So Long, August!!

The white one is a commercial large white egg.

This was NOT expected until November!  I went out to collect a couple of Escapees this morning.  Got everyone settled back into the yard and calm.  I Opened the big door to put away a small rake.  Found a hen sitting on the perch inside the coop looking into one of the nesting boxes.  I began snooping and found the eggs!

I hope I have enough egg cartons.

This past week has been a trip to Hell.  By Friday night - Dwayne ended up leaving work in the middle of the night to drive all the way home and take me to ER in Lenoir City.

By then I could only sit on the edge of the bed with my legs dangling enough to take pressure off my back.  And I had to sit on a heating pad.  I was submitting to pain pills and stool softeners – which thoroughly hacked me off.  Both of us had missed 2 nights of sleep before he’d gone back to work.  And I just couldn’t take it anymore.

They took 4 vials of blood and pushed Saline tubes – before loading me with a series of pain meds and muscle relaxers powerful enough to take me an inch away from being completely sedated – just to take x-rays.

The diagnosis was severe inflammation of my spine and hips.  They don’t know why it happens.  But they’ve started seeing a lot of it happening.  And a person doesn’t really have to do much at all for it to come along.

I’ve been – quickly – volleyed back to Heaven with a Steroid pack and muscle relaxers.  Have I mentioned before – how much I LOVE those Steroid packs?

I get things like this accomplished!  More Jalapeno Peppers and packages of breaded Okra.

This was for dinner the other night!  Our very first Dexter Beef Hamburgers!  We had our first grilled T-bone steaks a day or so before that.  But I forgot to get photos.  Grrrrr…..

Stormy and Dodger have been moved back over to the paddock where they shared with their mothers.  And the boys are in their glory!  Both boys love all the grazing.  And they’ve had fun hanging out with Bruce at the fence.  Bruce seems to enjoy having company on both sides of his place!

The only negative – they look like black ants again.  Ha!

Bruce loves the shelter Dwayne built in that paddock for Killian.  We’ve had really warm temps and he’s snapped to the cool breezes that filter through the boards.  He gets ticked off if you make him come out for any reason – until the shade from the Cedars falls over to his side from Artist’s paddock.

Dwayne got the Hay cut!  I am so proud of him!

This is his very first time cutting hay - ever!  And he did such a fantastic job!  We came out with 164 bales - minus a few left inside the baler.

Lloyd and Rita helped load onto Lloyd’s hay wagon before they all struggled with getting it up the elevator and stacked in the loft.  Everybody was flat-out torn up by the end of the day – too tired to even eat.  But we got a variety package of Dexter Beef together for him to share with Rita – along with some frozen breaded Okra that Lloyd mentioned being ready for chomping down on!

We’ve changed up rations.  All the ‘ Bigs ‘ are now receiving 2lbs. of Purina Stocker Grower ( non-medicated ) twice a day.  They receive hay in the evenings.  And this is encouraging more grazing on the whole!

Last meal in the little yard - before moving back to the big Paddock!

Stormy and Dodger are now receiving 2c. Calf Starter and 2.5c. Purina Stocker Grower ( non-medicated ) twice a day.  They also get hay in the evening.  And we’ve just never had to lift a finger to encourage those 2 growing boys with grazing!  I think it really makes a difference when they’re born on site – how well they take to the grasses they have in their pastures.

Cora and April have started eating ( DE ) Diatomaceous Earth out of the feeder bunker like Artist.  In the past – Cora had no interest.  And Miss April would take to putting her head down in it and spinning in wild circles – making wild noises.  It was like crack for her!

We’re having a serious problem finding these worms on our little pine tree that we planted in front of Artist’s paddock and on our Sunflower plant by the driveway.  The Neem barely phases them.  Not sure what to do next.

If anybody knows what these little turds are – any help would be greatly appreciated!

I’ve been putting a good deal of green beans and okra away.  I’ve even managed to get several packages of Purple Hull Peas frozen.  We’re getting ready to plant some spinach for fall season – now that the hot temps have calmed down.

Sharing one of the Tractor Tires!

I’m not quite sure what happened here.

It looks like 2 different melons are coming up.  The striped ones must be the Sugar Baby watermelons.

And the other looks like an organic honeydew that I tried to plant again.

I thought I’d replanted squash!  I’m telling ya’ – I’ve been in Hell!  This year has just been a challenge!

Dwayne’s been helping me with water buckets.  I promise.  The door is not locked!

My Life KNOWS When It's Canning and Weaning Season!

