Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[SSDreamin]

Hmmm... I've had some trouble with my early starts germinating too. Not a single sweet pepper, and only one of my beefsteaks came up. Curious. It has my spidey senses tingling My biggest question is, how did those dog gone rabbits get into my house?!

 

[Britesea]

I get excited when I can garden too... Can't help remembering with fondness the gardens I had when we lived in the Mediterranean climate of the Bay Area in CA. 3 gardens a year, whoo!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Ya really gotta watch those wascally wabbits... they can create all kinds of heck and havoc in the garden (and in your house)! Funny stuff!

I do get excited every time I walk out to the garden. Except today I got a little p... uh...angry. I saw three squash bugs on my zucchini. I squashed them all to heck! And, I'll squash anudder one if'n I can see the buggers. They ain't got no business messin 'round with my squashes!

It's been a semi-productive day. I DID, DID, DID butcher a couple meaties and I'm about to go do at least one more before DH gets home. I've decided I'm going to can a few of 'em at least. I cut up the two that I did today and I was able to get two thighs, two drumsticks and two partial wings in a quart jar. The breasts - no way! They're humongous! And I don't really wanna can 'em anyway - I like em fresh.... Anyway, I've got the backs simmering on the stove to make stock to use when I can 'em.

I am not lying when I say it's smelling really delicious in my kitchen right now. The stock is gonna be good - AND - the big ol pot of beans I have on the stove for dinner is gonna be good too. I had some ham so I put that in with the beans but I had another idea too while I was doing the meaties. Soooo, don't tell anybody but my beans has giblets in 'em. LOL!! I put tiny little pieces of gizzards and hearts into em. I left out the livers though cuz I was afraid that would be pushing it just a little too much. Besides, we like the livers fried...yummy!

Did I ever tell ya'll that my meaties are stinking MEAN! They are ankle biters! I 'm trying to get rid of the meanest ones first so when I go outside and they gather 'round I grab the first one that pecks me and that's the one that goes upside down next. Stoopid mean chickens. I've been good to 'em all this time - fed 'em the best stuff ever and took the best care of 'em and this is how they repay me? Stoopid ankle biters....but I do kinda get my revenge....

 

[Denim Deb]

Guess they learned a lesson!

 

[FarmerJamie]

Rough place to be a critter of any type!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Ahhhh now! Secretly I think they know what's coming - that's why the peck the heck out of me every time I walk out the door!

I did get that last one done before DH got home. Had dinner on the stove, the top offa the hot tub and an ice cold non-alcoholic beer for him. He had a really rough day at work today - nah, that's not right - he's had a rough six months or so. They're working him to death here and I told him he needs to just walk away. I don't care how much money you make it's not worth so much stress. About six months ago ( maybe a little longer) they started talking about a big promotion. He's already got 4 offices under him, but this promotion would be on more of a corporate level... being he'd be over a certain part of ALLLLLL the offices in the nation. No stress there, right? The problem right now is that he's doing his regular job AND he's already getting the other job going. So, he's basically working two full-time, high stress jobs right now. There are many nights when I go to bed and he's still at his computer working. It's just not right...

On top of that, my mom is not doing well again. She was in the ER the first week of April, and again last week, and tonight she told me that she thinks one of her hip replacements is failing. She's having really bad pain in that hip. My dad isn't healthy enough to really do much for her so it's looking pretty bleak in the long run for both of them. I'm going there tomorrow and I'll put together a couple weeks of meals to go in the freezer. I got them started now. I'm going to turn the broth I started today into chicken soup. I've got some beans soaking and will cook them tomorrow. I'll make 'em a couple pans of corn bread - it freezes well. Maybe a batch of spaghetti or lasagna.... I might make up some deviled eggs for them to have a grab and go kinda snack. I'm putting together a list. I'll grab some groceries and leave here in the morning, cook like a banshee all day, and see what else I can do while I'm there. They live a bit over an hour away, so it'll be a long day for me but whaddya gonna do?

I've got lots to do before I can go to bed tonight, so I'd better get to it. If ya'll have any spare prayers laying around I'd appreciate sending a few up for my folks.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Spent a while with my folks today. It's hard to see them as old and frail... But, my dad actually seems better and stronger than he has in awhile. I think that being forced to take care of my mom is making him stronger. He has been prone to just sitting in a chair most of the day and now he has to get up and down to fetch and carry for mom. It's doing him good. He told me he's back to mowing his yard again....geeze....he'll be 86 on his next b'day so mowing his yard is quite an accomplishment at that age!

Mom is in a lot of pain and should see her orthopedist on Monday. Hopefully, she won't need another hip replacement...

It's been a long day and I haven't even started milking or feeding yet - better get busy!

 

[Denim Deb]

I worry about my parents too. My mom will be 81, my dad 85. And, they still do everything for themselves! My dad still splits wood!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's awesome, Deb.

Had a really, really, really nice day. We stayed busy alllll day long, but didn't over work ourselves at all. DH did some mowing and trimming while I re-did the whole quail set up. I moved cages, re-arranged breeding birds and hopefully got things easier to take care of. I need to butcher a few birds to get my numbers down where I want them. I don't need to feed so many critters. My goal is to get down to 9 breeding trios. To do that I need to butcher 14 birds.

Butchering seems to be the theme these days. After DH did yard work and I re-did the quail area we started in on the meaties. We did 6 more. We're down to 10 now and I'm gonna save about 4 of the hens just because... Usually, once they reach laying age they lay big ol' white eggs. I wanna cross some with a couple of my Heritage breeds and just see what happens. I love the Dorkings for meat, but they grow soooooo slowly. I'm hoping I can get a faster growing bird with the cross (even though I don't expect miracles). I know lots of folks have tried to breed their own meaties from a cross like this and it isn't quite what they hoped for. But, ehhh, what the heck... I like to experiment!

I'm still worried about Lil Bit, the goat that keeps getting bottle jaw. The bottle jaw symptoms seem to have gone away (YAY) but today she just didn't seem herself. We got warm in the middle of the day, but this evening it was really quite pleasant. But, when I went out to give the privileged goats some extra dinner she was kinda quiet and her coat was puffy - like they do when they get cold... or sick. She didn't put up her usual fight when I dosed her with Red Cell either... sooooo... despite the fact that her recent fecal showed ZERO eggs I wormed her again with Valbazen. Valbazen hits liver flukes and liver flukes don't always turn up in a fecal. I just don't know what else to do for her. Her membranes are still really pale and she's just barely energetic enough to run from me when she sees me coming, lol. She's starting to hate me! But, her appetite is still good and she's not showing other symptoms.. its just a gut feeling that something is not quite right.

Back to work tomorrow. I only worked M, T and half a day Wed last week so working a whole week is gonna be hard on me, lol. Thank goodness we get Fridays off during the summer! I'm about to have 3 day weekends for about 3 months! I LOVE my job!

And thanks to all the folks who were posting wonderful pictures of food and talking about recipes - I'm starving. I guess I'll have a glass of goat milk before bed cuz it's really too late to have a big meal. Nearly 10pm and I probably need sleep more than I need food.

G'nite ya'll - hope everyone's weekend was wonderful!

 

[hqueen13]

The meaties at the farm are too lazy to be mean lol but then they never make it past 8 weeks so...