If you plant, they will come

Bugs that is. They will come in droves to eat what ever you plant for you to eat. This week this fact is especially true of Japanese beetles. Oh my, they are having a field day eating my thornless blackberries and grape vines. So I had to get out the heavy artillery last evening and give them the old one, two punch. I sprayed with Liquid Sevin pesticide. I dont relish the idea of spraying anything but dang, we gotta eat too. I do always spray late evenings when bees are not active. So I solved the problem of Japanese beetles, hopefully for the remainder of the season.

I made myself a list of small task that I needed to get done yesterday and did manage to accomplish all of them. Amazing!! eh? But geez, little task can take all day when you let so many build up before you tackle one of em. I had lavendar that I had started from seed that needed to be put in the ground in the herb bed to live permanently. Got that done. Got the dill cut and in the freezer so it keeps fresh to make dill pickles later when the cukes come on. I have a shrub near the front porch sidewalk that was covering half the steps and sidewalk. Got it pruned back so you can walk by without getting your legs wet when it rains or in the early morning dew is hanging on.  I want to plant some fall cabbage also and finally got the soil in the peat pots and seeds in so now its cross my fingers and hope they come up and grow fast. Its hard to find fall cabbage and broccoli plants in our area. Most people just plant a garden in spring and once its gone they are done. I just happen to know the sweetest cabbage is grown in the cooler fall weather. After having Sasha to the vet for a minor skin infection she had to have a bath in medicated shampoo, so I got that done last evening as well. Jason had just mowed the yard and you know how fresh cut grass can cling and stain anything it comes in contact with. Well I didnt dry Sasha and just bathed her, rubbed her down and let her got. She too off running and would hit her belly and slide thru the grass clippings. Oh did she look awful when I put her back in her pen right before dark. Just glad she looks better today after she got dry and the loose grass fell off her coat.

Rodger got the field mowed yesterday around the garden and in the orchard, around the corn, pea and sunflower field. It looks so much better. Good thing the mowing got finished yesterday cause we got a pretty good little rain this afternoon. It didnt rain long but got things nice and wet. IF I can get my butt in gear in the morning and get the mulch put around the lavendar plants before the ground dries it will do them a lot of good. They do like water.

I didnt have too big a day planned today. Just catching up laundry, house cleaning, general every day stuff. Cook, clean, do laundry, dry, fold, repeat. Seems I have to drag out the vacuum every day now to clean up bird seed hulls out of the floor. I got 2 lil parakeets. My friend Jackie that I have known for many years has breeding pairs and had raised a few. I have had a few parakeets in my life so I do enjoy them. Jackie gave me a young one that she hatched (well her female bird hatched it) and another female that the others were being mean to. They hull their seeds out when they eat them and they when they flap their wings inside the cage all the hulls fly out in the floor. (self cleaning birds) So clean em up, repeat later in the day. But they are relaxing to watch. Me and my various birds.

A friend ask me the other day if I had any new pictures of the grandbabies. Well of course I do. So here you go Sissy. Enjoy the babies. Sissy dont get on facebook so she dont get to see the pics Amoy or Rob post of the kids. And yes I am a very proud grammy.

Love these 2 lil boys so very much. And their parents. Cant wait to see them this fall and steal hugs and kisses.

Not much else happening here on the homestead. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella

Giving account for my self....

I bet you are thinking, "about dang time", right? Well I am alive and well. I think every day that I need to post an update on my blog and them get busy and say, oh I can do that tomorrow. Then I look and its been over 2 months since last post. Shame on me again.

As of last post I had some roosters that needed to be butchered off, well they are still alive and doing well. I did not get time to take care of them when we had some half way nice days in late fall. I still am feeding them and guess now I will have to wait till we get a weekend of well above freezing weather to do the deed. They are going to be stock and canned chicken so it wont matter much, just more meat the bigger the bird. Although I did have to separate them into another building alone so they didn't hassle the young hens to death. They don't fight among themselves and get lots of food and drink so its all good. My young layers are laying well now. I get more than enough eggs to keep us in supply and a few to sell. Actually have a few dozen in the fridge as we speak.
I left in early November to go to west Ky to work at the hunting lodge again this year. Dang, talk about hard on the body. Sure made the ole arthritis flare up pretty bad. But it was fun to get to work and visit with Karly and Glenna out there. I really enjoy that time of year. I came home as soon as the season was over. I got home the Monday before Thanksgiving late in the evening.  I came home with lots to do and a short time to get it done. I had a doc appointment each day for the next 2 days to get ready to leave again. I ended up having a sinus infection and bronchitis. Not a good combination if you plan to fly anywhere. I got meds and a couple shots and was a tad bit better by time I had to leave for Arizona on Thanksgiving day. Yep I am off and gone again. We were expecting our second lil grandson in mid December. He was due the 19th. But if like his big brother Liam he made an early appearance someone needed to take care of Liam while momma and daddy had lil Zach. So I was more than happy to do that as any grandmother can imagine. I arrived in Phoenix the afternoon on Thanksgiving day. We waited and waited for Zach and waited some more. The plan was for Rodger to drive out as soon as Zach was born so he was constantly waiting for the phone call. The long and short is Amoy was induced on December 28th after going 8 days over her due date and lil Zachary Donovan was born that evening. Such a precious lil fellow. Hes just a lil fellow but his big brother was scared to death of him at first. He is starting to like him now so I hear. We think he is perfect just like Liam.

Nothing in this world compares to the love for grand babies. I am so thankful I lived long enough to learn this fact.
As the story goes Rodger left our house on Christmas day to drive to Arizona to see this lil boy and bring me home. He arrived late Friday night because we knew Zach would be coming on Sunday. At this point I had been away and not seen Rodger for a month. We got to enjoy Liam and cuddle Zach for a few days and then it was time for us to head for home. The weather went to crap as we planned to leave. We left on New Years day headed east. We knew of the freezing rain that was forecast ahead of us but was guessing it would be gone as well ahead of us. Not the case. We spent a few hours sleeping in a rest area in Texas because we were not able to find a hotel room. Then decided to just drive on after a rest. It was late night and we hit more rain and snow and ice on I-20 thru Texas. So Rodger decided we would pull into an abandoned weigh station and just sleep till daylight. So nice gas was cheap and we could leave the heat running in the car as it was about 25 degrees. We woke up about 6 am with the car covered in ice and the whole parking lot full of semis. Well we may as well move on and see how the roads were as some of the big trucks were pulling out. They were still ice covered and slick. SO many big trucks wiped out and 4 by 4 vehicles wiped out along the interstate. So at the next exit which was Sweetwater we decided it might be a good idea to stop and get some hot food and see if we could find a hotel there and try to just sleep and hope it melted. As we were blessed we did find a room and got a hot meal and slept most of the day and all that night. We left Sweetwater early Saturday morning and headed on east. Our plans were to go see our friends Deb and Danny in Mississippi on the way home. We made it to their house about 9 or so on Saturday night. As is custom of a good southern lady Deb had a hot supper waiting for us. Oh my, my very first crawfish stew and it was so very good. I even froze a bag and brought some home for my supper the next night. Jason is a picky eater and he loved it too. Maybe Deb will share her recipe with us and I will post it for ya here. We stayed up late visiting and then started out the next day on for home. We made it here late on Sunday night January 4th. So yep, that is what I been up to for the past 2 months. I loved every minute with my lil grandsons, I did get to spoil Liam longer as I waited for Zach and enjoyed getting to see our friends in MS but by golly there is not place like home. Since we got here the farthest I have been from the house is out back to take care of my chickens. No plans for going much farther any time soon either. We have had rain all day today and then tonight they are forecasting freezing rain after midnight. So that in itself will keep me on the farm. Not that I mind at all.

