Go ahead and laugh now...

I realized what I did. It took awhile, but it just hit me.

I thought about this all night. Again, planning and figuring out how and who to put where. I got up this morning and fed the sheep and chickens first. Then got all the shots ready and went out to get the goats in the milk room. I wanted to give them the CD&T shots about 6 weeks before they all had kids. I don't normally do this, but wanted to this year because of all the sick does last year. Thought this might help a little.

So got Penelope, Zarah and Sandy on their stanchions and Zeeboo tied to the fence outside. Gave them all their shots and was feeling so good about doing this.

It was after that I realized when I put John Henry in with them. October 28th. Then I realized what the date was today. February 6th. I really thought that I was right on this. I'll let y'all do the math because math makes my head hurt.

Look at Zeeboo. She's like, what were you thinking, woman!

And Penelope and Zarah are not happy about it at all.

And Sandy. She's ALWAYS the last goat to kid. She's done with me now. I know.

Not much today...

This is an old house up on Missionary Ridge overlooking Chattanooga. I love this house. It is huge. And the property is probably several acres. And it's for sale! Anyone interested? Can you just imagine living in this big beauty? I'm sure, back in the day, it was  the place to be. I took my mother up there a few weeks ago because she'd never been. It's part of the Civil Was Battlefield. Lots of monuments and plaques in people's yards. Big grand mansions and little cottages. I just love it up there.

Yesterday, on the way to town, it must have been bird suicide day. I think I might have killed 3 birds, but could have been more. It was awful. All the way to town, birds kept flying right at me. It was really strange.

I went to my friend Libby's today for a while. She was much better today than yesterday. I am so glad. When I got home, I went to put the chickens up and gather eggs. I think this morning I got 4 from the coop nest boxes. I took an egg carton out with me. I filled it up and got 11 more eggs. So over 2 dozen eggs from my fabulous hens today!!! I am SO proud of them. They really are good hens.

My husband went to a get together with some of his friends tonight. So I am ALONE tonight!! It's been months. All my shows come on tonight. The Middle, then I switch back and forth to American Idol. Then to AI til Modern Family comes on at 9. Then back and forth to Ai, then AI. Then at 10, CSI comes on. And they are all new shows tonight. And AI is starting Hollywood Week. I absolutely hated when AI came on Wed. nights. Because unless The Middle or Modern Family is reruns, I miss so much of it. And this year's contestants are amazing? Anyone else watch AI?

And here's Stella, sprawled out belly up in front of the wood stove. What a mess that dog is. I love her. And see Bubba on his couch?

A little green on this dreary Monday...

It rained ALL night here last night. It's just a muddy mess out there again. But, it has been a long time so I am ok with it. I dreamed last night that the grass was turning green again. It was such a nice dream. I'm so looking forward to some color again. I can't even imagine how it looks out there without looking at pictures. But it's SO pretty!

I want to get bees again. But not sure whether to just order a package of bees or looks for another established hive. There is a guy not too far from me who has a lot of hives. He said he might sell me one. But then I'm thinking it might be easier to just get a package so I can get the hive where I want it without bees in it. Any ideas about this? For those who have bees, what is easier?

I saw a cute little Bluebird on my blue wisteria vine this morning. And I have seen those red breasted birds that I can't think of their names. Soon we'll have the yellow jonquils popping up all over.

I have to tell a story about my friends, Libby and Barry. Libby has cancer and has been home a few weeks now in a hospital bed in their living room. They have had this pesky male cardinal that goes to their porch window every morning around 6 or so and pecks and flutters for hours. It's been doing this same thing for a few years now but since Libby is in the living room, it hasn't bothered her. But now it wakes poor Libby up. The other day she had just about had it with this bird and told Barry he needed to do something about it. Well, what does a guy do to make his wife happy? He shoots the darn bird. Just shot it dead. And left it right there on the ground, for all the other birds to see. Libby has been sleeping so much better since.

Sunday thoughts...

 Someone on FB was talking about her cat and all the toys the shelter gave her when she adopted him. And how he seems to find other things to play with instead. Like a bread twistie tie on the kitchen floor. Or her husband's guitar string that hangs out of the case that the cat takes between his teeth and makes the scariest noise ever!

So I got to thinking about my cats and dogs and what they play with. Mostly the cats play with birds and dead mice and moles. And the dogs? Well, it looks like a cow died in the front yard most of the time. Just give them a bone and they're good to go.

When I took the 2 lambs to the butcher this past Tuesday, I asked for all the organs. When I looked in the cooler after picking it up, they also had 5 lamb legs in there. 5 lamb legs?? Where were the other 3 legs? I just thought that was so funny. And only 1 liver and kidney.

So, this is what my dogs play with. Bones. And Stella, she has to have something in her mouth at ALL times! When I let her out in the morning, she has got to find something to take out with her. A piece of paper, a sock, a piece of wood. Whatever. That dog is so funny!

And this is the round bale after 1 week. Do you think they'll make it to next Sunday? I don't know. And I have only 18 square bales left. I've been using 1 bale for 2 days for the goats and alpacas. So I hope to stretch those til the end of Feb.

I went ahead and made an appointment for Feb. 18th to take Abraham and John Henry in. I think I'll get all burger from Abraham and John Henry will be sausage. That will be 2 less boys around then. And I'll just put Bilbo Baggins in with the alpacas til the ewes have all lambed, then try to get them all together.

And these hens. Goodness, they never rest. Not even on Sundays. This is a double-yoker. Nice huh?

And this is what these girls do when they get out every morning. Run to these nesters. There are 2 hens in these 2 nests. They will both be full of eggs. Silly hens. They are so funny to watch.

I am trying to get all the clothes and rugs washed today. We are supposed to be getting rain for a few days. And then maybe snow, the way the weather people are talking. I so hope it goes some other way. But, I did hear some talk last night at the wold game dinner that if there is still snow on the ground 2 days after a snow, that we will get more snow like a week or so later. So yes, there was still snow all over the place even 4 days after. So here we go again? It's already warm enough out there to melt all the ice, so it's muddy!

I sure hope y'all have a wonderful day!

My mom

This is my mom. She started volunteering at Hutcheson Hospital a few months ago. She loves it. And everyone loves her. She is very helpful. And a fast learner too. She loves to bake and bring all that goodness to work with her. They all love that!

Just wanted to show off my beautiful mother. She looks good in blue, right?

5 day forecast

It was really nice today. Got up to about 50. Not really looking forward to rain, but it hasn't rained here since Dec.

And I have been hearing talk about another potential snow coming again next Thursday and Friday. I am choosing to not believe it. I can do that, right?

This is my friend's pond today. It doesn't look like it got to 50 today, does it? It's FROZEN! But it really is beautiful. Some of the designs were really amazing.

My husband went to get another truck load of firewood from his friend up on the mountain today. Filled the wood shed back up. He heard yesterday that his brother went into the hospital up in Rockwood, Tn. yesterday with blood clots in several places. He died this afternoon. This is his 3rd brother to die. My husband is the youngest of 9. His oldest brother is still living and there are 4 sisters in the middle. He's pretty shook up about this. He was debating on going to see him when he got the call. So please say a prayer for the family. Jim has a daughter and son and 2 grand kids.

Smile!

                 I think I would just like to hibernate for the rest of this crazy freezing winter. I am tired of it.

                                                                          That's all.

Snowy morning at Outback Farm

I think it got to maybe 10 last night. 66 in the house. That's what I have my central heat thermostat set on. It did come on during the night but that's ok. I had the water faucet in the bathroom upstairs dripping. All the cats still inside in the barn with heat on over there. I'll keep them in til tomorrow.


The dogs are fine in the snow. I've seen Bubba laying out in it a few times. When they come in, they lay in front of the wood heater. I caught Stella all sprawled out on her back awhile ago in front of the wood stove. Ran to get the camera and of course she got up. Anyway, she sure did look comfortable.

Yesterday, the chickens all wanted to stay in the coop. So I went ahead and brought them their food. Locked them all up for the rest of the day and night. This morning, there were already 7 eggs. One was frozen solid and cracked. I guess that was laid yesterday afternoon. So I am going out to get eggs several times a day.

 Here's my one legged rooster, Black Bart, this morning. He really has 2 legs, but it's %#@*!

                     Here is the fire pit, all covered in snow this morning. I love the designs on the blocks.

The round hay bale after 4 days so far. Looking pretty good. It might last a few weeks. They do seem to be hanging out there most of the time.

April, the new ewe, is getting pretty big in the udder. She was in one of the stalls this morning. I told her she better keep those lambs right inside and not let them come out any time soon. I hope she does.

I saw this shovel in the corner with this snow that looks just like a heart. Isn't that pretty? And so farmish.

So Georgia appears to be closed/ Like the whole state. There were so many people stranded over night in their cars on the roads in Atlanta. And even some kids on school buses til way into the night. Poor babies. Lots of stores opening up to let stranded people inside to get warm. It's a mess out there, people!

The snow is actually melting from the roofs and awnings on the house. But when it hits the ground, it's turning to ice. So I have to be really careful when I go out. So that's what's going to happen during the day. Then tonight, slick ice all over the roads. So please be careful if you have to get out there. I am staying home. I have lamb bones on the stove, making broth. I'm going to make a lamb stew for dinner. Just sounds really good today. With a cast iron pan of crispy hot buttery corn bread. Yummo!

I'm firing my personal weatherman.

 This is NOT what it looked like this morning when I woke up. Nor did it look like this when I was loading up 2 ram lambs to take to the butcher. Nor did it look like this on the way to the butcher. OR on the way home from the butcher. But a few minutes after I got home, it started to look like this.

And it got whiter and whiter. And of course the C word. But I won't say that word.

So, our daughter called from work to tell us school was closing at 11:30 and could we go get Kansas. We  had to go to town anyway for an appointment at 1:30 at H&R Block. Also wanted to take some soup to a friend and my mom. And take a cooler to the butcher for lamb organs.

So we headed out. I took pictures all the way to town and back. There was NO ONE on the road til we came up on this about half way to town. They were going maybe about 15. And would put brakes on going DOWN hills. And there are just about 3,876 hills on the way to town. OMG!!

Out other daughter called to say she was leaving work and would go get Kansas, but she was just crawling because it was like rush hour at 10:00 AM. Took her 2 hours to get home.

So we went to the school and got the grand child. Along with all the other people getting theirs.

On the way to Abby's, we had to go down this cool hill in the Baptist church parking lot and act like teen agers and do donuts! It was SO fun! Scared the poor child a little though.

Here's the grand, playing in the snow at Mrs. T's house. She's on the old oak tree stump. It's HUGE! We stopped there to get some wood from the huge wood pile that our son-in-law Jason has been working on splitting. We thought it would give up traction on these treacherous roads.

Isn't this magnolia tree beautiful all covered in snow?

 Before heading home, we went back to the butcher to take the cooler. I thought I might be able to go ahead and get the lamb organs but when we finally got to the top of their hill and got out of the car, I heard the sheep. Poor guys. He said it had been crazy all morning and he hadn't had a chance to get to them yet. So I'll go back in a few days. But going back down that hill was so scary. We almost slid into the ditch. But we made it.

Oh, we also got a call from the guy who was going to do our taxes. He canceled. He lives up on the mountain and was going home. The mountain is in this picture up ahead. Can you see it? Can you also see all the traffic going the same way we are?

This is at the crossroads of 136 and 193. Can you see the snow plow truck across the road? With salt in it. If you turn right, you go up the mountain. It looked like the truck had been up that way. So that's a good thing. To the left is Lafayette.

 
 And here we are, back home, safe and sound. I do have a good driver. He knows how to drive in snow. Unlike most everyone else out there. People are stupid when it's like this. Really. Stupid. I mean, there is cautious. Then there is stupid. I'm just glad I'm home. And all my kids and gran kids are home too.

                                And here are my snow-covered sheep. Even Abraham is white.

