Purple Strait days

It took five weeks of bleaching but I finally was able to safely bleach my ends and then dye them purple and blue. I used Arctic fox semi-permanent purple. It last for about 3 weeks and rinses out lighter each time. The blue fades to a grey so I am not a fan but the purple stays rich and bright. And I can put more on, cap it and I am good to go after a hour of recoloring my purple ends. Arctic fox also conditions as it put the color on and it smells like grape soda. Quarantine hair don't lie.

I was asked if I could to make a George Strait mask last week. I did not know who he was but dove into the project. The client has cancer and this was on her bucket list. She used to go to his concerts and listens to his music saving all her money to do that. She worked her whole life in a taco shell making factory in Wisconsin. Right after she retired she got the cancer diagnosis.

To make the mask I used iron on transfer for the photo and the text. I put it on cotton and tested it for washable and breathable. I used flesh colored elastics. She will wear this during her chemo treatments. She loves this musician. She was overjoyed to receive this mask of her hero. And I enjoyed the sewing challenge.

Farm life indoors

This is Frosty a single kitten I raised given to me by the rescuer who found him between walls of an office building. It was September when he was given to me and I did not name him. I never name my foster kittens. But time came and went and the weather turned cold and he was never adopted. So my vet needed a name for their records and called him Frosty. Frosty has been my constant companion ever since. His is a large silver tabby and my constant shadow. Going on three years now Frosty has his home on our farm.

Oh yes, I must, I must have some gumbo before I bust. Homemade seafood gumbo with okra over rice. We buy our Louisiana seafood and freeze it just for this reason. Homemade food we adore. Even in the Ozarks I gotta have my gumbo.

Puff one of the foster kittens we kept. She has no bones, she is all cartilage and fat. She can literally ooze out of your arms like a blob.It is the 1/2 Ragdoll breed in her that makes her super compliant and bloppy. She loves people and lap time.The whole litter of 12 was going to be drowned and a good Samaritan took them and found me. There were six sets of twins in each color. All were just like Puff but a little bitey. I wanted to keep the black ones but they were very bitey. All were found new homes and Puffs twin also got a new home. Puff has been our greeter ever since.

My peony on my farm. Soft pink and very fragrant. 

Growing Gills

Thunder and lightning very very frighting unless you are a duck. Ducks love all this rain. I love storms but when you get so many it becomes life aquatic. Suit up and head out into the farm muck. But the animals are fine and the pastures are so very green.

I have been trying to get my veggies in the ground and the rain keeps me indoors. Mostly the lightning keeps me indoors.

Black skies and lots of wind and hail for the last three weeks about every day.

Playing can you see any danger in the clouds?  I love storms and always get out in the middle of them to see what is in there.

Our power has gone out off and on and out in the last 4 weeks. We have plenty of setting up the generator practice. Luckily it has returned quickly. Last Sunday as we were loading up the generator, the power returned.  When we have too much rain it ruins the hay fields. Will need a dry up before hay can be cut and dried and baled.

Then there was one

The night after our power went out we noticed the fish acting very strange. Lots of movement and swimming about from normally lazy fish. I went to bed and my husband went to feed the fish. He then ran down to tell me the water in tank was over 190 degrees! I quickly got up we drained some water out and put in cold water. But it was too late and the fish died except for one the pleco. The fish tank heater had shorted out and went into overheating. It should have just stayed off but instead boiled the fish. Glad we were home when this happened. Very dangerous for the fish, tank and our house. So now our 78 gallon tank is empty but for one pleco. He is a tough fish. Our plan is if life gets back to "normal-ish" we will put in goldfish and mollies. We bought a new heater with alarm and better alerting status settings. We have had our big tank in two states and for over 20 years. We have raised several kinds of freshwater fish over the years and still have the original live rock. This is the first time a heater has cooked our fish. We love having fish in a tank with us. It is very relaxing to watch.

Our Sunday Visitor

Last Sunday there was a thud on our roof. 

We went out and sure enough it was a large bird on our metal roof. It was a vulture taking a break from dining on a dead armadillo.

Our shepherds kill armadillo and eat them. If any is left the vultures come in for leftovers. I like armadillo, they are great at eating bugs especially ants. But my dog kill them and eats them. I have tried to save them but they usually are beyond my ability to. I have tried to stop my dogs from eating them, nope they eat them shell and all. One nice thing is I did save and move a nest of young ones. One day my dogs will be too old to harm the dillos and things will be less bloody on the farm.

Oh hail no!

This is not salt but tiny hail. Frozen daggers of ice from a tornado that passed by last week.

Yup these are bad clouds. A tornado hit west of us and took out the power for three hours. The Missouri power company is very good at finding and fixing down lines. We called it in and two company men came by. There were over 600 homes without power and some buildings damaged in the areas. But they got us back on line.

So I made grill cheese for dinner. One nice thing about propane is you can still cook when the power is out.

Flooding Farm Time

Our ducks are made for lots of rain. We have had frost and heavy rains the last two weeks. 

Our pond overflowed but the fish stayed in the pond.

River of water down the hill and into the valley.

Our pasture flooded. The cattle are not ours but are fun to watch. Our pasture is cut in half and this is a no mans land the cattle are on. 

Living Traditions in Missouri

This is Sarah and Kevin and they live close to us in Ava, Missouri. They are self sustaining homesteaders, city kid transplants to the MO Ozarks like us. They have a facebook, youtube and website all about their everyday living in the Ozarks. They are really funny and honest about what is really like to raise your own food, family,  and live off the land.

One of the many things we learned from them was why our garden was a hassle-the weeds. This year I tore out the fence and put in old manure, tilled and now putting in weed fabric. It is a ton of work right before planting season. But the hard work now will save us during harvest time. No weeds competing with our veggies. And we enlarged our garden by 30% this year. With empty grocery stores, empty shelves and long lines, we upped our food game. Yes, even in the Ozarks now we are seeing shortages for food and supplies. We have plenty of meat here though.