So back on the farm. All is well here with one exception. While I was gone in November to west Ky Rodger called to tell me that my Luna was gone. We had her 6 or 7 years and for some reason she made a bad decision crossing the railroad and got hit and killed. Needless to say it broke my heart. I miss my big girl so much. When I go out to feed I am totally on my own to make sure some critter is not out there to get the chickens or worse, me. She was for sure my security here. Not sure I will ever find another girl as sweet and loyal as she was. Hard as it is I do plan to get another Great Pyrenees in the spring. Am thinking this time maybe get 2 girls and have them fixed. I personally think females are just better guard dogs and protectors. We do have a problem here with people dropping off unwanted dogs that can be a problem with the chickens and there is no Luna here to protect them. But life goes on with that sad note.

While I was away my freezers got filled with deer meat. That was a nice thing to come home too.With one small problem, all the chicken is in the meat freezer under about 3oo lbs of deer meat. So if we want chicken I have to do some serious digging in the freezer and that is no fun at all in freezing weather. But it is doable. We are so blessed that the freezers are full and cellar is well stocked. But once in a while we like to get a box of ice cream and really cant do that right now for there is no room in the freezers. It is a good problem to have tho.

Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time (not as long, I hope), blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Its spring, stuff is growing, time marches on

I think maybe, just maybe spring is here to stay. I be really ticked if it gets really cold again. But I am not in control of the weather. And God gives us just what we need, no more, no less. But here it is a week and a half into April already. Not long till vacation time and get to see that lil grandson. Well we gonna see his momma and daddy too, but thas a bonus. Cant wait to see Liam. He is growing so fast. I just wish we could let time stand still and be able to enjoy him at this young age for a while longer. It is so true, you never really know what love is until you have a grand child.

 

Hard to believe this lil fellow will be a year old the end of April. Seems like just the other day we were waiting for his to make his appearance. 

So far things are going rather well as far as gardening and getting plants started this year. Although it seems things that are started in the greenhouse are growing slower than I would like. Or maybe its just me. We have had a lot of rain which equates to little sunshine and slow growth of plants. But all in good time I am sure. If nothing else I should have lots and lots of tomato plants this year. My lil project for tomorrow is to get my azz in gear and get some composted chicken manure in a bucket and set it up so I can catch manure or compost tea to water the greenhouse plants with. I am convinced it makes them grow best. My friend Anna sent me some wonderful thornless blackberry starts a couple weeks ago. When they arrived in the mail I was like a kid in a candy store, literally. Cause I knew she had sent me homemade fudge in that package as well. Love that lady and so thankful for her friendship. I put the blackberry starts in individual pots to hold them and let them get started growing a bit before we set them in their permanent place. I think it will be so nice to pick berries without gettin eat up with thorns. In the greenhouse I have many many containers of cutting from grapevines. One container is for my friend Mamie who had ask me to show her how to prune her grape vines and I volunteered to take some cuttings and start them for her some new plants. Then this past weekend Rodger and I went to west Ky so I could prune Uncle Tripp's muscadine grapes for him as I had promised I would do and brought home 4 more containers of cuttings to get started for him and a few for us to keep here. All those in addition to the pot I have in the kitchen that has leaves on them already from our grapes here at home. I am thinkin I will be over run with grape vines pretty soon. Maybe I best dig out all my books on "wine making". I looked at the grape harbor out back today and they have lil buds and will have leaves soon I think. Cant beat homemade grape jelly and wine. I am hoping the ground is dry enough in the field this weekend so we can move my raspberry plants and start a couple new rows of them. We actually want to orient them in a different direction so all the rows in the orchard and vineyard go the same way. Rodger says its hard to mow around things when they go too many directions. But he has been doing well at it. 

We got home Sunday evening kinda late and was working on emptying the incubator that I had used to hatch my baby chicks in. I had one that was still trying to hatch when we left on Friday before and I had ask Lori my friend who was house sitting for us to just unplug the incubator if nothing else had hatched by Saturday evening and she did. Nothing else hatched. I guess my thermometer is bad because the chicks all hatched early at 19 days due to the higher than necessary temperature. But the hatch rate was really low, only hatched 7 babies. But am happy they healthy lil fellers. But when we got home I went to empty the incubator and a baby chick hollered. OMG, was my first thought. I knew the incubator had been off for more than 24 hours and this lil one had been trying since Friday to get out of the shell. I told Rodger, "dang if he is tough enough to survive this long, I just got to help him" and I know all too well if they cant get out of the egg on their own, most likely they wont survive. I helped him out, got him cleaned off, he was severely dehydrated. I gave him a tiny sip of water. He was weak but could still fuss. I turned the incubator back on to keep him warm and dry and let him rest for a bit. Right before I went to bed I picked him up to give him another sip of water in hopes to get him to make it. He took the sip, fussed a bit and died. Dammit!!  But such is life on the farm. I just sure could not make myself just toss the egg with the chick still strong enough to holler. But I had to give it a try and have in the past and had success. It is kinda tough to keep the heat and humidity just right in a still-air incubator. So if you are thinking of getting an incubator to hatch your own birds, just invest in one that has a fan to move the air and a good thermometer. I will make a big difference in the hatch rate.

My meat birds are doing great. They are growing well and not long till they will be in the freezer. Just a lil over 2 weeks to go now. And gosh do they eat a lot. They are funny to watch. When I open the door to feed an water them, they love to stand at the door and look out. But if you set one on the ground they freeze in their tracks. They have no clue what to do. But they like looking around but are scared to move. 

After we got situated at home on Sunday evening I was checking out facebook and email and such. I got a message from a lady whose blog I read and she has 2 books published. She was on her way to Ohio to a writing workshop and said she would like to stop by so we could meet and see the farm. Well needless to say I was beyond excited to get a chance to meet a fellow blogger and published author. You can check out her blog here. I always enjoy reading about her travels and stories of life. So Monday evening I got a phone call from Gianetta and she was in town. I went and picked her up at the hotel and brought her out for dinner and we got to  spend a wonderful evening getting acquainted and I so enjoyed her company. Such a sweet heart. Her books are both available on Amazon here and here. I started reading them last night late after I took her to her hotel. We waited till our only available photographer (Rodger) had went to bed to remember we had not taken a picture together. So imagine the laughs we had just trying to take a selfie. This is the result.

