Welsh on Me

For a long while now I have only had one male duck for 25 female ducks. I needed another male to take up the slack and make my girls happy. I had sold off all the males after things got tough financially on our farm last fall. No point feeding male ducks that just eat all winter. So I made cages and took them to auction and kept the females for eggs.

But as summer is in full swing this year, most small animals auction are closed do to summer travel and the heat. So I did not have many options looking for a male duck. I could have ordered male ducklings but they would not be old enough for my flocks needs. I needed a teenage or adult male duck. Luckily, I have facebook friends and one had a male Welsh Harlequin they were going to sell at the local farmers market last weekend. I went to take a look and verify it was a he. But it was fully feathered and I could not find his vent. I felt dumb, but it was hot outside,the duck was good natured and I took a gamble. This week he joined my flock and has adapted well. He goes in with the flock at night. He has beautiful feathers and a sweet personality. I think he will make pretty ducklings this fall and winter. The funny thing is that my Indian Runner ducks I thought were all female- aren't. This week I saw curly tails for three of the eight I have. So I now have all new males on my farm. This means a new chapter in the variety I will raise.

Life and Death and put to task

This is my friend Alfreda and her dog Oso and the yams she grew in her garden. This was taken two years before her younger brothers died and later her husband. This week her oldest adult son at the age of just 44 died at home, alone with his two dogs. He was ill and no one knew. He was retired Navy, did not feel well, went to the ER came home and then died.His ex-wife called and called with no response. His younger brother and sister went to his house and found him. This has torn the heart of out this wonderful woman I know. She cleans houses for a living, grows her own vegetables and takes care of anyone who needs it. She is very religious, of a kind heart, and has the strength of 100 women her age. We got the call from an out of state friend to go to her and be with her. I had just come in from working my own farm. I drove light speed to her house and was the first to hug her. We cried and talked. Soon others began to call and show up as well. I could she her shock. She was planning to moving in with that son. She feels guilty for not doing so, that she could have saved him. But I know that is not why. God spared her being at the death of another loved one. She was there for the deaths of her brothers and husband. This time she was spared. Her youngest son is taking care of everything for her. Her deceased son will be cremated and placed next to his veteran father in a Veterans Cemetery here in the Ozarks. But this happy full of life woman will have another death to morn and loved one to miss. I do not envy her life but I admire her spirit and faith. I am so glad to be a part of her life, even in the hard parts.

Onions and Tabbies

My friends gave me some of their white and yellow onions.

I cut off the tops and will be dehydrating them. I will plant the bottoms and I might have onions later.

With planning we are swimming in basil this season. So I am setting some aside for the fall and winter time cooking by dehydrating them.

Green onion tops to dry.

The tabbies have taken over our sofa. Frosty, Poppy and  Daisy.

Daisy is one of two cats we brought with us from Houston, Texas eight years ago. Both female cats have develops internal and external lumps just like our fish did back then. We suspect these are tumors from the chemicals in the air, soil and water in Houston, Texas. While I am glad we no longer live there, I wonder what issues we might develop later in life. But to circumvent that we now eat healthy stay active and drink home distilled well water. And we live in the wonderful Ozarks where we can see the stars at night and breathe.

The Debt not Owed

Finally found an article about what I am going through as an adult. I never understood why my family life was so different from everyone else. The constant moving, no one allowed to visit the house, strict rules, the long silences, the black moods, the constant feeling of insecurity no money no food, the feeling of not being wanted. Turns out my parents are not the best people in the world. I broke ties with them 4 years ago after I visited them at their request. My dad was sick and my mother asked me to fly up to be with him. I had no idea I would be hit, yelled at, threatened, lied to, held against my will. It was my childhood all over again, yet I was an adult married woman, their only daughter. But I called my husband, he got me a flight home and I never went back. Now I have been contacted by a medical equipment company to inform me of delivery to my dads house, even though I live 6 states away. I know this is a cry for attention as this is what narcissist do. But I have to leave them alone. I will not be treated like that by anyone. They are my parents but they are not nice people to me.

It is sad but it is a repeat of what they did to their own parents, my grandparents. They broke ties from their folks, took off, tore me away from my grandparents, uncles and cousins. I never knew when my grandparents died. They did not attend to their own parents illness, death and funeral. And they have punished me as they have themselves. 

It is a sad and hurtful lonely way to come to their end of the road. 

But I know what a good life can be now. I have been joined with other families and friends who know my story. When life ends surrounded by loved ones it is a beautiful thing. God gives us the gift of life here on earth. He asks we love our fellow man and love Him as he love us. It is not an easy job but a beautiful way to say thank you.

Illustration by Charlie Powell

Sing the Water Song

I was told I am a great granddaughter of an Indian on my mothers side. I have no name only a location in New Orleans. But that is tenuous at best. My uncles had the black hair and eyes and could fix any engine you put in front of them. I have the dark eyes, can fix things, can work with animals and love to be outside. But I have no name, no tribe no idea of what my heritage is. It makes no difference as we do not have prodigy. But I can still feel a connection to the 4 elements once in a while and that is why I live on a farm. I like some of the songs sung by Indians in their various tongues. I am sharing this video created by Victoria Cummings: Sing the Water Song.

And her video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC2FHciQ0sU

And for more information you can go to the website: 

https://www.singthewatersong.com

Garden Hands

This is not a photo of my hands but the best one I could find of what soil staining does to my flesh. And this is with gloves. I wear nail polish to hide the nails. But my fingers tell the tale of working in the gardens. This year I have green beans, cabbages, tomato, 3 kinds of cucumbers, 4 kinds of pumpkins, basil, potato and okra. Thanks to pigweed I have many small spikes I have to pull out of my leather gloves and flesh. But I have fresh veggies anytime I want. I grow what I eat and can or freeze the rest. I share what I have too much of like basil and radishes.

It is hard work, sweat, mulch,dirt and pain but worth it. I get to spend time outside with my animals. My husband has to find me to remind me to eat lunch or dinner. Most nights I am outside watering after dark or re-potting seedlings. So grateful to have the strength to do this and the energy do do this. Life is hard but wonderful.

Behind the Scene at Church

We have a very small Ozark church that we have attended since moving here seven years ago. And it has gotten smaller in attendance (30). But when it was built in the 1980's there were over 300+ active church members. So the large building has four air conditioning units, four different makes, filters sizes and locations within the building, offices, classrooms and chapel. We used to pay for a local AC company to maintain them when there was income and interest. However that AC company was not doing its job and cost hundreds of dollars for doing nothing. When the man who oversaw all the building maintenance work died we sought volunteers to take over this enormous task. Since we live in the Ozarks we are blessed with many skilled DIY type of people. We volunteered to clean the air units and replace filters, even ones in the ceiling. This is my husband pulling down the filters, cleaning the coils and looking for leaks. None of the air units have any water catch pans under them.

How fun is this replacing monthly AC filters in the ceiling. Can you say stupidly built?

Cleaning coils

Hot sweaty mouldy work

Since I have fallen through 3 ceilings I no longer go up into ceilings of any kind.

Putting in the new filters in unit one.

Unit two was on the ground, with the wrong metal filters on it.

Coil cleaner and cleaning the intake.

Headlamps come in hand not just on the farm.

Dirty filters on unit three.

We ran out of coil cleaner on unit three and used Simple Green instead. Much cheaper and got most of the caked on dirt of the filthiest unit so far. Have to order yet a third size filter set for this unit as well.

Unit four was behind a ton of classroom clutter. It cools the offices. The problem is that you can't get to any of the coils to clean them. We will have to find someone we can trust to work on this unit. It was out of our skill set.

We now rely on volunteers to take time to fix things at our church. Along with a full time job and a farm that is hard to do for many. Also, our volunteer pool most are over the age of 80. They still work and volunteer but can't climb up into ceilings nor do heavy lifting. It is a lot to ask of people trying to keep their church open and running. The diocese gives nothing to keep up the church, that is our parishes job. I think it has always been that way. But when people die, move away to be closer to their families, lose interest in the church that pool shrinks. Many of our church members wear many hats. I clean, do the bulletin, e-mails, phone calls, keep up with the church members, settle in the new priests and sing in the choir. My husband fixes the computers, piano, plays the music for the choir,  and fixes any broken machines. And somewhere in there we remember to pay attention to God's message, love your fellow man and pray.

Stormy Ducks

Last weekend I was very busy prepping my gardens with my seedlings. We had a late, cold spring in April and could not put in our seedlings. May was very hot and stormy in the Ozarks.

In the morning dark came and dropped little rain and then the sun came out and so did I.

But late afternoon the clouds rolled in again. My shepherds hid, the winds picked up, my chickens ran to the coop and thunder clapped.

Then this rolled right over us. I watched this spin, the winds were wild but silent. No thunder just this huge swirl of twisting clouds.

It moved to the east of us and touch down. It took out some trees in our town but no one was hurt. There was no warning, no alerts, nothing. Just me snapping shots of this cloud as it passed over us. then the winds and rains came with a vengeance.

My Rouen ducks all stood like this as the sky poured cold rain and hail.

My Indian Runners loved this.

Feasting in the rain.

Indian Runners to the left and Cayuga, Rouen and Campbell to the right.

Radish Me, Baby!

After lots of heat in May, I have  French Breakfast Radish to harvest. Lots of them in fact. They pop out of the ground when ready. They are a milder radish almost sweet in flavor if picked young. 

I have grown also grown Daikon Japanese radish. My first one was too small to harvest but was wonderful raw. But guess what? Daikon smell awful in the fridge if left open. I read up on Korean Daikon fermentation and yup, it reeks. But the Daikon is very mild and worth the smell- if you pickle. They are a refreshing way to get your veggies.

Now back to the pinks. So what to do with all these French radish? Pickle them! Since this is my first go for radish, I chose the refrigerator picking for try outs. They stained themselves pink in the jar, how cool is that?  I will try the sauteing of onions and butter with toast and poached eggs next- traditional French Breakfast radish fare.

This was a great way to get my feet wet pickling something other than a cucumber. Worth the effort of growing them. Radish are ready in 30 days time. And my rabbits can eat the radish leaves, of which there are many. 

I also planted 3 kinds of cucumbers, 4 kinds of pumpkins and 3 kinds of eggplant this season. Along with cabbages, lettuce, green beans, tomatoes and herbs. Yes, I am finally achieving my gourmet garden. All thanks to a tiller, horse/rabbit/chicken manure, sweat, cuts and bruises and lots and lots of mistakes and sweet tea along the way.

Church Changes

Since we have moved here to the Ozarks we have seen a dramatic shift in attendance not only our church but other faith churches as well. A movement away from "going to church". The older ones either die or move closer to their children away from here. Their children ages 30-50's do not go to church on any regular schedule if at all. Grand children are shuffled off to sports events, school activities or the ex- spouses. And our priests are from other countries and do not last long in the isolation and culture shock of the area. The elderly experienced patrons of the church never made any preparation for the next generation taking over after them. No one was groomed nor practiced in the church procedures/traditions. So when the old ones die, who is left to carry on with the church? Who changes the flowers, the linens, the books,the candles or the banners? Who sews the vestments and gets the mass ready? We have no head usher, no full time secretary and no cleaning service. We run only on all volunteers. Our new priests are not skilled to do anything but know theology. They can't clean, barley cook, can't fix anything. (Note: I was raised around Jesuit priests who could plant a garden, do the taxes, change a tire, play sports and shoot a gun all before breakfast and mass.)

We will be getting our next new priest at the end of June. He is the 3rd one in less than 6 months. We will try to help get him situated and taken care of, but in the end -the loneliness and lack of people and things to do is what sends them running away. We do have a handful of people keeping the candle lit and the church running. But it is very expensive to keep two buildings open with no income. I think if we installed some gas pumps out in the parking lot, we might fair better down the line.  The photo of Mary is from the May crowing. There is one lady who has make these flower crowns for the last 20 years. She sees no reason why she needs to train someone else to do this. Her house is for sale and she is moving away to live with her adult children.

May makes Green

The potting shed, flower bed and veggie garden

Constant companion, heavy rain

Our ducks love the rain and bugs. 

Clematis scaling the deck post

The trees have never been so happy.

Poppy leading me around the farm.

Inspecting his domain.

Zilla eating a cow leg, her favorite treat from the abattoirs. She loves when I come home with a five gallon bucket of bits. This gives her something to do when the rains come and the poultry goes in the coop early.

May Showers Makes What?

It has been the rainy season here in the Ozarks. So much rain that my garden has been flooded out several times a day. Hard to grow stuff that can't swim. The good news is that hay season should be great this year. Our pastures are green tall and lush for the horses. Our ducks are loving this wetness and bugs. 

9pm at night and this is a thunderhead moving in with lightening bolts and bugs.