My snow-covered house. When we got home, it was only 64 degrees in the house. That's pretty darn #*^#!  So I went out and grabbed some little old pieces of wood and threw them in the stove and it got back up to a little over 70. Lots warmer than 20.

It will probably be looking like this for awhile. And ALL schools are closed tomorrow and probably the rest of the week. I'M stayin' home!

Decisions

 Yesterday, I got this round bale of hay for the sheep. They seem to like it. At first, I thought they might just eat til they ate the whole thing and die. But they ate awhile, then they'd go out and graze a little bit, then lay down. Then they'd go back and do it all over again. They really haven't made too much of a dent in it so far. But they are eating it. So I hope it'll last at least 2 weeks. We shall see. For just $15, this should be affordable. I may just get round bales for the sheep from now on.

I have to load up 2 of the ram lambs in the morning and take them to the butcher. I hate doing this, but that's why I have them. One of them is a friend's ram that's been staying here. The other is the make-up lamb for the screw up at the other butcher on the mountain that I will never take another animal to. So I am not making any money on this lamb. Just losing money. I learn as I go.

I cannot remember if this was a morning or evening shot. It was a few days ago, I remember that much. And I love it. Every day is so different. It never bores me to see the sky, in all it's glory.

This is what I see every morning. All the goats and the alpacas, standing there waiting on me to come out the door to feed them. I still have John Henry. I just don't know what to do with him. I have tried for months to sell him. And I have thought of butchering him here and making sausage out of him. But he is still stinkin' like a buck in rut. Not really bad, but I still smell him. And he is still in with the does because I have nowhere else to put him. I am also thinking about butchering Abraham, the ram. I'd use him for dog food. And the little black ram too. He is the smallest ram I have ever seen. He's not much bigger than Buttercup, who was born last April. I just don't want any males to have to worry about for so many months. So many decisions to make. Any suggestions?

And these alpacas. What am I going to do with them? I was thinking, after the ewes have their lambs, that I could put them together. I think they'd be ok that way. People put llamas with sheep and they're ok. Why not alpacas and sheep? Any thoughts on that too?

It's been beautiful the past 2 days. I have washed loads of clothes and towels and sheets. And hung them out on the clothes line to dry! I have to wait til the washing machine line thaws out to wash anything. So when it does, I am washing all I can. And when the sun shines, outside they go. We are doing all we can to keep electricity down here. What about y'all?

Not going to say the C word again.

I am going to try as hard as possible to not say the C word again. I am so tired of hearing about it. My husband has the tv on ALL day and he watched news and weather and Law and Order and the Velocity channel, which I don't mind sometimes. But the money some people spend on cars is crazy! Anyway, I have decided that it is winter and it is supposed to be this way right? My nephew lives in Wisconsin. I saw on his FB yesterday where he had this picture of snow and it said "You know it's cold when they close Wisconsin." You know at the bottom of the screen where they post all the closings? It just said Wisconsin closed. I thought that was so funny. So, I am going to try not to say that awful C word again.

Instead, I am going to list some things I am thankful for because of the freezing weather we are experiencing right now. Here goes folks.


Instead of slimy nasty wet mucky mud...

I am walking on nice solid frozen ground. SO much easier to walk on. So I will not complain about that at all.

I won't even complain about hauling bucket after bucket after bucket, well you know, of water. Like ALL the live long day. Nope, I will not complain. It is great exercise. And I need exercise. So I will gladly haul bucket after bucket of heavy water.

And hay. LOTS of hay. I called a friend up the road to see about getting a round bale for the sheep. He's bringing it today! SO happy about that! I just hope they like it and it's not a waste of money. But it will save me time.

I am thankful that I did not breed the goats for early kids. I put John Henry in with the girls on Oct. 28th. So the end of March into April. I am going to predict that Zeeboo goes first. Then Penelope, Zarah and maybe Sandy. Can't even tell if she's pregnant. But Zeeboo must have been in heat that day because she is huge already.

The sheep I am not sure of. I do believe that Fiona, Leelah. Gracie and April are all pregnant. They are all hair sheep and big as buses. Not much of an udder on any of them yet, so I hope they wait at least til Feb.

