Mississippifarmboy's Living Simple Journal, Ready for a Fresh Start.

[Dawn419]

Well, I'm a day late and a dollar short but wanted to welcome you to the journaling crowd!

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your story and love the links that you posted...especially your barn.

Got my crossed for you on the additional property and the cattle. I've done a little reading on the Pineywoods and they are definatey suited to the AR Ozarks that we call home.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Had a weird day yesterday at the TSC swap. We got there and set up before 9, no one else showed up until after 10. I thought for a long while we were going to be the only ones there! It was the first swap there and was supposed to run from 9 am until 2 pm. We finally had 7 people show up to sell stuff. Had a few weiner pigs, a few chickens and some dry goods from the other dealers other than what we brought. At about 1:30 everyone started packing up and we'd only sold one chick and one duck.

We just kept hanging around though with one other seller until about 2:30 then started packing it up. Then the crowd hit! Every time I'd start putting a cage of critters in the truck Emily would sell something else. We finally sold everything we had brought. Sold six runner ducks, seven black east indies, one silky duck, three pairs of Muscovy ducks, 10 chicks, three guinea pigs, and a cage.We were very pleased and the manager said they were going to have another one next month, so if they aren't sold by then we can take the rest of the ducks and extra roosters that we couldn't haul yesterday to the next one.

After we finished loading the empty cages we went out and looked at the horse the guy is wanting to give us. We took a few pictures, asked a few questions and Emily petted it and we just generally checked it over. Looks a bit thin, needs wormed and it's hooves are in terrible shape, but otherwise looked sound to me.

I was so darn tired when we got home that I didn't even feel like eating supper. I did eat a little but went to bed early. I'm just too weak to do much yet, although I'm feeling better every day it seems. All in all, it was a good day.

Today I rested except for going to talk to a friend of mine that is a true cowboy. The guy is around 70 years old and has been working horses and cows since he was 5 years old. He's forgotten more about horses than I'll ever know. He worked all the big ranches in Texas and Florida, breaking horses and working cows. Trained a lot of rodeo bareback riders in his day too. He is one of those that breaks a horse gentle though, not the rough kind, which is one thing I respect about him. He's semi retired now, but back in the day he told us anytime a man asked him to break a horse he'd ask the owner to tell him what the horse was worth. Once they told him he'd tell them "My guarantee is this, I'll break that horse in the time I told you or I'll buy him from you at your price". He said he'd broken literally thousands of horses in his day and only bought two head in all those years!

We showed him the pictures of the horse we are looking at, including the feet and he said he looked ok from the pictures, just needed some better vittles, some foot care and a real good worming. He's going with us in a few days to look at it in person. If it meets his approval, he's going to load it up and take it back to his place and break it for us and get it back into condition. Since it's a draft type horse we are going to have it broke to ride and also to pull a wagon, plow and work logs. He'll earn his keep then. Em's excited for sure! She has already feel in love with him.

Otherwise it's been a quiet, slow day here.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Congrats on the sales! I wanted to go by the swap at our local TSC, but I worked until 3:00 and by the time I got there everybody had gone I guess.

Hope the horse works out well for you. Years ago we were given a free pony. He was underweight, feet in bad shape, teeth in bad shape, but oh so gentle, quiet and sweet. We took him straight to the vet. He got his teeth floated, wormed, and shots then we took him home. We started him slowly on feed, grass and good hay and in about 3 months you wouldn't have recognized that pony he was so sleek and shiny - and he had turned into the meanest little S__T you ever saw! So, what did we do with him - we gave him away, lol!

I'm sure your cowboy friend can do wonders with your free horse. A person with that much experience will probably be the best thing that horse has ever seen.

Get rest, feel better!

 

[Denim Deb]

Even w/out a lot of experience, if you have patience, you can do wonders w/a horse. I had no idea how to go about saddle training a horse when I got Misty. I took my time, and never pushed her. She's turned into a great trail horse which is what I wanted.

And FEM, most ponies are like that. If I let her, Licorice would be like that! She constantly tests me to see what she can get away with.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Rain....