I was using my tablet to take the photo and had to use a mirror on the wall to see the button to push to snap the photo. I had several failures along the way.

I was thrilled to also get signed copies of both her books as well.  What a sweet humbling experience. After reading G's blog for a long time, and meeting her in person the books are just as wonderful. I hope you will grab those and have a read. Looking forward to your next visit G. 

It has started to rain tonight so that means not much gonna happen outside tomorrow. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Where is our spring?

What the heck happened to spring this year. Here it is mid March and our ice an snow just melted. It sure was nice out today. I even had the patio door open most of the day. So nice to air the house out an let fresh air in after being cooped up all winter. But by this time next week they are giving rain and snow showers again. Crap!! I am so ready for it to be warm and stay that way. Pretty sure things will do better in the greenhouse once it warms to a decent temperature. But I should not complain, my lil cabbages are coming up. I also had a huge flower pot that I filled with soil and sowed some lettuce, kale an spinach in. It has come up rather thick. Really pretty and green. I wanted to get an early start on tomatoes and peppers but I sure don't want to have to keep heat in the greenhouse for the weather we have had. That can get quite expensive after a while. Tomorrow I think I will go ahead an fill my seed starting trays and put them in the summer kitchen so the soil can warm up. Once it gets warm then seed to tomatoes, peppers and a few others things I need to get started early. Most likely those trays will stay in the summer kitchen till it warms a bit more outside and stays that way. Then they can be moved to the greenhouse. Peppers need really warm temps to sprout. My buddy Randy sent me some paprika pepper seeds and I hope to hell I can get them to come up and grow this season. No luck at all last year. 

This month has been abnormally cold I think for us. Normally I don't have a problem raising my Cornish cross meat birds in March and April. But dang it, this year has been different. I still have all of em, no losses yet. When our temps dropped down in the teens last week I was just afraid they would chill in their lil building so being the worrisome person I am I moved them into the summer kitchen. Yep you heard me right. I used an old quilt to put on the floor and up the cabinets on both sides of the kitchen, stapled it to the cabinets and pulled up the ends and tacked those down. Imagine a big 4 ft square basket made of a quilt. I put some stray on the quilt to help keep them dry and put them in their temporary home. The had their heat light, food an water and stayed toasty warm without me having to worry about them. Yesterday Rodger and I moved them back to their building where we used an old metal topless picnic table to suspend a quilt to help hold the heat in a smaller area to keep them warmer. All is well. You know chicks are warm enough when they don't huddle under the heat light. It was obvious from the droppings that they were warm enough to be able to move away from the heat. I won that round with mother nature. Depending on how cold it gets next week with the predicted rain and snow, they may be back in the summer kitchen. I don't care if I did spend a couple hours cleaning and sanitizing things in thee. I just cant afford to let those critters get sick or die.

I still don't have any hens setting this season so I finally gave up and loaded the incubator with eggs. So God willing, I should have baby chicks from the standard breeds about April 4th. I thought for a day or so that my incubator was dead. I could not for the life of me get the temperature up to where it needed to be. I kept turning the thermostat up, no luck. Then on closer inspection, being a dummy, I was turning the thermostat the wrong way. Aha! Once I figured that out and turned it up it warmed up to where it needed to be and I put the eggs in on the automatic egg turner. With the still air incubators the temp needs to be about 101 degrees. There are lil indention in the bottom of the incubator that need to always have water in them to keep the humidity up to mimic a setting hen. It is kinda tricky to add water and not pour it on the eggs. I have been using my plant water can that has a long skinny spout on it. Works like a charm. About 3 days before the eggs are due to hatch they get taken off the egg turner and placed directly on the mesh bottom. This is the incubation period where the chicks are turning in the shell and pressing outward with their beak to make a lid they can pop off and get out. Once they turn completely around in the egg they then break thru to the air pocket at the big end of the egg and start pushing till they are free. Once they are out of the shell you have an incubator full of lil critters that very much look like lil dinosaurs. Just another miracle of life.

This weather being first warm then getting cold has made my joints a miserable lot. I has been nice enough for a few days that I probably should have gotten out and finished pruning things in the yard. I got rose bushes that are going wild. Actually both the ones I have are old fashioned varieties and they have the best scent ever. But the smaller one near the cellar is crawling all over the place. I don't think it can be classified as a climbing rose at all. I crawls all over the place. Or maybe I should put up a taller stronger trellis for it. Maybe I can do that. Next nice day we have. I have 2 thornless blackberry plants that my friend Rosie had given me a few years back that are on the other side of the cellar door. They for sure need a trellis to climb on. One has a runner that is about 12 ft long or more. Just lots of lil things that make for a lot of work to care for around here. But I like my roses and blackberries. Thankful only one of em has thorns.

Not much else happening here on the homestead. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Loving this weather...for now

Oh gosh our weather has been so dang nice the past few days. I am so glad to be able to get outside and putter around and get a few minor things accomplished. On Friday I did finally get my cabbage and Brussels sprouts in the seed flats. Now to just hope they sprout an grow well. I had a big old flower pot that holds a lot of soil that I also filled and sowed some lettuces in it for early green stuff. I need to get in there in about a week and start some onion sets to have green onions about the same time. Yep, you know where I am going with this. I want my spring fix of wilted lettuce an green onions with lots of crisp bacon on top. I did sow a lil bit of spinach and kale also. I might, key word being might, get in the mood to make smoothies or green drinks. I do know they are very healthy for your body. And my body needs all the help it can get. Rodger spent most of his day today getting all the equipment running and ready for gardening. The tiller was not a problem. The big Ford tractor is being contrary again. Every thing else is good to go. Now he is itching to start plowing. He does have a lot of that to do. He wants to plant 2 kinds of field corn this year. The Reid's yellow dent for stock feed and the Boone County white for corn meal. I think he really needs to get some corn shelled really soon to have ground into cornmeal or we are gonna be in a fix and run out. My stash is really low. I might have 2 more bags of cornmeal in storage.

I got my baby chicks in the mail last Wednesday right in the middle of all that super cold nasty weather we had. I was very concerned that they might be in pretty weak shape on arrival. But they were great. It was so neat to see the box they were shipped in and that is really what makes all the difference in how well they survived.

This box is not more than a 1 ft square with a round nest made inside. There were 25 lil chicks in here standing shoulder to shoulder. They were warm and toasty and ready to eat an drink as soon as the opportunity presented itself. The first water they got was warm sugar water. They all started eating and drinking within minutes. As of right now they are out in their new building all nice and toasty with plenty of space to run around. We set up 2 heat lights just in case one happens to go out in the middle of the night so they don't freeze. But so far, so good. God willing we should have 25 nice meat birds that will meet their demise the weekend of Good Friday in April.

Not much else happening here on the farm right now. So till next time , blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

We went from winter to ......worse

Last time I looked it was still winter, at least till mid march in my mind. But this week our temps have been so nice. It has been 60's to almost 70 today. I have had the patio door open since before noon today. But as is promised with Kentucky weather, it changes often. Tonight we are forecast for thunderstorms and damaging winds. Not what I need about now. But I don't control the weather.

