The Abscess

The weeks and weeks of rain paid off with a nice cutting of hay.  I hope to be mob grazing next year with movable fencing and then keep standing hay for winter. This year, though, we needed to get some hay put up for winter food for cattle and sheep.

It is always nice to get the field cut. It looks tidy and trim. I am hoping we get some good rain the next few weeks so that it will grow nice and tall before the first frost in October.

Molly has yet to fully recover from foot rot. Her back foot is still bothering her so I had the vet come out and tend to it.

Cows are not like horses in that they do not volunteer to have their feet held up and inspected. We got Molly into the milking stanchion to feed her grain and then proceeded to tie her back foot and pull it up and out with a rope so the vet could look at it.

He cleaned it all out of muck and then saw the issue. She did have a considerable abscess on the bottom. He slit it open and was able to get a fair amount of thick pus out.

She is still not walking very well, although some swelling has gone down. We gave her another antibiotic shot last night, hoping to see more rapid improvement in a day or so.

In the meantime, I am keeping her close so I can watch her and feed her.

I have 4 cows I am sending to a neighbors farm to  be bred by his beef bull soon. While sorting out those 4 cows, I noticed one had a huge and hard udder. 

Annabelle has been dry for several months, but I brought her in to see if it was a milk issue.

I was not an udder full of milk, but it was swollen and very hard, so I had the vet check her out too.

It was an abscess as well, so he slit and drained the huge volume of pus. I do not know how she got this infection, as it could have come from a simple poke by a twig. It was gross though and I am sure she feels better with it drained.

I am also keeping her close to watch her and make sure it keeps draining some. 

Meanwhile, Indiana and Willow got to spend a night with their grandparents. I was in charge of their chores and discovered one of Indy's pigeons had escaped. I tried for two days to catch her but failed. Luckily nothing got her during the day or night, and Indiana was able to catch her. 

Finally, I am slowly getting my homeschool books and activities and schedule figured out. One activity Rose wanted to do was sew a quilt for her bed.

I found a free pattern that is quite simple and pretty and then we ordered her fabric. She has it sorted out and should be ready to start sewing this weekend. The pattern uses pre-cut fabrics known as a Layer Cake.  I am excited to see her finished quilt top!

Also, in preparation for the school year, I am decluttering and deep cleaning the house....room by room. It will take me an entire month, but so far I have deep cleaned one bathroom and the laundry room. I focus better when the house is clean, and I know the days will get more hectic as the wedding of Journee and Jared gets near. Like I said, one room at a time. I have a list of all the rooms and I mark them off as I finish them. 

Happy Thursday Ya'll!

Peace,

Sam

Glorious Under Pressure

Where has the year gone?
It is almost Christmas and I have prepared  panicked. The tree is up. That is about it.

We finally got lots of rain and cold weather. Cold weather means worrying and fretting over livestock and stacking firewood.

The boys spent a good week playing on top of the firewood pile until we decided it really needed to be stacked neatly under the pool deck.

We started on a nice sunny day and finished on a cool day that was going to be freezing by nightfall.

We function gloriously under pressure.

Of course the cattle, who are roaming our yard, peaked at us curiously from afar. Cows always make me laugh with their curiosity. If we are out working on any project, they are right there watching.

This is Molly and Brownie. Brownie is ready for processing but the processors here are all swamped with work. Getting an appointment has been challenging. Until that time, he and the other 2 steers will continue to free range, despite the lower than usually supply of hay. I think we will be okay, but I hope for an early and luscious spring.

Journee finished a rather nice art project last week too.
She collected some beautiful fall leaves form my mother's yard. The leaves were soaked in a mixture of 1 part vegetable glycerin and 2 parts water.

She let the leaves soak for 3 days and then set them on a towel to dry for a day. The leaves were pliable and held their color.

She painted  a canvas and then glued the leaves to the canvas in a leaf pattern.

The result is a beautiful piece and a reminder of how lovely fall can be here in North Georgia.

We found a nice place in the kitchen to hang it up. We are not sure how long the leaves will hold up, since this is a first time project for us. I am sure we will do it again next year, and I expect it will turn into a project for several kids since they all loved watching her create it.
Journee has already come up with some ideas to expand the project.

This weekend I am hoping to get some baking done. If not, I will get lots of baby holding done. Either way it will be a win/win.
How are your Christmas preparations going?

Happy Tuesday Ya'll!

Peace,
Sami

Back Deck Garden

Hot, hot, hot! It has been a very hot start to summer here, and unfortunately we are also experiencing a severe drought.

I wanted a few garden vegetables this year, however, so I recruited the kids to help me get a back deck garden started.

We had a very nice pile of compost near the barn that was ready for use. It was mostly manure and hay from the cows and the horse. Devin kept it turned well the last couple of years. He scooped me some up with his tractor bucket and parked the tractor near the pots.
This is when hoarding is nice. I was able to round up several pots that were stored in the barn.

The kids helped shovel the rich soil into the pots for me and then helped me move them to the back deck. My back deck gets solid sun all day, which make sit good for only two uses. 1) Drying clothes and 2) Growing vegetables.

Along with the beautiful pool towels drying after swimming, the deck looks much better with some green life on it, and the plants do great with a good watering each evening. In fact, the boys have been helpful by helping me keep the pots watered. We have tomatoes and peppers in bloom this  morning . Who says you need tons of land to grow food?

In other farm news, we were needing a way to get some dairy ladies bred. Last year we borrowed a neighbors black Angus bull and I also had a few cows AI'd.

This year I was lucky enough to have friend loan me his Wagyu bull, Ralph.

Because we had a few weak spots in our fencing, Devin made fence fixing a priority.

We had some wooden boards that were starting to rot and lean some, so Devin secured the posts with concrete and replaced any rotted boards.

It was a day's project, but it needed to be done because you really do not want ANY cows escaping, especially a bull.

Now Ralph has been with us a few weeks and he has settled in nicely. We keep three dry cows with him: Belle, Molly and Valentine. I have the two ladies we are milking who will also need to spend some time with Ralph before his visit ends here.
I also have a smaller Jersey heifer ready to breed, but I will have her AI'd. This should give me 6 calves next spring!
It has been a slower way to build a beef herd, but it works....and it fits my budget :-)

It will be 95 degrees today! We are expecting some rain this week. Please cross your fingers we get some too, or there will be no berries to pick!

Happy Monday Ya'll!

Sun Gazing

After several days of cool, dreary rain there is one thing that really perks my mood up.

 

The sun.

 

Even better are the cows grazing in the late afternoon sun. The clouds are slowly moving out and the ground is finally getting a short reprieve from the rain.

 

I have, over the years, started to love summer more and dread the fall and winter. The cold rain is not something I am fond of while milking cows and tending to sheep and chickens and pigs.



But the sun? I will relish in the sun any time of the year....especially during these short, cool days of fall.

Happy Friday Ya'll!

 



A Post for Sean

Of course it nice when a friend kindly points out that the blog has been silent for over 2 weeks and that even a simple cow picture would be worth the time.  :-)

Community theater has been a great occupier of my time, but it has been a nice change from my regular life. This week we are in tech rehearsals and the play will open Friday...with a BANG! The group of people I am spending my evenings with on stage are wonderful and I am so very grateful for this opportunity.

Naturally, my home and farm life has not stopped for even a second, and since I am not able to juggle everything....no person could....I have decided to let a  few things "go" for now. This is my way of saying the kids are fed and the clothes are washed, but the house is a disorganized mess. I hope to catch up after Thanksgiving.

We have kept up with school fairly well, and yet there is always a nagging shadow that hangs over my head. Perhaps we need to do extra math lessons or read more history.

Then I remember why we home school. That nagging cloud of doubt really need not disrupt the natural rhythm of home educations.

Indiana decided to sew a costume for Halloween, so I snapped a picture of her cutting her fabric. This is truly a skill that I love and it warms my heart that she can sew and that she has the flexibility in her day to spend time crafting a costume.

