You can tell summer is here!

It has been really hot and humid in our neck of the woods for the past few weeks. The humidity is killer as well. I know, I know, my southern friends are laughing about now with that complaint. Not to mention we have had plenty of rain this spring and early summer as well. For most of last week are temps were in the high 90's with at least 70% humidity daily. Miserable to be outside. So this ole girl stays in if and when possible.

As you well know, my memory is not the best. But with that in mind. Last week I had went out back to let the chickens out to roam. It has been so hot the hens head straight down from their building to the edge of the woods in the undergrowth where it tends to stay pretty cool. My young roosters (mean lil shits) follow me around back to the deck an hang out under there with Luna where its cool. I had taken all the plants out of the greenhouse due to the extreme heat in there and moved a large pot with my friend Mamie's started grape vines to the back near the sidewalk so I could keep them watered till she got time to come get them. On my way to the spigot to water I spied 2 short pieces of hose, nope wait damn it that's not a hose. Yep I was jumping up and down screaming so Luna comes bounding from under the deck to the rescue. Yep it was a snake lying beside the short black hose that connects the spigot to the hose reel. I keep a hoe beside the deck for just such occasions and quickly whacked his head all while Luna is trying to get at him to protect me. Once I mashed the snakes head I let her have at him. She finished him off and shook and dragged him to the far side of the drive way. Bless her heart she spent the rest of the day in the shade of my car watching the snake to make sure it didn't move anymore. I hate snakes of all kinds. I don't scream for just any reason, but a damn snake will make me scream every time. So far that is the only one we have seen near the house this year. Although I know they are around. We live near woods and our grass in the yard had gotten totally out of hand. Last week our yard was so pretty(unless you like grass in your yard) with all the short white clover blooming. It was super thick and with all the rain Rodger had just not been able to get time to mow. Not to mention a pretty well manicured lawn is not even on the list of priorities around here in summer. The garden is really ALL we really worry much about. Rodger has managed between rains to keep it looking good. He got it all hoed out last week and another evening he plowed. All of the garden so far is growing and looks great. I am so very thankful too.

I am hoping that maybe next weekend we can get the young roosters butchered off. They are fast becoming a nuisance especially to the 2 young pullets that are with them. Every time I go out to close them up or let them out one of the roosters wants to peck my feet, flog my pants legs and just make a spectacle of himself. If I pick him up and scold him when I let him down he follows me all over like a lil dog. Along with 2 of his brothers. But they are big enough to make good stock and that is what I need more than little feisty roosters. I have the incubator set with eggs again that will hatch in a couple weeks. I set it and them the power went off and stayed for too long, the eggs got cold and I knew those were dead. So I reloaded with more eggs. I am trying something a lil different this time tho. With still air incubators you have next to no air movement inside. In the past I had been placing my thermometer in the middle. Once the temp was set correctly I loaded the eggs in. With the heating element around the perimeter of the top of the incubator I am thinking most likely the eggs around the outside may get too hot thus lowering my hatch rate. So this time. I only put eggs in the turner around the perimeter and placed the thermometer on top of those eggs and try to keep the temp consistent. I will see if this increases my hatch rate. Will post more when this clutch hatches off. When my friend Mamie came to get her grape vines today she brought me about 18 turkey eggs to put in the incubator as soon as the chicks hatch. I am certainly hoping for a good hatch of them. Be nice to have some turkeys to butcher for the freezer this year. Not sure yet where I will house them but maybe by time they hatch off I will have figured that part out. Ain't that just like me. Get something with no idea where to put it. Rodger always loves when this happens. Not!! Usually ends up being a good deal of work for him and Jason. Another building?

We went out of town yesterday to Dalton's birthday part in Maysville Ky. Dalton is Josh and Dana's lil boy. They are like our adopted kids. Love them dearly. Jason and I had went deer hunting several years ago and we stayed with Josh's parents at their house. Just wonderful folks. At that time I was able to hunt and we spent lots of time in the woods and I didn't get to talk with his parents much that time. Always intended to go back and just hang out with them while Rodger, Josh and Jason hunted. Well that didn't happen as planned because I have been working at the hunting lodge in west KY for several years. So we were invited to Dalton's lil birthday party and we went. I got to spend some time with Larry and Sandy and talk with them. I thoroughly enjoyed that trip and visit with them. I can tell ya it wont be years before we go visit them again.

For me to be able to get much done around here I guess it means I am gonna have to start going to bed really early and getting up early if I need to do things outside. And heaven knows I got lots of things that need doing. For one I need to pull some weeds in the herb bed. Dang it I thought if I put down black plastic and with the heat of the sun it might kill most of the weed seeds. Well that didn't lat as long as I had hoped. I am guessing that some plants produce seeds that need light to sprout. I have lots of weeds but they seem to all be the same variety. I need to get up in the early mornings before the heat hits and spend a couple hours weeding. May take several mornings of work to get it all take care of but a little bit at a time will get the task done. I have several varieties of herbs that are big enough to cut for drying already. I think I still need to sow more parsley. I use lots and lots of that stuff. Both frozen and dried. I will for sure have to plant it where I can reach it with the hose. At least till it gets growing well.

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

Stella

Yep, I been busy goin in big circles

I cant believe it has been so long since I posted last. Goodness, where does time go? I am almost convinced that the older we get the faster it flys by. Or maybe its just that we do things less fast. Not sure, but..

