More Farm Pictures

Clarabelle. This picture is a really good angle for her; it doesn't show how barrel-like she's getting!

Teddy, with all his pride and none of his tail.

Pretty or pesky.

Our first giant sunflower.

Scruggs is livin' the life.

We canned 19 quarts of green beans this morning.

Kind of pretty, I thought.

We didn't get even enough corn to eat this year! The coons (or whatever it is) have eaten very well though!

Now tell me, how can little tomatoes and mid-sized tomatoes grow on the same vine? Really, there are golf ball-sized tomatoes and normal-sized tomatoes growing on this vine!

Here's a volunteer weed, only... I think it's called ground cherry. I've read that they'll take over, and that they're related to tomatoes. I've even read that they're edible, although I don't know how.

Pig Pics

Well, that's a sort of good picture to show their ever-increasing size.

You know, it's terribly hard to keep these piggies still in order to get a good picture of them!

I just liked this picture.

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Guess what?!! You never will so I tell you! I took these on my own! I still hate the camera though; almost none of my pictures came out clearly!!!

A New "Toy"

Daddy got an Olympus digital voice recorder to be used for our music lessons. Since the Pickin' Parlor closed Mr. Brantley has not been able to record our lessons, making it extremely difficult to learn hard songs. This week he recorded "Rawhide" for me, and it is making it much easier!!! The midi on that page sounds a little like the one he's teaching us.

Well, not much has been going on around here lately. Not too many predator problems. Not much rain (although we have gotten some amazingly). No processings. No calves. Nothin'. We're just going on with laundry and our ordinary, boring life. I suppose boring isn't bad, just kind of dull. It's much better than lively if the liveliness comes from predators though!

Things

I don't know what to title this post. It's not going to be about anything in particular, so much as things that have been happening lately.

Saturday, we went to our cousins' birthday party. Kyle amused us all by picking out the tune to Psalm 25A on some mounted PVC pipes that you play with the sole of a flip-flop. It was hilarious!

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Dug some of our potatoes the other evening. Well, I didn't, but the others did.

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Sometime last week poor Teddy lost all his "only beauty", but, with that, none of his pride! He looks so funny strutting around with no tail! We, unfortunately, have no idea how this calamity happened, but right now it is the least of our worries!


The dark, wild-turkey-looking turkeys will probably have to be kil... umm, I mean processed soon. We'll probably put them in the freezer until this Thanksgiving.






I wish I had some pictures of the pigs to put up. They are getting huge!!! I don't know why, but just lately they seemed to have gotten much bigger. Perhaps I haven't been out to see them as much.

I was given dinner duties recently. I've been at it for almost a week now, and I am trying to adjust my thinking. I have to get meat out of the freezer in the morning, do any prep work that can be done beforehand, and get started so that dinner will be ready by 5:30 pm. So far I have not done too well. No burned dinners yet; no undercooked meat yet, but my timing isn't great. Still, I think I've had it ready by 6:00 or 6:30 pm; I did a bit better this evening. I have learned a bit already though. I've done fruit and veggie trays or arranged salads with almost every dinner, and they've gone over quite well I believe. It adds a nice touch to simple meals without too much hassle!

I'm being told to "hit the publish button". Better stop now.

Predator Problems

In the past couple of weeks the corn in our big garden has been almost ready to pick. Of course, the raccoons or something began to find it around that time. However, we had corn on the cob for lunch and dinner today!!! I am convinced there is no better vegetable!

Something has been getting into the layers the past week or so. It's coming into the chicken house and killing the birds. We still have a few layers left, and we're hoping to build a hoop tractor with built-in nest boxes soon. Kyle set up the live trap in the hopes of luring our current predator with tuna (really, I don't think anything could be lured in with that!). He caught the cat.

Last night was the second night in a row that something has managed to get into our broiler hoop tractor. This predator gets in there, kills one bird by pulling the head off. It must be some sort of game for it because the head is on one side of the tractor and the body is on the other (from what I've heard). So far nothing has gotten into our turkey tractor. It's close to the house though. I think, if I had my way, we should have all poultry in tractors rotating through the yard.

Maybe we should just stick to larger animals. All cattle, pigs, dogs, and cat are still alive and well (although the cat may be a little traumatized).

Fourth of July

Sometimes I wonder what it is really that we are celebrating on the fourth day in July. In the Revolutionary War we were fighting for representation more than anything at first. Nowadays, the taxes still go up, and we have representation. I can't help but wonder if we have the representation we need. The media has us in its grip. It can control nearly a whole nation just by a thing one person decides to "report"; it is able to sway the thoughts of millions by the way they bias their report! We are not against government, but, man, it sure would be nice to have wholesale reform!!! I'm going to get myself in trouble; I'll move on to yesterday's pictures and light commentary. There won't be too many, don't worry.

Daddy smoked our ribs in the smoke house. He decided that we needed fire bricks and/or another layer of bricks in the firebox.

Kyle getting some green wood for better smoking.

Waiting for lunch/dinner (the ribs took longer than expected).

Bottle rockets. They turned grown men into boys once more.

After lunch (and a little time to allow for digestion) Daddy, Uncle Craig, Kyle, and I played "Pitchin' Warshers". Daddy and I won.

Around 8:30p.m. we shot off a few fireworks. All in all, it was a very pleasant day.

Another Good Quote

From Luke. Hey, some of the best things come from him (even though he doesn't mean to)!

"Do you know what insightful is?" Daddy asking Luke.

"What I say." Luke answering.

We had a good laugh over that.

Saturday

The Stouffer's came to our place Friday, and, on Saturday, we got a great deal of work done!!!

First thing Saturday morning we processed thirty, very small Cornish Cross birds.

I got the scalding job again. It was quite a hot job in the near-ninety degree weather.

See, I told you they were small! I don't think this was the smallest one either!

Gizzards and feet! We were requested to keep the gizzards out. We were not very sure how to clean all the grass and stuff out, so we left that up to the recipient!

Kyle and Daniel moved the younger chicks into the newly-emptied, larger chicken tractor. Still, I think we will have to make another one for when they get larger.

While they were putting the chicks in the chicken tractor, Daddy, Mr. Stouffer, and Chris started stringing the extension for the pig fence. We got it finished before dinner, but the pigs didn't go past the old fence line until well into the evening or the next day! We can't thank the Stouffer's enough for all the work they helped us with! They did so much yard work too! We can't wait for them to come back (we've got plenty more work to do to keep many people very busy!)!