Lets see. Although I am not happy about WHY my husband is home this winter, I AM happy he's here. He gets all the wood in for the fireplace. He keeps it going at night. He's gone to get a few truck loads of wood. This might sound mean, but he does need to get up and move around. His blood sugar and pressure always go down after he's done things, rather than sitting around all day. So this is good for him. And I am SO thankful the man CAN get up and walk. Because he could have lost some feet.

I am thankful for the wood heat too. Our electric bill is really low. I won't say what it is because so many people have bills up in the hundreds right now.

There are so many things to be thankful for in this weather. I won't bore y'all with more. I hope y'all have a great Sunday.

10

10 degrees outside. 69 degrees inside the house.

All the farm animals are fed and fresh warm water hauled to the buckets. Sun is out, so they are all out in it right now. Cats still in the barn, all warm and toasty. Only supposed to be 20 today.

If anyone EVER hears me say I am too hot this summer, please feel free to smack the crap outta me.

I'm staying inside today. Drinking coffee. Making bread. Kombucha tea. I need to clean out the fridge, see what's in there. Cook some  good food for us. We've eaten out 2 days in a row, so I need to get back to home cooked food.

Tiny's right ankle looked pretty good this morning. Only changed the rolled bandage and socks. Blood pressure was 199/97. Back on all his meds now that we got prescriptions refilled.

This is my kitchen door this morning. We had just let the dogs out. This is Bubba at the kitchen door. It's frozen. So is he. It is now 71 in the dining room where the thermostat is. Y'all stay warm! (And dogs are back inside.)

Husband update.

We went to the wound doctor this morning. He had a staph infection. The antibiotics are working though. The right ankle looks lots better today. They are going to check with insurance to see if they can do a graft next time to speed this thing up. I sure hope they can. Seems like they would agree to it because it would help the time it takes to get better. As it is now, we go there every week. If this helps speed up the healing, I would think they'd agree to it.

We were gone all day and got home at 5. Again. Same yesterday. Went to get the stitches out of his left arm from the surgery 2 weeks ago. Doctor wanted to cut out some more on the same arm, but still wasn't sure where. So Tiny said nope, no more for him. I can't blame him. It sure did mess him up for a few weeks.

So when we got home, the first thing we do is check the fire. It was almost out. The central heater has been on since. We did get the fire going, but it's just too darn cold to heat up any. And the darn central just blows out cold air, that we have to pay for. Makes me mad. And it's supposed to be about 10 tonight. I am not going anywhere else til spring. Plus having to run out and haul water to all the animals because the water buckets are all frozen solid. And feed hay.

I had to put all the cats in the "barn" next door. It's our little house, where I store hay. It has a kitchen and bathroom so we have to keep a heater on when it gets cold. And 3 of the cats got sick a few weeks ago when it got to 4 2 nights in a row, Poor Gilbert was so sick for about 5 days I thought she was going to die. And little Sybil was sick a few days too. So I put them all in the barn a few nights ago. Just left them in all day today since it was so cold. Poor cats. They're all over 10 years old.

Yesterday, we went to O'Charlies for a late lunch-early dinner. Tiny got a rib-eye steak. He always gets sirloins and they are always tough and he's so pitiful trying to eat the darn things. Never complains. So I told him to get a good steak. Even the cook came out to see how it was. It was marbled really nice and I could tell it was really tender. He did enjoy that steak. So no more tough old sirloin for him anymore.

I am just rambling now. I am trying to not spend so much time on this computer. I had thought about just turning it off but I'll try it this way for now.

Thank you all for your prayers for my husband. It really does mean a lot and it does help.

These chickens

These chickens are all about work. I thought of those little Face Book funnies, where someone says something like "people be like..." I made some for the chickens.


This one is: Chickens be like, we don't have time to eat. We're late for work!

And this one is: Hens be like, let us out of here woman! We're late for work!

Even though there is a nester box in the coop, these hens will jump out of the coop as soon as I open the door, and they run as fast as they can next door to the other nest boxes to lay their eggs. They don'y even stop to eat. They are true working girls, these hens! I just thought this was funny.

