For months now I’ve been wanting to write about the benefits of children growing up in the country, but as we all know, sometimes our lives are disrupted by pandemics. I had many other challenges that I could use as an excuse for my lack of writing but nothing sounds better than, “I was busy reacting to the world to write.” Actually, that doesn’t sound much better.

There was a meme going around for a while about all these amazing artists that were busy during their times of plague and how many wonderful works they produced despite being hampered by loneliness and the unknown. Shakespeare and Newton are two such icons.

I am not at their level. So here it goes.

By now we are several months into this global pandemic, no short of a catastrophe, at least in our nation. For some it has been a radical change, a departure from their day to day lives with isolation, loss of employment, perhaps even a loss of a loved one.

But most telling, is the toll it has placed on working families. 

There are many families that after the partial reopening, have struggled to return to work with the schools closing and childcare being unavailable. It’s hard to raise kids when parks and playdates are restricted and parents are tense from lack of funds or from being sick. 

There are some parents that have been able to work from home and having children bored in the house or apartment with no yard has made the happy home even less happier.

I never knew how grateful I would feel being away from the city until this happened.

Of course the virus has made its way out to the country, immunity has not been found yet. But we feel the tiniest bit safer, away from crowds, and outside in the fresh air whenever it is available to us.

So I wonder how much happier children can be, when they are afforded the freedom of the open air, caring for and raising animals.

In one of my groups, I asked families if living outside of the city has helped them with their children specifically and the overwhelming response has been positive.

Most felt the advantage as soon as they moved. They’ve shared that they know others that are struggling with their kids wanting to meet up with neighboring kids, and having to decline the requests to come visit. 

Raising kids out in the country has many benefits, The fresh air, even if pungent with manure on occasion, is one of the main draws. The room to play and explore is another. Feeling secure that your kids are not getting on the nerves of your neighbors and being abducted by strangers is also comforting. That’s not to say that these things don’t happen out here in the country, they do. It’s harder though, to harass your neighbors when they are several acres away. 

It’s a wonderful learning experience to see the miracle of life when chicks hatch, goats kid or piglets arrive on the farm. There’s a sense of responsibility and reverence when kids learn the stewardship of raising an animal dependent on them for safety, food and fresh water. Chores that they have to be nagged into are still responsibilities that the farm or ranch are dependent on. If the trash doesn’t go out in the suburbs, Mom and Dad are irritated to have an overflowing can in the garage another three days. If you don’t water the garden on a farm, your veggies that are crucial for the family could wither and be lost.

Of course, there are drawbacks to being raised entirely out in the country. The lack of diversity and the homogeneity of group thought that pervades conservative small towns can limit a youths understanding and empathy for others different from himself. Reading about troubled youth experiencing racial and social injustice does not have the same impact like watching it happen to your best friend. This is where decision making and public discourse is introduced.

Although family life and community are highlighted in small towns, divorce still happens. Alcoholism and unemployment is still a common occurrence. And there’s always the internet, where you can still find ways to connect to others around the world. 

Almost every family that I spoke with is so much happier to be experiencing these troubled times away from the city, in partial isolation. Some indicated that their only inconvenience was not finding some items at the stores on occasion or having to go to the store more often to check if an item was available. There were perhaps only two respondents to my informal query that stated their kids were being impacted by the lack of social interaction, having missed out on structured playdates in the nearby towns. I’m sure Mom and Dad having a moment of peace translates the same out in the country as it does in the city.

My niece lives in the heart of a bustling metropolis with her husband and two very young boys. Their grandparents are very close to them and they visit on a daily basis. I’m an hour and a half away so it isn’t too often that they are able to drive out, but when they do it’s a wonderful and fun event for us all. 

I’m lucky to be able to provide this chance for the boys to run and scream and play with a water hose, while not infuriating a neighbor or driving up a water bill. They were able to hold baby chicks in their hands and come back weeks later to see how large the meat chickens became during their absence. I’ve watched my youngest grand nephew toddle off down the driveway, secure in the fact there really was nowhere for him to go and no one was coming to snatch him. He came back of course and I watched him the entire time but he was left to his own devices to explore and gain a sense of self awareness on that dirt road.

Even at the young age of three my older of the two grand nephews knows and understands the importance of feeding the animals and treating them well. He loves to help out and is often reminding us that it’s time to feed the babies. His fascination with the overload of grasshoppers this summer is unending amusement to us all.

My greatest concern about writing this when I first queried my homesteading group didn’t come from someone taking issue with my perceived privilege. It also wasn’t from anyone admonishing my presumption that this way of life was better; but from the nagging reminder that most people were not in the financial position to provide this way of life to their families, and perhaps never would be. It made me feel arrogant and unfeeling to  make that kind of statement, because that was not my intent.

This was not a sing-songy attempt to say we have it better than you do. We appreciate our lifestyle and would never return to the city but we are in no position to state that our life choices trump the ones others in the city have made. We are only filled with gratitude and hope, that somehow we ALL come out of this crisis united and with a better appreciation of what social distancing can do.

