A little progress every day

We seem to make some progress every day here on the farm as far as getting crops in and gardens planted. The plants in the greenhouse are coming up and growing really well. We were supposed to have severe storms this evening but they missed us and I am so thankful. Not sure how much my lil greenhouse can take out there. The rain was nice tho. It was a bit dry for the past week or so. Jason got started on plowing the ground where we will plant corn this year again. He ran the disc thru and next they will turn the ground and get ready to plant. Rodger got the seed corn shelled for planting too. We plant open pollinated stock corn. We have had several people that are more interested in planting open pollinated than hybrid and they prefer to buy open pollinated as well. An older gentleman told us the open pollinated has far more protein content than does round-up ready hybrid. Any time you mess with genetics you will lose another quality in something. Seems to me "big" farmers just grow more worthless corn. But we do intend to plant 5 acres again this year. So says Rodger and Jason.

So far my Cornish cross chicks are growing just like the ones I use to get from Marti poultry farms. This time I had to order from Cackle hatchery as Marti went out of business. I do think I have the right chicks now that will grow well and yield great weight when we butcher at 6 weeks of age like we did with birds we got from Marti. They are 3 weeks old and look at the size of those lil fellows.

They all have lived good and are gaining weight like they should. I guess they will weigh about 2 to 2 1/2 lbs now. All they do is eat, drink, sit and poop. But after all that is what they are supposed to do.

Last weekend I went to west KY to visit my aunt Ann and attend my second cousins wedding. I did have a nice visit with family and Aunt Ann. Please keep her in your prayers as she continues her battle with cancer. It is hard to imagine how sick she is when you talk to her because she is her usual self. I came home on Monday after the wedding. Don't think the family here missed any meals while I was gone. Rodger said he had supper with Jason and Mary Kay on Sunday while I was gone. Jason had made beef stew and he makes the bestest.

Today has been a non stop circus here. First thing this morning I took my car in to the service center with a dummy light that had come on and have to take it back tomorrow so they can put the part on. I sure didn't want to sit there all afternoon with so many lil things on my to-do list. I left there and came back to town and call and got a hair cut then home to feed chickens and Luna and the cats. Off again to the nursing home to see Mom for a bit. Then on to the doc in the next town. Stopped by Mary Kay's work and got a bite of lunch. I got rather angry at the doc. Our state government is so hell bent on stopping drug abuse that they make it near impossible for people like myself who have chronic pain to get help. The doc wrote my script out wrong then tole me to just take the meds like I had been for 2 weeks and come back and see my regular doc. Who is very hard to see these days for some reason. So now if we have to leave in the next week to go to Nevada I will be without my pain meds for almost 2 weeks. The new state law wont allow any docs to write pain meds except pain specialist and those are the ones who contribute most to the abuse problem in this area. When I worked EMS 90% of the over doses we had were pain clinic patients. Hell no I want no part of those things. Not only that when I got hurt at work and went to them they said they could not write my meds unless I allowed them to do steroid injections in my back. Well damn the back is not the only pain I have. The law has made a mess of medical care in the area of chronic pain. And most docs will agree that the steroid injections destroy bone and tissue around the injection site. I got enough problems without "allowing" someone to do more. Pain clinics are nothing more than a money racket. OK I will get off the soap box now. But it makes me mad.

At any rate this has been a long aggravating day for me. I feel like I went in circles all day. I actually kinda did tho. I did end up back at home after 5 this evening. All the critters are fed and in bed and everything was buckled down before the lil storm hit here. We got maybe 10 to 15 minutes of wind, nothing major and some rain. So all is good on the home front.