We had an incident that led to housing Dodger and Stormy in separate stalls inside the barn for a few days prior to Patty and Killian being taken to Hampton’s.  Mr. Stormy gave us a little bit of a struggle helping him through a bout with Scours.

Jen and I had headed to Academy in Knoxville to pick up bag rolls for the FoodSaver.  Naturally – Hell always breaks loose when I leave the house.  Never fails.  Stormy managed to get his Easy Wean out of his nose.  It was raining.  And of course – he nursed on Cora – who had not nursed in over a week.

We won’t be using these Easy Wean appliances in the future.  They come off our Dexter babies too easily.  Our little yard seems to be a really good place for the babies to be fence-weaned from now on.

I’m just glad we got home when we did.  Dwayne had also forgotten to go get feed.  And Co-Op was closed.  He got to drive all the way to Lenoir City and buy feed to get us through until Monday.

Dishing out a completely different feed to our cattle in an instant is something that can downright set me to pulling feathers out of my butt.  But I had enough of the other left over to mix in for the next couple of feedings.  And we handed out extra hay.

It turned out to be a positive.  These animals went nuts over the Purina Stocker Grower.  Cora’s previous owner used that feed.  After watching them eat without flipping feed bowls and leaving absolutely no waste – we decided to stick with what works.  Our cattle have begun to lay down in contentment and chew their cud a lot more.  This is what we want to see.  It means they’re actually digesting their food properly.  The mountains of manure in the paddocks are nowhere to be found.

We’ve been able to reduce Cora’s ration back to the same feed and amount as everyone else.  We compensated a little with morning hay until we got her moved over with Artist and April.  All in all – everyone is now grazing more productively as we want.

We’ve been putting Stormy and Dodger through a gamut of training centered around their halters and lead ropes.  They’ve also been going through conditioning for getting used to us removing their halters when they come into the stalls at night – and putting them back on before they step outside for breakfast in the mornings.  The routine of off and on helps with being able to stand beside them anywhere and put a halter on them for any reason in the future.

We’re now able to stand around with them.  They have no problems letting us pet and love on them.  Both boys are settling in with common routines and almost walk right beside us.  They take no issue to walking up to us now – as well.

It’s the petty little things you can do during feeding time that can be used for big reasons down the road.  I use my ‘buzz words‘ as I did with the others.

They even stand still out in the little yard and let us adjust their halters without any need for a lead rope.  I always give a few minutes to connect ‘does that feel better?‘ to a problem being fixed – long enough for them to focus on the difference in how the fix feels.

They connect the dots in no time at all.  And a strong sense of trust blossoms enough to allow us all the time we need.  They come to understand that we’re doing something for them that will help them feel more comfortable.

There have been several various routines we’ve begun to teach and swap.  These routines allow helping them become comfortable with things like being tied to posts with enough excess lead rope that lets them eat from a feed bowl on the ground.  No more stretching in attempts to break free.  No more need to tie them up taut – as is done when they are being administered to for any animal care or grooming.  This was an issue while they were in the same paddock with Patty.  But it is – pretty much – something normal to be expected.  That’s why training is important.

They were allowed to keep their feed bowls all day for the first day.  They had not finished their rations.  But we let them slide.  They both left a little bit of feed in their bowls on the second day.  I gave them time until I finished feeding everyone and tending to the chickens before pulling their bowls and passing the leftovers to Artist and April.  Leftovers don’t get left inside the barn to encourage rodents.  And both boys decided to finish up all their rations before I took up their bowls that next morning.

The really cool thing about all this training and conditioning is that we don’t have to spend months going through boring repetitions.  One of the many wonderful traits that Irish Dexter Cattle possess is a strong level of memory retention.  For example – Bruce went months without a halter and not being put on a lead rope.  He still throws a fit when we try putting his halter on.  Always has.  Until we bring out the bucket with a treat.  And when we hook that lead rope – it’s as if he spent the day before walking all around the entire area with us.

Artist – April – and Cora are now in a paddock together.  The girls will remain with Artist until a week or so out from their due dates – if we’re lucky enough to get our young man to succeed.

Dodger and Storm will remain in the little yard for a while longer – while they go through more continued training.  Soon - they’ll be moved back to the paddock where they were born and nursed.

Bruce is now in a paddock by himself – but center to the other two larger paddocks.  He’s able to commune with everyone at the fences.  He’ll have the best of both worlds – until he goes to Hampton’s in November.

Already – in the short time since Patty and Killian were taken to Hampton’s – all the others seem to have calmed down so much.  You can feel the quiet and the peacefulness in the air.  You look at all of them during mid-day and there might be 1 or 2 standing.

Cora has already started her assertiveness toward April at the feed bunker.  But we’re working on that.  She gets a special treat for being a good girl if she shares.

Our cost for a 50lb. bag of feed has gone up almost $2.00 per bag.  And we’re driving all the way to Lenoir City to buy it.  Yet - the feed bill has gone down.  There is no more waste – period.  And we’re able to work scheduling for buying feed alongside other errands requiring driving to Lenoir City.

I’ve been really tickled by our little Fig tree this year!  This is its second season growing here.  And that little puppy has just loaded up with gorgeous figs!  I only get about a half-dozen ready each day now.  But if all goes well – it’s a sure sign that I’ll be canning fig preserves next year!

If that little Fig tree doesn’t double up next year – it’ll triple up with some wonderful fruit!

Our dominate Americauna Rooster is coming up absolutely gorgeous!  Took him a while.  But he finally got a handle on his ‘crow.‘   He had a pubescent ‘Bobbie Brady Thing‘ going on there for a few weeks.  We laughed every time we heard him!

He’s funny to watch.  I’ve caught him resting a couple times and it looks so weird!  He doesn’t lay all the way down!  He only bends his knees and ends up resting on his drumsticks!  Haha!

And the Girls are growing so big and so pretty!  Amazes me how we can end up with 24 chickens that are 95% more quiet than the other 5 we had before!  Never again will I even look at a Buff Orpington!!

We are struggling to keep up with the grass around here.  And it’s got the upper hand on us at the moment.  But we’ll get there!  One way or another – we will win that battle.  I can’t stand high grass!  Words start crawling all over me – like ‘snakes‘ – ‘ticks‘ – ‘rats‘ – ‘chiggers.‘

Eeewwwwww!

The garden’s going good.  I’ve been breading and freezing Okra for bagging with the FoodSaver.  I’ve been blanching and freezing green beans.  I’m gaining on a few packages of Purple Hull Peas.  We have tomatoes coming.  God willing – they’ll make it to harvesting for sauce and diced tomatoes to be canned.

The Eggplant just seems to be refusing to die.  We’ve had an awesome season of Eggplant Parmesan this year! And we have more eggplant coming every time we harvest a few.  All from 1 single plant.  I don’t get it!

There is one thing I think I goofed up on.  I thought I planted Spaghetti Squash in one of the tractor tires.  The little babies on these 2 puppies are way too round and dented – like a melon.  And if I’m not mistaken – the seeds may have come from an envelope that I forgot to mark.

I think I had one of those ‘ Screw it – let’s do it for shits n giggles ‘ days.

I only know this.  If I’d done it deliberately – they would have croaked.  With my luck – we’ll end up with some really delicious melon for Christmas.

There it is again.  The story of my life!

Exercising my Hand - That's What This Is

I gained some freedom yesterday!  We headed over to the Orthopedic Surgeon’s office for post-op exam and further instructions.  I got my stitches out!  Now I’m trapped with 3 Butterfly tape stitches until this weekend.  And then – I’m supposed to become very intimate with my hand.

Get yer mind outta the gutter!  I’m supposed to massage the wound with vitamin E oil.

This time – I cornered him into clarification between a couple instructions.  I’m not allowed to carry or hold anything with weight – whatsoever – until after August 6^th.  And then I begin with light weights and work my way up.

I guess that leaves out hauling 50lb. sacks of feed around for a while more.

But I have not been an angel.  And I really don’t care what anyone thinks about it.  All the naggers are usually the ones that haven’t gone through the surgery.  Go figure.  " Shut up.  I can order Voo Doo Dolls, online. "

I got so fed up with everything being done to my body and put into my body giving me a list of more problems – enough that I made a pretty serious decision.  I just quit eating and taking any kind of pill.  I drank some coffee – on occasion.  Instead – I just drank water.

Somehow – a $15 plastic jar full of Chocolate-Covered Almonds I’d just bought at Costco dwindled down to about 1 cup left in the whole container.  Was not me.  I lost 6 pounds!  I made my husband stand with me while I got on the scale.

I still have a far way to go.  But Jen helped with getting 6 pints of Jalapeno Peppers canned.

And last night – Dwayne and I finished putting up 4 jars of homemade jelly from our ‘ Kay Gray ‘ grapes!  Our first batch – ever – so far!  We made the recipe that does not call for pectin ( less sugar! ).  Trust me.  A little bit goes a long way on a piece of toast.  And the flavor is absolutely amazing!

