Good morning from the mountain..

Good Morning from the mountain, dreadful day, I am up, the sun is up and no rain.  I dreamed of thunder this morning.  The ground is so dry that even upon watering it, it becomes dust again.  My plants just need to hold on a few more days.

School is coming along as well as it can be expected.  I finished one section in math and thought I heard the angles rejoicing at that moment.  I just pray I can finish and retain the information long enough to finish the class.  My other classes are fine, answer questions, read reply…

We have a bit of a predator problem at the moment, Michael saw a coyote up near the house in midday and we are both horrified over this as the puppies were outside at the time.  It is not normal for the coyotes to appear in the daytime like that.  It could be that it is sick or worse that it has been watching our animals for a while.  So we are on alert with loaded guns, I cannot let the pups get eaten or our birds.  To make matters worse, our geese are molting which makes them a target for predators like this.  Everywhere we go on the farm the ground looks like snow, but it is goose feathers.  Poor geese, it is so hot and they seem to suffer in this heat.

I will be doing a lot of trapping this winter, you can be sure of that.  The predators have gotten so much worse over the last year.  At this point I am unsure why this is such a problem, the wild animals have plenty of deer and rabbit to eat, as well as squirrels, but still they are looking for a free meal. 

I have finally made an appointment with the butcher for the big milk cow, so next month she will be in the freezer and since the bull calf is near to her size, we will do him very soon.  I plan to put the goats in the freezer as well.  They will fill our freezers and provide meat all winter long, I feel a cold winter coming and the thought of being without meat is not one I chose to think about. 

In other news I have found a new mill to buy from in our state, so blue corn meal in on the way.  They have much of the grain I was buying from another source, but it was out of state and would often take weeks to get out grain and I really do like having bread.  So I am hoping this will all workout.  The best part is the mill is one of a handful in the States that is using a millstone that is over a hundred years old and that the grain is ground using it and water power.  To me this is the way all meal should be produced.  I hate store bought flour and meal.

Well, dear ones I need to get to work, there is nothing but work that needs to be done before winter gets here.

Be Blessed

Shekhinah

Still no rain and Ferguson

Well no rain here, thunder and the sky fell dark, but no rain.  Yet is was so unreasonable hot I swear I saw a butterfly melt.  Tomorrow it may rain, oh how we hope so, oh how we pray for rain.  Our gardens are in a terrible state.  I would like to talk to you more about the farm, but I feel I must get something off my heart.


I am now totally sick of Ferguson and the killing of a "teen", first off that "teen", was voting age, a thief and many other things.  I was not there to see why he was shot and I am sick that I even feel the need to side with the police on this.  I would love to see a toxicological report on that "teen", who minutes before robbed a convenience store on camera, brutally shoving a man, while clasping cigars that he had just stole.  I feel that in an area where over 60% of the population is black than a larger number of black people are going to commit crimes. In my area most people are white or mixed with Native American and guess what hardly any blacks go to jail.  Does that mean the police here are brutal towards people who are not black...no that would be stupid, don't you think?  It is all relative, now ask me about the man who died in a police choke hold, cause that is what people should be angry about, and not so much this. Every bad person that is shot, black or white, native or other is first and for most a bad person, to say more is being raciest. If you think that it is profiling to arrest a criminal, then that is the problem, race does not matter, right and wrong matter and at the end of the day that is all that should matter.  As long as we allow race to be used this way, we as a race shall stagnate and die, because there can be no better tomorrow until we understand that we are all of race, the human race, though at this moment it saddens me to be a member.  Instead of dwelling in darkness, turn on the light!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2730153/A-kid-broken-home-beat-odds-to-college-A-rapper-sang-smoking-weed-feds-A-violent-robbery-suspect-caught-shocking-video-just-real-Michael-Brown.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Be Blessed dear ones
Shekhinah

Good morning from the mountain, flat tire and all...

Good Morning from the mountain, I awoke to a flat tire, not that I went anywhere yesterday, but there it is staring at me from the front porch.  It seemed quite alarming to me when Michael pointed it out.  No less is my pain than to see it is one of the better tires, that has caused me this grief and of course it must be fixed this morning and dealt with in an appropriate way or it will grief me for the entirety of this upcoming week end.  I will have Michael put the spare on for now and I will try and make the best of it, till such a time as I can find more time to drive to town and get it fixed.