I have been busy for the past several days. Yep I am still painting, taking lots of breaks too. I did finally get my bedroom painted. It does look much nicer. Still working on getting the "stuff" put back on the walls. I like to move art work around just for change and am stuck, cant decide what I really want to hang on the walls. For one I do want my antique quilt back up behind the headboard of the bed. I just liked it there. I don't even really have curtains up yet. The windows are kinda covered but not with drapes like I want. At this point I am not sure I want to paint the closet/craft room at all. I still have the master bedroom to do and the living room yet. Both will be a big job. I had to take several days off because I exhausted my energy reserve big time. Almost sent myself into a fibro flare. And I sure don't need that.

Rodger got my greenhouse put up last weekend. We did find time to get out of town and picked up several bags of seed starting medium. It is time to get all things cabbage related in soil to get started. They need to be grown in the cooler spring weather before the summer heat hits. So this coming weekend the plan is to get my benches back in the greenhouse and hopefully get the cabbage family in some dirt. I think just being able to get my hands in dirt will go a long way toward making me feel better. I have totally cluttered up my summer kitchen this winter with empty canning jars. We certainly have used lots of our canned stuff this year. So a big garden is a must for us. So I have to knuckle down and get busy. I did finally make a decision to order meat chicks this spring. They will arrive about march 3rd. We are thinking of maybe adding on to the existing chicken house up here on the hill, a smaller addition, to accommodate the hens and just use the big chicken house to raise the meat birds closer to the house. It sure would save a lot of worry for me with them closer. I would have a power source and could run out to check on them more often. Just better all around for all of us I think. If we add an extension to the back of the building we use now for the hens and move them, we can build a door on the west end and it is level enough back there and lots of room to put the tractor an bucket up to the door to shovel manure straight into the bucket without having to finagle the tractor to "kinda" get close enough to pitch the manure in the bucket. Then if I have my way I will have another door cut between the rooms so the manure can be pushed into the add on and on out into the tractor bucket. Easy peasy! Or at least easier. Only problem we have a short time to build this add on before the baby chicks arrive. We shall see.

Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Our lil one is here....

Our first grandson, Liam Robert was born on April 27th. Is he beautiful or what?

                                                           Liam at 3 days old.

                                              Liam at 4 days old. And just look at all that hair!!

                                                      Liam checking out papaw Rodger.

                                                           Grammy's sweet lil boy at 1 week old. Liam is a beautiful combinations of his momma and daddy. A perfect lil angel in my eyes.

We got a call from Rob on Friday afternoon to let us know Amoy was having contractions. We packed up our car for the road trip to Nevada and headed out on Saturday morning. We made it to Missouri when I got a picture message of a precious lil boy on my cell phone. Rodger and I both were so happy that Liam was here and he and his momma were both doing fine. They got to come home on Sunday and we made it to Nevada on Monday before noon. We covered the total of 2000 miles in less than 30 hours total on the road. Then we spent the whole week with out lil man and it was really hard to not just hold him all the time but we didn't as it would have made it hard on him and his mom and dad when we left. I know newborns change daily and I had 2 babies but dang I don't remember seeing them change that fast. Maybe it was because back in the day you were kept in the hospital for 2 to 3 days before you were discharged home with the new baby. This lil fellow went from that wobbly newborn stage to trying to hold his head up by time we left this past Monday. The lil wrinkles had started filling out, he was eating good, sleeping good, just a perfect lil baby. Rob and I learned fast that Liam does not like to be touched with cold or even cool hands. He screams and has a lil fit. But he is really easy to sooth tho. Mine and papaws pride and joy. Grand babies are a whole different level of love. Get ready for it because I will post pictures of this lil fellow on here a lot now.

We finally got back here in KY to our house today, Wednesday around 2 in the afternoon. We got to see some new country the trip home too. Instead of traveling I-80 we took I-70 by turning south in Cheyenne Wyoming and driving thru Denver Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and finally ended up in Ky. Gosh after being on a road trip like that we were exhausted and glad to be back home. Miss the kids a bunch tho.

Now that we are home, it is back to the farm stuff. Jason and Mary Kay took care of things for us while we were gone and everything is good here. The plants in the greenhouse are fine and growing. The meat birds are HUGE!! Oh my, we must do some butchering this week and weekend. I am so very pleased with the results of the Cornish cross from Cackle hatchery. They have grown to my expectations. 

Our yard looks like a jungle, my herb bed is all grown up, the strawberry beds both need to be weeded. That will get done a lil at a time. I think it has rained several days here. The ground is really wet and it rained today. We will get started planting corn and the garden stuff as soon as the fields are dry enough to work. Jason got the big corn field worked while we were gone so it wont need much before it gets planted. We sure got lots of work ahead of us to get caught up. IF you ever really get caught up on a farm.

Not much else happening on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Its realllly late.......

I bet you wonder as of late why my post are written so late at night, well really early in the wee hours? Well cause some days I am busy with other stuff till late, other times the brain fog is so bad I just cant concentrate long enough to write a post. Believe me it can be frustrating to say the least. And thas not cause my life is a mess but it really is a mess about now. As most of you know I have RA and fibromyalgia. Along with the RA comes pain, sore stiff joints and such, like ya granny use to have. With the fibro comes more pain all over the place, the fatigue most days is as bad if not worse than the pain. Then it seems just when ya think ya gonna have a good day, bam! ya belly gets upset with ya. I have never been a morning person in my adult years but with fibro ya don't want to start tryin to be one either. It takes a few hours in the morning to get up and get moving, by then if you MUST go out for some reason, you take a shower. After all this you are so tired you are thinking of another nap instead of what you need to go do. You are exhausted, then you get irritated because your body has failed, then ya force you body to go do what you needed to do out of the house. The fatigue gets worse to the point you avoid doing things because it requires so dang much effort. I have always been a people person, but its not that I don't like people its just that I have a hard time interacting with them now  mostly due to the brain fog of fibro. It is a hard illness or disease to understand because I don't look "sick". People assume if ya look OK ya must be OK. With fibro you are constantly on a mission to find something to help you maintain a balance so you can function normally. But really it steals you life away because you never get back to normal. You just get to the new normal for you each day. The point of these late night , or early morning post, depends on how you see the time is because it is quiet in the house, no one up, no need to think of what to eat or cook, its dark outside so cant see what needs doing out there, and at these times I seem to have a lil more mental clarity than during the day when there are things that need my attention. I guess at night I have less thing to distract me than during the day. I am not a multi-tasker any more for sure. But such is life with fibro.

Anyway not much goin on here on the homestead this past week. Although I did get out last weekend and picked a bunch of the lil Mexican cukes and Rodger helped me make them into dill pickles. We ended up with about 10 pints. And not a damn one of em sealed. Don't know whats up with that. Really made me mad cause it was painful to pick all those tine lil cukes and wash em and then for them to not seal. DAMMIT!
But on the upside I got some lil baby chicks from some of the hens that were sitting on eggs. One hen has 2 lil babies and of all things she takes them out side and a single blade of grass is an obstacle for them. They are so cute. The hen that was sitting in the corner of the chicken house on heaven knows how many eggs has hatched off 5 lil ones and she is smart enough to keep hers inside so they don't trip and fall over a blade of grass. The hen that was sitting on one egg an egg gourd nest egg in the middle of the chicken house floor has moved to the abandoned nest in the corner and is on the eggs the hen left. So I am sure in a few days she will have a lil chick or 2 because the other hens had been laying in that nest while the first hen was setting on it. I have yet another hen sitting on about 6 eggs in the bottom corner nest box. She will hatch in a week or so. I have several hens that have brooded more babies this summer than they have laid I think. I know the 2 brown hens and the white hen are on about hatch number 4 for the year. And they are all good mommies. I do have some young roosters from their past hatches that need to be butchered off as they are starting to bother the hens and fight among themselves.

We have had a shower of rain this past week that probably made my beans grow again. I am still trying to get the ones dry for shuck beans that we picked a week ago. But with clouds and humidity it is hard to dry them outside. Maybe they can go in the dehydrator tomorrow to finish up. If we don't get rain, which the weather man says we are supposed to get, we will need to pick the green beans again. I will probably make more shuck beans with them as we have more than enough canned already and it will be less work for me. Probably need to pick more ripe peppers too and okra. After the lil bit of rain we had I am sure the raspberries are getting ripe and will need picked too. I need to make another batch of jelly to get the berries out of the freezer. I still have the makings for a huge batch of gumbo in the freezer and that also needs to be canned up. Maybe if it does rain tomorrow I can enlist Rodgers help and do that. I will sure need help with making the gumbo. Would sure be nice if my friend Deb could come up and help. We had such a great week when she was here. And dang it, I may not get to see her at all this year. She has a son getting married in Tennessee the same weekend we are having our Backwoods Home get together in central Ky. So she cant be 2 places at one time. I am really looking forward to the get together to meet old friend and new ones too from  the BHM forum we all visit. All the folks I have met from there are just wonderful. Now I got to figure out how to manage a 3 hour drive alone. I hate driving anymore cause I am so easily distracted and cant do more than a very few things at one time. Hard to think about you turns, watch other traffic and stay awake all at the same time. Sounds easy an it is until fibro bites ya.

Not much else happening here on the farm right now, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Just what I needed.........

........more lil orphans to take care of.

  Not like I dont have anything else to do. Gosh it takes an hour twice a day to just feed the lil orphans that I have now. A total of 4 lil chicks that the momma hen kept tossing out of the nest and wouldnt take after hatching. One of them was wet and his body so cold I almost tossed him thinkin he would not live. I am glad I didnt because when I brought him in the house and put him in the incubator and got him warm and dry he is doing fine. So I got 4 babies with no momma that will take em. The lil orphan kittens are doing good. They have learned that I am their food source but they still dont let me pet them. But thas ok too. As long as they get food and water is what matters. I have to refill water pans several times a day for the animals and birds that are out in this unbearable heat we have been having. We havent had rain for most of a month now. There are no water holes or creeks for the critters to find water. With the mild winter we were kinda prepared to have an abundance of insect pest like mosquetos and fleas, ticks and the like. But there has been very few. I guess because there is no water for them either and they died. Not saying thats a bad thing tho.
We on Saturday as I was going down the hill to feed the lil kittens I took a tumble. Not a pretty sight for sure. At first I thought for sure I had broke my arm and maybe foot. But as time went on my pinky finger side of my right hand hurts really bad as does the big toe on my left foot. Of course being hillbilly I was barefoot and got my feet caught in some netting that I had placed near some landscape plants to keep the chickens from digging them up and hit the ground hard. Any way I went to the doc today for other things and had them do an xray of my hand to make sure I didnt crack the bone. I am sure it is not a complete fracture but maybe a crack due to how much pain it gives me. Not the time of year for me to be handicapped too.
Guess I will get the results tomorrow if its broke or not.
We had planned on butchering off the cornish cross chickens this weekend as they are now over 7 weeks old and still not big enough to butcher. They should have already been in the freezer. They have had high protein feed 24/7 and that makes em grow. Not these. I always ordered my chicks from Marti poultry farms in Missouri and found that they have closed down due to illness in the family. It was a family operated business from what I gather. I orederd from McMurray hatchery this year and not sure if they dont have good breeding stock or what , but this group of chicks have not grown like the ones I got from Marti. So I guess I will try another hatchery next time I get birds to see if I can find one with better quality.
We have been picking strawberries again and raspberries every other evening. I have enough raspberries now to make a batch of raspberry jam I think. Maybe I will do that tomorrow if its not so hot I cant breathe in the summer kitchen. I really need to go get a load of mulch to use on my herbs and go ahead and water them I guess or I may lose a lot of my new plantings. Probably the only things that will get watered will be the new stuff that is not established good yet. The rest of the plants will be ok I think. So thas my options for tomorrow I suspose.
Not much else happening here ,so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Sometimes I feel like the Clampets house

