Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

@baymule - I will be on a quest today to find some! Back isn't any worse - but it isn't any better either...

@Mini Horses - yep - closets are clean and yep - wouldn't have happened if I hadn't had that kick in the rear, lol!

Nothing much else going on right now. Had a dream last night that my Maddie girl had 14 puppies. ARGH - what a nightmare, lol.
 
Thanks Bay!

We've had 7 inches of rain since Saturday. Back to boots and mud and pure icky-ness everywhere but that's all the complaining I'm gonna do. Hard for me to choke out these words - but we needed the rain. However, the milking does are NOT happy. They REFUSE to walk through the mud to get to the milk room... grrrrr! And, I REFUSE to go out and fetch them if they run from me. Two of them are good girls and come up with a little coaxing - two others - not so much. They might get dried off and sold - or just sold! I don't got time to be chasin' no goats! :lol: I amuse myself.

And, I've got 3 smart pigs and one dumb one. They are all out of their pens and have run of the pasture. It makes feeding time a little challenging so I take the pig feed to the other side of the barn where the goats can't see and politely ask the pigs to feed over there. It worked with three of them - the fourth stands at the goat feeders and thinks he can stick his big fat head through the fence and eat the goats feed. He's just getting frustrated, and probably hungry, cuz it's just not working out for him. While the other three are eating their milk-soaked feed and fighting off one of the mini horses - he's on the other side of the barn trying to fight 25 does for feed. He's hungry. I don't care!

I had worried about turning them out, but it's actually working a lot better than I thought it would. The pigs/horses can't get to the goat feed. I've got feeders that hang on the opposite side of the fence and the goats can fit their heads through to eat. Horses can't and pigs cant - all the CAN do is complain, lol. Neither the horses or pigs need the supplemental feed... there's tons of grass for them and the AG Hogs are grazers. In fact, I've followed them around the pasture to be sure that they actually eat grass - and they do. They also love to wallow around the shallow edges of the pond and eat the pond grass goodies. The pond has been really low and grasses/algaes have gotten a good foot hold. I think the pigs will help clean the pond up and hopefully this rain will get the level back up to where it's supposed to be.

Hope we've seen the last of the really hot, hot days.
 
Those pigs will be good for your pond. I've heard they put a good seal on a pond, it's called gley, as in the pigs will gley the pond. I think it's an ancient Irish/Gaelic term. We've only had a couple of inches, we anxiously watched the rains pass us by or never even get this far north from the Gulf, but finally we got a nice slow drizzle that comes in spots here and there. Plus it has cooled off, blessed relief.
 
Bad start to the day today. DH woke up experiencing a "bleed" in his eye. Diabetes is such a devastating disease. This is his second bleed so at least we knew not to go to the ER where they can do nothing for him. We called his ophthalmologist (that we met during his first bleed) and he told us to come straight in to the office. They worked him in and he got an injection into his eyeball....eeeek! Laser surgery in a couple weeks.

@baymule I've heard that pig are good for ponds! The pond holds water pretty well, but it was low because of the lack of rainfall. EXCEPT - I can't really say that anymore -we've had almost 10 inches in the last 6 days and I HATE it.

At least this rain should make for good grass growth. I'm hoping the field around the corner from me will make a second cutting of hay. If so, I'll grab several more round bales and consider myself set. There's plenty of first cutting hay available now, but I'm being pickier at this point.

Thinking about starting some broccoli seedlings this weekend. It grows so well in the fall/winter. And cabbage - we love that too and it's one of the easiest things to grow. Wonder if I could get some peas in...they like cool weather and it's got to cool off eventually, huh?
 
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We've gotten over 3" in a nice slow drizzle, it has soaked in instead of running off.

Injection in his eye! involuntary shiver I am glad that something can be done for his eye. I hear that the laser surgery in eyes is a marvelous thing.
 
Dug through the garage and found a seed starting mini greenhouse thingy with the jiffy peat pots in it. Yay! So, I put 24 broccoli seeds, 24 cabbage seeds, and 24 spinach seeds in there to see what happens. Hope those seeds turn into cute little plants and hope those cute little plants turn into great big plants that I can put in my tummy!

I need to clean out my raised beds so I'll have a place to put them, but since I don't want a case of Zika virus right now I'm gonna wait a week or so. Geeze! Today was the first day I've been literally attacked by the skeeters and when I say they are thick - I mean they are thick.

Heard a commotion out in the pasture today and saw one of the boars chasing around the gilt. Guess she didn't get bred the first time they were together... Or maybe the boar was just being a boar. :idunno I'm ready to put one of those guys in the freezer. I'm waiting for it to get nice and cold cuz I'm sure it'll be an all day job. Last time we butchered hogs my neighbor was the main butcher guy - this time we're gonna do it alllll by ourselves. I've butchered sheep and a goat myself, and helped on the pigs last time - so I think we can do it. Come on cold weather.