I had friend call yesterday me asking about tags on goats, so she could take her goats to the auction. Come to find out the tags are quite worthless as they are not running the health test that I was told was required to use the tags. Yet, another empty promise of safety, offered by those who deem with loud rhetoric that they are protecting our food supply. Fine job lads, fine job…

I hate the auctions, they are cruel to the animals and so many sick animals come through them that buying there is less safe than the bed of a town prostitute.  I am sure the prostitute at least washes herself up to at least look presentable.  By similar token the auction house does not even attempt to hide its filth or mistreatment of said animals, rather it states that it is all business. I am sure they feel that way, the heartless brutes, but farming is also about family and kindness, so I leave them to their folly of fools.

To make matters worse I had asked another person of the rules which by lead them to think that I was taking my animals there and it did not go well.  No good deed goes unpunished, more money to the bad.  I cannot put good money after bad, there is just not enough money to go around, it has become more practical to sell the goats for now and buy cow milk from an Amish farmer who I befriended some years back.  At four dollars a gallon I can buy five gallons of milk for $20.00, two for drinking and three for yogurt and cheese making. I will also have more time to tend to other farm matters. That said the goats will go into the freezer long before I would consider the auction house. 

The cow I am taking to get made in to meat, I will have to study the cuts and have him leave it in the larger cuts, which means more work for me, but also more meat for us.  I watched Otto on, “Alaska The Last Frontier”, and he was cutting up a smaller cow than the last one I had done and the number of steaks he got far exceeded what I returned home with.  I am not saying that anyone is stealing from me; I just want to keep an honest man honest. This will also afford me the luxury of packing the meat the way I want. I need to get back to doing this anyway and in truth if it were closer to winter I might have gone and butchered her myself.  I will for sure do the goats myself, as it is not cost effective not too.  The money saved from butchering them can be used in the new hydroponic system or solar panels.

The gardens survive for the moment, though the heat is very hard on them and I just keep hoping and praying that I can keep the larger parts alive for a little long till cool weather flows though.  So far no green beans are put up, no okra, and only a quarter of the tomatoes we will need to make it through the long winter months that are coming.  I am deeply disappointed and I hope that the hydroponics will help get us through.  Yesterday I received the last parts from Amazon and I am elated to get started.

The boys and are reading, “Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi”, in part for research for ,”ABIGAIL”, and in part just as it is such a joy to revisit the works of Mark Twain.  I encourage you all to review his books as they are wonderful and revenant even all these years later. 

Barge on the Ohio river at Cave in rock park

One of the bluffs at Cave in Rock park and my two sweet boys and husband.

Well back to the farm chores and school….

Be Blessed dear ones
Shekhinah

Good evening from the mountain and hydroponics is easy and cheap to do...

I still need a home, I am a sweet little girl and love to be loved.

Good evening from the mountain, I started on my college classes today, got most of them done for the week save the live class that I must attend at the early hour of eight o’clock in the morning.  That means milking goats at around six thirty, dressing gathering my things together and leaving by seven, just to make it there on time. I am not looking forward to it. 

I also still have paper work that has to be turned in in order to retrieve my books and in order to get my classes paid for.  America that land of endless paper work, it is so bad sometimes, I think I should carry a little file cabinet with me where ever I go.  Tomorrow I must turn in paper work that has been traded for other paper work; one group needs my taxes to be from the government the other will not accept the governments copy and insists on.  What a mess it all is, then on top of all that, they need me to give them the results of a test I did like two years ago that they had a copy of, in short they lost their copy.  I am less then pleased, but I just want to finish this degree and be done with it.

I baked a cake today, just a little reward to myself for making it this far, we are also having pot roast with fresh vegetables from the garden, life is good when you can eat your own food.

I and Michael have been working hard to keep the garden going and tonight I pulled more tomatoes off the vine.  I went out and used organic fertilizer in hopes to give the plants a small boost.  Hover with temps in the 100’s F there is very little hope the plants will make it.  I cannot give them enough water to overcome the heat and bugs.  So far I will not be able to put up enough tomato sauce to get us through the winter and no green beans.  That means the winter crops have to make, but in case this all goes bad, I have a backup plan.  I have been buying a piece here and there for the new hydroponics system that should help us make it through the winter with fresh food. 

