Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

WHoooo-weeee.... half way through the day and I'm already tired! I've got chicken soup simmering on the stove. Those tough old roo's that we butchered last weekend are mighty tasty in a soup. They are soooo flavorful! I picked ONE head of Napa cabbage that weighed 8.5 lbs! Wow! So far, I've put 1/4 of it in the soup, 1/4 of it into some kimchee and 1/4 of it I drizzled with olive oil and oven roasted. Yum, yum good.

DH, bless his heart, has been in our bedroom cleaning like a banshee. He pulled the tablecloth and lace doily off the bedside table and is washing them, along with doing some dusting. Then I sent him to town...had to get some more of those incredibly awesome quail feeders that WBF told me about..... of course... they require an empty ice cream container! I know it's a chore, but I don't mind volunteering to empty them.

I've still gotta go out and do the evening chores, (in this case it's more like 'late afternoon' chores)but after that - I'm done. Ok, almost done - can you say "hot tub" later? Glass of wine and some hot bubbly water - it doesn't get much better than that!

Tomorrow I've got 10 more quail to butcher. DH and I, for the first time EVER, are staying home alone and doing Thanksgiving together. Guess what we're having???? QUAIL! and cranberry sauce, and stuffing, and roasted brussel sprouts and a yam (yep, just one big one~), fresh broccoli from the garden, and a pumpkin cheesecake. Short, sweet and simple. Of course, knowing me... I'll probably expand the menu - I just can't help it, lol.

Ok - gotta go suit up and get outside. HIgh today was 51, with lotsa wind. Not nearly as bad as lots of you folks, but practically frigid for here!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Cold, windy morning again with more rain in the forecast. Forty-seven degrees outside, 65 degrees inside. I don't know why I'm not freezing - maybe it's the extra layer of insulation I'm carrying around these days... Haven't turned on the heater in the house yet, and trying not to. I don't have any problem putting on some extra clothes... I'd rather do that than crank up the electric bill.

Yesterday was good - even with the not so fun weather. I did lots in the kitchen and about to go get started on some more. Made a small batch of Kimchi and dang it if it wasn't so good we ate about half of it for dinner - didn't even let it ferment like it should, lol. Soooo, more on the agenda soon. I'd do it today, but don't have all the ingredients I need and I refuse to make a special trip to town unless we have another reason to go

DH's back has been hurting for a week now, poor darlin. I finally told him yesterday that he just needs to move. Sitting on a heating pad and taking pills for a week hasn't helped him, so some gentle movement and a good soak in the hot tub was on the agenda yesterday. He did pretty good, so I'm anxious for him to get out of bed and let me know how he's feeling. Maybe another soak this morning will keep him loosened up today too.

I'm looking forward to the holidays this year. For about 5 years now, holidays have not been the best time of year for me. DH and I had some big, bad issues about 5 years ago. We got through them, but not without a horrible year of drama afterwards. It taught us a lot about love and forgiveness and just plain ol' trying to be a better person. What we discovered, and try to remember every day of our lives, is that the grass is NOT greener on the other side of the fence. The grass is greener where you water it, fertilize it, and give it the attention it needs.

That concludes this morning's sermon, lol!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

We saw the sun today! It was awesome, lol. And, we got above 50 for the first time in a few days too.... very nice. Except we're supposed to freeze tonight - I'm pretending I didn't hear that cuz I refuse to deal with it... Even if it does - it'll be a 'light' freeze so I'm not doing anything extra special except giving some of the critters a warmer cuddlier bed - oh - and I need to put turbo's sweater on him.

I'm so excited that DH and I are spending Thanksgiving home alone - well, home together. I've got the quail brining, cornbread for dressing is in the oven and I just pulled the layered pumpkin cheesecake out of the oven. Tomorrow will be fairly easy, just a couple things to do.

Hope everyone has a great Turkey day!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I didn't think I was gonna do it - but I did. I refused to do any black friday shopping - but - I needed hay! So, I got hay - that's about all the shopping I could stand. I had my son go and pick up some pallets for the barn-port and I went and got as much hay as my itty-bitty trailer would hold - which was all of 28 bales. Not to mention that I lost 2 on the way home and had to stop, turn around and go back for them. Thankfully, they didn't disintigrate on contact with the ground....and thankfully I was on a back road so that I could stop and turn around. However, it didn't make much sense to throw them back on the trailer - cuz obviously the guys that loaded it did a terrible job of tying it down - so I tossed em in the back of my SUV...:/ Needa go by the car wash tomorrow and vacuum it out....geeze louise. And, on top of that I need at least that much more hay, but I'm not too impressed with this stuff - might want to change hay dealers. One reason I need to go back to this place though is that he mis-counted the hay and only charged me for 27 bales - I won't feel right until I pay the man his 6$. Where's the "angel halo" smiley?