I guess if you are on a farm everyone has those times. Somehow this summer I have managed to inherit several orphans here. First it was the lil kittens with no momma. They are doing fine. After the last post I started setting out a bowl of food (home canned chicken and stock) for them early in the morning and late evening and they have learned to sit nearby the food dish in the weeds and wait for feeding time. They will sit and watch me put their food out but still wont come to me. Thas OK tho as long as they eat. I have to make sure they eat before I let the chickens out for the day or they steal the food. All the while I have to make sure Luna and her lil girls have food out so they don't take the kittens foods. Kinda tricky and time consuming to get those critters fed. Then I let the big chickens out after the kittens eat so they can do their thing. Which usually includes dusting under my shrubs. They move a lot of dirt but the base of some shrubs are sure weed free. Not to mentioned fertilized. So its all good. I let the chickens out today and checked on the hens with the babies. The first babies are about a week and a half old and doing good. I had one lil fellow that hatched out late and his momma didn't want him. I had him in the house with me one night till he got stronger and then took him back to the hens. Not sure what problem one of the hens has with the lil one but she kept beatin him up every time he got near her. I cant have that crap so he is back in the house in a box and is very happy not to have his lil head pecked for living. So now I have to make sure he stays warm so he don't fuss all night and keep us all up. Cant imagine how this is all gonna end. I can see me having a chicken that sits on the front porch with me because he don't know hes a chickens. Then the morning care includes making sure the meat birds are cool enough and doing OK. Yesterday I had to take a box fan and put in the building with them to move the air a bit in there. They were getting too hot. Those Cornish do not tolerate extreme heat or cold well at all. They do suffer. So this morning when I checked in on them they were doing what most chickens do, sitting in front of the fan where its nice and cool. Our temps are supposed to cool some this weekend and first part of next week so that will help the birds some. It gets to be a full time job keeping water out so all the critters have access to fresh water all day in the heat.
We are hoping for rain soon. Even tho the gardens are doing well they sure could use some rain. We did enjoy the new taters with our sugar snap peas last week. I had wilted lettuce and onions with bacon one day for lunch. Dang I could eat that every day for life I think. Just one of those comfort foods I grew up on. I usually just fry up some home grown bacon that I have cut in lil tiny pieces till it gets crisp. Drain off some of the bacon grease then toss in some sliced green onions till they wilt and then put the lettuce in the skillet till its wilted a lil and toss to coat well with the fat. Put in a big ole bowl and dig in. I put the bacon bits back on top of the lettuce after it wilts down good and for me thas a good meal. Especially if ya have some leftover cornbread to go with it. Can we say HOG HEAVEN!!
I have to tell ya about my lil observation this evening. After I had fed the lil orphan kittens and they had ate I saw our older white momma cat (the only momma we have now) had went down below the house in the yard with her kittens which are older. The momma cat and her kittens were playing with the lil orphans. When it was almost dark I saw the momma luring all the kittens back up toward the house and out back toward the outbuildings where her kittens have been staying. Kinda makes ya think that if humans don't interfere with nature, nature will take care of its own. I have to wonder if the momma cat knows the lil kittens (her grand kittens) are orphaned and is tryin to lure them back up to the house to stay in the company of her kittens so they can show them where the food bowl stays. I always feed the momma cat and her young on the back deck under a picnic table and they know there is food there. And we think animals are dumb. All animals have God given instincts and teach their young to survive. Even in watching Luna with her lil girls is amazing. She led them up here to the house where she knew there would be food when they were old enough to start on solid food. As long as she was nursing them before they were ready to eat, she kept them down across the road under the old house, safe, dry and cool. If I had leftover rolls and such I know Luna enjoyed I would give them to her in her morning food bowl. I watched her several different times take one of the rolls in her mouth and take off down the yard, across the road and take the roll to her puppies. I guess she knew it was soft enough for them to learn to eat and after about a week of this she started bringing them up to the house. I was watching her when she brought them up the other morning and she would walk slow ahead of them occasionally looking back till she led them to the water bowl I had out for them. So now they know where the water bowl is at. I feed Luna in her bowl and put the lil girls food in another container near hers. She will growl gently if they get in her food, they will just sit down an watch her. Then they will go eat from their bowl. I have noticed that she don't eat the food from their dish even if hers is empty. She will come to me when I go out on the front porch and with her body language let me know her bowl is empty. I am always amazed at the awesome work of God and his creations.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The first fruits.....

We went to pick raspberries and check on the garden this evening and got to harvest enough goodies for supper tomorrow night. Our potatoes are doing really well considering we planted later than normal and we haven't had enough rain. I found a cabbage head that was big enough that I cut it. They are not done growing yet. We picked about a gallon of strawberries and a a quart of raspberries too.

 Not bad size for taters, I think I can be happy with these. It will be another 2 months before we dig so they should be good size by then.

 One of our momma cats died an untimely death and we didn't know she had babies. Today when I went out to feed I heard a kitten crying and saw this one. I did manage to catch it as they were kinda wild having not been here at the house. I brought it in and tried to feed it and sat it on the table with a dish of milk(yeah I know, not good for kittens) and he had no interest. But he sure liked the smell of Rodgers dinner. He did share a piece of steak with the lil fellow. Cut in tiny bits the kitten can eat so I guess I will be feeding it till he get big enough to fend for himself. Later this evening when I went out to feed Luna's girls I heard another one. I cant catch it so we let this one go back with its sibling and left them a lil bowl of chopped up canned chicken for supper and maybe I can try tomorrow and see if I can pet the other one. I am thinking I got far too many lil critters all of a sudden. But I can let anything be hungry tho I know I will regret having too many cats.

I had my laptop on the table and the kitten walked across the keyboard till the puter started beeping and he decided that was not the place to be. At least the lil fellows have a full belly tonight. Trust me we do not allow animals on the dining table often. I have only had 1 cat stay in my house in 32 years and she never got on any thing. But this was just a lil baby. Oh my!! OK I have my weaknesses.

We have been having some really hot dry weather here. The yard looks pretty rough without rain and its too hot for the momma hens to being their lil chicks out of the building. So they scratch in the house and the lil ones are alas full so they eat good. I want to witness the puppies first encounter with the settin hens. That will be worth seeing. I am having to keep water bowls in various places for all the critters here and normally there is water for them in the drainage ditches and places so they don't have to go far for water. My herb bed is kinda scrubby looking too with the heat and lack of rain. I know ya probably thinking, "well water it". But we don't water here. If the plants are established they will do down deeper and find water and that in the end makes for heartier plants. This my dad taught me. I have seen it proven many times, so we wait for rain. I do water stuff that is in pots tho, such as the grapevine starts and a couple trailing tomatoes that I have planted.
That's about all the happenings here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The puppies are home!

Finally! Luna has brought her lil girls up to the house so we can see them. They are so dang cute. I can see where I will be spending a lot of time. I guess she figured it was time to start them on food and the front porch is where the food bowl stays. And I did get pics of them today.

The top pic the lil one was hiding from me under her momma. Then she tried to run back to the house and she is far too fat to run and I caught her, so dang cute.

Finally tonight blogger will let me load photos so here are the ones from the garden that I could not load last night.

The bottom pic is the field where we had corn last year and as most know corn is a heavy feeder. It will take most all the nitrogen out of ground. So to replenish the nitrogen we decided to plant the field in Pink Eye Purple Hull cow peas. They fix nitrogen in the soil and after harvesting what we want of the peas the plants will then be turned back into the soil as green manure. Hopefully it will improve the ground some. There is a row of cantaloupe about 1/3 the length of this field. If each plants makes one melon we should have at least 2 pickup loads. What to do with all the cantaloupe?
As you see from the top 2 pics our garden is still small yet, we planted later than normal for us. It did need rain. Today we had a few good showers of rain that I know helped a good deal. Would be nice if it rained a slow steady rain all night. But God will give us what we need I am sure.
My momma hens so far have hatched 2 baby chicks. There should be more tomorrow. Then I need to find feeders and water tanks for the lil ones as I took the other tank to the other building for the Cornish cross. Such is life.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A slow hot summer beginning

