Good morning to the mountain and 4-H fair chickens

Good morning from the mountain, it is a cold 68 degrees F here, and the earth is wrapped in a swaddling blanket of dense fog.  It is not without wonder that the barnyard animals are confused, here on July 31, 2014 the high for today is but 74 degree F.  Well it is just tops, absolutely the best for me, as I have enough garden work and canning that needs done as to jump for joy over the lower temp, but I cannot shake that monster under the bed which warns me of a dubiously cold winter as a possible event looming on the horizon.  Mini ice age pending!

I know many of you are wondering how yesterday at the fair played out, so I will share the event with you as best I can.  Yesterday upon bringing the children’s chickens to the state fair I observed the baseline of insanity the likes of which I never before seen.  I chanced upon such an interesting group of insane people; all quit without their wits and good manners. They pushed and forced their hell bent will upon others, some with very high end sheep and goats, reliving a lost time though their children who were made unhappy guests of their parent’s desire for a silken ribbon to display how marvelous of parents they are.  Myself I have no such need for attention and would have been just as happy to leave before I had ever arrived.

There is a great deal of painstaking work that goes into raising animals for the fair, and it is for my children alone that I am willing to subject myself to these torrid distractions, when I would do better to remain many miles away upon my mountain.  If for no other reason that for the peace alone, but like all good 4-H parents on this day my fate has been set to the children needing my adult self to enter their chickens in the fair.  What an unpleasant fate was thrown upon me as they bleed the chickens to test for diseases and much of their life’s blood is now a permit part of my shirt and the ground below us.   A fitting reminder of how a good spirt is no salvation for the parents of 4-H kids.  Never the less, I jumped with both feet planted upon the ground and then after the long wait and gruesome event went to check the birds in.

Upon checking in with the boy's chickens, both Elijah and I were greeted by a hag of a women, not at all a jolly barrel, but rather a forbidding rock which has logged itself into the center of one’s field and who very nature it’s self is quite stout and unmoving.   Whose eyes never met mine and seemed to have a strong and quite abnormal distain for the volunteer job she was engaged in.  To add to such matter she read the boys names off the cards, Elijah and Elisha, and my son looked at her when her gruff voice asked him who he was.

“I am Elijah”, he stated quit clearly, so that there be no doubt as to what had been spoken, no soft whispered works, but a declaration of one’s self. 

Which was followed by the rock who said, “Have her put her chickens into cage number_____."

 Really, as my eyes rolled up into my head, “he is a boy," I replied.  

Upon which was continued with the girl, five times said, and five times corrected.  Then upon trying to make a most quick retreat least my works flow forth like a raging river with no care for the rocks, animals and trees in its path, I was challenged yet once more but the cackle of the not the birds, but the women.

“Give me your paper.”  She said gruffly.

What followed was the banter of fools, myself included as she preceded to tell me that my paper was hers, for mercy’s sake alone did I part with my copy knowing full good and well that she had one waiting below where the birds had been bleed, but deciding upon the higher of the roads I relented and made my self-determined to retrieve yet another copy from the place of blood and anguish.  Once paper was in hand, I made quick work to warn all other comers of the desires of the hag.  A gentle warning at best, at worst a salvation for some soul with less control than I had just had.

I who is the lover of all things paper, holding many piles simultaneously upon my desk, found no joy in these new papers that seemed to be all the rage this fair year.  Papers should have a purpose other than to be taken for the sake of taken, they need sorted and filed, but their papers lay in a pile of crumped  mass and form, making the sane and insane quit equal in desire to tidy up the slopen mess.  I worry about the information cared for in such a manner, but alas it is too late for my thoughts to continue dwelling on such an impossible task.

Glad I am that I do not have to return to the fair today, I fear that the end of the week will be here before I know it, and I will be forced to endure another round of the fair.  I am in no rush…

Well, off to pickle carrots and work in the gardens…

Be Blessed dear ones

Shekhinah

Good morning from the mountain sthe sun is up and our day begins with fewer birds....

Good morning from the mountain, another has dawned on the mountain.  Yesterday I started liquidating the chickens from the farm, and will continue until I have the number I need just for us as a family.  I have come to the conclusion that eBay is not a venue to sell eggs.   As I am saying this I have sold another dozen eggs on their which will be shipped out tomorrow, it may be the last one I ever ship from eBay.  I cannot tell you how it pains me that they are so vile to their sellers; I can say I will no longer allow them to do it to me.

When the last birds go it concludes the ending of my dream to help others to have poultry which I am sure was about to end anyway as America is very much against small family farms and healthy eating.  It is so bad here that people in many states are still being arrested for purchasing and drinking rare milk.  They have also been arrested for capturing water from the sky.  Farms like mine that want to stay organic are often targets of either the carelessness of other or there outright hate.  This has not of course always been the case, as America was founded on farming.  Today farming is most often looked down upon and dirt farmers as people like myself and my family are often called is a key to understanding what went wrong and preventing it from happing in your own country.

There was a day when farming was a noble art, held in the same place as the person creating a painting or stature, perhaps even a jewelry artist, but alas that was in the time before factory farms.  Factory farms are farms whereas the name implies food is grown in a factory like way.  Large farms grow hundreds of thousand or even millions of pounds of food, but one must ask, what is the manor of food being produced is.  It is not quality, which is often sacrificed for the quality.

A small farm organic from like mine know the food from the seed up, we do not use GMO seed, because we do not need too. We have seed that has been used for centuries and some longer that has served us well.  We remember events such as the potato famine and chose not to be mono farmers for just that reason. Our food gets its nutrients from the ground and century old techniques of adding dung from the farm animals back to the soil to keep it healthy.  We also add kelp to the soil and we do not till the ground.  In America many years before I was born, there was a time in history called the dust bowl, theis was caused in part by over tilling the land, and mono cropping, the people starved and the soil in many placed blew upon the air from the middle of this country all the way to the coasts, it took a long time to recover and some places never did. 

It is a good thing to learn from one’s mistakes, and chose happily not to repeat them.That is why companies who grow food on huge parcels of land, blighting the soil, making the ground toxic and stripping it of nutrients until they must pour thousands and hundreds of thousands of pounds of chemicals upon the land, just to raise their crops and America went from a chicken in ever pot, to chicken like products.  The value of the food is compromised and we happily send this food out to the entire world, all while knowing there is a problem.  Much of the food these factories grow is GMO food, which should be rejected by everyone, it is unwholesome and unholy, I get a bit of a rummy feeling just thinking about it.  I am sure that at one point people meant well, but it has become about money and nothing more.  Where money is king, there are no morals and cheap becomes deadly.  

Our country had protection in place to protect us from this sort of thing, but I fear money has won out here as well.  Instead, they protect us from fresh, wholesome food.  As an example I was on a website describing some lovely French cheese, four different types that are aged less than 90 days and all illegal in the US.   They claim it is because of possible contamination that these cheeses are not allowed to be made here in the states.  Honestly I do not think it is to protect us, but to control what we eat.  Fresh cheese bread and fruit is the morning staple in many countries that have not fallen to the American standard.  How can it be that even McDonalds and their selling of expired food in countries makes little news, but a person making and selling fresh food makes the press and loses their farm, it happened a few years ago here in Missouri.  An organically certified dairy had their whole plant seized, and their entire product destroyed on just the threat of listeria contamination.  Mcdonald'S has no punishment for selling bad food; one has money one is poor.  If I mixed old meat with new, they would through me in jail.  That is the problem, we are trusting the wrong people; we are not trusting the ones who do what they do out of love, who eat from their farms.  Instead we are trusting the ones making billions of dollars are year from us, using the FDA against us in a war that is fought in some form in America every minute of every day.  I am not sure how many people watch the “SIMPSONS”, but in the cartoon there is a character called “KRUSTY THE CLOWN," this character owns a chain, called Krusty Burgers.  It is much like the McDonlad’s or Burger King in many ways, mostly the food.  Anyway he does a commercial in which he bites into a Krusty burger and almost swallows it, and screams about it.  The kind of Oh G-d I almost swallowed it…This joke may not be too far from the truth.  

Anyone have time to help redo the wood cook stove?

The president has an organic garden; his is protected, but not the people. 

So farms like mine are just in the way of the global conquest of food domination, a world where we will all eat what they tell us too, and no one will have the right to keep seed from generation to generation.  There will be one tomato, and it will taste like the air, one granny potato, yellow rice, diseased animals will be sold as food with the bad parts cutoff and everyone will be fine with it.  The bread will be full of fillers, the milk having added chemical sweeteners to cover the taste of blood and puss, there will be only food like food items and no longer wholesome food.  That is where we are all heading.

With that said, and before it becomes illegal to have a garden I must go out and work on ours.  I will try to get back on here later with new puppy photos and whatever else happens between now and then.  Plus those carrots will not pickle themselves….lol

Be Blessed

Shekhinah

Selling off our birds, thanks eBay

I am selling off most of my birds:

I'm cleaning house, and thinking of setting up at Camp trading post to do so. I have six americans hens, 20 brown egg layer pullets, hundreds of pigeons, a small flock of silkys and some cow spotted young mice, as well as two free kittens, and two full grown mini male potbelly pigs, super cheap,any takers? I could set up Thursday if people are willing to come. 870-321-6859 Priced to sell....buy a few buy em all.....



Be Blessed
Shekhinah

Good morning from the mountain and a kimchi recipe and more eBay swill including a mock training list for its phone workers...

Good Morning from the mountain, still no satisfaction from eBay, just a bunch of bunk about them doing things by their policies, I did inform them that I have policies as well.  One of which was not to be harassed and tormented by a customer that G-d could not please.  It becomes harder and harder to continue dealing with eBay and their “policies," which by the way I never did agree too.  I am fascinated with their abused Asia work force that have no other choice than to tell me that their supervisor is just going to tell me the same thing that he was, which is the job of all underlings I believe.  It must be a part of their training. 

·         

•         Training day one, tell the customer how glad you are to be helping them, in those exact words.
• ·         Day two always read from the sacred book of eBay.
• ·         Day three, distract the customer by telling them in broken English that you understand their worries, in those words.
• ·         Day four, continue in broken English to tell them you understand, but that they are being unreasonable and not listing to you, when they tell you that what they are saying does not help them.
• ·         Day five, keep your customer from reaching higher up levels of customer support, be willing to throw yourself under the train to do so…after all this is for eBay.
• ·         Day six, quote without stutter, even though we at eBay know you will not be able to do this as it is hard to outright lie in another language with inflection.  Reputedly state that there is no supervisor available that they are all on other calls. 
• ·         Day seven swear before the almighty book of eBay that you will make it money and help no one, promise to tell two differ stories at all times.  The buyer and seller are both right, until bad feedback is left, and then it is not eBay’s fault, but the costumer’s fault, quote seller,  for doing as you informed them. Remember to smile for them, as they can feel your genuine warmth, as you tell them eBay’s policies and lead them to a page where they are found.  Remind them that you are helping them as their business goes down in flames, never waver from the eBay policy which undeniable is unreasonable at best, and unethical at worst.
• ·         Day 8 In the end thank them, after all this job that pays you nearly $550 American dollars per month or less in some cases, and would not be made possible if some wanker in the US has not gone and outsourced it to you. 

Anyway, I need to go and pickle some carrots and clean my kitchen, then go out in the garden and work.  Almost time to plant the winter crops.  Oh and I promised someone my kimchi recipe so I will include it below.

                              Kimchi

• You will need two large Napa cabbage

• 1 and 1/4 cup sea salt or kosher salt

• 1 tablespoon fish sauce

• Five chopped scallions

• 1 white or yellow onion

• 2 cloves of garlic-minced

• 2 tablespoons of organic white sugar

• 1 teaspoon of fresh ground ginger root

• 5 heaping teaspoons of pepper flakes

Directions

Cut the cabbages in long strips no wider than two inches, works best and trim the ends. 

Rinse and cut into pieces about 2 inch square. 

Place the cabbage into large stainless steel bowl and cover leaves with salt until evenly coated. 

Leave at room temperature for 6 hours.

After six hours or more has passed, rinse the cabbage leaves with lots of cool water and place in clean colander to drain for about an hour.

Next you will need a food grade plastic bucket, I get mine from a local grocery store.  It once held frosting, and now I use it for Kimchi.  It should have a tight fitting lid.  

Take all remaining ingredients and mix them into the cabbage which should now be in the bucket, please wear gloves to do this, this pepper is hot and bad things happen when you do not wear gloves, you will just have to trust me on this.  

Really rub the mix into all the leaves, once you have done this you need to seal the container and walk away from it for at least four days.  After that time, you may open the bucket and place your new Kimchi into glass jars with plastic lids, it should keep for a few months in the fridge.

Be Blessed

Shekhinah

Good evening from the mountain and eBay the wild world of do what I say and be screwed...

A path to no where....

Good evening from the mountain, I got my fair entries in and most of my paperwork done.  For a few short moments, I had forgotten about the pile of dishes in my sink and Ramin noodle dinner.  Then it happened; my eBay stalker returned like something out of B horror movie, sneaking up out of the darkness and, “WAM!” it hit me.  She said I had not shipped her eggs, and it has been two weeks.  There is a good reason I did not ship her eggs, and she knows it.  She has been a crazy stalker who has paid for them, over and over again, and each time I refund her and tell her very nicely I might add that I have no further desire to do business with her. 

She first opened up a case against me many weeks ago, two months after buying my eggs and not hatching them. She told eBay that they were not as described and eBay sided with me, but said I should still try to work things out with her.  So like a fool who refuses to drop the grape to free their hand, I tried how I tried.  Having come to what I believed was a mutual understanding, I offered to gift her six eggs for the cost of shipping, before I had a chance to do anything she had bid and won another auction and wanted these eggs shipped with the free six.  I tried to express that first I could not do that and second, I had no desire to sell to her again.  I use boxes that only allow for one dozen to be shipped in them, so I opened a case to refund her money which started in a game of refunding and her repaying and demanding in no so nice ways that I sell to her.  She threatened me for not allowing her to extort me.  

I had thought we were done with this nightmare that I could return to selling my eggs in peace, but nothing is ever that simple is it?  I looked online a few minutes ago to see she had left bad feedback.  Rolling my eyes, unreal this is from a women who eBay has told to leave me allow and PayPal as well.  So now I sit, I have been on the phone 40 minutes and I am waiting to see if they can remove the feedback, I know what you are thinking, why would they not, well eBay is like a Western Outlaw, they are good only as long as someone else is bad. 

It is sad, and I am so tired of dealing with eBay, I do not see them helping when people order eggs or other items and then not pay.  I spend far too many hours a month on this sort of thing, in the end it makes me want to quit altogether.  I also have another none paying customer, it is ridicules that this continues and eBay bashes me for doing what they told me.

 All I have left is rummy feelings about doing business with eBay at all.  What is wrong with people, I do not know, but I wish I could just move on…Maybe I should just shut the farm down and give up, it not worth this amount of stress and to have eBay tell me that I am doing a great job, pfftttt…as if.

Be Blessed

Shekhinah

Good evening from the mountain...

Good evening from the mountain, another smoking hot day has past; I canned some jam, and did a few things.  Tomorrow the temp will be lower and I will be in town getting paper work done and entering our entries into the fair.  I have tons of paperwork, makes my head hurt.  I still have to deal with the college as well, plus they told my loan company that I was no longer in school, honestly it is insane.

The puppies are opening their little eyes at day 17 of their lives and are just as cute as can be.  Elijah, the oldest of the boys I still have at home, has chosen one and has been loving it ever since.  He was the first person his puppy Spot saw.  It is so sweet and the pup does seem to love him. To me I just see another animal to feed.  Lol

That giant one on top is Spot, he is twice as big as the others.

Puppy kisses....

The garden is still coming along as you can see from the photos, but the bugs have eaten much of the food, so I have been replanting as quickly as I can.  I hope to get one more run of the green corn and some more pumpkins.  As of late the grasshoppers are making me angry and I feel we will be making tacos out of them if it keeps up.  Yummy tacos!

We had some visitors the other day, and I have put some photos up on here for your viewing pleasure. 

This is ghost, he is one of the boys horses.  Not a guest....

Woody the boys donkey, not a guest, but for sure a pest.

Moo and 9-11...

Ghost the cat, sleeping off nothing...lol

It would be hard to pick out mine from the group, the boys were so happy to spend time together.

.

 I do not think I have ever seen my boys so happy, they cooked turkey dogs over the fire, roasted marshmallows, talked about poke'mon, mine-craft, and legos.  They miss him so much all ready.

A tortoise visits us...

Be Blessed Dear ones…

Shekhinah

Good afternoon from the mountain...

Good afternoon from the mountain, I am sorry for not keeping up with the posts, we had some unexpected company.  Not that I am complaining, because I am not.  I was just over whelmed I think, that someone would drive so many miles just to see me and spend time with me, and I truly feel blessed. Plus I met a new friend as well.  For one day, all I had to think of was relaxing with friends, it was a nice feeling.

The garden got a little bit out of hand in two short days, I have huge cucumbers, that will end up in stir fry, not that is a terrible thing, but I needed to make pickles.  It was what it is and I will have more soon.  I planted more corn and beans, and checked the other beans and tomatoes.  We picked some great tomatoes, I only have complaint about the Russian black Krim tomatoes, and they get soft super quick.