We did get to go see our son and his family and enjoy visiting with them for Liam's first birthday. That lil fellow is growing up way too fast. Hes not a baby anymore. So precious. And you would think this grammy would have tons of pictures to post, but by dang I took mostly videos while I was there. I must do some editing before I can get them to post here. Dang it!! But we enjoyed our trip and visit. Sadly tho mom ended up back in the hospital while we were gone and was treated for pneumonia. She was back at the nursing home before we got home, which was good. Then the staff noticed some bruises on her right leg on Friday last week and sent her to the ER for evaluation suspecting it might be a clot or bleed. Finally today they have decided she has a bleed in her leg from the TPA she got when she had her stroke. She was a very sick lady and still is. They had to give her a unit of blood last night due to the loss. She doesn't recognize me now which is sad because I don't want her to think I am not there. Hopefully in a few days she will improve to the point where she can at least get to come back here to the nursing home for continued care with people she is familiar with. Being an only child stinks in times like this when you have to make all the decisions.So please keep her in your prayers for a continued recovery.

The garden stuff we had planted before we left on vacation is up and looks really good. When we got home Rodger and Jason got our sweet corn, beans and the field corn planted. Now as soon as we get a day or so of no rain we can get the tomatoes and such in the garden too. I think we have got behind again. But we did get the Cornish cross butchered off before leaving as well. Got plenty of meat in the freezer. Now if I can find time between running back and forth to the hospital to make the chicken stock all will be good. I simply had to be home tonight. Must do laundry or tomorrow we be naked. Or at least I would be. So I am workin on that as I type. Hey, I guess I can multitask after all. I am planning to get my incubator started up again really soon, I sure need to hatch off more chicks to replace my laying flock. The ones we hatched before we left are growing and lookin good. I still need to fix a place for them to be able to get out in the grass and still be confined to a small area so they know where to go to roost at night. Have just not had time to get that done since we been back. But it will happen soon, I hope.

My strawberries are loaded with blooms in the bed by the driveway this year. Hopefully we will have plenty of fresh berries soon. My friend Anna had sent me some thorn less blackberry plants right before we left for vacation and I still don't have them planted in a permanent location yet. But they are doing great in the pots in the greenhouse for right now. I got tons of grapevines started too, most of them have leaves so should have roots or at least will soon. Then they get put in individual pots till fall planting time. I get tired just thinkin of all the stuff that needs doing here sometimes. Geez!!!

Has anyone else had a terrible time with allergies this spring or is it just me? I got a snot nose and all that junk when we were in Nevada and it just didn't let up once we got home. I have had a plugged up left ear, left sinus feels stopped up, itchy eyes, cough, the whole nine yards. I guess it don't help a lot to be tired, stressed and run down either. But I must keep pluggin along till the stress eases up. Hope soon, before I crash. We both had dentist appointments today and got teeth cleaned and both got good reports. Thas a plus I reckin. I had a good laugh with Sheila, our hygienist as I got to be her first patient that she cleaned using her new magnifying glasses. It was hilarious. The glasses are designed to make it easier for the hygienist to see without having to lean over so far and strain they neck and back all day. But she said she could see things she could never see before. She chose Rodger and I to be her first patients using the glasses. She almost lost her seat when I told her I would keep my eyes closed in case she mis-judged her distance with her instruments. I do think it took longer than normal to clean my teeth with all the laughing tho. But thas OK, I don't mind being a guinea pig once in a while. I guess that was my bright spot in the day. Being on the road has really worn me out tho.

Some day I hope to get my ducks in a row and post on a regular basis. Until then, bear with me please. Till next time, 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

Gathering building material

I am seriously thinking of gathering materials for the building of the ark, again. Well that is a lil stretch but if we have many more weeks of rain like this we may sure need an ark to keep afloat. And the weather forecast is for rain all this week into next week. It is mud in our garden. Although the garden stuff is growing, so are the weeds and grass. I am betting I have cukes to pick if and when I can get in the garden without getting stuck in the mud. Our yard looks like a jungle out there. My herb bed is pitiful. I can not seem to get ahead of the weeds in there much less keep them at bay. Geez!! where does it end.

I get my second in a series of 3 shot in my right knee. Both knees still give me fits and hurt like the devil but I am still hopeful the injections will help long term. The doc still says it will take a while to tell a noticeable difference. So wait I will. After all what else can I do?

I used the June apples that aunt Ann brought to me for making some apple sauce to can. I left the sauce a lil bit chunky. Now I really need to find the recipe I used when the boys were lil to make an applesauce cake. The cake had applesauce in it and on top as well. Very moist and for the most part rather healthy. As I remember it did not have too much sugar in it and contained nuts and raisins. A rather healthy snack if there is such a thing. But hey, if ya think about it most cake does contain things that are good for ya. This is what I had for breakfast this morning.

Yeas I had Italian coconut cream cake for breakfast with my coffee. I love this cake. Aunt Ann made one for me to bring home this past weekend. Rodger and I went to visit them and spend some time with them before she starts her chemo treatments in a couple weeks. She and I got to hang out and just have fun, going to an auction(my first live auction), hit some yard sales, picked up some flowers and other plants at the local Lowe's store. Just had a good day talking an visiting. Rodger went with uncle Tripp to fly his plane to another airport after having to land at a smaller one the night before. He also made a stop in Louisiana to get some fresh gulf shrimp. We had those for dinner that night grilled along with steaks and other assorted goodies. Ann made 2 of the coconut cakes, one for eating at the cookout and 1 for me to bring home. That was so sweet of her. And she really should have just been taking it easy but its just not in her nature to sit around. But we had a great weekend and Rodger enjoyed Tripp's company and getting to fly in his MU2 plane.

Two of my favorite people. And my doggie. Luna loves people and she took to Ann and Tripp when they were here. Ann's lil dog Jack was so jealous that they were paying attention to Luna. He is their lil travel companion. And very easy to travel with.