Our egg production isn’t consistent. Most of the time it’s because we have our chickens free ranging and they have decided to lay their prizes somewhere else. It would be sad to believe that my feathered friends have outwitted me, which on occasion, they have. But I must come out smarter since I do have opposable thumbs which indicates my species has evolved. The best way I have worked to capture all the eggs is to not let them out until after 1pm. I have found my hens lay before that time, so they are under house arrest until they pay up with the brown hued eggs. Sometimes there will be one that is very wily and has found an escape route from the top of the coop and she’s out eating and mocking her sisters locked inside. Fix the hole, fix the escapee. The only other times we aren’t getting as many eggs is during the wintertime, when there are less daylight hours and when they molt, which this year was the first time we had that happen.

Molting for chickens helps them get a new set of feathers for the upcoming colder months although molting can happen at anytime of the year. Because creating new feathers, which are made up of 85% protein, takes a lot out of their bodies, the chickens, both hens and roosters loose production in their fertility during that process. You can help a chicken boost its protein in many ways.

Most people would think chickens are vegetarian. They are not. They are omnivores and love to eat worms, crickets, frogs and snakes along with seed, grass and weeds. I’ve caught my hens playing keep away with a baby snake in their beaks! While I wouldn’t recommend hunting down little reptiles for the chickens, you can provide meat scraps of beef, lamb or pork along with organ meat. All types of fish, shellfish included, can be provided in this stressful time. And it is stressful for them, so if they mingle with dogs like mine do, try to keep the chasing toned down or eliminated. Mealworms are good but expensive and from some research I’ve looked into, it appears that it may be illegal to feed mealworms to chickens in the UK. If you are across the pond, you may want to check into that before buying that expensive bag of treats. 

Some hen keepers have opted to add a light to their coop to help the chickens continue their egg laying. I haven’t done that, and I don’t think I would for two reasons. One, I think its unfair to their natural body cycle to trick them into producing an egg. And two, other than using a large array of solar powered lights, I don’t want to run electric into my coop just for eggs. I do have electric for my chick brooder, that sits in my coop to keep the heat lamp on. That lamp is necessary for the new chicks to thrive and grow. They’ll keep the heat until they have feathered out, which takes about 10 weeks at the earliest.

One of the easiest sources of protein that I like to supplement my chickens with especially in the winter months, is extra eggs they have lain. I either fry them up or hard boil them, chop up the eggs and grind the eggshells and serve it to them along with a small dash of turmeric and garlic powder which has been purported to be good for their health. Now, let me clarify that this is not an everyday thing. This is as an additional source of protein to help them out during trying times.

When its cold and they won’t get much of a chance to free range because of snow or freezing rain, I have made suet cakes from my leftover kitchen grease and added seeds, oatmeal and a tiny bit of peanut butter. I press it into a small Rubbermaid container and freeze it in my freezer first before taking it outside to place in their run. Its tasty, or so it appears because there’s never any leftover, and the cold weather keeps it in its form. Also, it’s a fun distraction because what you don’t want to have is bored birds.

When my hens are being champion egg layers and let me add that I have no blue ribbons to prove that, I have given away my unused eggs first to family and friends. I don’t sell them, because I don’t have any kind of USDA certification to do that and I stress with the thought of someone bringing the law down on me. I know that there are farmers around here that sell theirs directly or take them to feed store to trade in. I’m not at that production level. After family and friends, the next recipients of extra eggs would by the pigs we are raising. Again, this is for upping the pig’s protein and to create bacon!  Those are hard boiled and served shell and all to the hogs. And last, occasionally, when I have forgotten the buy dog food for my little pupsters, I make them poached eggs, one each. My outdoor hard-working dogs do not get eggs. They do get prime bones from steaks and ribs several times a week.

When I’ve gone to pick up the eggs from the laying boxes, I gently wipe them if dirty, which doesn’t happen too often. Continuously dirty eggshells are a sign your chickens are not well as their vent where the eggs come out of is surrounded with dirty feathers from bad poop. Get them wormed or keep up with the garlic, ACV or whatever all natural de wormer you are giving them and get them back to healthy. No one wants poopy eggs.

Back inside with the days eggs I use a colored pencil and I write the date on it to track when it was produced. That way I know which eggs to use first when cooking. I have made mayonnaise one time. It took too long for my taste and didn’t form until I ditched the processor and whipped the egg and oil mixture by hand. It did taste delicious but was not worth the time it took to make.

These are some of my wintertime egg and hen strategies that I’ve used these last few years since I’ve left the city to come to the farm. Let me know what you do differently or if you have any questions. I’ll write about chickens again as we get ready to order our new chicks next month.

I think one of the scariest things to happen to someone that is not savvy in website maintenance is to come back from a long break and find that their website has been taken over by another entity entirely. To get a call from someone that says, “Hey I just by random chance was showing someone your page and it was no longer about country living. It’s about robots and Japanese infomercials!” Well, that’s not what happened but I have always been worried that in my absence someone would somehow break into my website domain, completely change its look and remove any indicator that I was once there. All this while I would struggle to prove that the website belonged to me. I would go through extended phone calls, bank accounts showing the payments we make every three months for its upkeep, etc . And a dark voice, Dickensian in ominousness, would bellow “That’s what you get for flaking out on your projects!” Something did change on my website that I did not approve, the username is someone else entirely so I’ll be contacting customer service after all of this is done today.

Dickens, now he was a character. He never had to prove who he was. He just wrote at every opportunity and added social commentary and perhaps a little uplifting ending to what seemed like a bleak world. I say that I’m trying to write, and it’s true. Trying and allowing whatever may be in the sink or popping up in my email to take me away from it. I shake my fist at you, lack of dedication! 

I’ve finally finished a novel, one that I’ll be wanting to start on the next sequel in the next few weeks and from what I’m told, if I want any form of success I have to promote the hell out of the first novel due to publishing it independently. I will have to market and sell myself and my writing to anyone who will listen, like a barking carny trying to get you in to see the bearded lady. Who knows how successful I will be? I’m not comfortable with trying to sell myself. I can only write and be me.

My last post was from March of 2018. Since then in our farm life we’ve raised and butchered hogs, lost several dozen chickens, brought up vegetable beds and almost had a successful run with growing tomatoes. We have also had a second year of goats kidding and added geese to our farm. The geese were meant to be a combination of nurse maid and alarm/weed eating system. The ended up with one charge (two of my three Lavender Orpington hens did not make it)and they are more interested in eating whatever the chickens are getting to eat rather than eating my weeds. Also, geese are loud and will chase you, which reminds me too much of the battle I had with a horrible free rooster that showed up to our house one day last summer. It was a beautiful rooster that had been crowing the whole day through as it made its way across the pasture from who knows where. The next thing I knew, he had made its way to my hens in their chicken run and proceeded to make them his harem. He did not like me and endeavored to make me subservient to him and to join his chicken harem. I could not, I was already attached and had other important work to do so he would attack me with his wide spread wings and sharp spurs. He was casually rehomed where I think something ate him, although I did try to eat him too, but the butcher shop denied ever having an appointment to dispatch the rooster from his place on earth. There’s only one other reason I would ever consider purposely seeking a rooster, but I’ll leave that for another post.

I’m not having an identity crisis. I know who I am and what I like to write. I like to write about friendships and challenges. I like to put people in painful and difficult personal situations, where I’m hoping said friendships will prevail and help them overcome the obstacles. I like to write about funny people and mean people too. Because it’s interesting to find out how they got that way. The adventure and the mountain that I give them to climb showcases their ability or failure to overcome adversity. Every person is the hero of their own world. I just like to create more worlds and put my hero’s in danger. 

This short post in no way outlines what my goals are. My goals are plain and simple: Write and then write some more. Write so that I can share it with you. Entertain and intrigue you so that later in the day it pops back in your mind. If you were to openly talk about what I wrote then I have mostly accomplished my goal. I’ve got you thinking and talking about it. The next best thing is having you come back and sharing my words. 

I promise that I will be coming back. I have a ton of stuff I need to catch you up on. I would love for you to come back too.

When you were little and told to go into your room to clean, it never failed: a new found toy that had gotten lost under a bed or a book that you loved to read would be found under a pile of clothes. You would get lost in fun times and memories and before you knew it, work had stopped and your mother busted in on you not doing what you were supposed to do. I have been piling on more responsibilities with should haves and need to’s that I felt like I was climbing a ladder with So Farmish at the top that I could never get to. Although it was always on my mind, and I was creating memories and stories to write about later, by the time I had a moment to myself, I used that time to regroup mentally and physically until it was time to get back to work again.

I think that feeling guilty for letting something go by the wayside is a common human trait. It’s the guilt that can lead to avoidance because you know after neglecting something so long, it has grown unwieldy, messy and sometimes smelly and you would just rather not do it and throw it all away. Ha! I can’t throw away my laundry, garden or blog so I must storm in and pick up with a spring cleaning!

What I love to do before I spring clean is get all my supplies in order before I start (another form of procrastinating). You can’t start until your tools are in order, right? So here I go, updating my blog (do you like the new colors? what do you think about the new front page image?) and making a list of all the new things that I want to tell you about. We have new babies! A new buckling was born last month, new baby chicks were hatched last week and yesterday, we brought home 3 piglets that will summer with us until they go to freezer camp. I want to incorporate articles of interview of people living the life we can all appreciate, growing food and raising animals that we aspire to someday. I want to share recipes of delicious food to enjoy with your whole family and neighbors. There are so many stories I want to tell you and now is the time to start. Open your windows, shake out the rugs and sweep out the old because it’s a whole new world out there.

They say that Life is what happens to us while making other plans. When you live out in the country, open to the elements and nature, its very true, no matter how much weather watching you do. November was not the way I thought it would be. Neither was Thanksgiving. But I had more to give thanks for this year than ever before and fewer people around my dinner table to share a meal with since our daughter decided to stay in Las Vegas to go to college. Our Halloween out in the country was uneventful, not even a jack o lantern, which really bugs me because Halloween is my #1 favorite holiday. Oh well, plan for next year, haha. My raised beds were empty and the pullets (young hens) are out there gleaning what is left on the dried-out vines. Gleaning is what is done to fields when the main crop is harvested. The poor people of the village in some places could go in after the crop had been brought in to glean what was left behind before it was plowed over or burned to amend the soil. My young ladies are just learning to explore and eat outside of the brooder having survived the last massacre back in October when our LGD’s (Livestock Guardian Dogs) had found a way to dig out from their enclosure and play a little too rough with the pullets that had also escaped from the chicken run. Remember my previous blog post about problems stemming from not having secure fencing? Yeah, that’s a never-ending chore. Of the 22 pullets that I had ordered in August, I have 9 left. That is still plenty to get eggs from next March, but my husband sometimes gets chicken fever too and wants to add more. I think we need to wait until next year to add to our flock.

In the second week of November, on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, my son and I were in an accident on the way home from picking him up at school. It had been raining all day, another weather detail that we had prepared for, expected, experienced before but never anticipated it changing our lives the way it did. The truck I was driving hydroplaned on the wet road and I veered into the side of the road in a shallow but narrow ditch, where it seemed the wet grass and ground made the speed of the vehicle even faster. We drove through a wrought iron fence and flipped the truck on its side. I was ok, but my teenage son was partially thrown from the back of the vehicle. We were so lucky that the highway is travelled by many because we were in a quiet part of town during slow traffic time. The quick assistance of travelers on the road helped set the truck right to save my son’s life. I will never forget the look of fear on his face as the truck door rested on the side of his head. We are grateful and blessed for a positive outcome from something that could have ended so bad. I have spent the rest of the month of November concentrating on helping my son heal rather than working on this page. The guilt I feel is still significant, even though I know this website will still be here, it could almost have been that my son would not have been. Through aches and pains and the shock of a wrecked vehicle that only has 7 payments left on it, we are healing and moving forward as a grateful family. Our Thanksgiving was delayed, but still much to be thankful for.

You don’t realize how much you need a truck with a bed in it until you no longer have one at your disposal. Getting feed for the animals being the #1 need that I have, along with getting laundry done while my machines in the laundry room wait to be serviced. It’s hard to accomplish that in a small Ford, but I’m grateful that we have a car for me to drive. It is possible to have feed delivered from your local feed store, but the price did not fit into our budget. I would have to wait for a weekend when my husband was home to use the work truck to get our large bags of goat feed, dog food and alfalfa bales.

In the meantime, I decided that I would use one of the raised beds to do some winter planting. I was curious to try planting some garlic and onions because from what I had seen, it seemed so easy to do. In a nutshell, plant it and forget it until next year. HAHA, not really, but pretty darn close! I selected the varieties from my favorite feed store, red and yellow onions, white garlic and shallots. We use a lot of garlic in our cooking and love the taste of shallots so I feel really lucky to have found them. Im hoping when we harvest in early June that we have a large amount to take us through the year. That would be pretty neat. I then planted them, watered them and that’s about it. It can be done as late as Thanksgiving in most zones and they stay mostly dormant in the winter and reemerge in the late spring/early summer to harvest. All I had to do after watering twice a week, was to mulch the area I had planted, which I did yesterday because we are expecting our first freeze in two days. I already have sprouts throughout the raised bed and I am thrilled to look forward to the longest planting season of a much-desired crop. It’s like a delayed Christmas present for me!

This was the longest summer and warmest fall I can remember. It was only until yesterday that the temperatures made it down into the forties and I know that later this winter I will wonder what in the world I was complaining about. But my reason for concern is a valid but also unproven reason. Last year I had two does, two female goats. And I remember in December of last year when they went into heat. They were noisy and playful with each other as there were no bucks around. This year, I am prepared with a young buck and a doe, but my doe from last year that I know had been in heat before, really isn’t interested in this buck. Where does the weather come into play in all this? For some goat breeds they mate when the temperature goes down and the days become shorter. That is to say the biological urge kicks into gear when these meteorological situations occur. Unfortunately, it was 84 degrees two days ago, and only yesterday and today has the sky become cloudy and the winds a little chillier. We did have a cold snap the week of Thanksgiving, and that turkey day I spotted our new doe getting frisky with the buck. I now must wait 21 days to see if the breeding took and kidding will commence 150 days from Thanksgiving. If not, she will go back into heat on December 14. With Sugar, my doe from last year, I’ve been checking her under the hood every day, no signs of breeding and just from observing her interaction with Jon Snow, my new purebred Nubian buck, she really could not care one whit about him. I think she may be playing hard to get. Weather is not a proven reason for breeding to happen or not happen, I just know that my new doe, Belle, was not playful until there was a cold snap in the air. I will keep this blog updated now that I strive to make my posting a little bit more consistent.

The one-year anniversary for So Farmish came and went this last November 27 without so much as a big to do or mention. I do feel bad about it, but I want to come out stronger and my family’s health does come first. I have big plans for So Farmish this month of December. Instead of starting my 12 days of Christmas on December first, I will start on December 12, with 12 Days of Drinks, soft and otherwise, haha. More pictures are coming, more reporting on how my animals are growing as well as more recipes and hopefully, some interviews with people that are living out their dreams in the country too.

Thank you for hanging in there for me. I appreciate the people that visit So Farmish and would love to hear from you!

See you soon!

October is here and that means when its almost gone, its Halloween time! This is the start of my favorite time of year. The weather is cooler, fun holidays begin and football is in full swing. My garden is mostly dormant save for a few late tomato plants and the pumpkins have been harvested. Speaking of which, pumpkins are EVERYWHERE!! I decided that combining my favorite fall treat with a Halloween staple, mainly pumpkin bread and chocolate, would be a great idea.

You know when people, for one reason or another, develop a strong relationship with their pet that the animal becomes even closer than beloved pet and transcends to child? You know what I’m talking about : Fur Babies. People do grow to love their pets so much as to buy clothes for them, treat them to expensive spa days, drive them around in a puppy stroller, etc. As a matter of fact, today is National Spoil Your Pet Day. I’m not even joking. Well, out here on the farm as you may have previously read, all our animals must have a job. There are no free rides. Even the dogs must work and contribute. Chelsea is my 4lb yorkie. She contributes by loving us and barking at air molecules and any animals she may spy through the windows when she is not busy napping on our laundry. So, all our dogs have distinctive personalities and skills that help us here on the property but when we moved from the city to the country we didn’t know if our dogs would do well. We moved out to the country with two lap dogs and a Rottweiler mix. City Dogs. Well they all adjusted and we were very lucky. But deciding on acclimating your dog or bringing in a new friend requires some things to think about and sometimes the hard facts and truth hurt.

Dangers are everywhere and you can’t always see them.

Moving to the country brings your pet into contact with animals that are not on vaccination schedules or regular feedings. There are many predatory animals lurking day and night to carry off your pet or hurt them badly. Hawks and wild dogs roam fields and forests looking for easy prey. Cats and smaller dogs are in danger and can be carried off in a matter of seconds by a watchful hawk that sets up a lookout tracking your pet’s habits. In the early evening and overnight, coyotes will sneak up to your porch and grab an unsuspecting pet as well. You should be careful if you chose to let out your animal at night for its last potty break. Even in your eyesight they can be attacked as wild animals are not afraid once they know that there is a meal nearby.

Fleas and ticks along with other biting and stinging pests are common and easily antagonized by curious pets. I hate seeing the pictures that circulate of curious pets that poke their noses into pest’s dens and get stung or worse, they get infested with flesh eating parasites that set up a nursery in their snouts or mouths. Our dog Tucker was stung by a wasp and his entire fore leg was swollen twice the size of his other leg. It took about 72 hours for the swelling to completely go down, but he was uncomfortable and limped the entire time.

We keep all our dogs on chewable flea and tick preventative that is effective for 90 days. It’s a little more expensive than the more common flea control meds but we won’t take a chance with missing a dose and our dog getting heartworms or worse from being unprotected.

Bats and raccoons can carry rabies and if your dog is curious enough to find a sick and dying animal, they put themselves and your other pets in danger. Possums do not transmit rabies. It’s rare for rabies to survive on an Opossum and its speculated that it may have to do with their low body temperature. But still, don’t take any chances. Keep your pets vaccinated and be aware of what is on your property and where your dogs roam.

Livestock Vs. Livestock Guardian Dog

After we went through all the drama and heartache of losing our goats, we researched the best kind of Livestock Guardian animal. Here is a quick rundown of what other people are using on their homesteads or ranches to protect their animals.

Donkeys– They are known to alert for coyotes and bears. Some will even attack them (see above). They HATE dogs. They are solitary animals but the downside to having a donkey is that they must be castrated or they will try to mount your goats and they have been known to pull the tails off goats. I would never want to see that. I would also be afraid of getting kicked by a donkey.

Llamas– They also are considered Livestock guardians along the same lines as Donkeys, but without the kicking. But like the donkey, you would only be able to have one because once there are two or more, they tend to stick together and ignore the livestock they are supposed to be protecting.

Dogs– There are specialty dogs that have thousands of years of training and breeding to protect and herd livestock. Most of the ones that will defend and fight off predators curiously come from Turkey. There are some people that keep them as household pets but most of these animals are used as working animals and are treated with greater respect and an expectation to keep home and work life separate, just like a real job.

We were lucky to find a pair of sisters that come from a working farm background with 100% LGD breeding in them. The most amazing part is how ingrained their instinct to protect kicks in, even at 5 months of age. I’ve already witnessed them protect and patrol the paddock when a perceived predator was nearby. Sugar is getting used to her new roommates and they are always tailing her to see where she is at, that I’m sure she finds them annoying. They have identified our Nubian goat as their ward to protect and sound the warning every night if they hear anything daring to get close to our fields and paddocks. I think the word is out that they are on patrol now. But also, to be fair, these girls still have almost two years of growing up to do although right now, being only 5 months, they are the same size as Tucker, who is a full-grown Rottweiler/Shepard mix. These girls will be huge.

Livestock Vs. Pet

When we moved from the city, Tucker, Edmund and Chelsea had never been around livestock. Our first adventure in the country had us quickly gather our own little menagerie. At that time, we had chickens, goats and pigs. Edmund and Chelsea had come from a breeder’s home and had only known their littermates. Tucker was adopted at the Texas State Fair and we had no idea what his background was.  Chelsea was prohibited from going back outside once she got a tick on her forehead like a jewel, so no outside for her. Edmund thought his job was to herd pigs that outweighed him by 120lbs. He would closely follow at my heels when I went outside and thought his job was to tell every other animal what the deal was. Tucker, well he was just his laid-back self and spent most of his summers taunting other neighborhood dogs and swimming in our pond. Sometimes he would chase the goat sisters but most of all, he just hung out. Oddly enough we never had to worry about him chasing or pouncing on our chickens. He just wasn’t interested in them. We were very lucky because many dogs do have the pounce instinct. Unfortunately, we discovered these last few days that we now have a dog that has that instinct and we won’t be able to break him of it.

A few months back while we were at the local feed store, they were having an adoption fair. I loathe seeing them because all the pets deserve a good home and you can’t adopt and save them all. It just doesn’t work that way. You are dealing with an animal with a mostly unknown background as to what they were exposed to and what training they did or didn’t have. My husband fell in love with a husky mix and we named him Odin. Odin is loveable and has a strong need to be loved right back. He just wants to nuzzle and hug you and sleep on the tile. This dog is not meant to be a country dog. First, he doesn’t like being outside. He is an air conditioner dog. If he’s outside he wants to run away and run far. He has a natural curiosity to the cattle in the field next door and wants to play and taunt them. The cow mommas won’t have any of that especially with their new calves. But Odin doesn’t know any better as he bounces around like Tigger. He is exactly like Tigger and that should have been his name instead. He also loves to swim, in anything, even his water dish. But in these last few days he has picked up a new habit that we can’t support or break him of because it’s in his nature. He’s gone from pouncing on chickens to biting their backs to the point of killing them. And we can’t have that on our farm. It’s not his fault that he does what he does, it’s part of who he is as a dog and it is part of his instinct. Even if I made the excuse that he’s young, this is something that he won’t outgrow or be trained out of. Do not fool yourself and convince yourself that you can train a dog away from its instinct. You just can’t and its cruel in the training process to make that instinct a negative response. It’s also not the chickens fault that it’s a chicken. They just walk around and eat and poop. Sometimes they lay an egg. I have cried over this issue since my husband mentioned that Odin needed to be rehomed. I cried because I don’t like giving up on animals that we made a commitment to. As I have said many times, we are their stewards and it’s our responsibility to nurture and care for them so that they contribute back to us. When you adopt a dog, you have many responsibilities to consider that this animal probably won’t change, and you have to accept that. You can’t keep a large dog in an apartment and expect success. You can’t take an older dog to a home that has lots of stairs and expect him to renew his youth, that’s just not going to happen. Odin needs to be with a young family, couple or person that can take him on adventures hiking or swimming in the nearby lakes or rivers. Even if they arent that active, if you can give Odin unrestricted access to air conditioning, he will bask in the cold all day. A home where he can just be himself with all the desires that make him Odin. That is my new task for these next couple of days, is to find a home that Odin can succeed in. One where they take him swimming and let him sleep on the cool tiles throughout the day. A home where it’s ok that he sheds enough for almost another dog coat in 24 hours. A family that needs a Tigger dog, a forever home away from the dangers of country life and fluffy chickens.

A couple of posts back, I detailed my morning tasks during the winter while getting my kids ready for school. Well, the kids are gone for the summer but the home tasks do not end, they add up! As much as I would love to sleep in, for the sake and comfort of my pets, along with not wanting to clean up dog mess, I must wake up no later than 7am.

So, first things first, after waking up and changing into shorts and a tee, I get on some garden boots and let the dogs out of the kennel to go outside. Our dogs sleep inside because its super-hot all day long and there is an increase in night time animal activity that they can get in trouble with. Raccoons, skunks and coyotes are active at night and although one would think having the dogs outside would be beneficial to our home and garden, because they are not bred to be official guard animals, they are more in harm’s way than defenders. I know that if Tucker could talk he would probably disagree with me, because during the day he does an effective job of sounding the alarm if anyone drives down to our end of the cul de sac. But even during the day, there have been times when Tucker has been oblivious to other neighborhood dogs getting in our yard. I think he’s trying too hard to fit in with the crowd. Also, he’s had a bad run in with a raccoon before as well as several losses to skunks, so no thank you, he needs to sleep inside. Our new dog, a husky mix named Odin, craves a/c and will try to sneak past you to get back inside to sleep on the cool tile of the living room floor.

Second task while I’m still outside, is to water the garden and tomatoes. I check in on the chickens in their run as I walk over to our vegetable and herb gardens. The ladies stay in the chicken run until at least noon. I have determined that the latest they lay eggs is around 11:30 so to avoid them dropping eggs randomly like the Easter bunny, I have them stay in the run to make sure I can collect them all. It’s the peak of the laying season and with intense summer heat egg production can go down. It’s important that all animals on the property always have clean cool water available to them. The chickens have a water pan inside their run and one outside that they can access as soon as they leave the chicken run. Because our dogs spend half their day outside only coming in during the high noon heat of the day, there are several water bowls in the front and back yard as well as a kiddie pool for Odin to jump in and splash. Tucker does not splash.

The garden is usually watered in the daytime. It allows for the water to be absorbed throughout the day instead of sitting overnight where it can potentially start mold on the plants. We have 9 tomato plants, about 6 massively blooming zucchini plants, peppers, watermelon, cantaloupes, squash and mint. Just in the nick of time, I started my two varieties of pumpkins. If they take, because I started them from seed, they should be ready to harvest by the second week of October! Yay jack o’lanterns and pumpkin pie! I check the individual plants to prune dead leaves, removing them to prevent plant disease and open the breathing room for the healthy plant. Check to see which plants are blooming or have veggies started and check the levels of invasive pests. Either way, you will find some kind of pest damage. This year there has been large swarms of grasshoppers and squash bugs. At this point we haven’t had a problem with peter rabbit or mice. We do have moles outside our garden area that we are going to have to find a treatment for. For now, Odin pounces on the mole mounds and has only caught one. We do not use pesticides or chemicals on the property. Many of the properties in our area have warning signs around the entrance to their driveways warning not to spray with weed killers. Pesticides and herbicides tend to drift and can damage crops, animals and beneficial insects like bees and butterflies.