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

Stella

Uhoh!! I lost a day

Dang some how I lost a day this week. Not even sure how that happened. I just looked at the date on my computer and it is Thursday already. So I reckon I didn't post yesterday. O well!
Any way, as for today not much really happening in my world. Well except that I was really happy with the election results on a national level. I am so doing a happy dance that Nancy Pelosi lost her position. I am sure the country will be much better off without her liberal agenda. And I sure hope to hell someone teaches her how to apply lipstick so its not smeared all over the lower half of her face. Just further proof that you can not make a silk purse out of a pigs ear.
Speaking of pigs, ms Petunia doesn't like pig pellets. She much prefers scraps and corn to the good for her stuff that we wanted to feed her. But so far she is doing really well adjusting to her life of not having other critters eating her feed. Although I am sure she misses her cow and sheep friends.
I think I will only be butchering about 10 or 15 of the chickens this weekend as they are not quite big enough to suit me. They don't grow as fast in cooler weather due to the fact that they burn more energy trying to stay warm and less of the feed energy goes to making "chicken". So we will do the remainder next weekend hopefully. It is really hard to keep the building clean and dry with that many birds wanting to stay near the heat light and feed and water containers. I added more hay in there this evening to try to combat the moisture and hope they will have less manure on then when we do butcher. Yeah I know its a nasty job but gosh someone has to do it. Here it is November already and we still have lots of outside things to do. And the weather man is saying we might get a few snow flurries this weekend as well. It is supposed to get much colder too. Kinda makes me want to stay in the house and build a fire in the fireplace and drink hot chocolate. Or at least something that will make me think I'm warm.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Election day,our corn is ready

It has been election day here and yep I did get out and vote. So I guess that gives me the right to complain about our elected officials. Some of the offices in our county were unopposed and some I just as soon have voted "none of the above". I am not sure that any candidate that I have heard about has told the truth about anything. Seems all they try to do is belittle their opponent just to try and make themselves look better. I sure would not make a good politician. I really don't think many changes will take place in our local offices but not sure about state wide. Many we just need to vote in a new crook to see if they can do better.
The weather was nice today when I was out but they are giving colder temps and maybe some rain later this week. The cold I can live without. When I went out to vote and pulled into the parking spot at the polls my truck was acting odd as far as brakes. Then I heard a hissing noise when I got out and thought 'oh great, a nail in a tire'. But when I came out it had stopped so that kinda clued me in that it was not a tire but instead my brake system. I took it to have it checked out and was tole that it may possibly be a wheel bearing. And that really didn't sound cheap. So I go back later this week to get that fixed. Dang it is alas something. Not that I drive that much but I do like the fact that I have a vehicle IF I decide to go somewhere.
I limped the truck back home and went into the field to pick some corn to take to Petunia. Our corn is ready to pick. Nice and dry, shells easy and I gave the hog some and she liked it. Most of em will eat new corn better than anything else. So later this week I might go back and pick some more and shell it for her. The guys really need to get the corn picker ready and get the corn in before the fall rainy season starts. This same corn will be our corn for cornmeal too. And heaven knows we use a good deal of that.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Gun rights, rain and stuff

We I have been our plundering around this morning just looking at stuff, thinking and doing very little. Dang it is hot out there. I got the onions out of the dehydrator that had dried over night and put them in a jar and vacuum sealed it. Now I have a gallon of dried onion flakes. The humidity is awful again. I just quit and came back inside where it was cool. My herb bed still needs the mulch, but I will get to that. I did, in my plunderings pull what few weeds and bits of grass out that had started in there. I do have more things that need to be cut and dehydrated. And I will get to that too. Maybe when I don't hurt so much. We are having little rain showers off and on today so that is a good excuse to give my body a break. I just cant do the standing anymore like I used to. Makes the back hurt something awful. Not to mention the sore joints.
In this plundering around, I looked at my greenhouse and the plastic is torn badly on it. So all the plastic will have to be replaced in the spring. Damn and I was hoping to use it this winter to try and hold over some tomatoes and salad veggies. Thas a bummer! But the greenhouse was invaluable to me this spring growing things. With all the bad things that are happening all over our country with regards to weather, the oil spill and the economy, I feel a strong need to plant more than I have done so far in the garden. I don't feel the security in my provisions that I think I should. Yeah go ahead and call me paranoid, but its better to have things and not need em than to need em and not have em. So I think I will spend some time today "planning" for what we need and making lists.
In my plunderings today I was plundering the Internet too, talk about getting around. I was reading something that made me feel better about our nations Supreme Court Judges. Thank God we have a few conservatives among them that still believe in our freedom and rights. If you are so inclined, here is the link.
                                             http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_supreme_court_guns
They voted to uphold our right to keep and bear arms for our protection. So saved one of our rights that should have never been in jeopardy to begin with. So God bless those few judges from a bunch of gun totin, bible thumpin, concealed carry hillbillies.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella