Saturday, August 30, 2008

Beginnings and Ends

This summer has really gone by fast! I blinked and it was over. I feel like I didn't even experience the summer at all. I didn't work in the garden, spend much time with my animals, or just relax and enjoy the sunshine.

Work has been very intense for me since about April because of the size and number of implementation projects I am assigned. It has not left me much time to blog about anything! Now summer is over, school is back in session, and early morning seminary starts on Wednesday. I am getting my classroom and supplies in order today and trying to catch up on email . I thought now was a good a time as any to put out an update.

So, we are not doing very well in the cat arena. After our two momma cats each blessed us with a litter this Spring, we were set for a while with some good mousers. Our plan was to spay the mommas when they finished nursing. Well, our orange tabby had a different idea and gave birth to 6 more babies last week. Hopefully we will be more successful with the spaying this go-round because at 15, I think we have enough cats for one small farm!

One of the spring kittens met with tragedy this week. John Malkovich (as I liked to call him because he was a dead ringer for the famous actor) seems to have had an accident. We are not sure if it was a fall or if he got clipped by a car. He broke a tooth and seems to have peed out a little blood. He didn't have any other visible wounds, but was breathing heavy and could not walk on his back leg. We tried to comfort him as much as possible, but he crawled off into a bush and died the next afternoon. Bob is truly tired of digging holes, but death seems to be an unavoidable facet of farm life.

The horses are doing well. Melanie has been riding all three and they are becoming more familiar with her. She said that Lily has the smoothest canter that she has ever experienced. We tried selling Star over the summer, but didn't have much luck. I am so averse to sending her to the auction because I would hate for her to get sold to some slaughterhouse knowing that she would likely meet an inhumane fate.

We have been working on our food storage this summer. We were fortunate enough to be able to secure some red and white winter wheat between out kind stake food specialist and the DC cannery. Wheat orders have been backordered for months and quantities are being restricted to 100 lbs per family. I think we are up to 300 pounds stored, but this is not even a dent of what it should be. We generally have kept plenty of rice and flour along with some canned goods. We canned cherry jam, but haven't attempted any other fruit. Our cellar has been extremely hot this summer and I am not sure if it is the dehumidifier running all the time or heat being magnified by the heavy metal bilco doors. My jams keep liquefying in the heat. Any suggestions?

Another issue that has been a plague on us is mice. We have tried every possible method of eradication, but they are like nuclear super mice! We have brought the cats in, tried traps, poison, sonic deterrents, etc. Nothing has cleared this house. We can hear them in the ceilings chewing through the plaster and lathe. Our food storage is safe for the most part because we keep it in sealed plastic or glass jars, though they have made their way through some bags of tortillas and a large bag of bread flour. I went to tractor supply and bought these cool pet food containers that are tall and narrow and have wheels on the bottom and a lid that locks shut. They fit a large Costco sized sack of flour in them nicely. The wheels keep the container off the dirt floor. I keep the sugar and flour sacks in these rolling bins. I think for our other dry goods we may have to buy some plastic totes from Walmart and start storing in there.

I am so sad about the economy. We really want to put an addition on this farm house. We have the plans all drawn up and have a contractor ready to do the work. Since the basement thing is not really working out, we have designed a large walk in pantry within the new kitchen for our food storage. However, the mortgage crisis has caused banks to be less flexible with how they design mortgages these days. Even though we fully qualify to borrow the money, we cannot find a bank to construct a loan to put on the addition. Food storage and additional bathrooms were our main needs with the addition, but it seems to be a fading dream for the time being.

Today we are finishing up our only other house project, installing new fencing in our side garden. We had old ranch style wooden rails along the front, but the wood posts had rotted in the ground and we needed to pull it out. We purchased new white plastic picket fencing with the hopes to have at least one item that does not need regular maintenance! Everything else here is painted and peeling! Did I mention that Bob is tired of digging holes.....

So that is about it for summer updates. The corn out behind the house is starting to dry and yellow meaning the close of another planting season is about to come to an end. We get so very sad when the corn gets cut as we like to think of it as our cocoon from the world.

The chickens are doing well and are still my favorite part of life here on the farm!