Getting back to our life

I feel so lucky to be back to enjoying the everyday happenings that make up our life here on our farm. Although I still can't seem to keep my mind off "what could have happened" every time I think of it I can't seem to catch my breath, I hope time will ease my mind. One main thing that has happened and I don't think will change is that I don't take anything or anyone for granted anymore, I enjoy my time with my loved one's, I don't sweat the small stuff and take one day at a time thanking God for the time we all have together.

Two of my nephews came over last weekend to help Jim and I get our wood in, with Jim's heart attack we were getting dangerously low on wood! family always seems to come through when you need a helping hand and with the wood we got that day we now have enough stacked up to last until about the middle of January. Jim has said for the last 30 odd years "God may not give me what I want, but he always gives me what I need" this so true  :)

This is what we woke up to the next day, our wood was gotten into the shed just in time.

Jim started back to work this week with no limitations and seems to be doing great, I have noticed though when he gets a chance to relax and nap he does. I told him its about time he slows down even if just a little, life needs to be enjoyed "take time to smell the roses" or "nap and dream of smelling the roses"! Jim has always been a hard worker and I don't see him being any other way but I think this stint in the hospital was a wake up call for him that many are not given the chance or privilege to get. His last cigarette was November 16 (day of his heart attack) and I am so proud of him. I have never smoked but it can't be easy to just stop! he is also listening to his Dr. and eating a lot more "heart healthy" I have never been so proud of him in making these changes and sticking to them! if you happen to read this dear Love you and many more happy years :)

Clearing fence lines

Hubby was home for the weekend with Monday off also, (dentist appointment, he is scheduled for a root canal). We did get a lot of work accomplished in only two days with almost 2/3 mile long and 8 foot wide area cleared of trees and brush so I can drive the Polaris along that part of fence, makes it a lot easier when repairs are needed. :)

We did find some spots in the fence along the way that we repaired, this is going to make my life easier! I can't wait until we get all the fence accessible so I can drive around it, now only about 2 2/3 miles of fence to clear....

It looks so nice cleared, hubby is way down there (can just him) he cut and I cleared :).

Love the pattern on the toad stool I found along the way

Bonus we found some fairly good sized trees that had to be cut for the driving trail soooo now I just have to drive up there and load the cut wood on the Polaris and stack in the wood shed.

Some trees had been down for a while (this one landed in the fork looks like a couple years ago so I have some green and some dry wood :)

Hubby taking a well earned break.....I keep telling him one of these days he may actually want to relax and do nothing on a day off......but he says this is very relaxing :)

Summer chores, flowers and bee's oh my :D

Sorry have not been posting much lately, between my little ones stay in the hospital (pneumonia), working on the house, taking care of the garden, canning, getting our curriculum together and my vertigo acting up more than normal I have been a mess!

Hubby got about 30 acres bush hogged over the weekend, the sticker bushes were starting to get bad, sad to say but we have really gotten behind this year! Guess that's what happens when life gets in the way. He still has about 25 to go but at least its started. I did walk around and take pictures while hubby was working. Spring is my favorite time of the year, I hate the hot weather that accompanies summer and the sun with my complexion is not my best friend :) but I love all the flowers this time of the year they are everywhere! :)

I love watching the bee's, sometimes there are so many they get so loud! I tried having bee's a few years ago and they gathered and left (found the tree they went to I just don't bother them), I plan on ordering again and giving  it another try next spring.

I ran across a wild grape vine while walking, they usually don't make, but are pretty to look at.

One of my favorite flowers, the color jumps out at me in the woods :)

Our garden is doing really well my daughter, her boyfriend, my grand daughter and mom have been helping with the green beans. The tomatoes are finally turning so I can start canning salsa, ketchup, pizza sauce and whole tomatoes soon! :)

Sparky, Chewy and Gilbert the goat :) have started a new ritual (for them) every morning this is what I see first thing when I step out onto the porch, them waiting for me with Gilberts head against the door (thankfully its not glass)

Then every evening this is poor Gilbert, he finds his way out of his area but can never find his way back in so he waits for me to open the gate for him.

Thought this would make a nice end to my post haha, CoCo will never pose for me like most of the other animals. When she see's me with camera in hand she runs the other way....

Cattle Guard

Hubby was on vacation last week soooo I made a list of things that I cant do by myself here on the farm....and I am happy to say we (more hubby than me) got a lot of things accomplished on the list. The first thing on my list was the cattle guard, about every two years it fills up with dirt, gravel and leaves and it has to be lifted and dug out or the cows would be able to walk across it and of course this defeats the object of a "cattle guard". :)

We dug the left half and still had the right half to dig in the above pictures, we ended up needing to dig out a little over 2 feet of gravel, dirt and dead leaves.....

We dropped the cattle guard back in place here and the only thing left for us to fix/repair were the sides, replacing the sides only took an hour the digging took a bit longer :) .....one thing off our list for another 2 years! We were very lucky the weather stayed warm the whole week and this made getting much need repairs a lot easier to accomplish!

Although some things never charge......

The phone always rings when your busy with the animals....

Sparky sits every day (all day when hubby is home) in the Polaris waiting for a ride in the fields....(he is afraid he may miss a ride if he does not sit in it)

And of course Sparky gets numerous trips to town with us, every place we stop from the feed store to the bank he gets dogie treats where ever he goes and of course we usually stop by to get him a burger on the way home.....Sparky really makes a kill en when hubby is on vacation! :)

We also got 2 cords of wood cut, barn repairs done and some fences fixed all in all we had a very productive week.

While looking for lost logs

Since hubby is on 7 days a week for a bit and we are low on wood....I went in search of wood this morning, the wood we cut 2 weeks ago is green so the dry I find will work great to start a fire. One of my nieces and her husband cut wood last year and when I was repairing fence (this past spring) I found piles of wood here and there that they never came back for. On my third wood trip this morning I found wood with mushrooms growing on them and since I am not familiar with the different types of mushrooms out there I am just curious. To me it looks like three different types of mushrooms so does anyone know what they are!

These looked fresh

These are the same as above but looked dry

This picture is the under side of the above mushrooms

I also found these growing in the pile

This picture and the two below have the mushrooms in the
above picture but also like a button mushroom or maybe
its called a toad stool?

Again I'm not interested in them in the terms of edible (I am to afraid of getting a wrong mushroom) I have just never seen three (if it is three) different types growing together. I did try my hand at Shiitake logs I purchased them from a lady about an hours drive from here, but they never did produce even as a last resort (8 months later) I even put them in the freezer for a bit to shock them but they never did produce. I may in the future try this again (shiitake log) but I would never feel sure enough of myself to get wild mushrooms, I leave that to the people that know what they are doing!. :)

Getting ready for Winter

I drove around the farm and picked up wood from last year that we cut and left in the fields, there was not a lot (about four loads this size) but with hubby only having last Sunday off then its 7 days a week for a bit every stick helps! :)

This is what I had picked up in the fields last week, hubby and I are getting ready here to go cut wood, I hate him having to work all day on his one day off but that's how it goes sometimes.

Gilbert gave me a scare when I went out to get the Polaris to gather wood he was laying on the sidewalk in an odd position. I called for him twice and even took his picture before he woke up poor baby sleeps so sound.

The temp got down in the 30s so this was our
 first fire, it felt so good.

With hubby and I cutting wood (him cutting and me clearing and loading) we got 3 ranks put in the wood shed Sunday, with the wood I found here and there and what we cut at least the wood shed looks better and I feel more relaxed! This is no where near what we need for winter but hopefully hubby will (by the middle of November) be home again on Sundays so we can get caught up. I told him he could show me how to use the small chain saw and I could cut and load some small trees (I think he thinks I will cut off a foot) because he keeps finding excuses not to show me....

Cattle trailer

We have a new cattle trailer!  Well new to us....it was actually made in 1973, hubby has been on the look out for one for a couple of years. He wanted an older model he says the metal is thicker and this one only has slight rust, its been redone in the past. I know...I said no more big items for a while, but like usual he managed to get it in a trade so no money exchanged hands.

She need a little work...like tires replaced and I can sand/paint it and few other minor things, but I think it looks great!

It has a side door, in case one (or more) of the animals we are loading gets a little grumpy we can open the side door and get out! It also has a door inside so we can load a few in front then close and latch the inside middle door and put a few in back and best of all I will not have to pay someone $50 a head to haul animals for me anymore! :)

Things to make my life easier

We have been looking at rotor-tillers for a couple of months now, ours is very old and hard for me to start and also to hang onto. Usually this is not to much of a problem because hubby is there to help (on the weekends), but since his long hours are now undetermined our gardens are going to depend me! (scary huh!) I need to have items on the farm that I can depend on and know I can start and be able to work by myself. That being said, it is still a little hard to swallow (that I cannot do everything by myself), when hubby found out about the hours last fall that is why we got the Polaris. The Polaris makes it easier for me to check for cows, drive around and fix fence and have what I need stored in the back (saves a lot of lifting and carrying) that's for sure! I have also hooked onto it with a chain and cleared the water break below the house a while back that had a log stuck in it, all by myself. I understand I need different things around the farm to work on it than hubby does...but still....its upsetting. Seems like many times (the last few years) working on our farm, or hubby with the extra hours at work, its like we take one step forward and two steps back guess a lot of people feel like that anymore... When I get to thinking we are going to have money set back or a bill paid off  we seem to need to buy something (mostly for the farm) equipment, vet bill etc. I guess though I should look at the fact that a new rotor tiller will last us many many years and it will pay for its self in the long run. It is just hard to realize sometimes I need different things than hubby does to get the same job done! On the up side though our health is good, thank God and I am perfectly capable of making a go of the farm by myself while hubby is working long hours, like he says (at least he has a job) and the overtime will help pay for the Polaris and the rotor tiller! On the up side hubby really loves his job and we both love the farm!
I had been looking at a rotor tiller that has an electric start and also a pull start, I thought this would be good but the electric starter is on the front of the tiller but with no battery! To use the electric starter you have to use an extension cord and plug into your existing electric! It did have some good things going on for it, but I did not see paying more for the push button starter, why did they not just go ahead and add a battery?

That being said I did find a tiller that has rear tine, forward and reverse and its easy for me to pull start (probably most of the new ones are). It has a lot of the same features as the above one but with out the electric start. This tiller is so easy to hold onto, my old tiller on a few occasions has gotten a little away from me and catch a plant (or 3, 4..)  and that was very upsetting! My old one is over 10 years old and has been very good, I am keeping it for a back up. Here is a picture of the one we have decided to get.

Hubby was off on Easter weekend so I wanted to wait until Saturday to pick it up just in case he would pick a different tiller. We both agreed on the same one and its a name that has been around for a long time. Hubby went over it with me in case I had any questions (I did)! Now if any problems arise with the farm I better be able to take care of it, with regards to the garden I better not let any weeds grow or with the Polaris no fences stay down!  :) Hopefully this will be our last big expense for a loooong time with regards to equipment. We will need another lean to built for the animals but that is for another day and we have a bit of used lumber to start that.

Planting Seeds

I finally got my seeds started, a couple of weeks later than I like but better late than never! This morning I planted 48 Big Boys and 48 Box Car Willie's (Tomatoes) in two containers each holds 48. Then I planted 12 Green Peppers, 12 Cantaloupe's, 12 Cucumbers in containers (6 each) and slid them into two gallon bags, then I ran out of  bags...so the rest will have to wait until tomorrow. There is nothing better than getting to play in the dirt it never fails to make me feel like a kid again, but also makes me want spring so bad! :)

Fencing an area off for Rosie and calf

I had to put Rosie in the barn lot a few days ago since she is not giving enough milk for her baby I started bottle feeding her once a day, if this is not enough I will add another bottle. The lot we put her in was previously set up for a bottle baby (when needed) so Rosie and calf cannot stay here its to small. My sisters and I fenced off a temporary area today for them both were it is kinda close to the house and I can keep an eye on them and they have shelter. We had a lot of rain followed by snow earlier on this week and since all the snow melted in a couple of days the ground is saturated! Today is the first chance we had to fence in an area and we are working in a LOT of mud! The only good thing is since it warmed up to almost 60 and with all the mud it was not hard to get the posts in the ground. :) I will keep Rosie in this lot until the baby is at least 2 months old or she starts giving more milk, whichever comes first.

Loading the toy with fence posts, wire and
T-Post driver

All loaded up and ready to go, except my
little nephew is not driving :)

My sister on the right came ready to work, but
since my sister on the left did not she rolled
up her pants....

After we the fenced the area off we took a nice long ride on the gravel roads before putting up the toy. Then treated ourselves to lunch out, we really had worked hard! I don't know what I would do without my sisters help, since hubby has a few 7 day work weeks. 

Polaris Ranger

When hubby said he wanted to sell or trade his race car I was shocked, yes he had not had time to race since 2006 and it did just set in the enclosed trailer, except when he got it out to check and start every week. But it was also not costing anything just setting there, I could not understand why.

So when he traded for this I was really confused! I have learned with hubby he is always up to something! I thought he would end up riding it, I should have realized!

While he was on vacation, he took one day out from working on the farm (this ended up being our only day off)!  I was surprised because he loaded up the motorcycle, now what was he up to? We stopped by a few places and before I knew it he was unloading the motorcycle! Ok I'm thinking what now? I sat in the truck knitting this was a good time to get a little work on Christmas presents done, but now I'm thinking maybe I should go in....as I started to go in he comes out driving this and loads it on the trailer. On the way home he turned and said now you don't have to take off the hay fork, if you cant get out of the drive way load the kids up and let them ride the bus. I was surprised, happy and I love you hubby!
I have been so worried about changing the blades on the tractor back and forth from the hay fork to the blade (he is going to be gone a lot the next three months). If, I mean when, it snows up I have to get out of our long drive way to the county road to get the kids to school. Now I can leave the hay fork on the tractor and if it snow up I can drive this to the county road Yah! Hubby also said these are great to ride around and check and repair fence, check on the cows and with the dump bed on back the ideas are endless! Now I understand why hubby traded his race car for the motorcycle (this made it easier to trade for the Polaris Ranger)! he also got it with doors, but he is putting them on. My hubby is about as sweet, kind and lovable as it gets! I am so lucky! :) Sorry such a long post

New (to us) Goat Feeders

 Here is one of the items that were used on one of hubby's job sites, when a job is finished a few of the items, be that they are broken, not worth them moving etc...are put in the dumpsters because they are not worth moving to the next job site. This is were hubby got the wooden spools for the goat toys last week and this was a liner from a bucket lift. With this item he is making two goat feeders.

This is what the liner looks like

Here he cut off the bottom, the bottom is what he is using
for this feeder

Drilling drain holes

He made two legs for each feeder

One down, one to go....

They are all sharing, so far...

To make the second what is left is
 cut into pieces

Here are the pieces

This is the piece he cut from the top of the
liner, he is securing it to the (what was) sides
 of the liner. The sides have now become the
botom of the feeder

Sorry forgot to take a picture of the finished
second feeder, its in the background. Most
of the morning things went ok.

Then it happened Cuddles picked one! She is
such a bully, she has even taken to setting in
it while she is eating so no one can get near it.

The second feeder now belongs to everyone else

I think hubby did a good job! I could not understand how he was going to make it when he tried to explain it to me, but of course now that they are finished, I understand...Bit late I guess but I am one of those people that have to see it to understand. Total cost for both feeders was $8.20 not bad huh! Now on to the next item on the list!