 Quinn did have class at the college, but she came home and spent a good amount of time looking at different pottery projects, deciding what she wanted to create in her next pottery class.

I almost fretted over the fact that Rose was not doing "serious language school work", until I reminded myself that an hour playing with letter tiles was serious language work. Hands on learning is usually better than a workbook, in my opinion.

 The swimming pool was ready for a winter cover, so it was "all hands on deck" to help Devin get the pool cover on and fastened. Chores are an important lesson in life.

 Zeb, my insect loving child, caught several bugs and examined closely their wings and legs. Living in South means there is never a shortage of bugs in the yard to catch.

 Playing on hay bales is near the top of the list "Fun Things To Do on a Farm." Willow and Rose spent a good while jumping from bale to bale.

 Finally, a good game of kick ball with an oversized yoga ball is never without a great deal of entertainment. Or maybe they were playing "keep away."

There have been many days where my schedule did not go as planned and even more when things on my list didn't get finished...or even started.

That's OK.

The kids are growing and learning, and I think I am doing the same.

If you are in my area, you can come see the play at the Dalton Little Theater.

If you are not in my area.....thanks for sticking around while I took a short break.

Oh, the cows? They are all fine, and here's a cow picture just for you Sean. :-)

                                      ***Annabelle***

Happy Hump Day Ya'll!

Cows and more cows

I just realized that I often share videos on my Facebook page that should also be shared here!

It has been a very busy week, but I hope to properly update tonight or tomorrow. Until then, here is a video update via my new You Tube channel.

Feel free to subscribe, as I am toying with the idea of adding some instructional videos in the near future.

Have a great Thursday Ya'll!

Rockstar Summer

The Chattanooga River Bend Festival was all last week, and my Rockstar and her Rock Skool helped close the night out with a super performance!

It has been a super busy year of performances for Indiana, and she was starting to become weary of the lessons and gigs. In fact she discussed taking a summer break once River Bend was behind her.

Turns out the concert renewed her enthusiasm, and she is hoping to learn a few new songs on her own.

The crowd was rather large at the show and ALL of the kids did a fantastic job! Her instructor is up to over 50 students now...there were 13 when Indiana started. Amazing. This was a big deal to perform on this stage at this festival and we are looking forward to what the future holds for the Rock Skool.

**********************

Today it will be yet another hot, humid day. I think it is supposed to be 94 degrees and we have not had rain in a week. This means my ponds are starting to look a tiny bit low. Because my back yard grass growth is so impressive, and we don't like mowing, I plan to move ALL of the cows to the yard. This will also ease my mind that they have enough water, since I have plenty of water troughs in back.

We have been working on a hormone shot protocol to get the last three cows ready for artificial breeding. Wednesday they will get another shot, another on Friday and then they will be inseminated on Saturday. If it takes, and I think it will, then I will have 6 cows bred. Three babies will be Angus cross and three will be Guernsey cross. Do I have enough grass to feed all of these cows? I will cross that bridge when I get to it. There are some possible ways to obtain more land with grass and I will see how that plays out for us.

Meanwhile, I am still cranking out wheels of farmstead cheese. I have 3 that are consistently great, but I am trying to find a couple more to add. Blue cheese still alludes me. I had no idea it would be such a difficult cheese to craft, but I have yet to make a decent one.

I hope it's a beautiful day where you are!

Happy Summery Monday Ya'll!

Just Another Lazy Day

So I have been incredibly busy these days! I have decided to go ahead and post a few items in my Etsy shop, although now I have to take good photos of my items.

We have also been busy with school and de-cluttering the house. That almost makes me laugh..to think of de-cluttering a house with 9 people living in it.

My pile of unfinished projects is slowly getting smaller, if I can just keep from starting new ones. Haha...I am seriously laughing at myself right now.

Well, I thought it was past due for an update!

First, I have been trying to crank out some milk based soaps. This batch here has lemon grass and rosemary in it and it smells fabulous. 6 weeks to cure and there will be plenty of soaps to go around!

Friday I cleaned up my room, or rather the pile of junk that sits in the corner of the room. I came across some old Usborne books and all of the kids spent some time reading them, including the teens!