We're on a 'save money' kick so we changed home security monitoring services so that we could go wireless. We could have gone wireless with the other company, but at twice the price. Uh - NO! Going wireless allowed us to discontinue the home phone - which I've been paying $50 a month for just because of the security system.... Woohoo! I'm saving $600 a year by not paying for the land line.

So much for saving money cuz DH is online shopping for a new television, lol. He's been hounding me for a bigger one for over a year now. Ours is 'only' like 36 inches... oh poor baby...we can't keep up with the 'joneses' with such a small one now can we? So, this one will go upstairs and replace the one in our bedroom and he's gonna get a new BIG one for Christmas... whatever! LOL Football games will now be twice the size - joy, joy! Oh, and he's decided that this is "OUR" gift... like ... uh... I don't want no stinkin' tv! But, if I want something else all I'd have to do is say so... so I try to keep my mouth shut, grrrrr.....

Noticed that one of my nubians is still not lookin' too great despite the fact that she's been wormed with Ivomec, Valbazen and Cydectin... maybe it's just taking her a bit longer to build back up - so I went ahead and gave her some injectable iron today. She's bred so I don't want to take any chances with her. I've already added a morning feeding to the routine, so hoping that will help them all get through the winter in better shape!

Hope everybody has recovered from Turkey day!

 

[Wannabefree]

Good quality square bales here are going for $5 and I thought that was a lot....

I didn't shop either.

 

[Denim Deb]

I know years ago our son got us a big TV for Christmas. I couldn't even watch if for quite some time. It was too big, and would trigger a vertigo attack. I had to train myself to be able to watch it, and even now, there are some things I can't watch on it. I consider it hubby's TV. I didn't need a TV that big.

How's this for an angel smilie? Or, would this one be better?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I like the angels!

Six bucks is a good price for hay around here... But, there's another guy who I've bought hay before that charges $7 - but I know his bales are uniform in size and are good quality hay, so I might go there next.

In the feed stores hay is around $12 dollars!

Cooking again today... Step son is coming out and bringing me some grandbabies to squeeze on - and he's bringing his cousin - DH's nephew and his daughter. It'll be a fun day on the farm with the children around. Too bad it's still muddy out back.

I'm not gonna complain too much about the TV - he asks for so very little and he has waited over a year since saying he wants one. He wants to get me a new computer, but I'm still limping along on this old laptop and I'm fine with that. I don't like change, lol! I've got a green-tinted screen and a lousy key board - it sometimes DOES pick up the internet and it sometimes does NOT. But we have an understanding so I'll keep it for now!

Company has arrived - later gators!

 

[Denim Deb]

I can't imagine paying that much for hay. Maybe I'm just spoiled. I think the most I've ever spent was $3.50-except for some bales I got last year for $5.00 that I couldn't even pick up that easy! I had to roll them.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

These are the best prices we've seen in about 3 or 4 years because of the years of drought that we've had. Two years ago we could hardly find ANY hay from an individual - the feed stores had contracted it all and prices were ridiculous! TSC sold round bales for $95! And a lot of folks paid those prices... I paid $50 for round bales that year....sheesh. It got to where we could buy alfalfa from New Mexico cheaper than we could get local grass hay - CRAZY! Thankfully, this year was a great hay year and prices are better.

About ten yeras ago we could pick it up outta the field for $2 a bale - now that was nice! Me and a couple neighbors would go in and buy the entire field - we never had to worry about hay cuz we'd get about 400 bales between us - the biggest part going to me... Worst part was hauyling it - but we were younger then, lol.

 

[Wannabefree]

Yeah prices have definitely been lower here too. $2 in field pick up is nice, and was just a couple years ago. Now feed stores are $7+ and if you can find it farm direct at $5 that's good. I found some today from a buddy of mine for $3, but the $5 hay is MUCH better and like Deb says...hard to even pick up a bale of that stuff. It's a super tight bale of good bermuda. The cows don't waste a single blade of it. The other, I imagine will be about half waste. SO...it'd wind up $6 a bale for what they eat of it. Going for the $5 bales again. My farmer has plenty.