We got this shot of the spaghetti and yellow hook-neck squash popping for us in the tire – before we had to yank it out.  Those damn squash borers.  Maybe next year.

This is what I thought was a different variety of Kale.  Yeah.  The ranch dressing goes with it really well!  Ha!  What can I say?  The leaves never killed me!  Worked in my salads for a while – until I realized it was Broccoli.

They say you get an average of 5-6 Eggplant from this plant.  Well.  That was about 4 Eggplant back – and even more are on the way!

Our ‘Carmine Splendor F1’ Okra from Johnny’s Seeds is looking gorgeous!  And just loaded with oncoming Okra!

The Purple Hull Peas get along with the Okra really well!

I love the flowers from the Purple Hull Peas!

And the pods are huge!

The green beans are blooming now.  Won’t be long!

The Peppers are loaded and doing really wonderful!  The Lettuce is looking gorgeous.  But I’m getting ready to replant that.  Getting too tall for the peppers.

The tomatoes are doing really good.  And I’ve started letting them go to fruit.  The carrots around them are throwing out the tops like it’s nobody’s business.  And the Basil is just downright happy!

Okay – one more thing and then I gotta go.   My hand’s throwing dirty looks – threatening to slap me.  Totally showing the hand that I can use a hammer with my right hand.

Like I’d really do that!  But the hand does not know.

Anyway…

What do you do when somebody commits to cutting your hay – and then never bothers showing up or calling?

You go buy your own damn equipment.

And you never forget what happened.

Blue Hay baler in the back.

Dwayne had just picked up the sickle-mower and hoisted it off the pickup bed so he could go buy the rake.

The Rake.

Okay.  Off to rest.

Surgery Tomorrow - Next 4 Months Crazy

I decided to drop a few things on the list and get a posting in before I go in for Carpal Tunnel surgery tomorrow morning.  They’ll be doing my left hand first.  The right hand will come a few weeks later – once the left hand has healed enough for me to be able to use it.

I’ve put up with the pain for so long that I’m not even worried about the surgery.  More than anything – I’m worried about my husband.  To begin with – he’s having to use all his vacation time to be at home taking care of me and our little micro-farm.

I’ve been trying to get as many things taken care of and out of the way since my last posting.  There’s been quite a bit going on.  And this deal with the Carpal Tunnel has just wedged itself smack in the middle of some crucial events going on here.

The 2 bull calves have some major turning points coming this next week.  Thank God – Dwayne has a couple of friends that will be able to come help.  Dodger and Stormy are being tagged and de-horned.  Both will be given their intranasal vaccines.  And Stormy will be banded.

I’ll be in the babies’ sight for dispersing the intranasal vaccines.  But I’m disappearing for all the other work.  I’ll be honest.  I’m not happy about these tasks being taken care of so far from the date of their birth.  But I am not the only human living here.  I haven’t been able to get in there and do it myself – no thanks to the Carpal Tunnel.  My choices were outvoted somehow. So – Dwayne gets to deal with all that stuff without me around.  He gets to work 3 times harder to regain trust with those 2 boys.

And if the flies bring problems after the de-horning - he'll just have to put up with another Vet bill.  End of THAT conversation.

Speaking of Vet bills…

We had to have Dr. Kate come out to help us with Miss Cora.  My eyes fell upon a nasty surprise at the feeder bunker a couple weeks ago.

Long story short – it was an old nail in one of the boards from the barn – all from time before we bought this place.  Cora had shoved on the Cattle Rub enough to yank it off the barn wall – and the piece of board went with it.

Apparently – her foot got tangled in the mess and she took a nail to her leg above the hoof.  Dwayne had cleared all the debris from the outside stall.  But I found the projectile that evening – at the feeder.

It’s always been a habit for me to check my animals out while they’re feeding.

I conned her into the barn with no sweat – before Kate arrived.  But it took 2 darts before she went down.

We got lucky.  The nail went in and out – in 2 different places – completely missing anything significant.  Would have been able to drain.  Even better that I found it before that became any issue.  All that was needed was a thorough cleansing and a Tetanus vaccine.

Well - Dwayne ended up searching the bedding with a magnet - until he found the nail.  It popped out when she stood up after her first drunken fall.  LOL

Took advantage of Cora while we had her down.  Finally – Kate was able to hit her with her annuals and replace her tag.

She was pretty drunk for a while – even after she could maintain standing on all four legs!  We took advantage of that opportunity as well!  Dwayne and I spent time loving on her – just petting her pretty face and – finally – getting to touch her!