We have not had much going on here on the farm lately with the rain. But we can hope it dries up enough to at least go check on the garden stuff. It looks good from the house.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I know, I know, leave it to me

I know, I have been MIA for a while, again. No I been right here, not gone, just at home tryin to keep my oars in the water. You already know that I don't play by the rules. I am in the process of trying to get my meds adjusted as far as times that I take them so they can work better for me and not make me a zombie during the day. Its OK to be sleepy at night but dang being in a brain fog all day. Makes for some real unproductive days. But I am making progress. So on to the next project.

We got the garden planted and all the stuff is up and looks good. We still need to plant tomatoes and peppers, cabbage and broccoli, melons and squash. We have been having some rather cold nights with temps in the 40's which is not normal for us and I didn't want to plant tender crops in the garden just yet and let them get frost bit. I do think now the danger of frost is past so we will try to get those in the ground in the next few days. We had to make a trip out of town today to the bigger city to pick up some supplies and we got a roll of 6 ft wide landscape fabric which we will put in the garden, bury the edges of it to keep it in place, make crosses in the fabric and set the cantaloupes and watermelons in the holes so they can grow without competing with the weeds later in the summer. Hopefully we can take the fabric up and use it again next year. If this new roll last as long as the stuff we used up here in the yard when we first moved it will probably last us a lifetime. Good sturdy stuff. The plants in the greenhouse look good. Now to get them in the garden.

My new lil greenhouse sure has been handy this year. I finally got enough energy get in the yard and do a few more chores this past week. Our grape vines were in bad need of fruit pruning. As you can tell from this picture.

You can click on the picture to enlarge it and better see the many lil grape clusters on the plants. I did fruit prune them and take about 50% of the lil clusters off to give the ones left a chance to get bigger. Then I got another idea. I know, I know, you should not prune plants in the middle of summer when the sap is up. But prune I did. The grapevines were pretty scraggly with limbs goin ever direction. Makes it really hard to mow when you are getting stabbed and scrapped by grape limbs. So I clipped them back.
Before:

After:  

 Mission accomplished:

 I got all the wild limbs clipped and you can actually mow under the vines and this should greatly improve air circulation and prevent fungus on the grapes. There are lots of nice young growth on the ground after I finished. So I have a friend who is wanting some grapevines. I know, I know, THEY say you cant take cutting and start plants in summer time. But dang it, you know I had to try. So I took the cutting to the picnic table, trimmed em up, fixed a pot of potting soil, got out the rooting hormone, a pan of water, dipped the cutting in the water and then the hormone and stuck em in the dirt. We shall see IF they makes roots or not. I will let you know on this one.

 So once they were in the pot I put them in the greenhouse so I could take care of them till (hopefully) they make roots.

OK I was all done playing in the dirt so I moved on to the strawberry bed out back. OH my!!!!!

 I did not know there were that many berries ripe out there. So this required a trip back to the summer kitchen to get a container to pick berries.

I know, I know, the bowl will not be big enough but it is what was handy. Ended up I picked about a gallon of berries off this lil 8ft by 8ft bed. Yeah I know, I know, there are berries in the field ripe and the bed beside the driveway has a lot of ripe berries in it too. Yeah I picked the ones here at the house. Still have not got to the field to pick those. Maybe tomorrow.

After I finished picking berries Rodger came out and I suggested we go to the field and drive the post to support the new grapevines we planted the past couple years. So off we went. We got the supports put up and Rodger is way far behind on the mowing with all the rain we have had. Can ya tell?

There are about 30 grapevines in this lil vineyard once they get big enough to make grapes. There is a grapevine at every metal rod that you see. This clover we planted creeps and mats on the ground and gets rather tall It is pretty tough stuff but we had hoped it would be shorter to cut down on mowing and help keeps weeds from growing. The orchard has grass that is almost as tall as some of the young trees we have planted this year. It will look pretty tho if Rodger ever gets it mowed.

A pretty heavy thunderstorm blew in just as we got finished driving stakes and it was getting dark so I did not get to pick the strawberries that are in the field near this vineyard. Just not enough hours in the day.

We went out of town to get a pressure switch for our water pump today and to pick up a few supplies and as I already told you we got landscape fabric to keep weeds out of the melons. We went to Lowe's and I picked up 3 - 8oz containers of Valspar paint for free. I had coupons that I had saved for a free 8oz sample of paint so I took advantage of that lil deal. Got a couple colors and 1 white. I wanted the white to re-paint the base of our dining table. We made a stop at Walmart for a few other things we needed and Rodger had some gift cards that he had gotten from cashing in his reward points from one of our credit cards. Needless to say it is not safe to allow him in Walmart "lil boys" clothing section. He picked out several lil outfits for Liam. Who am I kidding? I picked out a few myself for that lil man. I cant believe how much this lil fellow has grown in just the few weeks since we have been back home. Although his daddy did tell me he is a lil colicky. Bless his lil heart, I hate this so bad. Sure is hard to see those lil ones hurting and not be able to fix em. They tole me today they are gonna change his formula to a soy based one to see if that will help some. I know Rob was on soy formula when he was a baby. I just pray this don't last long for him. I know it is hard for Rob and Amoy being so far from family and not having anyone close to help out so they can rest a lil bit. But this sweet lil boy will be worth all this and I am sure they would tell you the same things. Just precious.

                                           He looks like he is just itchin to get hold of something.

                                               Lookin all gangsta!! and cute.

 And just look at that sweet lil smile. Not long till he will be able to interact with his mommy and daddy more. I know they cant wait for those days. This Grammy sure misses that lil fellow.

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

Hope you have a safe and happy memorial day weekend. Thanks to all our service men and women, past and present for your service to our country. God bless you all and keep you.

Stella

Raising meat birds and butchering

As most of you know we raise the Cornish cross chickens for meat every year. Last year I had ordered from a hatchery and the genetics were not as good and the chicks did not grow as well for us. I have always tried to butcher at 6 weeks old and had 5lb or more birds. Last year the largest one didn't weigh that much. I ordered from Cackle hatchery this year and the birds were awesome. They more than met my expectations for meat birds. I feed the highest protein feed I can the first 2 weeks of life, round the clock and fed freely. The second 2 week period of their life drop the protein to about 22%, feed 24/7. The last 2 weeks of life they get finisher or feed that is non medicated and about 20 % protein, fed 24/7. I don't have a problem with sick birds, none are down and crippled, all good strong healthy birds. We got a lil off schedule with the birth of our first grandson but thas OK too. The birds we butchered today were 8 weeks old, none crippled, all good strong birds. They averaged 7 lbs each. They look like small young turkeys. We had to purchase 2 gallon zip top freezer bags to put these birds in, would not fit in the gallon size.

So if anyone wants to raise these birds for meat I highly recommend ordering from Cackle hatchery. They do grow just as well as the ones I always ordered from Marti poultry farms before they closed down. Most of these birds are frozen whole so we can cook them on the rotisserie  Some of the birds we did cut for fryers too and used the bony pieces to make stock to can. I did manage to get the stock cooked down today after butchering but am gonna wait till tomorrow to can it after we get finished butchering the last 8 birds. We did manage with help from Jason and Mary Kay to get 16 done today and we were all killed. And to think I use to do far more than that by myself in my younger days. Sucks to get older. It ain't for sissies I tell ya.

This is mothers day weekend. So I would like to take a second to wish all the mothers out there a very happy mothers day. God bless you all. 

Not much else happening on the farm with all the rain, 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

Not sure what season it is yet

Our weather has been a bit wonky the last week. While we were in Vegas it was nice then rained and sleeted and we got back it was nice at 50 degrees. It was just like spring out today but it rained a bit. We even had thunder. They say thunder in February, frost the same day in May. That will not be good to have frost on May 25. Not good a tall. But it will do  what ever it wants no matter what we want. That is all in Gods hands. We are susposed to get snow flurries tonight and tomorrow now. Did I mention I do not like cold weather no more? Well just in case, I dont.

I think I am still tryin to rest up after our trip. We just lounged around all day Saturday. We went to Richmond to Lowes and Walmart on sunday. Rodger wanted to go get the materials to build lil Liam a toy box and I wanted to get some yarn to make a cocoon for the baby. So off we went. My body did not need to be traveling just 2 days after a long trip. I think it made the hurty worse. We picked up a few things at walmart and headed back home. Stopped by to see Rodgers parents in Richmond and came on home. We had stopped to see his sis Tammy on the way down. Her daughter Kim had surgery for gallbladder removal this morning and she is home now doing ok, hurtin a bit an gettin sore. So happy the gallbladder didnt flare up on her while we were all in Vegas. I think she and her momma had a pretty nice time. They got to do some sightseeing while they were there. Its always nice to see other parts of the country. Anyway back at home I ordered stuff to make more lotion. I took Amoy a small jar of the lotion and she loved it. She has really dry skin and she said it helped a lot. I do think I will change the emulsifier that I use to the vegetable wax as it helps emulsify the oils and water much better than beeswax and it is derived from a plant source. I dont use preservatives in my lotion so it has to be refrigerated if it is kept for a longer period of time. I think it would be fine for a month but longer it would need to be kept cold to prevent bacterial growth. I should get my order of supplies later this week.

Before we left for Vegas I ordered my chicks for meat birds. Used Cackle hatchery this time as I do think they have the same blood line that Marti poultry farms had. Not sure when they will arrive but soon I do hope so we can get them raised up and butchered off before we go to Nevada in May when the baby gets here. I dont think Jason and Mary Kay want to babysit 25 lil chickens. Matter of fact, I know they dont. The cornish require more attention than standard breeds to keep the temps just right for them. But we  hope to get the garden in and the greenhouse empty before we leave to. I guess I have to get the greenhouse up before I worry about getting it empty. I am out of plastic so will have to buy a roll to use this year. Maybe next year we can get one made from the polycarbonite panels. I can dream I guess.

Last post when I labeled  the wedding pictures with names I listed the wrong names for Amoy's mom and auntie. Her mom is Paula and her auntie is Pauline. See I tole you I was terrible with names. I do well to know my own name. Sorry Paula and Pauline.
The day after the wedding Matt (Robs best man and best friend) and Rob were going out to drive some fast cars. This was Matt's treat for Rob as a wedding gift. I think they had a blast.
Here are a couple pics of them and some of the cars they got to test run. Expensive fast cars I might add.

Rob in a Lamborghini. Dont he look cool?. I think he said one of the cars got sideways coming out of the parking lot. Imagine that!! Lead foot?

 

This is Rob in the Jaguar XKR-5. Pretty color, but too small and not practical here on the farm. But fun no less.

This is the lil red Ferrari. Now this I really like. But really have no need for one. But would be fun to take for a spin.

This  is Rob on the right and Matt on the left posing with their big boy toys for the day. I am sure these 2 had a blast. It was one of those once in a lifetime chances to do something. And these 2 guys like to hang out together. They have been best friends for 10 years. And Matt is really a great guy.

This is a pic of Amoy's momma Paula at the wedding. Some of these photos I just got from Tammy on Sunday so they didnt get posted on my last blog post. She is a sweet lady for sure.