I feed Sugar in the morning and make sure that she has free choice alfalfa in her self feeder and clean fresh water in her tank. She’s had a rough summer so far, with several kids and her new breeding partner getting picked off by coyotes these last couple of weeks. Because of this and until we purchase a livestock guardian dog (another post hopefully this week) we let her out of the pen at night so that she can sleep in comfort without fear that the coyotes will come back to get her. We pen her back up in the morning when I take the dogs out so that she doesn’t get into the garden or strip all the leaves from the persimmon trees in the front.

Once the animals are fed and watered, its back inside for me to have some coffee, check the accounts and plan what dinner is. When the kids are home, it’s a little bit easier to make plans for dinner. There is additional input and they make it interesting in changing up the recipes. Now that it’s just my husband and myself at home, I have to fight the urge to go out to dinner, although we do sometimes once a week. Smaller meals should mean less dishes and pots and pans so I’m not running the dish washer and doing it all by hand. I loathe having a refrigerator full of leftovers so I have to be careful about how much I make and that it will get all eaten up. It’s too easy to say give the leftovers to the pups, but I’m not in the business of feeding steak to my dogs several times a week!

Yesterday we did check out some feeder pigs that we have been wanting to get to butcher later in the fall or early winter. But they must wait until we get our livestock guardian doge, because we are also trying to stop feeding the wildlife out here too!

After dinner is figured out I get to work in the kitchen. Clean the counters, sweep and mop because huskys shed like it’s a contest and it can become overwhelming. Clean toilets and sinks, empty the dish strainer and water the plants on my window sill. I have some hotspots, mostly in the dining room because the front door leads to it, full of mail and other items that were purchased that have not made it to wherever they need to land. I also have sewing projects upstairs like a new lace curtain for the front door, 2 aprons that I need to finish so that I can put them on the website for orders and a baby quilt, for a baby that was already born!

My last commitment that I am trying to stay on task with is to write at least 2000 words every day. My blog doesn’t count (I’m at 1230 so far) so finishing this up would be a great idea. I try to get the burdensome tasks done before 9am because it’s starting to heat up here in Texas. That leaves the rest of the morning and afternoon to do my writing and sewing projects. This is the start of my third week without kids at home and I have not progressed. But its Summer and I am on a pretend vacation as well!

Let me know what you have to get done in the day to help your household run smoothly or as smoothly as you possibly can if you still have kids at home. Drop me a line below.

You can control who lives in your home. Typically, its occupied by people that you love, all on their own journey of growth, with their quirks and temperaments. In some respect, you can almost pick what your neighbors are like. And in some areas, that is called GERRYMANDERING, hahaha, little political humor for you. Anyway, there are apps that you can download that can help you see what a neighborhood is like, schools and crime rates. In the country, your neighbors can be lifesavers or absolutely wretched souls bent on making your home life a living hell. Some people like to keep to themselves. We try to keep a balance between hermits and social butterflies. If you’ve met either of us, you would know that my husband and I can talk your ear off! But I also really appreciate the solitude and privacy as well. Robert Frost said it best when he said, “Good fences make good neighbors” because the issues that we have encountered could have been avoided with a strong and sturdy fence.

Know your boundaries

When you purchase or lease your property, it’s important to know what the property lines are and where they intersect with other neighbors. Make sure that a surveyor has marked it out, and if there are water rights that need to be secured, make sure that its included in the contract. Surprises come out of the woodwork and I have heard of neighbors trying to limit access to acreage by using a common road, refusing to grant easements or refusing to grant water unless certain conditions are met. If you aren’t careful, your property can be held hostage. It’s important to meet the owners and people leasing land around you. In some instances, you’ll have to sort out the story tellers and gossipers with an ax to grind about one another. That can also be a warning sign of a feud that you don’t want to get caught in the middle of. It’s also common for several of your neighbors to be kin to each other (haha, I sound country) and that can be good or bad as well. When you drive out to the property, along with your inspection, you’re going to want to check if there are dogs running loose or evidence of dogs with knocked over cans or dog poop in your yard. Invasive deer or hogs are things you can shoot or trap. I don’t want to shoot someone’s dog because he’s chasing my goats or chickens, but I will, I won’t like it, but you put me in that position and we have a right to protect our livestock and property. In most cases, barbed fencing is sufficient to mark out your territory. If you plan on raising cattle, then you’ll need to have stronger cattle panels or pipe fencing. Many people add heavy gauge welded wire panels that increase in square size as you go up with a 3 by 3 square for the first two feet of the panel and increasing in square size as you go up in addition to their pipe fencing to keep small dogs, chickens or goats from escaping. Knowing your neighbors is important for when it’s time to repair or replace fencing. Come prepared with the possibility that your neighbors won’t be interested in splitting the cost with you for a shared stretch of fence. And if they do, understand that that may change when the time comes to construct or pay. As a landowner, you are responsible for keeping your property safe for those that come in, invited or not. Warning signs and cameras are effective, and out here in Texas, there is something known as the Purple Fence law. Because warning signs can blow over or get destroyed from the weather or vandals, there is a law here and in several other states that allow property owners to paint fence markers to indicate that it is private property and there is no trespassing allowed. The post of your fence needs to be painted from three feet above the ground, at least one inch wide in any shade of purple you desire. It needs to be at least eight inches long and in timberland, there cannot be more than 100 feet apart and on open land they can be no more than 1000 feet apart. A version of this law is here in Texas and Missouri, Illinois, North Carolina, Maine, Florida, Idaho, Arkansas, Montana, Arizona and Kansas.