She’s just like me.  She doesn’t remember a thing.  We’re back to ‘ don’t touch me, ‘ again.

At this point in time – the garden is coming along.  We had to replant tomatoes.  I had to re-seed squash and melons.  Oddly enough – the squash that are coming along are from seeds I saved out of Spaghetti squash that I purchased at the grocery store last year.  All others failed – including all the melons.

We’ve already harvested 4 eggplant and a mess of Cilantro and Jalapeno peppers!

Purple hull peas – Okra - and Green Beans are coming along just wonderfully!  We’ll be amending the tires around beginning of August and seeding the one where the melons failed – with Kale.  We’ll be planting more cilantro and spinach seeds.  If I find room – more carrots.

The 18" rubber stepping stones I ordered from Home Depot arrived!  I picked them up from the store in Lenoir City last week.  Hoping I’ll feel up to getting them set in sometime this next weekend.

I am flat-dab loving my  little $9.99 yellow rose bush that I bought at the Flower Shop inside Food City!  So perrrrty!

And the Butterfly Flower bush that we bought at Garden of Eden is putting out a new wave of flowers.  That tells me it has established its roots nice and comfy in its new home and feels quite content!

Our Gang of 24 is doing just fabulous!  Everybody is growing and staying perfectly healthy – minus one of our Roos that bruised his hip – and his ego - by jumping from the coop rafters.  Both the boys have began crowing.  Not quite perfected.  But enough to stir the sense of humor out of us and our neighbors!

Yet – we are all amazed by how quiet 2 dozen birds have been – compared to the 4 that we sent to Heaven before bringing these chicks home!

The date is set for August 13^th – when Dwayne will be taking Patty and Killian to butcher.  All in all – we have Decided that behaviors in Patty are something that do not fit in the plan and hopes we have for our herd here.  Most of all – we’re not happy with the obvious fear of humans she manages to instill in the cattle around her.

And she has a very bad habit of hurting the others if you threaten to not let her have her way with anything.

Through all the moving about and swapping out roommates during various stages of ongoings around here – I’ve seen enough to know how much of a difference in gentleness is exhibited by others when Patty is nowhere around.

I’ve also experienced a second go-round of a difference in time and techniques I’m having to try and find during training with her calves.  Once I get them away from her and give of myself to them – they become absolutely lovable!  My concern is her bad behavior showing up in her offspring and other cattle after watching her behavior.

Something I am seeing in both of Cora’s calves – Killian and Stormy – is possible aggression.  Stormy is already behaving very headstrong as he becomes older.  It is a trait far from the gentleness we are looking for in any bull.  Therefore – Stormy will be banded and tagged for the freezer in the future.

Killian’s bad feet are the main reason for his trip to the freezer.

We jeri-rigged half the barn alley for the bull calves as a creep feeder and a place to just get away and rest during the heat of the day.  Dwayne and I yanked out the divider a couple days ago – to give more room for training the boys to walk on their lead ropes.

Miss April has chosen to start laying in front of the door since we pulled the dividers out of the alley.  She knows those babies are in there - and the dividers are gone!  She turns 16-months-old on August 1^st.  Once she shows signs of going into heat – we’ll be introducing her to Artist!

She's getting so big now!  And she just becomes more beautiful every day!  She is ' Mama's Girl ' through and through!  And she loves her Mama!

Bruce will be going to Killian’s paddock while this takes place.  I bet he’ll miss the baths given by Artist.

We expect Cora to go in with Artist around the end of August – after Patty and Killian are taken to butcher.  This will - also - give the calves more time around one of the Moms to aide in a smooth transition during weaning for both calves.  Cora is known to nurse both the boys!

I’m pulling tail hairs from Dodger today.  The more time I spend with him – the more he just melts in my arms.  But more importantly – all visuals of his physique give both of us reason for seeing possibility in a really nice bull out of the line coming from PF Little Big Man!

So far - there is no other progeny – that we know to be registered - to carry on the line between Patty and Little Big Man.  And it is a really good line with great potential.  If we get testing results on a few other things that please us well enough – Dodger will be kept intact and registered.  If not - he'll be banded as soon as we receive test results.

I would say things will be quite different within the next 4 months.  But I think we’ll be quite pleased!  I’m even counting on the replacement of tomato plants as a sign that tomatoes won’t be ready for canning until after both my hands have healed from surgery!

I hope all of you are hanging in there and receiving blessings from God along the way.  I’ll keep everyone in my thoughts and prayers while I’m away from the keyboard.

Well – I might try cheating once in a while – henpecking on Twitter when I get a chance.  Ha!