I Love Spring!

We have been working on fixing up the homestead the last several weekends.  We finished the corrals now we need gates.  We are just using cattle panels for now.  The cows STILL have not had their calves so we still don't have to milk.  I am missing the milk and cheese but not the time-consuming chore of milking.  Russ has been home more the last few weeks.  It has been wonderful.


We also have had some unexpected deaths in the last few months.  The woman that gave me the confidence and early prodding to start homesteading went to be with her Lord and Savior a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately, we couldn't make it to Colorado to the funeral.  She left 10 wonderful children and a very devoted husband behind.  I wish that I was closer so that I could help them out.  That is one of the things that is hard about moving all over the place!


As life ends, it also begins.  I am expecting a baby in October.  I am feeling great and started working out a little bit.  My sister is getting married this summer and while I am used to being big and pregnant by now, I would like to be in better shape.

 My grandparents stopped by on their way to Arizona.  They were officially snow birds this year.  So this is Jesse, Tirsah and Great Grandpa Farlinger.  We also got to meet up with my parents while they were on their way home.   The boys LOVED shooting dinosaurs (a video game) and swimming (even though the pool was FREEZING!!!)
 
Last weekend we planted strawberries.  We worked up a new area closer to the house so that I can work in it while the kids are napping or playing in the front yard.  We are focusing on perennials this year.  I want to get herbs, trees, asparagus, strawberries, and horseradish established this year.  We are planning a few pepper plants and a very small vegetable garden.  We plan to get most of our veggies from the produce action this year.  So far we have got about 800 strawberries in the ground!  It is supposed to rain today so they should get a great start!!  If you are looking for some strawberry plants, Daisy Farms did a super job.  They shipped fast, the plants are good looking and they had a good selection and the price was AMAZING!!!  http://www.daisyfarms.net/fresh_berries_and_u.htm

Have a wonderful time preparing your gardens.  It is our favorite time of year.  I think it is the hope and possibility that this year holds that makes this time of year so wonderful, that and the babies around the farm!!  I will post pics of the babies as they start arriving :)  BTW, we used a milk crate to mark squares in the dirt so that we knew how close to plant them.  Just a thought!

BRRR!

This morning was beautiful and now it is dark and grey and WINDY!  We went from 55* yesterday  and tonight the wind chill is supposed to be single digits!!!  The cows are fed and the firewood is near the stove.  They are even talking snow. 

I said more on the battery acid tanned hides, it worked great.  I wanted to make sure it was gonna work before I endorsed it.  We used a recipe from Mother Earth News   http://www.motherearthnews.com/modern-homesteading/how-to-tan-a-hide.aspx and it worked great.  We used 1 recipe to tan 1 big, 2 med and 1 small hide and the last hide we did, didn't turn out.  I would only do 3 next time.  The hide turned out white and soft.  I need to oil it again but it looks way better than I thought it would for our first attempt!  I have more bran flakes ordered from our natural foods coop (clnf.org) and will be doing the coon and possum hides when it comes in.  We learned that fleshing the hide doesn't need to to be perfect before you salt it because when it dries out you can just peal the meaty-jerky looking layer off and the hide is ready to go in the brine solution.  If you are brave enough to think about tanning your own hides you can do this. It isn't any more scary than making your own soap. 

The finished hides are going to be wall hangings and a quiver for each boy.  I think that the small hide is thin enough to use my sewing machine.  I guess we will see... 

Even though we are homeschoolers, I have actually never taken this crew to the library.  I told them their treat for 5 good days of school in a row is a trip to the public library.  Today was day 5.  Tomorrow we head to the Tonkawa library to see what they have.  I am a little scared by this idea.  Taking this crew to the grocery store is sometimes more than mom can handle!  I hope we are the only ones in there and that the librarian is understanding!!  Wyatt and Dillin are just SO excited about the possibilities of all the different books that I don't know if I can contain them :)  I am hoping that Dillin can find something that he WANTS to read.  That might be incentive to work on his reading skills.  Jess is kinda in the same boat.  He really wants to read but wants to find something the others haven't read before.

My stupid dishwasher finally made me mad enough today that I called Sears back AGAIN.  They sent someone out this afternoon and he has decided to order a new control panel and a new motor assembly.  Pretty much rebuilding my dishwasher!  Thank you Lord for that blessing!!  I am so glad that I have the extended warranty and that I was annoyed enough to call again.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease! 

Still no poultry from scrap metal man but my chickens have started laying again. Thanks to the wheat from our neighbor we are back up to almost 50% on eggs-up from NO eggs. 

I am going to go read this crazy crew a story and try to calm them down.  The thought of snow has this house in an uproar:)  Good night everyone!

 Jesse with a big grin :) He just opened his traps that we gave them.

 Tirsah looking sweet as pie.  Showing the gifts she got for Hanukkah.

 All the boys playing with their traps and trying to figure out how to use them.

 One of the coons the boys trapped.

We didn't get it all done last night but we got 1 of our small bins full.  I wish I could make the man that gave us this understand what a blessing this was to receive.  We were just trying to figure out how to buy more grain and he gave us enough that we don't have to think about that for a long time.  No that is not a coon in the bottom of the picture its just one of our momma cats.  I had to look twice!

God Provides!

