All Things Must Come To An End

No silly rabbits and much to the dismay of some I am not leaving the blogisphere....   Cant get rid of me that easy!

After about 7 years of keeping clothes up on my little clothesline I am closing it down

Senior and I are so busy, and keeping up with two separate blogs has been a bit of a task. So, one night while sitting around our firepit and indulging in adult beverages we decided to merge our blogs into one new one..   Thus I give you :

Haze Gray and Red Clay

So update your blog rolls and go over and hit our all new follow button. I look forward to seeing you all over there as we embark on our new adventure...

-JUGM 

Rainy Sunday

A cool and light,slow moving rain has settled in this morning, and I got up early to tend to all the animals before the heavier stuff starts. I apologize for the lack of posts lately...we have just been really busy around here.

Spring break came and went way too fast, but we got some things done. Like the new pen for the hogs. Senior took a couple of days off during that week so we could get it finished and move the girls in.

 They have nearly doubled in size since we first brought them home. It has been quite the experience...they are lots of fun to watch, and now that they have acclimated themselves to us, they like nuzzling up to us and even let us rub their backs and scratch their heads sometimes. We have decided to keep the spotted one, later in the summer we will start looking for a boar and hope to successfully breed her. Piglets are big money around here...especially the sows. The next building project is her own enclosure, we are going to put it right next to where her sisters are so they can still see and interact with each other. The two black ones are from a different litter then her and they over take the feeding trough and boot her out of everything. Those two will eventually be in the freezer....I guess that is poetic justice in a way because one day the spotted one could potentially eat the scraps of her bully sisters....

We have also been busy with the garden, got the corn in two weeks ago and the first sprouts popped though last week. We spent the money and time putting together a drip irrigation system which helps tremendously with watering and keeping the weeds under control. Then last weekend spent almost the entire evening on Easter Sunday putting in everything else like green beans, onions, squash, tomatoes, cabbage, a variety of different peppers, pickle bush cucumbers, and a load of cantaloupe plants. I hit the annual high school garden sale, and was only going to get 3 cantaloupe plants, but we had a cold snap the night before and they all looked crummy, so the lady said to take the entire tray at no extra charge just in case some don't make it...well, she obviously did not know me, I brought them home, loved them and gave them water and sunlight...and "POOF" they all came back so 12 plants went into the garden...hope all my friends and neighbors around here like cantaloupe..lol

We planted red potatoes in February and I have to tell you, the crop is looking very promising. Blooms have started to come out and I know with this rain that is moving in it will only help...

Last year the boys and I worked on a little garden area... Kind of like a memorial place for mine and Seniors parents, well yesterday we got out there and did some cleaning up and  added in pine needles. My gladiolas have broken through and blooms should start popping out any day..my mother loved her gladiolas I added them in just for her. And while they have not sprouted yet, I do have some elephant ears in there. It sits  outside of the kitchen window and I can look down at it and watch the birds on the feeders and even one pesky squirrel that wont stay off. The next thing to add will probably be a bird bath.  It is very nice here in the evenings, as it over looks the garden and faces west so we can watch the sun go down. There is an aspect of each of our parents in this little area, and it makes us feel closer to them.

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday, now that the garden is in, all there is left to do is watch it all grow, so I hope to post more often and yes Senior and I are still working on the one project I mentioned in an earlier post...

-JUGM

Ha!

The Three Little Pigs....

Once upon a time....Okay no this is not a fairy tale...  

But If you had told Senior and I Ten years ago, that we would be living out in the country, with property, chickens and now hogs..I would have just shaken my head. And said you were living in some fantasy world...
 While I was ready to leave living in a subdivision, I just did not see or could have predicted all that would happen to our family.  However time has flown by and with that came changes that we would have never thought possible.
God has truly blessed us, we have grown closer as a couple and as a family....Life is certainly good here at our little estate.

We picked up the girls this past weekend..  I think we will call them " Joanie, Lisa and Kathryn"  Since there are people out there that seem to follow suit and do what we do, I suspect it will be only a matter of time before they get hogs...  ( okay enough of being catty) 

The beginning of March a little bit of snow fell...  One thing I notice when it gets cold like that and snow falls is that all the song birds tend to come out..

And the woodpeckers....they seem to like playing in snow:

But, all that is gone now, it melted by that afternoon, it was fun though while it lasted. And made for some great pics..

Well kids, I got chores to do, time to bug out of here for a bit. Stay tuned to the clothesline, as changes may be coming soon...oh we aren't leaving the blogisphere....just thinking of doing a make over of sorts... 