Our summer has started out hotter than normal for this time of year. It has been miserable all weekend. The fellows have a long weekend with the holiday and a short work week. We have been doing some chores to keep caught up so we hopefully don't get too over whelmed later. Early last week we picked peas and got those trimmed and I canned 13 quarts of the next day. We do like sugar snap peas in winter as a sub for green beans as a green veggie. I will need to pick those again tomorrow and can more. The tater bugs are giving the taters a fit now so Rodger sprayed those today in hopes of slowing down the damage. Gosh we need lots of taters to use thru the winter. I do need to organize my cellar again so I can rotate the things that were canned last year are used up first. And from the looks of the garden so far we should have a good many beans and stuff to can again this year. I feel so blessed to know that most all our food is home grown and mostly organic. I also have been doing more research online on holistic medicine and herbal remedies. If I can tolerate the heat tomorrow I intend to gather some wild herbs to dry for later use in medicinal teas and maybe tinker with some tinctures and poultices. Maybe even some salve. I am now really convinced of the benefit of some foods and their healing properties. I have a skin fungus that has been a nuisance for nearly 2 years. Then I was reading where coconut oil is anti-viral and anti-fungal, so I thought heck what can it hurt. It seemed that ever time I took a shower the fungus would itch so bad and become so uncomfortable. I decided to coat the fungus area with some of the coconut oil and immediately it seemed to stop the itch. After 3 days of using the coconut oil on those places all of them have stopped itching totally. I was shocked but convinced. Especially since the kind of oil I used was the same oil that I use to cook with, not even whole and organic. On Saturday we had planned on taking a trip out of town to get chicken feed for the Cornish cross because they needed a higher protein feed that I can get locally. On that trip to the big city I made a stop at the health food store. I picked up some whole vinegar with the mother, a jar of organic pure unprocessed coconut oil, a bottle of oil of wild oregano and even got a bottle of colloidal silver. Most illnesses in the body are due to acidity, most holistic practitioners recommend 2 tablespoons of whole apple cider vinegar with 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda mixed till it stops fizzing and add water till you can tolerate the taste and drink to alkalize the body. The coconut oil is good internally and externally, taken orally a teaspoon daily will rid the body of yeast over growth from taking modern meds, especially antibiotics. The oil of wild oregano is a very potent antibacterial and antiviral agent topically or taken 1 drop twice a day internally. Colloidal silver is the most potent antibacterial and antiviral agent known to man and kills any germ on contact. Taken internally it can prevent and cure most all illnesses. All these things are a good idea to keep on hand if like me your immune system is compromised by something like arthritis. The meds I take for arthritis suppresses my immune system so if I take the colloidal silver or oil of oregano I may be able to maintain better health so things don't sneak up on me like the last ear infection and sinus infection that got me a couple weeks ago. Rodger has a problem with sinus allergies and has taken over the counter allergy meds for over 2 years now. He now uses elderberry extract. He has been purchasing that but we are gonna harvest the many elderberries we have growing wild here on the farm. There are several wild herbs that we have tons of that I do intend to gather for later use.
Jason wanted to go back to Richmond today to get him a pair of work boots as he and his buddy didn't have time yesterday when they went out. He ask me to go with him and I did. I had forgotten to pick up coconut oil to cook with while Rodger and I were out yesterday. Rodger no longer eats pork products so I have in the past been using regular cooking oil when I had to fry stuff, which is not too often, for him. I decided that stuff is really toxic to the human body and told him we ARE NOT using that stuff any more. So I stocked up on the coconut oil and a jug of good olive oil for cooking. We also use butter and I use lard for things Jason and I will eat. All good healthy stuff. Any who, thas my rant for today.
With our hot weather I have to keep a close eye on my lil chickens. They can get too hot really quick and die from the heat. They are liking their higher protein feed too. So in about 4 more weeks we will have good meat in the freezer. I have 4 hens setting again. I did put eggs under all of them and now we wait and see how many babies we get this time. The last bunch the hens raised are half grown and pretty lil fellows. Luna still has 2 puppies and I did get a glimpse of them the other day. They are so cute and look like her. She should being them out soon so we can see them. I have no clue how many kittens my cats have. I do know 1 cat has 3 and not sure about the other momma. Jason's momma cat has some babies and he hasn't even counted them to see how many she has. I have a real soft spot for lil baby critters these days. Sometimes that is not a good thing too. A person could end up with far too many cats and they are a pain to give away unless they are really friendly and these are not at all tame.
Maybe in the near future I will get out the camera and give ya a glimpse of life here on the farm. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.


Stella

Back from vacation and now we are getting caught up

Gosh hard to believe I have not posted since March 27th. As of last post the stuff was growing well in the greenhouse. I had 3 hens hatch out 8 baby chicks as we were leaving for Nevada on April 6th. Jason had the fun task of taking care of the chickens, cats, Luna and the greenhouse while we were gone. He obviously did a good job as everything is still alive and growing. The baby chicks are so cute. I let the big chickens out of the building today and the momma hens brought the lil ones out to scratch and explore. They walk funny cause their lil crop is so full it throws em off balance.
We got to Nevada to see Rob and Amoy on Friday night the 6th. They picked us up at the airport in Elko. We got to spend the week of Robs birthday with him and Amoy too. My lil boy turned 26 already. On Sunday we went to visit Robs job site and see the gold mine and the huge pits and the underground mines as well. We didn't go down into the underground mines tho. When I have that much dirt over me ya can say I am a goner.

Rodger got to see the drill rig up close that Rob had sent him a picture of earlier this year. That thing is huge.

This is a picture of the open pit mine where Rob works.

We also got to go see the remains of the old town of Cortez which the mine is named for.

 This is a picture of Rob and Amoy in front of their new house in Nevada. We got to help them put in some landscaping while we were there. I think it made the house look so nice.

Rodger and I standing on a balcony over looking the Hoover Dam on the Nevada/Arizona border.

Snow capped mountains in the distance on our drive to Las Vegas early last week. A long drive and a whole lot of nothing along the way. We had a good time tho, lots of good food, drinks and fun.

Before we went on vacation my friends Gretchen and Carl sent me this lil garden hopper. Dang this thing sure saves the back when planting. I am sure it will be great when we get started picking beans and garden stuff. I cant do a lot of standing and bending over to plant and this thing sure helps. And it has a place to hold my coke can. This is the new strawberry bed where I tore out flowers last fall and covered the ground all fall, winter and most of this spring with black plastic to kill weeds. Worked out great. We put down a weed barrier and then made holes to plant the plants. Tomorrow we will get the mulch put down and the hoops over the top with deer netting to keep the critters out. I got about 75 plants moved into this bed. And many more to go elsewhere.

As soon as we got back home Rodger mowed the yard and plowed the peas and onions out in the big garden. The peas and onions look great. The peas are vining and climbing the fence he put up before we left. Last evening we planted 2 rows of potatoes, 2 rows of carrots and some lettuce. After supper today we planted the cabbage that I had ready in the greenhouse. So we do have a good start on the garden. I hope I can move more strawberries tomorrow if it don't rain. There is rain and cooler weather in the forecast for several days. I have herbs that are ready to be cut and dried too and I must get started on that.

Before we left I did get my baby chicks ordered for meat birds. They wont be here till mid May tho which is OK. Sure don't think Jason would have appreciated them arriving while we were gone and him having to babysit them,  Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Nice weather for winter

Our weather today was so nice, about 65 degrees and sunny. I let the chickens out to run around today and the setting hens with the little babies came out for a bit today so the lil ones could get some fresh grass. They did OK for a while till a lil breeze blew up and they got chilled and started complaining. The mommas took them back inside to get them warm. I find such relaxation watching chickens. Guess its just my hillbilly nature.
I had a doctors appointment yesterday and the doc changed some of my meds. The one I am taking now has a side effect of causing syncope or passing out upon standing. Just what I need when I have enough problems staying upright. And I am on antibiotics to fix a sinus infection that has lingered for probably 2 months. My arthritis meds suppress my immune system and I can have an infection in my body and not have a lot of symptoms which is what I was doing. Then finally the sinuses got really bad an then I knew. I do feel some better today. Dang being sick can really drain ya. Not that I had a world of energy to begin with. I want to get outside in this nice weather and get some weeding done in the herb and asparagus beds before the weeds get too big. I know its just wrong to be weeding this time of year but dang they are in there and growing. I walked out to the chicken house earlier today in my bare feet and it the end of January. Strange winter we have had for sure. I might get out in the yard tomorrow and piddle around if I still have good balance and feel better. Just have to wait and see what tomorrow holds.
Not much else happening around here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I am stuck in a rut!

