Sowing Stones

There has been a lot of people around me that have died this year. And many have gotten close to death as well. Old, young, my age, some close and some far away, all part of my life here. Having moved so many times growing up, I never had to deal with human death. Funerals happened and then the person wasn't there. The family packed up and moved away. And I have been running away from death my whole life. But now that I have stopped moving, death has come again full blast. So instead of running from death, I look forward to the spring and life anew. Seeds mean plants and flowers this summer. I'd rather plants seeds for new life than dwell on the things that have died around me. I try to enjoy those living around me and my farm.  Knowing that one day they won't be there. Cherish the living and bury the stones under the ground.

Green Plans

It is winter and I am making plans for the Spring. My seeds are all in and ready for starting. I need my new/used green house moved into place, but my busy hubby can't get to it yet. Wet ground and computer work cut into farm tractor jobs. We need to enlarge our garden bed and add a new one in the horses dry lot. All that broken down horse poop and straw has turned into black gold. I need my big vegetables in there. My zucchini, other  squashes and corn all need room to grow in the bigger garden. This year I will also add a few more dahlia's to my flower collection. They bloom all season and are easy to care for. I love my roses but dahlias are far easier to grow and no thorns. My neighbors gave me a wonderful gift this week of irises and berries canes. I got the canes set and then the irises arrived. I heeled them in a compost pile until I can decide where to put them. Irises are such and wonderful flower to grow. So easy to care for and after a few years, you can split them and share with others. The photo is from last year of my farm cat Poppy in my thyme bed, rather "his" thyme bed.

Kindle Appy makes me Happy

For a valentine present my husband hooked me up with Entertainment Weekly App for my Kindle Fire. I have been reluctant to do this as previously the App required a paper version to be delivered by snail mail as well. What's the point of that for saving money, time and space? But he got it set up for me without the paper version. Now I can read about  TV, don't have one, movies, I rarely see and wait to come out on DVD, books, I read selectively, and music, my biggest passion. I can even listen to new musicians on my kindle fire. I used to get EW when we lived in the city and had TV. Now I only want it to stay aware of new artist, books and going's on the media world. It is like a mini vacation from farm life for my ears and my mind. It really is the simple things in life that can make me happy.

Berry Me Winterly

This weekend I was given several rooted blackberry and raspberry bushes. These were mature canes in

winter dormancy. I got two beds planted, mulched and fenced off before the rains came in. The rains soaked in the roots nicely for more winter sleep.

I am hoping by summer these plants will be strong again and bear fruit. I love these berries. Worth the effort of dealing with thorns, ticks and snakes to get them. And sharing my bounty with other berry fans.

Dry Clouds

We had some clouds this weekend, but no rain. It is the driest winter we have had here in

the Ozarks. It seems like this spring will be very dry for us. None of the weather

forecast have been correct. The temperatures have been all over the place this winter.

Even the wildlife is confused.

Zilla in February

This is Zilla my young German Shepherd. She is not a year yet and is almost 100 lbs. Her parents were well over 100 lbs. She has been a great guard dog for the farm after a bit of training.

Waiting for orders.

Calfy Day

He got to feed our neighbors cows this week. Cows love their grain and hay.

We lure them into the corral with grain and shut the gate. Then put out the round bale with the tractor.

Open the corral and free the cows into the pasture again. Keeps us and the tractor safe. 

To the round bale they go.

This little one was very pretty in the sun.

Mama watches us watching her calf.

Winter Maple Ride

Here is Maple our 2 year old fox Trotter. My husband is cleaning her feet before he heads out.

Bean can't be ridden as he has thrown a shoe.

All saddled up

This was a short ride for young Maple. The stirrup bar came off and could not be fixed on the trail. So they walked back home. The modern plastic stirrups have a screw bold and a nut, the nut fell off. Good stirrups, poor design. Thankfully the saddle is vintage, made well and is comfortable for horse and rider.Maple looks like a small pony in her fuzzy winter coat.

Loving Horses Always

Here is my good friend and the orphan filly she raised when I couldn't.

You can see she loves her horses.

Happy team.

Here is a black mare that was in poor shape from over breeding. 

My friend saved her and got her away from stallions and got her weight back on again. 

Pinkey the blind mare still goes for trail rides and only trust her rider.

Unhappy Cat

I was visiting a friend's house this weekend. While we talked her cat started to howl and scratch its face. The cat had been treated for ear mites and now had some rash causing the cat to scratch its face and bleed. So I offered to make a collar for her cat to ease its pain. Using cardboard, foil tape and some gold lacing I made up a working collar. She was able to eat, sleep and use the littler box without any problems and was finally healing up.

There was a lot of cat drama for a few hours but by the next day she was adapted to her collar and was healing up.

UPDATE: She had a yeast infection causing her face itchiness. She did get the collar off after 3 days, but she had healed by then after seeing the vet.

Winter Hunk

Here is my husband outside in the freezing sleet herding my turkey hen back into the poultry yard. Maple, Bean and Luna look on as he closed the gates and leads the turkey back into the warm coop. He did this so I could stay inside the house all warm with the woodstove going.

Zilla leads him home.

Boys Club

 My neighbor's Boer goats are giving birth in the cold winter time. 

They are happy in their heated barn and dry straw beds. So far there has been three boys and one girl.

Nice little boy with a star.

Twin boys born this week.

Eating their straw bedding.

January Cull

The brown turkey I raised and my six extra roosters were culled this week. I now have six chickens and a 15 pound turkey in my freezer.

This heritage turkey was much slower to grow and almost half the weight of the commercial hen I culled in December. However, he was a hen killer and had to go. At least they all had a great life on my farm.

Here are the bad boys from summer hatch.

All were culled for being mean to me or my hens. One was culled for being too old and useless to his hens. And one was just plain mean to everything on the farm. Now I have 4 good healthy roosters and 1 old one that hid during the cull. All the remaining roosters are kind hard working boys of the yard.

I have to say that my turkeys noticed one of their kind was missing. The turkey hen tried to run away and join some wild turkeys. And the remaining Grey Jake was depressed all day and quit gobbling. Next time I will cull buddies at the same time. It will be less stressful for the survivors.