Well, I am over being upset about the scrap metal guy.  This morning a good friend (and electrician) came and gave us an idea of what needed done to get power to the shop that is going to be constructed in the spring.  Then the guys went to check the trap line.  They brought home 2 possums, 1 coon, and 1 skunk.  The boys spent the remainder of the day skinning the possums and the coon.  The skunk was put in the dumpster!  Then we got the call that the farm truck was finished at the shop and it was less bill than expected and they fixed more than we asked them to!  And the most amazing was yet to come,  the neighbor that we buy hay from stopped by and gave us about 200 bushels of wheat for chicken feed!!! Unfortunately, he took the keys to the truck with him by mistake so we couldn't move the truck and it is supposed to rain so we started unloading the truck by hand with 5 gal buckets and will finish in the morning.  It wasn't exactly a restful Sabbath but we were GREATLY blessed.  That much chicken feed should last a LONG time (unless scrap metal guy brings the other birds..).  We have had amazing success with trapping so far and now the goal is to get enough skins to make coon-skin caps for all the boys and maybe possum moccasins (not my idea).

Some cooking things that I came up with today...a 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper in ginger snap cookies makes them wonderful and quick caramel corn can be made by melting butter in a pan and adding brown sugar and cooking until it boils.  Pour over popped corn and mix in.

The baby is asleep, the others are watching Roy Rogers and it was a day of blessings around here.  I hope your day was just as blessed!  Good night!

Craziness......

I am not sure how it is that crazy people just gravitate towards us!  Someone stopped in earlier this week wanting to buy the junk sitting around and sell it for scrap.  I thought that was a good deal.  I have wanted this stuff gone for a while anyway!  Next thing I know the guy, his wife and 2 kids are completely occupying ALL of my time.  I don't have time for this!!!!  What started out as cleaning up my grove turned in to my kids getting a hillbilly education from a guy that curses like a sailor and wants my kids to do all the heavy lifting.  He was here on Wed to pick up some stuff that was no big deal.  Russ was home that night anyway.  Then last night while Russ is gone the guy and his family were here until almost 9 loading a van up that was a little too big for the trailer that he brought.  The highlight of the night was when he had to borrow a shot gun to shoot the badger that has been eating my chickens and eggs.  I was trying to be nice today and tell him that instead of paying me in cash, because it is obvious that he needs the cash more than me, I would take chickens and guineas in trade.  He now thinks that we are in the poultry business together.  I am SO ready for my husband to be home!!!  He can deal with this guy and I can be out of it.  Please pray that this guy gets the metal, brings the poultry and forgets where we live.  The way it is if he just forgot where we lived now that might be ok too.  So much for trying to help somebody out. :(  

On other notes, Hanukkah was a HUGE success.  The kids got bows, arrows, mud boots, cowboy boots, belt buckles, traps and bait, cowboy hat, outfits, tons of art supplies, some money.  They all have been very busy since then!  We have caught a few coons, a possum, and are trying to kill weasels next.  The badger hopefully won't be back and if crazy scrap metal guy does actually come through on the poultry I could have a LOT more birds to be concerned about.  It is funny, a few years ago we were gonna start raising chickens to sell eggs at the farmers market but couldn't get our "ducks in a row" so to speak now IF this happens, we have a ready made flock and then some.  We just have to get the rodent problem under control!  

The cows are ready to have calves starting anytime now.  I will be happy to have the milk again but I have been enjoying the shorter chores. It has made it possible to get our school routine down and everyone is doing great with their studies.  We were given a Chumash for Hanukkah and have really been enjoying that in the evenings.  So the thought of milking is starting to sound like work but for now we are enjoying the extra down time :) 

I better go get ready for Shabbat.  Kids and house need cleaned, kids and animals need fed and I still have to make something to take tonight.  On your mark, get set, GO!!  Shabbat Shalom Y'all!!

Plans changed!

Well, yesterday I didn't get any of the things done that I had hoped to do.  We did get part of the corrals built though!  We believe in recycling around here.  When the electric company changed our power poles last summer we collected a bunch and are turning them into a corral so that hopefully we can cut down on the number of cows and calves getting out.  That is the theory anyway.  Most of the posts for the main pen are set.  Russ was on the tractor and I was on the post hole digger.  It went pretty well. 

Today, we went to see the chiropractor because the tractor and the post hole digger both took their toll.  We picked up battery acid to tan the deer hides.  Then went to the grocery store.  I then had a long discussion with someone from Mexico that was impressed that I was going to make my own tamales.  I told her that good tamales are just hard to find around here and she laughed and agreed. 

When we got home it had started raining and we were stuck inside.  We decided to start our tanning project. For the record, if you are going to tan a hide don't bother cleaning the hide too much before you salt it.  It is easier to flesh after it has been salted. We have the hides fleshed and ready to be tanned when the kids go to be.  Since you have to use battery acid we didn't want to do that with the kids under foot.

Russ did chores while I made supper.  Carne adovada with corn tortillas.  Then I realized that the baby had lost the lid for the peanut butter so I made a batch of peanut butter cookies and some spice cookies.  Can you guess what is for breakfast?!  The dishwasher is on the blink again so I am letting my hands dry out before the next batch of dishes is done.   I am listening to Russ play his guitar and the boys are singing Old Dan Tucker.  The fire is burning and the cookies are done.  The work isn't done yet for the day but it is all cozy here.  The storm is blowing in tonight.  It is raining and windy and the boys are REALLY hoping for snow.

Oh, the reason for the name, "Flipflops in the Mud"....I am almost always wearing flipflops unless it is REAL cold.  This includes while doing chores and working in the garden.  My feet are almost always covered in mud and Russ never lets me forget this and is usually griping that I am not in "real" shoes when I am working.  I wear them while milking, loading horses, or stacking firewood it really.  I then remind him that when you area pregnant as often as I am they are the only shoes that fit.  My boots are for loading cows or going to church, and there are people in my family that have seen me in tennis shoes only a handful of times. 

My hands are un-wrinkled so I guess the dishes are waiting.  Until next time, stay warm! 

The Family :