I may have already told you about it, but if not here goes. The base of the unit is a 20 gallon Rubbermaid tote, or other brand tote, not clear, with a lid.  You will put the water and fertilizer in that, as well as the pots.  The pots, I bought on Amazon and they are hydroponic pots that measure 3 inches across.  I think I got 12 for fewer than six dollars.  The next thing I needed was aquarium hose and a two port aquarium pump, and two eight inch long bubble bars, got these at Walmart, Ten dollars for the pump, under three for the hose and less than five for the two bars.  All I had left to get was the clay pellets, like you would use for orchids, I ordered them from Amazon, around ten dollars for enough to do two totes full of pots.  Oh and the light, I use a very simple and cheap full spectrum florescent bar light, it gives 120 watts of light for under 11 watts, at a cost of around twelve dollars.  Total cost for one unit is around forty seven dollars, not including organic water based fertilizer and plants.

The first you must take the pots and trace six of them on the top of lid, then cut the holes slightly smaller than the pots.  This will allow the pots to set in the lid and later in the water. The next set of course is to set the pots in the lid, after this you will need to drill two holes just under the handle to run the aquarium tubing through, so that you can add the two bubble blocks in to the bottom of the tote.  Once you have the hoses run connect them to the aquarium pump. Fill tote with water and check to make sure that once you turn the pump on you have bubbles.  These bubbles are a super important part of the whole process.  Once you have bubble and all looks good, close the lid, and add the amount of organic liquid fertilizer into the tote which is now full of water and bubbling away.  Now it is time to add the pots and the plants, almost any plant will grow this way; I will start with peppers and tomatoes as we use tons of these.  The next tote I will do with zucchini and green beans and maybe I will add more latter.  When you add the plants, be sure to gentle wash off all the soil, then place the plants roots gentle in the pot, filling in the space with the clay pellets.  A few things to think about, once you add water to the tote is will be really hard to move, so place it were you want it first.  I set the light around 8 inches from the plants, moving them higher as the plants grow. 

Well the sun is setting in the sky and I need to go and get some other work done.

Be Blessed dear ones…

Shekhinah

Good evening from the mountain

Good evening from the mountain, we are done with our trip and have sort of caught up with the farm chores.  My trip out of Arkansas and into the vast evil of Illinois was only moved by the much fouler people of the city in Missouri called Popular Bluff.  I can assure you all it is less than popular with me.  In my many travels across this country, there are few places I will not go willingly again.  The list is short but of great importance to sanity. The first place is Indiana, mainly because I spent time as a youth there and their laws benefit the rich.  The second is Georgia, they have been fixing the same strip of road since before I was born, I think and have yet to finish.  The third is Florida, where people get arrested and disappear forever; I still have nightmares from living there.  The fourth and final is not Illinois as one might think, but rather Popular Bluff.  This city one a very nice town has fallen to an evil that has made its self very comfortable.  Many businesses warn of leaving things of any value in your vehicle, the gas stations are all prepay; they take no cash over a twenty dollar bill and are rude to a level that in many years of touring America I have never experienced.  I will no longer even pass through their city, but shall drive the extra hour around them.  I would recommend you do the same.

In regards to the riots, we narrowly escaped, by the good graces of a kind and just G-d.  We would have driven right into the middle of the nightmarish hotmess that is a direct correlation with the lack of money and proper food in the region.  While America is out saving the world, her own people suffer from substandard water, food like substances and lack of viable and gainful employment.  I do not blame the riots on racism as much as I do on the expressed factors that I have stated and along with those I would like very much to add.  I can most clearly see that overcrowding may be a larger part of the problem.  In America cities, there is noise everywhere. There are people everywhere. and I can tell you when I kept too many rats in a cage with ample food and water to feed and hydrate them all, they would constantly fight and even kill and eat one another until the number became nearly half of what I had started with.  I think I can see the same thing happening within these cities, you have people who are constantly exposed to large levels of noise, lack of darkness to reset vital human functions, and again the food like substances and poor quality water, it is a war waiting for a time to happen.  I think we should be more surprised that it is not happing more often.  Is America a racist country, you bet, it all ways has been. Was this riot based in race alone? No, I at least do not feel that it is, I feel that these areas should be depopulated and people moved to regions where there is more space and potential for a healthy life.  Of course, many people will say that it is ridiculous to think this way, but it is even more ridicules to allow people to die and fight all the time because they live this way.  No one should have to live in a war zone!

