Friday Farm Report - Earth Hour - Etsy Sale, etc.

Rain is forcasted again for today...I'm not complaining, farmers always need rain...but it does nothing for my motivation or mood! Yesterday was one of those days - got absolutely NOTHING accomplished at all. I'm going to try to make today a much better day. This rain has put a "damper" on my photo challenge this week too. Kinda hard to get a really nice landscape photo. (which is our challenge this week)

Weaver had a wonderful post yesterday listing the things she was grateful for. It really spoke to me, because when I first started my blog long ago I used to do an "Attitude of Gratitude" once a week to list things that I was grateful for that happened during the week. She has inspired me to revisit my thankful heart. I'm not going to do that today..but on Sundays when the week is completely over. I look forward to doing that again! I need to keep myself in check and take the time to thank God for the wonderful blessings in my life. So thanks Weaver for watering that seed I planted LONG long ago! I think its great to remind ourselves of what we are thankful for and it lets people into your world a little more!

My sweet friend Libby makes handmade soaps, clothing and laundry powder and sells on Artfire and Etsy like I do. She is having a MAJOR sale in her Artfire shop on all of her products. EVERYTHING is 40% off! So take a look at what she's got to offer! She makes all Vegan products, her soap is to die for! I've ordered from her since hers is so different than mine. Goat Milk soap is more of a light creamy lather...hers is super bubbly! LOL great benefits from both kinds! My good friend Mari also buys her laundry soap from her and claims its totally AWESOME! I've been wanting to get some myself (I'm still perfecting mine...argh! My soap is softer so it doesnt come out right...more work in that area, guess I'll have to harden my soaps for the laundry powder) So check her out! And let your friends know too! Click HERE to visit her store! Click HERE to check out her blog - she just posted pictures of the most adorable little girl I've ever seen (her sweetie Maylee)- next to my own of course! LOL

My toe - well it has really hurt the last couple of days...probably the rain. I'm disgusted that the doctor said nothing can be done..he barely only looked at it and is one of those who rushes in and rushes out in 20 seconds. I'm wanting to get a second opinion. I think if my joint can be lined up it would heal better. As it is..the top joint is pushed way to the right side of my toe...I cant (and probably will never be able to bend it) but who knows if I dont get a second opinion. My whole foot hurts, not just the toe...the stupid doctor didnt even want an X-ray even though i asked him about it. I'm not going back there ever again. The same office misdiagnosed Douglas 2x with his Whooping Cough and the doc he saw didnt even want to test him for it!!! As highly contagious as that is, the school HAS to know if he is positive! Its a requirement when exposed to it! The Health Department who handles infectious diseases was pretty put out and said they were going to due a phone call to the doctor and his office for not following protocol.

So I'm actually trying not to whine too much...though this past week thats about ALL I've wanted to do. I've gotten NOTHING accomplished, I have NO motivation or desire to do ANYTHING! I HATE DAYS LIKE THIS!

I'd really like to take a fun motivating vacation..like visiting out west....New Zealand...New Mexico....visit my horse-loving friends and ride all day! Camping...ANYTHING! I got the itch. I want someone around SO badly who I could ride with every day it makes me sick. I do have a wonderful friend Susan who said I can come ride when I want....after I get a helmet (which I'm looking for now) I'm gonna take her up on her offer and try to ride as much as I can each week, if she'll have me.

Fridays Farm Report

Horses

King is doing very well...I'm only barley seeing a limp! YEA! Now if only the heifers would finish calving in the pasture here behind the house I can put the boys back into that field and out of the more wet one they are in now. I want to keep those abscesses away. Kacy and I were talking and why it never occurred to me I dont know, but King's hooves are all white...which means they are softer than the dark hooves. And since his lot is wet right now...its probably the cause of his abscess!! DUH! Why didn't I think of that sooner! I havent worked with my boys, groomed, nothing, for a few days...so today I'm hoping I'll get some things done here in the house (since I did NOTHING all day yesterday) and can get out and do some grooming and work with Jack. Everyone else is the same...Bella and Buck are the lovebirds of the bunch so much so, when they were here at the house with King we had to send Bella over to the other pasture with Molly and Georgia because she wouldnt let us get our hands on him!!!! She was a pill and very soured. Well darn it..they have connected again!.grrrrr. Thats okay! They are going to be in for a surprise when they get taken back to 1st grade and get some of the kinks out of them. Bella's worse problem is how barn sour she is. Of course its really not her fault. When we got her last year we also purchased the gelding that she has ALWAYS been with, never rode without. He of course wasnt happy with the change and threw Norm into a pond as soon as he got on him. He went back needless to say..which was a shame he was a beautiful gelding and had such a nice gait. So really Bella doesnt know any better....but she'll learn!!! LOL She is so bad, she bolts back to the barn as soon as she is out of sight...cant have that happen someone will get hurt.