Puppies are getting big and I hope to have lovely photos to show you tomorrow…

Canning time

remembrance of the past and looking towards a better tomorrow...Maybe I need more sheep

Poor mama dog, she is so tired, having eight children can really take a tole on you.

I need to get off of here and get some sleep, lots of stuff to do in the morning.

Be Blessed

Shekhinah

Good evening from the mountain and fruit recalls in the USA

Good evening from the mountain, I went to t the college today to fix my schedule and ended up with more classes.  I can hardly believe it more classes.  I have to take College Capstone, a class that requires a workbook that is designed to show what you have learned; I hope they are not expecting much…Lol  Intro to Computer Applications, which forces you to buy a book that has a sample of office 2013, not to thrilled with that, so I will call Microsoft on Thursday and see about a free trial from them directly.  If I can do that, I will save over $70.00.  Algebra I have the software for already, so I am fine there.  The last class Introduction to Sociology requires a $150.00 book; it is questionable about renting the book as you must have something called coursemate.  Not happy about that at all. 

I also bought feed at the feed store; they had wheat, and this made me happy.  I also bought a bag of hydrated lime; low and behold it is the same lime as pickling lime.  I like to make Hominy, which is made from corn and lime or lye, depending on what type you are making.  I figured that if they are selling the Lime for use around animals, the chances of it being less than food grade are very slim, though I will check it before I use it.  A50 lb. bad at the feed store is $9.45; one pound bag at the grocery store is nearly $4.00 makes you wonder why it cost so much. 

Check out hominy and the cool things you can make with it.

http://www.squidoo.com/homemade-hominy-how-to-and-history

http://preparednessadvice.com/recipes/making-hominy-from-untreated-corn/#.U88CVvldXng

http://www.ansonmills.com/recipes/466?recipes_by=grain

Making your own food is the greatest gift you can give yourself and your family.

The puppies are doing great on day 8 of their lives; I will post new photos tomorrow. 

 Our gardens are still coming along, and I hope to get to work on them more on Thursday, tomorrow I must take the children and myself to the eye doctor, it is an hour each way so it will be a long day for me.  It should rain about the time we get back, so no having to water the gardens.  The children plan to see their Grand Parents, maybe we will all do lunch, Chinese or pizza, I am hoping Chinese food.  So that is the greatness of our day.

Be blessed dear ones

Shekhinah

P.S. If you are in the states, please read this:

http://fox4kc.com/2014/07/22/fruit-recall-affects-costco-trader-joes-walmart-stores/

If you’ve picked up fruit at Costco, Trader Joe’s or Wal-Mart stores recently, keep reading.

Wawona Packing Co. is voluntarily recalling peaches, nectarines, plums and pluots that were packed at its Cutler, California, warehouses between June 1 and July 12. Wawona believes the products may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Costco, Trader Joe’s, and the Wal-Mart Corp. — which operates Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores, have all posted notices about the fruit recall on their websites. The recall is nationwide, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Internal testing at Wawona revealed the potential Listeria contamination, the FDA says. The facility was shut down and sanitized; subsequent tests have been negative for the food-borne illness.

“We are aware of no illnesses related to the consumption of these products,” Wawona President Brent Smittcamp said in a statement. “By taking the precautionary step of recalling product, we will minimize even the slightest risk to public health, and that is our priority.”

Trader Joe’s has urged customers not to eat any of these stone fruits — meaning fruits with large pits — and to return them to a nearby store for a full refund.

In addition, Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. has recalled several of its baked goods that contain fruit from Wawona Packing Co. This includes cakes, pies, tarts and other pastries. For a full list, see FDA.gov.

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that can cause Listeriosis. The most common symptoms of Listeriosis are gastrointestinal issues (such as diarrhea), fever and muscle aches. Pregnant women, infants, older adults and people with a weakened immune system are particularly at risk for a more serious infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC estimates about 1,600 illnesses and 260 deaths are caused by Listeriosis each year in the United States. Overall, outbreaks have been on the decline since 2001, but the largest in U.S. history occurred in 2011. Cantaloupes from a farm in Colorado sickened 147 people and killed nearly three dozen. The farmers responsible recently were sentenced to five years’ probation, including six months of in-home detention.

Jeanne

http://atasteofcreole.wordpress.com/

Good evening from the mountain and a good bug

Good evening from the mountain, oh the plans I had today, many did not become reality.  I was just too tired.  I did get some things done, but nowhere near as much as I wanted too.  Oh well some days are like that.  We did get to spend time with a couple of nice friends under neither the shade trees.  So that was well worth it all.

