it's 9:30 a.m.

And I have milked the goat, bottle-fed the baby, fed and watered forty chickens, four ducks, four rabbits, five goats and four dogs, refilled feed tubs, brought in firewood, made a fire, done some work for my "real" job and haven't yet had breakfast.

How about you?

a night in the garden

I always love my country home, but there are times when it simply takes my breath away, and I'm deeply thankful that I get to be here. This evening is one.

We're enjoying a warm week in January, and the days have lengthened ever so slightly - the perfect combination of warmth and long light that makes me dream of springtime. I've taken advantage of a dinner already made and am spending the waning hour of daylight cleaning out my garden beds, in preparation for upcoming planting. I turn over big fistfuls of dark soil, marveling at the thriving earthworm population. I get a chuckle from the jostling and squawking of the hens putting themselves to bed - endless shuffling and shifting, punctuated by sudden outbursts, like children in their bunks at camp after lights-out.

I turn over soil until it is nearly dark and I can barely see. I can hardly make out the distinction between the black dirt and the smoke sky, the slate grass beneath my feet. The goats in the barn are silent, surrendered to their caprine dreams. A dog in the distance calls out to anyone who'll answer. Everything is quiet and still, and vibrantly alive. The air is cool and moist, faint lightning casts an orange glow on clouds too far away to matter, and everything smells of earth.

shameless plug!

Can't get enough chicken in your day? Need to see more dog nose? The 2010 farm calendar is now available! (See link at right) Makes a great gift for all of your would-be homesteader loved ones. Or, y'know, for yourself. ;-)

kitchen window on a dreary day

spells of nothing

I know I've been rather remiss in posting lately, and I would love to tell you it's because there have been loads of really exciting things happening. I would love to fill pages and pages of this blog with stories about our beautiful autumn weather, my bumper crop of fall greens, poultry antics, adorable pictures of the goats...but I can't.

I'm afraid that sometimes...nothing happens. Oh, it's not that nothing at all happens, just nothing worth telling about. Every day I do chores, I work, I do laundry and cook dinner, I run errands. It rains. It rains some more. The dogs sleep. And that's all. I don't even have any earth-shatteringly deep musings. It just is what it is. We ruralites, living the dream as it were, have our share of ho-hum, ordinary, run-of-the-mill days too. And there's simply no way I can blog about vacuuming and make it sound interesting. I'm just not that good.

Please be patient. Exciting times are always just around the corner here. Only this time, it's a very broad, sweeping curve, and not so much a hairpin turn.

P. S. Did you know that dogs can suffer from tonsillitis? It's true. No, it does not mean they get to eat ice cream. It does mean, however, that crunchy kibble is painful to swallow, so I get to cook TWO dinners every night for awhile.

ladies and gentlemen, I look like sh*t

Let's be clear: I could never be described as being "beauty conscious". Far from it, in fact. Of all the things in life that weigh heavily (or even lightly) on my mind, the acceptability of my appearance is rarely among them. Think of the least beauty conscious person you know, and know that I am even less beauty conscious than that. (Unless you know me, and the person you were thinking of was me, in which case, you're spot on.)

Nevertheless...

After a full year plus a bit of manure, dirt, blood, mud, manure, dog hair, rain, manure, grass, feathers, manure, sun, wind, grit, manure, vomit, hooves, food splatter and manure, I evidently JUST NOW decided to look in a mirror. And let me tell you, I have really gone to the dogs. I haven't had a haircut in a year. I have permanent eye-baggage. All my clothes have holes or stains. My nails are usually ragged, broken and dirty, never mind polished. Let's not even discuss shaving. How my wonderful husband finds the fortitude just to come home every night, I'll never know.

I am taking my hot mess of a self to the S-P-A. Ladies with phony cosmetic faces will come at me from all sides with scissors and files and potions and creams. They'll peel off my exoskeleton of crud, and I will emerge fresh and new. I will bravely go forth among the denizens of Botox and collagen I will prevail*. No, it's most certainly not a permanent solution - merely a boot to the fanny which will hopefully kick me back into the human race.


* Don't worry - I'm not doing anything really weird. Just basic maintenance. ;-)

sunny and cheerful

No inspirational birthday post today, just new boots! Happy Birthday to me.



Aren't they cheerful? I'll tell you, I'm not normally the neon-pink-stripe type, but when it comes to Wellies (or Wellie knock-offs), I find that really colorful ones make slogging through the muck a bit more pleasant. They really will brighten up the dreariest day. You just look down at your feet and you can't help but smile.

new blog project needs your help!

I think we can all agree that things out in the world have been weird lately. The mainstream media has begun to ring the bells of recovery, but I think we can also agree that...what??? What recovery??? Right. No matter what they say, it still doesn't look, from most people's vantage points, like anything is really improving.

Let's tell the story like it really is. Visit The View From My Town to post stories from your locality. How are the economy, world affairs, resource depletion, climate change and politics affecting you and your community? I hope that through your dispatches we can create a truer picture of what is really going on in our world, and of where we're headed.

Please visit today, and consider contributing stories and events as you see them from where you are.

let this serve as a warning

When you have eggs in your jacket pocket, you'll want to pay attention to what you're doing. You'll want to especially think twice about, say, closing a door with your hip.

under the weather

My apologies for the sparseness of posts lately. I'm under the weather, in more ways than one. I've felt pretty down and out for a week or two now - not quite sick, but not really well, either. On top of that, I'm staring down another solid week of rain. That is Not Supposed to Be. October is the one month out of the whole year that we have perfect weather, and I feel like I'm being cheated. We can't get anything done outside, either. We've literally been trying to pour some concrete for about three weeks now, and just can't catch a break.

I'm resigned to laying low tomorrow. I think I'll spend the whole day on the sofa in my pj's, under a blanket. I'm afraid there's not much left to do at this point.

they don't rent pigs

kitchen frog

Sorry for the less than stellar pictures, but this little guy was too cute not to share. He was hanging out on the kitchen door glass tonight, after a rain. Smart guy - this buffet is open all night.

First from the inside:



Now from the outside:

relationships, puberty and other assorted flotsam

My little boy is becoming a man. Our little buckling Surrey is transitioning into buckhood, and if he were a human boy, he would presently be in what we all know as "that awkward stage". He has become stinky. He has discovered the appeal of girls. He's learning new things about his body. Also, he has begun making new noises...the adorable, high-pitched "Meh!" of his youth is giving way to a low, (sort of) manly "BUH!" I sort of feel sorry for the little guy. He's like the first kid in school to go through puberty. Perhaps I should schedule a viewing of "Am I Normal?" for him.

Since he has begun working tirelessly to win the affections of the girls, the girls have taken refuge in the company of...anyone else. Blossom, the new girl, sticks to us like glue, and Patience, our herd queen, seems to have developed a bit of a crush on the dog. To be fair, he likes her too, and I sometimes catch glimpses of clandestine nibbling and nuzzling between them. Walter and Perry, the wethers, just want to be a part of whatever "it" is, and seem content to take their chances with anyone who happens by. We won't tell them that it's hopeless and that they're only going through the motions.

In the realm of the bipeds, we're holding down the fort. We work on projects in fits and starts - as much as we're able to in the heat. We're also making plans so that we may make the most of the cooler weather to come. We'll soon be building the chicken coop and goat pastures in earnest, as well as laying in our winter supplies of hay and firewood. I just stocked up on feed for everyone, which in my estimation, should last, oh....two weeks. Sigh. It's a good thing I get a small adrenaline spike every time I pull up in front of the F.S.F.S. (that's Full Service Farm Store, ma'am).

Finally, my husband would like for you all to consider the following: When you put your underpants on in the dark, there is a 50/50 chance that they will be inside-out.

I'll just leave you with that, and tiptoe quietly out.

farm life is...part II

When the surface of your desk is home to any or all of the following items:

loose bean seeds
livestock dewormer
a goat collar
an egg
wads of bailing wire

farm life is...

Finding alfalfa twigs in your hair brush.

things turn up

One of the craziest things about living in the country, I think, is the way that things just appear, seemingly from nowhere. For instance, we went out to our truck one afternoon to go to the feed store or some such, and there was a jaw bone laying in the bed. Likewise, yesterday, while I was emptying and refilling the water pan for the birds, I found this lying in the bottom:



I've never seen this ring before in my life. We seldom have visitors, and it looks to be child-sized. None of our visitors have children, so I can't even guess where it might have come from. Furthermore, I found it in the bottom of a water pan that we dump, rinse and refill EVERY DAY. It was definitely not there yesterday. These sorts of finds lead us to all manner of speculation. We know that animals are the root cause - wild and domesticated - but we can't ever be sure what animal left the item in question, or when, or under what circumstances. I couldn't say whether this ring was dropped by a startled raccoon, or whether a duck picked it up from somewhere else and left it here. I certainly can't guarantee that it didn't pass through a digestive tract somewhere along the way. As for the jaw bone, did a hawk or a vulture drop it? Was it left there by some overly curious critter in the night, in trade for a more enticing item? And what animal did it originally belong to, anyway? Did the animal that left it there also kill it, or has the it changed hands (paws? talons?) many times over?

We will never know. Perhaps I'll start a shoe box labeled "Farm Curiosities".