For the last two years I have planted and canned enough food for us to live off of. We have not been to a grocery store in over 4 months. We grow what we like and trade with other farmers. Yes, it is a lot of work but it gets easier the more you do it. I plan, plant, seed save and can so we have food.

We do eat a lot of beans and rice as a mainstay. But we also eat a lot of other veggies along with meat on occasion. 

We have had 2 frost days and so I have not put my seedlings in the ground. And this week we have heavy storms all week long. I just put in the last of our veggie fencing/fabric and now we wait to plant. It is so nice to have another family to watch and share ideas about what we are doing. If you get a chance stop and watch Sarah and Kevin. They have recipes and cooking ideas that really are quite good.

Take my money

This also works when you buy half a cow. You have no idea how big that is until the farmer comes by and ask if you got an empty freezer, cause you're gonna need it. Being a city girl turned country I learned we needed the 4 deer freezer. That was 5 years ago and we are still eating off that steer. Thanks to vac-u-seal -no freezer burn, good grass fed local beef can last years.

Farm juice

Mama hen with her brood eating watermelon

One of the perils of letting a broody hen hatch chicks is moving day. When you move hen and her chicks into a cage so they can grow safely. You can't move her too soon or she will abandon the unhatched eggs. You can't move her too late as the chicks will die of lack of food and water waiting for all the other eggs to hatch. So I take a gamble on when enough chicks hatched and are pushing mom to forage for viddles. I have learned after years of doing this when the right time is. I should have moved them last night but the severe storm hit at that time. So I waited a day and the chicks were on the move. I heard peeping chicks that were "I am cold" sound. Sure enough, got to the coop and 2 chicks were under mom in another next box and 3 chicks were wet and cold and newly hatched in the original nest box. I moved the eggs, chicks and mom and put them in their new digs. So why don't I just put mom and her eggs in the cage before they hatch? Because I have learned mama hen will bury half the eggs and most will get forgotten or buried under her cage nest. Also I need variety. I need all the hens to add their eggs to the broody nest. Let one hen hatch them all. I good broody hen does all the work for me. Also, a hen and her chicks need about a week to 7 days to be accepted by the flock. My flock will kill and eat baby poultry they do not recognize. A cage in the coop with mama and chicks, everyone respects her and her brood. Sure, the chicks get a peck once in a while, but they are not killed outright. The killing happened a few over 100 degree summers ago. Eggs hatched out in the woods and several motherless chicks ran around away from my flock. They were never right in the head and the ones I saved I sold off. So in summary, good broody hen is worth her weight in gold, even if she poops on you when you pick her up.

Dr. Faust .. er Fauci

It's interesting to read how Dr. Fauci was pivotal in promoting the creation of new human diseases, against the warning of hundreds of scientists, and the funding of the Wuhan lab with our tax dollars.

I don't really like to promote Newsweek after they called the virus "Boomer Remover", but this is a well-written article.

Quick summary Dr. Fauci paid for this virus and authorized ability of the virus to infect humans at the Wuhan Lab. He is vested in the creation of it and must have a hard time not smiling while on camera.It is documented written in several science journals and witnessed by several scientist to this Wuhan lab. You know it is bad when the Russian scientist say it's bad.

The Covid was man made in China, authorized by Dr. Fauci and paid for during the Obama administration.  

I called this one. Man made mess by Dr. Fausti Fauci. Now we wait to see what his exit will be. If he was Japanese it would involve a sword. But with so many sheeple I think Fausti will continue this drama until it no longer serves his interests. As a doctor he has done considerable harm to humans. He is in league with the likes of Josef Mengele.

                                                     

Egg Grenade

Photo taken by Henry Hargreaves

This morning I was again checking on my broody duck and her clutch in the coop. Nothing has hatched in her nest in over a month and the nest is full of eggs. My male ducks are molting right now so the eggs are not fertilized. But I gave the duck the benefit of doubt just in case. This morning I moved mama duck so I could see any hatches. BAM sulfur bomb all over me and the nest and the coop.Gleefully mama duck snatched up the broken shells and ate the sulfur egg. I walked out of the coop covered in egg sulfur. Every fly and vulture in the area moved in to follow the aroma. I still had to plant taro and ginger, while a swarm of flies followed me around the garden. I should know better but I really wanted some ducklings this spring. I will have to shove some duck eggs under a hen instead. The broody hen hatches the ducklings and I raise them indoors, works best on my farm. My ducks are just not good mamas.My hens are great at hatching.

Pleco Me

This is one of two of our remaining fish. Both are catfish including this guy a plecostomus. We have had him for 3 years and he thrived while everything else died or was eaten in our 75 gallon freshwater tank. Thanks to some chemical we added that had gone over and poisoned the tank.

But I digress, this fish looks so cool. He has been at the bottom of the tank for years. But he has gotten bigger and now likes to suck on the side of the glass. So I can see his pretty cool belly patterns.

I miss my outdoor catfish koi pond in Houston, TX. We built this when I was in a wheelchair. So I could wheel around outside and still have fish.

But we did take our indoor tank with us to Missoui. It stayed in storage with the live rock for about 7 years. Then we hauled it into the house and set up fish. We had clown loaches, koi, goldfish and pleco. Gonna tell your right now koi poop a lot. So we got biggest filters and pumps we could for indoor tanks that are quiet. But the koi got too large and they had to be given to a pond owner. Then we accidentally poisoned out tank and everything died over the winter except the catfish. Then our new fish plans all stopped when the virus struck. But these two catfish thrive and our tank is back to normal status. And I get to see fish belly.