Our weekend plans got put on hold because of DH's eye emergency. If it weren't so stinking nasty with ankle deep mud everywhere we could have done those roosters. Looking like it'll be awhile. Next weekend is going to be taken up with what we didn't get done this weekend. Never enough weekend in the week for me!

Gettin' hungry so I'm gonna go raid the fridge.

Happy Saturday ya'll!
 
Ahhh...braver than me, I am taking my pigs to a butcher. First, I would be doing it alone, second, it's waaaay to hot here & third I don't want to keep them until temps drop. Besides all that, it's a real job! I'll wrap/package but, doing a kill & chill, then major cuts at butcher. Can do rest myself.

Was at a goat auction yesterday (NO, not to buy, to SELL.) and a couple there have AGH & she said the meat was great! As we know, good amount of fat, so render lard. They have been raising for couple years. Glad to hear this.

YES - I sold 5 of this years bucklings. While others were complaining about low prices, I was pretty happy with it all as I wasn't raising these for $$$ so much as it is a requirement to freshen the does AND to drop my feed bill, time to control, their nuisance factor, etc. And I won't have to deal with apptmts to see, sell one at time, and all that. Many were there who buy/sell and these will primarily be butcher animals. (yes, some buyers there for family stock, etc.)

Wanted all seven to go but 2 would not get onto trailer and I didn't want to lose the ones I had managed to get to hop in. Closed the doors and went!! Other 2 will go next month. I will say that it was all "ok" until, at the end, one decided to anoint himself and guess who was next to him?? You know that pee travels a long ways and so, I had to run in and change, shower off, and leave.....even my shoes now need washing :th

Right now I am wondering why I even thought I wanted to breed my two piggie gals. But, done! Hope to take my boys next wk to butcher....two of them!! Better check freezer and get rid of excess milk or whatever is in there. Time to inventory.

Hope your plants do well -- I'd LIKE to do that, probably won't. My whole mood is slanting this year....will help to get some things re-organized now.

Good luck with the eye issues for DH. My stepdad had those things happen. The Laser surgery helped a lot. So hopefully will for DH.

Proud to say -- I did not bring anything home from the auction except a check! Tempting, as they has some really pretty sheep that went very cheap....those spotted ones. (focus!)

I need to go out & get things moving now.
 
I'm guessing it'll be at least a couple months before we're ready to butcher - unless we get an unseasonal cool front. But, I'd like to have the boar gone before babies arrive....that means butchering by November. Yay - I can hold out that long, lol. With luck, maybe even October - but not going to count on it.

Rain again today - we've had nearly 2 inches and it's not even 2pm. We've topped 11.5 inches since this time last weekend. Criminy - when will it end????

I hope we're not headed for another wet fall/winter/spring like the last year. I will lose my mind if that happens! I've been trying to wait out this heat before trying to address the drainage problems we created by building the new driveway to the new barn.

Dang - hear thunder again. Yay! More rain coming...

Happy rainy, wet Sunday ya'll.
 
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We have germination! I noticed this morning that the seeds I planted are starting to peek through! That means I need to have a place to put them when they need to be transplanted. Really not looking forward to cleaning out the raised beds right now...it's waaaaaay muddy in the paths around them, and there's a buttload of mosquitoes out there. Considering all the rain we've had for most of the year, I'm surprised that this is the first really thick batch of skeeters.

I think I screwed up my vacuum pump on the milker. There is a pipe that screws into the top attached to a plastic hose that is for venting the exhaust to the outside. I had the brilliant idea that some Teflon tape wrapped around the threads would give it a better seal. Well..... a few weeks later I unscrewed the pipe to check the oil level. DH had overfilled it and I wanted to see how high it was in the motor itself because it just sounded different. I noticed that the Teflon tape had disintegrated and I guess kind of 'melted' down into the motor itself. Well - DANG! It's still running, but I know it's about to die. So, this morning I ordered another pump...ugh. Then I'll pull the other one apart - well my DS will - and we'll clean it up and then I'll have a spare. I can't blame anyone but myself - but whodda thunk that Teflon tape was a bad thing? Lesson learned!

I'll prolly head to Wally world at lunch and grab a couple of new gas cans. There's a little something brewing out there in the waters that may or may not develop into a hurricane. That means it's time to drag the generator out and give it a good going over and stock up on a little gas which is always a good thing any way. We'll use it in the mower if we don't need it for the generator. Not time to panic yet, lol!
 
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