 

This is Amoy's aunt Pauline with Rob. I got names switched on the last post. They know and understand how my memory is at my age. A really sweet lady.

This pic was from dinner on Wednesday night before the wedding next day. From left to right, Rob, Matt Vanover, lil ole me, and Tammy, Rodger's sister, my sis in law, Rob's aunt. As other family members post and send pics I will post more that I think you all might enjoy. So glad my wonderful readers can share in this special time with us. Thank you all for letting me brag and show off my sweet family.


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

Stella

Piddlin on Superbowl Sunday

I am not by any means a football fan nor do I watch. But I have watched 2 in my life. Many years ago in 1979  when Terry Bradshaw was quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and they won against the Dallas Cowboys in the bowl I watched and today I watched as the Ravens beat the 49ers. I mostly watch for the commercials. I guess my favorite was the Dodge commercial with Paul Harvey and "Then God made a farmer". Guess that just hit home. Now I would have been all in if it had been a Chevy truck. I kinda half watched the game, I was busy cutting more strips and starting my rugs. I had a bright idea of sewing the strips together and make a very long strip and then use my huge crochet hook to "crochet" the strips into a rug.

I had lots of strips when I got tired of cutting them. Notice the huge scissors? And the glove? Well if ya use those scissors ya need that glove or you will have blisters all over your hands pretty quick. Or maybe I am just a wuss. Anyway I had already taken a pile of strips like the one to the left that you see and moved them to the sewing machine so I could stitch the ends together to make a long strip.

At this point I was adding on more strips and crocheting them as I got them attached. This hook is huge.

 

You can kinda get an idea the hook size by comparing it to a finger. It is fairly easy to work with. Although the jeans that I made strips from are a lil harder to manage.

This is what I got done today using the first bunch of light blue fabric from 2 old shirts and the tan is the legs of 1 pair of pants, the outer light blue is from legs of jeans. It is now about 18 or so by 24 inches. A good start for just piddling around with it. I will post more pics as I progress. Don't really like too much and this one will be big enough for the purpose I have in mind. Maybe I will get a chance to work on it some tomorrow evening. Anyway this is a functional use for old clothes that are stained and beyond hope. Not really fit to even donate. If I continue to feel real industrious I may make a really large one to use on the front porch for summer time. I think it would feel nice underfoot out there. Hey I could even make a chair pad for my nice willow porch chair that Aunt Ann gave me. I best quit thinkin before I get in over my head.

Not much happening here on the farm right now. Rodger got out today and walked around some on the farm, He said the fields are muddy and water logged. He found lots of deer trails up back of our house.  Just hope the fruit trees I have ordered don't come in too soon. Cant set trees in mud. At least I don't want too. Not only that I would sure hate to move wet chicken manure to mix in the soil to plant them.

Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A cluster of blank days

I think my life is like a calendar of blank days. Nothing filled in the days, nada, nothing. Or so it seems. Or maybe its just that I don't remember stuff like I used to. Yep I think thas it. I turned 50 and lost my damn mind. After all who in their right mind cleans carpet in winter time. Especially when their back already hurts. Well I know that was a job that needed to get done. Or maybe it was because I had to purchase a new shampoo machine and wanted to try it out. Yep thas it. And how many people move their house around just so they can have a closet/craft/sewing room? All I did was make the sewing projects more obvious and I see them everyday when I go into the closet/craft/sewing room. Now I must work on those. We still need to move the TV and will probably get that done sometime this week when Jason can get the couch out of the living room. BUT the carpet is clean under it.
I received my seed orders in the mail already this week. Now I can dream about gardening in spring. Not sure if we will raise as much of a garden as we did last year but it will feed us. Seems we have not used too much stuff from the cellar this winter, but I do guess it is early yet. In the process of talking to Josh last night and thinkin of how he could raise a small garden in his backyard in the subdivision this summer. We came on the idea of planting in straw bales. Use square bales of straw set on the ground with the strings running parallel to the ground. Water the bales with manure teas or compost tea to start the bale composting. After the bale is wet and warm in the middle, not too hot, then add a layer of compost on top and plant your seeds. I am thinkin this might be the perfect way for even me to raise onions and carrots so the grass and weeds don't take them over. I know I am going to try this with some lettuce in spring and may even plant some onion sets to see what they will do. If I can manage to do it, I will post pics along the way. You are thinkin "yeah right", but all I can do is hope I can remember to take the pics.
Well we have our plane tickets for our trip to Vegas. Rodger has shoes to wear with his existing suit. I got my dress in the mail today AND IT FITS! yippee for me. I am really looking forward to seeing our son marry the love of his life. We love her as much as he does. And wish them a lifetime of love, peace and happiness.
The parts came today for our furnace and we are waiting on our niece's boyfriend to call and install it for us. I am hoping he has time to do it as I sure don't think I want to hear Rodger cuss as he tries to install the heating elements.
Rodger finally got all our corn picked and in the cribs. All the cribs are full and then some I think. We will sell most of it. We have lots of white corn for grinding into cornmeal for sell as well. Not sure I even need cornmeal this year as I still have lots left from last years grind. But maybe we will grind some anyway "just in case". I need to get in the crib and get some of the corn out to send to my homesteading buddy Randy in central Ky so he can get a start of the white corn for his cornmeal every year. It is suppose to be warm this week so maybe I can get that done. Tomorrow I have to see the eye doc and hopefully order my new contacts. I am happy that I can finally read and see at a distance with just contacts and not have to use glasses too so I can read. Thas a pain.
Later in the week I plan to soak some dried beans to make and can some more mixed bean soup. We have used all the first batch that I canned. It was so good. I still have my small sweet taters that I need to can up also. I need to get this done so we can hopefully if weather permitting butcher off some excess roosters this coming weekend.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