I found some cute skull fabric at the local quilt store and decided to make a new purse. You cannot tell from this low quality picture, but the skulls are bit sparkly. I made 2. One to keep and one will go on Etsy.

I am teaching classes in a local fiber studio and needed to hand dye yarn for a beginning crochet class this Saturday. Journee learned how to dye the yarn too and was a huge help to me! Next week we will hand dye some fingering weight yarns for use in embroidery.

Moving on to farm animals.... Flicka (the house lamb) never did adjust to being with sheep. She does love the calves though, so we keep her with all the bovine babies.  You can see that the calves love her equally as well. Molly, who has grown a ton, likes to lick and love on Flicka.

 

 

The baby steer who was so sick has made a full recovery! We still do not know for sure what happened. we assume it was a mineral deficiency and so we are very adamant about keeping good mineral salts out in a loose form for free choice. We are also keeping him locked up at night by himself so he can have lots of extra alfalfa and grain to munch on. We are hoping he will keep gaining some weight.

 

 



 

 

 

 

Winter here brings mucky, wet ground and no green grass. For this reason, I am letting the hens totally free range all winter. This works out very well and allows them to spend lots of the day scratching through hay and cow patties. The cows tend to create nice hay beds after they are done eating but the hens will help compost it up, spread it out and fertilize the ground. By late spring this ground will be green and lush.

 





 

 

A proper hay feeder is on our long list of things to build, but for now we just have to settle with hay on the ground. The ladies don't seem to mind. Right now Belle and Ivy are spending all of their time with the bull in hopes of being bred. I still need to get Penny and Valentine out there too before he leaves the farm.

 

 

 

 

Spring looks to be a busy one. We have a couple of big projects in the works, and that doesn't even include getting meat chicks!

 

I am grateful for NO SNOW this winter so far and hope I did not just curse myself:-)

 

Enjoy your day! I am making cheese today and finishing up school with the kids.

 

Happy Monday Ya'll!

 

 



 

Back from Rock Bottom, For Now

Oh morning sickness, how I loathe thee!

Last week was a very tough week. I had to spend more than a couple of days in bed trying to force food down my mouth.

I did have a couple of evenings, however, in which my energy level was better and my stomach somewhat settled. I also found a little nugget that can make me feel better for a short while.

Watermelon is the ONLY flavor that works, so I will buy a bag of mixed ranchers and offer the other flavors to my teens. It does not disappoint them in the least.

We managed to host a movie night on Saturday night and I felt pretty decent.

Of course, the back yard felt a little more "farm like" than usual due to the fact my hens and geese are currently free ranging.

The geese enjoyed walking around to scavange for dropped pieces of popcorn and chips.

We also brought Hilda the pig outside to socialize amongst everyone until the movie started. She is very good about staying near us, of course she also constantly roots for food.

After the movie I decided to let the cows back out into the yard to graze the rest of the weekend. This morning we woke up to a short episode of drizzly rain and a cow on the front steps.

Penny had already eaten all of my potted plants that I had on the ground around the porch. It seemed she wanted to nibble on the remaining potted plants. We stayed inside so as to not startle her. The last thing I wanted was for her to fall or slip. She finished off a banana pepper plant, turned around and walked back down the three steps to the ground. Once I feel well enough, I plan to empty all my pots out so as to not tempt her any longer.

Amazingly none of my children thought this scene to be unusual. Should this worry me or make me proud? Either way, it's life out here and I wouldn't trade it for a "normal" life in a million years.

I have to thank everyone for the tremendous outpour of congratulatory emails and comments about the new baby we are expecting in May. It really makes my day to read the positive feedback and support for my growing family and if I could I would give ya'll a big hug!

Today I am again feeling puny, exhausted and hungry at the same time. My goals for the day have dropped down to the bare minimum and only include feeding my kids, feeding myself and getting basic farm chores completed. I might add buying more watermelon ranchers to my list of goals too.

I feel ambitious like that today:-)

Happy Monday Ya'll!!!