way.  I have the freedom to converse in my line of work and sometimes these discussions can be quite lengthy and, even heated.  Today was no different.

Let me open with the question that he posed to me.  I do this to illustrate a point and the point is that the media have formed the minds of young people in large proportions.  None seem to have the ability of critical thinking nor free thought-it's whatever they're told to think.  So, the question was, why do people need semi automatic weapons and high capacity magazines?

His thought was that homes can be defended with a revolver, or a baseball bat.  I cannot deny that, homes can be defended in that way.  Many people keep a revolver nearby, just in case.  You see, he says that he is not against guns, just doesn't understand the need of semi auto weapons and high cap magazines-two MAJOR buzz words flying across your TV screens nightly.

My response was that I not only want to defend my home and family from knuckleheads trying to steal from us, but I want to defend my home and family from knuckle-headed government.  Tyranny is to be opposed, thankfully it was-once, beginning in 1776.

His thought was that a six shooter could do the same thing.  Not if they come with semi auto weapons themselves, I told him.  A little pistol will do nothing against 5 armed men 40 yards away.  All  I ask for is a fighting chance.  He never did get it.  We went round and round for quite a while, resulting in him getting quite perturbed at me, so I left it.

But here is the thing that strikes me the most.  He thinks just exactly the way "they" want him to think.  Yes he attends a government funded college, and watches all the mainstream garbage on TV.  He said nothing that I haven't heard for the past few weeks in the news, notably Joe Bidden who suggests women just buy a shotgun and just pointing it at an intruder will scare them off.  The message is that "we won't take away you right to own a gun" by making suggestions like that to soften the blow.

Don't fall for it people.  The fact is "they" think we are all like the youth I was talking to, simple minded, line toers who will "fall in" once things happen.  They count on us being like my friend.  They hate free thinkers-those of us that don't watch TV .  Don't fall for it.

Chick-Chick-chicken Time!

It is the time of year that we should be ordering our broiler chickens.  I have to be honest here-my heart does not seem to be into raising these chickens.  Oh we're going to do it, but I, kinda, don't want to.  I think I'm getting lazy in my old age.

Joking aside, what really has me bumfuzled is the cost of feed.  We sell many of the birds, keeping enough for ourselves, but it is getting harder to turn a profit.  We buy a ton of feed at a time, supplemented with grass in chicken tractors.  Last year, when I went to buy feed it cost $400 for a ton.  It's still cheaper using our custom mix than buying Purina junk, so it worked out, but I haven't checked on the price of things yet-so I'm dreading it.

In the end, I need to quit lollygagging and get the order in for the birds.  No matter what, they are still the best tasting, best for you chickens around.

Poison Ivy

I have a bad case of poison ivy on my arms from cutting firewood-I will spare you the story of my stupidity.  All I need to say is that it hurts.  I went to the pharmacy to see if there was anything I can do to help my condition without going to the doctor-we need to learn to make do without as it may well be there won't be a doctor that is readily available in the near future.  The pharmacist pointed me to a product called Ivy Dry that works pretty well.  It kills the itch almost immediately and stops the burning.  It hasn't done much for the swelling (my arms look like Popeye's) but it is healing, I can tell, faster than if I had done nothing.  It works by drying up the blisters and does it pretty fast.  Use the link and check it out, every prepper ought to have a bottle of this (I got the spray).

I've Been Thinking

I need to start by saying that we had a picture perfect day here in the Ozarks.  The temp was a mild 73 degrees, cloudless skies and very light breeze.  Not bad, eh? 

We, as a family, spent the bulk of the day out of doors, performing menial tasks around the homestead.  The first thing we did was to move the cattle "back home" from across the road.  Our small paddocks have recovered nicely from the forced over grazing that occured last year due to the drought.  That went well, although the cows had to take a little trip around the house before going into the paddock.

Otherwise it was a very typical Saturday around here.  My lovely wife spent the day in the garden, preparing and planting to keep her family fed.  The kids and I put our new log splitter to good use and got a bunch of wood split and stacked for next winter.  My wife and I planted a couple of Goji bushes in a corner of one of the paddocks in keeping with our sustainable, permaculture course of action.  I have decided to let all the corners of the paddocks "go" with growth of various plants and herbs for food value to us, the animals and the wild thins like rabbits, birds and bugs.  It is that way in God's creation and so it should be on the farm.

Now to the title of this post.  My wife was working diligently in the garden when I walked by.  She stood up and said, I've been thinking...

Those few words usually mean more work for me.  They are usually followed by their cousin words like, what if we did this over there...?  or, why don't we do that in the area over there...? 

Sure enough, it was as I suspected.  Truly, I don't mind so much, after all, it is about keeping us all fed.  Really, these thypes of ideas she comes up with are all about survival.  In order to survive natural disasters or government meltdown you need to have a plan.  My wife's are ususally pretty darn good, so I go along.  I'm the labor behind the brains, you see.

SO, what's going on in your neck of the woods?

Permaculture Ideas On The Homestead.

