Sunday, February 27, 2011

Earth quake, birthday for the hubbie and more.


Day 38 and I need coffee, got enough to get us by today, but for some reason, I am have shot threw the months worth of coffee in just three weeks.  We go through two bags or regular cans a week, but somehow we went through more than that this month as I am on the last can and had to hit the back up stash.  Coffee is one of those things you can buy in advance and it will last if sealed for year, and I do mean years and now is a good time to buy it if you have not already stocked up on it.  I buy food in the event, in the event of what you might ask, yes is the answer.  I live in Arkansas and there could be any number of things that could cause us not to have even the most basic of food items. Events such as ice storms(more than three weeks without power, and empty grocery shelves),hug and dangerous wind and thunderstorm events along with tornados(happened to others a few years back),Snow storms(happened this year, lol stuck here for days a t a time),earthquake(do anytime),economic hardship(bought on by either the failing economy, bad weather in other places, high gas prices, embargos either against us or someone else, really there are a ton of other reasons, including cost.  I pay about $2.25 for a regular size can of coffee or bag, which retails in grocery stores for about $4-9 dollars at the moment.  Buying it cheap and buying for the long haul will save you money.  Yesterday I enclosed a list of food type items that never go bad and can be stored darn near forever if put up properly, to that list you need to add chocolate, which is soon to be out of reach for most people, like coffee it only grows in certain climates.  Currently The Ivory Coast has an embargo against shipping chocolate beans out and even though this is relatively a small amount of the world’s beans, it will raise prices across the board.  The coo in Liberia has cost gas to go up even though we hardly get any of our gas from there, so I hope you see my point and perhaps take it to heart.  Life without chocolate…way scary.
Our hay came in today, with only limited issues, the bales are heavier than our old bales and a little harder to move, most of us got out there and helped, it took about an hour.  Now our dear loves have lots of hay and I can sleep sound as a pound tonight, so will they with overly full bellies.  Mr. Martin said our cow did not seem ready to calf, I hope she fools him, she is acting ready.  I think he wanted to scold us for milking her, but to tell you the truth I have talked to many people about which way to go, to milk or not to milk, that is the question.  She is well feed and has lots of yummy kelp and such added to her feed, she gets all the hay a cow could ever want so the answer is milk until she lets us know that she is ready to make us a baby.   I have goat will milk all the time; she is fine and did much better than the goat I let dry out.  I am sure much of it has to do with what and how you are feeding them. 
Looks like I have sheep ready to kid again, at least one, maybe more, just look at the sky, you looks like rain…lol
Going to try and get out of here today to go out to lunch for Michael’s birthday meal, he is 50 today, so feel free to wish him happy birthday! 
I am trying to get all my school work done early and such, not doing too well with that today…Plan to make soap sometime today.  I did get my camera up and on the tripod so I could get photos of some stuff to list on the web, so that is good.  I am getting a better idea of how it works and after I upload these photos I will know if it is going to work out or not.

Had a little lamb ram born today from one of the twin sisters, he has a distended umbilical cord and his lungs are full of fluid, I will be really surprised if he makes it.  There is very little one can do with a lamb like this; I hope it works it out.  But I will not count on it.  I have enclosed photos so you can see what I mean.  (Latter this afternoon he died it was very sad).  A lot of times on the farm that is how it goes, animals in nature left on their own take care of this and us as farms generally try to save the weak.  I have learned with some of things not to interfere, saving an animal’s life now, may cause it to drag on and have problems latter, suffer and die.  Not all animals are meant to live.  His loss though unfortunate today might have caused us all grief latter.  We return him to the creator. 
Had a lovely dinner tonight, will say more about it tomorrow.
Had an earth quake to end our day at 11:01 tonight, around a four lasted for over 20 seconds and well I am pretty frazzled.  Will post photos tomorrow.

Here is the Hubbies post for the day…

News From The Doghouse and a very long hard time...

Somewhat behind on the blog, I have been very busy :-(

Friday Feb.25 was miserable. It was a cold wet damp day, had to do chores AND then work on the trailer light hook-up again, trying to tape stuff when it is 38F outside with a windchill of 30Fjust was lousy. After that time consuming process, I had to change out the reese hitch and the ball on the hitch and install the old ball on the new upgrad we got, that took some doing and strength. Then install the license plate on the trailer and then hook-up the trailer to the van and make sure all systems were running correctly. FINALLY, was all done then it was off to West Plains for lumber, and did not do half of the stuff that was intended to be done. It was nice to get home and have a few beers, after the wood was unloaded into the trailer, check the livestock, and get the night fire going to knock out the dampness and chill.

Saturday was up and at it early, with Happy Bears jumping on me in bed and tickling my feet and telling me to get up, and after a brief pillow fight I was having a cup of coffee and trying to get chores done, while the Boss went to get supplies for livestock and groceries ect. THEN, it was off to do some horseshoeing work, and had a fiasco with the journey, ended up changing a tire and after much duress later got to the new client's and had a fairly good time, then off to the "big city" and visited Poor Boy's by a poorer boy and went to the meglomania corporation and after much haggling over tires and it eating up the rest of my day, with chores to still do at home, tried to walk around the Wally World store and look for things I needed but could not focus, like right now while I am trying to type and think thoughts cleary all sorts of commotion is going on. I did manage to go look for some hardware screws but they did not have them. I needed some other things but spaced out on getting them. Guess I have done with out this long I can do without until I do get whatever I need. I like to take a shopping list with me, avoids a lot of stress and problems, plus lets me browse at other things with out clouding my judgement. Unlike the significant other who is impulsive complusive and down right irratic. FINALLY made it home, again in the dark. Got home, and went to put wood in the woodburner, then to check the animals and 2 horses were in the back of the horse trailer, it appeared to have happened just @ when we got home. Not sure how the horses got the door open, if that is possible. Got everybody watered and checked for problems and basically called it another night. My last 3 beers tasted good.

Sunday Feb. 27th my birthday and another go go go non-stop day.... %( started to do the chores and every thing I did was saturated with problems, like to put water in the incubator someone placed an egg in the cup that is used to put water in the bowls for humidity, no big deal just I have to stop and deal with negligence, try to do laundry and clothes are already in there but not even washed just tossed in there and left for someone else to do...I took those clothes out and threw them on the floor and proceeded to do my regular routine. Same problems constantly and consistently. Overflowing trash bags or excessively stuffed with no bag in the container. Hay was delivered and not to much stress considering this was a 1st time delivery for this driver...then rolled out hay to the happy critters and back to doing the chores and got all the barn done while collecting a nice batch of eggs today. Had a sheep on watch and she popped out a lamb, but it had problems. The little guy was trying to get up, just everything was against him. Got all the grain from Saturday unloaded and put into the barn and protected. FINALLY got everything all done, even collected firewood to start the fire on Monday evening, which is suppose to be like 33F for a low. Right now the tempeture is moderate and nice 68F. Seen 2 robins in West Plains, Missouri this evening...springtime season is here. Had a nice time at the Chinese restaurant and seen our friend that we have known for years there at his new place. ONly bummer was missed my radio show and the usual. Got home again after dark and just did a quick check and THANK G-D everything was alright.

Way behind on parsha again, and I am very sorry about that. I'll try again tomorrow and post that as well. Got tons of pictures and the usual yada yada yada. Got to get meany Bears to bed.
Be Blessed dear ones
Shekhinah, Michael and all the kids and critters on Mahanaim Farm

No comments:

Post a Comment