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.

Still talkin' bout canning

I'm still canning up some banana peppers. They just keep on producing and producing. I've picked about 2 and 1/2 bushel so far this year off of forty some plants and I still have a bunch to pick. I'm making more kraut. I should have enough kraut to do me for a week or 50! I'm going to can me a few green tomatoes also. I don't like the texture as well as fresh but green tomatoes in January are kinda rare. I may be sick of them now but middle of winter I'll settle for a softer version of green tomatoes fried up with some hot peppers. My wife cut up another 2 quarts of bell peppers for freezing. We have 2 gallon bags full of smaller bags cut up and froze and the 2 quarts she just cut up. That should do until next summer. We take smaller bags and put enough in them for what we need and then we put them in a gallon bag so we can keep them all together and we still can get out a small portion for breakfast burritos or meatloaf or whatever we are making. We've also put up some apples. I don't know how long they'll last because Blake wants them everyday with hot biscuits and butter. Now we need to get a hog so we can have fresh sausage to go with all that. Well, I'm getting hungry so I better go.

The latest addition to the farm

We've been wanting some more guineas for awhile now. I wanted someone on bug patrol in the yard and garden and no one could do it better. They are little now but by next spring they will be bug eating, snake chasing, loud screeching watch dogs. We have 7 and I might buy another 8 or so.

I'm thinking about raising them and selling them. They are great sellers here. Everyone wants them or has them now. I used to have a bunch of guineas in one pen and right beside them I had a waterhole full of geese. I've never heard such a thing in my life. The geese would start and then the guineas would join in and you could hear it two ridges over. Most people would find it annoying but I loved it. All I need now is a gaggle of geese.

I'm going to miss my birds.

I don't know what I'm going to do when my hummingbirds go south. They are great stress relievers. I love watching them fight and drink from the feeders and the flowers in the yard. I like watching them better than the big birds out front on the other feeder. I can get so much closer to the hummingbirds. I've even got buzzed a few times. That is a little to close; especially to my head. I read the other day that if you stand still and put your finger against the feeder the hummingbirds will light on your finger and drink from the feeder. I haven't tried it yet but I will. I love the sound of hummingbirds around.

They live in the trees behind the house. I've never seen a nest yet, but it's so small it would be hard to see anyway. I guess I'm must find another relaxing hobby. Winter is right around the corner and I'm going to need something to keep me busy but in a relaxing way.

First Day of Kindergarten

Blake's first day of kindergarten was on Sept. 1. He loved it and had a great time. My wife and I had a better time than we expected. It's so hard to just let someone else be responsible for the safety and well-being of our child. It went really smooth though. There were no tears shed from either side; thank God. He came home still very excited, but he was exhausted and cranky. He told us many tales of his great journey and then fell asleep on the couch. All in all a great first day.

It's now his third day and he still loves it. I think he's a little smitten with his lady bus driver. Every time we mention her he gets a silly grin on his face. We're just glad that he loves it, that's right loves it, not likes it. That's pretty rare. That reminds me of something he told my wife the evening of the first day; he said mommy did you enjoy all the piece and quiet while I was at school.