It just takes one...

to rock the boat. Sheep, that is. I have been letting them in to the chicken yard side of the farm so they can have the 2 stalls at night. Then they go back over to the bigger pasture for the day. But to get them back and forth is a bit of a job. They have 3 gates to go through. And I have to get them all at the gate to go to the other side and make sure they all go through to the other side. I have a fence I put up across the driveway to keep them from going into the yard. But then there's the whole driveway they could end up going down instead. So far, it hasn't happened. Til tonight.

I have been only giving them hay at night now, since the weather has been so nice. And since I realized I only have about 30 bales left. So I'll put hay in the 2 stalls at night to get them to go over there. It's been working rather well. But last night, I saw that there was a lot of hay still in there, so I just raked it up to make it look like I had just put hay in for them.

Darned ole sheep are smart. They whined for a little while til I went back inside. But they know in the morning they get grain and bread on the other side. So they always go. No problems at all.

I guess they were onto me tonight. And all it took was one sheep to go the wrong way and they ALL go the wrong way. Down the driveway toward the road.

It just took a few minutes to get them all back to where I wanted them. With a little cussing and hollering of course. Darned ole sheep! I think they will be staying over there this week, since it's going to be cold again. Like in the teens at night til the weekend. It just makes it hard to give them the grain when they are bumping me and running all over the place. It's so much easier to get the feed into bowls with no sheep around, then get them over to the feed. SO much easier. I'll have to figure out what to do in the morning.

This morning, I trimmed all 4 does feet. It had been a few months since I have done them. Had to clean the milk room up first. They weren't as bad as I was thinking. And I didn't make any of them bleed this time. I usually get at least one hoof too close. But they look good again. And Bubba and Stella were happy dogs! They love those nasty hoof pieces.

Also did a little spring cleaning. It was so beautiful today, it got me up and doing things. I worked in the bedroom and got a lot done. Will be going to take a load to Goodwill tomorrow and some recycling to the Community Kitchen. And spend some time with my mom. We've been missing our Tuesday's together.

And will y'all please say some prayers for my husband? His right ankle is just not getting better. In fact, it's been infected. I was telling the nurse last Thursday at the would care center that I was concerned about how it's not healing at all and looks horrible. The doctor came in and did some things. He took a culture to be sent off. And we're trying a different type treatment instead of Silvedene cream. But I ran out. So will go get more tomorrow. Also put him on antibiotics. He's not been feeling too good and his blood sugar has been around 200 for over a week now. So I knew something was wrong. They may try a water treatment soon.

Y'all stay warm. It's gonna get cold again!

And peace is restored to the Kingdom once again.

Friday, I put an ad on CL for the roosters. It was really getting bad around here. The poor hens couldn't get a moments peace with all these guys chasing them all day. And for those with chickens, you know what I'm talking about. When there is more than 1 rooster, the testosterone is flying. It's not fun at all.

So, this one rooster seemed to be the one that the hens liked. He would go into the big coop at night with all the hens. The other 2 roos would go to the chicken tractor. So I just got the 2 roos in there a few days ago, by their selves. Put the ad on CL. And got a call a few minutes later. A friend not too far away came and got them both!

I was so happy. And I could tell right away that the hens were happy, too. And Black Bart is very happy. They are ALL his now! And he is a good rooster. Doesn't have any favorites. Just goes along with whatever the girls want. He's good like that.

                                          Here's the big boy. The king in his peaceful kingdom.

Misty morning sunshine

I am so glad I carry my camera with me. This is what I saw this morning while I was feeding the animals. Isn't this awesome? There was mist across the road, gently rolling along. It got closer and closer. The sun was coming up and the sky was getting brighter. It was just beautiful. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do. I know it's beautiful all over, but to me this is the most beautiful place on earth. I love it here.

And just thought I'd throw in some bacon. This is some from the pigs I started raising then sold. This is some of the best bacon I have ever had. I am seriously thinking about getting a few more. If I can raise them where these guys finished out their happy lives. It's like the perfect place to have pigs. We shall see.