It started raining a good steady rain here sometime the night before last and still hasn't stopped. We've had a few thunderstorms through the summer, but this is the first "farmer's rain" we've had since around May here. By noon yesterday both ponds were full and by now they've been flushed good. The grass even this late in the year is looking greener already. The ducks are having a ball too.
Other than paying the electric bill, picking up a few bags of feed, and feeding and watering the stock.. I've done nothing much yesterday or this morning. Too messy to do much outside. I've sat and looked over the bills, seeing where we can trim things down since I'm no longer working. It's going to be a major life change in some ways, but I'll admit, I'll be in much better health without all the stress.
If I can get going, I might tackle cleaning out the storage shed today. I have to have everything moved out of our old store building by the end of the month and that's the only place I have to put anything right now and, as it is, it's all jumbled up in there and I can't find anything. I need to find some boxes too. When I'm working around the farm I save every tiny little piece of left over lumber and such to use during the winter as kindling. I have a pretty good stack of it so far but need to box it all up before winter hits.
Since the rain hit it'll be a few days before the hay gets delivered and it'll need to dry up a bit before I can go back to work on the fences or the tractor shed, so I'll be catching up on inside stuff for a while it looks like.

Em and I sat out on the porch last night just talking with the kids. Laughing, talking about the farm, daydreaming... just silly stuff. It's amazing how much I miss that. It's so easy to get caught up in "life" and forget to "live".

Hope ya'll all have a good day! Guess I better get started if I'm going to get anything done today.

 

[Wannabefree]

If you need anything, any help or anything...I could pencil you in somewhere toward the end of the week or early next week I have to go down to Farmington one day next week anyway.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

If you need anything, any help or anything...I could pencil you in somewhere toward the end of the week or early next week I have to go down to Farmington one day next week anyway.

Thanks

Right now the main thing I need is to get to feeling better, get out from under all this stress, and get myself in gear. These past few months have made me soft. I need to cowboy up and start building my strength and endurance back up. Some days I'm all excited and raring to get started, other days I look at everything I need to do and just want to throw my hands up. I just have to keep telling myself to take it one day at a time.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You got rain? I want some! It's been all around us for at least a week, but it's avoiding us like the plague.

Your time on the porch - that's what life is all about, isn't it? Spending time together, sharing thoughts and ideas - it's all good.

 

[Wannabefree]

If you need anything, any help or anything...I could pencil you in somewhere toward the end of the week or early next week I have to go down to Farmington one day next week anyway.

Thanks

Right now the main thing I need is to get to feeling better, get out from under all this stress, and get myself in gear. These past few months have made me soft. I need to cowboy up and start building my strength and endurance back up. Some days I'm all excited and raring to get started, other days I look at everything I need to do and just want to throw my hands up. I just have to keep telling myself to take it one day at a time.

Do like I do. Today I told myself I can rest tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll tell myself the same thing again. Then when I finally have exhausted the to do list, I may go sit down and start a new to do list

 

[mississippifarmboy]

I finally finished the hay rack yesterday. Replaced the broken wooden bars with metal pipe and finished the last few boards on it. I also finished the gable end on the front of the tractor shed. I still need a couple of more posts to finish the side shed, but it's getting there.

While I was sick I guess the cow wasn't getting milked twice a day. I only got about a gallon of milk yesterday, so looks like she might be drying up. I sure hope not though. I'm back to milking myself now, so I'll see how it goes. She is such a calm cow though. I'm glad we have her. Em was raised around cattle more than I was and I love just watching her with them.

I need to try and get some money together and go pay bills today. I'll be soooo glad once some of this mess is paid off and I get everything behind me with the store and such. It's so stressful having more bills than income. Oh well, that's life. I'm doing all I can and that's all a man can do.

Going to go get a spot ready for the hay in case it gets delivered today then go pick up feed. After that I guess I'll work on the new fences a while. I need to stay busy, start getting my body used to working again.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, it's nice and cool today. Life is good.