Animals and signs of fall

A lot of pictures around the farm of the animals, lot of pics and a lot of animals too. Here I am trying to get Daisy to let me know when the kids are gonna be here. She's not telling. Guess that nice stroke on the nose just don't do much for her.
The ducks always come to see if the steers left and food for them. They are little bums. We feed these ducks several times a day and they still come running everytime they see one of us.

The trusted farm dog. Smokey Bear. How could ya not love that face.
Cheif, our buck pygmy just hangin out.
Liv talking it over with one of the goats. I bet their talking about me. I just know it.

Our little Honey Girl had a surpise for us today, 3 black puppies. Not sure about the father of these pups, probably a wanderer just passing through. She likes the "ruff" type.
From that look I belive I have taken enough pics of her baby's.

Our oldest calico cat, patches, enjoying the day outside with us.
This is one of Honey Girls pups too.. Bandit is about 4 years old now and still so little. He's my little grandson. haha!!!
Liv and Katie with 2 of patches kittens, I think Katie is holding Fluffy and Liv has Iddy Biddy. Patches is in the floor keepig and eye on things.


There are sure sign s of fall around there these days and not just the cool nights. The trees are starting to change their color.

Sir. Loin and T-Bone eating a little hay. Hang in there boys, won't be long until your in the freezer.

Arm Yourself with Information

As we all are thinking about prepping for when the poop hits the fan, consider information as a #1 priority. Now we can search the net for all the good stuff that we like to learn about and read to our hearts content, but what about when the grid is down. When TSHF big time like, the grid will most likely be down too, leaving us all of a sudden unarmed with that infomation that was so readily available before. I suggest doing what I have been doing for a while now, if you like it and learn from it, PRINT IT. That's right, just click print, then store your hard copy in your organized notebook that you have just for this information. Sort by subject matter and now you can arm yourself on or offgrid with survival information. I hate to think that I had forgoten a firestarting trick or a water purification step in all the maddness that is to come. Think of new topics that interest you that you want to learn about and click and print. Make this notebook as large or small as you wish, the information you may need will vary with individuals and with their situations I'm sure, but you get the picture.

Can't seem to get Prepping off my mind

For the last several days my mind has been on prepping like crazy. With the economy in the shape it's in everyone should be getting ready for a long hard ride. I'm not really the gloom and doom kinda guy but I know what I see and what I feel and I don't like either. The "Bail Out" is gonna cost us a bunch, I don't what anyone to loose money I just don't want to be the one to pay them back if they do, ya know? When I was down and out a few years ago I don't remember the gov. working late at night to secure my well being or even caring if I lived or died. Come April 15th though and they know excatly who I am and my ability to to pay them their cut.

It's this junk that keeps my up at night wondering if I have done enough to be prepared. There are many more preps that I would like to have but I'm in good shape overall. More guns and ammo are always nice, but you need far more than that for the long haul. Food and heat are the most important to me right now. I have been splitting firewood like a mad man. I think I have enough for 3 average winters, average being the key word there. Most folks think were in for a long, cold and dark time, I feel they may be right, and not just about the weather. Gonna make a run to Big Lots and see what else I can come up with in the canned good department. I got a 20% coupon off your entire purchase through an email yesterday and I'm gonna take advantage of it. Anything you add to your food storage is better than nothing. Our gov can't take care of us and wouldn't even if they could so rule that out right off the bat. It's gonna be the good people of this country that have prepared for TSHF that will survive these dark days ahead. Are you one of them???????

Went to town the other day to pay my property tax. Grrrrrr!!!!! I told the lady there that I was here to make my freedom payment and she looked at me kinda funny and ask what I was talking about. Well as I understand it, if I fail to come in and make this payment the county will sell the property that I OWN to the highest bidder. Now does that sound like freedom to you I ask. She was quick to take my money and give me a reciept that shows that I can keep MY property for another year.

No Kidding.......Really!!

Katie giving Daisy an exam to see when we might expect the kids. She is getting fatter by the day.
Liv and Katie are keeping a close eye on the goats these days. We can hardly wait for the kids to arrive.

I guess that I am a little off on the due date of the goat kids seeing as we still don't have any. I had thought that they should be due around mid September but I'm wrong again. I am going by the date we introduced them to Cheif, our pygmy buck, I never seen them do the dirty deed so I'm not sure when it happened. They are for sure packing on the weight though. Here is Katie feeding Emily, the only pygmy doe that we have. They are both so cute. We have been keeping them in the fenced garden area during the night the last week or so and they have really cleaned it up. This part of the garden ran it's course and now the goats are adding manure in large quanities. We turn them out during the day to forage on all the good weeds and grass around the yard, saves me some work too.

A Little About Woodstoves

I guess this is really a little about my woodstove but, you get the idea. I have posted about this stove before but thought this might be a good time of year to bring it up again. We were looking for a used fireplace insert last summer without any luck. There were some out there but not what we were looking for. When it seemed all hope for a used one was lost a call came, it was Liv's uncle back in West Virginia. He asked if we had ever found a stove yet, no we hadn't. He then proceeded to tell us that a friend that I had went to school with back in the day had one that he said we could have for FREE !!! Liv's uncle Scotty looked it over and said it looked to be in great working condition, just needed a little paint. So I was off to WV on a stove run. My friend (Conrad) who had the stove said he was just goning to haul it to the junk yard because he couldn't find anyone that wanted it. Think about that, no one was willing to just pick this stove up for free. Well after I got home with the stove I cleaned it up a bit and spray painted it with heat resistent black paint and it was ready to go. Fit our space perfect and looks pretty good too.

There is a 10 inch lip on the top that can be used to cook or just heat water if need be. By turning the blower off the top of the stove gets really hot fast. This could be a life saver in an emergency situation. We keep this old iron pot filled with water during heating season to put a little moisture into the air. Another thing to consider when purchasing a stove is the blower. Ours has one and it is wonderful to sit in front of the stove on those cold nights and mornings. The hot air warms your bones and the room too. A stove without a blower is not as bad as you may think though. You can just set a floor fan in front of the stove and it helps to pull the warm air through the house. Another thing to keep in mind is the draft control, this ofcourse controls the amount of air that the stove takes in through a vent somewhere on the stove. Ours is on the sides near the bottom. The more you open them, the more air goes into the fire box. And we all know that a fire needs air to burn, more air, more fire. Once your fire box gets good and hot it will pull air (draw) into the fire. At this point you can close your draft a little so your fire dosen't get too hot or just burn up fast. At night I load my stove with good dry hardwood, let it catch up and get good and hot and then close the draft almost completly. This allows the fire to just sit and smolder all through the night. The next morning, open the draft, poke it a few times and your back in the heat. Keep in mind that all stoves operate differently, even 2 of the same exact stoves will have their own personalities. If you're purchasing one for the first time, like my friend Marie and her family, just keep a close eye on the fire and the stove and you will soon learn how to use your stove to keep your home and most importantly your family nice and warm this winter. Always use CAUTION!!!!

There is an ash pan in the bottowm behind a small door to remove the ashes, these go into the compost pile and on the garden area in general. Wood ashes are a very good amendment to your soil, adding, among other things, lye. If one is ambitious enough you can use these ashes to make lye soap also.

Punkins, Punkins Everywhere !!!

First let me say that I am very sorry it's been so long since the last post. This simple life that I am trying to live is getting more complicated by the day. Long story and I'm not going to bore you with my problems.

We harvested some punkins and gourds from the garden the other day. Got some nice looking gourds and some yummy punkins.
This is not what I had in mind as food storage but, atleast it's a start. haha!!My girls cleaning out 2 punkins and getting ready to carve them.Katie getting a hand full of punkin flesh.We ofcourse roasted the seeds and they were great.Made 2 loafs of pumpkin bread with this recipe from pick your own. I have already eaten half of one of them. Sooooo Gooooood.Pureed some of the pumpkin to freeze. Seems it's not really recommended to can pumpkin.
Savannah's pumpkin. Katie's Thomas the Train pumpkin.

Trying to get back !!

Sorry to all, I have been gone and really busy as of late. Gonna try to post an update in a day or two.