Countdown to school starting....one day.  I just want to get the last of the classes at Ozarka College, done and over with, it is all just too much.  I now know why they do not graduate more people, and it is all very sad.  Never the less, life goes on and so will I.  I have four classes this term; I have not acquired the books yet, and one class has no teacher as of today.  I loathe the lack of seriousness that I feel should be a part of a good college.  Sometimes I feel as though the whole world has no order perhaps that is why I cling to this little farm, it is sanity in the middle of complete and utter chaos. When things go wrong here, like the sink in the bathroom leaking, it can be fixed.  It is a simple matter of getting the parts and fixing it.  In the real world when something is broken, and you can see it is broken, you will need a group of other people to see that it is broken. Then you will need them to meet many times to tell you how it might be fixed, to probe into how much it will cost and what method should be used.  If that is not enough, they will meet and vote on how it might be prevented.  In truth all things break, things get old and wear out, and it does not take an army of people to know or understand that. Just fix it and quit making a big deal about it, in truth life is just that simple, if you break it, fix it!  If you find it broken, fix it!  If it looks like it might break, guess what fix it!  It is that easy.  Everything else is busy work that benefits only the people who are meeting and not the people with the broken item.  If we ran our governments like we run our homes, the world would be fixed.  In reality, it is all the same problem.

So today I will rest after I get a few chores done, and tomorrow I will start working more on the winter gardens that need put in.  I will play with the children and the puppies, because who does not enjoy that?  Then I will cook a nice meal and relax.

Be Blessed dear ones

Shekhinah

Good evening from the mountain

I am going to be super busy this week, so I will not be posting everyday for the next few days.  I will miss you all.

Be blessed

Good evening from the mountain...

Good evening from the mountain, another day another pest.  The bugs that made fast work of my potatoes has now found its way to my tomatoes, with dread I looked on as they ate not caring if I was there or not.  I returned to the scanty of my home sat down and pondered what to do.  I decided I would use an organic soap spray to deter them, maybe if I was lucky it would kill them before they had time to kill the plants.  These newest pests are some form of Blister Beetle that I am having a great deal of trouble identifying; I do plan to post photos of the vile creatures as soon as tomorrow. 

Along with this new pest is the fact the ground is bone dry, and though we have been watering the garden with water from the well, this water lacks the virtues of real rain.  We had tons of lightning last night and thunder, but no rain.  The gardens cannot take much more of this, so I pray for rain many times a day, knowing that places like Hawaii wish the rain would stop.  The weather is so crazy this year, and I cannot help but wonder what the winter holds for us all.

As for other farm matters, I did what I could.  I had to pick up our glasses over an hour from our home, for myself and my youngest boy Elisha.  The drive offered me the chance to test the AC and make sure it was up to snuff, and that the vehicle would no longer overheat when it was engaged.  It worked like a charm ran smooth as a hand carved wooden whistle. Cold air pooled into the van while the hot air is mixing in the middle from the open passenger side window; it was an odd sensation, cool with a rush of heat.  Even so I was elated that one issue has been resolved, but here is still the matter of the new motor for the passenger side door, it must be installed now without haste.

We also had a guest on the farm, who is interested in purchasing the cows, the goats and a few other animals, such as chickens that I have for sale.  Parting with these animals is a hard decision, but I think in lieu of recent events, it is the best choice I can make, at least for now.  She also was interested in the farm, though I made it quite clear that I was not interested in selling at this time.  I must have made it as clear as mud, for she insisted on knowing more about the property.  Some days are just like that, clear as mud.  I have offered to meet with her and talk to her again, at least about the livestock in the latter part of next week.  I will see what transpires of the event and keep you all posted.

This is Moo, our main milk cow.

Moo thinks she should come into the house too.

Here she is on my side porch.

She waits for us to return.

She was hitting the screen door with her head.

The perfect lawn mower.

My husband has surprised me with a trip to be taken in the next few weeks to the Plantation House in Illinois; it was the old slave house featured in my book “ABIGAIL."  I cannot tell you how excited I am to see the place in real life, instead of the photos on the web.  Just the thought of standing where Abraham Lincoln stood, where I have placed him with my darling Abigail, my heart is leaping in my chest just thinking about it.  I will take lots of photos when we do go and will be thrilled to share the results with you.

Well for now I should get off the web and get some rest; tomorrow is a busy day.