I am so stuck in a rut this winter. Gosh I usually use my down time to get things done inside the house as I sure don't spend much time inside in summer. In my mind I had big plans for some sewing projects and redecorating projects this year. And here it is late January and I have done very little. As most of ya know, I don't do "spring cleaning" like normal people do, I do all the major cleaning in winter time when I have more time. I have done some decluttering and cleaning this year but not enough to suit me. I did manage to clean out the closet in the guest bedroom so when we have overnight guest they can at least hang up their duds if they wish. I did get my own closet organized a lil better. Oh, I gotta tell ya, I love goodwill stores. OK laugh it up, yeah I shop at good will. That is the only place I have bought jeans in many years. How many time can ya go shopping and get 4 pairs of jeans for $12? Perfectly good jeans, no stains or tears, and they fit me. I was a happy camper. I got those early this week when we had to go to the big city for a dentist appointment. The appointment went well. I still got all my original equipment. Anywho, I really wanted to find a few flannel shirts to wear this spring when the weather is still chilly but no luck there. I think when folks have flannel shirts they wear em out. Thas what Rodger does with his. By time he is done with em, they don't even make good cleaning rags. Oh and we made our quarterly trip to Sam's club too so we could restock up on necessities. I got everything on my list and then some and still came in under budget. It was a good day.  The price on some things went up and some things actually came down in price. Butter was one thing that had come down a bit. I usually get 12 or 16 lb of butter when we go to Sam's just because I refuse to pay $4 a lb here in our town when I can get it for less than $2 there. Don't mind supporting small businesses but dang I cant feed their habits at the expense of our dinner table. Oh well that was the extent of my exciting week.

My new chicks are doing good. They just had too many mommies. I had 3 lil hens taking care of 7 babies in a small section of the building. Two of the lil hens were a lil nervous in nature and kept stepping on the lil ones so I took them out and left one hen to raise the chicks. I think this will work better for the chicks. I have no problem butchering chickens, but I just cant stand the thoughts of lil ones getting injured or killed when they are lil and mostly defenseless. It just bothers me badly to think of them suffering. But that is just my nature I guess.

Our trip to the dentist took its tole on my body as it usually does this week. Every time we go out of town the ride makes me hurt really bad for several days. And on top of all that I think I have a lingering sinus infection. The meds I take for the arthritis suppresses my immune system some and if I get an infection of any sort by body don't know and it never gets full blown and shows many symptoms. But I know when things are not right. And my sinuses are not right. Any way I have to go see my family doc on Monday so I will tell him and see if I need to take antibiotics. I think I should but who the hell knows how doctors think these days.

Some of you may remember my post a bit ago when I mentioned starting a lil online shop of some sort. Just to update on that, I am a still a ponderin on it. Am still thinkin on start up funds and such. So maybe soon I can come up with something. I know I need to find something to "do" to keep my mind occupied. I know as I get older I will lose brain cells if I don't use em, and goodness knows I have none to spare. I just need to get out of this rut and do some thing constructive.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I always make trouble for me

I have this really bad habit of making more trouble and work for myself. And seems the older I get the more I tend to do that. I know, for a fact it is never a good idea to let hens set in winter. I have known this all my life. What the hell was I thinking to let not one hen but 3, count em, 3 hens set. Well in my last post I was so happy that I had one lil hen hatching and the lil babies are so cute. Then I had the next hen in line had 1 lil baby under her. So I thought she was hatching too. Nope she not hatching. The lil chicks are just visiting their mom's friends next door. If they get cold they just duck under the nearest warm spot no matter which hen it is. Now the second hen in line thinks she has kids and keeps getting off her eggs. Oh my!! At this point the lil chicks need to eat so their momma gets up to teach them to eat and all the neighbors come over and kid nap the kids. Next challenge was finding chick starter locally. I lucked out and the lady we had been getting our other feeds from had just one bag of starter left from fall and I took that for now. So the babies have feed and plenty of mommas to look after them. I really don't have a good spot to keep the hens and lil chicks so I had to take a piece of deer netting and kinda fence off a section of the brooder house where the laying hens are so the moms have so peace with the kids.

Well the rain moved back in late this evening again. It has been cold and just not good weather for us goobers that like to get outside. Now more rain. Needless to say I am ready for spring. On second thought, maybe I just need to relax and enjoy the down time. Cause when spring does get here there is not much down time to be had when the gardening starts. And that all starts in March with the green house.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I got babies, I got babies

Well not everyone gets so excited about having new lil baby chicks. Especially in January with these cold temps outside. I have 3 of my young pullets that have went to nesting. At supper tonight I was asking Rodger what day it was and said to him, "I have one lil hen that should hatch any day now and I just don't want it to sneak up on me and the big chickens hurt the babies" After supper I went out to check on the chickens and let them out for a bit. And this is what I saw.........

Not sure how many lil babies this momma has but I counted 4 for sure. She is a very sweet momma so far.The white lady sitting next door should hatch in another few days. Then on down the hall is yet another lady that should hatch after that. Little baby chicks are so sweet and cuddly. Now if I can figure out how to house these lil families without too many scuffles taking place.
 

This little fellow was the only black one that I found under this momma. I am guessing these fellows hatched out sometime today. There is always food and water inside the building for the birds so I was in no hurry to check on them today. Didn't want to let them out with the weather being so dang cold and damp. Tomorrow I must fix a permanent place to the moms and babies so the lil ones will be safe from the other hens. I am sure they are gonna be a headache for me for a couple weeks. But they are so fun to watch.

I am still pondering the possibility of opening an online shop to sell vintage goodies. I have been looking around online at other shops and decorating websites and I think I can provide some really nice things for folks who can love and appreciate old things and enjoy them in their own home. I guess in a way those vintage things are just normal for me. As I look at those websites and look at my own house I see so many things that other folks use for decorative items are things I still use. So I think if I take on this project I will do my best to make sure things that I sell can still be used for their original intended purpose as well as ornate. So thas kinda where my mind has been for the past several days. I think I was born about 100 years too late.
Not much been happening here on the homestead with our crappy weather. I think all I do is cook and eat. You can bet that will be the downfall of me come spring. Although we did get out all our garden seeds over the weekend and went thru them to see if we needed to order anything and ya know for once I think I am good to go. Unless I come across some interesting new edible to try in the garden. I am so ready for spring.

So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella