Grey Days and Labor

Still cool and rainy here. A Tornado passed 20 miles south of us on Sunday, and today another one went south as well. The sky has been alternating with bright sun and dark rolling threats all day. This morning I got out on the first hill and finished putting in my juniper windbreak seedlings; 50 now all told. June may seem late for planting but the lows at night are still in the 40s here!

Yesterday hail threatened so I went out and put the month-old Barred Rocks in their coop. Rain they are starting to understand, but I didn't want a surprise hail to knock one of them out! We will have to switch from starter to mash, they are eating so much now that they are out of the brooder and running around! They come to the fence now inquiringly when I come out and sit on the cement block nearby. They want me to pull them some grass; it's like I am the Salad Bar caretaker at the buffet! I am watching them to determine which two roosters will get to be the breeding stock, and which will just be fattened for later. It's getting easier to tell them apart; the one that comes right up to the fence and cocks his eye up at me expectantly, the two who just hate each other and will not only chase each other around the pen but knock each other off of the top of the waterer and feeders. There are two hens that break up their little fights; like little moms or cops! Funny. I don't name them; it makes them easier to eat later.

So I went up on the first hill to put in my windbreak trees. I put them in the wheelbarrow with my SeaRich fertilizer in a lot of water. They were packed in shredded paper and so were stll green and damp. I put in the posthole digger, and a bag of sunflower seeds from the flowers last year - about 5 pounds of seed as well, and a bucket. I seem to take a bucket with me wherever I go now! The ones I planted before - about one-third were parched, windblown, and not doing so well. After I put in the remaining trees, I took the soaked-in-fertilizer shredded paper out of the bottom of the wheelbarrow, and padded the first trees with it, then covered that with the sandy soil. I threw handfuls of the sunflower seeds all over the hill around them. Sure enough, as I finished, the rains came up and started patting the seeds into the soil.

The clover and silage seed that I strewed all over the hill in February is coming up at last; bright green silage, cool green red clover, already with starting 'heads' on top. The 'honeybee' feed clover is already trying to bloom. Wild indigo is everywhere too, and some bright yellow flowers in clumps that I don't recognize, but the leaves are too flat and rounded for leafy spurge.

I don't get to get out in the pasture much; too much to do here down around the house with the garden and chickens starting. So today I wanted to look at an old tree that was laying down in the pasture. When we moved here with the overgrown pasture in the summer, I didn't see it, but with the winter die-off it was there, a grey-black length on the brown and yellowed grasses. So I went up to look at it. I pulled on the closest end, and it broke off. Red Cedar! What a heavenly smell! Not big enough to cut into boards any wider than 2 inches, and only as big around at the root as my two hands spread. I couldn't drag it back to the house today, but may tomorrow. Nothing rots here, just dries out, so the wood freed of the accumulated dirt and bark is just as sweet and fresh as it can be.

This afternoon was stormy and dark, thundery and gloomy. A neighbor dropped by with an old iron gopher trap for us to use. It springs up when tripped and drives two iron hooks into the gopher; doesn't even have to be baited. 'Way cool and 'way organic! LOL Look out you little furry demons...

Nothing Special

No, really, I just don't think that what is going on here is all that special. Except, of course, to me.

Having a 100 year old farmhouse, and 60 acres, and barns and fencing and a corral and pasture and living 150 miles from the closest interstate, closest Wal-Mart, is just not that big a deal. Why should it be? It is what I have always wanted; what DH and I talked about since before we were married. Planting things and watching them grow and produce, raising animals for food - these things I have done on a small scale since I was 10, always wanting a bigger piece of property to do it on, always lamenting the tiny garden spots and tiny chicken yards I had, always wishing for something more. This is what drove me. I wanted nothing special, nothing fancy, nothing overdone, nothing high-end or fancy or 'the latest thing'.

Another thing that drove me was living thru the recession of the late 70's-early 80's. It is HARD to be hungry, hard to weigh the cost and quality of food against things like the light bill and water bill. People thought I was crazy because I collected kerosene lamps, all shapes and sizes. I'd lived briefly in a place with no electricity and no running water, though, and having such things is a comfort to me. Having them filled and sitting on a shelf now is an even greater comfort. Having a basement full of dehydrated food, and a freezer full of vegies and meats and even fresh-frozen yeast rolls, ready for the oven, makes me feel strong and decisive. Shucks, having a basement at all makes me happy! Having a stack of wood drying against the garage in preparation for next winter's storms, that makes the cast iron stove roar and boil the water pan on top, that heats the whole house upstairs and down, makes me smile and feel content.

