Day 42 morning blog...

Day 42

Today started out hearing the jeep engine revving  up so Isaiah could go to the school event on time, I guess he was running late, that was 6is or so, tried desperately to fall back to sleep, but it was to no avail, I had lost.  Now at a little before 7am, I was greeted by Elijah, I am cold, I am hungry.  Ok I am getting up, as I drag myself my bed.  Go and wake up the big kids I tell him, which he does.  I just want to note how sad it is that I have to ask the younger child to wake up the older ones who I have bought alarm clocks for.  Granted we are still doing late night feeding on buttercup the little goat, but this has been going on longer than that.  I really hate starting my day by waking up a 18 and 16 year and telling them to get out of bed and get the chores done, if I am still asking you to motivate by seven there is something wrong.  Anyway after the round of wake up and get your chores done, I happened to notice the pigs outside and went out to feed them and try to let them know I wanted us to be friends, pigs are far too smart to dominate them, you have to be an equal terms.  Iam fine with that.  They have a few very important jobs here and I would like them to get to doing them ASAP.  Most import they are the cleanup crew, keeping all bio waste out of site and in there tummies.  They are great watch dogs and will protect everything, as to them it is all theirs.  Another thing is they are entertaining to watch, future babies of theirs will pay for our up keep of them and insure them a long and happy home with us. I do have to try and break them from eating eggs or even better just to eat the eggs I give them.  I found our missing goose eggs today, right in the pen where they belonged, ewww I was mad, not to have the eggs, but because bacon and pork chop found them and eat them.  Some days you can just not win.  Next I made coffee, by than it was like 8 am and I feed the baby some oatmeal, grabbed a bowl for myself, before once again having to deal with the farm chores and such.  I still need to go to the feed store and such..ughhh!  also have to pay car insurance and my tiny credit card.  It really never ends, oh and the phone bill and put minutes on the cell phones.  Need to make soap and get photos and put the recipes form my friend up here so that all you nice people will have them.  I have Oregon Trail starter and will share with anyone who would like some, just email me to make arrangements (raziel133@yahoo.com), it is super easy to keep and only requires being feed flour and water. 

No formal school for me today, but I still have a lot to get done as far as home work, three classes worth.  We have to pick up our wood tomorrow, it is the only day I can get it and I was truly hoping not to have to, but we need it for the roof.  So it will have to get done, than I need the shingles, nails and the tar paper.  Sadly the shingles and tar paper cannot be acquired outside of a store, I have been trying for months, and so that puts a little damper on it for me.  Still looking for unwanted, up for sale, left overs of shingles, any amount, tar paper and roofing nails.  I hope to get the tank less water heater this month, but we will see.

Got a neat letter from a farm group up in Mo and hope to be able to work out a partnership with them.  It would help a lot of the beyond organic farmers in this area to have a good market for their goods and us as well. 

On to the latest chat about the pigs, they are again incarcerated, just until we can understand each other, as I have no desire to keep them penned any longer than need be.  Pork chop the female pig is way smart , I am going to try and teach her Morris code and see if we can chat, in the mean time I will try to listen very close to the sounds that they make and try to lean to speak to them in their language.

Have to go for a while, dear ones…Much love to you all, will post a full blog tonight.

Shekhinah

Day 41-another day, glad I have off tomorrow

Today was just a regular day here on the farm, animals wandering off and cleaning up for the gardens that will soon be in the ground. Got gas for the van today, golly gee only $3.81….ouch and now I wonder if I will have to put my plans for the trip to see my dad on hold, as money will very quickly become a huge issue.  I am very sad about this, as it is the second time I have tried to make this trip, but if gas keeps going up, it will just be impossible.   

Went to school, took the horse trailer with me, so I had to park way in the back.  Gave a short intro to Earth quake preparedness, a lot of people took my business card; I hoped I gave them a few new things to think about.  After that I meandered over to the student success center to work on some home work and to print out some papers, but someone stole the toner for the printers so I still have to print all my stuff at home, even though I am paying to do it in school.  I was able to get some home work done at least and had a lovely chat with some dear friends.  After that I rushed to find a friend that I had promised a cow heart to(don’t worry, she is not eating it, she is using it to dissect for her class), I wanted to bring it in a cooler with bio hazard warnings and such, human heart handle with care…(it was a cow heart), just to be funny, but I guess that would maybe be taking it a bit far, so I settled for a box and wrapping paper, corny, but cute.  Had deers on the paper…lol   After that I went to meet with my friend , who was still and class and hung out with her until we had to go to our class today.  Our class was short and sweet and a few people surprised me with their honesty on an assignment.  I was shocked they did not cheat…lol

After class a few friends and I had lunch together.  It is really sad that this is the only time we can seem to get together, just once a week, but we are all such busy people.  After that we went to “Poor boys furniture” and I picked up a chair and one of my friends followed me out there so she would know where it was, she knows now and so do I lol, I thought it was in Ash flat, nope, Glenco, I felt stupid, but one little town is just as good as another.  I had to have help backing up the trailer again, ughhh, but we did get the chair loaded and I was happy to know it was on its way home.    