You can sure tell its winter

In this house it is not hard to tell its winter time. I tend to nest or hibernate in winter. I don't like cold weather and really rather stay inside and piddle around the house. I still have lots of sewing projects I want to do this winter tho. So it thinking about this, I thought "how nice would it be to have a room to set up the sewing machine and do crafts?" SO I proceeded to bring the subject up to Rodger. Our house has a den or family room and a formal living room (that is never used). So I got the big bright idea to put up a door at the end of the hallway and block off the den, move the furniture out and turn the den into a bedroom and use the smaller bedroom off the den as a walk-in closet. Rodger finally saw that it might be a good idea and digressed and agreed to help me make this possible. We first had to move a very large double book case that has served as a room divider in the living room to the wall at the end of the living room. Not a long move just time consuming as ALL the books had to be taken out and then move the case, then put the books back. Then we moved the sectional to the living room and attempted to move stuff around to get it in place. Now the big couch that was in the living room must go to Jason and Mary Kay's house. The chase lounge will remain in the living room soon as we get the couch out. I did get my bed moved last night and got to sleep in my new room. Seems kinda odd tho sleeping in the den. But I am young, I will adjust. Rodger went to bed, probably out of boredom because the TV is still in the den/bedroom and he don't want to sit on the bed to watch TV. We will move the TV as soon as the couch is gone and the cable to the satellite is moved. Probably this weekend. I stopped at the hardware store today and picked up 2- 8 ft sections of closet rod, yes I will have 16 ft of closet rods to hang stuff up. What ever will I do with all that hanging space. Oh my!! Anyway I have the large oak table in the "closet" now to use for my sewing machine and crafts. Tomorrow Rodger is going to put up the closet rods for me and then I can officially move into my new "closet". I think I will keep the dresser in the closet as it has a large mirror on it and use that maybe as a dressing room as well. Plenty of space for all this. I will have the table to use most of the time for laying out clothes, if I need to iron that can be done and the clothes hung on hangers, and enough room to put on lotion, makeup if I choose and space to spare. At least for now. Somehow I do think in the future I will end up with more stuff stored in there than I now expect. Only one drawback to having the den as a bedroom, the fireplace is in there. Now how nice is that. Not a problem for me at all. I love it. Hopefully by the weekend we will be moved and settled back to a routine.
We must get all this moving stuff done this week as when the weekend gets here I need to butcher some roosters. They are feeling their oats and making a pest of themselves with the older hens. And the hens want no part of those young studs. So as you might expect the young studs get whipped on a daily basis. So if I can get the roos killed and use them for stock and can it up I might get motivated enough to make a batch of bean soup and can that as well. We have learned to both like ( I alas liked) mixed bean soup with carrot, celery, and onion in it. I have some ham base flavoring that I bought in central Ky last fall that I want to add for flavor and the soup will still be kosher for Rodger. On weekends we most always have soup of some sort to eat on all weekend long. I have veggie/beef, gumbo, chili, plain bean, and will have mixed bean soup after this weekend. If we are not in the mood for one of those I will make chicken noodle soup or tater soup. Nothing beats a good bowl of soup on a cold weekend with fried cornbread. Toss  some chopped onion in the cornbread and it make ya take back stuff ya didn't steal. Its yummy!!
Its not long till the big wedding in Las Vegas that we have been invited too. And of course we both will be so happy to go because our lil boy Rob is marrying his sweet fiance Amoy. We officially get a wonderful daughter in law. I got my fingers crossed that we will get another in the near future. I do like Mary Kay, Jason's girlfriend. Trust me, I sure feel blessed to have those girls in my life and Mary Kay's daughter Miranda. Really looking forward to our trip to Las Vegas in February. Sure will brighten up the winter for us. So far, 2013 is looking good. As long as we are blessed with our health all the rest will be minor.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.


