Bee~ Journal of then...

[Farmfresh]

I have only seen about a half dozen bluebirds in my whole life in our area.

Pretty sad when the bluebird is Missouri's state bird and I have lived here forever.

Friends are putting up lots of houses, but most are being filled with English sparrows - just like my purple martin house is.

Once again ... I do not know how people who are not Christians can stand death.

When my mil went a while back - death was such a blessing. We all rest assured where she is right now. What joy we Christians have to look forward to in death and what a wonder of lessons life is right now. I would not trade either.

 

[Beekissed]

Well, today is the day I pay for Blossom. The cattle racks that Harley(our resident guardian angel) gave us~same guy that delivered a half a truck load of canning jars to us!~will be modified this evening to fit our truck.

This truck is a wimp for heavy loads, so I will be very nervous bringing this very large cow home down a huge mountain. Fortunately, it is not far...maybe 15 miles to get her home.

If it dries up enough, I will get her tomorrow....if not, maybe Sunday.

I'm hoping it warms up, because I intend to get her home and give her a good, warm, soapy bath and groom her well. Then I am going to put her in my former chicken run~which has the deepest, greenest grass ( ) and give her Basic H water for about 3 days. A little sweet feed each day to let her know who holds the treats....a good scratching, a good wipe down with my homemade fly remedy and a good grooming each day she is in the pen.


I will be getting my kelp meal soon and plan to give it free choice along side some coarse salt, ala Salatin style. I'm sure she really needs it and I'm hoping to get it before she has this calf.


I checked out Salad Bar Beef from the library again to try and glean more info on pasture, but he gets a little mathy in there and my mind turns it all off. I do glean some good insight into his wintering methods and what to do in drought conditions, etc. Since I will be supplementing with garden produce during the slow grass periods in July/Aug, I may be able to avoid using too much hay if it gets droughty.

I am tossing around ideas about getting water to my paddocks at the top of the orchard...well, actually, to all of them. I'm going to cut down a blue plastic barrel, install it on a heavy duty wagon that my mom is giving me that she bought for gardening years ago and never used. Its heavy-duty, black metal mesh with big, wide tires. I will adapt it to attach to my lawn tractor and use this to haul it up the hill to the orchard paddocks.

I would just use some very long garden hoses for refilling a regular blue tub but I have a dog problem. Jake likes to chew hoses. Its a good thing he is such a great dog, because his little bad habits should have earned him a permanent home down under by now!

Since I haven't owned a cow since I was young, this will all be a learning experience for me....and I can't wait! I like problem solving and have really stressed this skill with my boys.

I find it the most useful skill for survival and I wish the schools taught more of it. Not just in math but in real life applications. This is why homeschooling is so much more adapted to real life...especially the unschooling methods.

Enough blabbering (yes, Tallman, blabbering is a real word~to me! )....this insomnia is for the birds! When I get into the gardening and animal husbandry, I will be too tired each evening for insomnia. The fatigue from honest, hard physical labor is so much better for you than the fatigue produced by no sleep, long hours at work, and emotional stressors. Can't wait!

 

[reinbeau]

One thing that struck me when I was reading Pasture Profits was the amount of work, and brainpower, the whole system took - he works his butt off, that Joel Salatin! It'll be interesting to see how things progress for you, Bee, good luck with your venture into cows!

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks, Ann! It will either be a success or failure....that's for sure! When its that simple, one knows where to go from there!

I paid for Blossom today! She is officially mine.

Also hit a tremendous yard sale today and really cleaned up on some great items....most of them I needed, the others were just too good to not buy, as I can use them also. Not too often I see a good yard sale here, so it made my day!

Got a small, porcelain over steel double boiler for $1....pristine shape.

3 cream with country blue trim valances, brand new from Country Curtains.....$1.50 for all.

A whole set of beautiful "Songbird" pattern dishes, very beautiful and retro.....$4 (I really needed these!)

2 clocks, one beautiful and one for my office--$2.50

A real pretty, new, floral shower curtain that I've been needing pretty badly ....$1.50.

Misc. items for free or below a dollar and some stainless steel knives that I've been needing for a long time.

I spent $17 total and came home with a box and two bags full!

 

[big brown horse]

Ahhhh, garage sales my favorite thing in the whole world!!!

I love reading your journal, haven't gotten too far yet. I was wondering if you can recal what page or post # (about) that you talk about raw milk.

Your description of your view was glorious. Your farm is sooo cute! I love old farm houses.

Sorry to hear about your friend... she sounded like a real neat lady. I lost a friend to cancer about 3 weeks ago. It started as breast cancer, then lung cancer and then brain cancer. She lived 4 years with cancer before she passed. It was horrible.

She was not from a wealthy family and always struggled with finances herself. She did not have a very healthy diet, well, it was what normal familys eat, lots of white breads, refined sugar, fast food etc. In the end when we were doing her grocery shopping we always slipped in fresh veggies and fruit.

She died in a hospice thank God. The staff was the BEST! I feel horrible because we moved away from TX last October and I wasn't there for her in the very end. Poor Lil.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm sorry, but I will try to hunt that post # down....look a couple of pages back and a little more, it hasn't been too many days since we discussed this. I'll try to dig it up when I get home tonight....I'm at work right now!

Thank you for all the compliments! I know this journal is big, but it makes for some interesting reading when we discuss grazing, canning and such. Plenty of folks on here with some good insight into some neat SS projects, skills, etc.

 

[big brown horse]

I'm sorry, but I will try to hunt that post # down....look a couple of pages back and a little more, it hasn't been too many days since we discussed this. I'll try to dig it up when I get home tonight....I'm at work right now!

Thank you for all the compliments! I know this journal is big, but it makes for some interesting reading when we discuss grazing, canning and such. Plenty of folks on here with some good insight into some neat SS projects, skills, etc.

AMEN! Thanks, I will look it up myself right now if it was a recent post, it should be easy.

Again, Thanks!

Oh, good luck with your milk cow. Does she have a name, I havn't read too far yet so you may have told everyone already.

Edited to say I found the raw milk posts and I am currently reading them. Now I really want goats!!!(A cow won't fit on my land.) I also found out that your cow is named Blossom...CUTE!!

 

[hennypenny9]

Since I haven't owned a cow since I was young, this will all be a learning experience for me....and I can't wait! I like problem solving and have really stressed this skill with my boys.

I find it the most useful skill for survival and I wish the schools taught more of it. Not just in math but in real life applications. This is why homeschooling is so much more adapted to real life...especially the unschooling methods.

I totally agree! Just an example. I was at a friends house. They had chickens, but were NOT proud of owning them, and didn't enjoy them like I do. Long story short, they had a very small pen (more like a cage) in the woods. It was waaaaaay out there. The daughter was filling the water feeder. You know the kind, you fill it upside down, screw the bottom on, and flip it over to let the water out.

Instead of carrying it upside down waay out to the pen, then turning it upright when she got to the pen, she turned it right side up, then walked- sloshing water all the way- to the pen. By the time she got there, it was mostly empty! As she came back, she complained about how often she had to refill their water. Then she asked why I was rolling on the ground laughing...

 

[Farmfresh]

Were you able to get Blossom home yet? I am on pins and needles!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Oh congratulations on Blossom, Bee!! I so miss raw milk!!