When I got home to play with the sweet little bears, Michael broke the news to me that the pigs we once again Awall, ewww I hate pets that are smarter than me…  So in the morning I pray they will return to us and be ok. 

Michael made some progress on our ancient solar panel, it uses some sort of ribbon to generate power, not sure how much till I get the tester out, but if it is enough to create a trickle charge we are in business.  At least we can start to power a few lights off of it.  That should save us money on the light bill (found out it is called a light bill because a long time ago, before we had all this junk in our homes, they used electric just for lights).  Our light bill most months runs in the couple hundreds, I would love to be able to spend that money on getting us off grid.  I plan to start to buy panels and repair them and at some point get off grid, we are also working on wind power, so it’s all good, just takes time.

I am behind on most of my orders, soap, glass, eggs ect, trying to get all caught up.  It is hard to get it all done and I may have to seek outside help to get it all done.  We still have not picked up either hay ring, or the fencing and posts.  Sat I have to pick up the plywood for the roof, I am so happy about that.  I saw an ad in the local paper for shingles, three tab, $65 a square so I am gonna check that out. I hope we can get this all done.  Other than all this I am going to sit with the babies and read my sweet ones a story about Purim.  If you want to know about Purim, one of my super favorite holidays, check out these great links. 

What is Purim:   http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm

                              http://www.holidays.net/purim/

                              http://www.shj.org/purim.htm

Where to buy stuff for Purim:  http://www.chocolategelt.com/catalog/purim-supplies-c-72.html?gclid=CNnS2Yn7s6cCFRRg2godASOD_A

Now to the hubbies post

News From The Doghouse and the abyss...

Did the chores and got the experimental solar panel working. It went from 47F to 95F in a few minutes, prolonged running had it over 120F which exceeds 50C, tried a digital therometer on it and it topped out at 120F & 48.9C, the mercury thermometer was in the bubble above and beyond the 120F/50C so I am guessing @130F or so....going to try the wiring and or charging battery - trickle charge maybe.

Collected 2 turkey eggs, a guinea egg and a silky among the notables. Had to catch the mille flouras as they were out and about again. Knocked my back out of whack again, cause was an over extended bungee cord on the door to the coop, just stupid. It should not take 2 hands to open the door like that, and if you got 2 cans of feed in your hand it is really inconvienent, and I was in such a good mood because of the solar panel. After the gruelling bouts with trying to do the basic and simplest tasks, I managed to get some mobility. Then tried my hand at cutting wood for the weekend, its suppose to storm and get cold as well, so I had to get that done as well. Climbed up the ladder and whacked out the top of the tree, dangerously, and cut up that debris and got it all stacked up in the basement, and got a few log pieces to chop and split some other day.

Bacon & Porkchop are running at large at the moment, already having problems with them there :-(  Hope we can get them friendly at least before they go "hog wild" :@|

Be Blessed Dear ones and rest well…

Shekhinah, Michael and all the kids and critters on Mahanaim Farm

Day 40-how to fix what you own

Today started out to early for me and seems like it will never end.  I got too early I guess.  Had nothing but problems, school seemed to last forever and the math teacher scolded me for not getting an A on the last math test.  Ugghhhh.  He is a good man, but my class mates are killing me.  This class represents the failing of the American school system; this is the result America when you teach kids to a standardized test.  The kids in public school spend more than half the school year preparing for the standards test, in Florida; it was the F-cat.  These children do not learn enough to get them buy in the real would and many spend two or more years in college getting an AA in general education, which in just short of the knowledge someone like me would have gained from High School.  Most do not have the basic math skills of a fifth grader, this why other nations are laughing at us.  I shake my head just thinking about the one student who did not know what three times three is…or what a cube is.  Come on people wake up education is so important and if just a tiny amount of the money we (America) hands out to other countries was pit towards our school systems and better books, teachers, ect we would return to being a great world power, instead of a great world bully. 

Here is my next rant; quit picking on the French and pick up a book on the founding of America and you will see that France gave us the money as well as troops to fight our war of independence, that Ben Franklin was quite a talker. The French helped us so much that they went broke in the process and that was the start of the French revolution and when this befell them, you think we helped them or paid them back, nope, really we still owe them money. If you had someone owe you money for a couple hundred years or so, would you want to do much to help them. 