Stella

Yipee, it was my 50th birthday

Well probably by the time this posts, my birthday will have passed. I can tell you that turning 50 is not for wimps. I got more things that hurt than most people 70 years old. This sucks. But I am amazed that I made it this far and am so very thankful. I got a ton of good wishes on Facebook today, hubby offered to take me to Red Lobster to eat but with our weather forecast I told him maybe we should wait and do it when the weather was better. I didn't want to get iced in out of town on my birthday. So instead we went to the store to get a box of hair color. OK so I color, deny my age, I will. No seafood for dinner but we did make a big kettle of potato soup and fried cornbread with onions. So dang good.
I have got some things done that needed doing today. I got our garden seeds ordered that we are gonna need. I ordered from both Baker creek heirlooms and Seed savers exchange. In the past few years we have tried a few varieties of beans, corn and such and have decided on the varieties that do best for us here and that is what we are gonna stick with so we can save our own seed. Although we are planting 2 varieties of sweet corn, Golden bantam and Stowells Evergreen. The Golden bantam will sprout and come up in cooler ground and can be planted earlier in the season in our area. It is a good old fashioned variety of yellow sweet corn. The Stowells Evergreen is a white sweet corn that can be planted a lil later to extend the harvest. As for green beans, we like the taste of the Kentucky wonder. Neither of us here have a good back so if we can stand up and pick beans all the better. So my friend Randy from central Ky sent me some Ky wonder pole beans, the variety we like only in a climbing variety. So we can save seed from those as well. A gentleman that Rodger works with gave us some white half runners that we love also. So that will be our beans for the coming year. The seed corn I did order so we can have sweet corn that is true to variety and a pure strain. I also replenished our carrot seed supply. All the other seeds we need, we already have from saving them from last year.
In all this online ordering I ordered a dress to wear to Rob and Amoy's wedding in February in Las Vegas. Gosh that is not far off. Rodger bought a new pair of dress shoes for the wedding. I still will need to find shoes to wear. But that is taken care of. The plane tickets, hotel and transportation are all taken care of as well.
My regular readers may remember a few months back when I was fussing about my carpet shampoo machine breaking. Well I found one almost identical on Amazon.com for a really good price plus I had a gift card to apply to the price. Yippee for me, now I have a carpet machine on the way. That should give me something to do this winter.
It is almost time for lots of folks to start making New years resolutions. I don't make resolutions I guess I just try to better "me" every day. Some days I think I succeed, some days, not so much. But in the coming year I do want for Rodger and I to try to take better care of ourselves. That will include cutting way back or stopping smoking. I have already told Rodger that after new years day we cant smoke in the house any more unless its an electronic cigarette. My sweet son Rob bought me one of the electronic cigarettes and I think they help a lot to cut back. Now I need to order cartridge refills for them.
We are hoping that the weather cooperates a lil more tomorrow so we can get our deer skinned out and processed. I really need my summer kitchen. I am out of home canned mixed bean soup and need to make and can more of that. Also still have the small sweet potatoes that I need to can. Rob bought me one of the magnetic knife racks to keep my knives sharp and safely stored in the summer kitchen and I have not been able to get in there to get it mounted on the wall. Maybe after tomorrow. Jason and I are cooking our holiday dinner tomorrow of turkey and he is making the ham. Yummy!! Jason makes ham but putting ham of your choice in roasting pan and adding apple cider about half way up the ham and adding about 1 cup brown sugar making sure to coat the top of the ham well and bake in 200 degree oven over night. Oh my, this ham is sooo very good. You should try this method sometime, it is awesome.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Its officially time to hibernate

Our forecast is for snow and rain, freezing weather, the whole mess. I don't drive in weather like that. I stay home and hibernate when the weather turns to crap. But on the bright side I will surf the web and get my garden planned and heirloom seeds that I need ordered in. We already have our plane tickets and hotel booked for February in Las Vegas for Rob and Amoys wedding. Dang that is not long off either. This year is almost to its end and then we are on the down hill slide to spring and greenhouse preps and gardens. Kinda hard to imagine that with snow on the ground and corn still in the field.I think the older we get the faster time goes by. I have a birthday on Saturday and with that one I figure my life is half over at best. Kinda scary if ya think about it.
What kind of new years resolutions do you make? I am not big on making so called resolutions. I think I rather try everyday to be a better person. Be more patient with others, take more time for friends and family. Be kinder to my own self. Now that would be a big accomplishment for me to be kinder to me. I tend to over do every thing I start. I guess I have always kept going to finish any thing I start and sometimes my mind writes checks my body cant cash. That makes for a big crash to recover. But such is my nature. So I think I shall try to do better at pacing my self this new year. I will let ya know how that goes.
I do have several sewing projects that I need to work on this winter while I am in hibernation. Nothing big, just a few lil things. I also want to get into making my own body lotions. I know some oils are great for the skin and if I add herbal tinctures to that I should end up with a good healing soothing lotion. I will post recipe and directions when I get this all figured out. So I am off to look up lotion recipes and properties. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Busy couple weeks

The past couple weeks have kinda been a blur for me. I did get to see my sweet aunt Ann and her family for a week or so during the modern gun hunting season this year. I kinda managed the hunting lodge for her. She was starting some medical treatments at the same time and was getting pretty tired. I did call and talk to her today and she is positive and sounds great. I think I will try to go see her for a few days in December before the weather gets too bad. Love her bunches and just hate she was feeling rotten. But we are looking forward to next year when we can cook for the deer hunters in her lodge again. We always had such fun doing that.
I came home on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and made it to the house just a few hours before Rob and Amoy got here. Loved having my kids home for a visit.

  

Are these 2 cute together or what? I think this lil momma is gettin a lil belly. We are sure looking forward to May and a lil grand baby.

 

These 2 are the perfect match. I am so blessed with the best future daughters in law. Both beautiful ladies. And this one has blessed us with a sweet step granddaughter as well. Love this kid to pieces.

Above is Miranda and her momma Mary Kay. Mary Kay made cake for the thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. 

We didn't have our usual family thanksgiving dinner at Tammy's house this year. It has really been a tough holiday for her an her kids. Her hubby Carl, our brother in law got injured on Monday helping an older man move an out building and lost his battle on Wednesday. It sure broke our hearts. Carl was a wonderful brother in law, husband, father and friend to all who knew him. His immediate family made his funeral arrangements on Friday and we had family Thanksgiving dinner at our house on Saturday. ALL the families were here at our house, and it was full. I think we had a good dinner and I hope everyone had a lil time to just chill and relax for a lil while from all the stress and sadness. We have 2 new babies in the family this year so Rob and Amoy got a lil practice with the lil babies. 

Rob and Amoy had to leave our house at midnight on Saturday night to get to Louisville airport to catch their flight at 6am. They arrived at 4 am or so all to find that their flight never existed. Rob was so mad. They booked their flight thru Orbitz on Frontier airlines. I would NOT recommend either of these to anyone. They ended up not getting a flight out till after 4 pm on Sunday. So they spent the whole day sitting in the airport an finally arrived at their house in Elko Nevada 12 hours later than planned. I don't think I needed the stress of them being stuck there any more than they did. I know Amoy had to be really tired an stressed an she sure didn't need that right now. 