-JUGM

Safe Places...

If you are in need of entertainment then here ya go..

Its something for all the little snowflakes out there...and its pretty funny.

-JUGM

piglets and other things

So we started off our search for piglets by going to a livestock auction, which produced nothing. Then I went to the craiglist ads. After searching and searching, emailing this one and that one, we finally found a hog farmer that was about 30 minutes away. So this past Sunday we took a drive. 

The daddy is a red waddle, and the moms are berkshire/hampshire mixes... the end results were some nice colorful and very healthy babies. He had three litters and we got to have our pick of the last litter. So we put a deposit down on 3 Sows.  They will be fully weaned and  available for pickup at the end of this month. 

Honestly we can't wait. This is a new adventure for us, and if we do well I think we are going to buy our own boar and sow and do some breeding. The market around here for sows is insane.

And we already have them named: Breakfast, Lunch and Supper....LOL 

The farmer had a menagerie of everything, but his real passion besides the pigs were his birds, all kinds of quails, peacocks, chickens and one "Guard Turkey" appropriately named Big Black. This darn bird followed us everywhere.

He also has two ponds with a full flock of Muskogee ducks that are actually his wife's doing. This guys farm was absolutely beautiful, we can't wait to go back to pick up the piglets....

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In other news, our warm weather is turning and we are do some freak cold air with even a chance for snow on Sunday. Yes snow in March here...not actually unheard of but, with this warm winter we thought it would never happen.. But, it is just a chance and the weather forecasters always screw these things up so we will see what happens. Either way, the temps are supposed to drop. First its all been unseasonably warm, now the lows are going to go below normal... So now I wonder if the trend is going to be cooler then normal temps for spring and summer...well it really wouldn't surprise me. The weather has just been plain wonky everywhere!... 

-JUGM

Kids Bug-Out Survival Bag

 When we asked the boys what they would like for Christmas this year, the first answer was for dad to put together a grown up survival/bug out bag for them. When they were little we started them off with some simple items, like a water bottle, change of clothes, compass and some small form of entertainment.

Senior was in all his glory shopping for these bags, looking for useful items that kids could use in the event we needed to bug out. 

First we found these bags from Mossy Oak, extremely roomy and can hold a lot of stuff:

 

The bags are so roomy inside that they can even carry their Hennessy Hammocks they got for their birthdays in 2015. 

Senior addressed three main areas when planning for these bags: First it was food, he got them a couple of bags of Mountain Houses, and a block of Emergency Food rations, these bricks are available anywhere and give you around 2400 calories..

Next came Warmth...before we added this to their bag Senior held several fire starting classes with them, and made sure he knew that they were well educated and versed in fire safety.  The orange can is "Murray's Super Light" hair dressing it is  very flammable,  Just rub a cotton ball around in it and put it in some tender. We also included some fire starters to spark a flame.  Fire is not only essential in keeping warm and cooking but it is essential to a persons morale.

Next and probably the most important item is water... He found this water bag squeeze filtration system. You put water in the blue bag and filter it out through the orange thing at the top.  A person can go three weeks without food, but the human body can only go three days without water...  A water filtration source should be the most important thing in anyone's bug out bag...

Shelter is also an important component, and we love the Hennessy Hammocks, first off they keep you off the cold wet ground. We gave them a Shemagh scarf to help camouflage them if we are out in the woods etc. And the boys think it is totally fun to wear them...lol

Some other useful items are a couple of pocket knifes, a multi tool and compass...got to know where you are going!

For this past Fathers Day we got Senior this folding saw...He loved it! And added one to the boys bags, it is great for cutting small branches and brush.

I know there are people out there probably scratching their heads as to why we  allow our kids to carry around knives and fire starting items..Well unlike yuppy kids, our kids are well versed in safety and carry with them the knowledge of using these items, they understand they are not a toy, and could one day save their lives. Our boys love to get outside and pretend to Bug-Out, they will set up their hammock tents and make a little campsite, it gives them responsibility and independence... They see their parents, prepping and carrying around this cool stuff and they want to as well. I guess it gives them a sense of importance.

So if you are searching for a gift idea for kids who are like ours, I recommend putting something together for them.
 Just keep the child's age in mind, some of the things we have for our kids, may not be age appropriate for yours.

Items that are not posted but just as important are A change of clothes, poncho,  flashlight, para-cord, toiletries and first aid items...

-JUGM