My third and final rant for the day, quit being lazy, fix the stuff you already owe and quite buying new things before the old things wear out.  Honestly who needs a new computer every three years, a new microwave or lawn mowers.  Read the care labels or manual and take care of your stuff, quite being a society of disposable items.  Please try at least and be practical, when you go to a store think, do I really need this, where is it made, do I already have something like it, before you buy.  You will save money, I promise.  If you do replace a working item, for the love of all creation, do not throw it out; give it away to someone who needs it.  Landfills fill our earth with toxic junk and kill both the soil and water. 

I repair our major appliances.   You can even go online and find out why your stove, fridge, microwave or other item is not working and how to fix it.  Check out these sites and you will see what I am talking about.  A few months ago I replaced the timer on our dryer.  It cost me $85.00 with shipping for the part and ten minutes to repair, the cost of a like model dryer was well over $400.00 bucks, maybe more .  The point is we have to be more reasonable with the things we own…  So here check out these sites and see how easy it is to fix these things yourself.  Who know maybe you need a hobbie, this would be a great one, pick up broken stuff fix it and sell it to people who could not afford new.  Think of all the good you could do.  Any way here is the web addresses.  

http://www.appliancepartspros.com/partsearch/   (parts and help)

http://www.applianceaid.com/refrigerator.html    (parts and help)

http://www.rakerappliancerepair.com/Course_catalog/Marchant%20Video/MarketingVideo.aspx  (learn how to repair and help repair appliances)

http://www.repairclinic.com  This one is the one I use most often and I am really pleased with them. 

Ok set eggs in the Bator and gathered more eggs.

Ok well I want to go out and check on the critters and get the kids off to bed, so I have to leave you guys now. 

Here is the hubbies post:

News from The Doghouse and The Funny Farm....

Running behind of everything it seems.....never ending chaos or chaotic interludes...got the chores done without incident, collect some eggs for hatching and some clean food eggs that could be hatched as well, just luck of the draw as to what will hatch 8-P

Worked on firming up and supporting our garden fence structure, the wire was falling off or popping off and I just put scrap pieces of wood on the frame and reattached the wire to the frame as well, just trying to keep the cats out for now...

Bacon and Porkchop, the pot bellied pigs, decided to get out of the pen and go exploring, I first noticed them when I went to the basement, they were at the door there. Later I seen them in the south woods and again later in the pasture with the horses, and they and the horses were running around, Samson was kind of chasing them at a slow trot. I think the horses just had fun chasing them, trying to get their noses to sniff them I guess, as ears were forward and not back as in attack mode.

Worked on the ancient solar panel, got it placed on a framework in the yard out by the persimmon tree and duck pond. Not sure what tomorrow will bring or what's next on the extra chores list. Seen a flock of geese heading north, they were pretty high up as they looked like specks. Seen and heard black helicopters again today, twice.

Hope everyone has a good day tomorrow.

Be Blessed all and rest well, know that we think of you all often and pray for a better tomorrow

Shekhinah, Michael and all the kids and critters here on the farm

Day 39 New little pigs...

News From The Doghouse and a nice day...

Got up early, with Elijah Bear tickling me and pouncing me telling me time to get up, it was 7 AM zzzzzzzz

Well had to get outside and hookup the horse trailer for the Boss, at least I had some coffee before I was out the door :-P[_]>

Started chores early today and was looking at being done before noon, but got side tracked a little bit, and still did some auxiliary chores as well, just trying to figure some priorities now ~~~8-P

Collected some eggs that were acceptable for shipping on orders, but most all the birds were in aftershock now...and this morning was nice outside but comfortable cool with ice in the waterbuckets, not damp windy and miserable...it was sunny and warming up slowly but nice. The Boss brought home 2 pot belly pigs...it's my 3rd round with Vietnamese pot bellied pigs. These 2 seem like happy little oinkers, startled the livestock when I let them out of the trailer when I had it backed up to the pen, which was a 1st...so all of the goats, cows, and horses were wondering with curiosity 8-P

Here's a link with some music video...not sure if it will work:

http://www.linktv.org/worldmusic?bcpid=1256280124&bclid=537093271&bctid=1213841246

This morning was cold but went very well. Before I headed outside I fed our little bottle goat Buttercup. I went out to the barn to milk our sweet cow. After milking moo cow I visited all of the little babies. First I went to see our ewe Lea and her little son Jelly bean, then I went and played with our mama goats and there four kids. Later this morning we had a new addition to the farm. Two little pot belly pigs arrived today and at the moment do not have names. They joined the goat heard today and are loving getting to run around in the open space after there trip home. The goats, horses, Moo cow, and the sheep were gathering around them welcoming them to the farm. After the twp little pigs settled down I took Elijah out to see them and the goat kids. He and I had a lot of fun playing with the pigs and the goats. Elijah also took his first sunset picture today and it was beautiful.

I would like to thank everyone for reading our blog

Thank you fro joining all of us today, we hope you like the photos...
Shekhinah, Michael and all the kids and critters at Mahanaim Farm