Happy Ressurection day to all my freinds out there.  He is risen, He is risen indeed.

Out here on our little homestead I have mentioned some new things that we are trying.  We made an effort toward a couple of those thins this weekend.  The first is our new bee hive.  I made a top bar bee hive that, unfortunately, I am not happy with as it is-from a craftsmanship standpoint, not functionality.  I am not liking the way it fits together right now, so I will probably take it apart and adjust and correct a couple of things.  That seems to be my M.O., make a project a lot harder and longer than it needs to be.  Once complete, and we have our own bees, it will go a long way toward our permaculture, sustainability endevours.

Another thing we did, as per a decision I made regarding the pastures, was to plant some berry bushes in one pasture corner.  The plan is to plant something, or let go, the corners in all the pastures.  The idea behind all of this is really old school knowledge, that God's world works together.  Thus by leaving some small places for the birds, bees, rabbits and quail, among other things including bugs,  we are re-creating a natural, cohesive environment and micro-ecosystems.  It is simple, the birds that will be attracted help to eat the bugs and flys, beneficial bugs are also attracted.  Quail that have a habitiat are beneficial because they eat the seeds of unwanted weed plants, not to mention their food value in a crisis situation.  So we have decided to let the corners go or add to them.  Right now, I have one corner with blackberry brambles in it-I'm gonna let them be.  In another corner, we planted two Currant bushes for food, medicinal, health and natural value.  I think this is a step in the right direction.  A direction that farmers in Europe used to practice everywhere.

What are you doing on your place that you can share?

Nixall For Your Livestock And Pets

Nixall has uses in the home, on the farm and on your body and for institutional health. For your pets and livestock it will heal skin irritations, fungus, teat treatment, distemper, cuts, scratches and burns, ear infections, warts, ring worm and many more...


All natural and eco friendly.  Not a petroleum product nor a drug.  100 times stronger than bleach-which is a very harmful chemical.  Interested yet?

Nixall For Preppers

If you are prepping at all, you need Nixall.  Ask me about it.  More to come...

I Am Thinking About Ham Radio

A few of the guys I work with and I got to talking one day about the "situation" we seem to be heading for and ham radio came up.  These guys are like minded and we talk all the time about this stuff-what we're doing, what we can be doing etc...  One of them is licenced in ham, the other is interested and I am intrigued.  I think a method of communication, especially for us rural types, is a necessity.  I found out that it really isn't that expensive to get into and the licencing isn't bad either.  I will be doing a lot of research on the subject and would like to know if any of you are ham's.  If so, can you advise me a bit?  I am totally green on the subject so anything you can share would be great.  I found this cool site: www.preparedham.com that is loaded with people willing to share info, so if you have given this some thought too check out the site.

A New Raised Bed Garden-Hugelkultur, Or, Hugel-Culture

We made a Hugelkultur (think huegel-culture) bed today, one of the many preparedness things you can do on your property.  In case you don't know what this is, or means, here is a definition taken from Wikipedia:

"The practice of making raised garden beds filled with rotting wood.[21][22] It is in effect creating a Nurse log, however, covered with dirt.


Benefits of hugelkultur garden beds include water retention and warming of soil.[23][24] Buried wood becomes like a sponge (material) as it decomposes, able to capture water and store it for later use by crops planted on top of the hugelkultur bed.[25][26]

The buried decomposing wood will also give off heat, as all compost does, for several years. These effects have been used by Sepp Holzer for one to allow fruit trees to survive at otherwise inhospitable temperatures and altitudes."

We did this with sustainability in mind and yet another way to provide food, not just for ourselves, also for our animals.  The thought is that as costs continue to rise and the possible impending doom, we need to find sustainable ways to provide for oourselves.  If this interests you a bit, I encourage you to do some more research on the subject, starting on youtube by searching for a man named Sepp Holtzer and watch a few videos.  Once you have done that you will find a plethora of information on the subject.  Let me know what you find out and we can share information.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

My wife informed me last week that it is time to start thinking about the garden.  Indeed, this mild winter, thus far, has given us the "bug" to get out and plant.  If you are preparedness minded, this is a subject of importance, so I wanted to share with you a great seed company called Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  Click here to visit their site.  They deal in old, sometimes ancient seeds, but the great thing about heirloom seeds is that they are open pollinated and you can save the seeds from your produce each year.  Non GMO, non tainted, non Frankenstien food.  For a survivalist, this is a must have.  They are about an hour away from us, so my wife makes the trip yearly to stock up, but they also have a very nice catalog to order from.  Good people, great company-check them out.

Americans Bought Enough Arms In 2011 To Supply Chinese and Indian Armies

Here is an interesting read, if it is true, good.  Keep it up.

Is There A Need To Carry A Weapon?

I am sharing this article with a friend of mine, who gets the credit for finding it and sharing it with his friends (Gorges Smythe).  I read the article and felt that I had to share it as well.  Read this article to see some very compelling arguments, put in a very convincing way, for the need to carry a firearm.  Do you, or do you not carry and why?