Be Blessed dear ones

Shekhinah

Good afternoon from the mountain

Good afternoon from the mountain, we have so much going on today, it is impossible to have a wrong or right answer for anything.  Sometimes the correct answer is neither.  Upon trying to sell off the larger animals, we were offered an offer on our farm, of course I said that we are in no way ready to leave the farm.  We have not even acquired another property, but she told me she had a dream, really odd, but ok, I will at least think about it.  Right now Alaska is a dream, and I have at this time no way of bringing it in to being, unless I have secretly won the lottery and no one has told me. 

Besides, it is the wrong time of year to move to Alaska, I would need to do that in early spring, which is many months away.  Then there is the quite strong fact that I still have older family to look after as well. No one ever seems to realize that I cannot just pick up and leave, though sometimes I really want too.

 I will say that each day living so close to other people is very hard, just this morning we realized we could not only hear but see people working on the small mountain across from us.  I did not like that at all, as it gives them full access view of our farm as well.  What a nightmare it will be when the trees drop their leaves soon.   I really do wish I could live so far away that I would not see people till I wanted to, on my own terms.

As to the events of the country I reside in, I want to state here and now, I do not want to be a part of the war that is looming in the background.  I do not agree with the President of this country in any way!  What America is doing is quite laughable in terms of its ridicules sanctions on Russia.  A man was on CNBC talking about it last night, saying that it would hurt our chicken farmers and create a glut of chickens in the US dropping the price down and making it possible for every American to have a chicken in their pot. Trust me Russia you are not missing out on anything, they feed their chickens GMO Corn, it is the poor of America who will suffer eating this substandard chickens.  It was just a few years ago that they stopped feed the chickens arsenic to make them gain more weight.  The after math of that was that our rice fields in Arkansas are contaminated with Arsenic and so is the rice, which like the rest of the world is the food of the poor. It is all a very sad affair to say the least.  Back to the main part of this rant, we as Americans have no right to interfere with yours or any other persons land holdings, Americas should look to taking care of its own country.

People here in the States go to bed every night hungry and some of those who don’t are forced to eat GMO food like items.  Poverty is real problem in America, many of the poor are fat, due to the food like items they are forced to consume, fat and starving at the same time.  Many die of unexplained cancers, no one care or listens when they speak. That is the life America wants to share…

Be Blessed

Shekhinah

Good evening from the mountain and more puppy photos

Good morning from the mountain, while we were off line, we had taken the boys to get their photos taken for the local paper.  We all had at least one item that classified as best of show.  It was amazing to see the pride the boys took in their awards. Elijah took best of show for pears, a pumpkin and blackberry Jam, a family favorite.  Elijah had best of show for his apple pie filling and pears in his division, not too shabby for a seven year old.  Sadly we do not know how they did on the chickens, with all the excitement we forgot to check.  We took home more blue and red ribbons that I have dared to count and a good time was had by all.  The boys and I are looking forward to next year’s fair, if we remain in Arkansas.

 After we finished our fair time, we went to the local park that it’s just before the fair ground and went fishing; I know the boys had a great time and we bought one fish home.  They managed to catch more than five and I was every bit as proud of them as any mom could.

 The weather here is quite unreasonable at the moment, each time I feel as though I have accepted it; it goes to the other extreme.  Who knows what next week will be like?  They say it will rain and be hot.  This makes doing everything so hard.

Our pear tree which is loaded with fruit has started to ripen early as has our apple tree so now starts the rush to put up as much as we can for the winter that is coming.  Jars must be re-cleaned, new rings and lids must be bough, the new ones are made so cheaply that once water touches them, rust is soon to follow.  I must buy new rings and to do so I must buy them as a set, which means that all the lids I have our now worthless, so much for buying in bulk.  I bought some this week, nearly five dollars for a dozen, it made me sick because for another four dollars I could have bought another dozen jars with lids.  It is all so insane, I feel as though there is no winning that no matter what I buy it will not be right.

My tomatoes are starting to come on well and the cucumbers as well, I am sure the beans will soon follow.  We are still waiting to see what the blue corn will do; I fear it will do nothing.  My other plants such as the pepper seem to be trying to do a bit better; maybe I will still have enough to put up.  Only G-d knows.

Our puppies are getting so big; they are eating wet dog food now.  They have been keeping us up late at night, but they are still a delight.  They are the rarest of breeds a Heinz dog, no dog is a better dog for the farm.  No dog more loyal no lovable, no dog more plainly good. 

 Be Blessed dear ones

Shekhinah