Winter Still Here

We have no ice one day, everything melts then more ice by weekend. It has been like this for the last 2 months. Ice weighs everything down and makes driving more difficult.

Very cold days then warm up then ice and sleet this year.

Ice and more ice then lots of rain, flooded roads then more ice. It has been a winter of lots of weather watching for us. Lots of days staying home and off the roads. Keeping the farm fed has been a challenge with ice, rain or mud. Snow is so much better to deal with. 

My poultry are wanting to get broody and hatch. Egg production has been very high this late winter. 

New Study and Japanese

Here is a good read from LSU School of Medicine for  possible help for people with Alzheimer's.

My husband and I are studying Japanese. We hope to go to Japan one day. There is a neat program called Drops for language study of usable words and stuff you might need to read and say.

It is cheaper than Rosetta and easier to learn. It has visual, verbal and written all at the same time. It is fun and it sticks. Worth a look for language studies.

This is a handmade goldfish by Wee Folk Studio. I have been following Salley Mavor's neat creations and publications. Worth a look at this talented woman's creations. She shows how she creates and you can see she loves what she does.

Helping the Woman in Blue

This is a silent auction in a neighboring town here in the Ozarks. A friend, bee keeper, police woman and park ranger was run over and almost killed while walking and crossing the highway. Many cars, bears and people have been run over by trucks not making the stoplight on this highway. But this time it was an elderly man almost blind who ran her over. We have many over 80 year old seniors who still drive in the Ozarks. Ellie survived only because she was in such good physical shape. Plus, with the government shutdown and poor insurance, she has a lot of medical bills she must pay for. The man who hit her has no insurance. So the town is having a silent auction. All money goes to Ellie Carson. She is one of the good ones. Donations can also be sent to the Mountain View, Missouri Police Dept, Care of Ellie Carson.

You can find her here: 

You can find out more about the fundraiser.

Shell-y

I saw this while looking for sea shells. I thought it was a neat way to display shells simply. Out of the way and great way to see them all.

Local Farm for Sale

For all my readers yearning to live in the Ozarks there is a listing. Actually, there are several listings in an around our pop. 500 of out town. This one belongs to so friends who also run an Air B&B. You can see the barn, house and the cottage in the photo. She has a pretty busy Air B&B going during the  spring- fall season. Hunters, visitors, river rats and trail riders all come and stay here. My friends want to relocate to Branson, MO. So their place is for sale. The barn is HUGE for horses or whatever. I thought I'd share.

Farm for Sale

Contact realtor: Marla Denton 417-247-5052 or 417-934-2427 or United Country Realty.

http://www.mountainviewmorealestate.com/index.html

Winter Chicks

Last week my banty hen surprised me with 4 newly hatched chicks. She is a broody blue grey banty that always sneaks off to hatch only her tiny blue eggs. This time she got into a 3 inch space behind a stall door and straw bales in the dog kennel. She was easy prey for snakes, coons or packrat. I found her abandoned nest with 2 unfertilized eggs she left behind. With winter on I was worried about the chicks surviving outside. So I put mom and chicks in a cage with a light and lots of straw. All are doing well. The chicks wings are fully feathered now and they are big. The weather will warm up next week and I will let them out of the cage to join the flock. 

Normally every year around February I get a hatch of duckling. I have a few broody gals waiting to set. My ducks do not seem to be the best mama ducks. I usually raise the ducklings inside our house. Then I use a foster mama duck to show them the ropes. It would be great to have good mama duck just once. But Runners, Campbells, Cayugas and Rouens have not been able to do this for me in 8 years of raising them. But that is fine, we like raising them indoors.

About Simone and her Robots

Simone Giertz is one of our fav vloggers who has created a lot of robots - Shitty Robots. She is very intelligent and fun to watch. If you like anything about robots, technical sculptures this is a fun one to follow. Last year she had a brain tumor removed- Brian. It came back in less than 6 months and now she is doing  radiation. He new campaign is "Burn Brian" with radiation. The t-shirt she is wearing is her brain scan after the tumor was removed. She is selling these shirts as a fun raiser. I am hoping she will get this tumor thing without harming her brain. If you want to support her go here. Simone is one of the good ones. Would hate to have to lose her and all her ideas.

Rain, Sleet, Snow and Ice, Oh My!

Half the US is dealing with the ice and arctic blast this January 19th. Here in the Ozarks we got rain in the morning, snow by noon and it is all ice by nightfall. This is our well head of our hand dug well.

Our driveway is ice all the way to the top of the hill.

Sugar maple tree

Our pond

Black walnut tree 

our herd of fox trotters

Maple

duck prints going back into the coop

buffalo grass

chicken prints in the ice

quinces

Shelby in the snow

the evergreens in ice

Snow Me Down

Woke up this Saturday to rain then it got cold and turned into snow.

Lots of wind and lots of snow in what was wet and green a few hours ago. Here are my gourds drying in the slings hanging from the trellis. Old swim suits and underwear are perfect for doing this.

 My truck covered in ice and snow.

Skylight covered in the white fluffy stuff.

Winter bean patch.

Been flocked

The wind is gusting a bit as the temperature drops into the teens with this arctic blast.

US Healthcare VS Japanese Preventative Healthcare

Ugh I am getting old. As we pay a lot for health insurance now for each of us and hardly any coverage after that, I must rant. Recently we saw a great video from an American woman (Rachel) who is 30 and married a Japanese man. In Japan they have a whole body mandatory testing that you pay for ($80 for the basic run). You can choose which hospital, what extra test you want done and the PRICES ARE LISTED! You set up the appointment, you have a guide who goes with you, it is like a spa day and after you get a souvenir, a full color booklet on everything they did with pictures. With a follow up with a team of doctors to answer your questions. Rachel had an ulcer, thyroid lump and bloody stool and was graded in the booklet. These 3 health items she got  D.The good news no cancer in her body. Here in the US we seem to use a tissue and boom we have cancer. You are billed, pilled and pushed out the door.
This video is really worth a 45 minute watch as she walks you through what she went through. And the bonus is the end where you get to see her results. It shows just how behind the technology times and medical times were are in the country.

Found Another One

We had a friend who came to stay with over the weekend. He mentioned he had not been able to locate his worker for a year now. We told him I can find things and people. He was not convinced and after a bit decided he did not want to bother. But the next day he had a dream about his friend and gave me some details and left. By the time he got back to our farm I had located his friend. His worker had been arrested and was a guest of the state for a over a year. The crime he committed  meant he would be a guest of the state for up to 10 years. Our friend was not thrilled to hear this news. I thought it was better than being dead. At least you can visit a person in some jails.

This is one of the reasons I do not find people for a living. Most do not want to be found and the families do not really want to find them. It is always about money. Money owed, money from an inheritance, money missing, money expected. I have heard and witnessed the "reunions of the lost"and it is rarely a happy event. Old grudges, old wounds, feelings are brought up when that person is found. And most get mad at the messenger- me. Even though they are warned, they think I can't do it.
There was only one time I could not find something, a ring. It was not the car the owner swore it would be. I told her to look in her office. That was were the ring was, she found it there.

But finding lost people and things is not rewarding and I only do it for friends. I enjoy fiber puzzles and discovering how something was created and then recreate it- better. I am looking forward to robots and hopefully will get to make my own thanks to 3D printing. The technology is getting so much better and affordable for home use. Automatons and dolls are just the shell I want to create for robots. I like the soft robot styles created in the Blade Runner movie by J.F. Sebastian. I think in the future our elderly in nursing homes or living alone would benefit from these kinds of robots. A strong 'bot around but also soft and friendly with replaceable and changeable skins.

We now have our very first flying 'bot and it has been very useful. We can see for miles and can track our farm. We can check fences in minutes instead of all afternoon. We can find our herd in seconds instead of calling them in and we can check them over easily. We can get to a fire and see what we need before we head out the door. There was one just across the highway. It was a controlled burn and was of no concern. Having a flying robot is just for first step but a wonderful way to find things.

January Un Crafting

Yes, it is that time. Time to clean, purge, organize my studio.  I moved my large oak table to the windows along with two of my sewing machines instead of the middle of the room. I have natural light along with the bright new LED bulbs. Moved the saddles and tack out of my studio.I had a ton of horse, kitten and farm vet supplies taking up space. I can't move my huge piano but that is just fine, she is happy where she is. So happy I got an upright.

As I go through a ton of forgotten patterns, fabric scraps piles, notes, catalogs, forgotten tools I find I no longer want to pursue some things I had once thought to. I am also making room for my leather crafting. I am looking forward to tooling and creating in leather. But that takes room and organization.

I have found I love certain brands of thread. I have to throw out all the old half saved spools. Connecting Threads has a very nice selection of cones and spools. I have them all with in reach and can depend on them.

I still collect buttons, eyes, yarns and silks for restoration. But I no longer need the patterns as I can create my own. My studio is still an animal hospital, kitten foster home, winter dog zone when it needs to be. But now I can put that stuff way until it is needed. 

While purging the basement I found a lot of food stuff given to us by a previous neighbor along with prepper grains I bought for "just in case". It had all spoiled and "gone over" even though it was all stored well. It will become chicken food. I had hoped I would have time to grind and bake my own breads from these grains. But life got busy on the farm. And we got older and do not eat as much as a young family might. We also do not eat that kind of food. We eat more Asian vegetables and rice now. So now a large part of our basement shelving has been cleared. It is funny how you live with things you do not need. While it is a lot of work this organizing was needed for our farm. Time to out the round bale and feed the horses. We have a strong winter storm headed for the Ozarks again this Saturday. Time to split and stack more firewood. 

Melon, boots and the wood stove.

Icy Night

We had a guest stay over for two days picking up equipment we stored for him. While here the ice storm came and coated everything in half and inch of ice here in the Ozarks.

We got up before dawn to make sure our guest made it on to the pavement and highway. Then got busy feeding the farm early. The ground was crunchy but easy to walk on. 

A mantis egg case in the bridal veil.

Our copper patio light with a blue flame LED bulb. Hanging heavy with ice.

Our pasture every blade was coated.

Sunflowers from the summer

buffalo grass

 my poor southern magnolia 

fallen branches heavy in ice fell on our truck

Chicken wire coated and fallen down with the weight of the ice