When Animals Stray

I would like to say that we have always had amazingly wonderful interactions with our neighbors but we have had our share of cringe worthy contact and hot under the collar exchanges, and what it all boiled down to was because an animal had strayed. At our first property, we had a very long driveway that bordered a neighbor that we had not gotten to meet due to scheduling or being busy at home. But we always waved to each other on our way down the driveway. Well one lovely weekend, we were greeted with two very flamboyant and cocky roosters. They were very cocky. Typically, this neighbors poultry never made it over to our side of the drive, much less cross our cattle guards. I really didn’t think much of it although I had about 18 pullets free ranging in our front and back yards. Later that afternoon when I was going to town, I went out to my car to discover what looked like a pillow fight with Liberace. Fabulously colored long feathers EVERYWHERE. We found the body of one of the roosters by our garage and our boy Tucker was kicked back being his usual self. We resigned ourselves into meeting our neighbor for the first time with this horrible news of the demise of his two flyboys. He was apologetic and said that it was bound to happen sooner or later. We offered to replace the roosters but he politely declined and stated we had done him a favor. Almost a year later, coming home down that long drive after dinner, our neighbors little Chihuahua mix was following along while my husband drove our truck at a crawl and calling out to him to get out of the way. Once again, this little pup made his way back and then turned around to catch one of our back wheels. Another difficult conversation with our kind neighbor who oddly enough made the same statement again, it was bound to happen. He explained that he had a difficult time keeping this little guy in the yard and that the previous summer he had made it all the way to the highway about 3 miles away. He might have been ambivalent about what happened but it was uncomfortable for all our kid passengers in the car that witnessed the unnecessary death of a pet. These difficult conversations and sad deaths could have been avoided if he had secure fencing for all his animals.

At our current home our only neighbor that we share a fence with has several cows and a bull. They have all made it out to the cul de sac and into our yards several times. His shar pei runs the neighborhood and many a morning I have caught him in our yard nonchalantly checking out if Tucker can play. Tucker always chases him away in a way that says he can’t play until his parents leave. These cattle are what caused us to have our first heightened conversation with a neighbor we barely knew. The property we are on is surrounded in a horseshoe shape by other landowners that have agreed to lease a use to a person the next town over for them to pasture their cows. Now this particular gentleman is very protective of his cows and their calves and doesn’t appreciate the other neighbors amorous bull trying to get in the yard. One morning we saw a neighbor go tearing across the pasture on his horse roping and directing the cows (and our goat) up over the hill like he was rounding them up. We called the out of town cattle owner and he asked us to check out what that neighbor’s intent was. That was where the firestorm happened. Earlier that week he had stopped me as I was driving out while he was on his 4-wheeler demanding to know if that bull was ours. I sighed and explained that it was the person next door to us, directly across from him. He proceeded to tell me how much trouble and damage the bull had caused and he had half a mind to confiscate the animal and keep it as was his right. I just nodded and hoped that I could be on my way to get the kids to school. He then proceeded to tell me all the dirty laundry of said bull owner along with some additional information that he urged me to confirm online. Now during our inquiry as to what he was doing with the cattle rustling, he immediately went from zero to on fire with threats, vulgar name calling and proclamations about what a tough guy he was and how much us town people didn’t know anything about ranching. My husband just chuckled and explained we were just wondering what was the problem with the animals which he continued to interrupt and challenge my husband to meet him out in the street and to be sure to bring his GUN. What??!!??

Somehow, my husband de-escalated the firestorm and this neighbor explained his calf had gotten out and he was trying to get her back and that was why he had ridden out to rope her. Right. I discovered today that he was a stunt person and was probably trying to get his kicks again. But what it all boils down to was that this misunderstanding was again due to an escape artist animal. He apologized for being so angry but he was upset and tired of fixing fences on that property so that animals wouldn’t escape. Even though he apologized, his quick temper and threats left me unsettled. So, I say this: Build a better fence. Check your fences often. Make sure that your animals have food. Lack of food is the main reason animals leave the otherwise safe confines of their pens other than if they are in heat and are ready to party with the cows next door. Know your neighbors. Be able to identify which animal belongs to whom and make sure you have their phone numbers. Two weeks ago, I heard Tucker barking his head off and I looked out the second story window to see a strange truck parked behind mine. I wasn’t expecting anyone and I was home alone. The man in the doorway on my porch asked if I had seen his dog. He lived several houses down the road and somehow his dog had escaped his babysitter and he wanted to know if I had seen him. I thought it was the weirdest reason to come down the street to look for his dog. I asked him to describe it and he gave a very poor description of animal that I would expect he would be better at describing if it was missing. He also began to tell me the incredibly personal news of all the neighbors and thanked me for keeping an eye out for his dog. That also left me unsettled. And now, although I consider myself one of the most progressive liberals that I know, my husband finally made good on what he felt was a necessary tool for our property and bought me my first gun. There are many reasons one should be armed when they are homesteading. I recognize that as much as I believe in strict gun laws, everyone else around my family believes in their right to be armed and ready to protect themselves and their loved ones and they are not afraid to use it. Even the unhinged people. We cannot be unprotected when so many around us choose to keep themselves armed. Homesteaders are entrusted to take care of themselves absent any neighbors and even then, it’s your responsibility to take care of your own as well. Good fences make good neighbors. Good guns make peaceful neighbors.