Today I applied for a writing job, the format was a bit odd, but they pay three cents a word on most articles, some times more.  It would help our family out a lot.  They would want at least 20 articles a week, around 200 words each.  I need to find some way to bring in around $300.00 per week and not have to leave the farm.  I am over selling eggs on eBay, they are driving me mad.

During our farm day, Michael found an assassin bug in our garden today out by the pumpkins; it is a scary out of this world looking creature with a cogwheel like appendage upon its back.  I am not scared of the little fella, but those squash bugs should be.  These assassin bugs have a hearty appetite for squash beetles and those hornworms that love to eat our tomatoes.  I welcome him and his family to our garden and wish them long life and many children.  First one we have found in the ten years that we have lived here, may it not be the last.

Day 7 for the puppies....


Be blessed dear ones
Shekhinah

Good morning from the mountain

Good morning from the mountain, I have decided to buy an inexpensive dehydrator to get us by until I have more time to work on making a new one.  It pains me to do so, but I feel limited in my choices at the moment, and I have many food items that need to be dried.  The pear tree and many of our berries are in prime harvest mode and here I am trying to do a million other things, so I have made this choice, and I will have to live with it.  I am buying it at Fin To Fur a local hunting store as they had a basic one that should work that is not too expensive. 

I would have preferred a stainless steel one or to have built one now, but it is what it is and I am bogged down with many other things that require my attention at the moment.  My paperwork pile is alarming and must be done and finished as I now have less than three weeks before I must return to college.  Honestly I do not know why anyone should have so much paperwork, with the advent of computers. 

I have to go by the college today to change my degree plan so that I can leave there with two degrees.  This increases my chance of finding work if the need should arise.  So that is good, but it means I will stay at this college a little longer.  Right now on the top of my worry list is the fact that the bridge is still out, and I do not see the county fixing it in the next three weeks, now I am an hour from school, such a long drive, very early in the morning, it is ridicules today the least.  I must find another way to meet the goal of school without this hour long drive.

Anyway off to get things done…

Be Blessed dear ones

Shekhinah

Good evening from the mountain

Good evening from the mountain, today has been a house cleaning day, mainly the kitchen.  I am looking at it as prep for moving into the new kitchen.  Ah to be able to put all my cooking stuff away, no more living out of Rubbermaid boxes.  I plan to hang up most of the pans on the walls, lids on a towel bar, it all sounds rather nice, now if I was not exhausted it would all be great.

I have fallen short on my week’s goals; the soap has again taken second place to other more pressing issues.  Each time I start a project I most certainly plan to finish it, but life has a way of changing my plans.  When it is not an animal related issue, it is quite often one regarding the weather.  The climate change has certainly taken its toll on our small farm.  I have killed all but one Italian squash, honestly I feel like a murderer.  They drown and rotted, and there was not one thing I could do to prevent it.  I have managed to keep over half of the tomatoes I planted alive, but other plants have died in their wake.  What a hard year it has been already.

I am just shy of 9 days from the Country Fair and needless to say I am less than enthusiastic about it all.  I have not finished all the canning, nor did I register the chickens.   I just forgot, and now I am quite sure it will take a miracle to fix it, and I will have disappointed the boys who have been eager to show their birds.  Every year one of them takes first place, and that is so important to little ones. Aside from that if they do not let me enter them late; I am stuck with nearly ten more birds.  I will call in the morning and grovel in hopes of a reprieve from the fate I have laid out before myself.

Other than these trifles of life, I have gotten some more puppy photos for you all and a couple of pictures of the kimchi before I set it to cure.  The kimchi sits and calmly cures, but the pups, that is a different story altogether.   They keep me on my toes, constantly escaping the next only to be found under the dresser or piled in the middle of my floor.  I am only made an aware of these things when the mother whelps as if she is unable to bring them back to the nest, or the pups whimper in need of help.  She will not pick them up, my fault I guess, before the pups were born, I had issues with her picking up the kittens.  I did not like the whole idea and made my point quite loudly, and I see now she will not pick her pups up, either that or she has me better trained than I her.  As I am now a dog slave getting up many times a night to help her with her pups.  I know it all sounds funny, but it is not as funny as all that.

Black berry jam

kimchi uncured

sweet pups day 6

I feel like this some day...

Well, it is time for me to try and get some sleep, busy day tomorrow, papers to fill out, grain to get bought and perhaps a motor for the van window. 

Be Blessed dear ones…

Shekhinah