Molly - just good old even tempered Molly! The only trouble she gives us is when she's being shod. I'm still really hoping I can get a round pen built...I need one so badly, its not a want - it is a need so that i can exercise these guys and get ground work done with them, teaching them manners and respect. They are horses, they need to work.

Cattle

Giant is doing well, growing fast, and a fast eater..thinking maybe he may need more to eat in a day than little Torro. I'm going to start giving him an extra bottle in the middle of the day and see how he does. Both him and Torro are going to be started on calf feed today (Norm in case I forget we are out I think of the good calf feed!) and hay too. Giant will learn to eat with Torro showing him. You wanna hear something funny! In order to teach Oliver and Annie (my first two bottle fed calves - RIP my Oliver :-( ) Leah and I had to mimic a cow eating hay. Lord it must have been the funniest thing to see...but they viewed us as momma, and calves learn by mimicry. It only took us a few times (cause those calves were just awesome little bovines!) getting down on all fours with a pile of hay in front of us and pretending to eat.....didn't take them long at all and they were eating hay and calf feed like the big boys (and girls). It was the only way they would get it figured out, we tried all we could think of before we played "cow". Hey - you do what you got when your all they got! As I told you after Oliver died..We learned A LOT from him.

Kacy - you wanted to know about the "Fart Tax" as Liz, Amy and I refer to it as? Go HERE to my blog posting to read more. I read in Farm World that now those who have been crying "TAX" is back pedaling. They are reporting that this isn't what has been proposed. Farmers all over the US have been in an uproar and speaking out against any kind of taxing like this. the Fart Tax would put MANY MANY farmers out of business. Using us as an example..if the tax went through it would cost us (with a herd of 150) $10,000 dollars a year just to have cattle! There is no way to recoup that loss.

Calf Count

As of yesterday we have 82 little bundles of joy running and romping around! Since I broke my toe I havent been out and about on the farm...I do miss seeing them! Baby animals of any kind just give me the warm fuzzies!

Cropping

Norm laid the first bit of fertilizer down in the field across the street from the house. He still has many acres to fertilize and the time will come soon to plant in end of April, first of May - trying to be finished the 1st of June.

The garden this year will be done in two places. The veggies that need steady water, like bell peppers, tomatoes, watermelons, etc. are going to be planted here at the house along side the flower garden I intend to do this year. We have a humongous piles of branches that the Ice storm brought down to burn first. I need to get everything outlined soon though so I know what and where I want to plant.

Chickens

The plan this year is to get anywhere from 10 - 20 chickens. The outbuilding we have here by the house is what we are turning into a coop. The floor is a mess, its full of junk, and needs an overhaul. The worse part of it will be cleaning it all out. For that Norm is getting our "adopted son" Neil and the real McCoy - Douglas to clean it out. Wont take them but a couple hours to get it ready for us to lay the new flooring and walls. We are covering the old floor thats full of holes from the raccoons with plywood, and the walls with plywood and some white roofing metal. It wont take much to get it in order, its just the matter of starting on it! I really hope that next week, since my toe is feeling a bit better we can begin. I'm planning on getting Chickens just ready to lay, and a few chicks as well.

Goats

Well....I dont know really how thats coming along. Norm said he is trying to figure out where we are going to keep them. I now have the Goat Registry, and a new goat sale has begun about 45 minutes away the 4th Thursday of every month. I'm intent though on purchasing them from a farmer/breeder though to ensure a good quality milker. HOWEVER where we live..there just are not any!!! I'm so disgusted about that, so we may have to resort to the goat sale.

I do know what to look for as far as health and conformation, etc, so maybe we will get lucky if we have to use the sale.

That's all for now! I'll visit you later after I get some house cleaning done! Have a great day all!

"Poverty cannot deprive us of many consolations. It cannot rob us of the affection we have for each other, or degrade us in our own opinion, of in that of any person, whose opinion we ought to value."-Ann Radcliffe