Another quilt giveaway!

The folks over at   mariemadelinestudio.com are having another quilt give away! They have 2 beautiful quilts up for grabs. Check it out!

Blessings.

New Trailer

We finally bought a trailer! It is an older 2 horse. We have been trailer-less for quite some time now & we finally decided to do something about it.

It is just too hard to live the farm life & not have a trailer. Every time you want or need to do something you have to arrange to borrow a trailer or get some body to do the hauling for you. It's annoying, time consuming & makes you feel like a pest.

We have had our eyes on a super nice, aluminum stock trailer but we would have to make payments on it. Right now, we don't want to be making payments.

So we found this little trailer, in real good shape & made a good deal on it. No payments!

Now we can haul goats, pigs, cows, horses or whatever and not have to worry about it.

We are getting the light hook ups & a brake box put on the Suburban on Monday.

And then we should be using it to bring home our newest farm member.....(to be continued)

Blessings.

Not for the faint of heart...

So you want to know about farm life?

Which part? The happy, fun, greeting card picture part?

Or the part that sucks? Because today it sucks. Sorry if you don't like that word but it suits.

Our sweet, cute, adorable, fuzzy little baby rabbits pushed their way out through the feeder slot in their cage today. They were loose in the barn and our cats ate them.

My children went out to do chores and found bunny carnage.

I just got to spend 10 minutes picking up fuzzy little bunny corpses & shoveling various internal organs into an old feed bag.

And then I got to come in and explain what happened to my 3 year old.

I just want to cry.

Farm life is not for the faint of heart. Sometimes it's just not for anybody.

Sometimes it just plain sucks.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Selenium. The wonder mineral?

Selenium. An amazing trace mineral that is so important to your health.

Last night, I was reading the Fall 2009 Beeyoutiful Catalog (if I weren't a moron I would give you a link but I am so I can't). In it is a very informative article about selenium.

Selenium is a trace mineral that is present in the soil. Some areas have abundant selenium but most do not. I have been familiar with selenium & it's importance for many years.

My husband works in agriculture nutrition & selenium is huge factor in livestock health. I have seen it used in ways that border on miraculous. Think I am exagerating?

White muscle disease is a condition that strikes animals who are deficient in selenium. One of it's attributes is rubbery, curved legs in newborn animals. The legs are reduced to useless, the animal is crippled, unable to stand & would not survive without treatment. An injection of BOSE, the trade name of a selenium/vitamin E combo, will reverse the damage in a matter of hours.

I have witnessed this myself. A few years ago we had a set of twin kids affected by white muscle disease. The beautiful, large buck was affected the worst. He was unable to stand or nurse. His legs were curved & useless. A few short hours after a shot of BOSE he was up & running around & perfect! It was amazing.

While most humans do not suffer from white muscle disease, selenium is just as important to our health. Selenium protects us against several types of cancer, builds a stronger immune system, provides anit-oxidant protection & much more.

But the really cool thing I learned last night has to deal with  the flu. Everybody is talking about, reading about, freaking out about the flu right now. The media has everyone whipped into a frenzy over H1N1. People with selenium deficiency are more likely to experience severe lung damage & more severe cases of flu. Areas of the world that are known to be deficient in selenium, such as China, suffer from some of the worst flu epidemics.

Severe lung complications are what cause many flu related deaths; the flu outbreak in WW1, the Avain flu, SARS & H1N1 included.

Adequate selenium protects against the process that is responsible for this lung damage & helps a body have a milder case of flu when infected.

Does this surprise you? Wouldn't you think that the medical profession & the media would be blasting this info everywhere? Giving people the chance to protect themselves & their families? I have my own theories as to why they have not, but I won't go into them here.

But I want to give you the opportunity to protect yourself & your family. Research this. Go to Beeyoutiful.com. Go to WellTellMe.com. Google.

Check this out!

If you decide to supplement with selenium it is important to get a type that your body can actually metabolize. It is important to combine it with Vit E which aids your bodies ability to use it.  Beeyoutiful sells a great selenium supplement. We take one called Sel-Plex from Alltech. I don't know where to buy it though, as my husband gets it directly from their rep. But you could check out their website.

We have taken a selenium supplement for years because my husband has seen the dramatic effects it has on livestock. If ranchers are smart enough to give it to their cows shouldn't we be smart enough to give it to ourselves?

Our entire family had the flu a few months ago. It was miserable & painful & nasty but we were all over it in a few days. With no lingering complications. Did selenium help us? Can't prove it but I know it didn't hurt.

Research this mineral. Getcha some.

Blessings.

EEEEEEeeek! Skuuuuuuuuuunk!

Okay. So. Last night, my son's dog managed to get skunked. We weren't sure how but she stunk!

FYI: Hydrogen peroxide, baking soda & dish soap will take out the skunk smell.

Fast forward to this afternoon: I went out to the hen house. Checked the water, filled the feeders & collected a couple eggs. In the corner of the coop is a piece of tin that the hens like to lay behind. I reached over & pulled it back to look for eggs.

2 beady little black eyes stared into mine. Oh cr*p!!!!!!!!!!

I ran out of the coop, um, hollering, & yelled to my husband

"There is a SKUNK in the hen house!"

"Now?" he asks. "NOW!"

He grabbed the .22 & made quick work of the interloper. The air was thick with eau de skunk but thankfully nobody got sprayed.

And it only took an hour or so for my heart to start beating again .

Other than that it was a really good day.

We bought a horse trailer. An older Miley 2 horse. It should work well for us to haul everybody.

To celebrate we had lunch in town at Winger's & everybody watched the football game (OSU Beavers).

For dessert we got Pumpkin Pie shakes at Jack-in-the-Box. Yummy.

Now for a relaxing, skunk-free evening at home.

Blessings.

(watching the game at lunch)

Fall Cookies

 

Blessings.

Aaaawww... for cute!

 

 

Blessings.

13th Birthday

Today is the day. My second born is 13 today. Wow! Where does the time go?

How do they go from this

To this

 

Before your very eyes?

He is my hardest worker. My most wanting-to-please. My outdoorsmen. My hunter. My butcherer. The best big brother. He can knock out a 300 page book in a day. Just for fun. My homebody (he hates going to town). He has his own signature dish -- buttermilk bicuits. He doesn't even flinch while getting stitches. He can shoot a gun. A bow. Throw knives. Light a fire with a flint & steel.

He's awesome. And he's mine.

So, you may ask, what does a young man like this want for his birthday? His passage into teendom.

You'll never guess.

 

 

Meet Samson. Or as my husband calls him: Buck Rogers.

I love my kids.

Blessings.

The Pumphouse

We are blessed to have multiple out buildings on our tiny farm. One of the most useful is our pumphouse. We don't have a garage so we use the pumphouse for all of our storage needs. It is about 10ft by 20 ft.

Over the last 3 years, it went from storage building to disaster area.  I would do quick cleans & try to make it at least navigable, but, it was a losing battle.

So, since I'm currently not pregnant & The Biscuit can survive without me for a few hours~~it was time.

I set the date for Operation Pumphouse.

My husband & I started in around 9:30 Saturday morning. The first order of business was to pull everything out!

We had the truck right there for Goodwill items, a trash can outside the door & the burn pile within throwing distance. We meant business.

It took us until 4 p.m but we achieved total surrender.

The back of the pick up is FULL of junk lovely items to be donated. The burn pile is a good 5 feet high. And the pumphouse....aahhh, a joy to behold. Acres of space. Everything neatly on the shelves. The floor is dust & debris free. No more mice/frog pooh on everything <<blech>>.

We even emptied a new section of the shelves to be used as food storage. ~~insert happy dance~~

I am soooo glad to have that done. That is a big one to cross off of the 'do-to' list.

Now we just have the kennel, the puppy room, the shop, the garden to put 'to bed'....sigh....it never ends

And for your  viewing pleasure & those of you who are just weird enough to WANT to see inside other peoples storage buildings (and you know who you are) TA DA!

Front.

Side.

Look at all the empty space! (that is the well to the immediate right & our 2 upright freezers in the back. The shelves & food storage are to the left.)

And here is our brand new empty section for food & sundry storage. You can see some of our food stash on the left behind my daughter (she was sweeping ) The space between the floor & the bottom shelves is just right for 5 gallon buckets. How cool is that?

So now you know "the rest of the story".

Blessings.