Farm Happenings, and Stuff

Whew!
Do you know that Wii Sports boxing can burn about 100 calories per 15 minutes?

I kid you not.

The last few nights Ben and I have been looking for something other than movies to do after the kids go to bed. We figured out that our Wii can be used for more than just netflix. ;) We loaded up Sports and actually had quite a good time, bowling and boxing. And it's burning pretty good calories.

My weight has been steadily climbing since my last pregnancy and it's got to stop. I'm sure part of it is the ultra-fatty pasta alfredo, pizza, and fried pork chops we've been eating. So the last two weeks or so I have started cutting down on calories and getting more exercise. Luckily exercise is coming fairly easy now that the weather is (well, WAS) warming up. Mucking out a barn burns a lot of calories!

We found out that the goats are too small still for breeding. :( So now I am on the lookout for a doe that is ready to deliver in a month or so that we can purchase. I found a beautiful Alpine doe on craigslist, but alas, I can't justify spending $300 for a goat.

We have a flock of 8 chickens now - 6 hens and 2 roosters. Ole Red and Popcorn made it through the winter. Roosie Jr. Jr. did not. :( We had three generations of that roo on our farm and now he's gone. It makes me sad.

We have decided to increase our flock - again. We will be going to Tractor Supply during their Chick Days and letting the girls pick out a few. We'll also try to hatch at least one incubator (20-30 eggs). Ben is on the fence about trying meat chickens again this year - we need some equipment, but if we can make/purchase that in time, we'll do a small meat chicken order.

Over last weekend we dug up 12 wild raspberry plants and replanted them in our nice mulched/fertalized berry patch. I also dug up 3 of my grapes that may or may not make it - I can't remember which ones were growing last year. This weekend we hope to dig up all the wild blackberries that we have around - hundreds, easily, and add some of them to the berry patch.

I have fruit trees on order - quite a few, actually, as well as a few more grape plants. I have apples, peaches, pears, and cherries coming. It's very exciting. We have found these large 'cages' that are used with large glue tanks in commercial glue companies. They are about 5 foot square and they keep the goats from being able to eat newly planted trees.

Our bees are alive! We're not sure just HOW alive, but there was definite activity during the few warm days we had. I do hope that the cold snap again hasn't hurt them. Hopefully they got some pollen while they were out and have a tiny bit extra food. We saw a lot of small, tiny bees (hopefully babies = good breeding/hatching going on). Ben has another hive up and ready and we are getting another 4 pound package of bees in April, so we'll have two hives going. And hopefully our first hive will swarm and we will catch it - 3 hives!

We also took out our mason bee house and looked inside, which I will post later because I got some cool pictures of it. We only found larve. :( But we're going to try again. Mason bees and "orchard" bees are great for fruit trees because they buzz around right as most trees are budding and flowering - unlike honey bees, which come out either too early or too late, depending on what kind of tree.

So that's the farm happenings! I love spring.

Spring? SPRING?

I love winter. Really, I love winter.

But you know what? Enough's enough. I would go into all the reasons why I'm sick of it, but, well, I'm sure you know.

Yesterday was a balmy, sunny 45 degrees. The farm jumped into action. I swear, it was like a switch had turned on. The bees came back to life (we were pretty sure they were dead) and were buzzing frantically around, cleaning out their house and starting up life again. The chickens were wandering around for the first time in a while. The goats were nibbling some grass that had come uncovered as the snow melted. Even the birds were chirping.

I saw our hated enemy friend the hawk, sweeping over the fields. I have to admit, he's a beauty. I just wish he would stop eating our chickens. I get sick of watching him dive after them.

Spring is such a frenzied time, even for a small farm like ours. Here's some of the things that need to be done this year:

• Clean out the barn completely. Everything is going. All the bedding, stocked hay, everything. The goats are now corraled in the smaller pen and sleeping in the (empty) chicken house. The barn needs to be completely mucked, pressure washed, and set to rights.
• Fence in the whole pasture with field wire fence, layered with electric lines. We've found that the electric-only works only so-so, and goats are natural escape artists anyway, so we're going to panel it all in field wire before we let the goats out into the main pasture. We'll use the electric lines to keep them from head-butting or rubbing up against the field fence.
• Start up our berry patch in the back. We mucked out about 1/3 of the barn Sunday and all of that wonderful, crappy mulch and straw went back to the berry area. I layered it down nicely.
• Get some grape trellises up and running.
• At least experiment with cold weather crops - lettuces, broccoli, etc. I've never even attempted them, so I'm going to semi-blindly dive in.
• Get some fruit trees going.
• Construction: What I would like to do is construct a new chicken house, complete with roosts and a secure chick area. The chicken house we have now is tiny and not really suited in the way I want it to be (call me picky). The new house will be made of pallet wood and recycled wood as much as possible. I really want to build it myself...
• That being said, I would also like to construct a goat shed with a kidding stall and shelter from the wind. This isn't going to be a complex thing by any means. It just needs to be built.
• Lonnie-the-goat goes to butcher this fall.
• I am on the fence about breeding the girls... I need to do it quick if we're going to do it.
• We will be picking out some chicks from Tractor Supply and also hatching some of our own out here again. We will be butchering 5 or so in fall.

Sooo... yeah, that's it so far! LOL.

Menu Plan Monday: $400 grocery trip

We got our income taxes back and it was sizeable amount, so Saturday I went grocery shopping... and spent $400. Wow. It took  me hours to put away the food, I swear.

So needless to say, we have ingredients for probably every single meal you can think of. The problem is, of course, putting them all together!

Monday - Beef stew with bread and salad. I am debating on this version, which is a "baked" version made in the oven.
Tuesday - Bourbon Chicken with rice and stir-fry veggies (we LOVE this recipe)
Wednesday - Carmelized onion pork chops with baked potatoes and roasted garlic lemon broccoli
Thursday - Pasta, nummy quick garlic breadsticks, salad
Friday - Meatloaf, potatoes, salad, rolls
Saturday - I have no idea...
Sunday - Pot roast and rolls, mmmm...

This is the first week in a month or so that I have actually made a plan, and it feels good to get back in the groove!

Now I'm going to go browse the other plans at Org Junkie to see if I can fill in that Saturday gap...

Random Tuesday: I'm Screwed Version

Oiy.

Alright, so.
Rule 1: Drinking while on meds = craptastic day the next day.

Rule 2: Having a usual med schedule of 9pm, and then taking them at 3am for two days = total screw-up of stability.

I'm teetering on the edge of stable and messed up. The last two days have been a glimpse back into months ago and suddenly I am completely 100% committed to my meds schedule.

Go me.

That being said, I have no energy, mental clarity, or even real desire to blog lately.

Or really any desire to do anything other than watch The Riches, drool over Eddie Izzard, zone practically into unconsciousness, and barely skim by on house chores. Laundry for the sole purpose to heat the house.

Hopefully between no drinking and stabilization of med schedule will even things out again. I was riding a wonderful 4-week straight line (or at least, a very very tiny wave of a line). Now in the last four days it's all been nutty.

Ah well. Ride the waves until things stabilize again.

Kudos
Ket

Boneless Meat: TOTALLY not worth it

I hesitated writing this back when I tried bone-in chicken breasts because I figured ONE experience wasn't enough to make a judgment on. And does "judgment" look weird to you? Because my spell check SWEARS it isn't "judgement" but I swear it's "judgement" and not "judgment" cause, well, it looks weird.

Anyway. Pork chops. I bought pork chops today for dinner. I decided to get the "assorted" pack because it was cheaper per pound. I brought it home. Had Ben smell it (don't ask, I have horrible luck with pork products and them being spoiled). Started to de-bone it.

CRAP. It's all crap! I got maybe 4-5 "chops" worth out of it. Dude, I could have bought the actual pork "chops" for $1 more. I don't do pork broth or else I'd use the bones, so basically, the bones are useless. The time in actually deboning the "assorted" pack? NOT worth it.

It was the same with the chicken. When I figured out the price per pound AFTER deboning, GUESS WHAT? It was actually more expensive than the price per pound for frozen chicken breasts. Less than fresh chicken, but we're not picky, we eat frozen with no problem. Although we really were eating our OWN chicken until recently and now I shudder at the thought of commercial chicken, but I like our bourbon chicken recipe too much to NOT buy it.

So my verdict is I'm going to buy the boneless cuts I need and swallow the cost increase because it's not worth it.
Amen.

Hey, Julie! I found "Pillow Pets" for $10 at our local grocery store. They had a monkey, penguin, ladybug, and bee. I almost bought the ladybug and penguin for my kids but my hubby convinced me that we could buy a LOT of food for $20 and not waste it on pillows. Stupid husband (who I love to death.).

But when I saw them, I totally thought of you. And giggled like a maniac. Yay bipolar.

That is all.
Kudos.

A Most Awesome Lunch

What is this?

THIS is the most awesome lunch. Ever.
I basically threw a bunch of stuff from the fridge onto a tortilla and grilled it, then folded it omlette-style.
This one is spinach, shredded cheddar, pepperoni, and a dab of spaghetti sauce.
And holy moly is it good.

Just wanted to share.

Off to make another one. Mmmmmmmmgood.

Random Tuesday: Cake, Heat, And Who Knows What Else

 Ah, Tuesday, how I missed you.


Alright, so, first on the agenda. Are cake pops becoming the new cupcake? Because that would suck. Although the fight to see who would win would be awesome. I mean, the cupcake could be a sumo wrestler type fighter, and the cake pop could be like the kid from The Karate Kid, the tall stupid one who knocks people out with a well aimed one-legged kick?
Or even better! Cupcake could be Darth Vader! And CakePoP could be LUKE! Becuase you make cupcakes cake and crumble it up to make cake pops. So, really, Cupcake COULD be CakePoP's father!

And then we'll hand Cupcake a tray, have him order a penni, with peas, and kill everyone in the cafeteria. (Watch it. I dare you. It's hilarious. Although Warning: Some expletive language. In a funny way.)



And cake! While we're talking about cake, here's another lovely clip to make you shoot coffee out of your nose smile.

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So Ben, my wonderful handy man husband who can fix everything from dishwashers to car sensors to building a new wall, has rigged our dryer hot air out vent to, well, vent inside. This is HUGE since we only wood heat and we are running out of wood. This has been bothering me.

Talk about an incentive to do chores... do laundry = heat! Be warm! BRILLIANT! Now I wish I could just find a way to vent all the extra heat from the dishwasher that way. I guess it already does that, though, since there's a vent in the front.... hm.

Speaking of heat, the fire is lying to me. It gets hot and red and goes "i'm burning, i'm burning!" and I close it and come back 10 minutes later to find it out completely.
GRR.

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I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that I saw a grocery store ad that had bananas for $.29 and squealed in delight. I squealed. At a grocery store ad. At bananas for $.29.
Yeeeeaaaahhh....

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The Russian language has no word for "the" or "a". They also do not use "to be" in the present tense. In other words, there is no "is" in Russian.

So, translate "He is a journalist."
Turns into "He journalist"
"Where is the letter? Here it is!"
Turns into "Where letter? Here it!"

Makes me think of that chick from The Fifth Element.
MULTI-PAZZ! Big bodda boom!

I wish I could rock out the orange hair.

I have never dyed my hair. Seriously. I've had blonde streaks once (horrible) and red streaks once (that you couldn't see). But never any color.
Must fix that.

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Do we want peas this year in the garden? I've never had a pea plant grow successfully. Actually, thinking about it, I've never had a bean plant grow successfully. Me? Or the ground? I'm betting on me.

Going to try broccoli ths year. We  should have asparagus this year from planting the roots last year. They were one-year-old roots, grew last year, so this should be their 3rd year, where they start producing.

Broccoli. Asparagus. Lettuce, if I can get it to work. Do you "grow" baby carrots or are they just shaped that way from regular sized carrots? Because if you could grow them, that would be a.w.e.s.o.m.e.

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I've been drinking coffee a lot lately. I'm not normally a coffee drinker. But lately it's been nice in the mornings. Maybe cause the new meds I'm on makes me a zombie. And coffee jump-starts everything. Which is great, but I don't particularly think coffee is healthy (on a drink-it-every-day level), AND the coffee I enjoy is $10/bag. Which I pay. Because, ya know, I never drink coffee.
Crap.

I need a jump start today, man. I don't know how but apparently my awesome-house-cleaner-self got 'turned off' over the last few days and the house is deteriorting and now that I know I can actually clean, it's bothering the crap out of me. Who knew that under that blah exterior, there was a perfectionist? Hm.

Okay. I'm done. Actually I'm bored. And my coffee is done. Kudos.

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Need more random thoughts? Head over to The Un Mom. She's got some awesome lair home decorating tips.