My Birthday and finally some rain

This is what my wife found the other day when she told our youngest son to take a nap. He went to my bed and went to sleep with my cat. Don't they just look so comfy.

My birthday was Monday the sixteenth and I love the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yes, even after the loss to Cincinnati Sunday. My wife surprised me with this cake. I loved it and it was really good with rocky road ice cream.

This is the view I had this morning when I went to fill my deer feeder. It hasn't rained here in about two weeks and it started pouring it down about twenty after eight this morning and when it quit I had to fill up the feeder. It was a muddy drive to the top of the meadow and extremely foggy.

We sold our battery powered timer set feeder and started using this really "high tech feeder." It was cheap and it gets the job done and with no hoisting the barrel back up to the hanger or no recharging the battery. I'm all for technology but sometimes it's just better to use whats simple and reliable. We're feeding about 12 to 15 deer and some squirrels, our neighbors dog and even some crow.

A Few Photos

This is a picture of the view from the top of our meadow. I like to go up there and just look around; you can see for miles. The views are incredible. The leaves are beginning to change colors and fall off.

This is a photo from the other side of the hill. It is so beautiful at sunset. I will take more photos from up there and post them later. I can't wait for a winter picture or even a spring picture. Well I just can't wait for spring to be here. It's a shame we can't go from fall to spring. I'm not a winter lover. I would like to see some snow on Christmas and that it; none before or after.

I need to get some sleep

Man am I tired. I've been going to bed at midnight or one and getting up at five thirty for about two weeks now and I've just about had it. I'm so tired and sleepy. Well that's enough whining for today.

I repaired the roofs on the chicken house and the old woodshed today. The wind had worked some of the nails up on the tin. I took the drill up and screwed it down today, so that should last from now on. I need to patch a few nail holes here and there to complete the job. I'll try to get it tomorrow evening before dark. I'm going to keep cutting wood until I cut everything along the two miles of country road that the wind had blown down. I'm saving the wood here on the farm for hard times. In the last year I've cut about thirty loads of wood along the road and there is another ten to fifteen loads to go. I'll have enough to last at least two and maybe even three winters by then. I love to cut wood and if I don't cut it, it'll set out there and rot and not do anyone any good.

Just a couple of random photos

This is our first egg from our Rhode Island Red hens. It took a little over five months and a bunch of feed later, but I found my first egg. We found it around the middle of October. The boys now want to go feed the chickens with me. It's like a daily Easter egg hunt.

This is a picture of the bear that our neighbor killed the first day of bow season. I like to look at them, but I could do without all the damage they do.

Trick or Treating and their first shave

I was shaving my Grizzly Adams look off and the boys said daddy I want to shave to. I went and put on some shaving cream and turned the razor over to the back and shaved them. They got a big kick out of it. My oldest Blake said he was a man now.Dylan just couldn't quit smiling. He loved it and then it was time to dress up for trick or treating.

One was a firefighter and the other was the black spider man. They filled their pumpkins up and they wanted more. I thought that was enough sugar for awhile. We all had a great time!

I'm still here

I know it's been a long time since my last post. I've had some problems with my internet service. Well to catch up on things; my chickens are now laying and they layed five eggs today. That is pretty good for six hens. I had been getting three until today. I have a rooster with an attitude problem and I feel a good pot of chicken noodle soup coming up. The crazy thing flogs everyone that goes into the chicken house, including trying to jump on my three year old son. I want my boys to be involved in the egg gathering but with that rooster in there it is impossible. I think we're going to eat him. I have a spare.

My dad killed a couple young deer the first couple of weeks of bow season. The were so tender and so good. I fryed up the tenderloin and ate it for breakfast with eggs and biscuits. We loved it, except for the boys. They just kept saying, Yuckie Deer meat!!! My neighbor and his friend killed a big black bear with a bow the first day and they shot and missed another. We have had a lot of trouble with them tearing up deer feeders and even bird feeders in this area. I saw a big boar last Saturday on my way to work. I drove within twenty feet of him before he ran. His back was as tall as the hood on my Jeep Cherokee.

Our guineas are growing and I'm taking them to the chicken pen this week to spend the winter with the chickens. I'll turn them out next spring to eat bugs and ticks and all the creepy crawly things. I wish we would have bought a pig this year. I miss fresh pork sausage and chops. I found a place to buy it fairly fresh, but nothing beats the farm raised, fresh ground, perfectly seasoned, lightly browned sausage patty on a hot homemade biscuit. Oh I'm so sorry my mouth is watering and I really need to wipe it. Okay I really love fresh farm sausage.

I'll be posting more after Friday after I get my new internet service. The one I have now is not really reliable. I hope everyone has a great day!

Fall is definitely here!

It's been really cold here lately. It's in the lower 60's of the day and lower 40's of the night. I've been clearing the garden and it's a mess where I left for so long. The ragweed and other weeds are thriving though. I wish I'd cleaned it up earlier. Oh well, coulda, shoulda, woulda. I just didn't do it and now I'm paying for it. I'm getting ready to dig my potatoes and if I didn't clean the garden off it would be a treasure hunt trying to find them. I now what vicinity they're in, but exactly where they are, no. I'm looking for a smaller crop this year. I dug about 12 and a half bushel last year; not counting what I dug earlier. I'm expecting about 8 bushel this year by what I've dug so far. It'll do us and then some, but I'll not sell any this year. I don't want to run out. I hate those store bought potatoes. They don't taste very good and they usually don't look very good when you peel them.

I'm still splitting wood and I'm going to cut some more. I want to have enough to burn me two to three winters. I'm getting close to that now, but I'll cut wood as long as the weather allows me to. I love the roar of my Stihl chainsaw and the smell of fresh cut wood. I love splitting it and loading the truck and stacking it. I guess I love just about every aspect of it. The thing I love the most is the security I feel by having all the wood to keep my family and I warm all winter long regardless of power outages or not. That is priceless.

My chickens are getting ready to start laying. I've been patiently waiting for about 5 months now. Our little guineas are just about ready to put in with the chickens for the winter. Next spring we will turn them out to eat all the ticks and other nuisance bugs. I'm thinking about getting a few meat rabbits here shortly. I need to get some pens built. When I sold our last rabbits I sold cages and all. Big mistake, I should have listened to my wife on that one. I probably should have listened to wife on a lot of things. But anyway I better get to work.