My friends still ask, but why Nebraska? Well, the West stole my heart 30 years ago. I've lived in San Antonio, Albuquerque, and Lordsburg, NM. The mountains, the dry air, the wonderful and powerful storms - and the absolute lack of humidity - is inspiring. I was born and raised in Charleston, lived south of there for over 20 years, and the oppressive heat and humidity just wears on me. It's hard to explain to people who have never lived anywhere else. I don't like the ocean - and haven't, since I was a little girl, even though I spent my summers on it. I am inspired by mountains and hills - the mountains are just a few short hours away from me now, and the hills and rivers that surround me are breathtaking. I like being outside, working my muscles and my dirt and my animals outside, not sitting inside in the air conditioning like a beaver in its dam, trying to breathe underwater everytime I step outside.

People here are tougher than those city folk and rednecks I left behind - they don't sit on their porches all day talking about hunting and how country they are; they work from see to cain't see, and are blunt and honest and fun to be around. They don't grouse about what they don't have, and work hard for what they do. They don't care what the rest of the country does. They'll visit it on occasion, but have no interest in living there. While the Libertarians I knew back east ran their yips about the failing government and failing economy, and still shopped at the malls and Wal-Mart, and talked about their great plans for when everything fell down - these people here are true survivalists, because they do it every day. Nothing special. Just healthy, hearty, down-to-earth folk, who don't judge you on appearance, or how well you can argue down at the bar about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but on how much work you do.

In short, I moved to where the food is. It just seemed to make sense - to be where guns and hunting are a way of life and not even worth talking about, where only the teenagers collect trophy heads. To be where the cattle outnumber the people. To be where food grows - not in long endless summers, but in short windows of summer, in between snows. To be where the only trucks that come thru are the ones shipping animals and foodstuffs OUT to market, not in. If the trucks stop, the food stays right here. And it is good food, not preservative-laden and quickfix Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Golden Corral, chinese and mexican and indian and thai and all of those other overhyped and undernourishing things. I hadn't seen a radish in years back east, except for a few thinly sliced ones on salad bars. Here they are in abundance; little sweet peppery things that crunch and melt in your mouth. Nothing special; no fancy sauces or inch-thick breading or desperately exotic flavors. Just good tender meat, fresh vegetables, and pies. OMG, the folks 'round here are the most pie-baking people I know!

Yes, this is what I planned for, hoped for, dreamed about, the whole time I walked about in high heels and silk dresses and hobnobbed with the self-impressed. And now that I have it, I plan on using it, enjoying it, caring for it, and loving it. I plan on staying in my jeans and sweats and getting dirty. I'm enjoying mixing up the horse and chicken manure and compost into fertilizer and usable soil. I'm looking forward to my first big brown, free-range eggs that pop out naturally from a clucking hen, proud to produce and showing off. I'm even looking forward to hanging up the roosters, fat and squawking, by their feet and butchering them for the freezer. Because they are mine, and no one - no one - has a claim to them but me. I don't care if the rest of the world falls down, if the rest of the folk 'out there' riot and demand that the gubbermint feed and clothe and house and drug them, I don't care if the folks I left behind yammer endlessly about their preparations to survive a "Brand New World" in their passionate terrors. No matter what happens, I have my land, my seeds, my animals, and my life - just as I always wanted it. Nothing fancy. Nothing Special.

June 1

Well, I FINALLY got all of the vegies in. Some of the potted ones didn't make it, but of course I save seed and added to the rows. I got my first green bean yesterday, with what looks like many more to come!

Back in the east garden, my 'experimental' garden, I am testing to see what I can and can't grow. There are wheat, oats, potatoes, mangel beets (for the chicken feed in winter), pumpkins, watermelon, and spanish peanuts. Each row filled with straw and hay and horse manure, soaked in water, then the seeds or plants added in and covered up.

So many things are putting their little heads up now; radishes, spinach, potatoes, mustard greens and lettuce. The onions are doing well, the garlic isn't up yet. I have to weed in front of the trees and around the strawberries today. The sunflower seed heads I collected will make a nice line of flowers in front of those trees along the driveway. I even got the petunias in the hanging baskets out on the big hanging planter, and the morning glories and sweet peas scattered about. Mulched the hostas at the base of the verandah and the roses around the arbor in front. Even got the planters at the front stoop planted, in salvia, parsley, and chives; the little roses look to be coming back there as well as the marjoram. I'll have to get out and do some serious weeding, and I used a little sevin dust on the pumpkins and watermelon yesterday. I'll need to do that some more today. I'm holding off on the serious bioinsecticide until everything's up and attractive to bugs, and until the bugs really get serious, but the pumpkins needed it yesterday!

Yesterday while walking the dogs, Sasha 'bowed up' at one of the trees and barked. There was a king snake, about 4 feet long, wrapped around the base of the tree. We left him/her alone - they eat gophers and are not poisonous, although they do have a nasty bite. I've also been told that they keep away rattlesnakes; will fight them and kill them. Good. A welcome addition to the garden, in that case! As long as they leave the chickens alone, we are good.

We moved the chickens outside last week; 80 deg temps outside. They quickly took up scratching and picking. They are not in the tractors yet, just a little hut with a fence around it to get them acclimated. They were terrified at first, of course; but soon got the hang of being outside. They are now eating twice as much, of course. I started giving them cracked corn yesterday to get them used to it. The cold front that came thru last night dropped the temps down again to where they are supposed to be; it will be in the 70s during the day and 40s at night again for awhile. But the chickens are getting acclimated. We lost one - she just kind of stopped eating. When I looked at her, she looked malformed, like her breastbone was separated. So one out of 22 is not bad. Our neighbor Phil told his wife that we didn't have room for chickens - but he thought we were going to have 200 or more! People here seem to like to do things in a BIG way! Apparently he thought I was going to run a chicken farm! Nope - chickens are just a little part of what we want to do.

Phil has started bringing over little mechanical things for Mike to work on; the only problem is that he's not coming back to get them yet! LOL His and Pat's sons, Landon and Luke, are working the ranch with Phil, and they leave the house every morning at 5:30 AM.

Mike is worried that I am getting too much sun; I'm not blistering, just turning red. I'll have to start wearing my hats. I am really developing my muscles, especially my arm and leg muscles, and losing some of the winter fat. It feels so good to be outside all day and working away.

We might go to ID at the end of the month for the National Dexter cattle show. My brother there has never seen them - even though there is a Dexter ranch right outside his ID town! We talked about going to the show together, and he might buy a couple of steers to put here til fall for a meat supply. He has money and no pasture, I have pasture and no money! LOL

Working in the yard and gardens for the next two months will take up all of my time and effort. I'll have to show up to work occasionally for some things; like ths AM I have to go in for abt a half-hour and file a State report, and I'll have to go in when the co-op orders come in to separate them for the teachers and have them in neat piles for them to take with them to set their classrooms back up in August. I've told Dean to just dump the stuff in the gym and I'll separate it out. But otherwise I get the summer off! Wish it was a PAID time off, but oh well - stuff happens.

Memorial Day

The chicks are getting huge. If there are no thunderstorms I may be able to get out and finish planting today. The pumpkins in the pots are trying to bloom already!

I'd love to take the babies out and put them in their chicken tractors; but am worried that they'll still be able to get out underneath the 'yard' frames.

Circle C was Saturday, and we did so much - going to the school and getting the six-foot poles, the electronics, and the speakers for the parade, setting those up and announcing the parade, then tearing it all down and taking it back; getting the school benches loaded and taken down to the park then back again, helping Paul load up some BIG iron and wood picnic tables/benches, working the buffet line - whew. Mike wired in my karaoke machine to the sound system so I played music in the misty rain while folks played horseshoes and got lined up. My back and legs were sore all day yesterday, so I goofed off.

I was very tired but feel better today. I got the feeling that some people didn't like that I was everywhere and doing stuff as a newcomer that they wouldn't do. Fact is that some folks complain that the town and Circle C is dying, but on't understand that the reason it is dying is because they don't get involved. Even people whom I had asked to volunteer, who had refused, showed up. This is THEIR town, after all. I'm glad I could be a catalyst for that; I don't WANT that responsibility. Been their done that sold the T-shirt.

Turns out I have to work at least til the end of May and then sporadically throughout the summer as things happen. 10 month job, hunh? LOL Well, at least I can get prepared for the coming year and not feel like a persona non grata on campus!

It is 6:00 and I am watching some dark clouds come in from the West. I am going to get dressed in spite of them and get ready to go out. Only 60 deg, only supposed to get to 70, but I have stuff to do and this is perfect planting weather, even and especially if it rains!

The birds are 11 days old, and are already showing black and white striped feathers. They are becoming less fearful and more inquisitive; checking out who brings them water and food. And they eat so much food! LOL their feeder has to be filled twice a day.

I got a lot of seedlings and seeds planted yesterday; a row and a half of potatoes alone. Today I hope to finish up. The two cleanouts from the brooder I mixed in with my other compost, put in the wheelbarrow, added water to make a mush, and used in the potato garden. I have to clean the brooder again today; the compost pile is getting pretty skimpy since I plowed everything in to the other garden rows! More horse poop to fork from the corral is needed.

Larry told me the other night at the bar that he was going to wait to put in tomatoes til he gets back from California in June, because the soil won't be warmed up until then. It is a puzzlement to me why no one grows lettuce, greens, broccoli, etc here; the weather is so cool except from late June thru July that nothing would go to seed until very late! We shall see how the section of collards does; foks around here have never seen them, and they can get to be soo bushy!

The lilacs out front are blooming and smell so sweetly. I finished cleaning out the pond and filled it. The wheat in the East Garden is already two inches high! The daylilies I transplanted here are springing up, and everything is in growth mode. The tulips scattered haphazardly around the yard were pathetic this year; only one bloom. I didn't even know they were there until they came up this year! I'll have to dig them, separate them, and put them in real beds this year to protect them from both weather and the lawnmower. Still don't understand plants just stuck in holes here and there, with no cohesion, no mulch, nothing. WTF? How do you expect anything to grow and produce if you don't protect it? The strawberries are cheerfully poking their heads up, the gooseberries are taking off, and the new blueberry blooms got nipped by the frost this week but are fine. Last year's cherry tree has blooms. The new apricot, apple, and plum trees have baby leaves.

The nice thing is that I have so much property that I can finally grow whatever I want. There is sooo much room! Ummm radishes, carrots, things that I couldn't grow in clay will do great in the sandy soil here. Mike made me another sprinkler on a tripod for the East garden, and I have the one on the West garden already. He put weed n feed on the lawn, and sandburr killer behind the West garden. He even sprayed the yard dandelions! I love the grass here; so soft and green, not weedy and harsh underfoot when it's cut, like before. Mike told Janet that he used to mow the yard with a weedeater because we had so many plants that a lawnmower couldn't deal with it.

Tammy is in Vegas again this week; I invited her and her boyfriend out but she is busy playing and probably won't come. Can't blame her there!

The High School graduation was last night; 14 graduates. What great kids! Their class colors were hot pink and lime green, their theme song was "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and their class motto was "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door". The whole graduation was lively and silly and crazy, but very moving; the kids stepped down off the stage and took their parents flowers. Afterward we were invited to two graduation parties; I had some glazed grad statues in my ceramics shop, and one was a blond girl, the other a dark-haired boy. Oddly, that described the two kids who invited us to the parties! So I painted each of the two grad's names on the statues, and attached an orange tassel to each cap - and then wired a $10 bill onto each tassel.

One more full week of work, and then I'll have more time to work in the garden! This is the perfect job for what I want to do with the rest of my life.

Beginnings Of Birds

Well, the Barred Rock chickens I ordered came in this AM. They were hatched, sexed and shipped on the 6th from MO. I have 11 cockerels and 11 hens - 2 more than I ordered; most places do that, just in case.

I was expecting Nancy to call this AM before I left for work; but by 7:10 she hadn't, so I went on in. More than half of the students will be gone today; we figure on only about 20-25 at school. Most of the teachers are gone, too - we are having to double up in classes. As I was getting the coffee on and the Daily and Staff bulletins ready - and getting some cheerful picking-on by the staff who knew I was waiting for the call - Mike called and said that Nancy had just called, the chickens were at the PO. So I finished up quickly and left!

As soon as we got them home, we took them downstairs. We had warm water for them in the dispenser, and I took each chick out of the box, dipped his/her little beak in the water, and they went right to drinking. Then I scattered the chick starter on the paper towels, and they immediately started eating it. I filled the food dispenser and some wandered over to it, too. I went back downstairs an hour later and they had pretty much eaten what I had scattered already, so I fed them again!

They are all pretty cheerful and active. I am watching them very carefully; if they group up under the heat lamp, they are too cold - if they are in a circle outside of the lamp circumference, they are too hot under the lamp. Since it is only in the 60's here - with a sharp, cold north wind - they have to be kept warm and inside for awhile til they get real feathers.

Phydeaux is slightly interested in them; he keeps standing at the head of the basement stairs and listening to the soft peep-peep coming out of the basement! He is not a stair climber, though, and his curiosity has not overcome his fear. Sasha didn't even come out to look or listen; totally unconcerned. However, when the roosters learn to crow, that will change, I'm sure! Still, she doesn't like stairs either.

I've raised chickens before of course; big fat black mamas and some little banties that used to run around in the yard year-round, laying eggs and raising babies. But I've never had just babies; there's always been a mama around to sit on them, keep them warm, and protect them. Starting a whole new generation and family "From Scratch" is pretty exciting but a little scary too. I picked the Barred Rocks because they lay BIG brown eggs, are supposed to be good mamas, and are resistant to cold temps - something I have to consider here now. The roosters will fill the freezer in about 16 weeks with good fresh chicken roasters.

Funny, the Barred Rocks are not a known breed here, even though they have been around since the 1800's. Elaine and Nancy were curious about them, had never seen them before. I hope they feather out to be beautiful and fat and look the way that they are supposed to. Most importantly, I hope that they can DO what they are supposed to!

One more step on the path to being self-sufficient.... Now, no matter what "avian flu" strikes the rest of the country, or how high the price of eggs and chickens goes, I'll have my own. Far off the beaten path, away from the hysteriacs who think that first this, then that, horrible thing is going to happen to them, or what government freaks out over some contrived foolishness or other.

Trying to Work Around Work

I've only got 4 more weeks or so left to work; my job only has me working 10 months out of the year. Which means in the summer I have 8 weeks or so off.

My problem is that, right now, I have more than two days' worth of work to do in the garden or at home! It can't all be fitted in. There is soo much to do... most folks don't understand that growing things organically means that you don't stick plants in the ground and dump bags of fertilizer; no, you have to work in the compost. You have to work at what you do. All of the eggshells and organic waste and ashes from the fire and sawdust from Mike's shop had melded into a huge pile; and the deeper I dug into it the blacker the earth was. That all went into the "small" vegetable garden; the garden where the usual truck stuff goes. All those eggshells and horse manure will add so many trace minerals into the soil!

The strawberries came this week , and the little strip along the driveway is where they will go. For that I worked in pitchforkfuls of horse manure and spoiled hay. I soaked the strawberries in my algoflash and water mixture, set them off to a good start. I got a yellow card in the mailbox yesterday, and I just KNOW that it is my blueberries, potato sets, and onion sets, but I can't get them til Monday - so I have to plant them once I get off work Monday. The fruit trees and gooseberries are on their way - I'm tracking them - they will probably be here Tuesday or Wednesday. They and the blueberries will go next to the driveway with the strawberries. And THEY will have to go in after I get off work too. Then the chickens are due next week; they will be inside for at least two weeks, but still. I still have one more row of juniper trees to put in on the hill.

I was so tired yesterday at sunset when I finally knocked off work. All I wanted to do was to take a shower - the horse poop and sweat simply did not make a combination I wanted to sleep in, no matter how tired I was. So I did, and went to bed. This morning I woke up, thinking of all of the things I had yet to do today - and then Mike whispered - "Get the Camera!" and I looked up and there were three of the prettiest little does, their winter fur coming off, standing at the pond in front.

Now I know that everyone around here says that the deer will eat everything, but I've rarely had a problem with it. I might here - the garden will be so much bigger, and I have no cat herd to keep them down. But still... They are soo pretty, and such a promise of food for the fall.

I simply can't wait til my time is my own and I have the time to do what I love to do, what I came here to do. It makes me crazy to be stuck inside on days when I have to answer the phones and get the billing done. All I want to do is get out and get sun and get to sweating and shoveling and digging. I need the money, of course - but I love the outdoors and what I can do in it!