FarmerDenise's journal - full on harvest time = busy, busy, busy

[TanksHill]

Ok. I have read a few different recipes. Some say soak for like 5 min. Then rinse. Others don't say anything. I have done it both ways.

I usually cook mine just like rice, maybe use stock instead of water.

It turns out pretty good.

g

 

[framing fowl]

Just checking in! I'm sure you've been super busy with the baby shower. How'd it go yesterday?

 

[FarmerDenise]

The baby shower was a success! I had some wonderful help. I slept in til 11 am today and was in a fog all day. I just walked around in circles today and sort of attempted to put things back in order. I sat with the goats for a while. SO and I got to sit and just enjoy the peace and quiet this afternoon.
I did have to go out and get some dogfood. I took the good neighbor along, since his truck is still not running. So we both also got some chicken feed. And then we gathered up a mess of loose hay to bring home. We even got a bag for another neighbor, who doesn't drive and she needed hay for her chickens. It actually was a relaxing and fun outing. Good neighbor and I both enjoyed doing something nice for the non-driving neighbor.

I am still recuperating.

 

[framing fowl]

Hurray! So glad it was a success! Sounds like you needed to sleep in after all the work leading up to it!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I've been busy, busy, busy. And if I didn't have enough to do BIL dropped off a humongeous load of firewood on saturday which we felt the need to get stacked today.
It's been over 80 here these past two days!!! I worked up a serious sweat stacking that wood. I let SO watch the game while I stacked. He had stacked the first half in the morning, before I got up.
Yesterday we bathed the goats. Little Billy came with lice So I did some research and made an herbal concoction and we doused all three goats with it. Billy kinda liked it, Flower hated it and Blossom tolerated it. Then it came time to wash it off. Bill was down right insulted. And he has horns, so we really had to look out for ourselves. As soon as we decided to let him go, he ran back into the pasture and hid. The girls were not quite as difficult to rinse off, but they also don't have horns. About an hour later I went to see if Billy was still on speaking terms with me. I brought his favorite treat: orange peels. It took a little bit of coaxing, but then all was forgiven. They still look a bit greasy today (the concoction was oil based), but I figure that might help with the de-lousing. We'll see if it worked. Keep you fingers crossed. I don't think I want to do this again real soon. I know Billy won't like it!!
If it didn't work, I plan on shaving Billy and then putting the oily gunk on him again. His fur is really thick, since he is mostly boer goat.
Oh and I am really hoping the girls are pregnant!!! I don't want to have pet goats.

We got the asparagus bed weeded, mulched and fenced in to keep the chickens out. I am slowly but surely digging up under the peach trees. The chickens love this part of my job. They make sure to remove all those pesky earthworms and who knows what. And scratch up the big clumps and fertilize. We got some of the flower beds in the front yard weeded and turned. We keep taking the weeds to the neighbor for his chickens. He is a few years older than us and his shoulder has been giving him trouble. His goats also keep his yard fairly clean of weeds, so we bring him ours.

I have also been working on making all the accessories for the bassinet we are giving DD for her baby. It was SO's when he was a babe. It is in amazingly good shape, just needs a bit of cleaning and the mattress, bumperpad and a hood. I have made everything except the hood part. It looks really nice. I hope to finish the hood tomorrow. I'll try to remember to take some pics, but I can't promise anything.
I keep checking on DD. Her legs and feet are now swollen, so she is even more miserable than before. I went over one day last week and cleaned her front yard. She used to keep it so nice. I edged her walkway and pulled up all the dead flower stalks and weeds. I brought some of the stuff home for our goats and chickens.

I am also trying to eat less non-organic food. This means a bit more work for me, since SO keeps accepting the crap his father brings us and also cooks it. If I want to eat organic wholesome food, I have to make it all from scratch myself and often am the only one eating it. Now when SO cooks, I often won't eat his cooking, so I have to make sure that I have something available that I can eat. He also gets very offended, when I don't eat his food, even though I have told him, that I think it is making me ill. I have consistently been loosing weight. I have been staying away from commercial meat and all the other commercial and processed foodstuffs for about 3 weeks now and I am slowly gaining some weight.
I still have trouble sleeping though. I will feel totally exhausted around 8 or 9 pm, fall asleep on the couch and wake up around 11 and can't get back to sleep. I have tried to make myself stay awake past 9 pm and I either can't fall alseep at all or when I fall asleep it is still for only an hour or so and then I am awake. I am tired, but just cannot sleep. That is when I go on line or read a book. Sometimes it helps, but not often.
It sucks, because then I cannot get up in the mornings. It is actually my natural rythm to be up late and sleep in, but that just doesn't work well on a farm.:/

I've had to deal with this all my life. Camomile tea doesn't work. Sometimes I take sleeping pills. They sort of work. But I don't like to take them. There used to be a chinese herbal pill available that worked like a charm, but the USDA banned it. It made you drowsy after about 10 minutes of taking it, the drowsyness lasted for maybe 20 minutes. You had to go to sleep as soon as you felt drowsy. But you could take a 20 minute nap and feel perfectly refreshed, no sleeping pill hangover. I gave some to my mother, who is a nurse and she loved it for the same reasons I did. Oh and it didn't cost much either and you didn't need a prescription, makes you wonder why it was banned :/

 

[Wifezilla]

I started taking maca root for adrenal issues and a "side effect" has been good sleep I do tend to go to sleep a little earlier than I used to but I sleep through the night better. I am also up earlier for some strange reason, but the more solid sleep is worth it.

 

[abifae]

I used to not be able to sleep. It'd take 4 hours to fall asleep and I wake up at every noise and then can't get back to sleep.

When I first started the low carb diet, I discovered I could sleep if my carbs stayed below 20 for at least 3 days. Insulin in the blood keeps a body from hitting deep sleep (it's in the Eades' book on Protein Power) and losing sleep makes you more insulin resistant. It is a really bad cycle.

How soon do you sleep after you eat? If you drop your carb count REALLY low for the evening, it might help. I've read a lot of people do best that way.

Three years into low carb I'm sleeping fairly normally without having to go into ketosis. I go to bed at 8. I'm asleep by 10, I wake up about 6 times to noise or having to pee, but I fall right back asleep, and I get up at 6 am (bloody new schedule. This was easier sleeping midnight to 9 am but oh well). I am adjusting faster to days than I thought possible. Today I didn't even hit snooze at 6!!!

 

[Farmfresh]

Morning Abi! Glad to see you up with the rest of us early risers.

 

[Dace]

Hey FD! I've been wondering about you!

I am glad to hear that all is well. I hope you find something to help you sleep....that has to be very frustrating!

How much longer does your DD have?

 

[glenolam]

This is sorta off topic, but I read your title (80 degrees) and I just want to cry. What's that song...Somewhere over the rainbow?