Sunday evening we went to visitation for Carl in Irvine. Not sure I have known any man that was so loved an respected as he was. I am certain there were at least 500 people who visited the family that evening. The funeral service on Sunday was beautiful. It was a good tribute to him, sad, lots of tears shed. I know I did my share. Then it was like a sudden cool breeze in summer time, I felt peace and comfort, and after that shed no more tears. Prayers for comfort do get answered. I know they did at that moment. God does work in mysterious ways for sure. 

In the midst of all this chaos, our furnace stopped working. No heat! oh my, but at least we do have a working wood fireplace in the den an a propane stove in the other end of the house, so technically we do have heat. That is as long as Rodger can keep the propane tanks filled at work. Right now the meter is not working on the big tank at work so we have to use the propane sparingly. During our family Thanksgiving dinner, Robbie, our step neices' boyfriend works in heating an air so he looked at the heating unit and we thought we had it fixed. Not sure now what ails it. But maybe he can look at it again and see if he can fix it or replace something to get us thru the winter till we can afforded to get a different heat and cooling system.

If it ain't one thing its 3. But Josh brought us 2 deer when he came down on Friday night. We will likely skin those out this coming weekend. More meat for the freezer. Also there is another muzzle loader season coming up in mid December. Guess the guys will be hunting that one too. If Jason don't go hunting I might go just to visit with Josh's parents and maybe sit in the stands with Dana. Loved hunting with her. We have not been able to hunt together for several years since I got hurt at work. I know it would be so fun. 

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

Stella

Its getting closer.....

...really right around the corner. Fall is here and the spooky thing that is right around the corner is winter. Our weather here in Ky is going to turn colder this weekend. Something tells me we have but very few more nice warm days left this fall. Knowing this we have been trying to get little things done an loose ends tied up so to speak. I have most all the peppers picked off an taken care of now, I hope. This is what I faced last weekend. We picked 3 bushels total of ripe an green bell peppers.

So with Rodgers help I cut the peppers and took out the seeds and he ran them thru the food processor with the slicing blade in place and put the sliced peppers in the dehydrator. That batch was done by Monday evening and we did more on Monday and  reloaded the dehydrators. Those finished on Tuesday and I quit! I am done with peppers.We took care of 1 1/2 bushels of bells. The jalapenos were deseeded and put in the freezer for poppers later on. I had nearly 1 1/2 bushels of peppers left an Rodgers sister and a friend of ours took those. IF we don't get frost soon there will still be more peppers as the plants have many really small ones on and still blooming. I have totally stopped messing with cayenne peppers because I have 2 gallon dried an that is enough to do me  5 years or more.
On Sunday as I was cleaning the peppers Rodger cleaned out the hen house. It was not bad in need of cleaning it was just time to clean it out before cold weather comes. Besides we want to use the manure to mix in with the soil to get the grapevines off to a good start. Those need to be in the ground asap so they can get established before frost knocks em back.
With the frost warnings an cold weather headed our way its a race to get the sweet potatoes dug before the cold gets here. They will still have to cure so at night they will need to be covered with a tarp or something to prevent them from freezing. Hay or straw will also work if it is removed during the warm part of the day so the taters dry well and the skins toughen up. Then they can be stored away for winter in a dry cool place about 50 degrees. Sweet taters do not keep in a root cellar due to high humidity.
We used most of the straw we had for bedding in the chicken house after Rodger got it cleaned out. He put all the manure in the tractor bucket to take it to the garden and pile it so it can compost and some be used in planting grapevines and probably making another raspberry patch.

I like having my chicken house in the backyard for several reasons. One is the chickens can be close and have some protection from predators. Luna keeps a close eye on them here. It is easier for me to see to their feed and water in bad weather as well. Not to mention caring for the little ones. The momma hens do a good job of teaching the lil ones how to scratch for food. AND I get to enjoy the lil fellers as they grow up.

The little one above is ducking back under his momma where it is nice an toasty on this cool evening.

The one chick in the back is under his momma sleeping and he is a good size fellow too. The dorkin in the front has 2 babies, one of which is the white one standing, an she has also adopted one that was weaned already. She just took up with this hen an her lil ones.
They didn't know what to think of a house with a naked floor. They got busy moving the straw around after I got it put on the floor all neat like. I keep a pitchfork handy to fluff the straw daily so they have a fresh layer. Next spring when we take this manure an straw out of the chicken house it will be very fine and perfect to go in the garden as the chickens have pecked all the seeds from it.
I spent most of today making a big batch of chili to can up. That got some of the peppers out of the freezer. I ended up with 13 quarts of chili ready to heat an eat. How convenient , huh?
I will be going to a get together this weekend in central KY for homesteaders and folks that want to become more self sufficient. I am taking a couple quarts of chili with me to have out there for lunch among other goodies to eat.  I will be doing a chicken butchering demo and a soap making demo on Saturday. I think we are also butchering a goat for the family who is hosting the event. Several folks are interested in learning how to do butchering. So hopefully some new folks can go home satisfied that they learned a new skill.  Rosie will also be showing us how to make salves and tinctures using native herbs. Also she is going to show us how to make paint. Now how cool is that? It is always nice to meet other folks who raise all their food an homestead like we do here. I will also be going to an Amish surplus store nearby there. It is really a neat place to shop. It is kinda like a scratch an dent grocery store. They also stock bulk items like wheat, buttermilk powder, powdered cheese an gallon buckets of coconut oil that is very inexpensive as compared to what we pay near here. I will likely post some photos of the event when I get home. But this is my one weekend this year to go have fun and visit with some friends I have made online thru BHM magazine forum. 
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella