Busy time of Year

It has been awhile since I have written. This most definitely is a busy time of year for us. We have been busy re-fencing the back acreage of our property. And trying to get crops out before a hard frost comes. And a few minor repairs to the barn need to be made before the first hard winter day, along with fall barn cleaning. So much to do, and hope that we have enough of time to get it done.

Around this time of year, is when I start putting my to do list together before winter comes. Then it gives me about 2 months to get the list done, before the wind and snow starts to get to bad for major projects. It would probably only take me 2 weeks to get everything done, but given how much I work outside of our home, 2 months seems to be a good timeline for us.

Last year the to do list was easier, as all we had to worry about was the horses, mustangs, and pig. This year we have the mustangs, horses, and goats. We need a female pen and male pen for goats. And we separate our horses due to diet needs. The ones whom need more to eat go in 1 pen and the "pigs" go in a different pen. We only have 1 barn for our use and a run in shed. We had bad luck with the goats catching ammonia due to the drafts in the barn, this past spring. Fixing the drafts is a priority for this year. It's not the only problem with our barn. Our barn also needs 2 new doors and we need to configure it so the horses that are stalled, can get to their stalls and the goats can have free access to the pasture.

Since we live in North Iowa, there is usually at least 1 ice storm among the wind and snow storms. Which can make feeding, watering and keeping the animals safe a problem during that time. Our strategy is to have hay very close by the animals. To have water heaters and safe place for dumping water that won't cause a slippery mess. Water heaters and access to fill the water troughs with a short hose that is easy to take in and out of the basement.  Of course enough shelter for all of the animals, which can be a challenge as some of our animals like to block the doorways.

We try to keep only 2 water heaters going all winter long. Running extension cords all the way to the barn from our home can only handle 2 water heaters before it blows the circuit. That requires the horses and mustangs to share one water trough and the goats to share one for this year. It also requires for all water sources to be by a hydrant, so we can use short hoses. This year we will not have baby goats in February and March. It was just too cold, and the goats were breed when we got them. We didn't have much of a choice.

With all of that being said, I will be at the drawing board trying to figure out this years strategy for a safe winter. And still working on the back fence before winter set in officially:)

A moment

I get very wrapped up in ordinary life, like so many people. Cooking, cleaning, taking care of animals, my job and lately remodeling a little bit. We, my fiance and I, both have been extremely busy with redoing the floor and it's finally done:)

I got to thinking yesterday that it's been a long time since I have taken a "moment" to enjoy the little things in life.  I took a moment, and looked out the window. I look outside many times a day to check on the animals, garden, and other things. This was different, I wasn't counting heads, wasn't running by the garden to check something quickly, or checking on a sick horse. I was just looking. Looking at the sky, at the trees, the birds and the.... turkeys?

Really, wild turkeys, in our backyard? I haven't seen any of them in the past almost 5 years we have been here. There was a tom and a hen. I sat there watching them, and there were 5 other babies with them. It was a beautiful family and all in our backyard. I went outside to get a picture, but they saw me before I could get a good picture. It was such a joy to see these wonderful creatures.

Once again today, I decided to take another moment, while looking at our front horse pasture, I didn't know what I was looking for. What I saw was my "moment" for today. There were 2 wonderful horses, grooming each other. They were facing each others tails and gently biting each others backs where they can't reach by themselves. The moment was followed by some grazing and a playful race up to the top of the hill.

This was an extremely special moment for me. All of our horses are rescues on our farm. One of the horses, a young filly, was a mustang we adopted almost a year ago with 2 others, as a 4-H project for some local town kids. The other horse was a recent rescue. He came in with marks from other animals, hives and sores all over his body, face and legs.

Earlier this spring we had something going around in our herd, no vets could pinpoint what it was, and it killed 4 horses within 3 days, and put the mustang filly not able to stand up for 7 days. We had spent hours laying with her, and months helping her get back up, and treating all of her pressure sores and infections. We thought that she would always be reliant on some help, due to a gimpy leg from being down for so long. That was high hopes, considering that we really didn't think she could make it.

It was a huge joy to see both the mustang and her buddy being a "mustang" again. The way they groomed each other, running and not limping, with a herd that they get along with so wonderfully:) That was my moment today.

I've always enjoyed the little things in life and love every moment of them. Sometimes I don't take enough of time to "enjoy a moment."

Home Updates

As few of you know, we started a new home project, as if we don't already have 2 underway. The 2 we started over a year and half ago in hopes of adopting 2 girls, was a large room in the attic and to finish our large mudroom. The mudroom was a must, with boarded up windows in it and no insulation, it was a priority. We hired a drywall worker, and both rooms got drywall hung. The hired worker moved to Tennessee and didn't finish the detail work. All that is left is taping and putting mud on it several times. The painting we were planning on doing ourselves. Hoping that will be our winter project, to finish the detail work and paint both of those rooms.

For now, we have another project underway, and hopefully one that will not take as long as the rooms. Last week, we got some new furniture as our couches were 2nd hand and had seen better times. We found a great deal and a whole set of living room furniture for under $500. As we were bringing the furniture in, we decided that the carpet had to go. The rest of our home has laminate flooring or hardwood. The carpet was old and had plenty of pet stains from previous owner and from an old cat we rescued.

As we were pulling the carpet up, we realized that only half of our floor was stained:/ I guess that is what they did years ago. Stained half and put a large area rug under the other half. This week has been spent moving things out of the dining room and living room, so the carpet can be pulled up and stapled pulled out.

Our deadline, we hope, is to get all the furniture out by today. We want to go rent the sander tonight. We also have to pick what stain we want to use. Hoping to be done by Wednesday!  Yep in 5 days. We will hope this is as quick as we really want it to be. The plan is 2 days for staining, 2 days for putting top coats on, and 1 day just in case.

May be hard work, but the final result will be wonderful. And hopefully a treasure that we will enjoy for years to come. Especially since the upstairs hallway and floors should be done sometime also.

Until then , hopefully the weather cooperates and the floor will be a success:)

Garden

Spent part of this wonderful cool summer day in the garden. Pulled out a lot of 6 ft high weeds in hopes of finding the cherry tomatoes I could see stashed back there. Not only did I find them. I found about 60 plants of them, and other tomatoes alongside the weeds. Got down to pulling weeds and finding a fence system to hold the tomatoes up. Hoping that our fence system will last for the rest of the season. Spent some time picking out all the cherry tomatoes that were ready, and all the ones that fell to the ground.

A few more weeks of gardening to go, and hopefully our garden will survive. One of our goats got into the garden today and decided to feast on our sweet corn. Ugh!! Thankfully she only found 1 patch of the 2 in the garden. We saved what we could, and decided that it should get used up tonight. The rest was thrown out to our horses and alpaca's. I wanted to dig up some potatoes to see how they were doing. It looks like our crop turned out fairly well. Found 2 potatoes on the first dig.

Found great use for everything. Supper! Cherry tomatoes, sweet corn, and potatoes. We also had some fireball applesauce I made last fall from apples we picked at the orchard. It's great to have a dinner that you know is grown organically and not altered in any way. Already getting excited for next years garden:)

Garden and Edible Landscaping

It's already August 2nd! I can't believe how fast our summer is going by. With the end of gardening season close by, I'm already seeing that I didn't accomplish my full goal with our garden. I was expecting more out of our garden to get us thru the winter months. 

A garden only gives out what you put into it. Unfortunately I didn't have time to put much into it. We're still waiting on tomatoes and sweet corn to finish. We will have to see after the garden is finish, what the actual outcome is going to be. 

Our full goal for this year was to get enough vegetables to freeze, store or can to get us thru until the beginning of next year. This is our 2nd year having a garden, so not having the experience or expertise, we are growing and learning at the same time. Hoping within 5 years to have some things down that would make us better gardeners. This year we kept a diagram of where we planted certain items, and the seeds that we planted, if they were heirloom or not, when we planted and our crop turned out like. I'm hoping to keep this type of log for reference for us to learn from. 

This year we expanded our garden in hopes of our future being more self sufficient. We expanded it with fruit trees, nut trees, and bushes. We also added grapes and varies raspberries, and blackberries to this mix. We consider this an investment into the future. My hopes with all of this is to have enough fruit to can, and freeze for our needs and have excess fruit to sell at farmer's market. 

Our trees of choice for this year was 4 cherry trees, 2 pear trees, 1plum tree, 1 nectarine tree, 2 crabapple trees, and 3 hazelnut bushes. I'm hoping for next year to expand that to some peaches, plums, english walnuts, almonds, and pecans. Hoping to maybe get a few more grapes and kiwi fruit also. Two years ago, we planted 2 apple trees, which got their first apples on this year. By having the crabapple tree, my hopes is that it helps pollinate the other apple trees. They seem to bloom at different times of the year. 

Along with our growing garden and orchard, becomes my problem of trying to make it all look organized and beautiful. I have always wanted a nice garden with something that is functional. I love the idea of an edible landscaping. Trying to find specific diagrams of how to do it, is impossible. I have looked everywhere. 

There seems to be no specifics for basic fruits and vegetables for a beginner gardener. They have several out there for a lot of different fruits and vegetables that I would have no clue on what to do with. They are beautiful but not functional for us. The search goes on for a beautiful way of making our edible landscaping:) 

~Angela

Alpaca Update

It's been so long since my last post. I've been a little busy with farm life and still working away. My last post ended with a not so sure note. On a good note the significant other quickly fell in love with the alpaca's. Within an hour of my last post, he was understanding and seemed to be interested in Alpaca's. He has enjoyed seeing them and I have caught him "checking up" on the alpaca's since we put them out to pasture with the goats and horses. I'm glad that he is enjoying them as much as I am.

Alpacas each have a great personality, with a lot of differences. We haven't had the chance to finish shaving them . We had some problems with the shearers we bought. Now that we have fixed the shearers, we need to get this done before winter. We are having to leave a lot of coat on, just because of winter coming. But 5 years of matted fiber doesn't come off very well. Waiting on the next day, that isn't too hot to finish and a day when I have a good helper:)

We still have yet to name our alpacas. We need 3 male names that somewhat go together. All of our animals, except 1 of our mustangs, have come to us with names, as they were all rescues. Granted we have changed a few names of horses, etc. Such as "Erv" to "Apollo." We aren't very creative when it comes to names. Anyone have suggestions for 3 male alpaca names? Any help would be appreciated:)

~Angela

Not sure...

Many of you know that I absolutely love my significant other. He is my best friend. Like all relationships are, you have your good and your bad. I truly can't say that there are any bad parts of our relationship. Even thou we have been together for years.

However, I may have created a bad part. All because of the newest pets on the farm. I don't hide anything from my significant other, but this one I did. I hide it because I knew it would be a no. I've asked before and it's been that every time before. So I went off and got three alpacas today:/

I've been talking about it for a long time. The three I got weren't in the best shape, but the guy had to get rid of them, because he was moving in a week. They haven't been shaved in years and their toenails are all curled up and down and all around. They were somewhat friendly. I knew we could give them a great home and maybe even they could be beneficial around the farm.

I know there fiber could be sold, if you knew how to sell it or had someone whom could spin it. I was thinking more beneficial as far as helping to protect the goats, and calm some of our horses down. They don't eat a whole lot of food, just as much as a dog. So the expenses aren't all that great for these animals, which was a huge bonus.

I'm in a little bit of deep water right now. I feel bad that he doesn't like them and that I didn't ask for his permission. I'm very glad that I did get them. They are so personable, and they like being around people. I already spent some time with them outside and they really are interested in people, despite not having the best care in the past. I'm hoping, not only can I help these alpaca's out, but hoping that the significant other can understand why I did what I did.

I'm hoping that the significant other will like them as much as I already do. I promise no more animals without permission, except chickens, a calf and maybe a sheep or two! I'm hoping that I get permission for that, rather than having to sneak them in also.

We will have to see how it goes having the alpacas here on the farm. I'm excited to see how they are going to work out with the goats:) Hoping it goes as planned. Then we will work on the other animals!

My goal is self-sufficiency. With that comes raising your own food, which would include animals:)

~ Angela